So, I've been on strike....

I had a really cool, somewhat frilly, somewhat un-like me theme posted here for awhile. A theme I actually paid for, so that's really saying something.

BUT, with the most recent Wordpress update, it broke the pictures scrolling thing at the top that worked for "featured posts". I had patience for a little while, but, alas, my patience waned, my mood turned as black as this pretty new theme, and here I am, posting again =)

As we approach Jazz Festival (I think this is number 12 for me, without missing any) week, life is going pretty damn good for me. I can't believe that next year, the Jazz Festival will be 50!! Let's hope nothing budget-related and totally messed-up happens to compromise that. Nothing surprises me anymore....but for now, I am keeping the faith! Blessings abound. There's so much to write and think about!

This crazy (that's crazy in a good way, not crazy in a stalker-bad-creepy way) dude that I've admired on Facebook for awhile, his name is Chad Sorg, and I approached him in early December about being the artist to create the "Compression" poster this year. He said yes, to my great satisfaction, and I got the finished product in the not-too-distant past. Here it is:

I REALLY like the design! It's much lighter than I thought it would be, and it just feels good, to me. That photo was taken by Dana Nollsch, a good friend who shot the event last year, and Chad worked magic with it. So, that's the look we have for this year! This is WAY exciting for me! Then, I got to take a turn myself at doing a small bit of graphic design, creating a poster for Unmata's Amy Sigil, who's performing at Compression this year, and also doing workshops on Sunday, which is something my good friends at Asha are sponsoring. Here's that poster:

 

 Both of these things make me very happy. I just saw Amy and crew last weekend. For Papa Ben's birthday, we all took off and drove to Sacramento last weekend on Saturday, to make this happen. The performances were amazing. Many of the Hot Pot groups did a new piece that was breathtaking, and Amy, Shelly and crew did "Fashion", which made me cry when I saw the video, and again when I saw it in person. Here's the video from Tribal Fest this year: Absolutely breathtaking!

There's also exciting stuff coming up for Controlled Burn, as they also suffer some growing pains, but that really should be it's own post. I am very proud of the stuff that I do for them...

Next Friday, we get to spin again at UNR's Night of All Nations! It's been a few years and we are very excited to be welcomed back. I will write more when I can, but for right now, I wanted to break the dry spell, install darkness again upon my words, and now....

I must go and work and do other stuff.

Peace!

*whew* and so....

The lack of updating continues =) I have, however, been busy, and life is good for me.

We are going to do another Compression! Celebration of Fire and Performance Art,  so much time has been spent in figuring out logistics for that. This year we are closing down Virginia Street, which is one of the major streets in Reno, so there was a much larger meeting for my permit, and there are more logistics to deal with. Not that this is an excuse for not updating here, but it does let one know what's going on...

Above there are my lovely friends the Asha World Dancers at the Festival last year. They are doing super cool stuff this year, too. They are bringing a home town girl, Kami Liddle, who left Reno and became a belly dance superstar, back to Reno for a kick ass show and some workshops. I have kind of been helping with that, too.

I began this post in February, and here it is near the end of April and I am just getting back to it. I need to make it a priority to put more stuff here and catalog all the stuff I am doing. Some day, it will be important, if only to me so I can relive my glory days when I can no longer remember it as easily!

I've had an online journal for over nine years. I began that journal on February 15, 2001. SO much has happened in that amount of time, but I find that I also no longer update there, at least not often. Since I got this domain, it's mine, and it seems if I am going to do any sort of online journal thing, since I have access to making my own, it makes the most sense to do it here. So, I stopped paying for my subscription. I am sort of conflicted about that, but  not really. Time is too short and resources too scarce to spread one's self so thin that they don't have time to update every where they need to. I don't know if the domain name will stay the same, but for the time being, this is my home.

There's tons of stuff happening, as there always is with me. I have decided to not be so involved with my fire group, although I am still completely committed to the festival we produce. There are a lot of reasons, but I still care very much about the group and what happens, I think I just need a break for awhile.

The first part of April because I am a big fat (hey, no fat jokes!) nerd, I helped a bunch of my Burning Man friends celebrate Yuri's Night in Reno. My awesome friend Lauren made me a corset and we decided to be space twins. This is an awesome themed party that we hold each year to commemorate Yuri Gagarin's first manned space flight from 1961. Our local event, though, also raises funds for awesome Burning Man art. I am proud to participate in this event each year!

This is Lauren, our friend Lenae, and myself, sporting our space-wear. here's another one of Lauren and I, so you can sort of see the twin-ness:

In the middle of that one is our friend Kelley, also known as Pinktini. Damn, we had fun that night! It was a good night, and the next day, Lauren and I drove to Vegas to attend the International Lingerie Convention. Lauren owns an awesome store called "Prism Magic" and I got to help her shop for the store.  Boy was that fun....but that adventure should probably have it's own entry =)

I am still dancing, and we just had our Spring public performance, at an event called "Night of All Nations" that is inspired by the University where I work.

Here's our group pic from that performance...

I love dancing more than I can even express and now have gotten in to a tad bit of teaching, and a new endeavor, called the S.E.E.D.S program. It's a mentorship program that teaches young girls to connect positively with their bodies and also helps them learn life skills that will help them be empowered women. Our program is called daDima, which means "pomegranate" in Sanskrit. SEEDS is an acronym for "self-esteem, empowerment and education through dance".

That's just this month so far. See why I say *whew*?!?

In the near future, I am participating in a circus freak show, traveling to Scotland and Ireland in June of next year, continuing to work on the fire festival, do more fun web stuff, and see what other sort of interesting trouble I can get in to....but I will try to update more often. I still have the Paris posts pending. I need to write it all down before I forget. That might just be a project for next week....after the Jazz Festival!

Oh yeah, and my son is in Afghanistan. I will think good and safe thoughts for him each day. He is my baby!

Peace! A girl can hope....

Confessions of a bad web mistress...

Photo by Caroline

Above is a shot of me getting zombie-fied for a recent belly dance gig. Good times, that.

I find that I am actually experiencing that which everyone says is true...the mechanics car sucks, the doctor is always sick, the plumbers pipes are always clogged, and the web persons website is kind of crappy =) Actually, it's not crappy, I love the theme, and I love what I've done with it thusfar, what I am NOT apparently good at, is updating it.

I am going to make a concerted effort to change that, though. I am actually working on a project that organizes many of the photos from Paris, and I want to post them here, in a day-to-day sort of way, and write everything down so I don't forget it.

Life is for living. Blogs are for remembering and recording so one doesn't forget. The issue is that I've been so busy living, the recording has been suffering a bit =)

Anyway, just a quick update as we approach this new year for this heathen soul, to say that I am still out here, have LOTS to update on, write about and do. I will update as I can, perhaps make it a larger priority for the immediate future.

Rest assured that I am well, living la vida loca, and looking forward to seeing what comes out of the Senate in the form of health care reform. This is conceivably one of the largest single issues of my lifetime, and I am excited to see what direction it takes.

Peace!

Time flies...

when you’re having fun! another birthday has passed, and now i am 41. when i was 21, i would mostly have sworn i would never live to see the age that i am now. oddly, i got to be 38 when my mom was still here. she was 38 when she had me. i had the distinct pleasure of looking at her and saying “WTF were you THINKING?!?!” she always said that my sister and i kept her young, but i’m not so sure =)

now, as i look at the calendar, there are 15 days until i leave for paris. i have some things to figure out on this wild blog thing before i go. i’d like to be able to update my blog from my phone, but first i have to figure out some stuff on my phone. worst case, i will try to upload and do stuff between internet cafe’s and phones =) best case, i will have a shiny new little netbook to take a-travelin’ with me. i am such a geek gadget girl. that should be a nickname or something, i am sure.

i leave in two days to go to the wedding of a friend. it’s going to be interesting, that’s for sure. i am still debating how all-inclusive i want this here blog to be, because it’s personal and professional, to some degree. i sort of gave up on punctuation, which i knew would happen the first time i got lazy or bored when typing. i guess that day would be today =)

my birthday was quiet, but good. i got to go out with some of my family, then with the rest of my family the next night, which i think everyone enjoyed. hooooray for me, i got to be there both nights =)

just wanted to take a moment and update. here’s a picture from a recent bellydance performance:

hectic holidays....

the holidays were hectic around here. my nephew returned briefly from the army, he was home for two weeks. i cooked a lot, we showed him a great time, and hopefully he feels loved and like life is good for him =)

i got to perform in the community nutcracker held in fernley this december, and this is something that i am so glad i did. i will definitely do this again. i did initially because i love to dance, but found out after we were there that this was a community performance to raise money for scholarship funds for kids who otherwise would not be able to continue taking fine art classes at the university level without this scholarship help. a worthy cause, and we had those girls shakin' their groove thangs by the time the weekend was over =)

here is a picture of myself and my dance partner with a very flushed looking teenage santa:


hopefully next year we can convince more dance sisters to join us!

on new year's eve, controlled burn performed at our third annual "fire and ice" extravaganza at northstar at tahoe. the village there is a lot more filled out this year and in spite of the chaos that generally accompanies an event like this, it was a good show.

after the show, i went to a friends house, who does safety for the group, and had a quiet and festive new years celebration.

that's about it, for now. will try to post again, soon.

there is less than a month left in the presidency of gwb. although the celebration truly began in november, it seems more real now. i have spent a lot of time on obama's transition website. i am going to make a concerted effort to never be apathetic again, i believe that's how we got where we are now, and our newly elected leader wants to change that. i am in the process of reading "the audacity of hope" and it's quite engaging, so far. now, i just need more hours in the day =)

peace.