The international adventures of a singing, dancing zombie queen.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

ghetto, roses, ghetto, roses.

That is what my neighborhood is like. Fourth Street posh with it's paper for eight bucks a fancy sheet, right next to crack houses.

On Saturday night, someone got shot about a block from my house. Apparently a drive-by, and they shot him about eight times. You could hear some man yelling cuss words afterwards and a mother screaming in mourning, "My baby! My baby!"

The question of the season is; "how cheap is your rent, and is it worth it?"

Honestly, I'm pretty sick of this. I went to watch a "public celebration" video for Bay Area Model Mugging class, because I'm applying for a scholarship. It was intense; made me cry a little bit. They teach women in high-stress situations, and with full force how to defend themselves from a single unarmed assailant. There are guys with full body armor, and you learn to kick them in the head until they supposedly pass out. They cuss at you, and intimidate you, and there are rape scenes and even a rape scene where they strangle you with a piece of cloth. It's hardcore. I really want to take the class, and to stop feeling scared when I am walking home. The woman who was working there and the woman who came to watch the video both were shocked by hearing how often I'm harassed. They wondered why, and so do I. My friend M says it's because I "exude sexuality", but christ, I am just walking down the street! I don't think it can all be blamed on my physical likeness to a local sex-worker. I get bothered everywhere... And it feels dumb and embarrassing that I want someone to walk with me now when I am walking at night. I feel encumbered, and I don't like feeling vulnerable. Well, hopefully I'll get some sort of scholarship, and I can take this class.

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Dance & Fitness Faculty member at San Francisco Peninsula Community Colleges, Director, Choreographer & Featured Dancer, Founder of the Living Dead Girlz, and Owner of the Steele Dance Company, which provides entertainment for festivals, corporate events, conventions and private events. Teaching private dance lessons and creating choreography since 1997, Steele graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Double Major in Dance and Comparative Literature and completed her Master of Fine Arts in Dance and Choreography at Mills College. She has toured all the major cities in Germany and performed at the Cannes Film Festival as the featured dancer in TRIP -- Remix Your Experience, a multimedia exhibition of film, live music and art. Steele has also performed as a featured dancer for RJ Reynolds (CAMEL) promotional events. Steele currently manages the go-go dancers of "Poor Impulse Control," who perform frequently in San Francisco's industrial, alternative, and rock venues.

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