Check out our shirts! Aren't they lovely! A stylistic design that crosses borders between bellydance, biker, goth and of course FANTASY. Neon, Sarah and I launched them this Saturday at Rakassah! 
Designed of course by the ever amazing Neon!
This is most definitely my favorite time of year. From the bright orange setting suns to the blue expanse of the close moon, I just love it. Especially Halloween, my most favorite holiday ever! For my birthday, my husband took me on a field trip with my family to the Great Pumpkin Blaze at Van Cortland Manor (which is right past Spooky Hollow!). It was simply incredible! 300 hand carved pumpkins glowing in the dark cold night. It was creepy, sinister, elegant and super spooky. I highly recommend it! Here are some photos and they absolutely don't give the Blaze justice. The detail on the carvings were heartsopping! Check it out:
Look closely at the shots and you can see heads on a wall, ghouls coming out of the ground, a corpse, etc..etc.. It was just simply amazing!!! Go and see it! The last night is Halloween....BwahhhhhHAHAHHAHAHA!!!
So, I'll make this quick. I say DEATH DEATH DEATH to the Silent 'E'!! I have had it with this useless letter recently being added to normal words to make them seem somehow either more elegant or antiquated.
Shop vs. Shoppe (it's still a store, but now it's a classy store)
Old vs. Olde (well, it's still old, but now it's fancy old)
Grill vs. Grille (It's still a barbeque, but now you can add $10 onto the entree)
Town vs. Towne (it's still a one horse tumbleweed, but maybe there's still a cowboy)
Ugh!
I'm sick of it. It's stupide, dumbe and a bizarre marketinge technique and all it does is make me spell things wrongge!
There. I've said it. I am at peace now.
Silent E = R.I.P!!!!
My darling Shebalinga caught in the act of sipping from a left over-Martini. The little sneaktheif!
"Oh, what's this....it could be yummy"
*lick* "Hmm....I think I like it."
"Dry...yes, definitely the way to go. MeeeeeYowwwwzah!"
*lick lick lick lick lick* "I can quit anytime....I don't have a problem"
"BUSHTED?! Reddikewlus! Innoshent byshtander, dats me. Wrong playshe and time, is all.... Yoo kant prove nuffink."
Words can't describe their deliciousness. Here is the recipe for you other cookie monsters!
1 cup vegtable Oil
1 cup margarine (I prefer butter, but the original recipe called for that M stuff! If you use the butter, it must be unsalted!)
1 cup sugar
1 cup Brown sugar
1 egg
1 to 2 tsp vanilla (I always do the 2)
Cream all these ingredients together till they're light and fluffy.
In separate bowl combine:
3 and 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup crushed corn flakes
Add the first concoction to the second concoction and stir gently but well.
Then add in:
6 busted up "Score" bars or "Heath" bars (8.04 oz of candy)
1 twelve ounce package of semi sweet chocolate chips
Drop by rounded teaspoons (or tablespoons if you like mega cookies!) and bake on a cookie sheet with parchement paper at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Enjoy!!!
I'm obsessed with swords like other dancers are obsessed with costumes and veils. And I feel such strife that by the time I find a new and unique sword on the market and buy it (and it's ususally a fortune), about a million dancers also find it and buy it and so it's neither unique, new or exciting. Growl!!! It's enough to make a dancer stamp her foot and harrumph!!
Well, needless to say, an obsession really cannot be controlled so I have decided to obey the urge without reservation or guilt! In my secret lair (well, not so secret as there is a post about it!) I conjured up an idea that will both feed the need and support the vanity of having something that is just truly my own.
I must have a custom sword! Yes! That is the answer! That way, there will only be one in the world, and it will be mine!!! Designed by me, a reflection of me, made for me and MINE...all mine....MINE ALONE....And I will polish it and love it and name it and cast spells over it so that for all eternity it will only serve me until the end of time...... bwahhhhahahahaha!!!!! (<----that's supposed to be maniacal laughter!).
So, with that plan in mind, my super indulgent and doting husband packed our car and we trekked to Pennsylvania where lives Master Metalsmith Joe Piela and The Lonely Mountain Forge. Joe comes from a family of craftsmen, having learned his art from his grandfather, a blacksmith who emigrated to the US from Poland many years ago. You can see some of the incredible stuff Joe has done for others at his website: http://members.aol.com/gijchar/forge.html.
Now, because the outcome of this project is secret, I shant breath a word about what was discussed, but I can tell you that we were in deep conspiracy for hours. Planning, scheming and creating!!! Joe is an amazing talent hidden away in PA who can create just about anything in Metal. Not only can he forge helmets, sheild, and Armor as well as Swords for Vain Bellydancers, he can also sculpt spells, runes and arabic into the blades, or on the handle and make a scabbard to boot!
Here are some shots of the The Lonely Mountain Forge and Joe at Work.
This is the Craftsman's Table where much of the magic happens.
The seemingly modest forge that can set even the hardest metal glowing and pliable. It gets amazingly hot and the heat makes a terrifying whispering and breathing sound that literally makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. It becomes almost alive.
A real anvil from last century along with another shot of the primary hammer. Once you hear the clanging of the hammer on the metal, you are immediately transported back to Medieval Europe. It's as if you've stepped into a time machine and utterly engrossing.
Dark Magic in the works....
Even after the metal has been forged and pounded, it continues to glow with an etherial light!
The Forge Guardian and Manager watches earnestly!
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So, with all that being said, don't bother to even try to pry from Joe what he's working on for me. He'll never tell!! However, we both suspect that the Forge Guardian is susceptible to bribes!!
I love making and creating. And this is my favorite time of year to do it, because it's the beginning of the HARVEST and everything I have spent all summer growing is reaching it's peak. Plump, succulent and tasty. From the berries to the hot peppers and most especially...TOMATOES. I have a thing about tomatoes. And I grow some magic tomatoes. Nobody sees the ghost of Alyra sneaking out in the middle of the night to sacrifice under a full moon those lesser vegtables on the alter of the garden goddess to ensure a bumper crop of Tomatoes.
Garden Goddess, I worship you in the night.
I slit and gut these cucumbers so you will hear my plight!
Upon your alter, their entrails are spread,
please spare my red ladies from slugs, cutworms and other dreads.
Dear Garden Queen, accept these bush beans as a token and plea.
Let my tomatoes grow unsurpassably!
Let them be tall, let them be sweet,
and above all, let them be the best on my street!
Laugh if you will, but it works! (ps. For those of you who are Cucumber activists. Sorry, but I grow them only for either pickling or sacrificing...so yes, I'm cruel and inhumane!)
Now, I don't waste my time with those big fat massive tasteless beefsteaks. Bah! I snub those beefsteaks with my nose in the air. No, the Alyrian Tomatoes are small, dainty affairs with a taste that borders on super sweet and sublime. This year, I had resolved to grow only the sweetest tomotaes but becuase someone wasn't paying attention and mismarked the veggies at the nursury, I brought home also something else! I had no idea that they were different as they looked like everything else and were marked as such. However, about 3 weeks into the growing season, I knew something was different and it was just a wonderous delight to wait with baited breath on what we were going to get.
Imagine my amazement with these lucious yellow heirloom tomatoes ripened on the vine! They have a much subtler flavor than my mini sweets but OH, they are almost creamy!!! I'm so excited because Garden Goddess blessed me with a whole other species to add to my garden! (clearly the cucumber sacrifices work...)
Here are some shots of my early harvest. Needless to say, this is only ONE day of picking!!!
Here are some tomatoes to scale
And then, with these beauties, and many more from the garden, I brewed up the best darn thing I've baked this year. A rustic roasted tomatoe tart! The basil infused crust I baked first with all fresh herbs from my garden and then glazed it with more garden herb pesto and honey with some musturd and then roasted up about 100 small tomotoes and about 15 heirloom yellows for this succulent mouthwatering beauty. 7 hours of cooking (yes, literally, it took forever) and it took my family 30 minutes to finish it off. Oh, but it was worth it!!!
Closeup of the yummy pie so you can see the carmelized glaze!!!
Isn't the harvest great! All the work and creation manifest into tangible and edible glory!!!
After resigning the frantic pace of NYC for the more bucolic and (as SOME put it, dead boring) grassy ruralness of New Jersey, I found an unforeseeable and terrible drought in rentable rehearsal space. Where can I go to practice with lots of mirrors and by myself. I called all the local gyms and they all said no, I called the ballroom dancing academies and they refused to have any competition. I called highschools. Nope. I called Karate Studios and got a swift Judo Chop. Then, as I was standing and sweating to utter death in our town's Bikram Yoga Studio it dawned upon me that the space was IDEAL for dancing and experiementing. It's a HUGE space with HUGE accurate (not stretchy) mirros and no room obstructions.
If one could handle the heat.
I emailed the studio and pled my case and with only asking for $20 an hour, a copy of my driver's license and the rules of removing shoes, I was provided with the secret code for entrance into the studio. I love Yogis, they're so positive, trusting and "can do." Screw the stupid musclehouse gyms and their tedious step classes. BAH. Eff them.
Now, I have to work around their schedule (no problemo) and so on my first visit, it was 6:30am on a Saturday morning. Barely awake, I don't think I even brushed my teeth, I jumped into my Genis, climbed into Rogue Leader 1 (my car..I name all my cars)I got myself to the studio. I plugged in the code, removed my shoes, but the $20 in the drawer and entered a hot HEAVEN.
I walked in and thought, "Goodness...I could drop dead in here, it's so hot!" as the heat was already on and blasting. But beggers can't be choosers so I just got dancing. Well, what can I say but....IT WAS WONDERFUL. That heat gets right into your muscles bones and in 10 minutes you are warm, loose and mobile beyond your dreams. I could literally feel the stiffness and immobility melting away as the moist humidity seeped into every pore. I mean, my ribs were at an all new extension level and my hips could practically unhinge from thier sockets! Splits. No problem. Those impossible chest figure eights.Well, not no problem but easier. I also felt a remarkable sense of cleansing after all that sweating. Needless to say, an hour and half later and I walked out of there dripping wet, but utterly loose and rubbery. It was G.R.E.A.T!
Regardless of the tropical conditions, there was a remarkabe upside beyond just the chance to practice. I was thinking that it does prepare your body for performing in other ways. The heat gets that muscle tone going as well as stimulates your stamina. And the more your body adjusts to the heat, the more you are able to handle high energy output without your body's cooling mechanism going into overdrive (sweating!).
So, if you ask me, there is a new movement on the rise and I think I'm going to teach some classes titled Hothouse bellydance....it has a certain ring, doesn't it?!
At a recent bellydance event that I attended, a kindly (although I believe, mislead) charitable organization of dancers incriminated the US government for not paying enough attention to Darfour because we were too busy investing time in Iraq. I think the tone was meant to imply that we were wasting time in Iraq when we should have been dealing with Darfour.
I am a slow burn over this because I believe the finger was pointed in the wrong direction. I am working on an article to address it, but it might be awhile. Just to vent my spleen about it now, I am going to rant:
FIRST, the responsibilty of the massacres and Darfour falls entirely on the muslim extremist community which is murdering these innocent african tribes people. This is ALLOWED and TOLERATED by the government of the Sudan, not by the government of the United States. INCRIMINATE THE SUDAN for not stopping the massacre.
SECOND, INCRIMINATE THE UNITED NATIONS FOR THEIR CONSISTENT FAILURE TO DO THE ONE GODDAMN THING THEY WERE CHARTERED TO DO. PREVENT GENOCIDE. In post WWII, the 5 biggest countries came together to say that NEVER AGAIN will we tolerate Genocide. They created the UN to be a global police force at the ready so that when genocide happens again, they will come in and fight to stop it. Since then, the UN has RUN from genocide in Cambodia, RUN from genocide in Rwanda, RUN from genocide in Serb/Croatia, RUN from Genocide (through starvation) In Ethiopia, RUN from Genocide in Iraq and now they RUN from Darfour. THIS IS THE UN'S ONLY JOB SO INCRIMINATE THE UN for their consistent and inexcusable failure to act. THEY HAVE NEVER FULFULLED THEIR CHARTER.
POINT THE FINGER WHERE IT BELONGS!!! AT A DISGRACEFUL TOWER OF USELESSNESS ON THE UPPER EAST SIDE THAT DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN THE FACE OF EVIL ON EARTH. It sickens me.
(p.s. I suspect the reasons why probably have something to do with the fact that some of the world's greatest human rights violators sit on the Human Rights Committee to try to prove they give a damn. It's INSANE.)
(p.p.s. This is not to suggest that I feel the US Government is doing a good job right now. I don't. I just think they have enough to bear right now and the terror and horror that is Darfour shouldn't be laid at their feet.)
There, I've ranted.
And if you don't believe me. Well, look it up.
True scholarly article to follow in the next month or so.
Well, Not Exactly, but just as rare!! A photo of The Neon in NATURE!! Here is the elusive Neon caught for the first time in recorded history ensconsed in greenness. At the time she attemped to impress us with her posing by my Husband's smoker where we anxiously awaited 12 hour ribs!
| I’m a chameleon, pure and simple. I always adapt to
the people and circumstances around me in order to meet the world’s
expectations. I rarely fall short of them and it’s often very hard
being what everyone wants/needs. It’s such a heavy weight, at times,
having to live up to everyone’s expectations. Always having to be
the strong one, the successful one, the provider, A faithful friend, A Steady
in the Storm, A Counselor, the voice of reason and the heart of my little
family. Sometimes, when you re-create yourself time and again, parts of
you get lost along the way. But there is one place where I am truly me. One place where the only expectations to be met are the ones I set for myself (or maybe, I don’t set one at all). And that’s in my Study; (or my Perch as my husband calls it because it’s on the second floor of my little house and overlooks the street where everyone walks by). This place is mine and exclusively so. Nobody comes in this room without invitation. My husband pays his share of our mortgage, and yet he never enters the study without knocking. Even the cats give me a little chirp before they come in. Because it’s my haven, or heaven, depending on how you look at it. It’s the place that knows all about me. My home within my home. Where I am me, for all that is wonderful and terrible about who I am. It’s where I hide from the world, but at the same time, it’s the only place where the real me runs wild with reckless abandon. It’s where I’ve written my books and built my business. It’s where I dream of the possibilities and mourn the losses. Where I think and plan, and conspire. Many failures have been both suffered and averted here, and many successes fulfilled. Most of my achievements have been born in this space, and all of them have been celebrated here. It is everything to me because it’s filled with the memories of who I am. J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote about a house. The Last Homely House west of the mountains before the Sea. Tolkien described it as: “… perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking, best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.” And that is what my Study in my house is like. So, with that being said, I invite you to take a tour of my little piece of perfect. The pictures don’t do it justice, because much of the mood is lost since I had to use a flash to really capture everything. But, if you can engage the imagination of yours, picture it dark and candlelit, because that’s the way it always is!!! |
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This is the way in. The screen is a treasure from India, hand carved sandalwood and it scents the room magnificently. |
The Tapestry is Moroccan in design and I wish I could say that I bought it there. Alas dare I say it? Ebay…. |
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If you turn right you’ll see a little nook with some unusual things. The table is from the turn of the century, but the Viking Battle Helm is much older. It's it great!! Such a conversation piece. The Dream chaser at this point is so delicate that I don’t hang it anymore because it’s much too delicate to handle gravity.
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A good writer needs great reference material! I couldn’t live without my dictionaries. My favorite is the one focused on Shakespearian Insults, but if you look close you can see dictionaries of Rhyme, Slang, Quotes, etc… I couldn't live without them |
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| This is a print of a pencil drawing done by renowned Comic Book Artist Colleen Doran. It is of two Elven princes running reconnaissance at the start of the Great War of the Ring. The pencil study sketch below is original and one of a kind. I got this from Colleen (and she dedicated it for me no the back) at a Lord of the Rings Convention where she was presenting and I was teaching Calligraphy. | |
This is where my creative juices flow the best. The hours I have spent here are countless. Writing, Scheming, advising, planning, conspiring, ranting..etc... It’s all done from here. The Desk is an old teacher's desk from the turn of the century and it is much too small to be comfortable for my long legs. But I can’t bring myself to give it up. The Chandalier a focal point of Inspiration for me. Is an Egyptian Original. I bought it in the Bizarre on Khan al Khalili Street in Cairo at some crazy hidden rooftop shop. After much arguing and fighting with customs, I managed to get it back to the US In mostly one piece. Many people have tried to buy it from me, but I’ll never part with it. You can see behind the Chandelier some amazing photographs of early Egypt. I also bought them in the bizarre and I’m sure I was completely ripped off, but I had to have them.
Shebalinga, lap accessory. |
Early in my professional dance career, I knew I wasn’t going to look as good as I did then ever again, so I found a wonderful artist to immortalize myself. The artist is Ariadne Gaitanis and she was wonderful to work with. Neon took some great pictures of me and basically Aridne recreated a famous orientalist print and dropped me right into it. She was honest in the picture and only took creative license with the color of the costume. You can tell she's honest becausee she gave me very big thighs. Yes, I do have meaty hams, even at my thinnest I had meaty hams! I still have the costume and the swords but I’ve cut my hair and regretfully put on a few pounds!
This is the view from my desk as I walk out of my Study. Note the Framed artwork above the light switch. This is a calligraphy masterpiece done by Master Artist Daniel Reeve. Daniel is the mapmaker and calligrapher from the Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong Films. Daniel and I met during various conventions where he was displaying his Art and I was teaching Tengwar Calligraphy. This is an Original invitation to Bilbo Baggins’ One hundred and Eleventyith birthday celebration For My husband and Me. (The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien, Chapter 1, A long expected party) |
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| And, so there you have it. A short tour of my sanctum and I hope that if you haven't got one of your own, it inspires you to aspire to one! The greatest investment you can ever make for yourself and your happiness is a Creative Space. It's the portal that allows you to get away from you, interrupted to you, amplified. | |
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Venus
Uprising
BELLYDANCE WORKSHOPS
Spring 2008 schedule
Bellydance
Core Fitness
DVD ~
Ayshe
You
Can Bellydance
(beginner)
DVD ~ Neon
I
Love
Turkish
Bellydance
DVD ~ Sarah Skinner
