America's Best Dance Crew (Season 3) – MTV Shows We are quickly winding up the third season of MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew" and I have been consistently blown away each week. I finally got to see Episode Seven today after returning from my DC trip. Incredibly, it's boiled down from nine crews down to…
Category: Dancing / Music
Free Daptone Records sampler album on Amazon!
As folks know, I'm a big fan of Daptone Records, the Brooklyn-based soul music label. If you would like to check out what all the fuss is about , head to Amazon.com where you can download a free sampler album featuring several acts in the Daptone stable, including Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, the Budos…
Duke Ellington gets coin that doesn’t look like him
Ok, it definitely is super awesome that Duke Ellington is going to be on a US quarter, as CNN reports. We are finally getting a circulating US coin featuring the image of an African-American, which is another small sign of progress on the diversity front in this country. (Native American Sacajawea was minted onto a…
Top 10 mistakes made by newbie lindy hoppers
[Me in my early years of lindy hopping way back in 2002. Yes, my partner and I had the same blonde streak in our hair.] I've been dancing lindy hop for over ten years. And in that time, I've seen my share of what can only be called swing dance douchery. I like to think…
Reminder: Sponsor me at the Global Kids Dance-a-Thon!
This is a quick reminder about the Global Kids Scholarship Fundraiser Dance-A-Thon that I'm participating in next Friday, March 6. I will be squaring off against some of our high school youth in a dance off to raise scholarship money. This Dance-a-Thon will raise much needed funds for scholarships for our Global Kids Leaders who…
Update from Gabe Roth on Daptones Records Burglary
My friend Laura passed on to me this email from Gabe "Bosco" Roth, head of soul music indie record label Daptone Records, about the burglary of their studios a week ago. Sounds like they are still hurting, but basically back in business: Luckily, the extent of the burglary was not debilitating. Between what was stolen…
“Jen Brooks: The Musical” on Broadway March 2!
My friend Jen is putting on her one-woman all singing, all dancing show on Broadway on Monday March 2nd. Tickets for "Jen Brooks: The Musical" are a recession-friendly $10 with advance reservation and $12 at the door! At The Reprise Room ,245 West 54th Street (btw Broadway & 8th Ave). For reservations call 917-660-3420. Looks…
Learning from the legend: the original b-boy Ken Swift
I made it to Ken Swift’s weekly breakdance fundamentals class last night at PMT Studios, despite being dead tired from just returning from the Global Kids retreat that morning. Ken Swift is a legend in the breakdance world, an original innovator of most of the basic steps that make up b-boying today. It was a…
Daptone Records in Bushwick was robbed!
Brooklyn Vegan reports that the amazing indie soul label Daptone Records was broken into a couple of days ago! They lost a ton of equipment including: a Fender Super Guitar Amp and Deluxe Guitar Amp, an HP laptop computer, one desktop MacIntosh computer, 2 Yamaha NS10 monitors, a vintage Harmony Rocket Guitar, one steel string…
Sponsor me at the Global Kids Dance-a-Thon: help our kids get to college!
On Friday, March 6, I'm participating in Global Kids annual Scholarship Fundraiser Dance-A-Thon. I will be squaring off against some of our high school youth in a dance off to raise money (anything for a cause!) This Dance-a-Thon will raise much needed funds for scholarships for our Global Kids Leaders who will attend college this…