Weekend goings on...

Well, I'm wrapping up a busy weekend and preparing for a new week.

Friday night in San Francisco I attended An Evening with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer with Rebecca. Not knowing what to expect it felt like an adventure.

All I knew was this:

starting halloween night, amanda palmer & neil gaiman will be tearing up through the west coast of north america on a mini-tour.

we'll have a piano, a ukulele, and maybe some other weird instruments, as well as some unpublished and uncollected Neil Gaiman stories and poems. we'll both probably switch up what we're presenting from night to night. we'll be taking questions from the audience, chat-style, and trying to do special things in each venue, busting out a few surprises 

From kickstarter website

Rebecca and I await for the show to start

The lobby was filled with anticipation - you could just feel it.  Some were wearing ears, hats with feathers, skirts and tutu's. Regardless if some had attended the "2nd SF Night" on Wednesday everyone seemed giddy in anticipation.

We were treated to three hours of songs, poetry, stories and a Q&A with Neil and Amanda.

The Q&A box where anyone could ask a question to be (possibly) read during the night

There was an easy flow to the evening. You could tell that there was a skeletal structure with flexibility to flow allowing for some last minute changes including audience suggestions for songs, and Neil changing his story just before his reading to keep with the 'vibe' in the room.

Here are a few of my pictures - the lighting was low so the pictures are a bit grainy

Considering this was only the third show and there are four more for them to go it appears that this will be a 'new' show each and every night, which is pretty great.  This will make all the attendees feel like this show is special just for them.

Bellydance show in Los Altos, CA

The very next day I, along with three other lovely lady's, we held a belly dance event in Los Altos.  It was a long day but it was a really great day and event!

Here are a few pictures:

Festival dancing started at 1pm

We had a packed house

Stasha was the opening act of our Featured Dancers portion of the event.  She was a great start to the show.

Adriana was another of the Featured Dancers

Natika was the final dancer of the evening

The Show Must Go On

So.... how do you give life to a dying blog??  Many other bloggers out there must know how to keep the show going but I'm not quite sure what to do....

So I've been thinking about what's going on in my life and aside from the basics of work which is a daily grind, of course there is my bellydance life/hobby.  And there is also my passion for photography.  Recently I've merged these two passions and I have begun to take photographs for Davina's projects and online mag articles.   Here is a recent article by Davina with my photographs: click here to see the article on the webzine Gilded Serpent, Belly Dance News & Events.

In 2009 my D&A Tour of the UK produced some really lovely photographs (in my humble opinion).  Here are a couple of my favorites:

Trio of berries in York at morning sunrise

Lamppost in York, December 2009

The most recent D&A adventure was this summer in the LA area.  Over three days we went to three museums: Huntington, LACMA & Getty Villa.  Here are just a few of my favs:

Ceiling shot in one of the LACMA buildings

we came across a photo shoot on the beach

One of the many gardens at Huntington

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do going forward with this blog.... hopefully I can revitalize it...  Untill I know for sure thanks for hanging in there.

Enjoy!

Bye bye 2010

Day 1, 2011

While this might be the appropriate time to welcome the new year I've been in more of a "look back" mood..... 2010 overall has been a good year to me, but due to the recent stressful weeks I've been experiencing all I have wanted to say to 2010 is: GTFO!

However, I feel like I need to acknowledge the good parts of 2010 out weighted the 'bad' of 2010 (which just might fine tune my own perspective which has become skewed of late).

After my trip to the UK in Dec 2009 I was still riding high on that wonderful, though fraught with problems (storms prevented a trip to Scotland, lack of heating in our London Hostel), it was such an enjoyable trip and it's completed reignited my desire to travel more outside of the USA. Next planned excursion is going to be back to the UK for the Summer Olympics in 2012. Its a bit of a wait but it'll be here before I know it.

Clear December afternoon on the London Eye
(Won't be getting Dawn back on this contraption in 2012)

Most don't think about their work when looking back at their year, unless they own their own company or have invented something cool, but I'm happy to still be employed, and at a company that's is bouncing back very nicely from the recent economic desperation. I've got nothing to complain about really, and I'm luckily enough happy to be working with people that are good and I enjoy being around basically, not everyone has that luxury.

In 2010 I planned a few really great Belly Dance events (SF/BA MECDA). We started with the Swap Meet Style Extravaganza in April, a really fun Flea Market in October and in November we held our annual Gala Show & Festival (see Gala photos here). Quite the accomplishment and well attended events! Soon I will have access to the video of my November performance, which I hope to get posted online.

In the fall I took up a new hobby (like I needed a new /another hobby): Billiards. Yep, I'm not only a card carrying member (literally) but I even purchased my very own pool cue.... now I'm a pool shark in training.... supposedly. All those years of playing pool in bars just doesn't measure up to a game with actual rules, but I'm having a good time and hopefully getting better.


In the end of it all, I'm most definitely grateful for my family and friends! So I wish them all a wonderful & prosperous new year.

So now I look ahead to 2011, though just started, hopefully will be full of fun and excitement ~ heck, most of January is already booked up so all is good & normal.