If all the students at Heebie U. stood in a line, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

This dance represents the proper relation of socialism and free-market policies, what with the group action with a bit of "walk[ing] it by yourself".

Come on people. This is just a jazzed up Electric Slide.

By "jazzed up" you mean diluted beyond recognition?

The watusi, the twist?

4: Four steps left, four steps right, shimmy and turn 90 degrees, repeat. That's the electric slide. It hardly matters if you shake your legs extra hard while you do it.

I can mash potato.

6: No it's not. The electric slide has backwards steps and that fake-forward step you use to turn 90 degrees. There's something to it.

what in mashed potatoes was causing the burning sensation was salt, upon some thinking

God, that song is so boring. Am I going to have to hear it everywhere? I prefer the lambada.

6: You're the dude that always forgets the backwards part and crashes into people at weddings, aren't you?

Heebie, I'd guess it's not so much rhythm, but a sense of actually dancing, instead of following rules of steps. Knowing that you can do your own thing and still stay on beat, etc.

Am I going to have to hear it everywhere?

I think you'll be safe unless you take a trip back to summer 2007.

But perhaps you just didn't actually get up and dance hard enough?

7:

I can do the twist.

So, does knowing this dance mean that you can enjoy yourself at weddings in a Becks-approved way?

This post cracked me up. I was just thinking tonight, "How weird is it that I am cooler than all of my students?" I have had exactly one student at my current school who was cooler than me, and he is like ultra-cool because no one else for a five-mile radius can even compete. They are seriously afflicted with the Squares.

The first time you get cornered by a student begging you to really try taking a listen to this Dave Matthews guy because he really has it going on, it's time for an intervention. I am not the person to do this intervention.

I accidentally deleted a long passage in which I abjectly debase my own coolness, of which I have very little, but damn, these kids have me beat for total squarosity.

What did the kids do during the "walk it to yourself" portion?

They turn 90 degrees, in a slow walking way.

One of the games I play when my kids are taking a test is, "Who would I be friends with if these were my peers?" The answer is usually 0-1 of a class of 30. It's a weird split feeling, because as my students I adore them, yet I know I'd despise some of them and be indifferent to the rest if I were a student along side them.

11: Yeah that's right.

15: I used to threaten to give extra credit for going and seeing good bands my kids would never in a million years hear of other wise. It was a small town near to a big city, and got some great acts trying stuff out and having fun.

On second listen, it's "walk it by yourself," which makes even less sense, given the whole line dancing togetherness thing. But then maybe it's a statement about how we're all fundamentally alone.

I only ever find myself in social settings with people with vastly more obscure-band-recognition capabilities than I have, or people who respond like "oh, you listen to popular music? I don't listen to anything after 1890" when I mention that I'm going to a show. It's like, order-of-magnitude discrepancies either way. I live in hipness limbo.

This seems like a good thread in which to announce that AWB and I and another friend will be performing some music of indeterminate hipness at a very hip Williamsburg venue in two weeks. Email me for details, my pseud at geemail, if you're interested in coming.

I don't listen to anything after 1890

I mean really, after you've already got the piano trios, who needs Brahms's clarinet Trio, clarinet quintet, and clarinet sonatas anyway?

9 is just so, so phenomenal. I don't understand the context, and thank god I don't.

I mean really, after you've already got the piano trios, who needs Brahms's clarinet Trio, clarinet quintet, and clarinet sonatas anyway?

Not people who don't like clarinets, that's for sure.

Read really ought to try silicon-based mashed potatoes if the burning sensation continues to be a problem.

26: 9 should seriously be the new mouseover

26: it was going to be that kind of party, obviously.

The 1890 thing came from a remark someone made to me at a Halloween party. Maybe it was "1890s". He later mentioned liking Philip Glass, though.

So, they have popular "music" now?

||
No more masturbating to Yma Sumac.
|>

Damn, 30 beat me to it.

Josh Glenn should hang out here. Hermenaut could be very, very good.

Where did I just see a reference to Hermenaut?!

Ah! It was an article in, I think, n+7 about the Argonauts. Maybe?

Seven's out? Bollocks.

I had a lifetime sub. Then I asked for my money back because I was mad at one of the eds. Then I got over it, and I sub'd again, and I can never remember how long my sub was for.

n+7 is the sixth issue, obviously, since n+1 was the first.

Don't stop to think about that.

Should I try to get up to date on this "Dirty South" business? If so, what should I be listening to? I have heard rumors that this "Young Jeezy" is supposed to be good.

That's gotta be Lafayette, Louisiana - home to all kinds of dancin' fools. (quick check of Wikipedia) - SWEET! IT IS.

Yeha, tell them kids a yourn to take a field trip to Louisiana and see how enjoying yourself shamelessly is really done. :)

When does the n-1 Weird Al / Mad Magazine parody come out?

39: No. Youtube. Well, watch his videos for yourself! I would start with "My Hood", at least it's catchy.

Hmm. I was not impressed with "My Hood."

Then go back to what you were doing.

28 thank you i recovered, mashed potatoes should not be eaten during aphthous stomatitis that's all i was saying, poor impulse control of course to say it out loud just reading 7
it must be was some dance move like that 'chernobul baby playing ping pong'

PGD,

God, that song is so boring. Am I going to have to hear it everywhere? I prefer the lambada.

Now now, I hear there is a good chance this will win the grammy for best new measure of the year.

Also Steven Reich is considering going back to his 'repetition phase' now that it is finally commercially viable.

n+7

I hadn't realized they were doing this thing with the title. I roll my eyes at them even more now.

They aren't, Blume. I think they should.

Re: 15, a couple of my guy freshmen were hanging around after class just now and talking:

Guy 1: Why does AWB roll her eyes at us when we act goofy?
Guy 2: 'Cause we're teenagers. Right, AWB? Is that why you don't come over and talk to us in the student union when you see us?
Me: It's 'cause I'm cooler than you, man.
Guy 2: I know! It's because we're teenagers! We're not cool yet!

We had a good laugh. What cracked me up about it was thinking about how I never would have self-identified as a "teenager" as a freshman in college, but all my freshmen do. I think in NYC, it's different from where I grew up, in that there, teenagers sort of were as cool as it got. New York kids grow up knowing that everyone truly cool is at least 21.

They're pretty adorable, though. I stayed with a group of them who wanted to talk about the election after class and we all did our imitations of the fake-Sarkozy prank call on Palin.

My tiny bit of adjunct teaching (a total of about 8-10 one-quarter classes) was excruciating. Probably out of 120 or so students, 10-20% weren't budgeting on me: "What will be in the test? What do I need to do for an A/B?" And everything I taught was a Humanities Elective, meaning that it was never part of anyone's program.

49: Aha. Makes more sense. Not that I'm not still rolling my eyes at them.