Posts from — October 2009

Halloween on Main Street was fun, as always. We all dressed up and stood out in front of Unicorn Cove to hand out candy to the kids. We had music blasting out of Z’s office window playing things like Thriller, Ghost Busters, the theme to Harry Potter, The Nightmare Before Christmas and other fun tracks. We also had the fog machine going on the front porch. The kids seemed to have a fun time.

This year there were on average 7 or 8 of us at a time handing out candy. We easily went through 100 pounds of candy. No joke! We started out with about 80 pounds of candy, which we put into a black trash bag and mixed all together. About halfway through the trick-or-treating we ran out of candy entirely and had to send out for more! A special thanks to all those who contributed to the candy compilation-BIG help!

Ahura Z writes and records a lot of music. We offer much of it for sale on CDs in our store in fact, and sell it online as well. It is professional quality music and sounds like it, not like something someone recorded in their basement. And yes, that’s him singing. For some reason people have a difficult time believing that. “Wow, is that you? Really? That’s you singing?” Yes, that is him singing. No, it’s not sampled. No, it’s not vox. Yes, I know it’s not rap, and it’s beautiful and in tune. And guess what! Not only did he sing it, but he also wrote it, played all the instruments, came up with the lyrics, recorded, mixed and mastered it all himself too!

Is it because people don’t think that someone who looks like he does could create the kind of music he creates? Is it because they don’t believe that one person can really do that much and do it so well? I don’t know, but it happens all the time.

“Wow, is that you?”

Yes. All of it. Every bit of music on our label was created, performed and recorded by Ahura Z himself.

It’s great music. You should check it out. www.unicorn1records.com

Halloween is almost here. Actually, for Unicorn Cove Halloween comes a day early this year. Every year the city of Westbrook hosts “Halloween on Main Street” where they shut down a section of Main Street to cars from 4:30 -6:00 so all the kids can safely trick-or-treat at the local businesses. Since Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, Westbrook is holding this event on Friday. The event is pretty huge, with kids from Westbrook and (I suspect) neighboring towns as well all out in costume swarming the streets and filling their trick-or-treat bags.

The first year we were here we were shocked to find that we were one of the only businesses who dressed up for the occasion! All the kids (and many of their parents) thought we were the coolest business on the street because we were all in costume. So it’s become kind of a tradition for us all to dress up and hand out candy every year. Last year there were at least 5 huge bowls of candy with all of us in costume, and kids would come down the line and take some from every bowl -sometimes more than once! Needless to say, we go through a LOT of candy at Halloween. If you come to Unicorn Cove this week and feel like donating a couple of bags of candy for Friday it would certainly help! And if you’re a local trick-or-treater we’ll see you out on Main Street this Friday!

Did some filming for Falcyyr today (see officialblog.falcyyrmovie.com) and worked with a great group of girls. We didn’t have everyone we wanted here today because of the weather and some scheduling conflicts but we were able to do some cool things with the ones that were here today. Kids are great to work with. These girls were spot on all day. They hung around for hours in costume without complaining, learned their lines the first time hearing them and delivered again and again beautifully. In the end it was the parents who were tired and the kids who wanted to keep on working! Bravo girls, you were great today and it was a lot of fun working with you.

Angela Buttrey, international belly dance performer and world renowned instructor will be visiting Unicorn Cove School of Metaphysics in November. A native of Greece, Angela splits her time between living in Greece and Los Angeles during the year, performing and teaching authentic Egyptian and Turkish Belly Dance styles. She will be visiting us for a few days in between traveling from Greece to L.A. and has offered to teach a class while she is here.

For those of you who are local this is a rare and special opportunity to learn some belly dance techniques from a master belly dancer with over 25 years of experience performing and teaching all over the world. Class will be held on Monday, November 9 at 1:00 pm. Space is very limited, so if you are interested in attending this class, please contact us and let us know as soon as possible. We will be asking for a $25 donation for this 1 1/2 hour class to compensate Angela for her gracious offering of her time and talents.

For more information about Angela, visit her website at www.angelabuttrey.com.

Lately we’ve been watching a lot of Bollywood at Unicorn Cove. If you are a movie lover and have never experienced a Bollywood film you are severely missing out.

Bollywood films are different from the Hollywood films most Americans are used to. For starters, their movies average at about 3 hours long. Though that seems like a long time to an American movie-watcher, the stories are often so well told and so entertainingly filmed and choreographed (more about that below) that you hardly notice how much time has passed. For example, the first Bollywood film we ever watched was Lagaan, which is almost 4 hours long (!) but was such a great film that we watched it in full again the next day.

Bollywood films also usually have a few musical dance numbers throughout. Now don’t let that throw you. Whereas American “musicals” usually have certain themes and appeal to a certain type of audience, Bollywood films contain musical and dance numbers as their own separate pieces within the film which are often very entertaining in and of themselves. In fact, much of the videos shown on MTV in India and the songs heard on the radio there are from films.

Bollywood actors are not only expected to act, they also must be able to dance. While many of Hollywood’s top actors are chosen because they look a certain way, most Bollywood actors seem chosen for their sheer versatility. They act and dance and are expected to do both well.

I won’t go on forever about Bollywood films, but suffice it to say that anyone who is seriously interested in film should check out the offerings from our friends overseas, as they will be opened up to a whole new world of worthwhile cinema.

Here’s a partial list of some great movies to rent and watch:

Films that will make you glad you watched them:
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Jab We Met
Taare Zameen Paar
The Blue Umbrella
Lage Raho Munna Bhai
Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham
Chak De India
Billu Barber

Political, strength or just good message films:
Chingaari
Mangal Pandey: The Rising
Jodhaa Akbar
Guru
Legend of Bhagat Singh
Rocket Singh Salesman of the Year
Three Idiots

Beautiful (but tragic!):
Devdas
Asoka

Fun:
Kriish
Om Shanti Om
Aaja Nachle
36 China Town
Partner

This is by no means an extensive list, just the ones I could think of off the top of my head. I will be posting more information about specific films and our reactions to them as I think of it (and get the time to do so). In the meantime, if you can only rent three Bollywood films to start with, I recommend Lagaan, Jab We Met and Om Shanti Om to start with. Devdas or Asoka are also great (though tragic!). All are fantastic, well-told stories with great visuals, music and dance scenes. The first three will leave you feeling good. The last two may leave you sobbing but it’s worth it as they are both so beautiful.

If you don’t have an Indian movie rental place near you two places you can rent from online are Desi Company and Indian Movie Club. Have fun!