Does this sound like a square dance caller?

I Am A: Lawful Good GnomeBard Ranger

Alignment:
Lawful Good characters are the epitome of all that is just and good. They believe in order and governments that work for the benefit of all, and generally do not mind doing direct work to further their beliefs.

Race:
Gnomes are also short, like dwarves, but much skinnier. They have no beards

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, and are very inclined towards technology, although they have been known to dabble in magic, too. They tend to be fun-loving and fond of jokes and humor. Some gnomes live underground, and some live in cities and villages. They are very tolerant of other races, and are generally well-liked, though occasionally considered frivolous.

Primary Class:
Bards are the entertainers. They sing, dance, and play instruments to make other people happy, and, frequently, make money. They also tend to dabble in magic a bit.

Secondary Class:
Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.

Deity:
Garl Glittergold is the Lawful Good gnomish god of mischief, cleverness, battle, and gemstones. He is also known as the Joker, the Watchful Protector, the Priceless Gem, the Sparkling Wit, and the God of Gnomes, as he is the head of their pantheon. His followers enjoy a good laugh and a good prank, perhaps even more so than a normal gnome, but also work to make the world a better place. They are extremely fond of gems. Their preferreed weapon is the battleaxe.

Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy ofNeppyMan (e-mail)

From someone’s blog (España Circus : square dancing):

square dancing

I miss them.

All term I got to hang out with folk
at a square dancing club for my cultural
anthropology class… by far one of the
best non-art classes I’ve ever had.

My study group and I were complete strangers

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,
and they treated us like grandkids.

Every Monday night at 7pm all these folk get
together, forget about everything else, and just dance.
They put on awful western shirts and pointy cowboy
boots, or long skirts and t-shirts for the ladies, they listen
to scrumptiously putsy music, and they dance until bedtime.

Old married couples, teasing eachother around punch
and cookies…

Jack the Real Cowboy with the metal hip…

Timeless advice like: marry a man who can cook and you’ll
be happy…

Joyous, smiling people with beautiful, beautiful stories.

And I got to dance with them. How lucky am I?

Doing my usual experiment with any new Google service, I searched for “square dance” in Google Scholar. Most references used square dance as an analogy (e.g., Knowledge Creation as a Square Dance on the Hilbert Cube, but I found a few dissertations (or maybe just academic papers) on square dancing:

• The relationship of specific aptitudes to ability in square dance, HA Oswalt. University of Arkansas, 1976
• A philosophical, historical, and cultural analysis of the American square dance, PA Phillips, Boston University, 1973
• The rural square dance in the Northeastern United States: a continuity of tradition, DJ Winslow, University of Pennsylvania, 1972
• Folk and square dancing as related to the social studies unit in New York City elementary schools, AA Sher, Columbia University, 1963

Here’s a paper on Energy cost of square dancing, from the Journal of Applied Physiology. The abstract:

This experiment was concerned with determining the energy cost of two popular Western square dancing routines: the “Mish-Mash,” which is a relatively fast-moving dance with quick movements, and the “Singing” dance, which is a slower and more deliberate type of dance. The subjects were four middle-aged couples, veteran members of a local square dancing club. Sitting and standing pulmonary ventilations were determined through the use of the Tissot gasometer. Kofranyi-Michaelis respirometers were employed for the dance routine ventilations. These apparatus were fitted with a Monoghan neoprene cushion plastic mask. Gas samples were collected in polyethylene metallized bags and analyzed for O2 and CO2 content. The net energy cost for the two dances was appropriately summarized. The results indicated that for the males the net average energy cost of the “Mish-Mash” dance was 0.085 and 0.077 kcal/min per kg for the “Singing” dance. For the females, the cost was 0.088 and 0.084 kcal/min per kg, respectively. A net average cost of these two dances yielded a caloric expenditure of 5.7 kcal/min for a 70-kg male and 5.2 kcal/min for a 60-kg female. It was indicated that during the course of a typical square dance evening, a 70-kg man would expend some 425 kcal. while a 60-kg female would burn some 390 kcal. The energy cost of the dances studied were determined to be within the permissible work load of a functional class 1 patient with diseases of the heart as determined by the American Heart Association.

My guess is that the “Mish-Mash” is the patter, and the “Singing” dance is the singing call part of a tip.

And then there’s the 1964 article on Square Dancing and Social Adjustment

, from a journal called “Ment. Retard.” Unfortunately, there’s no abstract available. Too bad.

I also found a paper on Dance Dance Revolution, I Can See Tomorrow In Your Dance: A Study of Dance Dance Revolution and Music Video Games, with a quote: “Activity is like being a participant in a square dance where we repeat formulaic sequences as dictated by the caller.” Unfortunately, the whole paper is only available for a fee. Note to self: follow through with plans to write something about DDR. I actually went to an arcade to try it (nothing like a middle-aged woman at a video game arcade…fortunately, it was in the middle of a school day, so there were very few kids around), and made a fool out of myself on the easiest level.

Check out Gym Class Gayed Up By Square Dancing. The big joke is that square dancing is gay. Sample quote:

“Do people even square dance anymore?” said Dan Wilkinson

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, a senior. “None that I know of. I’m starting to believe some of those right wingers who think the government wants to make all of us gay, because nothing is gayer than school-mandated square dancing.”

Sigh….

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged anything, but it’s not that I haven’t been square dancing. In mid-September, we went to Oregon

, where Anne and I called a women’s weekend at the Silver Falls Conference Center. It rained most of the weekend (what else is new for Oregon?), which gave me a chance to play some bridge instead of hiking to various waterfalls.

After the weekend, we spent Sunday night in Eugene, where I called for the Eugene Spin Cycle Squares, a new gay square dancing group. They’ve got a good-sized class going (at least a square of new dancers…would that the Wilde Bunch could have a class that large), using Paul Waters’ tapes, with Paul’s somewhat idiosyncratic teaching order. This teach order bit me when I called “dosado” without even thinking about it (doesn’t everybody teach dosado the first night?), and the students all looked at me blankly.

Then down to Mom’s ranch for a few days (a little Mexican Train with my 103-year-old grandmother), and back to Eugene for the Saturday night contra dance, with Woody Lane calling. This was a good thing, as I got a chance to chat with Woody a little bit about the Corvallis contra dance group, for whom I’m calling a dance in November with the fabulous Amazon Creek dance band.

Back to Albuquerque in time to do laundry and head out to Lake Tahoe for the A&C weekend, Tahoe Mirror Touch of Class. Caught a little C3A floor time, and enjoyed the beautiful Lake Tahoe view…topping it all off with a cruise on the lake.

Back to Albuquerque in time to do laundry and get ready for guests for the Wilde Bunch’s fly-in. We hosted Jerry Jestin and Kathy and Marie from San Francisco. The fly-in was small but fun, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

The following weekend, I called a contra dance in Albuuqerque for FolkMADS. It went well, I think.

So much for what I’ve been up to. In the next couple of entries, I’ll get back to blogging with some square/contra related links.

I’ve been using del.icio.us to keep track of bookmarks. It’s social; others can see what you’re bookmarking, and even subscribe to your bookmarks. Every page has an RSS feed, so you can see what others are bookmarking in your RSS reader. So if you all would sign up for a del.icio.us account, and we agreed on a square dance tag (no spaces in tags, as far as I can see), we could keep up with what’s going on in square dancing. What a concept!

BTW

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, my bookmarks are here: del.icio.us/krisjensen: they’re currently mostly related to self-improvement.

Interesting blog entry from a 25-year-old guy who has taken up square dancing in Western Pennsylvania: Karate and Whatnot from PA: Square Dancing anew.

We have our practices every Wednesday, and by the time spring rolls around I should be ready for Plus level square dancing. That’s the standard level for professional square dancing. One of the other dancers told me about an Irish Step dancer that considered the group to be snobs because they required everyone to go to several months of practices before they were officially allowed into the dances our group, but I would beg to say that it’s absolutely necessary to have at least a couple months of practices like this before joining the larger groups and dances.

Note: they don’t have lessons; they “practice”. Plus is “professional” square dancing.

Sure, sure. The stereotype is of white-haired, old people who really shouldn’t be showing their legs, dancing around in short skirts and petticoats. Actually, it’s not hugely off, but there are a lot more young people than I would have thought….I think the biggest reason that most of the people are older, is that retired people are the only ones with the time available to do all the dancing!!

Is he having fun? You betcha!

It makes a great activity where I’m making some new friends and acquaintences and stretching my world beyond home, work, and karate. Definitely a lot of fun! Ah

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, actually it’s a great, big lot of fun!

Here’s a website with a Quicktime video of square dancing (the singing call used is the Battle Hymn of the Republic):

Zmetro.com: Farmer’s Market: Westport Squares Video Clip

What’s interesting (and fun to watch) is that the square of dancers includes a woman in a motorized wheelchair. And boy can she move!

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My friend Allan Hurst (if you haven’t checked out his Square Dance Article Archive, you should) is now blogging over on LiveJournal. As expected, his journaling is witty and fun, although it’s disconcerting to find oneself mentioned (I’m supposed to be the observer, not the observed…).

At any rate, here’s a fun entry describing a conversation with a couple of well-known callers about calling at conventions and the trials and tribulations thereof…in particular, how to get a bathroom break: allanh: Grumble, mutter,

In Chicago, Allan told me he’d started a blog, but didn’t give me the URL; if you read his first entry, you can see he’s a little ambivalent about blogging. Too bad, Allan. Your journal popped up on my RSS feed of LiveJournal entries that mention square and/or contra dancing,

I may have to start a LiveJournal blog just so I can occasionally comment on Allan’s posts; he only allows comments from LiveJournal friends. Another square dance friend

, David Levine, keeps a LiveJournal blog that’s a mirror of his Novel Journal. I suppose I could mirror SquareZ on LiveJournal…might lead to a whole new audience.

Whoosh…gone!

You’d think the 53rd NSDC organizers would keep the site up for a few months…people might want to go back and check something…or maybe the organizers could put up a page for comments…or something.

But, no. While the 53rd National Square Dance Convention is still listed as the owner of 53nsdc.com

, the URL itself goes to a page titled “Welcome to Microsoft® Windows NT® 4.0 Option Pack.” Huh?