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Wine & Roses II

Wine & roses ii

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.


So, said ravioli was excellent. Though lacking in presentation (plate contained a bunch of pasta squares and single small green thing thrown on the side), taste was scrumptious — pasta was thick & ever so slightly crunchy the way Italians make it (rather than overcooked to near death in American manner) and mouthwateringly salty! Waiters v cute — one a Paul Rudd lookalike; other cross btw Pasha and Nikolaj Hubbe. Cute street cafe outdoors, and very comfy indoor area — bar stools are large and well-padded for a bony butt, and several tables with long booths on one side surround the bar. Oh yeah, and enormous wine list! Riesling was lovely. Perfect place to spend my whole day almost finishing my book 🙂 I have a new favorite!

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Mouse King Update

Thanks you guys for all of your help and suggestions on what to do about my new little “pet” 🙂 I’m just now seeing them this morning since all day yesterday I avoided the apartment! Yesterday in the park I completely freaked out over a puppy daschund. I was walking along and didn’t see him until he wagged his little tail at me, causing me to jump sky high. I don’t think he’d ever had that kind of reaction to his presence before and the poor little thing began whimpering; his owner looked at me like I was on something… I then realized how ridiculous it is to be afraid of a tiny little mouse, who, from his behavior yesterday, is likely far more afraid of me: I braved the shower yesterday only to hear some messing about in the kitchen right when I opened the bathroom door. I first screamed, then peered around the door just in time to see him do a swan dive behind the stove. I screamed again and shut myself in the bathroom for 1/2 hour more. When I emerged, I ran over to my desk, far from the kitchen, sat and turned the computer on, when I saw his little shadow coming out from under the nearby futon. I screamed and he turned around and went back underneath! That was the last I saw him, nearly 24 hours ago (but of course I’ve only been in the apartment for about 10 of those hours, and mostly sleeping up in my loft, where my mom told me he wouldn’t climb???) I’m very lazy and never cook in the apartment, so don’t really have much for him to nibble on in here; maybe he got bored and decided to look for a snack elsewhere. Of course, I’m sure he’s still somewhere in the building. I’m not going to be bringing my usual takeout in, though, think I’ll be eating out for the next few days 🙂

One good thing coming out of it: for the first time in about two years, I got the nerve to talk to the cute but slightly odd Russian guy next door (just from some odd noises he makes over there — one time I wasn’t sure if he was having an epilectic seizure or sex; I honestly sat there in my loft worrying about whether I should be calling 911 on him). Well, I realized he’s very nice and approachable and smart, and not too weird at all! (He told me to use the trap that kills them instantly though to be more humane). M, I never thought of putting those glue traps in the freezer! I fear I’d never put another food morsel in that freezer though! I think if I see him again, I’ll take Melinda’s suggestion and try to find a non-deadly trap where I can just run the thing outside, although I’d probably scream and he’d fly off the second I touched it… I’d love to get another cat, Philip, but my blasted allergist keeps telling me I’m allergic. Actually, I had quite a crush on that doctor, though I could never figure out if he was gay — he looked like a 50-something version of Rupert Everett 🙂 Maybe this is a good reason to go back, tell him I need another allergy-to-cats test!

Thanks again for the comments 🙂 I’m was thinking, geez, what a horrible pig I am that I’ve actually attracted a mouse, so glad to know I’m far from the only one! This definitely beats the water snake who climbed up a toilet in my dorm in Arizona. It wasn’t my room, but I still didn’t go the bathroom for days…

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Help help please please

Help help please please

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.


I was sitting on my couch contently reading my new saira rao book when for the first time ever something darted across my floor. I have never ever had a mouse problem ever — ever! Likely because i used to have a cat (who passed away not long ago) what to do what to do what to do! I absolutely cannot kill anyone — how do i nicely entice him or her out??? How do i even find it?

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Hey Man, Where Are My Peeps Tonight???

Okay, I guess I should check my local Fox listings more often 🙂 I specifically came home from work early tonight (8 p.m. — eh) to watch my favorite show and instead there are all of these men grunting like beasts and ramming their helmeted heads into each other’s bodies??? Where’s my dance!!!

Haha, it’s funny though, because the advertising is sooo different. Has anyone noticed? I don’t know what the commercials during SYTYCD usually consist of because I’ve never really paid much attention, but I know there aren’t all of these bikini-clad women and Bud adverts that seem to me to appeal to the lowest common denominator! It’s kind of sad; I guess there are real gender differences between men and women, or at least the kind of men and women who watch these respective shows. But also interesting to me is that the Fox people seem to know that most SYTYCD-watchers are women and arty, intellectual-type men, no?

Anyway, I was going to blog about this last night but got lazy and tired and had to go to bed after the show, but I’m just so proud of Pasha. I just think he’s doing so well. My favorite Latin dancer in the world has long been Slavik Kryklyvyy — and during my lessons with Pasha, I’d always bring tapes of Slavik dancing with his former partner, Karina, to the studio and ask Pasha if we could try to re-enact some of their lifts and fancy dips. He’d always be the sport and say sure, but I could tell inside he was kind of rolling his eyes — either because they were far above me and he knew he’d be struggling to hold me up 🙂 or because it’s probably just annoying for any dancer to hear how someone worships another 🙂 Pasha’s so great though for letting me drool on and on over Slavik!

Anyway, last night, during the very beginning of the show when they did their little opening half-of-a-second solos, I just couldn’t believe my eyes. He moved just like Slavik. I really think this competition has improved his dancing so much. He’s worked so hard to master all the different kinds of dance styles and choreography to the best of his ability and he now moves in ways that are just breathtaking, so beyond what he did before. I’m just so floored. And, I mean, last night’s hip hop just looked so cute on him. He’s not going to ever be some down-home, bad-ass, hipper than thou, totally hot African-American guy doing hip-hop, but he did his own cute Pasha thing with it, and it was so him and so sweet and so brilliant. And that’s what dance is all about: interpreting something in your own way, adding your style and technique, doing it to the best of your ability, and just owning it. The waltz, as well, was beautiful, as expected. And his solo: I mean, people are saying it was weird (see the comments to this post), and I totally understand what they mean, but I think it was rather ironic: I think he was saying to the judges, “Okay, you say Latin ballroom dancers suck at solos because we’re essentially partner-dancers, so here, here’s a partner-dance for you — I’ll dance with a damn mannequin.” That’s my take anyway…

And, you just never know how someone is going to hold up under pressure. Ballroom dancers dance to normally relatively small audiences — I think the biggest — definitely at Blackpool — must consist of a couple thousand??? I mean, nowhere near the millions who are scrutinizing his every move now. So, I just worry that someone will just crack under the pressure. But not any of these pros 🙂

Okay, I’m done fawning! Oh, but just one more thing: Claudia sent a link to the Blogging SYTYCD blog to some pics she found of Pasha and Anya — these are the photos of them dancing at Blackpool 2005 that I was referring to earlier! Is Anya not absolutely gorgeous!! How much do I want that black dress! Yes, Anya used to have blonde hair 🙂 She looks just bewitching with any color though, if you ask me.

Okay, in other news: I’m excited because I just received in the mail a flyer for the Martha Graham Dance Company, who will perform at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea in a couple of weeks.

I’ve only seen this company a couple of times, but what is so cool is that on the flyer is a picture of Miki Orihara, a newish contributor to my favorite dance blog, The Winger. I’m so excited to see her perform! I personally think blogs are a great way for dancers to communicate with audiences and make new fans. From her Winger posts, Miki seems so incredibly sweet. So, I can’t wait!

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Places to Score Great Ballroom Videos, Particularly Those Containing Pasha and Anya :)

April had recently asked me where she could get a video of the Dance Times Square showcase I’d blogged about earlier containing Pasha and Anya’s brilliant performances. I directed her to contact the studio itself, as they usually have a professional videographer at the showcase. However, the videos have in prior years included only the student showcases, presumably to prevent choreography-stealing. But, in the last couple of showcases the student performances have been so interspersed with the professionals’ that the videographer has just included them all on the DVD. Anyway, if anyone contacts DTS about the videos, just make sure you ascertain that Pasha and Anya’s pro showcases are on there! Don’t worry; they won’t mind if you ask — they understand!

It occurred to me, though, that there are other places you can find videos of Pasha and Anya dancing, along with other stars of the dancesport world 🙂 Two years ago, in May 2005, they competed at the Blackpool Dance Festival in England and placed second in the Professional Latin Rising Star category 🙂 🙂 🙂 . Quasar Videos makes DVDs of three of the competitions that take place there each year: the Professional, Amateur, and Professional Rising Star. I found the 2005 Pro Rising Star on this website. You can probably order directly from Quasar as well. They’re expensive though (I think they’re around $100). These are live filmed ballroom competitions, so all of the finalists are on the floor at once — they’re not individual showcases like on SYTYCD. But, for people who’ve never seen one, these ballroom competitions are so cool! And Anya had THE most gorgeous costumes that year — one white, one black! It’s too bad that they don’t include all of the competitions on one DVD (meaning Professional and Rising Star Pro) because you’d get to see all of the most awesome dancers (like my loves Slavik Kryklyvyy and Sergey Surkov 🙂 ). But you will still see some breathtaking ballroom dancing — both Latin and Standard.

They also competed in the Ohio Star Ball two years ago (2005), and that was filmed and shown on PBS as “America’s Ballroom Challenge.” If you missed that earlier competition when it aired on PBS (it was from 2005, not last year — they had to miss last year because of an illness), you may be able to purchase a DVD of it through PBS or ABC. If you’re able to get a hold of that one, you will witness how popular Pasha and Anya are with the dancesport crowd. People were NOT happy when they didn’t take one of the first three spots — even Marilu Henner (host) remarked to Tony Meredith (co-host), “wow, this is the most passionate reaction we’ve seen all night!” Annoyingly (I was obviously there that year), the producers did a bunch of “sound clips” — I don’t know if that’s the proper term, but they had a judge walk around the floor while the audience first was completely silent, then on her second walk we all chattered, then on her third we screamed and cheered like a bunch of lunatics. So, when they edited, they took out the fans wildly screaming, “Pasha” “Anya” “Pasha and Anya,” during the comp and replaced it with the quiet sound clip! Anyway, good thing about that competition is that it includes all of the top Latin dancers in the country, such as Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kruyshkova, and Yulia Zagoruychenko and Max Kozhevnikov.

Okay, I’ve rambled on long enough. Hope this helps!

Also, don’t forget about the petition 🙂