Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
Last night I was flying back from my latest trip to Disneyland, tired but happy. Our small commuter plane wasn’t able to hook up directly to the terminal at SFO, so we had to walk down the stairs to a waiting bus. The bus took quite a long time to get to our final terminal,…
It was a chilly morning at Ocean Beach today. I’m happier with how my waacking throws and grabs are looking. And my hairbrushes are pretty decent here.
I have long thought of Disney California Adventure (DCA) as the inferior little brother to Disneyland. I grew up going to Disneyland Anaheim. It has layers and layers of history, tradition, and memories for me. That is hard to top. In contrast, California Adventure has only been around since 2001. I never thought of it…
The dance scene from Hellzapoppin’ (1941) is arguably the most iconic lindy hop clip in history. Certainly millions of viewers have been inspired by this routine, that is still unmatched in dynamism, exuberance, and athleticism. Go ahead and watch it again here. But how much do you know about this scene? Here are seven remarkable…
I haven’t done a health update in awhile. I’m happy to report that being on sabbatical has not meant that I’ve become a lazy sloth. In fact, I’ve been probably more active than when I was working. After gaining a bunch of weight from my Asia trip a month ago, I am now back to…
It felt so good to top this V3 this morning, which was really strenuous and had holds just out of my reach. I have been struggling to just start it for awhile. Finally last session, I figured out how to start. So this session was all about getting all the moves down and scending it….
I just realized I am already into the middle of week three of my work sabbatical! This is really the first day I have had completely schedule-free since I finished work at the Cal Academy. So far it has been completely wonderful to have this time to take a break and take stock of things….
I’ve lost a lot of dance competitions. But my all time favorite loss was on a warm summer’s evening in New York. A few years ago, my friend and I entered a lindy hop dance contest at a popular music festival, along with several other dancers in our scene. It was held in a large…
Holy smokes, funk legend Chaka Khan has a new track out, and it’s amazing. Could “Like Sugar” be funkier? Not possible. I look forward to the many dance videos featuring this track. Chaka Khan’s “I Feel for You” was a big part of my adolescent sound track. Still gets me moving, decades later.
Here’s another reason why #blacklindyhopmatters. All this week I’ve been participating in the Get Free Hip-Hop Dance Festival, a week of urban dance classes, talks and competitions in San Francisco. Today, a panel of female artists were talking about feminism and hip-hop. One Black dancer explained how she was in the process of discovering the…