dogpossum – Page 181

low level anxiety

I have to write some lectures RIGHT NOW. Stop procrastinating, you! Stop thinking about pop ups!
I have to DJ tonight, but haven’t even thought about my music in the two weeks since I last DJed. I’m also doing a blues set on Sunday night, and I certainly haven’t thought enough about that lately. So I have to spend some time with my laptop, listening to music.
I have to go to the library to (hopefully, fingers crossed) find a nice reading on advertising, from a cultural studies or media studies perspective, which involves or at least refers to semiotics and ‘ideology’, as a sort of follow-on from the previous two weeks (‘intro textual analysis/semiotics’ and ‘ideology’). There’s a full sick chapter by Johnathon Bignall from Media Semiotics, but I’m using him elsewhere (week on news values, to be precise). Goddamn copryight, goddamn it.
I have a short list of other stuff, but the library is kind of bare this time of year, particularly in Melbourne, where the libraries are full of computers and stoods facebooking on them and decidedly bare of books. Ordinarily, that’s fine by me – bring on the ebooks (Goddess bless them). But some of the Olden Days books (as in, the ones from before the 90s) aren’t on the internet. So I need the paper ones.
I had to trek all over the universe last week (three universities, 4 libraries) looking for a copy of Thwaites, Davis, et al’s Tools for Cultural Studies (in whichever editorial incarnation). I’m not a dumbarse, so I’m pretty sure I didn’t stuff up the whole ‘using the catalogue’ thing, but I’m pretty sure one copy’s not enough for a giant university. I ended up buying the latest edition (to replace my collection of photocopies from a very early edition) and it cost me FAR TOO FREAKIN’ MUCH. But I know it will be useful, as I’ve managed to use it nearly every year since I first did my undergraduate degree with messirs Thwaites, Davis et al.
–a short, impassioned digression—
But I did manage to find a copy of Cohen and Young’s The Manufacture of News: social problems, deviance and the mass media, which was an absolute nostalgia-thon. Oh, news values, how I love you. How I loved Stuart Hall when we first met. It was love at first skim-read. How I adored that book. I miss those days. When I was all about newspapers and developed mad microfilm skills. When Galtung and Ruge were fully sick and cultural studies was first listed in my wicked kewl book. Sigh. Then they made the internet and it all changed. Goodbye microfilm reader headaches, hello monitor headaches.
—
I have to buy some groceries. Milk. Bread.
I have to catch up with about half a dozen people I haven’t seen lately.
I HAVE TO MAKE POPS! Last night I had pop up dreams. It’s just like when I was going through a lol-making frenzy. Disturbed sleep. Decline in existing communication skills, incline in new ‘skills’…
Yoga still rocks. I am half moon queen. Not so much with the down dog. I just don’t think my arms will ever be straight. I think it’s congenital, and no amount of moving my shoulders up my back body and broadening and flattening of my collar bone will work.
And I have a few DVDs out that I need to watch.
So I have a little low level anxiety, and am dealing with it through the time honoured and much maligned process of procrastination. And there is no better source for that than blogging.

he has white whiskers and is large

There is a large, mostly black tom cat who lives in our neighbourhood. He is coloured exactly the same way as Silvester. He’s large, he’s slinky and he’s kind of a doofus. Every day, from my desk, I see him making the rounds of the neighbourhood. I’m at my desk, not him. He’s slinking under cars, pouring himself over fences and swaggering up to passing nannas for a quick pat. He has white whiskers and is large.

daily pop

Should I have used a popup image rather than an embedded?

up pop

I am very into pop ups (aka paper engineering). I have been making lots and lots of tiny little prototypes to help me learn the basic techniques and to get a handle on designing pop ups. I have made a few fancier ones, but I really like using small bits of card to make basic two page ‘books’. I’ll try to take some photos, but don’t hold your breath.
Any how, it’s freakin’ GREAT.
I started with the first book by Carol Barton, which is just the loveliest thing. It includes a heap of basic ‘test’ cards that you make as you ‘read’ through the book.
Then I moved on to the Pop-up Book by Paul Jackson, which isn’t so great. In fact, it’s daunting for complete beginners, and I’ve only just started getting a handle on it now, after doing a few of my own and working my way through the Barton book. Thing is, they look really simple, but (as the Jackson book points out) it’s not too useful just ‘thinking’ your way through them. You really have to make them to understand how they work. Even then, there are some which I really don’t understand – I look at them and think ‘how does that work?’ Which is part of their appeal.
I’m only doing basic techniques so far – I’m having so much fun I haven’t even begun to work on the more complicated combinations. And I’m not really all that interested in the serious paper engineering stuff – no rubber bands or pull tabs for me just yet.
If you’re interested, they have some nice books here. I can’t imagine a whole book of popups – they’re so intricate and time consuming, so labour intensive, meticulous… I like just doing one-off, one-idea visual ‘jokes’ or ‘puns’. Just a card that opens up with a little pop up inside. The smaller the better – they take less time to cut out, they’re a good way to test a technique, and you waste fewer materials.
…speaking of materials…

I’d really like a folder. Most of them are bone, but I’m not that picky. I just use the handle of my scissors now, but something specific would be good. I really need it more for scoring, as I just don’t have anything useful for that. I’m also planning on upgrading from my $2 cutting mat to a real self-healing mat soon. And perhaps something better than my cheapy scalpel as well. I certainly need proper paper scissors with sharp points. Of all those things, the one I’ll probably end up getting is the scissors – sewing has taught me the value of nice scissors. I have good cooking shears, lovely embroidery scissors in a pretty case, arse-kicker sewing scissors, and now it’s time to get serious with badass paper scissors.
And of course, card. I just can’t get enough of it. I’m still looking for just the right weight. 250gm is too heavy. 80 is too light. I need perhaps 150 or 100. But it’s good experimenting with them all, just to see why different weights are good for different jobs.

big, long round up

To celebrate a return to blogdom….
That’s some mighty fine balboa right there. Bal is the ‘tighty whitey’ member of the swing dance family. Seriously popular, seriously cool and absolutely fabulous for really sweet leading and following. There’s less ‘room’ for the follow to improvise (though a decent follow can make it work), but that’s really the appeal – the lead has to not only listen to the music and make it work musically for both partners, they also have to be a really good lead to make the whole thing work. ‘Pure bal’ often refers to the stuff in ‘closed’ position – no open position here. But ‘bal-swing’ is often a term used to include all the other stuff going on in a dance like the one above. These terms are (of course) as contentious as you might expect.
I like it, though I rarely dance it. I can lead very little of it, though I really like the challenge. The bal crowd here are really friendly and fun, so it’s always nice to hang out. And because bal is a lot less physically intense than lindy hop (though the tempos are frequently super fast) you can wear nice clothes and avoid looking like a drowned rat at the end of the night. Having said that, I sweat like a fool when I’m leading anything so perhaps that comment is misleading.
In other news, I’m busily preparing for another semester of lecturing and tutoring (casual basis of course :( ) and work has long since begun on MLX8: the Exchange of the Living Dead. It’s big, it’s bold, it’ll be beautiful. If you like to dance de lindy hop (or blues or bal or whatever) you’ll like this year’s MLX. Winter has pretty much arrived here in the ‘wick, though it’s oscillating between heinous autumn and proper winter, really. Not much rain, over all, which is kind of crap, though it’s very misty and foggy and has been pretty bloody cold.
This past weekend I made a nice suit for interviews. It’s blue, made of some sort of stretch and has a sort of pale grey cross-hatch type pattern (very small and discrete). The suit itself includes a nice pencil skirt (tres chic, apparently) with a nice buttoned flap feature thing at the front. The skirt was originally just making use of some left over remnants, so it’s actually made of six panels – two large front and back pieces and a smaller, narrower rectangular strip down the centre front and back. The feature flap thing was also remnants. The buttons cost about $17 for both skirt and jacket, which is mad as the fabric itself was less than $10 a metre. The jacket is really quite pretty – Simplicity 4412 (pattern B, the green jacket in the bottom right hand corner):

I haven’t used contrasting fabric or buttons (just plain blue buttons) and I’ve folded up the wide sleeves to make three quarter sleeves (which looks a lot better than the big sacky ones in the photo. It’s not lined and there aren’t any shoulder pads, though the interfacing is quite stiff and the shoulders do fit quite nicely. I’ve also cut it a bit closer so it fits quite snugly. Overall, it’s very 1930s secretary and gives me the right type of curves. I’m very happy with it. I guess I’m going to have to match it with some sort of heel, as the skirt is over the knee and I want to avoid the frump. But I don’t think I’ll wear it with a shirt under neath as it doesn’t really need it. But perhaps a slip would be a good idea for the skirt.
I also returned to yoga a few weeks ago, after a year’s break. It was like being a complete bubb all over again. The hardest thing was relearning how to lie still and quiet for 10 minutes. But now I’m back to twice a week and I LOVE IT.

extreme DJing nerdery

I’ve had a busy DJing fortnight… well, month, really. I’ve done 6 sets this month, including a blues set. The week before last I did a double on Thursday, then a set on Friday, and then last week I did a set Wednesday and one Thursday. I’m about done with this. Remind me to talk about my sore ears, ok?
Any how, here’re the sets I played that are kind of interesting.
This next set is the double from Thursday 24th April. It was a last minute double set, and for once the gig (CBD) actually had some people. It was the night before a public holiday, so there was an almost full room. Not the biggest ever, but much bigger than other weeks. And a mixed crowd, so I could play a mixed set. But I’d had a pretty horrible day, and wasn’t feeling terribly inspired or great. So I played the most ordinary set of overplayed favourites ever. But people really liked it. They were dancing like fools, over-energised, over-adrenalined. Which was nice. I started at 8.30 and finished at 11. Here’s the set:
Moten Swing Count Basie 135 1958 25/04/08 12:07 PM 4:50 Chairman Of The Board [Bonus Tracks]
Jump Ditty! Joe Carroll and The Ray Bryant Quintet 134 25/04/08 9:49 PM 2:54 Joe Carroll Sings
I Diddle Dinah Washington 153 1/05/08 10:15 PM 3:05
Tain’t Me Roy Milton and his Solid Senders 158 1992 1/05/08 10:17 PM 2:34 Vol. 2: Groovy Blues
Fine Brown Frame Nellie Lutcher 123 2006 25/04/08 12:18 PM 2:54 Fine Brown Frame
Big Fat Mama Lucky Millinder 135 25/04/08 12:21 PM 3:09 Apollo Jump
Be Careful (If You Can’t Be Good) Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra 121 1951 1/05/08 10:12 PM 3:09 Walk ‘Em
My Baby Just Cares For Me Nina Simone 120 25/04/08 10:49 PM 3:38 The Great Nina Simone
Massachusetts Maxine Sullivan 147 1956 25/04/08 12:32 PM 3:19 A Tribute To Andy Razaf
C-Jam Blues Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 143 1999 25/04/08 10:23 PM 3:34 Live In Swing City: Swingin’ With Duke
For Dancers Only Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 148 1937 25/04/08 9:59 PM 2:41 Swingsation – Jimmie Lunceford
Pan Pan Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 152 1941 1/05/08 10:20 PM 2:54 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 2)
Drinkin’ Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker 134 1949 25/04/08 9:56 PM 3:24 Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings
Solid as a Rock Count Basie and His Orchestra with The Deep River Boys 140 30/04/08 11:20 PM 3:04 Count Basie and His Orchestra 1950-1951
Joog, Joog Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 146 1949 30/04/08 11:17 PM 3:01 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950
Pound Cake Count Basie and His Orchestra with Lester Young 186 1939 24/04/08 9:23 PM 2:46 Classic Columbia, Okeh And Vocalion Lester Young With Count Basie (1936-1940) (Disc 2)
Good Queen Bess Duke Ellington 160 1940 1/05/08 10:39 PM 3:00 The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 10)
Six Appeal (My Daddy Rocks Me) Benny Goodman Sextet with Charlie Christian 150 1940 1/05/08 10:36 PM 3:13 Charlie Christian: The Genius of The Electric Guitar (disc 2)
Bli-Blip Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 140 2007 1/05/08 10:29 PM 2:44 Moppin’ And Boppin’
Jersey Bounce Ella Fitzgerald 134 1961 24/04/08 9:36 PM 3:36 Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!
Blue Monday Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 125 1957 1/05/08 10:05 PM 3:40 Goin’ To Kansas City Blues
Hallelujah, I Love Her So Count Basie 145 1959 24/04/08 9:42 PM 2:36 Breakfast Dance And Barbecue
Tickle Toe Count Basie and His Orchestra 234 1960 24/04/08 9:45 PM 2:36 The Count Basie Story (Disc 2)
Hop Skip and Jump Mora’s Modern Swingtet 191 2004 24/04/08 9:47 PM 2:44 20th Century Closet
The Back Room Romp Rex Stewart and His 52nd Street Stompers 152 1937 1/05/08 2:17 PM 2:49 The Duke’s Men: Small Groups Vol. 1 (Disc 2)
A Viper’s Moan Willie Bryant And His Orchestra 153 24/04/08 9:54 PM 3:26 Willie Bryant 1935-1936
Apollo Jump Lucky Millinder 143 30/04/08 11:08 PM 3:27 Apollo Jump
Jump Through The Window Roy Eldridge and his Orchestra 154 1943 24/04/08 10:00 PM 2:42 After You’ve Gone
The Heebie Jeebies Are Rockin’ The Town (Alt Tk) Red Allen & Lionel Hampton, vocal, & His Orchestra 141 1939 24/04/08 10:02 PM 2:44 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 3)
Walk ‘Em Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra 131 1946 25/04/08 10:04 PM 2:53 Walk ‘Em
Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra 136 1945 24/04/08 10:09 PM 3:22 Lionel Hampton Story 3: Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop
Savoy Blues Kid Ory 134 24/04/08 10:12 PM 3:01 Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3
Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band 160 1946 1/05/08 2:42 PM 3:13 Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46
Shake That Thing Vince Giordano 230 2004 24/04/08 10:18 PM 2:59 The Aviator
Blues My Naughty Sweetie Sidney Bechet 140 1951 30/04/08 10:49 PM 5:44 The Blue Note Years
Tishomingo Blues Carrol Ralph 128 2005 1/05/08 2:27 PM 4:15 Swinging Jazz Portrait
Going To Chicago Barbara Morrison 126 2002 24/04/08 10:33 PM 5:35 Live At The 9:20 Special
Every Day I Have The Blues Clark Terry Quintet and Carrie Smith 122 2001 24/04/08 10:38 PM 5:12 The Clark Terry Quintet: Live On QE2
Mumbles Oscar Peterson 188 1964 24/04/08 10:40 PM 2:02 Ultimate Oscar Peterson As Selected By Ray Brown
Froggy Bottom Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 155 1957 25/04/08 10:13 PM 2:37 Goin’ To Kansas City Blues
Sent For You Yesterday Count Basie and His Orchestra with Joe Williams 163 1960 25/04/08 10:16 PM 3:10 The Count Basie Story (Disc 2)
Blues In Hoss’s Flat Count Basie 144 1958 1/05/08 10:08 PM 3:13 Chairman Of The Board [Bonus Tracks]
Lavender Coffin Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker and Joe James 134 1949 25/04/08 10:07 PM 2:47 Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings
On Revival Day Lavern Baker 144 25/04/08 10:10 PM 3:16 Lavern Sings Bessie Smith
As I said, it’s very ordinary. Nothing new except a Carole Ralph track and a Jimmy Witherspoon, neither of which are actually new.
Any how, the next night I played the Funpit gig. The room was absolutely solid. You couldn’t push your way into the room, let alone the dance floor. It was all beginners, too – people who’d only had a lesson or two. Plus a few other people with more experience. But no one who’d been dancing more than a year or two besides me, the teachers and one or two other people. In a room that was the crowdedest gig I’ve ever played in Melbourne. It was heaps of fun to play. But I was coming down with a cold, so when I got up to dance after my set I was too tired to dance more than a song. I spent the weekend being very ill, but I still had fun that night.
Here’s the set (Friday 25th April, 9.30-10.45pm, Funpit):
Splanky Count Basie 125 1957 3:36 Complete Atomic Basie, the 25/04/08 9:47 PM
Jump Ditty! Joe Carroll and The Ray Bryant Quintet 134 2:54 Joe Carroll Sings 25/04/08 9:49 PM
Hungry Man Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 135 1949 3:08 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 6) 1/05/08 2:11 PM
Drinkin’ Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker 134 1949 3:24 Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings 25/04/08 9:56 PM
For Dancers Only Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 148 1937 2:41 Swingsation – Jimmie Lunceford 25/04/08 9:59 PM
Are You Hep To The Jive? Cab Calloway 160 1994 2:50 Are You Hep To The Jive? 25/04/08 10:01 PM
Walk ‘Em Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra 131 1946 2:53 Walk ‘Em 25/04/08 10:04 PM
Lavender Coffin Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker and Joe James 134 1949 2:47 Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings 25/04/08 10:07 PM
On Revival Day Lavern Baker 144 3:16 Lavern Sings Bessie Smith 25/04/08 10:10 PM
Froggy Bottom Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 155 1957 2:37 Goin’ To Kansas City Blues 25/04/08 10:13 PM
Sent For You Yesterday Count Basie and His Orchestra with Joe Williams 163 1960 3:10 The Count Basie Story (Disc 2) 25/04/08 10:16 PM
Blues In Hoss’s Flat Count Basie 144 1958 3:13 Chairman Of The Board [Bonus Tracks] 1/05/08 10:08 PM
C-Jam Blues Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 143 1999 3:34 Live In Swing City: Swingin’ With Duke 25/04/08 10:23 PM
Be Careful (If You Can’t Be Good) Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra 121 1951 3:09 Walk ‘Em 1/05/08 10:12 PM
Pan Pan Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 152 1941 2:54 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 2) 1/05/08 10:20 PM
Ain’t Nothin’ To It Fats Waller & His Rhythm 134 1941 3:10 Last Years (1940-1943) (Disc 2) 1/05/08 10:27 PM
Laughing In Rhythm Slim Gaillard and his Peruvians 142 1951 2:56 Laughing In Rhythm: The Best Of The Verve Years 25/04/08 10:35 PM
Bli-Blip Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 140 2007 2:44 Moppin’ And Boppin’ 1/05/08 10:29 PM
A Viper’s Moan Mora’s Modern Rhythmists 143 2000 3:30 Call Of The Freaks 1/05/08 10:33 PM
Squatty Roo Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 173 2003 3:43 Jammin’ the Blues 25/04/08 10:45 PM
My Baby Just Cares For Me Nina Simone 120 3:38 The Great Nina Simone 25/04/08 10:49 PM
Again, nothing new or exciting. I’m really quite a boring DJ these days. Partly because most of the stuff I’m buying (helloooooooo Jelly Roll Morton!) is completely inappropriate for lindy hop. Not so bad for blues dancing, though.
Then this week just passed I did my first set at Madame Dynamite’s. This is what I played:
Blue Monday Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 125 1957 3:40 Goin’ To Kansas City Blues 1/05/08 10:05 PM
Hungry Man Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 135 1949 3:08 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 6) 1/05/08 2:11 PM
Give Me Some Skin Lionel Hampton and His Sextet 138 1941 3:16 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 5) 5/05/08 12:06 PM
The Back Room Romp Rex Stewart and His 52nd Street Stompers 152 1937 2:49 The Duke’s Men: Small Groups Vol. 1 (Disc 2) 1/05/08 2:17 PM
Just Kiddin’ Around Artie Shaw and His Orchestra 159 1941 3:21 Self Portrait (Disc 3) 1/05/08 2:20 PM
Bli-Blip Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 140 2007 2:44 Moppin’ And Boppin’ 1/05/08 10:29 PM
Tishomingo Blues Carrol Ralph 128 2005 4:15 Swinging Jazz Portrait 1/05/08 2:27 PM
The Blues B Artie Shaw And His New Music 122 1937 2:59 Self Portrait (Disc 1) 1/05/08 2:30 PM
Deep Trouble Jimmie Noone 161 1930 2:49 The Jimmie Noone Collection 5/05/08 12:09 PM
The Basement Blues Nobel Sissle with Sidney Bechet 153 2000 3:16 Ken Burns Jazz Collection: Sidney Bechet 1/05/08 2:36 PM
Ballin’ The Jack Bunk Johnson’s V-Disc Veterans 156 1944 2:45 Bunk And The New Orleans Revival 1942-1945 1/05/08 2:39 PM
Blues My Naughty Sweetie Sidney Bechet 140 1951 5:44 The Blue Note Years 30/04/08 10:49 PM
Stuffy Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 153 2003 3:46 Jammin’ the Blues 30/04/08 10:53 PM
The Grabtown Grapple Artie Shaw and His Gramercy 5 178 1945 2:57 Self Portrait (Disc 3) 30/04/08 10:56 PM
Peckin’ Johnny Hodges and His Orchestra 165 1937 3:10 The Duke’s Men: Small Groups Vol. 1 (Disc 2) 30/04/08 10:59 PM
The Heebie Jeebies Are Rockin’ The Town Red Allen & Lionel Hampton, vocal, & His Orchestra 139 1939 2:44 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 3) 30/04/08 11:01 PM
Pan Pan Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five 152 1941 2:54 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (vol 2) 1/05/08 10:20 PM
Apollo Jump Lucky Millinder 143 3:27 Apollo Jump 30/04/08 11:08 PM
Half Tight Boogie Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five 150 2003 3:13 Jammin’ the Blues 30/04/08 11:11 PM
Bogo-Jo Lionel Hampton and His Sextet 158 1940 2:55 The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 (disc 5) 30/04/08 11:14 PM
Joog, Joog Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 146 1949 3:01 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 30/04/08 11:17 PM
Solid as a Rock Count Basie and His Orchestra with The Deep River Boys 140 3:04 Count Basie and His Orchestra 1950-1951 30/04/08 11:20 PM
Till Tom Special Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra 158 1940 3:24 Tempo And Swing 30/04/08 11:23 PM
Summit Ridge Drive Artie Shaw and His Gramercy 5 128 1940 3:21 Self Portrait (Disc 2) 30/04/08 11:27 PM
Easy Does It Big 18 129 5:14 30/04/08 11:32 PM
B-Sharp Boston Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 126 1949 2:55 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra: 1949-1950 30/04/08 11:35 PM
It Takes Two to Tango Lester Young and Oscar Peterson 104 1997 6:09 Lester Young With the Oscar Peterson Trio 1/05/08 2:04 PM

It was the second set (Wednesday 30th April, 9.30-late), there weren’t many people there at all and the floor was really slippery. I really struggled to find the right vibe that night. I’d expected a crowd who’d want old school, and mostly faster. I was looking forward to playing some of my newer, more obscure stuff. But that didn’t happen so much. I’m not sure if it was because I sucked or because the dancers just weren’t in the mood. I find it really difficult to work smaller crowds – I just need critical mass to really make them do what I want… or to get where I want to go. This crowd was also really into a bit of talking rather than dancing as well. So this set is more of the same, especially at the beginning, then there’s some newer stuff. I did play that ‘Give Me Some Skin’ song from my new Hampton Mosaic set (which I adore), I screwed up and played ‘Bogo-Jo’ instead of … some other song from that same set, and it didn’t work so well. So I recovered with a safety song, ‘Joog, Joog’. Overall, I wasn’t too happy with that set, but it didn’t suck. I mean, I liked the music a lot, and would have liked to dance to it, but it didn’t really work the crowd properly. I also learnt that it’s important to be able to see the people sitting down not dancing as well as the dancers when I’m DJing. At the Funpit I couldn’t see anyone because it was so packed, but that’s kind of easier to work. At MD’s I couldn’t see the people sitting down, so I couldn’t judge their body language to see how they were feeling. Oh well.
I quite liked the bit from ‘The Blues B’ to ‘Ballin’ the Jack’. I’m especially fond of ‘Deep Trouble’. But that stuff doesn’t make for good lindy hop. It’s too early. I’m really loving 1927-1930 right now (incidentally, that’s the period the third season of House of Eliot is set, and I’m loving THAT – the skirt hems are so HIGH (knees! knees!)), but even though I know that’s when lindy began, people in Melbourne can’t dance to it. There’s not enough swing, and it still feels a bit too oomp-a, oomp-a for proper lindy. D says that that type of music is good for ‘one and five’ dancing, and that people overseas dig it atm. I dig it, I’d like to dance to it, but it simply doesn’t make for nice lindy hop. People at MD’s seemed to like it, but they weren’t really sure what to do with it.
In fact, I’m finding that people generally quite like the songs, but that they don’t really know how to dance to it. Some of the songs I played at the blues night had a similar effect. People really liked them, but their dancing looked pretty awkward. And I could hear an awful lot of stompy, clattering feet during a few tracks.
Anyhow, here’s that set list:
Do I Move You? (Second Version) (Bonus Track) Nina Simone 70 2006 2:20 Nina Simone Sings the Blues
Save Me Aretha Franklin 122 2:19 Greatest Hits – Disc 1
Get Back Temptation Ollabelle 80 2004 2:50 Ollabelle
I Left My Baby Kansas City Band 83 1995 7:24 Kansas City: A Robert Altman Film
St. James Infirmary The Cairo Club Orchestra 109 2004 3:33 Sunday
Reckless Blues Velma Middleton with Louis Armstrong and the All Stars 88 2:30 The Complete Decca Studio Recordings of Louis Armstrong and the All Stars (disc 06)
Back Water Blues Dinah Washington with Belford Hendricks’ Orchestra 71 1957 4:58 Ultimate Dinah Washington
Cloudy Jimmy Witherspoon With Jay McShann And His Band 69 1957 3:16 Goin’ To Kansas City Blues
Wee Baby Blues Count Basie with Mahalia Jackson 64 1968 3:14 Live In Antibes 1968
Amtrak Blues Alberta Hunter 95 1978 3:24 Amtrak Blues
Long John Blues Dinah Washington 97 1948 3:10 Dinah Washington:the Queen Sings – Disc 2 – Stairway to the Stars
My Daddy Rocks Me Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra 114 1929 3:09 The Jimmie Noone Collection
New Orleans Bump Wynton Marsalis 128 1999 4:36 Mr. Jelly Lord – Standard Time, Vol. 6
Black And Tan Fantasy Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 88 1999 4:36 Live In Swing City: Swingin’ With Duke
Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho Mahalia Jackson 130 1958 2:13 Live At Newport 1958
Goin’ To Chicago Count Basie and His Orchestra with Jimmy Rushing 79 1952 3:22 Complete Clef/Verve Count Basie Fifties Studio Recordings (Disc 2)
I Want A Little Girl Big Joe Turner with Pete Johnson and Freddie Green 91 1956 4:19 The Boss Of The Blues

It’s from the SP blues night, 13th April, 10.30-11.30. I especially love that song ‘My Daddy Rocks Me’. I’ve heard a more recent version played lately round town – something hi-fi. But this version is the BEST. The older versions always sound so much dirtier. I wonder if it’s because the contemporary singers, today, don’t know what the words mean? Or if they can’t make it work because they don’t use those expressions themselves in their everyday talk (vernacular much?), so they can’t give it the right weight….? Any how, Jimmie Noone is my man. My homey. My main squeeze. We are having a Thing. If you read the Red Hot Jazz entry about him you’ll see where my musical taste is at at the moment – I am still really keen on Kid Ory (and following him through Jelly Roll’s bands), nuts for Johnny Dodds and chasing some Earl Hines.
This blues set was quite varied, moving from an excellent (truly great) set by Leon. But Iiked the part from Long John Blues onwards especially. I played the Winton Marsalis version of ‘New Orleans Bump’ rather than the Jelly Roll one because I needed to get up out of the scratchy sound quality for the room to get a bit of energy. People really have trouble with those blues tracks with tango type rhythms, though. Me, I lubbs them, because I have experience with Argentinian tango. And because I really like blues music which makes you feel like moving around the floor rather than just standing there getting your frottage cheeze on. Also, the guy who wrote ‘St Louis Blues’ said in an interview I read somewhere that he wrote the song with a ‘tango’ intro because tango was so cool with dancers at that moment, and he wanted to get them on the floor before hitting them with the blues action…. now I think about it, I’m not sure it was ‘St Louis Blues’. But whatever, it’s an interesting point. And I really should look up the quote so I can get it right. But I like the late 20s for all the interesting stuff that was going on. We see early labour movement stuff. Women’s movement stuff (where women were beginning to reap the benefits of the suffragette movement of the late 19th century). Sweet-as music stuff. It was just an interesting period.
Any how, I played the LCJO version of ‘Black and Tan Fantasy’ rather than a bit of sweet Ellington because of the scratch factor. This crowd isn’t all that used to or comfortable with really old stuff – they prefer the hi-fi. And the sound gear and room just wasn’t working with so much lo-fi, scratchy, messy sounding music. Which is a real shame.
Some day I’d like to do a set that played all the music from a particular period, regardless of tempo or style, just working it all together to make for an interesting night of dancing. I’d like to play the really slow stuff and the really fast stuff, working it all together so it kind of flowed, but not having to think ‘oh, these speed freaks won’t dance slow’ and vice versa.
Sigh.
— Note: all pics are from this interesting site, www.mainspringpress.com. —

jook joint pics

There’re more of these wonderful images here.

go northcote go

Northcote is apparently where it’s at these days, and while I don’t really give a shit about cool factor, I am a big fat food nerd.
So while Sigiri is definitely where it’s at food-wise these days, their website… not so much.
NB If you’re a building nerd (as I am), Northcote shops on the High Street front all seem to have fully sick pressed metal ceilings. There are a couple of amazing old theaters and ballrooms on Hight Street (The Regal is my goal, once they get rid of the stupid carpet in the ballroom itself!), the Northcote Town Hall will melt your brain with its beauty and of course the Westgarth cinema rocks.
Otherwise, there’s the Northcote Social Club for live music.

djing by remote

Argh. This Yehoodi set is killing me. I’ve been working on this set off and on for ages and it’s really not a very great thing. I’ve finally put together 4 hours of music that I think could work and I’m listening to it now, back to front. The last hour (currently the first hour) or so is pure cop out – I suddenly decided I needed to take the tempo extremely low and the tone equally so. This was cheering on a gloomy Sunday afternoon, but it sounds a bit odd to suddenly drop like that at the end of the session.
What I’ve been trying to do is work between different styles, much as I would while DJing, but perhaps on a longer ‘curve’ – so I can spend more time with each style. I’m also playing fast and loose with the tempos – I’m not tempering things for the physical limitations of a real, live crowd of dancers.
This is, of course, playing havoc with my internal DJing instincts. Playing 9 or 10 songs at 250bpm and higher in a row is wrong. Only balboa doods could hack that tempo. Similarly, it feels wrong to go from 200 to 160 to 60 within 4 songs. And then to move on up. Historically, it’s fairly accurate – a band playing for a crowd in 1928 would move between subsonic and supersonic speeds ad libitum. But lindy hoppers today get all freaked out by that. Speed freaks in particular have trouble with songs at about 60bpm. Babies.
Anyhow, it’s making me feel kind of anxious to break the rules like this.
But it’s also quite nice – I’m playing songs I really, really like but hardly ever get to play. And I’m playing them in clumps that I know would never work for dancers. There’s a particular lump of about 8 songs which are quite fast but also quite low energy – they’re more along the ‘chamber jazz’ sort of line, which is really nice for listening, but would be ordinary for dancing.
… I had to resist the temptation to try to be as obscure as possible. Thanks for the tip, Trev – it’s been very useful. It’s not difficult to remind myself that I don’t have anywhere near as large a collection as some of the supernerds out there, so there’s no way I’m going to be able to pull off some esoteric collection of completely obscure and unknown gems. So I’m going for ‘songs I freakin’ love’ and ‘songs I love to play for dancers’.
That means there are quite a few favourites (‘Jumpin’ at the Woodside’ is in there), I’ve played a couple of versions of a couple of songs (oh no! gasp! rule breaker!), but I figure it’s a really nice way to contrast and compare. I don’t play them one after another, of course, but it’s a nice way to show how songs have stuck around for decades, in and out of the popular repertoire, given different treatments and flavours by different musicians. I have to say, all this stuff is chugging along in my head but is probably completely unnoticeable to most listeners – most people simply wouldn’t notice or care. Which is ok by me. I certainly don’t want to come off sounding as though I’m trying to take the listener to school. I just figure, while I’m breaking some rules, I might as well break others.
I’m also doing some shifts between songs that are purely for my own enjoyment. Yes, that is Freddy Green there in that Joe Turner song following that Count Basie song. And that’s certainly not the only time I use a common artist to segue between songs/groups.
I’ve noticed that I over use a few different artists. But frankly, how can it be wrong to play a lot of Ellington? Or Basie? Those guys are the bread and butter of the swing dancing world, they recorded a jillion songs, they played for a jillion dancers and they really shaped the popular music world of the day. So I’m going to rock on with those mens.
Not so many ladies in the list, though. That’s hardly suprising – how many lady rock stars are there in your average ‘rock and roll’ set list? Not a whole lot.
…more updates as I go. And I’ll let you know when it’s on the radio so you can listen – it’s an internet radio station, so you’ll be able to hear it (and me talking!) on your computers. If I have time I’ll see if I can make some sort of read-a-long thing for this blog, so you can read my thinking along with the music. Or not, if you happen to have, well, a life. Ok, gotta ping ding chicken wing now – blllooooooz dancing!

curses

This afternoon The Squeeze arrived home with his backpack chock-full of groceries. “There’re joobs in there”
“Cool!”
And then I scampered into the kitchen to find the joobs.
“There aren’t really joobs.”
“WHAT?!”
“I just said that to get you to unpack the groceries.”
Curses.