You know those nights where you roll around half-awake in bed, sleeplessly contemplating various unsettling aspects of your life and wondering how they all tie together?

Tonight was one of those nights.  I nodded off early, then spent a solid hour tossing and turning, feeling uncomfortable, and not just because of the ridiculous DC humidity.  When it was over, I had reached an important conclusion: I need to start blogging.

This isn’t the first time that the itch to blog again has hit me over the years (e.g. here, here, and here).  Indeed, if for some unknown and obviously irrational reason you decided to visit my blog in the last two months—even though it hasn’t been updated with anything of significance in nearly two years—you would have noticed the graphical redesign.  Playing around with site designs is fun, it’s certainly a big part of the fun of having an independently hosted blog.  Yet when the time approached to sit down and write, I wasn’t up to the task.

But enough is enough.  I’m reestablishing this blog because I need to rediscover my voice.

I’m still working out the details on why.  Although I have always written a “personal” blog, I wouldn’t say that this blog has been especially personal.  Well, not most of the time anyway, and I don’t think that I’d ever feel all that comfortable writing the sort of juicy exposé nonsense that would make it so.  Still, can I really expect to write blithe, bland commentary on my trite 21st century life in the city and somehow satisfy my frivolous desire to imbue my every action with some trumped up meaning? (ok, maybe that question’s a little more loaded than necessary but it’s basically the line of reasoning that has kept me from falling asleep all this time.)

I guess we’ll find out.  In the meantime, I’m gonna head back to bed to see if I can toss and turn around some more while figuring out how to accomplish my shiny new goal.  Stay tuned for more blithe, bland commentary please!

Posted on July 9th, 2008 by Lee
Tagged: Blogging, Life | No Comments »

Yeah  I know,  it’s not as if I’m currently using this blog for anything else.  But hey, there’s nothing wrong with having an online repository of one’s playlists, if nothing else.   Here are the tunes I played  last night at the Jam Cellar: Read more…

Posted on September 19th, 2007 by Lee
Tagged: Dance, Fun, Music | No Comments »

 Winter in Washington is sort of a joke. It gets genuinely cold for all of one week of the year, it snows only occasionally, and yet the general populace is about as prepared for the weather as Noah’s neighbors were for the Flood.

Admittedly, it’s probably a good thing that people freak out about the snow. Walking around on slushy sidewalks all day is enough to annoy even the most hardy Pennsylvanian/New Yorker/Minnesotan/whatever I feel like calling myself that day. Knowing that every time you cross the street you’re surrounded by death projectiles driven by utterly clueless people, sometimes it’s a little difficult to motivate yourself for a trek outside.

In the mole cave that is this basement abode, it’s no matter. One needn’t even acknowledge that days even happen. Fortunately, sometimes I step out in spite of the danger (and the light) to capture nice photos of the neighborhood like this. Nothing like a little wet sticky snow to make for some good pictures.

Posted on March 1st, 2007 by Lee
Tagged: Fun, Life, Photos | No Comments »

I like to think that I can travel light, but when it comes to the biggest Lindy Hop convention of the year, I clearly fail big time:

• Number of full-size suitcases: 1
• Number of t-shirts, undershirts, and overshirts: 33
• Pairs of shoes: 6
• Days in Minneapolis: 3

For the skeptics out there, know that I will sweat through basically all of those shirts (except for the small number that I’ll be wearing on my two-day work trip to Boston afterward).
It is most definitely time for Showdown.

Posted on September 12th, 2006 by Lee
Tagged: Dance, Fun, Travel | No Comments »

Last Tuesday I had the distinct pleasure of getting to DJ at The Jam Cellar, right here in my neighborhood of Washington, DC. The Jam Cellar is without a doubt the best DJed dance event in the city, and is almost certainly among the best in the country. Moreover, “cellar” isn’t really the right word; the new Jam Cellar is more like a jam mansion, in a former embassy with a balcony and a beautiful view of Meridian Hill Park. It’s a great place to dance, and an equally great place to DJ.

I’m not a master DJ by any means, but I love to explore new music, and I like the challenge of playing for dancers. Maybe I like the power trip of controlling the energy level of an entire room full of dancers. I know it’s definitely fun to get some appreciation for my musical tastes.

Anyway, I had a request for my playlist. I like to hang on to playlists anyway while I can, and if reading through mine helps you find some random artist you never thought you’d hear, all the better. So here it is: Read more…

Posted on September 10th, 2006 by Lee
Tagged: Dance, Jazz, Music | 1 Comment »