My Blog

Two additional song translations on Shira.net!

ShiraDotNet — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:43:40 GMT

I posted two more song translations on Shira.net today. They are: 1. Lamma Bada Yatathanna 2. Ghanili Shwaya Shwaya

Two More Song Translations on Shira.net!

ShiraDotNet — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:33:16 GMT

Tonight I added two more song translations to Shira.net: 1. Yaho by Hakim 2. Wahdani by Khaled Agag ' I recently had Artist NikkiJ do 4 portraits of me from dance photos. I've featured one with this blog, and I'll use the others on future blogs!

Three more song translations on Shira.net!

ShiraDotNet — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:36:52 GMT

have added the following from Lennie's site to mine: 1) "Al Ward Gamil" by Oum Kalthoum 2) "Sahertou Minhou el-Layali" by Soumaya Baalbaki, 3) "Ya Wail" by George Abdo.

"So You Want to Learn Arabic?"

ShiraDotNet — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:45:37 GMT

There's a new article on my web site titled "So You Want to Learn Arabic?" It talks about how to get started - how to decide what learning method you want (classes, audio cd's, videos, etc), . You can find it at http://www.shira.net/culture/learn-arabic.htm . This page includes links to a couple of web sites that have free tutorial info. I also put up two lists of resources that can be used for learning Arabic: Books and audio CD's: http://www.shira.net/shopping/store-arabic-books.htm Videos and computer software: http://www.shira.net/shopping/store-arabic-videos.htm I added 3 new video opinion polls: * Basic Arabic, Hebrew, and Yiddish by DVD * Alef Ba Ta - Arabic for Kids * Speak Arabic with Bill Nagler, MD I intend to add more articles about learning to speak Arabic in the future. I plan to write a review of the Pimsleur audio CD's, and I have some other things in mind to write about. So, stay tuned!

Five more new Arabic song translations on Shira.net!

ShiraDotNet — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:02:26 GMT

I have added the following song translations to Shira.net at www.shira.net/lyrics.htm under "Arabic": 1) Eina el Layali by Farid al-Atrache's sister Asmahan 2) Gafnouhou by Mohammed Abdel Wahab 3) Ma Gayartish Abadan by El Amira Al Saghira 4) Ya Mayla al Ghousoune by Fairuz 5) Ya Mustapha by George Abdo and many others Lots more to come!

Bunch of Arabic song translations added to Shira.net!

ShiraDotNet — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:27:41 GMT

I posted 7 new song translations from Lennie's "Arabic Song Translations" site, as follows: 1) Bint el Sultan by Ahmed Adaweyya 2) El Bint El Shalabia by Feiruz 3) Tisslam Eidak by Hisham Abbas 4) Ya Bajat al-Rouh by Sabah Fakhri 5) Abu Ouyoun Garea by Abdel Halim Hafez 6) Amriika by Shaban Abdel Rehim 7) Ya Ana, Ya Ana by Feiruz See http://www.shira.net/music/lyrics/fromarabic.htm Lots more coming in the near future!

New DVD review: "Habibi, You Are My WHAT?" by Leyla Lanty

ShiraDotNet — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:39:06 GMT

I've just completed my first video review in a-g-e-s! It's for Leyla Lanty's new DVD, "Habibi You Are My WHAT?" which provides an introduction to some Arabic words that are widely used in song lyrics. The short version: I liked it. A lot. For the full-length version, see http://www.shira.net/videos/vreviews/instruction/leyla-habibi-you-are-my-what.htm And if you've already seen this video, don't forget to visit my review and vote in the video opinion poll!

Had a photo session last night!

ShiraDotNet — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:27:47 GMT

In June, I ordered yet another custom-made dress from Hanan Mahmoud when I was in Egypt. It came in early September, but it took a while for me to find a mutually-agreeable time with my photographer to get some pictures taken of it. I made two necklaces and a pair of earrings to wear with it. The veil is (I think) by Akai Silks - I bought the veil a long time ago just because I thought it was beautiful, even though it didn't go with any of the costumes I had at the time. When this dress came, I went through my collection of beautiful silk veils, and this one reminded me that it was patiently waiting to come out and play. I think it's perfect for this costume! Last night Kaylyn and I finally found time to do the photo shoot. We had a lot of fun with it! She took 378 photos, and of those I've chosen 19 as possible ones to use for my various projects. I'll try to upload the best photos from the shoot to the Shira.net tribe over the next few days.

The Shira.net Update Project: One Year Later

ShiraDotNet — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:17:45 GMT

At the end of September, 2008, I began a major project - that of doing a major update to Shira.net. When I started the update, I was facing these major steps: * Create a brand-new design that belongs in the 21st century * Convert the whole web site of 1,000 html pages to the new design * Go back through 7 years of accumulated material I've been meaning to post on the site and process it all So, here I am a year later. What's the status? Accomplishments Over the Past 12 Months * Created the new design * Converted 39% of the existing articles on the set from the old yellow-themed design to the new blue one * For every converted article, I re-read it and in most cases I revised it. In some cases, the revisions were extensive. * For every converted article, I completely reworked all the illustrations. I went back to the originals and rescanned them, worked on the lighting, fixed the color when necessary, resized them, etc. I wanted the images to represent the skills I have today with Photoshop and Illustrator rather than the skills I had 12 years ago. * I added 800 new names to the Teacher & Performer Directory, and processed 100 updates to it. * I added 46 new song translations. Of these, 35 were of Arabic-language songs, 8 were Hebrew, and 3 were Turkish. I have more waiting to be added. * I added 28 new examples of artwork featuring dancers, including a new artist. * I added 3 new video opinion polls, all for costuming-related videos. * I added 3 new book reviews. One of those was for a costuming book, and two were for music-related books. * I added 40 new articles, including ones written by several guest writers. Current Status Adding together the new material with what already resided on my web site, there are now over 1,300 html pages on Shira.net. Of these, 50% use the new blue-themed design. I have many, many more pages left to convert, and many new items still waiting to be added to the site. I had originally hoped, when I started this project a year ago, to have the entire conversion done by now. Although I didn't come close to meeting that goal, I've achieved another that to me is even more important - greatly expanding the size and scope of the web site, and elevating the quality of the older articles that I have had a chance to convert so far. It feels great to have achieved this. What's Next? Well, I still have 662 html pages waiting to be converted. That will represent a large amount of work, especially as I continue to revise text and re-work images. And I have still more new material in my backlog of things waiting to be added. I won't have a shortage of things to do in the coming year! So I invite you to stay tuned to this Facebook page. I'll continue announcing new material as I post it, and I'll also post periodic updates on the progress of the conversion. Closing Thoughts I'm very pleased with what I've accomplished in the past year, and I'm excited to think about the additional progress I expect to make in the year to come!

Back from Las Vegas!

ShiraDotNet — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:38:04 GMT

I got home today from the Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive. I've been to Las Vegas many times over the years, usually for high-tech industry events related to my day job. This was the first time I've gone there for a belly dance event, and I had a lot of fun! Samira Tuala is an excellent event organizer. I was there to do a lecture on Friday, and I was very impressed at how Samira had everything organized for me. She had arranged for a sound technician who did an excellent job with setting up all the equipment well in advance. It was a lunch-time lecture, and the serving staff in the room were very courteous and accommodating toward me. I had speaker notes that I wanted to use, and Samira immediately arranged someone to print them for me. All in all, I felt very well supported. The people who attended to hear me were great too. It was a real pleasure to be there! Aside from my experience as an instructor, I also experienced the Intensive as an attendee. There was a wide variety of classes to choose from, and I attended several of them. I think my favorite was Leyla Amir's sha'abi class. There were two evening shows, featuring a wide variety of dancers, and both were lots of fun. The shows were well-organized, with the line-up planned in advance. They started on time, and kept a good, brisk pace. And the dancers were chosen by video audition, so there was a consistently high level of performer. I spent some serious money at the vendors, and I'm looking forward to wearing those goodies. All in all, it was a great event that I can recommend without hesitation.

TWO New Song Translations on Shira.net

ShiraDotNet — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:19:29 GMT

Tonight I posted TWO new song translations on Shira.net - Wana Maali by Warda, and Laou Ma Dakhalt ib-Rassi by Diana Haddad. You can find both at http://www.shira.net/music/lyrics/fromarabic.htm This brings the total number of translations on my site to 154. More to come...

New translation: Ana Min Doonak Ana

ShiraDotNet — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:08:44 GMT

There's a new song translation on Shira.net, "Ana Min Doonak Ana", which was sung by Karol Samaha. See www.shira.net/lyrics.htm under "Arabic".

FOUR MORE song translations now on Shira.net!

ShiraDotNet — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:10:52 GMT

I have posted FOUR MORE song translations for Arabic-language songs to www.shira.net/lyrics.htm : * "Abaad wa Ansak" by Tamer Seif * "Ah Ya Zalem" by Gawaher, * "Meen Habibi Ana" by Wael Kfoury * "Sahraani" by Ehab Tawfiq. Whew, I've been busy! There are now 150 song translations on Shira.net. And I have still more waiting to be posted!

Three new song translations on Shira.net

ShiraDotNet — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:38:04 GMT

I've posted 3 new song translations on Shira.net tonight: * "Ya Salam" by Nancy Ajram * "Laou" by Mohammed Fouad * "Samahtak" by Asala Nasri. See www.shira.net/lyrics.htm under "Arabic"

Shira's Iowa City Belly Dance Classes in Fall 2009

ShiraDotNet — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:20:55 GMT

My fall session of belly dance classes is coming up fast! Visit my web site at www.shira.net/classes.htm for more information!

On Facebook

ShiraDotNet — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:40:35 GMT

Here's the link for my "fan page" on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?drop&ref=mb#/pages/Shira/136421905312?ref=ts I use it to: * Announce new goodies I've added to Shira.net * Announce where my upcoming workshops will be * Offer occasional dance musings * Otherwise tell what I'm up to, dance-wise

More new song translations on Shira.net

ShiraDotNet — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:24:39 GMT

I have posted the following new song translations on Shira.net: * Bahebak wa Baghar, by Assi el-Hellani * Habibi Dah, by Hisham Abbas * Waili Min Zoulmake Liyya, by Walid Toufic All can be found at http://www.shira.net/music/lyrics/fromarabic.htm All of these translations were done by Tahseen Alkoudsi when he was still alive. Unfortunately, my life got in the way of posting them at the time he sent them to me, but better late than never, right? More coming soon....

TWO new Amr Diab song translations now on Shira.net!

ShiraDotNet — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:09:36 GMT

Today I posted new translations for TWO songs by Amr Diab on my web site. See http://www.shira.net/music/lyrics/fromarabic.htm They include: * Osad Ainy * Tamally Maak In addition to the translations, both include photos of him, biographical information, short clips so you can hear what the songs sound like if you're not already familiar with them, and links to the other 5 Amr Diab song translations that are also on Shira.net

Grrrr: Victoria's Secret

ShiraDotNet — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:59:52 GMT

I refuse to order via the Victoria's Secret web site because they won't let you complete your order unless you enter an email address. The ONE time I gave them an email address, it spawned so much follow-on spam from them (several messages a day) that I had to abandon use of that email address completely. They provided NO way to opt out of their spam. So I will ONLY order from them via telephone. Today, I tried to call them and got a horrid voice response unit. I was patient with the "Do you want to place an order?" question. I was patient with the "What is your customer number?" question. And then the stupid thing informed me that they were having system problems, could not proceed, and instructed me to try again later. I tried 3 hours later. After the first failure, I had NO patience with entering my customer number and said, "Agent". It didn't want to let me continue without providing one. I finally said "I don't know it." And when it tried to transfer me, guess what - the system was still down. These people make it too painful on the consumer to give them money. They need to rethink their idiotic policies on spamming people who order via the web and having an obnoxious voice response unit for phone orders.

New on Shira.net: Samia Gamal & Tahia Carioca

ShiraDotNet — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:54:17 GMT

I'm happy to announce that Shira.net now has the transcript for a television interview that was done several years ago with Tahia Carioca and Samia Gamal. At the time of the interview, both women were in their 50's. It shows you a glimpse of their personalities. The translator was Mahmoud Sami. Those of you who use the forums at Oriental Dancer web site know him as "Masrawy". Here's the link: http://www.shira.net/about/interview-tahia-n-samia.htm Enjoy!

More song translations on Shira.net!

ShiraDotNet — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:27:10 GMT

I have posted more new Arabic song translations on Shira.net, all can be found at http://tinyurl.com/kwnkzc They include: * "Kol Elli Lammouni", sung by Zekra * "Efred Masalan", sung by Egyptian shaabi singer Hakim * Sababeen el Shay", sung by Lebanese singer Elaine Khalaf * "Shaater", sung by Lebanese singer Diana Haddad I also added a music clip to an existing translation, "El Hobb El Ha'ee'ee," which was sung by Mohammed Fouad, and I also applied revisions that Tahseen had made to his original translation that I had not previously gotten around to applying. (Tahseen, my Arabic translator, died in October 2006. I've been going through some old emails I'd gotten from him before he died, and posting previously unpublished translations of his.) and a few days ago, I announced these: * "Saaban A'alayya", sung by Katia Harb * "A’Atshanaih", sung by Nagwa Karam More coming soon....

New Arabic Song Translations on Shira.net

ShiraDotNet — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:10:43 GMT

In going through my old email folders, I have found some song translations for Arabic-language songs that were sent to me by my friend Tahseen Alkoudsi before he died. I plan to post everything that I have from him that's still waiting. So far, I have posted these two: * A’Atshanaih (I Am Thirsty) by Nagwa Karam * Saa’ban A’alayya (It Is Hard on Me) by Katia Harb More to come...

Working on converting Turkey photo galleries to new Shira.net design

ShiraDotNet — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:04:56 GMT

I'm neck-deep in the process of converting the photo galleries on my web site of Turkish dancers to the new design for Shira.net. I went back and re-scanned ALL the photos. (They were taken on a film camera, and prints made.) Now I'm opening each one in PhotoShop and re-doing it in Photoshop - fixing lighting problems, cropping out extraneous background, etc. It's time-consuming and tedious, but it's important for the new look I want Shira.net to have. I want the site as a whole to reflect all the growth / development in my technology and aesthetic skills that has occurred over the 12 years since I created it.

New Article on Shira.net: Tips & Tricks for Dyeing Costume Items

ShiraDotNet — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:52:50 GMT

Several members of the Shira.net tribe have been discussing their tips and tricks for dyeing belly dance costume items. They graciously gave me permission to compile all their fabulous information into an article called "Tips & Tricks for Dyeing Belly Dance Costume Items." I just posted it tonight. Take a look! You'll find it at http://www.shira.net/costuming/tips-dyeing.htm

New Article On Shira.net: What to Wear On Your Feet!

ShiraDotNet — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:28:42 GMT

There's a new article on Shira.net: "What to Wear On Your Feet" at http://www.shira.net/costuming/feet.htm It contains: * An opinion poll you can vote in to indicate what type of footwear YOU like to use * Historical and cultural perspective on footwear * Exploration of different footwear options, with pros and cons of each * A cute picture of one of my cats who decided to get involved when I was photographing a pair of shoes * Comments on how footwear choices can affect foot and back health, and recommendations on what to do * Tips and tricks related to footwear Let me know what you think!