 |
Music •
Biography •
Press Kit •
Randomness •
Lyrics Gigs • Photos • Writing • Fun Stuff • Links • Contact |
Thursday, June 14, 2007 Hello my friend, we meet again. Yes, it's been the longest absence this blog has ever experienced. I apologize. We're now back in business, and I promise not to lapse so severely again. Here are some highlights from the last few weeks:
Labels: blogging, concerts, musicians, swing dancing, teaching ^ Top | 11:52 PM | | | 
Tuesday, April 03, 2007 One of My Other Obsessions One of my non-musical obsessions is swing dancing, and I'm excited to finally be teaching lessons again! Since moving to Chicago, I haven't taught much in a formal setting. But for those of you in the Chicagoland area, I'll soon be teaching two classes at Studio Viva in Palatine: Blues and East Coast Swing (we'll do a Lindy Hop class when there's an audience there for it--any takers?). Blues is a sensual dance that grew out of smoky blues clubs and intimate house parties; it emphasizes close physical connection and communication between partners. At its best, it's like a five-minute hug, and I've sometimes described it as slow dancing with style. Dora, who owns the studio, described it as "bumping and grinding without the grinding" tonight, which made us all laugh. While it looks deceptively simple, the principles of the dance are nearly impossible to learn by observation. It's by far my favorite dance (which is probably no accident: I'm a swing dancer that doesn't care terribly much for swing music). Labels: swing dancing, teaching ^ Top | 6:19 PM | | |
Saturday, February 17, 2007 A Few Days in LA The last time I was in California I was just a kid, a kid who, like every other kid, wanted to go to Disneyland. As an adult, Los Angeles has less appeal--I've been nurturing a distaste for suburban sprawl--but Californian weather sounded amazing in the middle of Chicago's sub-zero temperatures. An excellent city to visit. And the state didn't disappoint: at most I wore a fleece and was perfectly comfortable. The sun shone and instead of sheets of white covering pockets of brown, the vegetation was green. Unfortunately I didn't get much opportunity to explore the city on this trip, so an actual report on LA will have to wait until next time, whenever that is. Besides the weather, I was excited to be in LA because of the specific timing for my trip: instead of having to wait out Valentine's Day (also known as Singles Awareness Day) at home feeling like a dork for lack of a significant other, I was traveling for a new job that I'm happy about (it works perfectly with my music, which is another plus) and treated well by my employers. What a great excuse for having no romantic plans. After a full day of sitting in a marketing office for training, we basically were treated to a night out complete with sushi and travel in a party bus, essentially a tall limo from its interior. The general atmosphere made me feel like I was in the middle of a TV show, and I wasn't the only one. I extended my stay in LA by a day so that I could catch up with an old friend and go swing dancing (predictable, yes?). Priscilla and I met in Paris almost four years ago and hadn't seen each other since, although we'd stayed in touch sporadically. She invited me to her wedding a year or two ago but I wasn't able to make it out to Massachusetts (she and Andy had been dating through the entire year she was in Paris and London). So when I discovered I'd be in LA, I remembered that she was living nearby and was able to spend time with her and her husband, whom I hadn't met until that point. It was wonderful. Actually, we couldn't stop talking, which probably amused Andy, who's quite the contrast to his well-traveled, night owl, journalism major, extroverted wife. He's an aerospace engineer who has never been outside of the US (save Mexico and Canada, as many Americans) and wakes up at 6:00am every morning. He smiles in conversation and will talk without much prompting but doesn't interject. So the juxtaposition is interesting, though I think they balance each other out. And of course he's also a great guy. One of the best things about being in LA was going to Lindy Groove. Imagine around 200 swing dancers gathering in the Masonic Temple Ballroom (beautiful floor!) every Thursday. It was amazing, and definitely the best night of dancing I've had in a while. That night there were around 15 birthdays, and each birthday person has a guest list available for 10 and a cake. So I got in for free thanks to Eddie, who found me on Myspace, but never did meet the birthday boy Steve--I'm not actually sure if he ever showed up, because I looked for him (a little difficult when you don't know what he looks like, but the cake remained untouched when I left the venue). A cool thing that Lindy Groove does, in addition to the cakes and guest lists, is a visitor welcome dance combination birthday dance. So everyone that they knew was from out of town had a giant jam circle. And since the lindy hop community is fairly small, when I was pulled into the circle (by someone I knew from dancing at exchanges), I realized the girls standing next to me were familiar: one was visiting from Ohio and the other had moved to LA from Michigan. So although I still have no desire to move to SoCal, I definitely want to go back. Preferably so the trip includes a Thursday. Labels: Paris, swing dancing, work ^ Top | 12:37 AM | | |
|
