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…
Category: Dancing / Music
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…
Grooving to Sharon Jones and Dap Kings in Times Square last night!
Last night, a bunch of friends and I caught Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at the swank Nokia Theater in Times Square. Sharon and the band played a mix of their last two albums, several awesome new songs that they are still working on, as well as amazing covers of Sam Cooke and Gladys…
Global Art for Social Change: from Banksy to Korean B-boys (video)
For an upcoming Global Kids retreat, I’m helping organize a workshop on “Global Arts for Social Change” with some other trainers. As part of the session, we wanted to show our teens some examples of various forms of art related to activism and civic engagement. So I threw together this compilation reel of different forms…