fame

There's a movie being shown on TV right now called The Little Vampire. (I first thought it was The Littlest Vampire, which really would be even worse.) No, I'm not actually watching it and no, I did not immediately know the title, I had to look it up.  The only reason I paused while flipping channels was because this character popped up.

It's Alice Krige; I had to look that up too. Why did I recognize her? And why did I have a good feeling about her? She's done something that in the past that I liked. What was it? Was it a recent appearance on Dirty, Sexy, Money? I guess I might have seen that. From her role on Deadwood? Hmm, I wasn't really into that show, everyone's smile was much too sparkling white to be living in the old West. Ahh, Children of Dune as Lady Jessica Atreides. That's more my style, that's probably

No, wait!  Aha, jackpot!

The Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact. Totally. She was awesome. And also: hot. I'd be pretty tempted to let her assimilate me.

Update: The Little Vampire is not making any sense, or it's just stupid, take your pick. I can't believe so many people worked on this movie. Also, the ending credits are to the song Iko Iko. Alice Krige, I promise to always remember you as a powerful Medusa-like cyborg and not as an aging aristocratic vampire.

Update 2: I'm still sick, which is why I'm watching terrible television.

dancy pants

Well, I'm sick again. I know, who's surprised? Blah.

But in other news: I just sent off an email to a New York ballet teacher asking if she offers private lessons. Many of you may be confused by this considering my turbulent past with ballet. Well, I was starting to think that maybe I hated ballet so much (not only because it's so stultifying) because I really never understood it very well. I was always just struggling through class, trying to keep up with these combinations that didn't make any sense. I feel like I only started to really get into my body when I started taking private Alexander Technique and private Pilates lessons so why do I keep thinking about group dance classes? Privates are the way to go! And maybe I'll actually learn that I hated ballet all those years for a pretty good reason, who knows? This might not even be a possibility. She may not offer private lessons or she may be prohibitively expensive. I mean, I don't have much of a job right now so what am I doing? But whatever.

Part of the reason I even sent that email is because I saw a dance performance last night at BAM with music by Steve Reich and choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. I thought it was great. First of all, how awesome is Steve Reich? He totally confuses and excites me. There was one piece that was played by two people on two xylophones (I'm pretty sure they were xylophones, too small to be marimbas but bigger [and wooden] that what you might be imagining) and I could barely connect the music I was hearing to movement of the musicians' mallets. It was like they were silently striking the instruments and it just so happened that this cascade of music was happening at the same time. I love how at the beginning of a Reich piece I always feel confident. "Okay, I can hear the notes that I see him hitting, I'm following along pretty well." But then suddenly someone else joins in and I get totally lost. It's pretty fun. I was also in the mezzanine so that could have been affecting my vision but you know, the principle still remains.

Anyway, back to that email. Not only did I think the music was awesome, I also (gasp) thought the dancing was pretty good too. It looked fun (and hard), and I thought, you know, I miss dancing but I can't just go back to class, all that ever did was frustrate me. Hence: private lessons. I'll let you know if there's any progress. We'll see.

yesterday?

Did you watch the debate last night? Will you explain something to me because I really don't get it. When did nuclear energy become 'clean?' Have I just been totally in the dark and missed that someone actually found a way to reduce nuclear waste and then convert it into something that doesn't harm everything it touches? If so, that's awesome! Somehow though, I don't think that's happened. So when did it become 'clean?' When we finally acknowledged that we need to cut our dependence on oil and that nuclear energy won't harm the atmosphere? Does that actually make it clean? Are we now calling it clean out of desperation, ignoring how harmful it is to other aspects of the environment? Please fill me in.

(And as a side note, just because you might have been on a ship that had a nuclear reactor and nothing dangerous happened [like it exploding or something] does not mean that it was safe. I regularly drive home drunk and have not had one accident. So following that logic, driving drunk is safe.* Okay, I acknowledge that's a stupid analogy, but you get my point.)

*I do not drive while drunk. And if I ever did I sure wouldn't try to convince anyone that it was 'safe.' I just take the subway drunk, now that's safe, particularly when it's powered with its own nuclear reactor.