The Thursday night before the easter weekend I did the second set at CBD, starting at 10pm and finishing at 12.30. I was rostered til 11.30, but the crowd were in partay mode. It was a great set, I was very pleased with it, and I had lots of happy dancers complimenting me on it (which is the absolute height of pleasure and satisfaction – nothing makes you feel better than dancers rushing up, all covered in sweat, with their hair in their eyes and their clothes disheveled, telling you that they loved your set. That’s happiness). A few people have asked me to post it on the swing talk board, but I’d rather do it here as it helps me keep track of when/what I played without cluttering up the discussion board with massive posts.
I can’t really remember many of the specifics of the set, other than that I came in swinging with a crowd-favourite, hardcore, hi-fi, big band wall-of-sound Basie, lindy hopping track. Blues in Hoss’s Flat is great stuff. Followed by another. And then a less common version of another. It was cheating, really.
I have to say that Dan set up the set perfectly. He played a mellow, groovier first half of the first set – very noob friendly – and then kicked it up a notch with a great combination of old school, nu skewl, hi-fi and lo-fi lindy hopping action. I just slid on in to a partyhardy room full of crazy dancing spastics. I also totally ripped off his idea for a stroll – he asked “do you think the shim sham would go down well now?” and he didn’t end up doing it. But I did steal the idea and play the Big Apple song. There were so many people doing the routine they had to form two lines opposite it each other, and it was GREAT. I was dying of jealousy up on the DJ stand.
I was very happy with the way I worked the energy in the room over 2 and a half hours. I called it at 12.30, even though we could have gone on longer and the crowd was still dancing, but I was buggered. And an hour unpaid while the bar makes money is kind of galling. It was nice to end with a bit of supergroove medium tempo stuff.
But out of 43 songs, only 10 were above 160, which isn’t good. Especially when 13 were under 140. We should be a bit more hardcore. But I didn’t feel I could push it much higher – people were kind of crazed as it was.
One weird thing that happened: when I played the Charleston Chasers track (which is more ‘charlestoney’ than the Ellington one), people danced lindy, and the floor was full. Every other time I’ve played this, it’s been solo 20s charleston city. But I think it was because I moved from a New Orleans/trad sound (which I had gotten to from some swinging stuff), and people were tricked into continuing with their lindy. It was unusual, but gratifying to see people trying such high tempos without resorting to bal or solo dancing. But the Giordano track really called ‘charleston’ to them, and they obliged.
Oh, and Disco Keith commented that Dan and I were playing the same songs a number of times – ie I played a song Dan had played, but a different version, and Dan (apparently) had played 2 versions of one song. After I heard that I went out of my way to find more repeats. Because I like to see Keith squirm (Keith is a wedding DJ with some strict Rules – one is no repeats. Another is ‘only one song by each artist – don’t play 2 or more in a row’. I like to break that second one a lot. Brian once played an entire set of Basie at the Funbags and no one noticed. That was ace).
I also have to mention that the George Gee stuf was a plug. A visiting dancer is giving out Gee’s earlier albums as promotion for the new one (which I’ve also scored), and playing this artist was a thankyou plug. But it wasn’t forced: that’s a great album, and the new one is equally great dancing music.
This set was pretty heavy on the late testament Basie. Because I am in love again. It was heavy on the hi-fi and later recordings of things (rather than the older orginals) and newer bands because CBD has shitful sound and I wanted the high energy of newer recordings. Plus that’s how I felt.
I’m actually having a ‘classic swing’ moment – I’m really into stuff from the late 30s, 40s and some 50s stuff (and 60s with Basie, really). I just like music that makes for great, swinging lindy hop. I still love that older stuff a whole LOT, but I’ve been hankering for the beautiful quality of some of the later stuff. And I really prefer Basie’s band in the later years – that’s some good shit.
But I still prefer Ellington’s earlier stuff.
I adore Hamp, and he’s a good indicator of my current tastes.
I am also on a Jimmie Lunceford kick. I just can’t get enough. I need more. More.
I’m also having a Kansas City jump blues moment. I don’t know if any of the Melbourne dancers will be able to handle many more hand-clapping, foot-stomping, shouting-about-food jump blues songs. I will certainly get punched if I play Cole Slaw again any time soon – even a noob dancer noticed that I’d played it in my last 4 sets (ie last night, last Thursday, the Friday before, and the Thursday before that). It’s time to let it rest.
I also did a really fun set at the Funpit last Friday. It’s mostly a new dancer crowd, and the numbers were up last week. We were also in the room with a better vibe. And I had a hankering to play hi-fi. So I played a solidly swinging mid-tempo set with lots of hi-fi stuff I don’t play very often as I associate it with my beginner days and feel it’s a bit un-complicated for more advanced dancers (it is – it’s musically and rhythmically pretty simple, but vocally quite nice). I may post that set list later if I can be bothered.
But it went down a treat. Once again, Keith and I were teamed up as DJs, and he followed me, muttering “I’m getting a reputation as an old school DJ and I want to be more flexible”, and then playing a whole bunch of hi-fi which I really enjoyed dancing to. It was really an example of how you can play hi-fi, good quality music which is still hard-driving, bad-ass swinging jazz. No freakin trip hop rhythm n blues bullshit here, thankyou very much.
The crowd went nuts. It’s so nice to see beginner dancers dancing like they’re on crack.
PLEASE NOTE: If you’re looking at this set with an eye to picking up the songs – get into it! But if you’re looking to do some torrenting or CD copying, please think twice, especially when it’s a song by a contemporary band. I’ve added links to these bands sites, or to their CDs on amazon – give them a click. Some are really, really, crazily cheap. And these guys are the guys we dancers hire for our dancing pleasure. If we steal their music they’ll go bust and we won’t get to dance like fools to them LIVE!
DJ Snoop Doggydogpossum’s set, CBD, Thursday 5th April 10pm-12:30am (second shift).
title – artist – bpm – date – album – length
Blues In Hoss’ Flat – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 142 – 1995 – Big Band Renaissance Disc 1 – 3:13
C-Jam Blues – Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis – 143 – 1999 – Live In Swing City: Swingin’ With Duke – 3:33
For Dancers Only – Jimmie Lunceford and His Harlem Express – 178 – 1944 – 1944-Uncollected – 2:22
“Big Apple Contest”- The Solomon Douglas Swingtet – 211 – 2006 – Swingmatism – 2:57
Shoutin’ Blues – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 148 – 1949 – Kansas City Powerhouse- 2:38
Jive At Five – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 147 – 1960 – The Count Basie Story (Disc 1) – 3:02
Back Room Romp – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – 155 – 2000 – Ken Burns Jazz: Duke Ellington – 2:49
Stomp It Off – Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra – 190 – 1934 – Swingsation – Jimmie Lunceford upenergy – 3:08
Foo A Little Bally-Hoo – Cab Calloway – 175 – 1994 – Are You Hep To The Jive? – 3:01
Four Or Five Times – Woody Herman Orchestra – 141 – The Great Swing Bands (Disc 2) – 3:09
Savoy Blues – Kid Ory – 134 – 2002 – Golden Greats: Greatest Dixieland Jazz Disc 3 – 3:00
Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho – Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band – 160 – 1946 – Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band 1944-46 – 3:12
Perdido Street Blues – Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra with Sidney Bechet – 148 – 1940 – Blues In Thirds 1940-41 – 3:00
East St. Louis Toodle-Oo – Michael McQuaid’s Red Hot Rhythmakers – 152 – 2006 – Rhythm Of The Day – 3:21
Jungle Nights In Harlem – Charlestown Chasers – 213 – 1995 – Pleasure Mad – 2:48
Yellow Dog Blues – Vince Giordano – 195 – 2004 – The Aviator – 2:29
Lavender Coffin – Hampton, Lionel and His Orchestra with Sonny Parker and Joe James – 134 – 1949 – Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings – 2:47
Cole Slaw – Jesse Stone and His Orchestra – 145 – Original Swingers: Hipsters, Zoots and Wingtips vol 2 – 2:57
Flying Home – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 159 – 1940 – Tempo And Swing – 2:58
Savoy – Lucky Millinder – 192 – Apollo Jump – 3:26
Le Jazz Hot – Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra – 144 – 1939 – Lunceford Special 1939-40 – 2:41
I Want The Waiter (with the water) – Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra – 151 – 1939 – Lunceford Special 1939-40 – 2:44
Apollo Jump – Lucky Millinder – 143 – Apollo Jump – 3:26
Sent For You Yesterday – Count Basie and His Orchestra with Joe Williams – 163 – 1960 – The Count Basie Story (Disc 2) – 3:09
Good Rockin’ Tonight – Jimmy Witherspoon – 155 – 1998 – Jazz Me Blues: the Best of Jimmy Witherspoon – 4:15
Blues For Stephanie – George Gee And His Make-Believe Ballroom Orchestra – 140 – Swingin’ Live! – 4:55
Rock-A-Bye Basie – Count Basie and His Orchestra – 175 – 1960 – The Count Basie Story (Disc 1) – 3:37
Splanky – Count Basie – 125 – 1957 – Complete Atomic Basie, the – 3:36
Every Day I Have The Blues – Count Basie – 116 – 1959 – Breakfast Dance And Barbecue – 3:48
A Viper’s Moan – Mora’s Modern Rhythmists – 143 – 2000 – Call Of The Freaks – 3:30
Krum Elbow Blues – Mora’s Modern Swingtet – 162 – 2004 – 20th Century Closet – 2:45
Till Tom Special – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – 158 – 1940 – Tempo And Swing – 3:23
Six Appeal – Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five – 141 – 2004 – Crazy Rhythm – 3:29
Effervescent Blues – Mora’s Modern Swingtet – 122 – 2004 – 20th Century Closet – 3:07
St. James Infirmary – Hot Lips Page and his Orchestra – 122 – 1949 – Jump For Joy! – 3:12
Black And Tan Fantasy – Jimmie Lunceford – 104 – 1997 – Rhythm Is Our Business – 2:44
Why Don’t You Right – Jonathan Stout And His Campus Five featuring Hillary Alexander – 118 – 2004 – Crazy Rhythm – 4:59
Down Hearted Blues – Ella Fitzgerald – 122 – 1963 – These Are The Blues – 3:11
My Chile Jay – McShann Trio – 145 – Hootie – 3:20
Blues In Hoss’ Flat – City Rhythm Orchestra – 130 – 2004 – Vibrant Tones – 5:23
Moten Swing – Count Basie – 125 – 1959 – Breakfast Dance And Barbecue – 5:17
Easy Does It – Big 18Smooth Sailing – Ella Fitzgerald – 118 – 2000 – Ken Burns Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald – 3:07
artie shaw’s Self Portrait and Kid Ory’s completed Decca recordings
Ok, so we never found out what happened the other night. We suspect the cops just gave up and went home. Nice one.
I am currently the most boring person in the world. It’s The Squeeze’s birthday today, so I’m organising dinner for him tonight with whoever could make it at the last minute. I’m also sending him off on a CAE cooking course, probably the one with Cam from Eat It on RRR. The Squeeze loves to cook, but he’s mostly a wok man and doesn’t like masses of meat. So we’ll just have to see how he goes.
On other fronts, something lovely came in the mail for me today:
Artie Shaw’s Self Portrait. It’s lovely. Its packaging is lovely – nice box with nice ‘recycled’ paper sleeves, book and box. Five discs of loveliness. This is a really special thing as I’ve been saving and saving for it and needed some good Shaw action. Plus it’s interesting because Shaw selected the songs himself – in 2001. It’s not all that common for big olden dayes jazz doods to select the songs for their box sets, mostly because they’re dead. So this is not only a nice set of music (I’m enjoying it very much), but an interesting text. It’s also all remastered and nice.
I’m also on a major Kid Ory kick atm (continuing…), and this cheapy arrived the other day. The quality is kind of mixed, which isn’t all that surprising for the price, and the fact that a chunk of the music was recorded in 1922! I’m sure I’ll get over the whole New Orleans revivalist thing soon – Sidney Bechet gets up my bum a bit now, and I can see Ory heading that way too. But until then…
Right now
Right now it’s 2am and The Squeeze and I are sitting on the bed in the front room peeking through the blinds at about 3 thousands cops. Periodically a bloke on a megaphone asks ‘Paisley’ (Painsley? Ainsley?) and ‘Joseph’ at number 4 to come out the front door, down the path to the front gate with their hands up, where the police will give them more instructions. Apparently, this is the police, and they want to talk to them about a police matter. The house is surrounded. They will not be harmed.
Like I said, there are about 3 thousand police all over the intersection outside our house. But it’s quiet, except for every other dog in the neighbourhood barking and then not barking and then barking again. Every now and then the police give instructions and a car siren goes off. I hear a couple of bangs that I imagine are gun shots (as if I’d know what a gun shot sounded like), but are probably people throwing things around.
It’s a quiet Brunswick area, and while we have quite a few households of noisy teenagers in our street, there are far fewer problems in this area than others I’ve lived in. I’ve never had to call the police, not even for late night noise. My family used to live in a now-very-swish part of Brisvegas next to a boarding house with a few blokes who really scared me. We called the cops nearly every weekend because they were fighting and scary. I’ve lived in quiet suburban areas where I’ve called the cops while a frightened woman hid in our loungeroom from her abusive partner. When we lived in Fiji our house was broken into and we were scared quite a bit at night, until we left, and then there was a coup.
But this isn’t a noisy area. Which is kind of the point, I guess.
So there are all these cops on the street. The Squeeze went out a little while ago to have a sticky beak and was asked to return to the house. It’s kind of bizarre. We made jokes about the Victorian police and the promise that no one would be hurt. But they’re all out there now, very serious and square-shaped, and it doesn’t really seem all that funny any more. I have put on clothes, just in case. I’m not sure what the in case will be, but I want to be ready.
telly update
I’ve been watching a fair bit of House lately, and while I’ve decided Hugh Laurie is about as hawt as hawt gets, it’s getting a bit wearing. Lots of dramatic blood and far, far too much miserable middle aged man for me.
So I’ve replaced it with some of this action:
The video shop has about six seasons all on DVD so I’m set for a while. The Squeeze is disgusted, but I’m enjoying it. I like it that no one dies. I also like that it’s really all about the ladies. The few male characters in the program are really just props for the female characters – Rory has an attractive young thing who’s flitting in and out of the narrative, and whose only purpose seems to be admiring Rory’s choice in reading matter. Laurelai has a couple of blokes who drop into the story now and then, but they really don’t seem to do much except ask her on dates and be knocked back (especially if they’re only interested in her for her body), be grilled and then perhaps taken on a date (if they’re interested in her brain). Or they make her cups of coffee.
I like it. Nobody dies. I know it’s trash, but it’s better than Smallville, and there’s lots of it.
We are still mowing our way through West Wing – just started season 4. I have to say, I was really disappointed that the CSI secret agen guy was killed off at the end of season 3. He satisfied my inner chick-flick fan.
I care about telly at the moment because I’m on an ob-con fuelled craft kick. I’ve been quilting like a demon (I do have some lovely photos to put up – I’ll get on it STAT), I’ve been doing some crocheting (I like the complicated patterns, and really get more pleasure out of figuring out how it works than in creating a final product – there’s been lots of undoing and redoing), and I’ve just finished a queen sized quilt thing. The Squeeze hasn’t decided whether he wants it to be a quilt cover or a light weight quilt for summer. So I’m waiting on that. That one’s lovely – all shades of blue, and lots and lots of different types of Hawaiin print fabric. The patchwork design isn’t one of my best, but it was satisfying to put together and actually looks pretty ok.
I’ve also moved on from the recent rash of thriller/murder mystery books to some restorative Dianne Wynne Jones:
The Pinhoe Egg is lovely children’s fantasy, and I’m enjoying it very much.
rechanneling
Ok, so seeing as how I’m sitting about being bored/depressed/tiresome and cleaning compulsively, I’ve decided to rechannel all that ob-con potential and actually get on with making the thesis into a book. Thing is, I have no clue as to where to start. I have asked the Supes for advice and they have offered some advice. The no.1 publisher Supes (they’re both big publishers and pretty kick-arse career acka types – the types young girl ackas like myself idolise and try to emulate) suggested having a look at the Routledge site.
I’ve also read this guide to making your thesis into a book by MUP. But if anyone has any other suggestions, I’d be very grateful. :)
tech up
A revivial of the “Previewing. How do you DJ without it” thread on Swing DJs, coupled with a case of god-I’m-bored and the anniversary of my getting into DJing has prompted me to take an interest in DJing hardware. It probably doesn’t help that I’ve been reading that book by Justina Robson*.
I’ve been looking into some sort of software/hardware option to expand my DJing from a laptop for a while now. I want to be able to preview songs on headphones while I’m playing music that goes out to the mixer at the same time. With a pc laptop that’s as simple as opening two versions of winamp and telling it each where they should send the sound. But with a mac, there are far fewer DJing/music media player options.
I use itunes as my default music library/searcher/player. Problem is, macs won’t let you open more than one version of an application at a time – great when you’re working with word documents, but not so great if you’re looking to DJ. It wouldn’t be a problem if itunes would let me send music to two different outs. But it’s not a DJing tool, despite its popularity with swing DJs – it has a sweet search, nice layout, reassuring colour scheme, etc etc, but simply can’t handle the sheer volume of music and complexities of DJing. Winamp doesn’t work on macs. I have tried windows media player (gag), but it won’t let me click and drag songs from itunes to the media player (which is pretty important if I’m keeping itunes as my library – which I’d like). Plus it sucks. And Cuephase, one of the few plug ins for itunes isn’t terribly sexy or useful. The Squeeze was going to experiment with a bit of applescript, but I don’t see that happening any time soon (sorry love, but you know it’s true).
There are a whole heap of DJing software packages, but very few specifically for macs, and even fewer in a sensible price range. The problem is to do with the fact that there are so few mac users out here in the wilderness, especially not in comparison with winblows stooges. The PC doods often use PCDJ if they’re getting fancy (though the itunes/winamp option is a lasting favourite), but there really isn’t much for the mac DJ beyond DJ1800, which isn’t a great product. It has little ‘blank out’ moments when it pauses or simply drops out for a second or two. Recovering from these can lead to crashage. It’s also a bit resource-hungry. It costs ($US60 or $AUD77), it’s ugly as sin, but you can do nice things like click and drag songs across from itunes, shrink or minimise the various ‘cd players’ in the set up and tell it where you want it to send the sound – to the mixer, to the headphones, wherever. You can download a test version (which is worth playing with if you’re interested) which closes after 20 minutes, but I’ve had trouble convincing it to recognise my USB headphones. I’ll have another bash, but I don’t think it’s playing.
Anyhow, today I bought it (which means that it gave me the password so it won’t close after 20minutes), and I’ll have a play before letting you know how it goes.
To make playing through two sources at once possible (ie through headphones and through the mixing desk), you need to use a USB/headphone jack combination, or get jiggy with an external soundcard. I’ve been looking at a few, including the ever-popular-with-DJs turtle beach thingy and extravagant items like the numark mixers with 2 USB ports (look under products then mixers) which is complete overkill, ridiculously heavy for carrying with me on my bike, but too darn tempting for a DJ nerd. I haven’t exactly figured out whether or not I need the external sound card in combination with DJ1800 and itunes to be able to preview on headphones and play through the mixer at the same time, but there are other reasons for using an external sound card. Better sound quality is the most important (I’ve had one on my christmas list for a while). I’ll have a fiddle and see what’s what.
What I want:
– to be able to play music through two media players at once, previewing on headphones and playing through a mixer
– decent sound quality
Wish me luck.
It’s probably worth noting that I’m the only girl in my town who talks about this stuff. Meggers and I have become DJing buddies, though, and while we have very different tastes in music, we have similar philosophies of DJing (ie get the energy up and kick their arses, fill the floor and Keep It Street) and are equally interested in figuring out how all the equipment works. She uses a pc laptop, though, so we have different technical issues. It’s really nice to have someone with similar interests and experiences to play with. We take the desk out and figure out what’s connected where, trade tips as we learn new things and give each other feedback on the sound in the room when one of us is DJing. It’s nice and encouraging but also a great chance to explore technical stuff which is so male-dominated. We’ve also been charmed by the willingness of young Cameron to help us learn about this stuff. I guess he likes the fact that we’re more than happy to let him come up there and twiddle our knobs (wo-ho!) to demonstrate how to get a better sound from a particular song – I know there are a few DJs (both male and female) who are too defensive to ask for help or give help unstintingly. There is a degree of competitiveness between DJs in our town (because there are so many of us, and because Melbourne swing is all about competition – in ethos as well as practice), so it’s nice to have an amigo bandido.
Having said that, the SwingDJs discussion board is full of lovely, helpful people, and there are other DJs in other cities who’ll happily help out or share their experiences!
*It’s not a fabulous book, but it’s kind of addictive. As my dad describes it, it’s a combination of science fantasy elves and fairies stuff (literally) and cyber punk (literally – the female protagonist is a cyborg body guard for a rock star – what is it with books that like female cyborg assassin types? Or rather, what is it with the idea of a cyborg woman capable of violence?). And if something so silly can keep my hardcore-Sci-Fict dad interested…
anyone need a thesis written?
Ok, I’m bored.
This whole no-job, no-study thing has palled.
Writing articles? I’ve tried, and now I’m bored.
Job? Can’t get one. Well, not an academic one (it is kind of a quiet time of year – and that fancy job in the US didn’t work out. :( ). I’m not ready to work at JB just yet…. though I could handle Basement Discs. But please – fourteen years of tertiary education to return to my retail roots? I don’t think so.
Domestic maintenance? I have to be bored – our house gleams. But that hasn’t helped our mouse problem.
Sewing? Done a lot, kind of over it.
Quilting? Yeah, same.
Crocheting? Well, it is pretty much crocheting season again – I can bear to have a lap full of wool once more. But really – this isn’t high brain stuff.
Compulsive dance practice? I’m looking for high brain stimulation, thanks.
Compulsive cooking? Getting there.
Compulsive shopping? Stalled by my lack of solvency. But encouraged by the proximity of good grocery shops and my renewed interest in eating-for-interest.
Fillums? Yes, many.
Television and DVDs? Yes, even more.
Gardening? Quietish, but on the horizon.
Ob-con laundry? Oh yes – ask The Squeeze about his drawers. Both types, actually.
Webbing? I’m just about to sort out the site for MLX7. And the MJDA site needs to go to a blogging program. But I’ve lost interest in FSP. Though I’m tempted to take it up again after some stooge thought that Frankie Manning story was for real. God, never heard of satire?
Reading? Reading (and read) far, far too many books lately. All fun books, and no productive ‘work’ books. But reading lots and lots of articles (I am pillaging the databases with my new, sneaky back-door access).
DJing? Boring. Bored. Like a drill. Sigh. That’s so 1939.
Yoga? Twice a week and thinking about a third session. Flexible? √ Strong? √ Calm? √ sort of. Bored? √
I think I should make my thesis into a book. I have no idea where to start or how to do it, though I have had a look at the MUP help guide. It’s not all that helpful, though. But really, what else am I going to do? I have 5 articles (or so – I forget exactly how many) coming out soon, and it’s only March. Even I’m sick of me and my articles. And I’m running out of journals to hassle. I need something challenging.
Anyone need a thesis written?
TELL ME i’m not the only one
You know that Scorcese film the Departed? When I went to see it at the cinema it struck me as so ridiculous I laughed out loud during the really serious parts. I mean, really – am I the only who thought that film was completely shithouse? I mean jesus, the RAT running along the (window sill? I forget) at the end – surely I wasn’t the only one who laughed out loud?
Any film with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson is heading for crapsville. I like Mark Whalberg, but Matt Damon?!
TELL ME I’m not the only one who thought that film was utter crap?!
i guess you get what I mean, right?
Jean put me onto something neat here. It’s a talk by Ken Robinson about learning and teaching and you can watch the clip here. I can hear some of you sighing and clicking on, but I recommend dropping in to have a look and a listen – it’ll make you giggle. And there’s some talk about bodies and dance.
It’s interesting, because I’ve written and thought quite a bit about embodied and disembodied knowledge, and how different cultures privilege one or the other. Robinson talks about academics and how their bodies are really just vehicles for carrying their brains around. It’s true – I’ve always loved dancing (mostly la discotheque!), but before I got hardcore about dancing I always thought of my body as something for transporting my brain. I sufferred from serious migraine headaches – I spent a couple of days in bed each fortnight when I was finishing my MA. Can you imagine that? It seems completely crazy to me now, but then I just dealt with it (well, in a getting-depressed-and-wanting-to-blow-myself-up way).
Now I realise that the problem was that I was spending an awful lot of time sitting on my clack, squirrelling my stress away in my muscles. Now I know that if I don’t get up out of my chair and shake my arse every day, my muscles start to tense up and get cranky. And I get a headache. But I also know that getting up out of my chair and jiggling about to music I love for an hour is WONDERFUL! Going to the gym – dull. Jogging – duller. But dancing? That shit is GREAT!
Writing about dance for my work happened kind of by accident – I was coming out of a shitty first run at a PhD, I was hating it, I was miserable, but I loved dancing. And I thought, ‘What would be my dream situation? What would be most perfect?’ And getting another scholarship to write about dancing and score some funding to go to Herrang was that dream project. And you know what? They gave me the scholarship and they sent me to Herrang, and I wrote a big fat thesis and lots of articles about dancing.
Can you imagine anything more nuts? It just seems too great to be true – getting the chance to do combine dance with the loveliness of thinking and writing and reading and talking all day. I still feel insanely lucky – and I’m sure someone’s going to bust me some day and ask for the money and degree back.
The thing I like to think and write about, though (after I’ve written about saucy 1920s song lyrics), is the way dance works as system of meaning and a medium for the exchange of ideas – the way dance is discourse. That shit rocks. I mean, in cultural studies you’re so centered on the idea of language and words – most of the theory floating around in this discipline has at its heart the idea that words are the most important, most wonderful way of communicating ideas. I dig that – I’m all over the idea that words are great. But I’ve found, working with the various theories trucking about, that this doesn’t allow much room for other ways of communicating or representing the world. Sure, there might be vast tracts of writing about other disocourses, but they’re still vast tracts of words. I can make a joke with my body that simply doesn’t translate into words. You just can’t make the joke work. But one sight gag is worth a thousand words.
And then, the thing that really gets me pumping, is thinking and writing about the way dancers have gotten a hold of the internet and other hi-tech action and appropriated it for ther own, decidely embodied purposes. The last paper I submitted to a journal had a comment from a reviewer where they wrote:
The author needs to explain this meaning for the dance studies outsider and not use it for other purposes like a some sort of repetitive mantra or abstract motif to try and unify the article, or ‘sound academic’ . For example, couldn’t ’embodied use-value’ (p.6) just be ‘inherent usefulness’?
And after I got over huffing and puffing and being angry, I thought about the way I’ve used the expression ’embodied use-value’. I’d spent a large chunk of my thesis exploring the idea of particular technologies having ’embodied use-value’. For me, this meant asking how a particular bit of tech was valued for its place in embodied practice. In other words, dancers value particular types of technology because they can be used in an embodied context. They’re not very interested in books of vast theoretical discussions of dance. But they’ve gone crazy for youtube. Because you can do things with it, with your body. You can watch a clip, stand up and dance along.
I wanted to distinguish between ‘usefulness’ and embodied usefulness. Sure, the internet is neat for keeping people in contact, but for dancers it’s even more useful as a means by which they can access dance footage, download music and organise a dance class. The Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra Live in Swing City CD is a wonderful thing in itself, but when you pop it in the CD player and stand up, it suddenly becomes an incredibly useful and wonderful thing. And the difference is that it acquires a material, physical, immediate, embodied value and meaning. Here is the medium by which I can access the work of musicians in another country, years ago. Here is the means by which I am inspired to move my body. Here is the thread that joins me to my dance partner and to the dancers around me and to the people people in the room who aren’t on the dance floor, but are still listening and watching and moving.
When I read Gunther Schuller’s book The Swing Era, I certainly find use for his ideas. I read about Ellington and think about his life and read the musical score on the page. But Schuller’s book suddenly has far more meaning and value for me when I play the song he’s writing about, and get up to physically test the different percussive rhythms and soaring trumpet solos he’s describing. That’s embodied use-value. It’s not just the academic value of an idea or a line of prose. It’s not even the things that I might do with his words with my body in the future. It’s the things that I do do, and am doing, right now, when I’m shaking my arse.
I think that’s one of the things that I find so appealing about dance – each dance is transient. Sure, you can record it and watch it again later. But the real meaning of the dance lies in that moment when your body is in motion, when you’re touching your partner and the communicative process simply outstrips the resources of words. You can’t write about it later and hope to catch the true meaning, or to articulate the way it really felt. But you can certainly get up and move, and feel the meaning.
I think that’s the other important part of dance – it’s not just about watching, but about doing. It’s necessarily participatory discourse. That’s why I’m interested in vernacular dance rather than performance or concert dance – I’m interested in the way vernacular dance doesn’t let you just sit there and suck it in. You have to do it, to make it, to participate with your body. So your body cannot possibly just be a container to carry your brain around in. It actually is the medium and the message and the meaning all at once.
Ok, that’s a long way away from the original clip, but I guess you get what I mean, right?
so what have i been doing?
Sorry I haven’t written anything interesting lately. I’ve just been busy with other things. I am reading your blogs, though – just not commenting. If I owe you an email – sorry!
What have I been doing?
Going to yoga twice a week or so. The class I did on Saturday really kicked my arse. I’ve been having more trouble with my right hip (as I get older and less fit I find my minor niggles getting more niggley), so we did a lot of stuff to help the sartorius and whatsit get it together. We did a lot of standing poses, which I quite like, and lots of work on the sixty zillion muscles in our lower torsoes and around our hips. So today I am really sore and achey. My adductors (you can see a map of the adductor gang here) are talking to me. But at least I’m not getting grizzle from my Tensor fasciae whatsit – which is usually especially achey (it might not be called the Tf – I am crap with names). My lower back is achey, there’s some grumbling from various abs and my shoulders are aching – shoulders meaning everything across my back from my neck to the bottom of my shoulder blades. I also have achey ankles. These are all good aches, because it means that I’ve actually been using these buggers.
I <3 yoga, but yoga is not for babies.
Reading about blues music, the record industry and radio in the 1920s. I am working on a paper in a very loose way (I discussed the stuff I was reading here, ages ago), but mostly just reading where my interest takes me. I’m fascinated by the social, political, industrial and economic forces colliding in the blues music of that period. Blues music was incredibly, crazily popular in the 20s. Yet segregation was still seriously in place throughout the US, so black artists couldn’t work in the control booth with whites, were un- or underpaid by record labels, or dismissed as ‘low’.
‘Coon songs’ were also very popular – and very disturbing. A Coon song was basically a song performed by a white artist in black face, or otherwise ‘pretending’ to be black (and many of these were Jewish, which is weird stuff). They were pretty dang offensive. Minstrelsy generally was still very hip. But the blues music being sung and performed (often by women) was politically quite hardcore – the example I discuss in that earlier post (linked to above) is just one of a series of songs dealing explicitly with racist violence, domestic violence, poverty, sexuality and sex and so on. And it didn’t pull punches.
In addition, the Great Migration was happening – thousands of African Americans were moving north to escape lynching, Jim Crow laws and unemployment in the south. They ended up in cities like New York, LA and Chicago. So there were thousands of people from all sorts of different regions coming together and sharing music and dance in new, urban communities. Like Harlem. Race riots happened in most cities.
In terms of the music industry generally, radio turned up in the mid 20s, and within a six month period the phonograph industry was completely gutted. Prior to that moment it had been incredibly successful. But radio – with ‘free music’ – just killed it. So the race record labels (like Black Swan (NB I think the dates are wrong in that article) – labels run by African Americans and recording African American artists) were killed off. And their positive social work was cut off as well.
Then I’ve also been reading about the shift from blues to jazz in the late 20s, and the effect this might have had on black participation in the music industry. What was the impact of the formalisation and regulation of American radio on the independent black stations pushed off the dial by white business interests? What did it mean that radio stations wouldn’t record black artists in many cities? What’s significant about white artists pretending to be black (and vice versa) when they sang on the radio? When you keep in mind the fact that black artists and live music was very, very popular, what does it mean that white radio stations were ignoring black artists? And then, even more interesting, what is the import of each major regional centre/city having its own radio stations and radio legislation? And how does the American Federation of Musicians fit into all this – what with their recording bans in the 40s and racially segregated ranks during the 10s, 20s, 30s…? Surely there’s some sort of labour/union/race/class thing to be ferretted out there…
So I’ve been distracted by all that lovely stuff (who knows what was happening in Australia in the 1920s, music industry wise). But eventually I’ll get to the (interesting) point where I’m discussing how contemporary swing dancers – largely white, middle class urban youth – get into this type of music.
I’ve read a lot, but I need to stew it for a while before I can write cleverly about it.
Going to the Astor Cinema. To see the Fountain and Eragorn in a Friday night double. Nice date night action. The Fountain was dull, Eragorn was dumb (and if you’ve ever read any sf ever, 100% derivative… but not bad for a teenager). The Astor rocks, it’s nice to be able to go see a double feature on a Friday night for $13. The seats are uncomfortable, but they have nice cakes for the intermission. And it’s a nice art deco cinema (not as posh as the Westgarthe, but still lovely). We catch our tram down to the Domain interchange (about 30 minutes), then a tram down to the Dandenong Rd/Chapel St intersection (about 15 minutes). 45 minutes to get so far south is pretty good stuff, really. And they’ve extended the tram hours on Friday nights, so we can get home comfortably as well. All up it costs about $20 each for tram tickets, two films and snacks. Not bad at all for a nice date night. We have started eating dinner down there as well before the films, but have yet to find a cheap restaurant that’s not serving greaser food. Suggestions welcome.
Watching lots of West Wing and other telly on DVD. WW rocks the world. Yesterday I got Commander in Chief‘s first four episodes out on DVD. Dumb. It simply can’t compete with the fabulousness of WW. It’s poorly acted, poorly written, scarily simplistic and politically naive (it’s a soap, really), and all this does no favours to the concept of a woman president. Maybe I’d have dug it if I’d never seen WW. But not now.
I’ve also been working my way through House, which is much better than I thought it would be (admittedly, I’d thought it’d be shit). I’m really interested in the way they deal with ‘ethics’. The assumption is that Dr House doesn’t pay attention to formal medical ethics – he ignores ‘DNR’ (do not revive) orders, he bosses patients around and is rude, he does as he likes. With this in mind, how does this sort of bloke handle relationships with women, and more importantly, how does an American soap deal with an ethically dodgy protagonist? Is he going to get ‘reformed’ (I have my suspicions), is it going to be normalised? In addition to House’s own dodginess, his best friend (whose name I can’t ever remember – they guy from Dead Poets’ Society) seems always on the brink of adultery; one of House’s ‘assistant’ doctors (residents?) worked to undermine House by spying on him for the temporary boss-of-hospitality, all in order to save his own job; House’s lady resident is smitten with him and has been signed as ‘damaged’ in some way. It’s all a bit suss. But that’s what makes it interesting. Not interesting in a WW way, but interesting in a ‘what will this pop TV do with these issues?’ way.
While I’m on this tack, I have to say I have some minor niggles with the way WW handles gender. CJ seems to get quite different treatment (narratively, as well as by other characters) than the men. I don’t know if this is the program being ‘realist’, or some ‘unnoticed’ sexism sneaking in. Either way, it’s interesting enough to keep me watching.
DJing a bit, dancing a bit. Nothing to report. It’s kind of boring, actually, and I’m much more interested in yoga at the moment. There are plenty of CDs I want, and books I want to buy and read. But not much to talk about, really.
Reading a stack of crime fiction. I’ve finally made my way through a massive stack of sf from the Mother, and have started hoeing through a stack of crime fiction from the Supes (she reviews crime novels for a newspaper so has lots and lots of good things to borrow). I’m selective with my crime reading – I don’t like true crime, and I don’t like those voyeuristic and scupulously detailed discusssions of brutal rapes and murders. But I do like figuring out who did it and why. Right now I’m reading a Michael Connolly called the Lincoln Lawyers, and I’ve just finished one called The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow, which is apparently going to be a film in 2008. I’d really like a nice slab of sf, though, as the crime is kind of coming to an end. I think I’ll pop into the book shop in the city (called swords and something or other, or to Rendezvous Romance – because they sell really cheap new novels) and burn a hole in The Squeeze’s credit card.