Thread: GS Article, Artemis Imports withdraws from Rakassah!

Artemis tells of the Vendor's View for the Gilded Serpent

Discuss.

OR we *could* discuss the killer photo of YOU on the contents page you linked to!!

Forgot about that. There's also the VERY interesting MECDA article!

Right underneath this article is a link to another article from 2005, listing certain issues with Rakassah's management.

A huge event like that is bound to be a logistics nightmare for the organizers. Still, I would hope they would be able to approach it with professionalism, and would hope the vendors do the same.

Vending is a nightmare. Yes it's fun, but it's a nightmare. I can't blame people for saying nay to the bigger events and instead focusing on smaller or local ones.

It seems like the bigger the event (in any field) the less fun it becomes. My hubby and I were regulars at Atlanta's DragonCon for 15 years -- until it got too big. I don't know how to describe it any better than that.

While I'd LOVE to see a big event like Rakassah or Pennsic, I can't see myself going more than once. I imagine I'm not the only person to feel that way.

Seriously -- too many vendors and I get overstimulated. I shop MORE and spend MORE when there are fewer vendors at an event and I can look around in detail.

methinks zorba had ulterior motives. good pic dude!! tina

personally i think the bd com is oversaturated with with events. everybody is an event org, a pro dancer, a vendor, a workshop instructor but you no what fewer and fewer are attendees. you can not put on events with no butts in the seats except the dancers waiting to dance next. i think with the economy getting ready to tank there is going to be a blood bath out there. if i was a vendor i would be trying to sell my stock & get out. tina

Originally Posted by tattood1

methinks zorba had ulterior motives. good pic dude!! tina

All the abuse I get... ..l;,

original post edited to point directly to the article:

Artemis tells of the Vendor's View for the Gilded Serpent

Also, the MECDA article:

Rachel and MECDA breaks the Silence for the Gilded Serpent

Discussion on either or both of these...

Personally, I find it interesting that several of the largest vendors have withdrawn from Rakkasah over the last couple or three years...

If the whole point of the MECDA article is to clear the air on all the happenings in 2007, what's up with the secrecy regarding the still-unnamed "Concerned MECDA members" ?

~~Kimahri

hi zorba
that mecda article sure stirred up a can of worms here.
we have older, cultureconservative armenians and an lslamic group etc
i guess the writter of the article sent out a flyer in the "cymbel" magazine, for a workshop showcase for stripping...something "stillitto"whatever....did not care.
omg, it took awhle for THAT to die down.
then the article is read in town...omg, here we go again....now it seems the mecda event is featuring the sadie of COFFEE table fame, as an instructor.....whatever....but the ladies are "ruffled" again, lololol.
our biggest beef with mecda was their insastance that s.cal bakersfield is central cal, over 2 hrs away...but we are nooooo longer members, so whatever.
GOOD PIC ZORBA!

coffee table... damn it..there it is again...WHAT COFFEE TABLE??? please..give a girl a break. This is the third time I have asked since October of 07..and as yet..no answer

don't have time to read the article just yet, will do later. But I just wanted to say I'm bummed that Artemis won't be there! I had some plans for some specific items that she (alone) carries every year. Crap!

Originally Posted by anala

coffee table... damn it..there it is again...WHAT COFFEE TABLE??? please..give a girl a break. This is the third time I have asked since October of 07..and as yet..no answer

I tried to find the photos for you, but you have to email to get the link. If you want to see them, send an email to saqra@saqra.net with the subject line Attn: Groove Du Monde Photos-Alternate Source Please

In 2006, Kaya and Sadie and their troupe called Groove Du Monde did an infamous performance at Rakkasah West that many many people felt crossed the line from belly dance performance to soft porn. If you saw the photos you would understand why people had that reaction. A coffee table was incongruously part of the props or mise en scene for their little tableau. Zamora took off on the coffee table thing, it just seemed so ludicrous and low-class to her, I think.

Their "dance" involved them doing sexually suggestive poses with big burly men dressed as Nubian slaves. The men lifted the dancers' crotches to their faces, and so forth.

Coffee table became shorthand for this scandalous performance, which got Kaya and Sadie banned from Rakkasah, where they had been teachers. It was quite a brouhaha here on bhuz and elsewhere.

Bhuz Forum - Rakkasah update!

It starts with ommia's 5th post. There were LOTS of messages on the MED list, too.

Originally Posted by dunyah

It was quite a brouhaha here on bhuz and elsewhere.

Oops -- I PMd you, Anala, but I guess I was late to the update party!

Regarding the article. If I'm doing business with someone and over time I decide it isn't working out for me, I'll certainly stop doing business with them.

I'm not sure I'd write an article about my reasons and publicly air my greivances, though.

Thank you ladies...no more coffee tables haunting my dreams...just "muffled" laughter...like when you cant breath well enough to draw a good breath, cause somethings blocking your....

Artemis: who cares? I mean really, who cares.

Zorba: great photo! I mean really, great photo!

Originally Posted by kiyaana

Bhuz Forum - Rakkasah update!

It starts with ommia's 5th post. There were LOTS of messages on the MED list, too.

Awww! Lookit our dear ole' Bhuz...it was fun to go back and read that, I hadn't been back since Bhuz went though "the change". The blue looks so different to me now!

And all I'll say on the Rakk/Artemis/GS matter is: Zorba, that's a great picture!

Originally Posted by joanneraks

don't have time to read the article just yet, will do later. But I just wanted to say I'm bummed that Artemis won't be there! I had some plans for some specific items that she (alone) carries every year. Crap!

She still does mail sales, and appears at virtually every other festival:

Artemis Imports

But I know what you mean...

Originally Posted by tabitha

Awww! Lookit our dear ole' Bhuz...it was fun to go back and read that, I hadn't been back since Bhuz went though "the change". The blue looks so different to me now!

I know! Weird huh?

I just sat there staring at it for a while, scrolling up and down...

And there was Dani with 7000+ posts(how do they do that?!), and rachelraqs (aka: mish mish). I can't believe how long ago that was. Time just flies when you're having fun huh?..g.:

I miss old bhuz *sniff*

As someone reading all this from thousands of kilometres away, Artemis' article just seems a little like airing your dirty laundry (I haven't read the other yet, so can't comment on that). I mean, there may well be legitimate argument behind her viewpoints, but the internet is a global forum, and it just seems unneccessary and unprofessional to air this sort of thing on a globally read webzine (as opposed to a local discussion forum). I like reading the Gilded Serpent when they publish informative or interesting articles, but this sort of local gossipy type stuff just seems so school-girlish.

p.s. maria sent me a mini , doll size coffee table for solstice!
(it was a coffee table, like from motel 8 in the 70's, just as tacky as the "act")

Truly.

While the GS does often have really good articles, there is a lot of stuff like this:

Somebody did something. Somebody else did something else. Now a lot of people are cheesed off at somebody for something, and for some reason somebody feels the need to "clear the air" --- air which was probably only dirty in THEIR neighborhood to begin with.

Originally Posted by jewelbellydance

As someone reading all this from thousands of kilometres away, Artemis' article just seems a little like airing your dirty laundry (I haven't read the other yet, so can't comment on that). I mean, there may well be legitimate argument behind her viewpoints, but the internet is a global forum, and it just seems unneccessary and unprofessional to air this sort of thing on a globally read webzine (as opposed to a local discussion forum). I like reading the Gilded Serpent when they publish informative or interesting articles, but this sort of local gossipy type stuff just seems so school-girlish.

Originally Posted by dunyah

I tried to find the photos for you, but you have to email to get the link.

Here's a composite photo showing some stills from Kaya and Sadie's Kama Sutra dance (the ones in the bottom half of the pic; the upper half of the image is a photo of Suhaila's troupe dance at Rakkasah the same year, I believe).

The personal content of these articles is particularly a shame with respect to the second, as I'm sure many people involved with MECDA would like to read some genuine, unbiased reporting on what's gone on over the past few years. As people have said in other threads, this is the unfortunate drawback of industry magazines that rely on voluntary article submissions.

dang, composite photo have no coffee table!

ok..whew...I am not sure I can go back to work now...

2PM...on a Sunday...were they just plain stupid???? I must now go hang my Sadie instructional DVD from my cherry tree to ward off birds this spring...