Dance: Art is mightier than thou

I went to a milonga at idance studio on Friday, then to Thanksgiving Party at the OKC swing dance club yesterday (Saturday). With many familiar and new people, the party was fun. 


The Thanksgiving party boasted attendance of 104 people. If you looked at the Thanksgiving party from a dancer's standpoint, the party was a social dance party, and there were many different levels of dancers.

Most dancers were recreational, and happy with having fun dancing. It was good. I love the lively energy.

A few were more skilled, dancing beyond "just having fun". Meaning that they were aiming at dancing good West Coast Swing dance.

Even fewer were dancing at a level of minding how they look from others, in addition to feeling good and having fun themselves. Most of the few had experience in competitions. Objective beauty of partner dance emerges when both dancers know how good dancing should feel and look like, and adhere to it.

These few can serve as "seeds" of the art of the dance. 


Anything that you do and take seriously can have elements of an art. Dancing included. You can work to improve it by learning and practicing it. In fact, that is the only way to make progress in any art.

If you look dancing as an art form, you may realize that not everyone is qualified as the successor of the art. It depends on how much quality you could attain at the art. Also, taking it seriously can mean that you put higher priority on the quality of the art than your comfort. 

Thus, "Art is mightier than thou".

Nobody is good at an art from the beginning. Untrained body often finds comfort in dancing with lesser quality. Good looking postures and coordination of motions can be alien to your body at first, and you may find them uncomfortable.

Some instructors try to convey the message above. Depending on the student's mindset, reception of the message varies. For the most, having fun is top priority, and nothing is wrong with it. But if you want to go beyond a certain level and have different kind of fun out of partner dancing, change in your mindset to prioritize the quality is necessary.


Is this view elitist? Perhaps. But I would rather enjoy small amount of good quality dances than many rough dances. For me, dancing is becoming somewhat like drinking wine.

And, believe me, dancing with higher quality really is fun.

[It's a party season. Get your shiny holiday jacket and party shirts on.]

Life: 5 days after "Trump shock"

Trump was elected. I live in a Red state, where 2/3 of voters (meaning many of my facebook friends) voted for him. In disbelief, I took my time trying to make sense out of it.


A few articles, comments, and conversations provided clues to organize my thoughts.


It turned out, Trump supporters were a mix of very different kind of people.

(i) Middle/lower class who feel hopeless/helpless/cornered/losing ground/resentment, because their needs were not addressed neither by Democrats nor Republicans (an overlooked population).

Basically, from their eyes, Trump was a third, independent party who can bring changes. 

Especially, such people in Rust belt tipped electoral college votes to Trump. Whether their hopes of Trump as an agent of change are addressed or not remains to be seen.


(ii) "Republican nominee" supporters

These were people who usually support Republican party. Even after this election split Republican party (e.g., Establishments, far-rights, etc), they went along with generally-aligned party interests with authoritarian mentality. They ignored downsides, inconsistency, and hypocrisy for the sake of party.


(iii) Rural Americans

Percentages of Trump supporters were high in rural areas, while Clinton supporters concentrated in cities. For now, I'd rather not to over-analyze the reason. Some good explanations should come.


(iv) True "Deplorable"s

KKK, neo-Nazi, racist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, etc. This segment was most featured, criticized, mocked, and feared as "Trump supporters" before the election. 

But other categories of Trump supporters would claim people in this category are different from them.




[These categories are not totally inclusive, nor mutually exclusive. They list some notables.]

*******************

For me, over-analyzing the past probably would do little at this moment.

As in my previous entry, I wanted Clinton to win. She knows the system (esp., Government and congress) inside and out, and well-tested as career politician, which came as negative with Trump supporters category (i). Too bad. She has also been targeted by her political enemies with extremely prejudiced smearing tactics for 30 years. Unfortunately, it had effect, too. 

Much of scientific research relies on stability and predictability in research environment, and she could have provided that. With untested Trump's elect, uncertainty has certainly risen.


However,....

It's been 5 days already. Although there are much uncertainty, it is time to think about what may come and formulate plans for best, better, good, bad, worse, and worst cases. 


In this era of social network, people's response and good ideas can be disseminated quickly.

For example, there are many articles and what-to-dos in daily bad case situations, such as "what to do when you witness harassment by an Islamophobic", "how to deal with Trolls", etc. I have borrowed some ideas, and will continue to take good ideas.

Like bare-handed martial arts evolved quickly in 90's and 2000's by early Brazilian jujitsu dominance, people's rational response to bad political situations and absurdities may evolve. That is one of my hopes.


Uncertainty may even prove to be an opportunity. Preparation is the key.

In fact, national popular vote went to Clinton, and there were even more non-voters whose opinions we do not know. The numbers actually provide some hope that America may not be filled with true deplorables. Yet. That should be a "better case" scenario. We will see.

Life: A week around the 2016 US Presidential election

For politics, I'll cut to the chase.

I want Hillary Clinton to win, and Trump to lose tomorrow.  

I wrote up a long version to elaborate this, but changed mind about posting.




Other than that, life is going quite normal.

Last Friday 11/4 was a milonga night.

Last Saturday 11/5, I went to Tulsa for the OK/KS swing dance championships. It was fun dancing with a variety of people and watch some contests.


On Sunday 11/6, the journal office notified us that our review manuscript on genomic instability and liver cancer has been accepted for publication. It took a major revision and almost a year for the project to reach here. I am very happy about the acceptance.


Today 11/7 was a sample collection day. Tomorrow, too. We will process them by Thanksgiving, and should see results later this year. Looking forward to it.


On Wednesday 11/9 and Thursday 11/10, there will be a conference, "National Meeting on Precision Medicine and Cancer in American Indian and Alaska Native communities".


This week is going to be an eventful week.

Science/Dance: NCI site visit, Halloween Party

This week at my work site, we had a site visit by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) program directors. The Center for Cancer Prevention and Drug Development at the OU Health Sciences Center, together with the Stephenson Cancer Center and the College of Public Health, carry out many studies for the NCI's contract programs. And the NCI program directors were visiting us to know or ensure we have the right environment and capability to complete the studies.


Certainly, the US government does not want to spend tax money on a wrong investment. Contrary to propaganda statements by Naysayer-right wing populists, the US government is doing meticulous job on medical science research, as far as I know, with systematic third party review processes for the grant and contract programs and with occasional site visits such as this visit.


Contemporary science has gotten bigger. A lab doing everything inside the lab belongs to the past. We need right and interactive environment to get the job done. In fact, we work with many core facilities and other laboratories and PIs (Principal Investigators). They include Bioinformatics core facility, imaging core, chemical synthesis, HPLC analysis, animal facility and support staff, histopathology core, etc. We were showing the Directors that they are real and capable facilities, not made-up on-paper-only entities.


The change in scientific research is a reason that a student needs proper training to get into the contemporary scientific research industry, even in academic settings. We need to think bigger and have skills to coordinate everything needed to get the research done as a PI. Don't be naive. 



Yesterday (10/29/2016), we had a Halloween Party at the OKC swing dance club.

[10/29/2016 Halloween Party]

Perhaps I should put a disclaimer here just in case? My opinions expressed in this blog do not represent those of my workplace organization's.