Dog Story

Meet Flaco (pictured). I saw Victor Medina's photo of his dog in a coffee shop and immediately fell in love with Flaco. I contacted Victor and he gave me permission to use his picture as a mascot for our shows. And, with his permission, here is how he tells the story of his dog, Flaco:

“This is a picture of my dog, named "Flaco" (Spanish for ‘skinny’). In Mexico, where I grew up playing soccer in the streets, it was friendly to call someone ‘Flaco’ or ‘Gordo’ (fat). Seriously, it is okay and friendly to call your friend ‘Flaco’ or ‘Gordo.’ I’m an equine veterinarian working with my wife Dr. Nicole Eller-Medina in a practice and on our horse farm. Flaco is a Standard Poodle/Wired Hair German Pointer mix. I work part time in a small animal hospital, where we do some surgeries for the Tri-county Humane Society (spays and neuters). It happened that one day I got there and there he was. I asked who was the owner of such a cool dog and I was told that he was from the Humane Society and was available for adoption. That day he came back home with me. He is an absolutely wonderful dog who makes me laugh a lot. When I think about it, it was some kind of love at first sight. I took this picture a month after he came home and was playing with our other dogs. He was looking so funny that I had to get the camera and shoot some pictures.”

Children seem to know all about this, but, by the time we're adults many of us have had it shamed out of us. I'm saying I'm falling and have fallen for Flaco, and find joy in his unambiguous, playful and stout heart. Some athletes have this. Don't heroes in the folk tales have this?

And, I admire Victor and the tenderness of heart he has for Flaco. I figure that anything I can do to keep this heart alive in myself and others, I hope to do. Probably, those who have these hearts and wish to keep them must have fierce protection strategies. I think we have to look out for that nasty Lord Byron and his admirers. Some women fall for Mr. Byron and his ilk, and usually suffer for having done so. I think we must have our shield of virtue clearly in place, and, if anyone reaches to diminish or eat our hearts, we can do a quick Aikido move.

I can't attribute it (help me if you know where this comes from), but I think it is true that there are at least three times when it is important to be gullible. (1) When I am with my art, (2) when I am with my lover, and (3) when I am with my God. Artists, lovers and the pious I trust seem to know that nothing happens without this vulnerability. I think this is true.

I don't want to be Lord Byron. I don't want to be "cool" in the way he was cool. I don't want to be cynical, world weary or ironic. I want to be just like Flaco, and do just about everything with that feeling that Victor has for Flaco.

Dogs figure prominently in world folk traditions. I stumbled upon this Welsh folk reference to Gelert, and this story about Saint Guinefort, the dog revered as a saint by a never officially recognized "cult" of the Catholic Church, until it was suppressed in the 1930's.

See more of Victor's work on his web site.

Mid-Winter's Play

That's yours truly as Old Dame Jane, my wife as the Horse Doctor, daughter as Billy Pud, second daughter as Bold Slasher, making our salutes after our mummers play has ended at a recent holiday party. We sneaked down to the basement mostly unnoticed, donned costumes, then exited the side door to ring our own doorbell. We knew it was working when our dog, Romeo, didn't recognize us and set to barking at us (that's him in lower right).

Wikipedia says these death and resurrection folk plays, dating from medieval Europe are not to be confused with earlier mystery plays, but there seems to be some mystery in them.

What we know about this has come from maybe 25 years of participation, mostly as the visited, but also as players, with the Lowry Hill Players and the Ritual Drama Team, led by Rudd Rayfield. As in Europe a long time ago, mummers in strange costume traipse the streets during the Christmas holiday season, looking for good parties to crash. They start singing when the owner answers their knock on the door, and, in sung verse, they ask to be let in to perform their short play. Afterward, to song and dance, the players pass their purse for replenishment and gladly accept any offers to join the holiday party and table. It is a way to turn social norms up-side-down at least for one evening a year.

As a player, it is a nervy thing to knock on a stranger's door and ask to be admitted, especially in times of fear-mongering. Some homeowners blanch, scowl and shut their doors. Others are caught in the wonder, and slowly trust and come to joy and revelry with the strangers in their midst. Sometimes, guests at the party have the most difficulty, as they see their social status suddenly change right in the moment and they are suddenly made peers with a strange rabble that has been admitted by their host.

After the party one year, a friend who attended and who saw the mummers for the first time, confided in me that he was ready to grab them and haul them back outside. I know my first impulse can be to scream, run or want to fight when I encounter something strange and wild.

Here there is the thrill that comes after having taken such risks, both as players and as the admitting host, and having engaged the play-making that frames both life and that essential part of life – death – and then we recognize ourselves as still being alive and in the presence of good friends, and the smells and tastes of good food and drink. Ahhh!

Little Woman on the Run and Other Fragments of the Gone World

Chrissie Mahaffy – Folk Fiddles – Hearsay – Dance

Saturday, March 27^th, 8pm, Twin Cities Friends Meeting, 1725 Grand Avenue, Saint Paul, suggested contribution: $12 adults, $6 children

I think you’ll enjoy this evening of stories, hearsay, folk fiddles and dance at one of the Twin Cities favorite and intimate performance arts venues.

• Chrissie Mahaffy is a charming autodidact who is writing a book about her adventures with children in her home daycare (my daughters attended), Greenspoon, in Uptown Minneapolis. She has great stories about children, their dramas, foibles and culture, and is a pleasure to listen to.

• Some of the best fiddlers from the American Swedish Institute Spelmanslag (http://www.asispelmanslag.org/) will be playing. If you’ve never heard flat-out folk fiddling like this, with the harmonies and chording, you’re in for a treat. This is a living tradition, passed down from family members, from Rattvik, Sweden. Fiddlers planning to appear include Daniel Dahlin, Bruce Johnson, Jennifer Olsen Loayza, Kristen Ottoson Niehaus and Jamie Harris.

• All the music played is dance music. Gifted folk dancers Mary Hegge and Craig Johnson will model Scandinavian dances and invite us to participate. Mary is also a fiddler and Artistic Director of the ASI Spelmanslag. Craig is active in the local Scandinavian folk dance scene.

• I will contribute hearsay, and the feature story, "Little Woman..." which is about a troubling encounter I had a few years ago.

• In addition, I will explore a few small bits of folk culture that I think have compelling social and psychological relevance (the "Fragments of the Gone World"), and that might represent what poet Derek Walcott called, in his 1992 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, “fragments of epic memory.”

Come prepared to have a good time. I look forward to seeing you!

 (Photo above © Victor Medina of his dog, Flaco -- thank you, Victor!)

–      Stofer