I heart iPod!

Ok, I hate to sound like a commercial...but I am in love with my iPod! Really! What a great little gadget this is! I love it! Love it! Have I mentioned I love it? hehe...Honestly, I have been downloading songs onto it all week, from my CD collection and from iTunes. The only problem I'm having right now is that I have a dial-up internet connection (I know, I am so lame), so it takes like 15 minutes to DL one song from iTunes. But transfering a full CD of music to my iPod takes about 8-10 minutes, so it's wonderful!

I also made my first Playlist yesterday..."The Many Sides of Cyndi", I'm calling it. It's a sort of "best of" of Cyndi Lauper...it includes all the hits, plus my fav tracks from her non-hit albums and a live track. What I love about Playlists is that they are never final! I can keep adding songs if I want...which rocks! It's an amazing invention, and I don't know how I lived without it for so long.

And of course, Dusty Springfield is featured prominently on my iPod. She sounds even better over the iPod with the headphones. The opening lines of "Turn Me Around" from the glorious It Begins Again (1978) sound a-m-a-z-i-n-g! It's like she's whispering in my ear!

I've also DL'ed other great Dusty classic CDs, like A Brand New Me (UK title: From Dusty With Love) (1970) , Cameo (1973) and my very first Dusty album ever..sentimental favorite...Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty (1966). Ahhh! What joy! Dusty's voice was made for iPod/headphone listening! So sensual, so sensitive, and so remarkably smooth!

I love it! Love it!

Who Said Getting Older Was Fun?

Well, once again, I'm late on my blogging. I just can't seem to keep a constant string of posts to keep my readers entertained. Assuming anyone is even reading!!

My birthday was this past Friday, and it was a great time...my parents are in town, so we went, with several of my friends to Lauriol Plaza, one of my favorite restaurants in D.C.

The weather was all sorts of wacky, due to Ivan hitting the coast, lots of wind, rain, hurricane-like weather.

Saturday was the real party though, at my friends Charlie & Juan's place. It was great fun! I got some great gifts, including a 40GB iP0d. It rocks! I've already downloaded several CDs onto it and have been listening to it all day at work and on my way to work. I also used it for jogging over the weekend and it was great! I still haven't made a playlist, but the minute I get a chance I will.

Not much else to report. The election is still shaping up to be a big pain in the butt, with Kerry and the Despot too close to call in the polls. I'd love Kerry to win by a landslide. I don't understand how anyone can condone what's going on over in Iraq. It's sheer stupidity. All that loss of life--for what?

Well, you'll be glad to know that the first CD I ripped to my iPod was Dusty In Memphis, what an amazing CD, and the ol' gal sounds even better on iPod than on CD! It's like she's whispering in my ear! Chills!

I also burned Cher's Living Proof, Coldplay's Parachutes and A Rush of Blood To The Head.

Oh, I downloaded 1 song from iTunes so far. It took 15 minutes to download 1 song! Dial-up connection sucks ass. I'm gonna see if I can switch to cable soon. I can't live like this! : )
The 1 song I dl'ed was a live version of Cyndi Lauper (love her) singing "All Through The Night".

It rocks!

Dick + Bush = We're Fucked!

Okay..things are getting to the point of ridiculous now. It's official. The country has been hijacked by the Bush/Cheney junta like some little third world banana exporting central american wasteland.

WTF is up? Is the press going to continue to give Bush and his cronies a carte blanche for all sorts of disgusting behavior? As if enduring a full week of bold faced lies during that atrocious convention in NYC wasn't enough--now I have to deal with Cheney saying that if we vote for Kerry we risk another terrorist attack?

Hate to break it to you, oh neckless one, but we risk another terrorist attack no matter who gets to take joyrides in Air Force One in 2005. And guess why? Because your leadership has proven to be poor! That's why! Your shoddy creation and handling of the whole Iraq debacle has done nothing to make us safer. Au contraire my 1 cheeseburger away from a heart attack friend, it's only fueled the radical Muslim hatred for all things American. Thanks a lot you fat fuck! Now we're twice as likely to have another Sept. 11! And you don't care, cause you're gonna die any day now anyway. And you could care less about your Lesbian daughter too, obviously, since you wont even be Man enough to fight your party on the whole DoMA. Nice. Nice...Don't worry, your little suite in Hell is reserved and has been for a while--enjoy!

I am so pissed at Kerry right now though. He is so lame. I am reading Maureen Dowd's excellent Bushworld right now, and she is so on. And Kerry is lame. He's a weakling. He'll never win by playing it nice. Bush and Cheney are not going to let go of the house keys unless someone pries them out of their dead cold hands (ahh, what a nice thought).

So Kerry better step up and NOW! Come on guy! And where's Edwards in all this? Why haven't they unleashed his Colgate smile and sharp claws on the mofos yet? What the hell is Kerry waiting for?

I can only hope this is part of some weird strategy that the Dems are cookin' up..and Kerry has always been known as "the closer"...he likes to ride behind until the last minute and then jump in front. For our sake, I hope it works.

Because the way things are going now, the Republican Propaganda Machine will not rest until Kerry has been lambasted like a little yellow bellied 3 purple heart wearing flaming liberal over and over and over.

And don't even get me started on the Media. Their focus, as always, is on what doesn't matter (Did Bush snort coke at Camp David! Oooh! Ahhh!-Who fuckin' cares?) when instead, they should be working overtime to let Americans know about the crumbling economy, the horrible loss of jobs, the terrible state of the domestic agenda in general. Oh and guess what? People are still dieing in Iraq! Over 1,000 American soldiers dead, not to mention tens of thousands of Iraqis (many civilians).

I fear Nov. 2. I really do.

I think I'll just buy an iPod and plug myself in until Jan.

Ok..now it's really gotten bad!

Okay, first I complain that I wasn't blogging regularly when I skipped 1 week! Now I've skipped like 3 weeks! ACK!

Ok, ok, I will try to do better at writing more frequently, but it's just about finding the time.

Currently, I am truly swamped with all the activities I am undertaking...it's all good stuff, but it's truly keeping me on my toes! (literally!)

Aside from working 40 hours a week at my day job, I've also just begun my 2nd year of teaching Movement for the Actor at The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. It's a great place to work and I loved it last year, so I'm sure this year will be more of the same-I hope! This semester I am teaching Movement I (having taught Movement II as well in the past). I only have 5 students! That's a great number to really be able to give them individual attention. That's one of the things I love most about NCDA, that I always feel I have time to spend 1-on-1 with each student, something I've never felt I had before when I was teaching at VCU or at University of Maryland with classes of 22-25 students per semester! I'm sorry, but that's just too many, especially for what I teach.

Then, I'm also currently working on 3 shows! 3! Well, they are sort of overlapping right now but it's not as bad as it sounds. Jesus Christ Superstar for Open Circle Theatre is going incredibly well. The cast is sweet as pie and the director has wonderful ideas. And almost all the choreography is done for that one, it's now mostly cleaning and brushing up-lots of it! Once Upon A Mattress, for Potomac Theatre Company, doesn't start rehearsals till October (and opens in late November), but I have to run dance auditions for the show this next week, so that's taking up whatever free time I had in the evenings from JCS rehearsals (which wasn't much).

On top of all that, I am starting rehearsals for my dance piece for the 2nd installment of our DC choreographers showcase called True To Form on the 26th. This is a Choreography Showcase that me and 5 other choreographers have put together to showcase our work at Joy of Motion in Friendship Heights. We created it last year and the show was a great success, so we are trying it again this year. It's a wonderful venture, but I have to rehearse my dancers and finding time and space is not easy. Once again this year, I will be rehearsing at Athens Gym on Sunday nights. Just six-3 hour rehearsals to do the whole piece, which shouldn't be too bad actually, considering it's just a 4 min. jazz piece set to Kylie Minogue's "Koocachoo". It should be fun, I am very excited about it.

I guess that's all to report for now, I'm sure all these projects will keep me quite busy through December, which means before I know it I'll be in Montevideo, visiting my folks for the Holiday season! Yikes! Time flies.

Oh, BTW, my birthday is next week, so if I sound a bit like I'm waxing nostalgic about time and the passage of time, you'll understand why. : )