(no subject)

[noahgibbs]

On Friday, I went to a party with people from a cooking class I took awhile back. I made a nice greek salad with tomatoes, olives and feta, and an Italian spring greens salad with a garlic-plum vinaigrette, served with pears and goat cheese. Mmm... Goat cheese. It was simple stuff, but I have no car right now so it was important that all the bits fit nicely into my backpack for assembly on location. I'm getting better at doing unlikely things with only the motorcycle for carrying stuff.

I went to Gaskell's yesterday. I can now dance a bunch of the stuff that isn't taught anywhere else that they play at the other places I dance. It was very large, very loud and very crowded. I'm going to need to start dealing better with massive numbers of other people if I go back to those. On the plus side, I'm getting better at dodging madly through a crowd of random spinning dancers while spinning a partner quickly. I did remarkably little colliding with people when doing, say, the polka. Not *no* colliding, but a lot less than I'm used to. I'm not sure that experience will help at really crowded places like waltzing at the Plough, but I'll find out at some point.

I've been on my bike most of the morning. There's this thing I think about sometimes... You probably know that on a bike, you twist the right handgrip to accelerate. It's a movement a little bit like peeling a piece of orange skin back. When I have nice clear highway and I can just accelerate happily and smoothly with the wind in my face, I think of it as "peeling the orange." No reason, just felt like sharing :-)

I sometimes feel like I'm just not living up to my bike's potential. A Suzuki SV650 is, in fact, a racing bike -- it apparently replaced the Honda Hawk as the champion of at least one category. That's what I get for choosing a bike by asking a racer (Hi boychaos!) what's a good bike to look at :-) But it always responds so well, moves so fluidly, does everything I ask it and more... I have to wonder if it's not a little frustrated with me up there giving the directions. I'm a pretty conservative rider. Hell, if I pretend friends like bikerscum and boychaos are reasonable riders, I'm practically the old granny who only drives on Sundays. I've never wheelied it. I've never stoppied it. I've never even scraped the pegs in a hard turn, though I've come close enough to scrape my boots. I've only taken a handful of different passengers, never more than a couple of times, and always ridden even more carefully with them there...

I have to wonder if the bike doesn't just live for those late nights on 280 when I open it up a little. If so, it's got a pretty bleak existence.

Right. Now I know for certain: riding my bike a lot too early in the day leads to too much anthropomorphizing and dimestore philosophy. I knew that once.

Either way, I've now got all the stuff I need to commence the oil change. This'll actually be the first one I do on the bike all by myself. I'm switching to synthetic oil. Not that that's any harder than using regular.

Comments

[chrisfs.livejournal.com]

Do they teach Congress of Vienna at the lesson nowadys ? I forgot to ask at eh ball

Chris

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Yes they do. I managed to skip that both times during the actual dancing, though I did it during lesson.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

In fact, they teach everything they play there, except the Zweifacher and the set dances.

[chrisfs.livejournal.com]

That's too bad, sometimes you need to plan ahead for that one. I very much prefer to dance it with people I know well. It was a crowded Gaskills. But you want to find somone you know, a friend. Most likely, one who came without a partner.

Don't make me use extensive backroom dance political machinations to get you a partner for the Congress at the next Gaskills !(Samuel Jackson in Dance Fiction)

It and Bronwyn were dances that when I first saw them I said "THAT's beautiful, I want to learn to do THAT"

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Y'know, you're like the third person who has claimed you should do the Congress with a specially chosen partner. I'm going to have to try it at some point, because my initial reaction to it was "Good *God* this is boring."

[griffjon.livejournal.com]

salsa and argentine tango. Excellent with a good partner, even better with someone you want to become a good partner...

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

I can tell you horror stories about the one place out here I've tried to learn salsa. There's a place that teaches Argentine tango, though the only one I know where I could just drop by (instead of waiting months for the next lessons to start) burned down.

So: I'll keep it in mind, but as with most dance instruction, it looks like it would be much easier for me to just gnaw off a couple of limbs.

Gaskell's and Congress

[shipofools999.livejournal.com]

You don't need a special partner for Congress, it is just that seems to be everyone's favorite dance and most people will be booked for it, sometimes even before the Ball begins.

I have been told it was created to flirt. With your partner or to check out who else is on the floor (which generally everyone). My friend Crystal is the one that taught it to me and who I dance it with for at least a few months. We just have fun being all serious with it.

I can see how it could be considered boring but I find it very elegant and flowing.

Something to be aware of about Gaskell's and the crowding, The Oct and Dec Gaskell's are the crowded ones. Usually there is not room to dance during them. The rest of the year isn't too bad and the one during the run of faire (this year they didn't overlap because faire shifted) is a pleasure to go to because there is room.

If the crowding got to you, you may want to make your next Gaskell's the Feb one.

~Gina

Re: Gaskell's and Congress

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm going to have to try that a few more times. I guess I'll try the bit starting with the window until I'm very comfortable with it, because the rest of it, the open and closed waltzing, just has nothing to distinguish it.

Yes, it was created to flirt, but it was created to flirt by people who thought a closed waltz was absolutely scandalous.

The crowding wasn't actually as bad as waltzes at the Plough or Friday Night Waltz. Pretty similar, but certainly no worse. I'd forgotten how bad the Plough tended to be until last night, in fact.

Man. I have to figure out how to waltz in place (like, no moving forward) in a way that doesn't suck. Just doing the shuffle back and forth seems to bother a lot of partners, and trying to turn in place without moving requires doing a lot of dragging people around -- the usual ways of waltzing all move you forward, that's what they're for.

Re: Gaskell's and Congress

[shipofools999.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was created to flirt, but it was created to flirt by people who thought a closed waltz was absolutely scandalous.


It is my understanding that it is a recent creation from early Gaskell's balls. If my memory is messing with me, it was created by the guy that runs the Bay Area Regency Dancing group.

I file it in the same category at the Bronwen (sp?) at the plough. A dance that looks cool, everyone loves and was created within the last 10
to 20 years to be just that.


Man. I have to figure out how to waltz in place (like, no moving forward) in a way that doesn't suck. Just doing the shuffle back and forth seems to bother a lot of partners, and trying to turn in place without moving requires doing a lot of dragging people around -- the usual ways of waltzing all move you forward, that's what they're for.


The rotary waltz (what I call the Gaskell's waltz that is also which also predominates the Plough) is really hard to do in place without massive turns. There are many variations that allow you to pause in place and also to only do small turns or turns in the opposite direction. I appreciate it when I find a partner that does more than just the rotary because I get so dizzy with the Gaskell’s standard.

Re: Gaskell's and Congress

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'd thought it was supposed to be a recreation of the dances done at the actual Congress of Vienna -- not the same, but reasonably close in style. Maybe that the whole thing where (as a guy) you spend time turning the lady around in place and then standing or rotating while she does walks around behind you is supposed to be flirtatious -- I'm not great at recognizing flirting, so maybe all that stuff is dead sexy. At first blush, it doesn't do much for me.

And the waltzing in between is, well, waltzing. The rotary bit is like a regular rotary waltz, and the open waltz is a fine way to stay mostly still with minimal contact with your partner. At a decadent place like Gaskell's, where scandalous dances like the mazurka are available, the open waltz pales pretty quick.