Archive for the ‘events’ Category

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metamorphopolis

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

well, it’s going to be another fun friday. i’ll be in the hospital for most of the day tomorrow getting my liver biopsied – which i can’t imagine is especially pleasant. but my docs want to know the extent of my liver damage before we start the trial on the 13th.

and now, here’s a special guest post from kathryn! please help her out if you can.

Dear Friends and Family,

This past January, I submitted a dance piece I had choreographed to the Winter Follies program at Spoke the Hub, a local Brooklyn arts space. Audience members had the chance to vote for their favorite piece and amazingly, I won! I was awarded 50 free hours of rehearsal space as well as a produced weekend in the fall. I have been working all summer to choreograph my first full evening of work and I am very excited to present it to everyone.

As lucky as I am to have been awarded such a generous amount of resources, I still have some expenses that I need to cover. I have 7 very generous dancers and a composer who have been offering their time, energy, and extensive creative talent to me since June and I would love to be able to pay them!

Here is where you come in! I need to raise approximately $1000 to cover costs for dancers, costumes, and extra rehearsal space. If you have an extra $5, $10, $50, $500 lying around and would like to make a donation to keeping the arts alive and well (at least in this household), please consider making a contribution to my project. You can donate through PayPal tobosley07@aol.com. Or if you like old-fashioned mail, you can send a check to:

Kathryn Wilkening

287 Sackett Street

Brooklyn, NY 11231

Would you like to know what you are supporting? Here is a little more information about the show (and a good opportunity to go mark this date in your calendar!)

Kathryn Wilkening and Dancers [KWAD] Presents Metamorphopolis

Metamorphopolis explores the transformative journeys we take as individuals, as friends, and as communities. Through a series of comic and poignant character-driven vignettes, the piece explores how time and circumstance can fulfill one’s imaginings, smash them to pieces, or alter them in unexpected and rewarding ways. The piece features original compositions by Amir Khosrowpour; Doug Wilkening and Josh Summerville; and Kathryn Wilkening and Jonah Eller-Isaacs as well the music of Andrew Bird, Yo La Tengo, LCD Soundsystem, and Mrs. Elva Miller. Dancers include: Davis Berry, Dana Boll, Graceann Dorse, Renee Dumouchel, Tamara Saari, Nancy Smith, Jason Sosnowski, and Kathryn Wilkening.

Oct 15 and 16, 8 pm, $15

Spoke the Hub

295 Douglass Street, Brooklyn, NY

I hope you all can come!

Warmly,

Kathryn

Posted in art, events | 3 Comments »

omg

Monday, May 24th, 2010

this weekend kathryn and i were lucky enough to attend the OMG cancer summit, a conference for young adult survivors and their caregivers and friends. there were panels on oncofertility, relationships, survivor stories, and even a keynote by ethan zohn, vassar grad and survivor winner (as in the CBS show).

the energy at the conference was something to behold. the bald heads, the shared experience of pain and suffering, the sense that we all were indeed the lucky ones – it was a powerful reminder of the tenuous hold we all have on our fragile lives.

our lives are all fragile, all fleeting, whether or not you have cancer. but being a young(ish) person and facing your mortality, facing the fact that your body is eating itself, you gain an enhanced sense of just how fragile you really are.

i would never wish the trials of cancer on anyone. but there are lessons to be learned. without the torture of the last two years, i don’t think i would truly appreciate the value of a hug from family and friend, the power of a letter, or a giant oversize novelty congratulations card (thanks bev). i would never hold in my heart the real and never-ceasing love that i expressed below.

so thank you, cancer. thank you for your lessons on life, and love, and death.

now leave me alone.

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Posted in events, philosophizing, rock and/or roll | 1 Comment »

episode six: the return of the celebration

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

whew, what a weekend. there was major celebrating all around, although i would probably have celebrated more heartily had i followed my gut (and some insider tips) and stopped by the OTB to drop some money on super saver. if wishes were horses…

thank you all so much for participating in my remissional celebration with comments, emails, phone calls, texts, blog posts, facebook status updates, tweets, etc – i think that my remission has now been broadcast in just about every available technological medium. maybe i’ll make a podcast too, just for good measure. the outpouring of love has been incredibly touching and meaningful. nearly 600 people visited groinstrong on the day i announced my remission – just one small marker of the extent of the support that has kept me going all along.

and what better way to celebrate than with derby day? it was made all the sweeter with kathryn going home with the award for best formal hat (although few would call her slash/stevie ray vaughan style hat traditional). two years ago, derby fell just after my diagnosis as i faced my first major surgery and a very cloudy future. this year was a little more fun.

a special shout-out to colonel boyd for yet another fantastical party, and of course to william and the rest of the crew at our beloved bell house. most of you have already seen these pictures, but for the .001 percent of the world that’s not on facebook (or so it would seem) here are a handful of our favorite shots.

Derby 2010

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Posted in events, images | 2 Comments »

what a trip.

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

i’m still jetlagged, i think. but the scan yesterday knocked me out pretty good too.

there is so much to say about our trip out west. the music was amazing – my top five of the festival were dirty projectors, jonsi (of sigur ros), matt and kim, yo la tengo and the avett brothers, but fever ray, MGMT, jay-z, deerhunter, yeasayer, spoon, and atoms for peace (thom yorke and flea?!?) were also excellent. there were 80,000 people at coachella, crashing local cellular networks and personal neural networks alike: for example, this poor man.

after three days and long nights of music and mayhem, we managed to make it to joshua tree (yes, we listened to U2) and the antelope valley poppy reserve before fighting our way through the snowy, winding roads to yosemite.

yosemite gave us a cloudy striptease, revealing its majestic peaks and snow-covered meadows piece by piece. we were hoping to make it to the top of upper yosemite falls to spread a portion of my grandfather’s ashes, but the snow was so thick on the narrow trail that we stopped halfway up at columbia rock. the views weren’t quite as advertised – by the time we reached the rock, the snow was falling so thick that the valley floor was barely visible, much less the towering granite spires surrounding the valley. but we soldiered on along the valley floor trail, where i looked a coyote in the eyes and watched as the clouds floated in and around the high rock walls around us. i’m grateful we decided at the last minute to upgrade our tent cabin to one with insulation and heating. what a contrast, to go in 24 hours from 95 degrees to 25 degrees.

and now we are home, back in lovely brooklyn, and today is my least favorite day – the day between my scan and receiving the results. this is a big one. if the scan is clean, my doctors will declare me in remission. as i’ve said before, remission from my aggressive and widely metastasized disease is likely not the end of this – although it would obviously be wonderful if that were the case. i’ve spent the day so far worrying and thinking about “life after cancer.” i don’t think for me that there is a life after cancer – there is only a life with cancer.

and the new york times happens to be reflecting on just that topic. check out this powerful photo collage of some of the 12 million (!!!) american cancer survivors.

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maple syruping

Monday, March 29th, 2010

while you all work on your entries into the shoulder monster contest, here are pictures from our lovely day spent making maple syrup and playing with dogs… what could be better?

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yes. yes. yes. this is going to be awesome.

Friday, March 26th, 2010

FREE KAYAKING IN COLORADO FOR CANCER SURVIVORS!!!

http://www.firstdescents.org/

I AM SO THERE!

YES.

thanks to the cancercare support group for the tip!

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strictly ballroom

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

today is christmas day! hooray!

well not really of course. but it is the first day of a christmas present that i gave to my lovely wife (!!). i registered us for a month of social dance classes at the 92nd street y.

obviously she will dance circles around me. but she will have her own challenge: letting me lead after years of playing the six foot tall lead partner in her own classes. i think it will be something like this video below, except replace fran with me. but keep scott… just to have him around.

yes i will take my glasses off. it’s evidently an important part of the transformation from meek and shy to sexy and talented. i will no longer live my life in fear. by the end of our classes it will probably be something like this.

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Posted in events, music, videos | 4 Comments »

show business

Monday, March 1st, 2010

to my dear friends in the new york area: my old friend annie bacon is in town! we love anne and it is always nice to have her smiling face around. this thursday at 10 pm, she (and many of our friends) are performing an original folk opera at jalopy. it is an excellent place to see music, and is just a short walk from my house. i will be pressing through the growing fatigue of radiation treatment to attend, and thus you have no excuse for missing this one. if you would like to meet at sackett street and walk over with us, that would be just fine.

if you visit annie’s myspace, you can listen to the song “window moons,” which she generously wrote about visiting me and kathryn when we are old and gray. it is a very sweet and tender song. i was singing it in my head when we were married. “we’re looking forward to looking back.” lovely.

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what to do this weekend

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

hello friends! if you’re in new york, i humbly request your presence this friday and/or saturday evening at the performance of flights of fancy, a dance piece choreographed by my lovely partner kathryn. here’s her email with the information.

Hi, Friends! I have designed costumes for and choreographed Flights of Fancy, a dance piece featuring Davis Berry, Dana Boll, Graceann Dorse, and Renee Dumouchel that will be presented this weekend as part of the Winter Follies at Spoke the Hub in Gowanus. It’s a humorous exploration of the secret dreams of pigeons using music by Andrew Bird (coincidental pun eventually intended) and Yo La Tengo. It’s been a lot of fun to work on and I’d love for you all to come see it. Especially because the evening has an American Idol tinge to it. At the end of the evening, the audience gets to vote (probably old-school style with paper and golf pencils) on what they liked best and the winner gets 50 free hours of rehearsal space and a produced weekend in the fall.  Here are the details:

Friday & Saturday, January 22 & 23

SHOW 7:30 PM / Adults $15 / Kids $5

RSVP NOW! Send a message or Call (718) 408-3234

Gowanus Arts Building

295 Douglass Street, 3rd Floor

Brooklyn, NY 11217

 

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all is quiet on new year’s day

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

here it is folks! many thanks to ben for the excellent footage. brrrrrr!

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Posted in events, videos | 7 Comments »

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