If you’re short on time, jump to 1:46, 5:06, and 10:25 and watch for a little  bit.

I’ve done something similar to this, but because my hair normally isn’t super clean, it relatively stays in place with a few bobby pins, sans spray. That being said, I can now see how one can take bangs to a new height because of all the curling and spraying and curling and spraying…. :D

Enjoy!!!

Why this video? For one, Marilyn Monroe is an icon and Lisa Freemont Street knows how to make a tutorial. What more can a gal ask for?

Lisa does a great job explaining how to put in pin curls and about some of the finer details about directionality of your curl. If you actually watch the entire clip, instead of jump through, you’ll learn about the difference between curls from the 1930s vs the 1950s.

1. her hair is redder than mine
2. her front swirl is larger than I’ve ever had mine

I think it’s safe to say I’m red with envy!

Yes, it’s a long video and I’d say you could safely fast forward through it about 30 seconds at a time until you found what you were looking for. You also can stop watching at the 9 minute mark, and/or jump back in around 12:40 to watch her put an enormous bow in her hair.

Quick run down: section hair off by making a square on the top of your head (for your enormous swirl), put hair in pony tail, and then curl everything. Jump to 3:15.

In general, her motto is: curl it, hairspray it, tease it, hairspray it, pin it, and hair spray it again!

It’s sooooo beeg! (yes, I purposely spelled it that way)

Grab a sock, cut off the toes, roll it down as if you were cuffing a shirt, and that’s the scrunchie that you’re going to use. Now, fast forward to 2:12 and get started!!

What I like about this video is how few hair-things she used. I love watching videos where people MacGyver things.

I also found this video, which I quite like. Miss Peace n Love‘s voice is….memorable, but I like how she broke this down. Get your hair in a pony tail and start watching at 1:37.

What fun is that instead of using a sock, she used a leg warmer. I think this is the one I’m going to try right now!!

For centuries, dance manuals and other writings have lauded the health benefits of dancing, usually as physical exercise.  More recently we’ve seen research on further health benefits of dancing, such as stress reduction and increased serotonin level, with its sense of well-being.

Then most recently we’ve heard of another benefit:  Frequent dancing apparently makes us smarter.  A major study added to the growing evidence that stimulating one’s mind can ward off Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, much as physical exercise can keep the body fit.  Dancing also increases cognitive acuity at all ages.

You may have heard about the New England Journal of Medicine report on the effects of recreational activities on mental acuity in aging. Here it is in a nutshell.

The 21-year study of senior citizens, 75 and older, was led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, funded by the National Institute on Aging, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Their method for objectively measuring mental acuity in aging was to monitor rates of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

The study wanted to see if any physical or cognitive recreational activities influenced mental acuity.  They discovered that some activities had a significant beneficial effect.  Other activities had none.

They studied cognitive activities such as reading books, writing for pleasure, doing crossword puzzles, playing cards and playing musical instruments.  And they studied physical activities like playing tennis or golf, swimming, bicycling, dancing, walking for exercise and doing housework.

One of the surprises of the study was that almost none of the physical activities appeared to offer any protection against dementia. There can be cardiovascular benefits of course, but the focus of this study was the mind. There was one important exception: the only physical activity to offer protection against dementia was frequent dancing.

Reading – 35% reduced risk of dementia

Bicycling and swimming – 0%

Doing crossword puzzles at least four days a week – 47%

Playing golf – 0%

Dancing frequently – 76%.

That was the greatest risk reduction of any activity studied, cognitive or physical.

Quoting Dr. Joseph Coyle, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who wrote an accompanying commentary: “The cerebral cortex and hippocampus, which are critical to these activities, are remarkably plastic, and they rewire themselves based upon their use.”

And from from the study itself, Dr. Katzman proposed these persons are more resistant to the effects of dementia as a result of having greater cognitive reserve and increased complexity of neuronal synapses.  Like education, participation in some leisure activities lowers the risk of dementia by improving cognitive reserve.

Our brain constantly rewires its neural pathways, as needed.  If it doesn’t need to, then it won’t.

            Aging and memory

When brain cells die and synapses weaken with aging, our nouns go first, like names of people, because there’s only one neural pathway connecting to that stored information.  If the single neural connection to that name fades, we lose access to it.  So as we age, we learn to parallel process, to come up with synonyms to go around these roadblocks.  (Or maybe we don’t learn to do this, and just become a dimmer bulb.)

The key here is Dr. Katzman’s emphasis on the complexity of our neuronal synapses. More is better. Do whatever you can to create new neural paths. The opposite of this is taking the same old well-worn path over and over again, with habitual patterns of thinking and living our lives.

When I was studying the creative process as a grad student at Stanford, I came across the perfect analogy to this:

The more stepping stones there are across the creek, the easier it is to cross in your own style.

The focus of that aphorism was creative thinking, to find as many alternative paths as possible to a creative solution.  But as we age, parallel processing becomes more critical. Now it’s no longer a matter of style, it’s a matter of survival — getting across the creek at all.  Randomly dying brain cells are like stepping stones being removed one by one.  Those who had only one well-worn path of stones are completely blocked when some are removed. But those who spent their lives trying different mental routes each time, creating a myriad of possible paths, still have several paths left.

The Albert Einstein College of Medicine study shows that we need to keep as many of those paths active as we can, while also generating new paths, to maintain the complexity of our neuronal synapses.

            Why dancing?

We immediately ask two questions:

• Why is dancing better than other activities for improving mental capabilities?
• Does this mean all kinds of dancing, or is one kind of dancing better than another?

That’s where this particular study falls short.  It doesn’t answer these questions as a stand-alone study.  Fortunately, it isn’t a stand-alone study.  It’s one of many studies, over decades, which have shown that we increase our mental capacity by exercising our cognitive processes.  Intelligence: Use it or lose it.  And it’s the other studies which fill in the gaps in this one.  Looking at all of these studies together lets us understand the bigger picture.Some of this is discussed here (the page you may have just came from) which looks at intelligence in dancing.  The essence of intelligence is making decisions.  And the concluding advice, when it comes to improving your mental acuity, is to involve yourself in activities which require split-second rapid-fire decision making, as opposed to rote memory (retracing the same well-worn paths), or just working on your physical style.One way to do that is to learn something new.  Not just dancing, but anything new.  Don’t worry about the probability that you’ll never use it in the future. Take a class to challenge your mind. It will stimulate the connectivity of your brain by generating the need for new pathways.  Difficult and even frustrating classes are better for you, as they will create a greater need for new neural pathways.Then take a dance class, which can be even better. Dancing integrates several brain functions at once, increasing your connectivity.  Dancing simultaneously involves kinesthetic, rational, musical and emotional processes.

            What kind of dancing?

Let’s go back to the study: Bicycling, swimming or playing golf – 0% reduced risk of dementia

But doesn’t golf require rapid-fire decision-making?  No, not if you’re a long-time player. You made most of the decisions when you first started playing, years ago. Now the game is mostly refining your technique.  It can be good physical exercise, but the study showed it led to no improvement in mental acuity.

Therefore do the kinds of dance where you must make as many split-second decisions as possible. That’s key to maintaining true intelligence.

Does any kind of dancing lead to increased mental acuity? No, not all forms of dancing will produce this benefit. Not dancing which, like golf or swimming, mostly works on style or retracing the same memorized paths. The key is the decision-making.  Remember (from this page), Jean Piaget suggested that intelligence is what we use when we don’t already know what to do.

We wish that 25 years ago the Albert Einstein College of Medicine thought of doing side-by-side comparisons of different kinds of dancing, to find out which was better.  But we can figure it out by looking at who they studied: senior citizens 75 and older, beginning in 1980.  Those who danced in that particular population were former Roaring Twenties dancers (back in 1980) and then former Swing Era dancers (today), so the kind of dancing most of them continued to do in retirement was what they began when they were young: freestyle social dancing — basic foxtrot, swing, waltz and maybe some Latin.

I’ve been watching senior citizens dance all of my life, from my parents (who met at a Tommy Dorsey dance), to retirement communities, to the Roseland Ballroom in New York. I almost never see memorized sequences or patterns on the dance floor. I mostly see easygoing, fairly simple social dancing — freestyle lead and follow. But freestyle social dancing isn’t that simple! It requires a lot of split-second decision-making, in both the lead and follow roles.

I need to digress here:
I want to point out that I’m not demonizing memorized sequence dancing or style-focused pattern-based ballroom dancing.  I sometimes enjoy sequence dances myself, and there are stress-reduction benefits of any kind of dancing, cardiovascular benefits of physical exercise, and even further benefits of feeling connected to a community of dancers.  So all dancing is good.

But when it comes to preserving mental acuity, then some forms are significantly better than others.  When we talk of intelligence (use it or lose it) then the more decision-making we can bring into our dancing, the better.

            Who benefits more, women or men?

In social dancing, the follow role automatically gains a benefit, by making hundreds of split-second decisions as to what to do next. As I mentioned on this page, women don’t “follow”, they interpret the signals their partners are giving them, and this requires intelligence and decision-making, which is active, not passive.  This benefit is greatly enhanced by dancing with different partners, not always with the same fellow.  With different dance partners, you have to adjust much more and be aware of more variables.  This is great for staying smarter longer.

But men, you can also match her degree of decision-making if you choose to do so.
(1) Really notice your partner and what works best for her. Notice what is comfortable for her, where she is already going, which moves are successful with her and what aren’t, and constantly adapt your dancing to these observations. That’s rapid-fire split-second decision making.
(2) Don’t lead the same old patterns the same way each time.  Challenge yourself to try new things.  Make more decisions more often. Intelligence: use it or lose it.

And men, the huge side-benefit is that your partners will have much more fun dancing with you when you are attentive to their dancing and constantly adjusting for their comfort and continuity of motion.

            Dance often

Finally, remember that this study made another suggestion: do it often.  Seniors who did crossword puzzles four days a week had a measurably lower risk of dementia than those who did the puzzles once a week.  If you can’t take classes or go out dancing four times a week, then dance as much as you can. More is better.

And do it now, the sooner the better. It’s essential to start building your cognitive reserve now. Some day you’ll need as many of those stepping stones across the creek as possible. Don’t wait — start building them now.

_____________________

What more could you possible want from a study?! To read more of Mr. Richard Powers’ work, please click here and you’ll be taken to his site.

Join the largest online protest in history: tell Congress to stop this bill now!

I am writing to you as a voter in your district. I urge you to vote “no” on cloture for S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act, on Jan. 24th. The PROTECT IP Act is dangerous, ineffective, and short-sighted. It does not deserve floor consideration.  I urge my representative to vote “no” on SOPA, the corresponding House bill.Over coming days you’ll be hearing from the many businesses, advocacy organizations, and ordinary Americans who oppose this legislation because of the myriad ways in which it will stifle free speech and innovation.  We hope you’ll take our concerns to heart and oppose this legislation by voting “no” on cloture.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! – http://www.fightforthefuture.org/pipa

PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting “creativity”. The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites– they just have to convince a judge that the site is “dedicated to copyright infringement.”

The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that’s for a fix that won’t work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.

By SHIRA DICKER

Arturo Perez, a performer and dance instructor, dips his partner at Swing 46 in Manhattan

THERE are swinging parties in Manhattan nearly every night. The trick is in knowing where to find them.

Take a recent Thursday: Sandwiched between a Blarney Stone and a liquor shop on Eighth Avenue just south of Penn Station and up four flights of stairs was a scene invisible to most New Yorkers. Wild and sweaty, loud and crowded, it featured scores of smiling, ever-shifting couples energetically executing the kinetic choreography of the Lindy Hop, the Charleston, the jitterbug , the Balboa, the collegiate shag. They danced East Coast and West Coast styles and bluesy New Orleans freestyle.

This party, the Frim Fram Jam, is a weekly event organized by the local chapter of a national swing dance network called Yehoodi, after “Who’s Yehoodi (Yehudi)?,” a song popularized by Cab Calloway. Held at a studio called You Should Be Dancing and drawing more than 150 people a week, the Frim Fram Jam is a popular destination within a throbbing, thriving urban subculture: Manhattan’s swing-dance demimonde.

The scene is the recent revival of a phenomenon that started quietly in New York in the mid-1980s, waxed and then waned and grew popular again in the decades that followed until the best swing-dance spots were forced to close for lack of revenue in the new century.

Now enjoying a renaissance that began around three years ago, the current swing-dance milieu consists of a network of clubs, events, instructors, dancers, D.J.’s and bands. It is characterized by its own celebrities, etiquette and conventions, and enabled by social networking, particularly the New York City Swing Dance Group of MeetUp.com and Yehoodi.com. This scene is scored by composers whose names form the spine of the Great American Songbook: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Isham Jones and, of course, Cab Calloway.

While the summer cultural landscape of Manhattan offers popular events like Midsummer Night Swing at Lincoln Center and Swing Moon Dance at Pier 84, the city’s swing dancing truly comes to life when the weather turns cold and the action moves indoors.

Within the cozy confines of clubs like Sofia’s at the Edison Hotel and Swing 46 (the only place of its kind with live swing music every night), the casual rec-room atmosphere of the Frim Fram Jam, and the sumptuous, large-scale weekend parties in community centers, this spirited social subculture thrives.

At the intergenerational Frim Fram Jam in early December, energy surged through the room when Gordon Webster’s cover of the Andrews Sisters’ hit “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön” went on the turntable at 10:25 p.m., by which time people had been dancing strenuously for more than two hours. From his booth, the D.J. and Yehoodi music organizer Ryan Swift noted the fresh excitement. “Man, I feel old,” said Mr. Swift, who is 34. “There are plenty of kids here, but look at some of these old folks dance.”

One of the “kids” was Elaine Silver, 23, a regular. Before graduating from Columbia University Ms. Silver was an organizer of CU Swing, a student group. Now a champion dancer, she founded Swing and Dance with her dance partner, Adam Lee, to teach and promote the form. Mr. Lee, a 32-year-old graduate student in music at New York University, said he helped create the current swing-dance craze in Beijing.

Trim and energetic at 63, there was also Eugene Hammond Jr., a retired postal worker known as Ice. Mr. Hammond showed up at the Frim Fram Jam around 11 p.m. in a black suit, cobalt-blue shirt, red tie, brown-and-white vintage cap-toe oxfords, accessorized with a beige felt fedora and a large cross on a chain.

“I’m here tonight,” proclaimed Mr. Hammond, who is known for executing sharp, staccato moves. “But I’m dancing somewhere else in this town every night.”

Many of the same people turn up at the different dance spots, among them Swing 46. And almost everyone shows up at the Swing Remix dance parties at the JCC in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, lively events that happen four times a year.

The unwritten rule of these dance parties is “to say yes to anyone and to smile regardless of what your partner does,” said Kristen Spillane at Swing 46 on a recent Tuesday night, as George Gee and his band struck up “It Had to Be You.”

If you say yes often enough, you are likely to find a partner who assumes the role of personal instructor. Alazar Deas, a counselor and therapist in his 50s who favors snazzy hats, is one. Mr. Deas often dances with one woman for several consecutive numbers, offering understated advice: “Relax. Keep it small. Keep it cute. You’ve got to feel the music.”

The scene is a return, if only for one night, to a less virtual time, an era when social lives were conducted in person, said Paolo Lana, one of the catalysts of the swing renaissance and a founder of the Swing Remix with Spencer Weisbond.

“Maybe it’s because of shows like ‘Dancing With the Stars’ or maybe it’s because people are trying to have healthier lifestyles,” Mr. Lana said. “Maybe it’s because they are trying to get away from electronic devices or they are craving face-to-face contact, but swing dancing is suddenly catching on in New York after a slump.”

Because there is a place to dance almost every night, it’s possible for Mr. Hammond and others to conduct their social lives entirely through the portal of swing. Dancers swarm to Sofia’s to catch Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks on Mondays, leaving Tuesdays for George Gee’s manic band at Swing 46, when teachers from Dance Manhattan provide free lessons. The Cotton Club’s Monday-night swing dancing with live music is legendary. West Coast swing is taught every Wednesday at Dance Manhattan. Thursday is the Frim Fram Jam, and then it’s back to Swing 46 for the Friday-night parties, always with a live band.

The biggest monthly dances happen on Saturday nights. These include the Swing Remix and the New York Swing Dance Society’s bash at St. Jean Baptiste Roman Catholic Church, whose trademark is the Shim Sham Shimmy, a line dance. Mr. Lana and Mr. Weisbond created Swing Remix in 2007, after the closing of several clubs offering swing dance to live orchestras. While attendance was anemic at first, nearly five years later the parties draw hundreds and are de rigueur for any serious participant. The events are not only big; they are meticulously programmed. For starters, they feature a different band every time. Over several hours the demographic shifts strikingly. Early hours feature singles and middle-aged Upper West Siders in their motto T-shirts and baggy chinos. Then the hip young arrive in force, tearing up the floor with their retro clothes, geek-chic eyewear and low-slung moves. Just when the crowd seems to be settling on its identity, slick men in “Saturday Night Fever” gear accompanied by glitzy girlfriends appear, taking over the floor with showy footwork. Later on, looking like time travelers, cool cats from Harlem show up in fedoras and spats, making everyone else seem hopelessly out of step.

Among the coolest is Tommy Tucker, 77, noted for his sly style and vintage caps. Mr. Tucker, retired from a Veterans Affairs job, has been a social dancer for years, he said: “The Cotton Club. Tia. Swing 46. Swing Society. Anywhere there’s swing, I go.”

With the arrival of each new contingent, the party shifts in tone and appearance. The dance numbers are punctuated by contests and exhibitions in the middle of the floor. Patrons arrive with water bottles and towels and take frequent breaks to hydrate and wipe down. It is not gauche to be drenched in sweat; by the end of the evening many people appear as if they have jumped into the JCC’s pool, fully clothed.

“It’s not just a kind of dance, it’s a whole culture,” said Aileen Tretter, a hospice social worker who attended the November and December Swing Remix events. She considers the dances a healthy antidote to her emotionally draining work.

Mr. Tucker similarly finds the parties therapeutic. “It’s like a medicine,” he said. “If you be angry with the world, just come here and dance until it’ll go away.”

The swing-dance social world is an extremely fluid and democratic fellowship. Women ask men to dance and vice versa. Partners switch with every song. One might arrive with a significant other or alone. Just as older people dance with youngsters, one can expect to see same-sex as well as male-female couples. Markedly absent is the supremacy of the ultrabeautiful or the ultrathin. People who are plain while standing on the sidelines are often transformed into dynamos of charisma on the dance floor. Those who are heavy execute complicated moves with grace.

It is a must in this realm to visit Swing 46 at least once. On a recent Tuesday night it teemed with dancers and dinner guests as the band began to play “In the Mood.” A blond woman in a calf-length peach dress and upswept hairdo took to the floor with an African-American man in jeans and a button-down vintage shirt, while George Gee shouted from the stage, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!”

Stepping Out With Style

MONDAYS

Swing Dance Night, Cotton Club, 656 West 125th Street, Harlem; (888) 640-7980; doors open at 8 for dinner, music begins at 8:30; cottonclub-newyork.com; $25.

Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, 8 p.m., Sofia’s Restaurant, at the Edison Hotel, 221 West 46th Street, Manhattan; (212) 719-5799,myspace.com/vincegiordanothenighthawks, sofiasny.com; $15 cover and $15 food-and-drink minimum.

TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS

George Gee Swing Orchestra, 8:30 to 11:30 p.m., dance lesson from Dance Manhattan Studios at 9:30 p.m., Swing 46, 349 West 46th Street, Manhattan; (212) 262-9554, swing46.com, georgegee.com; $12.

WEDNESDAYS

West Coast Swing class, 8 p.m. (no classes until 2012), Dance Manhattan, 39 West 19th Street, 5th Floor, Chelsea; (212) 807-0802, dancemanhattan.com.

THURSDAYS

Frim Fram Jam, dance lesson at 8 p.m., dance begins at 9 p.m., Club 412, 412 Eighth Avenue, at 31st Street, Fourth Floor, Manhattan; yehoodi.com/frimfram; $8, dance lesson is an additional $4.

SATURDAYS

New York Swing Dance Society dance, one Saturday a month (check Web site for details); lessons begin at 7 p.m., dance begins at 8, St. Jean Baptiste Roman Catholic Church, 184 East 76th Street, Manhattan; (212) 696-9737, nysds.org; $15, $11 for students and seniors.

Swing Remix, one Saturday a month ; workshops and lessons begin at 6:20 p.m., dance begins at 8:30, JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Avenue, at 76th Street; (646) 233-3338, swingremix.com.

SUNDAYS

Swing classes, beginner: 7:30 p.m., advanced beginner: 8:30, JCC in Manhattan, jccmanhattan.org; $108 for a six-class series for nonmembers, $93 for members.

Changing events at Swing 46, 349 West 46th Street, Manhattan; (212) 262-9554, swing46.com.

Also mentioned in the article:

NEW YORK CITY SWING DANCE GROUP OF MEETUP.COM meetup.com/swingdancing-82.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 30, 2011

 

An article last Friday about swing dancing in Manhattan misstated the surname of the musician whose cover of the Andrews Sisters’ hit “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön” was played at the Frim Fram Jam in early December. He is Gordon Webster, not Walker.

• Snowball had 26 teachers, 5 bands, and 2 Jack & Jills + 3 additional competitions.
• Lindy Focus had 31 teachers, 4 bands, and 5 Jack & Jills + 2 additional contest.

The illustrious and hilarious Andrew Thigpen served as the MC at Lindy Focus and thought it would be a marvelous idea to send some lindy love from the USA to Sweden. On Tuesday the 27th, he went to the dollar store and bought markers and construction paper so that people could make holiday cards for  particular individuals at Snowball, or for the camp in general. On Wednesday, he overnighted the messages to Sweden and on Thursday they arrived. In response to that, Snowball made this video (below) for the crowd at Lindy Focus.

Not to be out done, Andrew stirred up the Friday night crowd and sent even more holiday cheer to Sweden. What a guy!!

All I can say is: Lindy Focus – Party Time!!!!!!