Unity in the Community 2010 - Drag Show, Final Song

Here is the final song of the drag show, they played We Are Family and invited people to come up to the stage and join them in a dance. A lot of people joined them, as you can see here as people were going up, even more ended up joining, but i was getting tired and hungry, so i'm not sure how many and how long it went.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Drag Show, Lady Gaga

Here is one of the more outlandish performances, they performed to one of the songs by Lady Gaga, but i forget which one. The two crawling eventually moved off the stage and the one in the jacket sang in a microphone.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Drag Show, audience interaction

Here is one of the performers interacting with the audience, walking through and over and being flirty and funny. Again, not sure what more to say here, so just enjoy the pictures.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Drag Show

Here are the first two performers from the drag show part of Unity in the Community. which was the last event of the Unity in the Community. This was really fun, and very packed. I'm forgetting if i took a picture of the crowd, but it filled all the seats in the Falcon's Nest, and there were people standing. It was very hard though to figure out exposure and white balance, as you may notice from the pictures.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Second Chances, Ken Olson

This is Ken Olson, i forget what classes he teaches at UWRF but he's big into Ireland and has led student groups there several times. He read some poems and short stories here. One was about the Kent State shootings and some were about Ireland. He's an interesting guy with interesting stories, although this venue didn't seem that great for his performance.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Second Chances, Belly Dance

Here again is Dalal doing the same belly dance, this time at Second Chances. Not sure what more to say, besides that i wasn't too keen on the split between downtown events. May have been better if they were clearer what performers where at which places. I think they wanted people to go between the two places, but it was hard as the whole thing was not very long, and i wasn't sure i i'd miss something i wanted to see by going to the other place. I still preferred when it was at the library. This too needed better advertising, although i'm not an advertising expert so maybe they did the best they could.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Second Chances, Soran Bushi

This is the first performance at Second Chances, one of the downtown Unity in the Community Events. I remembered the name of the performance this time, soran bushi, a traditional dance. I'm going to include a similar performance that happened here at the university, there is a bit at the start with a drummer that goes on for a couple minutes that wasn't at the ones for this, but it will give you an idea of what it was like.

Brief intermission from the Unity in the Community

A brief intermission from the Unity in the Community for these two mourning doves i saw on my seed covered deck. It's seed covered because the birds and squirrels love to toss seed out of the feeders on to the deck, and for some reason it doesn't go off without me doing it. Anyway, i saw these doves doing this with their wings and i was afraid they were hurt, so i grabbed the camera so i could see closer without opening the door. They seemed okay, and even moved around, grooming themselves and doing little dances around each other. They then went back to doing this. I did some research online and it seems what they were doing was sunbathing. It even described that they do this with one wing only at a time. Not sure why. I love the looks of their feathers and how you can see all the details that normally you don't see.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Quad Rugby

Here are the Quad Rugby players in the Flacon's Nest area. Very interesting but hard to get good pictures of. Not sure if i just got them warming up or actually playing, i was getting hungry and only stayed for a bit to get some shots.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Bollywood Dances

Here are the women doing the Bollywood dance where they all got together. It started out with one type of dance, Punjabi at first with the dancer in back, then moving to a more traditional style of bollywood with the dancer in front, then to a more modern version with the two dancers in the middle. They did a great job an also performed at Second Chances downtown later.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Belly Dance

This is the belly dancer Dalal, from Egypt doing a belly dance. How i remember her and where she was from is because she appeared in two events each at two places, here and the downtown event at Second Chances. She is a wonderful dancer and gave a great performance, it was a challenge trying to decide on one picture to use, so i put more up on my flickr account.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Spoken Word

This is one of the spoken word poets that performed. There were two at this location, in addition to a guy who did an acapella song. Not sure what else to say, i can't remember her name or the name of her poem, sorry about that.

Unity in the Community 2010 - Native Pride Dancers

Here are the native pride dancers, with the mother of the little girl by the balloons to the right. If i remember correctly, they were from North Dakota, but i forgot which tribe. They travel all around and do performances. The mother did a dance, the man did a flute song, the little girl danced, and the man did another dance. Last they had people come up and join them and taught them a dance with funny twist at the end with modern moves.

Unity in the Community 2010 - MuDaiko

This is the first of many, many pictures from the 2010 Unity in the Community performances, the first group taking place at the University Center of the local university. These are the MuDaiko drummers preforming one of their numbers. I arrived during part of it, as it was very difficult to find a place to park, i ended up several blocks away. Slight rant time here, the parking situation in town near the university is horribly planned. One side of the streets is basically off limits for parking during the day, so locals can park, but then they don't have enough parking for the students, much less for anyone wanting to go to events like this. Still don't understand why there isn't a parking garage or better solution, but oh well.

Another unrelated side note, today i turn 40, where have the years gone?

2010 International Bazaar - Break Dance

Here are breakdancers from the International Bazaar. They were quite fun to watch and also quite hard to get good photos of in the low light without a flash. There were several of them and they were all over the place.

I have many, many photos of the various events from the Unity in the Community events Thursday, but didn't have any ready to post yet, hopefully tomorrow i will start with those.

2010 International Bazaar - Japanese Dance

Here is what was described as Japanese dancers doing something like cheering for the returning fishermen. I'm not exactly sure what the exact name was, i didn't catch it, but it was pretty wonderful. They were very active and rhythmic, doing many varied motions back and forth. This was also one of the largest groups of performers of the night, and again i wished i had video of it.

Today is the Unity in the Community event, and hopefully i'll be following up these with the many different events of that.

2010 International Bazaar - Dance

Here is another dance, and i forgot which country (i'm thinking China, but i might be wrong) this was from, i really should have taken better notes. It was very good though, with the three women moving gracefully and fluidly through the motions.

2010 International Bazaar - I'm not sure

I have no real way to describe their skit easily. It was a many parted skit that started with a singer and guitar player, to the two females joining for a dance section, then they sat down in a circle on the stage. After a little while, the guy in the shorts came in and tripped, dropping his books. The other people made fun of him, and here you see the one guy giving him a wedgie. This lead to him taking off his jacket, to reveal a shirt that said on the front "I'm" and on the back "pissed". They then went into martial arts, and at one point the guy being picked on took a drink of beer. He then fought in the drunken master style, and eventually won, and one of the girls ran over and jumped into his arms. When he set her down, he offered her a flower and went to shake hands with the guy he was fighting with, but they missed hands and kept going. Strangest of all, this then turned into a country western dance with line dancing and cowboy hats. I have no idea where they came up with all this, but it was amazing and very entertaining. I saw someone with a professional video camera, but i'm not sure who they were with and couldn't find video of it online. So you'll just have to use your imagination.

2010 International Bazaar - Raffle

Another picture from the International Bazaar, this one from one of the raffles they had between performances. They had someones child helping out during this part. There were a lot of numbers called that didn't have people saying they won, so i'm not sure if it's people who left after the food and didn't come to this part or what. Sadly i didn't win even with all the numbers called.

2010 International Bazaar - Chinese Dance

Here are two people doing a Chinese dance. I believe the girl on the left is the same one who did the lovely dance at the last Unity in the Community. I forget their names, as they were said pretty fast and i didn't have a note pad handy.

2010 International Bazaar - Falcon's Nest

Here is the area called Falcon's Nest where the performances were, i grabbed a spot in the balcony area where there were chairs and tables. Again you can see how few people were at this, although there people who aren't shown.

2010 International Bazaar - Fashion Show

Here is the fashion show part of the International Bazaar, with the announcer on the stage. They walked in from the far end of the hall, around the tables, and came in from the left to the stage. I didn't get any good shots of them walking in as i wasn't sure where the path would be, and this is the best of most if not all of them. Sorry that i didn't get them names and countries of the people.

UWRF International Bazaar 2010

Tuesday night i went to the International Bazaar that was held at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. Sadly it was barely advertised at all, from what i could tell. I only saw a small mention in the calendar section of the local paper, and that was from just seeing what was coming up in town. I didn't see if there was more around town, but it would explain why there weren't as many people as i expected. Still, it was a good time. I was almost thinking about not going, as i wasn't feeling the hottest and it was raining, but i'm glad i did. Good food, good performances and good conversation with a couple who sat near me during the food and fashion show parts. I took several hundred photos, and it will take a while to go through them and get them ready to post, so i thought i'd put this first one up now, and post the others over the next several days.

Next week is the Unity in the Community event, which i believe is an extension of this event, but there will probably be overlap of photos as there is a lot to show.

Easter

Since it's Easter, and i'm trying to focus on the good, i figured i'd post a picture of one of my awesome rabbits Jerry. As much as i love them, people should be thoughtful about getting rabbits as pets, especially around Easter. There are so many abandoned rabbits after Easter from people who get them on a whim or don't realize how much work they are that there is a good movement called Make Mine Chocolate. They are awesome if you know what you are in for though, smart if given stimulation, affectionate, can be potty trained, and way more. They can live for around 12 years though, and are mischievous with a love to get into trouble. There is a great book that explains why i love them so much, Stories Rabbits Tell, how badly they are treated too, yet have done so much for us.

Goodbye Zack

My bunny Zack just passed away from kidney failure, so i'm posting a wonderful photo of him when he was more healthy than the past few months. I had him since late 2004 when i got him at the humane society after whoever had him before me had just let him go outside and they had found him. I had no idea how old he was before he came here, but the vet thought a year or to, not too many as his teeth this year were still very good. I spoiled him rotten, while still watching his diet and such. Not sure what caused his kidney failure, and hope it's isolated and none of the others catch it.

I can honestly say i wouldn't be here if not for them, and even though it was natural (as much as it was) causes, it still hurts to not have him in my life anymore.

Goodbye Zack.