Anne Christine Sosa

Mad Girl’s Love Song

annesosa — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:32:24 +0000

By Sylvia Plath
“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan’s men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you’d return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)”

Not your typical Street Performer

annesosa — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:06:28 +0000

Its 12 Pm, and a very sunny evening in Fanueil Hall. I sit in a bench and watch 27 year old street performer, Al Millar. Covered in tattoos from head to toes, he wears a spiky metal helmet over his head starts talking to the air: “It’s show time everyone,” – I laugh. “Don’t be foolish, you know you want to watch, please come closer”. I didn’t think he could pull it off, but amazingly enough, after 10 minutes I wasn’t the only one watching him, I was surrounded with heads of people laughing and competing to participate with the legendary Al Millar.

Perhaps what’s so breathtaking about his show is not only his sympathy with the crowd, but his physical skills- Al bends his body in a way in which he ends up in a position that probably, only he, in the entire world is able to do. “He’s a freak. How else would you explain someone that bends his legs behind his torso, pulls them over his head to the point were his feet touch the ground again? The man is made out of rubber” says Karla, a girl seating besides me while watching him perform. After doing the body knot, Al carries on to ride a miniature bicycle (smaller than the one you would give to your 4 year old son); he also balances on one leg on top of a 7 meter standing tube where he juggles with four sharp knives. “Every trick he pulls is even more un-expected than the previous one, I watch him – and I just can’t believe he’ll pull it off” another audience member says.

I listen to his pathos-driven speech as he says “Now ladies and Gentlemen, who you are watching today is a street performer from Australia. I chose to street perform because I think it’s an honest way to make a living; if I have entertained you even a little bit for this past hour, then I know I’ve done my job. After I finish here I will be collecting tips, [people start looking serious] so take out a few bucks of your wallet- and hand me the wallet” People start laughing, and taking out money out of their wallets; once again, Al sympathizes with his audience and after his show he manages to collect a total amount of 80$. Not so bad for one hour of performing right? “Sometimes it’s a bit, sometimes it’s a lot, I guess this form of art is very unexpected, but believe me most times it’s very rewarding” Al says “when people see street performers they think we live on the streets; it’s not always like that, at least not for me anyways” he says.

Then I understood why he said that. Al isn’t just any street performer that spends the whole day in the sun performing again and again until he has made enough money to go home – and where’s home? You see, Al has won about 10 street performing festivals all over the world, including the People’s Choice Award in Canada 2003, the first prize for the Golden Cobble in Holland; A sides from street performing he also done a lot of modeling, acting (he was an extra for the movie matrix revolution), he has a stage show were he performs magic tricks, a 3 page contract if you’d want to hire him to entertain your party, and Al is also one of two members of a band called Human Kind, which has a very promising future. But having it all now doesn’t mean he hasn’t worked hard to get it.

When Al started street performing he was only 17, he knew many people in the scene and so he decided to try it out by doing his body knot, he started training and learning juggling, but his main hook was always his body- bending phenomena. “There was just something about people watching and laughing at me that I loved, it was like they connected with me, like they got me. By street performing I was not only making money, but doing what I liked, and hell the more I did it the easier it was and the more I liked it.” After street performing in Australia for several years, while also modeling, acting and doing anything he could do to expand his artistic curriculum, he had met so many different artists and performers that he started to travel the world with his show. This perhaps isn’t as complicated as we might think, street performers have itineraries of street performing festivals all over the world “I live similar to those backpacking tourists: with a small bag, train tickets and very cheap motels in the few places where I can’t find a friend’s house to crash in.” It was when he started to travel that he realized he could make himself get known better, while making anywhere from $600 to $4000 in tips in different street performers’ festivals, he was also winning many prizes, and attracting the media. “While traveling and meeting so many different artists I took advantage of this and learned something different from each person, in every city that I went I looked for new opportunities and different activities that I could do to make more money, so I started my stage show, when I saw how people reacted to my show I thought it would be a good idea to offer it for private parties, and soon it became a success.”

One evening in Australia he met Bostonian street performer Jason Gardner, who can also be seen more frequently in Fanueil Hall performing his straightjacket escape trick. They both shared same interests in music and arts, so they started a band together (Human Kind). A band that is now recording it’s first full length debut CD at Well Spring Studios. “Humankind is like Stone Temple Pilots meets Marilyn Manson. Power punk circus rock with a spooky edge. This is ghost rock circus core played by sideshow freaks from desolate lands” says AL of his band in their portal

www.humankindband.com. Al sings and writes the lyrics, while Jason plays the drums. Al is now in Boston mainly because of his music, while rehearsing and recording, he and Jason are preparing themselves for their concert upstairs in the Middle East to be held July 29th.

Although he knows he is a street performer and will always street perform, Al is open to new things, he likes experimenting and exploding his talents. For him, any day is a good day. “It’s not easy doing everything at once, but now I feel I am at the peak of my career, and I like not knowing what is going to happen next or where I’m going to be in a month”.

Umbrellas over New York

annesosa — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:58:55 +0000

On Thursday everything seems different in New York City. There’s a gray color in the air that surrounds us from the The Bronx to Brooklyn. No one is free of it. The rain comes pouring through the sky, and we all tend to think that we will drown. Sidewalks get wet, with the type of water that cover your toes and makes you cold all over your warm and gooey places. New yorkers pull their umbrellas out from their bags, and within a blink of an eye, they are open and covering their fashionable hairdos from the miserable water that has come to stay, apparently. Tourists are disappointed. They wanted a nice old fashionable sunny day. They get all wet because, unlike new yorkers, they don’t come prepared with umbrellas on their bags. They stop to the nearest shop and buy a 25 $ umbrella when in fact, two blocks to their right there is a man selling them on the street for 3$. What they can’t seem to understand is that Nyc has its charm, even when the city is covered by umbrellas. Kids run in the streets, not caring about getting wet, and of course, not knowing that they’ll get a cold in a few hours. Women, that seem to be living in a dream walking between sunset and sunrise, parade them self through 5th Av as if it were a runway for Giorgio Armani. The homeless find them selfs wishing the weather was somewhat different so that it would work to their advantage. Suicidal s are more content with this weather. They feel identified with the drops that scream comprehension and that seem to console them, they look up to a sky that, for them, has never seen the sun. Umbrellas seem to cover the city from west to east. If you were in a helicopter, looking down from the sky, you wouldnt recognize Central Park ’cause its not green as always, its just covered by an infinite scale of colors that correspond to the thousand umbrellas that are over Manhattan.

Ana Cristina Sosa

Hearbroken Letter to an unknown recipient

annesosa — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:56:37 +0000

I’m not sure how long I’ve been feeling this way, but it seems that each day that passes is a day that I am even more tired of everything and everyone around me. I can’t seem to get used of all the noises in my apartment. Even my cat is fucking exhausting. I try breathing in and out, try remembering that there are much worse things in life. What’s wrong in mine, anyways? Is it work, the never ending days of solitude surrounded by shallow sexual encounters that make an effort to remind me how much I miss you and how much I wish I could be with you again. Hours seem so long lasting. They drown me inside in ways that you could never imagine. I try dreaming of you. Too bad it only makes it harder for me to let go. Its been 3 months since we last spoke. You had to leave, you had to leave New York and me. And while in this infinite abyss we wait for the day in which we can just escape.. to you. Oh what I would give to just throw it all away, quit my job, abandon my cat and my apartment, and just live a life full of intensity and passion. Just leave everything behind in an attempt to find you. To live with you, and become the couple we once were. I cant stand this storm inside me. The city seems to be deserted just by my hard pounding thoughts. Weird people run without stopping, behind my door is this intense universe that can’t seem to stop. Days seem gray. Everything seems mute while I cry because of stupid reasons that just make me angrier inside. Its weird but Im mad at myself for letting you leave me, even though you did not warn me or said goodbye. How could you do this to me? After all we’ve been through. You told me how you don’t like goodbyes. I get that. I really do. But after spending 4 years by my side, couldn’t you at least write a note? I wouldn’t have minded if it was just a post it. What ever. At least it was something I could hold on to. Some prove of closure. But no, you just chose to leave me here, all by myself, drowning in desperation and loneliness. I have dated 4 or 5 men. I’m not going to lie to you. I suppose you have dated many women, too. They were ok, but really they weren’t. Because none of them was you. I’m writing to you and I just realized I don’t even have an address to send it to you. One would think that after all this time at least I would get an apologetic letter. But I didn’t. I’ve thought about calling your parents, or your sister at least, and ask for you. But that only makes me sad, just to think I have to contact you through another person, when it used to be so easy, I usually didn’t even have to call you, it was like we were connected and you’d know when I was looking for you, and we’d see each other right away. It was that easy. It was that simple. And now it just isn’t. And you just aren’t. It’s almost like you had it planned, its almost like you shook my hand and said “hey, I’m about to screw you over big time”, and what was I supposed to do? I was stuck in between you and a hard place, we wont talk about the hard place. But I don’t blame you anymore there is too much pain to start with. Sometimes i feel like you left me half dead, inside my head. To be honest, looking back I see I’m not the girl I used to be. Its how you wanted it to be, its like you played a joke on me, and I lost a friend.. in the end. And I think that I’ve must have cried for days, and Im never going back .. to who I was.. And we will probably never go back to who we were. …

Playlist # 1

annesosa — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:54:05 +0000

Here is a really great playlist to get you in the writing mood. I like to think of it as my soundtrack for when im typing away!

1. Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
2. Thomas Newman – American Beauty Piano Theme
3. Debussy – Claire De Lune
4. Amelie Soundtrack – Comptine d’un autre ete
5. Ennio Morricone – Gabriel’s Oboe
6. Carter Burwell – Bella’s Lullaby
7. The First Kiss – The Veronicas
8. Amelie Soundtrack – A quai
9. Debussy – Arabesque
10. Lisa Gerrard – The End theme song of Man on Fire
11. Amelie Soundtrack – La valse d’amelie piano
12. John Williams – Welcome to Jurassic Park
13. Jon Schmidt – All of me
14. Nine Inch Nails- Leaving Hope
15. Silent Hill – Piano Main Theme
16. Ennio Morricone – On Earth as it is in heaven

Hello world!

annesosa — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:40:14 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!