[Mark Allinson]

It seems clear that most of the recent crit-activity in the metrical sphere is on the “Metrical” board, and very little on TDE.

At present, for instance, there are ten threads on Metrical which have responses bearing today’s date, and four with yesterday’s date.

On TDE there has been only one posting with today’s date, and just the one for all day yesterday.

When I used to post, TDE was where the action was, and the board was in constant activity. Now there are threads which sit for a week or more without responses.

Why does TDE look like it’s dying?

[Janet Kenny]

"Is TDE dying"?


NO

[Quincy Lehr]

'Cause Met pwns TDE. Why else?

(I'd put a smiley face on this, but it goes against my principles.)

Quincy

[Daniel Haar]

Creatures die because they need certain nourishing substances to sustain them plus proper functioning of their bodies. I suppose it is similar with electronic things. They die if they don't get power, or if their hardware/software breakdown.

What TDE is experiencing, in human terms, is lack of love. Love, of course, is important, but we all know that we can live for two weeks if a girl(or boy)friend hasn't called us for two weeks. TDE will live, and maybe will find some better (and wilder?) lovin' after its current heartbreak.

[Janet Kenny]

One of the things that has happened is that we have all learned to dance, partly because of TDE, and now we want to tango.
Janet

[Mark Allinson]

So why, Janet, is there no tangoing allowed on TDE?

[Quincy Lehr]

Who said anything about the tango? Know where that particular dance originated? Brothels. Is that what you think about Met, Janet? That we're all into whores? (Well, we are, every single one of us, but that's beside the point.)

Dr. Whup-Ass

[This message has been edited by Quincy Lehr (edited November 16, 2006).]

[Janet Kenny]

Quincy,
This isn't self-aggrandizement. I workshopped this on TDE some time ago. I wanted to show you that I'm full bottle on this one:

Tango
to Astor Piazzolla

Sweat, sex and menace swamp the dying-ground;
the bandoneón sucks life from passive veins.
Straight like a knife the fatal song arrives.
Hypnotised, submissive bodies find
responsive hip and knee, close--close, asleep,
asleep and watchful. Obedient, the feet
walk always where the pounding beats command.
Dawn has no interest in the darkness where
mindless impulse rules. Just this is here.
Animal--there is but one, as cells compound
to bind beasts firm in unified revolt.
A death-defiant dance of tense despair.


Across the gloom eyes challenge, fight or die.
Men fresh from factories and docks now pride
themselves as kings of territories earned
through batterings and terror. In their time
they challenged and defeated. Now their turn
has come as younger criminals and thugs
vie for the slinky girls knit to their thighs.
Women with an aura show contempt
for younger girls with faces still unmarked.
Old lovers’ faces show that they have been
to places where the soul of tango lives.
No skin too tired, no arch too flat to glide.


Dark, dark--the place where tango dancers go
inside the senses back behind the mind.
Mechanical and animal, they know
that knowing is a barrier to being.
Out there, the danger comes from somewhere else.
Here, in the dance-hall, danger lies within.
Down in the street the policemen hide their guns
watching from rain-soaked alleys as men leave.
Futureless moments, seized with angry greed,
comfort the tired people as they cling,
pulsed by the bandoneón’s crunch and moan,
grateful for what is now. To hell with then.

[Mark Allinson]

That's a ripper, Janet.

Yes, I remember it on TDE.

But why is Metrical the best tangoing rink on the board now?

[MEHope]

People follow the vanishing man.