Another Jam Cellar Email Starts Whimsical, Then Turns Horribly Awry
Tonight, DJ Betsy Kipperman
Will show you how to party like it's 2010.
In other news, Apple on this day in 1983 announced the first personal home computer with a mouse. And, Robert E Lee was born. (see below for more information)
New Building Your Basics series begins Jan 19!
That's tonight!
THE JAM CELLAR TOWN HALL MEETING OF AUGHT TEN (Feb 2)
Fine ladies and Gentlemen. And cattle. Those who love Jam Cellar, and those who don't but want to, are invited to the Jam Cellar Town Hall meeting from 9:30 to 10 p.m. on Feb. 2nd. We'll discuss the past, present, and future of Jam Cellar, and we want to know what all our patrons think about Jam Cellar's atmosphere, events, music, etc. Please come armed with suggestions and comments, or, failing that, pistols. (Pistols will be collected at the door). And yes, we will have refreshments. If you will not be there, please feel free to send comments for discussion before hand to huh@thejamcellar.com.
Just Announced: BROOKS TEGLER big band AND small combo Jan 30
We're proud to announce that our Glen Echo dance this month will include not only Brooks Tegler's Big Band, but also his small combo. What makes that so special? First off, it's old school Benny Goodman style. Second of all, it was one of the greatest nights of music we had at the Jam Cellar last year, which is saying something. Thirdly, Brooks Teglar has floppy hair.
S0, mark your calendar, we're starting off 2010 right. And please help us share it on Facebook. $15 Admission, Beginner Swing Lesson @ 8PM (Free with admission), Dance From 9PM – 12PM. Glen Echo Park Park Spanish Ballroom, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, Maryland. Presented in cooperation with the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts & Culture, Inc., the National Park Service and Montgomery County, MD.
Clean-up Volunteers needed!
If interested in helping out tonight, contact us at huh@thejamcellar.com.
JAN and FEBs Class: Lindy Hop Performance CHOREOGRAPHY!
Our Jam Cellar Crew will spend 8-full weeks teaching a performance choreography complete with fancy moves. Drop-ins only allowed for partners who will not rotate during class.
Happy Birthday, Bobby Lee
At the university I went to in Tennessee, one of the fraternities was founded by Robert E. Lee. The reason why he founded the frat was because, all prejudice aside, Robert E Lee was a very morally-driven man and cared about making sure young men had a place that would steer them in the direction of being gentlemen. Well, in my opinion, the modern fraternity had missed this point completely. They thought they were gentlemen because their upper-middle-class moms and dads said so, and bought them a navy blazer.
I went through house visits, where you meet each fraternity and they give a speech and feed you potato chips and coke that taste strange. You realize, after your fourth house visit, that the soda is at least 20 proof, and everyone has a blazer except you. (It didn't help that I was both naive and had a sweet tooth, and was more or less addicted to Coke throughout college. So I drank quite a lot before realizing the effects it would have.) Well, anyway, the Robert E Lee fraternity told us all a story that I don't feel comfortable repeating here (But I do here), but needless to say it was something that should have made every boy in that room revolted, and in hindsight I should have probably spent less time being revolted and more time contacting the authorities. (If you are unsure what stories to believe about Southern Fraternities,take it from me, you can probably believe it, especially if it has that Faulknerian touch.)
My friends and I on several occasions hatched schemes to steal this painting, which I imagined was the Dorian Gray of all the frat boys that were humiliated below it. Hazing was rampant in the Robert E Lee fraternity, and I imagined everything those baby-faced southern boys went through, some of it involving picante sauce, making it's mark upon Robert E Lee, aging him, making him prematurely gray, himself carrying the weight and sins of his offspring, (though in reality it was the weight and sins of his own South that made him look like that).
We never did steal it. They were far too protective of it. But we certainly tried, and were soon not allowed anywhere near the place without someone getting suspicious. Others did steal it, but it always found it's way back, or perhaps they had a stock-pile of them. Today, I can't help but mourn something for Robert E Lee; by many accounts, he was admired by the greatest men of the age, both Northern and Southern, as a man of his word, a man of loyalty (perhaps his tragic trait), a man who tried to create an organization that would inspire young men to be both good and great men. I can't look at anyone I met at that fraternity's house visit and see greatness, except perhaps a great bratiness and privilege unearned, or the great enemy in the south's haunted and feeble battle for unironic chivalry, another battle Robert E Lee might loose.
Err…too dark?