So, Converse gives you the power to design your own All-Stars, a sure sign that the Apocalypse is still a ways off. And not only can you customize the regular ol’ canvas sneaker, but they also provide a patent leather version as a blank canvas on which to paint your footly masterpiece. Can I resist?… Continue reading Awesome All-Stars
Category: Dancing – Ballroom
Tempestuous Tango
I keep getting asked when we’re going to post some video of our dancing. Well, the time has come. Kinda. Remember this post, where I linked to a video that compressed our 22 mile bike ride into 11 minutes? I’ve done the same thing with a recent lesson – a tango lesson, to be exact.… Continue reading Tempestuous Tango
Cleaning up iTunes Album Art
We went to a dance a few weeks ago and the band performed a song that we weren’t familiar with, but it was catchy enough that I looked it up when I got home. It turned out to be Forget You by a pudgy hip hop musician named Thomas Calloway; the cognoscenti will know him… Continue reading Cleaning up iTunes Album Art
Dancing With The Stars, You’re Dead to Me
It’s been several days and I’m still stewing about the final results from Dancing With The Stars. The fact that Chelsea Kane, by far the best dancer on the show this season, didn’t even make the top two is astounding to begin with, but to think that she was beaten by Kirstie Alley, who was… Continue reading Dancing With The Stars, You’re Dead to Me
Handicapping DWTS, Season 12
Last year, I made the mistake of predicting the outcome of Dancing With The Stars before watching any of the competitors. That was a disaster of epic, Charlie-Sheen-as-a-babysitter proportions. However, after the first viewing, my revised handicapping was pretty darned good, if I do say so myself (and I must, because no one else will).… Continue reading Handicapping DWTS, Season 12
Cultural Exchange Students
One side effect of learning to dance has been that our social adventures have expanded significantly. So it was that we found ourselves in a local bar last Friday evening, surrounded by curious patrons, and listening to instructions in Spanish. OK, let’s backtrack a bit. I had received an email from Richard Ortiz, a young… Continue reading Cultural Exchange Students
The Beatless
I made a couple of jesting comments on Facebook and Twitter about this article describing the first documented case of something called beat deafness, wherein a man named Mathieu “can’t feel music’s beat or move in time with it.” But it’s a bigger problem than those researchers probably realize. I’m sure that complete beat deafness is… Continue reading The Beatless
Ballroom Dance featuring “The Cutouts”
Alert readers (and I know that includes all of you, because you don’t let me get away with anything) will recall that our dance last Saturday night featured something different, something that to my knowledge had never been tried in the 20 year history of the Ballroom Dance Society: prerecorded music in place of a… Continue reading Ballroom Dance featuring “The Cutouts”
Seeking Silence
I solved a tricky little problem today and want to document it in case anyone else encounters it. But first, some background. Our ballroom dance club is trying something different at our March dance. Up to now, we’ve always had live music, and that tradition will continue. But, for a variety of reasons, we’re going… Continue reading Seeking Silence
The Mystery of Bristol Palin
We were at a dance Saturday night, sitting at a table with eight other fans of Dancing With The Stars, and someone observed that they were surprised that Bristol Palin was still on the show. The consensus was that Bristol’s fan base had kept her in the competition long after her skill ceased to do… Continue reading The Mystery of Bristol Palin