A Tale of Three Smart Phones

I'm often an early adopter of new consumer electronic technologies. I got a digital PCS back when Pacific Bell was the only carrier to offer them. I had a TiVo before David Letterman ever mentioned them in a joke. I ordered my MacBook Air from a hotel room in Bournemouth, England, hours after they were announced at Mac World. I have been driving a hybrid Honda Insight since before the Toyota Prius became what looks like the most popular car in the Bay Area.

With that kind of background, you'd think I'd have gone straight to the Blackberry or iPhone when they first became available. However, I have a tendency to lose mobile phones in taxis, and could not bear the thought of having a costly device go missing. For years I've always used whatever multi-band GSM phone I could get free from my carrier. Most recently my phone of choice was a magenta Motorola Razr, obtained at no cost as part of my most recent re-up with T-Mobile. It served me well, although triple-tapping to send text messages was beyond onerous.

All my friends were getting smart phones, and more and more of them were communicating via text. I hoped that when it came time for me to renew my phone contract, I'd be able to get an entry-level Blackberry for free. Then I started dating an iPhone user. His comment on my cute pink Razr: "we need to get you a real phone."

He first brought me a Google Android Phone, fresh from the Google I/O Developer Conference, to try out. This phone is now available through T-Mobile as the myTouch 3G, which I think is a lame name. We popped my SIM card in and fired it up. At the time I couldn't figure out how to import my contacts list from my MacBook Air, which was rather annoying because there were about 70 entries that weren't already on my SIM card. I decided if I loved the phone and had to end up typing them all in myself I would, but was not looking forward to that.

I loved a couple of things about the myTouch (do I really have to call it that?). The first is that it just looks slick. And the android alien is super duper cute! Best of all, the little white trackball lit up and blinked excitedly when a call was coming in. It was like having an alien invasion party in my purse.

Sometimes it was a little difficult for me to remember what icon got me to where I wanted to go, but I figured I'd have it all down pat in under a week. Unfortunately, less than 36 hours later I couldn't stand the darling phone any more and happily went back to my Razr. The sole reason for this was texting. I found the touch screen keyboard difficult to use accurately and was spending as much time backing up and correcting as I had been triple-tapping out letters on the Razr. I have average sized fingers for a woman, yet felt fumble-fingered all the time, and never could quite tell what keys I was actually hitting. This frustration showed up most strongly on what has become my acid test for a smart phone: being able to text while driving. Yeah yeah, I know you're not supposed to do it.... Anyway, I couldn't even get out "b there in 15 mins" without major effort.

After a brief respite with the Razr to cleanse my palate, my boyfriend presented me with his old iPhone 3G. I liked it instantly. Already being a Mac person helped a lot: my contacts uploaded to the phone seamlessly, and I really appreciated being able to backup and recharge with my Air. Right away I was downloading apps, playing Foursquare, and IDing music on the radio with Shazam. The touch screen keys were a bit larger than on the myTouch, which made my typing so much more accurate. I especially liked the way the keys animate when tapped, giving a good confirmation that (a) something happened and (b) that I hit the right key. Best of all, I could text easily from a moving car, so easily that now I have to really restrain myself for health and safety reasons.

About three days later we dropped by a Sprint store to check out the new Palm Pre. They didn't have a fully operational one to play with, and their demo models were tethered to the display, making it very difficult to get a sense of the phone and what it was all about. In a display of great salesmanship, a Sprint associate pulled his personal Pre out of his pocket and let me play with it for a good fifteen minutes. I looked at pictures of his kids, played around with texting, did some web browsing, added and deleted a phone number, and made a brief phone call.

The Pre is a nice phone. It's got the techy-slick look and feel of the myTouch, but in a smaller package that was designed to fit comfortably in your hand. Navigating between applications is done with a swipe, giving me the feeling that I was simply mousing around on a larger desktop of sorts. The screen, though the smallest of the three phones, was easy to read due to the very high quality of the display. I appreciated the "bubble buttons," since I touch type it's nice to have feedback from a physical keyboard. I was especially impressed by the fact that the Pre backs itself up to the Cloud every night. This very much alleviated my fears of losing everything if I lost the phone in a taxi in Helsinki or something.

Which then brought me to the deal breaker: there would be no way I could lose the phone in Helsinki or something because the Pre was only available on Sprint in a CDMA model. I have to have GSM, simple as that. It was suggested that I purchase a Pre so I could take it home and try it for a few days, but I turned to my boyfriend and said "You're only getting that iPhone back if you pry it out of my cold dead hands."

I've been happily using the iPhone for a few months now!

Happy New Year

In some traditions, Autumn is the start of the new year. The Jews have Rosh Hashana, the Celtic Pagans have Samhain...heck, in the USA it's the start of a new school year. September has always been a time of restarting and renewal for me. When I was a kid it was about new friends and teachers and classes and shoes and clothes and books, and that feeling has never really left me. Having "New Year's" right after Christmas always seems a bit excessive and arbitrary to me.

So in the spirit of the New Year, I'm thinking about what's next in my life. I've been doing a lot of the same things for a long time, without really thinking about why I was still doing them. I've been putting off a lot of things for a long time, without really thinking why I wasn't doing them. I've basically been on auto-pilot, which was a great coping strategy when my life was turned upside-down a few years ago in a not very good way, but now I'm ready to do and be something again.

2009 Open British Professional Latin Championship

Tonight is the hottest night in the ballroom. And I don't just mean "hot" because it's the Latin, I mean hot because the entire place is packed to the gills. The Pro Latin event at Blackpool draws the biggest crowd of the week.

I went down and watched the first round and took a bunch of pictures, trying to get shots of every couple from the USA I could find plus anyone else who caught my eye. There was a Japanese couple, Shota Sesoko & Shizuka Hara, who I really liked. They caught my eye in the first round and I was delighted to see them in for a few more rounds. They weren't the highest finishing Japanese couple, but they got as far as the 48. They were the first Japanese couple that I've ever really liked in Latin. It was their Jive that pulled me in -- energetic but not over the top, presented with a lot of happiness that seemed to come from a sense of genuine enjoyment rather than theatrical hamming it up.

It was fun trying to take pictures, I have a whole bunch to process but will stick a couple of the best here when they're ready.

Anyway, to me most everyone is good, and I'm not Latin-trained, so I can't distinguish "stand outs" except for when it comes to things like costumes and personality. And besides, by the time you get to the final (or even the semi) they are all so amazingly good! You will hear things like "Leunis is by far the best girl in Latin today" or "Melia is the best on the floor," or "I really didn't like his new partner" but really I can't truly see or say why one is "better" or "worse" than the other. I can see that they are different, but not what makes one better or even what would make one stand out more than the other. I just watched the final with delight, taking in the costumes, the energy, the performances, and enjoying the whole thing.

As expected, Michal Maltowski & Joanna Leunis from Poland won, but Ricardo Cocci & Yulia Zorguychenko from the US beat them in the Jive. That was certainly a thrilling moment.

2009 Blackpool Under-21 Ballroom and Amateur Latin

I really hope no one is expecting a real report on these events. I don't like to write too much about actual dancing because people's feelings get hurt so easily, and there get to be snappish arguments that go something like "well you would never even make the first cut at Blackpool so who are you to say anything?!" So the bottom line is there was dancing, a lot of it, and even the not so great dancing was pretty good. The numbers and level of competitors at Blackpool is high, I'm guessing many hobbyist competitors in the US have no idea how big things can be. For instance, the Amateur Latin had 360 couples listed in the program. Competitors had to dance two qualifying rounds, one earlier in the week, and one the morning of the actual competition. Well over 200 couples were cut just to weed the field down to "the first round proper." And once they got started, they still had a total of six rounds to dance if they got all the way through to the final. That second qualifier was at 11:30am, and the final for the whole thing was danced at 11:30pm. It is a long grueling marathon, and some otherwise fine dancers just don't have the physical, emotional, and mental stamina to go that long. And some otherwise fine dancers just don't have what it takes to get noticed and promoted in the early rounds. It's a tremendous event, really.

Tonight the rounds for the Amateur Latin were interspersed with the Under-21 Ballroom. This was much smaller, only 175 couples/six rounds of competition. This event always makes me smile. The Under-21s have so much energy and raw talent, and the floor is a swirl of sweet and lovely dresses. In the early rounds, though, you can really see who is a "young" Under-21 and still dancing like a Junior (regardless of actual age), and who is making that transition to "adult" dancing and really stepping it up. My favorite couple in the final (quite possibly because of her awesome raspberry sorbet and neon mango dress), Jack Beale & Karolina Szmit (England), have only been dancing together for a very few months and already can produce this great a result! I hope that, unlike many young couples, they stay together for a while and I can see how they've developed next year.

I had watched the first round proper of the Amateur Latin in the afternoon, and was completely impressed by Alexi Silde & Anna Fristova (Russia). I liked the way their performance energy was directed strongly toward each other, toward actually dancing with each other while acknowledging that the crowd was there and watching, rather than each playing up to the audience alone. Their basic movement is very very smooth, I saw them dance a long series of cha cha locks across the floor and they looked like they were gliding on wheels. Several people told me that they were "supposed" to win, but this is Blackpool and all kinds of odd things can and do happen. During the final, Alexi went over and hugged Stefano Di Fillippo. I had no idea why, until the very end of the event.

So anyway, Stefano's partner is the truly awesome and lovely Anna Melnikova. As much as I admire Anna Fristova, Melnikova was the best woman on the floor and also exciting to watch. Stefano didn't do much for me, though. He's a muscular broad-shouldered looking guy (compared to the rest of the Latin dancers, at least) and he has to take care not to look hulking. He did dance great in the semi-final, but in the final he got really emotional and spent the whole time hamming it up for his friends in the audience, sometimes it seemed to me that he lost track of Anna. She handled it great, though, and just kept on dancing fabulously.

And now for the result and some explanations. It turns out that Silde & Fristova didn't win, and in fact ended up in third place due to a Rule 10 tie with the second place couple from Croatia. Di Fillippo & Melnikova won, and right afterwards the MC, Marcus Hilton, announced that this was Di Fillippo & Melnikova's last competition together. So that explains the hugging in the final. It was good for them to go out on a high note together. Melnikova already has a new partner, according to what is going around the Empress Ballroom she will be dancing with none other than Slavik Kryklyvyy.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

Sometimes you just need a vacation from your vacation. So, it being a gorgeous sunny day, I piled into the car with the friends I'm staying with, and we took a drive south from Blackpool.

Blackpool's seaside is a pit, kind of like Atlantic City in the 1980's (maybe even still today, who knows, I haven't been there in like 20 years). Venturing south along the Irish Sea, though, through the towns of St. Anne's and Lytham, is a treat. There are very high sand dunes along the coast at St. Anne's, and Lytham features lots of really nice brick Victorian buildings, and cute shops on the main street. We walked around for a while and had lunch at an outdoor cafe'. I got a little sunburned.

Later that evening I caught the final four rounds of the Senior Latin and the Professional Rising Star Standard. My favorite Senior Latin couple from last year, from Spain, did not dance. I was sorry not to see them again because the lady in that couple was so strong and sexy and soft and mature and classy -- all the things I like to see in a lady dancer. The quality level of the couples improves every year; the friend I was sitting with turned to me at one point and said "it's so nice to see adults dancing Latin."

The big event of the day was the Professional Rising Star Standard. I noticed right away that former Blackpool and World Amateur Standard Champion Edita Daniute was back with a new partner. Judging from his name, Angelo Madonia, he's probably from Italy. They danced very well, and won the event. There was an Australian couple in the final, Matthew Rooke & Anna Longmore, who I also quite liked. The lady had a white dress with large wide silver metallic strips on it -- a sort of "mirror ball" dress. I loved it, but I can't say it was universally admired.

Lazy Sunny Sunday

Nothing to report today. I didn't have tickets for the Amateur Rising Star events and wasn't highly motivated to attend, so I puttered around and went for a long walk along the seafront promenade. It was so clear I could see mountains in the north. I also did some fabric shopping -- or rather looking -- but am still trying to decide what I want to purchase.

2009 Blackpool Professional Team Match

I love the Team Match at Blackpool. It really kicks things off, it gets the crowd going and features some amazing dancing.

This year there the four teams and their "introductions" were:

Germany
Their captain was Oliver Wessel-Therhorn, and so they did a pun on his name with their theme of "Ollywood." Each couple was meant to represent a different famous dance team. Standard dancers Stanislaw Massold & Christine Deck were Gene Kelly & Debbie Reynolds in "Singing in the Rain," and danced out with umbrellas. Sascha Karabey & Natascha Karabey were Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers. I missed who Evgenij Vosnyk & Oksana Nikiforva were representing, but they were in western cowboy style outfits. Perhaps they were Roy Rodgers & Dale Evans? Last, but by no means least, Franco Formica & Oxana Lebedew were Rudolf Nureyev & Margot Fonteyn. Franco was shirtless, in white ballet tights, and had a white feather in his hair that made me think of Nureyev in Le Corsaire.

USA
This year the couples did a "Style Swap" -- the Latin couples came out dressed for Standard, and vice-versa. Arunas Bizokas & Katusha Demidova danced cha cha, Victor Fung & Anna Mikhed did jive, and Riccardo Cocchi & Yulia Zagoruychenko an over-the-top tango. And finally, Eugene Katsevman & Maria Manusova danced quickstep.

Italy
The Italian women were all dressed up very chic in black, and were fine ladies out walking their dogs. Each of their partners was in a full-on furry dog costume, walking on a leash on all fours! Mirko Gozzoli was a St. Bernard, and he spent a good deal of time marking his territory. There was also a bulldog, a poodle, and a chihuahua who walked on his hind legs. At one point all the dogs got loose and hilarity ensued, including the St. Bernard running upstairs to the balcony and barking like crazy.

Great Britain
The British team's theme was "circus," and the team's parade included captain Robert Grover dressed as a Ringmaster, break dancers, clowns, a rhythmic gymnast, and a guy doing stunts on a small bicycle. Each lady on the team did a short dance with an animal -- jiving chimpanzee, tangoing lion, and a gorilla (not sure what dance, think it was paso). At the end of each dance, the animal's costume head was removed to reveal an important British coach. For example, the foxtrotting elephant was revealed by Hazel Newberry to be no other than Sammy Stopford.

After all the merriment, the teams changed into their proper dance clothing and the match itself commenced. The final scores were:

USA - 297.4
Italy - 293.5
Germany - 292.9
Great Britain - 290.0

This is the second year in a row that the USA has won the team match.