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| Lindy: ALX '07 |
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| on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 06:00 AM - 1062 Reads |
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The 8th annual Austin Lindy Exchange was intended to be a throwback to 'the good old days' of Austin dancing and partying. This resulted in a different feel for the event than what I'm used to here, or from most exchanges for that matter. Like last year, the overall dancing was good, but not great, and only a few dances really stood out, and I'm sad that not very many of my traveling friends were in town this year. Regardless, the weekend was thoroughly enjoyable, just not as close to amazing as I would liked.
Read on for full review of the weekend...
Organizing an exchange is hard work. Lots of time and energy is involved, and not a lot of thanks or appreciation. My hat is off to anyone who runs a solid event, and this was a solid event. Thank you to Matt, Matt, Kim and Nathan. That is heart-felt appreciation for the effort and energy and work done for this event. I make this clear, because I hesitate writing some of the things I want to say because I don't want them to come across as personal or insulting, rather honest and constructive.
Variety is good, and these organizers did some things differently, tried out new things, and took some risks. The exchange organizers are “old-school” dancers who haven't traveled to another exchange in many years. I understand, then, that their ideas for what makes a good exchange are going to be different from what I'm used to and usually prefer. It reminds me of the Chicago Exchange in 2003, with the old crew doing a lot of work for an event, but seemingly geared it more towards their own benefit and that of their friends than for the visiting dancers.
To start with the things I liked over last year:
1) Gospel Brunch. I think this idea originated from the Austin Blues Party, and it is an excellent idea and a great new tradition to continue in Austin.
2) Canning the sinus show. Five years of it was enough. I think pretty much every year was less enjoyable than the previous. It was time to let it go.
3) Free coffee & soda for the Saturday late night venue at the bar was a great extra touch.
Perhaps the most negative thing for me was that the organizer presence throughout the weekend seemed lacking/non-existent. We pretty quickly ran out of cups for water at Friday late night, and there wasn't even anyone working the door for that event. I've heard several anecdotes of unhelpful organizer responsiveness to problems in general. I'm going to leave out the story, but I personally had a rather negative experience in this regard when I asked for assistance with something for one of my out of town friends. Interestingly, one of my friends commented that it was nice that the organizers seemed more relaxed this year than last year, but I can't help wondering if those of us with problems wouldn't have preferred a more stressed organizer that was correspondingly more responsive to actually helping us..
In general, this event seemed like one of the more impersonal events I've been to, at least for here in Austin. I usually feel that Austin really takes care of you, and I didn't have that vibe this year. Maybe, as one of my friends suggested, this was because I was expecting this vibe based on my expectations from the organizers and the pre-exchange drama. Perhaps, but I think the event was actually pretty good relative to what I was fearing. So, little things like there not being shuttle service from the airport (I was told for liability reasons). Better communication about this and transportation alternatives would have been nice. There wasn't a meet & great on Friday like previous years, which would have been nice for the guests of mine who'd already arrived. At the very least a mention that Paris 49 was playing at Central Market in the early evening on Friday would have been nice. That event ended up being a great social time for those of us who knew to go. The “registration packets” were also just stapled pieces of paper that didn't even include addresses of the events, let alone maps.
Thinking through various events in the past, I think one of the things that appears to be the highest correlated to a good weekend event for me is keeping as many of the exchange goers together for as much as possible. I've noticed that it really increases the feel of community. This is why food at late nights is such a great idea, because people don't have to go waste an hour or more trying in small groups to fight for food at late night eateries, and roll into late night when they finish. It also makes a big difference in the afternoon activities. The planned Saturday afternoon activities are great (I really like the scavenger/competition idea), and there were a few other organized activities for people to do. None of the suggestions seemed all that appealing to me, and I would have preferred some kind of officially designated spot for people to just meet up and hang out.
There were fewer rooms of late night this year. There were single rooms for late night on Friday & Sunday, and only 2 rooms for Saturday night. On the one hand, my above stated principle of keeping as many people together as possible applies. The fewer the rooms, the easier it is to find people. At the same time, nothing will upset people more than having to put up with music that doesn't inspire them, and single room late nights do that very easily. I prefer multiple rooms to minimize the number of people that will have an overall negative experience otherwise, even at the expense of keeping people more segregated. Plus, it is easier to really develop a vibe and a flow when you don't have to cater to multiple subsets of dancers in the room.
I have no specific problem with things like a casino night at a dance for people who choose to participate. It does distract from the dancing, though, and it does annoy follows who wish they could dance with some of the men gambling at the table. At the same time, for as poor as the music options for the night were, I suspect it ended up working out rather well.
The Yellow Rose was the big scandal for the weekend. For all of about 10 hours this Gentleman's Club was listed on the website as the “official” Sunday afternoon event. If people want to go to a strip club, that's great. Making an issue out of it by calling it “official” is unprofessional and unnecessarily disrespectful to the dancers attending who take offense to it. Regardless of one's opinion of people who take offense to it, going out of the way to get paying customers upset over something so unrelated to the purpose of the weekend is inexcusable. At the same time, no one was forcing anyone to go or to respond to it really, so I do think that a lot of the reaction to it was excessive.
One of the biggest risks taken for the weekend was the decision to have 5 bands. The organizers knew that no one was going to like all of the bands, but that each band would have some people who really loved them. It went well enough. I guess no one had to put up with an entire evening of music they didn't like, but it still seemed excessive to me. I think picking 3 of them and putting the extra money towards other things would have made more sense.
I'm not sure exactly how DJ's were dealt with, but I heard a lot of grumblings over the general disregard for their services. This was to the extent that Tina, a nationally renowned DJ from Austin, decided to not participate in the weekend. Whatever led up to that decision, and whatever kept a resolution to that situation from being figured out is something else I consider inexcusable.
The plan for the weekend was to have DJ's in the back room play “opposite music” to what was being played in the main room. I heard second hand that this backfired in a couple instances where people who didn't like what the band was playing retreated to the side rooms only to find more music they didn't like. Presumably DJs were upset that they had been told to and expected to play a certain type of music but were getting requests for different (bluesier) music. I'll save my rant for a different time, only to say that if DJs are blaming their frustrations for this on the dancers, I think it is messed up.
Venues
The Fed – The only real option in town for large evening dances. Great venue.
Footworks – Great slick floor, with nice low lighting. It worked better than I expected to have it all in one room, but then I really liked everything the DJs were playing.
Copa – It has great atmosphere and a nice floor. It was nice to not have a 'studio' feel for a late night. It had to start really late, though, so they could close the bar & reopen for us, which makes it hard. It was also a little on the crowded side for me.
Moose Lodge – Tile floor, and the venue was hot & sticky. I really liked the Sunday afternoon venue last year a lot more than this one.
Mercury Hall – It was a nice place and worked pretty well. It seemed a little small, though and a bunch of people ended up outside hanging out. It's hard to have a venue with a good mixture of dance room
and places to just chill. I probably would have preferred the Fed, but this was a good choice for a venue.
Ruta Maya – Concrete floor, but a great vibe fore a Sunday late night. Though what was up with them turning on the back lights to make coffee all night? Not doing that needs to be prearranged next time...
Music
White Ghost Shivers – This band is a lot of fun, but a lot of what they play I don't find particularly danceable. I know they are old school Austin, they just aren't my band. I'm glad they played first
Seth Walker – It saddens me that they only got one set this year. I love dancing to them. By far my favorite of the weekend.
Paris 49 – Gypsy swing primarily, but I thought they did a pretty good job keeping things danceable. I enjoyed them more at Central Market on Friday where I didn't have to dance to most of it.
Kris Kimura – Cleared the floor a number of times with how fast they played. They also played a bunch of latin. Plus the sound was insanely loud. Matt Jones mentioned that the sound guy they hired was awful and wouldn't be used again. The combination was bad enough that it drove many into the side rooms, and many to the casino tables.
Giant City – Fun New Orleans style music. High energy and I could tell most people had a blast dancing to them. Much of their stuff was a little faster than I was looking for on a Sunday evening, and I probably would have enjoyed them more on Friday or Saturday.
DJs this year were much better than last overall, at least I didn't have any issues with any of them this year, and enjoyed it all in general. One set in particular stood out as one of the best sets I've ever danced to. Shorty Dave is my new Lindy DJ crush. I loved pretty much everything he played. Plus he took my request for Gene Harris for the last song.
Hosting
I hosted four people this weekend all of whom have put me up when I've visited or driven through their city.
-Bryson I hosted before the exchange started on Wednesday night. He let me and Bryant crash at his place when we were driving through Salt Lake City on our way from Seattle to Texas.
-Charlie has been to pretty much every exchange that I have, plus dozens more. He “took me under his wing” when I first started dancing to make sure I knew who all I should dance with. He put me up at his place in Pasadena when I was driving down to San Diego for a blues party.
-Beth from Ohio, now in SF, one of my more frequent IM friends, gave me a place to crash for a few days when I visited SF last month
-Spider lived in Chicago when I first moved there. When she lived in Vegas, she let Karen and me stay with her when we drove through on our way to San Francisco.
Dancing Level
Overall the dancing level was good, but not amazing, which was disappointing
Friends – (I know always forget people, but at least this way I can better remember most of the people who were here when I think back about this weekend.) I'm also going to just skip naming all the locals this time. I was very disappointed with the overall turnout of my out of town friends. Of my “Top 5” from last year, 4 weren't here, and of the 34 out of town friends I listed last year, 20 didn't attend. Of the dozens of friends that flew to Florida for SOFLEX at the beginning of the year, only a couple also attended ALX. So, apparently I need to do a better job of recruiting for Austin events in the future. I can only claim credit for influencing a couple Chicago follows into attending.
Top 5 (This is purposefully ambiguous to mean whatever I want it to)
Ann – My favoritest follow
Esly – Had a mindblowing dance with her Saturday night. I foresee more visits to Dallas this upcoming year.
Katie – This one never comes out dancing any more, but my dance with her to the Gene Harris at the end of Friday late night was amazing
Lili – Why did she have to move away 2 years ago? She needs to move back
Lauren – Great dances this weekend.
Close Friends who attended– Beth, Karissa, Keith
Friends from previous events – Amy Schulz, Andrew Sutton, Aris, Chelsea, Chris Ransdell, Danny, Dave, Gary, Greg Avakian, Hannah Hudson, Heather Seifert, Holly, Jame Corrar, Jeff Washington, Jeremy Stell-Smith, Jimmie, Johanna, Judy, Karen Bell, Kathryn, Kim & Shorty Dave, Lance, Lish, Mark, Kapner, Matt Fisher, Matt Kelsey, Mihai, Rayned, Seth & Melinda, Stacy Kish, Ted, Wendy, and Whitney.
New Friends - Annie, Heather Doty, Iris, Kimberly, Nathalie
Didn't attend – Tina (protesting), Brit (lame), Lani (Grand Canyon), Laura (broken), Brandy (China). All of my friends who showed up last year and were lame and didn't come this year. Plus there were a number of locals that I only remember seeing on Thursday night, which was sad (Megan, Kate & Suzanne, etc).
Best Experience – Saturday afternoon for Karen's party. This included shopping with Karissa for supplies, dancing to Tina's music (including my request- Ai Du by Ali Farke Toure), and giving Tina, Karen & Ted a fun organizer blues jam. Ooh, and really good scotch.
Best Compliment – Jen Delk telling me our dance was her favorite of the weekend.
Most Interesting – I haven't been to an after-after hours party since St Louis in 2004. It was great. Even the tall redhead was there (which is a highly entertaining story for another time). I pretty much went so I could get more dances with Ann before she left, and somehow managed to convince the rest of my household to let me drag them along. Dancing past daybreak is interestingly unusual.
Most Disappointing – I couldn't get anyone to go get a pedicure with me Sunday afternoon. Seriously, who isn't ready to pamper their feet at that point in the weekend, what gives?
Most Positive – Being there for a friend when she was having a difficult time with some things over the weekend.
Most Negative – Saturday evening dance, I was just bored. Didn't want to gamble, didn't like main room bands, didn't want to deal with side room. Ended up in the front room at the Fed flipping through the wedding planning magazine that was left out. At least I found a few pretty orange bouquets.
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