Robin Hood and His Merry Men - Nice Pose

Originally uploaded by Viola Zuppa (aka Kimari).

I’ve finally managed to get some pictures from Bristol up! Hopefully there will be many more….

Whee!  Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog is starting July 15th! Check out the "Master Plan".  Better watch quick, because it will go away for a bit!

It’s that time of year again!  The Bristol Renaissance Faire opens on Saturday!  My hobby that doesn’t involve a 40 mile drive one-way! 

The Swordsmen and MooNiE were live on "Good Day Chicago" this morning.  Check out the video here.

Thanks to Ster for the heads up! (And I’m jealous that she’s at home on vacation today…)

20080627-IMG_7927

Originally uploaded by Viola Zuppa (aka Kimari).

One of my friends from the dance studio is opening her own made-to-order ice cream shop in the near future. The key to making it so fast is one of my favorite things in science, liquid nitrogen.

Last night she made ice cream for the folks at the studio dance party and I decided to take some pictures of the process. That’s when the reading of the Strobist blog kicked in. I remembered that I had my wireless triggers in the camera bag. A friend held the flash behind the mixer and to the left of the frame. This is one of the results.

I’m pretty happy with it and now have all sorts of ideas.

Hopefully I’ll be able to do more shooting like this when she opens her shop in a few weeks!

P.S. The ice cream was delicious!

As I was driving to dance last night, I was stuck in traffic on the Edens (big surprise).  At the spot where the Edens spur merges into Rt 41 there is a little patch of green with some trees and tall grass, so naturally, while either stopped or moving at less than 2 miles an hour, I was looking at the green area wishing I were out of the car. 

Suddenly, a little fawn came scampering out of the brush.  It was frolicking in the tall grass, straight out of a Disney movie.  I reached for my camera (yes I was pretty much not moving at that point) to grab a quick shot of the little feller when I saw this redwinged blackbird dive-bomb the oblivious fawn and peck him right in the butt.

The fawn, startled, looked around as if to say "What the hell?" and then took off into the brush.  Stupid bird ruined the fawn’s fun.

I wish I had caught it on camera, but it happened way too fast.

Last weekend, the Chicago Tribune ran a story about the agressive behavior of these birds.

Ooh this looks awesome!  (Check out the trailer at the site)

Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion in a web-show written and directed by Joss Whedon?  And a project that looks like it’s being done for the sheer fun of it.  How can you not love it? My cup runneth over!  I can’t wait!

The wonderful Cyd Charisse passed away yesterday at the age of 86.  That woman could dance like no other!  She was probably my favorite partner of both Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.  While reading about her today I found the following quote from her about the differences between Kelly and Astaire:

I think, however, that Astaire’s coordination is better than Kelly’s … his sense of rhythm is uncanny. Kelly, on the other hand, is the stronger of the two. When he lifts you, he lifts you! … To sum it up, I’d say they were the two greatest dancing personalities who were ever on screen. But it’s like comparing apples and oranges. They’re both delicious.

And Fred Astaire wrote about her in his autobiography:

That Cyd! When you’ve danced with her you stay danced with.

Oddly enough, I was just thinking about her the other day when I found this mashup of the "Girl Hunt" number from "The Band Wagon" and Michael Jackson’s "Smooth Criminal."  It’s pretty good:

Greetings from Chicago’s Crystal Ball

Originally uploaded by Viola Zuppa (aka Kimari).

First place for solo. Watch Twitter for updates (I predict a large number of firsts.)

I’ve posted about the creepiness factor of the tornado warning system in my neighborhood before, but last night it caused me to reach a new height of fear-induced anxiety.  

Storms have rocked this area for the last few days and last night was no exception.  I heard something that I guessed was the tornado warning siren (no notice on TV coming through though), so I opened the door to hear better.  What greeted me was THE VOICE repeating "SEEK SHELTER NOW" over and over again, reverberating around the subdivision.

Now, I’m a grown women, not easily freaked out by bad weather (I love thunderstorms), but THE VOICE, coupled with the fact that I live in a townhouse with no basement and no real first floor inside rooms (that don’t have major house systems inside), compelled me to call my parents so my mom could "talk me down."

I really think I need to write a letter to the city or county or whomever controls the system and have them replace it with a much less intimidating voice.  The only way it would be worse if they replaced the voice with that of the Daleks! "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE" 

So they’ve gone ahead and made a remake of one of my favorite movies, 1939’s fabulous "The Women"  The 2008 remake replaces Norma Shearer with Meg Ryan, Joan Crawford with Eva Mendes and horror of all horrors, Rosalind Russell with Annette Benning!  *sigh* 

This isn’t a rumor, the trailer has been seen with the "Sex and the City" movie.  You can see it here. 

Now if that isn’t enough, now I read this.

They’re freakin making a "My Fair Lady" remake?  With Keira Knightly?  WHY WHY WHY?!?!?  Why is this necessary?

They’re not setting it at a different time, they’re not changing the music, just remaking that classic.

The movie industry is truly out of new ideas!  Keira Knightly taking over for Audrey Hepburn? No! (And yes I know Hepburn did not do her own singing, Marnie Nixon had that honor and she was fabulous as she was as Mrs. Higgins when I saw it on stage recently).  According the the Variety article, they want to add some more stuff from Pygmaliion by G.B. Shaw.  More?  The 1964 version is already almost 3 hours long!

I don’t know why a movie remake annoys me so much, but additional stage adaptations don’t bother me.  It’s illogical but I don’t care.  Of course if they cast Colin Firth or Ewan McGregor as Henry Higgins, I MAY have to go see it.

(Oddly enough, the original versions of BOTH these classics were directed by George Cukor, who also directed "The Philadelphia Story" another favorite.  They touch THAT one and I won’t be responsible for my actions, the musical version "High Society" is bad enough).