Quick catch-up

I'm not sure how I can fall so far behind by going away for just a few days. I made a quick trip to north central California, during which I did Volksmarch events in Sacramento (state capital) and Zamora (which starts with a Z, finishing the "Walk the U.S.A. from A to Z" program). The former had an interesting mix of urban residential and civic areas, while the latter mostly involved walking past almond orchards. (At least, I assumed those are all almond trees up there.) Urban walking is slower, but both environments provide their own pleasures.

I also saw three movies - Frost/Nixon and Marley and Me on airplanes and Sunshine Cleaning in a theatre. Frost/Nixon was the best of the lot, but still not brilliant. Marley and Me was a predictable tear-jerker, with Owen Wilson doing an especially good job. Sunshine Cleaning was a disappointment as the quirkiness just didn't ever get pulled together, despite an excellent performance by Amy Adams.

By the way, I managed to get upgraded one way (not enough E500s for both directions) which is nice, though a bit of a waste on an A319 which lacks a choice of movies. And with Pesach, it's not like getting a meal was a huge advantage. (I did eat the salad.)

I'm sure there were all sorts of other things I intended to write about, but unpacking, laundry, and other chores await.

Need a Title

I am trying to come up with a title for my set at the Washington Folk Festival (on May 31) and not feeling very inspired. The previous times I've performed there, I did "Fortune, Fools and Fowl" (in which many chickens made appearances, sometimes live and sometimes in sandwiches) and "Beastly Babble" (stories of talking animals and people who should have listened). I've also done the mini-fest a few times and the two shows I remember doing there are "Wise Women and Gutsy Girls" (self-explanatory) and "Rhyme and Reason" (which included a lengthy piece in verse, a pourquois story, and some stuff with neither rhyme nor reason).

I had intended to recycle the "Wise Women and Gutsy Girls" theme. But, I really want to tell "The Man Who Was Used as a Ball," a Fijian story about demons who do just that to a man who gets himself left behind on a deserted island because he was chasing women instead of doing his work. The other story I particularly want to tell is a Mongolian one involving a woman who captures a rat and persuades her husband it is their child. So I started thinking about other themes.

I have lots of material which has things that are hidden and/or revealed in it, so that seems like a good general theme. (The Fijian story has various attempts to hide from the demons, for example.) Anybody got any ideas for a good catchy sound bite to use for a set title?