Guys Waack? (And quick recap of this weekends)

You bet your ass they do.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go on to youtube or something similar and look up "waack," spelled exactly that way.

See, I really don't have a style. I guess it might be hip-hop if I had to pick, but even then I feel I dance a little bit weirder than that. However, to be perfectly honest, a competition I went to a while back had people in the hip-hop genre who I would've definitely put in the freestyle, and vice-versa. To each their own, I s'pose.

So, ever the hoarder, when I see a move, step, or banger that I like, I think to myself, "hey, let's go learn that." As a consequence there are a bunch of things running around my head from different styles and genres. The game is making them fit together. I haven't won that game, yet. In my mind's eye they would flow together seamlessly (of course) and look really bad-ass (of course). There would be smooth moves leading up to hard-pauses, and fast steps with big stops to flop onto the floor and crank something out similar to footwork from breakdancing, all to crescendo up into a freeze, popping out of that and languidly body rolling my way out of the battle circle.

See, that would be cool. (Maybe words aren't the right medium for describing this. //shit)

As of recently, the thing that's caught my eye is waacking, which really works the arms. They whip and twirl them around their body, articulating the beat of the music. There aren't so many "big" moves as you may find in other styles, and so a lot of the performance is based on linking smaller moves together in quick succession. In a sense, it's like a lot of blocks of 2 8-counts or 3 8-counts . //possibly talking out of my ass. This is just from what I've seen

And I want to learn it. As a guy, I'm definitely out of the norm, especially since waacking somewhat lends itself to vogue, another dance style predominantly performed by women. But fuck that shit, right? All about breaking gender norms and tearing down those oppressive social constructs. And to be frank, people really don't care so much within the dance community over here as long as you're good at what you're doing. Practice hard, dance well, and even a performance while rocking a bagelhead will receive applause.

// End waack talk //

Anywho, anyway, waywho, yahoo? This past weekend was a lot of me time, which is perfectly fine. Saturday was spent doing 3 loads of laundry including my karate gi, cleaning up the room, making dinner and lunch for Sat/Sun (big meals and storing for later), getting some homework done, and then capping the day off with a battle hosted by the club I'm in, 8-street. Unfortunately, I wasn't yet part of the mailing list for the group so I didn't get a chance to register beforehand, but that has been rectified. Regardless, watching the battle itself was a real treat. Nobody from our circle made it into the final 4, which while not completely surprising, but still somewhat upsetting. However, it was definitely understandable, considering the people that came out from Osaka and the surrounding towns were disgustingly good. The format of the tournament was 2-person teams, with hip-hop, breaking, waacking, locking, and popping all represented. The final itself was between two breaking teams and was hella fun to watch. My interest, though, was in the hip-hop teams and I managed to get a few videos of them.

After the battle finished, audience members and battlers alike broke up into dance circles and took turns performing in the center. Here is where I finally got a chance to let out some steam and break it down for a bit.

Today, Sunday, was spent with some more homework, finishing up Kafka on the Shore by Murakami, and a nice 2 hour long bike ride around the area. The weather was great today and going out for a ride seemed like the right thing to do. In addition, one of the characters in Kafka on the Shore kept listening to Radio Head throughout the book and I realized it's been a long time since I've listened to them. After putting Kid A and Hail to the Thief on my iPod, I sped off into the day, listening to both without a break between.

Well, that's it for now. Peace.

OH, AND THANKSGIVING FOOD IS FUCKIN' DELICIOUS. AND I MADE THE BOMB-ASS BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD FOR DESSERT. GET ON MY LEVEL. ACTUALLY, GET ON VERONICA'S LEVEL. SHE MADE THANKSGIVING DINNER FOR 9 PEOPLE. FUCKING AWESOME. 尊敬

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