The first recorded use of tobacco was made by Christopher Columbus in his journal entry on this day in 1492. He noted the use of it by the Indians he had found in the “new world” of North America.
“Smoke, Smoke (that Cigarette)” is obviously appropriate. Maybe “Smoke on the Water” would work.
The Beatles film project for 1968 was Yellow Submarine. This animated psychadelic adventure brings the Beatles to Pepperland to help thwart the Blue Meanies. It seems the Blue Meanies have taken over, and it’s up to the fab four to help return music and happiness to Pepperland. Although Yellow Submarine had very little input from the Beatles, they do contribute several songs, and make a personal appearance at the end of the film.
I really like the new Down Under version of “Yellow Submarine”. You could also do other Beatles songs, or under water songs.
Last night, calling for Duke City Singles, I took advantage of “National Abet and Aid Punsters Day” and read shaggy dog stories (a type of pun I really like, with an elaborate setup leading to a really awful denouement) before each tip. It was a riot, with the added advantage of abetting the real punsters in the club who, like Frankenstein unleashed, regaled the club with puns all night.
If you ever want to try this (warning: only among friends…), here are some sources for shaggy dog stories:
I also used a set dance, the Levi Jackson Rag. It’s a dance for five couples, done to the “Levi Jackson Rag,” available from several sources, including Cal Campbell’s “Dancing for Busy People” CD. (Cal’s site doesn’t mention the CD…the hazards of not keeping up-to-date…but it’s available from Supreme.) The dance is popular in the international folk dance community, but it uses nothing but square dance moves, so it’s a fairly easy teach to a MWSD group. The problem is to get them to do it in time with the music and to keep moving. I had one successful set and one that was less successful; even though I had slowed the music down substantially (hooray for MP3s and Vic Ceder’s program), they just couldn’t keep up with the constant pace, with no time to regroup after each sequence. But they had fun, and some even wanted to try it again.
It’s the anniversary of the November 8, 1308 death of Duns Scotus, a medieval scholar who was responsible for the introduction of the word “dunce” into the English language.
Here’s some more info on the origin of the dunce cap:
As it turns out, the dunce cap comes from a 13th-century philosopher named John Duns Scotus, who, not surpisingly, was born in Duns, Scotland.
This well-respected but terribly oblique scholar felt that conical hats actually increased learning potential. Here’s the theory — knowledge is centralized at the apex and then funneled down into the mind of the wearer.
Scotus was an inveterate hair-splitter and came up with terms like “haecceitas,” or “thisness.” He was widely praised in his day, but eventually fell out of intellectual favor. His “duns cap” was a pretty obvious target of derision and came to symbolize stupidity.
So the logic behind the dunce cap is that it makes slow pupils learn better, but it was later used to humiliate the wearer and motivate students to try harder.
We need to be kind here…I can think of lots of dancers who could celebrate this day…but maybe we’d better stick to our own dunce-ness.
We could change the singing call classic to “Oh, Stupid Me”.
Or, we could do the Shania Twain song, “Don’t Be Stupid”.
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November 8th has officially been designated as “Abet and Aid Punsters Day.” It is a day to make dreadful puns and encourage others to do the same. Laugh wholeheartedly instead of groaning.
I’m not very good at punning, but if you are, you should make the most of that skill today.
Some very cool dance photographs taken by Doug Plummer, who clearly loves to dance.
It’s a sad thing when one googles “dance” and the first thing that comes up is the dreaded Hamster Dance page. Have you ever square danced to the Hamster Dance song? I have…
Here’s an article that I hadn’t seen before, written by Ed Gilmore: Why Dance. What’s amazing is how much of it still rings true today.
I’ve been listening to the Hanhurst November tape.
I gotta say that I can’t listen to the song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” without thinking about Coca Cola. Maybe there’s a new generation of square dancers in Europe, but my guess is that almost every square dancer in the US will think of Coke when s/he hears that song. And, based on the history of the song, there’s good reason: it was a Coke commercial before it was a top ten hit for the New Seekers. The New Seekers even released a version with the Coke lyrics (“I’d like to buy the world a Coke”). Here’s a history of the original ad, considered one of the most popular ads of all time. And here’s a page of Coke commercial songs that contains several versions of the Coke ad.
I like the song. I’ll probably buy a copy of the singing call record to support the kids in Afghanistan. But I don’t think I can do it; I’ll be craving a Diet Coke the whole time I’m trying to sing the song, and I don’t particularly care for advertising a product (no matter how subliminally) while calling.
Another song I can’t do: “Who’s Your Daddy”. It’s a Royal recording by Jerry Story of a Toby Keith song. Of course the song is totally inappropriate for a woman to do; somehow “who’s your mommy” just doesn’t have the same connotations. But then it also contains the line “I got the money if you got the honey”…which sounds to me like he’s offering to buy sex. It’s the usual high-quality Royal arrangement, and Jerry presents it well, getting a lot of swagger on the line “who’s your man”. As a lesbian, I can often do songs that are written for men without changing the lyrics. This one, however, would require a complete rewrite. I think I’ll pass.
Rhythm Records released a song that seems a little…odd…for a square dance song: “Sin Wagon” with Dee Dee Dougherty-Lottie covering a Dixie Chicks song. I guess the song actually ends up on a salvation note, but somehow I don’t think the singing call lyrics are going to include the lines about “mattress dancing”.
Listen to an interview with Jason Dean, an Australian caller: Square Dancing Moves Ahead. There’s a Real Audio file link on the page, so you can listen to Jason call and talk to the reporter. The reporter even gives square dancing a go.
Here’s an ambitious project by the North Texas Square and Round Dance Association ; they’ve got a Growth Committee to foster new dancers. It looks like their plan is to have three-week (yes, that’s 3) sessions that go from 9:30 to 3:30, with lunch included and then have lots of new dancer dances. They’ve got three sets scheduled in January, and one each in February and March. Hope it works!
I’m interested in cultural changes and how those changes might affect how square dancing and other participatory recreational activities might be marketed. I recently read this review of Smart Mobs, by Howard Rheingold (summary). This almost seems like the opposite of the kind of community that develops through dance groups and other participatory recreations. The converging groups of people have no long-term connections; they gather in response to a particular event/issue, and then disperse, still with no connections. Square dancing in particular requires a long-term commitment; these gatherings seem like the antithesis of that.
On the other hand, virtual communities can lead to “meatspace” communities. In an interview, Rheingold says:
So we’re now seeing people in virtual communities getting together face to face and coordinating while they’re moving between places.
I don’t know what all of this means in terms of square dancing, but I think Rheingold always has interesting ideas. I think the internet can have an impact on how we market square dancing. We had one person at the latest “new dancer dances” (read lessons) who came because of the ASDC’s website. Unfortunately, she didn’t stick…maybe the reality of the physical community (mostly older folks) didn’t match her expectations.
Maybe we need to think about tapping into already existing communities. Probably one of the most successful classes the Wilde Bunch ever had was when a group of people from another organization all decided to try square dancing. The class was large and the camaraderie existed from the first lesson. The already-existing group dynamics kept everybody coming. But that organization wasn’t in virtual space; it was another face-to-face organization.
Q: How do you think the digital revolution will affect us culturally? Will it usher out America’s TV culture? A quarter century ago, Marshall McLuhan and others wrote about how media and television have altered our way of thinking to such a degree that the visual image, rather than the written word, is now the predominant force of our culture. (And if there’s any doubt of that, ask a teenager if she’d rather read Twain or watch MTV.)
A:Did kids prefer: reading Twain or square dancing?
The only Tina Turner (well, Ike and Tina actually) singing call I know is Proud Mary.
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