All Posts Tagged With: "art"

Jeanne Robinson is going to fly.

When I first met Jeanne at our wedding to Sean in Baltimore in 1997, I thought that I detected an underlying sadness in her life. She was the amazing wife of Spider Robinson and had been the love of his life for over twenty years at that time.

I asked folks in the know about this and they related a story to me that could have come from Spider’s pen, along with the alternately joyous and painful adventures of the patrons of Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon:

It turns out that Jeanne had been a modern dancer in her youth–one of the best, doing wonderful, beautiful works–works good enough to turn the head of a skinny hippy ex-pat in Nova Scotia. The problem with dance, though, is that dancers usually have a limited lifetime as such because of the damage-over-time that the landings on the floor impart to the legs and feet of the dancers. Jeanne moved over time from being a dancer herself to a choreographer, and at the time of this writing has choreographed over 30 original works.

In the late 1970s, Jeanne and Spider collaborated on the first of three books about a dancer who performed in zero-g on a space station. That fictional dancer’s talents and sacrifices became crucial to the future of humanity.

The Robinsons believed that it was time for the Arts to join the Sciences and Engineering in mankind’s expansion into space. NASA even agreed, fast-tracking Jeanne’s project for an actual filmed performance in space conditions onto one of the future shuttle flights. She began preparation for her flight, her dance, her dream….

And then, in January of 1986, the Challenger exploded, killing all aboard. Jeanne’s flight (along with those of all the other civilians) was cancelled with no hope of ever occuring. The shuttle program survived, barely, but there was no longer any thought of passengers outside the agency’s narrow new restrictions.

Fast forward fifteen years or so….

Hollywood’s CGI technology progressed to the point where created images were now indistinguishable from reality. The Stardance Project was rekindled, but now in a film where the dancer would dance on earth, but the computers would draw her into the world of earth orbit, where she would be able to move freely in three dimensions.

Last night I heard the music from part of the performance and a slide show with conceptual art that would be seen in the final produced product. The art was beautiful, but limited in scope. However, the electronic keyboard accompanying the slides was deeply moving.

After the showing, Dr. Amy Baxter, Robert Heinlein’s granddaughter, presented Jeanne with a thousand dollar check for the project and urged the rest of the audience to contribute what they could to the project. Jeanne was surprised, grateful and truly moved by this gesture.

Jeanne then said that it was wonderful that it was now technically possible for the woman who would be her dancer in the film to actually experience free-fall as a precursor to her performance in the movie.

“When would that occur?” asked someone from the audience.

“Well, actually,” Jeanne said, “it won’t happen–we really don’t have the money to do it.”

A quiet, but firm voice from the far side of the hall said, “I’ll fly you, Jeanne.”

You could have heard a pin drop in a room of 650 people who turned simultaneously towards the man and then everything else was drowned out in the cheering and clapping. Peter Diamandis, the CEO and founder of the Zero-Gravity Corporation had been the one making the offer.

It was a generation later than expected, but the dream that Jeanne had had as a young woman to escape the strictures of Earth could now be realized.

In the Callahans books, the customers in the bar, in times of shared joy and sorrow have been known to offer toasts on various subjects, invariably followed by the smashing of the glass in the parabolic fireplace across the Place’s main room.

So, on this occasion, let me offer one, to Jeanne, to Spider, to you, Peter, and to my good, good friend John:

“To dreamers! Know always that a dream will never die as long as there are dreamers to keep it in their hearts.”

CRASH!!!

Tom

Jeanne Robinson is going to fly.

When I first met Jeanne at our wedding to Sean in Baltimore in 1997, I thought that I detected an underlying sadness in her life. She was the amazing wife of Spider Robinson and had been the love of his life for over twenty years at that time.

I asked folks in the know about this and they related a story to me that could have come from Spider’s pen, along with the alternately joyous and painful adventures of the patrons of Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon:

It turns out that Jeanne had been a modern dancer in her youth–one of the best, doing wonderful, beautiful works–works good enough to turn the head of a skinny hippy ex-pat in Nova Scotia. The problem with dance, though, is that dancers usually have a limited lifetime as such because of the damage-over-time that the landings on the floor impart to the legs and feet of the dancers. Jeanne moved over time from being a dancer herself to a choreographer, and at the time of this writing has choreographed over 30 original works.

In the late 1970s, Jeanne and Spider collaborated on the first of three books about a dancer who performed in zero-g on a space station. That fictional dancer’s talents and sacrifices became crucial to the future of humanity.

The Robinsons believed that it was time for the Arts to join the Sciences and Engineering in mankind’s expansion into space. NASA even agreed, fast-tracking Jeanne’s project for an actual filmed performance in space conditions onto one of the future shuttle flights. She began preparation for her flight, her dance, her dream….

And then, in January of 1986, the Challenger exploded, killing all aboard. Jeanne’s flight (along with those of all the other civilians) was cancelled with no hope of ever occuring. The shuttle program survived, barely, but there was no longer any thought of passengers outside the agency’s narrow new restrictions.

Fast forward fifteen years or so….

Hollywood’s CGI technology progressed to the point where created images were now indistinguishable from reality. The Stardance Project was rekindled, but now in a film where the dancer would dance on earth, but the computers would draw her into the world of earth orbit, where she would be able to move freely in three dimensions.

Last night I heard the music from part of the performance and a slide show with conceptual art that would be seen in the final produced product. The art was beautiful, but limited in scope. However, the electronic keyboard accompanying the slides was deeply moving.

After the showing, Dr. Amy Baxter, Robert Heinlein’s granddaughter, presented Jeanne with a thousand dollar check for the project and urged the rest of the audience to contribute what they could to the project. Jeanne was surprised, grateful and truly moved by this gesture.

Jeanne then said that it was wonderful that it was now technically possible for the woman who would be her dancer in the film to actually experience free-fall as a precursor to her performance in the movie.

“When would that occur?” asked someone from the audience.

“Well, actually,” Jeanne said, “it won’t happen–we really don’t have the money to do it.”

A quiet, but firm voice from the far side of the hall said, “I’ll fly you, Jeanne.”

You could have heard a pin drop in a room of 650 people who turned simultaneously towards the man and then everything else was drowned out in the cheering and clapping. Peter Diamandis, the CEO and founder of the Zero-Gravity Corporation had been the one making the offer.

It was a generation later than expected, but the dream that Jeanne had had as a young woman to escape the strictures of Earth could now be realized.

In the Callahans books, the customers in the bar, in times of shared joy and sorrow have been known to offer toasts on various subjects, invariably followed by the smashing of the glass in the parabolic fireplace across the Place’s main room.

So, on this occasion, let me offer one, to Jeanne, to Spider, to you, Peter, and to my good, good friend John:

“To dreamers! Know always that a dream will never die as long as there are dreamers to keep it in their hearts.”

CRASH!!!

Tom