Cover-a-Week #39: "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King

Here's another ukulele video! It's another foray into more old-school material:



http://youtu.be/iPJV9PwKLLE

And as mentioned in the video, if you're a dancer in New York these few weeks, you should definitely check out Midsummer Night Swing!

Jazz Age Lawn Party

I haven't indulged in historical costuming for quite a while -- ever since I finished college, I haven't had much occasion to do so. Yesterday, however, I went with a contingent of friends to the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island. The "party" is a twice-a-year festival celebrating the spirit of the 1920s in America, complete with a live jazz band, a dance floor, and merchants of all stripes -- from food vendors a cut above the ubiquitous to milliners, cobblers, and tailors. People dress up in their best Prohibition-era garb to picnic on the lawn. I had a lot of fun -- too much fun to take many pictures, considering it was definitely a photo-worthy event.

A photo of the jazz band and their vocalist, taken from the dance floor. You can see some of the garb, like that of the man wearing the beribboned hat and waistcoat, which was just excellent.

Two talented dancers (whom I don't know) performing on the dance floor. The Lawn Party was well-attended by people I recognize from swing dancing in New York. (Also, as is evident from the onlookers in the background, there were people who looked like tourists as well as people dressed for the occasion.)

This is the only picture of me that I have from the event, taken by my friend Mike. It doesn't afford the best view of the dress, which I found in a thrift shop for about $12. Aside from altering it for length, it required very little adjustment for the era; the pleats, the shimmery material, and the cut were all period-appropriate.

And this is a view of lower Manhattan from the Governor's Island ferry as we departed the festival. The skyline has changed in the past few years; the spire and glass facade of One World Trade still takes some getting used to. But this is still New York, still beautiful, and still home.

Cover-a-Week #17: "Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton

Now with a new external microphone -- thanks, Lucas, Brett, Kat, and Julie!


http://youtu.be/rE7GX7m7nrk

Jonathan Coulton, in my books, is the new Tom Lehrer for the nerdy set. (Is that redundant? The original Tom Lehrer was a mathematician...)

I played this song about a year ago with the band at Stanford's Big Dance, as the tempo works for swing. (I can hardly believe it's been a year since I left California!) The social dance community had a tremendous overlap with the engineering (especially computer science) community, so it was quite well-received. :-)

Cover-a-Week #15: "Scarborough Fair" (traditional)

For May Day (a week ago, yes), I thought I'd dial a few centuries back in time and play a seasonally appropriate song from 1600s England:


http://youtu.be/O8BnL41eN08

It was originally written as a duet, consisting of two lovers making impossible demands of each other (in the true spirit of courtly love!). Since it would probably sound a bit schizophrenic with a single vocalist -- not to mention, that version is twice as long -- I've cut a few verses.

This would be a great song to waltz to, I think.

Social Dance in New York

One of the things I miss most about college is social dance. I was told by people in the Bay Area dance community that there is little waltz in New York, but a lot of good swing dancing. I've attended exactly one dance event in the city thus far; I enjoyed it, even though the turnout was unusually low (thanks to a rainstorm), but noticed that the style here is rather different (more structured, for one).

I came across this article about swing dancing in the city:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/arts/dance/swing-dance-clubs-go-retro-in-new-york-city.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Of course, this means I'll have to really learn how to swing if I'm to dance here. (I know enough to hold my own for a few dances, but I was always more of a waltz person.) There are also classes at a lot of New York dance halls, but that's a whole other level of commitment.

Thoughts on the Past Four Years, Part 2

It's rare, I think, to encounter a person who recalls her college years with no regrets whatsoever. (Of course, it is often said that mistakes are learning experiences, that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, &c. I have no quarrel with such statements.) Most regrets, and certainly most of mine, are results of omission -- things I wish I'd done, or wish I'd done sooner, and didn't. I describe them here mostly to set my own thoughts in order, but also in hopes that it might prove instructive for readers, in any stage of life. To wit...

I wish I'd decided on the humanities earlier. I sometimes tell people that I "wasted" four quarters (that's about 1.3 academic years, for those of you more familiar with semester schools) on pre-med, that I wish I hadn't waited until the middle of my sophomore year to switch to a history major. I put the verb "waste" in quotation marks because I think, of course, that medicine as a profession or a field of study is itself eminently worthwhile -- and in general, science for its own sake is a wonderful thing. I only mean it in the most pragmatic of terms for myself; I had a finite number of quarters at university, and the sooner I chose my major(s), the sooner I could begin immersing myself in the classes and community that comes with them. There were quite a few humanities classes that I wish I could have taken, but I never had the time for, because I had to be very careful with intra-major distribution requirements and such (seeing as I knew it would be a very close call trying to essentially complete two majors in fewer than three years). Declaring my major as late in the game as I did -- I declared my first major literally a week before the absolute final deadline year -- led to a few other regrets...

I wish I'd made more friends in the humanities. My friend circle(s), in university, were populated largely by engineers and other techies. A majority of them are computer scientists, with somewhat overlapping swaths of mathematicians, physicists, and mechanical engineers. I was -- only somewhat jokingly, methinks -- designated the group's "token fuzzy." This was largely due to circumstance. Because I had been taking a lot of math and science as a freshman, I ended up meeting most of my friends in those classes, and through them meeting more engineers, and so on. (Another common source of college friends is one's freshman dorm, but the majority of my dorm enjoyed alcohol, parties in loud and dark rooms, and other social pursuits that didn't interest me.) By the time I'd "turned fuzzy" in the middle of sophomore year, most of my classmates already had established friend groups, as did I.

It's not that I wish I had a different group of friends, or that I would somehow "trade" them for others, if I could -- I am very glad of the friends I have made. It's merely that it got tiring, or isolating, sometimes, to be with people who talked mostly about the intricacies of computer science and such over dinner -- which would often fly right over my head, because my friends are incredible at what they do, and even if they weren't, I would have been hard-pressed tell. I occasionally got lonely for people who appreciated the beauty of not only well-written proofs and elegant code, but also particular turns of phrase or feats of argumentative brilliance. It sometimes seemed that we didn't have enough in common for me to converse with them as meaningfully as they did amongst themselves; I sometimes feared that I didn't -- couldn't -- know them in the way that they knew each other, and that perhaps the reverse was true as well. ("Sometimes" is the operative word, here; my social experience was by and large a happy one.)

I wish I'd stepped down my involvement in the debate team earlier. To be clear -- I really enjoy debate. As anyone who knows me can attest, I can be argumentative at the drop of a hat, often for the sheer fun of it. That's why I stayed with the team for so long. I'd been considering -- and waffling about -- quitting in part because I wasn't sure where else I could get the same quality of discussion of, and intellectual engagement with, the type of topics that debaters so love. (See the above point about divergent interests. Techies by and large don't consider political/legal theory good dinner conversation.) But by the end of junior year, I was quite burnt out. Travelling for debate tournaments meant that I was off-campus from Thursday evening to Sunday morning two or three times a quarter, which meant that I often forwent fun weekend activities (like dancing and films) with my largely non-debating friends. I'd been a debater since high school, and I'd felt the onset of debate fatigue since the beginning of junior year. I hung in there for another year more out of habit and sunk-cost syndrome (which is a psychological factor, as any economist can tell you) than out of true passion. In retrospect, if I hadn't done debate in college, or even if I had quit earlier, I would have been forced (by my own restlessness) to find other activities, and might have ended up involved in several that I rather wish I'd done more of while I had the chance. (Of course, debate wasn't the only reason for my not doing some of the things I wish I did; see below...)

I wish I'd been more involved in the following activities:

(a) Wushu: For the uninitiated, Wushu is a Chinese martial art that, as practiced today, is a sport and an art form, much like karate, capoeira, or gymnastics. I started going to practices the beginning of my freshman year, having had some training in gymnastics when I was small, and some competitive swimming when I was slightly less small, and not much idea of what I was getting myself into, other than that I'd gone to a demonstration and it looked really cool. (Plus, weapons! Eventually. Weapons are generally a plus for me.)

The problem was, practices were twice a week in the evenings, with one practice falling on Friday. Because I would have to fly to debate tournaments on Thursday evenings, I would have to miss practices -- and as a complete newcomer to the activity where quite a few people had been doing it for years, skipping practice wasn't a good idea. It came to the point where I had to choose between debate and Wushu. As evidenced, I chose debate. (If I had chosen Wushu instead, my college lifestyle would undoubtedly have been healthier, come to think of it.)

(b) Social dance: I've written a few blog posts about this, I think. My friend group started dancing around the end of my freshman year and the beginning of sophomore year. I was one of the last people to get involved, because I was a bit shy about it (not in a gender-normative way, mind you -- social dance is less old-fashioned than one might expect). This in itself became a sticking point for me, as it quickly became apparent at dance events that I was somewhat less experienced, and I was always a tad concerned that my friends might get bored dancing with me.

Again, one of the problems that appeared was that there are weekly dance events (Friday Night Waltz), which, as the name suggests, occur on Friday nights. To be fair, the issue wasn't solely debate -- I often had assignments due on Fridays that I, for one reason or another, found myself finishing on Friday evenings, right before the deadline (yes, probably my own fault, I know). I tried to counteract the inevitable deadly silence of working in my room while my friends were out dancing with Midnight Pie, wherein I started baking an hour or two before midnight and invited everyone over for post-waltz pie. It was conceptually lovely, but practically dicey, because my dancer friends had their own conflicting ritual, namely post-waltz boba or burgers. Having leftover pie at the end of the night is not actually a good thing -- the first thought that comes to mind isn't "breakfast tomorrow will be awesome" so much as "it would have been nice if I'd had enough people over to finish the pie."

Ultimately, I think I enjoyed the dance community a little more than I did the actual activity itself (though I do like dancing quite a bit!). It's one of the things I'll miss most about Stanford, and like the below, I wish I'd had more time with it.

(c) Musical theatre: During my senior year, I was costume director for a musical that one of my friends co-wrote. I'd been recruited on the basis of a Tudor gown I'd made in junior year; my friend had seen me wearing it in the hallway of our dorm, and he immediately offered me the position. (Well, the real story is funnier: he wasn't quite ready to recruit his production crew at that point, so he said to me very excitedly, "Remind me to ask you something in six months!" without giving any indication of what it was he'd intended to ask. I knew about the musical at that point, but didn't quite connect the dots until he actually offered me the position months later.)

Anyhow, a number of people involved in the show asked my why I didn't try out -- these included one of the co-writers, some of the cast and crew, and a few of the adults working in the theatre housing the production. See, I have the occasional habit (an oxymoron?) of humming or singing as I sew and do other such repetitive tasks. Ergo, I was mistaken for a cast member several times, mostly while sitting on the edge of the stage before dress rehearsals, stitching under the stage lights and singing to myself. I ended up giving different reasons to different people; I alternately explained that (1) I had my hands full with costuming, and didn't think I could feasibly be in both cast and crew, (2) I didn't have stage-acting experience, (3) the musical is set in 1840s Nantucket and I would be visually unconvincing as a whaler's wife. (These appear to be listed in order of decreasing validity. Especially the last -- it's an excuse, and I know it.) But the question got me thinking -- I've been interested in musical theatre for most of my life. If I'd come to it earlier -- before I'd filled my extracurricular slate, at a time when I could reasonably expect to be involved in the community for two or three years -- would I have done it? Would my undergraduate years have been richer for it?

(d) Music: Speaking of music, as I'd mentioned months earlier, I got a ukulele over winter break, whereupon I basically spent the rest of my holiday learning to play it. Seeing as I sing, write poetry, and newly learned the ukulele, the next logical step was to start writing songs. I finished my first not long after I returned to school, and then wrote another, and another. Sometime soon thereafter, two of my friends were DJing a dance event and, seeing as they knew quite a few musicians, decided that it would be fun to have some live music. When we were rehearsing, I played one of the songs I wrote for some of these musician-friends, who thought it would be fun to play at the dance. (I didn't actually tell them I'd written it until halfway through the rehearsal.) That was the beginning.

We started meeting up semi-regularly to jam. There were also gigs -- I performed solo a few times at English department events and arts events around campus, and with the group (its number and composition changed a few times in the months we were active). We played with a volunteer organization a few times. Our largest audience was at Big Dance, which is, as the name implies, the major social dance event occurring annually in the spring; we played a half-hour set for a hundred or so dancers. Then one of our other friend approached us with his class project -- he wanted to record some of the songs I'd written, in a studio. And so we did.

This thing, this music thing -- which started out as a few lyrics and tunes on my uke, in my bedroom -- became so much more than I'd expected. I wish I'd had more time to play with this group, to actually get together for a composition session, to put a few years into it while I was in college. It feels like we got nipped in the bud by graduation, right as things were just getting going. It'll be much harder to start over in a "new" city, outside of a college environment, without the people I'd been playing with these few months.

I'll devote a separate post to music and songwriting and ukuleles one of these days. I have some videos from Big Dance, some audio tracks (as I'd mentioned). But this post is long enough as is, so I'll leave it here for now.

Happy Pi(e) Day, or, Things I Have Baked This Year

In honor of Pi Day, I thought I'd post the list of stuff I've baked thus far. (I love having a kitchen!) Many of these were done at Midnight Pie (after Friday Night Waltz). Midnight Pie is an event I first cooked up (no pun intended) last quarter. Because there were several weeks where I was unable to attend FNW due to midnight paper deadlines, I invited friends over for post-waltz pie instead. It became A Thing last quarter, and less so this quarter, but I'm really hoping to bring it back.

Anyhow, the list:

apple pie (x6)
blackberry-pear pie
blueberry-blackberry pie
chocolate chip cookie scones (they were meant to be cookies, but came out more like scones)
apple-banana-walnut pie (x2)
pumpkin pie (x3 -- twice with canned pumpkin, once with fresh pumpkin)
gingerbread
cranberry macadamia chocolate chip cookies
"apple" pound cake with strawberry jam and green icing
potatoes

One of these things is not like the others.

Note: most of these (the pies, at least) are modifications of recipes given me by my dear friend John, who's much better at all of this than I am.

DDR, Regency-Style

From HistoricLOL:

I am amused.

(DDR is the only video game I've really played and am any good at.)

Viennese Ball, Part II (a.k.a. The Adventure of the Dress)

The second Viennese post, with a picture, as promised:

From left to right: Melanie, myself, Caroline, Julie, Caitlin (yes, the chromatic arrangement was intentional)

So, the Adventure of the Dress (sounds like a Sherlock Holmes story, doesn't it?):

I stayed at Julie's place for a few days at the beginning of Winter Break. (She lives very close to Stanford.) We decided, the day I went over to crash at my uncle's place, to go exploring in San Francisco. We also decided to be extremely girly, and go thrift shopping. Our last stop was at a Salvation Army store. I found a nice sweater, she found a pair of jeans, and then I wandered by the section with ballgowns and out of the corner of my eye, spotted something made of purple brocade.

See, Julie makes no secret of her love of the color purple. So, I pulled out this pretty ballgown and decided that she absolutely had to try it on. So I barge into her dressing room with gown in hand, and proclaim, "I have found you a dress for Viennese!"

She tries it on, but it's just a little too tight and a little too short, which is very sad news indeed. So she decides that I should try it on, and lo and behold, it fits like a glove. The conversation went something like this:

Julie: It fits like a glove! And it's eight bucks! You should get it!
Me: I don't know if I'm going to Viennese; I might not ever wear it.
Julie: You should go to Viennese! Everyone should go to Viennese at least once.
Me: I don't even have a date!
Julie: If I didn't already have a boyfriend, I'd go with you!
Me: Hmm... I could crossdress. I have 1800s black tie menswear in my closet somewhere. But I can't lead.
Julie: I can lead.
Me: It would be interesting and optically confusing for the other participants if you wore a dress and led, and I wore pants and followed.
Julie: But what about this dress? *holds up purple gown*
Me: Oh, right. That.

So I bought the dress. Then I showed it to my sister on Skype, and she said it looked like an apron. Which, given the neckline, was not a completely inaccurate assessment. It really looked a bit like a floor-length qipao mated with a painter's smock (smock top, qipao bottom). So I decided to alter the neckline into something that looked a bit more gown-like. The end result is shown above.

And then I found a date. I asked my friend Remington (or well, I asked him, rather indirectly, if he was planning on attending), and he said no, but then Caitlin and friends pestered him into going, and so he came and asked me, and I said yes. And so I went to Viennese Ball.

Viennese Ball/Stanford Invitational 2011, i.e. My-Life-is-Crazy-But-Sometimes-Fun Week (and-a-Half)

Not to complain, but it has been brought to my attention that some of you either (a) think I've disappeared off the face of the earth, or (b) are rather concerned for my continued sanity and well-being. I thought I'd share with you this particular slice of my life.

Last weekend, as I've mentioned, I was at a debate tournament. I flew out of SFO on Thursday night, and got back to Stanford on Sunday morning. Seeing as I was home for Chinese New Year, I got absolutely no work done.

Last week, I had two midterms and two papers due. I also somehow got involved in coaching some freshman in an archaeology class for an in-class debate they're having next week.

Last night, I was at Viennese Ball. I took a quarter of Social Dance I last year, mostly because a lot of my friends seemed to enjoy it. I'm not crazy about it like some of them are (I know some really amazing dancers), but I'm competent enough, I'd say, to enjoy a ball. I might put up a picture or two eventually. The dress itself was an adventure.

This weekend, I'm helping run a debate tournament -- that is, the annual Stanford High School Invitational Debate Tournament. If you were ever on the national circuit in high school speech and debate, you know what I'm talking about. It's an influx of over a thousand people on our campus. We work from 7:00am-2:00am on Saturday and Sunday (that's right, am). And then I have a 10:00am class on Monday.

So. I'm very sorry that I haven't really been hanging out with people lately. It's not you, it's me. :)

Regency Costuming: The Aftermath

I thought people might be interested in seeing the final product, so here are some pictures of me at the dance, courtesy of Lucas:

Yes, I know it's not accurate in that it's sleeveless. Puffy sleeves of the Regency persuasion are ridiculously annoying to make, not to mention that they're really difficult to render in such a way as to allow free movement of the shoulder. I decided that if some people were allowed to come as zombies, I was certainly allowed a bit of artistic license.

And here's a full body picture, with a shawl. You can see the ruffles along the bottom edge. (I did them by hand, and it took forever!) And the guy whose face you can see on the right is the social dance instructor here, Richard Powers. He's sort of a mini-celebrity on campus.

The Evolution of Women's Fashion through the Regency and Victorian Eras

http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/ppbrokil.html#ppoth

More costuming! The above diagram is just great; not only do you get surprisingly good detail at the given scale (click on it), you also get to compare the silhouettes by decade-ish. I'm going for somewhere between the second and third figures, myself. (Thank goodness it's a Regency ball. Some of the Victorian ones are insane; I don't know how I'd walk in one of those gigantic bustle/hobble skirt numbers, let alone dance!)

The History of Opera Gloves

I'm making myself a Regency ballgown (for the Stanford Big Dance, which is the big social dance event of the quarter); the theme of the dance is "Pride and PrejuDance and Zombies". As you know (well, now you do) any Regency ballgown requires a pair of opera gloves. I ordered them online (Here's to hoping that they arrive in time!), since I don't pretend to know how to fit opera gloves, nor do I have the time to. Anyhow, here is an article on the history of said gloves:

http://www.operagloves.com/history.html

Expect a smattering of posts on Regency costuming in the coming days; costuming resources, you know.