The Rhumba Bums

What we call luck is the inner man externalized. We make things happen to us.
-- Robertson Davies

Saturday, November 21, 1998
One year ago: An Impromptu Hop

The rain has settled in with a vengeance. I hope Bluejack is satisfied! The news is filled with bulletins -- floodwatch on this river or that. Traffic is terrible on all roads at all times.

The bad traffic and weather meant that it took twice the normal time for my homeward commute, in spite of my leaving early. I headed straight downtown for the Westlake Friday Rush Hour Jam. Its originator, Hyper Dan, wasn't there (he had to work) but his co-conspirator, Anne, was there with permit and boombox. Raven and Chad were also there. This was a great opportunity to practice my leading skills, with one lead to all us follows. "Up and" Adam showed up a bit later, and Brian found us eating dinner upstairs in the food court.

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I was pleased that I managed to convince the rest of the group to come to Friday Night Practice. I don't know why they hadn't come before! We split up between Anne's car and Brian's car (good thing he showed up!) and made our way up to my neighborhood. Adam had a moment of concern when Brian had the car perpendicular to the street, in the course of trying to parallel park. He thought that Brian was going to just leave the car sticking out at a right angle to the curb! But we successfully parked (in the Safeway parking lot) and got ourselves to practice.

Stacey Walter was the teacher for the lesson. She taught us the Shim-sham, which is a line dance that uses jazz and swing steps. I'm glad I'm signed up for an hour workshop with Jen and Chris of Hepcat productions on this dance in December! I'd say I'm at about 50 percent on the dance, from picking up various parts along the way and the half hour lesson from Friday.

My original plan for the evening was to continue on to a DJ'd dance at the Century Ballroom, but I started feeling too tired by the end of practice, so I just walked home instead.

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Tonight was an exceptional night of dancing, with Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums at the Century. This was the first time they played in Seattle, and there was a good crowd. The beginner dancers even stuck around quite late in the evening! Usually they drop out (lack of stamina?) after an hour or so, but they kept right on dancing this time.

The band was great fun! Even though a lot of their stuff is too fast to lindy to comfortably, I managed to pace myself, switching to East Coast Swing when lindy was beyond me. I saw some couples dancing half-time, just counting every other beat. Oh, what did I wear? My short, square-necked purple dress with the moons and stars on it.

I was very impressed with Miss Carmen Getit, vocalist and guitar player with the band. (She's the one scoring a KO on the CD cover!) Her playing was great and really added a lot to the mix. This page has sound samples from their CD (but they aren't streaming; you must download).

I didn't dance every dance, but I did stay clear to the end of the evening, and danced the last dance with Matteo. I've danced with him a few times before, but this time I really couldn't get what he was doing. I just kept on doing my own thing, though, and he didn't seem to mind.

My buddy Adam gave me a ride home (not "Up and" Adam, the other Adam) and we discussed singles-related issues and work stuff for a few minutes before I went inside. I do feel for the guy! He was in a bummed-out mood.

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A topic that's come up recently on a journal-related mailing list: do you limit what you write about enthusiams of yours for fear of boring the readers, or not? I obviously do write about what is concerning me or occupying my time. I try to do it in an interesting way! So when I can't think of anything new to say about an evening of dancing, I'll omit any mention, or just say that I went. It's a writing challenge to recount my personal experiences and not make it just "and then I did, and then I did..." but I do like tell the stories. Sometimes I think the problem is that I don't go into enough detail! An intimate, intense, first-person narrative is a good thing!