C1 with the Barkley Squares

I called for our Wednesday night C1 group last night, substituting for Doren McBroom who is recovering from recent neck surgery. We don't have a name for our group borne out of our C1 boot camp weekend October, 2005, but kent4str suggested calling ourselves the Barkley Squares after the building in which we've danced so I'm going with that.

We had nine people who made it to dancing; Michael M. and Mike & Keith didn't appear at all and kent4str had to work late but we did OK without them. I'm delighted to say this was an evening of some of my best C1 calling to date: the hours of transcribing & studying the recent ACDC recordings (thanks to callers Dave Wilson, Mike Jacobs, cjmsith and justetthon) have been paying off in a big way. I'm using more of the list & concepts, inserting more variety into the overall dance evening and spending a lot more time working on smoothing the dance flow.

Overall, there were only three figures out of nearly 50 which needed some minor edits for clarification, all fairly trivial. I've just finished updating those and making backups of the lot.

I still have to re-examine the Dave Wilson recordings for something I can't quite put my finger on just yet... listening to them, there's a particular pattern to the half-second pauses which makes me think the wheels are twirling furiously in Dave's mind and I really want to see if I can figure intuit what he's doing. I may need to be heavily medicated when this is done.

Doren sent along with Beth a figure to dance... I had extreme difficulty visualizing it on paper:

All single rotate one quarter;
Sides squeeze, Heads zing;
Those who can in tandem of 3 All Pass the sea;
6x2 Acey Deucey 1 1/2;
Outpoint Triangle Any hand 1/4 thru;
Ends Pass in;
Centers Left square thru but on the 3 Touch 1/4 & spread;
Centers pass thru & 1/2 wheel around;
Interlocked diamond circulate;
Interlocked diamond chain thru;
Stretch Cycle & wheel;
Centers turn thru, AL

Doren wrote it, I called it and our square --amazingly-- danced it flawlessly on the first try, albeit with some pauses to think it through. Yay us!

Here's a gratuitous cell phone photo of zzbear, Jay W (who just dropped by to say hi) and me:

C1 with the Barkley Squares

I called for our Wednesday night C1 group last night, substituting for Doren McBroom who is recovering from recent neck surgery. We don't have a name for our group borne out of our C1 boot camp weekend October, 2005, but kent4str suggested calling ourselves the Barkley Squares after the building in which we've danced so I'm going with that.

We had nine people who made it to dancing; Michael M. and Mike & Keith didn't appear at all and kent4str had to work late but we did OK without them. I'm delighted to say this was an evening of some of my best C1 calling to date: the hours of transcribing & studying the recent ACDC recordings (thanks to callers Dave Wilson, Mike Jacobs, cjmsith and justetthon) have been paying off in a big way. I'm using more of the list & concepts, inserting more variety into the overall dance evening and spending a lot more time working on smoothing the dance flow.

Overall, there were only three figures out of nearly 50 which needed some minor edits for clarification, all fairly trivial. I've just finished updating those and making backups of the lot.

I still have to re-examine the Dave Wilson recordings for something I can't quite put my finger on just yet... listening to them, there's a particular pattern to the half-second pauses which makes me think the wheels are twirling furiously in Dave's mind and I really want to see if I can figure intuit what he's doing. I may need to be heavily medicated when this is done.

Doren sent along with Beth a figure to dance... I had extreme difficulty visualizing it on paper:

All single rotate one quarter;
Sides squeeze, Heads zing;
Those who can in tandem of 3 All Pass the sea;
6x2 Acey Deucey 1 1/2;
Outpoint Triangle Any hand 1/4 thru;
Ends Pass in;
Centers Left square thru but on the 3 Touch 1/4 & spread;
Centers pass thru & 1/2 wheel around;
Interlocked diamond circulate;
Interlocked diamond chain thru;
Stretch Cycle & wheel;
Centers turn thru, AL

Doren wrote it, I called it and our square --amazingly-- danced it flawlessly on the first try, albeit with some pauses to think it through. Yay us!

Here's a gratuitous cell phone photo of zzbear, Jay W (who just dropped by to say hi) and me:

Favourite Podcasts

I listen to a lot of podcasts daily, probably too many.

Slate's Daily is always a good listen, especially their political gabfest. TVOntario's "Big Ideas" is a wonderful lecture series. And then there's my must-listen news bits from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: "World at Six," "Ontario This Week," "Dispatches," "Editor's Choice," "Quirks & Quarks," "Spark," "The Best of Sounds Like Canada" and "Toronto This Week".

My favourite of late, however, has been CBC's "White Coat, Black Art" --a series of discussions & interviews among doctors, nurses & medical professionals concerning the business, ethics, practices & standards of medicine. It's been a fascinating tour of the mindset of people in medicine and how they view their industry and their patients. Check it out on iTunes here.

Favourite Podcasts

I listen to a lot of podcasts daily, probably too many.

Slate's Daily is always a good listen, especially their political gabfest. TVOntario's "Big Ideas" is a wonderful lecture series. And then there's my must-listen news bits from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: "World at Six," "Ontario This Week," "Dispatches," "Editor's Choice," "Quirks & Quarks," "Spark," "The Best of Sounds Like Canada" and "Toronto This Week".

My favourite of late, however, has been CBC's "White Coat, Black Art" --a series of discussions & interviews among doctors, nurses & medical professionals concerning the business, ethics, practices & standards of medicine. It's been a fascinating tour of the mindset of people in medicine and how they view their industry and their patients. Check it out on iTunes here.