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It's DONE!



Tara the DW fangirl came by in her enormous blue truck and whisked my darling harp away to a life in ( sunny, warm Santa Fe, NM... )

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So I've been grooving on Bowie's music all day, giving thanks to the Goddess for his existence, and to him for the great gift of art he gave us all. And I realized that my favorite of his albums is not any of the ones you might think, but rather his best-selling one: Let's Dance.

I think it's genius. Who else could have rescued disco from the ash heap of music history and made dancing bright and fun and hot and COOL again? Nobody I can think of. And yet he pulled it off (with help from his friend Niles Roger, of course). I love these tracks. They swing. An old-fashioned term, but the only one that fits. They take you by the hips and make you want to MOVE.

And I fucking love that.

Modern Love

China Girl

Let's Dance


(Note the album cover image, which you see in that last viedo - another example of Bowie's cutting humor, as "let's dance" is a fighting term as well as an invitation to dance.)


So yeah, along with Starman (my favorite Bowie song) and Rebel Rebel, his "disco-era" stuff - Fame, Young Americans, Golden Years - and the Let's Dance album are really my favorites. I much prefer music that makes me want to move rather music that makes me angry or sad. The Berlin period may have been more innovative, but it's just not stuff I want to listen to. THIS is what I listen to - the Bowie that moved, that danced, that laughed. The Bowie that knew life is worth living.

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Rita Hayworth Is Stayin' Alive
Old time Hollywood and 70's grit - what's not to love?


The loveliest Latina ever to grace Hollywood. (jblaque, this one's especially for you.)

Enjoy!

A blast from the past:

Things That Make You Go Hmmm... - C+C Music Factory


Gonna Make You Sweat was one of my workout albums. I love the funky humor of this track. The last verse always cracks me up - Mysterious calls and the phone goes click / You say to yourself, "I'm gonna hit him with a brick!" LOL

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Have you heard of Matt?


The story of Matt Harding is one of those phenomena that could only happen via the internet. Matt was a computer guy who decided to take some time off and travel the world the way he'd always dreamed of. He took his laptop with him and while he was wandering about, he posted little vids on his website, Where the Hell Is Matt?, to let his friends and family know how he was doing. For some reason, he started dancing in these videos, in different locations and always very badly, because as Matt will enthusiastically tell you himself, he is a very bad dancer.

The videos went viral, and Matt became something of a sensation. He edited his little clips together when he got home and turned them into a lovely piece with really beautiful music.

Where the Hell Is Matt? - 2005


He got noticed by Stride, a company that makes chewing gum, and they offered him a deal: put our brand on your clips and we'll fund your travels. He accepted, and now Matt makes videos around the world of himself dancing in all sorts of places.

Where the Hell Is Matt? - 2006


In 2007, Matt made his first video that included groups of people. This took the vids to a whole new level. Now the vids would not just be travelogues, but celebrations. Dancing is a universal art, an expression of joy and communality that can be found everywhere there are human beings.

Here's where I come in.

In September, Matt came to L.A. I had signed up on his site, hoping he would pick this area to touch down in, and luckily he did. A large group of people converged on Santa Monica Beach just north of the pier, and we spent a sunny afternoon hanging out and eventually dancing - very very badly - with Matt. There's nothing like dancing joyously with a large group of strangers, I'll tell you.

About six months later, Matt's video was finished and posted on his site. Here's the result:

Where the Hell Is Matt? - 2008


I love this video, even more than the earlier ones. So many people all over the world dancing together! No matter where, everyone understands the joy of dancing. (Well, almost.) It brings a tear to my eye every time, not least because Matt's really good at picking music for these videos.

The dance in L.A. is near the end. Here I am:



It was great fun, a lovely event, one I'll never forget. Matt was a sweetheart. Afterward, he hung out and took pics with us, and also danced with some of the crowd for their own little vids. Too bad I didn't have a videocam; I would have loved to have a dancing clip with him!

He's planning another video, and this time he's going to be learning how to dance. From the site:

For this new video, I'm actually learning how to dance. I'm collecting dance styles from all over the world and teaching them to groups in other parts of the world. We might be doing the tango in Helsinki, an Irish jig in Hong Kong, or some Bollywood moves in Brussels. I'm pretty sure there's some big idea in there about connecting and communicating, though I assure you, at the end of the day we'll all still just be dancing badly. Anyway, like I said, I'll be collecting dance styles, so please bring a dance you know and show it to me so I can teach it to people somewhere else.

There's a sign-up page at the site. I strongly recommend that you go there and sign up. There's no guarantee that he'll hit your area, but if he does, you'll be in for a treat you'll tell your grandkids about. Trust me.

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( Click for desktop-size image )

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La Tabacalera
From Carlos Saura's Carmen


The other night, I mentioned that my father was a flamenco dancer. He was well-known in Spain in the 1930's and 40's, and when he came to America, he opened the first flamenco nightclub in Los Angeles. I was raised around this music, around the people who performed it. Whenever there was a get-together at our house, there was always music and dance - Ernesto or Gino would have his guitar there, and my dad, my mom, and their fellow dancers would have fun going to town. Flamenco is a very participatory form - dancers spontaneously do their stuff at parties and gatherings, because it's fun and they don't miss an opportunity to hoof it.

It's also extremely expressive, as well as being difficult. People tend to think of it as a "folk" dance. It's anything but. Flamenco is a classical dance, fully as difficult and demanding as the French court dances that the Russians developed into the ballet that we've come to equate with the term "classical". Kids start at 4 or 5 years old, learning the traditional Sevillanas, a dance that the majority of Spaniards can do because...well, because everyone does it, at parties, fairs, festivals, whenever. Those who feel an aptitude go on to study dance, and a few make it as performers. A few.

All this by way of introducing tonight's clip, a scene from Spanish director Carlos Saura's film Carmen. It's the second part of Saura's Flamenco Trilogy, in which he explores the three theatrical creators that have defined Spain's image to the rest of the world: Federico García Lorca (Bodas de Sangre), Bizet/Merimée (Carmen), and Manuel de Falla (El Amor Brujo). In this film, the most realistic of the three, the story revolves around the artistic director of a dance company (Antonio Gades), who is casting and rehearsing his new stage production, a flamenco version of the classic opera. After a long search, he finds the perfect dancer (Laura del Sol) to play the hotheaded seductress, but finds to his dismay that she's bit too much like the role she's been chosen to play. Life imitates art, for lots of bait-and-switch fun. It's a great conceit, and makes for a wonderful film.

This is the full dance of Gades' Tabacalera scene. The word refers to the tobacco factory in the center of Seville (which is still there, by the way), where the fictional Carmen commits the murder that gets her arrested, thus crossing her path with that of the soldier Don José and sealing their doom. (Her rival and victim is here played by Cristina Hoyos, who is the prima ballerina, so to speak, of Gades' dance company, in real life as well as in the film. That's Gades at the end playing the soldier.)

The dance is pure flamenco, with the only operatic music being the love theme that comes in after the fighting is over. One of the more wonderful things about flamenco, for me, is that although most people think of it as being done to guitar music, in fact you don't need any instruments at all. As in this scene, hands, feet, and voice are all the music you need. The choreography itself is the orchestra. It's music that harks back to the most ancient forms.

There are no subtitles on this clip, alas, so I'm including a little rundown below. Read it before you watch the clip, because they're singing about the characters themselves. Enjoy!


( Lyrics in here )


For those of you who've ever wondered where I come by my personality - there are a lot of clues in this. Stereotypes are always based on at least a grain of truth, and the stereotype of the passionate, blood-thirsty Spaniard? Is based on more than a grain. This stuff is in my DNA. Watch and get a taste.