Rixosous

The Ultimate Answer

I am the Ultimate Answer today and for the next 364 days.

Fortunately, I don't have to worry about the Ultimate Question.

That's it.

That's all there is.

I don't have to like it.

Balticon 44 Schedule

I'm off to Balticon this weekend, feeling very sad due a whole lot of bad life things falling on me lately and yet another birthday.  This has negatively affected my planning, so I won't be quite as shiny and well-costumed as I'd hoped, but at least I'll be skinnier (twenty-three pounds lost since mid-February). 

I haven't actually received a formal schedule, but I think I'm just doing three special events in the main ballroom:

Air travel karma

I'm starting to wonder if travel to Kalamazoo is just jinxed, after the last two years involved spending hours at O'Hare in 2008 and then being ridiculously delayed and my luggage lost until a couple of hours before I left Michigan last year.

This year I made a point of avoiding O'Hare in my transfers and actually flew out of Philly rather than any of my usual New York-and-Connecticut airports.  This was because while my outbound flight allowed generous time for screw-ups, my return plans were very tight -- I had to finish my presentation in Kalamazoo at noon and be on the dance floor at 8:00 that evening teaching at the Steampunk World's Fair.  That was down in New Jersey, so flying back and forth from Philly meant I'd be much closer to where I needed to be.  The timing would work if everything went perfectly.  And yes, that was enough of a gamble that I arranged a backup teacher in case I didn't make it.

So how did it work?  Well, let's just say the trip out was not quite as planned.

Not evil? Just sexist.

Oh, Google.  Banning dating sites aimed at older women/younger men from its content network, but not ones aimed at older men/younger women?

Google continues to allow similar advertising for the many sites that match older men and younger women, like DateAMillionaire.com, which assures its clients they can meet “sugar babies.”

So cougars and cubs are out, but sugar daddies and sugar babies are in.

Cougars are "nonfamily safe" but sugar daddies and sugar babies -- a polite set of euphemisms for johns and prostitutes -- are A-okay?  Really?

Is there any way to spin this as anything other than blatant sexism?

Steampunk World's Fair Schedule

I'm going to be scooting home from Kalamazoo very quickly this year to do a couple of things at the Steampunk World's Fair this weekend.  My schedule:

Friday, Embassy Suites Ballroom, 8:00-9:00: Victorian Dance Lesson

Friday, Embassy Suites Ballroom, 9:00-10:00: Victorian Ballroom Dancing

Saturday, Embassy Suites Ballroom, 2:30-3:30: Victorian Dance Etiquette

Yes, there's sort of a theme here. 

For the etiquette class I'll discuss ballroom manners and dance cards and teach people how to bow or curtsy in proper Victorian style.

I'll be around at the Fair in between these and into Saturday evening, but probably will go home that night since I have a million things to do to get ready for Balticon (Steampunk Ball!  Hoopdance!  Martian Croquet!)  I'm hoping to see/hear Professor Elemental perform, but otherwise I have no special plans except enjoying myself.  I will probably be underdressed relative to everyone else.

As usual, I'd love to say hi to any Rixo readers; catch me at the end of one of my sessions for best results.

Once More, Kalamazoo

I'll be in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for a very fast trip Thursday evening and Friday morning this week to deliver a paper at the 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies.  I'm part of session 243, Friday morning at 10:00, "Long Ago and Far Away: Intra-European Perspectives on Early Modern Dance" sponsored by Early Dance at Kalamazoo.  My paper is called "Expressions of Medievalism in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Dance Manuals" and is unofficially known as "look what those clowns did to the pavane!"  My co-presenters are Thea Frank speaking about the dance Quanto Dyspayne from 17th century England and Michael Cramer, discussing reconstructing masques.

I'll be heading out immediately after my session, so anyone who wants to hang out with me at the Congress should let me know in advance so we can plan to meet Thursday night.

Gazebo in Spring

Seventeen months later, my gazebo is still standing, and has acquired furnishings.

Wedding fun

A lot of people seem to be getting married lately.  Earlier this evening it was the turn of my friends Alexia and Mike.  Alexia's one of my dance students, and Mike used to be the roommate of another of my dance students, which seems to be enough of a connection for Mike to give me some sort of indirect credit for their meeting and thus their current and future happiness.  This is the third couple in the last few years that's claimed they met through my dance stuff.  Can I figure out a way to use this in advertising?

Pilobilus (Shubert Theater, New Haven, April 30, 2010)

Despite their being resident in Connecticut, I'd never before seen Pilobilus perform.  This evening's playbill explains Pilobilus as "a phototropic zygomycete -- a fungus that grows in barnyards and pastures...It is also a highly unusual dance company."  That's a bit of an understatement.  It seems like a sort of bastard child of modern dance and contact improvisation with costumes and some creepy undertones.

That's not a bad thing, though it's not something I'm likely to get terribly excited about.  It was interesting to watch a dance performance and admire the skill and creativity of the dancers and choreographers while remaining emotionally uninvolved except for occasionally being a bit disturbed.  It was certainly a unique experience for me.