Sisterly Words of Wisdom

"Sometimes I picture myself in a fight with a friend and wonder who would win. Sometimes I realize 'Oh I would totally get my ass kicked by her,' but other times, 'Oh yeah I could totally kick her ass.' And I only imagine scenarios with girls." 

Haters Gonna Hate

I feel like I've been living by that saying more recently.

Haters gonna hate.

I know it first started as, or well, at least I first discovered it through the internet in a series of meme images emblazoned with those three words. It's rather tickling, and one of the better memes out there, in my opinion.

And I just took it at face value with whatever person/animal/object was strolling in some nonconformist fashion, basically not giving a flying fuck what everyone/thing around thinks.

But then in the past days and weeks, I've actually realized I've been saying it along with thinking it. Guy doesn't like my cardigan? Well I love it, haters gonna hate. Get caught doing a silly dance during a lapse in practice and totally getting judged by my partner? Whatever, I'm having fun, haters gonna hate. Doing pretty much anything questionable/out of the ordinary and getting the strangest looks from people? Haters gonna hate.

Screw what other people think, and only regard the opinions of those who matter most to you. Life's too short to get beat by shallow thoughts and pointless criticisms. Stay classy. Stay fabulous. Stay fierce.

Stay extraordinary.

You know what,

Spring's great and all with the birds and bees and whathaveyou. Cool. Awesome. Right.

But fall makes me feel all sorts of romantic. Romantic? (capital R?)

Maybe it's the cold weather that makes you want to hold onto someone. Maybe it's all the warm drinks that come with it. Hot chocolate. Apple cider. Maybe it's the holidays. Maybe it's all the awesome clothes you can finally pull out and start layering. Maybe the cold air just keeps me on my toes, expectant, and ready for the unknown. Maybe it's because cold weather outside is pretty nice for escaping into when you're all hot and bothered and sweaty from dancing inside a room thick with body heat.

No wait, that last part wasn't the least bit r/Romantic at all. Whoops. But gotta admit, having that cool outside air to cool off is pretty nice.




Anyways, you get my point.

Don't be afraid to dance. Don't be afraid to take a chance.

Steve Aoki, featuring Rivers Cuomo (frontman of Weezer) in new single "Earthquakey People." 

Hm. I like it. Haven't really listened to any of Aoki's work prior to this; I just knew about this single because I follow Weezer. Heh. I at least knew that Aoki's a electronica-house artist. I get credit for that, right? 

So a little while ago (maybe early September?) Rivers announced he was working with Steve Aoki on a new single. Sweet! And there it is. 

I think Rivers' vocals adds a certain element. People think Weezer and Rivers, they think nerd-rock. Or at least when they first started out. But I think he still has that quality in his singing. He's not the best voice, but he sounds like he has so much fun when he sings, regardless. And that comes across in this track. People jumping around, dancing, having a good time. That's totally Rivers. 

Meanwhile, Steve Aoki also did a remix of his song, titled "Earthquakey People (The Sequel)." 

I kinda like this version better, to be honest. It's got more of a house feel. Kinda wish the drop after Rivers' vocal loops had more of a...well, drop. More oomf. More kick. Bass. Thump, whatever it is. Maybe there's a way to tweak it somehow...

On an unrelated note, I was in TJMaxx looking for black pants when I discovered this chain here in Athens carried Penguin ties. I WANTED TO BUY ALL OF THEM. But of course that would be ridiculous. 

So I bought two. Lolsies! 

Dance marathon unsuccessful.

My attempt at dancing every day for 11 days straight was thwarted when I remembered I bought a ticket to see a university play on Tuesday night.

Curses. Got in 8 days of straight dancing and then two more afterwards. Oh well. I tried.

Also I realize just about every other post I make seems to be about dancing in some shape or form.

JUST LIKE THIS ONE.

So this is a first that I've seen: a dual-partner west coast swing routine (holy shit, that rhymed). I think it's pretty awesome, not gonna lie.



UGH, so good. And really clever too, with bits of humor sprinkled in for good measure. The parts when the two follows and two leads started dancing with each other was really great.



I'm trying to choreograph a west coast swing routine to Moves Like Jagger. This would be a lot easier if I had a partner to get a feel of how certain moves I want to use would work and what they look like. Peh.

Sweet jesus.

So for a while now I've had a penchant for frozen bananas.

But now I've just discovered frozen bananas with condensed milk.

Condensed. Freaking. Milk.

May god have mercy on my waistline.

Dance on ALL THE DAYS.

I was talking with other BPGers and we realized one could dance on every single day of the week starting with this previous Monday and going all the way to next Monday...and then some.

Monday: Practice
Tuesday: Swing Night
Wednesday: Practice, Salsa night
Thursday: Argentine Tango, Blues
Friday: Friday Night Dance Party
Saturday: Fall Dance
Sunday: Community Dance Day
Monday: Practice
Tuesday: Swing night
Wednesday: Practice, Salsa night
Thursday: Argentine Tango, Blues
DONE.

So it's more like one week plus four extra days. 11 DAYS OF DANCING OMG. Feet are gonna hurt so good. I'm not quite exactly sure what the Community Dance Day event is, but it's hosted by the Dance department here and BPG has one or two guest performances. AND I'M IN ONE OF THEM. Oh yes, I got cast, yo. It's a swing number to "Ain't Nothin' but a Kiss" from the musical Memphis. I've never actually heard of or seen this musical before we started learning choreography to this song, but supposedly it's coming to Atlanta in January/February/sometime around those months. Exciting. I'm gonna be in my first BPG performance, aw yeah!



Anyways, I love wimp. It's how I keep up to date with relatively viral videos and other cute shenanigans. Besides the plethora of cute animal videos I keep linking my sister, I have a thing for cheesy cute wedding proposals. Like the guy who flash-mob'd his girlfriend at Disneyland. Or the guy who got his friend to hack some building lights into a proposal message. Totes adorbz.


...I can feel your judgmental eyes staring me down. Whatever. Haters gonna hate.

Interspecies Erotica

I think I heard that term in Clerks 2. "It's not bestiality, it's interspecies erotica!" Or however it goes.

Anyways, THIS MAN IS GETTING MOLESTED BY SEALZ. Just kidding. Who knew though, seal pups just need some cuddlin' love!

Or you know. 'Dem sealz are about to go all Deliverance on his ass. He gon' git raped.

REJECT STRUCTURE. EMBRACE PASSION.

Yeah I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. 

So the Atlanta Swing Classic was in town (by that I mean Atlanta. Obviously. And not Athens). I wish could've gone for the entire weekend and only managed to go on Saturday. STILL I was so excited to go because A) It was for west coast swing. Mostly. B) Workshops taught by Ben FREAKING Morris. Or Ben Morris, who's a pretty awesome wcs dancer (and lindy hopper but I like wcs more). I mean, he's only famous in the wcs world for winning/placing in multiple swing competitions and such, no big. Yeah. And C) IT'S WCS. My favorite dance.

For a while I was bummed that I wouldn't be able to make it because I've had to do backstage crew work for a theatre production here as part of my major requirement, BUT, thanks to UGA football we had no show on Saturday and I was free and able to attend the dances/workshops! Winning.

It was a great deal of fun. I kinda wish we learned more patterns and such, but all the lessons about technique and refining certain basics really helped a lot. Open dancing was just as enjoyable, even though I was probably the youngest guy there for the entire day. Yeah. I feel like the majority of the women I danced with fit in the 30-60 year old range. Eh heh. But hey, some of these ladies were incredible follows and really fun to dance with, which is more than I can say for some of the girls I've danced wcs with here in Athens, where West Coast isn't very prominent. It's also taught a little different at Swing Nights. The style is just...different. The manner of dancing is different. I think it might have something to do with most of the people in the swing community here are lindy hoppers first, which is an entirely different attitude compared to wcswingers. Hm. Guess I'll have to try to make the trip to Atlanta more frequently for some Wicked Westie. The problem is it conflicts with Argentine Tango lessons on Thursday evenings as well. Gah. The conundrums.

Argentine tango has been an extremely frustrating experience so far. It's rather unlike American/Ballrom tango in many, many aspects. There's less of that "sharp" attitude in Argentine compared to American, what with its dramatic head snaps and flicks and whatnot. Argentine is a bit more...soft, perhaps. The attitude is still there, but it's much more subtle. Moves and leads and follows are also much more subtle which makes the THAT much more difficult to dance. Basically you have a basic pattern, a few deviations from that pattern that can transition into multiple combinations of foot play, and the foot play is where things get frustrating. Because you can literally do ANYTHING you want to with these plays; just make sure you retain a sense of musicality. Oh yeah, did I mention you don't have to dance exactly in time/on beat with the music? Yeah. I mentioned it now.

But I'm slowly getting the hang of it...I think it's a matter of, as a lead, recognizing what moves can go where and when during a dance. There's a lot of looking down at our feet, which normally is frowned upon in other dances but I think it's kinda important in Argentine because leads have to place their foot/feet in places that will facilitate/indicate a certain move is to be done by the follow. Yeah. Only slightly important.

Basically I'm realizing I don't prefer dances where I feel like I'm confined to a structure. I like playing with a dance. Doing whatever the hell I want (within reason of course). Wcs has a structure, but it's rather easy to inject any personal attitude and movement. Argentine is all about musicality and play. And blues dancing...well. There really isn't a structure for blues except a basic swaying motion and using every and all emotion you get from a blues song for a dance. Yep.