Here's a neat clip of pioneering lindy hopper Ms. Norma Miller on the TODAY show on NBC from a couple of days ago. Norma talks about how historic Barack Obama's presidency is and how swing has always brought people of different races together in harmony. Norma at 90 years young continues to perform and appear…
Category: Dancing / Music
“Continuing the Dream of Dr. King” with spoken word, drum, and hip-hop violin
I have gotten around to uploading some more video from the past couple of days in DC for the presidential inauguration festivities. One of the coolest events I attended was a multi-arts celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at the National Cathedral called "Continuing the Dream." About 1,000 people gathered for a series of spirited…
$6 Inaugural swing ball at DC’s Jam Cellar on Tuesday!
Here's another tip for those of you headed to Washington DC for the Presidential Inauguration this Tuesday: The evening of January 20 is full of pricey inaugural balls starting at $150 and up. Well if you have forgotten to pack your ball gown or your wallet is feeling a bit light, you might want to…
Swinging into the Metaverse: the “Slindy Hop” dance animation
From my friends at SLCN.tv: SLindy Hop is a Second Life couples' dance animation by Maar Auer. It was released July 2008 in SLCN.TV's Live Tonight Show by Paisley Beebe. You can watch the entire episode here. This is just a cut from that show, showing only the SLindy Hop. Dancer's outfits were generously sponsored…
“Soul of Shaolin”: cheesy plot mars stellar martial arts and acrobatics
Tonight I got to see the "Soul of Shaolin" show at the Marquis Theater on Broadway. It's an amazing spectacle of shaolin-style kung fu and acrobatics, with twenty-some martial artists displaying near superhuman feats. It's inspiring just seeing what the human body is capable of with discipline and years of training. I particularly enjoyed the…
Microsoft Songsmith: so wonderfully bad it hurts
You know when you something goes bad in the fridge and you just HAVE to have someone else smell it? Oh this is terrible, get a whiff. It's in that same spirit that I am compelled, I tell you, compelled to share with you this wonderfully craptastic advertisement for the Microsoft Songsmith. Now it is…
Bronx Rhymes: Documenting the history of hip-hop using new media
"Bronx Rhymes" is a project to preserve and present the history of hip-hop culture from its roots in the South Bronx. It combines several forms of new media in ways that honor the culture: Bronx Rhymes uncovers the history of Hip Hop in the borough by tagging historically important locations with rhymes. These rhymes illuminate…
Nexeus Fatale’s “The Apex-High” album: free, Creative Commons, house-hiphop-trance goodness!
In December, my buddy and badass DJ Nexeus Fatale released for free download his album "Apex-High," which I downloaded on Sunday. I've had it playing for the past few days during my commute to and from work, and it keeps getting better and better. Here's Nexeus's description of the album: In the beginning of my…
Learning the foundations of b-boying from Ken Swift
Tonight I took my first class with legendary b-boy from back-in-the-day Ken Swift, who has started teaching a fundamentals class at PMT Studios on Tuesday nights. In his early 40s now, Ken is still a phenomenal dancer and ambassador of the art of b-boying. Check out Ken Swift dancing as a teenager in the 80s…
“Lesson 10: How to Breakdance” tee-shirt from Threadless
My awesome roommate Swifty got me a couple of sweet tee-shirts from Threadless for Christmas: the "Easy Steps(Lesson 10: How to Breakdance)" tee-shirt pictured here, and "We Are Just Pixels After All" tee below. So rad.