As per the request of one of the DanceNet readers, here are copies of the past ramblings of the DanceNet Webmaster.
I can certainly say it was my best Beantown Lindy Hop Camp ever.
I was asked to pick up and host overnight a couple from Germany for Beantown. Katrin and Harald turned out to be some of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Not only that, they had made arrangements to meet with a local friend named Bill Elliot. Turns out these people were two of the club officers for Boogie-Baeren in Germany and we had lunch with the bandleader of the Bill Elliot Orchestra. I walked away with Bill Elliot's autograph on a CD!
It's was too easy to skip the Green routines class on Sunday because I knew I wasn't going to be around for the classes on Monday and Tuesday. Eric Fenn's movement class was different. I was positioned in the room on the opposite side from the door so I couldn't escape but it turned out to be a great class. I think the people in the class were challenged to move their body in ways that they weren't used to, especially when doing the Wave. It was amusing to watch Kenneth & Helena discuss what they wanted to do with the class in Swedish so we couldn't understand them. Jenny Thomas's straight-laced teaching demeanor just kept fueling the practical joker in Ryan Francois. The classes were always entertained while we tried to figure out what we were suppose to be doing. The mini-Balboa tracks were very useful because it gave us a chance to practice it at the dance and then come back the next day with questions. (Did I do Bal at the dances? Noooooooo...) This was the first time that I noticed that Jenny Thomas looked like she could be the twin sister of my tango friend Hillary. Weird.
This was my closest encounter with a dance contest. They needed one more guy for Intermediate Jack & Jill contest and the chief judge walked by looking for more people. Since Joel now knew my name during this event, he tried to recruit me and I chickened out. Maybe next year. I wouldn't have won, but I don't think I would have been dead last. But I say that every year.
The award for "Above and Beyond..." the call of duty must go to Marty Klempner. His Green track of dancers didn't have enough followers for their performance on Tuesday so he dressed up in drag (in a nice way) and danced as a follower. I didn't even know until I noticed that his wife Valerie was dancing with the group so I started looking for him. The flower in the hair was a nice touch.
The sun woke me up at 6 am each day, shining around the drawn blinds. The fact that I went to sleep after 2 am each night didn't keep me from waking up. I didn't want to skip breakfast each day, but I might revisit that policy next year. I should follow the example of Marty (of Marty & Valerie) who got up at 1 pm and (jokingly) asked why the cafetaria was serving tacos for breakfast.
This was my first extended Beantown, though I didn't stay for the whole event this time. Perhaps next time.
My policy is this: if I don't get an explicit note indicating the specific dates on which an event will be held, then I will not list that event on my calendar nor on any of the state calendars. I don't want to guess wrong and I don't want people to complain to me that I listed an event that the promoter chose not to hold because of holidays. If it's not in the calendar, then the dance promoter never sent me a note about it.
This policy has a great benefit to the readers of this website: they'll be able to plan ahead if they know a venue is going to closed weeks in advance.
Also, it helps the dance promoters to plan ahead. If an event appears on the calendar, then other dance promoters can try to plan around it.
You, the reader, can help this process. If you notice that a certain venue's dances are not listed on the calendar on this website, that probably means that the promoter did not tell me what his/her dates are. Contact them directly and tell them that it's in their best interests to get their dance dates to me so I can put it in the calendar.
Please note: I don't spend time looking through other venues' websites for information because....
It's the dance promoters' job and responsibility to get that information to me. After all, I'm providing them a free method of advertising and promoting their venue. I assume the dance promoters want as many paying customers as they can get so they should have every incentive to get their information to me. Considering that this website got 26,679 unique visitors last month, they really should be doing everything they can to take advantage of this access to all these readers.