Went to Boo Camp last weekend and did a bunch of contra dancing, along with a few squares. The caller was Erik Hoffman, from the Bay Area, and I thought he was excellent. This was my first experience at a contra dance weekend (of course I’ve been to a gazillion square dance weekends), and it was very different. A lot of it may have been due to the fact that when they say camp, they mean it. Turtle-Bear and I stayed in the women’s building, bunkbeds and all. But a lot of it was just attitude and vibes…my generation vs. my parents’ generation…there were kids running around…people making costumes out of scrap materials…jam sessions… I think the live music makes a big difference. Someone could just start playing an instrument (guitar, fiddle, accordian…whatever) and others would join in, and there would be a dance band. Bayou Seco, one of our favorite dance bands, was there; in fact, that was the main reason that T-B and I decided to go.

So I put “Kris Jensen” into Google to see what would come up. Along with me and a bunch of other folks, I came across references to the Kris Jensen who did the song Torture back in the sixties. That brought back memories; I remember being stoked (that’s probably what I would have said, being a fringey surfer-chick) that someone with my name had a hit single. If you want to hear the song (it was actually pretty dreary), check out Summer of the 60’s and scroll down almost to the bottom of the jukebox. Also check out the surreal beach scene graphic at the top of the page. Poor ol’ Kris…he was truly a one-hit wonder; the only references to him come up in collections of oldies and an occasional trivia question.

Sample lyrics:

You know that I’m crazy ’bout ‘cha
Yet you make me do without ‘cha
Do you mean to hurt
Or don’t you see?

A picture.

I’m sure you all read about the square dancing tractors…now you can own the video.