Friday, September 16, 2011

friday dance - Happy Birthday B. B. King!!!

apologies for the light (nonexistant) posting to the blog... a friend invited me to sell some handmade items at her open house this weekend - so i've been sewing nonstop... wish me luck... :)

ennyhoo.... it's b.b. king's birthday... so, some blues are in order... :)



random namedrop: long long ago, when i was still a college student, i wandered into legends - it was/is across the street from my alma mater, columbia college chicago. there weren't too many people in there, and i have no idea who was playing... i grab a bar stool and set down my backpack and enjoy the music. the guy in front of me turns around and smiles and i smile back... and then, i think - he looks really familiar... maybe he's a professor at school?? does he work around here?? *gearsturning*

eventually, he gets up and walks over to someone and says hi... and i hear someone say behind me, "whoa. that's eric clapton."

duh. *lightbulb* hahaha.... i'm still that clueless... :)

happy friday!!!

Tuzki Bunny Emoticon

Saturday, September 10, 2011

"i was alone, this bird had flown..."


just recently, i read haruki murakami's norwegian wood... i thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to own a copy someday... another book i really hated to put down and dreaded the story coming to an end...

i just read that it's been banned in a new jersey school district. i guess i understand why it would be banned in a middle school... there's language and a lot of sexual situations and frankly the young women in the novel have questionable logic - to put it nicely... but i really think a high school senior could read this... i think it would be life affirming for someone moving onto a new chapter in life... the characters make for lively traveling companions...

nowegian wood has also been turned into a film... can't wait to see it:



despite all that, i did feel a lot of sympathy towards the characters, especially the main character, toru.... death figures prominently into the lives of all the characters pretty much... and this passage towards the end of the book resonated with me:

"...i felt guilty that i hadn't thought of kizuki right away, as if i had somehow abandoned him. back in my room, though, i came to think of it this way: two and a half years have gone by since it happpened, and kizuki is still seventeen years old. not that this means my memory of him has faded. the things that his death gave rise to are still there, bright and clear, inside me, some of them even clearer than when they were new. what i want to say is this: i'm going to turn twenty soon. Part of what kizuki and i shared when we were sixteen and seventeen has already vanished and no amount of crying is going to bring that back. i can't explain it any better than this but i think that you can probably understand what i felt and what i am trying to say in fact you are probably the only one in the world who can understand."

of course, my thoughts return to my best friend, andra brubaker, who passed away on this day in 1993.

and like toru's memories of kizuki, andra will always be 21 years old and waving to me from the back of a bus taking her home...

i'm not sure i'll write a post about andra next sept 10 because i think i'm emotionally too tired to remember this day... i was so easily irritable yesterday... and i couldn't help thinking about today and what happened so many years ago that it felt too immediate... and that chasm of loss opened up instantly...

i think i'd much rather remember her on her birthday and write about her on THAT day... we'll see next year i guess...

a few years ago, i got to see "wicked" here in chicago... i enjoyed reading the book and i'm fairly sure andra would have too.... when the actresses began to sing "for good", i couldn't help but think of her - she was a radiant glinda to my disfigured elphaba.... and like 90% of the audience, i bawled... the lyrics still break my heart...



"...i do believe i have been changed for the better, because i knew you, i have been changed for good..."

i miss you so very much, andra...

Friday, September 09, 2011

friday dance - groove era lindy

so... since i've been sick with this cough, i haven't been able to go dancing - lindyhop or otherwise... the silver lining is i get to catch up on all the dancing that's going on everywhere else and being filmed...

although i've been lindyhopping for 14 years now, i've really never been to too many events that a lindyhopper "should" attend - herrang dance camp and ILHC, for example... i've never really had the time or money really...

and now that i'm an ancient "groove era" "wigglehopper", the style of dance and music has moved beyond me into something else... i enjoy watching what's new and trendy in lindyhop... i like change, but i'm old (literally and figuratively), and change is difficult (physically). >:) and i like to think that groove lindy or wigglehop is something of a curiosity in our local chicago scene - that the few of us still offer up something lovely, diverting and charming to watch for a few minutes... :)

thankfully, some world renowned dancers/teachers still groove on proudly:



if you're interested, dancer & lindyblogger jerry almonte also has a great post about this dance and the groove era here and here.

happy friday!!!

Sunday, September 04, 2011

new neighbor

i just happened to see this on the way to the backyard today:



apparently, it's a dagger moth caterpillar... :)

hope you had a relaxing sunday! :)

Tuzki Bunny Emoticon

Friday, September 02, 2011

friday dance - countdown

this song seems appropriate since Beyonce's birthday is on sunday and she's now counting down the days until she gives birth (squee)... i watched most of the vmas and was hugely disappointed save for her energizing performance... and adele's... :)

i'm still recovering from this upper respiratory infection... so i missed hip hop class yesterday. :( my teacher has played this song a few times as a warmup...



and i have to admit... when i listen to the lyrics i think about my thin man... cuz he's my boo - 14 rollercoaster years together and counting... :)

happy friday!!!!

Tuzki Bunny Emoticon

Thursday, September 01, 2011

self stitched september '11 - 9/1


072910 002b, originally uploaded by mamazilla1972.

so i'm going to try - tryyyyyyyy - this challenge out:

'I, Mamazilla, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-Sept '11. I endeavour to wear 1 self stitched/refashioned garment or accessory each day for the duration of September 2011'

wish me luck!

Via Flickr:
a dress i made from "feminine wardrobe" by jinko matsumoto.

mamazilla.blogspot.com/2010/08/resort-dress-town-dress.html



you can follow my progress at my flickr set.

thanks for coming by!

http://www.smileycodes.info

porkchop's music request

a very long while ago, a friend of the thin man gave him two old iphones she didn't need anymore. we decided to give them to porkchop & paloma (for music and games only) provided they achieved certain tasks...

paloma recived hers at the end of the last school year for doing so well academically. porkchop was to receive his when he completed a full series of swim lessons...

it hasn't happened yet because he would not get in the pool... he would kick and scream and have complete meltdowns in the shower room... for some reason, he had some huge irrational fear of the pool at the local Y. we started taking him to the pool by ourselves during free swims and after a few tries, he finally got in the pool and has been making progress... but he didn't complete a full series last time.

tomorrow, he will start a new series of swim classes... he's REALLY excited. :)

so i asked him (my 5yo), "porkchop, what music do you want me to put on your iphone?" he responded with the following... (clearly, he is influenced by his parents' musical tastes... *facepalm*)

"i want...













and all the beach boys songs."

funny and disturbing... i know. *sigh* currently, we're watching the looney tunes (as i cough and wheeze thru this upper respiratory infection) - he may ask for opera next... :) hope your week is going smoothly...

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