Gordon’s Ramblings

Since returning from Bs.As. where I continued perfecting the walk with Mimi Santapa, I have been walking, walking at home to various musics, and rythms, experimenting.

I practice bare feet most of the time, being conscious of hitting the floor with the edge of my foot and rolling. It is subtle, but I can feel it. I land on a straight leg, and at that time, my back leg is still straight, stretched along the leg downwards and upwards, keeping the heel “near”, but not “on” the floor. When the back leg is eventually released, it becomes relaxed, and the release energy translates into an impulse forward for the lady. Very interesting.

When I do forward and back crosses (foot against foot), I am now conscious of the edge of my foot on the floor. I also am conscious of going from the edge to the metatarsal (the 1-2nd metatarsal, near the big toe) on one foot, as I break the other foot (which becomes relaxed). In addition, I left the toe of the foot that is supporting me to transfer the axis from that foot to the other. It helps (another Mimi concept).

With the above concepts, I find my balance improving, I am standing up straighter, and I can execute the steps more slowly with more control.

Another lesson related to giros. Present were Danny, Ruben, Marisa, Vani, DongMing, and Zannah. We worked on the code (left and right for the lady), without too much worry about what the guy did. I emphasized the fact that one should recognized when one reaches the second step of the basic in parellel foot (the side step). The various turned we worked on always ended up with the cross in the base. We also worked on two successive front crosses, and then on the combination: base in parallel foot. From front cross, forward cross of the lady going to the right, and then a second front cross, but turning to the left of the man, followed by a side step to the left and out to the basic in parallel position.

We worked on walking straight several steps and following that with a side step (left or right turn), but without breaking stride. Stop in two ways: 1) with equal weight on each foot, and 2) with full weight on receiving leg. Then repeat the exercise moving backward followed by a side step. Once the ladies get used to doing this, it becomes much easier for the man to lead them. Then the next issue is to slow the ladies down. Good exercise for the man as well for energy control.

Two excercises for next week:

1. Start from front cross (end of base for lady). Go from left foot front cross to right foot front cross. Do not open the knees at all. Good for balance.
2. Walk on jello: heels do not touch the ground. One leg straight, one bent, change feet, and go slowly. This is good for balance.

I have a friend who likes to talk to me about how friends should be treated, generosity, etc. He does not like the fact that sometimes I reply to queries in a somewhat intransigent way, leaving no room for flexibility. Yes that happens on occasion. However, it is somewhat amusing, and disappointing to me, that after many acts of generosity over the past 1-2 years in the sense of sharing my resources freely, which is an act of friendship, pretty much unreciprocated in any sense, that when I state unequivocally that these resources will be unavailable for a few weeks, that I be accused of “not treating friends” in a reasonable manner. My belief is that previous actions should be weighed heavily and therefore isolated acts of inflexibility should be tolerated graciously. I have only come across very few people who open share what they possess with others.

Summary of Monday Lesson at the house. Present: Ruben, Marisa, Danny, Zannah. We had a excellent lesson. Everybody is progressing. After a short warmup, I asked Danny to tell me what he felt weak on, and he mentioned marking the turn. So the topic to today’s lesson was how to use the body (chest, torso) to initiate a giro.

So I explain it in this manner: I break every step (when walking on the three highways) into two parts (of course I am simplifying). First half: man initiates movement with the body, the front foot moving with the body, the lady moving towards neutral position. Count as 1. In the second half, the man moves his weight over the supporting foot. Count as &. The key to leading with the torso is to rotate the torso on the &, whether to the left or to the right.

Exercises: turn to the right in cross-foot position. To study balance and use of torso, we worked on direction reversal at various points during the giro (after 2nd or 3rd step). This opens many possibilities.

Another exercise. Start in basic parallel system. Man moves his right foot forward, even with lady’ left foot, but with torso rotation to the right. He makes the lady do an overturned back cross, then changes the direction of rotation of his torso, so the lady rotates back towards the left. The man lands his left foot opposite the left foot of the lady: we have returned to cross foot system. Very good to practice this without the man using his right hand.

We also worked on the forced crosses of Oscar Casas: how to make the lady walk backward, but then reverse direction so that back foot comes forward into a cross.

We worked on navigation: starting from a right turn (from cross foot basic), with the lady doing the code. There are many combination. The challenge: the man starts not necessarily facing line of dance. I specify the starting direction. The man is supposed to exit the turn in such a way that he will move along the line of dance. I followed the man to make sure he stuck with the rules.

Today’s tango lesson was from 8 to 10 pm, with Zannah, Marisa and Danny. It was really great. We worked on the turning sacada, teaching the man to lead with his body. We discussed the use of large steps (right foot) and small steps (left foot) for the lady, and exceptions to the rule. Ultimately, it depends on what the man does, but it is a great teaching tool. When doing the basic (parallel or cross foot), we discussed why the man’s foot on step 3 of the base (step 1 is going back) should be even with the lady’s foot.
If the man’s foot is too far forward, on the next step, the man will lose connection with the lady. We worked on the turning sacada and combined it with other turns. We discussed the turn to the right, and its relation to the sandwich. When turning to the right, the man steps with his left foot (cross foot basic) on step 3 (after a double step),
and forms an equilateral triangle with both the lady’s feet. He steps to the left of the lady’s left foot. When doing a sandwich, he steps to the right of the lady’s left foot.

I discussed the left turn starting from the mirror position, and showed how to get to the mirror position, both from the sandwidch, and from the lady front cross that follows the parallel foot basic. The key from the man is to do a double step while making the lady do a second front cross.

I worked on walking for the lady, specifically, feeling the connection between the stomach (belly-button) area, which should be tight, yet relaxed, and the foot motion backward. I also mentioned that when the man moves forward the entire body
of the lady should move back, not just her top part (or else the small of the back might begin to hurt). Also mentioned the use of the hips of the supporting foot, to slow down the motion. Lady must make sure to release the front foot (-> relaxed),
and bring it together to the side of the supporting foot (and bent), and then the supporting foot should push back with a force dependent on the man’s motion extent.
This technique helps slow down the lady. Knees should be one in front of the other. As much as possible, the thighs should be together (paper stuck between the thighs should not fall). Of course, when doing a side step, the paper will fall. A “proper” woman, should, as much as possible, not dance with open legs.

Finally, in the sandwich, decorations should not always be the same, and most of the time, there should be no decoration. Decorations should be done sparingly, so as not to make it a habit, which would lead it to become a step. Of course, when practicing, do it as much as possible . When doing a sandwich, the lady should have a weight on the back leg. The man should then bring her up to her front leg. The lady should wait until the man invites her to cross the front leg. The man waits a bit until he is sure the lady will not do some decoration. If she does, he waits patiently. If the lady does not decorate, she should slow down, and even stop, waiting for the man to invite her to to step over. It is a very subtle interplay between partners.

There is more, but I’ll stop here.

I do not wish to criticize Obama; I would rather like to give him a chance, say 2 years. However, he does not appear to be able to talk down Pelosi, remove earmarks from his budget (at least to instill confidence in his previous committments). While he does not have control over what he inherited, which is clear, he does have the power to manage his time, and he does control the perception he projects. He does not put Barney Frank in his place. He states that republicans simply don’t get it, but is unwilling to say the same of the far left. Fact: there are earmarks in the budget, which he could have vetoed out. Although a small part of the budget, he could have made a statement to the public that he was serious. Pelosi will run the country down with excessive budgets, that more than likely will lead to inflation in future years (within the next 10 years). I hope I am wrong, but I putting this into writing to show my friends (who like Obama and his policies and voted for him). These days, I do not discuss politics with my friends (or else they will not stay my friends). But I am writing this in March 2009 to remind them of this in the future. Also, just as a reminder, the democrats controlled congress since 2006, and had opportunity to negotiate safeguards, etc. to the financial market, that could have at least slowed down the recession. So that although republican can be blamed from 2000 to 2006, starting in 2006, democrats get to take the blame!

I followed instructions (with slight modification) from http://www.garagegames.com/community/resources/view/13755. Properly modified for TGEA, do the following.

We work with the Stronghold example in GameExamples/ . I created a mission called myMission. In order to directly go to this mission when startup Stronghold, do the following:

• Find the file Stronghold/game/scriptsAndAssets/client/ui/StartupGui.gui

• function checkStartupDone()
  {
     if (StartupGui.done)
     {
        echo ("*** Load Main Menu");
        // loadMainMenu();  // original
         SM_StartMissionQuick(); //new
     }
     else
        schedule(100, 0, checkStartupDone );
  }

• edit Stronghold/game/scriptsAndAssets/client/ui/startMissionGui.gui
• Add the following function immediately after function SM_StartMission()
  (do not know why)

  function SM_StartMissionQuick()
  {
     %mission = "scriptsAndAssets/data/missions/myMission.mis";
     %serverType = "MultiPlayer";   // or SinglePlayer
     createServer(%serverType, %mission);
     %conn = new GameConnection(ServerConnection);
     RootGroup.add(ServerConnection);
     %conn.setConnectArgs($pref::Player::Name);
     %conn.setJoinPassword($Client::Password);
     %conn.connectLocal();
  }

• Restart the game. Using a mac, from the command line:
  
  open Stronghold.app/Contents/MacOS/Stronghold

I am following the tutorial to create a simple mission. My first problem: a new mission should be saved anywhere within game/StrongHold if StrongHold is the game being played. Otherwise, the mission cannot be saved. I guess that is reasonable, but it is not documented. The default directory provided by StrongHold is outside this constraint, explaining some of the problems users have.

Second problem: my mission does not appear in the list when I restart StrongHold and press on “Start Mission”. Do not know why. So I am forced to start another one of the missions, go to the mission editor (F11) and open an existing mission (this works). I am on my MacbookPro, 10.5.6, Leopard.

The tutorial is extremely incomplete. Objects are not included. I am abandoning ship!

We had a tango/vals lesson at the house this Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. There were only three people: Zannah, Ruben and Danny.

After a preview of some of the music to be played at the ATST Milonga this Saturday we started work (for the first time) on the right turn. The variation is: man starts with basic, cross foot. He then steps with LF slightly outward to the left so that his foot forms a triangle with the two feet of the lady (doing the back cross of the basic). Man places RF outside the LF of the lady, who is rotating to the right. The key is the torsion in the body and the fact that the man’s weight should be part of the way towards his RF and go over the right foot on the next step as he rotates to the right. The lady does a side step followed by a forward cross at which point the man puts his LF down. As the lady completes the cross and her feet are together, the man puts his RF down next to the LF; he then rotates the the left, , extends his LF to the left to exit into the basic.

I demonstrated how to add sacadas to this turn to the right. Once again, I explained that once on the left foot, one can stay on it as the lady keeps turning, and the man can exit in many ways, forward and back, depending on how the RF is used.

Finally, we reviewed the double sacada learned from Alberto Paz. Do a parallel basic, the man ends with his RF crossed behind the LF (RF pointing to the lady’s LF). He does the first sacada with LF as the lady does the front cross, the second sacada with RF as the lady does the side step. Man steps double time with RF to the side of LF, and then RF (forming a triangle with two feet of the lady, and to the left of the lady). Anything goes after that.

I demonstrated how one can do two sacadas on the same foot by double stepping,
or by crossing one foot behind the other.

Zannah was working on groundness of the feet, and tension in the upper body.
The key was to slow down and wait for the man’s mark. Very difficult for the lady.

There were three students: Zannah, DongMing and Danny. Ruben had another engagement. Zannah left after an hour and I then worked with DongMing and Danny. We studied the turn to the left. The emphasis was on getting the man to realize when the lady does the front cross, after which he can exit the giro into the base. Initially, I let him do what he wanted with the feet. Eventually, I had him try to turn with support on the right foot. In that way, he is ready to execute the left side step into the base. We discussed that the man does not actually have to take this side step, and in that case the woman continues her
turn one more step. Of course, in that case, the man steps forward in the cross-foot system, which is no problem. If he does take the side step, he can simply double step and presto, he is in the cross-foot system again.

If we count the basic starting from 2 (side step), then we initiated the turn after the 3 (lady open step to front cross) or after the lady’s front cross on 5, so that the lady goes to the open step to the back cross. If we start turning right away on 2, then the lady should do a back cross (by default). We also tried to start the left turn from highway 3 in cross foot system. The man should step with his left foot even with the lady’s supporting left foot. The with his right foot, he should step beyond her right foot and slightly to the right, initiating a slight turn to the left. Two options: either exit to the salida, or initiate a left turn, which is identical to the previous one(s).

Note: one can initiate the left turn from any position in the basic sequence, whether on the left foot or the right foot.

The man turns his body to indicate a turn to the lady. His body is always ahead of the lady. However,
the lady initiates the foot motion slightly ahead of the man (as when walking the straight line).

With DongMing, I worked on smoothing out the back step for the lady. Mimi technique: fall back onto a straight leg, and the supporting foot should remain straight while doing so. The key is to fully relax the foot that is released and start bending it before it reaches neutral position, at which point the lady is over her hips (one leg shorter than the other). Current motion is slightly robotic still. Aim: increase balance and decrease dependency on the man. Use ankles during the turns. Push off the supporting foot, but regulate the strength of the push to the man’s body motion. I also worked on walking in a straight line, pushing into the floor, no holes in the knees (when going back, the right knee should be angled facing forward oblique to the left). When dancing in practice, this restraint can be relaxed somewhat, especially on highway 2 in parallel system.

Exercise: same as last week (men and woman): stand on two feet, heels off the ground. Go up a stairmaster, alternating feet: one heel high up, one heel low, never touching the ground. Do this 10 times SLOWLY. This builds ankle strength and helps you feel the floor while dancing.

DO NOT FORGET: body up up up, feet down down down into the floor. Take a heavy intake of breath. Your body stretches up. Now learn to breathe with your body up in that position, although it should be a little relaxed. No side to side hip motion, otherwise the lady cannot feel the man’s mark.