Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
Today would have been the 101st birthday of Mr. Frankie Manning, the “ambassador of swing” and one the finest humans I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. I was fortunate enough to start swing dancing in the late 1990s in New York, right during the peak of the neo-swing resurgence and when Frankie Manning was…
136 to 150 beats per minute: according to Kaiser Permanente's target heart rate calculator, this is the sweet spot that I'm supposed to go for when I'm exercising. My latest run I averaged 131 bpm, according to my new FitBit Surge. So that's encouraging how close I am. But how important is being in your "target…
One of the awesome out-of-the-way spots that I got to visit in the Philippines in April was the small island of Isla Verde (Verde Island) in Batangas Province. I was there along with a team of educators and scientists to do an outreach to the local community about their local marine biodiversity and how to safeguard…
Let's do this! Here's my new FitBit Surge smart watch. Pretty darn geeky, I gotta say. More soon, once I've had time to play with it.
This video from the Xpress Your Swing festival in Montpellier, France has all the things that I love: slick lindy hop, funky street dancing, cool tricks, and clever choreo. And the energy of the whole thing is fantastic. Other dance styles in there include boogie woogie, West Coast Swing, breaking, popping, and whatever that they…
Here's my quick recreation of a photo of legendary lindy hopper, the late Frankie Manning. Check out the original image at this link. A modest contribution to a month-long celebration of Frankie's life, sponsored by the Frankie Manning Foundation. Many more photos can be found soon by checking out the hashtag #iamfrankiemanning this month! More…
I'm messing with the design of this site, to make it more responsive on diverse devices and screen sizes and enhance readability. Pardon the dust!
Me snorkeling in the Verde Island Passage. More snorkeling pics here. While I wasn't shooting up a storm in the Philippines, I did get some decent shots while I was there. Here's a summary of my favorite pictures during the trip.
Last weekend, I had the honor of performing along with 50 other amazing dancers in a tribute to house dance legend Marjory Smarth, who passed away recently. While I didn’t know Marjory directly, I have been taught by so many dancers who have been inspired and learned from her. I had a relatively small piece…
On my last day in the Philippines, I was hot, tired, and not up for any long excursions. So I decided to go… to the mall. The SM Mall of Asia to be exact, the third largest in all of the Philippines at 390,193 m² and 1,000+ shops. It's second only to the SM Megamall for…