More Interesting Gifts For Your Lindy Hopping Friend


Happy Holidays Everyone!

As a followup to last year's article: "Some Interesting Gifts For Your Lindy Hopping Friend", here is a new list of five gifts. The cool thing is this time I'm actually writing it before the holidays are here versus last time I wrote it on December 27th. See? Sheri is making a more organized man out of me!

That being said, this article will actually be less organized. I actually organized the gifts into categories last year. This year? Yeah not that organized. I'll just surprise you along the way ... (well, if I don't know what's coming next you shouldn't either).

1. Their Own Little Piece Of Internet
Price Range: TIME to TIME plus $5 to $10 a month

A creative and original gift, and something that is fun to have, especially for swing dancers. The idea came to me because many swing dancers carry around "swing dance cards" (as opposed to business cards) and hand them out with their contact info. And I don't just mean teachers .. I mean everyday dancers. So why not a website too? Or some little carved out space of the internet for them for pics, movie clips, blogs, etc. Definitely helps if you already have your own site, blog, or myspace page already. Here are a few ways to go about it.

facebook.com - if you are familiar with Web 2.0 and facebook, you know that just about everyone has a facebook page. Some people still don't! Help your friend set one up and show them how to use it! If you don't know how to use it, set up an account for yourself, get familiar with it, and then help them set one up also. Great way to spend time together, and facebook makes for a nice "free" website for blogging and uploading a few photos.

wordpress.org - a free blogger website based on the best free blogging software out there. Help them set up a blog. Chances are they may procrastinate on getting set up on it so what better way to spend time with your friend then to help them set it up. Choose pictures, backgrounds, etc.

Start Your Own Blog - or create a web site with the domain name of their choice! This is the more expensive, meaning $5 to $7 a month. But if you're thinking of buying a higher end gift, then this is a $60 to $80 gift for a one year hosting service. How Do You Start A Blog has a free video for you to go over for yourself or with a friend to start a blog in 10 minutes! Web hosting is pretty cheap these days. You can build out the site you want and host tons of videos, pictures, whatever. Plus, they get to have their own domain name like BenAndSheri.Com or whatever. Yes, ego-stroking is a wonderful thing. Feel free to email me if you need any tips. See Figure 1


          

Figure 1: Some very cool websites

2. Geekswing Gear
Price Range: $7 to $30

For the most fashionable and geeky of swing dance gear, check out this FABULOUS site! Go to Geekswing.com. See Figure 2.

               

Figure 2: Geekswing Merchandise


(shameless of me, isn't it? )

3. Dance Lessons
Price Range: $30 to $80

For the swing dancing friend, why not buy them some private or group lessons?

For private lessons, just ask your favorite instructor (or his or her favorite instructor) about logistics and then create your own little gift certificate and print it out for them. Private lessons range anywhere between $50 to $80 for most instructors. Not too bad.

Or perhaps a monthly series of group lessons? These generally are anywhere from $30 to $60. And it doesn't necessarily have to be swing! For my birthday a few years ago Sheri bought us some tap lessons which were really fun (she took them with me!). So maybe some Tap, Hip Hop, or Tango (which seems to be the big thing now). See Figure 3


Figure 3: Dancing!


4. December 1998 GQ Magazine
Price Range: $5 to $30

Interestingly this issue has Vince Vaughan from the movie "Swingers" on the cover. But the reason you want to buy this issue is that there is a really awesome article about Frankie Manning including the story of how Erin and Steven sought him out in New York. It's a bit hard to hunt this one down since it's a recent magazine and is usually one that's thrown out in the trash. You can sometimes find it on ebay for around $5. Otherwise you have to hit one of those magazine collector websites and if so you'll have better luck using search terms like "vintage GQ magazines for sale" and then seeing if they sell GQ. Price could be very inflated as I found one for $30, but the article and photos are great. See Figure 4



Figure 4: December 1998 GQ (isn't he dreamy?)


5. Customized Items Online
Price Range: $5 to $30

There are a lot of sites out there now that will let you customize an item at a pretty good cost. Here are two of them:

CustomizedGirl.com - If you specifically want to customize a t-shirt, there are a lot of clothing options at Customized Girl, more than any store I've found.

CafePress.com - probably the most trafficked-website in this arena. Though CafePress lacks a bit in the types of clothing they offer, they make up for it in offering a large number of non-clothing products. You don't have to manufacture the products, just put them in the store online. There is no cost to you! Then just visit your own store and buy the item and voila! You just made a customized item for your friend. Go check it out. You can customize postage stuff, mugs, pillows, lightswitch covers, etc. See Figure 5

        

Figure 5: Lots of neat stuff!


What to customize it with? Photos of them swing dancing, maybe photos of the old timers dancing (Frankie Manning, Dean Collins, Hal Takier, etc.). Or even just a few phrases or two like "Obsessed Swing Dancer ... and loving it".

Anyway, have fun with it and have a good holiday season!