Cool places

Just for fun, I thought I'd post some links to a place that I thought was really fun & cool when I was about eight years old or something like that.
Howe Caverns
Howe Caverns 29
Howe Caverns 33
Secret Caverns sign
Waterfall in Secret Cave
Ice Cave Sign
And someday, maybe I'll go back there, or have another cool experience elsewhere.
Secret Cavern
Ice Cave in Glacier Gray
The Ice Cave's Mouth
Snow cave and creek
Top of the world
Ferry and island at sunset
Purest of Waters
Wolf Point Sunset
Sunset from Echo Cove
Flickr is fun.

New Year's Resolution

Make better use of your gifts. Everything is a gift. Those credit card bills: gifts. The student loan bills: gifts. Dental or vision? Gifts. The interest-free loan from Grandpa for the car and the Christmas check from Grandma: a gift! And, finally--the sound of those squirrels clawing their way around on the roof, chewing through wood, waking me up multiple times in the night, many nights, finally worth a hundred bucks off next months rent, harkening me back to a time when I lived elsewhere and listened to rats running around on the roof of a shack--priceless. I can hear them now. Gifts.

Water Crystals

Water Crystals Clip

2 random viewings

Admittedly, quite a long clip.
"Wisewoman tradition"
But also, kind of lively and interesting!
Is it pseudoscience...Is there something there?
Also Ladies Against Feminism(?) website. (I must say, I don't get it. If they are against feminism, why would they even make a website?)

Kind of p-r-e-t-t-y music

Half Gifts by Cocteau Twins
Maybe a little excessively depressive seeming at the end...

zen of song & video watching

So I was watching some song/videos.
Kinda "angry" song.
Kinda "sweet" song.
Kinda "sad" song.
Order is bound to shuffle around from time to time.
So now I am inspired! To watch:
The Zen Mind

Bicycle Tree

Found a picture of the
Bicycle tree and other assorted photos!
Estuary with old boat
A salmon berry photo
A ferry docking photo
Autumn floats
"The soul has this shape"
Interesting photo. We shared a house with that guy for a while.
Vashon fence
Trees & clouds
Old pier & rope swing
Famously corny sign
Heron at sunset
Clam and sound
Thanks, flickr.

Tourism & class

In scenes from some movies! Especially adored these two when I first saw them in highschool...
A Room With A View
Intro/?
Without a Baedeker
"Where are the good men"
Letter at the piano
Howards End
Trailer to the film.
The misplaced umbrella

Interesting article

From Muhammed Ali to Grandma Rose by Polly Shulman

Agave nectar

The sweeter alternative to sugar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_syrup

Women & reading

Art!
Garden Parasol and Woman Seated in a Garden by Frederick Carl Frieseke, The New Novel by Winslow Homer and ?? by ??, The Reader by Albert Joseph Moore, Rembrandt's Mother as the Biblical Prophetess Hannah and Serendipities - The gender of reading(3)
Also interesting, though a non-reading subject: Interior with a woman seated by a hearth by Jacobus Vrel.

Song about musing

Caribbean Blue by Enya

It has poems, it has pictures, it has illustrations

I'm re-reading an old book I must've first read when I was maybe ten.
My Searching Heart by Crying Wind.

How do you suppose

a sand artist decides what to draw?
Sand Art - Yahav
Sand Art - Cako
Colorful Sand Art - Yahav
Sand Art - Yahav again

sobre 1 noviembre

Well, according to my calender, its a half moon at 5:19 EDT.
Old Farmer's Almanac Moon Phase Calendar
Also, the calender on my wall says:
Day of the Dead (Mexico)
All Saints Day (Christian)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today I decided to watch:
La Soledad by Pink Martini.
And some videos accompanied by Weezer songs.
Say It Ain't So (At a reading festival? Oh nevermind, thats a place called Reading in the UK.)
Across the Sea in American Sign Language.
Tired of Sex karaoke.
Undone--The Sweater Song
Island in the Sun

Spiral Dynamics

I attended a lecture on this topic a while back (when I lived in Illinois.) Maybe I will try to look more into it.
About Spiral Dynamics

In the mail

A nice thank you note arrived from my friend, Linda Ha, for a little (just $10) contribution made to the Make a Wish Foundation of New Jersey.
She participated in a walkathon and surpassed her fundraising goal by almost 5 times the original amount. I thought that was pretty cool.

More foriegn music

Una notte a napoli
Wish I understood Italian!
Una notte a napoli again.

One of those songs

I got from my mother's boyfriend's CD collection.
Subterranean Homesick Blues

Something cool

I heard that last night a baby girl came into the world. She might've been born in November, but she came in October, which made the family very happy. Since her grandmother and great-grandmother have October birthdays, she's set to inherit all the opals in the family. Her ancestry is half-Thai and half, um, Central European/Anglo-Saxon, I think. But her aunt says she most resembles her mom. Guess what her name is?
Another Pink Martini song

3 songs

Across The Universe
Hallelujah
Hang On Little Tomato

Duets

One Too Many Mornings
Big River

Poems about lots of people--I like them! Mipoesias
Here's more about Amaterasu again at lyricalworks.com.

Kind of interesting & angelic

Adults can act in all sorts of different ways. But one person I noticed the other day was a little boy with blond hair who came in wearing a Spiderman shirt. Actually, I didn't notice him at first, but he had a huge family with him and they all made such a big deal about me noticing his shirt. They said he would be very disappointed if I did not notice him and he acted incredibly happy when I did. And even to say that, seems like a big understatement. And when they left and he saw me, he acted incredibly happy, again. He stood out, to me. Adults can act in whichever way they want, they can offer their lessons, they can feel good, or right about these choices, or do whatever, but you can't make a little kid act that way. This Spiderman-shirt kid was very genuine and happy. He wasn't old enough to act otherwise.

Art by some artists

Equus
Amaterasu-Epona
Future Myths

Cute songs

Us
The Letter

Funny movie

I saw Bam Bam and Celeste the other day.
It was pretty funny. I wasn't sure if I'd like it at first.
But I did. Maybe even enough to buy it.

Major feats of athleticism

What a good horse video.
I like how they make it all about the "dominant male."
(Take heed, "bachelor stallions.")
After all...who needs girls?
Who?
Who?
Who?
Thank you, Big Eyed Cat!
Que lindo/a, Sotano de las golondrinas.
Meow, Snowboarding.

Miranda July, and music

Forgot about Miranda July.
I think I want to get back into looking at her stuff a bit more.
She seems very talented and jack-of-all-tradesy.
She had a book of stories published, recently.
She made a movie with a flashy intro.
Later
I found some of those Blonde Redhead songs I used to listen to.
(When I was driving around upstate NY.)
Melody
Messenger

2 poems & blog

I really wanted to find a certain version of Caught a Lite Sneeze on youtube. The video has a feminine character dressed as a kind of Japanese Samurai. Unfortunately, I can't find it. However, I found some poems, such as:
Peter Quince at the Clavier
(rather seductive, but also disturbing), and
The Emperor of Ice-Cream
which I remember studying in a poetry class at Mary Baldwin College.
Also, I stumbled across this blog:
Emperor of Ice-Cream Cakes

Oooo, Japanese music. ;-)

Flower of Japan
Maybe this year, my Halloween costume will be: a Japanese ghost writer.

other musical offerings

Calm Music Nice Car
Is that nice? Maybe it came from this commercial:
Nice Car
Maybe these are better:
Hypnotize yourself with some calm music
Clifton Handbell Ringers
Instant Relaxation
Relaxation Meditation Nature Sounds
Havasupai Indian Waterfall

Does this sound kind of Russian-y?
Velvet Revolution

news item

I got to this news item via an article about Russia marking Sputnik's anniversary, which I was not looking for but which came up in my search engine anyways...

Musica

This whole album by Susana Baca, is, I think, really good.
http://www.luakabop.com/susana_baca/
I meant to link it to the pink flowers by the ear one.
I want to listen more to the others, too, though.

C'est une femme

She keeps being good at encouraging me to believe in a kind of genius.
Fool on the Hill/Horses
Caught A Lite Sneeze Live

Order of watching some things

today
Cloud On My Tongue
Pancake in Paris
Pancake & Ohio
Pancake looks like a mermaid in a wig
Space Dog
Bouncing off Clouds
Bouncing off Clouds PS22 Chorus Rehearsal
Father's Son PS22 Chorus

Kind of funny clips

Limited Dreams Margaret Cho
Ask A Ninja, Question 35, Ninja Poetry
Crazy girl Mel running around from Flight of the Conchords(??)

Otra musica

La peruana
Susana Baca
Valentin

Randomlings

Tonight a girl sang something from Tosca to me in a restaurant; that was quite fun. My aunt sang "Happy Birthday" in German over the phone. I think that in literature, getting inspired from heartbreak is interesting, like we all like Dante, but its also interesting to wonder what could be inspired from friendship? Solitude? Etc. I went to a library and saw a book entitled Girls Gone Mild, I had to pick that up. I found an interesting quote: "I would encounter this contradiction over and over again. Emotional, dreamy girls are a thorn in our side, but when boys are romantic, their every tear is precious. It was a mystery to me." (page 90) Thats not to say that either one is not valid, of course, but I just thought it was an interesting quote. I like this song: Caught a Lite Sneeze I almost always lived with a piano in the house when I was growing up, but never really learned to play it--it was my mother's instrument. She had been playing it since she was a child and had been a music teacher before I was born, but the strange thing was, she played it very rarely. She got busy with other things. Although I don't know if she'd agree, sometimes I think that while I was growing up I learned more about music from her boyfriends, husband and my own friends. But I do not think it was because she did not have a lot to teach me.

Birthday

So, tonight my friends and I went to see Kathy Griffin, who sold out the Kennedy Center. Hmmm. Well, it was kind of weird. I wasn't totally in sync with her humor. I guess I am not up on all of the celebrity stories. I think when I saw Margaret Cho a few years back, I liked her show better. The best parts of this one, honestly, were: the beginning, with the music and anticipation, and when she ran in on stage, and at the end, when she ran off. She has a lot of energy, thats for sure. But it was fun to be with my friends. We went to our work place afterward (it's near a Metro and it kind of sucks you in.) Just before I left, I made the folly of pointing out we were only a few minutes from Sept. 21st, so then they made me stay until midnight. They sang "Happy Birthday" and said I should drink 30 shots. I did not want to do that. So then one of them got the bright idea of wacking me with her long pink and orange umbrella thirty times. Yup. Me: "Stop it, you're giving me a fetish." Them: "24, 25, 26, 27...why is this taking so long? Oh yeah, because YOU'RE TURNING THIRTY!" It was very exciting. Actually though, since I was born at something like 5:40 pm, I think I am not yet 30. I think I still have a few hours left to feel my twenties slipping away, leaving them behind, forever!!

Old Letter

I might be going through a rambling phase. Not surprising; I am anticipating working on "dollar pint night" which is practically my least favorite thing ever. So here we go again...I found this really old typewritten letter which also looks like something you'd send to your shrink, but I believe this letter (which I did not write myself) is both weirder and a lot more interesting...I will preserve the miss-spellings:
Dear Alison--I am enjoying your letter, I am tickled you have fanatics at home. I washed my hair with beer this morning. Just got VCR working; it was called plugs it was. Part one of "The Singing Detective" is running and blasting right now. The time is a quaryer to nine and I'm procrastingating; have to email my professor, to give him my email ostensibly; it has taken me all week avoiding this, because he is a lawyer and I am a huckleberry. He could kill me, pick me and eat me. His real world accumen passes right through me, It's a bad scene. I enjoyed the insanity you speak about cinnamon Pop Tarts. Einstein told everybody time is not for fascists. You want to believe in cinnamon Pop Tarts you run with that. I'm not captain health like Andrew Weil. We're all fascists, we keep it in, it's a soul, it's not a big deal; violence is elsewhere where lawyers like to live. What's an airconditioner, don't tell me. I missed a punctuation. I was catching a musical number on my movie. The Singing Detective is my movie. You know who's dead? Dennis Potter's dead. You know who else? Einstein. Move finger through air across neck. Spell accross better, that a boy. Driving? I can't pull an engine -any v number with my teeth. I can puff my liver up and sit down until it makes Apollonian man noises like raindeer hooves pad snow. No eyes, black nose, where a rifle can crack and bounce all it wants evergreen bark makes good scratching. Phillip Marlow's hospital neighbor just flatlined in my movie. The nurse gives Phillip a candy. It's good, he weeps. The credits roll. Part one is subtitled "skin", part two is subtitled "heat". I have to write Professor Pensky. Professor Pensky. First I will rewind part one. I have to be careful not to write anything stupid. I don't like real people because they don't know how trivial their words are. I don't like poker because it attaches trivia to robots. I like a good dirge, just for the sound; gravity lapping appropria endings. (I missed it)
Thats it. I found it tucked away in a "Chakra Healing" book. I wonder if I should throw it away. But its so interesting. Maybe I should go tuck it in another book as a kind of feng-shui-ing-of-the-information-I-collect-and-own exercise...

Humor

I've decided these guys are pretty funny. And they have cool accents!
Song For Sally
Bret you got it going on
She's so hot...Boom!
This is another comedian that my friends have got me tickets to see for an upcoming birthday present.
Red-Headed Oprah
Today I found out that my sister has a new boyfriend. She didn't actually tell me herself, however. Instead, she got my mom to leave a message. While I was at work. (Where I can't pick up my cell phone.)
K.G. In Afghanistan
Like, maybe he's in the video somewhere.

Artsy kinds of things

Today I went with a friend to the National Art Gallery and we saw an exhibit about Edward Hopper. The last painting we saw was Sun in an Empty Room. This painting, she told me, always makes her smile. If I remember correctly, the description on the side of it said that when he was asked what he was trying to "get at" in the painting, he said, with a rather wry smile, "I'm trying to get at ME." Also saw a film about him and it talked a little bit about his wife, which prompted me to later look up and read an article entitled Man and Muse. Which also prompted me to think, man, if thats the life, I hope they were able to reincarnate into another one that was a little more peaceful. Then we had pho.
Later, at work, a friend of mine was telling me about a wedding she went to in upstate NY. I said "speaking of weddings, whatever happened to that guy who was dressed as a Care Bear?" "What guy." "Remember, there was a guy who came dressed as a Care Bear?" She frowned at me, as if she couldn't remember. "And his father was the guy who wrote that book, We Were Soldiers Once And Young?" "Oh YEAH." Her face lit up. "Thank you for remembering that! I didn't even remember that he came dressed up as a Care Bear. We don't have any pictures of him in it..." She said, "Well he's doing really well. He lives in Texas now, and he really likes the community and his family lives there..." "You mean, his mom." "No, his dad lives there." I said, "I thought that they didn't get along." She said "Well, they didn't used to, but actually they reconciled." I said, "You know, thats really nice to hear."

An impression and a memory

1) Impression: There's a kind of grouchy, 1950s father type, who sits in the basement and wears glasses and he's working on something scientific. He tries to make connections with wires and that sort of thing. His son sits on the floor of the basement and he (the son) watches him being all grouchy about it. And he's got a very sort of White Anglo Saxon Protestant work ethic. An "I must work to be a good person and I must be grouchy while I'm working or its not real work" attitude.

2)I have a memory of visiting a dusty playground at a Jellystone National Park somewhere in upstate NY (like around Albany, probably) when I was about six. I was rather surprised/horrified when I saw some other little girls on these small plastic toy horses on metal springs, tilting the horses back and forth, so that the noses of the horses touched the ground all the way. It seemed kind of dangerous and grotesque to do that to those toy horses. Later my friend and I ate some multicolored (probably red green and yellow) candy which was shaped like a folded up umbrella and I went on these tilting spring horses too, but, in truth, I didn't really like it and was always rather uneasy about it.

Memories of childhood playgrounds might be good to write about.

Kinds of "Fun"

So. I've been thinking about how some people like to fill their time with different types of activities. And some people are very passionate and dedicated about being successful at their specific chosen activity. I think, at certain times, it can be good for sort of, how should I say, for lack of a better understanding of expression, "gung-ho types" to consider that just because you currently have the opportunity to go skydiving and really feel like going skydiving, it doesn't mean that you have to be all like: I know that skydiving is the coolest thing ever, and you are obviously stupid for not thinking so. Now, just watch while I have the most fun skydiving that it is possible to have. And by the way, I hope it makes you feel sorry that it is something which you aren't ever going to do. Ever! to other not so skydiving-ish people. Maybe the other person is either going to be more into skydiving some other time, or is currently more into another activity. Like deep sea diving. Would it mean that you couldn't be happy for them if they go down and get to see lots of cool tropical fish? Or something.

redorangeyellowgreenblueindigoviolet

As of today, I've decided. Its about time for this whole dizziness / lower back / 1st chakra / multi- chakra / issue / whatever to improve, cease, heal and/or subside. Preferably more rapidly than gradually, but I'm still not quite sure what to do about it. (Allopathy? Acupuncture? Acupressure? Diet/Lifesyle change?) A potential new housemate works at a physical therapy/acupuncture clinic; that might lead to something.

Reading

I actually grew up to enjoy reading, in spite of commericals like this one:
Captain O.J. Readmore
Way weird (but fun) to stay up late into the wee hours watching a bunch of '80s cartoons intros in a room full of upper 20s/30-somethings...

Getting my "land legs" back...

Today I walked around beautiful, sunny Green Spring Gardens (no good pictures, just as well, keeps it less crowded for the rest of us!) slowly at first, then a bit more swiftly, with looong breaks of lying down (not sitting) on cool green grass underneath sheltering trees, because after all, what else are parks for? Ah...back therapy...Also heard Junot Diaz read from his novel while standing and/or walking around Borders' music section (because its far more comfortable than sitting is right now). When I was a T.A., one of my classes read his story, "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie." I found a reading of it here at about 34:02. It comes after an introduction about the history of "How To" books and then a rather long story about giving a woman driving lessons around Chicago...Hmmm, I just read in Wikipedia that the author was stunned when he was accepted at a certain school because his then-girlfriend applied there for him. That reminds me of a story a Moroccan guy at work told me. His then-girlfriend entered him into the lottery, without him knowing, and so he came to the U.S. She did not. How many of those stories are there out there? Are there any where the boyfriend did that for a girlfriend? C'est la vie... Speaking of French...FouxDaFaFa Some of my friends at work think these New Zealand guys' songs (like Business Time) are funny...yeah, maybe... ;-)

Two endings

Though I don't mean to ruin it by showing the ending...
Silent Waters
Central Station
(In Portuguese, which I don't understand, but I know whats going on.)

Recovery

Today, without muscle relaxers or narcotics, I drove to the closest bank, deposited my paycheck via the ATM, ate a virtually tasteless chicken salad (at the closest diner), and then, as fast as my little legs would carry me (NOT FAST!), walked over to the nearest store, just to see what was up. It didn't take very long for my languid shuffle to attract some suspicious attention. Northern Virginia is not the South. *smile, shrug* "Can I help you?" an employee asked, without the faintest trace of genuine concern on his face. (NOVA is not the South.) I laughed, "Oh no, that's okay, I'm just walked slowly because I hurt my back recently." He looked as though he didn't believe me. "Well, just let me know if you need anything," he said, with a really nervy, piercing, intense stare...I decided that he was the universe's way of telling me to go back to bed and take my muscle relaxer. So I drove home, and that's what I did. However, I established further contact with the outside world by watching JETSET. If you watch it long enough, you'll not only learn about couchsurfing websites and the religion of Google, you'll also get to see clips of the Central Park roller bladers! I myself saw them only a few short years ago...I have recently come to believe that the passage of time between ages 18 and 20 (2 years) feels roughly equivalent to the passage of time between ages 23 and 29 (6 years).

Kamosh Pani Silent Waters

Really bored

I managed to drive to the store on just an ibuprofen this morning. Unfortunately, nothing I bought tastes particularly great. Maybe because of medications. However, I got a free classical Indian music CD from a "Kitchens of India" dinner.

This crazy summer

Much illness in the family. Plane rides and roadtrips through many states. Unfortunately, I can't drive six hours to see family on a trip I'd planned for tomorrow. After straining my lower back (and passing out when I did it in the hot shower yesterday) I'm in a muscle relaxer/narcotic half stupor. Sooo...let's watch Talula.
Prescription drugs: I like and don't like them simultaneously.

Music tonight

A Peruvian/Bolivian/Andean panpipes kind of music is being played outside, quite loudly, perhaps it is coming from the football field of Thomas Jefferson Highschool. So I lit a candle (tall, pink, faintly rose-scented "Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe") and I turned out the lights, and then I found this Peruvian dance. I didn't listen to the music, I already had music to listen to coming in from outside, but I was quite entranced by the dance, and I thought, can I go back there sometime? According to the person who posted it, this particular one "is about some secret love, where the only way the guy and girl can meet is if he is disguised as a girl." As of 9:30 p.m., it sounds like maybe the marching band is trying to play the music...

Hello, little video.
Somewhere over the rainbow by Iz Kamakawiwo ole

DC excursion

Saw this film, Brats, tonight with a friend; we met in high school and found out that we'd played together on an army base when we were two.
Also, visited the Sackler and Freer Galleries, the Museum of African Art, and the Folklife Festival!

Inanna

Inanna or, a cool clip about the making of Boys for Pele.

Excerpt

Currently reading Stones From The River by Ursula Hegi, an author from Washington state. I somewhat avoided reading her when I was younger but in the back of my mind was always planning to read her work. Here is a book excerpt. (What a strange word, I wonder what the etymology of "excerpt" is...)

the appearance of waterfall as wedding veil

see the end of Bjork's Isobel

chanson le weekend

So this weekend my highschool prom date (a girl) got married! (To her boyfriend.) The wedding was in a park on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria, behind Olson's Bookstore. Shortly after the ceremony this song came on, and I liked it very much. But the music video of it is a little weird. Not quite evocative of that nice hot and drowsy sitting in the wedding tent feeling. The song is Across the Universe, covered by Fiona Apple. So, here's another version a girl did on youtube. All hail the sun salutation...Nothin's gonna

algunas poemas

Alice Fulton & Tori Amos

About Music For Bone and Membrane Instrument
Interview/Spark live
Spark
Maidenhead
Jackie's Strength

CATSTER

And with very special music!

Things I do not know

Why is it that sometimes when I send my resume via e-mail, it gets mangled, or the colors, sizes, fonts, etc. get changed. For real, those words do not look that big or blue in my orginal word document. And why can I also send the same thing to someone else and they say, there are no problems with fonts or words getting cut off, but the alignment gets messed up. But on my machine, the alignment was fine, and the text was not. "Maybe you just have a weird machine." Arrgh...

Some childhood-ish types of things

Some old Geoffrey Holder 7-Up commercials:
UnCola Nuts
80s 7-Up
(Even though I probably only saw the 80s one.)
Children by Robert Miles
(Even though I have never been to France.)

marigolds

nice song...clip from a spanish version of monsoon wedding
Aaj Mausam Bada Beimann Hai

Sunday morning viewing

2 days off...starting today!!!I've recently been thinking about/re-evaluating footwear. Been standing on my feet a lot more recently. (New job.)
This morning I returned to the artist...
A Sorta Fairytale the shoe/foot video.
A Sorta Fairytale DVD version (Looks like Texas?)
This song I only just found:
Floating City by Fabiovideo interpretation by a guy in Portugal.
Floating City by Devandra another girl's interpretation.
Spring Haze
ADP Speed Bliss fairy revenge mix

clears your mind

the smell of wet fresh paint

"Flip Fantasia"

I almost forgot this song existed but then I heard it on the radio tonight.
US3 Cantaloop
Last place I lived in in Seattle had one of those bird-cagey elevators :-)

Mrrrrrrrow

Face to Face by Siouxsie and the Banshees
Cat Head Theatre's Hamlet

Hamoun and The Clay Bird

Two --of the many-- movies I checked out of the awesome public library in Schaumburg, Illinois. Clips found on youtube.
Hamoun with Mother in Law (unfortunately, no subtitles though!)
Clay Bird Song on boat(about Fatima and Ali)
Clay Bird Song in village(sharia & sufi)

Lunes

Here in NOVA, the speed of the winds whipping around cancelled public schools today (thats a first for around here, as far as I know.) Actually I like the sound of the wind, I can pretend I live near the ocean. But then I heard about this:Virginia Tech Shootings

Washington

While I was in Illinois, I was amazed to read this story about what happened to a kid who took my college group on a tour of the Urubamba Valley when I was 19. (He was 13 at the time).

“On one of Ms. Lopez’s trips, she met a young boy named Washington who would work his way into her groups, offering to show them the city sights, temples, and to sing songs…Vera learned that this boy was gathering whatever money he could to help feed his family…When Washington was in his early teens, one of Vera’s groups decided to sponsor this boy and send him to a Peruvian Tour Guide school…As Washington grew, it became clear that this was a young man with vision. At eighteen, he was asked to speak at a millionaires convention in Los Angeles…He was then schooled in the United States and offered many jobs. He chose to go back to his hometown…Washington then opened The Foundation of the Universal Heart…a “restaurant” that feeds the children of the mountains…Many of these children have to walk to and from school with no food…Keeping with Washington’s idea of empowerment, this was not a “handout” for the poor. The mothers in the community were enlisted to come and cook for the children, and the children were expected to help out with the cleaning…”

“In the summer of 2005, Cynthia Von Orthal accompanied Vera to Peru. She created a 2 day workshop…focused on storytelling and puppet building based on myths of the area and each child built a simple rod puppet…Today Cynthia, Vera, and Washington continue to talk about creating an artistic program with the children of The Foundation of the Heart…The program would use the language of the people, their myths, stories and legends to create street theater using puppets, mask, dance, song and story. These performances would be taken to the temples, town centers and hotels…It is their hope that with grants and other public and private funds, this program will be a sustainable and successful community enriching opportunity.”

From The Monthly Aspectarian, February 2007

The Urubamba Valley is one of the most beautiful places I’ve visited on this planet.
I have to go back someday. Me encanta, me encanta, me encanta, tengo que regresar...

Freakin' ridiculous :-)
Stephen Fry- You, You, You
I'm really going to do my taxes now.
Well okay.
Bent Spoon (Spanish subs)
Now I'm doing taxes!

Stephen Fry

was introduced to me by chicagoland people...
My Ass
The Subject of Language
The Ode Less Traveled

Huh...

Weird thing...I looked at my profile, and it said my age was 250 and that I was born in the year of the RAT!!! That is strange. When did that happen? Recently? Months and months ago? How did that happen? I didn't do it. It didn't used to say that. So, what to do? Well...here's a link of people born in 1756 which was what was typed in to make me 250 years old and born in the year of the Rat. And just from the looks of that list...and the slogan is "tracking the entire world"...I don't really think so...

So.The year of the rat was in 1756.
And if I'd been born then I'd be 250 years old.
Well, now I know.

Working

Since I came back here I have discovered that I'm living near the site of my first job ever. That was selling pizza kits out of the bottom of the basement of a palm reading place. I have considered working at Safeway, since out of everything I did Friday through Sunday, my "peak experience" came on Sunday night when I went there. I could be a buyer of food, for example. I revisted Safeway today and I noticed two things:
1) "Poetry in Bloom" (thats what they call the flower section)
2)My Old School was playing and for some reason it had crossed my mind a few times over the months to post a link to that song, so today's the day I'll do it.

Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful

Today, down the street from where I am now living, on the NOVA Annandale campus, this very cool lady from Spark Media showed us some clips from some of her films (including one called "Partners of the Heart" which Morgan Freeman narrated for free!) And she does accept interns...Some other interesting things on a list she compiled (which I have yet to check but will put on here as a reminder!)
http://www.documentary.org
http://www.bavc.org
http://www.d-word.com
http://www.docuclub.org
http://www.gwu.edu/doccenter
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org
http://www.wifv.org

some California(ish) things...

Found out that a friend from college who now lives in CA does some video editing at http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/preps#

And I just found out that an acquaintance from the Amnesty International group I was part of in highschool moved to CA and, among other things, wrote this interesting article:
An open letter to other men...

03/22/07

Today is my mother's birthday.
Today I was driving down to North Carolina, watching sunlight hitting long golden grasses, listening to DATURA

I was thinking about films, like maybe making a film of a road trip and long golden grasses, or else maybe one about snowboarders, like female snowboarders (I have never been snow boarding) or it could be mixed gender, but just not all just guys please, so, people snowboarding, and also, not just people, please, but lots of views of mountains and sky and sunlight. Washington State or Colorado or California could be good places to see again soon...

O Beauty Beauty Beauty...

Here's a discussion of "the exotic." It almost takes me back to my college/university English major days but...with an extra dose of chatty indulgent celebrity gossip!

http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/003897.html

And...just see how the right product works magic in other countries?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxHu54IgKHg&mode=related&search=

And to round things out:

http://www.sawf.org/mezines/sunny/sunny.asp?sec=health&art=Liberalization&title=Liberalization

This is interesting. I was looking for a video of "iiee" and I found the music set to scenes from a movie I meant to check out from the library before I left but never got to...
Devdas/Tori Amos

cool

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you what you think of the dean of West Point, Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, together with a military interrogator named Tony Lagouranis and the group Human Rights First, going to the heads of the program 24, very popular hit show on FOX, to tell them that what they're doing on this program, glorifying torture, is inspiring young men and women to go to Iraq and torture soldiers there, and to stop it?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK: And not only that, but it doesn't work. Yeah, Pat Finnegan is one of my heroes.
AMY GOODMAN: So what do you think about that?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK: I think it's great.
AMY GOODMAN: And have you been involved in the conversation internally at FOX, which runs 24, to stop it?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Well, as far as I know, they actually put out a call to all the writers in Hollywood. My son's a writer, and he was one of them who got a call. They were all told: stop talking about torture. It doesn't work. So I think it was an effective move by Pat Finnegan.
AMY GOODMAN: So you support it?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Absolutely.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/02/1440234

I’m all for lightening up on a lot of the glorified violence on the evening television shows, and I have been for a long time, ever since, in fact, at the age of three, when son of the pastor of a church in NY (older & bigger than I was, very spoiled, not well-disciplined and a real brat) found it great fun to run around chasing after me and pretending to be “The Incredible Hulk.” >:-P

Song

for my sister, and for me, and maybe even for my car, which took me twice to Texas!
Black Dove (Desert Animals version)
Black Dove (Live Tori Footage version)
To do in this life: learn video editing.

Some cool places...

I visited when I was living in Illinois:
World Bird Sanctuary
Cahokia Mounds
Lizzardo Museum
Spring Valley Nature Sanctuary & Farm (most visited park.)
Schaumburg Township District Library (most visited of all and very much missed. Esp. for their foriegn and travel films/video/dvds.)

Dance

Consider...and view...

Some quotes from Chapter 4 of Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance by Iris J. Stewart.

"It is easy to see that if the bodily movements associated with the birth ritual were transposed to the king's palace or a nightclub for the entertainment of men, those same movements would be viewed in an entirely different way. The belly dance in the context of the birth ritual, however, was done not to project eroticism or present woman as a lure but to display a conciousness of the wonder of birth..." (page 83)

"Let me be clear that the text in this chapter, however, that the text in this chapter is not meant to add to the societal programming of women to the maternal mode...this dance has power in all aspects of life" (page 96).

"By moving her body in a way that is at once sensual and at the same time very energetic and strong, without coquetry or seductiveness, the dancer and her dance return us to the very depth of the power of the feminine" (page 95).

This book came to me from a nice used bookstore in Illinois. Which I have now left behind, having recently relocated to Northern Virginia (again...)

And, oh well, I see to my disappointment that half the posts to youtube are no longer available (though sometimes they can be found anyway if one just searches for them) but....if these work...
Bellydance Superstars Performance
and
Sa'diyya Ethnic Fusion / Veil Dar Fusion

Sidenote: I once had a boss who told me that when he was young, his hockey coach made all his players take belly dance and ballet lessons in secret...because it made them better at playing hockey!

Soon I will be living in a house of boys. Or youngish men technically. There is a lot of communality in this house. For example, there is a communal TV. Yay, communal TV. Maybe I will have to expose them to the phenomenon of...

Tito, Egypt's male belly dancer!

I wonder if they would like that? Today I got asked if I would share any food I cooked with the housemates. Apparently the last housemate had an alcohol problem and didn't pay rent and was (perhaps the last straw) also a gourmet chef who made these tempting creations and wouldn't share. Well I told them, yes I would share. But no one sounded very excited about green blender smoothies for some reason. I wonder why? Would they harbor the same lack of enthusiasm about Tito? Sigh. I guess we'll see! Well I bet it would be nice if I cooked or did some baking ;-)HAH!!!

Love this book...

The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber. I recall I was unable to attend her reading when I was in grad school...she also graduated from the place where I went to school, (yay)...this book is extremely funny and varied (not every chapter is totally funny some are more serious)...Its just really GOOD.