*On teh Internets*

What difference does 30 years make in the evolution of breakdancing?

These two videos should speak for themselves. Above you can see the finals of The Notorious IBE, an international breakdance exhibition held yearly in the Netherlands since 1998.

Courtesy of the homie Rob Flow is a throwback video from the movie Beatstreet, showing a choreographed breakdance battle in a 1980s New York City nightclub.

While you can see shreds of the past in the moves of the IBE dancers, it’s really amazing to see just how far the art has come in the intervening years. The power moves are infinitely more powerful, the technical skills more precise, more daring and more enthralling, and the swagger more swaggerific. Oh, those kids have some swagger, indeed. It’s also interesting to see how today’s breakers dress a lot more hipster, with tight pants, skater shoes and keffiyehs, all part of their outfits. Long gone are the days of the matching track suit.

All praise due to the pioneers of the art form, without whose invention none of today’s mastery would be possible. Still, from watching the two videos it really feels like watching two separate millennia, not just two time periods separated by 27 years.

These kids kill it. They’re 22-years-old, from Paris, and really about to take the world by storm. It’s also worth mentioning that they stand 6’4″ tall.

I hate to say it, but when I watch them dance with most other dancers, it makes me mad, because Les Twins are so much better than anyone else out there. Think L.A. Krumping from David LaChappelle’s classic street dance film Rize, with more than a little Oakland Turf Dancing, with a whole lot of extra swagger. There’s still much life in hip hop culture. Bear witness.

LOOSEWORLD x Waverly Films: Reggie Watts in F_CK SH_T STACK from LOOSEWORLD on Vimeo.

Seven miles per gallon is a slow, hard way to get to the Playa at Burning Man. It hasn’t stopped thousands of people who are planning to spend their Labor Day Weekend in Black Rock City this year, and it hasn’t stopped us.

We’re fortunate, because our ‘Burnerbago’–a 1978 Winnebago Roadmaster–is clocking 10 miles per gallon on a journey of more than 300 miles. With a little luck, we will only have to fill up the 24-gallon tank twice before we reach Black Rock City. While 10 miles per gallon fuel efficiency is hardly something to brag about, an armada of similarly thirsty RVs, buses and campers will be parked on the Playa, turning Black Rock City overnight into Nevada’s fourth largest city.

For many Burning Man attendees, called ‘burners,’ the journey itself is an annual pilgrimage. While we’re traveling by RV, there are many pilgrims who make the trip by train, fly or share rides through services like Waze, both to track and coordinate travel arrangements. But because the festival is approximately seven hours drive from San Francisco, and 100 miles North of Reno, there’s no simple way to get there.

I can’t exactly say I woke up early today–9:20, but I can see the appeal of getting up early on days when it’s not exactly necessary. It’s something about getting older.

As a young lad (just a few years ago, in fact), I loved nothing more than staying out until the break of day and waking up in the mid-afternoon. In Argentina, this is the norm, even for grown folks, but they don’t start dinner until 11pm at the earliest, and night clubs close around 7 or 8 AM.

Today though, I’m brimming with excitement and there are 40 bajillion things I would like to take care of before the sun sets, so the only way to do them is to get up early and attack the day.

I also love the fact that there aren’t the pressures of work and deadlines looming over my head. Though I wish to handle some business related to my job, I don’t actually have to check in with anybody, so I’m free to work at my own pace.

I never thought I would live for the weekend, but here I am doing just that, and getting up early on a Sunday too.

Is there  a cure for stupidity? Afraid not. While we can treat the symptoms, the sickness itself does not respond to conventional remedies such as reading a newspaper, or listening to public radio.

Fortunately, however, inventors across this great land of ours have invested years of their lives to ensure that life’s most vexing problems–cracked egg yolks, spilled milk, and tangled electrical cords–will be a thing of the past I’m being mildly sarcastic, of course, but when I saw the the video embedded above on Kottke.org and I thought it was too funny to pass up.

One thing that makes America such a special place is that our entrepreneurs, inventors and pharmaceutical companies are always cooking up new problems  that afflict us through our TV sets. Fortunately, however, they always come with a solution for three easy payments of $19.99. (Call this number now!)

With my dad the the other night, I started to watch a documentary called ‘Stupidity,’ about America’s inglorious decline into anti-intellectualism, laziness and the absurdity of celebrities like Steve-O. If I hadn’t been so toasted on account of my birthday, I might remember more about it, but suffice it to say America’s stupidity is an industry unto itself.  The movie was released before the re-election of George W. Bush, but even if it had been released on the eve of Obama’s presidency, I imagine they wouldn’t have been able to presage the insanity and linguistic dexterity of the Tea Party Movement.

For all we know, stupidity isn’t contagious, but it sure is hard to cure.

I could never suitably gush about the wonders of Netflix. Back in 2002 I considered the service a writeoff because its measly catalog of 12,000 titles never seemed to tickle my particular cinematic itch. Furthermore, waiting for a snoozer of a picture to arrive on a scratched DVD meant no shortage of anxiety. My, how the times have changed.

The best part of being back on the West Coast (read riding around in cars a lot) is the time I spend tuned in to my local NPR station.

With all the forms of news and information available, there is nothing quite like the radio. Nothing compares to the  intimacy of the human voice; I feel like I’m on a first name basis with the presenters and show hosts like Terry Gross from Fresh Air, or Robert Siegel and Michele Norris from ‘All Things Considered.’

Seattle in particular is blessed with a verdant public radio landscape. NPR stations KUOW and KPLU serve up jazz, talk and world news for all comers. KEXP is respected as one of the world’s best sources for coffeehouse rock, electronic and eclectic sounds, and  for nearly a year, I hosted a music program on KBCS in Bellevue, which is known for it’s strength in blues and global music.

Public radio covers many of the same news stories as the mainstream press, but often their features are in a world of their own.

I said I wasn’t interested, but the  iPad DJ app from Mixr makes me think that I would actually buy the device, and rock it owt!

Woof!

What she said.

Tea Party protesters all day, ‘16 and Pregnant‘  all night. What country do we live in?

I found this video on Abduzeedo and I like it. They’ve got lots of cool stuff. Find something you like and post a link in the comments.

It’s that time of year  again and Jews across the world are  celebrating our mythical escape from Egyptian bondage, and yet another extermination attempt. That’s right, it’s Passover.

What better to way mark the festival here in Seattle than eight days of stale Matzoh, gefilte fish and bottomless glasses of Manishewitz? It was a trick question, silly. There is no better way.

At the Chima house, we had  a great little Seder and a nice evening of roasting one another. Too bad it only happens once a year. Enjoy the flick.