I'm thankful for quite a few things this weekend. First off, I'm thankful for all the kind words from everyone concerning my grandfather both online and off. A good chunk of my family went to the Philippines for the funeral, which I couldn't make, but I'm also thankful to my extended Lindy family for providing a warm substitute. Especially to Naomi and her family for hosting me for yet another Thanksgiving. Also To Nina and Michael for hosting a fun post Thanksgiving dance party complete with a dramatic late night reading of soft core erotica by Nina. If you ever wonder who is the crazier of the two, Michael is always game for a competition
My favorite part of this video is the way it slows down for the couple of seconds at the end; just enough to capture the look of horror on everyone's face except for Michael's, whose look I can only categorize as pride.
At this point I guess Nina is used to hanging with the crazies. Inspired by the above video, Andy Reid reminded me of this one from ALHC 2002.
Remember, this is the first ever Champions Jack & Jill at ALHC, and I'm forever thankful to Marty for being unafraid to show everyone what exactly that meant in the grand scheme of things.
I'm thankful that I know people who don't take themselves too seriously. It really makes getting through life much easier.
Going along that same theme, (the "sexy times" one, not the "taking things too seriously" one) here's a video I found by way of Karen Turman featuring Peter Strom & Stacia Martin keeping things maybe a bit too loose in a recent class review.
All of this is just a very convoluted segue into the year end video round up that I'll be posting within the next few weeks. It'll be similar to the one I did last year (which you can see here, here, here, and here) just highlighting some of my favorite American Vernacular Jazz Dance videos of the past 12 months (give or take a few weeks)
I often wonder how the hell I know the kind of people that can inspire me to transition from my grandfather's funeral to sexy times to people falling down and back to sexy times. And that's when I remember why I'm thankful for Lindy Hop.
Thanks again to Susan, Mike, Naomi, Stephen, Nina, Michael, Liz, Amanda, Jess, Kara, Mike (different one), Crista, Caroline, the Tom Cunningham Orchestra, and everyone else for this weekend and everything else.