Saw this on facebook today. Another victim of the play button icon.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
will you make the cut?
For those of you feeling left out of the economic crisis, TNT brings the excitement home!
Saw this on facebook today. Another victim of the play button icon.
Saw this on facebook today. Another victim of the play button icon.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
contra proven to be a good time
I cannot believe this blog is getting a post. Can you?
I decided that my recent contra adventures would be worthy of communication, remarkable, and otherwise noteworthy. Hence the writing. And no, I did not go off in the jungle to help a rag-tag team of soldiers fight the establishment. I am talking about contra dancing. You have surely heard of it even if you don't know it by name. Think big community dance where people line up and a person is yelling things like "swing your partner do-si-do!"
Some friends of mine have been enjoying contra for a year or so now, and I had been avoiding invitations to dances until a couple weeks ago when peer pressure reached critical mass. So I stopped being a lump and decided to join them.
I was told over and over that you don't have to know anything going in, and that the caller will tell you what to do when. The caller is basically a person with a microphone who directs each dance by yelling out the right dance move and combination of people at the right time. Think of it as recipe and ingredients. What I wasn't told was that the dance moves all had names like 'swing,' 'do-si-do,' and 'gypsy.' Imagine that you are standing in a line of strangers, a person yells "women start hey for four left," people start zig-zagging, and you are expected to do something that doesn't mess everyone else up.
Luckily, we got to the event after the first dance had started and I was given a short crash course in all of the basic moves. It is actually pretty easy as long as you know a handful of these. At the beginning of each dance, the caller will walk everyone slowly through the sequence of moves without music. People are accommodating to beginners and will be able to teach you steps you don't know at this time.
The idea of the dance is that everyone lines up into two lines with partners across from each other. Typically, over the course of a dance, the odd numbered couples will progress down the line and even numbered ones will progress up. This means that you will be shifting and changing partners a lot, but that every so often you will magically end up across from your partner again, only at a different place in the line. Some dances change this up, but they all have some sort of periodic progression.
My first dance had 25 couples or so in attendance. You are supposed to ask someone new to dance after each one finishes, so I ended up dancing with a lot of different people ranging from little girls to old ladies. It is funny how everyone has different styles. Sometimes you get people really into it who exaggerate movements and like to swing with a lot of force. Other people just want you to move along and be in the right place. Some, especially many of the older gals, tend to want to dance a little slower. It can be hard to read. I tend to try to be gentler with older people, but occasionally they will take a fast lead and I will realize they prefer to be more lively. It's fun to progress to the end of the night when people are more used to each other.
The second turned out to be weird even for the regulars. Only 3 couples showed up (plus one person who left early), so there were actually more people on stage than on the dance floor. The caller experimented with some dances designed for 6 or 7 people that she had never done before. We ended up working it out with her, step by step. Before the night was over I was speaking the contra lingo with reckless abandon. I was kind of amazed.
So now I am officially a fan. Last weekend was my third and most populated dance yet. One of my favorite parts was when the caller said "ok we're going to take a short break. After the break there will be a waltz, but in the meantime there are some eggs from Jim's farm up here if anyone wants to buy any." My second favorite part was when an old lady told me I was really good for a beginner.
I decided that my recent contra adventures would be worthy of communication, remarkable, and otherwise noteworthy. Hence the writing. And no, I did not go off in the jungle to help a rag-tag team of soldiers fight the establishment. I am talking about contra dancing. You have surely heard of it even if you don't know it by name. Think big community dance where people line up and a person is yelling things like "swing your partner do-si-do!"
Some friends of mine have been enjoying contra for a year or so now, and I had been avoiding invitations to dances until a couple weeks ago when peer pressure reached critical mass. So I stopped being a lump and decided to join them.
I was told over and over that you don't have to know anything going in, and that the caller will tell you what to do when. The caller is basically a person with a microphone who directs each dance by yelling out the right dance move and combination of people at the right time. Think of it as recipe and ingredients. What I wasn't told was that the dance moves all had names like 'swing,' 'do-si-do,' and 'gypsy.' Imagine that you are standing in a line of strangers, a person yells "women start hey for four left," people start zig-zagging, and you are expected to do something that doesn't mess everyone else up.
Luckily, we got to the event after the first dance had started and I was given a short crash course in all of the basic moves. It is actually pretty easy as long as you know a handful of these. At the beginning of each dance, the caller will walk everyone slowly through the sequence of moves without music. People are accommodating to beginners and will be able to teach you steps you don't know at this time.
The idea of the dance is that everyone lines up into two lines with partners across from each other. Typically, over the course of a dance, the odd numbered couples will progress down the line and even numbered ones will progress up. This means that you will be shifting and changing partners a lot, but that every so often you will magically end up across from your partner again, only at a different place in the line. Some dances change this up, but they all have some sort of periodic progression.
My first dance had 25 couples or so in attendance. You are supposed to ask someone new to dance after each one finishes, so I ended up dancing with a lot of different people ranging from little girls to old ladies. It is funny how everyone has different styles. Sometimes you get people really into it who exaggerate movements and like to swing with a lot of force. Other people just want you to move along and be in the right place. Some, especially many of the older gals, tend to want to dance a little slower. It can be hard to read. I tend to try to be gentler with older people, but occasionally they will take a fast lead and I will realize they prefer to be more lively. It's fun to progress to the end of the night when people are more used to each other.
The second turned out to be weird even for the regulars. Only 3 couples showed up (plus one person who left early), so there were actually more people on stage than on the dance floor. The caller experimented with some dances designed for 6 or 7 people that she had never done before. We ended up working it out with her, step by step. Before the night was over I was speaking the contra lingo with reckless abandon. I was kind of amazed.
So now I am officially a fan. Last weekend was my third and most populated dance yet. One of my favorite parts was when the caller said "ok we're going to take a short break. After the break there will be a waltz, but in the meantime there are some eggs from Jim's farm up here if anyone wants to buy any." My second favorite part was when an old lady told me I was really good for a beginner.
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