ATTENTION ALL DANCERS
(Especially those from Berkeley, Oakland, and the East Bay.)

We are going to bring back Lindy to Sproul Plaza in Berkeley on Saturday afternoons. And its FREE.

Sproul Plaza is the historic intersection of Bancroft and Telegraph Ave, about a <1 mile walk from Downtown Berkeley BART, near many AC transit lines, and miles from convenient parking (see later posts).

Sproul Plaza is outdoors and the floor is newly laid brick(?) tiles. Should be OK to dance on... better than asphalt/concrete...

Lindy on Sproul existed about 5 years ago.

Lindy on Sproul was where I learned to dance. I think Natasha and Vinnie taught me how to dance. I will continue the tradition by offering free beginning lindy lessons to everyone who asks for Howard.

For those of you still having trouble visuallizing it, just think of (Lindy in the Park) on Sunday ---> (Lindy in Sproul) on Saturday. Both are free happy places to be and dance Lindy. Our goal is to revive LoS to its former glory, where about 10-20 people would come each week, sometimes more.

HELP US

Right now, we've got a sound system and some tunes. We need some help in getting it rolling. What we're missing are:
* You
* Your favorite music (burned CD's appreciated)
* Your friends
* Word of Mouth Advertising
* Things we forgot we needed

So if you have any of the above, bring it.


We're gonna do the first run on Saturday 8/28 from 11am to 2pm probably followed by some eating/drinking on Telegraph Ave.

(Update: See below for how well it went. We are continuing this to EVERY Saturday, weather permitting. Check out the webcam link: http://www.berkeley.edu/webcams/sproul.html Thanks Megan! The demonstrate.berkeley.edu webcam works better, but requires a login... (but signing up for it is free.. it's just some geek project the school is doing, not a marketing ploy. We are just north of the fountain, near the tree-line)))

For more details, to help out, or to get on our mailing list, email howard___at____chongman.org (or just reply to this message). As more details get hashed out, we'll post them here, at SwingTalk.

*** SPREAD THE WORD. ***

This post has been edited by chongman on Aug 30, 2004 11:35 PM

:music: Uh-oh! Don't tell me you need music! I'll be happy to burn a truckload of CD's for you by the 28th. Hope to see you there!

I probably only have about 6 or so CD fulls of decent swing music (much more Jazz that I'd dance to, but other people probably won't like.)

I would love to get some Lou Rawls and that Mnomena song by one of the muppets (?). Everything is appreciated.

Oh my god!! I'm SO interested! I work on campus during the week, though, and might not like to come back to "work" on Saturday...it sounds simply FABU!!! I'll spread the word amongst my students!!!

You mean the Mah-nah-mah-nah (Doo-doo-ba-doo-doo) song by the Muppets? I totally have that on CD! I'd be more than happy to burn that for ya!

I'll be there!!! That's almost in my backyard...

:thumbs: GENERAL UPDATE


General Result
So today, the first resurrection of Lindy on Sproul, was an absolute blast. We got a good crowd, considering that all the advertising I did was post this on Swingtalk. Word-of-mouth and some generous cross-posting helped lots. Thanks! to whoever put it up on Lindylist. Please do let your friends know through the mailing lists you are on.

I estimated that we had about 15 people dancing, and we taught 2 or so new people. If someone kept better score than me, correct me.

Who Came
Did you know someone at Lindy in Sproul? The the best of my knowledge, we had:

Talia
Michael and Persephone
Stephanie
Cheryl
Nick
Britney
Tony
Norma
Bonnie
Jeff (200 Grand)
Simon
Kate (sans Bradley)
Elizabeth (new)
Nancy and her friend Kristin
Myself
and people I can't remember but hope to see again next week!

Technical Success, Technical Limitations
So, the sound rig worked out fine. Our system was a 100W (?) CD/Tape deck directly connected to a car battery with alligator clips (actually, large binder clips... but the same idea). Speakers used were 70W units from an old Aiwa system. The sound system had a little bit of distortion in the mid-range, but bass was fine. The car battery ran for 3 hours without a hitch, probably draining less than 15% of the battery (easily within the acceptable range of the car battery. Ending voltage was 12.7V). We were successful at queuing up music without a mixer (using the car CD player and a portable CD player hooked up to a tape adapter), but I was much happier when someone handed me a mix tape with 3 or more good songs in a row.

Our knees, however, didn't fair as well. As always, dancing outdoor on brick/concrete was slick enough (and better than asphalt) but really hard. At the end of the day, most people got pretty tired. Makes you appreciate those nice floors that have cushioning beneath them. Wear comfy shoes

Anyone got any ideas for outdoor dance surfaces that are temporary and have easy setup?

The last techinical challenge was staying hydrated and cool. The outdoor sun was shaded by some nice trees. Bathrooms were located really close by (down two flights of stairs) as were the drinking fountains. Our dance spot was really close to Telegraph Ave, so there were plenty of places to grab food/water/pizza.

I brought cookies that people did enjoy.
:kick:

Things we need
I think the ONLY thing we need are some flyers and people to distribute them. So...
1. Can someone design a flyer (but not produce them)? that'd be cool. Make it a quarter-sheet flyer.
2. Is there anyone who has photocopy/printing privileges who could make, like, 100 copies.
3. Next time you come to Lindy on Sproul, let me know if you can bring them to any of the venues. I'm not going out much anymore, so it'd be nice if someone hit the doghouse, etc, etc. Step #3 comes after #1 and #2, obviously.

And of course, give us the things we forgot we needed.

I'm going to making the website soon.

Hooray!

So, does that mean we can expect Lindy in the Sproul again next week?

Thanks again for all the hard work of making it happen. My partner, Jen, and I were impressed.

i actually thought the ground wasn't half bad, and, although i got there late and danced only the last 2 hours, i wasn't worn out at all. plus, even though it was one of the hottest days of the year, by virtue of dancing outside it felt much cooler than dancing inside even on cool nights. i definitely think lindy on sproul should become an institution.

thanks for organizing this, howard.
norma

Howard!! Thanks for resurrecting one of my favorite dance spots!!! :luv:

Ted Ko, Maggie Moon, myself and a slew of old East Bay diehards used to run LoS before Natasha and Vinny took over in '99.

Back in the day we’d have 10-20 people there for the free lessons and 20-50 for the dancing. Lindy On Sproul was a great meeting spot to share moves and work on improving our dancing in a fun and friendly environment.

We used tell people to check the Sproul Plaza cam www.berkeley.edu/webcams/sproul.html to see if LoS was happening on questionable rainy days.

We even had a few restaurants that we patronized for lunch, donate snacks and goodies for LoS dancers.

Can’t wait for the new memories, I’m in the South Bay but can’t wait to check it out again after all these years.
Thanx!
Megan

There was also Maureen Teyssier, who left (too) early... I was fortunate enough to get a dance from her just before she left... :wub:

LoS was awesome. The place was well chosen, as those small trees were well appreciated to shield this aggressive California sun...

Kudos to Howard! :thumbs:

LoS is ON for Sat 9/4. It is also my friend Stephanie's birthday, so we will be doing a lil' jam for her.

And we'll be going on every week thereon, unless you hear otherwise.

Below is just some useful info for drivers...

HINTS FOR PARKING
First of all, the cheapest way to go is to take the BART in. Ashby BART and North Berkeley BART both have parking lots that are free on weekends if you need to drive to a BART station. Fares right now are $1.25 each way from nearby stations. Walk from BART is about 7 minutes.

We are also on the 51, 43, 52, and other AC transit bus lines. You should try out the TripPlanner at 511.org if you want to check it out. Fares are $1.50 each way, but drop you off 1 block from the site.

A bit of a hassle, (but you can stay in Berkeley all day) is to park near Sacramento and Allston. This is about a 25 minute walk, but there isn't a 2 hour parking restriction.

If you are cheap and willing to chance it, park south of Dwight, between Telegraph and College Ave. The parking is free, but you can only park for 2 hours (neighborhood permit). From there, it's about a 10 minute flat walk.

Meter parking wasn't too bad. There were plenty of spaces just south of Dwight near Telegraph, but you'll find closer spaces along Bancroft, Durant, Channing, and Haste. I think it's about $1/hour, but you have to feed the meter...

:crying: The following saturdays are Football days and parking is REALLY bad.
Sat 09/11/2004
Sat 10/16/2004
Sat 10/30/2004
Sat 11/06/2004
Sat 11/20/2004

Gametimes are available here: http://calbears.collegesports.com/sports/m...otbl-sched.html

Harold,

If you plan to keep Lindy on Sproul going, you should add it to the venues section of this forum. Some people only check there to look for dancing and don't read any of these posts.
local dance venue listings

Correction: most 2 hours (neighborhood permit) limitations don't hold during the week-end. I just checked back today to be sure, and I know for a fact that at least West of Telegraph on Haste & Dwight you don't have the 2 hours parking limitation on Saturday and Sunday. I also suspect that it will be true on Channing, etc., say one block West of Telegraph. Only very close to Telegraph (say the first 100m) do you have a stricter parking limitation on week-end. If you go one block West, then you can park for the whole day... I haven't checked East of Telegraph, but my guess is that if you go far enough from Telegraph, the 2 hours parking won't hold on week-end as well.

Anyway, public transit or bike is better for the air, of course... ;)

:ermm:

Warning, on 9/11 Lindy on Sproul is on, but there are football parking issues
that day, so beware. My advice is to take BART in.. don't think you'll just park a few blocks away because the traffic will suck and you'll be very unhappy if you do.

Congratulations on resurrecting LOS--I met my husband at LOS five years ago in August 1999. We will have to stop by soon.