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A bit growly today, sorry in advance.
Friday night, good, relaxing, pampered myself with a little takeout Thai and finishing up all the Spaced eps. Came to the conclusion that second season is my favorite, specifically eps 2-6 of that season. Pure genius.
Woke up feeling blah on Saturday and knew most of it was nerves so shrugged it off. Well, except for the cramping part, I doubt that was stress-related. In retrospect I probably should've taken my body's hint and just stayed home and vegged, but no. The performance was, at best, a disaster (at least for me), and just no fun at all. I keep telling myself I was due for a veil-related catastrophe and M- is a good deal stronger than me so in a veil tug-of-war I was bound to lose. I think I recovered mostly ok, but of course I was right up front.
The venue also sucked, the other performers were complete assholes, we went on an hour after we were supposed to (the 20 minute set before us stretched to 40), the stage was the most dancer unfriendly thing possible (we had to dodge a Xmas tree, a piano, 5 chairs and live microphones on stands) and the folks in charge refused to move a single thing to make our lives easier, we got kicked out of the rehearsal area because the "featured performers" demanded the space so they could rehearse, the crowd was mostly disinterested (split between people giggling and pointing like we were in some freak show, those who had no desire to see Middle Eastern dancing, and a few that seemed to just like dancing in general and got into it), and traffic and parking there was just nightmarish. One of the volunteers at the venue was nice, but that's about the best thing I can say for the entire thing. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to watch someone performing flamenco without wanting to club them to death.
And of course the evening was being videotaped.
The worst part was feeling like I let Alyne down. She so wanted this performance to go well and I completely fucked it up. *sigh*
Anyway, the second performance went much better and was far, far more relaxed. Alyne and I were the only two double veil dancers there and we had plenty of space so we could do our thing and enjoy ourselves. This performance went flawlessly, of course, and it and some devastatingly good chocolate chocolate chip cookies helped keep the evening from being a total write off. The troupe bonded and we all decided to create a troupe anniversary next year and go out to La Fondue to celebrate.
Slept in on Sunday then zoomed up to meet![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elo_sf, we walked for about 4 miles and had some lunch before sitting down to chat and catch up. I got to hear about the Australian adventure and vent to him about Saturday night's performance. Got home in time to do some housework and then spend some quality time with Vehix. Taking E-'s advice I looked up the Toyota Echo as a possible option for purchase next year. I very much liked what I saw, and at half the price of the Prius I've got to say it's mighty tempting. I want to check some reviews of the car, but if I like what I see I may just go for one of those instead.
Picked up Aelf despite the fucked-upedness of the new airport layout. I love that the city turned a fairly simple and straightforward airport entrance into this bizarro can-o-worms nonsense that's nearly impossible to navigate. And gods help you if you want to get onto 101 when you leave. Way to go, San Jose, you've managed to make your airport less user friendly than San Francisco's or Oakland's. Good job.
Friday night, good, relaxing, pampered myself with a little takeout Thai and finishing up all the Spaced eps. Came to the conclusion that second season is my favorite, specifically eps 2-6 of that season. Pure genius.
Woke up feeling blah on Saturday and knew most of it was nerves so shrugged it off. Well, except for the cramping part, I doubt that was stress-related. In retrospect I probably should've taken my body's hint and just stayed home and vegged, but no. The performance was, at best, a disaster (at least for me), and just no fun at all. I keep telling myself I was due for a veil-related catastrophe and M- is a good deal stronger than me so in a veil tug-of-war I was bound to lose. I think I recovered mostly ok, but of course I was right up front.
The venue also sucked, the other performers were complete assholes, we went on an hour after we were supposed to (the 20 minute set before us stretched to 40), the stage was the most dancer unfriendly thing possible (we had to dodge a Xmas tree, a piano, 5 chairs and live microphones on stands) and the folks in charge refused to move a single thing to make our lives easier, we got kicked out of the rehearsal area because the "featured performers" demanded the space so they could rehearse, the crowd was mostly disinterested (split between people giggling and pointing like we were in some freak show, those who had no desire to see Middle Eastern dancing, and a few that seemed to just like dancing in general and got into it), and traffic and parking there was just nightmarish. One of the volunteers at the venue was nice, but that's about the best thing I can say for the entire thing. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to watch someone performing flamenco without wanting to club them to death.
And of course the evening was being videotaped.
The worst part was feeling like I let Alyne down. She so wanted this performance to go well and I completely fucked it up. *sigh*
Anyway, the second performance went much better and was far, far more relaxed. Alyne and I were the only two double veil dancers there and we had plenty of space so we could do our thing and enjoy ourselves. This performance went flawlessly, of course, and it and some devastatingly good chocolate chocolate chip cookies helped keep the evening from being a total write off. The troupe bonded and we all decided to create a troupe anniversary next year and go out to La Fondue to celebrate.
Slept in on Sunday then zoomed up to meet
elo_sf, we walked for about 4 miles and had some lunch before sitting down to chat and catch up. I got to hear about the Australian adventure and vent to him about Saturday night's performance. Got home in time to do some housework and then spend some quality time with Vehix. Taking E-'s advice I looked up the Toyota Echo as a possible option for purchase next year. I very much liked what I saw, and at half the price of the Prius I've got to say it's mighty tempting. I want to check some reviews of the car, but if I like what I see I may just go for one of those instead.Picked up Aelf despite the fucked-upedness of the new airport layout. I love that the city turned a fairly simple and straightforward airport entrance into this bizarro can-o-worms nonsense that's nearly impossible to navigate. And gods help you if you want to get onto 101 when you leave. Way to go, San Jose, you've managed to make your airport less user friendly than San Francisco's or Oakland's. Good job.
