DC in 24 Hours

October 18, 2011 at 1:32 am (Random DCene)

Lots of people like to make lists of places to go/things to do in DC*, but the problem is that a lot of them aren’t feasible in the short time that most people have to visit because more than a couple things need a lot of time like museums, are places where you need to wait for tickets, or you need to contact your Senator or Representative to get a special tour.  There’s plenty to do in DC, but lists are easy. I’m going to give you a plan. A crazysexycool tour of the city as if you only had 24 hours to do it.

Prepare to unleash the hounds!

To be honest, while I’ve been to most of these places, I’ve never done them on a schedule like this. I don’t know about you, but we’re assuming some highly improbable things about my stamina. It’s entirely possible that I would need a nap before noon, but the main point is to list all these fun places to visit. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Mobtown Ballroom Grand Opening: A Baltimore Homecoming

October 14, 2011 at 12:14 am (Dance, Jazz, Lindy Hop)

At the end of her second encore of the night, after playing for five hours, an exhausted Meschiya Lake motioned for everyone to kneel as she drew out her final chorus.  She then joined them on the ground, genuflecting to them as much as they were to her, and drew out a final breathless coda that brought everyone back to their feet, arms outstretched, and thanking her for helping them open this new house of a different kind of worship.

It’s hard not to make the religious parallels. The new Mobtown Ball is in what was formerly known as St. Paul the Apostle Episcopal Church and before that as Henshaw Memorial Church for almost 100 years. After the last congregation left a few years ago, the building was home to gutter punks who staged shows in the abandoned spaces. The neighborhood itself is known unglamorously as Pigtown, a name it got when there were slaughterhouses in the area to service the nearby rail road station now museum. The latest chapter of this eclectic history started on September 24, 2011, and centers on a bunch of Lindy Hoppers. Read the rest of this entry »

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Back in the Day

October 10, 2011 at 10:31 am (Blues, Dance, Lindy Hop)

Update: I some how forgot to list my favorite performance from this era, Naomi Uyama & Matt Smiley’s Frenesi performance at ALHC 2001. I inserted it down yonder. Or check out the separate post I wrote about it back when I started this blog.

Over at Bug’s Question of the Day, someone asked for people’s favorite competition videos from 2000-2004. No one answered seriously, so I whipped out a post I wrote on Yehoodi a few years ago when they asked for the top American Lindy Hop Championship moments through 2006. I was just going to cut out the excess years and post that to Bug’s question, but then in a fit of late night random productiveness, I added a whole bunch of stuff I could remember.

I always wanted to turn the original post into a blog, and since I did all the legwork last night, I just made some adjustments and voila!  I’m probably missing a bunch, but this is a pretty long list anyway. This isn’t a definitive list, just a list of stuff that I grew up watching over and over while I tried to figure out how to dance.

The parameters are pretty straight forward. The list is limited to competition videos from 2000-2004, so there are no performances, jams or other informal social dancing videos. Also, the west coast will have to forgive me, but I never got around to traveling out there and never got any videos from Camp Hollywood or any other events from that time period. Read the rest of this entry »

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