RITES
OF SPRING
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring sparked
a riot on May 29 1913 100 yrs. ago or so
the score was considered too primal percussive
herky-jerky The depiction of a violent pagan past
sent Paris into chaos: hissing heckling fist-fights
A notorious preamble to the brutality of the coming
century Pagan past we might ask?
In Spring 2014 on May 29th a group of 20 including
fathers+brothers stoned a 25 yr. old pregnant woman
to death It was noon next to the courthouse in Lahore
Her husband said: We were in love Her father expressed
no regrets
Lata the husband was found to have killed his first wife The
case was later dropped when his 5 children forgave him I strangled
her he said In Pakistan 839 women were murdered in honour killings
in 2013
While across the sea in the latest shooting spree the gunman’s father
had directed The Hunger Games where youth are caged hunted+
killed by one another in a survival-game The young shooter a self
professed virgin hated women +wanted revenge on everyone
It appears that Spring continues to catalyze acts of violence as humanity
plays out the age old battle of Eros vs. Thanatos And as Barak has
cautioned: Hammers just seem to gravitate toward nails
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Sandro Botticelli Primavera 1482
Jan Balet Rites of Spring 1984
SPRING 2014
