[MSN Spaces] "Oh cool! It's an Acura!!"

Hehe. Quick little story before the weekend recap. Sunday afternoon, I was driving around downtown with Holly. It was such a beautiful sunny day, so I had all the windows down full. My music was off, so we were enjoying the sounds of ... the city. And conversation, of course. I'm driving along Douglas and turn up Johnson. A family is jay-walking further up the block. I notice one of the boys (about 7 or 8 yrs old, I would guess) dawdling along, staring at my car. As I drive past them, I hear him say "Oh cool! It's an Acura!!"

It's nice to see proper vehicle appreciation starting early.

Victoria Hot Jazz Jubilee!!

Four days. Six venues. Eighteen bands. All that translated into one amazing weekend of great music, fun fun dancing, and little sleep! My CD collection just grew by two, as I picked up two by The 51st Eight (Worth the Weight and Live at the Hot Jazz).

So let's start this off on Friday. The "plan" was to meet up with sav, Christabel, Matt, and whoever else (Chris and Chelsea?) at Central Bar and Grill to start off the Jubilee with Dick Johnson's Mardi Gras Band and 51st Eight. Somehow Holly and I never quite made it out the door.

Saturday started early. We were downtown by 11AM (this is the weekend, 11AM *IS* early). I dropped off Holly, as she was meeting her aunt, and I headed off to the Edelweiss to park my car for the day. Free parking is a good thing. I grabbed some food, eventually meet up with Holly again, and we take a nice leisurely stroll along the waterfront on our way to the Bedford Regency to meet up with the rest of the group. We show up just in time to leave. Onward to the Empress! As we walk, Matt keeps walking astray. Me thinks we need to leash that boy. We get to the Empress and dance to the sounds of Dixieland Express. After that, it was back to the Bedford for We Three. Mmmm, the Bedford has a niiiiiiiice floor. It'd be even better if it was bigger!

At this point, our group (18 of us!) head to the Wicket for an early dinner. Food was pretty good, as usual. Afterwards, we split up and headed off in different directions. We'd meet later on. Sav, Christabel, Sarah, Matthew (hah! I remembered your name, this time!), Holly, and I headed to Bastion Square for some gelato. Mmm, gelato. We then take a nice wander through the Inner Harbour on our way back to the Empress and the rest of the group. At one point, sav tried to create (well, expand) a sinkhole in the (cement!) walking path. I think you need to put on a few more pounds before that'll happen, sav. We continued on and walked past the Floating Boat Show in the harbour. There were some sweet sweet yachts, including one really nice cat (catamaran, for those clueless in-duh-viduals ). *drool*

We get back to the Empress and catch the tail end of the Louisiana Joymakers. Off for some coffee. I don't remember what that place is called, but it was a cafe on the corner of Fort and Douglas. One of the girls working there was pretty nice. The other was rather surly. Quite surly. No wonder the place was so quiet. Coffees in hand, we head back for some Belvedere Broadcasters before heading off, once again, to the Bedford to see the Joymakers and finish off the night with The 51st Eight. Rajeev and Angela joined us at this point. When we had left for coffee, I had noticed some boas on the souvenir tables. I thought sav would look rather fetching in a boa. Coming back, I stopped to ask if they were for sale (they weren't listed on the price sheets) and asked how much. Sadly, $15 was a little more than I was willing to spend at the time. That money went towards the CDs I picked up.

So the group made their way out of the Empress in various combinations. Sav and Christabel got stuck talking to people, as usual. Holly and I got stuck, as I met up with one of my first students (he took Swing 1 the first time I taught). After a conversation with him and his lady friend, we headed out. In the lobby adjoining the Crystal Ballroom, we were told there's a metal disc in the floor, centered under the dome in the ceiling. If you stand on the spot, it echoes like CRAZY!! Obviously, we had to try it. I can confirm, it does echo like CRAZY! Pretty fun!

Back at the Bedford. I told Rajeev that we'd have a dance later. So later, we get onto the floor and dance to a medium paced song by The 51st Eight. (They are high energy, so slower songs are a little scarce.) Many people were amused! Angela took a few good pictures of us, so I hammed it up for the camera. (Angela, I want those pictures, please!) Unfortunately, she didn't get one of the dip at the end.

But we weren't the only entertainment on the floor, not by a long shot. They played Claire McKenna's 'theme song' to introduce her as the guest clarinet/singer and one woman did a bit of a 'striptease' to the song. Hehe. Throughout the set and to the end, there was the occasional Solo Charleston jams, which are so much fun to watch and jump into! I've done a mini one with Matt at a performance awhile back, but I wasn't about to jump into these ones just yet.

After closing the dancing with The 51st Eight, Holly and I took a nice leisurely stroll through the night back to my car to finish off the night.

After all that, we still had Sunday to go. The first bands started playing at 9:30AM, but not bloody likely that's gonna happen! Holly and I did get to Harbour Towers for the Belvedere Broadcasters at 1:15... well, we got there halfway through their set. Sav, Christabel, Sara, Dave, and Tina were in attendance. The West Harbour Ballroom at Harbour Towers has two levels. The stage was setup on the lower level, with the dance floor waaaaaaaaaay off in the back on the upper level. Now that's just wrong. It just made it seem like it was an after-thought. Add to that the weird/crappy nature of the floor and the setup was not the most conducive to dancing. Christabel and I did attempt a dance on the floor, in the centre, but we were the only swingers on the floor and the other couples quickly closed in on us. We were trapped and being bombarded from all sides!!! One nice couple stopped in the line of dance and let us through to safety. We finished the song on the carpet beside the floor. After that, all our dancing was done on the carpet beside the stage.

With the Broadcasters finished their set, sav and Christabel headed for the Empress and We Three. The rest of us were too lazy to move and stuck around for The 51st Eight. Heh... 'too lazy', I say. It was the last set of the Jubilee and they (and we) pulled out the bigger stuff. Got in some good fast paced, hectic dancing. If you've ever heard 51st play, you'll know that their songs tend to be high energy... and LONG. Was a good workout. For the last song, we tried to get a steal jam going with Andrew (who showed up for 51st), but plain and simple, he was a punk. "I can't cut it at that speed." Bah, wimp! So Dave, Sara, Holly, and I (Tina sat this one out. Safer, considering the flailing that can happen with steals and her arm being in a cast.) danced the song, swapping partners. Every combination went on, with Dave and I dancing together at one point. That left Sara and Holly to dance with each other. Some of the high speed partner switches went off amazingly smoothly. It was just too much fun! We got a lot of comments from people in the audience saying how much fun it was watching us dance. I love hearing that. It works out well for everybody; I get to have fun dancing and they get a show if they aren't dancing.

So with the Jubilee over, I drove Holly home so she could study for a final exam. The "Oh cool! It's an Acura!!" happened on that drive. After dropping Holly off, I got home and gave my car a much needed washing. So for now, I have a shiny car. I love it!

I can't wait for this coming weekend!! It looks to be even bigger and more exciting!!! A quick teaser: my birthday, an expected NEW birthday, dancing dancing and more dancing with Hot Koko!

That is all.