A Proper Introduction: Post the Re-introduction

One: I really need to update this blog. I mean - woah! I started this thing in 2007. 2007! This is a blogger.com template from seven years ago. Not that I know how to use anything other than a template... but I'll work on that.

Two: I don't know why I titled last week's post as "A Reintroduction." I mean, I had a new topic and am now committing to weekly updates. Commitment, eh? It's difficult to get me committed... People have tried before. That's how I got my straight jacket. (And I am hereby officially allowed to have at two cheesy jokes per post). And yet, there's very little about who I am and what I do.

So three: Here's a slightly more proper introduction. An introduction post- the reintroduction that.. erm... ok. I will stop now. So the goal of this post is to answer that one question angsty teenagers and twenty-something-year-olds have been struggling with since time immemorial.

Who am I?

Except, you know, not really in that metaphorical/philosophical/abstract way. The answer's going to be relatively simple.

I am Felice.

Tada!

Question is answered!

...

Ok. Fine... A little bit more information, without being too narcissistic (key word being "too." I'm writing a blog. There's gotta be a degree of narcissism in believing that someone out there in the deep empty void is actually interested in reading what I write. I am, of course, also a magician. Which means I tell people to "see what I can do!" whenever I try and perform something. I justify all this by claiming that my audiences are getting something out of it as well (entertainment or maybe the experience of astonishment). 

I am 26 years old. I am just about to graduate with my MA in social sciences. I spent the last year stalking - I mean, researching - various Chicago street performers. I spent a lot of time just observing their shows, interviewing them, and generally, just chilling with them. "Chilling" in this case is quite literal. I mean, a lot of my observations took place in the middle of the winter where the term "polar vortex" found its way into colloquial English.

I do anthropology, I do magic, and I write. In the middle of doing anthropology, I ended up learning a lot about street performers and my own magic. After my research for my MA thesis was officially done, I ended up hitting the streets and working on my own street show - where I learned a lot about myself (there I go with the narc..iss.. ism.. again. Spelling is hard), about magic, and about city spaces in general.

In this blog, I aim to share a little bit of what I learned.

I will:

1. Once granted permission, write up some profiles of various street performers.

2. Write a little bit about random experiences/anecdotes that have been drawn from my performances on the street and otherwise.

3. Philosophize (every so often).

4. Talk about the more nitty-gritty details of performance and performing magic.

5. Make corny jokes.

6. Try and add pictures in every so often. Cuz, you know, visuals are cool.

7. Respond to all of y'allz comments.

8. Post at least once a week. And since this isn't really a post about stuff, I'll try and post something else this week as well. Something pretty exciting happened last week while I was busking. I want to share that with you guys later this week.

But for now, I guess all I'm really saying is Hi! Nice to meet you (again maybe).