Move Starting

 “Many Social Dancers believe that dance is the art closest to nature, and because it involves socializing it is closer to real life.”

2023 and more people are getting back into dancing. Many going back to strict disciplines of International and American Styles. However the American Style on Oahu in the smaller clubs has been morphing into Social Dancing.  The DJs will sometimes play, Bachata, Salsa, Hustle and Two Step, none of which are syllabi of either of the disciplines. But Social dancers seem to accept the difference and it has been easier than in the bigger groups. By the end of the year we should have something pretty nice in all the Islands.

 

 "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Izzy

 

 

  "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by Jake Shimabukuro

 

The Never Trump field is evolving into in several different groups and getting bigger every day. The big fear among the donors and other party players is that, like in 2016, a number of challengers to Trump will jump into the primary and linger too long, splitting the field and allowing Trump to win. So at this time, top Republicans are meeting with potential candidates and telling them that if they want to run, they should by all means do so — but that they should also be prepared to drop out well before voting begins in order to make sure that the GOP puts their best candidate forward against Biden.

 

 "Blogger's Law #19D: Teamwork is essential. It allows you to blame someone else."

Test Three

Social Dancing on Oahu creates our social life and it quite evident in social media the different places available for the enjoyment of socializing and the dance. It also allow us the opportunity to make new friends. It is not the same as International Ballroom Dancing which relies heavily on the exhibition and competition styles of the Dance. Being socially engaged on Oahu leads to increased happiness, reduced stress and a stronger immune system. More than an opportunity to meet new people, our social dancing has few cultural barriers.

"Tiny Bubbles" by Don Ho

Socialism: is a scare word that has been hurled at every advance people have made in the last 90 years. Socialism is what they called Public Power, Social Security, Medicare. Socialism is what they called Farm Price Supports, bank deposit insurance and the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. For some reason or another it does not benefit Billionaires.

 

Test Two

Looking over the Island of Oahu, "our kuleana," I find Dancing Web and Blog sites from all over. Not as many as before Covid19 but they are perking up. There are still dance blogs and social media enabling hundreds of dancers to express their opinions with a reduced political risk simply because of the sheer number of like-minded opinions online. Facing these independent voices, the old clique machines were crumbling. Many of our reader/dancers have friends and/or relatives that are witnessing a new birth of reading freedom.

"Maui Waltz" by Loyal Garner

President Biden took to the House Chamber for his annual State of the Union address. His message was one of unadulterated optimism, even in the face of open hostility from the Trumpanzees. The spectacle of Biden smiling and offering a pointed riposte through multiple rounds of heckling from some House Republicans was, in many ways, an apt illustration of his presidency and a useful preview of his likely 2024 candidacy. Biden showed class, the Republicans came out like Trash.

Testing

There are new people coming into our dance world every day and  we have accepted them quite naturally as social dancers. Definitely not the "Elite." A nice quote from the Big Island that expresses it nicely

"I became more curious than usual after I saw a dance film that impressed me. Then I tried many times to dance with some help on a Night Club dance floor. I have never been a drunk but with just a few drinks, I have found it a joy to dance with the right partner. It has given me the kind of joy I could never experience in other sports or activities. I am now taking classes in a social dance club."

Hawaiian Wedding Song by Andy Williams

Trumpanzees are getting stricter in personal control of their followers. And it all probably comes from a desire of their followers to return to the "safe" authoritarianism of their childhoods. When their decisions were made by authority figures such as their parents, who provided them with a safe and secure environment and catered for all their needs. Yeah, man, Trump will do all your thinking for you.

The New Setup

Seventy years ago, ballroom dancing in Hawaii was created for people to learn it and the necessity to give people a space to enjoy it. Ballroom dancing has had very few ups and downs until the Covid19 arrived and brought everything to a screeching halt. But slowly, the unmatched energy everyone brings to the floor has brought us great inspiration and motivation on Oahu.The dance world has bounced back stronger than ever and we are over the moon with excitement to join everyone for an incredible year 2023.

"Morning Dew" by Melveen Leed

I have many thing on my agenda and at 97 years old I am running out of time. This Blog will be my main communication with my world. I have Twitter, Facebook, Word Press and Tumblr. And the first to go will be Word press. They are just getting too chintzy so I plan on bothering no more. On the Politics we remain Democrats for all the People.

 

January 16th.

Pizza:

It is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions, olives, vegetables, meat, ham, etc.), which is then baked at a high temperature, traditionally in a wood-fired oven. On Oahu, Pizza is usually pronounced "Peet sa" by people that believe it is a heavenly taste and eat it often. But it is usually pronounced Peezah by most every once else and no one quibbles about it. Most connoisseurs, after Fifty, cut it down from 4 slices to two. 

 "Adoro" by Graciela Susana

Social Dancers are really defining themselves in this new era of Social Dancing.The rootzi tootzis, which are different from the ordinary Club dancers are still there but for not so divine.The rootzi tootsis know LAGS (the latest and greatest syndrome) better than most dancers. They have liked to differentiate themselves from the rest of us and they have no idea that we are very willing to let them do that. That is why our Guest bloggers in all our dance blog will be needed to solidify their credentials.

 "Social dancers believe that if we danced and shared music,
we'd be too busy enjoying life to start a war.”

Not With A Bang

Music fits in quite naturally in our Oahu social dancing. And on Oahu, in our dancing, we may get carried away with perfecting our technique and our connection with our partner,  This may leave us little time to focus on the outside stimuli that our excellent music provides for us. Our understanding and knowledge of our dance music becomes somewhat limited, However in this century we will have many basic resources to understand this inspiring medium - this  beautiful music provided by our terrific Disc Jockeys.

 

"E Kuu Morning Dew" by Melveen Leed

The rule in blogs as social media is just a little communication for the reader/dancers in which they can see that a blog is merely larger than Twitter or Facebook. Later on there may be some sublime advertising, in which we ring bells for our favorite groups. And we do not as a rule accept advertising. I will reassert that we are not that strict in anything, and we must always do the best we can for the reader/dancer. What do we have to do to establish our blogs as social media? We must furnish  direct information from the reader/dancers to the reader/dancers on this Island via the blog. You do not know who they are? Neither do I.

"There are shortcuts to happiness and dancing is one of them."

The Fairy Tale

A Chinese boy, last name of Yong, was born about 1900 or shortly thereafter in China. He was early on dissatisfied with his life and always thought there must be a better place to live. The family thought of him as an oddball. So there came a time when he was in his teens, that some relatives came to visit and they worked the Pacific Ocean as sailors. By luck they needed a cabin boy and this kid jumped at the chance.

"If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes."

He liked the Philippines, and he thought Hawaii was great but plantation work not what he was hoping for. He liked San Francisco and he figured that this might be the place. However the ship was going to Los Angeles and then to Mexico and then go the same route back. He could wait. He though L.A. was terrific, so at that point, it was San Francisco or L,A. At the seaport in Mexico his group happened to run into some Chinese that spoke the same Chinese that they did. They explained that the Revolution in Mexico was just over and everyone was going to make money, about 1919, and they had a "car." He "jumped" ship with his meager belongings and went with them to Guamuchil in the State of Sinaloa.

"Tu Lo Decidiste" por Ana Gabriel

They got him a job in the local Chinese restaurant and worked 10 hours a day six days a week. He had never learned to read and write in Chinese very well but now he made a special effort to learn the Spanish language. He learned how to go without to save a little money. He worked his way into the kitchen and join a group of same age boys that hung around together. Eventually he met a nice Mexican girl, from the lower economic classes. Got married and settled down. He became a good cook and through one of the good customers, he was able to buy a nice lot with beat up shack for a good price. He developed a nice partnership with his wife and they worked together to make it a home for the family's sake and eventually arose to the job of Chief Cook.

"Eres Todo En Mi" por Ana Gabriel

Now he realized that this was a much better life than he had envisioned before. He had several children and one of his daughters was born right about the time that I was born. And she in turn married a nice middle class Mexican guy and they in turn had several children and a special daughter, named Maria Guadalupe Araujo Yong. Latin Style, first name, middle name, fathers last name and mother's last name. She was born in 1955, and is now 67 years old. She learned music and singing and eventually became the reigning queen of Mexico singers. She is still among the best in Mexico.

"Historia De Un Amor" por Ana Gabriel

And her stage name was now Ana Gabriel. Before her grandfather passed, she had concerts in the vicinity and always made arrangement for her Chinese grandfather to attend her concerts. He could have gotten front row but he always insisted on sitting on the side of the theater. Her favorite introduction always included her Big shot friends in the audience and there were many. And as always she would notice, "and that old Chinese man over there on the side, I know him. "Hola Abuelito" Oh, Hi, Grandpa! and of course he would beam. He had come a long ways. It was always a touching scene.

"The last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set

of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” 

January

Social Media: Facebook under the name Joseph Martel.

One Group. Oahh Dancers. covering Dance and Music. And Food and Drink. We may naturally have other things now and then but have enough for good crowd. We have less than 550 Friends, I accept anyone who has more than 100 mutual friends.

 

Started Twitter about  two years ago, under the name Pepe Martel.

Covering all subjects and with only 370 followers so far. I accept anyone who has more than 100 followers.

Starting on Tumbler now, because Facebook and Twitter are getting too chintzy and are too much for the Rich.

Retreating from these and looking for new one, Freedom of speech and little Trump Propangana.

"Should old acquaintances be forgot and never brought to mind."

This is a new year and that is from old song.

 

The Ballroom Dance Craze

By Genevieve Bernstein, Hawaii Kai.

In the teens decade of the last century, the US went dance-mad and much of the world followed suit.This dance craze was given much impetus by a young couple Vernon and Irene Castle. Vernon, an English comedian was working in America in stage musicals and Irene, a wannabee dancer met. He got her a job in the musical he was working in and they were married in 1911. They practiced and practiced, went to Paris as a dance team and were a smash hit. They returned to New York where they began a series of tea dances that became the rage of high society.

“Social dancers believe that life is dance and everyone
dances with their own rhythm.”

And of course other dance teachers bloomed all over. From 1912 to 1915 over 100 ballroom dances were created. The Castles founded Castle House, a studio for teaching a more refined type of dancing. A natural sociological function to distinguish themselves from the "street dancers," the lower classes. Much as the Internationals have done in present day Hawaii. They created many dances, the Castle Walk, the Castle Valse Classique, the Castle Tango, the Castle Last Waltz, the Castle Combination, the Castle Lame Duck, and the Maxixe. And most of their dances became fashionable in most of the American upper class ballrooms.

 "Waterfalls" by TLC  (1995)

And the Castles firmly established the terminology for this type of dancing as "ballroom." When they first founded Castle House, they had trouble finding a band that played music suitable for their dances. They met James Reese Europe (a black man) and engaged him as their personal musician. Many black musicians in New York looked down on syncopated music. Ragtime was associated with minstrel shows. Europe decide that his future lay in popular music and realized the power of syncopation, even in the primitive form of those days and made great use of it. He played in Carnegie Hall in 1914 ten years before the great Paul Whiteman.

"Social dancers believe that there may be three sides to every story:

yours, theirs and the truth."

Wine

The new century and Wine seems to be the increasing choice of drink for dancers. You just sip, sip and sip. Many seem to know the different classes of wine and even the differences in smell. Dancers have had a long time reputation of not being drunks. They drink but usually responsibly and that is to the good of everyone.

"I got started dancing because I knew that was one way to meet girls."
~ Gene Kelly (1912-1996) American dancer

Wine has a long history dating back about 8,000 years (along with agriculture) and is thought to have originated in present day Georgia (Russia) or Iran. It took about 1500 years to get to Europe. It became very common in classical Greece and Rome. In early Greece, 20000 Greek men and wine in the afternoon, evolved the entire Western concept of ethics that we know today.

"Days Of Wine And Roses" by Andy Williams

Wine has also played an important role in religion since ancient times. The Greek God Dionysos and the Roman God Bacchus represented wine. Wine has played an important role in ceremonies in the Christian religion such as mass. And wine was drunk at the Last Supper.

Forty years ago, I could see empty hard liquor bottles at some of the social dances. And always a few beer cans but no evidence of wine. Now. not many drinkers at the socials but it has become apparent in Night Clubs and Da Big Shows in Waikiki. There must be other reasons why wine is becoming "acceptable," One of the marks of a certain type of a bad person is one that cannot give up a thing themselves without wanting every one else to give it up too.

From the Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam, one millennium ago.

Come, fill the cup, and in the fire of Spring

Your Winter garment of Repentance fling:

The Bird of Time has but a little way

To flutter - and the Bird is on the Wing.

Looking Good

I tried the first comeback blog for trial couple weeks ago and got some hits. So I hope to get it rolling in December with some regular Guest Authors. And I believe I will probably will get most from my other social media. This Blog will be just bigger that Oahu Dancer on Facebook. It will cover dancing, music, food and drink. Of course the Guest Authors will stick their own things now and then which is perfectly acceptable. And 90% of the readership will be from Oahu. I will try to blog at least once per week. This is all preliminary and changes will be made according to Guest Authors. I can do it with three,  but six would be ideal.

"The truth may not lead you to where you thought you were going,

but it will always lead you somewhere better"

A dance opinion may be supported by facts, in which case it becomes an argument, although people may draw opposing opinions from the same set of facts. In our social media, we will continue to establish some better understanding of our dance scene. Opinions rarely change without new arguments being presented. So in our blogs we need more honest dance opinions from different viewpoints. It can be reasoned that one opinion is better supported by the facts than another by analyzing the supporting arguments. For now we cover what must to write. Later we must cover the feedback.

 "With A Song In My Heart" by Mario Lanza

Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy.

The Palladium

The Palladium now seems to be rolling again, It’s administered by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, which does not limit its use solely to ballroom dancing. What may be still most irksome to the ballroom dancers, however, aren’t the line dancers, swing dancers, Scottish folk dancers or other dancers who have staked claims to the space. It’s the non-dance groups competing for the Palladium’s coveted time slots. We shall see.

"Ka Nohona Pili Kai" by Keali'i Reichel

Hawaii Ballroom Dance Association, (HBDA), is still the largest ballroom dance organizations on Oahu. HBDA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, teaching and encouragement of ballroom dancing. They have their own studio in Aiea. HBDA offers both American and International style of ballroom dance and they can get a nice crowd at the Palladium.

 "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond

   “Dance for yourself. If someone understands,
 good. If not, no matter.”

Dance Party in Wahiawa

First one in three years and not everyone was there. However, everyone there was fortunate to see our dance friends in a well known comfortable location, Wahiawa Recreation Center. Pictures galore, video, good music,- the works. Gives me the opportunity to restart this blog. Who Knows? Juliaann, all the photos.

 We Witched you a Happy Halloween.

Q: What’s a ghoul’s favorite drink?
A: Anything with boos."

"It it all just a bunch of Hocus Pocus?"

 

The Only One Left.

All of my blogs have now been deleted except this one. "Social Dance Oahu. My other social media has kept me busy. Twitter and Facebook. And I am starting a dance group on Facebook,. "Oahu Dancers." All dancers welcome

 "All Or Nothing At All" by Frank Sinatra

Update

Our blogosphere on Oahu is definitely at the point of diminishing returns. Only a very slight but steady upward trend in hits. My physical disability has of course been a bigger part of it than I had first thought. It then hinges on my ability to get the information contributors to share the dance news with our readers.

"The truth may not always lead us to where we thought we

were going, but it may lead us somewhere better. Even

when ignored, it will eventually show itself."

Town Dancer remains in front by a more narrow margin every week. Dancing Nights is in second place with Platinum Horseshoe in third. The steady Two Center or even a Guest Author will help any one to the top. You got info that you are willing to share, email it and I will post it. The photos remain a big plus when we get going. The rest of the blogs are struggling to get into the 20s in average hits per day which is 600 hits per month.

"Beautiful Kauai" by Don Ho

Races are still being run on Oahu and I have been trying to find out. Most people have always known who were the top five clubs at the Palladium. Now number six has moved into fifth place and many do not know which of the top five is no longer there. Same thing on the Dance Studios, but now Divino Ritmo Studio is definitely emerging into the top spot in Honolulu. And they make good use of blogs to communicate with the dancers.

"Walk Through Paradise" by Melveen Leed

"We are dancers and we believe that we learn by dancing. Whether it means to learn to dance by dancing or to learn to live by living."

Da Latest Rerun from 2018

The Chinese symbol for the word “crisis” is written using two strokes of a pen. One stroke stands for danger, and the other for opportunity. In other words, in a crisis, beware of the danger, but also recognize the opportunity. Life always balances itself out. Everything that happens is neither positive nor negative; it just depends on your perspective. And all of us are going to dance.

"Social dancers think that all dancers are creators, and
all dancers create their own world in a dance.”

At one time,  I thought for sure there would be a new dance club on West Oahu dedicated to the social dancer only. And most of it based on the American Style of dance and with the introduction of many peripheral dances, such as Night Club 2 step, Bachata, Hustle, Salsa and Latin Waltz. Fortunately many groups have been way ahead of me. With terrific DJs that will play the music that the social dancers want to hear. In fact I have heard of one near Makapuu Point in Southeast Oahu. Gotta look into this when I get my new digs.

"Like a Virgin" by Madonna  (1984)

Now that I am moving to my new location in Mililani, I must accept that I can only go so far by myself.  So the next step is getting the most important Two Center. Finding the right keyword keeps eluding me and I somehow believe it it is not that important. I use Oahu and Social Dance and I will stay there for now. I am going for the dancers not the search engines. There are bloggers in the mainland that seem to have the right keywords and have been able to generate some incredible traffic from search engines and they make thousands of dollars. That is not my goal.

"We need more people who do not read with the intent to understand,

they read with the intent to reply." ~ Social Media.

Videos Rerun July 2018

The videos on Facebook are hitting all the blogs. There are now 3 Billions videos posted on Facebook daily. That is Billion with a B not an M. So we must await for the slow down, then we can get our blogs going again. For now let us respect that they are doing a great job for their fellow dancers. And that is our intent, so let us not get in their way. Blogging is a little different.

"Anyone who says only sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain."

I have been coming across more and more advertising for using VOIP instead of your landline. But upon further investigation I find landlines are more reliable than VOIP, as evidenced by the fact that businesses have not reduced landline usage at all. For now, I will just wait it out.

VOIP suffers from multiple points of failure or degradation:

    Internet connection could be dropped (connection, modem or router)
    Power to the internet connection to the premises could be lost
    Computer reliability - Power to the computer
    Multiple processes running on the computer can interfere
    Congestion on the network
    Location of the computer in the house (if wireless)

 1991 "All The Man That I Need" by Whitney Houston

These blogs have never been properly defined simply because they were mainly me and that's no good. The blogs need other opinions to help define themselves. The blogs at six are on shaky ground for now, and the dance video fad on Oahu is slowing down. We must be patient and wait for a that one Guest Blogger that can see a dance group that can use a blog. One Guest Blogger will decide it. We are waiting for you. I will reiterate, the reader/dancers will make the decisions, this is a blog.

"Two dancing peanuts walked into a Waikiki Night Club.
And wow, one of them was really salted."

Wahiawa Rerun July 2018

This blog not going anyplace. Most places in town have terrific Web sites and have advertising in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. Most are not sure what a Blog is. Hell, I have been working blogs for 20 years and I am not sure either. I have six blogs now and I have tried to make them different but tough to communicate that to the readers. The reader/dancers have some idea of what each blog does. If you have some dance information to share, email it and it can go in the blog of your choice.You are the ones to make it Social Media.

“Social dancers believe that dance does not give rise to anything in

us that isn’t already there. The music just sparks a fire that

illuminates who we have always wanted to be.”

 It helps to have information contributors. This invitation from Maile of WBDC.

Aloha Dancers!
You are invited to WBDC's Stars and Stripes Forever Dance, to be held on Friday, July 13, 2018, Wahiawa Recreation Center, Hale Hookipa Room, starts at 7:30 pm - 9:50 pm, Potluck or a small monetary donation appreciated! Attire: (Optional) DRESS WITH RED, WHITE, AND BLUE!  STARS AND STRIPES ARE GREAT TOO!

"The Star Spangled Banner" even if you don't know all the words. 

With enough guest bloggers and steady information and photo contributors, our blogs will be up in the stratosphere in hits. If we plan it right with the best blog, I can make my gradual withdrawal and let the guest bloggers take the blog over and they will make all the rules. For now I  hope it will be Town Dancer because that is the leader of the pack.  With new blood, these bloggers can teach the rest of us how to do better.

 “Social dancers know that the job of feet is walking,

but they also know that their hobby is dancing.”

Bossa Nova Re-run June 2018

By Jon Buenaventura, Turtle Bay
Bossa Nova remains to this day, some of the best music in the world with some of the best movements in dance to go with it. And it came into being when there were a lot of fad dances coming in. In the US and Europe, the local ones were backed heavily by the local disciplines and dance studios. The Bossa Nova articulated existing social differences in the United States, those of the elite versus the masses attempting to attain elite status, and the subsequent devaluation of the musical style as a result of its success.

"Dance music doesn't care where you live. It doesn't care who your friends

are. It doesn't care how much money you make. It doesn't care

if you're 74 or if you are 24 because it is for everyone."

In addition, there were fundamental shifts in how musicians arranged Bossa Nova songs in their recordings to cut across those social divisions for mass-market appeal. For this reason, the sounds of the music as recorded or practiced by musicians are as important as the performance  and spectatorship of the Bossa Nova dance for explaining the rapid spread of the Bossa Nova as dance throughout the U.S. The popular culture made it especially true as expressed in print media, recordings, and television programs.

"Corcovado" by Lisa Ono

Bossa Nova’s transformation into a social dance in the U.S. is crucial to its international history, but it had an established social context long before all of that dancing. Bossa Nova as a social movement began in the late 1950s among a group of musicians in the richest areas of Rio de Janeiro’s south zone. The musicians involved, took the basic polyrhythmic elements of urban samba and transformed them to a cosmopolitan perspective that matched the overall mood of the period. At the time, the upper classes in Brazil were experiencing a rush of optimism in the country. In the US it went the way of all fads. World wide, it remains as one of the best.

"Social Dancers know there's good deeds and then there's good intentions.

They are as far apart as Heaven and Hell."