costume, food, muppets, music--a good weekend!

Here is a cool video of a bat flying in a wind tunnel and through smoke.  She is so strong and beautiful!  (the clown-phobic, and really, aren't we all, should be warned that immediately after the second bat clip a segment on "Medical Clowns" begins.  It is a terrifying concept.)

Good weekend.  CD swap party on Friday, to which I brought the afore-posted mix.  Nice chance to hang out with people as well, though I have no idea how I managed to stay up until 3am. 

Saturday my Fifi Abdo dress arrived--it fits pretty well and the re-beading work isn't as extensive as I thought it might have been from the description.  It's a little shorter than I would like, but I'll get some pretty anklets to wear with it.  I have also learned that vertical stripes provide va-va-voom, particularly when said stripes are contoured nicely around the hips.  I have the sequins I need to do the repairs, but I'll need to order some foil-lined seed beads from Fire Mountain Gems.  And I guess I'll have to pick up a few other odds and ends as long as I'm ordering ;-)  I'm thinking a big clunky turquoise necklace will be just the right accent for the dress...

Also on Saturday I took M to Finale for a birthday dinner, yum yum yum.  I had a port called "Curious and Ancient" that was absolutely delicious, and the Maytag blue cheese on the cheese plate was to die for.  Not as good as the blue cheese I had in Spain that made me hallucinate, but pretty darn exquisite nonetheless.  Then we rushed back to Arlington to go to Comicazi's Muppet trivia night with spitcurl, mistresshelena and SW the live journal-less.  spitcurl  and I were on a team together, but we were seriously handicapped, because not only did we have only five team members while the other teams had six or seven, but two of our team members confessed at the start that they knew nothing about the Muppets and were just there to hang out.  So really, since we were just a team of three we did well, all things considered!  It was quite a bit of fun and as I told M, I would go to any of their trivia nights again when it's a subject I know anything about.  They've done Buffy/Angel trivia nights in the past, that would be fun.

Sunday I watched an interesting documentary, Folk Music of the Sahara:  Among the Tuareg of Libya.  It was definitely the cinema verite style of ethnographic film--there was no narration or introductory statement, as far as I could tell (I was painting my nails during the first ten minutes, so it's possible I missed something that came and went quickly on screen), just Tuareg people singing and dancing and playing instruments.  It *seemed* like it was filmed at some large cultural festival or event of some sort, since everybody was dressed in their absolute best and there were bleachers set up for the audience.  It was reminiscent of the way that some Pueblos open up their communities to tourists during certain religious rituals.  Many of the Tuareg were also wearing laminated ID badges.  It was fascinating; the music, as one might expect, was a very dynamic mixture of Central African and Arabic influences, some songs leaning more one way, some more the other.  The people themselves were a pretty dynamic mix as well, with all the phenotypes of North Africa represented.  They were all absolutely beautiful.  They were also very fond of glitterdot fabric, which I found amusing since here it's regarded as cheap glitzy cabaret stuff, yet here were the most tribal of tribal people wrapping themselves in it by the yard.  The blurb on the DVD envelope made a big deal out of the Tuareg being matrilineal and woman dominated, but I'm not sure how one would get that from this film, as men and women were equally represented.  The Tuareg are famous for the fact that the men veil their faces and the women do not, but I think too many people assume that face veiling must mean the same thing to the Tuareg as it does to the surrounding Arabic peoples and that thus the gender roles are automatically reversed.  Anyway, I think I'll try to find out more about the film, and if you are the kind of person who doesn't mind watching an hour or so of ethnographic material with no background or narration, this film is well worth watching.  It's beautifully made and produced.

After that, I performed at the Middle East.  Not my most creative dancing ever, but it was a solid set.  Hakim's Nazra was a huge hit; it's an old enough song that I think people don't use it very often, that plus I used the Lion in America version which is just bursting with energy and life.  I wasn't sure how my intro song, Salamat ya Om Hassan, would go over, but it went well enough.  I zilled.  I almost feel somewhat competent at zilling now.

During the film I doodled a Tuareg protection design on my palm with henna (this is going to be a dangerous hobby, I think).  I only had time to let the paste sit for about an hour, leaving it light orange in color.  All the henna directions and advice I have encountered stress the importance of keeping the design warm to get better colors.  After I danced, I was happily surprised to see that the henna had turned several shades darker.  That's what a five minute drum solo will do for you!

Barbaro, RIP

Barbaro was euthanized this morning.  It wasn't the originally injured leg that was the issue, it was the hoof that had developed laminitis, and after extensive surgery on Saturday it was concluded that there was no way he could go on living without considerable pain.  I'd provide a link to the Bloodhorse's coverage but I can't get into the site right now.  Sports Illustrated has a short story, but it's accompanied by a photo of Barbaro at the time of his injury and it's just too sad to see.

I don't know whether it was the right thing or not to have tried to keep him going in the first place (though I hoped for his complete recovery as much as anyone), but I hope if nothing else, lessons have been learned from the experience that will help other injured racehorses.   A horse is a complicated creature; it is almost as though nature has decreed that if a horse can't use all four legs, then the horse is done living, because what a horse does is run.