(no subject)

For those with the time to spare (and a fast internet connection) cleolinda has posted directions on how to retrieve something cool on JK's site, if anyone could go and check it out and let me know what they find that'd be great. Otherwise I have to wait until I get home :( May be spoilerific so be prepared.

Ok weekend rundown, may get lengthy, cope.

Friday night: sewing, sewing, sewing. Have lost some feeling in my right thumb, hoping it's just temporary. So much progress was made that I feel it was worth it. Watched Kill Bill 2 (the training scenes with Pai Mei were worth the cost of rental in and of themselves), overall I thought it was good but I'd take the fight from the first one with the Crazy 88's and Lucy, then the scenes with Pai Mei from number two and make myself an extremely short but highly entertaining film. I discovered that I really didn't give a shit why Bill did what he did to The Bride, it didn't matter and it slowed the entire film down. He was just a vicious bastard, he shot her, she was out for revenge that's all that mattered. In that I thought Quentin veered too far from the HK chop-suey flicks he was attempting to emulate with this one. Too much plot by far.

Saturday: Up fairly early to get started on roughly half a million errands, came home and cleaned (though not as much as I should have), notified landlord that I really needed to talk to him about the smoke detectors and would be home all day (he never stopped by), then sewing, sewing, sewing. Received copies of the Read or Die series so I could finally see what happened in the end. Of course it turned out that G4/TechTV had run less than half of the entire show so I had a lot of episodes to watch. It gave me something to watch while sewing, so that was cool. Fabulous series, I highly recommend it, even if the end made very little sense. I got so much done that I felt very, very pleased and could set the project aside at midnight in order to do a Samhain ritual.

( Cutting here for those not interested in pagan/political commentary, just move along... )

Sunday: Up fairly early and chatted with Aelf for a while before we both got dressed and ready for the Day of the Dead parade down in SJ. I wore my new costume and I believe there's at least one pic of me and Aelf from just before we started. Alyne did some make up on me so I'd fit in a bit better with the others (everyone was done up as a skull or a devil, it was really wonderful) and off we went. We attracted quite a crowd as we waited out front to get going. And I can't even tell you how many car honks we got :) Finally we figured out we were supposed to be out behind the church where there was some truly spectacular dancing going on. Watching guys in loin cloths and feathered headdresses shaking their groove things was a sight to see.

We got started late (of course), but it was a helluva lot of fun. About halfway through the parade we were joined by lion dancers, which was just so cool. We were all trying to play zills along with the rhythm, but there were so many going on at that particular moment that it was hard to figure out which we should be playing. Finally our drummers settled into a nice beladi for us to follow. By the time we'd reached the end of our march we all gathered and waited to be presented to the crowd. See, we were going to perform in front of a truly massive audience. Had we known this in advance we might have prepared and brought along some music or something, as it was one of the two drummers had to leave so we had one drum and a wild mix of cabaret and tribal types. One of the younger cabaret gals I didn't know looked up at me apprehensively and asked, "What are we supposed to do?" I replied, "Just shake something and try to look like you know what you're doing."

I think we did ok under the circumstances, but a lot of people (the ones not oggling us anyway) looked like they were wondering what the hell we were doing at a Day of the Dead celebration, but that was ok. It was a fun experience and I got to wear my new costume (which looked amazing) so I was pleased.

Of course we'd parked at the beginning of the parade route so it was a long hike back, but while Aelf walked up ahead with J- and J-, I hung back and chatted with Alyne. When I told her about my Tarot reading confirming a Kerry victory she nodded and said she'd been hearing a lot of friends saying just the same thing. I suppose with a Redskins loss this weekend it's pretty much a done deal :)

Zoomed home and de-make-upped, but there was little I could do with my poor frizzy, hair-sprayed locks so I just pulled then back out of my face. Changed into my witch t-shirt and some jeans and made myself some dinner (yay leftovers!). Plunked a bag full of candy by the door in case anyone showed up, then tried to get the weekend project finished. Pye was having none of that and demanded attention so I gave in and petted him to sleep. Watched some Monster House, which is weirdly addictive, particularly with the really cool themed ones (the Shark House was so awesome). Then I got to see the "Emotional Life of Farm Animals" show I'd heard about earlier in the week on PBS before settling in for "Witch Hunt" on the Salem trials.

I'd been a bit wary of the show, I know a great deal about the period and far too many shows on the subject leave me more annoyed than enlightened. This one was really quite good, though, and focused on the political aspects of what was happening in the village and town at the time. It also took the actual words of those involved in the trials and gave detailed descriptions of their lives, and their possible motivations. It was absolutely fascinating stuff (for instance I hadn't known that Sarah Goode's four year old daughter was also imprisoned and went mad in the jail), and it didn't go with the "ergot poisoning made them do it" theory. I found myself more moved and saddened than I'd expected to be, I think because I've seen in my own life how hysteria and mob mentality can effect otherwise sane and good human beings. Scary, but important lessons even in this day and age.