To dance!
No way to make a living,
masochism, pain, perfection,
muscle spasm, chiropracters,
short careers, eating disorders –

Merce Cunningham: (1919 - ) Modern choreographer. He rejected the notion that dance had to be "about" anything, treating movement as a subject matter in itself. He created a "choreography of chance," in which motions would be put into sequence at random. His "Suite By Chance" in 1952 featured the first electronic score for modern dance.

Film!
Adventure, tedium,
no family, boring locations,
dark rooms, perfect faces
egos, money, Hollywood and
sleaze!

Akira Kurosawa: (1910 - ) Japanese movie director, an innovator in the filming of action and drama, especially in such films as Rashoman (1950), The Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961). In film circles, he is known as "The Emperor." "art goes into the depths of the human heart, as if with a surgeon's scalpel, laying bare it's dark complexities and bizarre twists."

Pee Wee Herman: (1952 - ) In 1978, a young comedian named Paul Reubens created a new character: a gawky creature in a grey suit and a red bow tie who lived in a happy limbo between childhood and adolescence. Pee Wee Herman became a playful American icon of the 1980's, with two hit films and a TV show, "Pee Wee's Playhouse," popular with children and adults. "I know you are but what am I?"

Michelangelo Antonioni: (1912 - ) Italian film director and screen writer, best known for his films which explore the alienation of the modern world, such as L' Avventura (The Adventure), and Blow-Up. He is known for placing his characters in front of barren landscapes, emphasizing their alienation and loneliness.

Bernardo Bertolucci: Italian film director, best known for his "Eastern trilogy" of films – The Last Emperor (best picture, 1985), The Sheltering Sky, (1990) and Little Buddha (1993). His films are characterized by an operatic style, a combination of stylized movement and editing.

Music!
Food of love, emotion,
mathematics, isolation,
rhythm, feeling, power,
harmony and heavy
competition

Bob Dylan: (1941 - ) "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." Born Robert Allen Zimmerman, he renamed himself after the poet Dylan Thomas and became the premiere poet/musician of his generation. Merging country, folk and rock, Dylan has continued to defy categories with such classics as "Just Like A Woman," "Like A Rolling Stone," and "The Times They Are A Changin'."

Carmina Burana: A "scenic cantata" for the stage written by Carl Orff (1895-1982) in 1937, the Carmina Burana was a series of German 13th century poems set to music. Orff envisioned a "total" theatre that mixed drama, poetry and music, but it is the pulsating power of the work's chorus that has sustained its popularity.

John Cage: (1912 – 1992) Electronic music pioneer, avantgarde composer and poet. In his most famous work, 4'33", he presents a score in which the musician does not play for a set period of time which totals 4 minutes and 33 seconds; he turns the idea of creating music on its head by asking the musician to create silence.
John Cage was a frequent collaborator with Merce Cunningham.

Stephen Sondheim: "No one is alone."

Anarchy!
Revolution, justice,
screaming for solutions,
forcing change, risk and danger,
making noise and making pleas

Buddha: (563 B.C. – 487 B.C.) Born to a royal family in India, a young man grew up surrounded by wealth and comfort. When confronted with the suffering of the poor and sick just outside his door, he began a quest to find the secret to happiness. After 6 years of study and meditation, he arrived at a philosophy of moderation and detachment – the Middle Way – he was called Buddha, or the Awakened One ("budhi" means to "wake up"). For the last 45 years of his life, he traveled through India teaching what he had discovered. His teachings eventually became the modern religion of Buddhism.

Gertrude Stein: (1874 – 1946) "Everybody is contemporary." Avantgarde American writer and poet, she opened her Paris home to the artists and writers of the period between World War I and World War II, such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Pablo Picasso. She told them, "You are all a lost generation."

Allen Ginsberg: (1926 - ) Poet of the "Beat Generation" of the late 1950's (along with Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Diane Di Prima, William S. Burroughs), his most celebrated poem is "Howl," which begins, "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by/madness, starving hysterical naked,/draggin themselves through the negro streets at dawn/looking for an angry fix/angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly/connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night." Seymour Krim wrote "Allen Ginsberg, chanter of the scorchingly present-tense 'Howl', is one of the true lunar voices rising about the skyscrapers; he has the courage of his imagination, and is keening a mighty song for his generation."

Vaclav Havel: (1936 - ) Playwright, poet, essayist, who was jailed through much of the 1980's for his stance against the communist leadership of Czechoslovakia. In 1989, he became President of the newly democratic Czech Republic. "Everywhere in the world, people are surprised, how these malleable, humiliated, cynical citizens of Czechoslovakia, who seemingly believed in nothing found the tremendous strength within a few weeks to cast off the totalitarian system, in an entirely peaceful and dignified manner. We ourselves are surprised at it."

Lenny Bruce: Cutting edge comedian of the 1950's, the first person jailed for swearing in public in the U.S. Played by Dustin Hoffman in the 1974 film, "Lenny."

Maya Angelou: (1928 - ) Novelist, poet, historian, actress, playwright and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Johnson) began her career in drama and dance, but won world-wide fame in 1970 with her account of her childhood, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In 1993, she wrote and delivered the presidential inauguration poem for President Clinton, "On the Pulse of Morning."  She is currently a professor at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, NC.
You may write me down in history
With your bitter twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Pablo Neruda: (1904 – 1973) pseudonym of Neftali Ricardo Reyes y Basoalto, a Chilean poet who used highly symbolic language to describe the joys and horrors of life. Although he moved from symbolism to surrealism to realism throughout his career, he always concentrated on the dangers civilization could pose to the poor and oppressed. When he won the 1971 Nobel Prize for literature, the committee called him "the poet of violated human dignity."

Langston Hughes: (1902 – 1967) "The Poet Laureate of Harlem." Hughes was a prominent figure in the creative outpouring of the 1920's known as The Harlem Renaissance. His work was highly influenced by jazz, the blues, and the language of the street: "I tried to write poems like the songs they sang on Seventh Avenue…(those songs) had the pulse beat of the people who keep on going."
In the morning the city
spreads its wings
making a song
in stone that sings.

Emotion, devotion
to causing a commotion

Huevos Rancheros: a spicy Mexican dish, usually prepared as hot wake-up breakfast:
1 can (32 oz.) refried beans
1 teaspoon Tabasco pepper sauce
1 dozen eggs
butter or margarine
½ lb Monterey Jack Cheese
1 pk Corn tortillas

Salsa
Leaves from 10 sprigs cilantro, minced
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 Jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons chopped onion
½ avocado, finely diced
Combine all ingredients for salsa; set aside. Heat refried beans in a saucepan with Tabasco sauce; keep warm. Fry eggs in butter or margarine to desired doneness. Lay tortillas on each plate. Place one fried egg on each tortilla. Top with refried beans, cheese and salsa. Serve immediately. Serves 6.

Uta Hagen: (1919 - ) Since she made her Broadway debut at 18 in the Lunt's famous production of Chekhov's The Seagull, she has played in such classic productions as Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire, Clifford Odet's The Country Girl, George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She is best known as a teacher – as Jack Lemmon has written, "This extraordinary woman is one of the greatest actresses I have seen in my lifetime, yet she has deliberately made her acting career secondary to teaching and directing others so that they might benefit." She has written Respect for Acting, and A Challenge for the Actor.

Curry Vindaloo: Another spicy dish, this time from India. Extremely hot sauce based on such blazing ingredients as mustard seeds, cumin, coriander and red chilies. Usually blended with meat and served with rice. Here's a recipe for Vindaloo curry and Pork:
2 lb lean pork
1 ¾ oz ginger
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons tumeric
1 tablespoon salt
5 cardamoms
5 cloves
2 cm cinnamon stick
6 black peppercorns
7/8 oz coriander
½ oz cumin
3 1/3 tablespoons vinegar
spring curry leaves
5 1/8 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon mustard
10 1/8 tablespoons water
Wash and cube the meat. Grind together the ginger, garlic, chili powder, tumeric, salt, cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, coriander and cumin together with vinegar. Place the meat in a bowl, add the ground ingredents and leave to marinate for 30 minutes. Place the curry leaves on top of the mixture and cover bowl. Place in the refrigerator for 24 hours, turning the meat over 2-3 times during that time. Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. Cover with a lid and cook until they pop, then add the pork plus the marinade. Pour in the water, re-cover and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Take the lid off the pan and simmer until the pork is cooked and tender. Remove the cinnamon stick before serving.

Susan Sontag: (1933 - ) Film critic and essayist, her essays in the '60s and '70s had a powerful impact on America's counterculture. She is best known for her works "Illness as metaphor" (1978) and "AIDS and its metaphors" (1989), in which she analyses how society's reactions to those afflicted with disease over the centuries have more to do with preconceived notions and fears (what she calls "metaphors") than reality. "One can never underestimate how irrational people become when they are really frightened."

Let he among us without sin
be the first to condemn
La vie Boheme!

(The above was taken from www.siteforrent.com)

Some things not included above...

8BC: 8BC was once a nightclub in the East Village, founded by Cornelius Conboy and Dennis Gattra. Anthony Rapp of the Rent cast described it as a "a haven for performance art [and] a landmark of the downtown art scene."

ACT UP: AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. "ACT UP is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis."

Miso soup:
Ingredients:
Ichiban Dashi (soup stock) 3c
Seasonal main ingredient
Karashi (hot oriental yellow mustard)
Miso approx. 6T

Note:
Different varieties of miso may be blended together to prepare the soup. Traditionally, salty miso is used during the hot summer months and sweet white miso is used during the winter months. Hatcho miso is a very good standard dark salty miso and is available in natural food markets and some Asian markets that specialize in Japanese ingredients. Saikyo miso is the standard sweet white miso from Kyoto, Japan. Other areas in Japan also produce sweet white miso and some are available at Asian markets that specialize in Japanese ingredients. Selecting several different types of miso to blend together is quite acceptable and will create a finished soup that has many interesting characteristics.

Preparation:
Grind the miso in a suribachi (mortar) until very smooth. It usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes.
Add the cool dashi soup stock in small increments and continue to grind until well blended.
Strain the soup 2 or 3 times through a fine strainer. If the miso was ground fine enough there will be very little remaining in the strainer.
Heat the soup just before serving being careful not to let it boil. The consistency of the finished soup should be like a medium-thick cream.
Mix a small amount of the karashi (mustard) with a little cold water until it forms a thick paste.
Turn the container with the mustard upside down for about 30-minutes to develop flavor.
When ready to serve thin the mustard a little by adding a small amount of the prepared miso soup. It should be thin enough so that a drop will glide off of a chopstick.

Note:
While the soup can be enjoyed as is, adding a seasonal main ingredient will bring a wonderful element to the finished soup. During the winter months taro root, kabocha squash, pumpkin and winter melon are just a few ingredients that can be used. During the summer grilled eggplant, grilled tofu, figs and avocado are just some of the possibilities. It is important to precook the seasonal ingredients either by boiling, grilling etc.

To Serve:
Heat precooked pieces of the seasonal main ingredient in some thinned dashi soup stock, or hot water.
Place 1-piece of ingredient in a serving bowl and add the hot miso soup being careful not to cover the ingredient completely.
Add a drop of the karashi mustard to the top of the main ingredient.
Serve immediately.

(The above found at Rent References)

Anything else?

The Sex Pistols: (1975 - 1978) 70s English punk band, fronted by the legendary (or infamous, depending upon your point of view) Johnny Rotten.

The Village Voice: (1955 - ) New York City avante garde newspaper.

Absolut: Vodka, baby.