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- I've enjoyed the trip, but I think Vegas, or at least the strip, is just not my kind of town (says the guy who doesn't drink, gamble, eat meat or get Disney Land, so... what a shock).
- Totally loved the Akamai conference. Got to meet lots of cool customers and co-workers, and give demos of some awesome visualizations of our network (which continues to blow me away with how complex and badass it is), which gave me a fix of what I used to get from teaching. Nothing like starting out talking to one person and ending up drawing a crowd with a cool presentation. Also, parties with live bands, stiltwalkers, hoopers, and aerial silks.
- If you ever find your self with after-hours access to a convention booth with a 90" screen, it is time for movie night.
- The Cirque Du Soleil show Zumanity is way more umm... explicit than I'd expected (but cheaper than their other shows, starting at $69. Har har), and I have some issues to unpack with regard to attending burlesque shows. It's still Cirque, though, and has some amazing performances.
- If you are ever in Vegas, holy crap see the Jabawockeez show at the Monte Carlo. It combines mime, hip-hop dance, comedy, and AV spectacle into the best time I've had in a theater in a long time. Seriously, I would totally go back tomorrow if I was still in town and could get a group together to go with me. Sadly this video doesn't really do it justice, but it's a start.
...now to sleep, work the booth for another few hours in the morning, rush to the airport, fly from 11am Vegas time to 11pm Boston time, go home, hug M, sleep (optional), get up, drive to the middle of nowhere, and spend the rest of the weekend helping to wrap up an amazing multi-year long larp.
I might not survive, but I aim to have a damn good time doing it anyway.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-12 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-15 04:05 pm (UTC)Just to be clear, my reaction isn't a judgement thing about burlesque-- well, mostly not, at least. there's always a bit of stigma from my upbringing that informs things in subtle ways, but...
While I still haven't untangled all of it, I think I can break my reaction down into three main components:
no subject
Date: 2012-10-15 04:23 pm (UTC)And it is celebrating the human body. I've seen people of all shapes, sizes, and ages (above 18) performing. But it is no more salacious (and often less so) than what you'd find in a hollywood movie. The tensions are less about sex and more about how much they'll show, and when, and how. With the clear acceptance on both sides that they'll never show it all - this is burlesque, not erotic dancing, a topless bar, etc.
And dance or circus acts don't have the striptease, which, it turns out, is an artform in and of itself. I've found myself admiring the way a person removes a glove, or the artistic choices as to when in the song to remove a stocking, and how.
Now, of course, I can't speak to all burlesque, and most of my experience has been with 'retro' burlesque, of the sort performed in the first half of the 20th century, and I suspect that modern burlesque, much like that Cirque show, tends to inject more eroticism in the day and age of internet porn.
And I think if you were to go see the current Wrathskellar production, for instance, you'd probably have a positive reaction to the experience.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-23 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-23 01:13 pm (UTC)