How Ya Like Me Now?

Announcing the next stage on my road to internet domination: the Wondering & Pondering official Facebook presence. Like it here.

It occurred to me that I keep amassing links and videos that I hope to post on this blog, but since I always want to do it up all fancy like, they just kinda languish in the ether.

So I'll use the Facebook page to pass along the articles and random videos of interest that I don't have time to discuss in depth here. And I'll also post links to new posts from here as well. It'll be like a secret club except everyone will know about it. Everyone.

It'll also be a good way for people to connect with me on FB. Honestly, I still feel a little weird accepting friend requests from people I've never met before. I know plenty of you read the blog, but I'd like to reserve my personal FB page for people I know directly. So if we're FB friends now, but we've never met, there's a good chance I may be cutting you loose soon. It's nothing personal, but . . . you know . . . there's just nothing personal between us. But then, you'll have this new Facebook page to Like and we can keep up that way.

I also realized that I spent an entire post describing my YouTube favoriting rationale, but forgot to link to my YouTube page.

That's this thing here: http://www.youtube.com/user/jalmon007

Feel free to subscribe. Or just hit refresh a lot, waiting for the next embarrassing old video to pop up.

Tell your friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tFFYnKxFss

Ernest Goes to School

I still don’t have a lot of time to do a longer blog, but I thought I’d share a few videos in addition to the pictures I took in Atlantic City this past weekend. I don’t make it a secret that I’m a big fan of The Boilermaker Jazz Band, and one of the many reasons is bassist Ernest McCarty. I’ve talked about him before, (there’s a lot to talk about this super interesting guy) but he’s also the main reason for these videos. He was On from the very beginning. Within a minute of their first song, he caused me to go grab my camera to capture the funk he was laying down.

Photo Essay: Dig In, Swing Out

Here are some pictures I took this weekend at the Bally’s Swing Dance Off co-sponsored by Yehoodi.com. Another one of those times where I wish I was a better photographer. Or at least a decent one. But there are a few things I captured that I want to talk about more generally in future posts, so I thought I'd put them up especially since this particular series tells a nice story.

More Lindy Focus Highlights & Bonus Footage

It occurred to me that I said that I was going to post my other Lindy Focus video highlights and I never did. Well the long wait is over. And because this slipped my mind I included some super special sauce footage at the end of this post.

Snowballin'

There's been a lot of interesting chatter about the Lone Star Championships and Dax & Sarah's television appearance. I've been trying to put some thoughts together since Lindy Focus about some of the issues that these two recent events bring up, but I don't have anything coherent yet. That's mostly acombination of me being too busy and people saying thoughtful stuff. Until I can get something together, check out a few video highlights from The Snowball over in Stockholm Sweden which took place over the New Year holiday at the same time as Lindy Focus. My favorite has to be this bluesy hip hop improvisation done by Joyss with the Gordon Webster Septet.

Live to Suck

Sarah Breck and Dax Hock were on the television show "Live to Dance" recently. Unfortunately for them, Dax injured his back before their performance in the semi-final round. However, I think it probably was for the best because it gave the judges something to talk about other than the dance itself.

DCLX 2011: The Greatest Lindy Hop Exchange EVER

One of the best line up of swing dance musicians of our generation will be playing at the DC Lindy Exchange this year. I tried thinking of different ways of writing this up without being as hyperbolic, but this is about as plain as I can make it.

The Blue Dress Dance

Over on Swungover, Bobby ventures once more into the breach of dance analogies by busting them all out. They're all fun, but I thought I'd put this one in context.

The Spotlight On the other side, these are the dances where the leader gets an electric follower setting everything around them on fire. A smart leader just takes a back seat, becomes the dancing equivalent of a hype-man, and lets the magic happen. A few will understand exactly what I mean when I say “Nina Gilkenson Blue Dress Dance.”

He's referring to Nina dancing with Marty Klempner in the Cats' Corner Division (Champions Strictly Lindy Hop) at The 2007 American Lindy Hop Championships. And yes, they won.

I remember riding back down to DC with Naomi Uyama, which is about a 7-8 drive from Stamford, CT. Every once in awhile, no matter where we were in our conversation, we would just suddenly stop and say something like , "Damn, that Blue Dress Dance was amazing." Over and over again, the whole way down.

Lindy Focusing

Analogies seem to be in fashion these days, and Lindy Focus is a good one for the way our scene has been developing for the past few years. What started out as a very small regional event, has now blossomed into one of the biggest in the country. I’ve been to the last three Lindy Focuses (Focii?). The first was Lindy Focus 7 just when the event was expanding by hiring bigger name instructors and bands. Now there aren’t just more attendees, but they’re more diverse in terms of experience level. I wrote a bit about this situation last year, and have been wondering how the community will deal with this dynamic in general and how an event like Lindy Focus can deal with it specifically.

Random DCene: Ultimate Showdown

I go up to the counter to pay for my hot chocolate. The cashier asks if I want to buy a bag of coffee grinds. She catches me at a bad moment. Instead of smiling and simply replying, "No, thank you," I dead pan "I hate coffee" deliberately overlooking the irony of our location. She smiles undaunted and replies instantly "Surely you must have some friends that enjoy coffee." Not a question. A statement.

I briefly consider spitting out "I don't have any friends," but I'm not playing a lone gun for hire. Instead I make my stand on privelidge and scorn. "I don't socialize with any of those kinds of people." I draw out the word "those" as if it's 1961 and no one has marched on Selma, Alabama yet.

We lock eyes. She knows no upselling will happen this day, at this transaction, but there's a pause as if she's considering another try just to piss me off. I already have a line at the ready. Something inappropriate involving dead puppies. I'm hoping, daring her to go there because I'm already here.

Then she smiles. The damning truth is evident. She's already won. "That'll be $3.69 please" she smirks. I curse under my breath as I realize that this game was over long before the coffee grinds gambit.

I squeeze my credit card in despair. I consider taking out the twenty in my wallet just to make her break it. But the truth is clear. I'm the one that's broken.

"Would you like a receipt?" she chirps. Her finger on the register ready to produce a physical token of my defeat.

"No." A beat. "Thank you." I gather up what's left of my dignity. I shuffle off to get my drink, wondering where the cute cashier is today.