As per the request of one of the DanceNet readers, here are copies of the past ramblings of the DanceNet Webmaster.
A while ago I had an opportunity to take a workshop with visiting teachers whom I hadn't seen in a few years. During the "swing fad" of 1998, these teachers were one of the hottest teaching couples to hit the scene and were really impressive in their teaching skills and their appearance. They were people you would have wanted to see on the cover of a LIFE magazine from the Lindy Hop era.
Fast forward to the present.
I saw these same teachers recently and the male teacher was wearing beat-up jeans, beat-up sneakers, a warm-up jacket over an old t-shirt and appeared unshaven with uncombed hair. My first thought was "This is a "professional?" And then it turns out they hadn't done much planning or practicing together for the workshop (they admitted as much in the class) aand spent quite a bit of class time trying to figure out they were trying to say without arguing about it in front of their students.
I felt this was incredibly unprofessional of them to appear unprepared in front of paying customers and to not care enough to spend a few minutes before the class to tuck a shirt into their pants and comb their hair. Students who shell out their hard-earned money shouldn't have to and should not put with this level of indifference from "professional" teachers.
I'm always interested in making a road trip to check out a new dance scene and meet new dancers. One such road trip that I wanted to make was a trip to the monthly New York Swing Dance Society's Sunday Swing Dance. When a friend noticed that Roy Gerson was playing there this month, it was a great motivation to finally get down there. Roy Gerson played at the weddings of Roger & Lise and Margaret (Batiuchok) & George and raised the bar for how a wedding band could and should invigorate a wedding reception and I wanted to see them again.
The dance was on Sunday around 8 pm (in theory) so we left Boston around 2 pm with the intent of getting down to the city around 6 pm in hopes of finding on-street parking as people leave the city at the end of the day (again, another theory). For some reason, the area around where I-91 and I-95 meet was backed up and took us an extra half-hour to get around. The city itself was crazy as it took us an hour or so to drive in a spiral direction to get close to the dance, which I should mention is in a new location on the West Side (not at Irving Plaza anymore). This area is somewhat hard to get to and hard to get around (very close to the Port Authority and the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel). Somehow, the parking gods were smiling upon us as we managed to find an open parking spot on the street, pretty much the closest possible spot to the dance...and right behind the car of Roy Gerson himself.
The dance is now in a church hall, the basement of a Croatian church, and it gives a nice cozy room for dancing. The main dance area of the floor is delineated from the sides by different colored wood so it encourages dancers to stay out in the center while leaving the edges open for people who like to foxtrot.
The band was even *better* than I remembered. It's always been conventional wisdom to make sure Roy Gerson himself is playing with the band (as opposed to just hiring a bunch of musicans with the band's name) to make sure he inspires and drives the band to play their hearts out for the dancers. This dance had some of the best dancing music I've heard at a dance in a very long time and it was all due to Roy Gerson making sure that the band knew they were playing for *dancers* who have a much higher standard for swing dancers than normal folk. We were entertained by a group of (very) young tap dancers who put on an incredible demonstration of footwork (how can anyone move their feet that fast?!?!) and they hung around afterwards to continuing dancing while the band played for the swing dancers. We had a choice of watching the tap dancers or dancing; it wasn't that easy a choice.
It was worth the trip to see a great band and to see old friends. Our plan was to drive out of the city and get a room at some motel on I-95. This plan had merit because we wouldn't have to drive all the way back to Boston and yet we avoided having to drive out of the city on Monday morning, a wise choice. And to top off the trip, it was a great excuse to stop off at Reins for breakfast/lunch.
I wouldn't mind doing this road trip again.
Oh yeah, before I forget, congratulations to Darra and Doug who got engaged recently. (about time, Dougie)
Also, for the "old-timers" who might remember her, Carolyn Schweitzer ("the Dancing Dentist") gave birth to a baby boy, Adam, a few weeks ago.
On my old LCD flat panel monitor, it turned out that certain shades of green did not appear correctly so I finally got a new monitor, well, a used one, where the colors were correct. It's nice that I can see all the colors correctly now (the green color that was used to denote the dance weekends on the calendars were coming out yellow). The fact that other greens showed up properly confused the issue.
Of course, one thing I liked about my old NEC monitor was that it was *bright*. While it was only a 15-inch monitor (equivalent to a 16/17-inch CRT), I didn't miss the larger 17-inch monitor it replaced. This replacement monitor is of a cheaper variety. While it displays the colors correctly, it uses cheaper components and doesn't display as brightly (which is why I didn't choose it over the NEC monitor a few years ago).
Since the monitor is what you look at all the time while using your computer, a good bright LCD monitor makes all the difference as to whether or not your eyes get tired while working on the computer. While I'll probably use this replacement for now, I think I'll starting checking out the replacement for *this* replacement monitor soon. And I'll have to go back and fix all those websites that I created while using the bad monitor.
While shopping at the grocery store, I was thinking that the paper products companies could get rid of a huge chunk of their marketing budget if they would just make it easier for consumers to choose between the different varieties of paper towels and toilet paper. All they'd have to do is set up a "demo copy" of the paper product at the shelves and let us feel each one to see which one we preferred. We'd be able to come up with a more objective evaluation of whether or not the paper's quality was worth the extra cost.
You'd be able to see that a cheaper paper towel might be thinner and rougher (think "sandpaper") than a higher end product (for example, like the Bounty® brand, or that *really* nice one my sister buys). I know that the thinner paper towel might require more sheets to wipe up something and get discarded right away while a better brand will absorb more, feel softer and last longer. I know I'll go through cheap paper towels much faster than a good brand. You can't tell that difference from watching a commercial.
The same analogy applies to toilet paper, but let's not go there. One good objective test: would you want to use that paper product to blow your nose?
While people might or have to buy their paper products based on price, consumers should have more objective information to decide if the better brand is more cost-effective. You can't beat a first-hand trial test.
On the other hand, using this method of promoting their products instead of spending money on commercials is unlikely to result in lower prices. And the cheap stuff just encourages me to use cloth napkins more often anyways.
For those of you in Boston who drive down to Rhode Island to buy Powerball tickets, you might want to know that the Thursday night dancing at Providence Swings is on the way home on I-95.
This is a reminder to anyone who lists their events on this website. It is your responsibility to make sure that information for your events is updated on this website. I add listings to this website based either on flyers I pick up at dances and/or email that I get from you. If you choose to cancel or otherwise modify your event, it does not get updated on this website unless I hear from you in a timely manner (this applies to the sponsors, too!)
As I don't get paid for maintaining this website, it is not my job to constantly check to make sure every promoters' event is updated on this website. There's just too much information and too many different venues for me to do that, even if I did get paid for managing this website. Don't assume that I check your website for the latest updates; that's your job. I just provide an easy way for your potential customers to find out information about your event. Please take advantage of that.
And the same applies to the *readers* of this website. While I must admit I probably know more about the dance events in New England than most of the dance community, it is not my job to provide you personal service in keeping you informed. If the information is not on my website, then I probably don't know anything about it. And if it is on my website, then it should be pretty obvious how you can find it. Do not send me email asking where and when some event is being held; look it up yourself. (Excuse me? The location information for the April 14 swing dance in Providence might be on...this website's Rhode Island calendar?) You can lead a horse to water but...
A dance teacher recently used his mailing list to forward a politically-motivated message disguised as a rallying cry to raise arms against an evil, money-grubbing tyrant (formally know as a major oil/gas company). The message wanted everyone to stop buying gas from Exxon/Mobil for the rest of the year. This is my response to him (with a couple of ideas added after I fired off my response).
This is a *CHAIN LETTER* disguised as a public-service announcement.
You know, the ones that say "forward this to as many of your friends as possible".
This is an *OLD* trick that has NOT worked in the past. It is a waste of time
and effort. It is an incredibly STUPID idea. If someone's running out of gas
and the nearest station is Exxon/Mobil, do you think they're going to choose
not to buy gas there? Who's *really* going to get hurt? All those small gas
station owners who have *extremely* thin profit margins. Hell, this might
put a lot of them out of business, just because you're mad at the oil companies.
Gas prices are driven by market supply and demand forces. If we don't buy
from Exxon/Mobil, their demand will go down. HOWEVER, we *still* have to
buy gas somewhere so demand at *other* gas stations will go up. They
will not have *any* incentive to lower their prices if people buy gas
there instead of Exxon/Mobil. The fact that one of their competitors
lowers their prices makes *NO* difference if their own demand is still high.
In order to have an effect on *overall* prices, you have to
stop buying gas *completely* and that ain't gonna happen. This simple idea is taught
in Economics 101.
If you REALLY want to do some good, you need to vote out the bastards
who are covering for these oil companies. The top "leaders" in this country's
administration are former oil people; they take care of their own.
You also need to be politically proactive and contact your legislature about
promoting alternatives. Tell the politicians that the oil companies are
driving up inflation with their prices. Tell Governor Romney to stop interferring with the
Cape Wind project so we could reduce the cape's petroleum dependency
by *75%*. Now *that's* real money not going to the oil companies!
Petroleum is a dwindling resource. At some point we're going to run out.
You think $2.79 a gallon is expensive? Think about what it will cost
when we can't find any more oil deposits. All the protests and
boycotts aren't going to do a damn bit of good.
Sending out email like this might make you feel good for a few seconds,
but in the end, most people aren't going to do anything. Most people
will have better things to worry about after they delete this message.
If you want to do something useful, fight for alternative energy sources. Fight for
hybrid cars. *That* is the way to lower demand for Exxon/Mobil's products
and you know that's what the oil companies *don't* want. Better yet, convince
the oil/gas companies to become *energy* companies so it'd open the doors to
profit from alternative energy sources. Oh, that's alot of
work, isn't it? Much harder than just forwarding someone's email diatribe
and hoping someone else will do all the fighting.
And, [name removed to protect the politically-naive],
it's really NOT a good idea to use your dance class mailing list
for political purposes. Paying customers don't necessarily have the same
political leanings as you and you take a chance of alienating them and
hurting your business. Sending out something that's not very well thought
out is a reflection on *you*, not the original author. They can always go
find another teacher who doesn't use his business to promote his political agenda.
PS: How do we know that this scheme was not cooked up by one of Exxon/Mobil's *competitors*?
As a matter of fact, I *do* buy Mobil gas most of the time. They have "good" gas and my car requires 93-octane gas all the time. In addition, the gas station I go to is a full-serve gas station and for the few extra pennies it costs me, I like supporting the people who work there. People who get to know you as a regular customer tend to treat you better in the long run.
Unlike this dance teacher, I don't have paying customers to worry about. And since I don't dump my Soapbox into people's mailboxes, my readers can choose to ignore it. In fact, not all that many people actually see this page, just those people who want to ensure that their own name isn't mentioned here.
The band was unbelieveable. It was a great show. They played all their material from their CD and they put out an incredible amount of dance energy into their show. Even if you couldn't dance to their really fast tunes, you were thoroughly entertained by the sight of Carmen wailing away on that guitar. This is not the normal band you see at a typical swing dance. As a traveling band, they constantly walk into venues that they don't know and that night they wanted to make sure we didn't forget them. It was incredible that they could maintain that energy level until the last note was played.
I feel sorry for the people who didn't make it out there that night. I heard that a crowd of Rhode Island lindy hoppers went north to Boston that night, but I couldn't understand why they'd choose to skip a great band passing through their own town, in the region for the first time in 8 years. And after 8 years, I finally got their autograph on the CD (and on top of her guitar playing, Carmen is absolutely gorgeous up close!)
Some person was/is teaching a dance lessons at some fundraiser event for some organization (said organization not being identified to prevent revealing the person who wrote to me). This lesson was a one-shot lesson where there would be no dancing for people to practice what they just learned.
Someone associated with this organization wrote to me asking that this event be listed. My response was that such a one-shot lesson in some dance form was pretty useless. It's not going to help people who want to dance because there was no dancing or practice afterwards. It's sole purpose was to get people into this event and this event had *nothing* to do with dancing. It had nothing to do with the dance community. There was no compelling reason to list that class on this website, even if there was an appropriate place for it.
Naturally, some people want to get in a last word or to retaliate when they feel rejected and such was his response:
"When a dance instuctor that posts on your site came to [one of his organization's events and made an announcement] regarding Swing City lossing it's space I went out of my way to bradcast the meeting to save it to [his organization]'s Members. So next time I hear info re: to dance I will have the attitude of "I don't see anything that would be worth listing on [his organization]'s Website"Of course, I had to respond to make sure he understood my points:
P.S.: Thank you for giving me my Soapbox material for this week.
One of the interesting things about being around the local dance scene all these years (15 years now) is that I get to meet a lot of people, both the nice kind and the "full of it" kind, and for some reason, many of them like to tell me the latest thing that's happened to them dance-wise. This applies to dancers, dance promoters, and music providers. In some ways, this gives me more of an outsider's view of certain situations.
For instance, many years ago a certain dance promoter tried to talk a non-local band into taking a gig for a percentage of the gate receipts. The leader of the band didn't know that the venue actually had low attendance and that he'd be "taken" if he accepted that offer. It was unfortunate for the promoter who didn't know that I knew the band leader personally and that he might ask *me* for advice.
I also hear about bands who try to oversell themselves to the promoters who are hiring musicians for their events. Two bands tried to bill themselves as the best swing dance bands around, based on who hires them and who dances to them (I should introduce them to each other). On closer examination of their recordings or a live performance, the bands didn't "swing", regardless of who was dancing to them. The bands need to make sure that they have the goods to sell to the venue promoters before they make that first cold call.
People who try to take advantage of other people in this business really need to understand that some of us view the local dance scene as a "community", especially those of us who have been around long enough to remember the days when it really was a small community and all the dance promoters actually knew and liked each other and supported each other's events. Some of us still talk to each other about the business and we learn fairly quickly who are the good guys and who are the unscrupulous ones...and which ones were really just full of themselves.
In light of that, some people need to stand back and take an objective view of how they deal with others in the dance community and see if maybe they need to take a new approach. Bands need to make sure they have what it takes to get hired a second time before they even accept the first gig. Promoters need to pay a band well enough so the band will be motivated to play well enough to get hired again. One side trying to take advantage of the other just hurts the business and the overall community.
About three or four months ago, I heard a rumor about someone trying to arrange a Boston Lindy Exchange and the May edition of the Boston Swing Dance Network dance was rescheduled to accommodate and support that event. Anyone know what happened?
Are you going to Beantown this year? I'll be at the weekend for sure and probably popping in during the week. If you're a regular reader of this website and you're going to Beantown, please catch me and say "hello". I'm always happy to meet my readers...and show them that, yes, I'm a real person. :^)