Thursday, June 28, 2007

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

sooooomebody had some fun this weekend!

saturday was the Bebel Gilberto/Thievery Corporation/Manu Chao show at the Merriweather Post Pavlion. soooooomebody got to go backstage and meet Manu and hang out with the Thievery peeps because sooooomebody's boyfriend works for Thievery and shit. rooooooaaaar.

check out ma slide show.

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saturday's show was great. i probably hop/danced around for 5 hours straight. by midnight, tanya, robin, gianma and i were at IHOP...and horror of horrors gianma was eating a chicken fried steak.

i woke up early sunday morning feeling awful, rehearsed, dressed and headed to Taste of Morocco for a bellydance show that I'd be performing in - while gianma happily snoozed. the show was full of incredible talent. i realize that i don't quite know how to react to peoples' shocked reactions to me while i'm in tribal makeup, head gear and caftan and walking in public. ignore? smile and wave? evil grin? hmmm. tbd.

here are pics from the show, She'endra II courtesy of Roger Wood. i'm wearing white.

after the show i rushed home, showered, turned back into myself and headed to fairfax to have crabs with my friend Cindy. crabs, i love you guys...do you love me? ...awwwwww.

Friday, June 22, 2007

wish i thought of this first



this is the song i put on when it's time to clean the house...

ends up being 50% groovin' and 50% scrubbin'.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

super700


photo by kazu

"let's put ourselves in the digital receivah
reverse the polarity and become a believah"


these guys are my favorite new band (live on kcrw here). if they don't come to the states then i'll go to berlin to see them. i'm not kidding, either. i've got directions and ollie still works, he can do anything. my girl marcia stays over there and i could stand to get the hell out of dodge.

Monday, June 18, 2007

dancing and eating.

that's what my weekends have been full of. and not a little dancing and eating, but a lot of both. it's been tiresome and fun.

last saturday morning i woke up and taught two fun hours of class then i had one hour to turn myself into 'bellydance barbie ebony' and arrive at the Howard University campus to lead a demo for their health fair. upon arrival i was starting to feel nauseated because i forgot to bring food with me. i taught the 30 minute demo with lisa and jane assisting - to a crowd of both enthusiastic and participatory women and slack jawed folks who gawked at us in utter disbelief. then i had an hour and a half to shower, eat toaster waffles, turn myself into 'tribal fusion bellydance barbie ebony' and drive to Columbia, MD for Mianaja's annual hafla. this was so fun, and i'm so grateful to Mianaja for extending the invitation to share the stage with her and beautiful dancers like Lotus (my local favorite), Naima, Shadiyah and Nadira to name just a few.

after the show i was starving and exhausted so i checked myself into my moms house where she fed me breakfast at 11pm and let me watch SNL in her bed. i didn't leave until sunday afternoon. that night we had a family dinner at Tiramisu with gianma's mom who was visiting from Italy, raffi, jackie, gianma, my mom and me. i had homemade mushroom ravioli in sage and butter sauce...that dinner was soooo ridiculously good that we are still talking about it.





this past saturday i woke up and taught two hours of class, went home to eat a little and nap for 25 minutes, then dragged myself back to the studio to teach for two more hours. i went back home and ate again and started getting ready for my gig at Citron which was fun, as usual. after the gig i threw a caftan on top of my costume and took a cab down to Crostino where there was to be yet another family dinner including myself, mom, 2 aunts and 2 uncles - and gianma working the bar. of course i had the tagliata. i wish i had a dime for every time someone said the word 'delicious'.



yesterday was our resting day. gianma, gianfillipo and i headed down to sette for coldcuts, white wine and pizza. so freaking good. so was the impromptu nap that i passed out into on gianfillipo's couch. gianma and i finally drove down to the 'warf' to see what it was all about...fish. one day we're gonna buy some...and cook it. actually he's going to cook it, not me.

last night, though, i think was the best meal i've had in a long time. gianma made filet mignon with some kind of RIDICULOUS good shitake mushroom/white wine sauce. i couldn't stop stomping my foot under the table and saying "oh my..". he had also bought some really fresh bread and opened some fancy bottle of red. after dinner he busted out with some different cheeses and olives. oh my god, i never tasted cheese so good. i'm totally thinking about keying into his apartment tonight while he's at work to eat some more cheese...

Monday, June 04, 2007

i've never taken two naps in one day before, but it happened on saturday. after teaching my two classes in the morning my body was stiff and sore and i was walking like an old lady. things aren't the way they were when i was in my early 20's. who knew that running for only 18 minutes on a treadmill, dancing outside at a drumming circle (probably less than 20 minutes), creating choreography for an hour, and teaching 2 hours of class the next morning would make me walk with a limp? ...just thought i was in shape or something. i guess now i know what's up.

i got to have some yummy crostino supper with my leeeeeetle brother and his lady. i got them to eat grilled baby octopus for the first time :)



this was so fun. i had so much energy from that second nap that i danced and danced...well...we all danced and danced until we were soaked. like for real. like 'did i black out and it rained in here?' i spent a delirious 15 minutes trying to mobilize people to find a swimming pool, somewhere, anywhere and lets jump IN it!!! my last resort was trying to convince gianfilippo that we should drive the 20 minutes to my moms house and break into the community pool there, no dice.

adams morgan terrifies me after the clubs have closed and the patrons have spilled out onto the street. i have to stop myself from breaking into a sprint up 18th street.

we settled at Seba and Sara's. they're always really generous...busting out with beer, wine, cheese, meat etc. around 4 i roused robin and gianma, on either side of me on the couch, from their snoring and we walked on home...