Scattered Thoughts on My Relationship With Dancing

courtesty of http://www.benbradleyphotography.com/

1. The annual swing dance weekend Lindy on the Rocks happens in Denver soon. I had a very small role in the creation of this event in that I pushed the organizers as hard as I knew how to host a dance event in Denver that featured classes AND competitions. The inaugural LOTR was a big success and the event is now in its 9th year. I haven't attended in years and am nervous to go, but every year I really regret not going. I know I will be rusty and will almost certainly never reach the level of dance that I once held myself to, but I miss the dance, I miss the friends I made there, and most of all, I miss the music and the energy.

2. My facebook feed still leans heavily dance. Most days, my dance friends' posts make me smile. Unfortunately this one made me cringe.

This photo comes not from an anti pointe website but from the Pacific Northwest Ballet's facebook fan page. Dance owes much to ballet. Ballet was one of the first dance forms that allowed at least a few dancers to make their living as dancers. But ballet's legacy is also one of pain, especially for women. Even properly done, dancing "en pointe" leads to lifelong foot damage. This photo does not make me long to see ballerinas en pointe, beautiful though they may be. It makes me absolutely positive that if I have a daughter, that I'll expose her to every dance form except ballet.

For a long time I kept this quote on my computer:

“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.” ― Rumi

I always thought of it metaphorically. Photos such as the one above make me reconsider.

3. A few nights ago while volunteering at a screening of Girl Rising at the Denver Pavillions movie theater, a woman I didn't know recognized me and said, "Truman, you are a dancer!" She complimented my dancing and then went inside to watch the movie. As she walked away I was tempted to say, "You know I'm not really a dancer anymore," but as I stood there basking in my annual D rate celebrity recognition, I realized that even though I almost never dance these days, I will always view life through the lens of a dancer.

The Daybreakers

It's been 15 months since I've written anything here. A few small things have happened since then (I got engaged, bought a house, had some work changes, etc) in that time. Perhaps I'll catch readers up at some point down the road.

Last night Amanda and I checked out Black and Read, a used music, book, and board game store in Arvada that is so overrun with geek memorabilia, it might soon appear on the tv show Hoarders.

As I walked down dusty aisles overflowing with books stacked behind boxes of more books, I came across a row of Louis L'Amour novels and was instantly transported back to my Grandma Margaret Turnbull's house in Kingsport, Tennessee, where as a child I read and reread the entire L'Amour catalog. These were some of the first adult books I remember discovering and although I wonder now if they would read as cliched as their covers appear, growing up I loved getting lost amidst high mesas and desperate situations.

To adolescent me, L'Amour's books were about heroes, hard men who were quick on the draw and even quicker to defend the honor of any man woman or child along the way. One of my favorites was Flint, about a dying man who moves back west to live out his last days in peace---until he gets caught up defending a beautiful rancher from land grabbers and assassins.

Discovering these books in my Grandma's basement was one of the first bonds I remember feeling with her. A stern seeming woman of few words, Grandma was my least favorite grandparent. Now she is the one I identify with the most. My father more than once said that Grandma was born too early, that had she been born in another time, she would have run a company rather than just served as bookkeeper for one. The older I get, the more I wish I could go back and build a stronger relationship with her; to know her as an adult. She has been dead nearly eight years so there's not much chance of that. These days I find myself thinking back to those few days each year in Tennessee, laying in bed in the near darkness before dawn, waiting for Grandma to walk down the hall and start a pot of coffee--the signal that another day could start. I'd creep downstairs too then, and with the rest of the family still abed, the two of us would sit in the kitchen reading westerns.

The annual Christmas list

What'd I'd really like is for our dog to stop eating the couch. Not sure they had any Black Friday specials on that...So I'm 30 now and honestly I have everything I need. I have just enough sweaters to fit into an awesome new (for us) armoire that Amanda and I refinished. That said, several people have asked me for a christmas list. Here are a few things that make me drool.

Matching fitted dress shirts (button down collar please) and ties or just ties to match the shirts I already own. I'm a size 15.5 34/35

A six to eight inch chopping knife. 

This cell phone case

A tie tack such as this

A sandcast turquoise Belt Buckle such as this

Rolling carry-on Luggage (22 x 16 x 9). Please not black (or at least let it be patterned).

Massages

T-Shirts like this or this or this

Your favorite cds or any of these: The Gossip Music For Men, Muse The Resistance Ceremonials by Florence & The Machine
Striped or argyle socks (I'm a size 10)

Oh yeah, I remember nights like this

Stay tuned for a post about this badass artist

The past 18 months have absolutely flown by. I moved to Denver (with my girlfriend!), jumped into a startup business in Colorado's most ridiculous industry, turned the bottom line from red to black, finished my MBA, and adopted an insane dog. Amanda finished law school and then took and passed the heinous bar exam. Since then we've crammed as much fun into the summer and fall as possible. It's been fun but recently I've been feeling worn out.

For the past two nights, Amanda's been gone and I've taken the opportunity to be lazy. Tonight I put game 7 of the World Series on, listened to new music, and trolled the interwebs, just as I used to do before grad school. God it feels good to do nothing sometimes.

Tonight I discovered the song 1 by Joy Zipper while listening to some commercial. Honestly it makes a better ad ditty than a stand alone song but right now it's serving as the perfect soundtrack to a nice laid back  evening with Lance Berkman and the puppies.

Review of A Dance With Dragons

Posted also on Goodreads.

Many will not like A Dance With Dragons. I and others are still bitter that books 4 and 5 were split based on worlds--at this point clearly a failure that jars the reader. Obviously Dragons continues along these longitudinal lines.

More importantly though, in Dragons George R.R. Martin departs from a number of themes established in past Ice & Fire books. But did you really want to read another tome detailing yet another war party raid along the trident? Past books had shown a tendency toward devolving into rape, murder, and heads on stakes, which is all well and good but we are over 3000 pages into the series. Mindless violence groweth stale.

Enter Dragons, set in a largely new land for us readers. For the first time in the series, Martin introduces quest themes. He also spends more time letting us read our heroes' thoughts, and not just watching their actions. At this point we have seen them defined by actions and we want more: More depth and more character development. Dragons delivers. Here too, are just enough new characters to bolster the favorites we longed for in A Feast for Crows. There are also underpinnings of romance, something alluded to but rarely explored in books 1-4. As for specific stories, Jon Snow's is great and Arya's is one of the best yet. You'll still get plenty of the violence, intrigue, and insane plot twists that you've come to expect. Just as you didn't like the outcome of every confrontation in Book 1, you may not like what you read here. Isn't that what drew you in though?

The book is flawed, as are most of this length. Daenerys's tale wallows, as it has now for some time. Dorne is still relegated to a bench warming position, and the book spends almost too much time in the distant past. But make no mistake this book is great. It is a rambling epic that brings us into a world increasingly different from reality in ways that delight the mind. The magic is inventive, the twists epic, and the writing is quite nice too.

Dragons injects life into a series that frankly needed it. To be a success, book six will have to put the pressure cooker on, leading to the epic climax in the final book that we've all been waiting for. Although as any fan of the series knows, at George's age and pace, it might just be a success if book six gets written. I for one will enjoy reading Dragons half a hundred times more while I wait.

Dog

A while ago, Amanda and I adopted what turned out to be a neurotic rescue dog from the German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue in Penrose, CO.

For the first time since getting Emmy the dog, Amanda and i are going to leave her as we embark on a five day four night vacation tour of Colorado. Our friend Fernando has quixotically agreed to housesit. This may go horribly.

Weekend Odds:
Fernando says never again: 33%
Emmy pees inside: 60%
Olivia bites Fernando: 70%
Fernando teaches Emmy to stay: 15%
Fernando can figure out Roxy's cat feeder: 66%
Olivia eats anything in the first 36 hours we are gone: 25%

It's 3:30am and omg the interwebs are awesome.

I really am serious that I would not choose another time period to be born in than this. Humanity has jumped the shark. Thanks Awkardfamilypetphotos.

(Slow) Dancing with Dragons

After a 5 year hiatus George R.R. Martin finally finished writing A Dance With Dragons, book five of seven in the Fire and Ice series. The interwebs are all a-twitter with fantasy lovers shelling out $19 for advance hardback copies. I have been anxiously awaiting this book since a friend turned me on to the series about four years ago.

I've actually decided to wait a bit longer on the book.

1. I'm rereading the series (again) and still have Feast For Crows remaining. 
2. I often read in bed and hardback books are cumbersome and uncomfortable to rest on my chest.
3. I'm cheap and would rather pay $7-$10 for a used copy than the $18 for a new one.
4. I quixotically believe that I can keep the spoiler blinders on for another three months. 

Amanda is an awesome person

I am frequently inspired by Amanda. Here's one example:

Amanda is extremely busy preparing for finals for her last semester in law school. She is working part time, volunteering with multiple orgs, helping my business, and interviewing for other jobs. She rarely gets enough sleep and I know that her workload has been immense.

Even with all that, she decided to organize a dinner for the cleaning staff at the law school. These fifteen or so people come every evening and work till around midnight vacuuming, sweeping, etc. Most law students don't even acknowledge their existence. Tonight Amanda honored their work by providing a tasty tamale dinner.

banana response

Yesterday I posted an open letter regarding Del Monte's packaged bananas but apparently I emailed the wrong Del Monte. Here is the response:

Dear Truman,

Thank you for your e-mail about packaged bananas.

The story you are referring to involves Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc, not Del Monte Foods. Del Monte Foods is one of the USA's largest producers, distributors and marketers of premium quality branded consumer foods and pet products. Our line of processed fruit products includes canned fruits, as well as premium processed chilled fruit sold in the produce section of your store. For a full list of our chilled fruit products, visit http://www.delmontechilledfruit.com/fruit-products/

Del Monte Foods is not affiliated with Fresh Delmonte, a company that markets fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and fresh produce under the Del Monte brand. The product you contacted us about is not made by our company, but instead is a product of Fresh Del Monte. Their website is www.freshdelmonte.com, and their contact information is:

Del Monte Fresh Produce Co.
P.O. Box 14922 2
Coral Gables, FL 33114-9222

email: Contact-US-Executive-Office@freshdelmonte.com
Consumer toll free number: 1-800-950-3683

I appreciate the opportunity to respond and hope this information is helpful.

Cathy, Del Monte Foods Consumer Affairs

Open Letter to Del Monte: Why you are no longer top banana

Thanks to Adventures in Denver (aka Amanda) for this bit of news regarding Del Monte's plan to sell packaged individual bananas. Oh and did you know that this move is being touted by the company as green? You can read blatant attempt at doublespeak in an article posted by Daily Mail. The only thing green about this bogus new plan is the banana itself. Ahem,

I'm writing in response to the unveiling, or should I say the repackaging of your flagship product, the banana. I won't bore you by stating facts that you already know, that the banana comes off the tree clad in a perfect wrapper already, etc.

What is upsetting is that you are touting this wrapper as green. It's not green, it's wasteful and unnecessary. Telling us, your consumers that it's green is simply insulting because it implies that we're stupid.

Selling bananas at gyms and gas stations is a great idea. But please don't  waste this planet. Please consider a return to naked fruit.

When you do, I'll consider buying your brand of products again.

No Shortcuts to the Top

I recently finished reading the aforementioned book by Ed Viesturs, the first American to summit all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks. His feat is even more impressive when you consider that he did so without using supplemental oxygen. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in motivation, climbing, and patience. Since I'm very interested in two out of three, this proved to be a great read. What struck me most was the measured and careful way in which Ed climbed. Upon discovering that conditions were simply too dangerous to continue climbing, Ed repeatedly turned around to await a safer opportunity, often doing so less than 400 feet from the summit. Unlike so many climbers who have pushed themselves way too far, allowed themselves to get started late, or failed to put in the hard work training, Ed time and again refuses to make these completely avoidable missteps. Everyone loves a good adventure story and climbers such as Reinhold Messner, Maurice Herzog, and Herman Buhl deliver exactly these but these are climbers who have pushed themselves well beyond any acceptable risk threshold and as a result, it's hard for me to relate. As Viesturs penned frequently in 'No Shortcuts,' "Getting to the top is optional; getting down is mandatory." In my next post I'll be compiling a list of Climbing dos and don'ts but for now, suffice to say that I have a new hero.