You know you want this, I know I do!

The fleur-de-lis has long been a symbol associated with New Orleans—incorporated into much of the city's architecture. Now you can help rebuild the devastated region with this hip hobo; all net proceeds from the sale go to the American Red Cross for disaster relief.

Can we just say suede is deeelicious.

Urvashi was kind enough to capture and post a few clips from our performance on Saturday, enjoy!

Lorin of Bassnectar has officially released his Snakecharmer mix and the (always amazing) Rachel Brice clip that goes along with it. Grab it while it's hot!


http://www.rachelbrice.com/Bassnectar&Kraddy-Snakecharmer.mp3

http://www.rachelbrice.com/snakecharmer.mov

Dancing with our PURE friends from NYC this weekend was amazing. It was such a great opportunity to commune with our fellow sisters in music and movement, drumming (can't forget our awesome drummers!) and most importantly peace.

Thanks to Alexis, Eliyah, Kaeshi, Cammi, Sara for pulling everything together.

Husbands are for amusement.

I’m half convinced that’s true. My married coworkers continue to regale me with all sorts of amusing tidbits about their entertaining (from my point of view anyway) other halves.

I was telling D the other day about one of my current favorite commercials. It’s the one by Nationwide Insurance where the driver takes a sudden turn when ordered to by his GPS system. D’s husband B, possessing the X chromosome in the duo, also possessed a love for buttons, electronics, and in particular, a love for electronics with lots of buttons. B had a prized toy, a Garmin, (I’m quite envious, I would LOVE to have one), for those who’ve rented Hertz vehicles, it’s just like a NeverLost system: the black box emits a soothing voice that narrates directions, while a video screen displays the vehicle as it travels along aforementioned directions. Basicly it’s a talking map.

The talking map can be customized to show the quickest route (as opposed to avoiding highways, avoiding local roads etc), but the algorithm used to calculate the route isn’t always the most accurate. Anyone who’s used Yahoo or Google can attest, sometimes you get the odd and unnecessary U-turn or 3 right turns instead of one left turn thrown in.

On this particular instance, D&B were traveling on familiar roads to visit a friend. For those who aren’t familiar with DC Metro, 270 has a set of service roads that run parallel along it. You have to take the service road if you want to exit onto a local road, but otherwise, you can stay on 270 or its service roads, it makes no difference. Garmin advised that they take 270 north, exit onto the service road, take the onramp onto 270 north, exit onto the service road, take the onramp onto 270 north…lather rinse repeat repeat repeat. B proceeded to do *just* that.

I’m waiting for Garmin to order him into a storefront one of these days.


=================

For those who were curious, the gorgeous building featured is Frank Ghery's Music Center located in downtown L.A. It's currently being featured in a GLUT of commercials including the new Honda commercial.

Grace Incarnate

Friday afternoon, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the happy working bees of downtown Washington DC were buzzing along as usual and I decided to step out for lunch. This you understand, was a momentous occasion for me as I hardly ever went out for lunch. Elevator, lobby, plaza, street, Potbelly’s……. between the lobby and the plaza something in the grand order of the cosmos winked, my kitten heel caught the cuff of my super chic red pintucked trousers, and I felt flat on my face.

Self, meet concrete.

My knees, already bruised from a weekend hiking trip to one of Virginia’s most scenic summits, met with a another brutal beating. Luckily nothing was broken, my hand received a minimal scraping, but my beautiful red pants were now sporting a gaping hole at the left knee and were unfortunately ruined. Several nice people rushed over to help me up. Thankfully no one was laughing, or else my pride would have been bruised as well. At least my sandwich turned out to be reliably tasty.

*sigh* Any one know of a good source of fun red pants?

One of my very near and dear male friends got engaged yesterday. I am of course, very happy for the wonderful couple. I would be lying however, if I didn't amdit that a small part of me is grumpy and jealous.

Congrats Matty, wishing you nothing but love. All the best is yet to come.

After volunteering for Hart this weekend, I discovered that there was a Total Wine in the same shopping center. I was a Total Wine virgin. Granted, I'm not a big alcohol consumer, but it's nice to know that there's a reliable resource of my favorite "beer" (while Lambic is a German ale, it's usually brewed with fruit, thus eliminating any real beer taste), and my favorite cider (Cider Jack). Accept no substitutions!

Had a couple of firsts this weekend, went to my first Nat's game and hiked Old Rag Mountain for the first time. Found out that I wasn't the only one of Jefferson's scholars who hadn't visited Monticello *chuckle*.

Dating in the Asian-American world, specifically Chinese, doesn't seem to be any easier. (see mini post below on different classe of Asians)

My grandparents came to share their lives via a traditional arranged marriage. He's currently 81, she's 78, and have been more or less happy since day one. He asked me yesterday during a phone call whether I had a boyfriend, since I obviously needed one as I was growing "older".

A college friend of mine (Indian), married her husband through a modern arranged marriage, and recently had her first child in February. Pleased as peas they are, and she's pretty much a stay at home mom ever since.

Me on the other hand, I'm 28, have never dated a single Asian, much less Chinese guy, and have never been asked out by an Asian guy. I'm not lamenting this fact, just making a statement. The closest I ever got was a Korean football player in high school, unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to date in high school....oh, and my Korean date for Prom, but he was just a friend.

****
Labor Day weekend was very relaxing. I convinced myself and a couple girlfriends to attend a bbq bash coordinated by some of the local Asian professional groups, I dubbed it the Asian Invasion (AI) as I knew that all the 20-something Asians in the area would be attending. Asians are flocks of sheepish, well... sheep, huddling for safety in our similarites.

(Note: It's not like this in CA, where the Asian majority is so overwhelming, there's no reason or need to declare Asian power. Imagine a college class where 47 out of 50 students are Asian, and the last 3 are white. It certainly presents an interesting reversal of power, they're the ones huddling for safety.)

Asians speed date by playing orange relay, water balloon toss, flip the blanket, and various other innocent games allowing everyone to gradually check everyone else out. There's no real pressure to date, but you know everyone's just there for the meat market. Why else would you attempt to spin yourself silly with your forehead on a baseball bat then run 20 feet? I certainly don't find that enjoyable. I doubt the spectators that get hurled on while you run past them enjoy it much either.

Among Asians, there are many divisions also, and members of one division cannot transfer to another division without being mocked. You've got the FOBs, middle-grounders, and of course the nothing but black crowds. FOBs are the ones holding on tenaciously to their Asian ancestry, they may not speak English poorly (but they are definitely stronger in their native language), but on the inside, they're culturally identical to their granparents. Middle-grounders may be equally fluent in both Chinese and English, be adequately interested in playing and watching (real) sports, and are just as comfortable eating at a Chinese restaurant as they are in an Italian restaurant. Nothing but black usually wear just that. They are the completely American crowd with perfectly coiffed and straightened hair who look down on everyone. White trash bbq girl is definitely nothing but black.

I like my middle ground, but please don't make me catch a football.

It is the beginning of September with just the earliest tinges of fall peeking through......

and Christmas has already found its way into World Market. I spied European chocolates dressed up for the holidays adorning the shelves. Next year, we'll just invite Christmas along for summer and have a bbq to celebrate.