As I am sitting at my place, waiting for my ramen noodles to finish cooking, I think it is time to write up some quick things. And judging by how long ramen noodles cook, I have a little under 3 minutes to finish this post.

so quickly here it goes:

First of all, I've been super impressed by all the submission's for Strife.tv/Bboyworld's Evolution V video contest. Since the announcement of the contest a month ago, we got over 30+ video entries in. Most of them have been really awesome, while some...I can tell, were a little lazy in production. But in some ways, I can relate, since it takes a little effort to put a video camera in front of your face.

I was a little worried for the first few weeks, because for the longest time, we had only 6, 7 video entries. But then the last week came, and so many videos flooded in! It was really, really awesome to see.

So how did we do the judging? Since MisLee was busy doing her Korea contest stuff, Loan and I picked a general Top 5 list. And from the Top 5 list, Erwin and Morris, from Bboyworld, picked the top two.

The Top 5 list looked like this:

in no particular order

Death by Cupcake

http://vimeo.com/15053734

Dyno Rock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly3XAJCzKag

homeopt.wmv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPknbWpOsU8

Sokyujo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn_jsuKRc-8

Mad Scientist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqmIFvMwuMA

So how did Loan and I do the judging? Well, I can only speak for my video judging, but here were the things I looked for:

1) I looked for people who had a fun personality, and who could feel comfortable talking on camera. So, for the entries that only contained dancing, and no verbal dialogue, sorry. I had to cut those out. Some of the videos were super nicely edited, but at the end, I'm looking for someone on camera, not a video editor. That's my job! Nor was I looking for a bboy who could dance. In fact, I didn't even care how well one danced on camera.

2) It had to be fun and interesting, and fit the style of Strife. The Dyno Rock video was interesting because, although it was super nicely edited and filmed, I didn't really understand the entire purpose. It looked like an excerpt from a Dawson's Creek pilot. I would have never thought of making something like that for Strife.tv. And again, was I looking for an video director, or for an actor on camera? I got a little confused. But, Loan liked the video, so we included it into the Top 5.

So yeah, those were the two main things I looked for when judigng the video contest. Erwin and Morris eventually picked Death By Cupcake and Homeopt. The Homeopt video was definitely their #1 pick, because, I think, it was one of the few videos that was Bboyworld specific. So many people made videos about asking bgirl Maresco out, or casually inserting the word "Bboyworld" into random dialogues, so those videos didn't seem as special as the Homeopt one to the Bboyworld staff. I know Erwin and Morris got a good laugh out of it. And as a Bboyworld moderator, I did, too.

My favorite quotes from the video contests were:

"Time to talk some shit!"

--homeopt

"You think he knows about phophorus???"

--Death By Cupcake

"That doesn't make any sense, I used eggs!" while staring at his freshly baked sausages

--Sokyujo

...and as for skits to do at Evolution?

Loan approached me with the idea of using a ShakeWeight.

I spent the weekend up in Pennsylvania, at Penn St. University. I went primarily for a b-boy jam called the 4 Elements of Expression, but I also went because I had never seen the town and wanted to see what another Big Ten school felt like. I drove my new car, which was a black Prius hybrid. Holy money saving gas mileage batman! 50 miles per gallon is quite something.

At the jam, I met up with a lot of the New York and Philadelphia dancers, as well as Morris, Airsick, and Ground Zero Crew. Let me tell ya, the Ground Zero guys are pretty funny crazy. Like...there's regular crazy, and there's "what planet are you from?" crazy. Hilarious though. Zoob battled wearing a Captain Hook-style pirate mustache, and with short green khakis and long socks. He looked like a 1960s Austin Powers bad guy.

The jam was held on the same weekend as the Penn St. Arts Festival. It was nuts! So many people. I really wished I had brought my photo camera. I'll probably write up a big post about the event on the Strife blog, when I find some photos to leech from. Haha, I think the organizer's sister took some photos.

I drove back from the jam with Rex and Maresco the day after. I'll be posting footage soon. I got a lot of things going on at the moment, so I'm multi-tasking like crazy.

Also, Loan and Peter have been trying to get me to fly out to Los Angeles with them in August to hit up the Rock The Bells hip hop festival, as well as Freestyle Session West Coast prelims. I wish I could go, but probably don't have any money for that kind of weekend splurging. Ah, too bad.

Tribal Gear

Armory

Biggest & Baddest

...and now Street Scientists

I'm sure many b-boys and b-girls have a shirt by one of the companies listed above. Take away the popular mainstream shoe brands and these are your options for popular "for b-boys, by b-boys" designs these days. While the majority of b-boy clothing consists of t-shirts, one can also find sweaters, hoodies, spin caps, pants, and more.

I've always wondered why dancers prefer to wear t-shirts while dancing? Is it because of the inexpensive price? The comfort? The ability to express with logos & printed quotes? MexOne from Biggest & Baddest said he wanted his tees to be something "a person can wear when he/she goes out on a Saturday night." I guess I should consider his shirts as designer t-shirts, more fashionable than a normal tee. For me, a big chunk of my clothes come from b-boy clothes. I have so many t-shirts that last week I decided I needed to go to a J. Crew just to break my current dress style. My sister was like, "Do you wear anything else besides hip hop t-shirts?" Haha, but all of these shirts are quite fresh, and that is why we wear them, right?

TRIBAL GEAR

http://www.tribalgear.com/tribal/

Tribal Gear used to be really hot and into the b-boy scene back in the late 90s and early 2000s. I used to remember they were the clothes to buy when I started b-boying. I would see those barbwire tattoo style designs everywhere. But for some reason, the popularity of Tribal faded away, at least in the b-boy scenes where I am familiar with. I'm not sure why. It almost seemed as they expanded too quickly into other scenes, such as MMA, music, and skateboarding, and stopped making the b-boy scene as a priority as before. But that's just my speculation.

ARMORY

http://www.armoryhiphop.com/

Armory has always been a huge seller. It has been super popular in South Korea because of my friends Charlie and Johnjay from Cartel Creative, who also do R-16. And in the United States, Cros1 has done a tremendous job promoting Armory within the scene. Witness Freestyle Session, that is proof of Armory's success. I really like their shirts, too, as I own a couple. The fabric is nice, sturdy, and they come up with really interesting designs.

Born reppin' Armory at R-16 2009

I think my favorite one is the "Run DMZ" shirt printed in Korea. Very nice play on words there between two cultures!

BIGGEST & BADDEST

http://www.thebboyspot.com/store/

With my recent videos documenting TheBboySpot and Biggest & Baddest, I suppose I am a little biase here towards liking their products. I saw first hand how they make their shirts, how MexOne's mom sews on the tags and beanies, and how Spen designs the prints. The creativity in the entire process makes me want to petition for another "t-shirt design" element to hip hop. Haha.

Luigi and Bruce Lee

My favorite Biggest & Baddest shirt is probably the Bruce Lee silhouette. Whoever thought of that idea is a genius. I'll put up a video from Biggest & Baddest guiding viewers through the entire t-shirt making process soon. It'll be like a Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood episode, one where people can see the entire process, step by step. ;-)

STREET SCIENTISTS

http://www.streetscientists.com/shop/

Recently, Bboyworld teamed up with California based Street Scientists to create b-boy style clothing. You can read the news here. Of course, since I am also a moderator on Bboyworld, I suppose I am biased towards this brand of clothing, too. Haha, I know...it is hard to make up my mind on stuff. I really cannot say much about Street Scientists since they are so brand new to the scene. They have only 5 designs right now, and hopefully I'll see more in the near future.

Menno stylin'

I really like this shirt. It really matches Menno's attire. I just recently got this shirt in the mail, too. Thanks Erwin!

SHIRT MODELS

Does anyone buy a t-shirt because their favorite b-boy/b-girl models that shirt? For example, because Roxrite wears Biggest & Baddest, does that mean I want one, too? Or Born wearing Armory? Or Menno with Street Scientists? Or MisLee and Loan with our Strife.tv shirts? Haha, just kidding, our shirts are not for sale, unfortunately.

FINAL COMPARISONS

Because I am running out of things to say, and tomorrow is the beginning of the World Cup quarterfinals, I shall make my final comparisons with easy metaphors.

In short, Armory is team Brazil. Armory, just like Brazil, is really popular to anywhere in the scene. They always create something fresh, and keep it going year in year out. And plus, Freestyle Session is awesome.

Biggest & Baddest is Uruguay. They are super ambitious. MexOne and Spen work hard at what they does, and love to give back to the scene as much as possible. Biggest & Baddest clothing always brings something new to the b-boy fashion scene each season and they have a lot of grassroots support. It's really hard to dislike Biggest & Baddest clothing, just like Uruguay. I mean, seriously...who dislikes Uruguay in the World Cup?

Street Scientists/Bboyworld is team Spain. They used to be big into the clothing scene, but recently just got revitalized. Long story short: Biggest & Baddest used to be with Bboyworld, but then left, thus Bboyworld had no clothing line, then Street Scientists came, and now here it is. Did anyone get confused with that explanation? And just like team Spain, Street Scientists has a lot of backing from the global community due to their connection with Bboyworld.

Tribal Gear is like team England. They used to be really big into the scene, but have since disappeared. I'm not sure what happened.

So what are your favorite b-boy clothing brands? I know I left out the obvious: Adidas, Nike, Puma, etc., but talking about them is not as exciting.

B-BOY FORUM THREAD OF THE DAY:

From bboy.org: I don't know if this story is true or not, but this guy had an interesting encounter with b-boy Machine. I've met Machine before and he wasn't like the guy described in this thread. But funny story nevertheless. It made me LOL. (btw, the writer of the thread is a Strife.tv viewer!)

SONG OF THE DAY:

end song to my Orlando Sessions video

funny how I post the title to this song, and yet people still ask "What's this song name?"

people need to learn how to read the info section

1773 - Heart Music (Volta Masters remix)

So I am here in Minneapolis for the weekend. There's too much to write about, and at 12:40 am, I am too lazy to do it. So I will hit the "pro-long" aka "procrastinate" button on my livejournal and say I will write about it later this week. Today's highlights include walking underneath a waterfall.

And by the way, it snowed here two days ago, when I first arrived.

Yeah, I was surprised. Snow in May? Yeah, only in Minnesota.

Good thing I'm not a Dallas Mavericks fan.

Yeah, another team of choke artists.

Just got done eating dinner and watching the NHL Hockey playoffs. My team, the Washington Capitals, managed to take a 3-1 series lead, only to blow that lead and lose in game 7. Yeah, talk about choke. I'm sick of cheering for teams that choke during the playoffs: Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Braves, and the Washington Capitals. They all collapse during the playoffs regardless of years. What the hell. It gets me wondering, however: is there a b-boy equivalent? Like is there a dancer or crew that always gets to the semi's or finals, but can never win the big one? The only crew that comes to my mind is Maximum Crew in Korea. Poor guys always reach the finals, but either lose to Jinjo, Rivers, Gamblerz, and most recently losing to Ground Scratch in the Jeonju finals.

A'ight, let's get started with what happened this past weekend.

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Over the weekend, I took a one hour drive to Baltimore for The Breakoff dance event, held at Johns Hopkins University. For those that don't know much about the university, it is one of the most prestigious universities in the world, especially its medical school. I came close to auditioning for the Johns Hopkins Peabody School of Music few years ago, too.

I've been to a couple university b-boy jams before, and they're either a hit or miss. It's cool that so many students come, many whom have never seen a b-boy/b-girl live. Students come under the impression a real dance jam resembles that B2K movie, or Step Up, or Honey. It has been great to see their facial expressions change when they see someone like Kmel or Toyz dance in person. I wonder if new spectators ever think, "Wow, none of these dancers have alcohol issues or racial girlfriend problems. Hmm...I wonder if they practice outside in the rain, on a basketball court?"

Because of a lot of the spectators at university jams are non-dancers, it is always difficult balancing an event for the dancer & non-dancer crowd. A stereotype complaint is that non-dancers cheer for wack things, e.g. cheer for a gainer, or l-kick, or windmills, and they don't cheer for footwork. Yeah, I don't buy that. If a move or set is extraordinary, anyone would cheer for it. But as these b-boy events get more exposure, many of us, especially dancers, see a lot of repetition of moves, thus getting the "dead crowd" effect. Point being, if the moves are dynamic, anyone would cheer. If they are repetitive and without emotion, then you would hear silence.

The Breakoff was an invited 1v1 competition, where 12 invitees compete against challengers. Think of it like a mini-Monster Jam, or a BCOne. The event's setup was really nice, in my opinion. In its third year, the organizers received money from Johns Hopkins University to sponsor some nice dancers to come, including Dyzee, Ekcite, Gravity, Napalm, Kelvyn, and even bgirl Shie-Chan from Japan. Most of the university's money was used to sponsor dancers, thus the small $500 prize money. But that did not detract from the level of competition, because...well, see for yourself below. The level of talent at this event compared well with many of the Korean jams I've been to.

My favorite battle was Gravity vs Kelvyn, in the Top 12.

Don't sleep on this, there are great dancers everywhere

check out the interactive DVD-style menu!

I spent the past three days editing up the battles, coverages, and extra features. And posted above is my final product. Check that out: a DVD-menu style interface for an entire event! I essentially created an event DVD over the weekend. How baller is that?!

MisLee originally came up with the idea, about a month ago, of using annotations to create a menu style system for our videos. It definitely organizes our Strife videos better, and best of all...it looks cool. Viewers can also see the progression of the battles, with brackets, which I find visually helpful. The future of videos are definitely going to be organized with these "virtual" DVD-style menus. Think about it: an online DVD! Why bother waiting to buy physical copies when one can get all of this instantly? Of course, the downside is that you cannot make any money doing this, mainly b/c of the music copyright issues regarding breakbeats. Yeah...gotta figure that problem out. But in the meantime, enjoy our Strife DVD menu system.

I have yet to find a more perfect post-dance jam meal than Korean BBQ + soju.

THINGS OVERHEARD

"Is the ambulance here, yet?"

--Ben Frison, organizer of The Breakoff, talking about Napalm's injury. Napalm injured himself during his first set. It is sad to hear something like this happen to a dancer like Napalm. Observing him before the jam, he has an almost Rocky-like way of warming up for dance competitions: brings own jumprope, stretches for 30+ minutes, and does more cardio. Lesson of the day: even a dancer in the best physical condition can get injured (which sucks). Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

"You guys need to understand the level of sickness we have here. This battle is going to be reeeediculous."

My boy Peter aka Wonderyearz who was the MC for the night, talking about the Gravity vs Kelvyn battle. I think you are a cool guy, an MC with the best of intentions, but don't ever say those lines again to a student crowd, haha. Go easy on the slang. Most of us grew up in the suburbs in our mama's house.

"I think chances are good, because I'm a Vietnamese guy, and I'm pretty attracted to him."

Atomic Goofball, talking about Domkey's chances with a Vietnamese girl. Apparently Goofball has no problems discussing his sexuality. Kudos to him.

"Alright, First round...b-girl Maresco vs Napalm."

--MC Wonderyearz

"WHAT?!?!?!!!"

--b-girl Maresco's response

Haha, you could not find a more uneven match up than Maresco vs Napalm. So you got a style b-girl, who claims she cannot do inverts, versus one of the best power b-boys in the scene. Maresco lucked out here, however, due to a mix up, and battled Toyz instead.

"Underground Legion coming at you!"

--b-boy Hannibal

Apparently I just witnessed the formation of a new super crew called Underground Legion. As far as I know, it is comprised of D.C. and Philadelphia cats, with Toyz, Hannibal, Domkey, and others.

MOST AMUSING COMMENT OUR YOUTUBE PAGE

domkey n his dudes were mad foolish as always having fun while...

gravity n his dudes were like "I wanna kill yo ass" lol

jus found the difference really funny thats all. lol

--ienjoymodels (talking about Domkey vs Gravity)

THINGS THAT I THINK

--Korean BBQ with soju is the best post-dance jam meal. I have yet to find another better combination of foods. FYI, pancakes and all that stuff you find at Denny's/IHOP pale in comparison to Korean food. Also, as another comparison, DJ Skeme Richards, who loves hamburgers more than Ronald McDonald, prefers to eat Korean BBQ when he's in Korea.

--However great Korean BBQ is, $13 for one bottle of soju is highway robbery. Whereas it costs only $2 dollars in Korea for a bottle of Jinro Soju, it is $13 dollars Baltimore. Economics be damned.

--Many people got their first glimsp at KBE's b-boying in our latest Coverage video. We practiced together at the T.I.P. studio many times last year. Mad love for b-boy Virus and Differ.

--I still enjoy watching Isaiah dance. Guy is mad original with his flexibility moves. I still say promoters around the world should fly him out.

--What's with spam bots on Facebook trying to add me? There is like an implosion of fake accounts recently. Some have been people posing as black students who say they know me from high school. And I'm there thinking, "DUDE...I went to high school in South Dakota. There were no black students. Don't lie."

--So I was listening to NPR radio and suddenly I started hearing The Mexican play. Here is the full National Public Radio article on breakbeats. While many of these songs we already know, it is cool for such a big media station like NPR to promote our music.

We made a video dedicated to one of our friends, b-boy Domkey. The idea of this video came from my observations in that, during the past 6 months, Domkey has been regularly changing his Facebook status to "<3 Single". There was one month when he did this about five, six times a week. Haha, I found it quite amusing, as well as his Lionz of Zion friends. So out of curiosity of him being a hopeless romantic, we asked different people of different ethnicities to see if Domkey has a chance with their female counterparts. Oh, and also, I noticed there have been lots of dudes adding Domkey on Facebook, many whom he has never met in person. Doesn't that get weird sometimes? Especially if you add someone and never attempt to talk to them, either? When did Facebook turn into Myspace? I stopped adding people I've never met on Facebook ever since learning companies phish our Facebooks for job interview recommendations.

One thing the video spotlighted, however, was his craziness over Asian girls. Some guys are like that, I suppose. I'm trying to convince him to move to Korea, where he can bboy and socialize with millions of Asian fangirls.

Domkey was a good sport and allowed us at Strife to make a fun video with him. I think it was quite deserving, since he was the star of a previous video where he took Goofball's girl.

note: many of these fun videos we do are made with the deepest respect & consideration with the dancers. We ask for permission first, giving the exact details of what we will do. While our videos may seem spontaneous and random, we do plan our videos out with the interviewed bboys.

SONG OF THE DAY:

I love this cover of the Frankie Vialli song

If the Backstreet Boys sang this song, I'd like it, too

The Saturdays - Beggin' (cover)

WHAT REALLY GRINDS MY GEARS

After creating the first episode a few months ago, it seemed like time to premiere the second episode. The first video was really popular, which I didn't expect. People have been demanding a second video for months. The initial video created a lot of discussion and chatter on a wide variety of stereotypical topics. Now I hear so many people talk about inverts, RnB music, and tight pants.

Obviously, the idea came from The Family Guy cartoon, and just branched off to be more dance scene specific. Nasty Ray did the first episode, Puzzles the second, but neither has managed to speak about Lindsey Lohan, which Peter Griffin so gorgeously does.

Nevertheless, although I do like my video, I find this Michelle Trachtenberg rapping video more interesting.

STUFF GOING ON IN MY LIFE

I sometimes get asked if I will be going back to Korea this year. My answer? Hell if I know. If anything, I would set July 1 as a deadline for going to Korea, because that is the date of the R-16 Festival. I'm currently applying for jobs in D.C., NYC, Europe, and, of course, Korea. We'll see where I go. Making videos for Strife.tv is the last thing I'm worried about because I need to find more stable work.

And for today, I'm having a shitty day. After coming back from Miami, I have somehow misplaced my background security check forms. I had been using those forms for my current part-time job, which is to teach little kids soccer. But now that I can't find them, damnit...I can't do it. It's frustrating that I'm a clutz sometimes. In the past, I'm as flaky as one could get. I would forget things, lose things, be really unorganized. I thought I've corrected them, but guess not.

I'm gonna cool my frustrations now and go watch V.

there was an outdoor concrete jam yesterday afternoon in Orlando

I'll write more about that later

I'm here at the JFK international airport in New York, waiting for my plane ride back to Washington D.C. For some reason, I can get a direct flight from D.C. --> Ft. Lauderdale, but cannot get one back. I am having to go from Ft. Lauderdale --> NYC --> D.C. Luckly, I am riding Jet Blue Airlines. Out of the flying I do, Jet Blue is amongst my favorite airlines. They got Direct TV screens behind each seat, free wi-fi in their airport terminals, food, and non of that crap paying for luggage stuff. (well, up to a point)

My other favorite airline is Korean Air.

Have y'all seen the stewardesses on Korean Air?!?!

**shakes head in amazement**

Speaking of travel, here are the dance events I plan to go to next:

THE BREAKOFF 2010

Baltimore, Maryland

April 24, 2010

This event will be located at Johns Hopkins University on Saturday, 24 April 2010. To me, it looks like a mini 1v1 Monster Jam style tourney. Dancers competing will include Isaiah, b-girl Shie Chan (Japan), E-Rock, Napalm, Goofball, and others. I'm secretly a big E-Rock fan. That guy is ill! From the legendary Breaks Kru in NYC, this cat like fast as hell and has a crazy dance flow.

check out Shie-Chan vs E-Rock here.

Dyzee will be judging this event, so expect another Strife/Supernaturalz collaboration video!

MADFLAVA 2: The Phởreshness

Twin Cities, Minnesota

May 8, 2010

My friend Mihnzy from my university, UW-Madison, is organizing this super fun event in Saint Paul, MN. Mihnzy's a food fiend, thus there will be bowls of phở available to eat (vietnamese beef noodle soup). Although it is a small event, there will still be some nice exhibition battles, including Mijo vs Los Boogie.

Proceeds from this event will go to Tiny Toones Cambodia, http://www.tinytoones.org. Tiny Toones uses b-boying, hip hop music, and the contemporary arts as creative tools to empower the youth of Cambodia to live healthier lives free of HIV and drugs, build a more promising future by furthering their education opportunities and more.

I'm really excited about this event because I've never been to a dance competition the Twin Cities. Furthermore, I grew up in that region! (in Sioux Falls, South Dakota) My brother & sister are currently living in the Twin Cities, so it will be nice to see family again, as well as other friends since my early childhood. I do miss the Midwest at times.

...I might still go to BREAKIN' THE LAW: 7 DEADLY STYLES, but that would really depend if my finances allow me. The other Strife folks like Erich & Ari will be going, however.

Peace, Love, and Cookies

On another random note, I saw the movie Kick-Ass the other night. That movie was craaazy fun! It was like SuperBad meets Kill Bill, vol. 1. Apparently it has been getting mixed reviews; either really creative or really vulgar & horrible. My review of Kill Bill? It is creative, more creative than most of the films out already. Nicolas Cage was amazing, and of course, the 11 year old Hit Girl stole the show. My favorite movie so far of 2010.

Favorite quote:

"With no power comes no responsibility."

Hip Hop Song of the Day:

I heard a DJ mash up the instrumental/break version of this, and it was pure fiya

Damian Marley ft. Nas - As We Enter

SHIRTS

I made some shirts today at Biggest & Baddest. It was fun! Spen, the designer here, showed me how to write graffiti fonts, add some designs, and import it to a print screen. And once that was finished, we just chose the colors, painted layers over it, and voila! I will make a video detailing the entire process next week.

These shirts were made just for fun, as a way to document a shirt making process from A to Z. So don't expect these shirts to be sold anywhere, haha. I only printed out a few to be passed around us and the people I've worked with, like Domkey, ManOfGod, Ian (who taught me green screening), Tae & Jason (who help me with Korean translations), and such. I want them to be as a little "thank you" for all the volunteer work assisted me on.

The font and design was a little different from our old Strife shirts, mainly because I wanted to film the start to finish shirt making process. It was so interesting to see Spen help me on giving ideas on how to make the graffiti font. I also got a little inspired from my friends at Rivers Crew in Korea. They used lots of multi-colored shirts.

Going to Orlando later today, peace!

I practiced tonight in the upstairs dance facility here at TheBboySpot. Tonight was just me, Mex, and Dwellz, who also lives in the Ft. Lauderdale area. Their practice facility was like something out of a hollywood dance movie, haha, but not in a bad way. I was thinking of that Jessica Alba dance movie. It's just there's boxing equipment, punching bag, weight lifting stuff, as well as the dance floor in the middle. The dance floor was a small one, but it was great for a cypher-style dance practice. My practice didn't last that long, because I was a little distracted with taking photos, as well as seeing friends message me online.

I spent today filming the studio, and interviewing Mex, Gina, and Spen. My filming styles today ranged from MTV Cribs to Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood to Ken Burns. Yeah, just a little bit of everything. Oh, and I ate some fabulous pork yellow rice, latino food. Mmmm.

We'll be heading out to Orlando possibly tomorrow night.

BEST OF THE BEST

Today, I also met up with the organizers of a huge hip hop/reggae concert here in Miami, called Best of the Best. They noticed me filming Mex and were like, "What are you doing with that camera?" Long story short, we were discussing the possibility of filming backstage at their concert event, shadowing the dancers. I was like, "Ooo...sounds like stuff I normally do with b-boys." We'll see if this idea picks up. It'd be fun to work at an event like that, to follow these musicians around and film their lives for that weekend. I love doing videos like that, more so than making performance videos to be honest. It's probably why you see a lot of these weird lifestyle videos from me on the Strife.tv channel. Hell, if I get to work at this, I'll post the vids on Strife. I don't care if it isn't b-boy or that it is mainstream hip hop. Maybe to make it "bboy-ish" I could do an L-kick in front of T-Pain's Lamborghini while he is spinning donuts in the parking lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nG9-W1pqgg

This song, T-ara - Bo Peep Bo Peep, has been out for a while. But how come I never posted it? It's dance is hypnotizing. Yes it is! The group is pronounced "Tee-ara".

Dude! This song has:

--cute kitten paw dances

--chest thrusts

--butt shakes while turning 360 degrees

I <3 K-pop

K-pop Song of the Day:

bo peep bo peep bo peep ahhh!!!

T-ara - Bo Peep Bo Peep

I flew into Ft. Lauderdale, Florida today. For people that don't know the location, it is part of the metropolitan area of Miami. I met up with MexOne of TheBboySpot and have been at their crib ever since. For people that don't know, MexOne is the head of TheBboySpot, as well as Biggest & Baddest clothing. Both are one of the top dance websites & clothing outfitters in the world. We met last year in Korea during R16 and became friends since.

The weather here in South Florida is 80 degrees, sunny, and gorgeous! When I got into Mex's car, I was amazed he had the air conditioner on. It's been such a cold winter that I almost forgot what an A/C was. Like some betamax made in the 70s or something.

Their crib is comprised of offices, a clothing warehouse, and a nice dance studio up top. I'm a little tired out today, so all I did was take photos. But tomorrow I will start the video & interviewing process with the people that work here. I spent most of today continuing exporting Evolution footage. I even had a chance to watch the Evolution III dvd for the first time. Without giving much away, I can say our Strife.tv produced Evolution IV dvd is going to blow the III dvd out of the water. It'll be like a "big ass lighting fuckin' sick ass plasmatic storm," quotes bboy 360 in the dvd.

Yeah.....

**sarcasm**

well, not really

Anyways, my feature on TheBboySpot and Biggest & Baddest will be one of the first without a host like Loan, Lee, or KBE. Hopefully I can manage! Unfortunately, it will mean I will be getting on camera, doing a vlog-ish style narration. Eh, these videos will look nice. I was joking to the guys here I will do multiple versions of the coverage: one to look like MTV Cribs, and the other to look like Mister Rodger's Neighborhood.

Mex was telling me his mission for Biggest & Baddest clothing was not to just make shirts, but to make designer hip hop clothing that one would wear on special occasions, such as going out. "Anyone can make a t-shirt, but we want ours to be more than that...", Mex commented. I have to admit, his shirts are quite good in design and fabric quality. You can tell some outfitters suck ass after the first wash, when their shirts start to shrink or lose their design. But not here at Biggest & Baddest. I own a few pair already, and even after a bajillion sweaty washes, they still maintain their color. Dope!

funniest thing I've seen all day

thanks to Loan for showing me this!

Anyways, I should probably get going. I just finished webcamming with Loan; gave her a tour of the studio as I walked my laptop around. Even she was impressed. And now, I am watching The Count of Monte Cristo in French with some French visitors. Il a été depuis longtemps je parlais français!

Breakbeat of the Day:

I used this in the Evolution DVD, too

Rage Against The Machine - Renegades of Funk (instrumental)

I haven't updated in a week or so. Gah, my bad. I've been incredibly busy editing videos, as well as working around Washington D.C., as well as applying for future jobs.

I'm currently rendering the final bits & edits for the Evolution DVD; just brushing up on the coloring & soundtrack overlays. I managed to sneak in a little bit of Stuntin' Like My Daddy by Birdman & Lil' Wayne into the Evolution DVD coverage, haha. YES! People just have to see the DVD for themselves to see it.

It's about 1 am right now, and I have just begun to pack for my week's trip to South Florida. I'll be flying out to Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, and Orlando to do a little video work. I'll be meeting up with my friend MexOne from TheBboySpot, as well as attend FUSIK's new album release party.

Basically this weekend will be spent creating a feature on lifestyles of southern Florida bboys, the business practices at TheBboySpot, Biggest & Baddest clothing, and eat good southern bbq. It'll be chill! I think a behind the scenes story on one of the world's up & coming b-boy websites would create a great article. I'm sure people are curious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuonbvrbGtg

I will try and write daily when I get down to Florida, with many photos coming. In the meantime, check out our video of the epic Jabbawockeez performance Erich & Ari taped this past weekend!

Hip Hop Song of the Day:

from 2006, this tune was, and still is ill!!!

Birdman & Lil Wayne - Stuntin' Like My Daddy

Just had my Fantasy Baseball draft. I like everything about my team except that I had to resort to getting Geovany Soto as my catcher. But then again, I usually skip the catcher category anyways. Besides Joe Mauer, every catcher's stats are almost the same: .280 avg + 15 hrs. And although I'm a huge Atlanta Braves fan, there was no way I would draft Brian McCann when I could get someone like Adam Lind in the same round. I "punted" the catcher position in last year's league, (got Yadier Molina) and I ended up winning big, so I think this system works.

I'm also about drafting players with decent home runs + stolen bases. With the exception of Nyjer Morgan, who was a 3rd to last round no other option pick, my entire team looks to run the daylights out of most teams. Screw picking a Carl Crawford or Ellsbury, it's about team totals not one fast player.

I drafted in the last slot, 12 out of 12 teams, which kinda sucked. First of all, you got a long ass wait. Since drafts go ABBAAB format, I would like draft two players, and then wait 15 minutes until my turns comes ago. And by that time, all the players I had on my queue would be all gone. It's like, "Hmm...I like these players, let me put them on my queue..." and then every minute I would go, "fucccccccccck."

something like this face

My favorite draft picks were:

--Francisco Liriano - last round

--Daisuke Matsuzaka - second to last round

--Miguel Cabrera - 12th pick, 1st round

--Jason Bartlett - 18th round

Fluke or no fluke, I'll take a starting SS in the 18th round. And Liriano? Last round? Really? I can get a potential ace in the last round? And a Japanese guy named Matsuzaka in the second to last round? Most of the players picked up in those last rounds are going to be dropped anyways, so might as well use them to pick up risky, but high reward players.

**gasp**

I just posted an entire entry without talking about dancing!

**gasp**

Soul of the Day:

Ben L'Oncle Soul is awesome!

check out his myspace page

french soullll music, similar to Jamiroquai

Ben (L'Oncle Soul) - Seven Nation Army

Yeah, discovering this animated GIF was my entire day's excitement.

I was at the Asian supermarket today, and came across this.

This discovery alone lead to a couple of questions:

First, what exactly does "selected" pork brains mean? Perhaps it is a difference between an average and super smart pig? Second, why pork? I looked around and could not find any other brain products. There were no beef brains or chicken brains. And lastly, who eats this kind of stuff? There were more than 50 canisters of this in the fridge at the market, so there must be a demand for this. Oh the discoveries at the Asian supermarket!

Step Up 3D in HD

Trailer Park Movies | MySpace Video

STEP UP 3D

A couple of my dance friends are in the film, Step Up 3D, so that's kinda cool. But seriously, it looks hella cheesy. Looks like 90 minutes of an Usher music video, but with Tron laser suits. I'm still trying to look for a dance event that resembles the one in the trailer. Also, there was this one quote in the trailer, "One move can set a whole generation free." Haha...seriously? So let me guess, b-boys ridicule the formation of a "dance sport" league to further their dance careers, which is also administered for and by the dancers, but would rather keep making movies like this to make a living? Get out of here.

PARTY AT MODERN

There will be a big party tomorrow night at Modern, celebrating Toyz's birthday. It is one of Ghost's parties, so that means Lionz of Zion party squad in full effect! Who's in the D.C. area? come, come, come!

French Alternative Rock Song of the Day:

Phoenix - 1901

photos by EyeoftheCypher.blogspot.com

Since I am waiting for my videos from Circles 11 render, I might as well write my usual event writeup. The venue for Circles was located 2 hours west of Washington D.C. in Harrisonburg, Virginia, home to James Madison University. It was probably the most remote place I've gone for a b-boy jam. The town held a population of 40,000 people, which was even less than my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So yeah, the venue was out in the mountains of the Appalachians, and I suppose one could say in the "middle of nowhere". But yo, the location did not hold the organizers of Circles 11 down. The event turned out well, although a little on the long side (3 pm - 1 am), but nevertheless, it was a great time. As the legendary DJ Skeme Richards said, "Circles is official...number 11? Most jams don't even get that far without getting a little bored and outdated."

For me, I really enjoyed the event because my friends from Supernaturalz out in Canada came down. Ever since meeting them in Korea last year, it has always been a blast hanging out with McNasty, Puzzles, Lee, Bridge, and Drops. Too bad Dyzee couldn't get off his old man rocking chair to come down. Puzzles assisted me in a lot of my videos. We made another episode to the What Grinds My Gears series! That guy just went off! I felt bad for Bridge. That guy got so much shit from Puzzles, it was unbelievable. But I guess that was what made hanging out with Supernaturalz so much fun. Lesson learned: it was dangerous falling asleep in a hotel room full of Supernaturalz guys.

I've uploaded some of the battles on our Strife page already. However, it did not come without problems: I stupidly forgot to reset my microphone settings, thus all the battles I taped had no audio. That stressed me out for a while, until Chris Nguyen and Rob Zheng came to my rescue, and gave me their clips to "borrow" their sound. Big thanks to those two, for reals.

Circles| 11TH ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE from Daniel Zhu on Vimeo.

My coverage video, Vimeo version. I'll upload the Youtube version tomorrow, as Youtube's been under website construction for the past couple of hours. I think my coverage video is pretty dope, so check it out! My friend Peter aka KBE's been under stress the past couple of jams because he hasn't used profanity on camera for so long. So he was super happy to get that out of him this video with a couple of shit, fuck, and other censored stuff he usually does.

FAVORITE MOMENTS --routine by Repstyles that imitated the movie, "The Ring". Apparently they got another routine, coreographed from the movie "Avatar" but did not use it. I want to see that one!

--Harly "Halfstep" Jackson simply destroying Atomic Goofball by doing Goof's exact set...with one leg.

--DJ Skeme Richards coming down from the DJ booth to the MC battle. He felt frustrated when the MCs couldn't rap & operate a microphone properly, so he called them all out. That guy meant business!

QUOTES FROM THE WEEK

"Bridge got nothing! He's got nothing! His shirt is wack, too."

--MC Puzzles, talking over the microphone, during an actual battle

"Let me quote KRS-One..."the bridge is over, the bridge is over, hey hey!"

--Metal from Repstyles, talking about his victory over b-boy Bridge in their tiebreaker

"Fuck you Differ!"

--Bridge, jokingly saying crap about Differ over dinner at iHOP.

"Have you ever did some kind of headspin, in somebody's house, and that (prosthetic) leg fly and puncture a wall?"

--Atomic Goofball interviewing b-boy Halfstep, who has one leg.

THOUGHTS I THINK

Bridge dances nothing like Differ. I dunno why people keep thinking it'd be an equal great matchup. Both are great dancers, but dance differently.

It was amazing to see how many students from James Madison University attend the event. It was shocking: hoards of small town kids from the Appalachian mountains attend a b-boy event. The dance has gone a long ways since the 1970s. Then again, what the hell am I saying? I grew up in South Dakota.

Poe One is an inspiration. He can talk for one hour, and the entire room would shut up just to listen to him. Add him to my list of OGs I admire, along with KwikStep, Virus, & Spirit. I filmed Poe One's workshop, and hopefully it will be online by next weekend. (as well as Kid David's workshop)

There were almost 100 middle finger taunts during the entire event. And among the 100, about 50 were from b-boy Metal (Repstyles).

B-boy Steve Believe from Repstyles really looks like Seth Rogen. Seriously, he does.

Ground FX crew from Boston definitely showed people you can still dance in your 30s and be successful. Big props to them for making it to the semifinals.

Thank you MexOne from TheBboySpot for giving me a ride back home to D.C. For y'all that don't know him, he's actually the first ever interview Strife.tv has done. That's history right there! Currently he is the founder of TheBboySpot, as well as Biggest & Baddest clothing.

Song of the Day:

chilled jazz + hip hop = this song

DJ Cam Quartet - Boss Guitar

http://www.brainermagazine.com/pinboard/article/break-it-down-b-boying-art-or-sport/

Check out my first magazine feature I wrote for the UK based urban magazine, Brainer Magazine. I will be a monthly contributor writing about the b-boy scene around the world. Thanks to Monica Chang for the photos!

I'm finishing up editing the Circles coverage right now.

I am trying to hurry up and post this entry before I go to sleep. I'll be heading out around noon to go to Circles 11: Hip Hop Charity Event at James Madison University. I just came back home from practice at George Mason University. The studio was packed tonight. Many people were getting their last practices in before the competition tomorrow.

So I parked in Lot A tonight, which is the parking lot for the Patriot Center, the large basketball arena at GMU. Apparently the Ringling Bros/Barnum & Baily Circus was performing, too. So when I got out of my car, I noticed 9 large elephants walk tail-to-tail past me. Then I saw cages upon cages of lions & tigers being tractored into the arena. It was wild! They were literally 10 feet in front of me. I had thoughts of getting out my camera to take photos, but then realized it was dark and I would have had to use my flash. Yeah...bad idea thwarted! I did my good deed for the day.

Jessica & LaCuna came down from New York City earlier today. They'll be battling in the Bonnie/Clyde battle, which is like...this competition where you have guys/girls team up.

As seen from the photos, it was perhaps 50 percent serious practice, and 50 percent goofing around. Especially near the end of practice, when we put on some Korean k-pop songs. Ohh man...if you play k-pop to me, I will dance to it. I could care less how silly I'd look.

Anyways, I'm going to sleep. Friends from Dynamic Rockers, Supernaturalz, Problemz Kru, Lionz of Zion, will all be battling tomorrow. And, I'll be doing some fun film stuff with all of 'em.

Retro RnB Song of the Day

Lenny Kravitz - It Ain't Over 'Till It's Over

Monica Chang took these great photos of Peter and I at New York a few weeks ago. She's my favorite hip hop photographer! Check out here Myspace site full of photos. Monica loves taking photos of hip hop events, and I love writing about them. We got something special planned for the future collaborations....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFhAWsaoMCw

I finished editing Strife's SEVEN COMMANDOZ interview last night. It was a pleasure to get a video out featuring our friends Differ, Hong10, Wing, and Skim. I really hoped viewers watching it got a good feel of each dancer's personality, which is always hard to grasp from watching their battle footages. Some of the comments I've gotten were, "I've never heard Wing's voice before" and "never saw hong10 laugh this much." Comments like that made me feel good because it's exactly what I try to aim for in a personal interview. I like doing foreign interviews. I enjoy the sense of accomplishment for finishing something as getting a language translated for viewers to watch. Thanks for all my friends with assisting with the language translation, btw.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=903249653377

Here is the original video, before all the editing. The color quality looks so much different, right? Although I filmed this video in October, and didn't get time to finish it until now, in a way...I feel like I justice by waiting. If I had edited this 5 months ago, without my current knowledge of color correction, it would have looked like the video above. Looking back, I would have cringed and wonder why did I destroy a perfectly good interview?

JAY BEOM FAN CHANNELS

So get this, there is a fan made Youtube Channel devoted entire to former K-pop 2PM star, Jay Boem. Basically the camera fan girls stalk him at these b-boy jams, and film him walk into the door, dance in a cypher, and...(creepiness overload) watch a dance battle from the sidelines. This person's videos borderline on obsession! But you know what the sad thing is? These videos get more hits than many b-boy dance videos! No joke.

For example, this ten second video titled Jay arrives! has over 14,000 views. FOURTEEN thousand hits for just ten seconds of him walking through a door! That is more than Roxrite's dance class video. And it is definitely more than Problemz Kru vs X-Fenz, two of the illest dance crews from the East Coast. Obsessed I say...obsessed.

WHAT GRINDS MY GEARS

You know what really grinds my gears? B-boying is cool and all that, but what's with all the dudes adding me on Facebook? Like for real...90% of my Facebook page now is comprised of a b-boy sausage fest. What also grinds my gears is that sometimes someone with a name like Alexandra would add me, and I would think, "Hey cool, a cute girl," but then it turns out to be a b-boy dude from Eastern Europe. I should have gone into filming surfing competitions or beach volleyball. Why did I choose such a male dominated activity to film? (just joking)

A new episode of What Grinds My Gears will be filmed this weekend at Circles.

The b-boy doing it will be kept secret.

Song of the Day:

my favorite group not many have heard of

Lemon Jelly - A Tune For Jack

It was about 80 degrees outside yesterday! Whereas I heard it was snowing in places like Oklahoma and Korea, D.C. was gorgeous. We went to Georgetown for the afternoon, walking Aspen, and just...enjoying the good weather. Took Aspen to Theodore Roosevelt Island, which is this 91-acre wilderness preserve on the Potomac river. Ever since Africa, I've been in a habit of walking long distances in flip flops. They are just more comfortable in warm weather, in my opinion. But, sadly to say, I think I may have pulled a muscle walking my dog, haha. So embarrassing; it ended up hurting my dance practice later that night. I blame my flip flops.

The nicer the weather, the longer the line outside Georgetown Cupcake. This line is probably a 30 minute wait. Is a $3.00 cupcake really worth it? Actually, I think so. ;-) So good!

CIRCLES

Later that night, I went with Mario and LaCuna to dance practice at Lifetime Fitness in Centerville. It's a 24-hour gym, and has a nice big dance studio. I practiced for 4 hours, felt really good. Mario & LaCuna were practicing for the Bonnie & Clyde battle at Circles Jam next weekend.

Circles is going to be a huge event! I was originally going to do some videowork there with Peter & Goofball, but then, out of nowhere, my film school friends mentioned they wanted to come and now I got a film crew of 5 people. Ian was telling me they wanted to bring boom mics (overhead mics), portable mixers, multiple HD cams, and maybe even professional lighting equipment. Strife's presence at the event will be off-the-chain! It will be three cameramen, a sound guy, photographer, and our hosts. Many of my film friends had never been to a b-boy jam, so they were really interested in experiencing one for the first time.

I have yet to think of a theme for that event, but hopefully will come upon something soon. After all the "serious" videos I did in New York 2 weeks ago, I am in a crazy mood and want to do something more fun at Circles. My friends from Supernaturalz will be coming from Toronto, and they are always up for something on camera. Can't wait!

STRIFE.TV

For people that have been visiting the Strife youtube page these few days, you would have noticed a generous amount of 2009 R-16 footage. I was going through my external hardrive, and noticed I had so much footage from R-16 last year that I did not upload. I did not upload because of two reasons: 1) R-16 was a busy time for me. 2) I thought there was going to be a R-16 2009 DVD to be released.

With the 2010 qualifiers recently finished, and the finals coming up in July, I don't think a DVD would be happening anytime soon, so...why not upload my footage? It gives the dancers more publicity, the event more media coverage, and for our Strife viewers, something to watch this lazy weekend. I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else from Korea upload these battles, since it was an open door free event.

7Commandoz interview to be finished tonight.

House Song of the Day:

I like this song even better than the original

Jamiroquai - Space Cowboy (David Morales remix)

Aspen Tearing up his Toy from Daniel Zhu on Vimeo.

I was trying to figure out different ways to manual focus with my little hand held, and I immediately thought, "I'll go film my dog Aspen!" I'm still a n00b at manual focusing, so the stuff I tried sorta and sorta not worked, haha. Eh, I'll get better with practice.

So I was at dance practice last night, and I sorta got a better idea on how to develop my own dance style. Dyzee told me once to have an overall concept, a theme, and develop it into your own dance. That way you look more artistic, and not like a clone of other dancers. I knew his meaning for the past year, but never really had a concrete idea to how to make my own dance. All it took was 15 minutes of daydreaming yesterday during break time. I space out a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-DRoeuK62w

Eric edited up our interview with the Japanese b-girls from Body Carnival crew. It was amazing meeting Ayumi, Narumi, and Mi-chan. We'll be seeing at least Narumi and possibly Shie-Chan a few months during Breakin' The Law event at our former university, UW-Madison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ1RaonxJFg

NBL Trailer| NEW YORK CITY

I finished making a highlight trailer to Kid Glyde's NBL event last night. It took about less than half a day to make this 5 minute clip. I could think back to last year, where it'd take me a week to do something with half the quality. I still find it funny how bad I was making such clips back then. Nowadays, I pay a lot more attention to color, dance motion, external sounds, and music quality. (I mixed up the songs a little for this clip) And of course, especially for a dance clip, the video needs to be on beat to the music. If dancers work so hard listening to the beat of the music, a dance clip needs to do the same.

Speaking of songs, the music is made by my friend Skrip from Chicago. I got a little inspired by the release of Final Fantasy XIII. Coincidentally, Skrip from the same dance crew (Floor Physics) as Erich from Strife.tv.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=929388745427

Here is an example of what color correction can do to a video. Posted above is a small "rough draft" clip of my video done hours before completion. Comparing that to the finished product I originally posted, it's almost no contest which one is better.

From my spectator's perspective, a good trailer needs to fulfill either one of these two categories:

1) make you jealous of not being there

2) encourages you to look into a product

It needs to be hype, or create suspense, or connect with viewers in such a way they go, "wow..." This goes for any highlight trailer, not just for dance clips. I mean, what's the best film trailer right now everyone is talking about? Iron Man 2? Did that fulfill either of the categories above? Hell yeah. Iron Man is epic! My ongoing goal is to get any highlight trailer I make to that level of hype, without revealing the full product, that is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNu-CoZqTlM

Koneerok

I grew up watching Koneerok from Chicago with his dance trailers. That guy, in my opinion, is the best editor for dance trailers. The first one I ever saw was his City vs City 3 highlight clip. It blew my mind. Even if you didn't know what City vs City was, you just wanted to be there from the trailer alone! I loved his style, which incorporated fast cuts, mixed in with raw crowd emotions, creating a really crazy "epic" feeling. Also, his music choices has always been on point.

In a way, you can say I am a little influenced by his style. However I still manage to mix in a little bit of my style, too, which is to keep a video still light-hearted and fun. At the moment, I am a little addicted to my slow motion-fast forward effects. I think I may have used too much of them in the previous video, oops!

Breakbeat of the Day:

from my NBL highlight trailer

Skrip Beats - One Winged Angel & Enemy Crush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnBZaVxeMdM

Can B-boying be a dance, sport, art form, social movement, and more?

That was pretty much the topic at hand during our interviews last weekend. As seen above, we interviewed a lot of people! It was a nice mixture of old and young; dance legends and rising stars; people who have diverse ideas on where the dance is going. I loved editing this video because it gave me chills. I grew up watching people like Crazy Legs and KwikStep dance, and to be doing a video with them? Someone smack me! Haha.

My favorite interview was probably KwikStep. If "wisdom" was in form of a dancer, it would be KwikStep. This guy was so intellectual talking to us, and he gave a lot of good analogies. He kept an open mind to the changing dance around us, from back then to now, and gave a very non-polarizing answer. I agree with him that the dance should progress, but there should always be options for people to choose.

This video was my first real attempt at making a "serious" style video. In the past, I would usually be goofing around with my videography, like asking crazy Halloween questions, giving Warheads candy, playing around with Michael Bay effects with Goofball, and more. I just wanted to experiment and show a different style of my video work, which is to make a very thoughtful discussion on a controversial topic. Did I succeed? Hopefully? The editing required a lot more work than I thought! I had to edit up each person's points just right, be cautious not to skew their original opinion, all the while make the overall conversation flow. It was harder than it looked!

One guy in the comments asked if I could transcribe the video with Korean subtitles. I had to snicker at that because, although I would love it in Korean, I simply do not have the time to do that. 20 film minutes of Korean subtitles?! That would take an entire day; not to mention I don't get paid for my work. Simply impossible at this moment in my life.

On a final note, there has always been the mainstream vs underground conversation in hip hop music. And that's been going on since the 80s, too. I see b-boying to be in a similar push & pull battle for many years to come.

Hip Hop Song of the Day:

K-OS - Dirty Water

...and apparently tyeing one's arm behind one's back with jump rope is one way to learn one handed cartwheels

Just got back from practice at the Woodmont YMCA gymnastics gym. Ever since I broke my arm few years ago doing flips, I've never really been much of a tricking guy. But sometimes it is nice to change up the pace, even though all I practiced were stacks & freezes. The gym was located in Arlington, VA, and has open practice every Tuesday and Thursday. There was an even mixture of b-boys, gymnasts, and trickers at the practice. Met Ghost & Scrambles there tonight.

Is it just me, or do people get usually so dazed & tired out after practice that we forget where we are driving afterwards? I was so mad at myself for missing multiple exits, thus taking an 1 hour detour back to my house.

Here are some of my NYC photos from the weekend. I didn't take many photos at the event, as usual, because I was too busy with my video camera. I did find the guy in the Elmo suit amusing, especially wearing the backpack and walking down the stairs to the subway, with a frappaccino in his furry hand. Mario was really awesome in getting us a discount at the Sheraton in Times Square.

I gotta wake up tomorrow morning at 9 am and go to the local clinic to get a TB shot. I recently got a seasonal job teaching little kids soccer here in Northern Virginia. Gotta make sure I'm not infffected, haha. After this job is over in a few months, I'm not sure what i will do next. Originally (and still) I plan to go back to Korea. But I really want to do something that will further my skills in a career way, not just take random jobs just to make money. Plus, I didn't really like teaching English; it just didn't agree with my long term plans. I got a double major degree, been in the Peace Corps, worked on Capitol Hill, and I can speak at least 3 languages well. What the hell am I doing teaching English? I've been applying to a few public relations & communications jobs here on the East Coast; hopefully I'll get accepted for some interviews in the near future.

Song of the Day:

I love this album.

Can't listen to breakbeats all the time, that'd be horrific.

The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #2 (Laika)

photos by Anne Paas

I just got back from a weekend trip to my first ever dance event in New York City. It took me what...10 years since I started bboying to attend an event at the city which birthed hip hop? How embarrassing! Haha...but nah, for real, I loved the entire trip. Thanks to Kid Glyde and BreakerNYC for being very courteous and inviting me and my Strife.tv crew. Long story short, the entire jam was awesome, and it ended with an incredible breathtaking final between Supreme Beings and Breaks Kru.

NYC Breakbeat DJs

I got to give special props to DJ DP One. He played pure fire for 8 hours! I can't explain it, but a common breakbeat sounds so much better with him spinning. He somehow manages to add an extra layer of "big beat" to any song, thus keeping the beat alive from transition to transition. Alright, how's this for being a dope DJ: after the battle, I went to my hotel's lobby and ordered a mixtape from his myspace. I usually don't buy mixtapes b/c I'm poor, but...damn, I just had to get one. He was so good he forced my poor ass to go online and buy a mixtape! He's the best b-boy DJ I've ever heard, no lie.

Sport or Social Activity or Both?

That was the main question we asked during our Strife interview that evening. I figured we had the perfect locale to ask the question because...well, the event was called National Breakin' League. The answers were a bit divided. I think the main consensus was that if we can get money, and bboys can make a living doing what they love, while having bboys run the show, then they would not mind calling it a sport. For example, a main reason the 80s experiment did not work out for breakin' was b/c it was the corporations that ran the business: non-dancers. But this time, we have people like Kid Glyde arranging events such as the NBL league, thus always keeping the bboy spirit alive even at the highest level.

To sum it up, who wouldn't want to earn money and make a living by dancing? I know I would.

We interviewed so many OGs on this topic, I swore I was consistently traveling back in time.

Video of our complete interviews coming soon....

NBL Scoring System

I witnessed first hand at the innovative scoring system for National Breakin' League. The idea of such a system was intriguing because it basically told the judges to take all bias aside, and judge on certain categories such as:

Introduction

Foundation - your platform depending on style

Musicality

Combination

...to only list a few.

We interviewed Jeremy, who was one of the inventors of this scoring system, as well as the judges & contestants. I will edit and hopefully have the video up by this weekend.

Quotes of the Night

"Huh? Me?"

--KBE

my partner from Strife.tv, when asked for a photo with a fan. Haha...it was his first time getting a photo with a fan, I think his face turned red.

"I think breakin' can be both. For example, in basketball, you have the NBA and you have And1. You can be both a professional sport and a social activity at the same time."

--b-boy legend KwikStep

"My back is good, baby!"

--Jiggz from Supreme Beings

after winning impressively the event with his crew

"This event was incredible. I've never seen anything like this."

--ESPN film crew

after attending and staying for the entire 8+ hour event

"Whether or not it is a sport or social thing, breakin' is a positive outlet to escape the real mainstream, which is crime, drugs, and all that negative stuff."

--b-boy legend Problem Child

"I'm not down for the sport thing."

--Crazy Legs

"You heard of David Blaine? New York is coming at you in 2010 with some David Blaine shit! Watch out!"

--b-boy legend Kid Freeze

talking about him getting back into the competitive scene

Chinese food with bgirls afterwards

Thoughts

--I think bboy Ta-Ta from Breaks Kru has an exciting future. Kid is nasty as hell! Just check out his moves at 5:27 in the finals!

--Both Ta-Ta and Samo (X-Fenz) got the craziest energy when they dance. You can feel their energy and spirit from a mile away.

--New York City has crazy hotel taxes. Our $90 room had $30 worth of taxes. WTF?

--I love the NBA Store.

--$3.75 Chinese food will taste like...well, cheap Chinese food. Quite disgusting. I can't believe KBE liked the food. I only ate the white rice.

--bgirl Maresco tells really bad jokes. Example: "What are Mario's favorite kind of pants?" A: "dunum dunum dunum!"

--I will try to edit and post up my videos tomorrow and the next few days. Since ESPN was visiting and filmed the battles themselves, I want to impress them on my film skills.

Breakbeat of the Day:

thanks to Toyz for this find

Fort Knox Five - Donde Estabas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5wJS9LXCoo

So it is about 2 am, and I just finished uploading my latest video, which is the event coverage to Unbreakable III. I spent about a half day editing, and a half day getting frustrated over "low memory" errors. If it weren't for the constant rendering errors, I could've had this video finished 8 hours ago. Ahh....frustrating! I am using the color correction program, Magic Bullet, for the first time. To be honest, I'm really digging it! When used properly, it can change an ordinary video into something that sorta resembles CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Like always, I like to experiment and have both funny scenes mixed in with random effects, such as the Michael Bay-ish slow motion 360 pans. I actually learned that little trick by watching last year's Victoria's Secret Fashion show, haha.

National Breakin' League| NEW YORK

I will be heading up to New York City tomorrow for Kid Glyde's NBL event. I'll be going up with Peter, Maresco, Mario, and Justin. For Strife, I will be doing a mini-documentary on the event, and more importantly, on the topic of "Can bboying become a sport? To what extent?" I know many people are divided on this topic, so it is nice for me to practice my documentary skills and get some nice interviews with the respected New York dancers. Plus, what better place to hold this discussion than at an event called National Breakin' League, right???

The New York trip will be fun! Mario has us hooked up staying in a nice hotel in Times Square. Yeah!

Song of the Day:

it is 2 am in the morning, and I spent 6 hours rendering a video

time for some "get the stress" out music

Deftones - Digital Bath

So get this...

Someone on Facebook chat messaged me today.

Hani

yo ssup bboy!!

Daniel

what up

Hani

gd man

pleez tell me ur from rivers crew!!

Daniel

?

do you even know what i do?

Hani

ur bboy right?

i think ur bboy, thats all

Daniel

ok

So ever since this Strife thing started, random b-boys fans from around the world started to add me, as well as my friends Loan and Lee. It's cool that they like us, but seriously yo...what the hell is up with that guy I just posted?! Is he for real? Goofball was saying, "Maybe they look at ur friends list and are like trying to suck ur weiner to get close to Hong10."

I don't mind having fans adding me on Facebook, but seriously, don't act like an idiot. I'm as friendly of a guy as it comes, but I hate people acting ignorant and most importantly...stupid. I know people like Roxrite add only people he's met in person. Maybe I should do that instead? I know there is that Facebook friends list privacy button, but that stuff takes too much work.

This weekend's highlights included partying at Modern with the LOZ Party Squad and...that was about it. I suppose my weekend could have been more packed with things to do, but with a party as epic as it was (as seen above), it takes a lot of time to recover. We were dancing, and dancing, and we were dancing. I guess that's the kind of atmosphere you get at clubs when you're attending a bboy sponsored party, yeah? My film friends Ian and Havoc both came, and it looked like they had a blast. They were telling me how they've been in D.C. for years, but never went to a party like this. All credits go out to b-boy Ghost for putting this up!

After waking up late on Sunday, I went out to the Korean district for some budae jjigae (부대찌개). It's one of my favorite Korean foods because it is virtually a big hot pot with a bunch of things thrown inside, and with a generous portion of chili paste. I am really getting into eating stews these days. They are all healthy, with loads of meats & vegetables.

Winter Olympics

I just watched the last day of the Winter Olympics. The hockey match between USA vs Canada was dramatic! Wow. Who would have thought USA could score with 30 seconds left in regulation to send the game to sudden death. The final result was 3-2 Canada, but it was still a great game. Canada is one of those countries where it is really hard to dislike them. I mean, like...seriously, who really dislikes Canada except for the writers of South Park? And the Canadian national anthem? I am starting to like their national anthem, too. It sounds like something you can sing at a frat party at 4 am in the morning, and get people all riled up.

I'm embedding this video because I haven't seen something like this done besides the "Smack My Bitch Up" music video by The Prodigy. I also posted this video because...well, I will be working with Ian to build a helmet rig "b-boy cam" this week. Yup, we will attempt to attach a small HD wide-angled camera to a helmet. Imagine the b-boy stories we can tell with this kind of filming! Cloud did something like this a year ago, during a dance sequence. But what I am visualizing is something from the morning, starting with a bowl of Cheerios, to dancing at a jam, to a nighttime eatings at Denny's. Ideas galore!

Funk Breakbeat of the Day:

Ooo...this is funky

Exit 9 - I Love You Completely

There's like 40 mph winds outside, so I decided to not go to practice at the gymnastics gym tonight. Instead, I stayed at home, worked on a few things, and watched Kim Yu-Na in the Olympics figure skating. I was having Korean pride during her entire performance, and I'm not even Korean! (I'm Chinese, btw) But I think having lived in Korea for a year was good enough of a reason to cheer. Almost like my second home.

Kim Yu-Na's family is from the Gunpo district of Seoul, which was where I lived last year. You won't believe the number of students that would come up to me, "Daniel teacher! You know Kim Yu-Na? She went to my school!"

But anyways, could you imagine the pressure Kim Yu-Na had to go through to win this? Not only was she the reigning world champion, she was also the most popular athlete in Korea, and...her closest rival was a Japanese girl. Losing would suck, obviously, but to have the possibility to lose to Japan? After living amongst Koreans, I've learned that coming second place to Japan borderlines on being unacceptable. Oh, the pressure! But now that she's won gold, that's another 4 more years of TV ads for all of us in South Korea to watch. **cha ching**

My friend Monica Chang took these photos from Unbreakable.

If Kim Yu-Na is the Korean figure skating queen, then Monica Chang is the Korean b-boy photographing queen.

There's a big party tomorrow at club Modern, in D.C.

Lionz of Zion Party Squad in full effect.

Knowing how these guys party, I probably won't go to sleep until 9 am the next morning.

Korean Song of the Day:

there's a sequel to the original Lollipop song

Big Bang - Lollipop Pt. 2

Two weeks ago, I attended Unbreakable, which was the biggest b-boy dance event in the Washington D.C. area. (or as locals call it, the "DMV", which is DC-Maryland-Virginia) It was a two day event; the first day were dance workshops, lead by world famous dancers Roxrite and Nasty Ray. The second day were the battles. There were 1v1 battles and 5v5 battles. The winners received $1,000 and $5,000 for prize money. Because of the insane cash money, it brought dancers as far as California and even Japan to come compete.

Day One| WORKSHOPS

Alright, Day One! What can I say, you got two legends of the dance scene, Roxrite & Nasty Ray, teaching dance workshops. They each taught different topics. The topics ranged from transition from moves - how not to "crash" - different footwork patterns - how to look more 'dynamic' in one's dancing. I've been to many dance workshops this past year, and I was happy to see these subjects brought up because they were even new to me. The workshops were definitely different than other workshops I have attended, which made me happy.

Ray really emphasized his "5 Levels" ideology. His theory was that, if you were to divide up the b-boy dance into 5 categories, and hit each category in one single dance set, you would automatically look more dynamic than your competitor. These 5 categories of moves included: air, standing, mid-levels, footwork, and back rocks. His theory made sense, because, it is much more exciting to see a dancer dance on all levels rather than limit oneself to just footwork, or just flips, or just power.

Roxrite's class emphasized footwork patterns. For people who had never seen Roxrite before, that guy has some nasty steps! Everyone who has started out b-boying has learned how to dance in a circle. However, Roxrite went beyond that and was emphasizing different shapes, such as triangles, squares, octagons, and so forth. Obviously take the b-boy foundation in mind, but mix it up and be creative with the pattern formations.

Nasty Ray & Roxrite's workshops

Day Two| BATTLES

I had such a busy day on day two. I blame myself because it was me who had set the schedule! It was my plan to film non-dance scenes (for Strife), as well as film the battles. It's a little hard to be both places at once, but I tried my best. The battles were a little hard to film because sometimes, as a cameraman, one has to sit down 30 minutes ahead of time to reserve a nice spot for a camera angle. Otherwise, you're pretty much screwed and left fighting for standing space. For Meen187 vs Iron Man, I totally lost track of time, and came in late, voila, there I was...in the back of the crowd, holding a camera above my head trying to get film, all the while fighting against the powers of gravity to not let my camera fall. Yeah yeah...all sympathy here.

Gravity won the 1v1s. That guy was unreal. I was in Atlanta in December when he injured himself. I think he broke some bones while attempting a flip? But anyways, here he was, two months later, flipping all over the place, doing his signature double backflip. He like went on some kind of David Beckham-ish fast bone healing program or something. Gravity and his 5 Crew Dynasty/Dynamic Rockers team are definitely bringing back the notoriety of New York b-boys. They are a force to watch this year. Count on that.

Bboyspot's very own Squadron won the 5v5. Yeah, I could've seen that one coming. The Squadron have been on a roll this year. I think they've won every event they've entered so far? I mean, shoot...the team was Luigi, Kid David, Roxrite, Beast Mode, and Keebz. But, you know who I blame for them winning? I blame local DMV b-boys such as Toyz & Domkey. While the Squadron were busy winning the $5,000, the 4F kids were occupied winning an event in France. I would have loved to see 4F vs Squadron in the finals. Perhaps another time. Props to the DMV's very own Lab Ratz for making it to the finals, though.

QUOTES

"Don't wear tight pants."

--Nasty Ray, while doing his "What Really Grinds My Gears" skit

"If you haven't figured out now that breakin' has always been a social dance, you've been missing the whole point."

--Hannibal, on explaining that bboying is about unity, not individualism of who wins what

I THINK....

--I think b-boy Atomic Goofball looked like a tall, skinny Lorax with his orange costume. I love Dr. Seuss.

--I think Nasty Ray could've gone on for days with his "What Really Grinds My Gears" episode. For the sake of camera time, the MC saved us and announced Ray's name before we could finish.

--I thinnk Waka, from the Chicago crew Brickheadz, has defied age and is kicking more ass than ever at age 33.

--I think the Washington D.C. area has the worst iHop waitress service. I text'd MexOne at 2 am, and he responded, "We have been waiting for our pancakes for 2 hours." Really? Because we were doing the same thing.

--I think Maresco & Goofball need to do more videos with me.

--I think it was very flattering to have random people come up to me, and telling me how much they loved Strife.tv. It was touching. I'm glad people watch the youtube channel! I first came across this while covering Evolution. It's great getting recognition for doing what you love to do. And especially since I have been traveling, I have begun to see the further extensions of Strife's effect. Take Hannibal's 360 Flava crew for example. I first met them at WHOz Hungry in January, and during Unbreakable first thing they asked me was if they could get some on air time. I was honored.

--I think Isaiah has a lot of potential to be a wicked b-boy. But word has it that he is a little lazy? But yo, fly this guy out for an exhibition. The legend Kwik Step himself had to stop the DJ's music to give this guy props.

TO FINISH IT OFF

--I was impressed at George Mason University. They provided a huge dance hall for the event. The floor was perfect.

--MexOne from TheBboySpot was very kind in donating $50 for our Strife.tv All Styles battle. I applaud him for going with our crazy idea. Rex won the finishing move by imitating an "Atomic Goofball" dance style. Video coming soon.

--I think I should go edit the Unbreakable coverage video now.

Breakbeat of the Day:

Cypress Hill ft Tego Calderon - Latin Thugs (instrumental)

I had more fun this weekend than my entire time here in D.C. On Saturday, I met up with my friend Ian, and we arranged a studio video shoot with members from the legendary Lionz of Zion b-boy crew. The dancers were a mixture of the second generation, Toyz/Domkey/AtomicGoofball, and the first generation, Ghost/Scramblez. It was really awesome to see innovators such as Ghost dance on camera, since I know it's been a while. I was really honored to film Lionz of Zion because...as I was telling Scramblez, it was the first generation LOZ dancers that taught me the beginning steps to how to b-boy. Not many people knew that! But it was when I was interning at the Capitol in 2001 that dancers Noob Saibot & Soulstice taught me my first footwork at a workshop at Howard University. Everything is coming around full circle, I love it. But this time it is me trying to return the favor by creating the most special effects filled b-boy crew trailer, ever.

Green Screens

The shoot was at the Washington Art Institute, a creative arts school where Ian attends. It was really awesome for Ian to help out. This was his first ever time to film dancers! It's interesting how Ian and I met: we both played the video game ET: Quake Wars, competed online together, and when I came to D.C., turned out he lived here, too, and we both had that film interest. Ian is much better at Adobe After Effects than me, and so that was where the idea of a green screen video shoot came from. A fan of the videos I make, he told me he always wanted to remix my videos filled with effects.

My boy Atomic Goofball's eyes lit up as we explained him the green screen process, and what we could do. For example, we could make him fall out of the sky like Transformers, and then appear with smoke out of the ground like Terminator, and then have flying fists shoot out of his hand. His eyes just got bigger & bigger & bigger, like an American teenager at a Korean "massage" parlor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fysKPCUffqg

Posted above is Zheng's video he edited up, highlighting the film shoot. I also did a similar backstage narration video, but for continuity purposes, I won't premier that until the official Lionz of Zion studio footage is released. I'm thinking 2 weeks until the editing will be done sounds realistic. I'll post it on Strife then. But you can see how much fun we had in the video above. Ian and I basically just told the guys to go nuts, be creative, and try not to hit the expensive lighting equipment.

Sonny D.C.

After the shoot, we all hung out at Ghost's new pad, then went out to the Eye bar. B-boy Ghost is a well known nightlife event promoter in D.C., thus we just followed him. This guy turned out to be one popular figure at the lounge! He even has his own website for his promotions, check it out: http://www.sonnydc.com/

Sonny (Ghost) was the man! My initial thoughts of D.C. nightlife was immediately changed hanging around him and the rest of the Lionz of Zion crew. Er...I mean, the LOZ Party Squad, as they prefer to be called. **laugh** The night ended with us having some fun camera acting outside, thus you get the short performance by Domkey, Goof, and Veronica embedded below. I swear I have the weirdest video ideas sometimes. And when you mix that with Goofball's already creative imagination, that's a dangerous combo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HentlAN9ZzQ

Doesn't Domkey look like James Dean in this video?

I ended up going to sleep at 9 am on Sunday morning.

On to next week!

Korean Song of the Day:

Tinoroc's crew, Max Crew, dances backup for Untouchable's concerts

Untouchable - 가슴에 살아 (feat. 나르샤 of Brown Eyed Girls)

The NautyOne Show from Daniel Zhu on Vimeo.

The NautyOne Show + Vimeo vs Youtube

After finishing up the serious style, Born| HIP HOP SCHOOL video, I just had to balance it out and create a not so serious video, hence NautyOne Show. I made it in the style of some of the popular Korean variety shows, with big, colored Korean subtitles, random repetitions, and awkward pauses.

I embedded the video above in Vimeo, rather than Youtube, because, well...I enjoy it better. The quality is better, and it doesn't have a stupid 10 minute video length rule. The only thing Youtube has going for them is that it draws more viewers. Strife wouldn't get as many followers if it were on Vimeo. To create an analogy, Youtube:Vimeo, as McDonald's:In-N-Out Burgers. To advertise something worldwide, you'd want McDonald's to do it, right? But we all know In-N-Out's hamburgers taste better. Right now, I'm basically just using my Vimeo account to create a portfolio of the things I've made, without all the saturated stuff on our Youtube channel.

The big DMV event, Unbreakable, is this weekend. It is a two day event, and I'll be there tonight filming my friends Roxrite & Nasty Ray's workshops. I will write more about Unbreakable later, as I will write a complete review of it for Brainer Magazine. But yo, what I am really excited about is the Lionz of Zion After party on Saturday. It is arranged by b-boy Ghost of the legendary Lionz of Zion crew. I'll be sure to take lots of photos and videos.

Random Thought of the Day

I've always felt intrigued at the usage of the term "LOL". Obviously it means "Laugh Out Loud," but people use it in strange ways. Most recently, I've seen a lot of people use it in the format of subtle sarcasm. It is like people use "LOL" to reconfirm an idea, to make them feel more secure about an awkward situation.

For example:

"Hey, you should come film our event in ______ (insert country)! LOL"

"OMG, that look at the teams, LOL, stacked."

Does _____ have a boyfriend? LOL

Translated, the first example means, "Yeah, I want you to come film our event. But most likely it is a small event, and I won't pay you, and I know it is a bitch to get here." And the second one means, "Damnit, this game of Call of Duty sucks, I will probably rage quit in a few minutes because I wanted to be on the stacked team." And lastly, the third would mean, "I most likely have no chance at her, but I put an 'LOL' just to look like I'm not that into her. But just in case there is a chance...."

Hip Hop Song of the Day:

Jay-Z & Fela Kuti mix

what else do you need?

Jay-Z feat Fela Kuti - American Dreamin'

I just finished putting together another video. This time it is of my friend, NautyOne, from Rivers Crew in Korea tormenting people with his language skills and humor. It's in the process of rendering, which is actually my favorite part of the entire video making process because it requires me to do absolutely nothing but wait. Depending on the size & color adjustments I've made, the render process can take minutes or hours. In this case, I have about three hours to wait for a 12 minute clip.

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-2-of-3

VBS.tv

Recently, I have been watching a lot of VBS.tv. The people at VBS have some really interesting articles, and I quote CNN, "they reflect a very transparent approach to journalism, where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process." The video I embedded above was their series when they travelled to North Korea. Other articles VBS have done include visiting Liberia, visiting Regina Spektor's studio, the Phillipines, and more. I really love the style of the videos, in that it is casual video shots mixed in with narration. So much more simpler than me typing in Korean/English subtitles for Strife! I really want to dive deeper into the videos I do, similar to the ones you see on VBS. So far, I only feel like I am scratching the surface.

Watching VBS has given me inspiration on what to do with my "filming career." I love travelling, and I love showing others the incredible experiences I encounter every day. The reason I have that in quotations is because it isn't really a career right now, more like a time consuming hobby, such as blogging. It isn't like I get paid for what I do; most of the stuff is for free. I'm not that good of a videographer to get some kind of professional job, but I'm not that horrible either, at least I don't think so. Maybe I should go to some kind of film school in the near future? Or maybe I go to grad school for journalism? That might be a good idea. I've never really had that school type training in my work; everything about videos I learned on my own. Google was really my learning partner all these years. :-o

Apparently the Travel Channel is offering video journalism classes for about $2,500 for 4 days. Yeah...I don't think I can afford a four day class for that amount of money. I could buy another HD camera for that price! Or perhaps now would be a good time to call up some of my freelance film friends for their advice. I met Mark Emery while working as a park ranger in Alaska few years ago. Mark is a videographer for National Geographic. Also a musician, he was a big influence in the things I do now.

I suppose another problem of having a "career" as a b-boy filmmaker is that it is a poor market. Honestly speaking, b-boying is a poor market. The general demographic are 17 - 24 kids with virtually no money, who would rather bootleg stuff online than buy. Then there is the problem with music copyrights. Yeah, I can write forever on that issue. It is hard to make b-boy videos when most of the music is copyrighted to one group or another, and a dance video without music would be just pointless. Proceed with caution, I would think, if venturing into a b-boy film career. In the near future, at least, it will still be considered a hobby for me.

Brainer Magazine:

I will begin starting to write articles for Brainer Magazine| http://www.brainermagazine.com/. It is an online music & art magazine founded by one of my friends. Based in London, Brainer is "dedicated to featuring the best the art & music worlds have to offer, whether it be classic & timeless, or new & electrifying." Recent articles on Brainer include exclusive interviews with RJD2, Souls of Mischief, and DJ Hooch, the organizer of the UK B-Boy Championships. I highly recommend checking out Brainer's website! My articles will most like feature two of my favorite things in the world: the b-boying scene and travel. Be on the lookout for my articles in a few weeks!

btw, this new Massive Attack album, Heligoland, is bumpin'!

So I was watching the Superbowl last night, like the rest of America. I was cheering for the Colts, who ended up losing. Bummer. I was watching the commercials, which cost about $2.6 million per pop. Wow, there were so many bad, awful commercials. Like, seriously, some were downright horrible.

Camera shots of dudes' asses? Not funny.

Arresting people for drinking out of foam cups? Not funny.

Doritos turning into a shuriken? Not funny.

E*TRADE talking babies. OMG, worst mascots ever.

And Joe Montana talking about shoes and not showing his face? Pointless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU

To be honest, my favorite commercial the entire night was Google's. I was really touched that they could tell a story about a guy going to Paris, falling in love, getting married...all from their homepage. In the age of really expensive production value and all of that crazy effects crap, I found Google's simple commercial really touching and to the point. Perhaps it was the Peace Corps guy in me, who finds total wastes of money in many places. Many film people, except for James Cameron, aren't good at being creative with the amount of money available. It reminded me when I was a music major where many violinists had all these expensive $15,000+ violins, yet still played horrible, worse than another student who had a $1,000 violin. Some people just can't get good value out of their money.

Google was great because it was simple, to the point, and imaginative. And I bet it was cheaper to make than the majority of all the Superbowl commercials, especially making babies talk.

Aspen in 30 Inches of Snow from Daniel Zhu on Vimeo.

It snowed today in Washington D.C.....like, loads! L-O-A-D-S! Even in terms of South Dakota standards, today's amount of snow was crazy. I mean, it nearly covered our mailbox. My dog Aspen, however, loved the snow. I mean, com'on, he's an American Eskimo dog! His fur just blends in with the white fluff.

The city does not have a really good snow clearning system, so it was pretty worthless for us to shovel when the road outside our house was still piled up. It probably won't get cleared off tomorrow, either, so I guess the plan will be to stay home and watch the SuperBowl like the rest of America.

I'll be posting on here more in the future.

Sorry I have been neglecting you Livejournal. T.T

I've seen many people post various Top 10 lists, with categories such as "Best Dancer", "Best Routine", and so forth. I've already posted my Top 10 B-Boy moments of 2009. So here is the follow up, which I have titled, "Daniel's Top 10 K-pop songs of 2009". Korean pop music is awesome. Seriously...if K-pop were a body part, it'd be the legs to Girls' Generation. Their sailor uniforms were to die for.

By the way, you can download all of the top 10 songs here:

Strife.tv - K-Pop Top 10 (54 MB)

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DANIEL'S TOP 10 K-POP SONGS OF 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raeul4YXBQ8

#10| Maximum Crew - Pierrot (live)

We start off the list with my bboys from Maximum Crew! While this song isn't the best in the world, big ups to Tazo, Mickey, and WakeUp for bringing bboys to the center of Korean pop culture, and to our television screens. People ask how do events such as R16 or Cyon get organized, with their tens of thousands of dollars prize money. Well...part of it is because of the popularity of groups such as Maximum Crew in the mainstream Korean media (among other factors). Without them, bboying would still exist in Korea, but the large scale events and prize money wouldn't. Sorry, but corporate sponsors just don't go to a local YMCA to scout out dance talent.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq19_mQoGgY

#9| Super Junior - Sorry, Sorry

This has to be the catchiest dance of 2009. Seriously...I saw Brahim from Pockemon do this dance on stage during the Cyon championships, as well as Wicket from Renegades, as well as the bajillion rest of the country. Hell, MisLee and I even managed to get *Y-Not to do this on camera for us. Haha...the song is catchy, too. But sometimes I feel having 13 members is a little overwhelming.

*Y-Not's dance scene is near the end of the clip.

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#8| Kara - Mister (live)

Did anyone see the video from Strife.tv titled "Korean B-boys Going Crazy at a Pop Concert"? Well, this is the girl group Physicx and others were going crazy over. I would, too, if I was backstage to their concert. If you watch this live video, the cameraman is so perverted. He keeps showing butt shots of the girls, haha.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqWPRKYLb_g

#7| Big Big & 2NE1 - Lollipop

This song was actually an advertisement for the popular Lollipop cellphone made by Cyon, an LG brand. The song was so catchy that it eventually made its was to the bboy scene, where DJ Wreckxx from Rivers Crew made a breakbeat remix of this song, to the beat of Jimmy Castor Bunch.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF0eXNXh5EE

#6| 2NE1 - I Don't Care (unplugged)

There have been many times where I'd be stumbling down the streets of Seoul, and hear drunk people sing this song. It was the 2009 version of "No Woman, No Cry".

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5HuWFSNw7g

#5| Brown Eyed Girls - Abracadabra (live)

My sister and I went to the Sony Style store in D.C. today, proceeded to the HDTV section, and blasted this song from their Playstation gaming center. Haha...this song is awesome. The hip shake dance is so...weird. I've seen flash mob videos online of people dancing to this.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLnr2u_nj10

#4| BoA - Eat You Up

BoA is awesome. Not many performers can sing and dance at the same time, without lipsyncing. In terms of singers, she's one of the best dancers out there, in my opinion. And not to mention cute, too. And...she can speak like what...5 languages? I also have heard this song in multiple gyms in the United States. I'm not sure who made the beat, but it is definitely better than the lyrics.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXqF5qBSasQ

#3| Girls' Generation - Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)

Long Legs.

Sailor Uniforms.

'Nuff said.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdLoxJgLor8

#2| Girls' Generation - Gee

The nine girls from Girls' Generation are so awesome, I had to include them in this list, twice! Arguably the catchiest song of 2009, one can hear this song from the subway to the Adidas Original store to an Irish pub in downtown Seoul. It was that popular. I was asking Born, "If you had to choose between the Wonder Girls or Girls' Generation....?" He replied, "Girls' Generation, because there are more girls." LOL

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiMLnMGQGR4

#1| Outsider - Loner

Outsider wins my number one k-pop song of 2009, hands down. Y'all thought I would pick another cute girl group, yeah? Haha... But really, Outsider is incredible. He is arguably the fastest rapper in the world, surpassing Twista. And even with his speedy verses, he flows so well with the strings and piano. I saw Expression Crew perform with him for a TV special, too. The ultimate Korean koraoke challenge would be to sing this song.

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HONORABLE MENTION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpljsbsA5D4

Lee Hyori - Soju commercial

This really isn't a song, but a popular TV commercial that can be seen everywhere, like on those TV screens in the Seoul subway. The dance is very hypnotizing. I have to agree, Lee Hyori persuades me to drink more soju.

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Taeyeon (from Girls' Generation) is my secret Korean celebrity crush.

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--Daniel

Happy Holidays. I have been "slacking," I suppose is the word, in writing the past few weeks. I have been busy juggling family, video editing of Outbreak, and 2010 plans for Strife.tv. I will also be heading off to New York City for New Year's Eve. Party!

2009 has definitely been a good year for all of us at Strife.tv, and me, too. In retrospec, so much has happened to me this past year: being a Bboyworld moderator (stellargiggs), living and dancing in Korea, and hanging out with my wonderful friends at Strife.tv.

Anyways, here are my top 10 bboy moments of 2009, in no particular order.

Daniel's Top 10 Bboy Moments of 2009

#10| Differ vs Blue - Monster Jam

Monster Jam was a hugely succesful, yet "low key" event hosted by my friends at T.I.P. crew in Seoul. Think of it like a mini-BCOne, but with free T.I.P. sponsored bboy ice cream.

Anyways, Differ vs Blue was a first round matchup. And the first 3 rounds were...to be blunt, holy shit balls!!! I couldn't stay still after seeing that.

#9| K'naan ft. Chubb Rock - ABC's

When this song premiered earlier this year, I listened to it for like 10 seconds, and then was out of my chair, toprocking in my room. And to have an old school legend in Chubb Rock provide the original sample, as well as be a guest on this song? Dope!

K'naan is an MC from Somalia.

#8| Gamblerz Jr's vs Gamblerz Sr's - CYON Bboy Champs Seoul Prelim Finals

Cyon was the first battle I ever "worked" at, filming for Strife.tv. Not that this battle was better than any other better. But when Noodle hit the "Lollipop" song at the beginning made me realize how fun it was to attend my first ever big Korea event.

#7| Korean Bboys vs Warheads Candy

Random ass idea. Yet, it was so fun to do. I loved it when we got people like Physicx into the idea. He was like, "Gimme some of that, I wanna give it out to our Rivers guys!." We love Warheads candy here at Strife.tv.

#6| Floor Gangz Worldwide - Official Interview

Big shoutout to our extended family at Floor Gangz! Tinoroc, Blanka, Penny, Fhiz, Ducky, Born, Physicx, Nauty, Profo, and others! These guys are so fun to hang out with. The interview was really fun to do, because they were willing to answer any question thrown at them.

#5| Virus - Bboy Cribs

Honestly, who has this many clothes? You can get lost in his closet. "You want to know how to keep fresh? You gotta turn your entire living room into a closet," said Dyzee.

I was filming this after drinking for the past 8 hours, haha. Soju wins!

#4| Korean Bboys Goingn Crazy at a Pop Concert

I love Kara. And Korean bboys love Kara, too. This was a fun time. What the camera did not capture was people like Physicx running after the girl group when they exited the stage. They all ran outside, trying to catch their bus. Hahahaha....

#3| Katsu's Stupid Face Tricks

Please don't put this on youtube. Katsu is one multi-talented weird ass dude, haha. We were bored hours before the start of the Chuncheon event.

#2| R16 Korea Sparkling

MisLee and I got to go to R16, go backstage, film around, and stay in a fancy 4 Star hotel. It was a great opportunity to meet up with our friends from Cartel: Creative.

#1| All of my friends

NautyOne - Born - Physicx - Tinoroc - Taiyo - Physicx - Differ - Virus - Loan - Erich - Ari - Peppa - Lee - Wing - Skim - Blink - Aaron - ChosenOne - Ghostwalk - Penny - Mars - Rush - JuceBaby - Pop - Linda - Ducky - Fhiz - Phoenix - C4 - Erwin - MeeHee - Blast - Redfoot - Benny Ben - Tae - Jarius - ChaCha - Monkey - Eyes - Random - Frog - Pocket - Child - Jade - Zinny - Greatman - Mono - Riddle - Dyzee - Janice - Puzzles - McNasty - Lee - Roxrite - Kid David - Mex - Profowon - Black - Finesse - JoT - Noodle - Alice - Johnjay - Charlie - Danny - Amy - Justroc - Katsu - Wicket - Barry - Jazzy Ivy - Two-Touch - Matt - Last4One - LastMass - Blanka - Maurizio - Phil - Hyejin - Hush - Peter - Chicken - Anthony - Fidget - Kasey - Iron Monkey - MinSun - Sanford - Holly - and everyone!

I'm brain dead now, trying to think of names. There is seriously too many. If I missed someone, then massive apologies. For instance, I would also like to thank Korean BBQ restaurant outside Rivers Studio.

2009 was a great year because I had a lot of great friends. Strife.tv is gonna come even bigger in 2010! We are working on a few special projects to debut in the spring that will simply blow people's minds.

Holla!

--Daniel

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Joyeux Loufock vs Dynamic Rockers

Evolution IV 3v3 Finals

Erwin and I have set up the first ever, official Bboyworld blog!

http://www.evolutioncountdown.com/

I've decided there needs to be a place to write about the stuff going on behind the scenes to Bboyworld events, as well as our travels around the world. Also, I felt that my personal blog here at Livejournal started to be less "personal" and more updates of the bboys here in Korea. Not that I mind! It's just it started to be less about me, and more about my famous friends.

I will still write here, but about less bboy related information.

For all of your worldwide bboying dance needs, please go Evolution Countdown, the blog linked above.

I will be writing.

Loan will be writing.

MisLee will be writing.

Erwin will be writing.

...and many more!

Feedback and comments are most welcome.

p.s. et aussi, je parle français, donc, vous pouvez commenter en francais!

- or Chinese!

Deoderant hunt

On the way back from practice, I stopped by a Watson's healthy/pharmacy store. My mission was to jump in, purchase deodorant, then jump out and quickly catch my train back to Anyang. However, I found myself walking around in circles, looking for the deodorant section. There were so many different kinds of facial masks, moisturizers, yet...no deodorant? My friend Kee finally asked the store clerk. So, the guy then walked to the back storage and came out with all these multiple kinds of Nivea deodorant. I was like, "Whaaat? How come you don't stock this up front?!"

Apparently Koreans don't use deodorant. I have to agree, many Chinese don't either. Not saying I have a good reasoning for this, but I think it has something to do with our lack of body hair, as well as the fact that we shower more than most people. But yo! I still think Asians smell. Especially if the people have kimchi seeping out of their pores.

Webcamming at the Studio:

Yesterday, I had intended on practicing. But it turned out to be a 2+ hour webcam session with Loan from the TIP studio. (I brought my laptop to the studio.) I felt bad because we were interrupting Loan during her midterm studies, but...not like she cared. Frog kept stripping in front of the webcam, Lee kept toturing the VIP junior guys with Atomic Fireball candy, and Virus set the worst example of the crew "elder" by acting like a 10 year old kid on camera. haha...it was all in fun.

By the way, did you know, the term "fireball" literally means "big ass testicles" in Korean? Rush from Gamblerz was explaining that to me the other day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UJKQYTxkmo

Practiced yesterday at the Gamblerz studio with Lee & Dyzee. I've been to the studio, but never for a practice. (I've always practiced at either TIP/Last4One/Rivers) But yo, practice was good. It was so damn intimidating, though, because the main practice room is small and you're kinda put on the spot when you go out. Especially since many of the Gamblerz guys have such good technical moves.

It's like:

- The End goes out with his crazy power

- Then Bruce Lee does some air flares

- Then Pop jumps in via jackhammers & continues to perform non-stabbing airbabies

- Then Sick does some crazy, unexplainable contortionist move

- Then you got some crazy Russian bboy (video above), who can do 23 rotations in his 2000s spin

- Then...I jump in with my dorky ass 8 step/3 step floorwork.

Haha...seriously, I felt like an idiot. I never had that feeling at TIP or Last4One, but damn... Dyzee and I were just on the sides, sitting there going, "nope, can't do that...or that...yeah, that, too." Ha, but it was all good. I'm friends with most of the guys, so it was cool. Except Heymi (bgirl JuceBaby) kept laughing at my facial expressions when I dance. :-o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOyFgGyDVIQ

Someone asked about the overwhelming appearance of foreign bboys practicing/training in Korea these days. My answer would be that yeah, it is true, however, they've always been to Korea, it's just not many people have documented this with non-battle footage. Well, not since me with Strife.tv

The video above is the first ever "official" Floor Gangz interview. I finished editing it yesterday; afterwords I felt so relieved, since it took me quite some time to do it, especially the subtitles. I have to say, this could be one of the funniest interview articles yet. It was all jokes with Fhiz's face; and I don't know what I was on when I decided to use Richard Gere's face. Haha...that was so random, as well as Darkwing Duck, and comparing Phoenix's afro style to old school Michael Jackson.

My idea for the video was to make the Floor Gangz guys look like approachable people, folks you would love to have a beer with. They are so much fun in real life, so why not transfer that into the interview? You can really see how well of a "family" they are.

Rest of the Day Plan:

- read up on CSS coding (for editing the Bboyworld blog layout)

- I know HTML, but don't know diddly-squat about CSS, unfortunately

- train at TIP studio

- film Virus & Ronin giving a talk about Korean bboy history

I am stressing out because I have so much to do, so many people to hang out with, more videos to take, before I leave Korea on November 5th. I don't want to leave!

Good morning! It is about noon on Saturday, and my "roommate" Aaron is still asleep. Around 10 am, his phone alarm set off, blaring to his ringtone of Big Bang - Haru, Haru. But since then, he has managed to hit the snooze button more than a bajillion times, and is still doing it now as I type. It's kinda funny. Then he'll try and pretend to wake himself up by speaking some incoherent phrase like, "Blaaarrrghhhh," then he falls back to sleep again. Haha....

But yo, check this out. I was at the Jinjo studio the other day for their midnight practice, and around 4 am, Lee & I got this brilliant idea which was to "call out" our friends who do Strife.tv over in California. Great ideas are always made at 4 am, yes. We wanted to make this the most stupidest, non-dancing, online battle ever. So, our first shot was with Dyzee doing his crazy finger threading. In case Strife-Cali thinks of something to hit us back, Korea has an answer for everything.

7Commandoz

The reason I was at Jinjo's studio was to film & interview an article on the new supercrew, 7Commandoz. As of now, it consists of Differ, Wing, Skim, Hong10, Ronnie, and Menno. So, it is essentially 6Commandoz, with the seventh one being somewhat mysterious. (Almost as mysterious as the last Cylon from Battlestar Galactica, haha, **nerd alert**) The interview contained half serious questions, and half somewhat seriously, but more goofing around questions. I will post both versions online in a few weeks, after I get done with the never-ending-but-i-need-to-finish Floor Gangz interview.

I was talking to bboy Fleta that night about their training/sleeping schedules. He was explaining to me, that since Jinjo practices every day from midnight to 7 am, he usually goes to sleep around 11 am, and wakes up around 10 pm each day. But sometimes, if he feels like "partying," he would go to sleep at 3 pm in the afternoon. Talk about living a crazy upside down life. But Fleta kept bragging to me that since their lives are so nocturnal, they hardly ever experience jet lag or a timezone difference when traveling.

My plan for the rest of this Saturday:

- clean my stuff - throw out unnecessary stuff

- go to Namguro for the Soul Kingz battle

- watch the new episode of Heroes

- try to win a prize from the claw game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10QJV-T7ex4

We had some free time at practice, so we filmed another "cribs" episode, this time at the T.I.P. studio. Even though I mentioned only using Peter only that one time, someone commented about actually liking him as a host, so I decided to have him narrate it again. T.I.P.'s studio is probably my favorite place to practice in Seoul. The vibe is a lot more relax and fun; a lot of times we dance for two hours and then mess around for the next hour. More "cribs" episodes coming soon. Perhaps of someone's house next?

On Thursday, I will be following Floor Gangz around in the market neighborhood of Namdaemun. Tinoroc will be leading us through the neighborhood, the market, ya know...the scene! I've always thought Tino to be one of the most stylish dancers in Korea, so it made sense to have him show us around. Later, at midnight actually, Lee & I will be interviewing 7Commandos at the early morning Jinjo practice.

sample 7Commandos question:

"In the English language, 'commando' also means that you are not wearing any _______.

What word is missing?"

I am quite aware at the rising rivalry between Floor Gangz and 7Commandos. They've met twice in the finals of events, and it has always been a heated battle. Also, there are some Rivers members, and some Jinjo members among them. I think it is ironic I had both of the crews scheduled in one day. Haha...I'm taking no sides.

Breakbeat of the Day:

Ananda Shankar - Dancing Drums

I went to the Bboy Dynamic Championships last Sunday. We went to Cheolsan station and met up with Feez, Tinoroc, Physicx, Issue, Pocket and all of them. I love how most Korean dancers are good friends outside the battle. Events such as this offer a good opportunity for people to come together and hang out, especially if dancers were supposed to arrive 2 hours before the start deadline. Morning of Owl was there wearing all black, almost as if they came from performing at a Shakespeare play. Haha, only those guys can pull that dress off. The battle was outside, in an amphitheater. It got freezing cold by the end, coming to around 11 degrees Celsius. I really want to do an interview and ask Morning of Owl, "so, do you still don't wear shoes during the winter battles?"

Korean bboys are so spoiled, in my opinion, because: 1) this event was free, and 2) first place was $3,000, and 3) fourth place was $500. The fourth place amount is sometimes more than the first place prize in most USA battles! And that would include a $20 entrance fee. Wow, Korea is so nice.

More Than A Stance

The web-magazine More Than A Stance featured our Van Jam 2 coverage in its latest entry.

http://morethanastance.com/blog/eventnews/2009/10/strife-tv-makes-crazy-b-boys-look-almost-normal/

There are two ways to cover a jam like Jean Claude Van Jam, where battles like this one take place:

1. Report on all the weirdos dressed up in masks and Speedos while trying not to let them touch you.

2. Out-weird them all.

Thankfully, Strife.tv chose number two and put out a great video about a b-boy jam with absolutely no footage of b-boying in it at all. Because really, isn’t being weird and wearing masks what b-boying is all about?

Yeah! "out-weird them all...with absolutely no footage of b-boying", haha. I love hearing comments about Stife.tv, especially about our creativity. Loan & I are currently brainstorming of ideas for our Claws Out coverage, as well as a potential Red Bull BCone coverage. Stay tuned.

ManOfGod Presents Rhythm Disorderz

My guy, Bboy ManOfGod from Motion Disorderz/Rhythm Attack just released his first official bboy mixtape! I'm not sure where he will be selling it, but be sure to ask around if you are in the Milwaukee, Chicago area, or wherever Motion Disorderz may be battling in the future. It's tiiiiiight. I'm happy to hear him progressing in his career as a hip hop DJ. I've known him for years, ever since he's been bragging to me about how many rare beats he's collected on his computer his freshman year of college, haha. Here is a sampler mixtape from ManOfGod, made a few months ago. This one is a hip hop mixtape, thus probably not something you would session to.

My plan for the rest of the day:

--go practice at T.I.P.

--business meeting with Virus

--work on getting the official Evolution blog online

--film a T.I.P. studio tour

--edit Floor Gangz video

--eat Popeyes's fried chicken

--tomorrow I will be working with Lee to edit her BOTY footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RJAlIkm7NU

Rivers Crew studio cribs episode.

Peter is narrating this video since Loan is in the States and Lee is currently battling at BOTY Germany. What's funny is that my online viewers are already asking for Lee to comeback to redo the scene, haha. Sorry Peter, hahaha. Although he didn't do a bad job, especially for having this be his first time ever at the studio. And...someone had requested for Lee's "sister" to do the interview, haha.

Also, congrats to my friends at Gamblerz for winning BOTY this year! Yeaaaahh son! They've been practicing hard, especially after their "disappointing" performance at R16.

and I'm off to the 3v3 jam. I like how many of these Korean jams, such as this one, have no cover charge, yet carry a ridiculous prize money such as $3,000. Korea's spoiling bboys.

Useful Korean words!

These are samples from the book called Making Out In Korean.

Bboy Dynamic Championship

I will be hanging out tomorrow at the Bboy Dynamic Championship. It is a 3v3 battle. While at Rivers today, Born was telling me that him, Physicx, and Redfoot were going to compete for the $3,000 prize.

Born's Hip Hop School Filming

I was at Rivers today to film Born's class. I will put out an article on Born's Hip Hop School in a few weeks, much similar to the one we did for Physicx's School. And for everyone that enjoyed the tour of Virus's crib, I also did a Rivers Crew studio "cribs episode." It will be up in a few hours on our youtube page.

My friend Peter narrated the Rivers Crew cribs segment because Lee went to Germany a few days ago to compete in the 2v2 Bgirl battle at BOTY. She went there with Zinny (TG Breakers). I'm curious to hear how well they did. I lent her my small camcorder so hopefully we'll see some nice backstage footage from the event!

and finally, Loan & I are thinking of possibly going to Red Bull BCone next month

Loan, Erich, and Ari bring you a really funny, and creative coverage of the Jean Claude Van Jam 2 event in Artesia (LA), hosted by Knuckleheads-Cali. I love how all of us at Strife.tv have a crazy sense of humor, and the creativity & editing skills to put up videos such as this. As Loan would say, "Strife originates! Never duplicates!"

fyi, Loan does not have a twin sister, haha....

Watch out for more stuff from us in the near future. In the meantime, I need to get off my lazy ass and finish my Floor Gangz interview article. I've just been so lazy because the amount of subtitles I need to input are beyond crazy. (English & Korean subtitles) All I can say is that it will be the most funniest crew interview ever done.

Capri-Sun

Yesterday, I moved from my old apartment to Aaron's pad. I moved out because the rent on the place expired, and also I will be going back to the States for the winter holidays in November. I left thirty packages of Capri-Sun in my refrigerator for the new person because I was too lazy to take them with me. I originally had like 70+ bags of them, and tried drinking down 20 in one day, but then I started to feel a little crazy, hyper so I quit that, haha. But yo, how awesome would it be to move into a new apartment only to find there is a big stash of Capri-Sun in the fridge?

Evolution Blog Update

I am in the midst of setting up the official Evolution blog. The domain is already in place, I just need to set up the layout. I will probably migrate from this blog to there for the next few months. It will be where I will post daily updates, videos, photos regarding the Bboyworld event, Evolution, coming to Atlanta in December. The full Strife.tv crew will be there, being our usual crazy selves and covering the event to the fullest! Anyways, I will post up the blog link when I am finished with the layout.

update:

Just got off the phone with Hong10, and he's agreed to battle Crumbs at Evolution.

Hot sauce! That's what I like to hear!

Hip Hop Song of the Day:

Dan, what song did your Bboyworld avatar come from?

Well, here it is

Atmosphere - Trying To Find A Balance

Younha's my favorite Korean singer.

I am in the process of moving out of my apartment. My housing ends tomorrow, thus I am moving to Aaron's for the next few weeks. Right now, I am in the process of gathering all the unnecessary stuff in my room and throwing it out, such as my foot massager, my bug zapper, my push-up handles, and my homicidal hedgehog. I move around so much, from Africa to Alaska to Korea, and I buy a lot of unnecessary crap. I should stop doing that because all I do is throw it away at the end.

Since I don't have anything worth interesting to write about, check out Strife.tv's youtube page.

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

Loan, Erich, and Ari have been working at it recently in California.

After the Nama tribute jam on Saturday, Lee & I went out with our friends Last4One to help publicize the upcoming premiere of their film, Planet B-boy. After having a dinner of squid & rice, we went out to the busy part of Hongdae area and passed out flyers, post-its, and even tissues.

Zero9 was on a roll that entire night, giving out flyers left & right. Taiyo, on the other hand, had a frustrating time. He was like, "uh...I don't like being denied!"

Planet B-Boy comes out in every Korean movie theater this Thursday, October 15.

not sure why it is premiering so late in Korea