Frankie95 Highlights and Observations Pt. I

I actually started writing notes after the first time I went up to New York City for meetings, but then Frankie passed away. The possibility of something happening before the event was always in the back of our minds. During our April 20th meeting in NYC, Frankie had been admitted into the hospital. At one point I caught myself considering various contingencies, but stopped. The idea just seemed too overwhelming not to mention too morbid to consider at the time.

And then it happened. A lot of people seemed to be surprised by his death, but for me it happened in slow motion as I got constant updates both public and private until the end. That weekend I wasn’t the biggest fan of the internet because it gave me a more intimate portrait of death than I ever wanted. I won’t go into that much further. We all had our reactions to it, and I’d rather keep mine to myself.

Prologue: Thank you, Frankie

You can’t control Falling in Love. That’s where the Falling part comes in, and why everything that comes after that can be so beautiful or so tragic. Sometimes both and maybe even at the same time. Falling is uncontrollable. If it could be controlled, then it would be Flying. Flying is how some of the old timers describe the way Frankie Manning danced. Flying is also what superheroes do. Frankie probably would have laughed off that comparison, but it’s a better description than you would think. After all, heroes give us Hope.

Hope is about possibilities and opportunities. There are now thousands of people around the world that can express themselves in a way that should have disappeared decades ago because Frankie taught them to Swing.

Swing is the way your Soul expresses itself. It's not just about music or movements. Swing about creating something new or different out of something familiar. Frankie once bragged that he could Swing even when he was standing still.

But when we Swing too hard or Hope for too much, sometimes we Fall. It felt like that a year ago. But that was Frankie’s final lesson to us: that Falling isn't always a bad thing. A year ago, something tragic eventually turned into something very beautiful.

Flying is not the opposite of Falling. It’s just another way of doing it differently.

Frankie Manning

May 26, 1914 - April 27, 2009

Frankie95 Review: The Warm-Up

I am in the process of re-posting a series of notes I originally put up on Facebook recapping my involvement with Frankie Manning's 95th Birthday Festival. I wasn't planning posting the following note, but as I was preparing this series, I noticed that there's some interesting background bits that I thought may be useful to know to give what comes later a little more context.

Frankie95 Lost Prequel: Into the Maelstrom

I came home at about 1:00 am on Monday morning from another musically brilliant DCLX weekend. Somewhere along the way I decided that it would be pointless to go to sleep since I had to be at the train station by 5:00 am to catch a ride up to New York City. Luckily(?) I was able to get about two and a half hours of sleep on the train before I got into the city a little before 9:00 am.

It took me a little while to get my bearings and head over to the direction of the Manhattan Center where most of Frankie's 95th birthday celebration will be held. That only took me about 4 minutes after leaving Penn Station, it's that convenient. The MC people wouldn't let me wander around on my own, but fortunately the planning committee was already gathering at the diner next door.

Frankie95 Video Addendum

Thought I'd pass along a few new clips from Frankie Manning's 95th Birthday Festival. First up is a couple of awesome looking previews of the DVD from the company that is producing it.

Hellzapoppin' in 30 Seconds

Full Preview

Via Yehoodi.com: New clips of the Hellzapoppin' Finals from waaayyy up on high. Great view of the action.

First song

Second song

Frankie95 Video Round Up-Introduction

I’ve been obsessive compulsively keeping track of videos posted from the Frankie Manning 95^th Birthday Festival. This is mostly because I didn’t get to see a lot of it despite being at all the evening events from before start until after finish. I was looking at the Silver Shadows’ routine and realized that there were 11 videos of it online. I wanted to determine which one got the best view. Then I got even more curious and did the same for the other performance videos, the competitions, etc. until I just compiled a ton of information.

I figured that it would be a shame not to share this stuff, so now everything is compiled into these easy to reference blog posts by day/night.

Click on the links below and enjoy!

Frankie95 Video Blog Introduction

I’ve been obsessively compulsively keeping track of videos posted from the Frankie Manning 95^th Birthday Festival http://www.frankie95.com/index.php. This is mostly because I didn’t get to see a lot of it despite being at all the evening events from before start until after finish.

I was looking at the Silver Shadows’ routine and realized that there were 11 videos of it online. I wanted to determine which one got the best view, and then I looked at the other performance videos, the competitions, etc. until I just compiled a ton of information.

I figured that it would be a shame not to share this stuff, so now everything is compiled into these easy to reference blog posts by day/night.

The official Frankie 95 DVD is being produced as we speak. You can order a copy by going to the Frankie95 website. http://www.frankie95.com/order_dvd.php

Until then , enjoy!

Thursday http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/frankie95-video-round-up-thursday/

Friday day http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/frankie95-video-roundup-friday-day/

Friday night http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/frankie-95-video-roundup-friday-night/

Saturday http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/frankie95-video-roundup-saturday/

Sunday http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/frankie95-video-roundup-sunday/

Monday http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/frankie95-video-roundup-monday/