Lindy exchanges local or national DJ's

[Lawrence]

Exchanges are for two purposes: tourism and dancing. Ideally, visitors to a dance scene and host city should experience things they wouldn't otherwise experience at home. Why have nationally renown DJ's unless it's a special, differently-themed event? It's like making the trip to Russia to eat at Macdonalds. * * *

I understand your point, and some Exchanges definitely lean far too much on the side of "National" DJs, which I suspect is the ultimate point of this whole thread. That's also why I have tended to give locals DJs better slots at our Austin Exchange.

However, the term "Exchange" contains the essence of what an Exchange is all about: an "exchange" of "dancing stuff" that benefits both locals and visitors. It is just as much about showing off a host city/scene as it is about bringing new influences, music, and dancers to the host city. As such, it DOES make sense to use "National" DJs because otherwise its just the same DJs you listen to locally every week.

And what, for chrissakes, is with this incessant, ovsessive need to cut and chop and dice the music to be crammed into tiny, pigeonholes?

(Straw man fallacy if there ever was one.) The point isn't to chop and dice and cram it into tiny pigeonholes, but to come up with/agree upon terms that describe the music we are talking about so that the discussion moves forward from overly broad generalizations attached to good and evil monikers. It helps us understand and hopefully appreciate the differences between "Groovers" and "Vintage Lovers," instead of just exchanging uninsightful insults. It also helps enhance our (or at least my) understanding of the music by forcing us to really listen to the music a bit closer and identify what it is that makes Gene Harris' "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" sound like a COMPLETELY different song than Duke Ellington's original version.

[kitkat]

The point isn't to chop and dice and cram it into tiny pigeonholes, but to come up with/agree upon terms that describe the music we are talking about so that the discussion moves forward

Exactly. Think about every significant vocabulary word you've learned...the dictionary describes it in a whole sentence. But you get to use each word for itself, which saves a lot of narrative and roundabout reference. Defining vocabulary for later word-saving is always handy, as long as the vocabulary is clearly defined and thoroughly understood by the target audience.

[BryanC]

Actually, a strawman fallacy is when I ignore your position and substitute a distorted or misrepresented version of that position, and then proceed to argue for or against the misrepresented version.

What I asked was simply my own perception on the "categorization" trend, and didn't actually stem from any particular position of yours. The point may not be to chop and dice, and it may be to come up with a common 'language' with which we can all converse collegially, but ultimately, in order to make the arguments as to what makes, "...Gene Harris' "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" sound like a COMPLETELY different song than Duke Ellington's original version", one has to dissect the music (hopefully to a limited extent). And while, it's constructive to do that to create an accepted terminology that veers away from value judements (which doesn't seem to have happened here..yet), it's also possible to kill the music through overly-obsessive analysis (usually due to lack of consensus). There's a reason why music is an art.

Bryan (who thinks the reason why Phil Collins' A Groovy Kind of Love sounds completely different from Clementi's Rondo from his Sonatina in G, is probably because it's Phil Collins, and not Clementi.)

[Drew]

My take on exchanges is that they should be for showing the rest of the country how great your scene is, including DJs. If you don't have a scene worth sharing then you shouldn't be having an exchange in the first place.

I agree, but can't it also serve the purposes of encouraging the local scene to grow or of encouraging others to visit your home town so that you don't just dance wiyth the same old people in the same old venues. The original motivation behind Exchanges in the first place was the desire to dance with more and different people from other parts of the country, not the desire to showcase your scene to the world.

I think a good exchange is twofold--it is about putting on a good show within the when-in-Rome mentality, something I've said at least half a dozen times on Windyhop and other sites.

That said, I view exchanges as having someone over for dinner, be they good friends I see night in and night out, family, or someone I haven't seen since high school. You put your best foot forward if you've got an ounce of self-respect and pride in what you have. Chances are you wouldn't make someone eat macaroni and cheese off paper plates, even if it really is what you eat the other six nights of the week. You'd probably tidy up, dust off the cookbook, and set the table. It's about you and how you are and it shows that you care about the company that has come to see you. Cleveland and DC in 2002 did the best job of this I've ever seen, and LA/OC also does it extremely well at the Binge.

I wouldn't make my guests eat macaroni and cheese if they're coming over to my house for dinner, I wouldn't make visiting dancers endure the hometown DJs nobody likes or the band that isn't going to make them happy. And if I realized I couldn't cook, I'd either take them out to a restaurant.

Some exchanges think that there should be no concessions made for visitors and that things should be exactly at an exchange how they are the rest of the time--macaroni, paper plates and all--and LA/OC is the only one I know of that can get away with it. No other scene I've visited has the venues, the bands, or the local DJs good enough to do it without help. (The Binge does, however, have a roster of about 30 DJs and each one gets only an hour).

This is exactly why I plan on missing the Friday dance at WCLX5. I'm not paying to see a band I didn't like when I was living in Chicago that is still playing the same stuff they were four years ago. I'd rather spend the $15 at the Pub downstairs.

[Yakov]

I've heard Jake DJ twice. I like what I heard. I havn't heard the rest DJ but I will take your word on it.

no, please dont