UPDATE: And then I saw these guys – two conga players, a maracas player, and two guys playing ELECTRIC mbiras (they were wearing battery powered amps. An empty sound gourd can just be seen in front, decorated with cowrie shells, being used as a tip bowl. The musicians were wearing animal skins and singing – I’m not sure the crowd realized how radical their electrified sound was compared to the trad sound of the other group that was in the Alki courtyard performing area behind me. Ginny I can has iPhone? Via: Flickr Title: Electric Mbira By: GinnyRED57 Originally…
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UPDATE: I own a kalimba, a small African musical instrument played on metal keys braced on a soundboard or soundbox. These musicians are playing mbira, larger versions of the same instrument that are attached to calabash gourd sounding bowls. This makes it difficult to see how the artists’ thumbs play the repetitive patterns and melodies. I took more pictures with the big camera trying to lock in an image of how the woman on the right was playing, but the singer’s butt kept getting in the way. These folks were very good, very traditional. Ginny I can has iPhone?…
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Looks like we arrive about two ours late. UPDATE: Sure, we paid for Economy Plus, and we had more legroom, but I need more buttroom and hipbone room these days. At least the flight was smooth, in spite of the air traffic control audio that warned the pilots about wind shear at 1300 feet. During the flight, David slept and I watched “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” which turned out to be not brainless, rather sweet, and quite funny. Ginny I can has iPhone? Via: Flickr Title: Our ride is finally here By: GinnyRED57 Originally uploaded: 22 May ’09, 9.26pm CDT…
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Spicy tofu… Is spicy. It’s become a tradition for me to photograph food via my iPhone and update to Flickr and the blog, especially when traveling. We’re on the road again, this time traveling to Seattle for Memorial Day Weekend and the big Folk Life Festival, and this is what I ordered at the Manchu Wok in the O’Hare Airport Food Court. It was okay, actually. Not too bad, although the noodles were mushy from behind held on the steam table too long. Our flight to Seattle was delayed 2 hours, and we arrived after midnight, local time. While at…
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@moryan celebrates the awesome news from this weekend that #Chuck was renewed. Everybody take a bow who helped #savechuck Awesome news: ‘Chuck’ to return for a third season | The Watcher But as you’ve seen as you read all the stories above, there’s a catch to the “Chuck” renewal. To ensure another season, “Chuck” will have to cut its budget (as is apparently the case with “Dollhouse,” which is also coming back). The show will have to let go a couple of writers, and some actors who were series regulars in Season 2 may only be recurring guest stars in…
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Beware Zombie Rinkwomen! Utah has a lively roller derby scene, with avid fans and some truly awesome, Amazon-like warrior women. Check this photo out from the City Weekly blog. Roller Derby: O-Town Report “This was actually the best game we’ve had so far. It was back-and-forth the whole bout, very competetive, lots of stress and anger on the floor due to the score being so close–it was awesome. We got a broken tailbone, broken glasses and huge rink-rash bruises. The final score was Sucker Punch Sweethearts 132, Ladies of Capone 122.” If I had to live in Utah again, I’d…
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St Mark’s Hospital in Salt Lake holds an annual Blessing of the Hands of healers. It’s the hospital where Mom was during her last illness, and our family got a lot of support from the Episcopal priest who runs their pastoral care program, Fr. Lincoln Ure. This event sounds just like Fr. Linc; I experienced the regular Wednesday Eucharist with him and some of the staff when Mom was upstairs, and the following week, I had to go back after she passed. Those people are some powerful healers, and I got a sense of how deeply they care for one…
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… or find yourself drunk, high, half nekkid, and screaming at people in Sugar House Park. The latter path is the one I’d have taken if I’d stayed on in Salt Lake instead of moving away. Absence of pants nets charges for man in Sugar House Park – Salt Lake Tribune Court documents accuse the 36-year-old of hiding in the park and jumping out and scaring women and bicyclists. At one point, the documents say, he stood in a roadway, pulled down his shorts and began screaming at cars while naked from the waist down. Police arrived to find him…
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Thanks to @DailyHerald, here’s a useful resource for contacting Illinois legislators. Some use their personal email addresses, and there’s no single state IL email domain? Good government FAIL. Daily Herald | How to contact your lawmakers Leaders Rep. Michael Madigan House speaker, 22nd District Springfield office: 217 782-5350 Chicago office: 773 581-8000 E-mail: mmadigan@hds.ilga.gov Fax preferred: 773 581-9414 Sen. John Cullerton Senate president, 6th District Springfield office: 782-2728 Chicago office: 773 883-0770 E-mail: john@senatorcullerton.com Rep. Tom Cross House GOP leader, 84th District Springfield office: 217 782-1331 Plainfield office: 815 254-0000 E-mail: tom@tomcross.com Sen. Christine Radogno Senate GOP leader, 41st District…
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It would piss you off, right? I know it would really make me angry if that happened to my mom, but I can’t check because the information is hidden behind a registration wall AND a “member in good standing/temple recommend number” wall. Because when she was alive, she was really horrified by the idea that everyone in her family had been baptized against their will, after they died, and that someday she would, too. Well, it’s apparently happened to President Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham. I think it’s a terrible breach of spiritual protocol, the church’s own supposedly “hard and…