This is an absolutely amazing/hilarious video from Brett Domino giving a demo of the cool new Stylophone Beatbox: Portable Beats Machine. I’d seen the product in the IWOOT catalogue a while ago but never realised the incredible potential until my Father told me to check out this video featuring some classic b-boy tunes and other hip hop beats. Prepare to be astounded, hahaha:

Brett Domino: Hip-Hop Medley – Stylophone Beatbox

Click here to buy your Portable Beats Machine on sale for less than £10!

It’s got a build in loop sampler! I WANT ONE! IWantOneOfThose.com are charging £20 – no thanks…

I think I’ll be placing my order very shortly with findmeagift.com – click here to get your Stylophone Beatbox on sale for under £10!

“100% of the shots you don’t take don’t go in.”

Wayne Gretzky

At training on Tuesday I was trying to practice a new throwdown idea. I got warmed up thoroughly and had a little stretch, but I was still aching and my muscles were quite tight from training on Thursday, Saturday and Monday as well as Bradford Gym on Sunday. Perhaps the aching and tight muscles are the cause of what happened next…

I threw a standing front somersault but landed with my left leg wide, which resulted in my knee bending inwards as my legs absorbed the impact. Consequently I heard and felt (definitely felt!) a crunch in my ankle… Oooooo, that wasn’t good! I’ll just walk over to… ohhhh Jebus, that’s starting to hurt… Ahhhh – Ed, can you go get me an ice pack please? I’ll just hop over here and sit dOWwwwn.

To the hospital Batman!

My brother kindly drove me to A&E as I wanted to make sure I hadn’t broken or fractured anything. Luckily the dude at Casualty, who saw me after a painful 1 and a half hour wait, rubbed my feet and ankles a bit and told me my bones were fine. Jolly good But my ATFL (anterior talofibular ligament on the outside of the ankle) is damaged. So I’ve sprained my ankle, awesome. Off I hobbled to get the bus home, on second thoughts – let’s just stop here at the end of the street and book a taxi.

Here I am 3 days later… still in bed with my leg elevated on a pile of pillows and my handy Morrisons Value Frozen Garden Peas on and off my ankle. (Get yourself some – 89p for an ice pack is well worth it in an emergency!) I’m getting back ache from being in bed for so long. On the plus side I’ve been productive and done a lot of work on my laptop, even though I can’t actually get to my room in the attic where my PC is haha! Damn it!

Today I’m feeling a bit more comfortable putting weight on it, I can hobble to the toilet and downstairs for food without very much swearing involved. Tuesday night was a different story however, I’ve never experienced intense shivering from pain before! Gotta try everything once I suppose

Man up, Twist

Anyway, I’ll survive and if I don’t – avenge my death! I’ve just got to keep going with the ankle strengthening exercises and make sure I don’t dance on it for at least a few days, although a few weeks is probably wiser and more realistic.

Standing front tucks are evil I tell you! They look cool, but I’ve hurt myself similarly, less seriously, at least 3 times in the process of learning them. From this I have 2 lessons to choose from: stop doing somersaults… or after I’ve recovered and strengthened both my ankles and legs properly train for them a LOT more to make sure I get some mega height every time so I can land safely.

That’s enough of my wining – I’ll have to be fine by tomorrow, I’ve got a magic job to perform at.

Now how about some comedy from the gym on Sunday

Training with Bruce, B-Boy Just Me, is awesome fun – the dude knows his flips and is a really good teacher! He had my brother landing front somersaults in 20 minutes! I’d already learnt the basic technique for fronts on my own, but he helped add a bit of height to my jump and spotted me doing a few back tucks. The Allstar Aviators tumbling class in Kirkstall helped me learn the technique for back tucks, but I’d never attempted one on my own. Within a couple of minutes of Bruce spotting me, I went for it and did it all by myself, aren’t I a big boy. The first couple were pretty funny, almost burying my face in the floor, or falling over backwards. But in a few minutes I was landing, I use the term ‘landing’ loosely here, them on the gym floor. Yey!

By the end of the session I was going less backwards, much more vertical and nailing the landing better than in the following video, but this is the funniest one from Sunday:

As you can see, I clearly bailed that first back tuck before I’d even taken off the floor hahaha. Obviously I didn’t do that again! You’ve just got to go for it! Although I won’t be going for much for the next month or two

Hope you’ve learnt something from my experience – practice your flips safely now kiddies!

Time to take my frozen peas off my ankle.

Instead of a quote to end with today, I feel like adding something even more fun. I am pretty bored after all!

So here it is a day late, or 364 days early…

Happy Birthday B-Boy Philthee

Last night town was absolutely dead, hardly anybody anywhere – it was freezing and there’s an abundance of snow everywhere! However, WE ARE THE PARTY, so we had an absolutely awesome night jamming where ever we went… some were even breaking on the street… in the slush and snow! Dedication or what!

Phil was of course killing it, busting out flares to the max and everyone else was repping hard. I even popped out a couple of front flips and everyone went mental, cause they’d never seen me do it before ha ha Phil started throwing down on the road while the traffic lights were on red, then the Police turned up and told us they’d seen us obstructing traffic on CCTV… Bruce’s response – “Yeah it was sick wasn’t it?! He was killing it!” hahaha.

Monday was also Aahid’s, Afro’s and Shane’s Birthday and if I’m right in thinking Jingle’s Birthday on Tuesday too? I might as well just say Happy Birthday to all the b-boys who’s Birthday it was recently, you’re all lovely and I hope you enjoyed yourselves!

Now I’ve got to go do some real work, so here’s your ‘quote’ for today…

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Philthee
Happy Birthday to you!

Me

We rang in 2010 at Chen’s party this year. I had an absolutely incredible night starting seeing school friends at a local bar and then joining the crew at Chen’s. Just a few minutes after the countdown to the new year and there was already a cypher going on the living room floor. Which soon turned into the very first battles of the decade, despite alcohol consumption levels soaring…

B-Boy War vs Technical Tony followed by Zeus vs Philthee:

That’s probably the best I’ve ever seen Tony dance, skillz! (I substituted the last ‘s’ of ‘skills’ for a ‘z’ there because I’m just that street.)

Resolutions for 2010

So, no doubt you’ll already have been asked what your New Year’s Resolutions are. I wonder if you’ve even managed to make it till now (5th January) on your quest to give up eating chocolate or smoking or whatever you were pretending to do… Normally my New Year’s Resolutions are general minor things like ‘keep having fun’ and ‘meet even more sexy ladies’ because I usually can’t think of any improvements on my amazingly fun life, ha… However, towards the end of 2009 I’ve realised several things and that I need to take action!

Now is the time!

So, I shall be working away to ensure my business thrives this year in this currently unsatisfying economic climate amongst other positive actions to enable me to continue to have fun, meet  sexy ladies and avoid having to listen to my brother Rob’s life advice. Shut up, being a self employed professional magician and drum circle facilitator IS a job  and there is no way, at all ever, that I would apply at McDonald’s!

Anyway, after all the business productivity New Year’s Resolutions comes b-boying. This year it’s gonna be on like Donkey Kong! The first training session of 2010 was super bad ass and I’ll explain…no, show you why in the next post.

Until then – remember to wear layers and don’t run on the ice… unless you’re aiming for a masssssive fun slide, in which case I recommend running on a dry spot first then jumping onto a lengthy polished patch of ice for maximum fun, speed and distance…

“Now, in order to answer the question, “Where do we go from here?” which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. “

Martin Luther King Jr.

Here’s a magical Christmas gift for you all to enjoy in fullscreen High Definition:

It seems a lot of clarity has been lost in compressing the video and adding a soundtrack. So, please watch it fullscreen in HD so you can see what’s going on

A quick note to express my happiness that Rage are Christmas No.1 in the UK – AWESOME! I’d love to hear Killing in the name on next years annoying Christmas album that’s played everywhere all through December!

Just to let you know I also finished a crazy bad ass design for a t-shirt recently, check it out:

Dreadlocks ICameToDance.com Face white tee by icametodance
Shirts from Zazzle

Have a fantastic Christmas and New Year, why not Valentines, Easter, Birthday, Diwali, Hanukkah and anything else while I’m at it!

“Now you do what they told ya! Now you’re under control!”

Rage Against The Machine – Killing in the name

1. I’m lazy.
2. I started training some top secret moves which I didn’t want to share with you until I had perfected them.
3. In the process of practising these new top secret super bad ass moves I pulled a muscle.

So I have only been b-boying a tiny amount when I have been itching to move my feet on nights out, no hardcore 2 or 3 hour training sessions at the gym recently I’m still resting and hopefully recovering so I haven’t had any cool new video updates for you.

However, you will be pleased to know while I’ve been injured I’ve been training my fingers instead and working on some fun close up magic! So if you’re lucky my next update in the very near future will have a bit of that thrown in for your entertainment.

I have also been watching the Move Like Michael Jackson dance contest on BBC Three, which has just finished! A dance contest judged by Jermaine Jackson in search for the best MJ inspired dance act to perform at his Michael Jackson tribute concert to be held next year. Initially I thought the competition was going to suck and be full of idiots grabbing their crotch attempting to moonwalk. What I really liked was all the Jacko imitators were shot down as soon as they auditioned because of the fact they specifically were not Michael Jackson carbon copies. Instead they were searching to find dancers who clearly admired Michael as a performer, took his moves, made them their own and elevated it to a whole different level.

I started watching the progamme just because I knew B-Boy Didge (Daniel Ovel) was in it, but then realised there were other soloists and dance crews who were actually really good with all sorts of different styles and flavours competing too! Unfortunately Didge only made it to the Semi-Finals… but then again… HE MADE IT ALL THE WAY TO THE SEMI-FINALS! Very well done to him … not sure about that sparkly school uniform costume though…

If you missed the Move Like Michael Jackson programmes you can catch up on the BBC iPlayer here.

The editing did my head in when trying to watch the performances though. It looks as though they filmed everything from all angles, and then chose to show all the worst possible shots so you had no idea what was going on. Only on watching it again do you realise you missed a sliding headstand which was one of the most impressive moves of the routine or something. Well done to the BBC editors on that one.

Be quick if you want want to watch the show, the videos might be gone in less than a week from iPlayer!

As a breaker I found it incredibly inspirational to watch the entire series going from the Auditions to the Finals. Soaking up all the different dance ideas, approaches and thought processes behind each act was amazing. There were a few awesome routine ideas to take away and build on that I hadn’t seen done anywhere before. As a b-boy sometimes you become oblivious to the entire world of dance that is also evolving outside your bubble. Sitting watching new battle footage of Hong 10, Morris, Junior etc. on YouTube you tend to distort your perception a little and only appreciate things like backflip to airchair or 10 planche press ups perhaps forgetting how impressive simple yet well executed moves can be.

‘Free your mind and your ass will follow!’

So after you’ve caught up with the Move Like Michael Jackson contest, here’s an amazing video to inspire and spark some creativity within you:

I think Zee posted the video on facebook a while ago. It whoops ass all over the Endangered Species crew’s backflip routine. So smooth and fluid – I had to share it with you! And that transitions nicely on to the quote I shall leave you with today…

“Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.”

Bruce Lee

Anyway, here are the details to win a pair of SportStyle Asics and breakdance mat. Quite a cool competition challenge I think, I might have to enter myself… I could do with some new kicks to train in!

Find Your Flavour and win a pair of ASICS SportStyle trainers and breakdance mat

Win a pair of trainers from ASICS SportStyle and one of the first ever breakdancing mats – start the year the freshest kicks by sending us your freshest pics!

To celebrate the launch of their SportStyle range, ASICS have created the first ever breakdancing mat. Put together with the help of award winning B-Boy Mouse, it is designed to teach novices the basic moves through simple, guided steps. One lucky entrant will be able to win one of these mats and pull off the toprock, sixstep and even the wakfreeze. The winner will also receive a pair of ASICS SportStyle trainers to practise new moves in true style.

How to win

Winning is simple – find your flavour and photograph it!

Started breaking in front of a local attraction? Dressed your dog in a tracksuit? Maybe you spotted something quirky, like funny graffiti or discovered a really funky record in your parent’s music collection.

If it’s got flavour, it has a chance of winning

Simply take your photo, ‘fan’ TooMuchFlavour on Facebook, then post your photo to the wall for a chance to win.

For further details, example photos and to watch a video of what happened when the ASICS SportStyle breakdancing mat took to the streets of London, go to http://toomuchflavour.co.uk/competition_entry.html

Ok, that’s all from Dave, back to me - they’re claiming its the first ever breakdancing mat. Not sure what they mean by that, cardboard and lino were used way back in the late 70′s… but I  remember being shown a hilarious video of Alfonso Ribeiro, the dude who played Carlton in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, releasing a similar product way back in the day (1985)!

That’s enough comedy for today. Remember to get taking your flavoursome photos to post to the TooMuchFlavour facebook fan page!

“And tell mum and dad it’s the safe way to break and pop. Not the things you shouldn’t try.”

Alfonso Ribeiro

I stumbled upon this awesome stop-motion animation interactive YouTube video game a while ago. Batman and the Joker bboying :O You know online games don’t get much more fun than this! Unless you’re a mega geek and you prefer to play World of Warcraft 31 hours a day.

Check out the game first and then watch the ‘Making of Bboy Joker’ video below. Impressive stuff:

Bboy Joker

Making of Bboy Joker

Check out those 1990′s ha ha!

While we’re on the subject of stop-motion animation I thought I’d dig out a couple of little treats for you. It has absolutely nothing to do with bboying, but here are 2 fun stop-motion animation videos, the first being about pollution and other environmental issues in Creature Comforts style created by myself and a couple of fellow Media Studies students back in the day when we were studying at AS level 3 or 4 years ago…

Save Our Seas

Secondly, here is a short animation created by a myself and some school friends on an animation course prior to making the above video. Prepare yourself for the amazement…

Funnnnny stuff! It’s inspired me to make another stop-motion animation, but then I also remember how incredibly looong it takes and just how frustrating it is. Back away, not today.

“Frustration is the compost from which the mushrooms of creativity grow.”

Let me know what you thought of our animations in a comment below

I watched the footage of the Freerun Champs earlier this year, which Livewire won, but nowhere featured the awesome b-boying show with Junior, Cico, Blinxx and more as well as Diversity, who won Britain’s Got Talent! Have a look for yourselves, some mighty impressive moves!

Damn! I wish my planche would be somewhere near as impressive as Livewire’s or Junior’s… I’ve been working on it a bit recently though. I’ll be back on the hardcore no foot press up and human flag training soon! You’ll see… you’ll alllll seeeee!

Here’s a link to Livewire’s YouTube channel. It’s definitely worth checking out his many other videos. There’s even one of him battling with Trinity Warriors against Leeds very own Ghetlow Pirates and others over 2 years ago!

Today’s quote:

“The thing about hip-hop is that it’s from the underground, ideas from the underbelly, from people who have mostly been locked out, who have not been recognized.”

Russell Simmons

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Where are you going? …Before you leave, take a second to check out my new Funky Fresh Threads clothing designs. I came up with a bad ass paint splattered design similar to the logo on my video blog posts the other day. The amazing thing about the store that print them, Zazzle, is that you can customise your order entirely and choose whatever style of top and colour you want. Have a look and see if there is a style you’d look fresh in. Personally I like the hoodies, but the basic t-shirts are pretty cheap ass! Make sure you use the Promotional Code: UKWINTERSHIP to get free shipping before 10th December!

Move Biatch! ICameToDance.com (Dark Fabric) Hoody by icametodance

Check out some of the elements of hip hop in its original form with popping, locking, bboying, rapping and DJing. They even threw in a couple of magic tricks in their routine -funny stuff! I was planning on doing similar bits of magic in my throwdowns… just another reminder that everything you think you have created has probably been done before!

ELECTRO ROCK – A BBOY EVENT FROM LONDON 1985

Man, I wish I had a tracksuit as cool as that…

This is the middle part of a few videos of the whole event, you can check out the rest of the videos on that guys YouTube channel – he’s got some pretty awesome old school videos. I’m currently listening to The Specials live in 1979.

“All you punks and all you teds,
National Front and natty dreads,
Mods, rockers, hippies, and skinheads
Keep on fighting till you’re dead!”

The Specials – Do the Dog