So Here Come The Assorted Ramblings Of A Disgruntled Swing Dancer….
Why ?
Because Its Been Long Enough That I Have Had To Listen To The Ramblings Of “Contemporary Swing Dancers” You Know The Type .. The Ones That Think A Pair Of Cheap White Canvas Rubber Soled Shoes Are Authentic Swing. (Sorry I Meant To Be More Stereotypical By Using the Word “Trad” But I Just Couldn’t Do It To Myself)
So What Has Set This Off ?
Great Question. This Has Been Brewing For Almost 3 Years Now When I First Started The Katz Back Up, But Now Upon Stumbling Across A Blog Page (Thanks To One James Star), A Cantankerous Rage Started To Boil To The Surface.
Who Cares Swing Is Swing Isn’t It, Just Harden Up ?
Yes You Are Totally Correct I Have Had This Philosophy Since Inception But My Issue Stems At The Root Of These Snide, Uneducated Opinions And Comments. What Im Trying To Say Is Who Is Giving Birth To These Stereotypical “Contemporary Swing Dancers” Who Bare Such Boorish Opinions As They By No Means Come Up With it Them Selves.
So What Did This Blog Say ?
Well Here It Is In Its Steamy Pile Of Flatulent Glory, Just One Simple Paragraph That Explains It All ….
Courtesy From Lindy Penguin’s Blog (Syd Based) & Referenced To Dog Possums Blog (Syd Based)
- And Dont Worry Melbourne & Canberra Ive Heard This Exact Rubbish From Your Parts To
…But vintage fashion does have a dark side. Dogpossum looks at the recent history of the zoot suit in Sydney. I’d tend to agree that most people who wear them just look a bit naff (and then there’s the whole link to the zoot suit riots. Plus the whole historical appropriation of wearing a symbol of rebellious second generation Mexican American youth whilst doing a dance invented by lower class African American youth boggles the mind a bit).
Now I Dont Have The Time To Completely Dissect A Penguin Nor A Possum Per-se ( Yes A Pun To Boot ), But Lets Do This In Point Form, Quickly For You The Reader.
1 The Only Thing That Should Be Boggling The Mind Is The Irony Of A Bunch Middle Class White Suburban Australians Commenting On How They Cant Make The Link Between Mexican Youth Fashion And African American Youth Dance Culture In The Same Era That They Never Existed In. ( Better Hope These People Don’t Do Fusion Dances Like Blues Their Collective Minds May Explode )
2 The Use Of Naff Full Stop.
3 Have They Totally Misunderstood The Basic Psyche Of Getting Dressed Up And Immersing Your Self In A Sub Culture Such As Swing. Even At A Childhood Level, Dressing Up As Your Favourite Super Hero, It Is Ingrained In Us As Human Beings. Have They Been Sitting In Front Of A Computer To Long And Forgotten What It Is Like?
4 Have They Also Not Ever Performed And Understood The Importance Of Costume ? And The Skill It Takes To Dance At Such A Level In A Zoot Suit ?
5 Do They Even Own A “Real” Zoot Suit? (One That Is Not Rented From A Novelty Shop)
6 Who Taught Them This ? Everything Is Inherently Learnt !
7 Zoot Suits Are From The 40s They Are Not “Neo Swing” ( Even Thou There Is Nothing Wrong With Neo Swing It Helped Revived The Scene That You Are Now Apart Of That May Not Have Been Otherwise, So Show “Some” Respect )
-b Sub Point On That, About “The Negative Stigma Surrounding Neo Swing”. Funny How Most Of The People I Hear And See Slagging Out Neo Swing Music Are The Same People I See At Big Bad Vodoo Daddy & Royal Crown Revue Concerts. I Might Even See Them At The Brian Setzer Concert This Year ? If Not Im Sure Ill See Them At Jump Jive And Wail ( Just Another One Of Those Ironies, Just Saying 
)
8 Last Time I Checked You Guys Where Neither Benny Goodmen Or Coco Channel So Really Your Musical Taste And Fashion Sense Are Rendered Useless …. As Scratchy Rare Traditional Music Isn’t Fun To Listen To On A Loud Speaker Let Alone Dance To, And Finding Some Drab Old Clothes That Mismatch Is Not Authentic Nor As Fashionable As You May Have Been Lead To Believe.
Riddle Me This Batman: Going By Your Logic Of Course …Why Should I Listen To Suburban White Aussies Pasting Up You Tube Clips & Blogs Of Suburban White Americans In This Decade, About Fashion On A Dance And Music Style Created “by lower class African American & Mexican youths” * Decades Ago ? Oh How The Mind Boggles (Insert Boggling Sound Effect)
So All That Being Said Now What Will You Do?
Well Now I Shall Give My Closing Thoughts, Then Some Woosaaaz And Then Back To The Daily Grind.
As I Tell All My Dancers Swing Is A Free Dance, How You Dance It, What You Feel Like Wearing And What Swing Music You Like To Dance It To Is And Should Be Solely Up To You.
The Fact That Some Of You May Cop Ridicule From Others In The Same Scene By Doing What Is Fundamentally The Basis Of Swing Is Sad Especially When Our Sub Culture Is So Small.
………….Now Looking Down Upon The Operating Table At These Dismembered Creatures, I Remember That We Live In A Democracy And That Blogs Are A Form Of Expressing Ones Thoughts ….. Oh Well To Late Now Some One Had To Be The Sacrificial Lambs.
That Is All – j 
P.S Dogpossums Flatulence Was This
In Regards To Neo Swing: “So this action is now about fourteen years old. It’s not been long enough for neo swing to have retro chic, my friends. It’s just naff. And not very good. If you can buy glorious Halloween zoot suit costumes, there is no cool left in that particular outfit.”
