me kissing you: me kissing Jane

Monday, May 21, 2012

me kissing Jane

This is the fabulous Jane Weiner. She is the president and CEO of the fabulous Hope Stone Inc. There's a lot of fabulosity swirling around her.

Jane had a fabulous (last one, I promise) career as a dancer in New York with the Doug Elkins Dance Company---which sounds like her career is over, but of course it's not. She moved to Houston and set to work building up Hope Stone, which has a full schedule of dance classes for all ages as well as a professional dance company. I don't know how you'd measure such things, but she's got to have one of the more active dance lives in Houston.

I posted on facebook recently that I'm always a bit surprised when I mention Hope Stone to a Houstonian and they don't know what I'm talking about. Intellectually I know that dance is one of the least recognized (and funded) art forms in contemporary culture, and yet, Hope Stone does so much. Go to their website and see. And then go see a performance. You should know Hope Stone, wherever you are, but especially if you're in Houston.

Oh, and I just noticed that Jane is my 50th kiss! Huh. You'd think there'd be a prize to go with that, but I guess not.

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about this blog . . .

So 2011 saw me dealing with a bad 2010 by posting a picture of myself, taken first thing every morning, as some kind of conceptual art project. You can see all 365 blurry, bleary photos here.

As it was, at it's core, a response to loneliness, I knew it was not something I could or should sustain beyond the one year boundary I initially set for it. But I sort of liked this photo blogging thing . . .

So I decided the next logical step was to reach out to other people. Not just reach out, but cross some of my own comfort zones and kiss them. Not on the mouth, not in a romantic or sexual way, just a kiss on the cheek.

So, this year, I plan on kissing as many people as I can. I won't even try to kiss someone everyday, but in various situations, I may just ask someone, "hey, can I kiss you and photographically document the event?" If they say no, no worries, I'll move on. If they say yes, I'll say, "I have this tiny release form granting me permission." (It is a tiny release form, postcard size.)

It's a small way to get me out of a rut I'm in and also to spread a little love. In the ancient Christian church, there was the custom of the "kiss of peace" (which survives in liturgical churches today as "passing the peace," usually signified by a handshake). I think of this exercise as something of passing the peace, too, of offering a kiss of peace to whoever will let me do it. And document it.

Wait---there's more! You can be kissed, too! If you're in the Houston area and would like to be kissed by me, let me know. Or if you're coming to Houston. Or even if you're not in Houston or coming to Houston, but want to be on a list of potential kissees, in the event that I might be traveling to where you are (I get up Austin a few times a year, I hope to get to Chicago this year, etc.), let me know that, too. you never know where I might pop up. Email me at neilellisorts (at) yahoo dot com.