Return of the dance

In my 2008 visit, fanw had pointed me at Five Guys Named Mike swing dance. When I first got here this year, and stayed in Harvard Square, I went. Didn't go back for a while, illness and weather and such, instead going to SCA dance Wednesdays, which is like contra, only they spend longer teaching the moves than dancing them since there's minimal repetition. Monday before last, I went back to swing, and did alright, though my shoes are lose and I got a blister. Sunday I went to a montly contra, which was pretty good. Monday I went to swing again, and ehhh. I had two good lindys, another decent considering I'd taught the girl what she knew, and a bunch of crappy ones, and near the end even an east coast seemed to fail. I wasn't getting the music, or the girls expect different things, or I don't know. And I've long had problems of a well-mastered but very small repertoire of lindy moves, and low confidence in experimenting with random people, and no experience in slow dance music.

But tonight I went to MIT Swing, which has the advantage of being free, and did way better. Lots of good dances, and with some observation, a lot more lindy improvisation, and coping with slower music. So, yay! I wonder if it's better music (though some of those were still weird for me), practice kicking in, or confidence because I was wearing slightly better clothes. Or more interesting ones, at least: anime t-shirt, black shirt over it, and a newly purchased top hat. Not that anyone commented on either hat or T-shirt.


In other news, I may be on my way to learning "Aimo" (short version) and "One Tin Soldier". Billy Bragg's Internationale is still beyond my vocal control, I think.

DW test

I backed up my LJ account to DW in all of 5 minutes. Whee! Now, will I figure out double-posting without having to read documentation? I haven't even really thought about where I want to do that, though I guess it's the simplest way to keep things synchronized. Well, entries synchronized, comments are another matter.

Answer: yes! Handy crosspost link at the bottom, which sets things up.

ETA: if I edit an entry on DW, will the edit propagate to LJ automatically?

NDP surge!

http://ipolitics.ca/2011/04/21/ndp-surges-in-quebec-bloc-quebecois-dropping/
Overtaking the BQ in Quebec! Tying the Liberals in national polls!
Of course, (a) keeping this and (b) translating that support into actual seats in a flawed voting system will be another matter. But still, cool!