Folk Dance Team Auditions Today

Wish me luck! Or at the very least, wish me flexibility and endurance...

Rain, Rain, Come Today?

Philipp Lenard studied the shape of raindrops in 1898. His research dispels the common belief that raindrops are 'teardrop' shape. According to his findings, small raindrops are nearly spherical, but larger ones become increasingly flattened on the bottom, like hamburger buns. Very large raindrops are shaped like parachutes.

Addiction

I'm pretty sure you've all seen this, but if you haven't, you should. It's a performance about addiction from this summer's season of SoYouThinkYouCanDance, and my ultimate favorite of the season.

I've watched it more than I can count.

A Little Yellow Birdie Told Me

....

Pier1, $5

Thirsty?

I took this photo in Petra, Jordan. I watched a guy unscrew the lid from a water bottle and pass it to the camel. The camel, eagerly reaching for it with its teeth, grabbed the bottle, drained the water and then spit out the... husk.

Apparently they do this all the time.

Guessing Game #2 - Clue #2

Same kids, different get-up. Recognize them yet, Mom?

Guessing Game #2 - Who are these children?

I'll give you one hint: they're not the VonTrapp family singers.

Eiffel Tower, First Level Shot

I think I've underestimated just exactly how tall the Eiffel tower really is. The "first level" that this picture was taken from is 19 stories high. The tower itself-- is over 90 stories high!

• 300 iron workers, for the two years 1887-89,
• 2.5 million rivets,
• 15,000 pieces of iron,
• 40 tons of paint,
• Total tower weight: 9441 tons (8.56 million kg)

A Reason to Smile

Photo by Cade Martin

Why is there never enough time?

Child's Play

I've always loved these games. Find where the ordinary objects below are hiding in the picture.

Major Foreign Cities I'd Like To See

On my last post Bill commented that he'd most like to see London and Sydney, which got me to thinking about which cities in the world I'd like to see most. Now remember, this is just the list of BIG cities that I want to see abroad.

Here they are in a mostly-accurate-ranking-order.

ROME
BERLIN
LONDON
ST. PETERSBURG
PARIS
KYOTO
SALZBURG
COPENHAGEN
FLORENCE
PRAGUE
ISTANBUL
MUNICH
BUDAPEST
KIEV
VIENNA
TIRANA
EDINBURGH
POSITANO
STOCKHOLM
GRENOBLE
LEIPZIG
BARCELONA
AMSTERDAM
MONTREAL
LJUBLJANA
DAMASCUS
DUBLIN
BATH
CALGARY

I want to go! I want to go! I want to go!

In view, the Kaiserdom (imperial cathedral) of Speyer, Germany. A vanguard of Romanesque architecture (medieval european), its innovations are still still studied and used today. I can see why; aside from being gorgeous, it is also humongous.


The the rosy colored stone in the interior strikes me as typical of German architecture, though that is just my personal hypothesis; every German cathedral I saw in the Holy Land had striped rose stone just like this, though not nearly on so grand or large a scale.


What I like most about Romanesque architecture is how the lifted archways denote grace, but also strength and stability. It isn't too frilly, but it isn't too plain.


Gosh, this place is amazing. I want to go! I want to go! Will somebody please give me plane tickets? I'd rather go to Germany than anywhere else in Europe! Including London!* Look at this corridor! It seems to go on forever! And it's up so high! DANG! Oh dear. I just used six exclamation points in a paragraph. I now need to "go home and re-think my life."


*Also including Paris and Rome. Sorry, Dylan. Wait, no...okay, maybe not Rome. But everywhere else!

Ukrainian Polka band with "Hot & Cold"

This Ukrainian band has recreated the song "Hot & Cold" for your viewing pleasure. Translation: this made me laugh so hard I could hardly breathe.

For reference I have also included the original version of the song, as performed by Katy Perry in what I term her hell-hath-no-fury video. Please enjoy. :)

World Folk Fest

A while back I saw this Chinese group* perform at a World Folk Fest, a place where dancers from all over the world joined to showcase their country's culture. I particularly enjoyed the group from Poland, because they sang a Polish song with deliciously tight harmonies and then... sang America the Beautiful. (Yes, I cried, though I cried way more during the "thousand arms" dance the Chinese girls did. It was so beautiful!)

But then the Hungarian group was fantastic, the Belgian flag throwers were mesmerizing, and how that group of Korean kids stuck to a steady rhythm I'll never know. Basically, you should have been there, cause everything was breathtaking.

*Check it-- they're wearing ABBA pants.

I Like Brussels Lace

...because it looks like frost and snow.

Heels

Last night while watching tv I noticed something familiar about a character's footwear. After seeing tell tale characteristics of Christian Louboutin heels, I pointed at the screen and shouted, "Those are Neiman Marcus heels!" Oh, lawsy. When did I start noticing designers? I'm becoming part of Babylon....


While I'm at it, I may as well explain how I knew who made the shoes. A) A very straight heel positioned at the extreme rear of the shoe, and B) the scarlet undersole. Not all of his shoes are black, however. In fact, while looking for other examples of his work, my friend Nicole saw the screen from over my shoulder and gasped, "I'd sell my soul to Satan for those pumps!" I figured I'd show you which shoes she meant, though they are not to my taste.




I already know which shoes I'd want. In fact, I already blogged about them. Remember these? Ahhhhh, yes.

Driving in Egypt? You Might See This

The Giza side of Cairo
Passing the Luxor temple at night is... quite a sight.

If you're sailing (not driving) on the Nile, the crew will stop to pray

I took this from the highway in Cairo! See the smog? I mean, the mosque?

Here's a mom dressed for a day out on the town. (Yay for our ritzy tour bus in the back!)

Donkeys merge in front of cars going 70+ kph, which I swear is part of the traffic problem in Cairo


Also note the extremely talented bicyclist.


This is priceless-- behold two very happy camels. Whee! (Yes, this was taken from my tour bus.)
Gotta love the Japanese, Arabic, and English "Jumbo" truck.

Victory

For years I avoided playing the dreaded FREECELL game that comes free on every PC. I felt it was too hard and I could never win, but I am now happy to announce that I actually beat the game! Three times in a row!

Guess it wasn't hard as I remember....

Best of Broadway: Her Voice

This is the way I prefer to dream of Broadway...Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid with "Her Voice."

Unadulterated Loathing

Two things I hate right now:


BEES, AND THE YELLOW STUFF STICKING TO THEM. Gah! I can't see, and I can't breathe. Wait for it... wait for it... atchoo! Atchoo! Aaaaaahtchooo! Does somebody have a tissue? *whimper*

As far as I can see, pollen is just one more reason to love winter and loathe summer.