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Been a while since I've posted anything personal, hasn't it?

Some assorted updates:

First, I apologize for all those items last week. In retrospect, I obviously should have used MT's scheduled-posting feature to post them one a day, or every 12 hours, or something, rather than all at once like that. I'm guessing most of the good stuff (like the bellydancing librarian page I saved for last) got lost in general eye-glazing. Sorry.

Not really sure what I did last week. Saw Twig twice (after much too long since last time), saw Lola and Kam a couple evenings each, did some editing, got back in touch (via email) with a high school friend who I haven't seen in many many years. Sent a flurry of annoyed emails to various high-profile publications that were making various obvious typos in prominent paragraphs. I don't normally bother, but there's been a lot of that lately, and it offends my sense of order. I confess that I was particularly annoyed by the half-dozen major publications that wrote "Delay" instead of "DeLay" in the pull quotes at the tops of their articles, thereby demonstrating that they're relying on computer spellcheckers (if anything) for their proofreading. Yes, I realize there are many more important things I could be spending my time on.

Finally decided, late Friday night, to go see Rain (the Cirque Éloize show) on Saturday afternoon after all.

There were still two seats available in row D, the 6th row back from the stage. Saturday noonish Kam and I drove up to SF. Turned out to be a cool show: spectacularly strong and acrobatic people doing remarkable things. Thanks again for letting me know about it, Beth!

I'm sorry to report that I wasn't all that impressed with most of the juggling bits--they were quite good, I was just hoping for more and longer. But I very much enjoyed much of the comedy (especially the performer who came out on stage with a microphone and said "Can someone explain this show to me?" and complained about how artsy and intellectual and incomprehensible it all was, as a stagehand dropped boots at her from the flies), and the various circus-arts performances were lovely and astonishing. Amazing contortionist stuff, a lovely aerial ballet (two women on a trapeze), a man balancing in various remarkable and unlikely ways on another man, people being hurled into the air and spinning and landing; all very low-tech, all measured in pace, nobody in a hurry.

And possibly my favorite new-circus art: Roue cyr. Imagine a six-foot metal hula hoop. Stand it on edge, and spin it, like spinning a coin. Watch it describe slow stately massive arcs around the stage. Then have a performer step into it, spread-eagled like that da Vinci man (but with a happier facial expression and more clothing), holding the rim with both hands. The performer can, without apparently moving, spin the hoop (with the performer in it) on two axes, creating really remarkable effects. I don't know why I like this so much, but for me it's magical.

The finale didn't thrill me so much, partly because our seats were low enough that I couldn't see the surface of the stage itself. (I participated in the standing ovation, which I rarely do, primarily to be able to see the stage surface.) But also because, I saw the three main elements of the show as being circus arts, comedy, and beautiful images, but the finale seemed to me to be mostly about the beautiful images, and though there were some very nice images, I was more interested in the comedy and circus arts.

Anyway. Good stuff, worth the high ticket prices; glad we went. I think Kam liked it too.

For more about the show, see the nytheatre.com review and the Dance Insider review.

Afterward, I came home and read subs. Kam went to a party in the East Bay.

Sunday I'm not sure what happened; the day slipped away from me. I'm sure I did something, but I don't know what.

In general, I've been kinda grumpy a lot of the time lately. Nothing in particular, just mildly irritable, and my base state when nothing is actively entertaining me has been grumpy rather than my usual cheerful. I would blame early-onset Winter Blahs, except that we've had warm sunshine every day for the past week. (And every time I go out into it, I cheer up temporarily.)

I know there was more I was gonna say, but I think this entry's long enough for now.