Ate way too much…two all-you-can-eat meals in one day is just too much. Had lunch with Clark Baker at the Hilton’s buffet, and then dinner at the Braza Grill with Clark and some other callers.

Clark gave me a couple of tips that he picked up at Dave Wilson’s iPAC callers school last summer. First, one can tell sequence by looking at one’s key couples and seeing if they’re about the same distance from home. If they are, they’re in sequence; if not, they’re out. Second, for at home resolves, even from weird formations, look at the square and just try to describe how to get everybody to where they need to be to be home. Note that both of these involve being able to clearly visualize one’s key couples at home.

This poem, written by Ricky Holden, was published in American Squares Magazine in 1953.

The more that I travel the more I can see
Many excellent people of our good country
All seem dubiously wondering, “How good are we?”
Can we ever be HIGH-LEVEL dancers?

Let me tell you the tale of a West Coast beginner
Who struggled through class after class and grew thinner
From exercise (also from missing his dinner)
Aspiring to HIGH-LEVEL dancing!

Eight long nights a week he square danced with a passion,
His wish for new figures completely unrationed;
Why–all but the latest was strictly old-fashioned
To this would-be HIGH-LEVEL dancer!

He learned every figure as soon as ’twas printed,
Knew more allemande breaks than coins have been minted,
Was highly self-satisfied–then someone hinted
He was not a HIGH-LEVEL dancer.

Next day he obtained a galactic sensation
And practiced all night on this latest creation
Ignoring all else in grim determination
To really do HIGH-LEVEL dancing.

Well–he worked and he worked (it is true that he tried)
But by dawn the next morning it ended: he died.
When his Club Members heard they regretfully sighed,
“He was almost a HIGH-LEVEL dancer.”

In the small hours of darkness while humans are resting
The dance hall is filled with unearthly protesting:
Our friend has found out there’s no end to the test in
The Limbo of HIGH-LEVEL dancers.

I’m off to the annual CALLERLAB convention. Looks like a busy schedule, but then it always is. I have three absolute commitments: Tuesday 3:30 pm: Digital Music Panel (I’m the moderator), Tuesday 9 pm: Duets Dance (Andy Shore and I are doing a duet), and the Women in Calling meeting, which doesn’t show up on the schedule.

However, I’m currently sitting in the Albuquerque airport (aka Sunport), waiting on a delayed flight to Las Vegas (first stop on my way to Reno). It’s the weather; all flights in and out of Las Vegas are currently delayed. Fortunately, the airport recently installed free (as in beer) broadband wireless access. Makes me happy! I have no idea what the Reno Hilton provides in the way of internet access…I tried contacting them via their website to ask about it, but never got a response. My guess is they’d rather you were down in their casina and not sitting in your room surfing.

Now that fuzzygruf has started learning to call, his opinions of local Bay Area callers are becoming more critical. Check out this posting: Just like in real life… – Tuesday dancing.

Bay Area callers who call for FCD, WSD, MS, or ECR might want to keep up with his weblog (I was sort of hoping he’d comment on the dance I did for Midnight Squares in January, but I guess I didn’t do anything awful enough (or fabulous enough) to warrant comment).

Contra callers are normally fairly invisible to the dancers…in my experience, people are more likely to comment on the band than they are on the caller. But check this one out: paigemom: fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck:

(caller’s name) may be a great contra dance caller.

He is a *shitty* teacher. No, let me rephrase. He is NO teacher at all.

Back in January, I called a Fifties dance for the El Camino Reelers: Squarez: 1950’s Dance. Here are a couple of souvenirs: a photo with me in my cool vintage letter sweater:

and a scan of one of the decorative 45’s (the original is hanging in my office):

Make your own warning signs at the Safety Sign Builder site. (You’ll need to register, but it’s free and pretty quick.) Here’s mine:

Check out Thomas Green’s Barn Dance site: a good source for some simple group dances, plus some notes for callers and a caller’s checklist.

Cute T-shirt found in a weblog by staryxnite:

You may or may not have noticed the square dance calling wiki I set up here: Lion Kimbro’s thoughts on this, from an interview:

“Wiki is *terribly* important because it’s the first public communication system that is DOCUMENT based.

“Instant Messaging, E-Mail, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Online Message Boards, all this stuff-

“It’s all *MESSAGE* based.

“It’s a “quick signal.” You send a message to someone, and they do something different than they would have done before. “Someone.” Sometimes even a group of people. Maybe you’re on a mailing list, or something.

“After the message is done, it’s *spent.* It’s indexed by google, and someone looking for something can find your message amidst a sea of messages, and try to apply it to their situation.

“But wiki is *totally* different. It’s *document* based. The fundamental element of a wiki is the *document.* It’s not a one-off message. (Though, you CAN attach messages to the bottom of a wiki page. Very common.) It’s something that people can use, and refer back to, time and time again.

“It’s made to exist across time.

The auction: Old Westerns Rock n Roll Music Belt Buckles

The item:

The comment from jdobbs:

i just bought some cheezey stuff but i love it!

woot hoot! for square dancing.