For Poetry Monday:

“Fall, leaves, fall,” Emily Bronte

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.


Contrast with Hopkins’ Spring and Fall. Seriously—hold them both close. It’s worth it.

---L.

Subject quote from Paint It, Black, The Rolling Stones.

In lion dance news, Eaglet has fully transitioned from the beginner to advanced team of performers, and is now performing only advanced routines. They and their partner are still working on getting down some moves, such as the lifts, but they’ll get there. They’ve come a long way in seven years together.

The troupe performed last weekend at the Asian Night Market, the second such, which was a pretty darn cool event. The kids opened the evening with a traditional lion dance and closed it with a K-pop routine in costume (the audience loudly appreciated both). The DJ running music between performances played pop songs from all over—I recognized Japanese,* Korean, Mandarin, and Viet, suspected one hip-hop track of being Tagalog, and given I suck at hearing lyrics there were no doubt more languages (one clue: he wore a Thai outfit). Other performances included traditional Korean and Kurdish dances, a Desi singer-songwriter who’d fit in perfectly at the Folk Festival, a solo violinist playing anime tunes, and Bollywood and K-pop dancers. Oh, and a dance-club set from the DJ, built on more Asian pop.

Lots of diaspora fusion, in other words, matching the food trucks and craft booths.

Despite moving to a venue more than twice the size from the first one, the Night Market was packed beyond capacity. We’ll see how it expands. And what the kids will do next.


* Including a citypop number.

---L.

Subject quote from Golden, HUNTR/X.