So Brooks shared some new music he got with me which included a whole ton of Fletcher Henderson. I swear, It’s like I’m newly in love with jazz. I started going through my newly attained music - rating it for future DJing purposes and putting in the bpm count per song. But that quickly just went out the window. I kept blanking on the rating or the bpm count because I was just enjoying the music so much. It was so awesome I pushed a bunch of my random junk out of the way a bit in my room and started dancing.
This was one of my favorites to listen to today
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So last night after Brooks got back from work we went to hear Gaucho, a gypsy jazz band performing at a total dive bar in hippy-ville. It was awesome. There were two guitarists, a percussionist, an accordion player, bassist, and an “I play everything” guy. The drummer was awesome. At one point he played the drums with his foot while playing the washboard as well. Then there was the “play everything” dude. He played alto sax, cornet, clarinet, piccolo, sang, and played the sweetest instrument ever… the stick. That’s what they called it anyway. It was two pieces of wood, attached at one end and inserted into what I think was a clarinet mouthpiece. Different tones were made by squeezing the curved piece of wood toward or away from the other piece of wood. Sounded a bit like a mix between a soprano sax and a kazoo. It was awesome. I really enjoyed this band. They were also totally danceable. It made for a great first night in San Francisco.
I watched Troll last night. Some time ago I had watched Troll 2 and was very put out by the fact that there were no trolls in Troll 2. So, I was glad to have seen a troll in Troll. Aside from that, the movie was as expected, completely wacked out.
Tonight I’m in Atlanta. I have a couple of job interviews. Wish me luck. I need to start getting a paycheck again soon.
So this weekend I made the trip down to DC with Rachel and Mike for the Big Big Event. It was certainly true to its name. The event was huge and so full of energy. I’m sad to have missed the main dance Friday night. I heard it was awesome, but I also heard it was so crazy packed and hot at the venue that people were dripping with sweat. Mmmmm, lovely. We did however make it just in time for the start of the late night dance at a smaller dance studio. It felt really intimate and was a lot of fun. I particularly liked the Le Hot Club Du Jam Cellar’s performance that night. They played very few songs, but they were all very enjoyable. My favorite was their rendition of “I can’t give you anything but love.”
We woke up early Saturday morning to audition for the master’s class. Auditions went well. But then we had little else to do the rest of the day until our classes. Master classes were last on the days’ schedule. It was suggested that this was probably so becasue we’d be the group of dancers expected to stay out dancing the latest. I think that makes perfect sense. Mike and Casey’s class on Saturday really gave us something to work on. They made us focus on our swingouts and basics for the first half of our class, then gave us wild syncopated footwork variations to wrap our heads around on during the second half of class.
Saturday night’s main dance was at the beautiful Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park. It’s a great venue. Enormous. Perfect for the number of dancers at this event. I didn’t do much dancing at the dance. It was so hot and humid I spent most of my time enjoying the air-conditioning by some benches. Saturday night also had a Strictly competition. I competed with Andrew Thigpen and we got first place. It was loads of fun. I always enjoy my dances with Andrew. I’ve posted my own video… see below. Unfortunately, it’s incomplete because my camera’s memory card ran out towards the end. Then we were off to the late night at the Chevy Chase Ballroom. The Boilermakers were playing there for the late night as well as having played for us during the main dance. I really like how silly their songs get when they have a more casual environment and audience.
Since Sunday classes weren’t until the end of the day we were actually able to sleep in that night. It was nice. I too often I end up lacking in sleep. Sunday’s classes were with Peter and Ramona. I love their classes. They always give me valuable things to work on. Lately I’ve been wanting to work on maintaining more control of my movement so that I can play with dynamics more.
After classes we went to dinner at this awesome pizza place Naomi recommended. After dinner, at around 9pm I think, began the long long trip back to Rochester. Along the way, just outside of Geneseo, we ran out of gas. Yep… stranded on the side of the road, just outside an exit with a Mobil station. The car managed to find enough power to get us up the exit after we let it rest a while, but it was a scary thing to go through. We eventually made it back to Rochester around daybreak. It was a long, but exciting weekend. Could have done without the breaking down on the side of the road though.
I had a really wonderful weekend. My last, as a Rochester resident. It was the best Stompology yet. And at some point over the weekend I realized that Stompology can be my yealy mile-marker of sorts for how my dancing has evolved. The first Stompology was at the end of my first year dancing. I remember being extremely nervous. I was not used to jams or anything like that and all of my dancing was extremely timid. By the second Stompology I was a bit more comfortable but as far as solo movement was concerned I don’t think I was dancing like myself. I had energy, yes, but I had no clue where to place it. I almost feel like I was dancing like a boy. Lots of energy and big movement but not taking advantage of my femininity. This year I feel like I was finally dancing like a girl. I’m enjoying myself so much more. Ahh, I’m really going to miss this place and all it’s given me.
Tomorrow is my graduation ceremony. I will be officially an MBA. Now I have two degrees. Fun.
It doesn’t feel like school is over yet. I spent all day packing up most of my things. Going through the remains of my academic life was interesting. I found old papers, assignments, keys to a bunch of places on campus I can’t even remember, and even an old pair of safety glasses which I think were from my sophomore year as a physics major when I started a research position playing with chemicals and a high powered laser. My whole life has been on this campus and now I’m leaving. Basically, I’m leaving what I consider my home. I’m going to be moving a lot over the next couple of months. Hope I find somewhere to settle myself and my things soon (aka. find a job). It’s very nerve-racking.
Where will I be? Hmm…. well, I’ll be half living at my parents’ house in NYC, half living in Rochester with friends, taking a trip to see Brooks in San Francisco for about a week or so, dancing in DC, dancing in North Carolina, dancing in Philly, and doing interviews in Atlanta.
Yes, I’m nervous and scared about the overall uncertainty of the next few months, but I’m also really excited. Maybe it’s good to not know what’s going to happen for a while. It’ll be a refreshing change, no matter how nervous I might seem about it.
Side note: I tried on my cap and gown today. Because I’m graduating with a master’s degree I get a hood too. It looks like I have a tail… a duck’s tail. Pictures to be posted soon.
I should not be sitting in class right now. Definitely not. More so, I should not have a class presentation today. This class only meets three times throughout the quarter. For our last meeting, we rescheduled the entire class because our professor didn’t want to come in on Thursday of finals week and he thought we wouldn’t want to stick around so late in the week either. It was a nice thought, but not when the end result is that we come in on a Sunday.
And if you’re going to make us come in on a Sunday, as the last day of class, to give a presentation on our research, please don’t lecture for two hours. This is absurd! We have no immediate need for the material anymore! I’m tired, cold (this room is freezing), very sleepy, and I have other projects to work on still. Can I please go home and crawl into bed?
I had a nice chat between TA classes this morning with an old professor of mine. Curiously enough, it was one of the professors I thought liked me least. We discussed the self-important bullshitness of some other majors (like my MBA) and how much more rewarding it was to suffer through physics even if the end result was failure, as compared to being able to do well in other fields and not needing to put much effort in. Struggling with the material felt like a valuable learning experience. Of course, that all depends on the type of person you are how you like to learn. Physicists, it would seem, are slightly masochistic.
He sympathized that the MBA program didn’t reach my expectations. And when I mentioned the rationalization that I understood I wasn’t cut out to be a physicist he surprised me by complementing the effort he saw I put in towards the end of my studies. He had always been the professor that more or less (I thought) was just waiting for me to fail out and switch majors. But he was really just trying to push me (I saw that my senior year). He mentioned that he was particularly proud of my performance on my senior core exam. I aced that thing. It was a nice chat.
