Another day on the job

Today is Day #13 of work. It's the final day and I'm down to my final 3.5 hrs. It's been a very, very long 13 days.

Yesterday my boss and I laughed for at least 5 minutes straight because he used the word "smegma" in a sentence. I don't think I had heard that word in years. He was ordering his nasty lunch (liver and onions, seriously) from the local slop house. I made a comment about how his lunch looks and probably tastes like poopie. Then, referring to my Lean Cuisine pizza, he said "Well, you're eating smegma on styrofoam". We proceeded to laugh until we cried. Then several of us launched into a debate about our interpretations of the word and its meaning.

Now he won't stop saying the word "smegma".

Maybe he'll get a new meat body

http://www.slate.com/id/2197279/

I love, love, reading about Scientology. It's balls-out fun.

Love is a many splendored thing

Exciting events on the horizon!

Right after the Yard Dogs show in Alexandria, I get to come back home and hop on a plane to NYC! Then it's time for yoga and playing with Leah. Next up it's workshops with most revered tribal fusion dancers Rachel Brice and Mardi Love. This will be an extraordinary opportunity. Then...more Yard Dogs! I'm taking Leah to the Speigeltent for an evening of bellydance and circus sideshow delights!

I can't believe that I get to do this. I'm in utter disbelief. I get to hang with beautiful Leah, see the Yard Dogs (again), and train with two of the best tribal dancers in the world. Holy crumbs. Plus, I think I need to visit the Anna Sui flagship store again for inspiration.

Blessed

What a day, what a week, what a life!

Things are marvelous. I have a whole bunch of cool stuff coming up on the horizon that I will post about very soon. In the meantime...

The picture above is my hand. Those beads are Tibetan mala prayer beads. They were blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

No kidding!

These beads were a gift from the Drepung Loseling monks and Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi who is a former monk and friend to His Holiness. The American Theatre staff was blessed with gifts just before the monks left after their visit this week. I feel so happy and honored and full of love and bliss.

In other news, I got to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army which was entertaining. It was perhaps not the work of art that Pan's Labyrinth was, but it was delightful nonetheless. The film is worth the price of admission just for Red & Abe Sapien's excellent rendition of "Can't Smile Without You".

Best of all, Leah's in town! Hurray! Life is good.

May the (Dragon)Force be with you

This past weekend was a smorgasbord of metal music awesomeness.

Friday my friend Sam obliged me and went with me to the Mayhem Festival in Virginia Beach. We made it in time to avoid a lot of junk and catch the good bands (and no, I don't mean Slipknot). We caught the last song from Walls of Jericho (cool gal lead singer) and some rather bland but okay Christian metal (UnderOath) and some typical tripe (Machine Head, Suicide Silence). We caught the entirety of Mastodon. They were good, I want to get their albums. The cruddy sound of the outdoor amphitheatre does justice to no band, unfortunately. Mastodon is a tight band, but I think they need a different venue to be fully appreciated. Their set backdrop and album artwork is super killer, by the way.

And then the men we came for ...

DRAGONFORCE!

Oh, I love DragonForce so very, very much. I think they might very well be the raddest, most awesome band that's ever been. Okay, maybe Led Zeppelin, but DragonForce is darn close.

Not familiar with the force that is Dragon? Shame on you. Briefly, DragonForce sounds like 80's power metal (i.e. Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger", Scorpion's "Rock You Like a Hurricane") except sped up to 180rpm. It's insane. Their dueling guitarists, Sam Totman and Herman Li, are virtuoso guitarists of the highest caliber. They are most impressive, more so than I can describe. All of the group members are extremely talented. Best of all, they have a keytar! Sadly, the set was only 40 minutes long, but it was the most high-energy 40 minutes I could have asked for. They bounced around, goofed off, joked and acted silly while assuming rock god poses and playing at lightning speed. They even had a fan below the center stage platform so that their long metal god hair could blow back while they posed. It was the most fun I've ever witnessed a band having while playing, and it was contagious.

So Sam and I left the amphitheatre on our DragonForce high and escaped the tortures of Disturbed and Slipknot. Hurray!

Now I'm even more excited for my next Mayhem Fest in Washington, D.C. on August 17th! I can't get enough DragonForce!

Then Saturday arrived and we visited Virginia Beach for some more heavy metal. Matt's cousin's stepson (did you follow that?) has a band called Beneath the Surface. We listened to their MySpace music and were so impressed that we decided to go support them. Turns out it was their very first live show! It was at a craphole called Steppin' Out and there were numerous metal, punk and emo bands playing this all day show. We made it in time to catch the end of one crummy band and catch all of Beneath the Surface. For a first performance, it was really impressive. The band's got a lot of talent. They are all very young (one guitarist looks about 12 years old but plays better than any local artist I've seen in a long time). I was told that they all have drivers licenses. Remarkably, these guys show a lot of potential despite their inexperience and the cruddy sound at Steppin' Out. They're Richmond, VA boys and they're planning some shows around there, so be on the lookout if you like some screamin' math metal.

Thanks Jimmy

My brother-in-law sent this. These are indeed pictures of a snake eating a frog. It was taken right outside his home in the woods of Roanoke. His wife Kellie told me about this incident, so I'm delighted to finally see the picture.

Utterly insane.

Donkey fruit

My friend fussed at me for being so slack and not posting. I have LOTS to post about my metal music mayhem weekend, but no time to write properly. It's busy at the theatre prepping for The Mystical Arts of Tibet right now. This is a crazy week that I greatly anticipate yet deeply dread each year.

I'll get to work writing about last weekend. In the meantime, enjoy the photo above. It's a fruit carving that my husband's uncle made. His uncle, Tom Rhodes, is an accomplished carver. He's published a book on carving golf balls called Golf Ball Carving Unlimited. He has a piece of property that's sort of a local park area and he's carved these interesting faces into the trees. Parents take their kids to the area and walk through what the locals call "The Enchanted Forest". He's got crazy skills and has been featured in a number of carving magazines. For our small family reunion last month, Tom made this fruit sculpture inspired by the donkey from Shrek. Somebody stuck a knife in it's head and I had to snap a picture.