Dalmo Again

He who wishes to teach us a truth should not tell it to us, but simply suggest it with a brief gesture, a gesture which starts an ideal trajectory in the air along which we glide until we find ourselves at the feet of the new truth.
-- José Ortega y Gasset

Sunday, November 7, 1999
One year ago: Off to See the Wizard

It's a year ago that I went to see The Wizard of Oz in the theater, with Jack and his daughters. I still have the button on my jacket that they were giving away that night, and I often get compliments on it! It's one of those lenticular (?) ones, with plastic ridges that show you different images depending on the angle of view, so as you shift your head you see the characters walking up the yellow brick road towards the Emerald City.

I rember how I was surprised/amused/irked, when Jack pulled out a book and started reading while we were sitting in the theater. We were there on a date-type event, so I felt he should be talking to me, not reading and leaving me to make conversation with his daughter! And I didn't have a book with me that I could pull out and start reading.

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One of my main activities this weekend was a dance workshop taught by David Dalmo and Josie Say. I wish I'd reviewed my earlier experiences with him before signing up! But I'd probably have gone anyway, since I wanted to support Cat Daddy Chris's Hep Cat Productions and the Savoy Swing Club, who were sponsoring. Saturday morning was Intermediate Lindy Hop, and this morning was Hip Hop for Lindy Hoppers. Saturday was fun, although the "too much talking" theme from last May did reoccur (it wasn't so extreme this time; we didn't have to sit down on the floor to listen). What he says is all good stuff that I agree with, but we don't get much about how to put the concepts into practice.

This morning wasn't so good. The description ("This street dance can be integrated into your Lindy, as the two styles actually have a lot in common.") made me think that hip hop styling would be taught, and would be integrated into lindy. But there wasn't the breaking down into basic movement styles that I needed as a non-hip hop dancer, and we didn't work on putting this stuff into lindy during the time I was there. I gave up and left about forty five minutes before the session ended. I was glad I attempted it, but enough was enough! We didn't have the problem of too much talking by Dalmo, though. Instead, it was mostly watching him, then trying to copy. I never did get the opening sequence of the first routine, which might have started me off on the wrong side of the bed.

So to make myself feel better, I stopped on the way home and inspected all the holiday decorations and general candles and scented stuff at City People's Mercantile. Amazingly, I didn't buy anything! (I can't find a website for this store, but the times I've mentioned them before do show up in altavista, yay!)

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I'd not signed up for the dance workshop session Saturday afternoon, because I thought I might need to go on the Hotel walkthrough for Potlatch. Jane told me she'd take care of it, though, so I had a quiet afternoon at home. I was waiting for the call from Jack that would confirm his plans for the evening.

He called around five thirty. He and some other folks would be driving down to see the seven o'clock show of Princess Mononoke, at the Varsity in the U-district. He said, sounding apologetic, that they wouldn't have time to pick me up on the way. I said that was ok, they had better get on the road right away! and I'd buy the tickets and be waiting for them in front of the theater. Even driving very fast, an hour and a half would be cutting it close, especially when you add in the time required to find parking in the U-district!

I got to the theater around six-thirty, bought the tickets, then bought a prioshky for my dinner and joined the line for seating, in case the group actually showed up right away. That didn't happen, but when they let the early arrivals into the theater, the line wasn't that long, so I wasn't worried about finding seats later. I waited for a long time, reading a book the while, but for once I didn't mind -- I wanted to see the movie, but money considerations aside I wouldn't be unhappy if it fell through. This whole concept of a caravan of people speeding down from Bellingham seemed flawed from the get-go!

Finally, about fifteem minutes after the putative curtain time (but really only about five minutes after the movie started), Jack and one other guy showed up, huffing and puffing. They'd lost the other car! So the other guy volunteered (after I thrust the rest of the tickets on him) to wait outside until the rest of the group found the place, and Jack and I went inside.

The movie was fairly good! I wasn't as thrilled with it as Jack was, but I enjoyed it. The director really has an original vision -- the images were unexpected for me, especially the monsters. Sometimes the audience was gasping as if an actor had been doing the stunts (the wolf-girl running along the roof ridge) instead of a cartoon. I'd recommend seeing it.

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We went on to Vanguard after the movie; Jacqueline wanted to talk to Vonda about VikingCon, a Bellingham SF con to be held next summer. I've missed this monthly party the last few times, so I was glad to be there, catching up with the smoking folks downstairs and the non-smokers upstairs. Jon Singer had some of his latest porcelain glaze samples there, including the ones that glow under black light due to rare-earth content.

We didn't stay too late, though. Jack needed to go down to Olympia fairly early this morning to spend the day with his younger daughter H---, so we took off shortly after midnight. We went back to my place, where Jack showed me just how much he'd been missing me the last two weeks. Yum!

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Michael Rawdon was talking about The Merry Widow, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. I've got it on laser disc. I especially like the scene in the private dining room. He's ignoring her, then can't resist any longer and seizes her and they start dancing. Wow, very passionate!

There are several versions of the libretto used, when this is done as an operetta. I have one (in German) on LP that has Danilo and the widow as former sweethearts, so he has a hard time forgiving her for marrying her dead husband, although he wouldn't marry her himself, when both he and she were young and poor. He's portrayed as a sulky brat, but appealing. There is a subplot about the abassador's wife in Paris, and a farce scene where the abassador almost catches her in the garden pavilion with a french nobleman. The widow takes her place. Very different from the movie!

There are several films starring MacDonald and Chevalier that are worth seeing. I think she had it in her contract that she would appear in lingerie in at least one scene in every film she did!