How Blues Stole my Heart....

Okay, a few years back I discovered the world's coolest book.

The Majic Bus by Douglas Brinkley, is the story of a class that travels across America while studying American literature, history, music and everything in between.  At one point, they traveled into the Mississippi Delta and begin to learn about the music movement classified as "The Delta blues".  I wasn't familiar with any of the mentioned musicians, so I went to the handy-dandy Internet and looked them up. I was hooked!                          Watch out. It's sharp! ------>

Imagine my surprise then, when I got to Provo this year, to discover there was something around called "Blues Dancing".  What is Blues Dancing you ask?  Well, it's a great question.  Let's see if I can provide a few clips to help you folks out here.

The first thing I like to tell people is that this: Is a good example of a kinda faster blues dance.  Normally, Blues is done a lot slower, and it's not choreographed, but this is a good introduction to it.  (It can be a bit faster when it's mixed with a swing beat.)  Also, Zac Effron obviously approves of it, so I've got the entire female population between the ages of 12-30 hooked.

The next thing is too remember what the Blues movement was about: Release.  It was a form of expression, and it still is. When I think about music and dancing as a form of outlet, I always begin to mentally channel The Jets in this dance:

  You can feel all the pent up anger and frustration at the world here, and that's what blues was! (I love knowing the background of things.  HISTORY NERD, right here.)

Blues is a very "free-style" dance.  For all you ballroom dancers, forget that nonsense about "frame" and arms being held higher than your head. Uh-uh. Blues is chhhiiillll. It's all about the music. Close your eyes. let it wash over you.  Follow your lead and lead your follow the way your SOUL tells you to.  This ain't no place for people to tell you what to do, or how to do it. You do it your way or no way. This is our time to be free and easy. Every person you meet will do it differently. Some will do it like this:
 Or this:  or even this:

So.  Blues Dancing.  Got a better idea-ish? It turns out that my roommate is good friends with a BYU (now) Graduate, who started up his own dance venue for, you guessed it, Blues. It's called Blue Tango, and you can check out the website here.

It meets very Thursday from 9-12pm, at the Ozz.  They do lessons from 9:00-9:45, and then you are free to hang out, dance, and just have a good time. You should come check it out! We always welcome new dancers- especially those who don't dance.  If you're human and have a soul, you can feel and understand blues. (I know. I DO NOT dance, but I do, blues.)  It's only 5 dollars, and there are ways to make it cheaper all the time.    (.........aaaannndddd.....END of my shameless plug.  Seriously though. Come. Then you can do a blog on it. :P)

The thing I love about it, is that it still serves a form of expression.  You can physically watch someone who's had a bad day, dance that anger and stress out of their lives and let their bodies unwind.  It's a beautiful moment and so in sync with what it was originally intended for.

So with out further ado, here are a few pictures and videos of Blues dancing!

For a wonderful instruction video from two of Blue Tango's very own, clicky clicky HERE!!

New Year!

Well everyone, it's done! The first week of Fall Semester is over.  I can't believe that it flew by as fast as it did, but I'm so stoked to be back in Provo.  It definately feels like home. :)

I'm taking quite a few classes this semester, and I'm WAY excited for all of them.  I'm taking: D&C, Orientation to Psychology, The History of Psychology, Leisure in Contemporary Society, Career Strategies, and Self-Defense.  Both Psych classes are with Katie C., Lizzie (my roomie) is taking Self-Defense with me - we know how to get some one off of us already!- and I know people from my major in the others.  It was very interesting to me, how many people I know in my major now.  I suppose that means that I am getting old......not sure when that happened exactly, but some where along the lines, it did. *shrug* Oh well.  I'm an upper-classman. It happens. :)

(Me and Lizzie by the end of this class. :P We get to wear Jiu Jitsu gis!)

I also got a new job, but I'll say more about that later.  It's late, and I need to go to bed.  G'night everyone!

The BoomerAang Squad is BACK!!

So the sisters and I have achieved the highest level of geekiness available - The ultimate geek-hood.  We were bored, and somehow came up with the idea to teach ourselves a fire-bending sequence shown on Avatar: The Last Airbender:  The Dancing Dragons, shown in the episode The Masters. (Season 3) You can see the sequence here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5oJAoTmvhA .  I'm pretty sure I was the one who decided it was a good idea to try and copy an animated martial arts sequence, but there you go.  That's what I do for fun. :)  After about 3 hours of watching it over and over again and practicing both with and with out music, Nat, Kris, and I finally got it down.  It was exhausting, but worth it.  (We have videos, but those, I am NOT posting.  It was epic.)

Oh, and did I mention that we also spent about 40 minutes doing make-up?  See if you can figure out who I am!

.........I did say that we exhausted our full geek potential here, didn't I?

The Great Pie Quest

So.  Today began as a fairly ordinary day...woke up at a really, disgustingly late hour, played some Kingdom Hearts II, cleaned up a little bit, went shopping, etc. - Nothing terribly exciting.  Around 7:00 my dad had the T.V on, flipping back and forth between Avatar: The Last Airbender, and (sorry dad, about to destroy your manhood here) iCarly.  Now normally I don't mind iCarly. Spencer is funny and the dialogue is quirky.  I enjoy quirky.  This episode was different however.  It was all about....PIE.

  Pie is not something I crave on a daily basis.  Cookie Dough? Yes.  Brownie Dough? Yes? Cake batter?  Sometimes.  Pie? Not so much.  Apparently though, I'm pregnant without knowing it, because I started craving pie like there was a little pie consuming demon inside of me.  It was horrible.  In a vain attempt to stop the craving before it got out of hand, I switched back to Aang and the BoomerAang Squad.  Two words for you: PIE SHO.  (okay, okay, so it's "Pai", all I could think about was PIE.) 

    

There was no escaping it! PIE was everywhere!!  I had to get my hands on some of that deliciously round concoction, or I was going to DIE.  (which ironically rhymes with pie.)  I decidedly snapped off the T.V., grabbed my keys and thus began what shall go down in history as "The Great Pie Quest".

My search first began at the Frys 5 minutes from my house.  I couldn't stop drooling as I envisioned the lovely pies that would be waiting for me when I reached the bakery section: Apple, Cherry, Lemon Meringue - Rainbow pies!  Pies that took you to a magical land! A pie so awesome that it single handedly brought about world peace. (Yes, I was still going to eat that one.  A pie that good should be eaten.  Who cares about the world. ((I was really craving here...I'm not usually that bad of a person.)) ) Humming, I skipped ecstatically in the store, past the potted plants and the lonely Starbucks stand, past the deli and produce section until....The Bakery. (Try to imagine a choir of Angels and a soft glow coming off of that word.)   I rush to the case that holds individual slices...no luck.  Only cakes.  I rush between tables, looking in vain for something pie-ish.  Nothing.  Distraught, I beg information from a hapless employee who bumbled their way across my path.  Derek (the employee) kindly informs me, whilst extracting my hands from his shirt, that He's "sorry, but we're all out of pies for the day".  Out of pies?!?! How does a store go OUT of pies?!?!

Desperate, I race to my car and fumble my keys into the ignition.  Not to worry.  I'll swing by Wal-Mart and find some pies there.  Breathing deeply, I press play on my mp3 player, and slowly lose a little more sanity as "American Pie" by Don McClean comes on.

(True American Pie perhaps?) --->               

It's about 8:20 as I pull into Wally World's parking lot and I'm not feeling too hot here.  My hands are shaking, and my mouth is resembling a Pavlovian experiment.  I get to the place where the pies SHOULD be, only to find that there are only 3 pies, all of which are apple, and NONE of which look edible.  I drag myself out the door, ready for one last desperate shot at getting some pie inside of me.  By this point, I'm sure the Wal-Mart employees probably thought I was some kind of crazy crack-head cuz I was twitching and muttering to myself about "needing to have some and have some now." I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep this up.

I decided that the last place I was going to look was the closest Safeway, and after that, I was closing up shop.  As I searched through my music for something not pie-related so I could drive without going crazy, I calmly made a mental note that eye twitches at night can do funny things to your depth perception, and that if a another car honked at just the right time it would complete the first line of "Twinkle twinkle little star".  (Apparently, Tucson is not a fan of my driving. Oh well.) I make it to Safeway with no major incidences, pull through for a parking space and race to the doors, only to suddenly find myself flat on my face, with my foot hurting like the dickens.  APPARENTLY, someone decided it was good idea to put those concrete barriers on every other parking space, instead of every single one.  I was foolish enough not to see the brilliance of this design, and so did not assume that there would be a concrete barrier sitting where it was, deviously waiting to foil my pie-eating plans. Of course the cart boy couldn't help a good chuckle at that, as I examined the enormous contusion that now existed on my foot. 

Limping, I made my way to...PIES!! Real, honest-to-goodness, pies!! (No individual slices though...a major oversight, I feel.)  I hurriedly grabbed a beautiful chocolate silk pie and hobbled to the one open cashier, worried that if I didn't pay for it as soon as humanly possible, it would disappear on me.

Pulling into my driveway, I felt an immense sense of relief.  I had made it home, and I had a pie.  Yes it took me almost a full hour, but I had done it.  Bliss, sweet bliss. I scurried inside, clutching the bag tightly.  Piepiepiepiepiepie! I gingerly put it on the counter and pulled back the plastic and....realized the cashier had put it in sideways and had made a mess. *head bang on counter*  Oh well.  Pie smooshed tastes just as good as pie unsmooshed.

(Of course after this whole debacle occurred, was it pointed out to me that if I were just getting a pie that wasn't a fresh fruit one, I could've spared the trouble, and gotten a frozen one that cost less.  ....I hate my life.)