What we Go Out Looking for at Night by risa
I think most nights that I go out (which isn’t most nights) all I’m really looking for is the feeling of that moment of tranformation, or emergence, when enough links have been made in the crowd so that everyone knows an average of just one other person. At that point, information can move through the entire network at high speed. A feeling of well-being and ease just needs the slightest push – from booze, a good band, or a friendly competition, say – to take off into the air of the room. To circulate and confirm the feeling of being a piece of the wise, dangerous and jangly beast that is a crowd.
Anyway, suffice it to say, some nights out are only ok, some you should have missed out on, and some can fill you up with such goofy delight they add a piece to the circuits of your brainware that will, if your lucky, be recall-able by you for the rest of your life.
Do you remember when there was a post here about a Blizzarts Dance-off on a Monday night here in Montreal?
I think a dance-off is partly fun because any anachronism (bit of culture from another time) can make the characteristics of your own time stand out. A dance-off lets you think about how they danced in the ’30’s or ’60’s when their bombs were falling. How they held on to that kind of happy a little harder then they might have, had there had been less squalor and terror in the world.
The couple above won the fifty dollar prize because they won over the crowd with confidence, and equal footing, and consistently hilarious maneuvering. They moved with dedication. On the small, sweaty dance floor of Blizzarts on St. Laurent, Jared MacSween macswung and twirled Sara Johnston around. They mimed ridiculous and near-pornographic stuff to crack the crowd up, as though they’d known each other since they were six. When the broken glass got kicked around under her bare feet (after the flip flops couldn’t cut it) she didn’t let on. She only mentioned it on her way home, riding high on her bike with a dance-prize-winning grin.
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