How Ya Like Me Now?

Announcing the next stage on my road to internet domination: the Wondering & Pondering official Facebook presence. Like it here.

It occurred to me that I keep amassing links and videos that I hope to post on this blog, but since I always want to do it up all fancy like, they just kinda languish in the ether.

So I'll use the Facebook page to pass along the articles and random videos of interest that I don't have time to discuss in depth here. And I'll also post links to new posts from here as well. It'll be like a secret club except everyone will know about it. Everyone.

It'll also be a good way for people to connect with me on FB. Honestly, I still feel a little weird accepting friend requests from people I've never met before. I know plenty of you read the blog, but I'd like to reserve my personal FB page for people I know directly. So if we're FB friends now, but we've never met, there's a good chance I may be cutting you loose soon. It's nothing personal, but . . . you know . . . there's just nothing personal between us. But then, you'll have this new Facebook page to Like and we can keep up that way.

I also realized that I spent an entire post describing my YouTube favoriting rationale, but forgot to link to my YouTube page.

That's this thing here: http://www.youtube.com/user/jalmon007

Feel free to subscribe. Or just hit refresh a lot, waiting for the next embarrassing old video to pop up.

Tell your friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tFFYnKxFss

More Lindy Focus Highlights & Bonus Footage

It occurred to me that I said that I was going to post my other Lindy Focus video highlights and I never did. Well the long wait is over. And because this slipped my mind I included some super special sauce footage at the end of this post.

Snowballin'

There's been a lot of interesting chatter about the Lone Star Championships and Dax & Sarah's television appearance. I've been trying to put some thoughts together since Lindy Focus about some of the issues that these two recent events bring up, but I don't have anything coherent yet. That's mostly acombination of me being too busy and people saying thoughtful stuff. Until I can get something together, check out a few video highlights from The Snowball over in Stockholm Sweden which took place over the New Year holiday at the same time as Lindy Focus. My favorite has to be this bluesy hip hop improvisation done by Joyss with the Gordon Webster Septet.

Follow This

In the mean time I thought I’d point out the cross blog conflagration over Bobby White’s ill worded analogy about following. (btw, how’s that MFA program working out for you, dude? Just kidding) It triggered a lot of thoughtful and interesting responses. It’s cool to go through them if only to see how well connected the Lindy blogosphere is these days. Go Team!!

Giving Thanks

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

Swingtime "Never Gonna Dance" and other notes

In the meantime I'll leave you with a discovery I made a few weeks ago. As you'll recall, I did a short post about my favorite Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie, Swingtime. Unfortunately the Youtubes took down my favorite dance scene from it. However, I was inspired to widened my search and discovered it here.

ILHC 2010 Round Up

Yeah, I'm busy again. I have a bunch of ideas for posts, but not a lot of time. Luckily the Lindy blogosphere has plenty of reactions. Online reaction on Facebook to the event itself has been crazy good. Thanks to everyone once again for attending, competing and working the best damn event around. First and foremost, results are now available on the ILHC website complete with score sheets in formats.

Camp Hollywood 2010 Observations

The National Jitterbug Championships at Camp Hollywood happened a couple of weekends ago. I’ve been pretty lax with the video updates, but thankfully the Lindy Blogosphere is on the case.

Keith Shapiro

I was preparing a post on DJ’ing when I heard the sad news that Austin DJ and event promoter Keith Shapiro passed away last night. I only met Keith very briefly many years ago, but he touched many lives through his work in our community. He was also host of the Blues podcast Confessing The Blues.

You can offer condolences and support to his memorial Facebook page. A number of his friends are also paying tribute to him online.

My condolences to his friends and family especially to his wife Summer and his two daughters Anna and Ella.

Weekly Video Highlights: The Herrang Blues

It's the middle of July when most of the Lindy world comes to a grinding halt unless you happen to be in a very small and secluded town in the Swedish countryside. If Camp Jitterbug is the most important event in the Western Hemisphere, then Herrang Dance Camp is the epicenter of the Lindy-verse. But despite having the largest concentration of Lindy Hoppers for the longest period of time all year, the event doesn't generate much in the way of videos unless you count the numerous class recaps by students or yet another one of Chester Whitmore's adventures . However, a good number of blues inspired performances have come out of the camp over the years.