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Happy Friday to you – no matter which!

I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning! I came straight in here and redesigned the ROA site… I hadn’t really planned to do that, but there ya go.

I’m feeling much better after the Flash Party on Tuesday. Emily and I were up until 4am! CRAZY! Nick’s now in charge of making sure we don’t get too carried away with our Scorpio selves. ;-)

Hope everyone is having spanky fun at Frolicon!

Oh, and I almost forgot about these:
1. Happy Good Friday to the non-Orthodox Christians
2. Happy Ostara to the Pagans

And all the rest of you:
Purim, a Jewish festival celebrating the biblical book of Esther
Narouz, the Persian New Year, which is observed with Islamic elaboration in Iran and all the “stan” countries, as well as by Zoroastrians and Baha’is.
Eid Milad an Nabi, the Birth of the Prophet, which is celebrated by some but not all Sunni Muslims and, though officially beginning on Thursday, is often marked on Friday.
Small Holi, Hindu, an Indian festival of bonfires, to be followed on Saturday by Holi, a kind of Mardi Gras.
Magha Puja, a celebration of the Buddha’s first group of followers, marked primarily in Thailand.

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Art Class #3

Instructor (Charles Walls aka Charles Keegan – look him up) is still an asshole. He belittled, browbeat and condescended again. Others in the class were clearly not happy with The Great and Powerful Walls (I’m sure he has that Sharpied on his Wizard of Oz underpants) as he forced odd hats on them and made one girl stand on a particular mat because he likes it… NUTTER!

Yes, I choose to name this egomanical bastard outright and he can kiss my blog enabled ass.

The guy is a whackjob and doing NOTHING for the rep of Binders. I’m not likely to shop there or take classes there again. Not only do they promise gift cards and then “forget” so you never get them, but they clearly do NOT vet their instructors nor do they evaluate the class itself to assure it’s properly described. For instance, this class is NOT a beginners class. At all. It should be billed as advanced. Perhaps the more advanced students will appreciate a local “artiste” who suffers from delusions of grandeur such as Charles. I truly expected some in that class to genuflect and address him as “Master”. Bloody hell!

This is a local artist who thinks he’s fucking Da Vinci, apparently. I’m not sure who blows all that hot air up his ass, but it’s certainly gone to his very VERY large head.

Dunno, but as a beginner in my FIRST FUCKING CLASS EVER, he certainly has put me off Art (with a Capital A) classes. Fuck that, I’ll stick with fun shit like doing doors and windows.

Be very careful of classes at Binders. They are pricey and not well regulated.

I’m just glad it’s over!

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Easter vs Pascha

Western Christians are in the throes of preparing for Easter (Mar 23rd this year) and Orthodox Christians have just begun Lent. Pascha is April 27 this year. Why is there such a discrepancy? When I first joined the Orthodox Church, it was very puzzling to me and something that few of the lay people of the Church could explain other than “it has to do with Passover.” Which is not entirely untrue – but there’s more to it than that.

Here is a technical explanation of why Orthodox Pascha is usually not at the same time as Easter for everyone else. For those not wanting to read the whole thing, here’s the relevant part [excerpted from a now defunct article on goarch.com]:

“The Orthodox Church continues to base its calculations for the date of Pascha on the Julian Calendar, which was in use at the time of the First Ecumenical Council. As such, it does not take into account the number of days, which have since then accrued due to the progressive loss of time in this calendar.

Practically speaking, this means that Pascha may not be celebrated before April 3, which was March 21, the date of the vernal equinox, at the time of the First Ecumenical Council. In other words, a difference of 13 days exists between the accepted date for the vernal equinox then and now. Consequently, it is the combination of these variables which accounts for the different dates of Pascha observed by the Orthodox Church and other Christian Churches.”

So now you know! The good news is that typically, Orthodox Christians get to buy all their Pascha shwag at huge discounts! Heh, there is nothing better than chocolate bunnies for 75¢!

Actually, if you’re interested in comparative religion at all, it’s an interesting subject to read about how the Christian church became fractured in the first place as well as these pesky questions:

1. Why do Orthodox Christians cross right to left?
2. What’s up with icons rather than statues?
3. Why is Lent so severe for Orthodox and lax for Western?

Oh, and there’s much more. I read all this way back when I converted to the Orthodox church in the early 90s. I no longer practice, but I’m still Orthodox “on paper.” The story of the Orthodox Church is an interesting read if you’re into it.

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Art Class #2

Ugh. Nick was sick w/ a mild case of stomach flu so I had to go to the class by myself. It was DISMAL.

The teacher was a total dickhead to me. I got the very strong vibe that he really does not like me or want me in his class. This guy is significant because he was Nick’s first art teacher years ago and Nick was very excited to learn from him again. I was hesitant about an oil painting class as a first painting class EVER and the teacher seemed to think I couldn’t or wouldn’t do it from the get-go. Even after I spoke to him at length about the class and told him that I was there to do my best, he apparently did not take that to heart. He appears to have ignored our conversation and instead harboured ill will towards me ever since.

I don’t know what his malfunction is and I don’t particularly care. Judging by the way this guy runs his class, I’d say egomaniacal is a fair adjective for him. So, it’s OK to slap some gesso on a piece of cardboard and paint on that, but by GODS you’d better buy GOOD paint and brushes (read: the exact brand he uses) to do so! It’s insane. He wants everyone to invest $100+ for his overpriced ($140 for 6 classes) class even if you are a total n00b and don’t even know if you’ll like oils! I cry shenanigans! Continue reading “Art Class #2”

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Sia show

We went to the Sia show last night at Variety Playhouse. Poor Nick has a mild stomach flu bug, but he soldiered on. The show ended up selling out – I’m glad I picked up the tix the other day!

So, if you looked at Sia’s website (which you will do now if you didn’t…), you’ll get a good idea of the nature of this cute little pixie from Oz. Ms Sia Furler is from Adelaide Australia (the Aussie equivalent to Northern CA) and quite the sweet goofy girl. She chats a lot throughout her show and is so sweet about playing songs and making shout outs for the fans who ask via her message board. Her show merchandise was in the same style as the site – cute! The first song was her current single, Buttons. The band came out in blacklight reactive costumes that looked like the stick figures you see on her site – again, very creative and cute. She also had large blown glass with neon flowers all over the stage. The 4-8 ft tall flowers were VERY bright – sometimes too bright for my light blue eyes!

She played newer selections that I’m not familiar with, most likely from her new record, but she also did Destiny from Zero 7 – awesome! She didn’t go into any of the more downbeat songs from Healing is Difficult, which is where Drink to get Drunk is from, sadly. I really wanted to hear that song. But nevermind that, she did a startling version of Breathe Me that was intense. During the pause between intro and verse, you could have heard a pin drop in that venue. I’ve never in my life seen an audience so rapt. It was spine tingling.

Another thing that was startling about this show is Sia’s voice. It is nothing like what you hear on the records. NOTHING. That little pixie lays back and wails! It was spectacular! My one suggestion to her (which I’ll make on the message board that she reads daily) is to stop over engineering her voice for the records. Seriously. She has a voice akin to Melissa Etheridge or Ann Wilson as far as power. I had no idea! Others in the audience were amazed as well. She should let that raw power show a bit more in her recordings, I think.

The band was piano/keys dude, bass dude, acoustic/electric guitar dude and cello dude. The cello made the show, IMO. Have you ever seen a cello player rock? Now I have and it’s so very very cool. For the rendition of Breathe Me, that cello was integral. It was amazing the depth he brought to the songs. Kudos to Cello Dude.

She did one encore after an explanation of why she now does them – funny! – and then literally scampered off stage. It was so damn cute! I could just pinch her cute little cheeks! I’d really like to meet her, I just know she’s as sweet in person as she is onstage. She’s happy to be touring, happy to have her career back (thanks Six Feet Under on HBO!) and a total sweetheart. I look forward to her next tour.

After the show, roughly half the venue was outside surrounding Sia’s bus! I hope she’s used to that and doesn’t think Atlantans are weird! I think that this tour will definitely push her into stardom. When fans sense that kind of authenticity from a performer, they will move heaven and earth for her. I know I consider myself a full on Sia fan now – up from just a casual listener.

Thanks Sia and band for a truly excellent show. I’ve seen many, many shows in my life and this one is one of the best. THANK YOU.