this past weekend...

was full of more interesting and exciting things.

friday night was a show by bassnectar that i went to. i had never seen him live before. he has beautiful long hair that he swung around while he was spinning. he threw down some awesome beats that had the entire audience hopping around on stage. is that the mark of a good dj? it's interesting to me to see the progression, and also see the difference between recorded stuff that gets sold, which to me seems more chill, or maybe it's just because i have it from a different stage in his progression, and the stuff he plays live which is very much seemingly focused on dancing. i hadn't seen him before and i am glad i went. it was a strange night. i got to meet a friends ex that i have heard a lot about over the last couple of years, but had never met him. i was also attacked by the glitter fairy, which is still causing my cats and family stress, and had an amazing hug that i actually felt like i was able to give something to someone friday night....share all the healing and positive energy i could muster in that hug. it was definitely felt =)

saturday i was double-booked, which caused me some stress. i had previously agreed to dance at the ghandi festival as part of artown, and then also agreed to do a fire gig for a cancer benefit in a neighboring town. the latest from the ghandifest said our sets were to be at 7:30 and 9:30, and the party bus/carpool was leaving for g-ville and the cancer benefit at 8. hrrrmmm. because i made the ghandi commitment first, i decided to do that. it seemed they had enough folks for the fire gig, so i don't think it was a big deal.

it was awesome to hang out with my dance sisters! i felt a little overwhelmed at the beginning of the summer and only showed for one or two of the summer classes, so this was the first time in a month i had seen many of them. have i mentioned lately how much i love and adore my dance sisters?!?! i do, i do, i heart them very much. i love dancing with them, it's very free, and i almost always learn stuff from them. i don't consider myself a very good girl, so i need all the help i can get! we showed up mid-afternoon to do a rehearsal, then were going to head to the ghandi fest. the rehearsal went well, despite my having to be reminded several times how the routines went, having focused on the faf for so long previously. not sure i got it 100% during rehearsal, but pretty sure i got it on stage. funny how you can make yourself do and remember stuff when it's important. i have to say that i am very glad that i took part in this. it was important for me philosophically. i wish more people would remember the commitment to non-violence that ghandi believed so strongly in. our world, and especially our country needs more of that!

we got to the river school, which is always awesome, and figured out where we would be dancing. turns out i probably could have made both gigs, we were only dancing the 7:30 set, but at this point, it seemed the most chill thing to do would be to take the relaxing way and just stick with ghandifest. the main fire folks would be fine without me.

the dance went fine. there were few of us, one had four people, the other five. it was fund and i always also enjoy watching asha dance. i heart all those girls, too. then one of the girls' husbands is a drummer and did this super cool drumming workshop. we had previously looked around the festival and knew there was yummy indian food to be had.

there were some aspect of our fire spinners there for a bit. it was very strange for me to see the spinners show up, setup, etc. and not be a part of it. it was sort of cool, but also just felt sort of...strange. they did a great job though, and then moved on to their next gig.

sunday was a lazy day. i watched some zombie movies with the kids, went to costco and did some shopping, and was generally pretty relaxed and useless =) got some things done for burning man, which felt good. i have a feeling this is going to be an intense weather year. this year, i think it's going to be all about the layers.

so that's my update, for now.

i have more to write about last night, but think i will make that it's own, separate post.

*whew*

peace!

heh....

so much for that whole "new blogs make you want to post more" theory eh? i think that, honestly, i might have forgotten i had this one =) oh, well.

life is awesome! i've spent about the last several months planning and working towards the creation of a fire arts festival in reno. it was last saturday and can i just say, it was awesome! i had a friend who asked me if i thought it could have gone any better and the answer is, no, i don't think so.

i am amazingly pleased with how well things went. i think it was a unifying experience for our group and it felt really awesome to be a part of. if you'd like to see an article that appeared in the paper the day before the event, check out this article: http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008807180476

and here's a slideshow they did of us:

http://rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080717/SPECIAL03/80717045&rgj_description=&rgj_date=

they were very nice to us, and are glad we liked what they did.

now, for the actual festival, there were LOTS of pictures taken, here's a sampling:

Bill Kositzky:

http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=AEDB061C5E7&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

Chris Munz:

http://www.hotshottherobot.com/pictures/Fire%20Arts%20Festival%202008/index.html

Pat Herz:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9705209@N08/sets/72157606309016879/

Tommy from Reno Passport

http://renopassport.com/test/compression-fire-arts-festival-controlled-burn/

good times!

that's what i've been up to...what have you been doing with your Summer?

peace.

the fire arts festival

 *whew*

just coming up for breath, here!

someone asked me near the end of the day…."do you think there’s anything that could have happened differently that would have made the festival go better?!?!"

the answer is…..no.

i am amazingly pleased with how well things went. i think it was a unifying experience for our group and it felt really awesome to be a part of. if you’d like to see an article that appeared in the paper the day before the event, check out this article: http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008807180476

and here’s a slideshow they did of us:

http://rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/…=&rgj_date=

they were very nice to us, and are glad we liked what they did.

now, for the actual festival, there were LOTS of pictures taken, here’s a sampling:

Bill Kositzky:

http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/sh…b_pml&cb=PW

Chris Munz:

http://www.hotshottherobot.com/pictures/Fi…2008/index.html

Pat Herz:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9705209@N08/s…57606309016879/

Tommy from Reno Passport

http://renopassport.com/test/compression-f…ontrolled-burn/

i am still riding this wave! don’t feel obligated to look at ALL the pictures. i am sure it’s just me, but i can’t seem to turn away from looking at them all! we estimate that we had about 3000 people there at one point, which for a little corner plaza in downtown, you can see was quite a lot! it was PACKED!

i will continue to look for awesome pictures of the dragon, because he was amazingly cool and his creator was pretty neat, too.

i trust all of you a lot….my real name is all over here, so much for anonymity! having also, however, met several of you in person, i guess the secrets out of the bag, as it were, anyway =)

that’s my update for now. i have to run, but wanted everyone to know how smashingly things went!

take care, and i will catch up as i can…less than a month, now, until burning man!

peace.

trying….

playing hooky from work today. the weather here is awful. it’s hot and clear, it should be beautiful and we should be happy in summertime bliss. the smoke from all the california fires is so thick, you can’t see the sun, it makes you hurt to breathe outside, it’s miserable. dry fire practice last night sucked because we couldn’t burn but it sucked worse that just getting even slightly winded with any of the pieces makes your chest hurt like you’ve just spent a night in a jazz club, chain-smoking cigarellos and inhaling the smoke from others doing the same listening to music of the soul….and none of the joy of having an experience like that. we had our own joy, in rehearsing, but man, it just hurt to breathe deep or hard.

nine days to fire arts festival. i can’t wait! now it’s trying to make sure we have all the money and stuff in place to make it all happen.

so, i should probably write about this experience i’ve been happening lately. i may even have mentioned it in here before. when i was young, starting in middle school and continuing through high school, there was this girl who was an out and proud dyke way back then. i admired her for being her own unique self, but we had good and bad times. we shared a kiss once, and it completely confused me because it was in a park, and she pulled away from the kiss. at the time, i just thought it meant she didn’t like me. i still wonder what happened at that moment, not even sure she remembers it. we will probably get drunk together some time and i will ask her about it =) at any rate, when i moved back to this town that i love, she was here, and we’ve seen each other periodically over the years, but for lack of better terminilogy, sort of seeme leery of each other. she married to a successful local attorney and having small children, me in a different place. but a few years ago, when i started dancing, we began encountering each other more often, as she lives down the street from one of the dancers i’d sort of become friends with.

at an event at this dancers house one time, she relayed to everyone there how i had taught her a good life lesson when we were in high school and then related a story when she had been two-faced and saying awful things about me at the time i walked up behind her in the lunch room in high school. i had thought we were friends. i remember looking at her and just turning around and walking away. i am glad she learned a lesson from that. i hadn’t even really remembered it until she brought it up, then i sort of went "yeah, that did happen".

in the last six months or so, we’ve gotten back more in touch with each other and have become friends again. we’ve shared a few more kisses, mostly drunken ones. now, she’s divorcing her husband for reasons unrelated to any of this, it’s just her time. she just had a birthday, i went to her party. we’ve had lunch a few times together, talk more often, email back and forth. i am interested to see what this friendship has in store for me. there’s undoubtedly sexual energy/tension between us, it’s just a matter of whether or not anything will come of it.

have also sort of been seeing the lady i was last year again. her health issues seem to have settled down a bit, so we will also see what happens with that.

aaahhhh…..variety is the spice of life =)

peace.

so much for that….

theory of writing more often.

i am living life and i am loving it. it’s kind of hard to remember to take the time to write here, but i should. i know this. there’s a part of my brain that feels unsettled when i don’t write often. it’s been that way for a long time now. i suppose i am over being mad at od for not like, gifting me a subscription or something the last time i expired and didn’t have the money to pay =) that was just me being a spoiled, petulant person.

in ten days, the culmination of a lot of work for me this year is coming to fruition. this year, i a) wrote my first grant and got the grant. although not 100% funded, i did get 80%, which is pretty good for a first effort, a flaky partner who volunteered to write the grant and then told me four days before it was due that he didn’t have time, b) got a bunch of really cool regional type folks who also like to play with fire to agree to come to this thing, c) created the schedule, the budget, made all the phone calls, got some cool sponsorships, and in conjunction with this festival i’ve done, also did a display of fire arts photography in a local gallery that i’m pretty proud of. if you’d like to see a "virtual gallery" tour, go here: compression.controlledburnreno.com/shutterfire_virtual.html

in addition to that, i have been working most of this year with burning man stuff. that’s been fun and eduational. i hope to be a part of this for a long time and am excited about how the event might go for me this year. i am looking forward to it =)

still dancing and having fun. that’s pretty much a constant.

my fire group was invited back to the super cool pre-event fire show for one of the most awesome bellydance troupe’s ever.

this last weekend i got to go to the black rock desert for training for the team i work for at burning man. it was really awesome. to be there, to feel such a part of things. we had some friends with us, and it turned out to be super fun, a great time. they camped with us in our motor home and i wasn’t sure how that was going to work out, but it was fun. sometimes i feel curmudgeonly about spending time with people i don’t know.

love life is still somewhat non-existent with my spouse. there’s some weirdness stuff happening with the lady i used to date, and a blast from the past is a good friend, but continues to confuse me.

that’s my life, today.

peace.

trying to write more….

wow. i am almost 40. i can’t believe it.

i really need to try to write here more. there’s so much stuff that’s in my head and in my brain, i know it needs to get out still, but i think i’ve been focusing on the physical in order to avoid focusing on the emotional, for the time being. with grief being what it is, sometimes it’s better not to think, but to stay busy and work through it slowly, privately.

preparations for the fire arts festival are progressing nicely. i do still need some vendors, but i am working on that. i met with someone this week who donated the cost of printing and mounting the art prints for my static art display. i think it’s going to be phenomenal. i want all the photographers we are featuring to come in and shoot the display, there seems something right about that to me, and something i will be proud of for a long time. at some point, perhaps i will post the photos, or i will let anyone know where they can see them =) the physical festival is going to be july 19, and should be cool, no matter what. monday i have a grant review hearing, it will be a new and interesting experience for me.

personally, i feel good. i am so busy, but i love it. this energy is amazing and fresh and always challenging.

i am heartened by the california supreme courts decision yesterday and hope that it remains….people should be able to marry who they choose to marry. i’ve never understood why the 14th amendment argument, which was also used when miscegenation was repealed in the sixties, is not also used as an argument for same sex marriage. perhaps the time just wasn’t right, but i believe that it is now.

i heart democracynow.org, it makes me feel more informed.

that’s all for now.

peace.

masters of war…..

getting ready to turn 40. this is my new favorite song, of late:

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain’t worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead

copyright 1963
bob dylan

how fitting, eh?

have a good day, after that, all =)