You take me up to a higher ground

There is less hate.
I am not at work.
I got virtual hugs from Cerulean_Me.
It rained a little.
Carabosse's eighties DVD arrived in the post today!
Caredhel bought me a wolf! (Through Defenders of Wildlife.)*
When I got home, there was an anonymous gift left on my couch of a pack of cloves and a book I had been wanting to own in pretty wrapping paper.
I do not recall the copies of 'Dubliners' and John M. Ford's Star Trek novel being in my room, but it is entirely possible that they were there all along.
Prezzies and hugs are good for my mood, apparently. Who'da thunk?

*Tersa, she also gifted you with the knitting bag in the living room!

3 AM UPDATE: Bah. How can iTunes *not* have Julie Brown's Homecoming Queen? I can understand not having Guadalcanal Diary, or Tragic Mulatto, or the Hickoids, or any number of other bands I played at KBVR, but that seems a rather awkward hole.

You can't hear what I'm saying

I received this snippet through a Moulin Rouge mailing list I'm on. The performance is impressive, but I will say that I have done no fact checking to assure the verity of the text.


'Thousand Hand Guanyin'

Performance by 21 DEAF-MUTE dancers
http://www.phapvan.ca/SinhHoat/05_vanhoc/11_SuuTam_Collection/Audio/thousandhandguanyin.wmv

There is an awesome dance, called the Thousand-Hand Guanyin, that is making the rounds across the net. Considering the tight coordination required, their accomplishment is nothing short of amazing, even if they were not all deaf.

Yes, you read correctly.

All 21 of the dancers are complete deaf-mutes. Relying only on signals from trainers at the four corners of the stage, these extraordinary dancers deliver a visual spectacle that is at once intricate and stirring. Its first major international debut was in Athens last year at the closing ceremonies for the 2004 Paralympics. But it had long been in the repertoire of the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe and had traveled to more than 40 countries.


EDIT:
Linky McLinkerson says TechnoCowboy posted a uTube link to a spideriffic documentary. Visit him to discover the wonders of nature!

Its lead dancer is 29 year old Tai Lihua, who has a BA from the Hubei Fine Arts Institute.
The video was recorded in Beijing during the Spring Festival celebrations this year.