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Move of the Week: 1990’s and 2000’s

Okay. Those of you guys who know breakdancing well, you guys would already know this.

However, I just want to explain a bboy move in this post to tell other people who don’t know so well.

I’ll be explaining the move(s) called: 1990’s and 2000’s.

**** There’s a video at the bottom, to clarify if you’re confused.

1990’s:

1990’s is a move in breakdancing.

You go into a handstand with momentum, and you spin on one hand.

It doesn’t matter which ever hand you use, as long as you are comfortable with it, it is fine.

With momentum of your legs, hip, and shoulder, you should spin.

Whoever can give better momentum spins more, and faster.

1990s was named that way, because it is hypothesized to have been created,

and done for the first time during the 1990s.

A good 1990s is determined by the number of rounds that you spin.

Around seven rounds and above are considered pro level (Maybe anything over a five).

The bboys who do the best 1990’s are:

Cico, The End, Punisher, Blond, Eagle, Bruce Lee,… and many, many more around the globe.

Here is a video of Bboy Cico, aka the “Prince of Powermoves.”

Cico holds the world record for his 27 rounds of 1990s.

2000’s:

2000’s is a move very similar to 1990’s.

You still spin on one hand, but the other hand that does not spin holds onto the wrist of the hand that spins.

In 2000’s, it is most common for the bboys to just gather their legs all at once as soon as they spin, gaining maximum amount of momentum.

Usually, bboys spin around 2~4 rounds of 2000’s at an amazingly quick speed.

Even though 2000’s spin with both hands, 2000’s are just as hard as 1990’s, as finding balance is different for both moves.

The bboys who do the best 2000’s are:
Blue, Wing, Kaku, Eagle, Blond, Yellow, Rush, and a lot, lot, lot more. (YouTube them to see!)

Here is a video of a Russian friend I met last year during the summer break:

I sometimes brag to my friends about this new song I found that everyone else does not have. After I brag, if my friends want the song, I simply share it with them. *

If you go around the net searching for songs for a while, you’ll discover that there are websites completely devoted to music file sharing. Some of these websites tend to share non-mainstream music, so the artists are barely known, and thus the site hardly gets penalized by the law.

After surfing through these websites for around two years, I noticed something. Although I am a complete idiot when it comes to DJing, there were things that some DJ’s seemed to have: selfishness. It seemed like whenever someone uploads a cool, undiscovered track, they pop out of nowhere to complain that they had to obtain a LP all the way from Japan to get that one track.

The conversation looks like this:
Person A: “Hello everyone! I found this new track, and it’s tight! Download link is here: ______”
Person B  & a few others: “Thanksss for the download link!! XD “
Random DJ: “WTF. I had to travel all the way to Japan to get this track. How come you guys get to just click a link and get it? “

My response to that DJ is this: “Tough luck. I guess the track is not so rare anymore.”

I really appreciate and understand the effort that those DJs went through in order to obtain the rare track. However, they have to keep in mind that they are not the composers of the track. Hey, I’d also get pissed if people were spreading around my composed track like that. However, that certainly isn’t the case.

These days, it’s almost as if the world wide web was made for file sharing. It’s ridiculous for those DJs to get pissed for the fact that people were effortlessly sharing the track. If you DJ’s care that much about file sharing, get a lawyer for those artists and sue the downloaders. Welcome to the 21st century.

p.s. No offense meant for all other respectable DJ’s around the world. Thank you for the amazing tracks you guys provide for all fans, dancers and manias.

* People, BUY albums. Give your artists some money!

Have you guys ever seen a video where the music is muted? Ever realized how barren and desolate video watching feels like without music? Now imagine this.

You have your own YouTube channel, and you decide to upload a rant video on some issue. You’re done recording, and you decide to use your favorite track as your background music. As soon as the video is done uploading, you click the video only to discover there is no audio – and there is no way to retrieve it unless you upload again.

Right below your video, it says:

Thanks to WMG, abbreviation for “Warner Music Group,” YouTube users and uploaders are displeased – or should I say pissed.

Watch this video first, and you’ll have a better idea on what I’m writing about.

Warning: Contains profanity. Viewer discretion is advised.

I have a channel on YouTube, with over 600 subscribers.

http://www.youtube.com/user/irondia73

I upload exclusive Korean bboy videos, ones that I think foreigners might be interested in because they do not have access to Korean bboy forums.

A few weeks ago, I uploaded a video of “Bboy Boom,” a world famous headspinner. The video was only about a minute long, and the video almost got deleted because it had a portion of the song named “Hot Pants” by a funk musician Bobby Byrd. Even before the video was done processing, under the “My Videos” page, YouTube indicated that the music was muted in my video.

For Christ’s sake – it was only a minute of a song that not that many people know, and it’s not like I intended piracy. I had to audiosawap the video, meaning I had to replace the original track with YouTube’s cheap, disorganized free music selection system. I have to say that the video was ruined by the audioswap. I can’t emphasize enough how horrible those free selections are. I should find a better, maybe a nicer term – but for now I’ll say the music there simply SUCKS.

Let’s look at another victim of WMG (irony: who’s the victim here? WMG or the users?). A famous bboy video uploader, Tyson1234567890, better known as Ty, got his account suspended becuase of the music he used in his bboy trailers. Ty had over 4000 subscribers, and if you were a bboy fan, you would’ve known who Ty is. Adding up all the hours he put into making trailers, I can confidently say it’ll sum up to, or exceed 400 hours (considering each trailer takes 8 hours to make, and he had more than 50 trailers). Thanks to WMG, I’m in deep misery for I can no longer enjoy or request a new trailer to tyson.

Here are some of the things YouTube should do, so that they don’t get people ticked off and everyone is happy:

1. As soon as the video is uploaded, YouTube should go through the WMG filtering process right away, and tell the uploader whether it’ll have copyright issues. If caught, the uploader can simply remove the video and just replace the track before it gets the “mute bar.” (the image inserted above).

2. Audiswaps should let the uploader swap the audio with tracks they have on their computer. If the new track has issues again, then the uploader should have a chance to change again – and probably limit these chances to around 3. Give us a chance YouTube!

3. Some YouTube users might be willing to pay for the WMG tracks. Why not have a system like iTunes and let the user pay a fee for the track? As of now, an option like this isn’t even available. Once your video is caught, the track is dead forever unless replaced with the horrible free track. With this relationship, both the consumer and the producer benefits.

I thank YouTube for all their reformed features like HD/HQ options, but their satanic WMG system is starting to lure people away from YouTube. I am not a piracy advocate – but yanking off a video from users whenever they feel like doesn’t seem to be the best solution. YouTube/WMG definitely needs to figure out better alternatives, or reforms in their current tactics. Besides, don’t some dust collecting, unrecognized songs suddenly get popular because a video publicized it?

With my greatest hopes, I cross my fingers, and wish for a better policy in the music copyright issues.

I always love it when bboys show up on TV. As a bboy myself, the visual moves not only hype me up, but they also inspire me. One thing I have admit about bboys appearing on TV shows is that usually, they only appear for a very short amount of time and they are usually not the center of attention. It is likely for them to just appear on a commercial for visual impact, or support some sort of celebrity at the back of the stage. Even if they are the center of attention, they don’t get to have much say once they’re done performing. As soon as they’re done performing, they’re gone from the stage. Also, the hype usually goes away within a few hours because it’s just another old bboy move I watched. But on March 21st, 2009, a bboy named Junior changed my views and thoughts in life.

Hailing from France, bboy Junior is a world renowned bboy known for his gravity defying power and strength that is different from any other bboy. He suffered from poliomyelitis as a young boy, and he had that disabled leg ever since. Bboy Junior has always been one of my favorite bboys, and when I heard the news that he will appear on Star King, I was disappointed because I wouldn’t be able to watch it in time. I looked around everywhere to download the TiVo’ed version of the show, and I finally found it after a few hours.

Seeing Bboy Junior on TV was something different for me. He was one bboy who stayed in my head for days after the show. Junior once said:

“God is fair – if he takes one thing, he’ll be sure to give one thing back. Disability is the greatest gift that God has ever given to me.”

How determined and disciplined do you have to become in order to confidently say that? When I heard that quote, I realized I have so many things that I have to be thankful for. A lot of times, I do not realize the things I have: for example my healthy body. It is so easy for me, or anyone to neglect the things we already have, and focus on that little superficial part of our life. I’ve experienced this myself, and also seen others getting obsessed on one little misfortunate event. I doubt any of those events were close to poliomyelitis. Even if it was something huge, take it this way: Junior overcame his disability, and actually took advnatage of it. Couldn’t we also take the effort to accept those misfortunate events, and turn it around for our own advantage? I am also going through something personal (that I cannot reveal here), and I would’ve been depressed if it wasn’t for bboy Junior who gave me hope and courage.

Thank you bboy Junior!!

P.S.

This is how Junior overcame poliomyelitis:

Ugh… No one here except our bboy crew would know what it feels like to wake up at 5:30AM in the morning… during a BREAK – during SPRING break.

For the bboy showcase that is coming up on April 10th, we decided to have extra practices over the break: from 7AM to 9AM on Tuesday and Thursday. The place is located around Shincheon Station, on the green line, which is around 16 stations away from the end of the yellow line (e.g. Jeongja Station). Assuming it takes 3 minutues to get to each station, 3X16 is 48 minutes.

I’d like to introduce some of the obstacles we faced on March 24th, Tuesday of 2009.

Obsatcle 1: Waking up early

So I woke up at 5:30AM, pretty much walked to the subway station with my eyes closed by 5:55, and met my friends and rode the subway to Shincheon Station. Luckily, time went by pretty quickly and painlessly during the trip. With friends, traveling is always faster.

Obstacle 2: Finding the way

When we arrived at Shincheon, I had to call the the owner of the place to find the way there. The place wasn’t too hard to find, but the place would’ve been impossible to find without assistance because it’s hidden in the middle of nowhere in the streets of Shincheon. Besides, we passed by McDonald’s and treated ourselves to a McMorning menu… yum. This became a remedy and woke us up.

Obstacle 3: Dustiness

Okay, the place was probably the dustiest and the untidiest place ever. The studio was pretty big, was surrounded by mirrors and had a nice sound system. But… the place was too dusty (Wish I could’ve use an adjective there)! I felt the dust getting disposed into my blood system, and my nose was clogged like a chimney. By the end of the practice, my throat felt cloggy too. It was relieved when I drank water, but it was certainly not a pleasant experience. Thank God I have no allergies.

Obstacle 4: Lost Hat

One of our crew members, whom shall not be named (okay, it’s Jay), was playing with Paul Choi’s hat while we were taking a break. See the mirrors below? There is actually a space between the mirrors and the wall. Jay threw Paul’s hat like a boomerang to the top of the mirror, and … the hat was forever buried into an ancient, one foot pile of dust. For a few minutes, it seemed like the two got really pissed, and one of the solutions that Jay came up with was using his dad’s fishing pole to obtain the hat… But eventually  Jay resolved the problem by deciding to purchase a new hat for Paul.

As far as… with the obstacles, that’s about it. Overall, the place was really nice with three couches, A/C & heater, a 2 square meter creepy bathroom that somehow managed to install a shower booth and a toilet all at the same place, incense, 3 Nike Air Force1 shoes that we could’ve all jacked, and a nice Canadian wood dance floor.

Here’s a picture of the place from another angle:

The conclusion is that even though we had all these troubles, they were all minor and we compensated ourselves with a treat in the end. We had our noses getting clogged with dust, and we all fell asleep as soon as we came home. However, in the end, we all had fun. We’ll be sure to have another practice like this one!

P.S.
Oh yeah, the place had a decent price: 10000 won per hour.

We all heard about lawsuits before – like the parents who sued Michael Jackson accusing him of child molestation. I also bet we can all recall the OJ Simpson case, as it is known as the most publicized case in American history. Some people blame McDonald’s for getting them obese, and McDonald loses millions of dollars. We all know about these famous, publicized lawsuit cases – but have we ever heard about bboys who are involved in a lawsuit?! It’s unheard of!

Some of you may not know this, so I’ll briefly explain it. Gambler Crew is a world renowned Korean bboy crew, and they’re famous for their amazing technicality. However, around last year of March, the leader, named bboy Darkness, left the crew, and formed a “new” crew named “Gambler.” Does this sound weird to you? It sure did for me back then.

Ever since, people have been getting confused about the two very similar names. In a layman’s perspective, the two teams should seem totally identical. Recently, an entertainment company in Washington D.C. that invited “Gambler” (not Gambler Crew) created a promotion poster of their event using images of a bboy from “Gambler Crew.” This mistake brought a large, mosterous controversy among bboy manias. People in Washington D.C. were paying $25 for the tickets to watch “Gambler Crew,” not “Gambler” (yes, the poster misled everyone). Bboy manias in Korea, who found out about this error, started debating about the whole confusing, undistinguishable crew names of “Gambler Crew” and “Gambler.” But factually, this isn’t the first time this type of problem occurred. It happened multiple times before – it was just that Gambler Crew ignored it. However, after the controversy, Gambler Crew could take it no longer and finally sued “Gambler” for their illegal usage of the name “Gambler.”

Here is a video of the controversial event:

The name “Gambler” has a huge value in the bboy community. Even some laymen has heard about “the monster Korean bboy crew named Gambler Crew.” As a matter of fact, “Gambler” will be starring in B2K’s new movie called “Hype Nation.” Not only that, “Gambler” has been performing worldwide in many places, and it’s assumable that the company who invited the crew mistaken them as “Gambler Crew.” Although there has never been a confirmation, the only conclusion I can come to is that “Gambler” is basically taking advantage of the name value of “Gambler Crew.”
The thing is, nothing like a lawsuit would’ve taken place if Darkness hadn’t left the crew. But after observing what has happened since he left, here is my hypothesis on why he left Gambler Crew and decided to form Gambler.

1. “Gambler Crew” is a pure bboy crew – they participate in battles and trains hardcore everyday. This way of living brings a limit to their income.
2. “Gambler” actually does not battle – they come out in movies and tries to gain media attention. This way of living can definitely break the barriers of the low income that most bboys earn.
3. Bboy Darkness probably wanted to star in movies and wanted to do things that has a higher potential to bring him better pay. Besides, it’s pretty hard to breakdance as you get older, and thus he had to find a different way of making a living. A man cannot live on bboying alone!

The final conclusion is: money. Money, money, money and money. After all that has happened, at least in my eyes, Darkness left his own crew for money. Now we have two crews with very similar names, who are trying to beat the crap out of each other for the name.

Why does it seem like society is, and will be always driven by money and materialistic wealth?

Disclaimer:

All my claims about the reasons why Darkness left Gambler Crew is all a hypothesis and an opinion. It may be factual, but may be proven false in the future.

Breakdancing Stereotype: “Can you spin like that too?”

The fastest image that ever pops up in your head when someone says “breakdancing” might be a dancer who is spinning insanely fast upside down. Guess what people! There is more to than just spinning and drilling the floor with your head. Breakdancing isn’t just all about who can spin more rounds or who can fall on their elbows quicker than others.

In breakdancing, there is a thing called: the “foundation.”

What is “foundation”? It really does mean the dictionary terms, as in the most elementary bases that build up everything. Foundation also exists in breakdancing just like everything else. In the case of bboys, foundation generally means: footwork, top rock, and uprock.

Toprock and uprock, although two very different things, actually does look similar. They are the move that bboys do in battles, to dominate the opponent. Some may look offensive, but that’s the whole point of an uprock. Every step is counted, just like hitting a drum or counting a tempo (e.g. One two, one two three). This is important because this is the only way to clearly hit the beats in the music.

There are ups and downs, where the bboy does a move standing up, and then goes down (like a sqautting postion). This should be confusing for you, but here is a video that should make you understand my words better.

(You need to skip over a little bit to watch the highlights. This is a pure UPROCK battle)

Secondly, there is footwork. Bboys most usually do toprocks and uprocks, and then go down to their repertoire of footwork. It’s counted in a similar way like a top/uprock, and the goal of it is just the same.

(Here is a video of a footwork battle. It was in IBE 2005, one of the most famous and competitive breakdancing competitions in the world)

Did any of these videos make you notice something? Well, ther aren’t ANY spinning moves. Although it may be because I’ve just picked videos that didn’t include spinning, the point is that what you saw in those two videos are the most essential part of breakdancing.

Why is it important? Breakdancing, is after all, a genre of “dance.” There has to be dancing, or else, it just becomes a show of circus. Foundation is the only way that someone can dance to the music. Ever saw circus, where the performers just held their one handed handstands for so long? The same would happen to breakdancing if there weren’t any foundation. Secondly, for those reasons, foundation takes a big, big role in competitions. All dancers are judged on who danced to the music better.

(Here is a video of a battle between two Korean bboys, bboy Baek (left, white Iverson jersey), and bboy Born (right, hoody. Those two are one of the most famous bboys in the world, recognized by many famous bboys.)

Well? If you had the time to watch it, who do you think won? 90% of my friends said bboy Baek won (obviously he had done more moves involving spinning and gymnastics). However, Born took the battle because he was able to hit the beats better than Baek!

There are bboys who have great power (powerful spin moves) and great foundation. They are also called an “all rounded bboy.” In most cases, having great foundation and being able to do powermoves would always be a big plus.

This article just emphasizes the importance of foundation in breakdancing. It was also written for the purpose of breaking the misconception that exists between most people.

If you have time, watch Bboy Born at the Armory Cup 2006 (below), especially from 1:25 and on. He danced to a totally randomly mixed music (which the DJ’s do), and hit every beat on time in a real battle.

Also, if you want some powermoves, here’s one too XD (I LOVE powermoves, no doubt!).

This guy (below) is bboy The End, a Korean dancer. He is in the world’s top 5 powermovers list.

Most of you should know that I’m a Korean..! But not that many of you may be aware of my stance on K-Pop (Korean Pop). Regardless of my nationality, I’m actually against the songs that Korean pop culture produces. I think they have no musicality, the singers have no skill, and the lyrics are always, most always, the same. It’s all about how the couple broke up and and the broken hearted sings the song. What annoys me even more is the people who are too into these type of songs. Why don’t these guys try to listen some real music, that possseses musicality and originality?

This… was my stance… until I saw this!

No matter how weird… the song is for me, I love SNSD (So-nyeo-si-dae 소녀시대 HAHA). Maybe I’m just a visually oriented person… but once I saw this music video (yeah, the music VIDEO), I instantly became a fan of SNSD. So in the end, occasionally, the only reason why I listen to some k-pop songs is because of the singer’s looks…

If you’re a big K-Pop fan, thoughts like “Woah woah woah dude… What kind of biased blog post is this?!” might be in your heads right now. I will still say I am not a huge K-Pop fan, but I do like quite a lot of Korean  artists. To name a few, I like Rain, MC Sniper, Wonder Girls, SNSD, and a bunch of others from years back. Now, the reasons why I like these artists are all different according who they are: I may really like their songs, their looks, their lyrics or their work ethics, etc.

So the bottom line is.. just like girls like Edward Cullen from Twilight, many men like SNSD!

DISCLAIMER:

* The first paragraph was the past – I do not always think like that. I do not think all Korean artists lack musicality.

* I do like some K-Pop songs/artists…. as mentioned above.

* I like Yoona from SNSD the best.. Muahaha

Have you guys heard about the annual dance club showcase that’s taking place on April 10th ?!

You guys should totally come It’s being held at 7PM, on a Friday night, at the PAC!

Our bboy crew is working hard on creating our own showcase, and I’d like to share/list some things that anyone should be aware of when preparing for a performance.

1. Stretch for at least 10 minutes, and kind of have a light jog to prevent injuries. I can’t emphasize this enough.

2. Start planning at least 4 months before the performance date.

3. Plan out the solo parts first – this is the quickest way to fill up time for your performance.

4. Meet, talk, and discuss frequently. We meet every mondays as a mandatory practice, for two hours.

5. I recommend using Google Docs. Although using Google Docs for a dance performance soudns weird, organizing all the ideas together actually helps a lot.

6. Save all the videos that you find useful – this way you get to easily reference them later on. Copying another dancer (aka ‘Biting’) is not good, but if you are inspired by the video, that’s totally different and it’s good!

7. Finish all the choreography at least two weeks before the performance. Even though you think you have everything down, it’ll look different on camera, and to the audience.

8. Relating back to #7, ALWAYS film your performances. You may think it looks good, but it usually turns out differently once you see yourself on a video.

9. If you think you lack the skills to make your moves look good, choose a powerful music. “Distract” the audience with the music!

10. Lastly… if you actually follow everything I said above, I guarantee you that a phenomenal art piece will be in your hands. You’ll be prepared for everything before the performance.

….. And because our crew didn’t follow these procedures very well… we’re at a desperate situation right now. We’re less than a month away from the performance date… and two members have an injury, and we’re not even done with half the performance. As you can see… I’m greatly concerned. Wish us luck !

If you’re a Korean, I am pretty sure you have at least heard of the name “Rain,” as in the singer. He is known as the hardest working celebrity in Korea, and also one of the most successful. There are numerous amounts of stories about him. One of them is about how he achieved the dream of his life regardless of hardships he faced as he was growing up during teenage years.

Here are some quick facts about Rain:

As mentioned before, if you are a Korean and don’t know who Rain is, you’re a spy. Beyond that, in Japan, hundreds of Japanese women come to the airport just to see him for 30 seconds as he goes through the airport lobby. In Hong Kong, there are fans who follow wherever Rain goes. They spend thousands of dollars on each trip, and collect whatever they can that’s related to Rain. Pretty much all the girls love and finds him extremely attractive. As a guy, I love rain too for his charisma.

Here is another thing Rain is known for: Rain is a very ambitious person – he can never have enough. Once he became a top celebrity in Korea, his next goal was to go through Asia. Then the next step was to become internationally famous. Let’s see where Rain is at right now.

As you might have noticed, Rain achieved all the goals he set up so far. Now Rain is no longer just a singer, he is also an actor! He was an award winning nominee in the Berlin International Film Festival, and he is now starring in a Hollywood film called “Ninja Assassin.” You can see clips of him training for the movie here:

Basically this documentary is about how Rain is starring in Ninja Assassin and what he had to go through in order to film it. It seems like all the people around him, the director or coworkers, say Rain is probably the most assiduous person they’ve ever seen. Not only that, I could notice Rain’s enthusiasm and excitement about this new achievement through the interviews.

Okay, okay. So this guy is famous, good looking, talented and hard working.

What’s the big deal?

I am not sure if I am being a cynic, but I have some concerns about Rain going to Hollywood. Here is the main question that came to my mind:

“Will the American culture/people (or Western) be attracted to Rain?”

As soon as I was done watching that documentary, I went around asking people if they ever heard about the movie “Ninja Assassin.” I asked around ten people, and all of them answered “no.” I thought I was the oddball – but apparently I wasn’t. So to me, it seems like Rain isn’t really starring in a big, blockbuster movie. I couldn’t find one good trailer about the movie.

Another thing that concerned me was the proficiency of his English. I heard him speak through videos, but I wasn’t sure if his speaking is up to the level for other Hollywood movies he wants to star in. And lastly, Rain isn’t like Tom Cruise or Nicolas Cage. Grab a person in the streets of New York, and I doubt that many people would know about Rain. Thus, I really started to doubt Rain in his potential to become an international celebrity.

After having these cynical, yet caring concerns, I came to a conclusion. The current status of Rain is just a starting point for him. As a person can’t run before he can walk, Rain is active at a smaller scale as of now. Not only that, I trust Rain. JYP (Park Jin Young), who trained Rain to become the top star he his now, said:

“Even if Rain was a laundry shop owner, he would have chains of shops instead of one. He would be unlike any others.”

Rain is such a hard working person, and I admire him so much for that. His habits and mentality has got him to big places, and it will move on to bigger ones than he is at now. That’s why I am sure that Rain will be successful for the rest of his career. Besides, other than this “international” concern, Rain is already famous enough in Asia. I bet some fans would even buy his underwear!… I would.. maybe. (There’s a rumor that there are obsessive fans who buy these type of personal “souvenirs” – like buying the gum that Britney Spears chewed!!)

So guys, let’s all cross our fingers and wish the best for Rain!