How I Desperately Want to Spend my Day(s)....

Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer

I am finally posting the Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer pics. It was an amazing night thanks to Heidi and Jessie's hard work on the set. All I contributed to that was the dress and dressform stage left...and I helped strike...

Neil and Amanda LOVED the set though, it was a huge success!

Me, Jessie & Heidi outside the venue....

Jessie, me & Heidi backstage before the show for the meet and greet...

Me, Heidi & Neil...

Me, Amanda Palmer & Heidi...My god, could that photo of me be any worse??

Me, Heidi, Neil & Jessie...

A couple photos of the gorgeous set...I had a tough time getting a decent picture, totally unprepared as usual, all I had was my phone camera...

And here are a couple I nicked off Neil Gaiman's website....www.neilgaiman.com

2 Months nearly to the day!!

Since my last post...I know, I am terrible. But its a new year, so lets get started.....With what I did back in December!

Prince, the most crazy amazingness I’ve ever seen....A ridiculously late review, I know, but anyway, my god. What a guy. 53 and still wails like a mother. I wish he played more off the Purple Rain album, but then I guess it wasn’t the Purple Rain tour, was it? Ahhh, Purple Rain, Purple Rain....totally the sound track to my life when it came out...I was actually about 12yrs old, so really.... maybe not so much, but wow, did I love it. My friend had the album and we would go hang at her place and listen to it over and over and watch the movie...I must watch the movie again.....

I have to say, if I had the free pass, no repercussions, etc...I totally would. Honestly. It could easily be a complete disappointing freak show, but an experience to be sure.

In all seriousness though this is a great interview with him prior to his show in Van.:

http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/artist+known+Prince+remembers+glyph+fondly/5751609/story.html

In it he is asked what his “boldest” move was. His response was changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol to escape a restrictive recording contract....I had no idea that was the reason he did that. I mean there was always some crazy rumor floating around about him, you couldn’t have any idea what the reality was.

Here's a nice shot of Prince and his purple symbol guitar....That symbol was also his stage, with LED lights, trap door and all....Love him SO much!!

Jehanne of the Witches & Prince!

Well, we are into tech week for Jehanne of the Witches. Things are crazy, but coming along. Here are a few of the designs. I hope to get a few photos from the costume parade on Monday. Things get so busy I always forget to take photos.

I am also putting up some Prince in honor of my procured tickets for his show in December. I am absolutely losing my mind over it. I think it requires a new outfit...possibly something sparkly....

Niel Gaiman is also tonight, I am going with a girlfriend who is also doing set dec for the show. One of my costumes will be onstage, so will have to post photos. I was supposed to help her with the load in and set up, but things are so crazy I may bail...Will post photos later.

Purple Rain!

Road Test Success, And Love Lies Bleeding...

I passed my motorcycle road test yesterday! I'm so happy (and relieved!) to have that done. The instructor said I was the best rider of the day, yay! I was totally prepared to fail, you hear so many horror stories about how militant they are...Now I can sew my "scooterist" patch onto my jacket....I bought the patch but decided I wouldn't put it on until I passed my test.

It really felt good to do something that at one point I wasn't sure I was ever going to be able to do competently. But, like most things in my life, I started this journey backwards. I got the scooter before I even knew how to turn it on. I just knew I'd wanted one for so long, it didn't occur to me that maybe this wouldn't be my thing. After the disastrous lessons on the motorbike, I had moments were I thought, "what have I gotten myself into here??" I'm thankful I did it that way though, I may have bailed on the idea had I not had my little bee already, and what a waste that would have been! Riding that vespa is a feeling I can only describe as similar to surfing. A feeling of being one with the elements somehow. Maybe those aren't quite the right words. Its a real sense of unity with your ride, like a team.

Now that I have been on the freeway a couple times and feel confident I can "keep up" I can take my scooter up to the coast for visits. Though I imagine that will have to wait until next year, its getting awful cold now with that wind coming at you so fast. But still gorgeous and sunny. October has always been my favourite month!

Here's a spider web on my foggy, dewy back porch this morning.

Will be heading out to see the Alberta Ballet's "Love Lies Bleeding" tonight. My extremely talented studio mate worked on it with several other girls we know. I'm so excited for all of them! I've seen photos of some of the costumes and my god, they are amazing! I can hardly wait! Here is the advert for the Calgary performance:

Scooter Rally!

I attended my first scooter rally today! It was awesome. Went on my own, so a little weird to walk in cold like that, but people were pretty friendly. I felt a little stupid wandering around on my own, but eventually just walked up to a table and said, "hey you guys look like scooter riders" and off it went. Have never seen so many scooters riding at one time. I would really like to get some of the photos taken by passengers during the ride, those would be cool.

Oh my god, I have to add this photo of this dog! Cutest dog ever! I'm not sure how I feel about the german gunner look.....but oh my god this dog!

Dahlias and Plays

My Dahlias are finally blooming! I thought for sure they weren't going to make it. I planted them late and our summer has been so bizarre, it didn't even really start until August. But it looks like 6 out of probably 9 are strong and healthy. I MUST dig them up this year. The first couple years I had them going, I left the bulbs in the ground and they were fine, but somehow my luck ran out and since then, every time I've tried to leave them in over the winter I've killed them. Dahlia murder...unforgivable. Unless you are chopping them down to put them on your table, then, you know, its a worthy sacrifice.

I have also started work on the next play I'm designing costumes for. "Jehanne of the Witches," not bad, I like the script. Its about Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais or "Blue Beard" written by a local playwright Sally Clark. Pretty interesting. I think we should be able to have some fun with it. Thrasso Petras will be directing and I just love him, we seem to jive quite well and that always makes it the best, when the collaboration and communication is on.