So to those who don’t know me personally, I’m a little bit odd. I also highly enjoy the odd and the peculiar; I am tickled by fandom, metafiction, and absurdity (this is probably one reason why I like A Very Potter Musical—it doesn’t strike me so much as a parody of Harry Potter as it does a loving mockery of Harry Potter fanfiction). Because of these interests, I tend to attract a certain caliber of friends—intelligent individuals that enjoy the geekier side of things. Part of my weekly schedule, after all, is movie night—not watching great works of cinema like Citizen Kane or The Godfather (unless it’s Valentine’s Day) or even A Charlie Brown Christmas (not enough explosions—my favourite Christmas movie is Die Hard). No, I watch BBC’s Merlin with medievalists (and friends). Or, if it’s out of season, Doctor Who.

Which brings us to today’s point.

I recently moved in to a new flat with flatmates of similar personality to those described above (ok, so one introduced me to Merlin, and started the movie-nights—credit where it’s due!). And when I live in a flat with people I like, I tend to get a bit crazy about themes and concepts that can be associated with said flat, though in a horribly geeky manner. Thus in undergrad our “quad” of four became Hobbiton; Frodo and Sam in one room, Merry and Pippin in the other. I’ve matured a little since then (just a little), and no longer need wide, overarching themes. However, there are certain things that geeky flats need.

DALEKS.

Okay, maybe that’s just what I think. But I suggested to my (then-future-)flatmate that maybe, just maybe, what our flat needed was a dalek. Which brings us to the “absurdity” mentioned above, because once seizing on an idea I can’t leave well enough alone. Thus my thought process proceeded something like this:

I know a knitting pattern for a dalek! Squishy knitted dalek! Yay!

Oooh, do you know what would be even more awesome? A TWEED dalek. He’d match Eleven!

NO NO NO. THE ONLY THING THAT CAN MAKE THIS MORE AWESOME? PURPLE.

Yes, folks, from the person who brought you the first-ever axe cozy (which I should really post on one of these days), I bring you: the purple tweed dalek.

And if you must know, I finished him while watching the whole of the Ninth Doctor’s series. In one day. I didn’t mean to, necessarily, but I needed a diagram on where to sew his blast-gun, etc., on to, and there was a picture in the booklet in the DVD boxset, and while it was out I might as well just watch a few episodes…

The end of the pattern encourages you to “go forth and exterminate the world with cuddly evil”. Now, I’m not so sure about the exterminating — I’d like to keep my visa, kthx — but cuddly? Boy, were they right.

Tags: art,Doctor Who,fandom,geek,knit,ramble,toy
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Well, it’s August again, which means it’s Festival time. I’m looking a lot more forward to it this year than I have in the past—I’ve moved away from the city centre, into a more quiet villagey place, which means I’ve fewer loud people trying to get me to see their shows (and have less dodging into traffic around tourists as I walk to work). At the most, I pass performers on their way to events, or the occasional person handing out a single flyer, obviously on their way to crash at some hostel.

Of course, it’s not quite Festival yet. After all, the Book Festival has two weeks until start, and that’s the only one I ever properly attend. However, this week is Fringe previews–so cheap tickets and interesting times are ahead!

Last night, as my first festival event this year, I went to see Axis of Awesome, which I was first exposed to via this YouTube video:

It was a fabulous way to start the festival – I laughed through the whole thing. And yes, they finished with Four Chords, but had tweaked it—additions included Lady Gaga, Barbie Girl, and AULD LANG SYNE.

I was giggling all the way home.

Coming soon: bellydance workshop review and current knitting projects, as well as more festival!

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Well, it’s July and I’m back Abroad. I had several other lovely craft projects going over the holiday, but of course forgot to take pictures of them — so you’ll have to wait until Christmastime to see. As for now, I’m settling back in, getting back into the swing of Work, beginning a new exercise regimen, learning a bellydance choreo to be performed in two weeks, searching for yarn for a Very Special Flat Project, and considering taking up another dance form.

The new exercise regimen is the big deal right now — I’ve been unhappy with my fitness levels for a while, but was struggling to find something that actually worked for me. Then one of my mother’s friends lent me a book on weight-training for women, saying it had helped her — and I, like an idiot, had forgotten that in my undergrad years the happiest and healthiest I ever was when I lifted weights and ran every morning. It only lasted one semester, but it was AWESOME.

So now I’m lifting weights again, and soon running will be added back in. Somewhere in here, things will be knitted, and dancing will be done. But for now, bring on the dumbbells!

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Only one day left on my antibiotics, and I am feeling almost one hundred percent better after the most recent bout with bronchitis! As was probably obvious by my minimal postings, I was too ill for almost any sort of cerebral activity — and definitely for all physical ones! But without anything to do, man was I bored. So I dug casually into the old crafts closet, in between  popping antibiotics and sucking down codeine,  and found a mostly-untouched batch of Sculpey clay! I’d been wanting to play a bit with Sculpey while I was home anyway, so I quickly brainstormed for something that I could leave with my parents, would actually be USED, and ended up with this:

Clay nativity!

By far the figures that turned out the best are the three kings:

I especially love how the blue king’s mustache turned out. However, out of all the figures, my favourite is the lying sheep, who quizzically would like to ask you…

“Baa?”

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Well, I thought May would be calmer.

I was wrong.

This weekend was fantastic, but as it is I’m already thrown headlong into finishing my conference paper. I’m running around packing for said conference, seeing friends before I head off, et cetera.  And now thanks to that bloody volcano, I’m worrying about getting out of the country.

This is stress that I do NOT need.

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So I idiotically exhausted myself by dancing, typing up knitting patterns, and (GASP) reading for my PhD. Part two of the Focus will be published tomorrow, which is honestly more appropriate — I’ll have a picture to go with it then. Lysse out.

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I blame it on my mother (this is a good thing). I was in those indistinguishable years between about six and nine, and my mother, always on the lookout for a fun semi-educational experience, took me and some friends to the Renaissance Faire. I actually don’t remember much—I don’t even remember how many times we went. Most of my memories involve strange men lasciviously hawking sticky buns, a woman with a banana in her bosom, getting an ocarina, and really wanting a snood. Surprisingly enough, bellydance doesn’t even figure in. Though ATS and Tribal Fusion have their roots in troupes that performed at Californian faires, I don’t remember seeing any bellydancing.

That was the Northern California Renaissance Faire, since either gone under or under new management. I didn’t rediscover RenFaires until we moved across country, brought on by a combination of factors—a growing addiction to fantasy literature, a need to play dress-up even as a teen, and several online friends (and a riding instructor and voice teacher!) who loved faires. I rediscovered the glorious costuming, the ridiculous amount of fun, the mixture of history and fiction and pure fantasy.

I was hooked. So much so that during undergrad I went on a RenFaire binge. In one season I managed to hit the faires in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and southern New York.  Therefore, I feel mildly qualified to give a review of these East Coast faires. I attended several years ago, though, so take my comments with a bucket of salt.

Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, though large and thus filled with tons of entertainment and shopping, is too sterile for my tastes. I don’t want my RenFaire to have pavement, thank you. If my skirt stays clean, it’s not a proper faire. End of story (plus, as a combat geek, their fights left me underwhelmed).

New York Renaissance Faire was simply confusing! I remember having difficulty keeping track of the schedule (and loos), finding venues in the middle of nowhere, and feeling like we were wandering through a labyrinth. It definitely requires multiple visits to get a hold on just where things are (and, therefore, to see everything–you have to find it first!). However, in its favour it had the most fun and interactive actors at any of the larger faires.

New Jersey Renaissance Kingdom is small, and that’s a good thing. Unlike the other three faires, people will interact with you even if you’re in garb (less likely at the others; they focus on people who aren’t obviously obsessed). Also, they have the best fight choreography hands down. No so much on the shopping (though I bought a gorgeous rapier there), and its entertainment is limited, but what it does have is of quality equal to other faires I’ve attended.

Yet Maryland Renaissance Festival will always be my home faire. Dirt paths and tightly-packed venues and shops make it seem like a proper Renaissance village. Most of my faire kit comes from here (very high quality vendors) and I still have plans to order a pair of boots from there someday (they mold them to your feet!). I have favourite acts (though their combat could use a little sprucing), and I even know some of the actors. Also, it has cheesecake on a stick. That’s an automatic win.

But anyway, what does this have to do with anything? Well, you’ll have to wait for Part Two this evening.

I should make a snood.

Tags: costuming,festival,reenactment
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First, apologies for the radio silence—my last two weekends have been full of dancing, and thus I have been too exhausted to blog. I’ll be updating on these soon enough, but first I’ll fulfill my promise and finish chatting on my tribal fusion belt!

Even though I wanted my tribal fusion belt to be as multifunctional as possible, I still made a few permanent additions to the belt base. I decided, as I was planning the belt, that a tribal belt shouldn’t just be another dance accessory. Tribal fusion costuming is incredibly unique: every costume piece, whether it’s a bangle, a hairflower, a ring, or a belt, has a story behind it. Thus I decided that there should be some permanent pieces on my belt, never to be removed, and that the permanent pieces should serve the same purpose as a charm bracelet—it should have meaning and memories. Luckily, there were a couple spots that I wanted to cover on the belt (seams and wearing bits), so I had the perfect place to put these “charms”. The first permanent piece added to my belt was cut from an old inexpensive necklace from Hawai`i:

A turtle, or "honu"

The next was a relatively new item. This past Valentine’s Day my mum sent me a package which had a lovely card with four charms on it. She knew I’d find something to do with them, and as I was in the middle of making the belt at the time, I chose to use the “love” charm on it. This made it on for very simple reasons: I’d like a symbol of my mother’s love with me when I dance. I don’t have a photo of this, as it was added so recently.

Finally, I sewed on what once was a keychain of an elephant opposite the honu. This piece has the greatest significance for several reasons. First, when I was little I grew up on stories about elephants, as my mum was one of the children who donated a penny to the San Francisco Zoo to help them by one of their Asian elephants, appropriately named Pennie.* The keychain itself is from India and a gift from my friend from undergrad, Dia, who taught herself Hindi and amusingly forgot to give me the keychain until I came to visit after I’d graduated. By this point, I’d been taking bellydance for only a few months; however, it’s Dia who introduced me to bellydance. Sometime in my final years of undergrad we ended up in her room and, though Dia does mostly ATS/ITS, she showed me a video of Rachel Brice (not that video, but I don’t remember which…). I thought it was pretty cool and went back to my life. Little did I know a few years later… Anyway, there’s a final significance to the elephant (told you it was important). A couple weeks ago I went on a charity shop trawl with my friend Laurie, who is also performing the choreography. We ended up in an Indian important store and saw a long dangle with several small stuffed elephants on it. Half-serious, half-joking, Laurie suggested that we get it and break it up, and each of the tribal fusion dancers in the choreo put an elephant somewhere on their costume. This has yet to happen, but in case it doesn’t ever, I’ve got a back-up elephant.

Not on my belt but continuing the “charm bracelet” concept: this past week I found that my newly-ordered headpiece was missing one of its dangles! To replace this, instead of searching for a new dangle I used a charm found amonsgt some maille rings I bought off a medieval reenactor. An eagle, it’s shaped in the style of Insular manuscript illuminations.** Also, it’s always nice for an American to stick an eagle somewhere!

And that’s it. I’d still like to find a small cross to sew on somewhere, but these things take time. Anyway, if I keep treating the belt like the tribal fusion version of a charm bracelet, it will never be fully finished! Until I find something new, then, Lysse-bird out.

* Sadly, Pennie died in 1995, and in 2005 the San Francisco Zoo gave the rest of their elephants to the Performing Animal Welfare Society when the San Francisco government banned elephants in the city (no, seriously—they banned elephants). The San Francisco Zoo, however, noted that this move was an improvement for the elephants’ lives, as they have more room now than they ever could have at the zoo.

** Insular manuscripts are from the British Isles during the early medieval period. Examples include the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Tags: bellydance,projects,tribal fusion
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…as much as that sounds like fun. Rather, I’ve just been ULTRA MEGA UBER BUSY (EXTREME!!!), and thus have not had much time to think on the arts OR academia. For those curious, the latter is keeping me the busiest, but the former has, in fact, been getting some attention despite the academic madness in my life.

So this is just a quick note. As it’s never too early to start thinking about NaNoWriMo, which I will of course be blogging about, I have been thinking on a naming scheme for secondary and tertiary characters. I’m trying to decide on alphabetical (Amos nodded at Beatrice, who blushed and looked away. But Carter could see her rosy cheeks clearly, and new he’d have to tell Dana all about it in the evening…) or most-recent-name from the Spam filter (I’d write a sample, but I thought of this right after I cleared out my Spam). Any thoughts or comments?

In other news, does anyone know how to do footnotes in WordPress?

Tags: NaNoWriMo,writing
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I actually went to some of the smaller Fringe shows this year! The first on my to-see list was The Legend of Kaulula’au, written by Keali’iwahine Hokoana and performed by Moses Goods III. However, I know I’m far too biased to give it a proper review, as part of my family lives in Hawai’i (my heart’s home) and it hit my soul with the first blast of the conch shell, which I haven’t heard since my grandfather’s funeral. However, I think I can say without too much nostalgic colouration that it was very well done. It could have gone wrong if the right person hadn’t performed it, but Moses Goods made the legend come alive—and at the same time, made me feel like I was sitting on the shores of Maui listening to a local storyteller.

My next show was the Princess Cabaret. It was, as the review said, well-done, funny, cheeky and sassy. The songs were mostly well-sung and amusing in and of themselves, and the re-characterization of the Disney Princesses was hilarious. My favourite moment, hands-down, was when Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), woken into the 21st century, takes one look around the modern streets, and shrieks, “A darkie! Walking around like he owns the place!” However, I felt a little twinge knowing that there’s still places in the world where such statements would be considered “acceptable speech”—and that is so far away from funny that it makes me feel a little sick. Because of this, it only beat the Segway/segue joke because, well, that’s a little dated. My one wish for the show, however, is that it had some sort of overarching plot to connect the vignettes together, as they grew increasingly random as the show went on, with a skit dropped here and there that seemed to call for something overarching. The ending would have been a lot more satisfying that way, too.

Following this (the same day, even) was a one-and-a-half hour version of Hamlet by Two-Day Productions from St Andrews “in the style of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells”. Let me warn you, first, that my two BIG THINGS when it comes to theatre are costuming and stage combat, having a background in both. I was expecting something far more steampunk than it was, but the costuming was interesting at least. I was a bit distracted by Ophelia’s busk, which looked more like a proper underwear corset, and with the rest of her outfit made her look a little too crazy to begin with. I loved Gertrude’s long skirt, fitted shirt and lady’s-style riding jacket, however, and Laertes’s coat, which was a green frock coat that seemed to have words printed over it. The acting was generally what is to be expected at a young-university level, though Hamlet’s portrayer was excellent (particularly with the almost manic mood changes). Ophelia was also good at the crazy, and Gertrude did quite well with both distress and dying. Conversely, I couldn’t stand it when Polonius was on stage: I was glad when he died simply so I wouldn’t have to watch that actor any more. It seemed like he was phoning it in—though I think he just wasn’t very good. The final fight scene was excellent. Flynning, yes, and the kills weren’t quite convincing (though that may be because I was in the front row), but the choreography was active and well-executed.

“The Magic Flute” by Shadwell Opera from Cambridge was a highlight! I had never seen it before, despite the fact that I grew up with the soundtrack and story. Their costuming choices were interesting and a little cheesy, but every single voice was spectacular. Extra praise goes to the Queen of the Night, who (according to her bio in the bulletin), did not have a major background in opera. Papageno and Papagena were hilarious, Monostatos was the villain you wanted to hate (he got “boos” instead of cheers at the end—that’s how good he was at making us at him), Pamina was sweet and melancholy, Tamino was a love-struck hero. The text was in English, but that made one of the plot points extra delightful: in a rather pared-down set, there was no tree for Papageno to hang himself from, so they wrote the available hatrack into the libretto. The only low point, sadly, came at the end, and left a bit of a foul taste in the mouth. The final celebration scene appeared more like an orgy (though props to the guy in drag!), and Tamino/Pamina’s kiss went on for a little too long. And in a small venue, it was very obvious that there was tongue. It wasn’t appropriate for the work, and mildly disrespectful to the audience as well.

The highest point of my festival, however, was Tao. It was so amazing, in fact, that I saw it once on my own, and went back with some friends. The first time, I left the theatre practically floating from glee. The next, I couldn’t stop smiling. In fact, I bought the DVD, and I think I’ll go watch this, as Tao is the final show in my Fringe list. Don’t take my word on how fun Tao was, though—this entry is over, so check out their website and watch the intro video! And then, of course, tell me what you think.

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