Bold As Brass-Nakarali

Hi All,
If you haven't seen the new Nakarali Bold As Brass collection, head on over to www.nakarali.com.

We have amazing new designs that are both luscious and very affordable, due to the magic of brass, designer Colleena Shakti and the artisans in India. We've priced them individually and in "collections" so you can get a little or a lot. We recommend a lot.

Here's a photo from the Tribal Roots show at Club f8 last Friday, produced by DJ Amar. I used two necklaces for a belly drape, as well as a stack of bangles and giant hoop earrings (the kind that can be a wrist bangle or pop open for gauged ears.)

 

And here are some shots from the Bold As Brass launch party on 8 Mar at the FatChanceBellyDance® Studio in San Francisco.

 

SF Gay Pride!

Days before Pride weekend was set to begin in San Francisco, the Supreme Court of the United States announced they were lifting the ban on same-sex marriages. As I am set to marry my love, Loretta, in Sep of this year, you can imagine what a great weekend it was for us!

as promised

Good morning!

As promised, I am at the keyboard again, bright and shiny. So now, let me tell you about producing Devotion...

The first few years of Devotion were a quickly thrown together show, nothing stupendous. Chaotic at the last minute as all shows are, but it worked. I was lucky enough to meet Patrick Coffield on a trip in New Mexico and he has been my sound and light tech from the first show. We just click. He is a Buddhist Cowboy and he keeps me sane by various means of humor and seriousness.

2008: The first theater, Climate, was a tiny flophouse of a venue. It was raw, but it had an underground feel so it made sense. When Colleena and I initially conceived of the idea of Devotion we thought we'd create a buzz for San Francisco by having the show in a small (50 seat) blackbox theater on multiple weekends; a Friday night show, Sat matinee and evening show and a Sun matinee, repeated on two weekends. The arts community in San Francisco is notorious for turning it's nose up at anything mainstream, so you have to make your event look like a struggle. That wasn't hard to do.

2009: Unfortunately, the very aspect of making the show available for multiple viewings put it in the category of "I'll catch it next time" and it was not well attended. We shortened the run on the following year, but this time the venue itself was the problem (the Climate organization was starting to fall apart) and we really did have to struggle to mount the production due to issues with wiring and structure. I employed a great publicist, Amy Kweskin, to brainstorm some audience building which involved a pre-show meet and greet at a nearby restaurant. Note to self-bad idea to pull the entire company out of pre-show preparations an hour before opening night.

2010: Suffice to say that we tried exhausted the Climate and had to move on. The next year we found ourselves at Shotwell Studios. A great location, just around the corner from the FCBD® Studio on 19th St at South Van Ness. We could park our cars once and just walk to the venue! If you live in SF or have visited, you know what a joy that is (parking protocol in SF is to find a spot and take the ticket so you can stay for more than two hours, as long as they don't tow it's worth the sixty bucks.) Shotwell was just 50 seats as well, but the layout had more "air" and it didn't feel as cramped. Really, if the owner hadn't been insane we could have stayed there. Sadly, said owner managed to personally offend every member of the company just moments before the start of the show. I was amazed at the professionalism of each and every artist; at first they registered confusion at the personalized insult, then a flash of anger and then each and every one of us pulled an invisible dome of calm over ourselves and walked onto the stage as if nothing had happened. At the end of the run, I think it was just one weekend this time; Fri-Sat, we all just walked away without looking back.

That's all for now. I have lots more to tell. See you in a day of two...as promised!

Good afternoon! Well, it took me a bit longer than anticipated to get back to updating the blog. Just a few days after the KickStarter ended .... $10,000 over the goal thanks to all of you! ... we took off to Seattle for Cues and Tattoos. Silly me. I thought it would be easy, since it was a short trip with the whole troupe, teaching two 5 hour intensives on Wed/Thu, having the day off before the show on Fri, just vending all day on Sat so I could relax and chat with people, teaching two workshops on Sun and flying back that night.

No seriously, that's an easy trip for me. It wasn't 10 days long and the sponsors (Adriene and Julia of Hipnotica) are great. How is that not an easy trip?

Well, let's see; the 5 hour intensives were actually the easy part. Being in the same room with the same people for 2 days removed a lot of variables and made it a nice routine. The intensive even took place in the hotel, so literally all I had to do was walk out of my room, get on the elevator and land in the classroom. Plus I had Kae and Wendy to help.

That's where the easy ended however. The rest of the troupe arrived on Fri morning. Their room wasn't ready so they came to hang out in our room. I was knitting the last bit of lace collar for the infamous black vest and I really needed to concentrate. They accommodated me by sitting quietly, but it was still more distraction that I had anticipated (more on the infamy of the black vest at a later date, suffice to say that I absolutely had to finish it at that precise moment in time or I would have thrown it out the window.) OK, I did have a bit of R&R when I went down to the gym for an hour's workout with an episode of Breaking Bad. Sons of Anarchy is over for the season so I had to get my fix somehow. Getting ready for the show was fine, walking to the venue was also fine because the Seattle weather gods took pity on us and it wasn't raining. The show itself was so-so, I thought we could have done better. But the event as a whole was replete with performances with a bevy of guest artists. There was a private after party at the hotel. It was very nice-drinks and snacks provided by the hosts-but I really should have gone to bed and gotten some rest because the next day was 12 hours of vending.

I think that's what did me in. My intention was to set up the booth and just bask in the happiness of the crowd and enjoy the day's show (which included a fantastic performance by my students as Taksu Tribal.) To a degree, that is what happened ... but it was 12 hours of basking and happiness and .. wait for it ... there was another after party at 10:30pm. I really shouldn't complain. I had elected not to dance in that show because I knew I would be whooped and had to teach and fly home the next day. The troupe had to get into costume yet again, and we all had to find our way over to the new venue. There was a moment when I was sure that I wouldn't make it, but my lovely booth-mate Shannon propped me up and we actually ate dinner and caught a cab, arriving at the bar just as FCBD® hit the stage. The show was stellar. I was really pleased to see my troupe kick it out. Adriene was nice enough to give us a ride home when I began to complain loudly and in a very unladylike fashion about the fact that we were so far from the hotel. Really, she is the nicest, calmest person. A saint, if you will.

Back at the room, my troupe-mates thought it would be a lot of fun if we all drank wine and chatted for another hour. I had to, again, complain loudly and in a very unladylike fashion that the party was over-go home! Sigh. Sorry about that.

Sunday was a flurry of packing up the booth early so we could teach the last two classes and then catch a ride to the airport for our 8:15pm flight. Everyone worked like a well-oiled machine to that end. Of course at the airport, as our outgoing flight had to negotiate with the San Francisco weather (why does a city that is known for fog not have runways that are set up to deal with fog?) they threatened to delay our flight. It was in fact delayed by 30 minutes, but I can't complain (loudly and in a very unladylike fashion) because two flights filled with dancers that were also coming back to SF where delayed several hours.

So anyway, that' my story and I'm sticking to it. It was a great festival and I'll attend as long as they keep inviting me, but next time I'm getting my own room and bypassing the after party festivities so that I can behave in a gracious and ladylike manner throughout.

Thanks to everyone who had to put up with me!

Folk Art

Today I discovered a new exhibit at SFO. It's from the collection at the Santa Fe Museum of International Folk Art.

Folk Art makes me swoon! It works for me on so many levels.

Enjoy these trunks, briefcases and lunch boxes made from food cans, by an artist in Senegal.

I'll post a new photo each time I come to the airport. Cheers!

San Francisco Dyke March on Pink Saturday

It's a tradition that on the night before the Gay Pride Parade, the Dyke March takes off from Dolores Park at 18th/Dolores St and moves through the Mission to Castro/Market. Here we are waiting to get on the rolling sound truck. It was windy and our lashes were in danger of blowing off!
A view from the truck as we start the March.
It's rumored there were 100,000 people in the March.
At the end of the March our sound truck turned into a stage and we performed for the crowd. This event is sponsored by The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. They throw the best parties ever!