The Opera Tattler

The rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog. I was tagged by Extatic of Pêcheurs de perles.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog – some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. If you don't have 7 blog friends, or if someone else already took dibs, then tag some unsuspecting strangers.

The 7 facts:
1. I have not yet attended an opera performance in France or Italy, though I've been to ones in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Switzerland, and the UK.
2. My first opera experience was because of figure skating. In 1988 there was the "Battle of the Carmens," and as a result my father took me to see a film version of Bizet's Carmen at a cinema in Pasadena.
3. I played the viola in my high school's orchestra and quartet. I've never played an opera but have played for a school production of Into the Woods.
4. I am trained in both Graham technique and belly dance.
5. I suspect something is weird about my head, because it has been mistaken for everything from Peruvian to Tibetan, and pretty much everything in-between.
6. My fastest mile time is 5 minutes and 50 seconds, though these days I'm lucky if I can pull off a mile in under 7 minutes.
7. I have a giddy fondness for fake meat, but am not a vegetarian.

I tag:
1. Operatic Vengeance – Astrafiammante is the first opera blogger I've met in real life, her reviews always make me laugh.
2. The Standing Room – M. C— is probably the reason any of you are reading my blog in the first place.
3. Not For Fun Only – Axel Feldheim is a both unassuming and insightful.
4. The Reverberate Hills - I often read Patrick Vaz's reviews and wish I had written them.
5. Civic Center – sfmike takes splendid photographs and often has the backstage view of what's going on at SF Opera.
6. Iron Tongue of Midnight – Lisa Hirsch is much smarter than I am. She's also much better prepared. 
7. Opéra Chanteuse – JRD has impeccable fashion sense and fine taste in literature.