Weird readings. I wrote about PubSub a few days ago. Now they’re offering a high volume feed that includes results from Live Journal weblogs. So, tapping into the zeitgeist of LiveJournalers, we find lots of square and contra dancing references.

First, many of the square dance references come from a questionnaire that has been floating around the blogworld for a while. One of the questions is “would you rather go ballroom dancing or square dancing?” Probably the most popular answer that I’ve seen is “neither”.

There was a bear weekend (the International Bear Rendezvous) in San Francisco this past weekend. Several Live Journalers are both bears and square dancers. In addition, Andy Shore called a dance for them. Here are a couple of reports:

From biggerzbetter:

Square dancing was the reason I came in early — I was curious to see if it was as much fun as fuzzygruf and others had always said it was. The experienced dancers had a 30-minute session to start things off, which was completely overwhelming. Everyone obviously knew what they were doing (well, most of them), but it was impossible for me to match the movements with the calls. Things weren’t looking good. When it came time for all the “virgins” to begin, I walked out on the floor hoping that I wouldn’t make a complete ass of myself. The caller, Andy Shore, was as easygoing and considerate as you could want. More importantly, he was gracious during the few rough spots. For the next session, I was advised by several experienced dancers to shift partners and fuzzygruf was nice enough to ask me if I’d dance with him. It sounds silly, but I was really touched by this. Also a little intimidated since this was the guy who everyone acknowledges is a square dancing “natural.” I also remember some blogs from Gary regarding how frustrating it can be to dance with partners who fuck up, and I did not want to piss Gary off. Well, by the time our dance was over I’d made a few mistakes but I think he’s still talking to me! The third and final dance session found me in a group where I was the only inexperienced dancer, but by now I’d seen that even the guys with some dancing time under their belts were capable of a few missteps. By this time, I was having a great time and feeling a lot more comfortable. In fact, I was sorry when the session had to end. Really, it was a great time. I’m psyched to join one of the dancing groups, but bummed to know that the beginner class doesn’t start until July. WTF???

So, a typical response: someone has fun, someone wants to start…and they can’t because there are no lessons starting for months. Bummer.

Now, from the aforementioned fuzzygruf:

Steve’s Squares For Bears was a really great success. I’m not sure how many attended, but I think maybe about 8 squares at the busiest point. Lots of angels showed up to help, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Some guy from Alaska has been dancing at straight square dance clubs for 20-30 years. He never knew there were gay square dance clubs. He said he was going to go back home and start a gay club there. I would say that equates to success.

Wow! A new club in Alaska…hope he follows through…hope someone told him about the IAGSDC and the help they can provide for starting a new group.

So here’s some (I think adolescent) girl who’s surprised that she had a good time square dancing:

I got a really awesome cowboy hat (100% paper!). Ricky and Andrew got boots, Andrew and Jennifer got shirts. So then we came back here and got ready for….

Square dancing.

That’s right.

That’s my big V-Day plans. Square Dancing. NOT my idea. Hannah, Usurla, Karina, and Heidi thought it would be a really good idea because it’s not as coupley as other kinds of dancing, what with the changing of partners etc. all night long, and it was for a good cause. Free-Will donations for a teen scholarship fund. We raised 1200+ dollars. Anyway, point is, I wasn’t really excited about it, but I was glad for the company, because most of our friends were there. But the evening turned out to be a lot of fun. We walked in, and saw a bunch of REALLY old people in matching SHINY outfits. The ladies were all in purple or red, knee-length or above skirts that flipped up showing God and everyone their very old legs when they spun. We were pretty much the only people below 50 in that place. But they were so excited to see us, and we donated $105, and they taught us how to dance. It was so much fun.

Here’s an embarassing moment from Erin:

Last year in gym class we were learning square dancing. At first I was less than enthusiastic about it but I learned that just about anything that allows you to randomly scream out “Howdy!” can be fun. So I stood in my square of eight people. The groups were separated by the badminton nets and I was cowboying it up pretty good. Just as I gave out a “yee-haw” while rounding the square I slipped and fell flat on my bum in the net.

I like the line about anything that allows you to randomly scream out ‘Howdy!’ can be fun.

Another youngish girl at a Sadie Hawkins dance:

But the Dance was soooooo fun, we learned to square dance and then did foreve rand it was wayy fun. Feminist view point in 5…4…3… Oh I’m starting early – I came to the conclusion that that shit was as sexist and demeaning to women as booty dancing and girls shakin their shit in rap videos… just all subliminal – and just as fun.

I have no idea whether it’s the square dancing “shit” that’s sexist and demeaning to women, but I sure think that it can be.

Someone calling himself “allemande_left” has just started a weblog on Live Journal. He’s almost through MS and is starting to learn Plus calls.

118 people on Live Journal have listed square dancing as an interest. However, after looking at some of their weblogs, I think mostly it’s a joke.