The previous open thread has over 500 comments. So I need a new one. I’ll kick this one off with a clip from my recent showcase.
If you want to watch the performance, you need to go see my facebook post. (I don’t think I can embed the video here. The video url seems to include the page for the sidebar. )
BTW: I make it a policy to try to avoid things that are purely political on Facebook. I sometimes fail if I visit other people’s pages…. but I don’t want mine to be about politics. I want that to be social/dancing/hobbies and so on. So please no politics in comments on my facebook pages. Those go here. 🙂
Open Thread
Wow Lucia. Just watched on Facebook. That was awesome!
There’s an opinion piece on the WSJ web site on the subject of censorship by the big platforms:
I would say that the squashing of Parler tends to prove that the big platforms are monopolies in practice.
Thanks Mark,
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It’s funny. The first time I watched all I could see were the things I did wrong. (Things like “Oh… I was supposed to raise pass my arm and hand over my head as “styling” and so on.” In stead, it’s just out forward– which is perfectly fine. Styling is styling!) After watching a few times, I could actually watch for the general impression and to see what I did well!!
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I do see fundamental things I need to fix. But heck, everyone always has fundamental things they need to fix. The issue is which!
Lucia, very nice. Practice pays off. Looks like fun too.
It’s a lot of fun. If you have the inclination, time and money, I’d recommend private dance lessons. (Obviously, any private lessons are expensive. Like private tutoring!)
The Biden administration is promising to give permanent legal status to 11 +million unlawful immigrants….. as soon as possible. They will try to ram that through on a straight party line vote and 51-50 in the Senate. I’m guessing they will also give those people a rapid path to voting for Democrats. This will do terrible damage to the rule of law. Dems won’t care; they want ‘permanent’ political power, and 11 million foreign nationals converted to Democrat voters is a big step in reaching that goal.
Lucia, I was curious about ballroom dancing and physical conditioning. I considered myself athletic back in the day, and did a lot of dancing (not ballroom) in college and until my wife could no longer participate. An evening of dancing could be every bit as physically strenuous as most non dancing athletic events I participated in. I cannot compare that dancing where you could sit out a dance or have intermingled slow dances or even have drinks and feel no pain to what I think you might be doing in your dance routines – except what I see on TV with the pros.
What is the average time length of a dance and how long does a dance session last? Do you measure things like pulse rate or blood pressure during a session. I can see where dancing on a regular basis could be as good a means of physical conditioning as running and no doubt more enjoyable.
SteveF, here’s Peter Zeihan’s take on the immigration bill:
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https://twitter.com/PeterZeihan/status/1350829794649231361
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Legislative things are at least public, subject to debate, and part of the process.
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I disagree with Biden’s day 1 executive orders, though they tend to be limited.
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Though I’ve abstained for recent presidential elections, the EOs are a reminder someone not a white nationalist would still vote orange to oppose bad policy.
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But “that’s politics”
On the other hand, it’s also somewhat amusing and reassuring to see how similar presidents are, after the bluster of elections.
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Here’s a good example – immigration caravans. This was one of the first symbols of Trump as fascist – refusing mass illegal immigration from Hondouras.
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Well, now:
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Guatemalan forces clash with migrant caravan, Biden team seeks to halt exodus
Kenneth
The average length of a dance at a social dance is about the length of a typical song on popular radio. So perhaps 2 minute. In competition, the competitions for ballroom are specifically short heats. I don’t know exactly waht it is, but less than 3 minutes. However…. you wait a few minutes and start the next one.
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When I compete “singles” in “rhythm”, I do “Rhumba”, “ChaCha”, “Swing”, “bolero” and “mambo”. I don’t remember the order… but that’s 5 * ~ 2 minutes all in about 15 to 20 minutes. BUT, my presence gives some of my competitors a break because many in Bronze don’t do “bolero” or “mambo”! (Weenies”).
The multi-dance competitions (with cash prices) are 3 dance: Rhumba, Cha-cha, Swing.
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In social dancing, the DJ usually leaves time between songs, so many people dance 2 minutes, the either leave the floor or dance the next one about a minute later. Some people dance vigorously….. some not so much.
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If you take private lessons, the teacher will pace so as not to kill you. But, time spent on technique is not cardio intensive, so it’s not difficult for them to not kill you with too much cardio.
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Dancing can be good conditioning. To get a good cardio work out you dance “rounds”, which is basically just dance. Jim and I are renting practice time at Ballroom City in Villa Park at $13/hour to just practice Waltz which needs a larger space than our living room. When we do that, we have a cardio work out that is better than walking, but not as intense as running. If we were more beginnerish, it might be closer to 1 hour of walking because the steps would be slower and more hesitant.
MikeN,
The whole discipline thing is insane because to eliminate disparity in discipline pretty much requires less discipline overall. With parents since the baby boom having fallen prey to psychobabble about raising children, there are a lot of little monsters out there who grow up to be big monsters. The Parkland school mass killing was an example. The school principal had implemented a policy that discipline would always be handled internally, so the obvious nutcase was never reported to the police.
I imagine judging a dance competition for cash is bit subjective, and thus controversial. There’s probably some over intense competitiveness there as well to make it more interesting.
They implemented some sort of “restorative practices” in discipline in our county’s schools a few years ago. Basically they just stopped suspending all students since there were racial disparities. I’m not really against experimental tests to see what happens, but this was pretty clearly a “remove racial disparities by stop measuring them” move.
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The results were predictable:
Pinellas schools are disciplining far fewer students. Is that a good thing?
District officials say it’s evidence of a better atmosphere in schools. But many teachers say their classes are harder to control.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2019/08/15/pinellas-schools-are-disciplining-far-fewer-students-is-that-a-good-thing/
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“Moore said many educators she mentors have told her the drop in referrals doesn’t mean that students are suddenly behaving better.”
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Lots of people think a lot of crazy things. This is yet another exercise in performative signaling while everyone knows it’s accomplishing nothing. Very few people who value their career will stand up and say “this is crazy!”. So in my county testing students is bad, and disciplining bad behavior is bad. What could go wrong?
Nice camera work and editing in the video, BTW. I shall allow those of better merit judge the dancing but it looks good to me.
My father started dancing twice a week at a dance gathering after my mother passed away and he was in his early 80s. He did this until he was ninety. I think what stopped him was his passing out on the dance floor one night. They said his long underwear was soaking wet.
I would see him dancing at social gatherings where my wife and siblings attended. He would relay dance with my wife and sisters. I would also see him asking young nice looking ladies to dance and never saw him turned down. One time I asked him if perhaps he was taking advantage of those young ladies kindness towards an elderly gentleman. As I recall his answer was something like “you should be so lucky”.
Tom Scharf (Comment #197084)
January 18th, 2021 at 11:26 am
My daughter-in-law teaches junior high and her complaint with her school that might make her teach in high school or choose another line of work is that instead of addressing discipline problems and other troubling issues generally is that the administration answer is to compliment everyone and then move on without really addressing the issue.
I have experienced somewhat the same situation with my grandson and of whom I am his guardian. The school and support groups spend a lot (too much) of time complimenting everyone in exaggerated terms instead of getting into root causes of problems.
I dealt with a support group that had a couple of young ladies who were very articulate and bright. We were exchanging emails and having telephone conversations about my grandson’s behavior and what his school and residence could do about it. They had some good ideas but conversations were laced with so many exaggerated compliments that I felt that discussions of results were not being covered sufficiently. I finally had to go into a very impersonal business mode in order to get some issues laid on the table that I felt were being ignored. One gal appeared to take exception.
It was an IL state funded support group that I was attempting to show had not documented the improvements that they had in very glowing language said had occurred. They more or less finally just bowed out of the picture – glowing language notwithstanding.
Kenneth,
https://www.rosemond.com/
My local newspaper prints his column weekly. He makes a lot of sense to me.
Iegor shot the video and edited. The final product benefits both from potentially cutting out flubs but also allowed use to refilm a lot of moves with more desirable camera angles. Waltz goes around the room and you usually choreograph a routine to look good to people seated at tables around the floor. But owing to the need to put up the curtain and place the lights, our floor was small and Iegor often couldnt stand “outside”. Even with editing, some moves aren’t seen from the “best” angle but overall, you see a lot more of the routine from the “best’ angle than if Iegor had just stood flat against one wall and done everything in one shot.
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I was pleased with how I did. Obviously, I’m no where close to “world champ”, but my movement is ok. My posture and frame are much better than a year ago. So.. lots of progress!
Kenneth
Honestly, there tends to be too few leads at most gatherings. So if he danced well enough, the young ladies were probably eager to dance with him!
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When I danced at “Desarge Danceworld” we would sometimes go to bars where bands were playing. One or two of the ladies actual complained that I “hogged” Jim. (Yes… out loud!!) Jim did not feel I “hogged” him. In fact a few of those ladies he felt were not fun to dance with. (Perfectly nice… but some women won’t move themselves. Jim doesn’t like to haul them around.)
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Men who can dance at all tend to be in demand.
Kenneth Fritsch (Comment #197088)
“My father started dancing twice a week at a dance gathering after my mother passed away and he was in his early 80s. He did this until he was ninety.”
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Dancing is supposed to reduce the risk of developing dementia. Other physical activities such as walking and swimming might also reduce that risk as well as being good for health in other ways. But there’s also the risk of injury from some activities (tennis, for example).
>The whole discipline thing is insane because to eliminate disparity in discipline pretty much requires less discipline overall.
Raising the level at which discipline is applied should lead to more disparity. Instead I think they are treating whites harsher to balance the numbers, though overall discipline is down. At this meeting one white parent complained that his kid was suspended and they didn’t get a chance to appeal.
A bunch of non-black kids got detention for running in the halls. My son only missed because he was slower than the rest and wasn’t seen.
In practice what I have seen is that they are giving rewards to kids for good behavior, and rewarding themselves for lowering the amount of class time lost. It is called PBIS.
Well, it’s an open thread… Remember Deflategate? This story just appeared in my feed:
I’m not going to pay to rent or buy it, but it’s good to see that viewpoint finally expressed. I hope it’s convincing to the majority of fans. I doubt that any consequences will come of it either way, though.
HaroldW,
Stephen McIntyre of climateaudit said the same thing in 2016, but few people paid attention.
https://climateaudit.org/2016/06/07/deflategate-controversy-is-due-to-scientist-error/
As one commenter to this article states:
Insanity.