inmyriadbits | Entries tagged with swing

EXCITING HAPPENINGS OF THE PAST THREE WEEKS:

Okay, so that's misleading. But here's what I've been watching, fannishly speaking:

1. Seasons 2, 3, and 4 of Ugly Betty
2. The delicious mindfuck of Inception
3. Trying to hook my family on Mad Men
4. Banlieue 13 (aka District B13) and its sequel!
5. BBC's Sherlock miniseries

Thoughts (no spoilers, just cut for length/interest):

- Ugly Betty, ( I don't know why I ever quit you! )

- Oh, Inception. How so brilliant?

- Mad Men + martinis + live swing music last Monday = Lindsey is a very happy, thematically appropriate camper. ( swing dancing and adorable old people, yay! )

- Sherlock is a completely awesome modern adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. I didn't think you could translate them quite so well out of the Victoriana, but it turns out you CAN, and this Watson and Holmes are ( most excellent. )

- Last but not least, those of you who have never seen or heard of Banlieue 13 or its sequel, you really don't know what you're missing. I was idly looking for something to watch when I read

etben's recent pimp post, and I am SO GLAD THAT I DID. The premise is a bit silly/contrived, and the plots are all kinds of ridiculous, but they're terribly fun anyway, and the two main characters are awesome and hit a lot of my personal buttons.

One of them, Leïto, is played by David Belle, one of the founders of parkour, who did his own stunts. He's one of those athletic, graceful people who are sheer fascinating joy to see in motion on film – like Douglas Fairbanks or Bruce Lee or Fred Astaire. I think it's beautiful, in a very unironic way. Watch even the first thirty seconds of this video, tell me you're not impressed, and I will eat ALL of my hats. Honestly. The man makes things like "climbing into the front seat of a van" into effortlessly beautiful spectacles of grace and hotness, okay; the movie is worth watching just for that.

But it's not all that's worth watching for! Leïto is ( sort of like a French, dystopian-future Aladdin. ) Leïto also appears to be highly allergic to shirts. This is a-okay with me, since David Belle has a fantastic body (see: everything he can do in previously-linked video, hell-o NURSE is he fit):

( shirtless pictures ahoy! you know you wanna )

Instead of a spirited young Arabian princess, B13 gives Leïto some insanely good buddy-cop slashiness with Damien, our other protagonist. He's an incorruptible, highly competent Parisian cop who Believes In The Law and Helps The Citizenry and Is Very Earnest and Unironically Quotes The National Motto of France. Bless him. Damien ( goes undercover a lot and is totally badass ). And then he meets Leïto, and they are even more fun together than they are separately, with the banter and the mocking and the intense sociopolitical arguments with their faces held inches apart and the joint ass-kicking. They're both smart and capable and quick on their feet, and that makes for a great time.

So what I'm saying is, you should all see these movies! There's awesome fight sequences! Parkour through Paris! Manly eye candy! Dystopian future setting! Idealism! Buddy-cop-like saving of the day! Breaking people out of prison! Handcuffing each other to things! Hugging! Fighting back-to-back! Crossdressing! (no, really)

Seriously, just watch them. The first is on Netflix instant viewing, if you have it (and I'm willing to lend out my account if you don't, plus *cough* help you find the second if you like).

*cough* Okay, enough of that. /pimp

I celebrated Leap Day by going swing dancing.

This was the first time I've been dancing in at least a year, maybe two even. I started swing the summer after my sophomore year of high school (summer of '03, five years ago), and I've loved it from the very beginning, when I showed up at the Fed with Angie with no experience partner dancing, no idea what the basic step was, and totally inappropriate shoes (I ended up barefoot by the end of the night). Angie and Hedda taught me the basics of jitterbug right there in the ballroom, standing off to one side, and then pushed me off to sink or swim. I still remember my first dance, with a lovely older gentleman named Larry who I still see around sometimes, and I always make sure to dance with him.

And that was it, I was hooked. I love dancing in general -- over the years, I've learned the following: ballet, jazz, modern, various basics in ballroom (cha-cha, tango, waltz, foxtrot, and, uh, polka?), salsa, two-step (yeehaw, Broken Spoke), belly-dancing, and of course swing (which is an umbrella term that covers jitterbug/East Coast, lindy hop, balboa, and West Coast Swing). I'm sure I'm forgetting something. This doesn't include clubbing-type dancing, although I love that, too, when I can manage to do it in a club without someone's crotch attaching itself to my ass (rare!).

Anyway, I love swing best. Partner dances, especially things like the waltz or the tango, are so often romanticized -- you're "in tune" with your partner, moving together as one, blah blah blah go read a romance novel love scene for some similar phrases. To me, that's not right. It's beautiful, sure, but who the heck can achieve that off the dance floor -- aside from telepaths -- even in a friendly or platonic sense (and I say that as an identical twin who frequently gets the "so, do you do that twin thing, where you know what the other is thinking?" question)? In swing, there's something about the movement, together and apart, swing out and in, rock back and step forward, that appeals to me. The connection feels more natural than the waltz, more interesting than other more informal dances. It's dynamic, it's open to innovation, it's complementary without losing individuality. It's just plain fun.

I'd forgotten how much I loved it. It makes me a little angry that being depressed kept me from dancing as much over the past couple of years. But I danced nearly every dance tonight, to a really great live band, and had a blast. I'm glad of that.

FYI, most people think of swing as something like this scene from Hellzapoppin', which is amazing display of talent, don't get me wrong (Frankie Manning FTW!). But aerial moves like that on a ballroom floor stuffed with hundreds of people? Someone's gonna lose an eye. You get aerial moves more in performances. Social dancing like what I do is more like the first part of this, or like this.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

there will be a fish

señorita bits

fannish rundown; we be pimpin

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing

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October 2017

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