The Shape of Things to Come

Yep. I'm not going to be one of those people who is going to apologize for not updating his blog in awhile because really, I never promised you a regular posting schedule. However, I do realize that a ton of people hit this site every day for some reason, so in order to satiate your thirst for knowledge and entertainment, stepping into the role of designated blogger for the next few posts is the lovely and gracious Karen Turman.

Karen made the mistake of sending me a little treatise about her now legendary "Evolution of Lindy Hop" showcase routine at ILHC. After some badgering, begging, and pleading, I convinced her to let me post it on this very blog just because I think it's super interesting. Plus she doesn't know it yet, but I want it someplace convenient so I can cite it for the stunning conclusion to my own "Artistry In Rhythm" paper.

I think Karen's paper fits nicely with the themes we've been exploring here and I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy reading it as much as I did. I'm going to post it in several parts over the next few weeks so as not to hit you over the head with too much awesome all at once. Plus I need time to format it and shove in some helpful videos.

Speaking of which, I'll post some of my own videos of bands and dancers that I've recorded over the past few weeks to break up Karen's dance geekery. Somewhere in there I'll try to comment on ULHS and find some other old posts to toss onto the site until stuff settles down in my own life for me to post regularly again.

I also want to give you a sneak peak into the ILHC LED Talks that happened this year. The plan is to get them online to share with the community as soon as I can get them edited nicely and posted onto the ILHC website. If you have any expeience with such things, please drop me a line.

Overall, the talks were super informative and thought provoking. I thought I'd share a snippet of an important discussion with event co-directors Nina Gilkenson, Tena Morales, and Sylvia Sykes where they discuss their vision for ILHC.

Video credit: David Soltysik

YouBlog: ULHS 2010

I'm not even going to pretend anymore that I have time to blog about much of anything at this point, at least not until after the elections are over. I have been writing a bit about my revelations about life and the nature of the universe, but that stuff has to undergo some serious editing before I send it off to be carved in stone somewhere.

Since I know a good chunk of my massive readership was in New Orleans this past weekend, let's try something different, and you tell me how it went. I'd honestly like to know. If you were too drunk to remeber anything or suffer from low self esteem, then feel free to make something up. Results from the contests would be appreciated as well.

Oh, if you took videos of anything down there, I think I speak for everyone when I say: Get that shit on the interwebs ASAP! please. Feel free to throw in 2008 and 2009 ULHS videos while you're at it. I'm especially interested in seeing footage from the Showdown finals and the pool party. What?

ps just for Andrew: finish reading that thing Karen sent you so I can put something up for these people to read and we can bask in your collective glory.

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.

The Revolution is Being Televised.

I've actually been writing quite a bit. Just not anything I care to post for public consumption. While I'm still thinking of stuff to post, I'll share some videos I took while at the Lindustrial Revolution in Charlottesville, VA a few weeks ago. It was a fun event put on by the awesome folks at SwingCville.

Here's Karen Turman and Andrew Thigpen milking every last bit of work they put into their awesome ILHC Showcase routine for their instructor demo.

And then swinging out just to swing out.

The Jack & Jill Finals

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.

ILHC 2010 Initial Ruminations

I’m glad I didn’t promise to update during the weekend because that would have turned me into a dirty liar. However, I think this ILHC marks a significant milestone in the Lindy blogosphere. When I started this blog a little over a year ago, there were only a handful of Lindy related blogs that updated infrequently, but now the online community is really starting to blossom. A couple of blogs updated during the weekend and a few more posted reactions within days of the event. I’ll recap those when I have a chance. I didn’t post mostly because I ended up way busier than I was last year. Last year was the second one at the Sheraton Crystal City, and we had already gotten into a groove working with that venue. Being in a new place this year brought all kinds of new challenges in addition to all the regular unexpected problems that pop up. I spent most of Thursday and Friday putting out a bunch of brush fires that took out the free time I had last year to post.

Jonathan Stout at ILHC 2010

In addition to letting me take pictures, my new camera takes nice HD videos too. Here are a couple of after and before videos of Jonathan Stout at ILHC last Saturday night.

My ILHC 2010 in Pictures

So much for updating in a timely fashion. Things are just starting to settle down, but I thought I'd at least share some photos I took over the weekend. I'm not claiming to be much of a photographer although it's something I'd like to get into more. I just got a new camera last month and it's the first time I've owned one in over 10 years, so picture quality has a lot to be desired. A few others were taken with my new Droid 2 phone that I got the weekend before ILHC. All things considered, I figure that this is the easiest way to show you my weekend until I have the time to write up something more substantial. Thanks to everyone coming out and supporting the event!

Video Review: Jo & Peter Invitational Jack & Jill ILHC 2009 and ILHC 2010 coverage.

I thought about posting ILHC videos like I did for 2008, but Dave over at Jazzpirations already did that. Instead, I thought I might as well talk about one particular dance by Jo Hoffberg and Peter Strom from last year that caught my eye a few months ago.

Storytelling Through Movement

I saw Scott Pilgrm Vs. The World yesterday. I won’t do a full scale review of it, but I will say that it’s an awesomely fun movie. There was one fight scene that reminded me of a film I saw at a Terra Cotta Warriors Kung Fu Film Festival last winter that I wanted to post about but forgot.

The movie is called . . . wait for it . . . Dirty Ho. Gotta love unintentionally hilarious translations. The scene below may have been the inspiration for the one in Scott Pilgrim where the lead character is “led” by his romantic interest in his fight against one of her evil Ex’s.