performance art

It's Performance Week at Meat Market Gallery, and strangely, two friends from Hampshire are performing together - Megan Palaima and Liz Rosenfeld doing who knows what from 6-7p on Friday and at the closing party on Saturday. I'll be there Friday, wanna go?
Other friends Breck Brunson and the Yay! Team will be performing throughout the week, too, but as I'll be slinging pizza, i'll miss those. If you're liz or megan, and have a crafty google alert for your own name, hi! long time no see! wanna get a drink while you're in DC?
I asked a friend to invite her newish potentially uptight date to the performance with us, but she declined. Is inviting a new friend to see performance art an unfair test of character?

Mirah + Spectratone International

Saw a great show last night with jen and a few other friends.
Mirah, a whispery, sultry, sometimes girly and silly-voiced soprano with her backing band Spectratone International. They said their openers canceled so they played their own warmup- a short set of covers, mostly - a stirring pirate shanty, Nico's "Fairest of the Seasons" and an older Mirah song. After the break, they sang mostly from their newest, Share This Place, which i don't have (yet), and seems to be mostly about bugs, longing and dangerous loves. One medieval-sounding song about a grain-sorting princess took from Led Zeppelin's mystical lyric style.

Spectratone International is a fab fourtet of cello, percussion, accordion and oud, a Middle Eastern mandolin like instrument.

The music was accompanied, in the second act, by unusual stop-motion animation by Britta Johnson, which was created for the performance. You can see on of the shorts and hear the band here. Johnson's creatures and shadows made from household castoffs are beautiful and kind of gross, alluring but not overwhelming to the performance. With the band playing to build tension with the video, it was a great combination. yay art!

The crowd was almost as intriguing as the show, a mottled and attractive selection of 20s and 30s, silently rapt with the
performance. who are these people and why dont I see them more often?

flora nuevo

I inherited some new plants this week, and, as recoup from working 30+ hours this weekend, went on a potting spree yesterday. They seem to be happy in our dappled light apartment, so hopefully they'll survive!

This Aloe is a fledgling from a good friend's massive plant. I've never had an aloe before, so I'm glad to finally have this beneficial plant in the kitchen. aloe has a wide and shallow root system, so it should thrive in this terracotta bowl from Jen's house.

This is, I think, a tree philodendron, one of the smallest specimens I could find in my friend's house to take from Richmond with me. It's been repotted and put out of reach of Zira. It's poisonous; she ate some and had a not very good Saturday.

Found this leggy rubber tree in with the trash in front of my neighbors house. it's got lots of new growth on it, so I'm rescuing it. it need lots of light, and I'm not quite sure where to put it. Hopefully it's happy in the living room. It's poisonous, too, so stay away, Zira! it did not get repotted, rubber plants like to be rootbound.

Philla and Rubbert took a shower together, to clean months of dust off their tender leaves, and they seem happier together.

So, I've got nearly a dozen plants in the apartment now, and I don't think we bought any of them. I'm trying to encourage my Kaleidoscope Orchid to reflower, but, really, I'm just asking it to. I don't know any other way! The money tree is still humongous and leggy (Suffering from months of drought, per Jeremy), and the grass-like plant has been split three times and is still huge. It's a lot easier to take care of plants when there are so many asking for water!

hi

check my rad new bike! A charming red Follis, a 70s french mixte road bike with a bell. i think i'm in love. she rides smoothly thanks to a new derailleur from mr. smooth. i think i'll save up for a brooks saddle (with springs!), but not till after I have a job that pays money! speaking of, off to work!

oops - here's the ideal brooks saddle. only $240!