Living Traditions

Saturday, August 22, 1998
One year ago: The Future Behind Us

Why do I take the bus to the U-district? That's the neighborhood and business district near the University of Washington. Well, I have a bus pass, and parking is usually tight over there. Taking the bus makes it more of a fun expedition! Today I eavesdropped on a group of young tourists. I think some were from the north of England, and some were from Australia. They were discussing exchange rates and fares. If I were riding the bus in a foreign city, I'd be looking out the window to see what I could see, but they were sitting (by choice?) in a part of the bus where you can't easily see out, the "joint" part of the articulated bus. (I guess I look out the window even when I'm going through a familiar neighborhood!)

At the University Bookstore, I bought Cold Mountain, which is the bookclub book for this month (but I have a week to read it!). I also grabbed C.J. Cherryh's Finity's End, which is now out in paperback. (If she is one of my favorite SF authors, as I often say, I should have gotten it in hardback. I wonder if I did, then lost track of it?) My third book was Walter Jon Williams' sequel to Metropolitan, called City On Fire. I think I need to reread the first book to remind myself about it!

I walked the few blocks to the movie theater and saw Ever After, which was a very good version of the Cinderella story. I liked how they restructured it so that the prince and Cinderella ("Danielle" here) actually had a chance to get to know each other -- not love at first sight! It would be fun to do a mini-festival: Celestial Clockwork, a French movie from a year or so ago which is another Cinderella story which incorporates the Rossini operatic version La Cenerentola as part of the plot ("Cinderella" is an aspiring singer who wants to audition for the starring role in a "movie-in-the-movie" ) plus the Frederica von Stade filmed version of the opera, plus the Disney cartoon. This story has been done so many times!

I snacked on Seattle's favorite pizza, Pagliacci's, then cruised the tchotchke shops of the Ave, the main drag in the neighborhood. I did restrain myself from buying anything. I spent the longest time in Pier 1, which still has its finger on the pulse of my demographic! I like almost everything I see there. They have added a lot of candles and stuff! I think about one third of the store is devoted to them, and other home-scenting material. I was about to buy a "fresh fig" scented votive candle, when I saw folks standing up and getting ready to leave at the bus stop outside the door. I told myself that I'd go see if the bus was the one I wanted; if it was, I'd leave without buying; if it wasn't, I'd come back in and buy. It was the right bus, so off home I went.

I did stop at Safeway when I got home, and bought a candle in a jar to reward myself for not buying the Pier 1 candle. Of course, the Safeway candle cost more! I feel the creeping edge of mini-obsession here...

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A comment I made on the swing-seattle-chat mailing list drew me into an email conversation over the last few days. Jim asked me where the grown-ups were going to dance, since the lindy hop dances he'd been to lately had seemed to him to be mostly twenty-somethings. After a few exchanges it turns out that his regular practice partners hadn't been asked to dance at some recent lindy hop dances (which, I wonder? he didn't say), and they attributed that to being older than most of the folks there.

I would put it to them being not known to the other people! I don't find that younger people particularly mind dancing with me, but then I've been in class with them so I'm not an unknown partner. I think a lot of the dance things I've done have been for getting to know more dancers, so that I feel comfortable asking them to dance, and they are more likely to ask me. I see a common pattern everywhere I dance, whether it's at Friday night practice, the Century Ballroom, or Zoot Suit Sunday at the Showbox: People tend to dance with their familiar partners. It's only human! But I am relentless; I look around the room, note who I want to dance with at least once (I don't want to inflict myself more than that) and ask when I get a chance. If I waited until someone asked me, I wouldn't be dancing nearly as much. See my discussion about this with Sterling a few weeks ago.

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So tonight I went to a Living Traditions dance, which I hadn't been to before, though my friends Denys, Karrie, Kate and Glenn have all taken dance class with that organization. I knew the band would be good, and the Leif Erikson Hall venue is just around the corner from the Ballard Eagles Lodge where I've been before on Saturdays.

I know I've heard Casey McGill before, but I'd forgotten how good the band is! They really swing!

Despite my brave talk above about asking folks to dance, I didn't ask any strangers to dance tonight. I sat out for quite a while, since I didn't see too many people I know, and I wanted to get the feel of the place. I saw a man that looked familiar to me, so I went over and tapped him on the shoulder as he walked out of the door. "Don?" I said. I thought the man was a Seattle fan that I know slightly. He said he wasn't Don, though he knew him. Turns out this man was Jim, whom I'd been corresponding with! Both are large men, with curly hair and beards, which explains my confusion, but now that I think about it, I remember what Don looks like. Jim looked familiar to me because he's been to Vanguard, the monthly Seattle fannish social gathering, a time or two, though I don't think we've ever talked there.

We danced a few times during the evening, and discussed the politics of the Seattle dance scene, which of course has undercurrents of which I was entirely unaware.

My other partners were Savoy club members (going to Friday night practice is paying off!), plus Chris and Benjamin. The big difference that I saw between the Living Traditions dance and other places I've gone dancing is the larger number of travelling dancers, who like to fox-trot or two step around the perimeter of the floor. This restricts the room available for the rest of us, since a "traffic lane" must be preserved for them.

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At about eleven thirty I walked around the corner to the Ballard Eagles. It was hot, crowded and smoky, but I got some good dancing in. My buddy A-- L---- was there, getting along well! I introduced him to a few friends, including Zola. Monty Banks didn't start playing until midnight! They were done by one o'clock, and DJ'd music followed.

A rather strange incident happened then. The person playing the records (Leslie Price, known as DJ Leslie$, impresario of the whole evening) had the volume turned way up, much louder than the band had been. Cat Daddy Chris went and asked her to turn it down a bit, and she did. But she turned it up again for the next song, even louder. Jonathan Garrigues then also asked her to turn it down. I can't remember if I knew he had just asked, but I did, too.

"NO!" she said, in an angry voice. Ah, well, I shrugged to myself, and went back to the other side of the dance floor, where I was chatting to Stacey and Jonathan. The DJ then said into her microphone, over the music, "If this is too loud for you, then you are TOO FUCKING OLD!" The three of us looked at each other in mingled shock and amusement. "She means me!" I said to Stacey. The DJ cranked the music more. She continued to make similar remarks, interspersed with statements about not liking "nerds" for some reason, for about the next ten minutes. I was rather suprised that she was so lacking in self-control, to throw such a tantrum. After all, she's in charge of the music and can play whatever she wants, at the volume she wants, despite any customer requests, so why the anger and shouting? I can only assume that the lady was feeling indisposed, or I'm sure she wouldn't have behaved in such a manner. Feel better soon, Leslie!

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