As per the request of one of the DanceNet readers, here are copies of the past ramblings of the DanceNet Webmaster.
I can see that it makes sense to have advertisement to pay for a free service, such as this website, since such a website provides a free service to the public and someone has to pay for the ISP costs. For a private commercial business, however, it's not very impressive to have someone else pay for one's own advertisement. The point of these dance venues is to make money. There is the implication that the venue can't be any good if they have to have someone else pay for their advertisement.
Most (paid) email accounts have free webspace included (for example, dj Ken Mercik's website and the Piety Corner Club or even my own webpage). Use them! These pages are simple and clean and FREE OF ADS. Those pages have *only* useful information for their readers; there are no advertisements to distract the reader from the reason for looking at that page. Furthermore, there are no pop-up webpages that cover up the information that you're looking at. Can you imagine if you had a pop-up advertisement while watching the latest Star Wars movie *during* the movie?
Don't aggravate the readers with a bombardment of ads by non-dance-related businesses that have nothing to do with the business you're trying to advertise. If nothing else, it saves you from being made fun of in this Soapbox.
Those of you who read Scott Adam's Dilbert comic strip might have heard of the term "In-duh-vidual". Those of you who've joined "Dogbert's New Ruling Class" (DNRC) know that it's much easier to take over the world when it's populated by stupid people.
Case in point: The other day I was at the BJ's Wholesale Club in Stoughton (after having checked out the Reebok Tent Sale across the street). As typical, I grabbed a shopping cart that was left behind someone's car as I was returning my own cart to the store's return rack; I know how much I hate it when someone leaves a shopping cart behind my car. On the way back to the car, I was watching some couple load their ill-gotten gains into the back of their SUV (!). As the woman got into the car, the guy had a choice of where to leave the shopping cart: on the grass away from the store where other shopping carts were decorating the scenery *OR* at the designated *return* rack in front of the store. Both locations were equidistant from their SUV.
Which one did the guy pick? The grass away from the store, of course. He didn't even consider the fact that his wife(?) was going to drive by the return rack anyway on the way out and could save him the walk back to the car. I think that he didn't want to be seen doing any favors for the store, so they would now need to hire more labor to haul shopping carts from all over the parking lot back to the store and raise their prices. Argh...
Those of you who use LavaSoft USA's Ad-Aware software to search for spyware installed on your computers should know that there are programs out there that will *remove* Ad-Aware from your computer! (check their website for more details).
I just happened to realize that I hadn't seen Ad-Aware's usual scanning when I started up my computer in the morning and I then found out that the entire directory for their software was empty. I suspect that a certain program that I have might have removed Ad-Aware upon installation because I just rebuilt my main computer with WindowsMe and I reinstalled all the important utility programs (like AntiVirus and Ad-Aware) before the applications. When I last installed Ad-Aware, this other program had already been installed. I'm suspecting it because it's an ad-sponsored program until it's been paid for. I'll wait until I get a confirmation from LavaSoft USA before I let you know which one it is.
Of course, so much activity and a serious lack of sleep this weekend created a lot of random free-floating ideas for this Soapbox...
Live music is always better. The current trend in dj music is to play jazzy slower low-energy music. I spend a lot of time at those kinds of dances not being inspired and usually sitting out. A live band puts out a lot of good energy and transfers much of that energy to the dancers whether they're playing high-energy swing or a slow rumba. I dance more often at live music dances than at dj dances.
And when you have live music, it's always better when the bandleader is there to make sure the band maintains their energy. I watched Roy Gerson of NYC's Roy Gerson Orchestra (we need this band in Boston!) get out in front of his band to make sure the band was playing the proper style to keep the dancers on the floor.
Over the years some people have asked me to teach them my footwork (or whatever it is that I do on the dance floor) and I've always said that I have no idea what it is that I do. Today I finally figured out how to start teaching that stuff. It's amazing what goes through one's mind after no sleep. However, practicing syncopations in the shower is just a bad idea.
Charlie Meade can still wow the crowds. I swear, he's gotten younger since the last time I've seen him.
This has nothing to do with my weekend, but Vanilla Coke tastes gross (bought it by accident).
I got to thinking while at the church (which is easy to do when the bride's limo gets lost) on the subject of "tradition" and weddings.
When we (any one of us) gets invited to a wedding, we're being put on a short list of people with whom the soon-to-be-married couple want to share their most important day. We're considered "family" for a day. Some of us forget that while the celebration (both the religious one and the carousing afterwards) are for this "family", the event is still about the couple that is getting married. It's *their* special day and if we cared about them, we should do whatever is in our power to make their day special and memoriable and perhaps put aside any notions of selfishness and convenience, just for a short period of time.
One of the obvious activities on such an occasion is a flurry of picture-taking, typically with the couple and all of their family and friends. If the couple is going to be in their special gown and tux, it'd be nice to be able to look good in that picture twenty years from now and see that their friends and family looked nice alongside them.
Especially if the invitation said, "Black Tie Optional".
This should have been an obvious clue to everyone that the couple wanted everyone to look nice for the occasion, that a suit-and-tie level of attire was a minimum. As I jogged up to the church in my new suit, the guy ahead of me showed up in a t-shirt under a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and top-siders with no socks...oh yeah, and a baseball cap. While we knew that it would be warm in the church (okay, it was *hot*), most of us stoically wore that discomfort because of our respect and feelings for our friends who were getting married. And the party afterwards made it worth it.
Oh well, at least he made *me* look good. :^)
Brand new shirts bought along with new suits six months ago and don't fit upon the first wearing is *not* a good sign.
My two-toned Georgio Brutini (dress) shoes that I wear for dancing looked good with my suit...:-) I really should find nice black danceable shoes, though...
My really nice new suit is wool? For a July wedding? With no air conditioning in the church? What was I thinking?!?!?!?
I've really got to start these Soapboxes earlier...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz