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The bouncy young woman dancing at the very front near the end of the video caught my eye. She makes the others -- especially the men -- look so wooden and stiff.

Intended effect?

Overheard: rhhardin

"The third world desparately needs new moves, some commenter said
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVAU52G7ork&feature=related&gl=GB&hl=en-GB "

Deal with it

Kim Jong Un hosts dance party to celebrate missile launch

Associated Press  August 25, 2016

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea marked its “Military First” holiday on Thursday with mass dancing, outdoor concerts and boasts of a successful — and potentially game-changing — submarine-launched ballistic missile test that it hopes will serve as a warning to Washington and Seoul to stop holding joint military exercises that Pyongyang sees as a dress rehearsal for invasion.

Television news broadcasts and the front pages of morning newspapers Thursday showed images of the launch, conducted in the early hours the day before. The test sent a Pukguksong missile soaring from a submerged position off the North’s port city of Sinpo. It flew an estimated 500 kilometers (310 miles) toward the seas around Japan, the longest distance it has yet achieved in a submarine launch.

Kim was shown smiling and hugging officials after watching the test from an observation deck. He was quoted by state media as calling it the “success of all successes,” though it brought immediate condemnation from the United States and the North’s neighbors.

Launching long-range ballistic missiles from submarines is stealthier than land launching. Having that capability could significantly strengthen Pyongyang’s ability to conduct strikes on US positions in South Korea, and possibly on US bases in Japan as well.

KLEM FM After Dark

linky poo

The song was a local hit for the L.A. band The Seeds.

Saturday Night Dance Video

(Moon Boots Remix)

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link in case the video doesn't load

Does any song better capture the past mid-century mood of America?  Please cast your votes in the comments.

Saturday Night Dance Video

"I love clubs and now I am over them..."

"this is just like a good way for me to go out and get hot and sweaty and not have to wear stupid shoes and dress like a whore," she said."

Partying before breakfast? It's not everyone's cup of tea. But it is the concept behind "Daybreakers," early-morning raves becoming increasingly popular in the United States

"It flips the switch on what everyone knows and used to love in my opinion, which is: you go, you get drunk, you maybe meet somebody, you hook up, you have fun with your friends, you go home, you're hungover the next day," he [Andre Herd, the producer behind the event] told AFP.

But unlike a regular rave, there is no alcohol or drugs: the strongest stimulant available in Los Angeles is coffee, with fruit juices the drink of choice at the bar.

There is, of course, a DJ to keep the rhythms coming.

"I went to put in a complaint and the killer was with us"

"After the bodies of the reigning Miss Honduras, 19-year-old Maria Jose Alvarado, and her sister Sofia, 23, were discovered early in the day, police announced that the sister's boyfriend had confessed to killing them last week in a fit of jealousy over his girlfriend dancing with another man."

"She was simple, humble, a total innocent smiling and without malice," said Ludin Reyes, a fellow student at the Technical University of Honduras.

At some point during the night of Nov. 13, a heated argument broke out over the sister dancing with another man and Ruiz pulled a gun, firing first at his girlfriend and then at Alvarado as she tried to flee, said the National Police director, Gen. Ramon Sabillon. Alvarado was hit twice in the back.

Claudio Cecilio Munoz, an uncle of the sisters, said Ruiz came to the family's modest house on a dirt road the day after the young women disappeared to invite them to lunch, and returned several days to help with the search. He described Ruiz not as a boyfriend, but as someone who was courting his niece.

"We didn't file a complaint right away because we were waiting for a telephone call asking for ransom," Munoz said. "On Saturday their mother and I went to put in a complaint and the killer was with us."

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I think that's a Smokey Robinson song in the background. Our local expert, darcy, could confirm this.

A while back I started wondering when and why it was that rock and roll music lost it's danceability.  See here for example. That was from 1956 when partner dancing was still going strong. Tonight's video purports to be from 1964, ten 8 years after.  I'm closing in on a more exact date.

Papa Americano

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I promised to go back to 1958, but I'm skipping back to 1956 first. This video shows (I think) the transitory nature of rock and roll in 1956. What's there in 1956 certainly wasn't there in 1951 (or maybe it was -- in pieces, constituted differently). And it wasn't like this in 1964. The late 1950's rock and roll was a transitory phase -- on its way to someplace else. Oddly, I thought the same way about the SS Great Eastern, the most famous ship to have sails, paddle wheels and a screw propeller -- literally the past, present and future of ship propulsion. I subsequently thought the same way about evolutionary "missing links." Their existence is so fleeting and chimerical that it's no wonder there is no fossil record of them.
_____________________
The video gives a great snapshot of the extant "lingo" in 1956.

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By 1964, concerted couples dancing had largely disappeared, replaced by individuality, as this clip from a then little known band shows.

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The song is from 1958, but I suspect the fashions date the footage as 1960's era. Maybe deborah can help here.

A question for you serious music people: What exactly was it that changed in rock and roll which led to the decline in dancing?  It's not the time signature, but it must be rhythmic in nature. Listen to the drumming: it has more swing than swagger. The latter led to the stand-in-place, look-at-me solipsism which characterized rock music post 1950's.

How I love tap

"New York police to city's subway acrobats: siddown"

The Guardian: The New York Police Department is cracking down on the subway showmen who use the tight quarters of the nation's busiest transit system as moving stages for impromptu — and illegal — pass-the-hat performances. More than 240 people have been arrested on misdemeanors related to acrobatics so far this year, compared with fewer than 40 at this time a year ago.

Police Commissioner William Bratton acknowledges he is targeting subway acrobats as part of his embrace of the "broken windows" theory of policing — that low-grade lawlessness can cultivate a greater sense of disorder and embolden more dangerous offenders.

"Is it a significant crime? Certainly not," Bratton said recently. But the question is, he added, "Does it have the potential both for creating a level of fear as well as a level of risk that you want to deal with?"

The subway acrobats say they're just out to entertain, make a living and put a little communal levity in New York's no-eye-contact commuting. (read more)

 

 

Unconfirmed rumors say that the roundups began after a 'dancer' landed on Trooper York ;-)

Back it up! Roll, Baby, roll, Baby, roll, Baby, roll.

Mesmerizin' innit. 

Contemporary Dance by Contemporary Eric

Come on, let's dance! Who wants to be my bich?