On Wednesday night I had the pleasure of catching the Gauchos jazz sextet perform at the delightfully divey Amnesia Bar in the Mission District. The Gauchos play mostly gypsy jazz, ala Django Rheinhart, throwing in some other tango and New Orleans street jazz for good measure. They got some serious chops, tight grooves, and…
Category: Dancing / Music
America’s Best Dance Crew: S6 Ep3 “The Black Eyed Peas Challenge”
America's Best Dance Crew (Season 6) – MTV Shows I caught America's Best Dance Crew season six, episode three tonight. Each crew was tasked with dancing to a Black Eyed Peas song and with one trick move or illusion — not that tough since it's early in the season. Here's my notes from the episode:…
Street Dance Meets Classical: Lil Buck Jookin to Yoyo Ma (video)
This unexpected collaboration between cellist Yoyo Ma and hip-hop / jookin dancer Lil Buck has been circulating around the webasphere recently. Definitely intriguing and skillfully performed. I can't fault either Yoyo Ma's playing or Lil Buck's dancing, both of which are world-class. But I have a hard time seeing what the connection is between…
Bay Area National Dance Week starts this Friday: Get your lindy on!
From Friday, April 22 to Sunday, May 1, dancers and lovers of dance in the San Francisco Bay Area will get to enjoy 400+ free dance happenings during the Bay Area National Dance Week. There's a huge range of events, including classes, performances, film showings and demonstrations happening all around the Bay. Whether you are…
A San Francisco Monday: Bayside Jog, Coffee Snobbery, Food Truckin, and Swank Swing
I had a fantastic Monday in San Francisco that reminds me of why I'm so excited about living here. I woke up early, threw on my sneaks and headed out from the pad I'm crashing at in Mission Bay. Then I went for an energizing 2 mile run by the waterside through the Embaracadero and…
Recap of America’s Best Dance Crew S6 Ep2 “The Ke$ha Challenge” (ugh)
Tags: America's Best Dance Crew (Season 6), MTV Shows This week, America's Best Dance Crew, Season Six, Episode 2 featured five new crews, with a good mix of styles and personalities. This week was the "Ke$ha Challenge." I think the biggest challenge was finding five decent songs by Ke$ha to dance to (oh snap!). Anyway,…
Yehoodi Talk Show #128: Interview with Judy Pritchett about the Frankie Manning Scholarship!
That's right, it's Yehoodi Talk Show time again! This time around, the Yehoodi crew — Spuds, Letta and me — takes a moment to talk to Judy Pritchett , Frankie Manning's longtime companion, about The Frankie Manning Lindy Hop Ambassador Scholarship Program. I can't believe it took us this long to bring Judy on, but…
2011 Midsummer Night Swing Announced: Swing, Electro-swing, Soul, Salsa … and Me!
I'm honored and delighted to see my friend Nina Galicheva and me on the banner of the 2011 Midsummer Night Swing website! That's a great shot of Nina and I competing in last year's MSNS dance contest, which was a lot of fun. I'm also in the promo video right at the end dipping the…
America’s Best Dance Crew: Season 6, Opening Episode Recap
Tags: America's Best Dance Crew (Season 6), MTV Shows Tonight I got around to watching America's Best Dance Crew season six, episode 1 (lil wayne). A strong start to the season, IMO. Here's my recap of the first five crews presented in this episode: IAmMe Crew (Texas): Pretty sick popping crew, including master popper Phillip…
“Sorry, apple knocker, no barneymugging, the bank’s closed” : The Flapper Dictionary
Blogger Bookflaps came across this fantastic "Flappers Dictionary" from the July 1922 issue of Flapper Magazine. It's chock-a-block with choice flapper-isms. Some of my faves: Apple Knocker : A hick; a hay-shaker. Barlow: A girl, a flapper, a chicken. Bank’s Closed: No petting allowed; no kisses. Barneymugging: Lovemaking. Brush Ape: Anyone from the sticks; a…