Landlord Comic

Hi all: a little something I whipped up to amuse the coworkers - if you click on each individual panel, it should enlarge to a more legible size!

Enjoy.

snake mambo

Do you like to dance? Even if you don't, think about trying this dance out.

The Fabulous JH, one of my co-workers, has been teaching a lunchtime "How to Dance" class for the past while. I love to dance but am not very good at following steps - I tend to do more freeform stuff.

So, it was suggested that I try to put together my own dance routine (probably only because everyone was peeved at my disrupting the lesson - although they are all way too kind people to say so.

I made a stab at this and JH added some major modifications. Between the two of us, I think we did a good job.

Hey - does this mean I get to add "choreographer" to my resume, do you think?

The steps below are for a single person in the "lead" role. I'm too lazy to figure out the "follower" role. So, you can either dance this by yourself or just reverse all of the steps for a partner.

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FAQs

What type of music do I need?

The song we used was Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps/Quizas, (but as performed by Edmundo Ros. There are great versions by Perez Prado and Doris Day as well.

Any relatively slow mambo tune (or even a slow samba - sambas are faster than mambos). If you are less enamoured of 50s latin schlock music than I, you have probably still heard Mambo No. 5 which was a big hit when re-released by Lou Bega some years back. Another example is Sway (with me) - my favourite version is performed by Dean Martin but that one has recently been re-released as well.

And here's another couple of fun tunes, just for kicks:
I came, I saw, I conga'd
Wedding Samba

What else do I need to know right now?

Mambo and samba music employ a 4/4 beat. (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4). The first step is always taken on beat 2, just to confuse things (this is because historically the dance was developed as a "response" to an initial first beat.

Where can I learn more about mambo and samba?

StreetDance Australia! has a fabulous website on dance in general, and tons of helpful and free info on Latin dancing, including detailed guides on how to do it.

So where are these bloody steps, anyway?

1. BACK
hold
step back with RF
shift weight to LF
step forward with RF

2. FRONT
hold
step forward with LF
shift weight to RF
step back with LF

3. RIGHT
hold
step right with RF
shift weight back to LF
step left with RF

4.LEFT
hold
step left with LF
shift weight back to RF
step right with LF

5. DIAGONAL RIGHT
hold
step front right with RF
shift weight back to LF
step back left with RF

6. DIAGONAL LEFT
hold
step front left with LF
shift weight back to RF
step back right with LF

7. (repeat of #5) DIAGONAL RIGHT
hold
step front right with RF
shift weight back to LF
step back left with RF

8. TURN RIGHT
hold
pivot and step 1/4 turn right with RF
bring LF to meet RF completing 1/4 turn right
tap right foot

9. SIDESTEP RIGHT
hold
step right with RF
shift weight back to LF
step left with RF

10. SIDESTEP LEFT
hold
step right with LF
shift weight back to RF
step right with LF

11. QUARTER TURN RIGHT and SHUFFLE
hold
pivot and step 1/4 right turn forward with RF
step back with LF
step forward with RF

12. SHUFFLE
hold
step forward with LF
step back with RF
step forward with LF

13. FULL TURN
hold
pivot and turn 1/2 circle right with RF
pivot and turn 1/2 circle right with LF
tap RF net to LF

14. SNAKE BACK ("reverse grapevine")
hold
step behind LF with RF sinuously (moving hips)
step behind RF with LF sinuously (moving hips)
touch toe of RF behind LF

15. SNAKE FORWARD ("forward grapevine")
hold
swing RF right forward and step in front of LF with RF sinuously (moving hips)
step in front of RF with LF sinuously (moving hips)
touch toe of RF in front of LF

16. FINALE
hold
swing RF 1/4 turn right and step down with RF
bring LF around to meet RF
step on RF in place.

song fragments - let's get interactive!

Hi all:

You may notice that I've added a new feature on the sidebar: Song Fragment of the Moment. >
Please feel free to submit your entries to me by Email (your fragment of choice, together with artist and song title), which I will post below. To add a little guessing game element, I plan to post the info about the songs seperately somehow... see if you can guess who the "poet" is!!

A TIP: it might be easier to present it as a high-level poem if you can chop it up to get rid of the schlocky rhyme/s. But then again, maybe not.

Come on - you know you're itching to send in your favourites!!!

NOTE: This is not a contest (I am cheap... as you've probably realised hearing my tales of scrounging for booty in the communal laundry room). However, who knows... my favourites may well end up receiving a secret shipment of Smarties!
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EXPLANATORY NOTE AND THE RULES (such as they are)
This was a result of a flash of brilliance (?!?) which hit me while staring out the window on the tram this morning listening to my iPod.

I've been wont recently to listen to Rat Pack type schlock from the 50s - but it dawned on me that some of the cheesy lyrics, when deconstructed, actually make high-faluting poetry (better even than Margaret Atwood - dare I say it?)

So - I thought that perhaps it'd be a fun game to take a fragment from one song every day and try to re-present it so that people thought I was actually a poet.

Once I'd had my third coffee, I decided that it was probably not a great idea to claim lyricists' ideas as my own. So, everything will be attributed.

To play, just
- send me a fragment of your choosing, together with artist and song information. You can cobble a couple of fragments together if you'd like - just use ellipses (...) to be fair!
- I will then post all "entries" here - the fragments first, and the "key" to the identities of the performer/s at the bottom.
- feel free to comment by guessing who might have authored which fragment!

SAMPLE:
eyes that dreamed of
being the one
Who will
dance on the
floor in the
round...

be careful
of who you love and be
careful of
what you do
'cause the lie becomes
the truth

Guess who the poet is? Sappho? Shakespeare? Margaret Atwood?

Wrong. Scroll way to the bottom to find out.

*********************************************************************************
12 November 2007

1.

with a sad lament my dreams are faded
like a broken melody
while the gods of love
look down and laugh
at what romantic
fools we mortals
be

(posted by KB)

2.
Here's the mail
It never fails
It makes me want to wag my tail
when it comes I want to wail...
MAIL!!!

(posted by Amy)

3.
life has a way
of confusing us
blessing
and
bruising us

4.
I’ve dealt with my ghosts and I’ve faced all my demons
Finally content with a past I regret
I’ve found you find strength in your moments of weakness
For once I’m at peace with myself
I’ve been burdened with blame, trapped in the past for too long
I’m movin’ on

I’ve lived in this place and I know all the faces
Each one is different but they’re always the same
They mean me no harm but it’s time that I face it
They’ll never allow me to change
But I never dreamed home would end up where I don’t belong
I’m movin’ on

5.

was the sound of distant drumming
just the fingers
of your hand?
pictures hanging in a hallway
or
the fragment of a song
half-remembered names and faces...

(reminds me of my last staff meeting!)

6.
...at dawning
not a worry or a care
when without
a word of
warning
there was
perfume
in the air...







































































































































































Sample: Billie Jean, Michael Jackson, Thriller album, 1983.

1. Perfidia, Edmundo Ros and his Orchestra, Ros Mambos, 1955.

2. Blues' Clues

3. "To life", Topol, Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack (the movie)

4. "I'm Movin' On" by Rascal Flatts

5. "The Windmills of Your Mind" by Dusty Springfield

6. "Anything can Happen", Edmundo Ros