Wednesday, September 27, 2006

TWO Impromtu Dance Shows

FIRST SHOWING:
Setting: a white, rusty oldsmobile.
Performer: man, solo.
Audience: yours truly.
Tunes: Wicked Hardcore Hip Hop pounding from the obviously juiced stereo.
The moves: Bouncing bottom on the seat to the beat, combined with torso twisting, shoulder popping, jello-neck head-wobbling, and face contorted into a semblance of "I'm a gangsta." And it wasn't subtle; this was unabashed, full out, no holds car dancing.
Reviews: At first, I was a little frightened because hey, this man is DRIVING ALONE, seems to barely have his eyes open, and is obviously not paying much attention to the road. After a moment, however, I began to appreciate his enthusiasm for his art and I walked away (carefully) with a big smile and applause in my heart.

SECOND SHOWING:
Setting: St. Clarens Ave sidewalk in the dark in the rain.
Performer: yours truly.
Audience: A few stray cats, and a lone old man walking down the sidewalk. I totally didn't see him.
Tunes: The Dresden Dolls
The moves: Full out headbanging, arm propelling, torso contracting/releasing, hip sways (in all directions, I assure you), and exaggerated skipping. There was even some "propeller hair" stuff going on as, since it was raining, I had removed it from the ponytail.
Reviews: I'm somewhat partial since I am the performer, so let me begin by saying I'm sure it LOOKED relatively rediculous, but I had a GREAT time. The old man smiled (a bit warily), so I think he liked it (or was afraid of me). The strays remained suspiciously quiet.

The Results: Everyone needs a moment of dance in their day, whether the performer or the spectator. Despite its level of seeming danger or hillarity it makes everyone's day a bit brighter.

ps. This is a great song. Hear it. http://thebandwidth.zefrank.com/ray/goose_whipass_exteeeended.mp3?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5426&g2_serialNumber=1&g2_fileName=goose_whipass_exteeeended.mp3

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Anniversary

Happy Six Months Gary and Melissa!
May the next six bring you more happiness and love.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

YAR!

It be Talk Like a Pirate Day, both on land and sea.
In honour, here be several links to sites holdin songs about bein a pirate. Yar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM1NUGlo2ww&mode=related&search= a song for the younguns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqw7_g4s5xY a really awful ABC ad.

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/knitlikeapirate.html knit like a pirate.

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/sounds/wooden_ships_iron_men.mp3 a rock and roll pirate shanty.

Have ye a great day.

Friday, September 15, 2006

This Just In

While looking up babynames for J, I came across this neat little tidbit which explains my disposition rather satisfactorily.
McDowall: derived from the name MacDougall, meaning Son of Douglas.
Douglas: of dark water.
Emily: Industrious
Jane: Gracious and Merciful

Therefore, I am the industrious and merciful son (daughter) of dark water.

It fits, doesn't it.

Funky the Clown

I have a (probably somewhat irritating) habit of blurting out my inner dialogue. The most recent of these occured while walking down Yonge St. with two in-town friends and one from Calgary, just traipsing along, when suddenly I exclaimed (to their great surprise) "THERE'S the Papya Hut!" What they didn't know was that I had been searching for its location for over two weeks and come up naught, so finding it was a huge deal to me. It was not, however, such an occasion for them. There were many strange looks exchanged, and more than a few teasing comments. I've learned to accept this. If I'm going to scream unusual things on the street, I'm going to be stared at as if I have two heads. Fine.

Last week, T- and I began learning to drop spindle. This is a brand new superfun activity involved in the Yarnish Arts. For those not in the know (much as I was before I started the class), it's basically learning to spin your own yarn from pre-treated fleece (or roving), without the aid of a spinning wheel. Instead, you use a cute (portable!) device known as a "drop spindle." Its portability came in handy when I got bored on the subway.
Toward the start of this class, each student was able to select from a stash of extremely pretty, hand dyed roving. I, of course, chose the tye-dyed looking lump of primary colours. During the drafting process (pulling the roving until the fibres come apart just a little, so it gets fluffy), I blurted out (as I am wont to do), "This one looks like clown hair!" I assure that I am not insane as it did (and does), in fact, look like what clown wigs are made of.
I spent the week spinning. I was a madwoman. I took the spindle everywhere. Even if I could only do it for a minute, I was all over it. I spun on the subway, the streetcar, the couch, the chair in the waiting room at the salon... I spun outside on the porch. I spun before bed. Just yesterday I spun at work because the kids thought it looked like fun and wanted to see what I was doing. I didn't finish the entire 50g of roving, but I made a good headway.
Today's class was taking our single strands and making them into a two-ply yarn. This was ultra fun, especially since my yarn strands were quite uneven (the way I like it). We twisted the two strands together, and all marvelled as to how each of our handiwork came to fruition.
I, however, began to laugh. All the while these strands are twisting together, they're looking more and more like dredlocks. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE dredlocks, and I love yarn that looks like dredlocks; I simply couldn't believe I was making a type of yarn that I adore in such exciting colours BY ACCIDENT! As I sat, giggling at my creation, I said to myself, 'It certainly looks like dreds. Circus dreds. If I made this into dreds,' (aloud) "I'd call myself Funky the Clown." As I had left out my inner dialogue, I once again received some strange looks, accompanied, of course, by laughter as soon as I displayed what I had made.

I gotta say, however, that spinning has become one of my new favourite hobbies. I've already bought more roving, and still need to finish the clown batch. I'm not sure what will come if it, and I'm certain I'm not all that good at it, but as long as I'm making yarn that I like, I can't go wrong.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Welcome

Welcome to life, Miss Michael Autumn. You've just started out and already have so much love around you. I hope to make your acquaintance soon.

Here I am

For the first time in quite a while, I am avoiding work. I don't actually BEGIN working my real job again until the 27th of this month, but I really aught to start working today if I want to get all the pre-work done. That's right, there's pre-work that I don't get paid for. Yet. I'm going to log all of the hours it took to do it and try to find away to "spruce up" my time card over the weeks to include these hours. After all, writing lesson plans isn't exactly fun or easy or quick, especially when they're for classes they're forcing me to teach with NO TRAINING!
On that note, I began a "Tap for the Absolute Beginner" last night. Nevermind that I taught tap last term with NO idea what was going on. Even this first 90 mins was extremely useful, as it gave me some vocabulary to go with the movement I was teaching. I had some of it right, and some of it dead wrong. This year, I will have a grasp of what is going on, and for this I am excited. Also, my classes are 90 mins, while the kids' classes are 30, so I'm already three lessons ahead. By the 27th, I'll be a full 12 ahead, and the term is only nine weeks! HAHA! I win! Now I need to start taking hip-hop and getting some of that down. I start that this Thursday.

Natalie is coming to visit on Friday!! I'm excited, and making a lot of plans to take her all over the city. I'm having some difficulty with Friday itself, but everything else is turning out awesome. I forget that there are so many events that happen all over the place here. There will never be a dull moment. I'm only a little disappointed that she's completely missing the Dufferin Grover Farmer's Market, as she's coming the day after, and leaving the day before. Nat, if you're reading this, anything in particular you'd like me to look for?

I can no longer avoid it; I must write lesson plans. If anyone can think of any dance games I can play with these kids, please let me know. Freeze-dance, Mr. Wolf, and the Hokey Pokey can only get a girl so far.