Hey gang,

New thing alert! And this one’s… a bit unusual? (It's noice, it's different.)

As I mentioned in my new year’s update, one of my priorities for this year is to embrace more opportunities to play in my creative space, including using shorter or more improvisational formats to, y’know, fuck around and find out a bit. I described it to a friend as making time for “sketches”, which is perhaps slightly more elegant than my original analogy of “throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks”.

Reading and writing so much about time recently (for a video which is on hold but not abandoned) got me thinking about the sorts of undertakings that defy automation or “optimization” in part because their medium is time. Dance, like so much art and craft and sport, is an expression of embodied time, both in the rhythms and duration of performances, and in the (often hidden, often lengthy) processes of developing the necessary physical skills. You can "know" how to do the splits pretty quickly, but you cannot control how long it will take to actually convince your body to do them.

Anyway, in the spirit of Spaghettification, I made part one of a series about my erstwhile Sisyphian quest to become a bendy noodle in service to the Muses. Don't worry, I'm not pivoting to become a fitness influencer; this is about setting and working toward creative goals. It’s an audiovisual poem, I suppose, emphasizing mood over information, the why rather than the how; it felt odd but liberating to resist info-dumping this time. I often take videos of my training so I can check my form and track my progress, but here I wanted to play with camera angles I wouldn't normally use; the ceiling mount in particular led to some zany ideas to try later, so I think that's a sign that this sketch experiment is off to a good start.

On a more serious note, during the production of this piece I've been struggling to process the incredibly bleak news coming out of Minneapolis-Saint Paul; spending time in my body and focusing on a creative project has been a valuable way of staying sane, but... self-care only goes so far. I've got good news, though! One of my favourite online flexibility and contortion coaches, Dani Winks, is a Minnesota resident and is (at time of writing) running a series of pop-up fundraiser classes, with 100% of the proceeds going to local aid organizations such as the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. She's offering a variety of classes focused on different skills, including splits, suitable for all levels, from can't-touch-toes-yet to kicking-the-back-of-your-own-head (just be sure to read the description for details). If the timezone doesn't work for you or the live class sells out, there's an option to just get the recording to do at your own pace and revisit over and over. If my video made you curious about exploring a new physical skill (or brushing off an old one) or even just think huh, maybe I should stretch more, now is a great time to try out a class and support a good cause at the same time. Or just consider this a prompt to find someone who's organizing to help people and support them today in whatever ways are available to you. Fuck ICE.

Until next time,

xoxo Sparks

FINISHED: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi; gazillionth comfort rewatch of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

STARTED: Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher; The Chair Company

PLOTTING: Sewing a couple of new sports bras so I guess I'm not really beating the gym rat allegations after all, huh