Linked-In (March 3rd)

Here’s a trio of links for March 3rd.

• Peter Strom’s Music Blog – While not specifically jazz music oriented Peter has recently relaunched his music blog.  Peter is a prominent member of the lindy hop community and is widely respected for his dancing and musical taste.  He is one of the administrators for the Lindy Hoppers Fund, an organizer for Swing and Soul, and a world-class instructor.

• Alain Bikes for Microcredit – Alain Wong, lindy hop blogger and instructor out of Montreal, will be biking to raise money for microcredit and to empower women.  He has already raised 750$ and a good portion of donations (up to 1000$) will be matched by StandoutJobs, a recent Montreal startup co-founded by Cat’s Corner‘s Fred Ngo.

• Northeast Girl Jam – Northeast Girl Jam continues the trend of many outstanding Girl Jams but this time on the east coast.  The first girl jam was organized by Giselle Anguizola in 2005 and they have since sprung up all over the west coast and even Australia.  If you didn’t catch the video round-up, Jojo (the organizer of NE Girl Jam) and Giselle (teaching at NE Girl Jam) are featured in the Hot Pockets routine.  I’m excited to attend (as a lead) and am even featured as a guest instructor.

Enjoyed the links or would like to submit an article of interest, let me know.

Swing & Soul

Buzz: one of the biggest ways to get your event attended and almost impossible to buy. Swing & Soul had a phenomenal buzz about it; I’ve been hearing about it since last fall. For every person that told me about it, I told six others and I was not alone.

All that buzz paid off with dancers from across the U.S., Westies and Lindy Hoppers, converging on Atlanta, GA for three packed nights of performances, classes and parties. Friday night started off with a dance at Georgia Tech DJed by Tom Hamrick and Peter and a performance by Bryan Gaynor (who also performed at the finale of this past seasons So You Think You Can Dance). The late night kicked off with DJ Gary Tate from Atlanta. Although I didn’t really dig the music that he played most of the night (I wanted more classic motown tunes) and the constant voice-over of upcoming songs was a bit unexpected, people were up and dancing.