Journey the end of my Feet! (Videos)

Here's a small update to the adventure had on Saturday, Oct. 30th, 2010.

Here's me pretending to be scared. All footage


Here we are at checkpoint 3 trying to come up with a strategy to checkpoint 4.


Players and Chasers singing the Star Spangled Banner before the race.

Journey the end of my Feet!

My Saturday started off boring. I did some work, read some Harry Potter to catch before the movie starts and made some dinner. Somewhere in between reading and dinner, I checked facebook and saw what event I had said maybe or yes to. I found one that sounded interesting: Journey to the End of the Night. It was a foot race around the city. The catch? Don't get caught by the chasers in yellow ribbons. Great! Immediately, I told my roommates and they said they were in.



Upon my arrival to Embarcadero, I saw a plethora of costumes: Waldo and Wendy from the popular Where's Waldo, the house from the movie Up, a missing person on the face of a milk carton, and several other characters. I met up with a friend and my roommates, but not before encountering my friends Alex and Jaena. After signing in, we (my roommates, our friend, and I) looked at the map to see what first safety and check in point would be most accessible by foot and which is more direct. We had to choose either Chinatown or the Bay Bridge. We chose the Bridge. We put on our blue ribbons, mentioning we were players trying to win the game.



When the horn blew at 8 p.m. we ran as fast as we could toward the bridge. We got there pretty fast without getting caught by a chaser. We made it safely to the first checkpoint. While waiting in line, we planned our next moves toward the next checkpoint: a van parked close to nearby the Moscone Center. While being chased by chasers, we took shelter at a roofed bus stop, a safety zone. While chatting with another group of players, my roommates and friend abandoned me! Granted, I had mentioned earlier, repeatedly that it was "every man for themselves." I supposed I deserve the desertion. I spent some time with some of the other groups. Not much later, I was regrouped with my roommates and we made it safely to the second. Once we planned our next moves, we kept our pace and tried to act non-suspicious. Of course running in downtown San Francisco is always suspicious. While being on the lookout, a homeless man had noticed a chaser across the street from us, and warned us. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have gotten so far. For 2 and a half hours we were acting paranoid, wanting not to be caught, running every time we saw a chaser or heard a scream.



The running went on, from one location to another. During our run to the fourth checkpoint, we met up with another group of blue ribbon players and pretty much stuck together. We met up on Potrero Hill, and headed toward the Mission, by 16th Street. We were right across Whiz Burger, which I hear is delicious, when suddenly a chaser taps my roommate Amy on the arm, tagging her as a chaser. That was it. We had lost the game. But it was okay, because now it was our chance to chase players around. As we made way to the 5th checkpoint, we saw a group of players through a government issued filled parking lot. Amy and Darrell ran through the parking, chasing 4 players. I stayed behind at the entrance. Amy chased one player towards me, and as soon as I saw the player, I went for her, almost tackling her in the tagging. It felt like a game of tag football. I then tagged her friend. 2 tags in one location!

By the time we were approaching the fifth location, Duboce Park, we were beat. Amy and her mother went home, but Darrell and I continued. We departed at Church and Market. The time was about 11 p.m. Just past Fillmore and Haight, we saw a blue ribbon. He saw my yellow ribbon (chaser) and continued cautiously. What he did not see was Darrell. Darrell and I chased him up a hill and through the Streets until Darrell finally caught up to him and relieved him of his player status.

We were really tired by this point. We avoided Duboce park and proceeded to the apartment on Oak where the 6th checkpoint was. While their, we played blackjack. Then we attempted to pass some security lasers to get into a vault with some secret prize. I don't know what the prize was. We failed. On our way to the bus stop we decided, what the heck! let's go to the end which was behind the Academy of Science museum. Once there a band was playing, glow sticks were hanging from trees, and people were hanging out. We made it out of safe and alive and then headed home. After 4 and a half hours of playing and about , we made it home a little after one. What a great night before Halloween. In the end, we ran, hiked, walked about 9 miles.

Videos will be up in a different post later.


View Journey to the End of the Night in a larger map

Swinging out?

Swing/blues dance community, you disgust me!

Ok, not everyone. But enough people to make me feel sick to my stomach sometimes.

I never thought I would be expressing these feelings but I have come to a breaking point where I am not enjoying dancing as much. I love dancing, it's a lot of fun. However, this year it has become evident to me that the swing and blues community isn't what it should be. I have experienced swing dancing in 5 different cities, and in each city a degree level of cliquishness. In some cities it is more prevalent than others. I wish not to say which cities I consider more clique than others. But this certainly makes dancing in certain places more difficult and less enjoyable than others.

I don't take lessons. I hang out with pretty much the same groups. I don't ask new people to dance as often as I should. I have preferences in dancers and dance songs. All the classic signs of a dance snob. However, I don't have time or money to take lessons. I never turn down a dance with a newb unless I'm really tired. And when I do turn a dance down for said reason, I will dance with them later. I do have preferences in dancers, as many people do, but I will dance with anyone because it's fun to meet new people and have a really good time for 3-5 minutes. And some songs I just can't groove to. Yes, I can be a dance snob but at least I know and am doing my best to fix that.

I have certainly encountered dancers and dance cliques whom I feel they think they are all that. They enter a venue with a "high" stance, and sometimes just walk right in like they are an important asset to a venue. They have a certain "clientele" of dancing partners that they would rather dance with and sometimes only dance with them. They have high expectations of other dancers (for example: level of expertise), and/or dance events. And when they dance with others who might not be at the same level as they are, I feel there is little to no content to it and dance out of sympathy or guilt. Some may even talk bad about other dancers. (Though I realize this blog is doing something similar.) Many will only hang out with people of their caliber. And from what I've heard, some dancers expect to be escorted off the dance floor as to avoid having someone else asking them to dance. As well as asking to leave an old group of friends behind. I have not experienced this but other dancers I know have. There may be more attributes that can be considered snobbish that I have not stated here but to sum it all up: This is truly bothering! Again, I may be clearly wrong but these are the impressions I've been getting from a handful of people and again: disgusted!

I am not talking about the whole swing/blues dance community. I am only talking about a handful of people in it. It only takes one person to ruin a perfectly good party. It is your attitude, your snobbishness, that is making my enjoyment of my favorite hobby/activity less enjoyable.

Aside from snobbishness, there are cliques that make others feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. While we may have a certain group of friends within a certain scene, some of these groups of friends have certain attitudes that make the scene look bad and give some dancers the wrong impression about the scene, which doesn't bring the dancing any justice. I feel like there has been too much drama or even self involvement created in some of these scenes that I just do not wish to go back even if some of my favorite dancers are from there. Aren't we doing this to be open, have fun and avoid drama?

This is not what dancing is all about. It is not what Frankie Manning would have wanted out of the community, and not the message that Dawn Hampton and Norma Miller are trying to convey. I do not believe this is unavoidable. Everything is avoidable if we know what we are aware of what we're doing and what we are getting into. Dancing is about having a good time, meeting new people whether they are new to the dancing, or the location, making them feel comfortable, and not stray away from what the true meaning of dancing.

I recently watched a video by Charleston Alley of Dawn Hampton and she explained swing dancing. In the first 20 seconds she said "I think the people do not understand the spirituality that's associated with swing dancing." And I hold this to be true, even amongst certain swing/blues dancers. Dancing is a very spiritual thing for many people, myself included.

I will continue to dance, drama and self-involvement free because dance is spiritual and hella fun! Until next time, see you on the dance floor.

-Alex