Especially for those of us who have cormorants of our own ( Read more... )

I'm feeling happily readjusted to Seattle.  And really quite happy in general.  My one current source of stress is having my coworker quit last week- in theory, I should be taking on her workload any time now.  But in practice, it's been slow as we ramp up for tax season and get our audit clients sorted out for the new year.  I would rather be busy ( Read more... )

I'd forgotten how beautiful the small town of Tura is, especially in comparison the dusty grid of Bhubaneshwar. Nestled in the Garo Hills, the town is full of houses terraced up the steep hills, hairpin turns on every road, and intense greenery. Apparently this week is time for firecrackers, so I've been hearing a ton of explosions echoing through ( Read more... )

I'm in Guwahati, the capital of Assam, after two early flights this morning.  Travel in Northeast India is never dull.  Today I rushed to get a taxi from the airport, through terrible traffic, to Paltan Bazaar, by the train station, in order to catch the last of the shared jeeps that travel relatively quickly to Tura.  When I arrived, everyone ( Read more... )

Today is my final day in Bhubaneswar.  We finished our last show on the 24th, but since then we've done a photo shoot at Mukteshwar temple, watched a ton of Odissi performances and lecture demonstrations, and I've desperately tried to catch up on the errands we had no time to do during rehearsal.  We even got our hotel room cleaned.  Moria has been ( Read more... )

We performed Navarasa and the Thali Nacho (or Arathi Srita Kamala) on Monday night.  We were on the medium sized stage at the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidhalaya (the local college of arts).  We had live musicians for this performance, including three different singers, a drummer, cymbal player, violinist, flutist, and sitar player.  We lit our candles ( Read more... )

India continues relatively smoothly! We are still rehearsing most of our waking day and Doug's yoga classes in the mornings have been life saving.  I feel pretty damn good physically (better than I did when I left Seattle), and my shin splints have barely been bothering me.  Jamie and I were discussing how much easier and less full of drama this ( Read more... )

Rehearsal with some of the top musicians in Orissa is going well.  I was a little surprised that they decided to double the tempo of my dance on my first run through, but I hit all the beats and smiled a lot.  My stance wasn't low enough, but otherwise they didn't have specific complaints.  I was really grateful, because they've performed with the ( Read more... )

I've been in India for 20 hours and have already attempted to explain what a UV water filter (handheld) was in Hindi and stumbled into a Thai and Malaysian restaurant in suburban Kolkata.  And I wanted Thai food so badly when I lived here in college!  I also wandered through several large political demonstrations in Bhubaneswar, including an all- ( Read more... )

I'm continuing to feel pretty damn happy! 10 extra hours a week of dancing and yoga starting in August really has kicked my fall seasonal depression to the curb this year ( Read more... )