So researchers have confirmed that a skeleton found under a parking lot is, in fact, the skeleton of Richard III. Naturally, my friends from college were super into it.
So. We did.
(My excited what?)
And several of my friends tuned in. We got through the first three Scenes of Act I. Buncha pictures:
Terry makes the best Queen Elizabeth.
Manda played Rivers and Margaret, with appropriate headgear for each.
Terry, as Queen Elizabeth.
Kristin is sneakily disguised.
LISA as Gloucester.
Lisa froze! No!!
QUEEN MARGARET!
OMG.
Kristin is the original hipster.
Again. Terry and his shelf of awesome hats.
YAY FACES
Terry had the best hats, even though his were analog.
I've been thinking about my following (in a dance/Lindy hop context) a lot over the past few months. I reached a certain level round about September where I had taken all the classes in the normal series from the Jam Cellar, and it had come to a point where I was responsible for my own improvement. I didn't have instructors telling me things to improve on every week, and I had to figure out on my own where I wanted to take my dancing.
I did some reading online, and decided "interesting shapes" was my missing piece between intermediate following and advanced following. I became fixated on my arms, on jutting my hips during the rock step, and on trying to develop "feminine lines." I have lots of thoughts on why that was not a good direction for me (some of which I wrote about in my "Dancestravaganzaaa" series), and those will just have to wait for another time. In the meantime, I'll just say this: fuck feminine lines, I just want to DANCE.
(A version of this was originally posted to the r/swingdancing forum, and was mostly written between 1am and 2am after an awesome night of dancing.)
I've basically distilled my (current) overall following philosophy down into two main points:
Point 1: Mirroring (+10%)
I'm using the term mirroring here instead of matching (though they are really similar) because I learned about this concept in a non-dance context first.
Mirroring and matching are pretty basic follow tactics. Mirror the lead's frame. What does the lead do with their arms? Where does the lead want the tension to be, and how much? Where is the lead's center? Mirror the lead's musicality. How much footwork is the lead doing? How is the lead reading the music? A good follow should mirror and react to all of those things.
Also, especially in Blues, I tend to try to respect the tradition from which the lead is coming. People who feel like lindy hoppers, I'll follow more like a lindy hopper. If the lead feels like a ballroom dancer, I'll adjust my frame. Same with Tango and Salsa-- I feel like it allows me to better follow the moves they throw in and also creates a better experience for the lead.
Now the +10% part. Basically, to communicate effectively with someone, you can mirror them: smile for smile, srs business handshake for srs business handshake. This comes naturally to most people. What comes naturally to me, and is another tool for communicating even more effectively, is mirroring +10%. Other party in the conversation is smiling? Smile a little wider. Other party is telling a joke and giggling? Laugh out loud. Other person is frowning? Neutral expression.
In the context of dance, this happens in two ways. One is energy level-- I try to always be energized in my dancing and always pushing, just a little bit beyond what the lead is giving me. I find it really amps up the dance for me, even if occasionally I'll get a comment like "Whew! Do you ever stop?"
BUT! If I'm dancing with a lead who also gives a +10% and the song is rocking, our dance can build and build on its own energy until we're whirling around on the dance floor and nothing else matters.
The other place to use the +10% concept is skill level. If I'm dancing with a lead who is below my level, I'll try to insert a few very basic stylistic variations that won't throw the lead off, but will get them used to a follow doing a thing. A couple of minor swivels, a small kick here or there, etc. I feel like one of the reasons follows have it easier than leads is that leads rarely get the chance to learn from follows, whereas follows are led in more and more complicated moves all the time, forcing us to adapt. I try to be the best follow* I can be for every dance I dance, and sometimes that means a little bit of on the fly schoolin' for the beginners.
Oh, also, if you look thrown off by a fast swing rhythm, you best believe I'll have a strong pulse in the beginning.
*First and foremost I try to be the best dancer I can be.
Point 2: Be water.
Are you ready to get deep? Why the hell not, it's after 1am for me, I just had a great time at the dance, and I'm in the mood to ramble some more. The other day, I saw this clip:
It was illuminating. Lee says, "If you try to remember you will lose. Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless. Be water, my friend." That's how I try to follow, as best I can. I try to be water.
(There's been a lot of talk over the years about analogiesforfollowing and how they are often bankrupt. This one is no different. It's just how I think of it, and, for the record I think the same can be said of a good lead, except initially the lead is only "formless and shapeless" until he or she hears the music. Then the conversation begins and we both begin to transform ourselves into that which is not water.)
I try to be the most honest follow I can be, and that means not anticipating moves. It means interpreting the music within the structure the lead sets up. It means being able to react as quickly as possible to a new concept a lead introduces or switch directions as soon as the lead "mentions" it.
In a very basic sense, it means that I will Charleston with you for the entirety of "Lavender Coffin" even if I know that it's a terrible idea. It means that I will try to follow the rhythm you're interpreting, even if I can hear the downbeat and phrasing much better than you after a year of dancing and ten years of percussion and music instruction.
HOLY CRAP I love this song.
At its best, social dancing is a conversation between two people and the music. Each one brings different philosophies, styles, and ideas to the table, and hopefully each one comes away satisfied. When a dance feels like it clicks (for me, at least), it's usually because the way we interpreted the music was similar, our dancing styles lent themselves to each other and improved our conversation, and, here's the kicker, I didn't have to work very hard to make sure that happened. I didn't have to think about interpreting the lead's frame-- it was obvious. I didn't have to worry about my stylings messing the lead up; it was clear that they wouldn't. I didn't have to figure out a discrepancy between the musical phrasing that I was hearing and what the lead was telling me to do.
One last point: for me, a dance clicking is a different feeling between blues and lindy. With blues, it feels a little bit like neither of us is actually leading-- we're letting our bodies and our connection create the interpretation of the space and it's all kinds of counterbalance goodness. With lindy, a dance clicking is like the most fun day at the carnival ever. It's me getting to really grind into my swivels during the exact right chorus, it's us being playful with the music, and it involves a ton of movement and motion and preparation and followthrough. I laugh a lot when I dance lindy, and it's because of the energy and playfulness and just plain delight I find inherent.
Dancing is life. Good Lindy hop is indistinguishable from sheer joy.
Paul Simon - Hurricane Eye
This week a friend named Sandy came to visit. I spent about 48 hours camped out with Des, Lady the dog, and Sandy tapping at our windows and threatening the power lines across the street.
Avett Brothers and the Brooklyn Philharmonic - I and Love and You
Thinking of the folks in NYC this week. New Jersey and New York got hit much, much harder than we did. This is just beautiful.
Monsters and Men - Little Talks
It's funny how it all comes together. Marie is in Iceland, listening to these folks play live. I heard this song on the radio last night coming home from dancing. And this week, to me the song reflects both the tragedy of the storm and the excitement that is to come in rebuilding. And also this weekend as the election enters its last days and I go to Virginia Beach to knock doors.
Super America - The Bad Plus
This is my official Get It Done song. It makes me want to lean forward. And so I do.
First: Asaf Avidan - One day / Reckoning Song (Wankelmut Remix)
Holy Moses, this is a brilliant remix of a song whose original was, truth be told, a tiny bit whiny. This treatment feels like a simple marking of the passage of time. It's a bit frantic, a bit sad, and incredibly hopeful. "I don't think about you all the time, but when I do I wonder why. One day, baby, we'll be old; think of all the stories that we could have told."
Second: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes - Man on Fire
I feel like Edward Sharpe and his Attractive Null Sets actually just sings the songs in my heart. Maybe it's because I heard somewhere that his first album is based on a southwestern roadtrip the lead singer took when he was a child, maybe it's because the music feels like music I loved as a kid: the soul sounds of the hippies and Motown combined with upbeat parables. Maybe it's because he describes himself as a man on fire and then invites the world to dance with him. It's probably all of the above. Whatever it is, I do love it.
Third: Michael Jackson - Thriller
Thanks to the Jam Cellar, I'm learning to dance this. It has honestly taken 6 cumulative hours of instruction to learn the dance between 8:02 and 10:35. For those of you playing at home, that's two minutes and thirty-three seconds of dancing. Unlike Michael, we are not naturals.
Fourth: Logan Afyouni and Drunk Guy (Clark Chamberlin) - Caroline
I love this story. A gal with a guitar walks by, a super drunk guy begs her to stay and teach him a song. Their voices just... belong together. I love her face when she realizes what's happening and how special it is. And now they have plans to make music together. I love people.
Fifth: Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Shake That Thing
Last song of the night for me at the Jam Cellar this week. Whenever this song comes on, I try to strategically get one of the leads that will allow me to actually shake that thing. I try to dance with all levels of dancers and, as a follow, that means that I sometimes have to just chill out and do some triple-triple-rock step without too much distraction for the leads. Dancing is a ton of fun no matter what, but there are some folks with whom it's just... more fun. This week I grabbed Omar and we shook our things like nobody's business. It was awesome.
This book is a heck of a lot of fun. From spaceship decapitations to yellow mars cake that turns one's skin blue (and is, assuredly, probably, totally not uranium), Mr. Stranger's adventures, both "Marsian" (with an s, how adorable is that?) and earthly are hugely entertaining. There is very little introspection about how a gentleman of England should comport himself on an alien planet, and instead there's a lot of marveling at pterodactyls and then brutally slaying them. (Awesome!) Also, do you want an empty vessel of a wife into which you can pour all of your bullshit ideals about womanhood? Well, then, do I have a blue-skinned beauty for you! It's Overly-Attached-Marsian-Girlfriend! Oh, wait, sorry, "mora fera," or literally "blue face." Yup. It went there.
Basically, at the end of this book, I wanted nothing more than John Carter of Virginia/Earth/Mars/Princess and Mr. Stranger crossover fanfic. If anyone out there is willing to oblige, I have a few specific scenarios in mind:
1) Mr. Stranger and John Carter go to Mars at the same time, but land in different places. Their stories continue apace until they realize that John Carter has fallen in love with a princess of the RED marsians, whereas Mr. Stranger has fallen for a woman from the BLUE marsians. Obviously, this means war.
2) Mr. Stranger and John Carter go to Mars together and never quite get the hang of Marsian gravity. They hop around a lot and everyone laughs and laughs.
3) Stranger/Carter, alone on Mars. Anything can happen, and probably will, if you know what I mean!
4) John Carter is in the giant arena, totally outmatched by the giant Marsian beastie, when who should come to his rescue but Stranger, in his guillotinemobile!! The day is saved/more local fauna are mercilessly slaughtered.
5) John Carter and Tee get into a sharpshooter contest in Mars's first all-planet circus.
6) John Carter and Mr. Stranger form a writing circle where they chronicle their adventures and critique each other's work.
Really, the possibilities are endless. Please post in comments with a link to your completed work. Thanks!
Read it if: You enjoyed John Carter, but you wanted a little more cultural imperialism. If you would like to Save the Sci Fi. ESPECIALLY read it if you are interested in writing me some fanfic.
I was all prepared to give this book two stars, as I was put off by the incredible, undeniable sexism and the general assumption that everyone who survived the nuclear holocaust (in New York City in, let me see here, 1989) was white. But then, in one of the final scenes, it hit me like a flash. I saw it laid out perfectly before me-- this story was meant to be an art deco graphic novel.
From that point on, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, reveling in my imaginary graphic novel-- the Tintin-esque lurid colors of New York's jungle or the clean lines of the Chrystler building ruined and made jagged.
Basically, if you want something that's a little bit like Game of Thrones and a little bit like The Road and a little bit like Rise of the Molemen (Revenge of the Sewers)* and a little bit like the Great Gatsby and a lot like a Tin-Tin comic (and, let's be real, all the cultural bias that entails), this book is for you!
Also, I love Singularity& Co's organizational vision and I am prepared to give them a lot of the benefit of the doubt on this book and future ventures.
Read it if: You like dystopias, you like Game of Thrones, you would like to Save the Sci Fi, and you don't mind a little cultural imperialism and misogyny with your cornflakes. ESPECIALLY read it if you are looking to commit yourself to drawing a sprawling Art Deco graphic novel based on The Torch.
The author is: really, really sketchy about women having power.
Things that bugged me: Here is a representative quote: "Others, and they were women, noted Alda's sudden affection for Frederick, and gossip was born." (The Torch, Location 2983 of 3512.)
