I am the girl anachronism

Back in August I started listening to the Dresden Dolls (I’m always a little late to the party, musically speaking), and fell hard in love. I love Amanda Palmer’s sexually ambiguous voice, her deliciously ambiguous lyrics, the mixture of punk sensibility and cabaret rhythms, the fact that Brian Vigliano looks better in lingerie than Amanda does…everything about the band’s music and aesthetic is perfect and challenging. They sit firmly at the crossroads of every categorization you can think of.

In October, I piled a bunch of friends, most of us in costume, into several cars and we drove 90 minutes to Raleigh to see the Dolls in concert. We got there super early so I was thiiiiiis close to the stage. Literally touching it. I could have touched the Dolls themselves when they came to the edge to sing a few, but I didn’t think they’d really appreciate strangers pawing at them. It was enough to be RIGHT there. Photos follow, courtesy of my lovely buddy Jess (she’s the stacked hottie in the corset ).

Amanda - note the mod to the keyboard.

Brian plays guitar as well as drums

Hottie freaks Jess & Deb

I love my friends.

The concert itself was a - maz - ing. They are every bit as talented in person as on their albums, and the way they play with each other and communicate on stage is fun to watch. The opening act, the Red Paintings, was fantastic. They’re a punk band from Australia. The lead singer (”Trash”) wore a grinch robe the entire time, with the rest of the band in kabuki outfits. Trash joined the Dresden Dolls for an amazing encore of “Mad World” that made me cry. (Long story, has to do with Josh.)

Such an amazing evening. Please check out their music etc. at dresdendolls.com

What I have been up to, Part I

In my long hiatus from blogging, have I been sitting on my backside, watching re-runs of Xena Warrior Princess and Star Trek while playing games on the Internets and eating Cheez Doodles? Well…yes. BUT I have also been out and about doing fun and entertaining things.

Such as.

Learning to walk on stilts and being in a giant puppet show!

A couple years ago I met Donovan Zimmerman, one of the founding members of Paperhand Puppet Intervention, a giant puppet troupe in Chapel Hill-ish, NC, and stumbled into the opportunity to be part of their annual show at the Forest Theater - “Wood, Stone, Fire & Bone.” It was an amazing experience, both the people (some of the best I’ve ever met) and the show (one of the most magical experiences of my life).

Last year I moved to Greensboro, about an hour away from Chapel Hill, and as I had just bought a house, being in the show wasn’t on my radar screen.

But when Donovan asked me if I wanted to be in the show again this year, I jumped at the chance. It would mean driving 2 hours round trip 2-3 days every week for about 3 months, but it was worth it.

Last year’s performance, which I witnessed but didn’t participate in, involved stilt walkers, and I was hooked. I asked Donovan and Jan (the other co-founder of the troupe) if they had any stilt-walking in this year’s show, and I got cast as one of four stilt-walking crows.

It took me about 2-3 weeks to get steady on the stilts, and off I flew! That was only one act of the 4-act show. I also played a buxom, shrewish housewife in our “Village of Fools,” banners and a lotus in the third act about Buddha, and a bunch of shadow pieces in our shadow-puppet rendition of “The Librarian of Basra.” (Interestingly, one woman read the title of the act in a glowing review of the show in our local paper and decided we were “anti-troop” and “disgusting” and wrote a letter to the editor about it. We sent her lots of hippie love in one of our pre-show meditations/warm-ups.)

Anyhow, it was tons of fun, and, as before, one of the most magical experiences I’ve had. I think it’s the space, the Forest Theater. It’s beautiful. Every town should have an outdoor stone amphitheater surrounded by woods.

Check out more photos of the show on the web site’s gallery.

Giving Thanks

Things I am Thankful for:

1. My families. It’s corny and sappy, but I am thankful for my families, both natural and chosen, and how they have helped me become the person I am, and how they support me and hold me up. Mom, Dad, Mel, Josh, Grandma, Grandpa, Holly, Arlen, Kathy, Mark, Wim, Lynnae, Will, Becky, Charley, Sara, Shadow, Deb, Steve, Scarlett, Derick, Nikki, Jeremy, Joanna, Barrett, Noodles, Cravens, J. Michael…jeez, it’s like an awards speech, I apologize for anybody I’ve left off…I love you all and I am thankful for everything you give me.

2. My husband. Thank you Dan for letting me be me.

3. My beautiful wonderful life. I am so fortunate to have been born when and where I was born, and to live in these interesting times in one of the most prosperous places on Earth. I am grateful for the experience and hope I can use it to bring good lives to other people.

4. Chocolate.

5. Butter.

6. Josh. I know I mentioned him in the “family” entry up there, but he deserves special mention. Everything about him - his life, and especially his death - has been such an example and a learning experience for me, and I would not be who I am without him as a teacher.

7. The Internet. I loooooove the internet. I am first in line for a neural uplink. Immerse me in information, drown me in data, bathe me in bits and bytes, I am so grateful for the geniuses who invented it and the people who fight to keep it free and open.

8. My pets. My furbabies. I love them so. I want more. I know they mostly love me because I feed them and I am warm, but it doesn’t matter. They want to be near me, they want my attention, they want to lick me and butt their heads against me and nap on my lap. You can’t buy that kind of happy.

9. The 2006 midterm election. America wakes up.

10. Being smart.

11. Prime numbers.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Goose hugs

At the Ren Faire last weekend, there was a booth with pet geese, and the geese will sit on your lap and give hugs.

It was seriously the sweetest thing ever! They are so soft, and so sweet. I have a long-standing goose fear from being chased by geese in the barnyard as a kid, but these guys were super sweet.

These are the folks who raise the geese : Goose hugs The geese and ducks imprint on humans when they’re born, and think they’re human. They live indoors and apparently wear diapers. The diapers are kind of an ooky idea, but I might put up with it to get goose hugs.

Ashes project

So, most of the people reading this blog know me and therefore know that my brother died about 3 & 1/2 years ago. It took my family a long time to figure out what to do with his ashes. He was a nomad, so leaving his ashes in any one place didn’t seem right. None of us have ties to LA, where he was living when he died. He hated the small town where we grew up and where my grandmother still lives. And we couldn’t really think of any other place he would have liked to rest.

We left some of the ashes in the Pacific Ocean off Venice Beach during his memorial out there; my dad has some in an urn, and I have some in a pendant. What to do with the rest?

Josh and I had been talking about traveling to Australia before he died; I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to scatter them in Australia? But it’ll be a while before I save up enough to go there myself, and I had a friend who was going to Melbourne, so I decided to send some with her. And thus was born the Ashes Project. I decided that it’d be fitting to send a little bit of his ashes to all the places he had talked about visiting and hadn’t gotten to see - Australia, Japan, Sweden, Vancouver, etc. Some friends I’ve met over the years volunteered to help, and are sending photos and video whenever possible. I’ve sent ashes to Sweden, Australia, Japan, Vancouver, San Diego, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Chicago, New York, Toronto, New Hampshire, Singapore, China, etc. So far! I’ve made stickers of a nice pencil drawing of Josh we found at his apartment, and sent them with the ashes. When I run out of ashes, I’ll just send the stickers

If you visit the memorial section of my site - www.marcyray.net/josh.htm - you’ll see a link to the Ashes Project where I’ll post pictures of the scatterings. Many thanks to everyone who’s helped.

Long time no…

So I lost the password to my account, and then I forgot the username, and then I realized I didn’t really have anything interesting to say.

But all that has changed! Yes! Suddenly, my life is worth noting! I have important things to tell you! So look for new posts as I catch you up on the last, er…10 months of my life.

Here we go!!!