Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Interfusion Festival 2023

This past weekend was my SEVENTH time going to the Interfusion Festival! I was blown away the first time I went (scroll to the bottom to read about my experiences in previous years), and it's had me coming back ever since. The festival has certainly changed and evolved over time, but at its core, it's still about creating a community of openness, acceptance, vulnerability, positivity, and exploration. And who couldn't use more of that in their lives?

As usual, I took a variety of types of workshops and also tried to take classes with both instructors I didn't know and ones I already knew I really liked. Here are some of the stand-outs for me from this year's festival:

Soul & Skin: Authentic Relating in Dance

I didn't even know what "authentic relating" was until I discovered it at the festival a few years ago. It's about being your true self and expressing your truth to others. The leads of this workshop, Sara Ness and Geof Krum, were really fun and good at explaining and demonstrating the exercises. And they were creative, too! We introduced ourselves to other participants using the "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Consent" game, in which you only gave a more familiar greeting if the other person consents first. We played a "stick game" with a partner in which each person, using only one finger, pressed into the end of a pencil, and you had to hold enough tension on both ends to not drop the pencil as you walked around together in partnership. Who knew you could have that much fun with an unsharpened pencil! We also did a hand massage exercise with a partner, during which one of your hands was massaged and you used the other hand to "rate" the touch on a one-to-five scale. Someone said, "Giving feedback is a gift to the other person," and I thought that was so beautiful: offering feedback isn't criticism or rejection, but more of helping someone else understand who you are and what you desire. We then moved into groups of four and each person had a turn to be the center of attention, asking the others three to touch him/her "with the intention of BLANK." The intention of touch means just as much as the touch itself! I really liked this workshop and would definitely take it again!


Deeper: Conscious Intimacy Revealed

I had never done a workshop with the Blackins from Our Temple in the Trees before, but their work reminded me of previous workshops I've done before with Monique Darling and Peter Petersen from Everyday Tantra. For most of the workshop I was in a group with two young women who had never been to the Interfusion Festival before. While they may have had more sexual experiences than I have had (one seemed to know a lot about stripping...), they were not as comfortable outwardly speaking about their own sexual desires, which meant they weren't going deeper as the name of the class suggests. But I still enjoyed doing the exercises with them. In the first one we each had to express our (sexual) desires, and the other two people would ask what the roadblocks were to achieving those desires as well as offered potential solutions. In the second exercise, we each had a turn being the center of attention, and we would tell the other two how/where we wanted to be touched. They gave me SUCH a good scalp massage, and my body involuntarily shivered when the one with really long nails scratched my back. SUCH good tingles! I ended up doing a very similar exercise in a different class the next day, but this first time was more fun. I saw these girls throughout the weekend and had fun meeting up with them.

Rhythmic Seduction: The Art of Sensual Chair Dance

Of course I had heard of chair dancing and have seen it in movies (Flashdance, Striptease, Save the Last Dance), but I had never tried it myself. So I was curious to learn more, especially if it could spice things up at home! Gigi Holliday was the instructor, and while 9:00 a.m. may not have been the best time slot to try to memorize a dance routine, she pushed through and made it fun for all of us. She's a professional burlesque performer, so she knows what she's talking about! Her main lessons were "go slooooooow" and "point your damn toes!" I had such a good time, and I look forward to performing for my fiancé; I hope he likes it!

That's me in the rainbow leopard print shirt! Photo credit from the Interfusion Festival.

Qigong Movement and Meditation

Originally during this time slot I was going to take a class on lifts in dance, but when I watched the instructors demo what they were going to teach, I knew I was NOT prepared for that kind of acrobatics! So I quickly stepped out and made my way to Dante Baker's qigong workshop. Qigong is similar to Tai Chi or yoga in that it is a meditation practice with movement. Baker took us through several different movements, most of which are in time with your breath and can either be done from one spot or actually moving around a space. We started by hitting (sometimes punching?) our muscles to get them warmed up and to get the blood flowing (we focused a lot on the kidneys). Some of the movements were named after animals, like turtle, or dragon, which were fun, and a lot of them involved balance and keeping a soft bend in your knees to really help with fluid movements. I am not very good at static meditation (my mind always seems to wander), but with movement meditation like qigong, I find it's easier to focus on the present. I would love to find more opportunities to do qigong for sure!

He also did a sound bath healing workshop that I really enjoyed. He can play so many different musical instruments and makes it such a relaxing atmosphere. Photo credit from the Interfusion Festival.



Conscious Communications: Let's Talk About Sex!

Thomas Daily II, or "Major Tom" as he likes to be called, is a great facilitator! During this session, he was funny and charismatic but also thoughtful and understanding. I thought this workshop was both educational and self-reflective, which I really appreciated.

He talked about how the sex education we receive in the US doesn't really cover the idea of pleasure; there is still a focus on guilt or shame around sex. Even the idea of talking about sex is still somewhat taboo, and he emphasized the importance of open communication, especially around desires and kinks. He used the acronym BDSM, but not in the way you think. Before having sex with someone, you should have the BDSM conversation: discuss Boundaries, Desires, Sexual health (i.e. how often are you tested for STIs, are you HIV positive, etc.), and Meaning (Is this just a one-night stand? Do we have real feelings for each other?). I thought that was clever and helpful. The group also discussed how, when someone tells you "no" to something you desire, you don't have to take it as rejection: if you had never asked the person, you'd get the same result (i.e. it didn't happen), or that person is just speaking their truth and honoring their own needs (and if they can honestly tell you "no," you can be more trusting of their "yes" later on for something else). Major Tom also brought up the Erotic Blueprints, which I was telling another participant about just a few minutes before then!

For the actual exercises we did, I enjoyed the focus on how sex and sexual desires is very much a gray area; there isn't a lot of black and white. We did a spectrum exercise in which we would all take a spot on a line where opposites were on either end (e.g. homosexual-heterosexual, dominant-submissive, kinky-vanilla, etc.). For another exercise, we paired up with another person, and as Major Tom would call out different kinks, you would talk to your partner about whether you would or would not do that thing and why (but in a positive way! No use to "yuck someone else's yum"). These exercises made me think of things in a different way, either things I had never considered or heard of before (I had never heard of the term "bi-sensual" before, but it's like bisexual without actual penetrative sex) or things that I may have thought of but I had never talked out loud about (like body worship, which I think is really cool but I've never tried it). I definitely give props to the people who were willing to openly tell the larger group about their desires, fears, etc. That's what makes the Interfusion Festival such a great place!

Read about my past experiences at the festival:

2023

2022

2020

2019

September 2017 (the only year they hosted the festival twice)

February 2017

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Recipe: Bourbon Pecan Brie Bites

 

I made these over the Christmas holiday; sorry for the delay! My mom wanted to make these, but she was busy putting together other food items, so I offered to help make these. They were pretty easy!

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 2 tbl. unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 tbl. bourbon
  • 1/4 cup roasted pecans, chopped
  • 8 oz. round of brie
  • 1.9 oz. package frozen mini fully baked phyllo shells (15 shells)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  2. Add all ingredients but the brie and phyllo shells to a small bowl and stir to combine.
  3. Carefully remove the rind from the brie and discard the rind. Then, cut the brie into pieces, about 1/4 inch squares.
  4. Place a cub of brie into each phyllo shell and top with 1/2 tsp. of the bourbon sugar nut mixture.
  5. Place the full shells on a small baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until the top is melted and bubbly.
  6. Remove from oven and serve warm or at room temperature.

We didn't roast the pecans, but otherwise we pretty much stuck to the recipe. We actually made it twice, because the first time we definitely didn't use enough cheese (you can see in the photo that, once the cheese melted, the shells looked only halfway full). So the cheese cubes can definitely be bigger! But even in making this twice, we didn't go through the whole wheel of brie cheese. 

These were yummy: easy to make and easy to eat! So pop-able! I would definitely recommend these as party food.

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Madonna in Concert

 



Madonna is a LEGEND, and I wanted to see her in concert before she got too old to stop touring (although the Rolling Stones are still doing it...). I originally was going to see her over Labor Day weekend (I did see Sting that weekend), but she got sick, so the show was rescheduled for yesterday. That blew my plan of wearing a sexy snakeskin mini-dress; instead I wore a velvet jacket with shoulder pads as a nod to the 80's (but Capital One Arena was so hot I barely even wore it!). At least the show did get rescheduled: I'll never see Celine Dion, whose March 2020 shows never came to pass.

My old boss and I (I've known her for, what, 10 years?) went together to this show, which made the evening even more fun. She had heard that while the concert was supposed to start around 8:00pm, Madonna never goes on stage before 10:00pm. So we spent a good two hours just wandering the halls, getting a drink, and catching up; we weren't interested in her opener, Bob the Drag Queen, either (although in the end he was more like a glorified Emcee). I think because so many people knew Madonna wouldn't start singing until later, the venue was so dead in the beginning: there were no lines, the halls weren't crowded, it was like the apocalypse had happened. We were almost wondering if Madonna was actually going to perform at all!

But perform she did. And she put on quite the show: a very weird one. But, we would expect no less of Madonna. Weird is her thing! But I think we, and many others in the crowd, were disappointed that it wasn't just a glam 80's dance party. Barely anyone was dancing! I think we were all just taking in weirdness: the gender-bending, nudity, bondage, fire... we were mesmerized (but was it in a good way?). Here are some photos to help me explain:

There was a lot of crawling/writhing from the back-up dancers (although they must have been living their best lives!).

This was during "Like a Prayer." At one point the men were hanging in their little spaces like crucifixes...

Some sort of luau ritual...?

And there was boxing. Not sure how that relates.

FIRE!

At one point she was dressed up like Willie Nelson. Hmm...

"I want to perform, but I want to lay down." She is laying on top of this big box, but the camera overhead projected her image onto the sides with a funky background, so she looked like an ameba swimming around.

Madonna wishing she were Lady Gaga (which is very strange, because I'm sure Gaga has always wished she were Madonna).

I normally don't check the set list ahead of time, but my friend did, and we were both bummed that she wasn't going to sing hits like Material Girl or Papa Don't Preach. But she did sing some of my other favorites:

Vogue

Like a Prayer

Like a Virgin


Ray of Light (I had not heard this song in forever!)


Die Another Day (great Bond theme song!)


Hung Up (This song came out when I was in high school, and I don't think I had heard it since!)

Essentially the whole show was set up in "acts," and there were seven of them. Since everything started so late, we already decided ahead of time to leave before the last act so we could get home somewhat earlier (1:00am!). But luckily those were all songs we weren't really into, so no big loss. 

I'm so glad I went to see this concert because who knows if I'll ever get another chance to see Madonna. Now I can put a check next to that name on my concert bucket list! I don't have any concert tickets lined up for the new year, but I'm sure I'll see some great shows in 2024. I can feel it!

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Pretty Woman: The Musical

 

I LOVE the movie Pretty Woman. I grew up watching it (maybe even without understanding the prostitute part at first), and I must have seen this movie at least twenty times in my life. I was definitely interested in seeing the musical version at the National Theatre (which was the D.C. debut, by the way), but the tickets were a little expensive. But I won their digital raffle, so I received discounted tickets to see this show last Friday night! I invited my friend Beth to go with me, and we had such a fun time!

To set the stage (no pun intended), I thought the set and costumes were really great. Palm trees transported you to California, luxe columns and curtains brought you inside the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, and you even had the famous balcony at the end where she "rescues him right back." There were so many costume changes for the cast: hookers on Hollywood Boulevard wore next to nothing, young men wore old-timey uniforms as bellhops, and fashionistas on Rodeo Drive had the glitziest ensembles. I even appreciated when the outfits matched those from the movie, like Vivian's famous red gown or the polka-dots she wears to the polo match. I felt like all of these details made the play that much more true to the movie. 

There were really only two parts that didn't match the film. The dinner scene with David Morse is turned into a dancing scene, which works better for a theater performance, anyway. And when Stuckey visits Vivian at the hotel, instead of him slapping her, she hits HIM! The female empowerment switch-a-roo is definitely preferrable to the original!

And I thought the cast did a great job. Ellie Baker was a lovely Vivian, with lots of energy and a charming, down-to-earth sense about her. And while Chase Wolfe is no Richard Gere (but who is?), I especially liked his singing voice, which reminded me of Lee Brice a little bit. I think Rae Davenport, who played Vivian's friend and roommate, Kit, had the strongest singing voice of the bunch, and Joshua Kring, one of the members of the general cast, was an amazing dancer. But I think my favorite character may have been "Happy Man," an amalgam of several characters from the film: the "What's Your Dream?" man on the street, the manager of the BW Hotel, and the store manager when they go shopping for Vivian to get new clothes. All of these roles were, ahem, rolled into one and played by Adam du Plessis; he did a fantastic job transforming into each! Of course the wardrobe changes helped, but I found him believable, and more importantly, likeable, as each character. Everyone was so talented, and they totally did justice to the film, which for me was the most important part!

Here are two video if you want to see more:


*Check out this glowing review from D.C. Theater Arts, too!

Friday, November 24, 2023

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Muffins

 

Yet another recipe from the America's Favorite Pumpkin Recipes Centennial Kitchen magazine. I have made pumpkin muffins before (check out this blog post for pumpkin oatmeal muffins), but I hadn't tried this recipe yet. Pretty easy, which is my main criteria for trying new recipes!

Ingredients

  • 1.75 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1.5 tsps. baking powder
  • 1.5 tsps. pumpkin pie spice
  • .5 tsp. salt
  • .25 tsp. ground nutmeg
  • 2 eggs
  • .5 cup canola oil
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • .5 cups granulated sugar

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly spray muffin cups with nonstick spray or line with paper bake cups.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and nutmeg; set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, combine eggs and oil. Stir in brown sugar, pumpkin, and granulated sugar until well combined. Add flour mixture; stir just until evenly incorporated.
  4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near centers comes out clean. Remove muffins from muffin cups; cool completely on wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I will admit that I wasn't exact with my measurements, particularly with the pumpkin, since that was just leftover from another recipe. I also should have been better about breaking down the clumps of baking powder. The recipe did give the option to top the dough with coarse sugar before baking, but I figured these have enough sugar in them to begin with. And I didn't quite gracefully remove them from the pan, but rather flipped them upside down and had them rolling on the wire rack (hence the crisscross pattern on some of them in the photo). 

These are a little dense, and not as sweet as I might like. I think they would taste better with icing, but that's pretty easy to remedy. Add some cream cheese frosting, and it'll taste just like a pumpkin roll! (Which I have made before...)

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Crumble


I LOVE pumpkin everything, so fall is definitely a favorite season for me when it comes to food. Leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, I wanted to try making this pumpkin spice crumble recipe from America's Favorite Pumpkin Recipes Centennial Kitchen magazine. We actually cut the recipe in half because it calls for TWO cans of pumpkin! That is too much of a good thing! Listed below is the full recipe. 

Ingredients
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 15-ounce cans of pumpkin
  • 2 cups half-and-half
  • 1.5 cups granulated sugar
  • 2.5 tsps. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • .5 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • .75 cups all-purpose flour
Directions
  1. Preheat over to 350° F. Using 1 tablespoon butter, butter bottom and sides of a 13x9-inch baking dish.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin, half-and-half, granulated sugar, 2 tsps. pumpkin pie spice, .5 tsp. salt, and .25 tsp. ginger. Spread evenly in prepared baking dish; set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine oats brown sugar, flour, and remaining pie spice, salt, and ginger. 
  4. Melt remaining 7 tablespoons butter; stir into oat mixture until mixture is completely moistened and crumbly. Sprinkle oat mixture evenly on top of pumpkin mixture in baking dish.
  5. Bake 50 minutes or until the pumpkin is set around the edges and center slightly jiggles when baking dish is gently shaken. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature with ice cream.
I'm glad I was baking with my mom, because I would have messed up this recipe from the get-go. I was all ready to mix the butter in with the liquid mixture (i.e. the first main step), but my mom had me re-read the recipe to catch my mistake! She also helped me with the math, since we had to divide everything in half. Since we needed three eggs, and it's hard to get half an egg, we used one egg plus some banana to make up the difference there. And we used a 9x9 pan instead (like a brownie pan), otherwise the mixture would have been too thin in the larger dish; we just used cooking spray to grease the dish instead of butter. This was pretty easy to make, and when it came out of the oven, it looked PERFECT!

My dad described it as, "pumpkin pie with a crunchy top." I think that's about right! He had his with whipped cream instead of ice cream, and I just had mine plain, and it was still delicious. If you like cobblers, crisps, or crumbles in general for dessert, you'll like this one, too!

Monday, November 20, 2023

Recipe: Blueberry Banana Muffins

 

While visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, my mom and I made blueberry banana muffins for breakfast one morning. I found this recipe on Food.com, and it seemed easy enough, so we tried it. 

Ingredients

  •        3 large ripe bananas
  •        ¾ cup sugar
  •      1 egg, slightly beaten
  •      1/3 cup butter, melted
  •      1 cup blueberries
  •      1 tsp. baking soda
  •      1 tsp. baking powder
  •       ½ tsp. salt
  •      1.5 cups flour

Directions

  1. Mash bananas in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Add sugar and egg.
  3. Add butter and blueberries.
  4. Combine dry ingredients and gently stir into banana mixture.
  5. Pour into 12 well-greased muffin cups.
  6. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Now, this recipe isn't very well written. Nowhere does it say to preheat the oven, and it doesn't specifically say to mix all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl before adding them to the wet mixture. BUT as an experienced baker, I knew not to skip those two steps. Another thing to try is to add the blueberries LAST and gently fold them in so that they don't get squished through the whole mixing process. Also, I recommend setting the timer for a little less time and checking on the muffins then; we set our timer for 15 minutes, and that was PLENTY of time. Every oven is different!

These muffins are very easy to make and taste quite good. Nice for a light breakfast or mid-day snack!