Jamming at Westlake

It is as healthy to enjoy sentiment as to enjoy jam.
-- G. K. Chesterton

Friday, November 6, 1998
One year ago: Anticipate the Con

Last year I was looking forward to Orycon 19, and this year I am looking forward to Orycon 20! I did fulfill my goal of buying this year's membership before I left Portland a year ago, so I'm all set for next weekend. It's worthwhile buying ahead for me, since if something happened and I couldn't go it wouldn't be a crippling financial loss, and I'm so unlikely to put things in the mail in a timely manner. That's why I'm on the waiting list for Swing Out Northwest, even though I mailed my application only a few weeks after they started taking them.

It's slightly aggravating that Xoom.com seems to be having a problem. I read several journals that are located there! So Dave Van and June Thomas are currently unavailable. The perils of free webspace!

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

My buddy Dan Osborn has decided to get a cocktail-hour dance jam going on Friday afternoons. So since I'd worked so many long days earlier in the week, I decided to cut out an hour early and get there right at the beginning.

A dance jam (in this sense) is an informal gathering, usually in a public place, for the purpose of dancing, with a subtext of evangelizing lindy and swing to the folks passing by through having written materials with local dance resources listed. (Another kind of dance jam is a jam circle, where people gather in a circle and one couple at a time gets in the middle and proceeds to show their stuff for a chorus or two.)

I got home, picked out a sweater that would go with the dress I was wearing (a burgundy sweater for a maroon, amber and pink rayon batik print), and added some earrings. I wasn't sure if we'd be dancing outdoors or not, and my usual jacket is a Polartec pullover that's a bit bulky for dance wear. I took the bus downtown to Westlake Center and walked around for a few minutes, before I recalled that Dan had decided the best location would be in the bus tunnel mezzanine. This meant I needed to go inside the mall and down to the lowest level.

I got down there and found Dan and Anne. The bus tunnel is really very attractive! They spent the required one percent for art on lots of cool ceramic tiles, and the floor is marble and stone. Very smooth! Dan had warned us of this, so I'd brought an alternate pair of shoes (Hush Puppies) as well as the ones I usually wear. Dan has a new boombox bought specifically for these gatherings, with very good bass, so we can hear the beat.

We started dancing. The possible pairings were Dan and Anne, Dan and me, and Anne and me with her leading. This was useful -- Dan could get a break and get his breath back! We danced for about twenty minutes when a Metro security guard came by and asked Dan (I stepped back, of course!) if he had a permit. Nope! we didn't! He scoped us out, perhaps to make sure we weren't collecting money, then said we could continue, but we should get a permit for next time. This will mean a trip to a downtown office by Dan, but I suggested he could get several at a time since he knows that he wants to do this every week.

We continued dancing for a few more minutes after the guard left, but were forced to stop when a King County sherrif deputy arrived, with a large man in civilian clothes. He again asked for our permit, and this time didn't allow us to skate. So we packed up all our paraphenalia and moved up, out into the open air, to the center of the plaza that makes up Westlake Park. In some ways this was better, since there was an electrical outlet available, and more people were walking by. Mike, a newish lindy hopper but intermediate swing dancer, had joined us just before, so we had two couples now.

We had a blast! Dan had cards with his URL on them for those with web access, and flyers with the key swing dance info (lesson and club venues) for those not online. People did stop and pick these up, and got a big kick out of watching us. "Up and" Adam showed up around five o'clock, looking very dapper, and Tao came and danced with us for a while also. Another couple just in town for the weekend jumped in and joined us.

The whole thing worked very well. The paving in the plaza was not bad at all for dancing, and the indoor location will work very well in the wintertime. I don't think I'll be able to get there at four o'clock every week, but this will go on my calendar.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

Dan, Adam, Anne and I all went to get some dinner. Anne wasn't enthusiastic about eating at the food court in Westlake Mall, since she works within a few blocks of there and is sick of all those places, but the alternative place we tried was closed, so we went on up there. We did manage to find food to suit us; I got a philly cheesesteak, and the others got clam chowder or lobster bisque in bread bowls. These bowls can be an eating challenge similar to an ice cream cone! It takes some doing to coordinate the level of the soup and the level of the bread.

My plans for the rest of the evening had been unformed earlier. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was playing at the Paramount, so I'd been thinking of trying for a ticket. But the couple that had joined us was also going to the show, and they told us that the floor tickets were sold out. I didn't want to go and sit in the balcony! If I were to go, I wanted to dance! This will be possible on the main floor, since they are removing all the seats for dancing.

So Dan, Adam, and Anne went on to the Paramount, and I took the bus back up the hill to Friday Night Practice.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

FNP was lots of fun! There were a bunch of kids (like high school age) that had driven down from Snohomish, which is the county to the north of where we are. There's a woman there -- whom I chatted with a bit -- who has a large dance floor in her home there, and is trying to get a swing dance scene going, since she thinks it's a wholesome, fun thing for them to do, instead of cruising around in their cars or hanging around being bored. I think it was because of these beginners and others that Jonathan and Janna decided to cover the Lindy basic as part of the half-hour lesson they were teaching. This didn't really work very well, because you can't pick up the Lindy basic in a few minutes if you don't already know it, and if you do already know it, a brief overview won't increase the depth of your understanding. I'd say we didn't really get the rest of the combination they were teaching covered in the time available.

I danced several times with Devin, which was a real treat! We always have had fun when we've been in class together. He told me he lives in Renton and works on the east side, which I didn't know. This was in the course of saying why it would be tough for him to get downtown in time for Dan's late afternoon Friday Jam.

I also danced a few with my Tommy-Lee-Jones-double friend. I'll have to give in and ask his name again. It's embarrassing both to not know it, and to ask it! Universal nametags are the only solution.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

There was the First Friday dance going on at the Russian Center, but I decided I'd danced enough, since I was already feeling tired and enjoying sitting down at the end of practice. I'm feeling a bit of tenderness in my Achilles tendons, too! And I don't want to overstrain them. So I walked homewards, stopping at the grocery store.

Someone was calling my name at the front of the store; it was my friend Kirsten, with another woman from work (I don't think I'd met her before!) and a college friend of Kirsten's. We talked for a few minutes about the latest hoo-ha going on in the singles public folder at work, and debated philosophies about meeting people and dating. They were going down to a place called the Garage, to play pool, and asked me along, but I stuck to my intention and headed for home, to get email and read journals. But I succumbed to journaler peer pressure and bought a sixpack of Pepsi One before I left.