Some breakin and some scratchin and some breaking and some graffiti and some breaking and some rapping and some breaking...

break borders is working now. download it and watch it and post what you think about it. it’s very entertaining, gets into why people break, and how they understand it- the first half follows a boston bboy and bgirl, while the second half shows australia, macau, and hong kong bboys and bgirls. some choice quotes from the movie:

"one day a bgirl, always a bgirl"
"my cow? where is my cow? it's not my cow it's macau"
"macau is sooooooo ghettooooo"

haha. I just want to give a quick shout to ManOfGod and Suzanna (who are in the video) for helping me get in contact with bboys in shenzhen and hong kong. funny, because i met them two different ways (through the wonderful internet) but they're on the same video. bboy glacial shows up for a bit, and he was one of the nicest people i’ve met on this trip even though i only chilled with him for a night.

i get a bit jealous of the b-boy world at times. the community really seems a lot tighter than the other dance styles. Most people i encounter in popping and locking don't session together very much and/or aren't very open to teaching new people (unless of course they're teaching a paid class). with bboying it seems you can go anywhere in the world, find a training spot, and most of them will be pretty welcoming (maybe that's just my impression). but even in guangzhou, i saw this white guy getting taught how to toprock by some of the STO crew members (but maybe it's just because he was white, foreigners get treated much better if they have a different skin tone). DJs are more or less the same as the poppers/lockers, most are pretty closed off and not too willing to share information or skills (but it just might have to do with the type of person that is attracted to DJing: generally quiet, spends lots of time in their bedroom listening to music, etc. hahaha). i guess i picked all the wrong things to be interested in (or i'm just like the people i described above, which is a reasonable possibility as well). Maybe I just need to get over myself and start bboying even though I don’t think I have the personality for it (though I might be kidding myself). Ok I’ll stop with the side commentary.
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Bboy Championship

club tool "orgiastic laical?!"

This bboy battle was proper, underground style. Even though it was sponsored by companies like kangol and eastpak, it wasn’t a media, promotion whorefest (which I admit is also important for furthering the culture- the armory cup that happened earlier this month was the first bboy battle broadcasted on Korean TV, which increases the “acceptance” of bboying greatly). Unlike most battles this battle was strictly 1v1, none of the battles I’ve been to thus far have been 1v1 except for the house battle in wuhan. It started with a friendly cipher, with the judges and participants trying out random moves and warming up and moved into the eliminations where 6 bboys (there was only one bgirl participant) were on the floor and only one was selected to move on to the semi-finals. The semi-finals and finals were all strictly 1v1. anyone familiar with Korean bboys all know they’re known for their power moves- they do airflares as well as they drink (and they can DRINK here). but at this battle, I think only one airflare was done the entire time- they had some tight uprocks and footwork… especially one of the judges- he could break, pop, and lock really well (all the judges stayed afterwards and had their own cipher). The dj was proper too, pulling out classic breaks, good funk tunes all on vinyl.

Afterwards, I met a Toronto bboy who’s in town teaching English, but managed to hook up with some bboys through bboyworld. He introduced me to an Australian locker who knows most of the Korean lockers, so hopefully I’ll get introduced at some point. That night I met one of the originality lockers (one of korea’s best locking crews) who was there just to chill. The judges were amazing dancers though, especially this guy, bboy lee joo-no:

its not the shoes, must be the cazal's

After the battle was over, the judges were commenting on the state of bboying in korea (which was being translated to me). so an interesting thing about korea is how nationalistic they are. When someone Korean gains some sort of recognition on a worldwide level it starts a craze and people support them. for example when the world cup came to korea/japan in 2002… from that time on Koreans have been crazy about soccer. The same thing is happening to bboying, after they won battle of the year bboying has been transformed into something that the country can be proud of. One of the judges was commenting on how the scene is good here because they have only been at it for a few years, yet they can surpass countries like france, uk, and the us. There are a lot of street dance events coming up next month, but I’ll be in japan by then unfortunately.

I got almost all of it on tape, but I am lazy and I have yet to convert any of my DVs to files. So for now you can check out Kris's pictures (here and here too, which are infinitely better than mine) over at the Traveling Beans blog. He just invited me to be a part of the joint blog, which is written by current Watson Fellows, to-be-Watson Fellows, and company, about our stories, thoughts, and adventures from our travels abroad. I’m bad enough with keeping up my own blog, but hopefully I’ll be able to contribute.

So I should properly introduce Kris. I met Kris and his fiancée, Jackie, on Friday. Like good Americans we went to Krispy Kreme and gorged ourselves on the “global crack donuts” while we rocked Krispy Kreme hats (which made everyone else in the store want to wear them, for real).

jackie

kris-py kreme

Kris is a fellow Watson Fellow, his project focuses on, to quote afrika bambaata “Looking for the Perfect Beat”, or researching cultural inflections International Funk Music. He’s in Korea as a stopover coming from Ghana and on his way to Brazil. While he was here, he managed to find some Korean funk! You can check some tunes out at superheroeswalkonwater.

I was supposed to go to a house battle that night also, but i didn’t make it. It was out in apgujeong which is about 45 minutes where I’m from or a $25+ cab ride away (the subway shuts down early on weekends). I would’ve gotten their late anyway, so I figured it wouldn’t be worth the trip. I kind of regret it now, but it’s ok. I did find out that there’s a house dancer from NYC teaching classes here, so I’m guessing the house dancers here got that nyc style...