Updates

Yesterday I took delivery of my new iMac G5 (20 inch). It's a heck of an improvement on my 17 inch iMac G4, with a 1.8GHz G5 processor and 1Gb of RAM. Now I don't want to sound like I was disappointed, but I was alarmed to read this article from ThinkSecret while I was browsing the day before I took delivery. It predicted that Apple would be revising the 20-inch iMacG5 up to 2GHz and a dual-layer Superdrive. The extra few GHz isn't such a big deal but I would have loved to get a dual layer DVD burner. Well, the news now is that the predicted hardware announcements didn't include any iMac updates anyway, so I can rest easy in the knowledge that my shiny new machine will not be outdated in its first week of ownership. It may last two.

The two big Apple update stories in Australia this week aren't hardware related, though, they have to do with OSX Tiger being released, and the expansion of the iTunes music store to Australia. Regular readers may know that I have been keenly awaiting both. Apparently there are Australians who are already successfully registering and downloading from iTMS today. However I suspect there will be a release of iTunes 4.8 to coincide with Tiger's release in a few hours when we will be able to see an Australian storefront for the first time. I plan to join, even though songs are likely to be about $US0.45 more expensive in the Australian store. I don't know how the cost difference is justified. There really is no choice if you want to be legal and buy from the store. Why be fair when you can screw people for a few extra million bucks I guess? Multinational companies win again.

It has begun

Well, planning for MLX 2005 has officially begun. I started work on the website for this year by doing a fresh installation of Drupal. I had been putting off doing much on it until the video was out of the way. Today the test DVD arrived from Dream Engine. I've given them the go ahead to duplicate after a small correction to the menu, so I hope we'll have the finished DVDs in our hot little hands by Friday.

Hullabaloo

Hullabaloo was excellent. I returned late last night with Lotte, with very sore muscles and a dose of the traditional exchange virus. We skipped the morning workshops on both days but still had plenty to challenge us. 3 hrs of classes per day really is enough when you're social dancing as well, but that might just be us. We are probably beyond the phase in our learning where we are excited enough to get up in time for an 11am class after having danced til 4am. For me the physical challenge was clearly enough as well.

The workshops were overall extremely valuable, which is something I found last year as well. There were some things that were are a disappointment of course. I was a bit frustrated by being invited to DJ and then being given a 30 minute spot in a non-preferred time. On top of that, invited DJs were expected to pay full price and were not paid. I thought that was pretty poor. Also the only live band I got to see was the Fremantle Jazz Orchestra at the Ball, and it was a really good line up with a fairly poorly chosen set list for the occasion. They played what I would expect to hear at any big band gig at a local fete -- not what I would expect for a bunch of hardcore swingers wishing to relive the swing era. They played what you would call "progressive jazz music" rather than big band swing. All young faces (which is fantastic) using new arrangements, sometimes of tunes that would best be classified as bop or trad jazz rather than swing. They performed a couple of Basie numbers, but only the one they did as an encore had any real Kansas feel about it. The other was a showtune done with a distinctly Sinatra-Basie style (I can't quite remember the number right now).

These things are certainly a matter of taste, and taste is personal. However I noticed that a lot of people were sitting down for a lot of the night, so I started to feel that I wasn't Robinson Crusoe. The rhythm just didn't have that swingin' drive, and there were no themes you could play with. It makes it tough on dancers.

Enough of my minor nitpicks, though. On the positive side of the ledger the Perthies have got to be just about the most welcoming and generous group of swing dancers in the country. Their passion is unsurpassed. This always gives me a great feeling, and it comes through in their events. The weekend opened for me with a riverboat cruise down the Swan. That was really a lot of fun. The boat itself was larger than I had imagined and had two floors where you could dance. There wasn't a lot of room to swing out because everyone tended to congregate on the upper deck floor, but that gave it a really terrific atmosphere. Lotte and I concluded that "enough space" was not an important factor for good atmosphere, and in fact can often detract. The riverboat cruise was probably my favourite event actually, even though it wasn't a full on dance night.

The Saturday night dance was also really good. CRR member Brian Renehan ended up winning the Jack & Jill with Sarah Farrelley, which was a buzz for all the CRR crew because we had been working on competition stuff the previous week. They danced really well and deserved it. I don't think I've ever seen Brian look as relaxed while competing.

CRR performed the Big Apple that night too. That was also a huge buzz because it seemed to go over very well. I personally felt good about my performance, although I was struggling a bit at the beginning with a sore hamstring/groin from the classes. It was funny because I just decided to dance all out anyway and started yelling "RAAAAAAAAHH!" at the top of my voice at various stages to get myself hyped past the pain barrier. It worked. Got to remember that.

Another highlight was our host Wes, who did nothing but wait on us hand and foot all weekend. The best part was when Lotte complained that the only thing they could do to improve the service at "this hotel" was to make up the beds every day. For a nanosecond Wes looked troubled. It was very funny. We thanked him buy making him a breakfast of Dutch pancakes and hid a gift for him in his room.

One more night

Well, I only need to wait one more night before I head over to Hullabaloo for the weekend. There's only one more thing left to do: find someone to feed my cat. That shouldn't be too hard.

It's boring waiting to go. Today was a very busy day though, with 4 project meetings and a couple of other casual intra-office meetings in between. Everyone is trying to get things sorted out before the long weekend. It's strange how the effect of just one day off compresses time. The smart thing to do is leave earlier. Wish I'd thought of it.

Tomorrow I'll work on my research project and then head to the airport. I get into Perth just in time to make it to the jetty where a riverboat will take us on a cruise down Swan river. I'm worried that something will go wrong and I'll miss the boat. That would really suck, because the cruise goes for 4 and a half hours and sounds like fun.

15,000 and counting

A couple of days ago I backed up my blog just for the hell of it. I was amazed to find that I'd written more than 15,000 words in a little over a month here. That sort of workrate would mean I could write a PhD thesis in under 9 months. If only it was as easy as writing in a blog.

I do believe, however, that having a blog builds the habit of writing. My other blog -- the one I use to compile my MA thesis -- has been proof of that. While it's been quiet there lately I found that while I was writing stuff leading up to my progress report, the blog was a huge help.

Today was a really good day for a whole bunch of reasons, particularly after having such a crap day yesterday. The main thing about yesterday was a silly work related issue, and today that issue became resolved in many ways for me. That was a very positive start. Then, when I was having coffee with my boss he brought up the new iMac G5 that I'd put in for. He's approved the purchase, so hopefully I will be getting that some time soon. I also got some other really good news that I will have to report on in a later blog entry. All in all, a brilliant day.

The only downside was that Lotte left tonight for Hullabaloo and I won't be leaving until Friday night. It's going to be pretty boring at work for the next couple of days waiting to get over to Perth myself. But it will be a great weekend.

How to win a contest

Here's a lesson plan I developed for troupe.

Learning Objectives:

1. Enhance competition and performance skills.

2. Improve dancing to fast music.

3. Develop use of phrases.

Activities

Round 1
Two or three couples are partnered up randomly and must dance for 2 phrases each to a medium tempo song.

3 of the dancers act as judges while the others dance the song. Judges use criteria provided under 5 headings: Musicality, Balance, Innovation, Connection, and Entertainment. Each judge must rank each couple.(5 mins)

The 3 judges then swap in and repeat the exercise with 3 new judges. (5 mins)

Feedback
A simulated judge's conference: each judge must justify his/her choice for the top couple based on the criteria. The Facilitator moderates the discussion. (5 mins)

All Skate
Partners rotate. Each dancer attempts to put into practice at least 2 tips they got from the Feedback session. Medium tempo song. (5 mins)

Round 2
Two or three couples are partnered up randomly and must dance for 2 phrases each to a fast tempo song.

3 of the dancers act as judges while the others dance the song. Judges use criteria provided under 5 headings: Musicality, Balance, Innovation, Connection, and Entertainment. Each judge must rank each couple.(5 mins)

The 3 judges then swap in and repeat the exercise with 3 new judges. (5 mins)

Feedback
A simulated judge's conference: each judge must justify his/her choice for the top couple based on the criteria. The Facilitator moderates the discussion. (5 mins)

All Skate
Partners rotate. Each dancer attempts to put into practice at least 2 tips they got from the Feedback session. Medium tempo song. (5 mins)

Drupal 4.6

My content management software of choice, Drupal, just underwent a major update to 4.6. Naturally I wanted to try it out, so when Lotte had an assignment that required the quick set up of a website, I assisted by installing it and giving it a whirl. A fresh install was painless and rewarding. We spent about an hour sitting in the sun on Saturday morning outside A Minor Place (our favourite cafÈ) configuring the website on their wifi network. It's much nicer to set up a website when you are being served French toast and coffee.

So today I decided to upgrade eRoleplay.net to 4.6 (from 4.5.2) and met a few hurdles. Quite a few really. The update documentation is less than complete, it seems, and webmaster Joel was kind enough to help me track down the problems. Turns out we had to manually update the database in several places (making me wonder if the update script is really complete) and remove a couple of blocks that I had set up myself. After that Joel stepped back through the update process (there's a date-selector thingy on the update page) and things started working again. Phew, the database is intact and all my stuff is right where it should be. Now to re-install a few extra modules and we should be away.

If you're reading this as a content-management novice, Modblog is an example of a type of content management system. Drupal is one of a bunch of freely available systems that you can install on your own server (if you have access to a server). The advantage of this is that you have control over the features and the presentation of your stuff. You also have total control over your own data. Let's just say Modblog disappeared tomorrow -- where would your blogs entries be? The disadvantage is that they do take a bit of technical know how.

AJC Reflections

Dozza and The Crinkulator have provided some interesting insights into competing in the AJC last night. I'm still reflecting on my first AJC as Head Judge. I've judged at all 3 AJCs in various events. This was different because I was responsible for the whole judging team. Of course I've done similar things with AHP and last year's Hellz, which is no doubt why I was asked. But it was a different experience to be responsible for the conduct of the judging but not responible for the entire event. In many ways it was a relief. I didn't have to feel like the criteria, the scoring system, or even the judging and adjudicating processes were down to me. They were provided by the organisers. I simply had the job of applying those things to the competition.

I decided that I wanted to have the judge's briefing early, so the night started at 6.30pm for me. It was a good decision I reckon, because there was enough time to get things done without feeling like we were under stress. Stress is definitely one of the enemies of a happy judging team.

The most difficult event to judge, the Jack & Jill heats, was first on the program. This is where you have about 9 couples on the floor in each of 4 heats. There are 3 all skates in each heat, with a total of about 3 mins to assess 9 dancers, meaning you have a total of roughly 20 seconds per dancer to make a decision about whether to call them back for the finals. Needless to say, it's a process of elimination, but you have to spend the greatest time on the toughest decisions. You might take one look at a dancer and realise in the first few seconds that they have no hope of getting through, so you have to move on. All skates are tough to judge, but it's efficient.

Just about all the events were tough to judge, with a lot of places being very difficult to split. The beginner events were judged on all skates alone, and I found myself again having a hard time getting to see everyone for long enough. The rest of the events had shines, which helps so much. You really get a feeling that you have been able to see how they are performing and whether the partnership is working well.

Today I guess I'm thinking about how things could have been better. The night could have been shorter -- two whole beginner events plus an amateur award seems like overkill to me. I'd prefer to see the values of the contest made more explicit so that everyone knows what's expected of AJC winners, including the judges. More emphasis on the raw energy of lindy hop that inspires people would be more comfortable to me. This probably all sounds a bit like the Hellzapoppin' ideals, but there's a good reason for that. A lot of people in the US decided that contests were getting too far away from the ones that were around during the 30s and 40s.

I recognise as much as anyone that AJC should be different from AHP -- for one thing it has a connection to US jitterbug contests which are usually associated with the dance scenes in Washington and California as opposed to the roots that AHP traces from the early Harvest Moon Ball contests in New York. This is definitely going to result in a different feel, and the inclusion of Quirky 30s in AJC is a good example of that I think, and one that I really enjoyed. However I still think the particular values that AJC does embody should be clear to everyone. The best example of where this can create confusion continues to be Showcase event, where there is always a fairly liberal interpretation of "swing styles" -- mostly because the competitors can choose their own music of course. Is this a swing dance contest or not? If it's not, why is it in AJC? If it is, should a couple be marked down for including a significant amount of non-swing content? These are tricky questions, of course, but ones that have to be dealt with if people are going to be kept happy.

Hellz gets around the problem by a) carefully choosing all the music and b) by allowing absolutely anything (avoiding the mess of disqualifcations) while embodying the values that are associated with the most famous lindy clip of all time, from the movie Hellzapoppin'. If anyone ever wanted to know how they should be dancing, they have the prime example right there in the name of the contest. Not having any rules often surpises people, but of all social dances, lindy hop is surely the most permissive of all -- you can quite easily make up a move or a sequence nobody else has ever done and call it lindy hop. What's important is that people realise they are supposed to be doing something that is still identifiably lindy hop. I've never seen anyone winn at a Hellz event after busting out a lengthy jazz routine or doing a cha cha or something. Just imagine.

Filed.

When are taxes fun? Only one time that I can think of -- when you've just finished them, and you've been told that you will be getting a healthy return. Yes, finally I've done my tax returns for 2002 and 2003. And guess what? Last year's one is due next month. Anyway the pain of going through an awful lot of records and receipts was worth it.

Lotte the Radio Superstar

How cool. Lotte was interviewed for SBS Dutch radio last November, and today I found the interview online in MP3 and RealPlayer formats. Dutch-speakers might be particularly interested.

Active Learning

Here's an interesting theory on how to introduce a new element to higher education. Why not have an impromptu Lecture Musical? Oh, and no need to let the lecturer know in advance.

The Wizard of Oz

On Monday night Lotte and I had the pleasure of seeing the kids involved in the Mt Scopus production of The Wizard of Oz perform a number we had choreographed for them while Lotte was on placement as a student-teacher. The kids were really terrific. About 30 of them performed The Jitterbug, which is a song that never appeard in the film. It's a shame because it's actually a really swinging number. We did track down some shaky footage of the cast of the film rehearsing it before it was dropped (it's an extra on one of the DVDs). The challenges in choregraphing it were many: the kids varied greatly in their age and dance experience, and the number was quite long and very high energy. We needed to come up with a way for the stronger students to do some "real LindyHop" stuff without requiring too much of them, and we only had 2 sessions to teach them! Lotte did almost all of the work, of course. I just helped with the planning and choreography. We split them up into smaller groups and gave each group a short sequence. There was a longer sequence that they all did as a chorus, and then the smaller groups trade phrases, stealing the spotlight briefly. The principle actors (pictured) all needed small dance parts of their own that were not too challenging because they were singing at the same time with headmics.

The way it turned out was even better than we'd imagined, dance-wise. The kids completely nailed it, really. Musically it was not so great. Instead of using the recorded track as they had said, they decided to play the music live. That would have been a big ask for an experienced swing band, but for the student band it was a nightmare and they didn't pull it off. To the kids' credit they danced it all as though the music was spot on, and they got away with it. Thankfully there was a reprise at the end and one of the two numbers they did was The Jitterbug. It worked better musically the second time through, and it showed. After the show the kids came up to us and told Lotte that they'd seen her watching and dancing away in her seat. They went back to their friends and said "Lotte's here! Now we really have to dance well!!". It was so cute.

A Very Good Day

All in all I've decided that today was a Very Good Day. For one reason or another I've been very productive at work this week and today was no exception. It's always a good feeling when you know you're really on top of things at work. Sometimes coming to work can be a drudgery, but this week I seem have quite a lot to do and that motivates me. So I've been turning out work by the bucketloads.

Tonight was dedicated as Tax Night, due to the fact that I have an appointment on Friday with my Accountant to put in my (now very overdue) tax returns for the past two years! Whenever I tell people about this I feel really guilty. Accountijng is my least favourite thing to do in the world. But the funny thing is just about everyone says that they get behind on their taxes pretty often too. That always makes me feel a bit better!

Strange that I hate doing accounts but I'm really enjoying the accounting project I'm doing with Business Information Systems. I guess it's just teaching people how to do accounts, not actually doing it myself. Even better I get to try to think up ways to make it more interesting for them, which has got to be a benefit to society, don't you think?

So anyway the other good thing about today was that I got my tax done. At least, all I need to do before seeing the Accountant. Yeehar.

As if that wasn't enough, just an hour or so I got an email from someone who was organising the gradual repayment of a long overdue sum of money -- sponsorship money that fell through -- for an event in 2003! I've been waiting a long time for this to happen and it finally looks like it will. This means we may be able to keep up with uni fees without going a long way into debt after all. Phew.

OK, I have an early start and I should be in bed. I just thought I would post something trivial instead of a huge long super-pretend-seriou s thing about DJing or something. I've noticed nobody comments on the long boring blog entries!

Oz iTMS in June?

The Mac rumour sites have carried plenty of stories about it before, but recently the stories about an Australian iTunes Music Store have been coming from other sources as well. I always wonder how these stories get started, because in my experience even Apple employees are kept in the dark until the last minute these days. The tantalising nugget of info in the most recent story that may give a clue is that Apple has supposedly been booking space in music magazines. I suppose someone might be putting 2 and 2 together, but there's always a chance they are coming up with 5. A mid-June launch would put the Oz iTMS after WWDC, which seems likely to me -- but why not announce it at WWDC? Maybe they'd prefer to time it with some local event for maximum coverage. Don't tell anyone, but I've actually been using iTMS since it was announced, with the help of a friend stateside. I pay him $US20 with PayPal and he lets me buy another 20 songs. I realise I'm going to have a problem when it comes to exercising my right to use these tunes into the future (specifically when I register for iTMS Oz) but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. This is another reason why DRM generally sucks -- we get told we can't buy things based on geography because that suits companies, not individuals. Why should we not get the right to use something in different countries -- after all even nation-states recognise that people move for legitimate reasons. Multinationals generally don't have to answer to moral questions, however. There's no authority big enough to make them.

More on Adair: creativity

The previous entry rabbiting on about Adair's work on teamwork was getting a bit long and I decided this deserved its own topic. Lately I have been thinking more about the creative process, mostly with respect to CRR. My own thinking on creativity is very much in line with what Adair has to say about creativity as well:

The seven habits of successful creative thinkers are:

1. Thinking outside the apparent confines of the problem/situation
2. Welcoming chance intrusions
3. Listening to your depth mind (the unconscious mind)
4. Suspending judgement
5. Using the stepping stones of analogy
6. Tolerating ambiguity
7. Banking all ideas from all sources

There are number of obstacles which inhibit creativity. The seven main ones are:

1. Negativity
2. Fear of failure
3. Lack of quality thinking time
4. Over-conformance with rules and regulations
5. Making assumptions
6. Applying too much logic
7. Thinking you are not creative

© John Adair

This applies directly to the things we've been talking over in our troupe meetings lately -- for instance that we feel like we want to expose ourself to new influences and open up our ideas. The one about conformance to rules and regulations is a bugbear of mine -- a couple of troupe members insisted recently that we all write up lesson plans prior to our workshops. It resulted in a lot of stress for some people and then after a lot of people reluctantly complied, one of the people who was insisting on written plans didn't even do one themself. It's this kind of thing that really gets in the way of building up teams too I think. But it certainly dampened creativity in many ways.

"Tolerating ambiguity" is a really concise way of saying something I have been thinking about. It's not important to find the right way to do everything. For a dance troupe as much as any other group endeavour, the process is often just as important, if not more important, than the product. Only accepting one way of doing things is tempting fate.

What I've learnt about teamwork

Through my involvement in project management in my job, being involved in organising MLX, and in helping to start a dance troupe, I've given a fair bit of thought to the area of teamwork. Sometime during 2004 I was exposed to the ideas of the British leadership and management expert John Adair. Now, I am normally downright hostile when someone presents me with a model of management doublspeak. Just about everything I see on the topic makes me feel physically ill. So I was surprised when I started reading his stuff and finding practical tips and ways of seeing things that made life simpler for me. So I thought I would write a little bit about it here.


First of all, the most important idea for me that Adair talks about is summarised in his diagram on the right. Adair says that to have successful teamwork, you need to keep three things in focus at all times: task needs, team needs, and individual needs. These things overlap in various ways, of course, but the important thing is that no one element dominates and none should be left out.

When you start to break these categories down into real items for a given situation, the message is really compelling. I'll try to give some examples here.

The first one that springs to mind involves the use of this model in revising the way that the MLX teams were organised. MLX is a national event, but in the early days the organisation of it was fairly ad hoc. I had an idea about how other exchanges were run, and had been to some big Lindy Hop events like Herrang and Lismore, but running one was a different matter. I found a lot of useful stuff from other people who had organised exchanges (notably Lindy Exchanges for Dummies), but almost all of the stuff I found was related to tasks. That is, when to do things, and what to do. But not really how to do them, and certainly nothing much on the successful coordination of teams.

For MLX 2001, I had another obstacle which was that hardly anyone in Australia had ever heard of an exchange, let alone knew how to run one. A very small number of people had run workshops or dances, and most of them had either left the scene entirely or weren't aware of the growing desire in more experienced dancers for an event that had social events as a primary focus.

All of this meant that I needed to recruit a team, explain the idea of an exchange, as well as plan all of the events that went into it. It was, I realise now, an unrealistic expectation. Naturally enough, I had plenty of friends who were keen to encourage me to do it, including lots of people who enthusiastically volunteered to help organise. That first year turned into an amazingly uplifting experience I think for just about everyone involved. The unexpected success in terms of numbers of attendees seemed to galvanise everyone, and we all just ran on the rising energy of the moment.

Once it was all over, we did an evaluation of the attendees and a fairly reasonable postmortem with the volunteers as well. There was a lot of positive feedback and lots of goodwill. Looking back on it now I realise that there was almost nothing in the way of criticism of the way it was run, and I must have had hundreds of people contact me in person or by email to tell me that we needed to do the same thing next year.

I probably should have realised a couple of things at that point. Firstly, being the main organiser with nodbody else involved in actual management, there was really nobody among the group who was able to see the organisation of the whole thing in perspective. I should also have realised that this could not be maintained if the event expanded.

In 2002, it did just that. I estimated that it almost doubled in terms of attendance that year. As a result, we had to put on a second stream of workshop classes, and we had international dancers to organise all of a sudden. It was logistically much more difficult in 2002. The management structure had not changed significantly, except for the fact that I now had Lotte around as a confidant and a huge help, and I had introduced the idea of certain volunteers taking on responsibility for certain areas. As a result, a significant proportion of the volunteer team (around 30 people as I recall) was in crisis mode for much of the time. For me, things hadn't changed all that much, because I am mostly in problem-solving mode when organising MLX anyway, but for about 5 or 6 of the volunteers who did a lot of work, their weekend was not fun. Not all of these people were official "managers" -- they were just the ones who had decided to jump in when things were not working well and sacrificed their time.

A lot of soul-searching resulted. I got sick. A couple of friendships were bruised, which is still a cause of anguish for me today. Lotte and I spent many months talking about how to improve things for the following year. In the end, Lotte's input was invaluable. She decided that she would rather help solve the management problems herself than watch me get stressed out and sick again. Together we came up with the idea that we needed to define the new role of Volunteer Manager, and that Lotte would fill it.

The short story is that MLX 2003 was a much happier experience for the volunteers. The areas that we were able to address, I realise now, were related to the two circles in Adair's diagram that I had neglected to some extent: building and maintaining the team and (moreso) identifying and serving individuals' needs. There was still too much strain on Lotte and myself, and I got sick after MLX again (quite badly this time). But we had learnt an important lesson about how to manage a fairly large team (around 50 volunteers by this stage).

MLX 2004 is when we came really close to getting the formula right. First of all I had now discovered Adair's stuff and begun to make use of it in my work, so I was now able to communicate the ideas we'd been discovering by trial and error with some clarity. For the first time, we conducted a training session for our managers, and we used the Adair principles to do it. We told them about what we'd discovered. We also gave them practical advice on how to run an event -- putting together running sheets and managing small teams.

MLX 2004 was amazing because it was by far the most ambitious timetable of events we had taken on, mainly because we were taking on two major international events along with it: SwingCity and the Hellzapoppin' World Championships. But guess what? I didn't get sick, and I had a really, really, good time. And everyone was happy, including the managers. Friendships were built and strengthened. Volunteers gained valuable experience and skills. It was a very positive endorsement of the model above, I have to say.

DJ Challenge # 489: Charleston stuff

Crinkle wanted me to plumb the depths of my collection to find some songs for her that she could choreograph for. The challenge: "give me some nice Charleston stuff". Now, I have an awful lot of stuff you can do the Charleston to, so I needed to think of some limitations myself. First of all I needed to limit my search to tunes that would possibly work for a performance. That removes a bunch of stuff already. Anything too long, boring, fast or slow is out. The second factor was more important -- it really needs to have that authentic Charleston feel.

But what does that mean, and how do you go about finding it easily -- particularly if you don't have things categorised for different styles? I do, of course, for the purposes of teaching, but often what you use in a class isn't what you'd use for a performance. So let's just pretend there are no playlists helpfully grouping Charleston stuff. The two things I immediately searched on were "stomp" and "rag". A lot of the songs from that Dixieland era were rags, of course. But I guess it wasn't until getting that challenge that I'd really started to think about how you'd go about defining Dixieland jazz. This definition sums it up for me:

Dixieland combos usually have a rhythm section with a combination of drum kit, upright bass, piano, and banjo or guitar. The lead instruments are usually restricted trombone, trumpet, and clarinet. The definitive Dixieland sound is the simultaneous playing of the three lead instruments. [Wikipedia]

Naturally enough a lot of Dixieland tunes were rags, having grown out of ragtime. Of course, a heck of a lot of stuff was also blues, the other main jazz precursor. So what's a stomp? Now, as every good geek knows, Google is always your friend in these circumstances, so I did a search on "definition jazz stomp". The amusing article I turned up from Downbeat magazine is really interesting: check it out. In summary it's a piece written in the name of Jelly Roll Morton claiming responsibility for creating "jazz and stomps". This letter is entirely in keeping with Morton's character if other historical accounts I've seen are right, so I think it may be real (notwithstanding the incorrect date at the top). But even if it's not, it's great reading. The first stomp was King Porter Stomp (1906), so stomps emerged after ragtime. Interesting.

Anyway my list for Crinkle is looking good. It has 4 or 5 of my favourites from Fletcher Henderson, various rags from Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, and another 4 Charleston-style novelty songs from Spike Jones, who I love for his craziness. Fats Waller is in there with his performance of the Henderson Stomp, which for some reason I don't have from Fletcher himself. That should get her started anyway.

Video pirates and pioneers

The whole Napster story is set to repeat itself in the digital video world. With the proliferation of broadband and peer to peer network technology like eMule and Bittorrent, the cat is out of the bag. With digital video services now providing simple, consumer level products that allow video content to be captured instantly, it's not difficult to imagine the revolution that is now taking shape. What is called TV Piracy today is an opportunity for someone to make a killing tomorrow.

Apple Computer was the big winner in the original Napster story, with the development of the iPod and iTunes Music Store. Despite the fact that there are significant questions about the way Apple has introduced its Digital Rights Management system, there's no doubting the successful introduction of ITMS has changed the music industry forever. A profitable music on demand industry was born.

There seems no doubt that the video on demand industry will follow, but what remains to be seen is what shape a really tenable digital video download service will take. Personally, I'd have no problem at all with paying a reasonable fee for the convenience of downloading video on demand. Providing the DRM is not too restrictive, of course. Following the music example, I much prefer the DRM-free subscription service offered by eMusic.com, but Apple certainly has the better range of choice from the main labels on the ITMS. My wish is that someone would come up with a really forward-thinking download service that has minimal DRM (maybe hooked up to a set top box solution like TIVO) that makes it more worthwhile to use the legitimate service than resort to peer to peer networks.

Lindy Hop and Relativity

After work I went straight to my class. We've been teaching a little routine to 'Jeep Jockey Jump' that's starting to take shape. I was reminded tonight how tough it is teaching performance related stuff to a casual class. We always have to back track to get the routine into people's heads. But in between all of that we always manage to divert their attention to some technical issue or other that needs attention. Tonight's main thing was straightening out their swingouts when they get fast. It's surprising how many ways there are to mess up something that is meant to be a 'basic' step, but as everyone knows, swingouts are actually really hard to get right.

Speaking of things that are hard to get right, tonight was the practice run for the Australian Jitterbug Championships. For the benefit of non-dancing readers, AJC is a national swing dancing contest -- probably one of the big two. I'm the head judge this year, and tonight was a jack & jill contest -- a fun style of contest where you don't know who your partner will be. The reason we needed a practice run-through was that the AJC is switching over to a relative placement scoring system. The system was a success, but it's always difficult to score people relatively. There's always two couples you just can't separate for some reason. Still, I do believe a relative system is pretty fair.

Meetings

Phew, today was a busy day. It started with a meeting that didn't happen. Second time I've been stood up by this particular client -- was it something I said? Anyway that meant I could go and get a cup of coffee, which wasn't all bad. Then straight to a planning meeting, after which I met up with Lotte for a hurried but enjoyable lunch on Lygon. Lotte had been to the doctor for about the third time in three weeks -- this time for a weird rash behind her ears -- some kind of allergic reaction. She's been having bad luck lately. Then I had to rush back to the office for another project meeting. I try not to schedule 3 meetings in a day because they generally go for 1.5 hrs each, so it leaves little time for preparation. And sometimes meetings go over-time. It's not that I don't really like meetings, though. Truth is, a lot of my work centres around meetings, and when they're good, I'm in my element. The third meeting today was like that. A good project meeting can achieve a lot.

Selecting tracks

Okay, this is dumb I know, but I was trying to think about the process I go through when selecting new material. I started by thinking of how the listening to new stuff is an active process of filtering, and before I thought about it I was sketching a sort of funnel with new tracks going in the top and various filters being placed at the bottom. A track that wasn't filtered out would make it into the collection or Library.

Then I realised that it wasn't so much a matter of a whole bunch of tracks coming in at the same time (although that's not too far from the truth). It really is a consideration of each track in turn -- a serial process. So when I decided to just map it out as a flow chart (above) it looked really straightforward. The diamonds represent decision points. The rest is probably pretty obvious. I guess there is a possibility that the rejected stuff can feed back into the listened stuff, but in practice I don't do this nearly enough. The "category" decision at the bottom is not something I use much, but I'd include here the setting up of playlists, classifying tracks by BPM, recording year, and that sort of thing. All of this is sort of adding categories for easier use.

Anyway now that I have it in this form I can't see any possible reason why someone would want to read it, so I naturally put it straight into my blog!

The Three Thirds Theory

For a while now I've been talking about the three thirds theory of DJing. I think it was at the DJ Summit at SwingCity that I first started talking to people about it. I guess it was operating at some kind of subconscious level until the moment that I started trying to explain it, and since that time I have thought about it off and on I guess. I still don't consciously use it as a method for every set I put together, but it does come into my thinking every now and then.




Well, it's now, and I need to make sure my set on Friday kicks butt, so I am going to put down my thoughts here. The Three Thirds Theory says that whenever you're DJing for a regular crowd you want to have three elements in rougly equal proportions: Old, Current, and New. Let me break those down a bit so that there's no misunderstandings. Old stuff is stuff that you know your current audience -- the dancers in front of you at that moment -- are familiar with. The audience varies all the time, so you need to be aware of what they are familiar with. Which songs never fail to bring a smile to people's face? What can you put in on and know, pretty much without fail, will haul their asses off that comfy chair and get them up?

For the sake of it, I'm going to list a few tracks of mine that I would think would be in this first category on Friday night down here: Shout Sister Shout (Lucky Millinder), Royal Garden Blues (Bill Henderson), Rockhouse (Ray Charles), Corner Pocket (Ellington/Basie), Jeep Jockey Jump (Glenn Miller). Any list of favourite is completely independent of feel, tempo, style, or whatever, so this isn't a guide to choosing which track is right for the mood of the crowd. Just a further means of categorising things.

The second element is the current stuff. What's popular right now? What are people just getting used to hearing? What are they waiting to hear? Songs in this category right now with your average crowd at the Fun Pit, for me, include: 'Bill Bailey' (Ella Fitzgerald), 'Apollo Jump' (Lucky Millinder), 'Lavendar Coffin' (Lionel Hampton), 'A Pretty Girl, A Cadillac And Some Money' (Buddy Johnson), 'Barn 12' (Harry James) and 'Drop Me Off in Harlem' (Victriola).

This second category can be hard to pick, because it's hard to keep on top of whether things are just now becoming popular or whether they're just being played a lot. You can also forget that things have been around for a while, or miss stuff that people really hang out for. I just focus on my own stuff for the most part, and this second category would be stuff I have in "high rotation" at the present time.

The third element is the new stuff. Now, I'm specifically not talking about new recordings here, although from time to time I do find new recordings or new releases that will be added to the new category. What new refers to is the "bleeding edge" stuff -- what the audience is just hearing for the first or second time. I have long believed that it is important to introduce stuff your audience hasn't heard much of if things are going to keep fresh. One of the most common problems with DJs I hear is that they play only stuff that they have heard others play and succeed with. They end up sounding like everyone else without really carving out their own niche of interest. This is a sign of a DJ not having a big enough collection, of course -- but it's also a sign that they don't listen to their own material. Just about anyone has enough material to put together a good set, if they only know their own stuff well enough.

I had the rather terrifying experience of being asked to play some tracks when I didn't have my trusty laptop handy the other day. It was during the break while the Cairo Club was completely cutting it up at Mayfields, and there was a strong feeling that the feeling was going to be lost during an extended band break. I jogged to my car and picked out the one CD I had that could do the job -- a 1 hr collection I bought recently called Harlem Stomp. It's just one of those cheap compilations you see everywhere (I can't even find it listed on AMG) but it has some of my favourites and I thought it might have some versions of things I didn't have. Anyway, all I did was stand in the DJ booth and choose the song order. The toughest part was just choosing the right feel to get people started and then build something up to where I could play the best stuff on the CD a couple of fast classics: 'Jumpin' at the Woodside' and 'Bugle Call Rag'. Now, if two songs ever said "jam please", those are them. Anyway, it worked, and I had strangers coming up to the booth telling me I was a DJ god and stuff, but the catch was that I didn't even have my gear there -- just chose a song order from the one swing CD I happened to have in my car.

I know full well that the atmosphere in there is not something I had created -- it was a product of the band being so good and a bunch of inspired dancers waiting around for something to bust out to, however I do believe there is some skill in knowing your music well enough to manipulate it. I do know that putting the CD on from start to finish would not have worked. The management already had a CD on with similar stuff playing before I started, and nobody was dancing.

Anyway, in a round about way, that little anectote is just an example of what I was trying to get at with the New category. Too many people seem to look for something radically different when they look for their new material. They often go for something that just doesn't swing -- either it's tinkly complicated 7 minute bop stuff with undancable bass solos (ugh) or some monotonous R&B variant. Now, I am not saying that R&B isn't fun, and I am definitely not a purist. But you have to look hard at whether something really makes a good dance song. Is it short enough? Does it have enough going on to make it interesting? Does it have a swinging beat, or is it something different (shuffle rhythms are a personal dislike of mine and a sin committed by way too many DJs for my liking).

The truth is that good new lindy hop stuff is probably going to sound quite a bit like good old stuff, but different. It's probably going to swing if it's any good. It's probably not going to be produced by a ska band. It's probably not going to have a latin beat, or be a hip hop tune. I don't rule these areas out by any stretch of the imagination, either as novelty songs or as a whole new area of dance exploration. Hell, go for it -- I dance to 'Plenty' every time it's played and couldn't think of anything I'd like more than busting out to some hip hop stuff. But do I go looking for those tunes to expand my collection? Nah. There's way too much good swingin' lindy hop stuff yet to be discovered.

So what will be on my new list this Friday? I managed to snaffle a bunch of stuff on the locally produced Flashback label in the $3 bin and I got a stack of Lunceford, Barnett, and Hamp that I hadn't seen yet. I also remembered to use most of my monthly quota on eMusic.com to snaffle a few albums and pick the eyes out of some others. I got some brilliant Roy Milton stuff, including a version of 'Taint Me that I am officially In Love with, and the best version of Blue Skies that I know. I grabbed everything I could get from Nellie Lutcher in their collection (an album called Hurry On Down) an album by Big Joe Turner (All the Classic Hits 1938-1952) and a couple of songs from Illinois Jacquet, including the fast and gorgeous 'Bottoms Up' (what an excellent riff that is). The posthumously released Grammy winning 'Genius Loves Company' from Ray Charles and others was worth it mostly for listening value, but I will probably spin 'Fever' (duet with Natalie Cole) if the moment is right.

I snaffled Bill Bailey from the Apple ITMS because I know it's a current favourite (that's category 2, for those of you keeping score at home) and didn't have it. It's hard to get on CD. Mr Borgida also recently turned me onto some new stuff including the most fantastic version of Strictly Instrumental (a vocal, would you believe) by Eddie Jefferson and a few other characteristically Bill offerings that I don't think anyone is playing yet. Bill's tracks are almost bound to be hits, going on past experience, but their introduction must be managed carefully. You can't go overBilling people in one set, because they will not appreciate how good it is!

So we're back to the Three Thirds Theory again. Use this information wisely, dear reader.

The Pope's Dead

It's quite strange reading about the Pope dying just after having finished reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. The basis of the storyline for the book is the death of the Pope, so it goes into minute detail about the rituals associated with the election of a new Pope by the Cardinals. Quite a canny move by Brown to concoct a storyline that was likely to be of interest within the few years after it being published, you might say. Actually the more I think about Brown's work, the more I see it as having commercial, rather than artistic, intensions. For instance, the controversy surrounding The Da Vinci Code (and no doubt Angels and Demons too) is surely welcome exposure for the publishers.

Anyway, due to the remarkable background research Brown does on his novels I know that Cardinals from around the world will now assemble in a 'conclave' in the Sistine Chapel in Rome to elect a new Pope. Once they enter the conclave, they can't leave until the election has been completed. The voting rituals are quite interesting too -- after an unsuccessful ballot an appointed cardinal burns the papers with chemicals to produce a black smoke that can be seen from outside. A successful ballot burns white, alerting the world that a new Pope has been appointed.

Sunday fun

Sundays are definitely my favourite day of the week at the moment. These are the days when we really plan very little, usually sleeping in before heading out later for something fun to do. We had had a quiet Saturday night, with Lotte preferring to stay home to get over her 'flu shot and me going round to Crinnie's to watch the new Lano and Woodley DVD. But we still needed to catch up on some sleep, so it was at least 11.00am before we got out of bed.

Our Sunday agenda was then organised: a yoga class at 4pm at Clifton Hill, and a party at 8pm. Somewhere in there we would need to eat, and there was some talk of stopping by Mayfields for a secret meeting or something, but that was as far as the planning went. As it turned out, the yoga class was really excellent (and badly needed). I have a major crick in my back at the moment and I need as much stretching and strengthening as I can get. Lotte also liked the class, although she found it pretty tough with her 'flu-ridden muscles complaining to her all the way.

We did stop by Mayfields briefly and I got a few dances in before the secret meeting was completed. Then we offered The Swede a ride home because she was looking decidedly down in the mouth about not being able to dance. She finds out tomorrow if she will be going in for an operation on her hip. Poor Swede. After that it was straight to the cast party for Ursus & Nadeschkin. Nadja is a Lindy Hop friend from Switzerland whose show has been playing at the Comedy Festival. It was very good -- we saw it on Wednesday night -- and it was a big success from their point of view. The party was at a huge place on Richmond hill with a magnificent big outdoor spa, so Lotte and I braved the evening cold and took advantage of the bubbles. It was very warm in the spa and we soaked our yoga-extended muscles. There were only about 15 people at the party but it was fun just being at this place. It concluded with a battle for honour with a game called Boccerball -- a sort of table soccer game where you have to roll large ballbearings down chutes to knock the ball into your opponent's goal. I won my match 5-2!

Inspiration and DJing for newbies

Just when I was thinking that Melbourne's social lindy hop scene is on the slide (see this entry), it jumps back up and takes me by surprise. First there was the good fun vibe of the Easter Hop, which seems to keep on keeping on from year to year. Then last Sunday's Cairo Club performance, which packed a very meaty punch for a lot of us, and has been a source of energy for a lot of the CRR crew since. Then last night we headed to CBD and there was a nice crowd that included a few from interstate and overseas. I can't say the music grabbed me much, but I did enjoy quite a few nice dances. And tonight was one of the best vibes at the Fun Pit for me for a long time. There were heaps of people and it didn't seem at all too dominated by cliques (an inevitable but frustrating part of any swing scene). The super-friendly Tim approached me and asked if I would mind DJing there next time. I chose the late set because I always favour DJing to the hardcore and experienced swingers. I admit to opting for the easier option. It's just that my own tastes have moved on from the days when I was starting out.

Actually, tonight Doz and I had an interesting conversation about what to choose for less experienced dancers. Conventional wisdom still says that the best stuff for this crew is neo swing and (sometimes) R&B, because a). they are more 'mainstream' than vintage artists and b). their rhythm lines are easier to follow. My own theories about the topic were once sort of along those lines, but have become more developed these days. As I have begun to think more about swing music, it seems like I've started to understand the way the original swing bands actually worked, as well as typical swing themes and structures. I guess teaching beginner classes for about 6 years now has also given me a handy touchstone as far as appropriate music for inexperienced dancers. The truth is, it's not necessary to make a choice between good vintage music and music that new dancers can enjoy dancing to. You just need to know what the elements of the right music are.

First, I look for stuff with a good strong bassline. Walking bass tracks are good (My Baby Just Cares For Me is a classic example). Obviously other parts of the rhythm section come into it as well, such as rhythm guitar, piano, and particularly cymbals. But more often than not you want to be dancing on the bass. It probably sounds extremely obvious, but it's much easier for people to get the idea of a swinging rhythm (meaning a rhythm that is 4/4 with the emphasis on the even counts) if you have tracks that have an easily heard rhythm section. Next, I look for songs with good strong themes. It's dead easy to pick up the start of a bar or phrase if you have a repeated section of music to go on. This is one reason I don't favour playing a lot of R&B or standard 12-bar blues -- the blues structure has themes that are not at all like typical swing themes and can catch people off guard. They're definitely going to be familiar with blues structures and swing structures whether they know it or not, but when you mix the two together a lot at a time when they are trying desperately to get a feel for some of the essentials, it does tend to confuse people a bit. So I stick to mostly AABA song structures for beginners.

Finally, I don't push the tempo up too high for less experienced dancers. Another easy one. Wow, all of this took a lot longer to type than it did for Doz and I to talk about tonight. Anyway, it may be helpful to somebody somewhere out there, or I may come back to this and write some more at a later stage.