Update: Loran got it from The Midvale Cottage Post (specifically this post, but check out all the amazing 1920s stuff at that first link); I thought I had the original source can't believe I didn't click through. The pattern is from Ruth Wyeth Spears.
It's not a terribly useful dress, but it's oh so pretty. Chiffon. Floaty. I kept thinking this dress was familiar from somewhere...
After a too-long absence, I'm taking tap classes again. My history with tap has been spotty; despite a life-long love of the dance, I only took my first tap class in grad school. And then... my teachers kept leaving for other opportunities. And I'm really happy for them, I am, it's just that it's made for somewhat spotty instruction with gaps of several years between sessions. I've been stuck at advanced beginner or beginner intermediate for a very long time, and my goal has to get good enough to take classes at Shawn Byfield. Yay for Bees Knees for starting up lessons again. But fair warning, Kris, I might have to tie you down. Or something that won't impede the dancing. I'll have to think on that.
Anyway, you're not here to read me dither on about cramp rolls and time steps; you want to know about the biking stuff.
The temperature is still veering on spring-like, although I needed my gloves on the way over and added my earband on the way home. For the first time in forever*, the bike lanes are mostly clear. I say mostly because, while they aren't covered with snow, there is still a lot of debris -- huge pebbles, probably from road deterioration, and small branches and so forth. Oh, and cars. Naturally. The thaw isn't extending to the curbsicles, and cars are still parking a foot or two from the curb. Yay.
You may be wondering how I'm doing on that 9 in 6 sewing challenge. The answer is, er, not so well. I am terrifically behind. I've finished one thing, at least: the Bombshell swimsuit. So I will pay penance by posting a picture of me in my swimsuit on the internet.
Heather Lou from Closet Case Files had a sewalong in June, but despite my having bought the pattern mere minutes after it went live, I didn't get around to buying fabric until late July. At which point it sat for a bit, despite all my planning. I really wanted to take the suit to Lindystock, though, so I finally got off my duff and sewed it up last week. And here we go:
Two of my Errandonnée trips in February were to dance rehearsal, and you may have been wondering what I was rehearsing for. Like I did two years ago, I was taking a swing dance choreography class, and we performed at the Bees Knees Swing Goes to the Movies show in April. The videos have just been posted, and I thought I'd preen share them with you.
I wound up being in three numbers. The first was the opening number, choreographed by Mandi Gould and set to one of my absolute favourite songs, Get Happy. I'm aways in the back, in the red snood*.
The second number was Juke Box Joe's, choreographed by Rachel Sparacio-Foster (the lady in the blue dress).
It's based off a 1944 soundie (which is one of those musical shorts they used to show before and between movies) by the same name. I was the girl with the really intense wink.
The final number of the show was Lullaby of Broadway, choreographed by Mandi again. Tonnes of fun in this one.
(That's me in the red dress, dancing with a sailor. Typical me.)
If you want to see the rest of the numbers, check out the playlist. I'd tell you which ones are my favourites, but then I would just end up naming them all.
*Hair snood, not neck snood. I didn't even know neck snoods were a thing, but apparently they are.
The 25th Beaches International Jazz Streetfest (aka Jazz Fest to most) is a bit of a misnomer. Most of the acts on the street aren't jazz at all, but despite that it's still one of my favourite street festivals of the summer.
Not the right era, but whenever I think speakeasy I think of this song. Plus: Ella. 'Nuff said.
Why would I be thinking of those dens of iniquity, you ask? Bees Knees Dance hosted a 1920s rent party/Speakeasy Friday night. I got off my duff long enough to make an overdress out of some of really lovely grey-green stretchy net embroidered in dark silver from the sari store in Little India in May. The construction was very simple: I used the Sorbetto pattern as a base, eliminating the front pleat and bust darts (yay!), making it a v-neck, and lengthening it to below-the-knee length. I also made the back neckline more square-shaped. The bottom embroidery ends in some delicate scallops, which meant no hemming when I trimmed the rest of the fabric away. I had just enough leftover embroidery to trim the neckline, although I had to use different rows for the front and back. The only hemming I had to do was at the armholes, where I used my rolled hem foot more to make it look finished than anything else.
I didn't have enough time to make the underdress out of the green satin I bought at the same time (because I took a nap instead of sewing), so I wore a definitely-not-period grey dress underneath. I made a sash and head wrap out of the green fabric, and I'm fairly pleased with how the whole thing turned out. I'll get around to making the green underdress in a week or two and take some better pictures.
My usual response to stress is to sleep. So I've been sleeping. I nearly overnapped tonight and had to hustle to make it to my rehearsal at the Bees Knees on time. Which I wasn't, but only by about 5 minutes. I'm so happy I decided to do the choreography class again this year, not least because it helps me take my mind off Things for a while.
It seems we are in a thaw-freeze cycle these days. Yesterday was quite warm (for winter). Today was really, really cold. Windchill close to absolute zero. I tried out my new handmade handwarmers, and they are quite good. I couldn't reheat them after rehearsal (no microwave) and I really noticed the difference on the way home.
The melt-freeze means that Queen's Park has turned into an ice rink. It's very pretty. Fortunately, the paths are mostly clear, except for one frankly scary corner right near the Harbord/QPC crosswalk.
This was also my second official night ride. Same lighting system as always, but what I really notice is how long pedestrians (and cyclists) are expected to wait at signalled intersections at night even when there are no oncoming cars. Crossing from St. Joseph to Queen's Park took over 4 minutes. I'm almost irritated enough to think of writing to the city councillor.
Errandonée tally
Personal care: Rehearsal (9.4 km/5.8 mi)
I was going to start my Errandonnée challenge on Saturday, but a wee snow fall left the roads a little unfriendly. Yesterday, however, it was on.
It was my birthday. A new prime number was reached, and I started the day with this:
It's not pancakes, but raspberry/marscapone-stuffed french toast. A lot of yum. And lovely jewellery. Someone knows me well. After breakfast, we went off on foot to buy a new shower curtain rod because the old tension rod had fallen down for the last time, and because I really know how to party.
Then it was time to begin the Errandonnée in earnest. After a couple of years' absence from the choreographed side of lindy hop, I'm performing in a few numbers in the April 6th show. So off I went to rehearsal.
Utilitaire-12 task #2: Bike to a concert = Combo Royale at the Imperial.
I first heard Combo Royale because my friend M is friends with the guitarist. I thought at the time that their bluegrass/swing/ska selves would be really good to swing dance to. The singers are terrific. The horns are jazzy. In lieu of a drummer, they have a tap-dancing lady. What more could you want? Apparently my thoughts have power, because they've started showing up more and more at swing dances and cabarets and so forth.
Case in point: the adorable couple C & S were celebrating their combined 70th birthday at the monthly Imperial Swing & Blues night, and Combo Royale were playing! I was already planning on making the Imperial the second day of my birthday nonad, but this made it even better.
And then I nearly didn't go. I was futzing about, doing some marking and planning for the week, when I realized it was nearly 10 pm and I was still at home. On an ordinary evening, I would have said "Oh well; what's on Mystery?" but I was determined to not let the nonad down.
Due to the warmish winter we've been having, it was a nice night for biking. Sunday nights the traffic is not as horrible; even the traffic horror that is Dundas near Spadina seemed like a piece of cake. I was making great time, even cycling easily in 7th gear. That should have been a clue that I was being helped along, but all I thought on my way over was that I was really in the cycling zone. Of course, when I was ready to come home, the wind was no longer at my back and it was third gear kind of ride all the way home. I was a wee bit tired when I finally got home.
But that's for later. I arrived during the first band break, but they played two more sets and were excellent as always. Someone brought a pinata for C & S. There aren't enough pinatas in my social life.
Unfortunately all the pictures I took of the evening are lost due to a faulty SD card, so my photographic evidence is not a picture of the band but a picture of the pinata, with me taking pictures in the background, as shown by the arrow.
Photo credit: Dean Villafuerte. The arrow is mine.
Updated: Dean found a picture of me and the band! Sweet!
Photo credit: Dean Villafuerte.
Mileage: from my apartment to Dundas & Yonge and back: 9.3 km/5.8 miles.
This ride is counting as one of my night entries. My lighting system should consist of a Planet Bike Beamer headlight, but many months ago I put it In A Safe Place and naturally I can't find it. I'm using a MEC Turbo Turtle white LED for the front light. It's bright enough to be noticed by oncoming traffic, but I really need to find the other light, which has more oomph. My rear light is a Planet Bike Superflash which I have mounted on the Opus's rear rack. It has plenty of oomph. I cannot be a ninja cyclist with that thing. I like that I can remove the lights in dicier neighbourhoods. Not that Yonge & Dundas is that dicey, but let's say the people in the area are possibly more inebriated and therefore more prone to "liberating" things off bikes.
In my quest to learn a new song on the uke/guitar/kalimba every month (which isn't going that well, to be honest)I have made a middle-sized leap by learning all the popular songs. At once.
The thing is, a lot of songs use the I-V-vi-VI chord progression, so once you know that, you know a large number of songs.
Don't believe me?
Allow the Axis of Awesome to demonstrate:
Upon linking to that video, I see they have an official video, now with even more four-chord songs!
These are not the only songs to get into the act. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain demonstrate -- they did "Fly Me Off the Handel" as the encore at Convocation Hall ("Turns out, you can't get out that way...") last fall. While wondering what song they would do next, they all offered suggestions for Frank Sinatra, 70s disco, 70's rock. George decided they would do Handel. This is the result.
And finally, I leave you with the Pachelbel Rant by Rob Paravonian. I also hate the Pachelbel Canon in D, and for the same reason.
I finally made it out to the Corktown Uke Jam again last night. Manitoba Hal gave a blues workshop and then knocked my socks off with with gems like this. I can now shuffle. Just not like this.
I've been shamefully neglecting my guitar for the ukulele. Due to its portability and the fact that it doesn't seem to matter if I don't sound awesome (and due to the fact that this happened the last time I took my guitar to school), I've been playing uke almost exclusively at "performances": Teacher Talent show, Coffee Haus, Lindystock. At Eric's cottage, I played his mother's ukulele and promptly became dissatisfied with my cheepo green Mahalo. It didn't sound mellow and lovely. I figured the time had finally come to upgrade.
Last night, my choreography class from Bees' Knees Dance performed at Dovercourt House. It was fun and I didn't mess up too much. I'm sick though, so I had to spend rather too much of today recovering.
Video credit: Bees' Knees Dance
As fun as it was, I've decided not to continue with the class for the next round. I've had to not do a bunch of stuff that happens on Wednesdays because as it turns out? It's a school night and I seem to have energy for only one extracurricular activity. I'd like to start attending the Corktown Uke Jam more regularly -- although that might lead to dissatisfaction with my pretty green uke.
I've been swing dancing, and specifically lindy hopping, for just over a decade. I went out regularly when I was in grad school, but then I got a real job and suddenly felt all kinds of guilty not spending all my time marking or planning exciting things for my students to do. After a while, I just got out of the habit of going out.
Part of my problem was that after the regular Wednesday nights at Barcode stopped, the scene sort of fractured. We tried to find a new "regular" night -- you can dance pretty much every night of the week in Toronto, but Wednesday was the night you could definitely expect to see more than a few people you knew. For the past few years when I have gone out, I didn't know if my lindy friends would be there. I didn't really know that many people anymore, "and nobody can ever be introduced in a ball-room."
Anyway, last year I didn't have any of that guilt hanging over me, and I went out a lot more. My natural shyness wore off as I started to see some "new" people more often, and I had old friends to introduce me. I didn't want to fall back into old, hermit-like habits when I went back to work this year, so I signed up for a choreography class with Bees' Knees Dance. It's been kicking my butt for the past few months.
All that build-up to say that we performed our first routine at Swing Out to Victory in Hamilton last Saturday. It was a lot of fun. I even attempted a victory roll.
This time last year, all I had ready for my Hallowe'en costume was an un-hemmed, un-beribboned body and one sleeve. I was disappointed.
This year, however, the dress made its debut. It was a huge hit at school, despite the fact I only got to wear it for half a day due to an early closing. The back is challenging to do up by myself; fortunately I did have a tire-woman after all, in the shape of a girl sitting outside the bathroom who offered to tighten my laces for me. After a few hours of fielding the "who are you supposed to be?" question (can't I just be a chick in a medieval dress?), I started answering Christine de Pizan as being a sufficiently obscure response to stop them asking.
After a too-long absence, I'm taking tap classes again. My history with tap has been spotty; despite a life-long love of the dance, I only took my first tap class in grad school. And then... my teachers kept leaving for other opportunities. And I'm really happy for them, I am, it's just that it's made for somewhat spotty instruction with gaps of several years between sessions. I've been stuck at advanced beginner or beginner intermediate for a very long time, and my goal has to get good enough to take classes at Shawn Byfield. Yay for Bees Knees for starting up lessons again. But fair warning, Kris, I might have to tie you down. Or something that won't impede the dancing. I'll have to think on that.
