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we'll have a piano, a ukulele, and maybe some other weird instruments, as well as some unpublished and uncollected Neil Gaiman stories and poems.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.

Oh NO! what to do???

Where do you go when Facebook is down?!? Seriously!I so very much want to update my status with a freakout that FB is down but can't.... because it's down....

Whoops!

Todays Laugh Out Loud moment

MANY thanks to Tom & Lorenzo http://projectrungay.blogspot.com/


We just love the "oxygen mask" pose. Beauty queens and gay men at surprise parties. That's where you're most likely to see this. As if sudden emotional responses are triggered by poison gas or something.

Sure I was there but don't ask me about it

July 21 to July 25th, 2010 marks the days when San Diego becomes a Hollywood / Pop Culture /Comic Book Mecca.

125,000+ people travel to San Diego to attend this amazingly huge convention. They line up the night before to get into the room/hall they most desire to be in, so they can get the coveted front row seats to be just that most closer to those that they admire the most. Don't believe me look online for pictures of those that sleep out waiting to get in first...

In this video this guy is completely surprised that there were people in line the prior night - Hey Dude, what were you thinking?!?

There was an Anti-Nerd Church protest.... 'Little did Fred Phelps and his minions from the Westboro Baptist Church were not ready for the cosplay action that awaited them at Comic-Con.'

Check out blogger favorite Tea With Lemon for a great recap of the protest here...

& finally, yes, most of you heard there was a pen stabbing over a seat in the coveted Hall H
CNN Video here

Nope I wasn't anywhere near by when this 'went down'... but of course there were stories and though I KNOW it didn't happen, when I hear that there was a HAZMAT team I kept imagining them repelling from the ceiling like ninja's (yeah, I'm weird)

Other than the above, which I heard about via word of mouth, I only saw two, 2, panels: *NBC's Community & ABC's Castle* - Both were FANTASTIC & I was so happy to see them!!

Everything else I've seen about SDCC10 has been found on youtube.com, so I invite you to do the same and let me know what I should look up!

That's a real nice i-thing you got there

Don't get me wrong I'm not completely unaware of new technology, however I have to admit I don't currently own any technology that starts with an i.... not yet anyway.

So while I'm 'out of step' with the rest of the world [that needs to be plugged into the inter-web at all times, oh wait, I already do that while I work at a computer all day long ... ], I am aware of a lot of the cool stuff out there.

Recently I've been made aware of the Hipstamatic iPhone app which I think is pretty cool and kinda wish I could use it myself...

The Hipstamatic for iPhone is an application that brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras from the past

Since I can't use this app myself I'm instead supporting, and really enjoying, the photos my friend who is using it. & now she has submitted a few pictures in a Hipstamatic contest:

I just love this pic

click here if you like it too and want to vote for it

You can check out the other photo's that she's submitted here and here - take a look and vote if you like them because in her own words I'm just trying to help her: 'Harness the power of social networking for a misfit mom to get a 4" print of her pic in a micro gallery in NYC! Thanks!!!'