Happy New Year

It’s been a while since I’ve written. Because Beta Blogger transferred to New Blogger it took me awhile to reestablish authentication. Since we hadn’t yet announced the blog, no harm done!

I hope you had a great holiday. The last couple of years I’ve given the gift of local music. Last year it was the Blue Rhythm Boys, Monday Morning Blues. Soundbites: http://cdbaby.com/cd/bluerhythm This past fall, I gave a bunch of friends a copy of the Big Three Trio’s We Got Rhythm CD -- it’s wonderful! Soundbites at http://www.bigjoem.com This year, I’m giving a CD by one of Peter Davis’ bands -- The Clayfoot Strutters. Going Elsewhere is a “groove-based contradance fusion” with zydeco, contra, irish, and ragtime sounds. Peter gave me a copy when he was here with Lindy Hop Heaven in October. I was dancing with Mark Ormbsy when we noticed a Basie-fusion number on that October night. Unlike your usual “medley,” Peter picked up a riff here and there from different Basie tunes and fused them together into a great dance number! At any rate, on this CD, Peter pays tribute to one my favorite book series -- The Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. The tune is The Tempest/The Abbey/The Daemon. Soundbites at http://cdbaby.com/cd/clayfoot

I love cdbaby.com! They have the BEST customer service ever. It’s worth ordering from them just to read their humorous confirmation and shipping e-mails! Plus, they’re fast and efficient. I ordered the CDs on the afternoon of the 18th, not expecting to get them before Christmas. They showed up in my mailbox on the 23rd.

As those DC/Baltimore DooWop legends, The Orioles, asked, “What are you doing on New Year’s Eve?” When my daughter left this afternoon she said to me, “When I call you at midnight you better not be at home!” So, I’ll head out to Glen Echo tonight. Perhaps I’ll see some of you there.

initial posts and holiday music....

Many thanks to WSDC for letting me post to this blog. I've never blogged before-- even on MySpace-- so this might provide quite a bit of entertainment for all.
In regards to holiday music, Stacy did remind me of a VERY glaring omission: I forgot to bring Vince Guaraldi! BUT *raises index finger*-- my intention was to play holiday music without it being noticeably "holiday". Hence the 2 tracks played Saturday.
One holiday track that I'm currently fond of is the Funk Brothers' "Winter Wonderland"....

More to come.... --Glenn

21st century, here I come...

I've always wanted to be part of a group blog. Thanks, Janice, for setting this up. I'd love to know what kinds of Christmas music people like to listen to. I'm not a big Christmas music fan, but I find myself always reaching for my Vince Guaraldi and Cyrus Chestnut Charlie Brown albums.

And I do love Pearl Bailey. "10 pound box of money" and "baby, it's cold outside" (with Hot Lips Paige) come to mind.

Glen played two great songs off a Ramsey Lewis Christmas album last Saturday night. Anyone else have any favorites?

Also, if you haven't listened to the "Hey Mr. Jesse" podcast yet, do check it out. This is Jesse Miner's show, a well-known swing DJ out of San Francisco. On each show he does a top eight countdown, and this month's countdown is--of course--holiday music. You can find it through iTunes or on Yehoodi: http://www.yehoodi.com/mrjesse/

Welcome to the WSDC blog

For those of you reading who don't know us, the WSDC is an all volunteer organization that has been promoting swing dance and live music in the Washington, DC area for more than 20 years. We organize dances for 400-600 dancers that are held at the Spanish Ballroom in Glen Echo National Park.

For those of you who are familiar with WSDC, thanks for your support for the last 20+ years!

The committee members -- Janice, Sue Ann, Eliza, Derek, Stacy, along with DJs Rayned and Glenn -- will use these pages as they wish. Most posts will be about dance, music, travels, etc. But some may be about other items they're passionate about!

Let's imagine that we're sitting around at the diner after a great dance chatting away...