Dance: Book companion video #1

World ending predicted by Mayans did not happen. 2012 Xmas is over. Winter break is still ongoing. And we have a few more days to reflect 2012 and start 2013.

Using some of break time, we made a companion video #1 to our book "Beginning Argentine Tango: To the people who are interested in dancing Argentine Tango-This is how to do it". This video refers to a part of Chapter 1, "Argentine Tango has many styles". The biggest division among styles is whether the Tango is Show-oriented or a socially danced style.

Link to the book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1468083473/ref=s9_psimh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=09P2SNASPKZB58V9W9EP&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1389517282&pf_rd_i=507846

Link to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHhotSJshSI&list=HL1356578655&feature=mh_lolz

We are planning to make some more videos. Information is most valuable to people who do not have it. Hope this helps.

Life: a Formula for Mass Shooting

As a part of holiday reading, I am reading The Ten Day MBA by Steven Silbiger. I like the straightforward style of writing. The contents are not too complicated. I am enjoying it so far, and I will be a Ten Day MBA by 2013 (haha).

In the accounting section, the author introduces accounting basics, and tells about company information MBAs can get from accounting formulas and analyses.

I was thinking about recent mass shooting. Inspired by the formula, I came up with following formula for mass shooting.

Mass Shooting=[Sad Person]+[Social Factor]+[Mental Illness]+[Available Gun]-[Resistance]

Let's assume this formula is correct. To reduce mass shooting, we want to reduce Sad Person, Social Factor, Mental Illness and Available Gun, and increase Resistance.

Sad person does the shooting. He is a product of genetics, environment, education and (lack of) discipline. There have been and will be some Sad Persons in our society. Still we need to come up with ways to reduce their numbers.

Social Factor is an outside encouragement. The former Arizona congressman (along with others including a child) got shot by a madman, and it was argued that encouraging comments by some right wing politician might have influenced the shooter.

As Morgan Freeman pointed out, even a big coverage by mass media, " the man of the day" status, can be an encouragement to Sad Person.

You can include violent movies, TV and videogames in this category.

Mental Illness is talked in many mass shooting cases, including the Newtown and the Virginia Tech. Improvements in treatment, enforcement of medication, systematic patient tracking etc would be the efforts to combat this factor.

We can include this in the Sad Person category, but considering importance of social efforts on this issue, I make this an independent category.

Available Gun is an obvious enabler. It is an essential component for mass shooting by definition. 

Let's take another society as a control group. Japan has very strict gun control. Guns are only for the police, military and licensed hunters there. Citizens who carry guns are nearly zero.  In the country, mass shooting almost never occured. Yakuza (gang)-related shootings have happened in rare occasions, but they are usually among Yakuzas and the scale is far smaller. Of course there have been Sad Persons with Mental Illness who set out to kill people randomly. But only with a kitchen knife it's a lot harder for them to kill as many.

Availability of Gun in America is determined by many factors, including the legislation factor. There are many interest groups; lobbyists (e.g. the NRA), gun makers, distributers and pro-gun forces in society. Some people just don't want to give up the toys and proclaim the rights.

Here I don't fancy taking on entire gun issues. I will just point out that an available gun is an enabler for a Sad Person and is an essential component for mass shooting.

To make guns less available to a Sad Person, what can we do?

Resistance refers to factors that stop shooting on track. Watchful citizens for prevention, training for the police, an alert system for quick response, security guards, armed citizens, the ALICE training (an active shooter training program, an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evade )...any force that can stop the shooter.

Guns can involve in Resistance. The fact complicates the overall gun control picture. Some Texans are running a social experiment of arming school teachers. I wonder how it willl work out. There should be a balance point for minimum shooting.

Gun control is talked about much currently. But in the formula, it is not the only thing we should work. We need to work on all.

Bottom line. I don't like mass shooting. I don't want to encounter one. I don't want my loved ones to encounter one. We got to do something about mass shooting, and this formula might help to formulate actionable plans. Even if you are a pro-gun, you can work to be watchful for mental illness issue, for example.

Life: Your advice is not for everybody

Terrible shooting incident. Particularly terrible part was that many children died. We tend to see possibilities in the future of the young, and the "possibilities" are endless. We feel shame for the loss of young lives much the same way as we feel regrets for something we did not do. Unrealized possibilities are limitless and weigh heavy on one's heart. 

Now I get back to what I wrote, titled "Your advice is not for everybody."

For me Facebook is basically a glorified and publicized photo album. Also in Facebook, people provide advice, anecdotes, personal experiences and their morals to others, freely and generously. It's good. The stories we tell to others also tell others about us. 

However, if someone tells others directly that "Your advice is not for everybody", a few will be offended, although they should say "Sure, you are right" and smile. 

Why offended? Because we tend to forget who "everybody" is. "Everybody" is a collection of people with different background, past, different positions for issues and individuality. One advice won't cover them all. Only one common thing among everybody is that we eventually physically die. Beyond that, we are different and we need to respect the fact.

Sales and Marketing people are forced to understand this concept. They know from experience that they can't sell one thing to everybody.  When they want to sell something, they analyze customers, segment the market, and try to identify their customer for improved sales.

Advice is something similar to commodity. Advice is an idea designed to help a particular situation, and the target "customer" may be more defined or limited than we think.

Let's take Suze Orman. Her cable TV financial show (is fun and I like it) is toward the financially uninitiated who likely belong to the lower class and the middle class. Her show is not exactly designed for the rich with high degree of financial education or with no concern for retirement.

Another example. "Theatricality and deception are powerful agents to the uninitiated... but we are initiated, aren't we Bruce?" (Bane, The Dark Knight Rises). Of course the Batman's firecrackers that worked against many didn't work against Bane. Most education work like that. You know and are prepared, or you don't know and leave an opening that can be vulnerable.

We all come to this world without knowing a thing, and during our personal journey in life we learn. As such, an advice pertinent to get a stage through may not be relevant to someone who has gotten past the stage, or has not reached the stage yet.

That is why even the Bible looks schizophrenic because the book is in a sense a collection of advice. The advices are targeted to a full bunch of different people. Some are valid to a group of people but not to other groups.

Wise people use discretion. Common advice for receiving advice is, "Take something that works for you".

Some professional advisers, such as medical doctors and lawyers, are not going to give advice so casually. Medical doctors require seeing the patient to make diagnosis. They require attention in person, even short, to stand by their diagnosis. Casual advice for an undiagnosed, clinically depressed person could be harmful or even get him killed. Knowing the worst case scenario,  the pros take their business seriously.

In contrast, in Facebook, we likely don't choose the "target". We throw it to our "friends" and hope it sticks to some.

The bottom line is, like medication, we need to know the advice we need, and use discretion to free and available advice that are floating around. To know which advice is relevant to me, I need to know who I am now, and who I want to be. I need to know where I stand, what I do, and where I need to change. The key is constant education and renewal.

It sounds like an endless cycle. But like Buddha said, "A teacher appears when you are ready". It's not the same, and the personal journey continues.

I'm writing this because the Year end approaches (if you believe the Mayan calendar, the world's end. haha), and the winter break is a major planning time for me. I am preaching to self. Think more. Now.

Life: "Where do we go when we die?"

My uncle Kiichi Yamada passed away early 12/6/2012 at age 69. Although he is said to have passed away in his sleep, it is a shame to hear such news. He was a good man. He was very kind to my family when my father had a stroke and some hard times followed. He hosted a party for us when we got married and were in Japan last year.

This morning with great sadness I sent a condolence card to his family. I pray for him and for his family.

This recent incident made me ask a terribly fundamental question, "Where do we go when we die?"

As I know there are many theories and assertions made by various religions and philosophers.

What we humans commonly have, eventually, is physical death. "On a long enough timeline the survival rate of everyone drops to zero," according to Fight Club. Even a very religious guy may have a hard time arguing against this premise. Certainly, the matter which constitutes our body remains in this world and may be recycled. But I don't think we call the matter "us" anymore.

So, the following argument relies on a premise that we have something else, a soul, or an entity that may (or may not) retain our individuality. And the title question can be rephrased to "Where do our souls go when we die?"

If we do not accept the premise, presence of a soul, the argument will be simpler. As the body dies, we cease to exist. We disappear.

So, destination-wise, there are only two major possibilities:

"(A) A person as the soul goes to another world (afterlife), or (B) We disappear."

(A) "Another world" can be one of the following three.

(1) Somewhere better (i.e. Heaven)

(2) Somewhere worse or torturous (i.e. Hell, Purgatory)

(3) Somewhere in this world (you reincarnate to someone or something else and live a life somewhat similar to this life; the "parallel world" theory may be a variation of this theory)

In this "another world" theory, usually the sorting process is taken care of by a god or a deity (e.g. The God, Jesus, Buddha, King Yama, Allah, Hades, etc). How long it takes for the sorting can vary depending on the religion. One may stay dead for a long time until Judgment day comes, or after an unspecified amount of time (short or long) one goes on to his next destination.

Theory (B) "We disappear," is common among not-so-religious people, including atheists, agnostics, secular people and scientists. This theory is a valid interpretation of what we can "see".

Some cultures favor one answer over others. Most religions accept the existence of a soul and discuss destinations and afterlife. As we grow up and see someone significant die, we acquire and/or choose an answer.  Since no one yet has physically died for sure and came back to life to tell his story in a credible manner, we have to live with theories without knowing a solid answer (we will know when we die, won't we?).

Every time someone close to me dies, I think about this question, knowing I will not get a solid answer but possibly a change in my perception.

But every time someone close dies, I am also reminded of the fact that this world is for us, the living. Where the dead go is actually god's business now, and may not be our business anymore. How we remember the dead, how they influenced us, and what ideas, notions, deeds, and actions the dead man left here, are more important.

Culturally speaking, Asian cultures seem to put more emphasis on continuing bonding with the dead. Probably it is a good thing. I will remember good things Uncle Kiichi-san did, and they will influence what I will do in this world's future. In a sense he still lives on.

Dance: what makes a show a show?

We are watching some Show Tango videos. We got an opportunity to perform, and are preparing for it.

This time we are not inclined to choreograph a routine. The promoter asked us rather not to, to preserve spontaneity of the Tango dance.

We are also not inclined to do small, tight embrace style either. The promoter wants a show and we got a big floor. We are encouraged to dance big. I guess the performance will be somewhat similar to strictly swing situation in West Coast Swing circuit, in which we know the partner but don't know the song. We got to improvise to the song, but we can be prepared to show a certain showy moves with the familiar partner.

This overall setting makes me wonder, what makes a show a show.

In Argentine Tango performance, there are many Milonguero or Salon style dancers who show just that style, meaning they dance what they would dance in a crowded milonga in a big, wide open floor. Of course they got applause from discerning watchers, for doing nice tight ocho cortado with the music, and for looking comfortable doing it, or something like that. If well done, they look like a nice little European car running on the narrow pavement road of an old European city.

However, when you are dancing to a broader audience who does not know much about Tango styles, it get's trickier. Large and tricky moves are almost always a better bet for such shows, assuming the executions are good.

Sure, eventually it is about the quality. But the quality of the Milonguero/Salon styles is tend to be less visible. Sometimes you cannot even tell the partner's quality until you dance with the partner. The quality is primarily felt, as Tango is a very sensual dance. In contrast, show-style exaggerations make the quality very visible.

Partner dance can be danced to your partner, or danced to the audience. This difference makes the major difference between the Milonguero or Salon style and the Show Tango.

Well, it's not a matter of which one is better. It is a matter of what we want to show in a show. As a performer we got to decide what to show and dance the dance.


Last weekend, we went to Quartz Mountain Resort state park for hiking. Somehow the wildlife activity was higher than our previous visit. We saw raccoons, deer, a porcupine, a skunk, an armadillo and many other bugs and butterflies. It was also nice to have a time to lay down on a boulder at night, look up the sky, and listen to the nature quietly. Nature is beautiful with both lively active side and profoundly quiet side.