I Loved Baby Driver (Spoiler Free)

I loved Baby Driver (trailer here!) extremely much but it kind of took a backseat to other things going on in life. Things like 1) AMERICA (‘MURICA) and 2) FRANCE and 3) TRAVEL to the quiet wilds of Pennsylvania.

So now let’s get down and dirty and talk about Baby Driver because it’s really excellent (assuming you like any one or combination of the following: heist films, gangster films, action, car chases, and/or music- should be most people, I think).

Yé-yé, It’s Summer!

Music for me movies in seasons, and incidentally every summer I find myself straying away from the top of the charts and toward music that fits my one part relaxed, one part nostalgic mood.
One genre that I return to year after year is yé-yé music (henceforth called ye-ye because I’m too lazy to deal with the accent aigu repeatedly), a genre of music, mainly French- but also from Italy, Spain, and Portugal- that was popular in the 1960s.  It’s basically the continental version of American 60s surf music (of which I’m also very fond).

So this will be mainly French (because prior to writing this I had no idea the style included other countries and I am now planning and thrilling at the prospect of the impromptu research I get to do and music I get to find!)

Favorite Performances at Yale

One of the best things about university has been how everyone does ~something~. Everyone plays an instrument or sings (so. much. a cappella.) and some of my favorite moments have just been watching the people around me get together and do their thing.

So of course there are ballroom shows. But I don’t really get to watch those because I’m generally blinded by panic about having to go on myself.  But I did watch the Icebreaker show for potential members my freshman year.  I can even see me in the audience in the youtube videos (I’m so cute and young with stars in my eyes and an innocent heart 😛 ).

But ballroom shows or just one tiny thing that happens on campus (and also I’m contractually obliged to say they’re the best thing). But there’s so much else going on and wow, wouldn’t it be great to go to Yale and not have to do any classes or anything, but just kick back to take in the culture (and the parties and maybe audit a few bizarre and interesting classes).

And most of them are free of charge! And because I’m a cheapskate those are the ones I usually attend.

My Last Ballroom Pieces

The end of an era.  Said era being my college life. This past Friday was the Yale Ballroom Team’s Spring Show, and quite possibly my last ballroom dance performance ever.  So, in the spirit of closure, this post will be a list of the two pieces I performed, the one piece I scrapped, and video links to youtube, where the team just uploaded them.

Also interesting is that in a month and a day this blog will turn one year old.  It’s my intention, on that day, to make this blog public to people following me on Facebook.  I wanted to know myself, know what I wanted to do, and know that I could maintain it before I shared it with people who know me as a person.  But honestly I am kind of proud of this pet project, and I do enjoy it. So. One month and one day. The countdown begins. (Also incidentally May 25th, the blogiversary, is two months until my birthday).

French Covers of English Language Songs

In honor of the French election (cringe), I decided to create a list of French covers of English language songs.  Now, if the French election (another cringe) is the reason I’m scheduling this particular post for this particular day, there is a more general reason that explains why so much French music has been kicking around in my head.
Simple: spring. Warm weather and the promise of summer is always the season when I bust out the sixties French music, the ye ye songs, the music of Francoise Hardy, Sylvie Vartan, and France Gall.
And then I stumbled on a few amazing cover songs, and so this list was born.
(And aside on politics before we get into the clean fun of music: the rising tide of problematic anti-immigrant right-wing nationalism is frightening. There, I’m done. I refer you to John Oliver).

Ahem, what was that? Ah yes, music!

Winter Ball, the Last

“Winter Ball comma the Last”

It’s very weird because ballroom dance has been my big extracurricular all throughout college, and yes, I’ve had plenty of previous dance experience, but ballroom was never something I had done before. Now that senior year is drawing to a close (it still feels unlikely, but Lily was just telling me that her last final is two months from today), I can feel my ballroom aspirations and enthusiasms also naturally winding down. I’m grateful, because I don’t want to leave Yale and miss ballroom too desperately- I want the mental space to make new choices and try new things.
Of course I still love spending time with the team. Just as ballroom has been my main/only extracurricular, it’s also been my biggest social outlet at Yale. The people on the team are not just “my team” but some of my best friends, and I hope to stay in touch with them for many years to come. The fact that I’ve stayed in close touch with a few previous graduates bodes well.
Ballroom dance may end up, for me, becoming inextricably linked with my Yale experience- my college self- and being one of the sweetest parts. Just how horses and horseback riding is so much bound up with middle school and high school, and Girl Scouts with elementary.
If we can learn anything from history, it’s that if I leave ballroom behind I’ll still love it and miss it, just as I miss horses (but less so riding, which started to get very stressful when I reached a certain competitive level). And even if I leave ballroom behind chances are that I’ll still be dancing, somehow, somewhere. I’ve been dancing for more than ten years and I can’t imagine life without doing something like that (even if it’s only social or… in the privacy of my room with the music loud 😉 ).

YBDT Showpieces

Hey you! Now that Winter Ball is over and I’ve written my essay on Gender Imitation and Insubordination in Macbeth, I have a little spare time and brain space to come up with another list.

The Yale Ballroom Dance Team has been my main extracurricular and social activity  for the last soon-to-be four years.  I had never done ballroom dance before (unless you count quinceanera salsa, bachata, and merengue).  But most of the team here had never done ballroom before joining. Some of us hadn’t even danced before (Pro tip: we’re the only dance group at Yale that doesn’t have auditions).

We compete and have two big shows a year- Winter Ball and Spring Show, in addition to smaller shows like Icebreaker at the beginning of the year, ‘gigs’ when we go on tour over Spring Break, and Caliente (our pre-freshman recruitment show).

And now I only have one more show left before I’m gone!  Time to take a walk down memory lane and look back at my show pieces over my ‘bright college years’.

Hell or High Water: Movie and Music

Vive le Proletariat!

I wasn’t expecting to like Hell or High Water very much.  Just look at the picture- it’s such a very guy movie, with the rugged West, rugged facial hair, guns, and even rugged-er cowboy hats.

But actually I liked it because, despite failing the Bechdel test (and every other female inclusion test) with a resounding plop, it’s super anti-capitalist!

Sia’s Sambas

A list can be as short as one item. Which is why I think this list of three (okay, four if you count the less excellent House on Fire) is Very Much A List.

And while I’m feeling rather better today, I’m sticking with this topic because it minimizes the necessity of subjective thinking on my part. Because thinking is, frankly, exhausting.  I’ve only fatigue and a sore throat today, so I’m going to classes and returning to ballroom practice.  But I vow to do everything (including blogging) half-heartedly and with a minimum of effort.
Here, we have Sia on the one hand and ballroom dance genre samba on the other hand. And in the middle you have some Venn diagram-y overlap in the shape of three great songs and House on Fire, which will henceforth not be mentioned.

Four Courses

Many apologies because I have something like zero time today (AGGGHHHH) and am feeling a bit frenzied- can you tell? It’s just a lot of dance practice and posts that I want to write but want to put a lot of time into, which I can’t just this minute.

But I know! Sundance Film Festival is happening and there are a lot of movies to look forward to in 2017! The Oscar nominations just dropped this morning and I have thoughts (what else is new?)! I recently watched Moonlight, Hidden Figures, and La La Land (When to fit in the three-hour Fences, who knows?)! And I finished Laughable Loves by Kundera last night and am moving on to Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers!

Whew.

Also you know how I was talking about going with the flow yesterday, and how without bread sometimes you need to give up on your ambitions of a sandwich day? Today was a sandwich day. Mmm, yeah. I love peanut butter.

So what classes am I taking this semester?