Dee Jay

Some Context for the CAKEWALK

This footage is fairly recent (early 1900s) as opposed to the story recalled by a dancer from the 1840s:

"Us slaves watched the white folks' parties," she added, "where the guests danced a minuet and then paraded in a grand march, with the ladies and gentlemen going different ways and then meeting again, arm in arm, and marching down the center together. Then we'd do it, too, but we used to mock 'em, every step. Sometimes the white folks noticed it, but they seemed to like it; I guess they thought we couldn't dance any better." After a while she was taken from one plantation to another and entered in dancing contests with other slaves, while her owner wagered on the outcome with other owners. "I won a lot of times. Missy gave me a dress and my partner a suit." (Marshall and Jean Stearns, Jazz Dance, recounting a story that Leigh Whipper told about his old nurse).

BY LEASE

I just returned home to Edinburgh after a busy week checking out SIN CRU's 10th anniversary hip hop week in Cambridge and the UK's Battle of the Year final in London. (The photo above is from the train ride from Cambridge to London with Sin Cru, Ken Swift, Mr. Loose, the Flying Jalapenos, as well as some other international guests).

In between chapter writing, I've been reading about disco clubs from the 1970s. And now, I'm longing for a return to disco's platform shoes, which would actually be better for my legs than sneakers right now because of the tension in my arches and heels. Damn....

Also, one of my favorite Toronto artists and favorites all around actually now has a new blog. Check out: BY LEASE FOR LEASE here. This woman is mad talented.

C. de la B. - coming to Glasgow in May

My favorite dance company, C. de la B., is perfoming in Glasgow on May 8th and May 9th. See details about buying tickets here.

Way of the B-Boy.... Be It...

Research from Reggaeton to Gigue: My favorite writers doing their thing...

A new book out about Reggaeton by some of my favorite writers on hip hop culture.

And a news story about research by one of my favorite fellow graduate students at Edinburgh University:

The old analogue world (and an Edison advertisement for your pleasure)

It was a Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood, that recommended a book called "The Gift" by Lewis Hyde to a UK publisher. I acquired a copy of this book as a gift sent to me in the UK from Canada. Sickness (just your average cold but my special Syndrome thinks otherwise) has left me reeling this passed week. And it's just the moment I need to stop and do a bit of leisure reading. To be honest, I don't know what to make of the Gift yet because I'm not done. This book feels like it needs to come together in the finale. Those types of build ups are in effect the arguments I love, the ones that require time, thought and patience -- never a fan of quick judgment which is perhaps my curse considering how many markets and behaviors are built on hastily made choices about art and life. Actually people can't stand how long it takes me to come to a judgment about something.

Having said that, I'm mulling over thinking in progress and reading in progress. Now creativity in progress rears its unlicensed head. The question is commerce. The item is art. Finished art. Sellable art. And the old analogue world is being revisited with the mournful eyes of capitalism. So today it made sense to link my reading in progress (the unfinished act of appreciating art works in the midst of 'in progress') with the works of progress and creative copyright. Here's a document from the British government on this new fangled world of free art and lowly civilians who want it all. Now. For free. Digital Britain. If that even is your real name.

I can only make links, judgment must come later. More research. More thinking. More reading. Doesn't mean that I don't have values, it's just that mine don't make good captions on t-shirts -- too long, too pronounced, too foreign.

Library of Congress and Youtube

Just as music videos are being pulled from youtube in the UK (this is a mistake unfortunately), the Library of Congress is making available archival footage on youtube. See the story here.

Check out a Library of Congress performance by Stevie Wonder here. About 35 minutes in, Wonder talks about his love for the radio and how he used to make fun of opera singers. The inversion is wonderful. He talks about being from the ghetto in Detroit and a woman who lived nearby him listened to opera and would be told to turn down the racket, "that ain't B.B. King!"