Category Archives:

04 May

Square Dance Reality Show?

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.

01 May

Very cool feature added to Vic’s Event Database

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.

29 Apr

Duane Allen’s Birthday

Duane Allen is the lead singer for The Oak Ridge Boys, one of country-western music’s leading groups.

If you do line dances, it might be a good day to break out that moldy-oldy, Elvira. It’s also been made into a singing call. Other singers include Y’All Come Back Saloon, Guess It Never Hurts to Hurt Sometime, American Made (which, btw, was a hit record on this day in 1983).

29 Apr

Carl Gardner’s Birthday

Carl was the lead singer (tenor) and founder of the Coasters, a humorous singing group popular in the Fifties and early Sixties.

“Yakety Yak”, “Charlie Brown”, “Along Came Jones”, and “Love Potion #9” are all Coaster hits that have singing call versions.

Relevant Records

  • Yakety Yak (Rhythm 187)
  • Charlie Brown (Royal 114)
  • Love Potion #9 (Aussie Tempos 1008)
29 Apr

Lonnie Donegan’s Birthday

Lonnie was a folk singer, musician: guitar, banjo: Gambling Man, Cumberland Gap, Lost John, Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour [On the Bedpost Overnight]; died Nov 3, 2002

This is a no-brainer: break out “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor”. Dancers love to sing along.

29 Apr

Duke Ellington’s Birthday

Edward Kennedy Ellington, one of the twentieth century’s finest composers, was born on this day in 1899 in Washington, D.C.

Unfortunately, most of Duke’s compositions don’t lend themselves to square dance music. However, one of my all time favorite records (I use it mainly for patter, but it’s also a great singing call), It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got that Swing) was composed by Duke Ellington. Shakedown‘s version is great, with lots of varied instrumentation.

28 Apr

Nice Contra Dance Article

The Oberlin College Dandelion Romp contra dance weekend just occurred. This Live Journal entry has a complete article on it, with a lot of background on conta dancing in general. It will be published in the school’s newspaper, but how many of have access to Oberlin’s newspaper?

I’m going to add one quote to my quotes database. Doug Plummer says “It’s ecstatic spiritual practice masquerading as recreation.”

And here’s a paragraph on calling:

Often the impressions of “calling a dance” that spring to mind are raucous microphones and blaring voices. However, much of the time during the Dandelion Romp the callers would sing along to the music, harmonizing with the fiddles and making impromptu rhymes. “A lot of the professional callers have rhythm with everything they call,” said Beau Mahurin. “There’s usually that rhythm, that almost auctioneer-ish rhythm. They’ll find tunes, rhymes—make sure that everyone not only can follow the instructions, but keep them memorable, and in time with the music.”