Apparently this is my week for weird gendered interactions.

I'm in Stephen King country. Specifically, I'm at Indian Acres Boys' Camp, near Freyburg, Maine. I'm here to help the ever-amazing Susan de Guardiola teach a week of Titanic-era dances at an International Folk Dance camp (the dancers rent the camp from the boys' camp). It's stopped raining ( Read more... )

More reporting from a Toronto High School: It's the 1950s now, so most of the "Baby Bags" have graduated. For context, I have just edited an entire page that lists all the citywide athletic championships that the Boys' athletic teams won.

Oh authors with your casual sexism!

When the old auditorium was converted into the Boys’ Gym, the girls ( Read more... )

For various reasons having to do with the Internet rabbit hole and a discussion of rhythmic arts involving props, thegiantkiller and I have begun a list of entities for whom the wearing of silver trousers are not verboten:

( List )

Wow, you guys. Beethoven kicked my butt tonight. Then Bruckner stomped on my groaning nearly dead form, and now I have no voice. Whose brilliant idea was it to program Beethoven's 9th and Bruckner's Te Deum in one concert? Someone who hated sopranos, that's who!

Seriously, Beethoven, who could not hear the tortured noises the real-live sopranos ( Read more... )

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A fringe benefit of Community Sing is that it's given me another reason to go looking out lyrics for songs, and stumbling across vintage video. Which video I can share with you!

Sister Rosetta Tharpe sings "Down by the Riverside"

Click to view

Mahalia Jackson "Joshua Fit the Battle" (can't embed, sadly. You'll have to click through. It's totally worth it.)

Back at New Year's tormenta observed that as a community, we seem to have one core observance of any occasion: we get together and eat and spend time with each other.

Now, I don't think she was complaining, and I sure don't think that sharing food and company is a bad way to do things, but there are other community and cultural activities that I want to ( Read more... )

Dan Wineman explains why the Flash on your retail website needs to go:

Me: (tries to visit a local restaurant’s website via iPhone)
Restaurant website: I require Flash. Fuck off.
Me: I just want to know how late you’re open.
Website: Nope.
Me: But I’m on my phone. Don’t you have a little “HTML Version” link up in the corner or something?
Website: I’m ( Read more... )

So every few months, I get what I think is a bog-standard grief dream. My dad is alive. The death was a mistake. The funeral? An error.

( Cut for discussions of death and grieving. Because you might have something more cheerful, or at least less morbid, to do today. I won't be hurt if you do! )

I think anyone who works with kids, has kids, deals with neuroatypical kids or grownups, likes Mythbusters, or likes robots (or children who like robots) needs to read
( Read more... )