Koleda wouldn't be fun without a lot of loud noise (to chase away the evil spirits) and dancers in elaborate embroidered costumes. After the noise, there's Shopsko Horo (0:39) and at 2:06 the kids dance a rachenitsa for three. The video ends with a fancy men's pravo .This group is from St. Louis, in the USA.
Video #3 is about 20 minutes long and features the folk ensembles listed below. See below for the order in which they appear:
Dancers: RIPNI KALINKE, San Jose, MARTENICHKI Family Group, ANTIKA Folk Ensemble, San Francisco, TANYA KOSTOVA, Founder, Artistic Director
VASSIL & MARIA BEBELEKOVI (gaida & vocal), NESTINARY BG Orchestra
Notice the ugly Christmas sweaters in the first group, doing a daichovo. (0:20 to 3:47) There is also a dancer wearing a Santa hat, not a part of the traditional Bulgarian folk costume. Other familiar dances include: Padjusko at 2:55, Trite Puti at 11:35, Rhodope Pravo at 14:35, and Graovsko Horo at 19:40.
This party took place in the San Francisco area of California.
In the range of music that we play - roughly 300 years' worth-there really are more similarities than differences.
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Today's post features two Florecica dances with different music and different choreography performed by a group of dancers from Boulder, Colorado.
Video #1 is the version familiar to most folk dancers, Florecica Olteneasca. The best description of it is a Sârba on steroids. A Sârba is aRomanian folk dance related to the Bulgarian Pravo Horo and the Serbian Čačak. The dance is from the region of Oltenia in southern Romania.
The first part of the dance, which is relatively easy, consists of Sârba choreography(the spelling Sirba is also used).
This video took place at a Romanian festival in Boulder, Colorado, and the dancers are from the Hora Romaneasca dance group The musical accompaniment for this dance is known by the politically incorrect name of Jew's Harp (drîmba is the name in Romanian). The other instrument is a kobza.
Video #2 is the same group performing Florecica #2. Like the previous video you can hear the "chatter" in the background. This is also a fast dance done in Sârba rhythm, punctuated by shouts from the leader. The opposing lines at 0:52 remind me of a Bulgarian dance, Sitna Zborernka.
This version of Florecica is played on violins, cimbalom and panpipes.
“Knowledge is the name professors give to the confusion they create.”
― Marty Rubin
Today's post will give you even more knowledge about the confusion of names in Balkan dance with two dances from Romania.
Video #1 is the dance Balta, whichfits a lot of steps in less than two minutes. The music reminds me of Calusari, another Romanian dance.
"Balta" is the Romanian word for marsh or swamp. It is also the name of a commune in Romania.
The performance in the video is smooth and seemingly effortless. It is a pleasure to watch this man dance.
Video #2 is Ca la Balta. This is a modern version played on a saxophone. Click here if you want to hear the traditional version on panpipe and cimbalom. The name translates to "as in Balta."
If you enjoyed this you may also like the rest of the series Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused.
The link goes to Part Six, you can access the other posts from there.
The saddest country I went to was Romania, years ago, during Ceausescu's rule.
Christopher Lee
Before the revolution of 1989, Romania was a totalitarian regime ruled by an autocrat who wouldn't let people leave the country. Food and clothing shortages were commonplace. There were also orphanages full of children whose parents couldn't afford to raise them, many who got AIDS from unsterilized needles. Birth control was forbidden in Ceausescu's Romania. The situation was so bad that people froze in the winter because the government exported heating oil for foreign currency. It was a terrible place to live until 1989, when on Christmas Day, Ceausescu and his family were assassinated.
Although the situation in Romania is much better than in the past, poverty and discrimination against the Roma population are still social issues. Despite the problems, the country has a rich folklore tradition that has survived World Wars and totalitarian rule.
Today's post features three southern Romanian dances from the province of Oltenia, on the northern side of the Danube from Bulgaria.
Video #1 is a dance very popular in one of my groups: Hora Lautareasca din Dolj. Dolj is a county in the province of Oltenia. The dance is named after the Lautari, the term for a band of Roma musicians.
There is a review of the dance at the beginning of the video. The dance teacher is one of those "crazy" instructors and keeps a running monologue going throughout the dance. Her group consists entirely of senior citizens (old enough to remember Communist Romania).
Video #2 is another dance from Dolj and one of the numerous variations of Trei Pazeste. There are Trei Pazeste de la Goicea Mare, Trei Pazeste Batrinesc, and others. You can read about them in one of the posts below.
Video #3 is a Japanese group dancing Rustemul Oltenesc. This is a different variation with different music than the Rustemul we usually do (although some of the steps are similar). Notice that the young woman in the line wears a man's costume.
Growing old is mandatory - growing up is optional.
Chili Davis
This post is dedicated to a friend in the Always on Sunday group, who was in an auto accident on the way to this week's dance. Although her car was damaged, she's OK and will be dancing with us again soon.
Hora Veche, from Romania, is one of her favorite dances and one that she leads She is also 85 years old. The oldest person in the group is 92, so if you dance you will live a long time.
By the way the translation for Hora Veche is "old dance."
What I love about this video is how the dancers have fun and don't take themselves too seriously. They have a wonderful sense of humor. Listen to the chatter, it's quite funny. When the dance is over, the woman at the end of the line shouts: "We did it!"
Some years ago I read a book that brought Einstein's theory of relativity down to an eighth grade level. This convinced me that any subject can be made easy. In other words, always beware of anyone who tells you a topic is above you or better left to experts. This person may, for some reason, be trying to shut you out. You CAN understand almost anything.
Richard J. Maybury
Not all Romanian folk dances are fast and difficult with sudden changes of direction and stamps hard enough to put holes in the floor! Contrary to what you've seen and heard, there are relatively slow and easy Romanian dances. Relatively is the key word here. Relativity is a whole other concept.
What's really cool about today's dances is that they include shouts, called "strigaturi." You can be a kid again and use your "outside voice."
The first is Hora Pe Sase (Hora for Six). I counted the steps, and none of them add up to six. Notice that one of the figures in this dance resembles the Bulgarian Pravo Horo.
There are definitely more than six people dancing. So where did the dance get its name? If you know the answer, please post it in the "comments" section.
The second dance, Hora Pentesteanca is one I can't even pronounce. Fortunately it is easy to learn by watching the dancers. The steps are mostly grapevines and taps.
Romanian is part of a family of languages based on Latin. There is a Romanian woman who comes to our dances and she taught us how to say some basic greetings. Despite my familiarity with Spanish, I had difficulty pronouncing the Romanian words.
Modern Romanian, to me, sounds like a combination of Latin and Italian, with an admixture of Slavic words. The first time I heard it on an ethnic radio program, I thought it was a dialect of Italian until the folk music came on. According to Wikipedia, Romanian is 77% similar to Italian.
There are other dialects related to Romanian, including Aromanian , also known as Vlach.
A shoe is not only a design, but it's a part of your body language, the way you walk. The way you're going to move is quite dictated by your shoes.
Christian Louboutin
Dancers, especially, can be very particular about their shoes. It took me many tries to find a pair of shoes that worked for me. I found that Zumba shoes are very good for Balkan dance, since they have the right combination of flexibility and support and are lightweight. They were also reasonably priced (it was the best $50 I spent on a pair of dance shoes).
This week's dance is Opinca and the name has to do with peasant shoes (opinci), worn in a number of Balkan countries as part of the folk costume.
Opinca is from the Romanian region of Bukovina. Bukovina is one of those places that has changed hands a number of times over the years. It was dominated in succession by the Ottoman Turks, the Russians and the Austro-Hungarian empire and nowadays is split up between Romania and Ukraine.
I couldn't find a single page with the dance notes, however, there was an entire syllabus with over 100 pages that contained the dance notes on page 25. ( It may take you a while to get to it if your computer is slow, like mine.).
The melody is really cool and typically Romanian: panpipes, cimbalom and violin. The dance has a few stamps, but is overall very smooth.
This group is from the United States, and they go by two different names: Kolo Koalition and Kolo Dragan.
Today's bonus video is of a Zumba class. When I can't get to Balkan dance I go to Zumba, it's a nice change. I like music from Latin America.
You know that I am Count the Count because I really like to count.........
Song of the Count, from Sesame Street
This week's dance is Jiana from Transylvania, in Romania. The dance is named after a haidouk (rebel) lanca Jinu.
There are many different versions of this dance; probably named after the town or village where they originated. It is native to a specific region in Transylvania. See below:
JIANA is a small circle dance found in the villages of south Transylvania area around Sibiu and Marginimea Sibiului. This region is known for its pastoral and wealthy shepherd communities in the mountains to the southwest of Sibiu.
Villages: Jina, Poiana, Rod, Tilişca and Galeş, Săcel, Sibiel, Orlat, Gura Râului, Răşinari and along Valea Sadului to include the villages of Sadu, Tălmăcel and Boiţa.
The dance is done in a circle; the costumed dancers in the beginning of the video use a back baskethold. The second group uses a shoulder hold. Shoulder holds are common in Romanian folk dances.
The next video is Jiana de la Tilisca Sibiu. Tilisca is a district of the city Sibiu. Sibiu is known as an attractive tourist destination, It has a very strong Saxon (German) cultural influence and is also known as Hermannstadt.
Many of the videos in the Dancing Through the Alphabet series have been from China because the Chinese have a fascination with Balkan dance. One person posted "Long live the Chinese-Romanian friendship!" in the comments section. Happy New Year of the Sheep/Goat to all Chinese readers of The Alien Diaries.
Notice how the teachers perform it as a couple dance, and the group around them does it in a circle.
The Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel specializes in Balkan dances. They perform Jiana de la Jina, a couple dance.
The bonus video of the week is of the Count from Sesame Street, everyone's favorite vampire. He's creepy but he's cool. He's modeled on Count Dracula, the fictional character from Bram Stoker's novel. The real Dracula, Vlad Tepes, was born in Transylvania and later became the prince of Wallachia. He killed his enemies by impaling them on stakes.
Today's dance, from Romania, begins with the letter H: Hora de la sud Miadora. It is one of the craziest ones I've seen on YouTube, very spirited and fast. From what I can see, it looks like it takes place at a wedding reception.
Since many hora dances come from cities and towns, and the name translates into Hora from south Miadora, I did a search on it to see where the dance originated. Instead, I found an online site for handbags and wallets and a restaurant by that name. My guess is that the performers are at the Miadora restaurant. So maybe it's just Hora from the South.
This dance so fast that I wonder how the men manage to hang on to their hats for so long.
This week's added bonus is a teaching video for another Romanian dance:Hora de la Sorocaled by Cristian Florescu and Sonia Dion. They are fun to watch and Cristian, especially, has a delightful sense of humor. The first two minutes are devoted to teaching. The rest is the dance performed to music, which includes an English translation of the lyrics.
When you're dancing, you're dancing for people to see. Pharrell Williams
Today's post features a costumed folk dance group, Hora Romaneasca, from Boulder, Colorado, USA. I found them totally by accident, during a search for the dance Hora de Mina on YouTube.
I found several of their videos posted in the sidebar, and I had to share them, they were so good. These were taken during a festival in 2011.
Video #1 is the graceful Hora Spoitorilor.
Video #2 is something a bit more animated; Alunelul de Briu, accented by shouts (strigaturi). Strigaturi are a feature of many Romanian folk dances, along with stamps. Should Romanian dancing be stamped out? I don't think so.
Video #3 is of a dance some find intimidating because it's fast and has sudden changes of direction. The name is Cimpoi. It means "bagpipe" in Romanian.
Video #4 is Trei Pazeste. It translates into "three times beware"; something about the sudden changes of direction and speed. There is a family of dances with the name Trei Pazeste, with different music and choreography, from other towns in Romania. You can read about them in one of the posts on the bottom of the page.
Notice how how the group uses different formations; first the men, then the women, then the entire group in a circle. (Check out the cute little girl in costume, running in front of them! I think she wanted to join the dancers.)
When you're on the ice, you have very little time, you see very little, and everything happens really quick.
Steve Yzerman
First of all, let's look at some clips of people slipping and falling on the ice, a very common occurrence in places where water gets cold enough to freeze. This post is for them and for all who endure cold northern winters and slick sidewalks. It's funny as long as it isn't you. Otherwise, it hurts.
If you have defrosted yourself enough after watching the first video, it's time to enjoy a few variations of the dance Hora Pe Gheata from Romania. The English translation is "dance on the ice." The people in the following videos are neither on the ice nor wearing skates, but you can always use your imagination.
I couldn't find the version that we do at the Friday night dances during my searches on the Universe of YouTube. However, I found a couple of different variations that were just as good. The first one is performed by Balkanitsa, from Haifa, Israel.
The next group is at Balkanalia, a dance festival held in Dresden, Germany. There is quite a crowd here which reminds me of the rink in Rockefeller Center in New York City, right before Christmas. The floor looks like a sheet of ice.
Video #3 is the same music as video #1 but a little bit slower. The picture is very appropriate for the season: four scary costumed people in a wintry landscape. There's no dancing here, though, this is a still photo.
Today's post features three variations of the Romanian folk dance Trei Pazeste. I looked up the translation and it was rather odd. It means "Three Times Beware." In other words, you are being forewarned of sudden step and/or directional changes. This is a dangerous dance if you don't pay attention!
This group from Boulder, Colorado, does the generic Trei Pazeste, a dance native to southern Romania. It is especially popular in the Oltenia region, across the Danube from Bulgaria. I don't know which village this dance comes from but parts of it are very similar to the Bulgarian dance Vidinsko Horo. It may have crossed the river from Calafat to Vidin. The shouts you hear are typical of Romanian dances, and they are called strigaturi.
The next Trei Pazeste is from a different village: this one is from Bistret. Regular readers of this blog will recognize the dancers: the Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel. They have recently updated their YouTube videos and you can visit them on their website as well. At 1:02 and at 1:28 you can hear the leader count in Romanian: unu, doi, trei!
The last Trei Pazeste is from Dolj, a county in southern Romania. It starts slow and builds up speed, so you really have to pay attention! There are only two dancers here, so you know this one's tough. This one has plenty of stamping, sudden direction changes and arm swinging, but no shouting.
If you like to listen to panpipes and watch female dancers this post is for you.
Today's dance is Hora Fetelor from Romania. It means Women's Dance (although in recreational folk dance men as well as women do it). It is usually an equal opportunity dance, although during performances (like version #2), women are the preferred gender.
Version one is popular in the Western Hemisphere and with recreational folk dance groups. If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll recognize the Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel. Here it's an equal opportunity dance.
This is Hora Fetelor distilled and refined, Romanian style; very beautifully done; danced slowly and gracefully by a female group with large white handkerchiefs. The panpipe music accentuates the performance; it is the national instrument of Romania, where it is called the nai. This is a treat for the eyes and ears.
Today's post features several variations of a popular folk dance from Romania, Alunelul. It means "little hazelnut" and how a dance came by with that name, I don't know. It probably started out as a children's song with the following lyrics:
Alunelul, Alunelul hai la joc Sa ne fie, sa ne fie, cu noroc...
You will find the rest of the song, with translation in German and English, here:
First, here's some background on the dance. It has variations that are done in the different villages and districts in Romania. We will explore a few of them today.
The first video shows the basic version titled simply Alunelul. It is is the one most commonly used by recreational folk dance groups, and an easy dance that anyone can do. It is also very popular with children, probably because of the stamping.
Alunelul Batut takes the dance to the next level. This variation is a bit more complex than the previous one, and there is no song to accompany it, although there are violins and an accordion.
Here it's performed by a group from Copenhagen, Denmark. The translation of the second word, according to Google Translate, is "beaten." My guess is that it has to do with the amount of stamping. They are beating up the hazelnuts here.
The next video shows Roy and the gang dancing Alunelul de la Urzica. If you want to see some really cool folk dance videos, check out Roy Butler's YouTube Channel.
Roy seems to be partial to Balkan dances, especially those from Romania. For some reason the person who took the video was a little too close, so it looks like the heads and feet have been cut off. There is enough here, however, to make watching it worthwhile. They are even wearing folk costumes!
Urzica is a small district in southern Romania. Some of the best dances come from the rural regions; this is one of them.
The next video is of a group from China that is very fond of music from the Balkans and calls itself a "bonding folkdance class." This dance teacher posts under the name gpknh and he also has many videos on his YouTube channel. If you are a regular reader of this blog you have seen some of them.
Here they dance Alunelul de la Goicea. Goicea is a district in southern Romania, in the county of Dolj. This one is done to a bagpipe accompaniment; they call it a "cimpoi" in Romania. The Romanians like the bagpipe,almost as much as their Bulgarian neighbors :)
Now that there are two bridges crossing the Danube instead of one, hopefully there will be even more intercultural exchange between Bulgaria and Romania. According to the Bulgarian Radio's Vidin affiliate, this has already been happening...
Last week we explored the sirba and its variations. This week's post will focus on the most popular dance in Romania, the hora. It can be easily confused with the Israeli dance of the same name, or the Bulgarian dance with a similar name (horo) or the Greek dance with a name almost like the Bulgarian (horon). What's in a name, anyway? Read more, you'll find out.
Hora originated in Romania. It comes in many "flavors", from slow to hang on to your hat fast. But then you wouldn't dance with a hat on, would you? If you're from Bulgaria, dancing with hats on is something you'd do anyway :) I don't know if the Romanians have tried that yet :)
The first video is of Hora de la Munte, performed by the International Folk Dancers of Ottawa, in Canada. You can visit their website here. They also have a blog, Easy Folk Dances, where you can learn a number of easy to follow dances that they teach to the group, complete with videos and dance notes.
The clarinet dominates this piece of music, it's one of my favorite musical instruments. It can also be used for pain and torture purposes :)
I danced Hora de la Soroca at a Romanian friend's graduation party last week. It's fairly easy, but a little faster. Listen carefully and you can hear the strigaturi (shouts). This group is from Italy, where they speak a language somewhat related to Romanian. Both Italian and Romanian have Latin roots.
It's time to speed things up a little with Hora Olteneasca. The dance comes from Oltenia region of Romania, in the southwest part of the country, across the Danube from Bulgaria. The Olt River gives the province its name, and separates Oltenia from the province of Muntenia, also known as Greater Wallachia. Out of Wallachia came the Vlachs, who travelled all over the Balkans bringing stamping dances everywhere.
There must be plenty of ethnic events in the Great White North, this group, like the first one, is also from Canada! Canada is next on my list of places to visit!
Now it's time for an even faster hora, fast enough that you have to really think about the directional changes, or it gets totally out of control.
The last group is from Holland, and they perform Hora Nuntasilor at a street festival (you will find the dance notes and the lyrics on pages 11 and12 if you click on the link.) Nuntasilor means "wedding guests", this is a dance specifically in their honor.
From what I've seen of The Alien Diaries stats, the people of Holland love Balkan dance. By the way, Netherlanders, I visited your beautiful country many years ago. Unfortunately, Romanian and other varieties of Balkan dance were not popular back in those days, but next time I'm in Holland, I'll be sure to look you up :)
Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane.
H.P. Lovecraft
May is Dance Month on The Alien Diaries, and today's post focuses on different "flavors" of the Romanian folk dance, Sirba or Sârba, as it is spelled in Romanian. The hora and the sirba are the two of the best known Romanian folk dances. There are many varieties of hora; with regional differences, and they are usually done in a circle. The hora is especially popular during festivals and weddings, big communal celebrations in which everyone is expected to get up and dance.
The sirba may have had Serbian origins because the name means "Serb like." This proves that the Balkans are a multicultural mish-mosh. Dances (as well as dancers) are notorious for crossing existent and non-existent borders. Sirba can be done in either a circle or a line, depending on the preference of the leader, and the dance is often punctuated by stamps and shouts.
The first group, from Denmark, performs Sirba din Cimpoi.Cimpoi is Romanian for bagpipe (also known in Slavic-speaking countries as a gaida). They like the bagpipe in Romania, too, almost as much as their friends across the Danube, the Bulgarians. The in and out step with the arm swinging reminds me of a dance very popular in Bulgaria, Dunavsko Horo.
The next video is of Sirba Pe Loc, also played on a bagpipe, and a staple in the repertoire of folk dancers around the world. It translates into "dance in place." Most of the steps here are stamping and heel clicks; there's just a little bit of lateral movement. Notice the shoulder hold, this is very common in Romanian folk dances.
These guys take sirba to a whole new level. Since this is a male only group at a party, they, of course, want to show off. My guess is that they have been hitting the bar as well, which fuels the energy here.
The shouts you hear are called strigaturi, and they are a common feature of Romanian folk dances. If I were there I would have joined the circle, the men have more fun. Notice that the men try to outdo each other, it's most likely a contest to attract the women with their physical prowess; in that respect sirba is similar to Bulgarian rachenitsa.
The music here is also different, a brass band with accordion, accompanied by a singer. Despite all the distractions (staff bringing plates to tables and little kids running around), these men are totally focused on the dance. Maybe it's the booze.
This integrated (male-female) group dances an extremely lively and animated sirba at a wedding. My guess is that the craziness is related the the amount of alcohol consumption. This dance has lots of stamping (bataie), and everyone circles around the accordion player. Some people consider the accordion an instrument of torture. In Eastern Europe, however, they love it almost as much as the bagpipe.
Today's post is about one of my favorite Romanian folk dances, Hora de Mina. It translates to dance with hands.
The word mână means "hand" in Romania, my guess is that the correct spelling for this dance is Hora de Mână and that diacritical mark on the first "a" makes it sound like an "i". Spelling "mână" with an "i" simplifies things for those who are unfamiliar with Romanian diacritical marks. People who grew up with Spanish (like I did) will recognize the similarity of the word to the Spanish "mano."
Romanian and Spanish are both derived from Latin, however the languages are not very similar...their relationship is more like distant cousins.
This version is the one used by most folk dance groups. As dances go, Hora de Mina is fairly easy; and it's also quite short. Notice the hand movements that go with the music, and yes, what you hear are bagpipes, they are popular in Romania, too!
The next version of Hora de Mina is somewhat different, and a bit higher on the difficulty scale than the previous one. The backwards step is similar, hand movements are more pronounced, and the hands are held high in one of the figures. There's "ethnic symmetry" in this dance, too, what you do to the right you must also do to the left. There is also a name for those shouts that you hear, they are a common feature of Romanian folk dances, and they are called strigături.
If you like dances with stamping, this post is for you. Stamping is not limited to Romanian folk dances, you will see some here from Bulgaria and Serbia as well.
Bagpipes are the missing link between music and noise. E. K. Kruger
The Eastern European gaida, or bagpipe, is an instrument that gets around the Balkans. It's extremely popular in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Greece. Believe it or not, the Romanians like it too.
Romanian music is usually associated with panpipes (also called panflutes), and with another unusual folk instrument, the cimbalom. A cimbalom is also known as a hammered dulcimer, and belongs to the percussion family of instruments.
In this video is some traditional Romanian music played by a bunch of Dutch guys in Amsterdam on clarinet, accordion, violin, cimbalom and panpipes, and they are pretty damned good. This instrumentation is typical for folk ensembles in Romania.
I don't know if the Romanians got their liking for the bagpipe from their Bulgarian neighbors across the River of Many Names, but you'll find that the music of southern Romania is very big on the cimpoi (Romanian for bagpipe). Don't confuse it with the cimbalom, the cimpoi is a totally different animal. (Just so you know, the cimpoi is made from either goat or sheep hide). Both panpipes and bagpipes have been used as instruments of torture on susceptible people (but not on Bulgarians). I'm sure that the Bulgarians are flattered that their friends across the Danube have taken up the gaida.
Last year, I wrote about the bagpipe in Bulgarian folk music, you can read the post here:
Now it's time to hear those bagpipes in action, along with cimbalom and panpipes, the "unholy trinity" of instruments of torture :) This dance is Hora de Mina. Hora means "dance" in Romanian, and can be easily confused with horo, the Bulgarian name for the same thing.
Sârba pe Loc, a dance from the region of Muntenia in southern Romania, is another example of the gaida (oops, cimpoi) in action. Sârba is a generic name for energetic dances from Muntenia and Oltenia (another province in southern Romania) with lots of stamping. This dance is extremely popular among folk dance groups, probably because it's a socially acceptable way to get your frustrations out.
This hora from the Oltenia region of Romania is titled simply Cimpoi. You'll understand why when you hear it.
If you're interested in more interesting and unusual Eastern European folk instruments, including the kaval, the gadulka, and the panpipes you may enjoy this post:
If you love Balkan music and dance you have come to the right place! The Alien Diaries began in February 2010 and is updated at least twice a month.
This blog is dedicated to the memory of my cat Fatso (see avatar), who passed away on April 9, 2011 from congestive heart failure. He was the inspiration for several of my early posts.
Don't forget to check out my second blog, Light and Shadow, for some humor, satire, photos and poetry!
