#This builds from migrations each time (slower, but more reliable).  
#Must then empty seed data before tests start to delete stuff, or FK constraints get violated.  

task :cruise do
  ENV['RAILS_ENV'] = 'test'
  puts "custom cruise task invoked.  env is hardcoded to test"

  Rake::Task["environment"].invoke
  #start from scratch with just the test db
  Rake::Task["db:test:purge"].invoke
  #necessary to reconnect, as purge drops database (and w mysql the conn)
  CruiseControl::reconnect

  #run all migrations from scratch.  slow but clean
  Rake::Task["db:migrate"].invoke

  #empty the db of data - migration has loaded seed data into the tables, 
  #which'll be deleted badly by test fixtures loader.

  #NOTE: db:test:purgetwo is just a quick hack to force this identical action to be called again
  #TODO: replace with the correct way to force execution of a task in rake
  Rake::Task["db:test:purgetwo"].invoke
  #necessary to reconnect, as purge drops database (and w mysql the conn)
  CruiseControl::reconnect

  #the migration has already done a schema dump
  Rake::Task["db:schema:load"].invoke

  success = Rake::Task["test"].invoke
  success
end

Embarrassingly, this currently needs ‘db:test:purgetwo’ to exist. I just copied pasted db:test:purge task. The correct way would be to look at how to ensure task execution in rake, but debugging cruisecontrol.rb exhausted all my patience and sanity.

See also What ‘rake test’ does.

A quick diagram to remind me what the default rails rake task “test” does.

This is in part-response to this cruisecontrol.rb thread.

Central | North | South | East | West

“Papa was a rollin’ stone” live, ‘73 (starts 30 seconds in)

Also:

“Superstition” on Sesame Street, ‘73.

• How to make a cheap talk box
• Wikipedia: List of celebrity guest stars on Sesame Street
• James Earl Jones reciting the alphabet on Sesame Street

Here are the places I know about for cuban style salsa in London. There have been many changes recently with many nights stopping, but new nights are emerging. (Most noteably, Havana Central at Stanza bar, on a Sunday night).

I’ve also started an accompanying map.

(Last updated: 13th April, 2010)

Monday:

• AfroCuban Lounge at The Buffalo Bar just next to highbury & islington tube, on a Monday night. Lessons and club. Excellent tuition. Susan and Jim are very professional, clearly very experienced, and exceptionally articulate. I would recommend everyone try a lesson with these guys, regardless of their level (even if they just want to pick up good teaching habits). I’d actually recommend their Sunday lessons at “The Place” dance studios even more highly (see below) because there’s more space there to make your mistakes. The club has a great vibe, near 100% cuban dancers, quite a few good ones, and great cuban tunes from beginning to end. If only the venue had a bit more room. Floor is ok, sound is good. [more info]
• Orishas and Rumba course with Ariel. The Basement Studio, York Way. Details to follow.

Tuesday:

• Rhum Jungle on a Tuesday in Farringdon. DJ Rich. Great music and tuition, properly casino. Lessons and club.

• 6 week courses with Osbanis and Anneta (Deakocan). The current one runs 14/04 - 19/05/2010. Afrocuban, rumba, soncha, rueda. Stageworks Studios 5 mins walking distance from Liverpool St. or Old St. email deakocan@gmail.com or facebook Osbanis or Anneta.

• Floridita’s in wardour street, soho. Quieter than fridays (i.e. more space to dance), and free entry all night. DJ Flecha (from casa de la musica, Havana) plays some great tracks. As with Fridays, don’t turn up and expect to find many cuban dancers - take them with you, or cross your fingers.

• (Every two weeks). Salsa Fusion. details to shortly.
• (Every month). El Grande at Colosseum. details shortly.
• Tito’s latin bar at london bridge on a Friday. Fun rueda-based lessons from 7pm, then club at 9:30pm-ish til late. The music starts off as cuban salsa, but as the night progresses (around 11pm) the dj changes and more merengue and bachata is played and the salsa goes colombian, and sadly they put the volume up too loud for me). New floor as of summer, 2009 is bigger and good. Sound is good (until 11pm - see above). Shame about the disorienting disco lights.[more info]
• Floridita’s in wardour street, soho.

  Drinks are expensive (~10 pounds for a cuba libre), and entry is a whopping 15 pounds after 9pm (often free before that). Live cuban music (mostly son) until around 11pm (though recently the bands seem to be playing always the same standards (perhaps management-dictated to please the diners?) The main (small) dance-floor is often busy with tipsy bad dancers, but off that you can generally find some corner to dance in. Has great DJ’s for cuban music, though they’ll play a mix of salsa styles. Also expect a fair amount of merengue and reggaeton crowd-pleasing, too. It will cycle back to salsa if you wait long enough.

  Best from midnight onwards (open til 3am), as spaces begin to appear in which you can dance. Don’t go here unless you have checked that some other cuban dancers are going, too! The few good dancers that do go tend to be cross-body. There’s a dress code, which is described as “funky and glamorous”

• “Get it Right” - Orishas course with Cuban School of Arts (with Damarys Farres and others). (Details to follow)

Sunday:

• “Havana Central” at Bar Stanza, Shaftsbury Avenue. Lessons and Club. This is currently the strongest weekly cuban salsa night (april 2010). Details Shortly.
• Lessons at The Place studio (again with Salsa Caribe), Sunday 2pm. I really recommend these lessons, especially if you’re serious about getting your basic technique right.
• Rueda in the Park. (Not in winter. Re-starting May 2010) My favourite, and not just because it’s free! In Hyde Park at 3:33pm til dark (so yes, until around 9pm in summer). Practice partner-dancing as well as rueda. There are no formal lessons here, and yet it is my favourite place to learn. You’ll frequently find someone being shown something at the side of the dance floor by a friendly peer, and many people learn to call la rueda here, too.

  Don’t wear good dancing shoes - the concrete floor will eat them. And take water and a picnic - the nearest shop is expensive.

  While through spring and summer it is held near lancaster gate tube, note that as winter draws in we tend to move to hyde park corner - but check the website. Afterwards, many head to bar salsa or (my recommendation) la clave cubana, see below. [more info on Rueda at the Park]

• (Every Month). Rumbon Cubano. Costa Dorada near Tottenham court road. Details Shortly.
• “Rueda del Mundo” short course in Cricklewood by Moe Flex and Fadi. I haven’t done one of these courses yet, but I’ve heard they’re really good. Nice to see them integrating a workshop on “How to make the ladies look good in Rueda”, by Iris de Brito, too.

Map

Here’s a draft map annotated with all the places reviewed here.

The “ratings” on each marker are NOT relevant.

View Cuban Salsa in London in a larger map

Sites with more information:

• TimbaGeek.com.
• londonsalsa.co.uk is a great database of lessons and clubs; if you could filter to just show cuban places, I probably wouldn’t need to maintain this list!
• londonsalsascene.co.uk seems to be a good news site for events.

Bailar Casino en Londres (salsa cubana).

ロンドン で カシーノを おどいます (踊る)

gallery on flickr and at sxseventy.com.
Via information aesthetics

via Chad Fowler’s notes on the recent Ruby Hoedown event.

I hope the audio for the talk appears here.

I had set up rubygame and Ruby/SDL a while back to a point where I could code simple examples, but I wouldn’t actually want to foist the stack setup on anyone else. (In fact, for portability, something like jmonkeyengine on java, running jruby for scripting makes more sense (at least where download sizes don’t matter)).

I’m learning salsa, specifically cuban salsa. To this I am addicted. I’m past beginner now, and have just enough of the basics to carry me through a dance with a forgiving, preferably amnesic girl. To make any real progress beyond the basics, I know I have to go out and make a fool of myself over and over in the clubs. Here, above, is a video which demonstrates some of what I like about this style (besides the way the girls dance!) and where, I suppose, I want to get to. This guy doesn’t do any fancy moves; it’s all just style, just play. I think it also invalidates any argument along the lines of “Ah, I’m not cuban so I’ll never be able to dance like that…”.

Check out “portraits” and “testimonials”.

Via information aesthetics.

Here’s more on the “clean city” laws, exceptions, and fines (in portuguese).

While the desolate-looking photos in the flickr set are interesting, I wonder if the empty billboard frames have been cleared down, or replaced with some art, or murals, information, etc.

Sitting waiting on the tube, how cool would it be to get to stare across at prints of fine art, good photos, a well done mural or “graffiti”, some classic poems, a big map of the local area for each station / some history of the area, a “what’s on” for the month, or just an occasional refreshingly bare wall. Anything but those insipid oppressive posters we daily try to avoid looking at.

I think I posted this “light criticism” project a while back from the Anti-Advertising Agency, about “New York’s True Graffiti Problem”.

See also: Reverse Graffiti artist decorates dirty tunnel walls.

Article: “Responsibility is in their sites. / Web entrepreneurs have an eye on social need” - San Francisco Chronicle. A step in the right direction, at least.

The article mentions Jarkko Laine’s DoTheRightThing.com.

via information aesthetics.

“The application implements:

• a user model with a few extra fields (last login, timezones)
• restful authentication.
• full timezone support
• basic views implemented with Yahoo! YUI CSS grids.
• behavioral testing with rspec, including good example of mocking in controller specs.
• exception notification”