FWD had a post recently on singing in Sign where they linked to videos of people singing songs in ASL, BSL and Auslan. The signs are more dramatic/vivid than usual and worked into dances in some cases and they utterly hooked me. I've been particularly enjoying Lee's BSL Songs, which you can see on his youtube channel here.
I've been very pleasantly suprised by how many signs I recognise as-is, and am beginning to pick up a few new things as well. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have been.
We're seeing Alice in Wonderland in 3D tomorrow evening, then I'm off to a yoga class. I've not done any Yoga in years, but I enjoyed it a lot back when and it helped me out a lot with my hips. I'm hopeful it may help me with the joint problems I've been having recently by being a low impact way to strengthen the muscles around them, improve my flexibility a little and generally be a reasonably fluffy yet effective form of exercise that'll go well with dance. Trip report to follow ...
Okay, I am still absolutely exhausted thanks to this stupid bug (The most demanding thing I did today was take a shower and have breakfast, and yeeesh) so here's a post I wrote last week after we saw Imogen Heap that I've been meaning to put up.
We saw Imogen Heap at the Junction two weeks ago. We'd seen her there once before, back in the tour for the last album and although that was a good performance, seeing the way she's developed as a musician, as a live presence and how she's stepped up the way she works with samples, loops and found sounds was incredible. She was wearing a pair of little microphones on her wrists that picked up everything from gongs and bells and little tweety birds to her own breathing, all of which was woven straight into the background song-tapestry. While I was on the fence beforehand, as a direct result of this absolutely immense show, I have got with the program and will now be seeing her play the Albert Hall with Doodle and Ezekiel in November. total Yum .
The venue and the people there were really awesome as well. they gave Ezekiel a guest list place to bring a carer in (me, in this case). and the people inside were absolutely yum and let us wheel up to the front and kept photographers and stuff out of her sight line and everything. It was a little bit of a letdown that their induction loop wasn't working (test these things more often please, guys, you're not the first or unfortunately I suspect the last wonky loop that we've encountered) but it was totally offset by the people being five different kinds of yummy. I've even had some messages backwards and forwards with one of them on youtube who was videoing right where we were - he's editing up a video of 'Canvas' I'm really looking forward to and will probably post here when it appears.
Was also able to run into some fire troupe people there, one of whom very kindly let me take a picture of the tour shirt on her to show Amy - which lead to her acquiring one so thanking you kindly, Charlie .
Short version? Heap is awesome, catch her live if you can as it's a total experience .
Tal has been feeding me a diet of classical, Newfie folk and prime Bluegrass - and this is a source of immense happiness to me. I've put the album this song comes from (Not all who wander are lost - Chris Thile) on rotation while cycling and it turns a wet ride home in the dark into a gorgeous happy cycling meander of awesome - something about the rythm of the music and the rythm of the bike, very easy to get lost in it.
I like that kind of getting lost, it feels very alive indeed and sometimes that feeling is in short supply - so I cultivate it wherever and whenever I can .
Dance is continuing to rock my world. The stuff we're doing now doesn't quite have that crazyintimate feel that the strict face to face stuff did, but the overall mood feels a little deeper now we've done that, and things like shouder tacks, very solid/definite ATs shimmies and some things we've been doing with hip figure eight things tied into ferreos just feel very right. I need to work on my upper body strength though, and Joint rubbish is making some things harder than they need to be.
Ezekiel has suggested an absolutely top plan for this that I rather like though ... going back to Yoga. It helped so much with my walking and my balance/centre last time that I'm hoping it could really do the same for me if I go back again. I'm going to start having a sniff around for a class I can work into the schedule alongside ATS and other gubbins ... watch this space .
On that subject(ish), I now have a most magificent partner in crime for the Domba weekend - Raindog and I are gonna be dancing our arses off in workshops together and enjoying drunken Hafla magic - this fills me with fucken glee because for various reasons we don't get to do nearly enough things together.
Still need to ramble on about Imogen Heap, the fact that my glasses are absolutely awesome and the impending arrival of the most beautiful skirt since the turtle beneath us hatched, but that iwll have to wait as tomorrow is set to be all kinds of busy. Ezekiel, Doodle, Horatio and I are all set to go explore Grenwich then see Depeche Mode rock the O2 arena - this is going to be epic adventurez .
So Jump in the river and learn to Swim
God's gonna wash away all your sins
and if you still can't see the light
God's gonna buy you a satelite.
I've had this one stuck in my head for nigh on a week and it's all Chiara's fault . It's a good one for those moments when you just feel like booking a ticket off this rock.
That's Allison Iraheta. I think she was on American Idol sometime, but I discovered her from a friends blog this week and her shouty punky stylins rather tickle me. She is also the start of a classic low energy post where I link to things that have tickled me online these past few days - but that i haven't had the intellectual resources or energy to work into a post.
First up is a post from GenderBitch over on Questioning Transpobia titled Intent: It's Fucking Magic. This gorgeously sarcastic screed illustrates everything I feel when someone says they didn't mean to be offensive after comign out with the most ridiculous shit, as if that should automagically make me forgive and forget. It applies in other situations too, just sayin.
Next up is Annaham at DisabledFeminists.com talking about Amanda Palmer's new project, EvelynEvelyn - something that appeared quite interesting to me until I discovered it was Amanda and Scott in crip-drag pedalling the same tired old tropes about the disabled. I'm pretty dissapointed in this one as a fan and a human being.
Next, the Pope is planning a visit to Britain. Now much as I object to the fella and his antiquated views about equality legislation and his right to stone us Queermos in the streets or whathaveyou, I don't have any issue with him visiting the Catholic faithful here in the UK. What I do have an issue with is the British Government footing the bill. The National Secular Society are gathering signatures on a petition here, asking that the Vatican pay their own airfare and security,etc ... head over and put your mark on it if you're so inclined.
Last off, Guy has set the date for the next FlowJam event, It's in Cambridge on Saturday 27th and you can find details on Facebook here. The last one was fantastic fun, so if you have the chance, do come along.
Too nauseous to lay down. I've been taking little chair naps but am getting pretty loopy. Bit stressed about hospital tomorrow - though hopefully it'll be no biggie. Also excited about picking up my glasses, being able to see straight will feel p. awesome.
But music and goons are entertaining me, so it is all okay, rite?
I have absolutely unconditionally fallen in love with Wallis Bird's new album this week. I like a nice bit of happy and bittersweet Girl with Guitar stuff and this one is just the mood I needed this week. She's got a ridiculously happy new single out called To My Bones which is perfect for those times you've just got to shout 'Let's Get Happy".
Especially when shit like this comes to your attention. Got some posts here for you by a friend of mine at DirtySilverRings and Bint Ashamsa at My Private Casbah on the incredibly shitty treatment that Feminist Fightback got at this year's Reclaim the Night march in London. Calling the Police in to deal with a sex workers rights collective peacefully attending a womans rights march has so many things wrong with it I just don't even know where to fucking begin.
I am becoming increasingly sympathetic towards friends of mine like Lamasu who are up for fighting the kyriachy but don't want anything to do with feminism at all because this kind of shit just never seems to stop and I can't be doing with it.
Still, as someone who is (from their perspective) on entirely the wrong side with this one, I doubt they want anything to do with me too so maybe that's a win/win.
This is a beautiful bit of fiddle from The String Sisters which I was introduced to this morning. It's a medley of Shetland Fiddle Diva/Kinyon's Jig/Kinyon's Reel/Lad O'Beirne's and is one of the more fun versions of this I've ever heard. The pattern at the centre of this gives me the shivvers ... and is exactly the sort of thing that causes Ezekiel to make jokes to me about sea shanties ;>.
We are enjoying the glories of a Day Off today thanks to the best laid plans of mice and geeks going curiously awry. I had planned to have a lie in and get up when Ezekiel's alarm went off, but my body clock had other plans so I've been down here since a ways after Six. All was not lost, however, as a glorious rising sun and some new music via blip.fm had me out in the garden, dancing up the dawn with some weaves and a bit of behind the back stuff I'm playing about with that has a nice skipping rythm to it.
It was ridiculously good fun; I think I'd do it every day if it didn't leave me in a less than professional state afterward. I also now know why everyone spinning 3 beat or more complex weaves in videos looks so happy ... once things start getting a little more complicated it's a real buzz.
Kicked off an email to an ATS Bellydance teacher I found out about from Madeline at the fire troupe this morning as well, she has classes on a Thursday evening that would fit nicely into my schedule (Such as it is). Am nervous as all hell but excited as well. I'm actually starting to feel like I can do this sort of thing recently and it's all kinds of a boost on so many levels. I hope there's room.
We're off to town later to take a look at the new central library (yay!) and to have a poke around for some needful clothes. Things are a bit too mad on a Saturday sometimes, but a thursday afternoon should be just fine :>.
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