Dance, Music, Movies, Books, and Travel

• Dance
• Music
• Movies and TV
• Books
• Travel

Home ||

Dance

Tap Dance Homepage

I began this as a side project and it went up on Christmas day in 1994. Originally, I used the project to collect tap information for myself and learn Web publishing. Now, I volunteer for the International Tap Association. Stop by for information, the event calendar, and tap history.

Swing Dance Resources

Links to Swing dance society Web sites, a list of dance songs by beats per minute (BPM), etc.

Argentine Tango in Philadelphia

Event calendar, news, information on instructors, links to resources, etc.

Kelly and Leslie's Dance Phila. Site

Photos, information on instruction, classes, etc.

When someone blunders,
we say that he makes a misstep.
Is it then not clear that
All the ills of mankind,
all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books,
all the political blunders,
all the failures of the great leaders
have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.

-- Moliere (1622 - 1673)

back to top of page

Music

Pandora.Com

The Music Genome Project created a "discovery music service" where you can enter an artist or song in the Flash player form and a customized radio station is created from songs of similar characteristics. It is an amazing and wonderful tool. An effective antidote to the Clear Channel and Infinity limited playlists on radio. Helps you discover artists you would never find. I let it play all afternoon and was stunned by the quality. You can purchase songs from Apple's iTunes or CDs from Amazon also.

Apple's iTunes Music Service

The iTunes application is available for Macintosh and Windows. I use it to create playlists from my CDs but more importantly to check out musicians I've heard mentioned in other places. I can listen to clips and perhaps buy a tune or two. I have tunes by Pink, The Mavericks, Julie Roberts, Bobby Short, Squeeze, Alanis Morissette and others.

Kelly Willis Homepage

This is the alt-C&W singer's official Web site. (I ran a fan page a number of years ago.)

Rory Block Homepage

While I'm recommending musicians, I suggest you give this woman a listen. Great performer, traditional acoustic blues and passionate original music.

Alison Krauss and Union Station

Heartfelt traditional and new music with Alison's angelic singing and everyone's amazingly crisp and passionate musicianship.

The Corrs

A great Irish pop group and good-looking to boot. (As far as I know, I'm not related.)

Delbert McClinton

Texas singer and harmonica player, plays blues, roots, and R&B music with strong country influence. This link is to the NPR page for an audio interview on Fresh Air.

Dan Hicks

Snappy, acoustic music with sharp wit, whose style reminds me of music behind old cartoons

back to top of page

Movies and TV

Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

The best reference on the Web for people, titles, trivia, quotes, technical information and more on TV shows, and films. There are also links to external reviews, fan sites, and official and commercial links.

FilmSite.Org

Amazing labor of love site by a film buff that includes analysis and dialogue from many films. A great resource I found after reading Roger Ebert's review of the Clint Eastwood film "Unforgiven".

DVD Beaver

This site is a good example of a true film fan. Extensive archive of reviews of foreign, classic and recent films. Its strength lies in the comparison between editions of DVDs from different sources with extensive technical detail and screen shots to illustrate.

EpGuides.Com

Episode guides for over 2500 TV shows. This resource is very handy when stumbling across an interesting show to find more about the show, where the episode you found is in the broadcast sequence, etc.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

A well-written TV series about the battle of good over evil, the importance of friendship, redemption, etc. Critics and fans loved the show. Despite the flippant dialog, it covered human issues with respect and subtlety.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the entry on the Internet Movie Database for the 1997-2003 TV series.
• What Would Buffy Do? - a review of the book of the same name by a writer at Christianity Today.
  
  

TV Shows I Miss

i.e., cancelled before their time (but DVDs are often available!):

• Firefly - only a couple episodes aired, out of order before cancellation; buy the DVD of the series, you won't regret it. [followed by the movie "Serenity". Fan news at The Signal]
• Wonderfalls - 4 episodes aired, great ensemble cast, smart, witty; fans rallied to have the DVD released, which is worth buying.
• Angel - made it to 5 seasons, sorely missed; sure, it was about vampires and demons, but the satire on the business world in the 5th season was a hoot. The "Harm's Way" episode is a favorite.
• Dead Like Me - enjoyable dark sense of humor, great ensemble cast, with an interesting take on death
• Joan of Arcadia - network show with promise, but got cancelled
• Pasadena - caught this one on SoapNet... great stuff!

Several of these shows had creators and writers that worked on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (Firefly, Wonderfalls, Angel, and Dead Like Me.) As a result, they share crisp dialog, great casting, and innovative takes on situations.

back to top of page

Books

Leisure and Informational Books

In the past couple of years, I've made up for not reading any books for many years by reading a variety of books - politics, biography, travel, fantasy, and some interesting non-fiction. I have a couple of books going at any time now. They are listed here.

News and Views

I read a number of books in my effort to become a more informed citizen. Books are listed and linked from these pages.

back to top of page

Travel

Lonely Planet

Publisher of travel guides.

My Information on Travel to Greece

Included are links to various resources I used, or were recommended to me, before my vacation in Greece, to help in learning the language, alphabet, or customs.

back to top of page