Jason Lancaster

I received a new goodie in the mail today. Believe it or not, it was my first ever Ebay purchase! This is a Becker Necker BK11, made by a company no longer in business called Camillus Knives.

I decided a little while ago I wanted to have a small collection of knives. “Small” so that I can easily choose a knife when I go on a trip instead of going through 30 knives and remembering why I like each. Because the idea is to have a collection of cool knives, this actually took some research. One of the most interesting knives to me was the Becker Necker BK11.

This knife is very light and can be lashed to quite a few things with or without its sheath. I think the neck lanyard is a pretty neat idea but I’m not sure it would actually work well under clothing in a life-or-death situation simply because it’s hard to access. Even once you grab it from under your shirt, you have to consider that you have an open blade inside your clothing so you better be willing to shred something if you’re pulling it out quick. You probably wouldn’t shred your skin but I wouldn’t be surprised if you caught the bottom of your shirt. I’m sure there are some tips and theories out there on how to quickly access a neck knife without butchering yourself. I’m not all that worried though.

Becker is well known for their survival knives. Unfortunately, except for the BK11 all of them are rather large so I’m not interested in anything else by them right now. I think this was the perfect purchase for me in their line and hopefully I’ll be able to test it out camping next weekend. Now I’m moving on to my next knife which will probably be a folding knife. Emerson and Benchmade are two brands I’d like to own.

Emily and I sometimes (but not frequently enough) record ourselves socially dancing to go back and review how we look. It’s weird going back and watching yourself because it’s very easy to pick everything apart once you actually have time to analyze what you did and not rely simply on instinct.

The video was taken at Sommer and Dorry’s a week or so ago. Song is I Diddle. While everyone I know says Ella Fitzgerald sings this song, I really think it might actually be Dinah Washington singing.

The song has a ton of breaks and while that makes it quite fun, it also complicates things. You don’t want to be caught dancing through the break!

I’ve been making the most of my hand injury by doing a lot of dancing. Dorry and Sommer’s recent burst of inspiration has involved Emily and I with quite a few events recently:

First, Em and I took a teaching/demo’ing gig at a corporate holiday party. While the demo was really fun, the teaching part was a real bust. For those that know my personal life a bit, just imagine a bunch of my non-dancer friends at a corporate party and then try to imagine me trying to convince them to take a dance lesson. Yeah. Not happening. Neither was the party. Sometimes you get lemons though.

Second, I participated in a group of six asked to perform at the Lyric Opera House for the Chinese New Year on Sunday the 20th. We only had a couple sessions over a two week period to learn parts of The Big Apple, The California routine, and some solo jams. This was four of the six couples first ever choreographed performance, including Emily and I. Quite exciting and a little unnerving at first but I think everyone involved got really inspired and excited! We did a great job performing not only at the Lyric but at Charm City Swing on Monday night:

Third, we’ve been gearing up for two events in February. The first is a Jewish memorial thing where we’ll get to dress in vintage costume for a performance alongside of S&D. The second is the Leap Year Lindy Weekend happening from 2/29-3/2. We’re not really involved with coordinating LeapYearLindy but we’ll be participating in all of the classes and enjoying having people come to our swing scene for some cool shit. Kevin and Emily are amazing dancers and you’d be silly not to see them in action in Baltimore. I can think of a couple people who read my blog who might be interested in some more specifics or rides. I’ll be glad to help out if you want to come!

In my quest to become a bionic man, I think I’ll ask for a new left wrist. If that requires a hand replacement, so be it. But if I get a hand replacement, I want to be able to crush things with that hand like Will Smith in I, Robot. Or I’d just settle for a chainsaw attachment! 

The real bummer here is that I haven’t been able to climb or even dance very well for the past week since last Tuesday I somehow sprained/strained something in my left wrist climbing. At first, I was barely able to move my wrist and in a ton of pain but things have improved to the point where I can get by doing most things without really wincing in pain. It’s still a little hard to wash my hair or grab my car’s seatbelt behind me — and I surely can’t climb. But at least I can still dance as long as I’m careful not to twist my wrist.