Voices

Wednesday, August 5, 1998
One year ago: Film as Dream

I had a good discussion with my manager today, about what I need to be doing to challenge myself, meet my career goals, and increase my value to the team. Of course there are no magic answers here, but we did think of some good possibilities; there are projects I could drive that would be big wins for the team, and would be something specific I could point to and say "I did that!" I need to also find the things that use my skills to their best advantage. Attention to detail, love for "connecting" things, you know the drill.

As an example of the connection theme, my friend Jon Newman called right after I got back to my desk after this chat. He was asking me for directions to the location in the north end of Seattle where he'll be taking dance class with the Savoy Swing Club. I was't familar with the exact place he was talking about, but I was able to point him to Mapblast, one of several map sites on the web. You just type in the address or the intersection you are looking for, and back comes a map, and maybe driving directions! Very cool and convenient, and I use such sites fairly often, but he hadn't heard of them before. I get a kick out of passing on such information.

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I again made a stop in the International District, on my way home, to buy more folding fans. This time, I bought the red ones -- all they had left at the gift store I was buying from! I gave one to Marilee and to Hallie, my two dance teachers at the Century Ballroom.

There was to be a dance contest at the dance tonight. I didn't have a prearranged partner, but I asked my buddy Earl to dance with me. He refused; he didn't like being the center of attention, he didn't do that kind of thing, etc, etc. Well, OK! So I asked another regular partner of mine, Antonio. But I was surprised to see that Earl did sign up for the contest after all! He wound up in the beginning section. Apparently a few folks pressed him with more urgency than I did. I shouldn't have taken "no" for an answer! And he and his partner won! Grr!

I didn't expect to win in the Intermediate section; Antonio and I were dancing swing, and there were some very experienced lindy dancers in the competition as well. But we had fun. I gave Earl all kinds of grief later, but I wasn't really angry. Maybe now that there is a precedent, I'll be lucky enough to get him as a partner in another contest sometime!

There were a lot of really fine dancers there tonight, and I had a blast. I got to dance with all my preferred partners, and some of them even asked me, instead of the other way around. I was talking with Sterling about this, and he allowed as how he was almost spoiled as a lead, since he rarely had to ask a partner to dance. Sometimes we are lined up to dance with him!

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I like Tracing's use of an interview with Liz Phair (a musician, yes?) to illustrate her ideas about voices and empowerment. A journal is a chance for a normal person to be heard in the world. "Even if each individual only has a few readers, if the genre is strong, it means the idea of normal individuals being heard by others who are strangers to them is strong, and maybe we'll begin to understand ourselves through ourselves, and not have to be so dependent on popular culture and the media (and yes, I appreciate the irony of saying that while at the same time quoting extensively from a media interview with a rock star). "

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