Monty Banks

I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art, finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his "divine service."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Wednesday, December 20, 2000
Two years ago: Sunday Drivers
Three years ago: Solstice Feast

I got the trash taken out! This is especially tough in the winter time, because it's dark when I leave in the morning, and dark when I come home, so I naturally tend to put off the part where I actually remove the trash bags from my apartment. I do better on picking stuff up and cleaning. It took three trips tonight to get the recycling and trash dealt with, and I have a bit more yet to do.

I finally got my journal entry for Santa Rampage in Vancouver posted. It took me a few days, because we did so much and there was a lot to say! Jack had been bugging me about it.

Three years ago was the last time I actually attended the Fremont Arts Council's Solstice feast. Since then I've been busy with other things, so haven't volunteered on feast preparations ahead of time. I'm still on the list, so I knew that they were expecting so many folks tomorrow night that I couldn't sneak in (I wasn't actully considering it). Maybe next year they'll split the feast into two.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

I did get myself to the Century Ballroom tonight, after a gap of a week and a half. That's bad, when I should be dancing more, to get myself in shape for Swingout Northwest.

This evening was a blast from the past! They had Monty Banks, who used to play regularly every Wednesday for a long time, back in 1998. He had his usual sidemen playing also. They sounded pretty good, though a bit ragged as always.

Hep Jen was DJing also, which is always good fun. There were a ton of folks there, so the dance floor was crowded. Even getting the back of my ankle scraped by someone who mis-stepped took me back to the old days. I'll confess, I also whacked a follow on the arm when trying to do a double spin, so I'm not blameless in this area.

Tonya and I had been talking on the new Seattle Swing delphi forum (the perennial Savoy vs Hollywood debate), and she had misunderstood something I'd said about following. (She didn't realize that I was quoting somebody else for part of the message.) This ended up with us wanting to dance together, which we did tonight. (I guess we'd danced, at least once, when I took class from her earlier this year.) It was great fun!

A bit later I asked a guy to dance that I don't think I've danced with before. He said, "You do mostly Savoy, don't you?" I replied -- "It's up to you!" He's the one that's leading, so of course I'll attempt to match his style and blend with him. I don't know what he made of what we did, though.

I didn't get home until after midnight. (Mark and Holly gave me a ride.)