Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
Apparently my post about experiencing loneliness and other negative emotions while at a dance resonated with a lot of people. I’m so grateful for the many people who shared heartfelt stories of their own struggles and feelings, and how they coped with them. (Check out “Vunerable” a moving photo essay by Sarah Warny Berg about…
As a Filipino American, I sometimes feel like I am surfing that edge between white privilege and being a person of color. On the one hand, I have certainly experienced racism in the past, both micro-aggressions and actual aggression. But my experience is so far from what most black and brown people experience in this…
All Bay Area teens are invited to a free lindy hop workshop taught by wonderful Cleveland based dancers Alexis Davila and Cyle Dixon happening on Sunday October 28 at the historic Bayview Opera House in San Francisco. The teen workshop will be followed by a community dance that is open to all. Here’s Cyle and Alexis…
DISCLAIMER: I am not a mental health professional. These are just my personal views and experiences as a “veteran” dancer. If you are experiencing intense feelings of depression or anxiety, please see a mental health provider in your area. I’m a “social dancer.” Which means that I dance a style (lindy hop) that requires two…
At the end of the remarkable rock climbing film The Dawn Wall, pro-climber Tommy Caldwell, described what it was like planning his legendary free climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan (my rough paraphrase): “For ten years I mapped out what I hoped was a climbable route up the Dawn Wall, never really sure…
I’m always on the hunt for different variations on my morning eggs. The Parmelet is one of my favorite, more indulgent versions of the simple omelette, created by Chef John. Basically you are just cooking a bunch of shredded Parmesan in a non-stick pan until it crisps up, then throw in some eggs, cover, and…
Let Me Tell You december 1997 Oh let me tell you about the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and the moon up above and a thing called You and I a Thing? Are we “a Thing”? I ask, dare not speak it Label it, frame it Fearing I am wrong…
I just remembered today that I had been outdoor rock climbing once, several years ago. And it was kind of a disaster. I was in my late twenties living in New York City. One summer, I had met a lovely woman at a Quaker gathering who took a shine to me. She invited me over…
I just finished reading Jookin’ : The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African American Culture by Katrina Hazzard-Gordon. It describes in compelling detail on the ways that African slaves and African Americans found to create their own social spaces in a society that actively prohibited their association. The focus of Jookin’ is on social dance…
I’m so excited to see the documentary Free Solo in a couple of weeks, the story of how legendary climber Alex Honnold ascended Yosemite’s El Capitan with no rope, no harness, just his chalk bag and balls of steel. In the meanwhile, this 360 video showing a bit of Alex free soloing El Cap will…