It’s that time of year again. Time to don ye ole medieval clothing and get thee to the New York Renaissance Faire! This, of course, means getting laced up into my bodice and being Wench-for-a-Day. I know you must think I’m nuts, but I really could dress like this all the time. (I’ve spared you the full view.)

Here are some scenes from the Faire.

I fell in love with this fairie costume:

Rick wanted his photo taken “getting into m’lady’s panties.”

This sign spoke to me. I wonder why ...

What’s a Renaissance Faire without a joust?

Even a wise wizard needs a nap once in a while.

It was very hot and very humid at the Faire. If we had been dressed in shorts and t-shirts it would have been bearable, but in full costume we were close to heat prostration—whew! We couldn’t wait to get home and jump in the pool even if the water was as cold as it usually is in early June. It felt wonderful and certainly cooled us off.

So, I’ve hung up my bodice until the next time. Sigh. Back to reality.

Oh my. It’s so hot today. I wish we could go for a boat ride.

Wait ... are they getting the boat ready?

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! They read my mind! I’m going out in the boat!

aaaahhhhh ... nothing like the wind in my ears ....

hey, you said you wanted a close-up of me, didn’t you?

That was fun—now for a big drink of water ...

(Hannah belongs to Andy and Linda of my previous post.)

You’re looking into and through the bottom of my glass just as I was finishing my Manhattan while in Manhattan yesterday evening. I’ve always wanted to do that and thanks to Reya who pointed us to a good spot not far from Penn Station. Yummy!

Yesterday we took the train in to New York City. We had tickets for the Michael Bublé concert at Radio City Music Hall. We find taking the train in frees us up from traffic, driving, and parking woes. I love being able to take advantage of public transportation. We were lucky as the train that was pulling into the station when we arrived turned out to be an express. Must nicer than the commuter that stops every ten minutes and crawls along like a large —and bumpy—slug. We decided to walk the short distance to our cocktail destination.

After sipping our Manhattans and sampling several dishes from the Tapas menu we were ready to make our way to the concert. Again, we opted to walk with the intention of hailing a cab when we got tired. We ended up walking all the way and although it was a bit warm and steamy, it was for the most part enjoyable.

That is until we got to Times Square. If you haven’t been there it’s ... well ... very neon and crowded with tourists. There was such a crush of people it was more like being borne along than merely walking, while all the time dodging people coming the other direction. Here is a mild example.

We made it through the crush of people to our destination:

We arrived just in time to find our seats and settle in before the curtain rose. Radio City is a beautiful venue for concert. Our seats were in the front row of the second mezzanine and we had a great view.

Michael Bublé was good but I liked it better when he sang his “crooner” songs than when he was singing something more contemporary. The band with him was superb and I think they outshone him just a little bit. He might be able to sing well, but he really can’t dance.There were about 3 numbers that both Rick and I thought were outstanding but the rest of the performance was just okay. He didn’t really wow us.

We were going to take a cab back to Penn Station but we weren’t having much luck; they all seemed to have passengers already. So, we walked. Ouch. I didn’t wear the right shoes and by this time had a few blisters popping up. When will I ever learn? We finally arrived home at 1:30 a.m. a little footsore and very tired, but happy with our night out. Whew! I think I am New-York-City-ed-out for now. We’ve been there twice in a month. Well ... maybe in a few weeks I’ll be ready to go back again ... some museums are calling my name ... or was it Tiffany’s?

Last Thursday evening we had an event to attend. The world premiere of Slow Dancing at the Lincoln Center in New York City. We were invited by Director David Michalek to his “invitation only” celebration for all the people associated with the project. From our private balcony in the Avery Fisher Hall we sipped wine and watched as the magic of slow motion dance unfolded across the plaza on 40 foot tall screens suspended from the façade of the New York State Theater, home of the New York City Ballet.

How exactly did we manage this you might ask? Because my husband Rick was responsible for donating the use of the high-speed, high-definiton digital camera [made by the company he works for, Vision Research] that made it all possible. Back in February we got to visit David’s studio in NYC and watched two of the dancers being filmed. It was fascinating to watch the process first hand. When I saw “Lil C” on So You Think You Can Dance two weeks ago, I was still in awe that I had stood right next to his well-muscled body—in person! [He is one of the creators of krumping.]

Here is an explanation of what Slow Dancing is all about from the Playbill:
“Slow Dancing is a series of 43 larger-than-life, hyper-slow-motion video portraits of dancers and choreographers from around the world, displayed on multiple screens. Each subject’s movement (approximately 5 seconds long) was shot on a specially constructed set using a high-speed, high-definition camera recording at 1,000 frames per second (standard film captures 30 frames per second). The result is approximately 10 minutes of extreme slow motion. The trio of portraits will be randomly selected for each cycle, allowing viewers to simultaneously compare dancers from different styles and cultures.

What at first appears to be a series of still photographs unfolds gesture by barely perceptible gesture—a motion portrait in which each dancer’s unique artistic expression and technique are revealed. Viewers can choose to focus on one dancer’s complete performance or observe the interplay among the screens. The extreme slow motion enables the viewer to share privileged information about the complexity of the simplest gestures, catching details that would normally escape the naked eye.”

I took some still photos and a few videos to give you an idea. The vids are not the best and somewhat grainy, but it’s the best I could do in nighttime conditions. Watch carefully because things unfold very s.l.o.w.l.y. Keep in mind that each performer’s moves were only done in 5 seconds of real time. What can you do in 5 seconds?

I like how in this photo below you can see how tiny the real people appear at the bottom in comparison to the screen.

In this first vid, the middle screen is showing Herman Cornejo just before he begins his jump. Lil C is on the right.

Now a little further into his performance Herman is in mid leap!

The dancer on the left is Wendy Whelan, principal dancer of the New York City Ballet and she just happens to also be David Michalek’s wife.

Herman Cornejo was the most awesome for me. His form is so incredible! He is Argentinean and is now a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater. To see more of his spectacular segment, click on this link to watch the video on Slow Dancing’s website.

It was nice to see Rick’s name listed in the acknowledgments in the Playbill: [see second line]

Thank you, David! It was both a privilege and an honor to be invited. For those of you in the area who wish to see this great work of art, the exhibition runs until July 29th, nightly from 9 pm until 1 am. Admission is free, just bring a chair to set up in the Plaza to watch. In September the exhibition moves to Los Angeles in the Music Center Plaza. To read more about the dancers and the project, follow this link  to visit the website for Slow Dancing.

Since my videos aren’t working for some people, I thought I’d try a different approach and use a new service called PhotoBucket. Thanks Reya, for pointing me in this direction. The quality is so much better than YouTube!

What follows is a video I took while driving to the cabin. There is some narration but I’m not sure you can hear me well enough. We have to drive up into Laramie, Wyoming and drop back down into Colorado to get to our cabin the way we went in. Chimney Rock is a landmark just on the border between Wyoming and Colorado. At the start of the video it’s in the distance, then we drive past it. I always thought it looked more like a camel, a turtle or a giant snail from the side. We also drive past an old homestead that is rapidly falling down. My Mom has always wanted to live there, so I filmed it for her. We do whizz past pretty fast though. The klunk at the end of the video is us driving over the cattle guard at the border. Enjoy!