Yep, Saturday night was the first big night for Loose Change. We performed in front of people!… to raise money for your show in Salt Lake. It went really well, we had lots of food, lots of people, lots of dancing and hopefully lots of money (not sure yet how much we made).

I felt so lucky that my friends and family made it all the way from the north and east bay. It meant a lot for me that they were here, to witness all the hard work I’ve put into being part of this quite awesome dance company.

Here are some illustrations of the event:

Justin barbecued I don’t know how many burger patties, veggie burgers, a tri-tip, some chicken, etc… for probably 100 people.

He totally rocked it with Jessica’s dad, John. He, as you can very well tell, was wearing an apron and the very Ratatouille-like chef’s hat. Definitely made an impression!

On the left, we see him in full fanning action to get the damn charcoal to start. It took a while, but turned out to be flammin’. (We “fed” him lots of beer to get through the exhausting task).

Below, one of the rare photos that came out… courtesy of Claudine’s friend, Calmenda

Eric moves so fast that it looks like he’s got 6 arms!

Last pic that came out OK… Oh and the one up-side-down, that’s me!

Here ya go, that’s the gist :) Salt Lake is around the corner! Yikes… so excited!

Loose Change Dance Company is having a fundraiser on Saturday, Sept 15th at City Dance in San Francisco!! We need some $$ to go perform our full length show “Human Nature” in Salt lake City.

Here’s the official info…. I’m sooo excited!! and nervous :)

– Saturday, September 15th 6:30pm-11:00pm
– Performances start promptly at 8pm
– City Dance Studios
– Sliding scale: $10 and up at the door
– Food ($7 per plate) Beverages ($3-5)
– Music, performances and dancing ’til close (performances by Loose Change and special guests performers including Bay Area favorites Soul Sector, Funkanometry and Paco Gomes & Dancers.)

Here’s the map.

Directions:
The easiest is coming from Van Ness (going south), cross Market and make a right at the 1st light (Otis St). About half a block in, make a right onto Brady St (looks like an alley) and a right onto Colton St.

Parking: There’s a parking lot in front of the studio, but it will fill up quickly. If you drive around, there’s some parking on S. Van Ness and other adjacent streets. But take a map with you as it can get confusing in that area. It’s highly recommended to carpool!

Public transportation: Any bus/metro that goes down Market are good and the 47, 49, 26, 9, 14, 21 are good too.

If you are unable to attend, but would like to make a tax-deductible donation to Loose Change Dance Company here’s how:
CHECKS
Make Checks payable to “Dancers’ Group“, our fiscal sponsor, with “Loose Change” in the memo and send to:

Loose Change
c/o Elliott Donnelley
584 Castro St. #318
San Francisco, CA 94114or

CREDIT CARD (via Paypal):
Go to http://www.dancersgroup.org/donate_info.php and type “Loose Change” in “Message to Seller” section in PayPal.

Please let us know about your contribution so we can look out for it.
If you have any questions you can send an email to: info@loosechangedance.com

I’ll also be available on my cell anytime if you need to call me 707-321-4302.

I can’t wait! And I hope to see you there :)

Yesterday, Justin and I took a walk around Golden Gate Park’s Arboretum and played with the camera…

This one is the perfect computer desktop background. Abstract. Round.

This one was fun laying down under the flowers and having people think I’m a pro :)

The center of some plants have fascinating patterns.

Lately we’ve been honored to meet with family members we haven’t seen in a long time.

This weekend we had the pleasure to have dinner with our “American” cousins. Jill, is one of the two daughters of my grandfather’s half brother… Get it? Yeah, whatev’.

We had a lovely paella dinner (yum!) at my Dad’s house and Monday night we met them for another dinner in SF… this time, hamburgers and fries, classic American diner style (yum too!).

We had a wonderful time, and even got to take a picture of the 2 kids on my Vespa! Maybe I’ll be able to post it one day, if Jill figures out how to send pitcure attachments on her email, which, apparently isn’t her forte. Eddy, ya better help her out on this one, ’cause they were too cute!

Anyhow, I’m digressing. Thanks for coming out you guys! Next, we’ll come down to L.A.

(from left to right, top to bottom) Sabine, Jean-Claude, Stephanie, Justin, Rebekah, Jill, Edward and Ethan.

I wish I took a picture of what I took off his head. We could have made a whole wig out of it!

Not bad, uh!

I had a quite funny dream a few nights ago…

*****

I wanted to go to a fancy hotel lounge with Justin and some other faceless person. But as we got closer, I realized I forgot my shoes at the downtown payless shoes store earlier when I tried some shoes on. So, I was wondering if I could sneak myself in, wearing my very generic white socks, but it didn’t work.
So, I decided to go back to the store and recup my shoes.

I get there and have a conversation sounding like this:

– “Hi, I was here earlier and I seemed to have forgotten my shoes on my way out. Could I get them back?”
– “Oh, the brown shoes? These are payless shoes, so there’s no way for us to verify if they belong to you or to the store. I’m afraid you will have to re-purchase them.”
-“Re-purchase them? Are you kidding me? I’m not going to buy something I already bought!”
-“We need you to fill out some paperwork” and the lady brings me to the back area, looking like a wearhouse, where they have all the shoes. Another lady is in there and carries on the conversation…

-“Yeah, I can’t just give you the shoes, you will have to re-purchase them.”
I sense a slight French accent and ask her if she’s French. Indeed it was the case. So, while she prints out a ton of paperwork and fills out stuff, we talk about our Frenchness. She then looks at me and sighs. She grabs the shoebox where my already purchased shoes were stored in and gives it to me.

-“Here. You should go right now. The cameras are looking away and nobody’s back here. I’ll let you go if you you leave right now through this back door.”

-“Oh… thank you!”
I hold on to the shoebox tightly and leave through the somewhat hidden backdoor. I’m then plunged into the bright and busy downtown scene, with my half-stolen/already paid for shoes, still wearing my socks.

I put the shoes on and we are able to enter the hotel/lounge.
We get there, and apparently there weren’t any spots left for us. So, a waitress brings us to a booth where a guy is finishing up his meal and is talking on his cell phone. Indicating us to sit next to him, she says: “Here you go. He’ll be done shortly”. Weird! So we slide in. The dude is still on the phone. He finally leaves and we’re very confused as far as what sort of fancy place like this would dare mixing incoming people with outgoing ones.

*****

And then the dream went off in weider directions involving being in France and being chased by clouds of angry bees and trying hide from them. Neither here nor there. I just like the shoe part.