Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
Why is it so pleasurable to move rhythmically in a circle? As a toddler, one of your earliest pleasurable experiences is probably spinning yourself around and around as many times and as fast as you can. Inevitably you fall down, laughing, before getting up to do it again. Or you and a friend hold hands…
The year 2020 was one that no one could have anticipated. A global pandemic grinds normal life to a halt. Horrible acts of violence against Black people lead to a painful but necessarily national reckoning with the systemic racism in our society. A contentious presidential election results in (hopefully) a peaceful transfer of power. I…
One of my projects during the holiday break has been learning how to make one of my favorite desserts: Danish pastry! Somewhere between a brioche and a croissant, Danish seemed like a good next step in my baking journey. First step was choosing a recipe. After scouring the internets, I decided King Arthur Flour /…
INGREDIENTS 1 4- to 5-pound duck Freshly ground black pepper ¼ cup soy sauce, more or less Equipment: roasting pan rack PREPARATION Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Remove giblets and neck from duck cavity and discard or reserve for another use. Cut off excess fat from duck cavity. Place duck, breast side down (wings up), on a…
A little over two weeks ago I switched over from my Riedell R3 derby-style skates to a pair of Chicago 805s. I haven’t seen many people write about the Chicago 800/805, so I thought I would share my experience. The Chicago 800/805 originates from one of the oldest skate manufacturers in the US, the Chicago…
One of the nicest things that has happened during the pandemic is that I started roller skating. Soon after, my friend Jess joined me, followed by Iris. Today, several months later, I’ve got a little posse of 30+ lindy hop friends from all over the Bay who have taken up skating, from Marin to Oakland to San Jose….
“It’s not possible to be unhappy skating,” my friend Kristin said to me on her second outing to the Skating Place in Golden Gate Park. I understand the sentiment. We’re rollerskating in a beautiful park in the city by the bay. There’s disco and funk pumping out of a boombox. People of all ages are…
So this October I had this crazy idea that I wanted to be TRON on skates for Halloween. More specifically, the character Sam Flynn from TRON: Legacy (2010). (Yes, the movie was a hot mess, but it looked and sounded amazing.) There were really two options for TRON costumes I found in my research: Buy…
This year, because of the pandemic, a gathering of my friends was not going to be possible. <sadface> I knew that I didn’t want to throw yet another Zoom virtual party, which honestly is getting a little old. So instead, I came up with organizing a Birthday Weekend Wander! The idea was to invite friends…
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. Frederick Buechner This morning at Quaker Meeting for Worship, I’ve been reflecting about “my calling,” which has been a refrain that has run through my entire life. One way of understanding a “calling” is something that…