"Ballet" written by Tinypliny on estrip.org

Category: dance

04/05/11 12:07 - ID#53983

Ballet

I took my first ballet lesson today.

I am incredibly sore everywhere. My biceps and triceps are sore, upper back muscles that I never knew existed are suddenly making themselves known and my inner thighs and calves that went to their extremes are crying out now... In spite of all this, I feel awesome. It is this sense of absolute and inexplicable delight at feeling completely drained out and exhausted.

And the music... I felt like I was floating in heaven. Kolleen Fischer from the Configuration Dance Studio has some excellent taste in classical music. Every little piece was perfectly chosen to the ballet moves we were executing. There were some well-loved piano pieces and some unknown but absolutely delightful pieces from the romantic and classical period (written for the orchestra but played on the piano). (I really must get hold of her playlist!)

If I were to describe it more precisely, it was like an (exorbitantly expensive at $17) hour of flowing and active super-intense yoga with a minutely detailed French nomenclature set to some brilliant classical music pieces. I guess this is where I am happily blowing through my tax returns.

tinypliny writes at 09:35:20 04/05/11 - Comment #61646: A relatively inexpensive way to enjoy the grandeur of Shea's is the film series: :::link::: Thinking of going to the live orchestra Sound of Music version 2 weeks from now.

tinypliny writes at 09:24:25 04/05/11 - Comment #61645: I agree. Shea's is like a grand palace inside. It's really amazing. I went to Shea's to see a couple musicals (Salsa based "In the heights" and "Lord of the Dance") I LOVED Lord of the Dance and sort of hated In the heights. So it's not been a uniform experience.

tinypliny writes at 09:20:32 04/05/11 - Comment #61644: Actually, I have seen several - although not in a theatre because they are so prohibitively expensive for the really good seats. Reasonable money gets you nosebleed seats that are so far away from the stage that you really can't see a thing and miss seeing the sheer strength and beauty of human muscle in fluid action... or dead sound spots.

The Buffalo Public Library has quite a collection of original Ballet DVDs by technical groups such as the Bolshoi Ballet from Russia or several brilliant fusion and neoclassical companies from NYC. I was addicted to ballet movies, documentaries and taped performances a couple years back and was hell-bent on exhausting the whole library collection, but school came in between and I only completed viewing around 1/2 or maybe 3/4th of them at that time... I checked their catalogue out last month and they have several new ones now. I am inspired again.

I think I am not that excited about going to real performances in person because one ticket costs about as much money as five classes that I could take (pretty much what I am doing now). Out of all the dance classes I have been taking the first class of ballet was perhaps the most demanding and the most satisfying at the same time.

jason writes at 09:18:11 04/05/11 - Comment #61636: Have you ever seen a ballet performance? I went to see the Nutcracker at Shea's in December and it was fantastic. Everyone looks nice, they have champagne cocktails during intermission, the music and dancing is amazing. Shea's is also a wonderful setting. It costs a mint but if you haven't gone before I definitely recommend you check it out sometime.

Permalink: Ballet.html
Words: 194
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/05/11 12:23

Category: eating in

04/03/11 10:26 - ID#53974

Awesome Arugula Alternative

What is the single most awesome, infinitely more nutritious, 1000x more delicious, 10x cheaper and 10^6 nuttier alternative to Arugula?

Turnip Greens.

They top my all-time-favourite greens-list in mixed salads and fun snacks.

Permalink: Awesome_Arugula_Alternative.html
Words: 35
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/03/11 10:29

Category: the odes

04/03/11 12:56 - ID#53968

Now buy that porcelain donkey!

Hahahaha

From Chromercise!

Permalink: Now_buy_that_porcelain_donkey_.html
Words: 9
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/03/11 12:57

Category: linux

04/03/11 12:38 - ID#53967

Partition Question

Couple questions about partitions in linux.

Question 1:
I have three partitions on my laptop:
/
swap
/home

Let's suppose that I am distro-hopping and want to install some crazy distro on my "experimentation" laptop. Let's further suppose that this new distro is not really similar (in terms of kernel as well as windows manager) to the older distro which was on the laptop.

If I don't format my /home partition, will the older settings (brightness, power management, folder options, screensaver, desktop background etc) be preserved on all old-distro-> new-distro transitions? Why or why not?

Question 2:
Why is it that the installation programs for all linuxes (linuxi?) don't allow me to tick the format checkbox for the swap partition while installing? All the other partitions have "tick-able" format checkboxes.

Thoughts?

Permalink: Partition_Question.html
Words: 128
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/03/11 12:47

Category: music

04/02/11 09:20 - ID#53962

Bizet done the Bartoli way

I absolutely adore this performance. I love how she brings so much of her larger-than-everyone-else personality into a song that was written more than a hundred years ago. Who knew Carmen could be so much fun!

Cecilia Bartoli performs Bizet's PrÃ¨s des ramparts de SÃ©ville or the SÃ©guedille from the opera, "Carmen", accompanied by Jean-Yves Thibaudet on the piano...

Permalink: Bizet_done_the_Bartoli_way.html
Words: 65
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/02/11 09:25

Category: e:strip

04/01/11 11:05 - ID#53959

E:Strip security warning...

What is this about?!

tinypliny writes at 10:06:04 04/02/11 - Comment #61593: I just changed it. It was definitely broken.

metalpeter writes at 10:05:22 04/02/11 - Comment #61592: I logged out and logged back in and it is back to the mouse on rice picture?

tinypliny writes at 10:00:36 04/02/11 - Comment #61590: You know, I thought it was my browser's cache issue, but you are seeing that too, huh? I have no idea why it is different from my other small avatars. I will try changing it and see if it synchronizes. Something broke when I tried SSL for a while yesterday.

metalpeter writes at 09:57:34 04/02/11 - Comment #61589: I have another question why next to your name are you using the sepia avatar?

paul writes at 12:00:47 04/02/11 - Comment #61579: Because your browser needs to encrypt all the traffic before sending it.

tinypliny writes at 11:43:11 04/01/11 - Comment #61570: Now that you mention it, I do remember reading that post of yours and wondering what it was. It didn't make much sense then... it makes a bit more sense now. :-)

Why is the SSL version of estrip much slower than the regular version? What is it doing before sending the pages over?

paul writes at 11:16:52 04/01/11 - Comment #61569: The last paragraph of the warning also explains what is happening. You basically nee to import the estrip root certificate - then certs issued by estrip will be trusted.

paul writes at 11:15:00 04/01/11 - Comment #61568: If you read the instructions at (e:paul,53226) that I wrote when I added it, you will see.

paul writes at 11:13:09 04/01/11 - Comment #61567: Because my server is the authority. First you need to import the cert authority as trusted authority before you can trust certificate issued by it. On firefox you just visit estrip.org/trust. I am not sure how you do it in chrome.

I am not paying for SSL certs. These are issued by my server so that you can connect encrypted when in a cafe, at work, etc. If you don't want to use it or trust it just use the http site - its purely an extra luxury that you do not need.

Permalink: E_Strip_security_warning_.html
Words: 6
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/01/11 11:05

Category: the odes

03/29/11 02:29 - ID#53939

Flying...

Loving the nexus...

Permalink: Flying_.html
Words: 5
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/29/11 02:33

Category: dance

03/26/11 06:19 - ID#53915

C.O.S.S.O.M

We danced a nifty sequence of moves to this particular song in my latest hip hop class. The steps were synchronized to a three-stepping boom-boom-boom beat that underlies the song, a kind of hip hoppy version of the waltz rhythm...

More accurately, others in the class danced while I gave up after the first two steps and just had fun goofing around. Turns out I got the true spirit of this song - relaxing at a spelling bee.

Take that, you overachievers-at-dance-class!

R.E.L.A.X

Permalink: C_O_S_S_O_M.html
Words: 91
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/26/11 06:26

Category: dance

03/26/11 01:24 - ID#53912

The day I...

get this routine down

is the day I probably will get a tattoo. ;-)

PS: (e:lauren), I am discovering all kinds of crazy hip hop music from the Verve connection. Not bad at all. :)

Permalink: The_day_I_.html
Words: 39
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/26/11 01:25

Category: buffalo

03/26/11 08:57 - ID#53909

Paint it black

I see a whitish road and I want it painted black
No whiteness anymore I want them to turn black

(BTW, that is NOT Apocalyptica. It's the London Symphony Orchestra. I am amazed how anyone could NOT tell it is a full scale orchestra and not some dinky 3-cello metal band.)

Just when I was getting ready to launder my feather-shedding monster of a coat and dress down to a lighter coat, Buffalo has a whiteout and 10 inches of snow on the ground overnight. I am back to wearing multiple layers and the being covered with silly-looking feathers all the time.

Why can't the hideous Erie remain frozen till June?? It is so necessary to always be running around in freeze-thaw cycles and dumping undue amounts of snow on the city? My annoyance is even more intense because all this snow and ice totally cramps my style and forces me walk slow. There is nothing quite so unbearable to me as being forced to walk slow like a 90y old. Snow is tolerable but I HATE ice on the pavement. Go away. You are not welcome.

Talking of painting, the Buffalo Management Group, which owns the Mayflower building, recently painted the gorgeous wooden facade of the 1930s wood-and-mirrors elevators with tacky white paint. WHAT THE HELL?! Who paints over old beautiful wood!? It just looks so abysmally cheap now. It's time to write a protest email...

EDIT:
I wrote to Jeremy of the BMG and he wrote back:

"I do appreciate your ideas on this. The natural look does look nice but its not wood. Its metal. If we don't paint the doors it will rust. We will find the right colors for the doors. I am sure you will like what we do. Carpet on the floors will be installed soon."

I had no idea they were metal. They looked and sound as if they are wood... Hmmm... So they will change the ghastly white. I am intrigued about what colour they will pick next. I still can't believe those doors are metal. Maybe I need to go downstairs again and tap on them.

Okay, I am apparently clueless about what is metal and what is wood because Jeremy just wrote:

Yeah if you look closely at the door that hasn't been painted you can tell that its metal. The elevator doors and the trim are both metal on every floor.

!!! In any event, I am glad they won't be tacky white for long.

PS: The italic tags don't seem to work...

metalpeter writes at 06:31:01 03/26/11 - Comment #61466: Two Points:
1. I'm not an expert but if you paint on top of wood won't that help protect it say you don't have the time and money to do the upkeep on the wood or you think it may get damp or wet from like what ever causes that like neglect

2. Paint it Black is the Rolling Stones best song ever.... That being said a band that is not together anymore called The Tea Party do a pretty good take on it..... How I first heard the song was on a War show (Dana Delany pretty good actress) called China Beach....

tinypliny writes at 09:39:10 03/26/11 - Comment #61454: The east-side elevators are still the same wood... (dirty because they have been painting all the corridors but still wood and eminently clean-able). I am now thinking of writing to the big cheese, Myron himself. After all, it is his building. Surely, he wouldn't want the beauty of the building ruined by some misplaced frenzy for tacky "renovation".

tinypliny writes at 09:35:43 03/26/11 - Comment #61453: Yeah, and it was a fun movie too... I hope it was a mistake! I have written to Jeremy about how terrible it looks now. It is absolutely incomprehensible. WHITE tacky paint. UGGGGGGGGHHHH. :(

libertad writes at 09:26:21 03/26/11 - Comment #61452: I wish you didn't even share this with us! Didn't they just use the elevator and lobby in a movie? They wouldn't have used it if it were painted for sure. I just don't understand what they could have been thinking. I wonder if it was a mistake somehow by someone they hired.

tinypliny writes at 09:15:05 03/26/11 - Comment #61451: I know! It's not as if the wood was in bad shape. It physically pains me to look at the elevators now. :/ It ruins the character of the lobby - which is so delightfully period and pre-war with all its mirrors and wood and scrollwork on the ceilings.

libertad writes at 09:04:45 03/26/11 - Comment #61450: That is insane that in these days someone would paint over natural woodwork. I know that was a trend years back that people are still cursing, but that is definitely not the style now.

Permalink: Paint_it_black.html
Words: 432
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/26/11 10:41