. . . more or less.
I started this blog because I wanted something interesting to read. Seriously, there’s probably no one else out there that reads my blog more than I do. Trust me, I see the statistics. That’s right, I’m one of those self centered jerks that writes just so I can see what I wrote. Besides, being a terrible editor, this is the only way I catch my mistakes, of which there can be many in any given post.
Until a year ago I was one of those people who always talked about having a blog, but never got around to starting one until Frankie95. I posted a 30+ page overview/rant of the whole experience on Facebook and before I was done, I decided that writing on a semi-regular basis wasn’t as impossible as I thought it would be.
A friend of mine asked me if having the blog makes writing easier. After doing this for a year, I don’t think so. It just provides motivation to finish stuff. It doesn’t necessarily mean its good when I hit the publish button, but at least it’s done. Before this blog, I had (and still do) about 200 essays in various stages of incompletion because I didn’t have any place to publish them. I still haven’t gotten around to posting any of those, but at least I have some stuff stockpiled in case I run out of ideas.
This also gave me the motivation to secretly decide to post at least twice a week. I say secretly because on every new blog I read, the would be blogger pledges to some sort of schedule which they inevitably never keep.
Of course now that I’ve printed that, I probably won’t ever post again. If that happens, then there at least 193 other posts you can amuse yourself with.
I didn’t intend for this to be primarily a Lindy Hop blog, but that’s where most of my writing interest have been lately. It also provides yet another convenient reason to put off working on that hardened-but-lovable-group-of-misfits-in-a-world-out-to-get-them fantasy novel that’s been collecting virtual dust since I read Fellowship of the Ring back in the 7th grade.
It’s cool that a lot of people come here for the Lindy Hop stuff, if only to have a built in audience for my other interests which, let’s face it, you wouldn’t bother reading under any other circumstances.
But I write a lot about the Lindy Hop community because my ultimate interest is in how and why people create the things they do, and I think that the Lindy Hop scene provides a fascinating window on a creative community still in development.
But I’m not some unbiased observer. I’m also a part of this community. I’ve been criticized by a friend for censoring myself too much in terms of holding back my opinions. Readers of this blog will note that I usually post videos of good dancing even though the opportunity to ridicule bad dancing should provide me with enough material to post several times a day. And that’s not including the bullshit politics and general megalomania that pervades our dance on a local and international level.
I’m not naïve, but I am aware that my actions and words have consequences beyond my own reputation. For instance, I’ve been posting data based on how many times various teachers are hired around the world for events. I noted that there are 27 instructors that get hired more than everyone else. I’m actually going to post those names eventually, but not in a way you would expect. It certainly will not include a ranking of exactly how many times each individual person is hired.
Why? It’s because the community is that small and I know quite a few of these people personally. I don’t necessarily like them all, but I’m not going to get in their way of making a living or just pursuing their dreams; I think a ranked list would enforce a certain hierarchy in this scene which we all know exists, but I don’t necessarily think should be re-enforced.
That’s the just the way I roll.
No wait . . . This is how I roll.
But I write what I write because there isn’t a whole lot of intelligent discussion about Lindy Hop out there. Sure it happens over a meal at the diner on your way over to the late night, but not a lot of people are willing or interested in putting those thoughts into print. Although that seems to be changing.
That’s the kind of stuff that I want to read. I’d like to write about other stuff, and in the future I’m sure I will, but to be honest there are tons of other knowledgeable and eloquent writers out there that fulfill that need for me.
So I’ll keep posting videos and talking about the Lindy Hop and yammer on about events I go to and even the ones I help run. Hopefully we’ll all learn something new along the way. At the very least I hope you find this a good place to keep procrastinating.
Thanks to everyone for supporting the site especially with your helpful and informative comments both on line and off. Also to those of you who have spread the word on Facebook and other sites.
Thanks especially to Ramona Staffeld and Skye Humphries for their contributions to the conversation.
Thank you reading!
Sincerely,
Jerry S. Almonte
Wandering & Pondering 