Today is Sunday, the last official day of Showdown.  I’ve got to try to get myself going so that I don’t miss any of the competitions this afternoon: Teams and choreographed Couples are supposed to start at 3pm and I already feel late.  Fortunately, this is a fasting day so I’ve already tossed back 15 calories worth of Airborne and Crystal Light to get started (3 drinks worth), and I’ll just need to buy a lot of low-cal, electrolyte filled liquid goodness throughout the day to keep me going.  I don’t know about the After Hours Soul party.  Since I actually have my own transportation this year, I think I will give it a shot for once.  I’ll check in after the afternoon events…

When I arrived at the Cinema Ballroom, it was around 3:30pm, half-an-hour after the Teams were “scheduled” to start, and the line of people outside the door was just marching in.  So I don’t think I missed anything.  I climbed up the stairs to my usual 2nd floor vantage point and saw that on the ground floor, all the spectators were not facing the bandstand as usual but rather the mirrored side wall with a large space cleared on the floor in front of those mirrors.  I walked up to DJ Larkin and peered over his shoulder to see a bunch of people apparently watching… nothing.  When I asked DJ, “What’s everybody looking at?”, he quite intelligently informed me, “The floor.”

After a few minutes, during which Sean thanked everyone for watching themselves in the mirror, he came out to the center of the cleared space to introduce the Team competition.  Apparently, there were only two entries.  He played it up well, though: “Last night, there were 16 teams!  These are the two finalists!”

I was in a poor position to see and hear but the first team came out in black and blue outfits and I think they were from the west coast.  They put on a fun, decently choreographed routine with a few “ooooh” segments.   They looked nervous as heck and who could blame ‘em?  The second team was Hot Rhythm Rising from the ATL.  Joanna Lucero was on the team and the choreography was great.  There was a good spread of effects, there was good use of the space and plenty of teamwork.  The reverse was gimmicky but fun.  I know that lots of the top-level competitions use jam-style format for non-choreographed divisions, so we see a lot of it, but I do wish one of the teams had included a spotlight section of some type.  I like to see the interplay between the individual couples (you know what I mean) and the team as a whole, and the spotlights are great for that.  I can’t say that these were the best teams I’ve ever seen.  The first team seemed very nervous and a little unsteady on their feet.  The second team was very solidly put together but didn’t have any “wow” moments for me.  I wonder why there weren’t more teams?  Because of ILHC?  ALHC?  Economy?

There was a short break where I social danced a little bit and then we were called to attention by Sean for hands-down the COOLEST format for a showcase division (choreographed couple) I’ve ever seen.   I had known about this in passing but hadn’t really contemplated the implications until it was right in front of me.  As usual, the couples would choose their own piece of music to choreograph and would practice to that until they came to the competition.  Normally, the couples just submit their CD to the event DJ so that their song can be played at the appropriate time.  In this case, the couples had to submit their songs’ arrangements to the event in advance so that the Live Bands could learn the songs and play LIVE during the contest.  Holy Freaking Awesome.  I think the couples had to practice to the live bands in advance this morning.  If they didn’t, then what happened seems miraculous.

The first couple were Oscar and Mikhaila (sp?) and they really planned this out well.  The Hot Swing Combo played for them and it was so amazing I could barely stand it!  Lots of cool breaks in the music where the couple pulled terrific accent moves, plenty of variation in the feeling of the song to give the couple more chance to play, and at least one “wow” aerial, all of which happened in time to the LIVE BAND!

The second couple were Mike and Laura and every time I’ve seen them do a couple’s choreographed routine, they always dress up in 20′s Ritz style.  Today was no exception.  They got to dance to Loose Marbles playing their song, with singing by the mesmerizing female singer.  Oh man, so good.  This couple had their own style very distinct from Oscar and Mikhaila’s, but they seemed to have planned out their performance just as well and had the same great characteristics.  I’m embarassed to say that I keep wanting to prefer Mike and Laura’s routine in part because of the great job done by Loose Marbles!  But since that doesn’t make sense, I think Oscar and Mikhaila get my vote.

Somewhere in the middle of the showcase couples, Sean had to draw out a few minutes WHILE THE LIVE BANDS SWAPPED PLACES (I can’t get over that).   He therefore orchestrated a silly contest: whomever could eat a Chipotle’s burrito the fastest, would win a coupon for 5 more for free!  Cole Allen and Andrew Thigpen competed in a slow but funny contest that Andrew ultimately won.  Still, Cole hadn’t had a chance to eat yet, so in a way she won, too.

Then came the third couple, Hannah and her partner whose name I forget.  They danced to Hot Swing Combo.  Unfortunately, they somewhat lessened the impact of their routine because throughout the other divisions this weekend, they’d already shown off some of their moves.  Like when Hannah is held at waist height by her partner and pretends to fly/swim.  It would have been cooler if I hadn’t just seen it last night.  Overall, it was a good routine, but didn’t move me as much as the previous two.

After the last couple, before he broke up the crowd for social dancing, Sean held another novelty contest, this time for free admission to… an event whose name I forget.  But the point was the contest.  Five contestants had to drop to the push up position and then on “go”, had to prop themselves up into a one-arm plank position, with the opposite arm held pointed toward the sky.  It was amusing.  Particularly with the semi-trash talking.

And last but not least, Sean also conducted a “mental” contest, again for an event whose name I fail to recall.  This consisted of asking five contestants to explain the reason for the current economic crisis.  Julius was funny, the Asian guy at the other end was just a Bush-basher, and the white guy at that end had nothing useful to contribute.  But the second fellow and Jason Niesz had useful and intelligent analyses of the situation, so they both won.

Then came more social dancing to the Hot Swing Combo.  They were great as usual but for some reason had taken to playing really long songs that were either fast or slow with little in-between.  After they broke for the afternoon, there also came some nice DJ-ed music.

I danced with Tracy Kerchkof, Eli from Norway, Katie from MN , the Girl named Mike, Cole from Seattle, Anderson (Andi?) from Seattle, Gina from Seattle… I think I have a Lindy Crush on Seattle.  I may have danced with another follow or two, but sadly, I don’t recall.  Still, since I left around 5:30, that means that in two hours I witnessed two competitions, three novelty contests, one cause advertisement, and also danced with at least seven follows.  That’s better than I’ve done in any other two hours in months.

By the time the contests were all over and I’d danced a few songs, I was sweating like nobody’s business and was feeling a bit lightheaded.  I needed to eat something.  So, I swung by the SuperAmerica and picked up a few vitamin waters and some zero calorie PowerAdes.  The two vitamin waters added up to 125 calories and 100 calories.  Then, when I returned to my hotel room, I finished off the Thai food: tofu + vegetables + noodles = not fasting.  But I think it was a good idea.  Okay, I also had the 53 calorie (it was printed on the wrapper) fortune cookie that I had left.  But from this point forth, I shall again try not to ingest anything but fluids.  We’ll see.  More after the night’s dancing…

I got back to the ballroom by around 9:15 and the awards had not yet been given out.  It’s amazing how much the crowd had thinned out, but I guess many dancers don’t have Columbus Day off?  At least the Loose Marbles’ dog had space to hang out.

So, a good chunk of the time prior to midnight was spent on the awards ceremony.  You can look elsewhere to find the placements.  Other awards ceremonies are boring and should be skipped unless you have a vested interest, but I’ve found that Showdown always has a good awards show.  Mostly because of the funny contests that the organizers and MC devise and which Sean delivers in a side-splitting deadpan.  First came the prison pushups challenge which led into a pushup-hold challenge wherein we all learned that Anna curses under pressure and Eric is not quite as formidable as he appears.

Then a variation on the old dizzybat challenge: spin in a circle and then lindy hop!  Everybody did pretty well.  Which makes me think they should have to spin in more circles next time.  Still, very funny to watch.

The next contest was a catwalk contest, in the vein of a fashion show.  Adam Boehmer kicked it off in uproarious style, followed by many impressive contenders.  Tena had a lot going for her, but Peter’s over-the-top performance was the obvious standout.  You had to see it.  It was funnier than I can describe.

And then the last novelty contest I remember of the night was essentially “stupid human tricks”, consisting of: a girl doing “the matrix” limbo pose, a fellow busting out some old school break dancing in true white boy style, a very flexible woman showing off how long her lines can be, an awesome use of Adam Boehmer for a Wookie imitation, and then Hannah doing the impossible: licking her own elbow.  This was some messed up fun.  Great!

Sometime during the second band set, the Solo Charleston contest was held.  I thought some people should have been tapped out sooner, and I was surprised that Joanna got tapped out because she looked terrific.  The standouts for me were definitely Hurley and Mikhaila (sp?) though, so I’m glad there was a King and Queen for this award because they really brought it to the contest.

It was sad when Sean announced the end of the final contest of the weekend.  That’s always a bit sad, like during a great dream when you can tell you’re going to wake up soon but you really don’t want to leave the fantasy world just yet.  It was sad again in the 1am-2am hour when Loose Marbles announced they would play their last song… and then after that song when they really played their last song.  Still, it’s become a tradition that I really like and that outsiders may not get, to break away from your own dancing and cheer for the band for the end of their last song.  I like that it happened again at ULHS.  My people!

And that was it for the official events of ULHS 2008.  I didn’t spend a lot of blog time dwelling on individual dances or individual encounters with people, but I’ll try to touch on some highlights.  The Michigan crew of dancers were fun to hang around because they really brought back to me that slightly scared, slightly excited, slightly confused joy that I had when I was just beginning to dance and would attend a big event.  My DC friends were in strong force both in socializing and impressing the heck out of other attendees on the dance floor.  Not to mention the great non-choreographed showings by people I often see on a weekly basis.  On a more personal level, DJ and Meg always seem to be the couple in the know who are nice to me, their backwards cousin, and I appreciate them for it.  Soo and Alicia have filled that space in my life where I really needed friends to help me heckle–and I’m so glad.  I had some great fast dances, but my favorites (though there weren’t enough) were probably with Carolyn from Seattle.  I also had some great slow dances, and my favorites were definitely with Cole from Seattle.  Seattle, I think I heart you.

For my final dance card wrapup, tonight, I danced with Cole from Seattle, Carolyn from Seattle, Deen from NY, Angie from MN, Laney from MN, Lauren from MN, Lucy Dunne, Kelly Arsenault, Alicia Mazzara, probably others that my tired mind cannot recall.  I had one or two awkward dances but not a single bad dance all weekend.  Whether I listed you or not, know that I was thrilled to dance with you, and thank you!

I got back to the hotel around 3:30am, local time.  This is it for the official Showdown related part of my Traveblogue, but I’ll write an epilogue tomorrow, maybe, on my thoughts on other aspects of my weekend.  Overall, this event was great fun.  I danced a lot, I watched some really enjoyable events, I connected with people on the dance floor and off.  I’ve already begun sending off “friend” requests to various people to try to stay in touch.  We’ll see how that goes.  I think I feel inspired enough to try to get back to more dancing in my home area.  I definitely want to go to next year’s Showdown in New Orleans.  Maybe I’ve been feeling burned out lately because I kept seeing the same people at the same venues dancing to the same music.  Perhaps that’s another reason why I should make the effort to do more trips in a year than just one: Camp Jitterbug,  you’re on notice!

Today, I woke up around 10:30am, local time, and felt a compulsion to go to Target.  It is the land of Target, after all.  Actually, I went to get some toiletries I’d forgotten to pack, something I could wear in the pool if I go swimming, and to see if there were anything on the way where I could get breakfast.

I GPS’d to the nearby SuperTarget.  When I walked in, I’m pretty sure I was blinded for a moment with divine light as a choir of ethereal voices sang just above and behind my head.  It was Target as far as the eye could see.  Miles and miles of it!  Still a pretty small menswear section, though.  Anyway, since I didn’t spot anything appetizing on the drive over, I had “breakfast” from the Target deli: half an egg salad sandwich on rye and half a southwest veggie wrap.  I saved the other half of the veggie wrap for later; the egg salad only came as a half.  I collected the goods I needed and returned home to blog until it was time to take off for the afternoon Showdown stuff.

I suspect I’m going to miss the history lesson, but I should get there for Hot Swing Combo.  More later…

…the midday Saturday events were fun, but not as fun as last night.  I arrived just as the slow prelims were beginning. The afternoon consisted of the Freedom (slow) prelims, the Liberation (fast) prelims and some social dancing to the three-piece Hot Swing Combo. There was so much in the competitions (at least from when I got there), that there wasn’t a great deal of time for social dancing.

As with all prelims, it’s tough to watch all those couples out there through many heats and try to mentally stack them up against each other unless there is some single outstanding performance.  I couldn’t have judged without some serious note taking.  I could judge that the Hot Swing Combo was freaking fantastic!  They played for both divisions.  I was standing next to Jamie Cameron who commented to me, to my agreement, that the slow music was really well done: great tunes, good tempos, and enough of those little dancer-friendly riffs to give us something to play with.  They included possibly the only version of Nature Boy to which I’d ever want to dance.  As for the fast division, I could have been listening to Django and his American Friends and might not have enjoyed it any more than Hot Swing Combo!

I danced with Krista Haskins, Gina from Seattle,  Anna from Seattle, and this time I have no excuse for not remembering the rest. Just around 5pm, the combo quit for the afternoon and I went off on my dinner adventure.  Before I did, I made sure to find Amy Johnson and tell her to her face just how great I thought her event was.  I try to do this for every Showdown because as the person at the top, I’m sure she’s going to hear the most complaints, no matter what.  I find it’s true everywhere: 80% of people who are dissatisfied will tell you so, but only 20% of people who are happy will do the same.  I always try to edge that bottom number towards at least 21%.

I GPS’d it to Taste of Thailand and got Veggie Pad Thai with a side order of Tofu and a dessert of Mango Sticky Rice. I only ate half of all that. And then, just for a different taste, I had about 1/3 of my leftover veggie wrap. Everything else went back in the fridge and I got ready for the evening…

…Holy moley!   Here it is, 3:30am local time and I just got back from the evening events.  I’m so tired but I wanted to take time to note the wonderful follows with whom I got to dance tonight.  done.  I’ll keep writing up the night when I wake up.  Time to take some AdvilPM…

I couldn’t drag myself out of bed until now, about 1:30pm local time and even now I’m exhausted.  My arms are moving like al dente noodles, and feel quite a bit sore.   I’m hoping this is just due to the *PM in my system.

Last night I got to watch two finals, an endurance contest, and an impromptu tie-breaker contest.

I arrived at the Ballroom around 9:15pm wearing my version of “dressed-up” clothes: dress shoes, going-out-shirt, and a velvety blazer.  People were generally looking pretty good, which is the hallmark of the Saturday night of an event attended by dancers with some experience.  I don’t recall seeing anywhere in the emails or on the website that Saturday night is the night when everyone is expected to get suited up… but dancers in the know realize that even if you’re going to dress casually the rest of the weekend, this night is the night when you should at least show the pretense of class.  Mind you, I don’t generally last long in the cool clothes, because they don’t feel cool; they feel sweltering.  I did pretty well this time around, keeping most of the nice clothes on (with at least two changes) until after 11.

Right from the start, we got to dance to Loose Marbles!  Their awesome female singer was there: the one who occasionally sounds midway between Billie Holiday and Katherine Whalen — except I like these songs more.  After a little social dancing wherein I tried very hard to make my blazer look like a cape without smacking it into anyone’s face, Sean Morris called for an impromptu tie-breaker.  Now, I couldn’t hear exactly what was being said, but since it was a contest between Todd and Kelly and Skye and Frida, my guess is that it was for the Revolution competition.  I think Todd and Kelly did more flash that looked very cool, but there were a few times when it seemed like their connection had gone awry.  Skye and Frida looked pretty consistently amazing and terrificly connected but with fewer flashy moments.

Immediately at the end of the tie-breaker, Sean pulled us along into the Freedom finals (slow).  Of course, Todd and Kelly and Skye and Frida were all in that competition, too.  Poor SuperDancers.  Everybody looked good.  I’m still a bad judge.

After the Freedom finals was a short break with nice DJ’d tunes that increased in tempo to get folks warmed up for the Liberation finals, and the band was expected just to jump right in with loads of FAST.  When the DJ’d segment came to an end, and the Liberation finals were about to begin, the lights went low, some rock music started coming over the speakers… and then the finals contestants were announced to come into competition space for the Liberation finals in grand NBA style.  It was kinda hilarious and very fun.  The finals were jam-packed with WOW.  I’m an old cynical dancer and my knee-jerk response is certainly to say that I’ve seen better… but I keep in mind, I don’t think I’ve seen better anywhere BESIDES ULHS.  Not even in those video clips from teh interwebz.  The passion, cleverness, and fancy fast footwork needed for a good fast competition all showed up and tore up the place. Before they all threw down, Sean let us know that the Liberation winners would be invited to be instructors at an upcoming event that’s all about speed.  During the contest, I thought that Oscar and Mikhaila (totally full of misspelling, I apologize) stood out as doing some really memorable stuff.

After the contest, but I’m not sure when, I drove quickly to the nearest convenience store, SuperAmerica, to grab some cash and some electrolyte filled drinks.  I’ve grown fond of the PowerAde Zero drinks.  I’ve been pretty good about not eating outright junk this weekend but I did have a donut from the SuperAmerica.  I couldn’t help it; it was a French Toast flavored Donut!  I have no regrets.

I got back to the Cinema Ballroom and had a blast doing more social dancing in one night than I’ve done in months.  There were so many great follows there that I never had to look too hard to find a partner who was going to be marvelous on the floor.  Man, I even talked to some people at a socially interactive level.  I NEVER do that.

Sometime during the night, Loose Marbles announced that they were having a contest wherein you could put down a dollar and with that dollar choose one of the band members.  You could do that for every band member if you wanted to.  Sometime during the fourth set, all the band members would take a shot of alcohol and one of those shots would be laced with laxative.  And that dollar would be your stake betting that said band member would be the unlucky recipient.  If you bet correctly, you would win one of the band’s CDs that normally sell for $10.  This was a slightly funny concept but it also made me uncomfortable.  Like when a homeless person will come up to me and offer to punch himself in the face for money.  Just uncomfortable.  I opted just to buy one of their CDs instead.

The approximate end of the night for me came with the Endurance Contest.  Everybody was to grab a partner and try to keep Lindy Hopping through a variety of songs: slow, fast, good, bad, etc.  It’s always fun to watch, particularly as weird songs like “The Bird is the Word”? come into the rotation.  Near the end, I thought that Ramona and her lead should have been tapped out before they lasted to third place since they did NOT seem to be on the beat and were not showing off dancing that would be entirely accurate to label as Lindy Hop.  If they had been tapped out, my friend Carolyn from Seattle would have gotten to third with Mark Kihara, instead of fourth.  But I did agree at the end that Joe and Tiff were suited to win.  Certainly I agreed with Sean’s assessment, “1) You were still on the beat, and 2) dude, you never do college shag!”  Yep, the 2nd place dancers had tried to put college shag on the floor to win a Lindy Hop Endurance contest.  I would have joined in the lynching but I guess that didn’t happen.

I lasted until around 3am, mostly to say that I did, and I still got in some more terrific dances.  And when I got back to my hotel room, I decided I’d better finish off the mango and sticky rice before it became a statue of itself.  I was just being responsible.

This night, I danced with Sandy Yin, Carolyn Palma, Cole Allen, Jes Kolongowski, Soo Clark, Rhonda (sp?) from Michigan, Michelle Searle, Daniella from Barcelona (much better than Manuel), Ann Mony, Megan Adair, Chelsea from Chicago, Frances from ?, Lauren from Minnesota, Deen from NYC (expat from Australia) and maybe some more.  This may not sound like a lot to you, considering how long I was at the dance, but it felt like I was constantly either dancing or watching a competition, until after the Endurance Contest when I finally actually chatted with some folks.

It was a very good night.

It was very sad getting up and out the door this morning without spending time with Dru (my dog) first, but I’m sure she’s happy at the Preston Country Club for Pets.  In fact, I didn’t do most of my usual routine since today’s also a fasting day.  I did drink a great deal of zero calorie antioxidant water.

BWI was not too crowded and I got from the baggage check to my departure gate in about thirty minutes.  Ah, I remember the days when walking through an airport while carrying your ID in your mouth and putting your belt on would have raised some eyebrows.  I got another zero cal drink and then boarded the first of my two Airtran planes.  I almost took advantage of the “give up your seat for free round trip tickets” offer that happened, but I wasn’t sure how well I’d do since it was the first of two flights.

Stopped at ATL, got a Freshen Low Cal Smoothie (90cal).  Started reading a book I’d downloaded to my computer from Books on Board. On this leg of the trip, I got to sit next to a pleasant young woman named Miranda, a teacher from Dallas who was going back to her hometown in MN for a friend’s wedding.

MSP was pleasant enough and it only took about 10-15 minutes for my suitcase (really a duffel bag +) to come out. And then I picked up my rental car from Hertz. It’s a Hyundai Accent and I like it. Silver, sun roof, XM radio, and a USB port for my iPod. Rad. I brought along my Navigon GPS which worked perfectly and guided me right to the Holiday Inn RiverCentre.

The layout of this hotel is L-shaped, a little peculiar, but I got a nice room on the 7th floor (#723 – come visit if you’re here this weekend). It’s got wifi access (hence my blogging), an ironing board and iron, a wardrobe, a mini fridge with complimentary Dasani waters and a Quizno’s small sub meal (sub + cookie). The sandwich was a club sandwich so I tossed that out, but I may use that cookie for a sugar rush later on. I have a history of passing out from dancing too hard (yep, just that awesome), so I can’t go entirely without food today because of the possibility of hurting myself. Jimmy Johns came to the rescue! I ordered a delivery of a Gourmet Veggie Unwich with no cheese. Basically, the ingredients of a nice veggie sub including avocado spread, wrapped in lettuce. Good stuff, even if it did fall apart in my hands. But then my hands were delicious.

It’s about 6pm now so I’m going to pause this blog for now and go off to ULHS’ Friday Night!
…
And it’s now 12:30pm the next day. I blearily checked my cellphone as I stumbled into my hotel room and it said something like 4:00am so I scribbled something onto my notepad that looks vaguely like the name, “Sam” to remind me the next morning.  Sam did the trick.

It didn’t take long; I’m already having a blast!

The biggest problem about waiting until the next day to write up my experiences is that it’s all kind of running together in my mind, already, as a blurry-thrilling-exhausted smudge of happy memory.  I’ll try to use the ULHS published schedule (hahahahaha) to help me put things together.

I was not the first to arrive by 7:15pm (it took me a while to decide what clothes to bring and shoes to wear before I left last night), but it was still pretty empty when I got there:

Pretty much from the moment I climbed up the stairs to the upper hallway that overlooks the ballroom floor, I started feeling a happy anxiousness. The venue itself seemed charged with anticipation, swelling greater and greater as every additional dancer came through its entrance.

Quickly enough, I was greeting friends both from home and from far distance places with exotic names like “Seattle”. After I had warmed with with a few DJ’d dances, the first band of the night, Hot Swing combo, began to play (sample):

Sean Morris, the event’s Master of Ceremonies, would tell the band regularly through the night just how awesome they were. If Sean had been wrong, that repetitive statement would have grown irritating. As it was, I felt like thanking Sean for conveying those thoughts on my behalf, every time.Hot Swing Combo began playing around 8pmish, which is when the competitor’s meeting was supposed to have happened. “Supposed to” Around 9pm, Sean came out to announce that the Jack ‘n’ Jill contest was about to start and began his comments by saying that there would be no competitor’s meeting because that’s how they do things at Showdown (paraphrase).That example may illustrate my favorite part of Showdown: there are no rules. Well, that’s their catchphrase. I personally translate that to mean: The first rule is to have a fantastic event and that trumps all other rules. There’s a linear order to the schedule, sure, but things happen when they do. There’s a guideline for the competitions, but things happen however the circumstances require. There’s certain criteria for judging placements in each division, but each judge can choose the ordering they like. I’m sure there’s behind-the-scenes truths that would show some serious organizational skills in play, but that’s how Showdown comes across to me as an attendee. And it’s frickin’ awesome!Take that first competition, the prelim Jack ‘n’ Jill. There’s just one level for entry, so we could potentially see rank beginners paired up with World Champions (not hyperbole, by the way), and occasionally do. But the ridiculously high proportion of competitors being champion level makes this Jack ‘n’ Jill the only exciting one I’ve ever watched. Sure, I’ve seen others where a move is exciting, or maybe even a dancing couple is exciting. But the Showdown JnJ is just full-out thrilling through every heat. That’s absurd! And true.

After the JnJ’s, there was social dancing to more excellent music by Hot Swing Combo, in addition to some DJ’d music by Reuben Brown. Sometime between the end of the JnJ prelims and the midtempo prelims, I think I did a drink run. I got some more zero calorie drinks, a 90 calorie powerade, and an all-fruit Acai Berry smoothie. I’m sure the smoothie had quite a bit of natural sugar, but again I was hoping to stave off physical calamity.

Then there was the Revolution (midtempo) competition. I have to admit, I don’t remember the details very well from this one, though I do remember enjoying it. Damn you, sleepy Paul from last night and your poor memory!

More social dancing to Hot Swing Combo and DJ’s music. Then came the Jack ‘n’ Jill finals and I remember this really well, starting with the fact that the lineup sounded as impressive as, or better than, an Invitational Champion’s Jack ‘n’ Jill from any other competition.

Before the comp began, Sean was lining up the competitors and Alice Mei (adore her dancing) ended up without a partner because the fellow who was supposed to be the last leader (Kenny) wasn’t there. Sean did some very funny South Park/Cartman towards Kenny imitations while the judges consulted their rankings and declared that without Kenny, the next up would be Skye Humphries. As Sean began joking about how rare it was that Skye would get into finals by forfeit, Nell (sp?, also a fun dancer) was able to get Kenny on the phone. Sean, hilarious guy that he is, had an impromptu conversation with Kenny over the mic, after which he directed Kenny’s friends in attendence that they should all approach Kenny with the following admonishment (paraphrase): “Kenny, you BEAT Skye Humphries… but then you fucked it up!” Fantastic! I hope that happens.

The competition was terrific! That’s right, a Jack and Jill Final was terrific!
Immediately after that came the midtempo final. Which was exciting! What? That’s right, EXCITING!

On both of these competitions, they used a modified jam style, which I think went like this: First, a full chorus all-skate. At the end of the first chorus, all the couples aside from the first couple would fade back to the stage while the first couple did a second full chorus. Then, the jam style rotation where each couple fades out as the next couple comes into the middle of the jam space. After all couples are through, the first couple does their spotlight again, but for only half a chorus, leading into another jam rotation series. After all the couples are through for the second time, another all-skate happens. The competition method was fun, but the most fun part to it was how Sean explained the couples fading back after the first all-skate — and then watching the couples do it. Naomi, in particular, was hilarious.

Then came more social dancing to DJs and a bit more of the Hot Swing Combo. As the band wrapped up, I was standing near someone (Soo? Alicia? Freakin’ sleepy Paul, I hate you!), who wondered if they’d be there for the next year in New Orleans. Man, I hope so. Robert (?), on guitar, and I guess the bandleader, has been involved with ULHS at least since the first year at the Varsity Ballroom (which I think was the fourth year of ULHS). I remember watching him on the stage back then when a bunch of swing dancers were doing an impromptu series of musical jams with their various instruments late, late, late into morning. Man, I miss that place.

Anyway, around midnight, the band switched to Loose Marbles who began by playing for the Solo Blues/Jazz dance competition. I watched Ramona Staffeld, Ronni Creel (I think), and Naomi Uyama. There were many other competitors, and some were amusing and some were trying very hard, but I pretty much came back to watching those three.

I can generally sum up the goal of most Showdown divisions like this: be the most badass. I’m sure the same is true of Solo Blues/Jazz, but there is also an element of sensuousness involved. I don’t know if that’s purposeful or incidental. When I think of blues dancing, I certainly think of a dance style that’s intended to convey a welling of emotion. Just like the Blues conveys a sense that the singer/songwriter was so full of emotion, he had no choice but to let it out. The music that I think of as Blues conveys a deep dispair, even when it’s humorous. You have to cry, or you have to laugh to keep from crying. I think that spontaneous dancing generally conveys joy, but not necessarily. It’s again a welling of emotion that pours out into an artform. I think Solo Blues dancing is like that, but after having been studied and performed more carefully and purposefully. So emotions -> sensory -> sensual, that makes sense to me.

The Solo Blues/Jazz prelim was fun, but as an all-skate, it was too crowded for my taste. SEVERAL HOURS LATER (I don’t know how long actually, but it was very late into the morning), we got to see the final Blues-off between an Asian female whose name I don’t recall, the hiliariously awesome Grizzly Adam Boehmer, Ramona, and Naomi. I mostly watched Ramona and Naomi. And then just Naomi. And then just….DAMN. Anyway, Naomi was full of win and eventually everyone agreed.

I wanted to stay and dance to Loose Marbles. I REALLY did. Unfortunately, my nervous system declared that it was time to turn off. I realized this when I was watching the Blues final and one second it was Adam and then after a … really … long … blink … it was Naomi. Yeah, time for sleep. I went home and turned in for the night at the aforementioned Sam.

I wrote this up the next day. I believe that yesterday I danced with: Michelle Searle, Amy Lambert, Tracy Kerchkof, Soo Clark, Alicia Mazzara, Jes Kolongowski, Cole Allen from Seattle, Alice from MI, Chelsea from Chicago… more follows whose details that damn Sleepy Paul has kept to himself. I met and/or greeted several more follows with whom I plan to dance today.

I don’t remember exactly when I started swing dancing.  I think it was around this time of year in 1998.  That would make around this time of 2008 the point where I’ve been dancing for ten years.  The only voluntary thing in my life that I’ve voluntarily done for longer than a decade is be a vegetarian (started around 1993).  Keeping friends, attending school, following hobbies, and so on, I’ve either been forced to do the activity by authority figures, or have given it up for extended periods so that there is no contiguous timeframe that compares.

I’m still pretty happy about being a vegetarian.  And the unspoken statement there implicates this occasion as one filled with conflicted feelings.  I go into this year’s Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown with ambivalence towards swing dancing.

Don’t get me wrong, as recently as this year’s International Lindy Hop Championships, I’ve watched some great performances that have stirred me into screaming at the top of my lungs and clapping until my hands were raw… But I didn’t feel inclined to jump in and dance myself. I did dance then and I do dance still, but I get bored.  I get bored with the music that’s played, or the moves that my follow is making, or my own attempts to interpret the music by dancing.  It’s not as if all those aspects are necessarily repetitive or derivative, I try not to constrain myself to the same steps over again and in fact I often attempt things in the spur of the moment that surprise myself.  So, it’s not all boring.  But in general, I walk away from each dance a little disappointed.

Man, I’m depressing.  I just wanted to lay the groundwork for where I’m starting as I go into this weekend.  I’m not expecting to come out of this event totally inspired and revived for another decade of dance.  On the other hand, I am hoping something like that happens on some scale, no matter how small.  But John Mayer’s “Waiting for the World to Change” lyrics piss me off and so I’m going to be more aggressive towards my goal.  Heck, I’m generally more aggressive about stuff anyway.

I find that the more I articulate my opinions and thoughts on various topics, the more emotionally invested I become in those topics.  Whether it’s the significance of the current global economic condition rejuvenating the gold standard of evaluating worth or how two characters on the television show, “Heroes” are related via their powers, if you get me talking on a subject, I’ll probably start to get heated about it.  By the way, I think Hiro could stop Daphne if he refined his technique and practiced more.

So, here I type, and I plan to try very hard to recount my thoughts, feelings, and experiences along the way at ULHS.  We’ll see how it goes.  One blog per day during the event weekend (you may consider this the pre-event blog) and maybe I’ll get really excited about Lindy Hop again.  I mean, I should.  It saves lives.

There are some great Christmas movies and TV specials out there. I love watching them. As in all things, most Christmas shows are horrible; that shouldn’t keep you from loving the few great ones that are out there.

At the end of a viewing, I find that the best Christmas shows are the ones that have made me smile while I’m crying. No surprise, they’re also the ones I tend to keep watching over and over again. I’m also a sucker for some basic story elements: someone who’s been making wrong choices develops a recognition of that flaw and starts making right choices; good people who have become distant realize how much they mean to each other and come back together; someone who proposes a truth isn’t believed by anyone until someone else who is willing to challenge preconceptions takes a chance and then the truth is obvious to all. And I tend to get particularly emotional with father-son movies.

Take Holiday Inn: it’s not specifically a Christmas movie, though the song White Christmas was the most recognizable hit from it that’s lasted through the years. This is one where those two good people become distanced by reason of some foolishness and the smiling, tear-jerker scenes happen when they get past it and come back together.

The Christmas Carol (and I think I’ve mentioned that my favorite versions are Scrooged and the Muppet Christmas Carol) contains the plot device of the character making the wrong decisions and then upon realizing this mistake, changing his attitude to start making the right ones. I’ll point out that I think there are serious character flaws in Scrooge’s nephew character and in the Bob Cratchit character and we don’t see either of them changing, but that’s not the story we’re watching. When Scrooge realizes that he’s been attending to his investments of wealth and hasn’t been attending to his small stockpile of friendship and family, so changes his ways to appreciate all of the values in life, his epiphany instills such a welling of emotion in Bill Murray and Michael Caine that I can’t help but be emotional as well.

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus is a great show (my favorite is the one with Ed Asner as the newspaper editor…as usual) wherein the essential truth is the importance of faith and believing in those great things that you can’t touch and hold. I am an agnostic, sure, but I can recognize that there seems an instinct in all of us to believe in something. I can understand that believing in the noble ideals that is often represented in Santa can motivate people to do great and positive things with their lives. And I know that it’s hard to hold to those ideals when people around you deride you and call you names for it. It’s particularly hard for children whose integrities haven’t been hardened by the fires and hammers of experience. Their minds are still malleable enough to be shaped for good or bad by their peers and family and authority figures. The fact that a hardened writer, one known for his war correspondence, could be moved to the point of writing a positive response to a little girl’s letter with this idea in mind — and that it’s a true story — well, that’s just one of the best Christmas stories I’ve ever heard. In the shows, the final scene is one where Virginia’s father reads her the response from the newspaper and just remembering that scene brings tears to my eyes.

White Christmas is another Bing Crosby film; this one contains two of my favorite plot elements: there’s the separated lovers who come together in the form of Bing and Rosemary Clooney; plus there’s the father-son storyline in the form of the old general who’s like a father to his whole old regiment. Just as you might predict, my heartstrings are tugged because the lovers come together and also because the soldiers pay tribute to their father-figure. I don’t know that this movie, either, was meant to be a Christmas film, but I always watch it at this time of the year and the finale scene around the Christmas tree makes for a mental picture that I often associate with the holidays.

My favorite classic movie of the season might be Miracle on 34th Street. Let’s see, there’s the two lovers in the form of Doris Walker and Fred Gailey (or Brian Bedford in the remake) who are estranged in the war of reason versus faith, who come together in the end in a wave of belief. There’s Doris on her own who has been making choices with a closed mind and realizes that she needs to make better ones. There’s a bit of a paternal dynamic that runs between Kris Kringle and the good lawyer, parallel to the paternal dynamic between that same lawyer and Susan Walker, the little girl. And of course, Kris Kringle holds up a torch of truth throughout the story that people just cannot see until the courtroom scenes unfold. Add on the service angle of how to treat a customer looking for an answer (send them where they’ll get the best results), and you’ve got a movie that hits every right note for me.

And Elf. I’ve touched on this modern movie in several of my web logs and I still love it the most. Will Farrell conveys such childish innocence and unwavering belief in goodness that I can’t help but love his character. Buddy knows the truth and always tries to do the right thing. He falls in love with a girl whose heart has been hardened by modern life and after some initial trepidation they come together to save Santa. Buddy’s real father makes choices to put business ahead of his family until his younger son really needs him. So this movie also hits all the right emotional chords for me. Add some hilarious dialogue, great slap-stick, some animated fictional characters, and Ed Asner as Claus and how could any movie be better?

With pretty much all of these movies, I find myself grinning with tears for anything from the last few minutes of the movie to the entire second half of the movie. That feeling of recognizing something so wonderful that my emotions can’t help but burst from my eyes is one that I’ve always associated with this time of the year. I can’t convey those same feelings in a machine gun set of movie reviews, but I hope that maybe I’ve interested some of you in reviewing those shows yourself. It should make you feel good to watch at least a couple of these because they have happy endings. Whether it’s one of these movies or some others, I hope you don’t let that cynical side of you keep you from enjoying some happy endings this season.