bastetcat

milonga

2008-08-05T00:35:37Z

Some pictures from a recent milonga we held at a coffee shop...a milonga is both a type of music style danced in the Argentine tango family and also a tango dance party.... :)

Hollow Beads

2008-04-16T16:52:03Z

Recently, I had a customer who wanted hollow beads. I hadn't done hollow beads in over a year and figured I would regret it but said yes anyway because she has been a regular for awhile and I get sentimental about that and try to please.

Unfortunately- when you don't do something for over a year that you used to do really well, it's very frustrating getting it going again. I felt like I was reinventing the wheel.

But- after a few bad starts- my persistance paid off. The hollow beads I am doing now are some of the biggest and nicest ever. I think I've finally memorized the proper technique for them again!

This weeks hollow beads (and a few others):

Chicken TV

2008-04-16T16:44:22Z

Some days- it's like living on a farm around here!

These chickens turned up in our yard a couple of months ago. They've been wandering around in our yard and the neighbors daily...Turns out the neighbor 2 doors down bought them. They just wander up and down our part of the street doing chicken things.... The cats are totally entranced by this. They sit out in their cat pen and watch them every day they show up under the oak tree. I call it chicken TV! (and thank my lucky stars they are not roosters.)

Beads Beads and More Beads

2008-04-10T14:59:57Z

Lampwork and more lampwork. A few people have suggested I post pictures of what I spend my days doing and so here it goes...lampwork lampwork and more lampwork (when I am not dancing tango).

I've been revisting some older ideas with some newer glass. Sculpted flowers made with veiled Gaffer cane, a special glass from New Zealand that has layers of color. When you work with it the beads get a watercolor effect because of the color layering...It also makes a great base for the little floral urn shaped beads. The Gaffer colors are always bright and juicy, which I love.

Dixie-ness

2007-09-14T17:04:06Z

Go ahead and test your dialect....find out just how Dixie you are...I'm from the South and so it is no surprise at all that I am 68% Dixie in my dialect...y'all. ;-P

http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/yankee_dixie_quiz.html

tagged

2007-09-11T21:24:05Z

ok- I got tagged by orangepaisley for this but I will start out saying I don't even KNOW seven people so tagging others will be almost non existant from me...

1. I have a very hard time saying no to anything chocolate.
2. I have a fetish for nice Tango shoes but regular footwear I could care less about.
3. I love to go out and dance but I am a reclusive introvert in most other areas.
4. It's been nearly a decade since anyone has seen my real hair color.
5. I have a purse that says "Tinkerbell".
6. I work with hot glass and a flame but have horrid fears of death by fire. (Probably means I was burned at the stake in a past life.)
7. Almost all my cats have names/nicknames that end in and "ee" sound.

I tag kaleetha, tangomusicology and oliana0 if they happen to read this since i don't really know how this works.

long time away

2007-07-24T00:16:27Z

I've been a long time away...well- I still lurked really, I just couldn't remember my password for the life of me...but it's been a busy sort of non-busy 3 months....

I joined http://www.dance-forums.com where you can read all about most any kind of partner dance you like...even Argentine Tango. They get som pretty lively debates going, as one would expect for Argentine Tango.

I joined http://www.tangoshoedivas.com/shoedivas/ so I could be a shoe diva too...well...considering my dance shoe collection, I was probably already well on my way...I have no idea how I happened upon this site...In my quest for a very particular Tango shoe (see below)I was combing all the known North American distributors of Comme Il Faut for a particular purple pair of heels. I think I was looking for shoes by a lady who sells under the name "Diva Boutique" and stumbled across the shoe diva site. There are Tango shoe reviews aplenty, some from me and some from others plus many other stories and tales to satisfy your shoe curiosity.

I tried to start an alternative practica, had no money to fund it, and no one showed up, so closed it down.

Closed down another practica we started last year becasue it really had outlived it's usefulness.

Accpeted a request to run for VP of our local ballroom dance club (yes- now I am VP). Not sure how this will turn out as I told them at the beginning that I am not a good organizer...but I said I would try.

And danced and took workshops as often as possible.

The perfect Tango shoe:

For the dance obsessed

2007-04-24T17:49:34Z

For those who may be dance obsessed (you know who you are), I have recently joined an online dance forum. Plenty of pleasant people and fun topics, covering pretty much all the social dances, including Argentine Tango and West Coast Swing. YOu can lurk all you want.

http://www.dance-forums.com/index.php

funny tango stuff

2007-04-18T19:17:00Z

I love this...funny thing is we had a conversation with an instructor this past weekend involving exactly this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-629zssP21Y

Tango physics

2007-04-18T16:49:35Z

I was browsing through a Tango forum and found a cute essay on "Tango Physics" in one of the topics:

Tango Physics

The laws of physics apply to tango just as they do to other phenomena. Here
is a summary of current knowledge, obtained from leading text books and
recent research papers. Some of the more advanced theories must remain
speculative, pending further research.

Basics

Tango consists of the interaction of electrically charged particles
operating within a musical energy field.

"There exist just two types of elementary particle: the tanguera particle and
the complementary tanguero particle.

The tanguera particle (or simply tanguera) is electrically charged by the
addition of high heeled shoes and a glamorous dress. The quantity of charge
is directly proportional to the height of the heels and inversely to the
quantity of material in the dress.

In contrast to the tanguera, the tanguero particle is more easily and
economically charged. The very appearance of a suitably charged tanguera is
usually sufficient to charge the tanguero. Some tangueros find themselves
already charged on waking up in the morning, for no apparent reason. The
quantity of charge appears totally unrelated to the tanguero's shoes or
apparel. Indeed, it also seems to be based on the tanguera's shoe height
and dress material."....click link below for more.

http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=16623

tax time

2007-04-09T20:03:44Z

i'm doing a great job ignoring my taxes...I really hate doing them but I hate having anyone else do them. I just look over their figures anyway so I might as well do them myself...but man..what a drag..I'd rather be dancing. I'd even rather be doing mailouts!

On a bright note, we had a dance practice with some friends yesterday and I had one of the best times I have had in awhile. Orazzio is always so much fun. I swear I'm just going to plug in a camera and video tape him next time. He's always got so many fun little figures to explore there isn't any way I can remember them all! And his lighthearted presence is always good to have around.

Pet food recall

2007-03-19T19:20:59Z

This has certainly received some air time but there still may be people (Like me) who don't watch TV and have to get news like this elsewhere:

Pet food recall after illness and renal failure reported in some cats and dogs. This affected some very major brands, including two of the brands I feed my own crew.

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_cat.html

Similar info is available on the site for dogs.

Goldilocks and the 3 pillows

2007-03-13T22:32:39Z

My favorite pillow finally fell apart and I had to get rid of it. I tried several times to replace it but couldn't find a proper foam pillow that felt like it so I kept dragging it around with me until it couldn't be hauled about anymore...

So I went pillow shopping.

The first pillow was great for about 3 weeks. Then it went flat as a pancake and way too soft...Stephen loves it so I gave it to him.

the second pillow I basically took out of the package and squished it a couple of times and knew it would be too hard...back to the store...

I have higher hopes for the 3rd pillow. It is at least foam...not as full as my favorite one but it survived its first nap with me and the cat without me waking up with an aching neck.

Rains and pours

2007-02-16T20:02:21Z

After an astounding month on eBay in January (in which I made enough extra to pay my yearly sales tax without having to take it from my meager savings) I came home one morning to find the Black Kiki (Blackie) sitting there looking at me with a ripped up back. I had a peek at it and no way was it going to heal on its own...so off the the vet we went. My only commetn was..."well, here goes that extra money from last month..."

I was right to take him (the little booger) but WHY do they have to have something happen to them RIGHT when I'm about to get some more stuff paid off???!!

Ten stitches and an overnight at the vet (and a couple of hundred dollars) later...he's much better and I have been promised the fur they had to shave will grow back at some point.

The little turd better stay out from under houses and fences!

light bulbs

2007-02-05T17:40:19Z

We bought these extra long life lasting light bulbs a few months ago...one just blew out...go figure...I think I'll stick to the regular flavor ones.

Cornbread!

2007-01-31T23:44:03Z

I feel like I've passed some sort of test. I actually made edible cornbread today that did not come from a pouch! WOW! Now, it's only passable, but that's better than my usual attempt (hard as a rock!). Now I'll need to surf the web a bit for a better recipe than the one I followed.

woe is me

2007-01-31T17:05:44Z

i've just spent the last 2 days in misery. I had to have one of the wisdon teeth I have left taken out. (Yes- I'm kind of backwards that way...never got them taken out...can't stand pain or doctors.) Now, she's really quite good with the shots and they didn't hurt...and an hour after I got home I felt fine, but when I woke up the next day I was miserable.....I'm allergic to most perscription pain medication so it's Advil for me...and the injunction from the dentist....

1- Her: no fizzy drinks for a couple of days...
me: no problem there, I rarely drink them

2- Her: no hot drinks (couldn't remember if it was 1 day or 2 days)
Me: (mentally) ???!!!!!??? ...wimper..no tea? No coffee????

3- Her: rinse mouth with warm salty water on 2nd day.
Me: (whimper)....I'll try (salt water makes me gag)

4- Her: no sneezing or blowing your nose for 2 days
Me: I'll do my best on that.

I worked all day yesterday to keep my mind off of it and about half the beads didn't turn out anyway...should have known that would happen.

So now on day 3 my mouth still hurts a bit, I'm completely grouchy from not drinking tea or coffee for 2 days because I couldn't remember how long I couldn't and eating omlettes for 2 days.

Now I'm going to suck down a couple of Advil with some tea..maybe some coffee too..then take a nap.

brokedown kiln

2006-12-28T21:49:21Z

yes- it turns out my kiln really is broken. I managed to jump start it once, but it apparently has a bad relay. That's bad news for a year old kiln...but the good news is the factory is sending me the replacement part...so it must be under warrenty still.

So- it's back to the old days with my back up kiln that I have to monitor manually until I can get the new fangled computerized one fixed.No serious problem, but it keeps me chained to the studio longer than the other one does. Oh well...time to read a book.

passing time

2006-12-21T17:21:02Z

Well- my one year old kiln went berserk this morning and the program got stuck and the kiln didn't warm...hope I don't have to ALREADY replace the heating element!

In the mean time...I got this from orangepaisley who got it from jewelsdelphina...

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
Didn't sleep enough.

2. How much cash do you have on you?
0.00

3. What's a word that rhymes with "DOOR?"
four

4. Favorite planet?
Moon

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My friend Donovan

6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?
none of them

7. What shirt/t-shirt are you wearing?
sweatshirt and warm ups (hey- I'm working!)

8. Do you "label" yourself, and if so, how?
Independant and reclusive.

9. What's on your feet right now?
fuzzy socks..I'm working...

10. Do you generally prefer your rooms dimmer or brighter?
dim

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I'm very fond of her...but I'm not so sure about the sentance diagramming!

12. What does your watch look like?
I try not to allow time in to my house. (See Terry Pratchett)

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Just going to bed.

14. What did the last text message you received on your cell phone say?
No idea- I'm very bad at checking messages.

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
No clue.

16. What's a word that you say a lot?
I.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
my mom.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
The cats, of course..how could I not! We have multiples!

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
2 (1 non prescription and one prescrition), but if you mean "DOING DRUGS", like illegal- then none- not my cuppa.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
None- we use a digital camera.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
27

22. Most of us have enemies, and probably most of us would answer "myself" when asked who your worst enemy is. Besides yourself, who would you say might be your 'worst enemy'?
I try not to have outright enemies..but there are a few people I would rather not associate with.

23. What is your current desktop picture?
Moon over a mountain peak.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
Elvis- You need to go out before you make a mess.

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Depends. I assume this means flying with no mechanical aid..so I would fly then make a million bucks from it.

26. Do you like someone?
I like lots of people.

27. The last song you listened to?
Bajofondo (underground) Tango Club - Forma

28. What time of day were you born, and what day of the week?:
A Monday afternoon, at either 4:05 or 5:04, can't remember what they said...apparently I was a very good baby and arrived when I was supposed to.

29. What's your favorite number?
9

30. Where did you live in 1987?
Austin, TX

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Sure, it's hard not to be. I'm of average talent except for being smart and I can dance pretty ok.

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
Probably.

33. Where were you and what were you doing when 9/11 happened?
I was at home watching the news before going to open my store, something I rarely ever do or did.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
DOn't use vending machines!

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Not always.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where and what would it be?
A skeleton key and crossed bones. (had a dream about it once.)

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Spanish- for obvious Tango reasons.

38. Would you move for the person you loved?
Depends on how comfortable I am in my chair.

39. Are you touchy feely?
Yes.

40. What's your life motto?
Out of my mind, back in 5 minutes.

41. Name three four things that you have on you at all times?
Resale ID, credit card, lipgloss

42. What's your favorite town/city?
So far- Austin.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Handmade fudge in Salado (pumpkin flavor!)

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
err- maybe my dad.

45. Can you change the oil on a car? Have you? Do you?
No. I've helped. I do get it changed regularly.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
He became a big, annoying geek in high school.

47. How far back do you know about your ancestry?
My fathers side of the family has been traced back to the 1700's in Virginia.

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
Fandango- Black palazzo pants, velvet corset and velvet bolero top.

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder.

50. Have you been burned by love?
Absolutely- can't you hear the cynicism dripping from my lips.

Fabiango

2006-11-29T22:10:33Z

Fandango may be over but the dance classes are not. After 5 days of dancing and classes we decided we still needed more punishment and signed up for more classes with Fabian and Carolina who decided to stay on a couple ef extra days with Ricardo.

What a change from our attendance last year at Fandango, an experience which was fraught with frustration. If it hadn't been for Fernanda and Guillermo's classes we took and also watched, we probably would have stopped dancing Argentine Tango at that time. But we persevered, found a teacher we could be happy with, and this year got a full pass. I'm afraid I had a huge AGENDA this year and fortunately, my other half was mostly willing to be dragged along to the classes I thought we should work on (volcadas, colgadas and linear boleos- mostly Nuevo style elements).

I'm not so much of a tyrant that he didn't get to work on his personal goals (leading difficult sacadas) so we separated for the first part of day one so he could do sacadas with Fabian and Carolina and I took an AMAZING Tango Expression class with Alex Krebs and Luciana Valle (http://www.tangoberretin.com/) which I will be glad that I ordered a video of before too long I'm sure.

The other highlights were Alex and Luciana's volcada class. I have performed volcadas for the last year, but I can say I didn't truly understand them. They explained the entire physical process behind them and now I can can even lead one (a little).

We also learned a colgada from Fabian and Carolina which can either be left stationary or rotated in to a spinning whilrwind colgada. (Luckily I also some notes from ALex and Luciana on the structure of colagdas so I was able to apply that as well to what we learned there.)

In addition while I was introducing myself to "rebotes" (rebound movements) with Alex, Stephen went to work on his ganchos and learned a few more cool things from Fabian and Carolina in that class as well.

One of the most difficult classes we took was definitely "Turbo Ganchos" with Fernanda and Guillermo and these super fast rotating ganchos are going to take A LOT of work to get right.

So - all in all, we managed to fit classes in that helped us out a great deal and a few fun ones that took us to the very edge of out abilities and gave us things to work on for some time.

We worked more on circular boleos and now have 3 differnt sets of instructions for how they work from 3 different instructors...*sigh*.

Now, I didn't manage to damage myself significantly (not even during Turbo Ganchos) for 6 days of dancing and classes, then I hurt my shoulder on my one day off and have another dance class tonight where Fabian has promised me he will show a Piernazo (a very high gancho where the follower hooks the leader higher than his leg-another move on my "to do" list). We followed him around NEARLY ALL WEEKEND (!!!) and missed the ONE CLASS he taught that in! (DOH!)

Nuevo comments

2006-11-17T18:11:31Z

I was reading someones commentary (or essay, or opinions) on the development of tango and found this:

"As you know, Tango, the dance, predates Tango, the music. That is, people started dancing tango steps to existing music (polcas, mazurcas, tarantelas, etc.) before there was real tango music to dance to. [Therein lies the ultimate irony to folks (like me) who dislike "alternative music tango". Tango started as alternative insert-dance-X-here !! i.e., dancing tango steps while listening to non-tango music (sigh)]
"

so there's egg on your face!

for the full essay see this:

http://www.virtuar.com/tango/articles/2006/quebrada.htm

Fandango schedule

2006-11-17T14:03:13Z

It's finally up! The scedule for this year's Fandango! It looks like a lot of fun. A notable change from last year is the change in the beginner format. It is one full day instead of 2, but they have coordinateed with the teachers this year so there will be no everlap and repeating of materials. If you've ever wanted to try Argentine Tango- this would be an awesome set of classes to take!

http://www.learn2dance.com/Fandango2006/Schedule%20for%20Fandango%202006%20(11-17-06).htm

Cryin' in my beer

2006-11-14T01:45:32Z

I'm so cryin' in my beer. I found these really beautiful Tango shoes on eBay. Not my size....SO SAD!

If I were a size 7 US looking for awesome Tango shoes...my search would be over!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gorgeous-Blk-Burgundy-Neo-Tango-Womens-Dance-Shoes-SZ-7_W0QQitemZ230049077009QQihZ013QQcategoryZ63889QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

TGIF

2006-11-10T16:36:07Z

I have finally finished my whirlwind week of Tango cross-training. I am trying to get my body prepared for the stamina it will take to get through 5 or 6 days of classes and dancing. I commented on my "preparations" to a certain geeky guy who always wears the same blue shirt, and I'm not sure why he always feels it necessary to make mildly condescending commentary to me, but he relpied that "it was just a big get together for Tango people"...I'm not quite sure why he thought I meant I was MENTALLY unprepared for Fandango but I could not help pointing out that I meant I was PHYSICALLY preparing myself. This only served to remind me why I don't generally dance with him. He may be a good leader, but if I am going to have to listen to someone imply that my dancing skills and/or mentality is somewhere below par nearly every time I dance with them, I'd just as soon not dance with them. In fact, its getting to the point where if he does it again, I will have to call him out on it.

One pleasant surprise I had was with a guy named Bob. Prior to this, Bob has always been referred to as "Poor Bob", expecially in workshops, due to his uncanny ability to NOT GET what the teacher is saying. I think he also may be a little slower to learn things, and workshops move FAST, so that doesn't help. Well, alfter 2 workshops with him this summer where the ladies would take turns saying "No- I danced with him LAST time, it's YOUR turn now" I have been hesitant to dance with him as I don't want to get caught in the "Can you tell me what to do next syndrome" though I like him as a person.

Well- we were chatting during a mini break and he asked me to dance (ACKK!) and it was a fast moving MIlonga that came on (ACCKKK!!!) but I like him and so I said ok. And...He actually did fine! I told him that I could see he'd been practicing and had really improved a lot. He was so happy! Apparently, he has spent some time in BsAs taking lessons and "Poor Bob" got quite a complex from having to hear all the things he did wrong, to the point that he was afraid even to take a step. I said that I think a lot of people go through phases like that and that even though he did go through that, it paid off. The teachers who teach you only see your faults and so they tell you, so you don't often see the improvement payoff, until you go out and dance with the people you know. We danced 2 more songs after that and it was quite pleasant! Way to go Bob!

practica update

2006-11-08T14:28:13Z

well- i had to go to my hardresser yesterday (that'd be my mom) and since I was in town I decided to do the entire 2 hour practica at UT. I must admit, I had ulterior motives when I went there. After seeing Chuck at the milonga last Saturday (his first after only 3 weeks doing Tango- such bravery!) I decided that he clearly has the willpower, and he was out on the floor dancing what he knew, but OH! when you don't know anything but walking and the cross, that makes life very hard. So- I thought he could use a little more vocabulary.

My original goal was to introduce him to basic running steps in Tango, just like in the beginner class I am helping out with that doesn't have enough leaders. Then maybe showing how the rock steps work with a salida and a little bit about pauses in the music (those are a little more subtle leading concept).

Well- not only did we get the lead to the cross worked out, basic running steps, a few frame fixes, some foot movement fixes and worked a little on lapiz movements during a pause (that'll take time to get comfortable with), but we also covered back ochos and a little cadencia with a forward ocho ending. And he soaked it all in like a sponge. I told him to write it all down so he woudln't forget between one week and the next, but he truly will be a very good dancer if he can keep this up and if we can find a way to get him some REAL instruction! But now at least, if he goes to a milonga, he has enough vocabulary to get himself around the dance floor and some moves that he can do in tight situations for floorcraft.

For myself- Orazzio and I worked on a sentada for a few minutes, whereby the follower hooks around the leaders leg and he SWINGS her up off the ground to sit in his lap for a moment (YIKES!). That will take some practice and getting used to for me! Then I worked with Roger who was getting used to leading volcadas, spilling moves that tip the follower over, and we tried a hard back volcada that we couldn't get working so I showed him an easier one just to get used to the movement involved with a back volcada.

So- I had fun with the movements and so forth. Now the music situation is something different altogether. I don't know what it is about music that makes people in to such control freeks, but I had brought a CD that I had made for Tim and since he was running late, I offered to put it on, becasue it had some new music on it. SO then I received a small lecture from the founding lady of the UT Tango club, whose name I will not mention here, about how she didn't want to put on Nuevo music that was difficult to dance to since it was a "beginner" practica (first time I'd heard it called that considering all the advanced dancers who show up to dance) and that she's want to rip the CD so she could hear the music first. I told her that was between her and Tim, as I made the CD for him. Then they promptly put on some dreadful Broadway style Piazolla tunes which are notoriously melodramatic and difficult to dance to and more than one person told me while I worked with them that they couldnt find a beat in it, but when a (rare) nuevo piece came on, beat was no problem. I have no issues with Piazolla, I ENJOY listening to Piazolla and even dancing to some of the tamer pieces....but I would NEVER consider that music appropriate for a BEGINNER practica. SO, no new music again and score one for closed minded Monica-ite.

I wonder if there is any merit in the idea of me learing to lead well enough to teach ballroom dancers how to Tango? For that is still likely the only way, in my mind, that we'll be able to get new music played here in town (for all the reasons I've said before: most nuevo tunes have tempos that can cross over to a ballroom dance, a fairly steady beat, many are electronic and so have a modern sound)