Noodle Princess

A friend of mine shared a video with me today that just stunned me.  Absolutely the best use of spoken word poetry and video I've seen in a very very long time.  The sort of thing I wished I'd made, but didn't.  For your enjoyment, I present Taylor Mali's "Totally like whatever, you know?"  Video typography by Ronnie Bruce.

Since viewing the above video this morning, I started researching the work of Taylor Mali and, well, simply put, he's brilliant.  His use of language to disect and highlight the obvious in our society is so spot on, it brings a tear to the eye. 

On teachers:

On proofreading:

On the irony of our educational system:

For more on Taylor Mali, please visit his website at: http://taylormali.com/

You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/taylormali

Twitter: http://twitter.com/TaylorMali

The Bowery Poetry Club: http://bowerypoetry.com/

So yeah, it's been a while since I blogged and I just checked my comments and someone named emily asked if I'd blog again soon and that she particularly enjoyed my blog entries on my Dead/Furthur antics so in honor of emily, who has shamed me into blogging again today (no really, THANK YOU Emily!), here we go...hold onto your hats...are you ready?HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011~ So we went up to San Fransisco again this year for two nights of Furthur shows at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.  Met up and shared shows with our good friends from Orcas whom we met at last year's NYE run, and who we've gone to other shows with over this past year. Nothing like a great show shared with great friends, old and new!  Met up with a very cool dude named Dorian (PM me here if you see this Dorian or Friends of Dorian!) and ended up sitting with his entire crew of very kind folks from Santa Cruz, Eugene and all points in between.  In fact we liked this crew so much that we ended up saving seats for all them for NYE so we'd be surrounded by the coolest of people!  But you don't wanna hear about the people per se, you wanna hear about the show, right?  Okay, on to the show... Furthur has definitely improved in some ways, compared to last year.  And while last year seemed like a weirder, freakier show, this year they were a tightly oiled machine.  Joe Russo is sooo much better without that other dude jumping next to him all night long (that dude wore me out looking at him bouncing all night long!).  And Sunshine Becker and Jeff Pehrson really sound lovely together and their harmonies are a nice addition to the classics like Attics Of My Life and We Bid You Goodnight.  The below clip has a nice mix of the band, the floor audience and the "floating floor show" that passed by us both nights...that was as entertaining as the music! I particularly love white t-shirt holding-drink-while-dancing dude, and then when he rotates out of the picture Jerry-handprint-tshirt dude fills his place. Excellent...You couldn't choreograph this stuff, it just happens naturally, mannnn...

I'm happy to say that Twirly Light Dancing Bear Apron dude was there again, doing his thang with his twirly light ball.  I love this dude, he brings an added dimension of weird and cool to the shows he's at.  Here he is making his way past where we were sitting/dancing...There's clips of him in the above video as well.But you probably want to see what happened at midnight, right?  Well, here ya go...courtesy of the Mr. and my new Canon G-12, which totally rocks, by the way, in all it's HD video glory...

As you can see, it was a circus theme, not quite as mind blowing as last year's disco-mirrored skull and roses but I suppose it's hard to top last year's midnight events!  And the cool thing was last year they played Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion as the first song of 2010, and this year, it was the last song they played of 2010...nice touch I thought! 

If you'd like to see more video of Furthur's NYE 2010-2011 shows, please check out my You Tube site at: http://www.youtube.com/user/noodleprincess1.  Until next year...wishing you a 2011 filled with health, happiness and lots of great live music...see you at the shows...peace!

I know, it's San Francisco so why would I be surprised at seeing this sign?  And yet, I was. Surprised, that is.  I looked up and BAM! There it was, inviting me to touch someone's junk while both being nude and live.  Hmmmm, I'd love to but I've got plans for this evening, maybe another time?  Seriously, it's one of the funniest signs I saw this trip, but what was even funnier was Mr. Noodleprincess's questions about it, "So do you think this is for the newbie performers or like an open mic night for the general public...?"  Yeah, uh, I don't know. 

We rolled into SF early in the morning so we headed right to the best dive diner we know, The Pinecrest. It's one of those gritty diners where you can order just about anything you could possibly think of, any time of the day or night. They're open 24/7 too.The counter at the Pinecrest, filled this fine morning with a swat team of Italian tourists who were mysteriously all dressed alike.And there was this little gem, the Kabuki Hair & Skin Care salon. Now I mean really, how many times have you woken up during a holiday season and said to yourself, "Damn!  If only I could find a really top notch Kabuki hair and skin salon so I could, ya know, look like a real Kabuki dancer..."  I know, I think that alllll the time.  And yes, they had pictures all over the salon of Kabuki entertainers. I wonder who their clientele are?

So, you know how whenever you try to photograph your Christmas Tree it never quite comes out right?  If you do it with a flash it washes everything out and if you don't use a flash it looks weird?  Well guess what?!  If you get the spanking brand new Canon G-12, you will never ever have this problem again because this camera sees what you see with your own eyes.  AND, it has a sensor that compensates for blurriness on longer exposures. It's A.MA.ZING!  Mr. Noodleprincess gave it to me for Christmas and man, this thing rocks!  Oh, did I mention that it also shoots video in HD?  Uh, yeah. Crazy. Below is the same photo as above (which is normal auto without flash), but below is taken with a half-second exposure and motion control. Pretty good dontcha think? I think I love this camera.Either this camera is totally awesome or my hands are ridiculously steady and I should probably be doing circumcisions for a living!

Anyway, here's a full frontal of this year's tree. I know, I know, it looks like last year's tree but hey, if you got a good think and it works for you, you don't mess with it.  All ornaments are vintage/antique glass ornaments, with that lovely patina that picks up a nice glow in the lights.  Love it!Happy Holidays 2010...see you next year!

I was fortunate to get a ticket to last night's South Africa v. Uruguay World Cup match at Loftus Versveld Stadium in Pretoria. Truth be told, the stadium is literally across the street from my hotel so either I sit in my room and hear the din of the match, or try to get in and see and hear the din in real life. I chose the latter, but not before I worked it like a cheap two dollar hooker to get a ticket!  I won't get into  the dirty details but this ticket required three trips to the ticket office in a mall located a 20 minute round trip drive from my hotel, including a two-hour stint in a very slow moving line only to be told "sorry my sistah, there are no more tickets at any price".  A two-visit trip to the ticket pick-up centre located at the far end of the stadium, as well as some cajoling, scheming and chit chat with various and sundry FIFA local volunteers and workers. And another 30 minute wait at a super secret ticket office, the location of which I cannot divulge. And related to those FIFA ticket workers, they went way above and beyond to help me secure a ticket. Yes I paid dealy for it, but it was worth it to FEEL IT because...IT IS HERE!  If you're in South Africa right now, that's sort of a funny catch phrase.  Anyway, it was my one chance to see the home team, Bafana Bafana, play in the World Cup.  The excitement was unreal. But what I wante to share with you is what it's like to walk into a World Cup stadium...because it is unlike anything else I've ever experienced, and I've seen a lot of things in ths ol world, but this was excitement that was palpable.  So without further ado, let's go to the video tape and let it speak for itself...

I thought I was taping the national anthem of South Africa, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, which is an incredibly beautiful and moving song that is sung in five parts, each in a different language of the country.  Sadly I screwed it up because I was enjoying the actual singing in the stadium, but here is the last part, which I like because at the end the crowd errupts in national pride.

These lovely ladies were in the box next to me, and during the half time, when everyone went to get a drink, they stayed outside, braving the cold weather, to dance their butts off the the 2010 World Cup theme song by Shakira, Waca Waca, which everyone in this country knows. Before I came down here I was hearing that African's were pissed off that this tune was the anthem of the 2010 World Cup and that FIFA should have selected an African artist to write this song, which yes, they should have.  But judging by what I've seen on the streets, in hotels, restaurants, in my office, and in the stadium last night, I think people are over it...they seem to love this song now.  If you start playing it anywhere, a dance party will break out spontaneously!