Eagles Lodge

Saturday, July 11, 1998
One year ago: Vacation Wrap-up

Did you know that 7-11 has granitas now? They don't call them by that name, though. A Granita is a slurpee-style drink, and when bought from an espresso place is usually made from a latte. An appropriate drink for today, 7/11! But it's only 7/11 in the American way of writing the date. In England and Europe, it's 11/7/98. This source of ambiguity is why it's better to write the date with words whenever you possibly can.

Anyway, the coffee-flavored slurpee sufficiently caffeinated me this morning. I need it after sleeping late and recovering from last night's activities.

I had brought most of my jazz CDs home from work, to use them at the dance workshop I taught recently. Then of course I couldn't find them to bring them back, so I hadn't been listening to them recently. This morning I found them, so I put "Are you Hep to the Jive?", a Cab Calloway compilation, into the CD-rom drive on my computer and listened to it while doing web stuff this morning. It sounded so great! Much better than using the headphones as I must do at work.

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I was very pleased to see that Lizzie mentioned me on her new links page. I'm also happy that the name of my journal begins with "A", so that I often come near the beginning of such lists. And I'm tickled that it's my musical recommendations that are called out for notice. To express musical concepts in words isn't easy! It's a challenge to write about any hobby or technical topic and make it interesting for those who don't share that particular obsession.

I really would like to do a similar links page, but I read too many journals! (I can do this efficiently because Internet Explorer makes it easy for me to only visit the pages that are changed.) But I'll try to follow Lizzie's and Lynda's examples, and feature some journals that I like in individual entries. I even have an image, made for me by Jason, that I can use as a logo.

"Net Nag Approved" -- Am I really such a nag? I do let folks know when they've made an error. Once a proofreader, always a proofreader! I think I should "own" the word nag as others have embraced the negative words used to oppress them (fat, faggot, dyke) and turn that power to positive energy! I'm also more comfortable with individual recommendations than with some of the other schemes currently being bruited about.

I've been reading Michael Rawdon's Gazing into the Abyss for quite a while now. I like his matter-of-fact tone, and asked him to write a piece comparing fannish zine writing and online journal writing experiences, for the first printed version of Anita's BOD. This entry gives an interesting perspective on the recent launch of Metajournals.

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This evening I drove to Ballard, to the Eagles Lodge, for the first night of "Swingin' Saturdays at the Savoy." This is a new production put on by the same folks that have brought us Nonday nights at the Fenix. During the course of the evening, I found out the inside connection that made this happen: the current president of that branch of the lodge is the owner[?] or manager of the Fenix.

When I walked in, I was surprised to see that the regular crowd of lodge members was there. Most of them are older than the swing dance folks I see around town (who were also present). The building is low-ceilinged, with about two thirds of the space devoted to the bar and tables, and one third to a nice wood dance floor of moderate size. I got a few dances in before the lesson started, then settled in to wait till Tonya and Theo were done teaching. They really need body mikes! There was a big enough crowd that most folks couldn't see them. A gentleman I've danced with before at the Showbox drew me into the lesson, and I found I couldn't resist giving a few hints to the couple standing next to us (those teaching genes kicking in). A basic concept of dance frame, and the most comfortable way for lead and follow to hold their arms, will go a lot farther towards making the first few evenings of swing dance a fun experience for all than steps that are really intermediate level, or lindy steps adapted to East Coast swing. (In my opinion, of course!)

There was quite a crowd of dancers after the lesson, and the club was laid out rather awkwardly, so that two sides of the dance floor are inaccessible. I'll attribute any difficulty I had in finding partners to that! The place was really warm, although the air conditioning was turned on and could be felt in the back corners, away from the dance floor. The band was H. P. Radke and the Jet City Swingers. H.P has bleached his hair to a white-blond shade, so I hadn't recognized him when he's been around the past few nights. They didn't start playing till eleven (D.J. music before that) and I started feeling not so hot around then, so I left at eleven thirty. Shockingly early!

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