How exciting! My wife Michelle’s Unnata Aerial Yoga class was written up in the NY Times “Thursday Styles” section this past Thursday! You can see a copy of the print article over on the Aerial Yoga website. Or if you like, you can read the article on the NY Times website.

As I have mentioned before, the Aerial Yoga class is now in its new location on Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg, and was recently featured on NBC’s First Look NY. In fact, Michelle’s segment on First Look NY was syndicated, and played in the little TVs in the back of NYC Taxi Cabs for about two weeks! Many people called to say that they saw Michelle in their Taxi Cab!

FYI: Tonight (Sunday Oct. 12, 2008), Michelle is doing an Aerial Acrobatic performance at the Zipper Theatre on 37th St. (b’twn 8th and 9th Aves) at 7PM. Come on down for an exciting evening of mixed aerial performances by some of New York City’s leading aerial acrobatic performers!

It’s been a busy week over at my wife Michelle’s Aerial Yoga class! Last night was the grand opening party at the new home of Unnata Aerial Yoga. And tonight, Unnata Aerial Yoga was featured on NBC’s 1stLook NY, on channel 4 at 7:30PM here in New York City.

As I mentioned in June, Michelle moved the class over to a great new space on Bedford Avenue, in the heart of Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. Last night we finally had a house-warming party to introduce the space to everyone. Since Aerial Yoga is a hybrid of traditional yoga and aerial acrobatic training, the evening featured two aerial acrobatic performances (by Michelle, and Angela Jones), one on-the-ground dance performance (by Ede Thurrell), and lots of Unnata Aerial Yoga demonstrations.

The Aerial Yoga TV piece was taped in August, and was featured this evening on NBC’s 1stLook NY, a half-hour life/styles program produced by LXTV.com. The theme of tonight’s program was “Back to School” — different classes for adults to partake in now that the kiddies are all back in school. Aerial Yoga was one of the super-interesting classes available in the New York area that were featured on the show. Also included were: Skydiving and SCUBA diving lessons, Sushi making and Sake tasting, cooking and bar tending lessons, and more. How fun!

You can see the Unnata Aerial Yoga segment on NBC’s “1stLook NY” website, and of course it’s on the Unnata Aerial Yoga website too.

WOW!

The Baby Janes rocked the house at La Mama for the past two weekends!

This aerial, singing, dancing, musical holiday celebration was put together by Kristen Olness, and starred The Baby Janes: Kristen Olness, Michelle Dortignac, Angela Jones and Laura Witwer, with special guest Terry Beeman. Sara Moore was the eccentric hostess in her character, Pearl Claus.

SEE LOTS OF PICTURES from the closing night performance on Sunday, after this…

Click on the first image below, and then just click the RIGHT-SIDE of each large image to advance through the pictures.

This story made the rounds in January, 2005 when it first broke, but I never saw it. I couldn’t resist posting it here now.

(Text and images from an email I recently received, and assorted web sources. FYI: SNOPES says it’s mostly a true story)

…Some news accounts (including the one sped from inbox to inbox in early 2005) asserted the orphaned hippo was swept into the sea by the tsunami that devastated numerous coastal countries in the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004, yet wildlife officials were alerted to the imperiled hippo before Christmas, when hoteliers in Malindi spotted the little fellow, in the company of a number of adults of his kind, foundering in the surf off the coast. By the time wildlife officials arrived, Owen was alone, having become separated from his herd. Had he not been rescued, the ocean’s waters would have done in the youngster because long immersion in salt water would have led to fatal dehydration.

The dehydrated hippo was found by wildlife rangers and taken to the Haller Park animal facility in the port city of Mombasa.

Pining for his lost mother, Owen quickly befriended a giant male Aldabran tortoise named Mzee – Swahili for “old man”.

“When we released Owen into the enclosure, he lumbered to the tortoise which has a dark grey colour similar to grown up hippos,” Sabine Baer, rehabilitation and ecosystems manager at the park, told Reuters on Thursday.

Haller Park ecologist Paula Kahumbu said the pair were now inseparable.

“After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together,” the ecologist added.

“The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother,” Kahumbu added.

“The hippo was left at a very tender age. Hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years.”

She said the hippo’s chances of survival in another herd were very slim, predicting that a dominant male would have killed him.

Officials are hopeful Owen will befriend a female hippo called Cleo, also a resident at the park.

Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner: The Final Cut” opens Friday in NYC, and I really want to go see it. After 25 years, director Ridley Scott has re-released the film with lost scenes and plot lines added back in, and original effects scenes digitally scanned at 8,000 lines per frame, and then carefully retouched. This is the version that he was trying to make in 1982. After going over-budget at the time, the financiers of the film took over and Scott had to bend steeply to their wishes. A narration track was written and added, and the film was given a happy ending. Ironically, footage used as backdrops for the new happy ending — scenes of rolling countryside — were borrowed from Stanley Kubrick; out-takes from The Shining!

I saw Blade Runner in 1982 when it first came out. I can’t say I remember much beyond generally liking it. Nine years later, I happened to be in San Francisco, when the “Director’s Cut” of the film was released, and went with friends to see it at The Castro Theatre. This time I remember being totally entranced, and a bit spooked. It was late October 1991, and the news in San Francisco was already surreal enough; the Oakland-Berkeley Hills Fire had whipped out of control days before, and destroyed or damaged 3,469 homes and apartments in the hills just across the bay from San Francisco. It was the worst fire in terms of loss of life and property since the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

If the movie wasn’t dark enough, the local mood was darker. I drove past the fire area a few days later; it was like a nuclear bomb had hit Berkeley. There was nothing left standing for miles in each direction except for brick chimneys. It was so unbelievable. I was staying at my Aunt’s house up in the hills of Berkeley, but had flown up to Eugene, Oregon to visit some other friends a few days before the fire. I flew back to SF the morning after the fire, and saw the whole smoldering hillside from the airplane as we circled to land.

My Aunt’s house was spared by the direction of the wind that day.

The show, called Above The Belt at the Zipper, is an evening of mixed aerial performances produced by aerialists Carla Cantrelle and Britt Nhi Sarah. Held several times a year at the Zipper Factory Theater on 37th street, Above the Belt always presents a diverse set of aerial performances and styles. The shows feature both veterans of the New York aerialist community as well as newcomers to the Aerial Arts.

I took a few pictures of Michelle’s performance (during her dress/tech rehearsal) which can be seen following:

Here are some pictures of Michelle’s performance (taken during her dress/tech rehearsal).

Doesn’t she look great!

This house took good care of us all for many years. I’m sure that it will do a great job sheltering its new family.

Thank you 1380 Jonathan Lane.

Instead of emailing my friends and family each time I see something interesting out here on the Internet, I figured I should just make a blog.

I’ll have pictures to look at, links to interesting and useful things, answers to life’s easier questions, and news about what’s going on for Michelle and me.

It’s nice to meet you.