dancingfool

Gotta do something to alleviate boredom while waiting at work...

"Thought you all might be interested in this news release on BBC Radio tonight:

The European Union Commissioners have nnounced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British overnment conceded that English spelling has room for improvement and accepted a five year phased plan for what will become known as EuroEnglish.

In the first year "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will reseive this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with"k". Not only would this klear up konfusion, but keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20 percent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the language is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "v". During the fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speaking German like zey vunted in ze forst place."

Now I've heard the song, seen the video, and researched the origins of the video. Now I can't blame anyone from associating it with my dancing, though I hope it's obvious I'm not doing the same thing. (I'll make sure to avoid any 80s clothes nonetheless. ) It was cute...

I hung at the back of Babs with my gf, both of us a bit tired and not wanting to get our ears blasted too soon. I immediately noticed the bass/guitar stage switch, as well as the more aggressive, equal-footing bass line driving. Jay's drums were great. I'd like to know the third song, as it seemed new to me (aka I may have missed the shows where they played it since I started seeing them in July) but I danced nicely to it.

D&T was sick. Just sick. The mood wasn't lost from Nero; the groove kept going on in the intermission, and some of their segues were so smooth as to be (to me) like good chocolate (which I had brought and which mysteriously disappeared - I hope it was enjoyed and not thrown out). I only danced twice to them, as I had 8 hours of dancing on Saturday to go through, but just sitting and listening was more than enough.

Oh, and I'll finally get to see that "Praise You" video this week. I promise not to get offended.

I should be there, though I've been sick most of the week and a bit feeble. At least the gf should be able to rein me back, and I plan to dance (really dance) for like one song per set. (I do have a four hour dance workshop tomorrow afternoon I don't want to miss, and four more hours of dancing in the evening...)

You look at my name, you look at my avatar, YOU tell ME.

Though I guess it was an obvious choice of "music I like many others don't", except many in here do...

I want to be there, badly... but... I have a deadline and as usual I'm pushed to the wall... Going to TO this weekend... so of course I'm missing the Duke gig... oh well. Have fun all...

MarcO: I once saw a documentary on her, and they had a shot of her in her home studio recording; without 'enhancements' (to her voice! her voice!! ), she's horrible. The sound engineer is a marvel. She's not. I stand by my original statement.

The Dept Superintendant is the only one with a coherent explanation, saying it may not have been appropriate for their level; those fourth-graders in that school may not be able to differentiate the close sound of a slur from a Norwegian-originated word with a meaning which has been misappropriated because of its homonymic qualities with said slur. If the teacher didn't explain where it came from and what it didn't mean, then she was indeed being a little clueless... but then, the article never states in which context the word was learned... was it in a book which was required reading, and someone asked what it meant?

I make distinctions between something I don't like, and something that isn't good.

Things I don't like musically: REM, BNL Pirate Ship and beyond, Nickelback (my girlfriend does, so I checked them out), Michael Jackson; at least I can recognise there's reasonable quality playing and singing, it just doesn't grab me or talk of experiences which I have had or want to have.

Things that aren't good musically: The Portsmouth Sinfonia, that guitar duo opening for Drums and Tuba one time (bradm can confirm), Florence Foster-Jenkins, most actors, Mitsou; there's just no talent here.

Then there's stuff I haven't yet fully grokked but that's because of not enough exposure; Zappa, Dead, Phish...

And stuff I do like that many can't stand... Legendary Stardust Cowboy (only one song, but supposedly that's representative enough), Phillip Glass (I'm not alone here), bagpipes (when well tuned - cf. Enter the Haggis), early Enya, middle-eastern music, rajas (India is not the middle east), early Tangerine Dream, Vangelis... bradm can testify I'm eclectic.

Plus tons of stuff in the middle of the road which I like for one song or some strange reason, and can sing along on the radio to too...

I rarely post a show review because a) I'm rarely at shows, I don't know enough of what the band was trying to do most of the time to be able to judge if they achieved it, c) have the proper vocabulary to describe what I see on stage as d) I'm usually too deep into dancing.

Though if I don't dance, it doesn't mean I'm not into the music... For example, the Low Tide group was nice on Friday, but I couldn't understand a single word of the lyrics. I always have problems with lyrics, though, so I don't feel I can say anything about that...

Nero nearly broke me!

That damn Oregano Mice>Lemondust... At the third song en plus... and no set break...

Warning... dancing can be dangerous to your health... I'm still a bit sore, and I have dance class tonight... and danced 40 minutes (not continuously, thank goodness) in yesterday afternoon's heat... At this rate I won't survive the month...

I'm starting to think that Nero and Drums&Tuba together might be hazardous to my health.

Heh, that old list... the "all #1" is new, as are a few additions this turn around.

I'm still sighing about this "we need it up" toilet seat business. No, we don't. Not all the time. I stay up at urinals only. This kind of thought leads to this beahviour I've witnessed more than once: go in bathroom stall, sit down, do my business while reading the paper. Other guy sits down next stall, does half his business, gets up, lifts the lid and does the second half! I'm still boggled.

If foreign films are best left to foreigners, I hope this kind of person can convince the studios to apply it to themselves and leave foreigners from films foreign to _them_, aka Hollywood fare...

DF

Sounds more like I'm the one who has to go to one of those shows... If I could survive one...

Am I old in thinking "10pm" is no longer "early" for anything??

I should show up around quarter to 10, having a few other things to do (like seeing my girlfriend), and being not much of a chatter at shows (I really am of limited interest, and cannot do chitchat). I prefer to express myself through my body. At least no one complains much of that.

Hmm, what do I get out of this place? (That was 'what', not 'how'... )

The sense of community described by Ms. Hux and Bradm were not new to me (several facets of my life are in such communities, be it SF clubs and cons, or the Irish cultural groups), but are always treasured. I can't be jaded about it since it fills such a primal need. I've always wanted to be part of a group, be accepted; it was near impossible until I got to adulthood. Then it happened one after the other, and it's... addictive, in a sense.

Of course, I can't seem to ever be "just one of the guys". I have this melodramatic/show-off streak which many here have experienced first-hand (and which is only half of the whole dancing enthusiasm and skills I can put out - the ferriswheeler crew got to see me cut loose after their show), and which shows no sign of going away. I'm trying to hone it, not just let it burst out; the way the better musicians have this driving need and energy to play, but control it.

Bradm had been ranting to me about jam bands for a while, and about Nero in particular, for a year before I finally caught a Dr. Hux show near my place. Quite interesting, if a bit new to me. Seeing the parallels with Drums and Tuba, a common discovery, I pursued the matter a bit, lurked on here.

Then I went to my first Nero show and that was the proverbial It.

What's weird is that I have almost nothing in common with a large number of people here, but I learn a lot (sometimes through their mistakes ) and find new avenues to explore. Musically.

I like live shows, and it's only the lack of available money or (usually) time that keeps me from attending the plethora of good stuff going on - in any of the 5 or 6 interests I have. This city is bursting at the seam and I'd be out nearly 7 nights a week if I let myself...

And arcane, I'm really trying to not get close to people when dancing anymore. Though I guess I'd have to open my eyes at some point for it to help...

Point taken and perfectly illustrated. I was tired when I read that...

Dammit but this song is infectiously vile.

A friend found the movie on a hopefully more stable server. A simple google search was all that was necessary. If one can deem this search to be "necessary" in any sense of the word.

There's a page discussing it elsewhere, and another website in Czech, I think; but it has a link to the song in real-player stream. I have it as mp3 but can't put it on a server. EDIT: I just found another site which has the mp3 zipped.

I've been able to see the 'break' is not where I thought it was, and am still unsure if the video was done to the reduced song. I still dread to think what they'd do on the instrumental verse.

Why is this song clinging to me so? Is it the weird chord progression, making me think of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit"? Is it the surprise key changes where I'd expect them later? Is it the sheer mind-boggling badness of it? bradM and arcane can vouch I listen to strange bad stuff... I have a tape of it done by a friend who collets it... Kirk 'singing' Tambourine Man... hardcore japanese death metal (where you can't figure out the language, much less words - there's just voices screaming incomprehensibly)... drunken toothless old Marines singing musicals without cadence or rhythm - or just ONE cadence throughout, rather... THE worst children's album ever ("Eustace the Useless Rabbit - and I pray this says nothing to everyone else)... stuff like this... (Zappa's The Blimp made it on the tape, almost by accident, I think. I like it.)

Heh. That's one reason why you need to repeat the question in the answer and never answer vaguely, so that they can't use it out of context to fit any sort of rewrite the editors want; the question is in the answer. It certainly made it sound like you expected a riot if the Sunday show was cancelled, 'from the supposedly peaceful fan'... But it's not easy to quickly think to answer something like "The only problem which might come up would be understandably annoyed fans at the cancellation of the Sunday show". Even I couldn't think this up at first. And then they wouldn't use it anyway since they couldn't spin it properly. I'm not one who ever wants to be quoted... not with my name anyway...

From my understanding, it wasn't even hacked - the video may have been put there for a few friends only, and he has limited bandwidth; then the word gets out, it's on a site of the day type, and bam, his access is crawling and his ISP may charge him a ton for the excess accesses. So I can understand being angry and pulling it.

The vet reference seems spurious though.

I was just almost concerned that after finding that out, the Sanc was 404ed... but remembered the other problems it had before. And since.

Nonetheless, if you're going to put something as weird shit as _that_, you better be prepared for having it accessed. The internet is full of weirdoes who don't mind taking a peek at it, even if it's just to gawk and gasp - they still look at it.

And there's a cut between the "fight" scene (did anyone else get the feeling there was a naked tumbleweed wrestling match behind that dune? What was with all the clothes being flung out??) and the final chorus; a friend found the full song on KaZaa and says it's a musical interlude. I shudder to think what the video must be like without the anchor of Nimoy's singing.

Which is in itself a scarier concept...

And yes, it's firmly attached to my brain like a facehugger. Except it's scarier.

Yup, the Celtae guys came out to take pics of FW. It was my first time seeing the band, too, and they were nicely tight - it's just that the crowd was so tough for them. As the main act said, 99% of the people there were Celtae regulars - and half of them came in at around 10 pm. Tons of young things, too. And people wonder why I hang around celtic shows so much. Well, actually, it's for the dancing... and I wish some would actually know of the proper group dances which are fun to do for this type of music... I'm used to going to a ceili and dancing with other people all night long, no flirting, no pick-ups, just for the joy of dancing... Ah well.

As for "breaking out" for Celtae, I actually bruised a toenail (forgot to clip them), and thrashed what was left of my running shoes... Ask Dave-O what I looked like at the end of the concert...

*blink* Obviously, I either got out just in time, or just too early... I did get a cryptic-sounding warning from... I forget who... as I left on the sidewalk. Weekdays concerts, sigh...

Jaybone: Don't worry, I know I look weird out there, and I know I'm not the best dancer by far. No offence taken. And I don't know who Fat Boy Slim are, and obviously never saw their video, or heard the song, so teh allusion is lost on me. You can tell your nephew, though, that I do take dancing seriously, in a way to keep me sane; and that I don't take anything before, during or after, of any kind. Which might scare him more, actually. "He does that straight??" You bet I do. Others manage to dance after partaking, which I can't do, so again, I'm not the best.

And if you people think I'm a freak, in a good way, you haven't seen some of the truly weird people I've frequented on occasion...

Jambands are "fun music"? Well, yes. And The Decadent cookies are, for many, "good food" (as in tastes good). You'll see how vague both are.

Live music to me must be different than recorded music. Both have their strengths and possibilities. Even live albums tend more towards the latter than the former, though should capture a reasonable amount of the feel to qualify as such (proper mix of soundboard and audience mics).

What do I qualify as "fun live music"? Stuff all over the board: Nero, Drums and Tuba, The Orchid Highway, Enter the Haggis, Shooglenifty, Susie Arioli Swing Band, Pat Metheny, drum circles, unnamed arabic bands putting us to shame as to audiences dancing like maniacs, Tory Cassis, Moxy Fruvous, and many more. And I don't even count myself as eclectic.

Some of those bands jam, aka improvise on specific themes with varying degrees of structure; others stick to a clear piece but can vary the orchestration, delivery or approach from time to time.

Then again, I've been to jams where the tunes are set, and it's the mix of tunes which varies and gives flavour to each week's outings (and different people each week bringing different tunes others don't know).

kibosh has a point, and I'd compare it (briefly and barely) with the celtic scene: for most, a lot of the bands sound interchangeable, and for all intents, they are. Only a few manage to create something new out of something (very) old, usually by combining and retaining the individuality of each member in a group and pairing it off with other talented musicians, as opposed to "blending" it together in one smooshed glob. Getting six musicians on stage, as Addison Groove Project did, and being able to feel the different styles and approaches of each one is no easy feat, and gets more difficult as the sound system gets more complicated. As Ms Hux said, the keyboardist was barely audible most of the time, bringing the feel down a few notches. Nero, with three musicians, makes it easier to balance the sounds. I think.

I seem to be rambling again without much of a point... but, I'm still a bit of an outsider; bradM did play some phish and dead for me several times, without it 'hooking' me. We went to see Drums and Tuba for the first time, and I was let loose, but it was nothing new for me to do, just a new style, sort of. He's certainly tried to get me to see Nero tons of times before, so he can't be faulted for how long it took me to get here. ANYway, I haven't had as full an exposure as most others in this forum, and I can't afford the huge festivals, and am on dial-up so downloading tons of MP3s is kinda difficult, so I'll remain a bit on the outside of the scene - and the inside of the dance floor - for now...

Thank you, arcane, bradM, I knew you both wouldn't let me (live it) down... Despite it being an obvious setup.

And bradM, I'm not going to touch that reply.

No, wait, it's not getting any better...