KOOZA

On Tuesday, we're off to the circus for the Cirque du Soleil production KOOZA! This will be the second Cirque production I've seen, the first being Corteo, which was amazing. 

The thing I love about Cirque du Soleil is how, through everything, without words, the dancers and acrobats are able to communicate and weave a whole story and tell it with such grace and apparent ease. It possesses such an irreplaceable, unsurpassed artistic quality that makes every moment of the performance worthwhile. I'm so excited to be going to KOOZA because it has the same kind of quirky, artistic look and feel to it as Corteo (at least, from the video clips and photos of KOOZA on the Cirque website).

I don't know if photography is allowed inside; I would expect not, but if they're permitted, I'll try to see if photos are possible. Nevertheless, the troupe provides some pics and videos on the site (see the link at the top of the post), if you're interested.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

If the freakishly huge popularity of Harry Potter wasn't enough to convince you that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the theme park that opened at Universal Studios yesterday to recreate the Harry Potter experience and world for fans, was -- and is -- going to be insanely crowded, here is proof (from a Twitterer who tweeted this photo of the line to get inside). I guess we all know what the moral of this picture is: You get there early, you get in early. But judging from this, we'll have to get there extra-early. (click photo for large)

TEDxRedmond

TEDxRedmond is an independently organized speaking conference that follows the basic structure of a normal TED conference -- except for the fact that all its speakers are all children in grades 6 - 10. If  you're familiar with the TED series, TEDxRedmond is a branch of it. If you're not as familiar with TED, you can visit their official site at http://www.ted.com/.

Here are the official details for TEDxRedmond:
September 18, 2010
Microsoft Campus,
Redmond, WA 98052

You can sign up to attend TEDxRedmond at http://www.tedxredmond.com/ (click the "Attend" button). You can also sign up to speak there by clicking on the "Attend" button and filling out the form at that link, but all speakers will be students in grades 6 - 10.

If you're in the Seattle-Redmond area, be sure to come! It will be a lot of fun, and there's going to be entertainment (and food, I believe) as well.

Step

Right now,
the sun stamps the shadow
of my window blinds
onto the wall.
I listen to voices
in the next room,
cadence and nuance
flowing.

Poetry Friday roundup here.

Harry Potter!

If the trailer is any indication, the first installment of HP7 is going to be out-of-this-world. I have to agree with what Priya said, though: Daniel Radcliffe isn't looking like the regular, normal Harry anymore -- he looks a little funny. Either way -- funny-looking Harry or not funny-looking Harry -- this movie is going to be brilliant.

edit [8:49 p.m.]: The video has now been trimmed to fit my post space, since it was previously cutting across the sidebar. Thanks Priya for spotting the mistake I'd made in originally trying to trim it!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blogger in draft has an amazing custom template design tool, and it is absolutely HEAVEN. I think I'm dying from excitement.

I may just have to change my template every week now.