Tag: The Blogging Life

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W H O A

I am a little weirded out right now on a few different levels. Okay, for one thing, I loved Paulina and am very disappointed she’s off (Dancing With the Stars of course — I’ll get to the relevance of the above pic in a minute). I was too busy to blog last night but if I would have I would have said how much I enjoy watching her dance because, ridiculous as it sounds since she is (or was anyway) a huge supermodel, I totally identified with her. Latin is so unbelievably hard if you weren’t raised with it. It’s so hard to get the Cuban motion just right, and, in order to make up for initially being unable to connect your back muscles to your abdominals and those to your hips, you tend to just bounce about, in Paulina’s case, or wiggle your butt and shake your shoulders, in Heather’s. And cute as it is, it’s just that — cute, which Latin shouldn’t be! But it’s still a lot of fun! And cute is … cute! It’s also nice, as a student anyway, to be able to identify with someone else’s limitations and their struggle to overcome them. And now she won’t have a chance. And I’m not sure why she was booted since she definitely was far from the worst and her personality was so sweet. She was so warm and funny and entertaining, and even humorously self-deprecating, which, as Jolene I think it was, pointed out in her comment in my post from last week, is such an unexpected surprise in a supermodel! She certainly had a better personality than some of the others. Oh well, at least Heather’s still in. Some of my co-workers today were expressing their dislike of her. I heard the word “golddigger” a couple times. I have to confess I don’t keep up with the gossip mags, so I know she was once married to Paul McCartney but don’t know much else. Anyway, I like her personality as revealed on the show. I think my favorite overall right now is Laila. I also like Joey.

Anyway, reason number two that I’m disappointed is that, with six hours now under its belt, we can see where the show’s going to go this season. They pumped tonight as showcasing great professional talent, and, I’m sorry, but who was that? It was just all the pros already on the show. Where are Joanna Leunis and Michael Malitowski? Where are Bryan Watson and Carmen? Even bring Van Amstel back and let him dance with Smirnoff for cry eye, but don’t limit it to the pros on the show — they’re not top class (excepting the aforesaid Karina, but, since ballroom takes two, you can’t see what she’s made of unless you see her dance with a great pro partner). (How much do I LOVE, by the way, that there’s a Wikipedia entry on Louis?!) For Standard, we have a top world couple right here in the U.S. Is it that hard to fly Jonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova from NY to LA for one night? The pros on the show are fine for dancing with the celebs but if you’re going to tout the first results / all pro show as showcasing great professional talent, bring in the best.

But what really weirded me out the most about tonight was, after being upset that Paulina was voted off (the first time, I must confess, that I’ve ever been annoyed about anyone on the show getting the boot), I visited the DWTS message board to see if anyone perhaps had a chance to say anything yet. I figured I’d be WAY too early. Wow, was I ever wrong. I logged on at 10:02 — 2 minutes after the show ended and maybe 5 or 6 after Paulina was announced first off. In that time, there were nine threads. The top one, posted less than 60 seconds before I logged on, had already received 1,113 views. THAT’S 1,113 VIEWS IN LESS THAN 60 SECONDS. I’m sorry but when I post a message on the Winger message board I’m lucky if it gets 10 views in a whole day — and that’s the most popular website in existence on ballet. Doug Fox of Great Dance, an extremely popular dance website centered around using internet technology to promote concert dance, recently revealed his stats on his page views and I think he got that many in an entire day on the whole site. I feel like I’m beginning to understand where Terry Teachout’s annoyance is coming from. I had no idea there was this degree of difference between a popular TV show and ballet. I no longer think that the internet is the be-all and end-all right now, the best way to reach out to people and gain new audiences. If the internet is the future I don’t think it’s the present. The present is still the good old fashioned TV. Obviously the internet is a good aid for promoting dance, through the blogs and message boards, but there needs to be more ballet on TV. I don’t know how — commercials maybe? A full-length ballet once in a while like the Met Opera is doing. Except it needs to be on a basic network and during prime time. When I was watching Leeza and Tony do their foxtrot to “Strangers in the Night,” I of course thought of Marcelo 🙂 (okay, AND Baryshnikov!) Tharp’s ballets are so modern, so fun, and so relatable. Certainly the same audience who gets so into ballroom would be into her, right?! Or, Alvin Ailey’s The River or Pas de Duke, or Revelations even — they all contain some elements of Samba and Jive, etc. Anyone who takes any interest in DWTS would simply be blown away by those dancers and choreographies.

Also, reading the show’s message boards made me a bit nauseated. This was hardly Ballet Talk. People were talking on such a low level. Though many were, happily for me, disagreeing with Paulina’s being booted, most were saying things like ‘so and so sucks,’ ‘so and so is horrible,’ ‘no, that’s idiotic, it’s so and so who needs to be put out of his misery’… etc. etc. with nothing more, no specifics about their technique. But maybe viewing the greatest dancers in the world do Tharp’s version of “ballroom” would start to elevate the level of popular discussion of dance, and, hence, better promote it? I dunno, I’m tired and annoyed and just a bit disappointed in ‘my peeps’ right now!!!

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Feeling Better Now…

After hearing from very sweet Kristin Sloan and some others, and having the day to think stuff over, I feel much better about things regarding my last post. Still dismayed that it happened (and it definitely was not in any way, shape or form Kristin’s fault!!), but I guess the lesson I’ve learned is that you have to not let people instigate crap and get a rise out of you, both in blogs and in life. So, I’m over it!

Anyway, it was an okay day… but would’ve been better if the weather forecaster was more correct about the weather! It was definitely nowhere near the upper 50s / low 60s, but I went to the park anyway:

Both pics are of Strawberry Fields — -people hot-blooded enough to hang out on the benches, and in some cases, sing and play guitar to each other!

Still too chilly for me to hang out outside for more than about 45 minutes, so came home and immersed myself in brain candy 🙂 Slightly embarrassed to admit I’m reading this, but what better way to try to get over being bummed, right! I bought this book for $1 at my local library’s sale — can’t get a better price on such candy 🙂

And then got the mail and was delighted to see an offer from Theater Development Fund of discount tickets to see the Eifman Ballet at City Center in April! Very excited — I’d wanted to see them, and, with all the money I spend on ballroom leaving me little for any outside leisure spending money, I’m always thrilled about getting a deal 🙂 Thanks TDF!!

Anyway, my friend from the studio, Elaine, and I are planning to go out to costume-maker Valentina’s shop next weekend, so I have to figure out what kind of costume I want for the showcase. Jacob had suggested something strapless and backless (how’s it gonna stay on???) with long gloves. Sounds beautiful but he also said it wouldn’t look completely right without being covered with rhinestones, which I don’t know if I can afford this time around. Ballroom’s getting REALLY expensive — just spent nearly $1000 for 10 lessons!! He said I could always buy them and put them on myself which would be considerably cheaper, but I don’t know if I trust myself to do a good job with such a thing! Anyway, thinking about Rita Hayworth as my role-model, since it’s foxtrot and all, I came up with some ideas:

If there’s mesh covering at the top, it’d stay on… Or:

This kind of top is pretty… As is this:

How cute is she!! I so wanna be her!!

Hmmmm.

Aww….!

Another possibility, although that one may be too expensive. Longer = more money…especially if rhinestones are involved…

Oh, but aren’t they cute!

Something like this is what I really really love — the flowing, layered chiffon skirt, part of which can be gathered and held up with the hand at certain points. Which is really similar to the basic black that Elaine Kudo wore in the original Sinatra Suites:

Dunno if you can really see it, but it’s a basic black leotard with a black chiffon skirt, about knee length, and only a few rhinestones right on the top on the bust. May be perfect for my routine, and perfectly affordable 🙂

By the way, all of the above pictures of Rita Hayworth are taken from this website.

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The Internet Can Be a Very Unsafe Place — Update

I’m really upset about something that happened yesterday on The Winger, a big dance website for anyone who might not know, and just have to talk about it since no one there is. Basically, I got caught up in cross-fire between two contributors, both of whom I like very much. One of them, a young dancer, used a term that I’ve never heard of before and the other told him some of his fans, such as I, would be offended because it was a sexist and racist term and he shouldn’t use it. Since I’d been drawn into the argument, I searched the internet to try to figure out what the term meant. When I realized it was being used, at least these days, to refer to just about anyone, I wrote in saying I wasn’t offended by it but thanking the other contributor for his sensitivity. Another person, who I’ve never seen on The Winger before then got involved attacking the young dancer for being racist and sexist, and eventually, after I defended him, hurling nasty personal insults at me for not being offended and being stupid enough to not know about this term. I can’t believe I actually spent time on this and I’m kind of embarrassed to admit I took time out of my day to even engage in this battle, but I asked some of my youngish co-workers if they’d ever heard the term and no one had. We are public defenders in NYC after all; we have heard a lot. Anyway, the whole thing escalated completely out of control, and in the end, I felt very vulnerable, upset, and even threatened.

I did receive a personal apology from one of the contributors, who brought me into the debate, and I’m very thankful for that. I also received some personal messages of support from one very nice commenter. But I feel like now it is being brushed under the rug and I don’t know exactly what I want, but I feel like more should be said. I realize that dancers, and anyone really — definitely me– can become emotional over something and can be fragile, and get easily upset over something that to no one else may seem to be a big deal. And I know I didn’t have to get involved and definitely felt like there was something more going on between these two contributors than I knew about or could control, but I liked them both a lot and felt the need to say something, especially given that my name was mentioned. In the end I felt like I was somewhat taken advantage of and now the two contributors seem to be trying to make amends with each other, but I am left feeling vulnerable and weakened. I felt like The Winger was a safe place, and now it is not.

I’ve also received some emails through the blog that have upset me, and am trying to deal with it all. Some of my friends have told me they think blogging and commenting on blogs is dangerous, which used to make me laugh. Now I’m seeing their point. I don’t know why I’m writing this exactly, I don’t know exactly what I want other than an assurance that people are sorry and will be more careful not to let things get so out of control. I am still really upset while I’m writing this, but writing it does make me feel a little bit better, and hopefully by the end of the weekend I’ll be a little less bummed. It’s nice weather out (at least in NYC); everyone should enjoy their weekend.

Update: Just wanted to say, as per my post following this one, everything is good now! Thanks, people, for being so nice 🙂 I was going to take this post down, but decided to leave it up and just say, in one commenter’s words, “don’t let other people make their anger your own.” Sometimes if someone who’s not a friend and whom you’ve never met before is attacking you unfairly, it’s best not to respond at all, and if you feel like you need to, you can just say that it wasn’t meant the way they are taking it. Period. It’s just not worth having so many unnecessary battles! Anyway, thanks 🙂

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My Prize From Root Magazine!

So, I just received in the mail my prize from Root Magazine for being a winner in their essay contest for my piece on making an ass of myself in Samba class! I love “Rough Guide,” and it’s perfect for me — covers dance festivals worldwide, and has a whole section, OF COURSE, devoted to Rio’s Carnival! Lists inexpensive hotels, how to get tickets to the parade and what times to go to see the best schools, and how and when to sign up with a Samba school if you wish to dance in the parade (it listed Mangueira as the best, which Cathy had first told me about!) So, now I have NO EXCUSE for not going next year 🙂

The book also lists a bunch of other fabulous world festivals (both dance-related and non-dance), including, New Year’s Hogmanay in Scotland, PETA’s “Running with the Nudes” — as opposed “Running with the Bulls” — in Spain, NY’s very own Halloween parade, and one in particular that caught my eye — the Gay and Lesbian Festival in Sydney — supposedly the largest of its kind in the world and in which participants really know how to “lose their inhibitions,” clothing-wise. Sounds like the perfectly SAFE place for that — and probably ideal for someone like me who freaks over her costume showing a milimeter of cleavage (more about that in a later post…) Hmmm, ideas for more stuff to spend my non-existant monetary funds on…

Here’s a picture from the inside flap — I’m not sure if this is that Sydney festival or something else, but it looks intriguing 🙂

Anyway, it was the perfect prize for me! Thanks again so much, Root!

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Hooray for Mika!!

Mika and Plamen

Oh my gosh, I’ve been so busy trying to get a brief out, uploading photos to my photo page from this past weekend, and having my dance lessons, I haven’t had time yet to blog about my insane, raucous, dance-filled weekend, which I spent literally running back and forth like a crazed nutter between the Roseland Ballroom in midtown, where a small ballroom competition known as the New York Dance Festival was taking place, and Lincoln Center, where the New York City Ballet was having its final performances of the winter season! So, sorry for being so late in getting my pictures of the festival up, but here they are, finally.

I’m very excited because my friend, Mika, won the overall pro/am Latin championships!!! Yay, Mika!

Her teacher is the amazing Plamen Danailov, who, with his pro partner, won first place in the pro Latin division! Half Japanese, half Austrian, and raised in Vienna, where ballroom dancing skills are acquired from a very young age, Mika has been dancing ballroom since she was very small, and it really shows. She is such a beautiful dancer, makes long graceful lines, exhibits such elegance in her demeanor and with her costumes, and has a very strong connection with her partner. Watching her really makes me wish dancing was taken more seriously here in the U.S., so that I would have learned from a young age as well.

Placing second in the pro/am Latin was Tessa, with her teacher, Jacob Jason, below. Tessa has only been dancing ballroom for about two years, but she has a ballet background, and in fact was formerly a dancer with the Joffrey Ballet!

Tessa and Jacob

Watching Tessa was a real treat too. Oh how I wish I would have taken more ballet as a child…

Elaine

Elaine!!! Here is one of my friends from my studio, the lovely and talented, Elaine, dancing with her teacher, Jacob, same as Tessa’s. Jacob had about fifty students dancing, I swear! Above she is doing her fun, ‘foxy foxtrot’ showcase, and below, a charming Waltz routine.

Elaine II

Students can compete either in the general group dances, or perform a solo showcase with their teacher. Elaine opted for the showcase, Mika for the general, and Tessa for both. I think if you do the general group dances, you get more time to dance on the floor, especially if you advance to semi-finals and then finals. With a showcase, you’re only on for about two minutes, but you get the whole floor to yourself, and you get to choose your music, and can do more theatrical things, like lifts. In the general group comp, one foot must always be touching the floor, and you share the ballroom with everyone else in your division.

I took several pictures, so you can click here if you want to look at the whole album. Here are some more of my highlights from Sunday though:

Darina and Bill

Above is another of my friends, Bob, competing in the pro/am with his teacher, Darina, who was wearing just about the sexiest, slinkiest, most gorgeous dress I have ever seen!

darina and bill

Another shot of that dress. And Darina is so beautiful, she can pull it off like no one’s business!

joaquin cortes guy Above is this teacher, whose name I don’t know, but he was very good. He really impressed me, and his student was quite good as well. He reminded me of a young Joaquin Cortes, the famed flamenco dancer.

latin youth Some very cute kids competing in the Latin youth.

Nikolai Ahh! My new Latin crush-object, Nikolai Shpakov! He looked amazing, danced so well and wicked fast with his new partner, who was just lovely. And look at those hot pink shimmies — I so want that costume!!!

Another of Nikolai and THE DRESS!

A competitor in the pro American Smooth Division. Love that arch!

JT

This one’s rather blurry, but it’s the very sweet, always lovely to watch, J.T. Damalas and Tomas Melnicki, who won first place in the pro American Smooth division.

Finally, this pro Latin couple was a lot of fun. I’m not sure who they are, but I think I heard in the introductions that they are from New Jersey. They really knew how to play to a crowd!

So, that was my Sunday. I spent practically all day Saturday with Philip, at the New York City Ballet, watching, amongst other things, Miranda Weese’s last performance with the company before she heads off to Seattle to guest perform with the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Here is an (illegal!) picture I caught of her:

Weese takes a bow

It was so fun, again, to hang out with Philip. He invited me out to dinner with his partner, Wei, and his friend from high school, Deborah. Very nice!

Finally, tonight is the last round of the America’s Ballroom Challenge competition. Since this is not a “real” competition, but is made for TV, I have no idea what to expect. It seems a bit unfair to compare dancers in four completely different dance styles (that’s: American Rhythm, American Smooth, International Latin, and International Standard) with each other, but this show is really promoting ballroom to a larger TV audience, so I am not criticizing one bit! I just don’t know who to predict will win. My favorites are Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kruychkova (last year’s champs), but of course they are my faves since I am a Latin girl! Jonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova (Standard) are the highest-ranked couple in the world of all of the U.S. couples, so they may win. But then Latin seems to be more popular in the U.S., so maybe the Latin couple will win again. Or maybe it’ll be Tony Dovolani and Elena Grinenko, who’ve won audiences over as pro dancers on Dancing With the Stars. Or, maybe it’ll be the underdogs, Ben and Shaleen Ermis in American Smooth. Who knows. We’ll just have to tune in and find out! Check here for local listings, and enjoy!!

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"Oberon" and Janie Taylor at NYCB!

Oberon and me and NYCB

So, I finally got to meet “Oberon” (Philip) at the New York City Ballet! (If I look a little bug-eyed in the above pic, it’s because it was unusually dark in the State Theater and my camera’s built-in flash was going nuts, so I was trying hard not to let it make me blink!) I had a great time hanging out with Philip, and, since he knew half of the Fourth Ring, I got to meet all of his friends as well! I met Philip on The Winger, a website / blog I am continually grateful to for, amongst other reasons, allowing me to hook up with so many fellow ballet-lovers in the city. It makes a big difference watching a ballet with other fans: you hear their interpretations, their thoughts, you find out insightful tidbits about dancers and conductors you didn’t know before — it just makes the ballet-going experience so much more educational and enjoyable.

Janie Taylor on flyer cover

Also, I finally got to see the spectacularly dazzling Janie Taylor! One of the ballets performed was “Afternoon of a Faun” — one of my favorites, which I have only ever seen the American Ballet Theater do. Taylor danced in that one, and she perfectly fit every adjective I have ever heard used to describe her: beautiful, captivating, bewitching, enthralling, stunning… She was absolutely ideal for the female Faun part. I enjoyed Craig Hall as well, although I noticed he did a few things differently than the ABT men have. Although, Philip said he thought that the conductor, who was filling in temporarily for the regular conductor (see, these are the kinds of things you learn by seeing the ballet with a knowledgeable balletomane!) was moving the orchestra a little too fast, so it could just be that Hall just didn’t have time to do things as full-out… HOW pathetic is it that I even know that — that I have the choreography of the male part in that one just about memorized?! Have seen it one too many times in which I have focused a bit too much on a certain Jose Manuel Carreno… 🙂 Anyway, it was such a treat to see Taylor perform for once. She has been out with a calf injury for well over a year now, and I’m told she is still not able to throw herself as energetically into her dancing as she was pre-injury, but hopefully that will change next season, and I will be able to see her much much more!

Also on the bill was “Evenfall,” a new Christopher Wheeldon ballet that just premiered last season. I really so LOVE that ballet — it and Jorma Elo’s “Slice to Sharp” were my favorites from last season’s new ballets. Evenfall is so beautiful — gorgeous purple costumes, breathtaking pas de deux and beautiful ensemble parts, very dramatic music (Bartok)… and I’m sorry but if I may sound shallow for a moment, SETH ORZA IS SO CUTE!!!! He is just perfect for the male lead in that ballet — perfect for the romantic male lead in ANYTHING! Orza is definitely THE hot guy in NYCB 🙂 Okay, I am done being a schoolgirl. But really, he is so gorgeous; and of course he is a very athletically strong dancer to boot, soaring through the air with his muscular legs in those amazing jumps. I’ll go see anything that man is in. This also marked ballerina Miranda Weese’s penultimate performance with the company before she leaves for the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. I’m still new to the NYCB, but I thought she was a lovely dancer and I’m sorry I won’t see more of her.

This is the last weekend of this NYCB season, and I’ll be there, with Oberon!, at the Saturday and Sunday matinees. I’m actually going to have a bit of a crazed dance weekend, because it is also the New York Dance Festival, a nice little local competition held at the Roseland Ballroom here in midtown, and in which several of my amateur friends will be competing. If you want to see a live ballroom competition, do come check it out!

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Extremely Embarrassing Dance Moment!

Baryshnikov and Kudo in Sinatra Suites I

B and K in Sinatra Suites II

I took these crappy pictures from my miniscule-screen, bad-reception TV, which is why they’re so difficult to see, but they’re basically of this step — way more difficult than it looks — from the DVD of Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra Suites. My teacher and I were trying to put something similar into our foxtrot routine. Basically, the guy (in the above case, Baryshnikov) kneels, while the lady (Elaine Kudo) stands facing away from him, then lifts her back left leg in arabesque, and he helps her first to turn herself around toward him, them to propel herself up and over his body, first straddling his shoulder, then doing splits across his back, traveling all the way around him, and landing on her front leg near his right shoulder. Hard to describe, which is why I tried to take the pics. It always amazes me how some of the most difficult-looking shoulder-level or even overhead lifts are actually easier than some of the more simple-looking things. I mean, that may just be from my female amateur perspective: some of the things that are easiest for me may be the hardest for the man. But, I never thought until I tried this one that it would be difficult. It’s hard because you have to make yourself as light as possible so he can kind of glide you along around him, and you also have to help push yourself around without your hands, but using your stomach, thigh, and butt muscles. Well, I kept getting stuck on his shoulder; somehow my crotch would get stuck on his collar bone — very weird sensation– and I couldn’t move myself along any further.

So, he decided to try to help me by using his hands a bit more aggressively. He placed one on the bottom of my left thigh (the front leg). But as I was nearing his shoulder, he moved his hand up a bit and, sorry to be a bit crass, but about three fingers shot straight into my crotch. Kind of FAR too! I mean, he felt EVERYTHING. And I had some serious tugging down to do to my leotard and tights afterward! When I looked at him, he had this shocked expression on his face. “Um, okay, that was a little … intimate … sorry about that,” he laughed nervously. I’m such a goof, I just giggled; didn’t know what else to do. And then once I started laughing, he started too, and then I really couldn’t stop. Thankfully it was near the end of the lesson!

Weird thing is, it seemed that everyone else in the studio knew exactly what happened. There are these adorable little kids who are about to go on the junior Latin competition circuit who take lessons with one of the coaches there and they were on the floor practicing at the time, with their parents looking on. When I looked over at them, they were both staring right at me, with very curious faces. Their poor parents looked bewildered. “Ugh, sorry, it’s not my fault,” I felt like saying to them.

I know these things probably happen often with professionals. And, I’m high-waisted (long legs, short torso), so whenever I get lifted by the waist, the guy inevitably gets a handful of breast. I’m used to that now. But this was a new one. I guess another thing I’ll get used to as well. Partner dancing is very interesting!

Quenia Ribeiro

Anyway, in celebration of Carnaval, which I couldn’t go to this year, I watched my Quenia Ribeiro Samba DVD repeatedly. How come it looks so much easier on the tape???!!! Ugh. Anyway, I have the basic steps just about memorized now. I just have to try them out … ooh, so afraid I’m just going to just be nauseated when I see myself in front of the mirror though…

Oh, also, I was one of the winners of Root Magazine’s essay contest on your most memorable dance moment, for my story of struggling through my first Samba class! Thank you so much, Root! There were five winners in all, which the magazine is publishing throughout the next month. The above link takes you to the first one — a sweet discovery about romantic attraction through Salsa dancing. I’ll post when mine’s up.

Also, Natalia has posted the next dance blog carnival, whose topic is “Looking With a Dancer’s Eye.” Should be fun!

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Hooray, David and Marcelo Tickets Have Arrived!

ABT season ticket envelope

Very happy to receive in the mail today my American Ballet Theater Met season subscription tickets! Well, they haven’t printed the tickets out yet, but they sent me a letter confirming that I got the series I wanted. I had a subscription last year, but when I went to renew it, realized there were different dancers performing on the nights of my old subscription, and some ballets that I wasn’t too keen on seeing, so I called and asked them to change the series to a different night. They told me they would try hard to accommodate me but couldn’t ensure I’d get the same seat on the new night. But, according to the letter, they were able to give me what I wanted — I’m up front to the side near the curtain on my new night, which will include: Othello starring Marcelo (and Julie), Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet (Marcelo and Julie again), and Cinderella with David as the perfect Prince Charming. Only thing is, I just realized I’m supposed to be reading from my novel at the Writers Room reading series at Cornelia Street Cafe the night of Romeo and J, so will have to exchange that one (believe it or not, my novel is more important than Marcelo 🙂 ) … which is okay, so I’ll see a different Romeo — maybe that’s a good ballet for Jose…

Anyway, when I first saw the envelope, I immediately had this weirdly dream-esque thought that ABT management was writing me to say, no, you can’t have your Marcelo tickets; you hold him to too high a standard in his real life… ABT is in Paris / London on tour right now and I saw him going to a strip show in another ABT dancer’s blog and became really kind of disgusted and commented on how I felt, upsetting the very sensitive blogger. I know I may be weirdly old-school / pre-postmodern feminist for my age and all, but I just find any kind of strip show reductive of and demeaning to women — whether it’s burlesque, a Vegas-style thing, or some greasy bar, I just do. And to see a favorite dancer of mine doing something I abhored really made me not want to know very much about him, and wonder how much I want to read that blogger’s blog anymore… (so odd for a gay man to be at a female strip show anyway…). I mean, weirdest thing I think is seeing a celebrity you so admire doing something normally private on the internet. Eh, I’m over it. I still love Marcelo and probably always will, unless I see him killing a small animal or something…

Anyway, apropros of my post about having too many gay friends and not enough romance, and intrigued by my experience at the last LVHRD event (which I, badly, didn’t think to invite her to), my lovely friend, Kathy, in an effort to make good on my promise to go with her to the next LVHRD event, sent me this link. Apparently, the next one is to be some kind of dating thing. Ugh, why!!! Why can’t it be another dance-off or paint-off or fashion or architectural duel — dating stuff, blah!

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A Beautiful New 'Samson'!

Joaquin!

I just received a copy of this week’s New York magazine (which seems to have a pretty interesting cover article about the ‘freedom’ of revealing too much info on the internet). I flipped to the back cover and saw that the newest Samonsite model (at least that I’ve seen) appears to be none other than the superb (not to mention gorgeous) flamenco dancer, Joaquin Cortes! Funny, I’ve never paid much attention to advertising, but put a dancer in your ad…

On another note, how sweet is it to know that, even in big ole huge New York, through talent and hard work you can be recognized by the powers that be!

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Lawyers … And Everyone Else

This Wednesday night, the New York City Bar Association is holding a panel discussion on how to promote your law firm through a blog. Bill Gates, the e-flyer notes, says the value of websites and email distribution is declining, and blogs, with their unique RSS technology, are the future of internet business. To be discussed are such topics as how to implement and market a blog, the ethics of blogging, how lawyers have bettered their reputations through blogging, and the value of RSS feeds and other blogging functions.

I’m uninterested in learning how to promote a law firm through a blog, but am intrigued by the discussion because of my general interest in Long Tail trends, and of course my personal interest in blogging.

This panel discussion happens to be given for CLE (Continuing Legal Education) credits as well. New York attorneys need to earn a total of 24 CLE credit hours every two years, so the Bar Association offers several CLE programs throughout the year and gives its members a discount on them. Being a public interest lawyer, discounted though they may be, I still can’t afford the Assocation’s fee for the credits, so I earn mine either through my job (which gives the classes to its attorneys for free) or a criminal defense organization in NYC that makes them available to government and non-profit lawyers either for free or for a nominal fee.

Anyway, I’ve already earned all of my credits for my upcoming registration, so I’m not interested in attending the program for credit. So I called the Bar Association to make sure it was okay if I attended either for free or for a nominal fee since I did NOT want the CLE credits, and was told that I couldn’t attend unless I paid the full amount for the panel discussion — $195 for members, $305 for non-members. This is a 3-hour-long program. I re-emphasized to the person I spoke to that I did not want any credits, I merely wanted to sit in, and she repeated that I still had to pay the entire fee.

Media Bistro, a professional media arts guild here, and the Women’s National Book Association, an organization promoting women and publishing, have both held similar panel discussions. For theirs, Media Bistro charged $25 for members, $30 for non-members, WNBA’s cost was $0 for members, $10 for nonmembers. I understand charging a slight bit more if you’re going to have panelists who will give you workbooks and very specific step-by-step how-to’s, but the panels I’ve attended there have been just as general as the ones I’ve attended elsewhere (ie: people talking about their own personal experiences and successes). Plus, if you’re actually going to buy the Association’s “materials” there’s a separate charge of at least $100 more. And, they haven’t even mentioned who the panelists are going to be. I don’t understand. Does anything really justify this difference in cost?