Friday, August 31st, 2007
Happy happy joy bounce fun yay woop boingy boingy yeahhhhhhhhhh!
I passed my dance interview with an unconditional offer. Go me!
So I am hardcore detoxing and slowly training myself back into better shape for the start of the course in two weeks time.
Contemporary dance training, pilates body conditioning, choreography work, history of dance theatre studies, body analysis study… plus fantastic library and videography resources, oppurtunities to work with the photography and film students, training space, discount dance and theatre tickets, free dance courses at the dance centre 
I’m very happy!
Thursday, August 30th, 2007
I was in my first ever car crash last Friday! I don’t mean to belittle the damage caused by sounding excited, but as life events go, this one was fairly high on the excitement scale.
It was really spectacular: high-speed motorway, across three lanes of traffic, spinning, 2 head-on collisions, written off car, the works! Scary stuff!
There were 4 of us in the car, we were all ok. However, the car was a complete mess; crumpled and oozing dark brown goo. The other people involved in the crash were all kinda bemused, shaky and lightly injured, but no-one was seriously injured as far as I know.
Good.
And that was it. We crashed. We were OK. We got picked up by a recovery truck.
er…. so when is the shock thing supposed to happen? I was sure that when you are in a massive car accident you are supposed to end up all shaky and confused maybe cry a bit ?? no? ok. That was it really. No big drama after all. The End.
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007
Unstoppable! Incontrollable! Listening to Basement Jaxx’s “Do Your Thing” (yes, it’s an old classic, but I love it), cant help but move… sometimes it’s just a restrained hip wiggle or foot tap - but alone in my rents’ house, turn it right up, full bass! full power! yeah baby!! just go for it!! dance around the house in your jimjams!! yeah hhahhaehahehahehaheahyhoooo!
You know what? any Basement Jaxx track really, wowoowowoooooooayahaoo!
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
If only I could change this font to something colourful, wiggly, ornate, wacky and perhaps covered in ceramic mosaics, I could reflect the gaudi-esque joy that is Barcelona!
Yet another “Wild Animus” location!! This time for a full week! And I found myself absolutely compelled to constantly wonder off on my own and explore this fascinating city!
Every quarter in Barcelona has something different to offer; from palaces to medieval cathedrals with rainforests enclosed in their midst… then tall narrow alleyways lined with crazy shops - I saw one shop that made me just stop and stare for about half an hour; really it was the patroness that caught my interest. She was almost unnoticeable at first, so well disguised was she in her surroundings! She looked about as old as the building that encompassed her as she sat in her shop doorway. With a face of paper and hair the colour and probably texture of the light grey stone of the structure, as if it would crumble away to dust at the slightest movement… she wasn’t moving a muscle. uh oh. was she dead? Am I just
standing here casually witnessing the quietus of this poor old senhora?… no… she was slowly and delicately eating a banana, and maybe that was the only food she was still solid enough to conquer in an effort to keep her jaw attached. Well, after staring transfixed for a few days, I then noticed that the store that she was residing over sold the most bizarre mixture of wares. None of them would have been outstanding in a different context, but it was the unique blend of merchandise all housed in the same store that made it so captivating! A HUGE modernist painting, possibly 12 times the size of the old woman and nearly up to my shoulder, brightly coloured and abstract shapes… but just one of them. Then a small selection of tinned goods; corned beef and the like. Three or so fairly stylish looking young women’s dresses. And a cuckoo clock. These are just some of the items I saw from my vantage point, before I realised the woman had me in her sights, and I feared that she had perhaps by her age evolved some form of laser eyesight and might not take too kindly to a foreign intruder on her territory. After all, it had been hers from the dawn of time - if dinosaurs couldn’t shift her, I didn’t want to try my luck and I moved on.
One of the other main delights of the city for me was the influence of the great artist Antonio Gaudi scattered about the place. From the ridiculously, insanely exuberant and uber-catholic work of the still unfinished “Sagrada Familia” Cathedral, to the houses that 
are standing testaments to is vision and inspiration I was frequently left doing unwitting impressions of a frog in the street as I gawked wide-eyed and open mouthed (and croaking slightly) at these wonderments! That’s not even mentioning the Park Guell, where Gaudi’s work is imbedded in environments from which he drew so much inspiration - from nature. Gaudi’s work is so often characterised by smooth lines, and broken up by intricate and intertwining filigree designs. It seems that he was mostly inspired by the sea, thus reflecting waves in both smooth and rough forms… doesn’t explain the colours, angles and mind-bending shapes and designs though - we was mathematically progressive, radical and free enough to just go with it. Though I wonder sometimes that the buildings are so upright - he still created architecturally fairly uniform buildings; level floors, doors and windows - I wonder if he had’ve had greater architectural technology available to him what he would have created.
So that, plus a lot of tapas, sangria, nightclubs and fun times with the girls on tour, was Barcelona for me excellent!
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
Quick visit this one, but most definately worth a mention!
A visit to a long-lost friend/lover/soul mate/multi-talented musician and lyricist… sigh here’s a picture of him… he’s lovely … don’t you just want to stroke him? …. ahem… scuse me… took me on my travels down to the south-eastern shores of the Great Isle of… er… Great Britain. Great!
And though I have visited Brighton briefly in the past, this trip just reminded me how non-English England can sometimes feel!
The winding alleys were more reminiscent of Italy (maybe that was just the abundance of Italian restaurants, maybe it was the smell of wee in the street… how knows) than England, and eating
outside one of these vagrantly Mediterranean establishments (the waiters even turned their noses up at you for speaking English!) in a stylish, but secluded square, surrounded by clinking crockery, the gentle chatter and laughter of fellow diners took me far away from the kebab shops and loutish drinkers that in reality were just a few streets removed from us.
It was a lovely weekend, squaking at seagulls (I swear I scare them more than they scare anyone else),
walking on the seafront where it is some unwritten law that you must walk along the seafront wall and balance precariously on any bollard you are presented with. Eating ice-cream and doing our bit in the constant battle to return all the stones to the sea.
But the main awesomeness of Brighton is it’s general open-ness vibe. Biggest gay community - Brighton’s Gay Pride event draws mahooosive crowds every year to stare at parading homosexuals in tight pink lycra outfits. Good for them I say! Plus the scene for artists and underground (i.e. the real talented but sadlly undiscovered ones) musicians is thriving. Open mic events like the “Anti-pop Idol” finally celebrate talent rather than celebrity for celebrity’s sake…. but still, I for one am very partial to seeing that talent in small venues (like the ones in Brighton) rather than big stadiums that lose the atmosphere. Good on you Brighton.
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
SO, welcome to Finland. Land of fins. In more sense than one I imagine, since there are so many lakes, there must be roughly 27 billion fish, thus 345 billion and one fins. Give or take the odd one. I didn’t count them all personally. Sorry.
Finland is a land of lakes and trees.
Great!
Not all that many people though. For the 7th biggest country in Europe, it has just 3 million inhabitants, half of which live together in one city, Helsinki. It’s hell trying to get to the bathroom in the morning in that house.
I, however, had no bathroom issues whatsoever in the lovely city of Tampere.
This is the second place I have visited with the “Wild Animus” tour of Europe (9 wolf-women dance about and give you free cds, great basis for a show if ever i heard one), with whom I act as sound techie and fire safety officionado. This job comprises of prep and performance work in the evenings, and free time all day. hoorah! 
Here I also took on the unofficial role of tourist scout, and missioned heartily around the town keeping an eye out for fun things to do with t’other girlies. Thus on one of the days, a bunch of us jumped on a boat, ferried across to an island and splashed and played on rocks all afternoon. Joy. funfunfun. Did I mention this job is wicked? (thanx Dave!)
So yay me! The one thing I really wanted to do in Finland, land of lakes, was boat out onto a lake. And I did. I might just make myself a medal. And a certificate. And a sandwich. With cheese. And jam. And a side helping of self-congratulation. huzzah!
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
After 3 weeks of non-stop festivalling and travelling…
(Henley Festival, Glade Festival, PLAY Festival)
… I suddenly find myself presented with an entire week of calm. And I feel more energised than ever! These past few weeks have included some of the most enjoyable performances I have ever been a part of, some of the best working conditions, some of the less-so-good flooding conditions, huge amounts of bouncing-fun, and certain amounts of exhausted sadness, exposure to some hugely inspiring shows, and perhaps best of all meeting lots of inspiring and fun-loving people
And now with the time and space to be gently introverted, just for a while, I feel totally awash with inspiration… yay and indeed woop.
Strange though.
Strange that immersing myself in the mundane tasks of ironing my dad’s hankerchiefs (there’s quite an art to it really) should provoke ideas and inspiration, but I guess it is really when you give your mind time to empty of all other thought, that those sneaky inkling-thinklings can enter in and whisper sweet ridiculousness into that tiny part of my brain where my concsiousness resides… and I know that these thoughts have been sitting and growing over there in my right hemisphere for bloomin ages - nice to give them a chance to get through every now and again…
ho hum….
I’m off for another listen 