So like we drove for six hours and there were cute boys and we like went shopping…

Here’s an entry from nymcrythil: Silver State:

Silver State
Silver State was lots of fun. Much more than Cal Expo. *laughs* I can’t imagine why. Silly Richard. Anyway , I’m just doing the Cliff’s Notes in this post. I’ll do the longer for me one later.

We left Friday at lunch and there was… country music for like… six hours. *laughs* Actually, it isn’t all that bad except the twangy stuff. Twang is a bad sound. Some of it is actually good, though. Anyway, I was in the back with Alix while Danielle watched a movie. Alix was listening to music on her headphones so I mostly just… slept. *laughs* But it was fun. Non-sexual friend-style cuddling. Cuz we’re sooooo capable of the other kind.

Umm… Friday night… I don’t think anything significant happened. Oh! The bouncy trouncy flouncy pouncy funfunfunfunfun thing where I skipped like a rock and rolled when I fell happened. And freakishly hot teen guy… actually, he might have been like 20. Whatever, anyway he came by and thought Alix and I were drunk, and Alix tried to tell him we weren’t and was all “If I were drunk I couldn’t walk in these heels” and then she… totally tripped. Way to tell him, Alix *laughs*

Tim has no food. Like literally. There is Easy Mac and instant soup and cereal. Oh, and eggs and string cheese. A lot of soda. That is it. It made me sad. I wanted to cook something.

Saturday had square dancing and was bouncy and fun. I went shopping with Alix in an awesome shop. She only got like a skirt but there were majorly cool clothes. Ummmm… Oh, I went home early to Tim’s and hung out with Emma and Crystal and Jessica. Twas funish. Aaaandd.. that’s all for Saturday in this version.

Sunday was… not the best for dancing. It was kind of more laid back. No big finale. Less crowded, though, and there were wandering squares. Oh yeah. *laughs*

We do a lot of hugging in square dancing. At straight dances, at the beginning of a tip, the guys go around and get hugs from all the women

, including any women dancing the boy’s part. The caller can call a “yellow rock” at any time; normally it means “hug your corner” but it’s basically come to mean “hug whoever the caller tells you to hug”.

In gay clubs, sometimes callers use “stack the wood” instead of “yellow rock”. Also, a west coast tradition (started, I think, in Southern California) has been spreading through the IAGSDC; it involves hugging everybody in the square at the end of every tip. Some people don’t like this; others really get into it. Recently, we’ve been having a discussion on the lgcwsd mailing list about a fairly new tip-ending ritual, imported from Europe, of pointing a finger into the square, saying “thank you” and leaving it at that (no hugs (gay) or handshakes (straight). This has led to a re-hashing of the hugs-no hugs issue.

At any rate, hugging as been on my mind, so this article from the New York Times caught my eye (you may need to register to read it): Inviting the Public’s Embrace, One by One

He is a financial analyst who happens to think that New Yorkers could use a hug. So it was, a month ago, that Mr. Littman began distributing hugs – free – from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.

I’ve been collecting Live Journal entries that mention square dancing (mostly school-aged kids who either despise gym-style square dancing or kind of sort of think it’s fun).

Today I found one that cracks me up in ambivalentchick: Random acts of kindness in an otherwise chaotic world….: (This is a long post; the square dance stuff is a little over halfway down.)

Anyhow I left there….and discovered something that is going to make me rich!!

I am going to develop a reality series on my parent’s square dance club “The Western Weavers” I mean I never knew there could be so much drama with Square dancing..sheesh…I almost peed in my pants listening to them all talk about their beloved “weavers”. “So and so can’t dance..” “Can you believe she called MEEEE a jerk?” “I can’t believe she has the same petticoat as you” “they totally messed up the square!” I mean the list went on and on… I see dollar signs people, I really do.

I use an RSS newsreader to keep up with headlines during the day. This headline:

Hoping to Attract Callers to the Internet

made me smile. Here’s the whole article (free registration required), but be warned…it has absolutely nothing to do with square dancing: The New York Times > Technology > Hoping to Attract Callers to the Internet

One fun thing about doing a website based on relational database technology is that one can make substantial improvements with a little programming…no new data entry required.

You can see this in Vic Ceder’s square dancing event database. Check out the listing for Chase the Chile, the Wilde Bunch’s fall fly-in here: Event Database — Chase the Chile (October 8 to 10, 2004). By doing lookups on the club and caller databases, Vic can display logos and photos, making quite a nice looking page that’s useful even if the event itself doesn’t have a website.

I hope all callers, clubs, and event organizers take advantage of Vic’s service in providing a free database listing. You’re in control; you enter the data yourself. Vic provides the server space and the programming to make it all work.

Here’s a description of the California State Square Dance Convention from Rumblepurr:rumblepurr: A Loooonnnnggg Weekend He talks about digital music; I wonder if he attended the Digital Music panel at CALLERLAB.

playwithfire69: The weekend: A Live Journal entry on the State Festival from a teenage (I think) dancer’s point of view, complete with teen angst, unrequited crushes, and winning the competition.

People who know me know I’m a caller school junky. I usually manage to attend (or at least hang out at) one caller school per year…the GCA school is my first hangout choice; this year, I’m actually paying for the privilege of working with Anne Uebelacker, Vic Ceder, and Saundra Bryant.

The GCA is a fairly small community in and of itself, and we have a mailing list so we can communicate with each other throughout the year. But I’ve been to other schools where we work intensely together for a week…and then never see or hear from each other again. Why not use the internet to promote some kind of “alumni community” for caller schools. That’s exactly what the Silver State Callers School has done. They have online contact information for their alumni, a list of alumni (and faculty) calling dates, a note from one of the instructors (in Nasser Shukayr‘s inimitable style), and even a (totally unused at this point) bulletin board. I think more schools should try to foster an alumni community.

Blender Magazine has a list of 50 worst songs…some of which have been made into singing call records.

I don’t have the complete list (I’d have to buy the magazine for that), but you can see 41-50 at the Blender site, and Salon lists a few more.

Here are ones that I know have singing call versions:

• No. 2: Achy Breaky Heart
• No. 7: Don’t Worry Be Happy
• No. 12: Kokomo
• No. 20: Dancing on the Ceiling
• No. 39: She Bangs (this one is a patter record)
• No. 43: Follow Me
• No. 48: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Life Goes On)
• No. 50: My Heart Will Go On (theme song from the Titanic)

Hey, a caller could do a whole “worst songs” dance…

The Golden Horse Ranch Band is going to be on WGN (Chicago TV) on the morning show tomorrow. Here’s some shameless promotion, and here’s something about the event from a dancer’s point of view.

And then I remember that the whole point is to show people that square dancing doesn’t have to be intimidating or perfect or reserved for somber elderly people with crinoline fetishes. It can be loud, and goofy, and involve stumbling around and startled “Ladies to the center? What the fuck?” facial expressions, as long as everyone is laughing and clapping and enjoying the excuse not to be hip. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.