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TeachingIt is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. |
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Thursday, April 23, 1998
I've been listening to a CD I bought Tuesday night: Red, White and Brass, from the Canadian Brass with the brass sections (and percussion players?) of the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. All American music.
I loved playing in the orchestra and brass ensembles in college. My instrument was trombone, a bad choice for someone with short arms, but I had fun. The power and richness of the brass sound is still exciting! The cameraderie and teamwork of playing in a small ensemble was always satisfying to me. The orchestral brass section used to get together to play excerpts, the bits from a symphony where the brass was featured. Thrilling!
I do believe that musicians' personalities can go along with the instruments they play. The most normal are at the top: trumpeters were often jocks, regular guys, a bit macho. The lower you went, the stranger the people got. Tuba players are often quite eccentric! You can find parallel differences in the other instrumental areas. I don't know if this theory holds true for singers; probably not.
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Going along with the stereotype of how women like the self-help books, we like the self-help websites too! This one is packed with good content for both sexes: Dr. Tracy's Loveadvice.com. In fact, I recommended it to Wally for the show he did tonight on flirting!
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I really like the habit we've gotten into, of going down the street to the deli for a snack between lindy class and the dance. Tonight we filled the place! It's a nice little shop. It reminded me of a set for a sitcom: disparate elements were closer together than you would think they would be in real life. There's a cafe area in the front, a mini lunch counter, espresso stand and ice cream area on the right side, and a convenience store area in the rear.
Fireman Dan is starting up a Seattle Lindy web site! I offered use of my digital camera for the lindy dancer directory he wants to do, with portraits of the hep cats and kittens.
I amazed myself by asking Chris Chapman, my teacher, to dance tonight. I've been too shy to do this before, though I often ask classmates if I see them standing around when they should be dancing. Then the song started, and it was incredibly fast! Chris didn't have any trouble, but I was challenged to keep up! But it was still fun. He has great style and imagination; he likes the comedic aspects of Lindy, too. He makes great funny faces!
I danced with a new partner, Earl, who did very well for only having had four lessons! He had been talking with Chris about whether he should sign up for beginning Lindy next session, since he has studied elsewhere til now. As an unsolicited testimonial, I told him that combining lessons from different places had worked very well for me, and talked about the differences I had found between classes with the Swing Girls and with Jen and Chris. Earl was eager to learn a few new steps, and picked up the kick-through Charleston from me very quickly.
A good day, but tiring!
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