country

i adore alt country and bluegrass and have been quietly feeding this passion. there are a few decent bands in town that i’d like to see, but i’ve no buddy to go with. i’ve tried tempting The Squeeze with potential photo ops (it’s country, man, so it’s bound to be good for photos, right?) but he’s not buying it. it’s just not cool with the young people to dig country. philistines (i know that’s not really how it’s spelt – i can’t be arsed chasing the dictionary, ok?).

anyway, i’ve come across this site – cowboylyrics.com, which, while pop-up laden, is worth a peek. that link there is to a search for ‘dawg’. absolute excellence. who said the internet was useless?
otherwise, i’m totally into po’girl, the be good tanyas, bonny ‘prince’ billy and dolly. eeeexcellent.

we are all about The Squeeze, rather than all about jesus

easter was just here. eggday coincided with The Squeeze’s birthday (again), so we were all about him rather than all about jesus. also meant that i forgot to do the chocolate thing for his family, who we saw over the weekend. they gave us many chocolatey things, and i later discovered a great many teeny chocolatey eggs hidden all through our house. which made the whole thing even more chagrin-laden (i know that’s not a real word-combo. ease up, hey?). i also forgot to send off my package of presents to the p’s in tas, despite having bought the presents well ahead of time. and i still haven’t posted it. i will post the package tomorrow. on dad’s actual birthday day. goddamn slack me. oh well.

work update

right, chapter 5 is now done. all i have to do is the intro and a dumb conclusion and then i’m sending it off to the supes for her to read through. i am SO sick of it. i’ve also done a fair old slab of lotr work lately, which i hate. i really hate lotr.
but it made me wonder. i hate lotr, but everyone else seems to love it. so what are we researchers missing when with this ‘i loove lotr’ bullshit? i think i’m the useful person on the team – i’m putting my loathing to good use.

all spinning all the time

finally. a reasonable draft of the dj paper is done. it’s 5000 words and i want 3500, but heck. it’s done. we also have title and abstract:

Swing DJs: not all-girls and not all-spinning, all the time

The Melbourne swing dancing community is centred on music and the dance act, and the DJ plays an increasingly important role in social dancing. The swing DJ performs an example of an elite performance of swing fandom, with status and meaning developed by online swing media discourse. Various institutions within the swing community, producing online media which ranges from email newsletters to websites and electronic discussion boards, not only regulate practical DJing opportunities for DJs, but also manage the meaning and value of their ‘workÂ’ within the community. The swing DJ identity is defined not only by the music they play and the fan knowledge they possess, but also by familiar markers of gender and identity. Melbourne swingers – as a fan community – reproduce traditional notions of gender and work and professionalism in much the same way as the wider community. This paper explores the swing DJ identity, and ends with a brief examination of the possibilities for re
sistance within swing DJ discourse.

of course the only things i write about in this blog are swing, my thesis, my partner and sewing and gardening. what else is there?

lindy hop history

i’m going to start posting some of the things i’ve written about swing dancing, lindy hop, swing culture, etc, here on this site.
hang tight – some are long, some are complex. they are of course copyright ME. if you want to reproduce bits make sureyou credit MEMEME.