Saturday Report
Mar. 17th, 2007 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisIt's been a light & easy day, something I could definitely use.
We were actually up & out of bed before noon today, a relative rarity as far as our weekends go. Indeed, we headed to Miller's Framing to collect four artworks which we had deposited there two weeks ago for framing. They've been framed & completed for a while but we haven't had a great deal of time to skip over to collect them. The four pieces haven't been hung yet but we may tackle that tomorrow.
After a quick lunch at home, we headed to Virginia to a major (straight) square dance convention, the 48th annual WASCA festival. We weren't planning to dance --especially since they have no day rate and would charge us $40/person for today, the last half of the last day of the festival;![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kent4str largely wanted to get a few photos of straight square dancers to include as part of his presentation at the upcoming IAGSDC convention in Denver.
I find many straight square dance clubs very... odd. So many local clubs still demand a particular stereotypical dress code which most of the rest of us recognize as a old & increasingly sad parody of a non-existent by-gone era. Despite the --IMHO-- blatant silliness of the situation, there are ardent & militant adherents to this sort of dress code. Almost as egregious is the couples-only mentality many clubs demand, as though single people, either unmarried, separated, divorced or widowed people can't possibly dance or socialize with married folks. I'm delighted that both concepts are in steep downward trends but large straight conventions still make me wary of misspeaking or mis-stepping. I really don't have a good time at events when I'm walking on eggshells.
Despite my reservations, the folks I did talk to were at least friendly, although that might have changed if they knewkent4str and I were a couple. And on the good side, I had a chance to chat with a handful of other callers whom I hadn't seen recently, most particularly Tom Miller. And whatever my level of wariness about attending, I gotta admit these folks know how to throw a festival: the props & decorations were great, the lounge spaces were very comfortable, there were a number of large information panels to help guide out-of-towners and there were a number of vendors. We bailed before the fashion show, but that surely can't be any worse than the IASGDC's honky tonk queen contest.
I'm toying with attending next year, just for kicks. If nothing else, there's always usefulness in studying the work of more experienced square dance callers. Alas, the festival runs Thursday-Friday-Saturday so I'd really need to take two days off of work to attend.
We got the photos we wanted and skipped out after about two hours, heading into Arlington to see Jeff M. After a quick introduction to Second Life by Jeff, we headed over to Potomac Yards to see "300." Yup, it's definitely not a deep movie: if you're looking for interesting character development, witty dialog and such, see something else. If, however, you're looking for really hot, mostly naked male bodies and lots of action, blood & gore, this movie is for you. I'm glad I caught it on a matinee, but I probably wouldn't watch it again, even if it was free of charge.
As is our custom following a movie in Virginia, we headed to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream. In honour of St. Patrick's Day, I had the bright green mint chocolate chip ice cream, large size. Mmmm... sugar...
We were actually up & out of bed before noon today, a relative rarity as far as our weekends go. Indeed, we headed to Miller's Framing to collect four artworks which we had deposited there two weeks ago for framing. They've been framed & completed for a while but we haven't had a great deal of time to skip over to collect them. The four pieces haven't been hung yet but we may tackle that tomorrow.
After a quick lunch at home, we headed to Virginia to a major (straight) square dance convention, the 48th annual WASCA festival. We weren't planning to dance --especially since they have no day rate and would charge us $40/person for today, the last half of the last day of the festival;
kent4str largely wanted to get a few photos of straight square dancers to include as part of his presentation at the upcoming IAGSDC convention in Denver.I find many straight square dance clubs very... odd. So many local clubs still demand a particular stereotypical dress code which most of the rest of us recognize as a old & increasingly sad parody of a non-existent by-gone era. Despite the --IMHO-- blatant silliness of the situation, there are ardent & militant adherents to this sort of dress code. Almost as egregious is the couples-only mentality many clubs demand, as though single people, either unmarried, separated, divorced or widowed people can't possibly dance or socialize with married folks. I'm delighted that both concepts are in steep downward trends but large straight conventions still make me wary of misspeaking or mis-stepping. I really don't have a good time at events when I'm walking on eggshells.
Despite my reservations, the folks I did talk to were at least friendly, although that might have changed if they knew
kent4str and I were a couple. And on the good side, I had a chance to chat with a handful of other callers whom I hadn't seen recently, most particularly Tom Miller. And whatever my level of wariness about attending, I gotta admit these folks know how to throw a festival: the props & decorations were great, the lounge spaces were very comfortable, there were a number of large information panels to help guide out-of-towners and there were a number of vendors. We bailed before the fashion show, but that surely can't be any worse than the IASGDC's honky tonk queen contest.I'm toying with attending next year, just for kicks. If nothing else, there's always usefulness in studying the work of more experienced square dance callers. Alas, the festival runs Thursday-Friday-Saturday so I'd really need to take two days off of work to attend.
We got the photos we wanted and skipped out after about two hours, heading into Arlington to see Jeff M. After a quick introduction to Second Life by Jeff, we headed over to Potomac Yards to see "300." Yup, it's definitely not a deep movie: if you're looking for interesting character development, witty dialog and such, see something else. If, however, you're looking for really hot, mostly naked male bodies and lots of action, blood & gore, this movie is for you. I'm glad I caught it on a matinee, but I probably wouldn't watch it again, even if it was free of charge.
As is our custom following a movie in Virginia, we headed to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream. In honour of St. Patrick's Day, I had the bright green mint chocolate chip ice cream, large size. Mmmm... sugar...
