The Siren Project (Denver, CO)
May 30, 2006
| The Siren Project (Indie, Alternative, Other ) http://www.thesirenproject.com/ http://www.myspace.com/19687067 Live at The Colorado Dark Arts Festival Downtown Denver, Colorado http://www.coloradodarkarts.com/CDAF.html An incredible talented band … The Siren Project will enchant you and entice you into their otherworldly realm. Formed in 1998 by Malgorzata Wacht (from Poland), a new musical experience was unleashed upon Denver’s music scene. Blended with keyboardist Alex Seminara, drummer Arbon Reimer, bassist Ian Preston and guitarist Greg Stretton, be prepared for an acoustic journey when hearing them together. Haunting and otherworldly melodies will intertwine with simple rhythmns and subtle riffs pleasing almost all audiences. She received “Best Female Vocalist” in 2001 (Colorado), and has been a repeat performer for several years at the Colorado Dark Arts Festival. They contributed their music to the “Education in Infestation” double disk project along with H.R. Giger, Clive Barker, Joe Coleman, Jello Biafra, and many other great artists. True to their name … and mesmerizing enchantment … they do have resemblance of enchanting magic as did the sirens of old fables. An incredible act. Review Rating of a 4.5 out of 5. |
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Colorado Dark Arts Festival (2006: Denver, Colorado)
May 29, 2006
| The Colorado Dark Arts Festival (2006; Occurs Annually in Denver) Cafe @ Netherworld * The Church * The Shelter Downtown Denver, Colorado http://www.coloradodarkarts.com/CDAF.html This Year’s Colorado Dark Arts Festival took place at three venues : Cafe @ Netherworld, The Church, and the Shelter with a fabulous smorgasboard of entertainment from over 9 local bands, International bands like “Zombie Girl” and “The Siren Project”, and a host of dancers, dance troupes, belly dancers, burlesque, acrobatics, skits, Panel discussions, Gothic poetry, artists, vendors, A tarot reader, and much food and drink to imbibe. Many DJ’s entertaining us in different dance club rooms inbetween the acts and for late night entertainment and dancing fun. One of the most entertaining Dark Arts Festivals ever! All that and more for a modest $10 - anyone nuts enough to miss it lost out. A must attend event every year! Thank you for everyone who came together to put on this incredible event. Review Rating of a 5 out of 5. Featured: Tristraum, Born in Winter, The Dignity of Labour, The Siren Project, December Question, Deviant, Eloquent, AnaDies, Vespertine Sky, Zombie Girl; Art by Belladonna, Uri Francisco, Robert Geist, Grim, Karen Hall, Mental Switch, Alicia Murray, Noire, K.L. Turner, Mark Tyler, Hannah Warner, Stan Yan, Cassandra Young, and much more …
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Still Not Over The Staring Thing
May 28, 2006
As Jeff and Fresca both said, mere words cannot describe the constant staring in Kafaqu, but I’m going to try anyway. I can understand it on some level, a foriegn girl playing games in your local net cafe might grab some attention. But what’s with the grocery store stares? Surely it’s not a surprise that Westerners also need to eat.
I’d probably never eat at KFC at home, but sometimes I really want to eat french fries that taste like french fries, and ice cream that’s not flavored with red bean. So I ordered, in understandable if imperfect Chinese, and took my food upstairs to the seating area.
Ok, patrons, you’ve all chosen to eatin a KFC. It’s not that surprising that an American would be eating in the only place which serves Western food. At least swallow your burger before staring opened mouthed, ok? And don’t any of you want to resume your conversations? Oh well, I like to enforce a no-talking-while-Meg-is-eating-Western-food rule, and clearly the entire restaurant wanted to abide by this rule.
Hey Mom, remember that advice you gave me in middle school? I remember a whole speech about how it may feel like everyone is looking at me, but really, they’re all too focused on themselves to really be staring at me? Yeah, I know you remember, I made you repeat it often times. It’s not true, as a point of fact.
By the time I got to my ice cream, the autographs had started. I never know what to write when a preteen girl pushes her glitter pen and English book into my hands and mumbles a request. Best wishes from the American who was trying to eat dinner. I can only assume that the girls know that I’ll be internationally famous soon and they plan to sell their signed textbooks on E-Bay to pay for college. Or they plan to take their books to school tomorrow and show their friends the signature of the lao wei who really does chew and swallow, just like real people.
Aquarium of the Americas
May 27, 2006
The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas has reopened in New Orleans and visitors can once again flock to the tanks teaming with beautiful bright colored fish. When hurricane Katrina hit more than 10,000 animals at the Aquarium died and about 2,000 survived. Places like Sea World in Orlando helped them get back on their feet by donating some animals, which helped cut down on rebuilding costs.
But it still took more $5 million dollars to get the park back to what it once was. I visited once before two years ago and I do agree it was very beautiful. I especially loved to the the white alligator. Very strange looking but fun. Just the the Aquarium altogether. A strange and loud but wonderful place to visit.
Language Barriers In Qingdao
May 23, 2006
In the beginning of Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw says that English dialects are so varied that an Englishman cannot open his mouth in public without another Englishman instantly hating him. He might have been writing about China in 2006, but instead of disliking the speaker, the listeners are at a total loss to understand him. It’s not just a lao wei problem, most Chinese movies and TV stations are also subtitled in Chinese because residents can’t understand each other.
Fresca and I wandered in to a Qingdao street market as part of our ongoing quest to try all the barbarqued tofu in Shandong. We bought scallion bread and rice dumplings and strawberries, which was a lot harder than in sounds. First, because we can’t understand what they’re saying with Qingdao accents. Even when we use the Chinese handsigns for what we want and how many we want, the vendors seem to interpret “2 dumplings” as “Please call the rest of your family over to see the Americans. Really. And touch my hair, I love that.”
We found a low stone wall to sit down, eat our lunch and attract stares. One woman stared open-mouthed at us as she passed… ok, a lot of women did but I’m mentioning this one because she had pink hair*. Our picnic spot turned out to be next to an office and the men inside all poured out onto the steps to ask us the usual questions “Are you Russian?” and “Are you sisters?”, tell us that we’re beautiful and watch us eat. Once they realize that my Chinese is exhausted by “Hello, we are Americans” they go back inside.
They tap on the window from inside, and point to two chairs in their breakroom. We don’t go in, of course, and after a moment, one man come out to give me his business card and say “Welcome to China!” in English. I accept the card with both hands, which is the polite way, but I can’t figure out a single character on it
After eating, and waving goodbye to our audience, we took a taxi to the Tsingtao brewery. The driver asked if we like Tsingtao beer, and told us that we’re beautiful. (sensing a theme here?) I tried to tell him that I teach English but I accented lao shi wrong, and I told him “I am an English mouse.”
*Fresca would like you to know that one of us shouted “WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? YOU HAVE PINK HAIR!!!” and that it wasn’t her.
Qingdao Dinner
May 22, 2006
We decided to wander around Qingdao to find a good place to have dinner. Ok, that’s not exactly true. I remember saying something about finding a German place for dinner, because I remember thinking that a town that was a German concession and holds a huge brewery, there would be lots of German restaurants. Or at least a few. Or, um, one.
After a pedestrian tour of Qingdao (get it? that was funny) we wound up at a hotel restaurant, the kind with no menus, where you walk up to the saran-wrapped buffet and pick which dishes you want cooked for you.
Fresca and I walked around the buffet, accompanied by no less than seven waiters and waitresses, to point out what we wanted to eat, at which point the staff would tell us we can’t have it.
“Listen! They’re saying Bu fan bian de!” I tell Fresca. She gives me the look that means Chinese culture, while fascinating, is not more important than food and sleep. (Did I mention that I just got a book on China since Mao, and I spent most of the ride to Qingdao waking her up to read interesting parts?)
Bu fan bian de is a Chinese phrase that means “not suitable” or “not a good idea”. Basically, I asked for a dish that consisted of pancakes and halved cherry tomatoes and then I was told I couldn’t have it.
“I must tell you, this dish contains tomatoes so it might not be suitable for you,” said one of the waiters.
“Tomato good,” I tell him, because my comprehension has far outstripped my speech.
We also pick a plate of thin-sliced salmon and cucumbers. This time, the staff tells us firmly that this is not sushi. Fresca asks me if maybe they think we think we’re in Japan. I ask her if maybe the unintelligable words are the Chinese for bagel and dilled cream cheese.
Fresca orders an orchid salad, and when our food arrives, we’re suprised to learn that tonight, the part of orchids will be played by spicy peanuts.
I also order beer, but am told that Yantai beer is not suitable. When in Qingdao, drink Tsingtao, I suppose. We try to get tea, and the waiters ask Fresca what kind. Without a list of options or any idea how our food will taste, Fresca defers to the waitress. The waitress, stunned by the responsibility of choosing for tea for the foreigners, consults the other four waiters watching us. We picked out the words “chrysanthemum” and “10 kwai” and say ok.
When our food arrives, the salmon adventure turns out to be Chinese lox with a lemon-wasabi dipping sauce. The entire staff watches us eat, including men in aprons from the kitchen, and all the other patrons. The food is awesome, and I am pleased to hear kuai xi (chopsticks) and hen hao (very good) from our audience.
Orlando’s Gatorland
May 22, 2006
Originally opened in 1949 this gator tourist attraction was around long before Disney, Universal and all the big ride themeparks. Gatorland is a place to go to see not just gators but snakes, beautiful bright colored flamingos, colorful lorikeets and a barnyard.
One of the first things you see when you come to this reptile lovers dream spot, is that the entrance/giftshop makes you feel as though your standing between a gators jaws. An exciting and eerie feeling.
Gatorland is really a great place to visit, especially for the kids to see these fearsome creatures. It is magical to watch their little faces as the gators jump out of the water to snatch meat out of the trainers hands.
If you would like to visit Gatorland you can get all the information from the website:
You will also find an online coupon that will give you $2.50 off an adult park ticket.
How I Spent My May Vacation
May 20, 2006
Fresca came to class with me today. I was at the middle school (that paragon of all educational virtues that is Number Three) and I was asking everyone what they could do over May Holiday in order to talk about future tense and present tense. The kids came up with the usual, like play games, do homework, watch TV, visit family, etc. One girl raised her hand and said “I will swing!”
I write down “SWIM”, because a lot of my kids get M and N confused.
“No,” she tells me. “S-W-I-N-G!” I make a face trying not to laugh, which the poor student interprets as disapproval.
“Teacher, will you swing over May Holiday?” she asks me, looking nervous. I try not to make eye contact with Fresca, and praise my student for raising her hand.
I suppose we could swing over our May holiday, but we should probably ask Jeff and Stick first.
Punkie Night (Oct 28 or 29) : Great Britain custom
May 20, 2006
Punkie Night
October 28 or 29, or on the fourth Thursday of October
Custom: Great Britain
Punkie Night is a quaint holiday celebrated in Great Britain where children carve lanters from beets or other vegetable roots and go from house to house begging for pennies. According to “Punkies” by K Palmer in Folklore 83 (Autum 1972: pg. 240-244) the event takes place on Oct 28th in Lopen and Hinton St. George around 1972 - where children were observed going into the fields getting mangolds, on which they carve a pretty scene, mask, or design; hollowing them out and inserting a candle to convert the gourd into a lantern … where they proceeded to go round the village for pennies - a sort of “Trick or Treating” where they sing: “It’s punkie night tonight, It’s punkie night tonight.” Its believed it came from the October 28th fair in Lopen and Chinnock where some of the men in the village got lost in the fields, carved themselves lanterns to find their way home, while the women of the village were hunting for them with scarlet cloaks trying to fetch them home … the men returned to the fair and the women and children went into the fields and carved lanterns looking for the men … and since then it became a custom. The pennies collected would be used to buy fireworks.l
Seminole Okalee Indian Village and Museum: Ft Lauderdale, Florida
May 20, 2006
Seminole Okalee Indian Village and Museum
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, 5716 Seminole Way, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314
www.SemTribe.com/ email: museum@semtribe.com, phone: 954.797.5551
Directions: Coming from Naples or Ft. Lauderdale, follow I-95, Exit on Stirling road west to State Road 7 (441) on the NW corner of Stirling and 441.
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 9-6, Sun 10-6 (as of Sept 2005). Admission: $16.00 adults/$10 kids.
A quaint museum, operated by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Okalee Museum is a public mission to show and teach non-natives the history, works, lifeways and culture of the Florida Seminoles by means of their living village and museum. Demonstrating the elusive world of the “Unconquered Warriors”, visitors can connect with the legendary culture of the Seminole Indians, explore exotic landscapes and a collection of native and exotic animals, view alligator wrestling shows, see beautiful Indian tapestries and traditional dress, Seminole folklore, exhibits or rare artifacts, Seminole works from both Seminoles and non-native artists, shop for authentic crafts, and see demonstrations from an authentic Seminole village. Its a wonderful place to visit and fun for adults and kids alike. 3 stars out of 5.
