Oh, The Suckage Of It All!

[bjarvis]

Tonight was our regular Wednesday evening C1 dancing in Arlington, VA. We sucked. Wow, did we ever suck. The suckage was extreme. Words escape me how badly we sucked.

I count myself in this dismal description of our dancing: I could do absolutely nothing right. No sense of rhythm, no sense of position or location, no automatic recollection of easy calls. Nada. It was so bad, I'm sure I've dishonoured my ancestors and embarrassed my (former) friends.

I do have proof, however, that it wasn't just me. I called a tip towards the end of the evening. I started the figure with "heads pass out" and the square crashed. We restarted. I called "heads pass out, everyone pass the ocean" and the square crashed again. We restarted. I called "heads pass out, everyone pass the ocean, relay the shadow" and we all crashed one more time. Oy.

In another figure, I called 'dixie sashay' and the square crashed. In an attempt to make it easier, I put them back into the same starting position and called 'dixie style to a wave' with the intent of following with 'slither' to get the formation I wanted but the Mainstream call itself caused a massive thud.

On the good side, we were all in the same boat together, giggling at our own stupidity and joking how grateful we all were that there were no witnesses. I usually record our sessions for study; I made a fun display of wiping the contents of my recorder it was useless for any serious purpose. Except possibly as a demonstration of how much we sucked.

We'll be back in two weeks for more C1 at the Barkley; I'll be calling the April 30 session. I'm sure we'll be over our trauma by then. :-)

Comments

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Oooo! Crashage AND suckage!

Coolage!

On my worse calling nights...

[allanh.livejournal.com]

When a floor just isn't doing "Heads Pass Out" after two tries, I've been known to sigh heavily into the mic and say "Let's try this: Heads Pass Thru. Heads quarter out."

Somebody on the floor always falls for this and says "Hey! That's the definition of HEADS PASS OUT!"

And I say, "NOW you remember?"

[excessor.livejournal.com]

It can be a lot of fun when a square keeps crashing.

In fact, I should know. I can crash a basic square in a flash: the only requirement is to have otterpop58 (my first instructor) in the general vicinity and to know that he might occasionally glance in the direction of my square.

I must admit that I get much enjoyment in watching challenge squares crash over simple calls. I think to myself, “One day, I'll be able to crash a square at this level, too.”

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I must admit that I get much enjoyment in watching challenge squares crash over simple calls. I think to myself, “One day, I'll be able to crash a square at this level, too.”

The caller cabal gets together regularly to talk about such things. Your name has come up.

"He's got that square-crashing gift," someone will say.

"Yup, soon he won't need otterpop58's supporting presence; he'll be on crashing squares on his own in no time."

"I can't wait to see what novel crashing techniques he'll develop for C1 and higher!"

Our little boy is growing up. We are so proud.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Long ago, one of our dancers made a whole bunch of "Bill Eyler Taught Me Everything I Know" badges and handed them out to the dancers that were going to convention that year...I think it was San Francisco '96.

His instructions to everyone: If their squares broke down, they were to point to their badges and smile.

Funny...but humbling.

[deege.livejournal.com]

In the Poconos last weekend I was in C2 squares that crashed on Spin the Top and Recycle. Pass out is at least an Advanced call.