Gorgeous!

It's pretty fantastic to have funny, creative friends. While I was in Vancouver, Jodi gave me this card. I just had to immortalize it in my blog!

Outside

Inside

Photo Progress

I'm heading back to Toronto tomorrow.

I've really enjoyed my visit back to Vancouver, especially catching up with friends that I hadn't seen for ages. However, it was a long stay. That gave me some time to make headway on a project that's been sitting on the back burner for far too long.

I've managed to post and tag my photos on flickr up to the end of November, 2005. Alas, this has been a long process, and I'm still quite far from the present day (damn you flickr, and your alluring per-photo tags!). Still, it's a key milestone because I've now exceeded what was on the old Yahoo! photos site. So, I've switched over my photos link on the right, so it now points at flickr: here.

Enjoy them, in all their full resolution beauty!

Time Warp

[Quick background note: I'm back home in Vancouver for the holidays.]

This evening, I went with Phi to our old high school's Christmas concert.

It's been 11 years since my grade 12 Christmas concert, so it was a little mind-blowing to be there. Most of the songs were familiar, as they were songs I had done in my last two years of school. Mr. O. and Mrs. Roberts were still leading the band and choir, and Mrs. Mulder was in the audience, as always.

The highlight was the last number, Silent Night. The concert always ends with a really beautiful choral arrangement of Silent Night, performed from the balcony at the back of the church. The program said that all alumni of the concert choir were invited to participate, so we went up to join the group, and stood in the back row. I'm pretty sure we were the oldest ones in the lot.

Just like 11 years ago, we had picked up candles which we would be holding during the performance. I shook slightly as I tried to light mine, once again feeling the slight nerves before singing. Then, the most fantastic thing happened. Mrs. Roberts was looking around to make sure that everyone could see her. She noticed me, and mouthed, "oh my God, it's David." I mouthed back, "oh my God, it's Franny."

We performed the song and, of course, I still knew every note. Phi later confirmed that she did, too. The last note rang across the church, ending an amazingly exciting experience: a brief trip back in time.

Best. Headline. Ever.

Here.

Happy Chanukah!

Mandi, Mandi! You're so grandy!

Once again, I'm motivated to post about jazz with Mandi at Swingin'OUT. I fear that this blog may soon turn into nothing more than a record of these classes, but really, would that be so bad? Anyway, I warned you back at the beginning that the primary purpose of this blog is to act as my personal memory aid. And, I really don't want to forget this stuff.

I'll start with the whole routine, and then explain the new and tricky moves below.

The Routine

Messing around
Trucking (right foot first)
Suzie Q to the left
Trucking (left foot first)
Suzie Q to the right
Fall off the log/cross-over step
3 more cross-over steps
Boogie drops (right then left)
Shorty George with hold on four (finish with right foot on 7)
3 sets of reaches (up first)
Jazz hands break and turn (end with stomp off)
3 sets of Tacky Annie
Break with kick ball change and turn
2 sets of raise leg, hold, triple step (raise right leg first)
2 sets of boogie forward/fishtail back

...repeat from trucking!

Trucking

1. Step inward on heal of right foot.
2. Pivot right foot outward and tap toe. Left foot raises and weight transfers to right.
3. Step inward on heal of left foot.
4. Pivot left foot outward and tap toe. Right foot raises and weight transfers to left.

Left hand on waist, raise and wiggle index figure of right hand.

Fall off the log/cross-over step

8-3. Like regular fall off the log, but focus shifts to cross-over step (right in front of left) on 3.
4. Hold.
5-6. Step left, right.
7. Cross left in front of right.

Reaches

Turn 90 degrees to right.

1. Step on left foot, and reach up to left, with left hand above right.
2. Hold.
3. Step on right foot, and reach down to centre, with hands next to each other.
4. Hold.
5. Up left.
6. Down right.
7. Up left.
8. Hold.

Second time has same rhythm, but down right first. Third time, up right first again.

Jazz hands break and turn

1. Pushing off with right foot, scoot forward onto left.
2. Step forward on to right foot.
3. Bend left leg back at knee. Arms out, with left up right down. Jazz hands!
4. Left foot down, beside right.
5. Cross right foot behind left.
6-7. Turn over right shoulder.
(and) 8. Stomp-off.

Break with kick ball change and turn

8. Step onto right foot.
1. Touch left foot behind right.
2. Step onto right foot.
3-4. Kick ball change with right onto left.
5. Jump into lock step, right foot in front of left.
6-7. Turn over left shoulder.

Raise leg, hold, triple step

8. Raise right foot with straight leg, and slap leg with right hand. Left arm straight up.
1. Hold.
2-3. Triple step on right foot.
4. Raise left foot with straight leg, and slep leg with left hand. Right arm straight up.
5. Hold.
6-7. Triple step on left foot.

Thanks again, Mandi, for a fabulous class! Indirect thanks to Frida Segerdahl of the Harlem Hotshots, from whom Mandi says she "borrowed" most of this routine.

Wow, Stephane!

Stephane Dion has just been selected as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

I've been watching the convention all day. It's been amazingly exciting, even though it feels like it's been moving in slow motion.

I've been a big fan of Dion since he wrote his open letters to Lucien Bouchard and Jacques Brassard. He has always displayed a clarity of thought and intellectual honesty that's too often lacking in politics. And his embrace of a strong environmental policy is most heartening.

Gerrard Kennedy, of whom I knew nothing before, has earned a lot of my respect, too. By abandoning his own bid after the second ballot and throwing his support behind Dion, he pushed Dion to the head of the pack. For me, that was a clear demonstration of commitment to his values and principles.

With Michael Ignatieff leading throughout the campaign, I was not looking forward to voting in the next election. Now all of a sudden, I can hardly wait!

*wink*

Yup, this is the post I was musing about yesterday. I guess I was bothered enough by the fact that I hadn't posted in over a month that I decided to finish it...

Several weeks ago now, Alex invited me and Kevin to watch some stand-up comedy at the Laugh Resort. The whole evening was a good time, but things got really interesting for me while the headliner, Michael Somerville, was on stage.

He was talking about how, when he gets back into town from touring, he meets his girlfriend at a bar, and they try to pick each other up. They make it interesting by giving each other a little assignment or challenge for the night. One time, he was to whistle at her, and she was to wink at him. But, at the time they had given each other these assignments, they didn't know that he can't whistle and she can't wink!

Well, when he started talking about how she couldn't wink, I cheered. I did that because I can't wink either.

He noticed, and asked if I was cheering because I can't wink. "That's right," I said.

He got pretty excited by this, and said that I'm the only other person he knows of who can't wink. He invited me up on stage, to demonstrate to everyone how funny it looks when someone who can't wink tries to. I declined, and he carried on with his story.

Then, right at the end of his set, he was summing up: "and really, that's all there is...unless Dave wants to come up and wink for us" (or words to that effect...hey, it was weeks ago, remember!). Well, in the interim, he had mentioned that he had a CD, which he would be selling after the show. Without missing a beat, I said, "I'll do it for a a free CD."

Why did I do that? I really didn't want to get up on stage and be laughed at, did I?

Anyway, he brought me up on stage, and shared his plans for me. We were going to reenact the scene in the bar, and I would of course be playing his wink-less girlfriend. I said that I hadn't realized this would be a whole big dramatic presentation, and added that the CD had better be signed.

So, I sat on a stool, and he walked across the stage. We glanced at each other, trying not to hold eye contact. Then, he started blowing air, attempting to whistle, and I started scrunching up my face, trying to wink.

The scene was pretty funny, from where I was sitting, anyway. He seemed to be really amused, too. But, the whole experience was quite surreal, so I don't actually remember if anyone in the audience was laughing.

In the end, he started faking a whistle sound, as he'd described earlier in his bit. Not willing to be outdone, I used my hands to hold one eye open and force the other one shut. I think this might have been met with laughter and applause, but I may be imagining that.

Anyway, the whole thing ended quite quickly. But, after the show, he did honour our deal, and I got my free, signed CD.


If you get the chance to see Michael doing stand up, take it! He's a funny guy!

The Heavy Digital Pen

Is there some kind of statute of limitations for blogging?

Something interesting happened weeks ago, and I meant to write about it. But, things got busy, yada, yada, yada...and I never got around to it. Now, the digital pen just seems too heavy. I can't motivate myself to do it.

Well, maybe I'll start a draft...

Le Jazz Hot!

Swingin'OUT was fantastic last night! Mandi Gould was our guest teacher for a special jazz class, and it was just too much fun!

Amazingly, we spent most of the 75 minute class on just four basic jazz moves:

• boogie back
  
• boogie forward
  
• fish tail
• Shorty George

First we focused on timing and polish. We practiced really opening up our upper bodies and putting our hips into it.

Then, we started combining the moves. For instance, four counts of boogie forward with four of Shorty George. Or, four counts of fish tail with four counts of boogie back. Or, even just pieces as small as 2 counts from each move!

Next, we broke into three small groups to create some tiny pieces of choreography. Each was to be 4 sets of 8 counts and use just those four basic moves. Well, actually, if we really wanted to, we were given permission throw in something else simple.

For posterity, here's what my group did. We were a group of five people, and we started in a straight line.

• 8 counts: people in position 1, 3 and 5 boogie forward; 2 and 4 fish tail
  
• 8 counts: people in position 1, 3 and 5 fish tail; 2 and 4 boogie forward
• 4 counts: everyone boogie forward
• 4 counts: everyone Shorty George
• 8 counts: everyone boogie drops (4 counts right, 4 counts left)
  

We even arranged ourselves for colour balance in our shirts (by coincidence, we had 2 green Swingin' OUT T-shirts, 2 pink T-shirts, and one white T-shirt) and had time to choose a name.

Each group performed its little numbers for the others, and everyone was suitably impressed. Ours might have been the flashiest, due to the fact that we added boogie drops and had different people doing different moves at the same time. But, the other two groups were more inventive in the way they combined the four basic moves. In all, it was really fun to see what each group came up with!

Then, we got back into a big group, and started experimenting with the rhythm of the moves. For instance, instead of doing Shorty George as "kick-ball step step step step step step step," we dd "kick-ball step (hold) step (hold) step step step."

Finally, we broke out again into three smaller groups, where we did little jam circles. We went around the circles and each person had to do 2, then 4, sets of 8 counts in turn. Again, we were limited to the moves we had done that night, which we could combine however we saw fit.

Considering this was the first time many people had done anything like this, it went amazingly well. I guess because we had really reinforced the moves already and no one was expecting anything ridiculously inventive, people weren't all that nervous. It felt like we were even playing off each other a bit in my circle, which was great.

Thanks Mandi, for making jazz so non-scary and...fun!

Reruns in Syndication

If you're subscribed to my Atom feed, my apologies. I just switched over to Blogger Beta, and it seems the only negative effect was a modification to the entry IDs in my feed. The result is that your feed reader will probably see duplicates of my last 25 posts or so.

I wonder if I should try playing around with a new layout?