dogpossum – Page 220

go look, here:

avantgame
MAN, this chick sounds like FUN. I totally have to steal all her ideas for MLX6. No one loves silly physical games more than a lindy hopper. And a couple hundred lindy hoppers hyped on adrenaline and sugar at 2am… Well. Let’s just say… can you spell FUN?

weekly round-up

Today is a kind of day out of time for me. The thesis is with the Supes, to be looked at later on (and to be talked about next Thursday). Next week I’m going to get into all the annoying administrative bits of submitting a thesis – cover sheets, descriptions, forms, etc. But this week (ie the last 2 or 3 days, incuding today) I’ve given myself leave to do whatever I like. That means:

obsessing about the MLX6 site. I have some neat stuff from our Arty Team (ie Kylee and Scotti – designer and scribbler respectively), and a good plan for the site. But this week was all about designy stuff – trying to make the logo work with the practical functions of the site. Or, in other words, laying it all out on the page in a pretty and yet usable way. Eek.
finishing off some sewing jobs that really needed doing (PJs for The Squeeze – bad wobot, altering my lovely plum stretch needle cord trousers so they’re not mega bags, finishing off a neat black (with white arm-stripes, red wrist-cuffs and big red cross on the front) fleece jumper – fleece is neat. I promise to post some sort of pictures at some point. This last jumper was black, white and red in an attempt to be Serious and Grown Up (esp after my pink and red fleece hello-kitty lined hood fleecy cardigan thing), but ended up looking like something Dennis teh Menace would wear:

I like to imagine that I am, in fact, a comic book hero when I’m burning down Sydney Rd, dodging cars and yelling “BAM!” under my breath* like Frida: She does actually yell “BAM!” and she’s probably shouting “YEAH!” in a loud, Swedish-American accent in that photo.
discovering last-minute thesis jobs and FREAKING out about them
actually submitting my Intention to Submit form (yes, I know – it’s madness. But you have to give them 3 months to find you 3 markers or else you delay the return of your thesis post-marking), with abstract, thesis title (what? you mean I have to name this thing before it’s even finished gestating? what?!). I can’t remember what that was. No, wait, I’ve found it:
Hepfidelity: Swing dance and the role of digital media in embodied practice
Ta-DA!
And… what else have I done? Oh, I went to see Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, where there were 4 of us in the cinema – me and 3 teenage/first year boys. I laughed at the Huxtable jokes, they laughed at the hip hop references. Cultural capital for all.

So it’s been an ok week. I feel a bit lost, but still. I’ve also been looking for work. Yeah, right. Let’s not talk about THAT.
Anyhoo** here are two interesting things to read:

this blog called avant game, which is a far more interesting games studies blog than any I’ve ever read before
and B’s entries on meditation, starting here which are quite a lovely read.

I especially like this bit:

Upon returning to Alice Springs, I kept up my practice, and found other people to meditate with from time to time. One group that met on Sunday afternoons was a small Sangha group. It was held in the artistâ€™s workshop out back of the house of one of the members. Although I was not really studying Buddhism, they were always welcoming, and it was a pleasure to sit with them for a half hour in that quiet room, and feel their energy.

I really like this idea of being part of a group while meditating. Meditationg, martial arts and other inwards-looking practices like yoga or Thi Chi can often be seriously inward-looking, or in-the-body. To such an extent that they can affect your outward-looking interactions with others***. I am really interested in the idea of being-in-the-body and inward-focussed, and yet to still be aware of and part of a group or partnership. It’s an idea I’d like to explore a little more. Particularly when you keep in mind that African American vernacular dance – vernacular dance is about being part of a group, about social context, and about call-and-response between dance partners, between dancers on the floor, between musicians and dancers, and between dancers and audiences. Being seriously inwards-looking is kind of not so great in a social dance situation where the dance is all about conversations with others…
* I’m brave, but not that brave.
**that was for you, Galaxy – I’m crazily aware of it now. But I think of a friend called Dave who says it a lot. He’s probably referencing the Simpsons, but I’m referencing an insanely good dancer who’s also a Thai Chi master country boy.
***it’s not uncommon for hardcore martial arts people or yogis to be quite terrible partner dancers because they’re so focussed internally, they are so good at responding with their bodies, they’re not so good at responding with their bodies in relation to others, as a partnership.

alignment – ok or not ok?

The Squeeze’s favourite part of this blog is the neatly aligned list of categories over there on the left. He likes the little circles. And the aligning. So I haven’t the heart to change it, even if it kind of irks me.
But I love him. And mostly because yesterday while inspecting The Matriarch’s position on the swiss ball he asked “can we have an alignment check?”

because you may or may not be interested…

Since I started DJing (way back there in February – CRAP, how time flys!), I’ve noticed that my hearing has kind of gone downhill. This upsets me, because I previously had amazing hearing – really the aural equivalent to 20-20 vision. But not so much any more.
I’m considering getting some proper ear plugs. But they cost a lot.
It’s a bit of a dilemma…

i do actually rock

Man. What a relief.
I’ve produced a full, next-to-final draft of the thesis (a week ahead of schedule, mind you), and will be sending it off to the Supes this week. Then we meet next week to discuss any final changes. It should be fine, though, as we’re really only looking at writing style and typos and stuff now. Though I’m having trouble writing the conclusion. I just can’t seem to do it. Frankly, I’m looking forward to a big long break from the thing.
After we meet, the Supes is away for a few weeks, so I’ll do dumb stuff like the bibliography (which is annoying as I’m dealing with so many online/digital references. Books are so much easier to deal with), layout, etc. Which always sounds like easy stuff, but always takes far longer than you’d ever expect.
Then, once she’s back, I guess I give it back to her, she does the final read-through, then it’s off to be printed and to get its temporary binding. Yay!
Then I sit around and wait. Well, actually, then I tutor my arse off in second semester, desperately trying to get enough money to live on while I also:
a) write articles and get them published
b) do my share of planning for MLX6 in November
c) fuss.
Then I get it all back from marking, and submit it for permanent binding. Because it will be perfect and require no further editing.*
I don’t doubt that this will coincide with the MLX. Because that is the way my life runs – it never rains but it pours.
Ok, I’m barely literate now. I think I’ll go do something entirely low-brain, like sewing or dancing or walking or something…
*for those of you not In The Trade, this is a joke – I’ve not heard or more than maybe 2 people who’ve not had to do any edits or corrections. Most people get only minor corrections. If you get major ones…well. Either your Supes sucks or you didn’t listen to your Supes.

crossing my legs and letting the plumber get on with it

The plummer has been here since 9am (which was rough after my late night), all the water is off and my bladder is screaming. But I daren’t interrupt him – he’s replacing all the taps in my bathroom and kitchen (which is exciting, especially if you know our taps).
It’s not too bad, really – I learnt a lot about our landlord. Apparently he’s a hairdresser who owns lots of houses and a factory and a shop(s ?). He’s also a tightarse.
All this is kind of upsetting, seeing as how it took months and months for him to do little, inconsquential things like:
– fix the leak in the roof that steadily trickled water down our wall and ceiling and left a very pretty water stain
– fix the wiring in the bathroom so that we actually had a light in there. And an extraction fan that wouldn’t set the house on fire
– fix the toilet that leaked from the outflow pipe. Yes. Imagine that wonderfulness
It’s a little bit shitty that someone with so many assets fucks his tenants around. But as the (Italian) plumber said, “people who have money chase it.”
There are other things that need fixing around our house, but we don’t think about them unless we have to. For instance, the wiring in our house is a bit of a home job. Our first night in the house a plug point caught on fire. The electrician was afraid to work on it, and when he came to install a trip switch (the safety switch that clicks the power off automaticaly when something blows – it stops a gajillion vaults flowing through you when you do something silly) he said he couldn’t as the wiring was so crap. In fact, it’s illegal wiring.
We blessed our landlord when our power failed a summer or two ago and we had no power for 24 hours in two periods. Just long enough for all our frozen food in the fridge to defrost, and for us to die in the heat.
Yeah, renting rocks, but heck. We can leave any day. Not that we want to – our house is actually quite great for the price, and in the best location. And I’ve been renting for over 10 years now, and never lived in any house as long as this – 2 or 3 years now. So I’m just crossing my legs and letting the plumber get on with it.

yes, i was on drugs

I’m not sure if you all know this, but I ride to the city every Thursday night. I pack my lappy up in my crumpler backpack (red of course), slip on my lovely day-glo cycling jacket and pedal into town, somewhere between 6 and 8, depending on whether I’m DJing, and which shift I’m doing. In summer, this is one sweet trip. In winter… well, it’s dark, it’s cold, you can see the pollution (which is disturbing) and I have to wear gloves. I usually have to stop just as I get to Royal Parade so I can take off a layer.
But I like it. I can sing really loudly on the way home (at around midnight), I like the way the fog makes everything kind of soft and quiet. I see lots of interesting things (usually roadworks, but last night it was a pile of vomit halfway between the pub and the colleges at the university, but then a bat flew past at helmet height, so it was ok). And I’m safer than I am when I catch the tram (I hate waiting at the fairly-isolated stop in the city).
So it’s all good. Even though I’m usually pretty tired and sweaty after dancing for hours. But so long as I don’t let my heart rate drop too low between dancing and riding home, I’m ok.
Last night, as I rode home at about 11.30 (earlier than usual), dodging vomit and bats, trying not to wipe too much snot on my gloves and singing loudly (something about banana splits I think. I blame Louis Prima and a momentary lapse of judgement while DJing), I thought ‘this is great. I’m lucky. I love my bike.’ When I got home, though, I’d stiffened up in the cold and post-yoga, post-dancing aftermath and could barely get off my bike to open the garage. Then I could barely get the keys into the lock because my fingers were so cold. It was 6degrees, but it gets colder with windchill on the bike. When I got into the shower it felt like I was scalding myself with luke-warm water, I was so cold. But only on my cheeks, ears, the front of my thighs, my forearms and my shins.
But I was still cheery – all that dancing and pedalling and wind chill had exorcised my grumpiness of the earlier evening – and the endorphines. Well, yes. I guess I was on drugs, albeit natural ones.

bleus round-up

I think it’s worth me running through DJing at the Blues night last Sunday, seeing as how I took the trouble to blog about it.
Much of this I’ve copied from my post on Swing Talk, so feel free to skim-read/skip. But I have added some additional comments, so you might just miss out if you do.
To start with, here’s my set list (Sunday 4th June 2006, first set (9.30-10.30pm)).

Name	Artist	Album	Year	BPM
Willow Weep For Me	Louis Armstrong	Ella And Louis Again [MFSL]	1957	90
My Handy Man Ain’t Handy No More	Alberta Hunter	Amtrak Blues	1978	76
Reckless Blues	Velma Middleton with Louis Armstrong and the All Stars	The Complete Decca Studio Recordings of Louis Armstrong and the All Stars (disc 06)		89
I Ain No Iceman	Cow Cow Davenport	History of the Blues – disc2		89
Save It, Pretty Mama	Sidney Bechet	The Blue Note Years	1945	91
I Left My Baby	Kansas City Band	Kansas City: A Robert Altman Film	1995	83
Stormy Blues	Billie Holiday	The Complete Verve Studio Master Takes (disc 2)	2005	62
I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl –	Nina Simone	Nina Simone Sings the Blues	2006	66
I Never Loved A Man	Aretha Franklin	Greatest Hits – Disc 1		90
Please Please Please	James Brown	Sex Machine	1991	74
Amtrak Blues	Alberta Hunter	Amtrak Blues	1978	95
Back Water Blues	Dinah Washington with Belford Hendricks’ Orchestra	Ultimate Dinah Washington	1957	71
Baby, Get Lost	Billie Holiday	The Lady Of The Blues		70
Rocks In My Bed	Ella Fitzgerald	Ella Fitzgerald Day Dream: Best Of The Duke Ellington Songbook	1956	68
Hamp’s Salty Blues	Lionel Hampton and His Quartet	Lionel Hampton Story 3: Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop	1946	86
Long John Blues	Dinah Washington	22 Original Classics		96

There are some incomplete details there – missing dates etc. This is partly the result of slack cataloguing on my part, a complete disinterest in cataloguing on The Squeeze’s part (he’s responsible for the Aretha and JB stuff) and general all-round pftness.
This was my first time DJing to a blues crowd at anything other than a party. It was a bit weird, for a few reasons:

technical issues. there are always technical issues. but there were only two pissy speakers, no bass to speak of and a very crowded room. so i had to really fiddle with the knobs. mostly to no effect. but this screwed with some of my song choices. i learnt a lot about playing under these conditions.
it’s really dark. so you can’t see what people are doing. this makes it tricky to judge the mood of the crowd.
blues dancing is kind of samey. so you can’t really judge the mood or energy levels of the room by what people are doing on the dance floor
i felt like they would have danced to anything – this isn’t like playing for experienced dancers or picky lindy hoppers.

Lessons:
Blues dancing has a different wave than lindy. You work in longer sessions and with longer-term goals. I found I rely on tempo to change the mood in a room when I DJ for lindy, but this wouldn’t work with blues. I found I could play any old tempo, really, so long as I was very careful with mood. I found I was DJing according to mood and musical style rather than tempo. This could have been a major mistake, and I need some feedback from dancers to see how this worked out. I could be full of crap on that part. But the floor is always full at blues, so you can’t use that as a gauge.
Song choices:

The Kansas City song I Left My Baby, while it sounds great on my home stereo, at CBD and at funpit, kind of sucked on this system. It just ended up sounding like a slurry of sound with no depth or variation. If you know those albums, though, they’re a good indication of the mood of the room tonight: like a loud, raucous bar with people laughing and talking and having a good time.
It got quieter when I played mellower music, but seeing as how I mostly played dirty nanna blues, the mood stayed pretty dirty nanna – loud, boisterous, rowdy, laughing fun. Which is what I want from a blues night.
I was heavy on the vocals, mostly because the instrumental stuff just sounded rank on the sound system. And I guess that was kind of an archetypal beginner DJ set – heavy on the vocals. But I was also going for high-energy, sassy but kind of tongue in cheek sauciness.
That last Dinah Washington song was an emergency song as Josh and I were playing the DJing equivalent of doctors and nurses, trying to figure out what went in which hole. In retrospect, Long John is kind of not appropriate for a noob blues crowd, as it’s really quite explicit.
It is, however, one of my favourite songs.
Back Water Blues is my most favourite song ever. EVER. I love it so much – that’s blues dancing music to me. Saucy, kind of miserable, but really relishing the misery, not getting maudlin, but really stomping the blues with some sauce.
I love Dinah Washington to bits. More than any other woman blues singer. I like the way she sings about sex and men and violence with a sense of humour and couldn’t give a shit about what people think.
Note the Aretha Franklin and James Brown. Perfect rhythm n blues moment that went down a treat with the crowd. A bit too serious for my liking, but a nice contrast to the rest of the stuff. It was nice to play ‘unswing’ as well, as it really worked for blues dancing, but was totally wrong for lindy hop.
During James Brown I had a request for Tom Waits, and I was sorely tempted as I’ve been digging Heartattack and Vine (thanks to a tip from Russell), but I wanted to bring the energy up, and that song is really hardcore and dirty.
I really like playing ‘unswing’ for blues dancers, but sticking with the ‘vibe’ of blues music. I wouldn’t do this for lindy though, as it feels wrong. But it feels just right to have Aretha singing about dirty low down men or James begging his woman while you’re camping it in blues dancing. I’d have liked to follow up with ‘Root Man Blues’ by Buddy Johnson, from ‘Walk ‘Em’, but it was too strident and brassy for the sound system. But it would have been perfect, with it’s 50s sound and kind of queer lyrics. Really would have set off James’ dramatics perfectly.
The old scratchies went down a treat, not that I played many. But I was pleased when people appreciated the sauciness and humour of Cow Cow Davenport.
This blues dancing crowd is much more tolerant and interested in a wider range of music than the lindy hoppers I usually DJ for. Blessed be.

There was no after party that night, which is a shame, as that’s a chance for people to get all serious with their blues dancing. And I would have liked a chance to really try DJing hardcore for a crowd of blues dancers. But I had a nice time otherwise. Only danced for half an hour (or even less), but I really like Vibe as a venue – high ceilings, bar, wooden floor, olden dayes feeling. And I really like the mood of the blues nights.
…why do I keep typing bleus?

useful music and DJing resources

Music References
AllMusic
A music resource site with one of the most comprehensive (but by no means complete) guides to jazz and other music.
Red Hot Jazz Archive
Red Hot Jazz
Guides to jazz music.
Brian’s list
A local DJ’s list of great songs for dancers.
Radio Shows
Yehoodi radio show
The Yehoodi Radio shows are perhaps the most swing dancer-relevant radio programs available, produced by swing dancers for swing dancers. The focus is primarily on lindy hop, but not exclusively. The guest DJs are from all over the world and often post their set lists on SwingDJs or are otherwise regular posters on that board. The shows cover every type of swing dancing music, and the schedule is as follows:

* Stormy Mondays
Contemporary swing and jazz from artists, like Oscar Peterson, Barbara Morrison, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ernestine Anderson, and more!
* Toe Tapping Tuesdays
Swing with the big boys of big band and classic jazz, including Count Basie, Duke Elllington, Harry James and Buddy Johnson. Add a few contemporary artists, like George Gee, Bill Elliott and Dave Berger, and you’re in big band heaven!
* Jumpin’ Wednesdays
“It Rocks! It Rolls! It Swings! It Jumps! It puts you in the groove!” – The Treniers said it best. We’ve got a brand new format for hump-day. Tune into Yehoodi Radio on Wednesdays for the finest in jump blues, boogie woogie and early rhythm & blues. Catch the Kansas City flavah!
* Guest DJ Thursdays
Entire broadcasts of favorite tracks hand-picked by the local swing DJs you know and love. It’s like having your own personal DJ-ed event right on your desktop!
* Producer’s Picks:
Radio show producer, Jesse Miner, brings you a cool mix of his favorite tunes.
* Mixed Up Weekends
A weekend blend of everything.

Hey Mr Jesse!
Hey Mr Jesse is a talk show devoted to swing dancing music hosted by popular (and stunningly knowledgeable) American DJ Jesse Miner and Spuds (Manu Smith). The show discusses all types of swing dancing music, features interviews with big-name musicians and bands and an â€˜8-countâ€™ list of 8 top dancing songs. Show notes for each of the monthly shows are also available. Jesse and Manu are enthusiastic about audience-responses and welcome emails from listeners
Discussion Boards
SwingDJs
An American-based (but internationally focussed) discussion board for swing dance DJs. Covers a wide range of musical styles (from old school scratchies, through groove, hi-fi and so onâ€¦) and is effectively moderated to keep threads on track. Posters are friendly and helpful, and the board encourages members to use their real names. An excellent resource for DJing technique, but also for swing dance music.
BluesPulse
A discussion board related to blues dancing and music. Perhaps not as comprehensive as SwingDJs for music, but one of the few boards which is exclusively devoted to blues music and dancing. The posters are friendly and good contacts for plugging into blues dancing culture.
Swing Talk Threads
There are many useful and interesting discussions here on Swing Talk about DJing for swing dancers and about swing music. The best place to start is in the Big Beat a Rockinâ€™ forum. Here are some that seem to have the most useful and on-track discussions:
Cheap CDs
Swing Talk thread listing the cheapest sources for CDs (for swing dance music).
DJ Bubs
Swing Talk thread where new (and experienced) DJs can ask questions about DJing â€“ music, technique, theory, networking, etc
Online Requests box
Swing Talk thread where dancers can request songs theyâ€™d like to hear on the dance floor.
Bluesybluesblues
Swing Talk thread discussing blues music.
Previewing Music Online
Amazon
CDUniverse
Useful sites not only for buying music, but also for listening to clips from albums.
Buying music online
JB online
Cheap Australian online ordering.
Caiman.com
amazon.com
Jazz by mail
Barnes and Nobles
Gemm Records
Record Labels
Mosaic
Stomp off Records
Verve
JSP Records
Proper Records

separation anxiety and long-term projects

My ongoing (and steadily increasing) thesis anxiety has had a number of clear effects:

Muscle tension, tension headaches and a sore right hip.
Irrational and yet themed snack-craving: layered wafer biscuits. Potato crisps. Indian sweets (thankyou, Brunswick Street @ 11.45pm).
Strange dreams about house-hunting.
Ob-con Buffy and Angel viewing. I think I like the structure. I know it’ll go on and on and on for ages, and I know what’s going to happen. No surprises. No completion or submission… hm. Maybe I should be watching The Simpsons or Neighbours instead?
A strange new interest in soccer (anything but editing I guess).
Napping. Excessive napping. 4 hours last weekend, 2 today. Between 11 and 1 today I was face-down in the matress, breathing through two nostrils worth of seasonal rhinitis. The Squeeze chose to assume The Position (prone, that is) on the couch between 4 and 6 this evening. If we could synchronise our naps our relationship would reach new heights. Or depths.
Cleaning. Yes, our house is clean. And there are no baskets of laundry waiting my attention in the loungeroom. The toilet is safe.

If you’re interested, I’ve actually got very little left to do on the thesis. So I’ll be done within the allocated time (4 years at my uni, but 3.5 years worth of funding from The Man. I’ll be done in 3.5). I know this makes me a freak. But it’s my fourth thesis (hons, MA, aborted PhD) so I should be pretty good at it by now. The Supes reckons I could be done in a fortnight. This pronouncement obviously prompted today’s Nap.
I have to write an introduction, rewrite Chapter One (formerly “Chapter One: Introduction” now “Chapter One: the Ill-defined But Probably a ‘literature review’ But Under Another Name”, rewrite the introductions to each chapter and redo my conclusion. Actually all very possible in two weeks for Thesis Demon. But I’m not really sure how I feel about this. I finally understand how I’m supposed to redo the introductions, so that will go quickly. But conclusion? I actually feel like I have no idea how it’s supposed to look. So I’ll try and we’ll see.
While I spent a delightful hour perusing the CAE (Centre for Adult Education) booklet today, planning language courses, pattern making courses, etc (yes, I am a big fat learning sponge), giddy with the thought of newly-won academic liberty, I’m also thinking about travelling. Goddess knows there’s very little actual work out there, beyond sessional teaching and exploitative short-term contracts. Hell, I might as well take up DJing full-time if I want exploitation. With a side order of industrial deafness.
I am suffering from separation anxiety already. Which is probably why I’m wondering what it would be like to have a baby. If there’s one thing three theses (and thirteen years at uni) has taught me, it’s how to handle long-term creative projects.