Strife.tv right now is probably the only Youtube channel that does not follow all the trends of other bboy broadcasting networks. Sure they cover battles, and make coverage videos of events, but that's not what they're all about; they document the culture and educate people with the guests they have. Strife.tv's crew cover events in 3 main areas: USA, Korea and now the UK.
Strife.tv first started in 2008 covering BOTY USA, and was founded by Erich, Ari and Mitchel. Since then quite a few members have now joined, not all of them being camera crew - some of which are regular personalities. Off the top of my head, those that are down with Strife.tv are:
Daniel, Mitchel, Loan, MisLee, Minhzy, ManOfGod, KBE, Ari, Erich, Atomic Goofball, Maresco, Just-Roc (from AOM, not FLGZ), Peppa, Luis J, Aerospace and Doy.
I'm the newest recruit. Have been since August.
I knew Daniel since roughly start of 2010. I added him on Facebook when Strife were booming with footage from Korea. I wanted to tell him I love what he does (and still do), but also wanted to ask him about TIP's army situation (since he was in the know with it, and I didn't know anyone else who was, I asked him).
And over time we kept talking, got to know each other better, and it was roughly the end of 2010 when I asked him if he wanted battle footage from the UK. He said to me "Sure, why not? You're a funny guy :)". But since then it took a while for anything to be produced, it's not like I had to go through some sort of MZK induction process but I still had to have knowledge in a few things before I could start producing footage for Strife.
The first battles I put out for Strife.tv had some big names in them, so I was happy I was able to provide some people that haven't been shown on Strife before. First battles I took were from Castle Rocks this year.
Second set of videos I put out have probably been the biggest production I've done yet. A newly started tradition of Strife.tv is we cover our journeys down to, during, and after an event. We call it the STRIFE.LIFE. It was agreed between Strife.tv and BadTasteCru that I would film the top32-top8 battles and post them up, and I made a STRIFE.LIFE video of Just Jam.
There's only 2 members of Strife.tv that reside in the UK, myself and Doy. If you don't know of Doy's work, my god! ( http://vimeo.com/user701078 ) In the UK, Doy is the main guy when it comes to trailers - and the same for Strife - and I'm the guy with the battles! (Although recently I've been stepping into doing trailers as well).
But on a serious note, I'm truly blessed to be a part of Strife.tv. Not only have I learned so much from Daniel and others about filming etc, but it has also gained me status in the UK scene (not that I didn't have one before). I've had people credit me for the work I've done covering some of the UK's events, and it's great being recognised and appreciated for your contribution. I've had B-Boys I've looked up to (and haven't spoken to before) come up to me to say "Hi", since working for Strife. It's great to be part of a WORLDWIDE movement!! I wouldn't have had the success I have right now if it wasn't for Daniel and Strife.tv.
There's quite a few members of Strife.tv that I have yet to talk to but I can't wait for the moment that happens!!
From what I've learned from Strife, and from my own filming experiences, I could do this for my whole life. I think I will! This could turn into a job, I'd love it if it did!
Thanks Dan, for everything! :-)
*Signing Out*
Friday, 16 December 2011
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Attention to Detail Expojam | TRAVELS
A few days ago I was down in LEEDS for the final installment of Attention to Detail (ATD) Expojam; there were many qualifying events up and down the UK and even one in Belgium. This was the first time I was down in Leeds for an event and I'd heard a lot of good things about it...so you could guess what my expectations were.
Out of the crew it was only myself and Maule that made the travel down, which made 2 of us. How many Scottish bboys were there? 3. (Harribo lives in Bradford now and came thru).
Anyway, met up with Maule at 8am roughly to make the drive down. I am normally used to waking up earlier to travel down to events but this one was hard to wake up for, could be a winter thing - not sure. I think this was the first time Maule and I have traveled to an event together, but definitely isn't the first time we've been the only Jalapenos at an event. During the travel I was recording more footage for a new STRIFE.LIFE video. If you don't know what the strife life it, it's basically when someone from Strife.tv films their journeys to, during and after an event they attend. This one was interesting, stopped at a few service stations and got some good things to put into it - Maule's always a lot of fun when he's in front of a camera or behind it.
It took about 4 and a half hours to get down to Leeds University, we were a lil anxious that the battles would start without us but luckily the event started 30 minutes after we got there.
I got my travel paid down to the event to film, and put together a highlights trailer and a coverage video (documenting what people thought of the event and to have the concept explained). This also meant I got in for free, and so did Maule (since we were the only ones travelling through from Scotland).
Because of this I didn't really plan to dance at all; as much as I would have loved to cypher all day and that, I had to keep my head clear and make sure I was doing a good job with filming - so I only threw down ONCE before the battles started. But during the battles, it got to the last battle of the first qualifying round and they were 1 bboy short; I was really hyped just from filming the battles and everything so I stepped up! What the hell was I thinking?! I didn't warm up, didn't throw down enough rounds to feel comfortable or did I even intend to touch the ground in any aspect!! But guess what? I make it past the 2 qualifying rounds into the Main Battles ;). As Maule said during one of my battles "JALAPENOS BITCH!!".
I only threw down 3 times before the main battles, and had no idea what the hell I would do for the next battle.
The concept of ATD battles are simple: The 8 bboys that are invited to battle are also judges; when a judge battles this leaves an odd number of judges, when there's 2 judges battling a reserve steps in to judge to keep the numbers even. For this event in particular, a qualifying bboy has to go up against an invited bboy...and I was landed with ThePhasion. DAYUM THAT DUDE IS NASTY!!
To sum up my battle in as fewer words as possible? He roasted me! Straight up, I lost. I ran out of moves, couldn't even think about what I was about to do next, I was beat. Good battle though, definitely one to take back to training with me. Props to ThePhasion! Think I did Scotland proud, not that I had that burden on me but the thought did occur later on.
Congratz to the winner of the 1v1s BEANZ (Ghetlow Pirates) and GHETLOW PIRATES for 4v4s - great battle with Trinity Warriors that could have gone either way. It was a blast to film, and battle at. Met new people, spoke to those I respect that gave me props for my filming - it's great to hear I'm being appreciated for filming. More motivation for me to keep doing it, getting recognised for my filming too is a big plus - from the like of Kid Karam and Ghetlow Pirates (some i've never spoken to).
I also got a teeshirt and a bag from Eastpak! Nice!!
Journey back was even better than the journey going down, by miles!! We only had 1 mixtape to listen to - and it was a Rocking mixtape that SkamRok gave to Maule - and we listened to it all the way down AND back up...and yet we were still hyped for every track!! We also got caught in snow, and discussed the possibility of a Flyin' Jalapenos 10 year Anniversary jam!!
Shoutouts to the guys at ATD (Jamie, Flo etc), to those I battled (Phasion, Million Dollar Mike, Sneaky) and to those I met and filmed down there (Trinity Warriors, Ghetlow Pirates, Tukyz). Y'all know who you are, and I appreciate opportunity to come to ATD and film.
*Signing Out*.
Out of the crew it was only myself and Maule that made the travel down, which made 2 of us. How many Scottish bboys were there? 3. (Harribo lives in Bradford now and came thru).
Anyway, met up with Maule at 8am roughly to make the drive down. I am normally used to waking up earlier to travel down to events but this one was hard to wake up for, could be a winter thing - not sure. I think this was the first time Maule and I have traveled to an event together, but definitely isn't the first time we've been the only Jalapenos at an event. During the travel I was recording more footage for a new STRIFE.LIFE video. If you don't know what the strife life it, it's basically when someone from Strife.tv films their journeys to, during and after an event they attend. This one was interesting, stopped at a few service stations and got some good things to put into it - Maule's always a lot of fun when he's in front of a camera or behind it.
It took about 4 and a half hours to get down to Leeds University, we were a lil anxious that the battles would start without us but luckily the event started 30 minutes after we got there.
I got my travel paid down to the event to film, and put together a highlights trailer and a coverage video (documenting what people thought of the event and to have the concept explained). This also meant I got in for free, and so did Maule (since we were the only ones travelling through from Scotland).
Because of this I didn't really plan to dance at all; as much as I would have loved to cypher all day and that, I had to keep my head clear and make sure I was doing a good job with filming - so I only threw down ONCE before the battles started. But during the battles, it got to the last battle of the first qualifying round and they were 1 bboy short; I was really hyped just from filming the battles and everything so I stepped up! What the hell was I thinking?! I didn't warm up, didn't throw down enough rounds to feel comfortable or did I even intend to touch the ground in any aspect!! But guess what? I make it past the 2 qualifying rounds into the Main Battles ;). As Maule said during one of my battles "JALAPENOS BITCH!!".
I only threw down 3 times before the main battles, and had no idea what the hell I would do for the next battle.
The concept of ATD battles are simple: The 8 bboys that are invited to battle are also judges; when a judge battles this leaves an odd number of judges, when there's 2 judges battling a reserve steps in to judge to keep the numbers even. For this event in particular, a qualifying bboy has to go up against an invited bboy...and I was landed with ThePhasion. DAYUM THAT DUDE IS NASTY!!
To sum up my battle in as fewer words as possible? He roasted me! Straight up, I lost. I ran out of moves, couldn't even think about what I was about to do next, I was beat. Good battle though, definitely one to take back to training with me. Props to ThePhasion! Think I did Scotland proud, not that I had that burden on me but the thought did occur later on.
Congratz to the winner of the 1v1s BEANZ (Ghetlow Pirates) and GHETLOW PIRATES for 4v4s - great battle with Trinity Warriors that could have gone either way. It was a blast to film, and battle at. Met new people, spoke to those I respect that gave me props for my filming - it's great to hear I'm being appreciated for filming. More motivation for me to keep doing it, getting recognised for my filming too is a big plus - from the like of Kid Karam and Ghetlow Pirates (some i've never spoken to).
I also got a teeshirt and a bag from Eastpak! Nice!!
Journey back was even better than the journey going down, by miles!! We only had 1 mixtape to listen to - and it was a Rocking mixtape that SkamRok gave to Maule - and we listened to it all the way down AND back up...and yet we were still hyped for every track!! We also got caught in snow, and discussed the possibility of a Flyin' Jalapenos 10 year Anniversary jam!!
Shoutouts to the guys at ATD (Jamie, Flo etc), to those I battled (Phasion, Million Dollar Mike, Sneaky) and to those I met and filmed down there (Trinity Warriors, Ghetlow Pirates, Tukyz). Y'all know who you are, and I appreciate opportunity to come to ATD and film.
*Signing Out*.
Friday, 25 November 2011
My response to releasing footage
Over the last year I've been posting up battle footage of many events that have happened in Scotland, and just starting to post those from England too. And I get people asking me for their footage, which is cool as I do this without complaining...but recently things have been changing. I've been getting more work from my filming and I'm going through other ventures with regards to filming; in fact I'm trying to edit more coverage trailers and promotional videos instead of uploading battle footage.
But the second I say I'm not going to release battle footage from a jam I was at (because I want to make a trailer of the event), I get bombed with people wanting their footage up. Why is this? I don't understand, I've not done anything wrong.
So whoever does bother to read this, I'm only going to say this ONCE.
Whatever I choose to do with MY footage, respect my decision. If you want my footage after I've uploaded to youtube/vimeo, there's software you can download to get it. I'll keep doing my thing, in my own time.
I'm on to do bigger and better things, it's going to be an awesome 2012!
*Signing Out*
But the second I say I'm not going to release battle footage from a jam I was at (because I want to make a trailer of the event), I get bombed with people wanting their footage up. Why is this? I don't understand, I've not done anything wrong.
So whoever does bother to read this, I'm only going to say this ONCE.
Whatever I choose to do with MY footage, respect my decision. If you want my footage after I've uploaded to youtube/vimeo, there's software you can download to get it. I'll keep doing my thing, in my own time.
I'm on to do bigger and better things, it's going to be an awesome 2012!
*Signing Out*
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
The Disease that is my Speech...
So I was speaking to my dad about something that happened at a work meeting tonight, and we were talking quite a bit about my speech. Now I feel I haven't properly justified myself, or explained enough what happens, when it comes to my speech.
It's the cause for most of the emotional ups and downs, if not all of 'em. It is probably the only thing that influences my decision to do things based off 2 things...if I'm speaking well or if I'm not. Imagine that. Imagine that your speech is the main factor in deciding what you do that day; what shop you go into; what food/drink you get; or even what you say and how you say something to another person. It's really quite a f*cking pain!
Everyone sees my speech as it is, face value. They don't understand what is going through my mind or how I'm feeling when my speech goes haywire...which I can understand! I'm not expecting everyone to feel sympathy the second they hear me speak, just some compassion and empathy (knowing where i'm coming from on an emotional level) is all I need.
But there are certain things that happen to me in different situations, i'll outline a few for you:
1. Loss of eye contact: When my speech gets a bit messed up I go into a very short spasm trying to get the air and the word out; this causes me to look away or to find a comfort spot, to get the air out. I've had people say that my eye contact can lack, well now you know. And people think that I can't look people in the eye normally...well I could look at someone straight in the eyes and not lose focus forever when I am able to.
2. Greeting people in a different manner: When I try and fix my speech from a bad patch, I go slowly and do something called "slow-rated speech". But in a scenario where I can't do that (like my job) you have to get through things faster which means i need to speak faster. At times like that the air coming out of my mouth is much more prone to be blocked, hence "blocking" my speech from continuing. In instances like this I CANNOT SAY THE WORDS THAT MY MIND WANTS ME TO SAY...instead I have to try say something of the same meaning but is easier to say. Example: If I had to greet someone at a bar, and I'm meant to say "Hi there, how can I help you?" but I can't say that? I'd end up saying "Yo man, wassup?". Now I've been pulled up for the way that I can come across to people, but the bottom line is that I CANNOT HELP THAT! Y'all can say many times that "You need to say ________" but in reality...most of the time I CAN'T!
People don't know how it feels to even suffer from a speech problem like mine, for as long as I've had it for (13 years). It comes to a point, after having a speech problem for as long as I've had it for, that when you mess up your speech you want to eject yourself from the situation you're in, find a corner that no one can find you at, curl up and keep silent. But I can't do that, I don't do that, cause I know there's always a way around it...but is it a suitable way? It's upto the individual that's affected.
This gets me to the 3rd part, respect: I try to be friendly to everyone, it's who I am! I try to make people feel relaxed and comfortable in my environment, because I'm that sort of caring person. Maybe it's my social dynamics but to people it can be unacceptable...not like I do bad things or anything, just maybe it doesn't reflect on me very well. Such things as calling people "Sir, Miss" etc can be hard for me to say; some days they will be and others they won't, but I never take my chances because of how I feel when I mess up my speech.
And this is the thing too, people tell me that I need to do ___ and ___ and ____ but THEY NEVER KNOW how I feel when I do speak. Everyone is so quick to assume that it's not much to mess up your speech...but think about this: Do you feel really happy that you could say a few sentences without any errors? No? Course you don't, because every "normal" person can speak smoothly and never think of such problems. But me? Those are the times that I am blessed with! Those are the times that tell me "Chaz, it's not going to be such a bad day after all". Because of my speech my brain thinks slower when it comes to me speaking because it's adapted so quickly to it taking a while for me to speak.
My speech can give me such low confidence and self-esteem...in such a short space of time like 3 seconds; it's not the fact that i've made the mistake that always gets to me, it's the reinforcement that "The problem will never go away"...every time i f*ck up my speech it's like a reminder, just not a very uplifting one. And having this problem can make me really doubtful too; I'm always thinking about what could happen, always thinking about the next time it will fuck up...and unfortunately most of the time it'll fuck up the next time I speak. How do you think that feels? Everyone complains when they get the hiccups, and complain when they can't get the words to roll off their tongue in the right order...they can all fuck off with their small unimportant problems! How would you like it if you get fear of talking to a girl you like on the street, not because of fear of rejection but of fear if your speech will mess up? That's the stuff I gotta live with.
How does it feel? I have no freedom of speech. There, I said it! It cripples me from the inside when I want to do something that challenges me. When I go into a different place, I always worry about my speech and how I'll sound - it's a constant worry and a constant struggle.
It's feeling like this that gives me low confidence to do public speaking or to speak on the phone, sure I can do it no problem...but how will I feel after knowing that I probably didn't form a single proper sentence smoothly? I'll want to cry after it! And no one will know how bad it feels inside as I'm speaking and messing up - sometimes I can put it into words and other times I can't. Everyone on the surface will see that someone is having problems saying a few words, but I think none of those people well ever be able to understand and relate to me when I tell them how bad I feel; how crippling it is to me when I can't even say a fucking sentence without failing; they just assume it's not a big deal...BUT IT'S A VERY BIG DEAL!
Also, I get people saying to me that they don't recognise that I have a speech problem. Lies. I also get people saying that they don't think it's a big problem. Lies. I get people trying to bullshit me to calm me down and to make me feel better about myself by lying to me. If it's such a big problem to you, man the f*ck up and tell me so I can make the decision to stop talking to you and take my business elsewhere. I wouldn't be offended if you told me that my speech was a problem, but we would both try find a solution for my speech to not be a problem...but I would be offended if you insulted my speech.
I guess the point of this was to raise awareness. I'm not here to complain about my life, just here to give justification. I try not to tell people that I have the speech problem when I first meet someone, cause what's the point? They're going to try so hard not to get on my bad side, cause they'll feel bad if they end up offending me or saying something negative about me; it's why I don't tell them to begin with and I let them figure it out for themselves; it's why I want to see if they'll like me for who I am and what I do, and it's not them trying to say "He's got a speech problem, I better go easy on him".
I've done all I can! I have no reason to try and act like I'm sorry that my speech could cause problems, cause I already know it does and it's how the other person handles it! I'm not sorry that you're offended, and I'm definitely not sorry that it is making you impatient and could cause a problem in the workplace...I gave up caring about it being someone else's problem. I'm not sorry that you are annoyed that it's embarrassing you, if you think it's embarrassing you then you're a prick...cause in among all of this, how do you think I feel?
*Signing Out*
It's the cause for most of the emotional ups and downs, if not all of 'em. It is probably the only thing that influences my decision to do things based off 2 things...if I'm speaking well or if I'm not. Imagine that. Imagine that your speech is the main factor in deciding what you do that day; what shop you go into; what food/drink you get; or even what you say and how you say something to another person. It's really quite a f*cking pain!
Everyone sees my speech as it is, face value. They don't understand what is going through my mind or how I'm feeling when my speech goes haywire...which I can understand! I'm not expecting everyone to feel sympathy the second they hear me speak, just some compassion and empathy (knowing where i'm coming from on an emotional level) is all I need.
But there are certain things that happen to me in different situations, i'll outline a few for you:
1. Loss of eye contact: When my speech gets a bit messed up I go into a very short spasm trying to get the air and the word out; this causes me to look away or to find a comfort spot, to get the air out. I've had people say that my eye contact can lack, well now you know. And people think that I can't look people in the eye normally...well I could look at someone straight in the eyes and not lose focus forever when I am able to.
2. Greeting people in a different manner: When I try and fix my speech from a bad patch, I go slowly and do something called "slow-rated speech". But in a scenario where I can't do that (like my job) you have to get through things faster which means i need to speak faster. At times like that the air coming out of my mouth is much more prone to be blocked, hence "blocking" my speech from continuing. In instances like this I CANNOT SAY THE WORDS THAT MY MIND WANTS ME TO SAY...instead I have to try say something of the same meaning but is easier to say. Example: If I had to greet someone at a bar, and I'm meant to say "Hi there, how can I help you?" but I can't say that? I'd end up saying "Yo man, wassup?". Now I've been pulled up for the way that I can come across to people, but the bottom line is that I CANNOT HELP THAT! Y'all can say many times that "You need to say ________" but in reality...most of the time I CAN'T!
People don't know how it feels to even suffer from a speech problem like mine, for as long as I've had it for (13 years). It comes to a point, after having a speech problem for as long as I've had it for, that when you mess up your speech you want to eject yourself from the situation you're in, find a corner that no one can find you at, curl up and keep silent. But I can't do that, I don't do that, cause I know there's always a way around it...but is it a suitable way? It's upto the individual that's affected.
This gets me to the 3rd part, respect: I try to be friendly to everyone, it's who I am! I try to make people feel relaxed and comfortable in my environment, because I'm that sort of caring person. Maybe it's my social dynamics but to people it can be unacceptable...not like I do bad things or anything, just maybe it doesn't reflect on me very well. Such things as calling people "Sir, Miss" etc can be hard for me to say; some days they will be and others they won't, but I never take my chances because of how I feel when I mess up my speech.
And this is the thing too, people tell me that I need to do ___ and ___ and ____ but THEY NEVER KNOW how I feel when I do speak. Everyone is so quick to assume that it's not much to mess up your speech...but think about this: Do you feel really happy that you could say a few sentences without any errors? No? Course you don't, because every "normal" person can speak smoothly and never think of such problems. But me? Those are the times that I am blessed with! Those are the times that tell me "Chaz, it's not going to be such a bad day after all". Because of my speech my brain thinks slower when it comes to me speaking because it's adapted so quickly to it taking a while for me to speak.
My speech can give me such low confidence and self-esteem...in such a short space of time like 3 seconds; it's not the fact that i've made the mistake that always gets to me, it's the reinforcement that "The problem will never go away"...every time i f*ck up my speech it's like a reminder, just not a very uplifting one. And having this problem can make me really doubtful too; I'm always thinking about what could happen, always thinking about the next time it will fuck up...and unfortunately most of the time it'll fuck up the next time I speak. How do you think that feels? Everyone complains when they get the hiccups, and complain when they can't get the words to roll off their tongue in the right order...they can all fuck off with their small unimportant problems! How would you like it if you get fear of talking to a girl you like on the street, not because of fear of rejection but of fear if your speech will mess up? That's the stuff I gotta live with.
How does it feel? I have no freedom of speech. There, I said it! It cripples me from the inside when I want to do something that challenges me. When I go into a different place, I always worry about my speech and how I'll sound - it's a constant worry and a constant struggle.
It's feeling like this that gives me low confidence to do public speaking or to speak on the phone, sure I can do it no problem...but how will I feel after knowing that I probably didn't form a single proper sentence smoothly? I'll want to cry after it! And no one will know how bad it feels inside as I'm speaking and messing up - sometimes I can put it into words and other times I can't. Everyone on the surface will see that someone is having problems saying a few words, but I think none of those people well ever be able to understand and relate to me when I tell them how bad I feel; how crippling it is to me when I can't even say a fucking sentence without failing; they just assume it's not a big deal...BUT IT'S A VERY BIG DEAL!
Also, I get people saying to me that they don't recognise that I have a speech problem. Lies. I also get people saying that they don't think it's a big problem. Lies. I get people trying to bullshit me to calm me down and to make me feel better about myself by lying to me. If it's such a big problem to you, man the f*ck up and tell me so I can make the decision to stop talking to you and take my business elsewhere. I wouldn't be offended if you told me that my speech was a problem, but we would both try find a solution for my speech to not be a problem...but I would be offended if you insulted my speech.
I guess the point of this was to raise awareness. I'm not here to complain about my life, just here to give justification. I try not to tell people that I have the speech problem when I first meet someone, cause what's the point? They're going to try so hard not to get on my bad side, cause they'll feel bad if they end up offending me or saying something negative about me; it's why I don't tell them to begin with and I let them figure it out for themselves; it's why I want to see if they'll like me for who I am and what I do, and it's not them trying to say "He's got a speech problem, I better go easy on him".
I've done all I can! I have no reason to try and act like I'm sorry that my speech could cause problems, cause I already know it does and it's how the other person handles it! I'm not sorry that you're offended, and I'm definitely not sorry that it is making you impatient and could cause a problem in the workplace...I gave up caring about it being someone else's problem. I'm not sorry that you are annoyed that it's embarrassing you, if you think it's embarrassing you then you're a prick...cause in among all of this, how do you think I feel?
*Signing Out*
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Am I Too Happy?
There's ALWAYS a time I get someone asking me "Why are you happy all the time?" or they tell me "You're too happy". It's cool when it's given to me as a compliment but quite a few times I get it like it's a bad thing, like it's a bad thing to be happy. So I want to come clean on this and maybe people will understand me a lil' better.
So why am I happy?
Put it this way, why should I not be happy? Sure I'm not completely satisfied with my life but it doesn't mean that I should me angry and annoyed all the time! I might have not achieved everything that I want to achieve but I guess, right now, achieving them make me hopeful and give me a euphoric feeling.
Now when I'm around people I'm just that very happy amiable guy!! I may not have the best chat at times, I may not have the best looks and I may not have a few other material things...but I can make people feel really good about themselves - or at least get other people in a great mood!
You could say that's my purpose here? To make others feel really good about themselves - or to get other people in a great mood? Hell, I wouldn't care if that was what I was put down on this Earth for! That would be AWESOME!
But this does have a bit of a flaw...I hate shouting! Especially if it is other people shouting at me, they feel the need to shout because they feel that if they don't they won't get me to do something. Put it this way, would you respect the manager at your work if they shouted at you all the time? Or would you respect the manager that came upto you and spoke to you on a level you could both understand, calmly and firmly? 'Tis all to do with understanding social situations I guess.
But even if people do shout at me, I don't shout back...I save my energy ;). Also, people say I apologise too much...how? If someone tells me I've done something wrong, I apologise right? But this is where it can get confusing, some people may think I can get away with doing anything cause I "know how to apologise". I feel sorry for those that have to shout at people, that have to have something against a person...unless they've done something to you to REALLY strike a nerve there really should be no need to expend any energy on them.
As my workmate Orson said "Chaz you seem happy all the time, it cheers me the f*ck up!!".
So I guess to summarise: I am happy all the time because I have no reason not to. I feel happy because I am able to, and because I can. I hate it when people try and put me down because I am like this; this is most likely because they can't be in that state themselves.
Actually!! At training I'm know to "talk"...but what am I really doing? Are you to feel bad when you train? NO, you want to feel great when you train because you'll feel motivated and excited like nothing could put you down. I guess that's what I do, I make people feel great about themselves and this helps my crewmates train.
People can say ALL they want about the state I'm in. But for the one's that have to try put me down, why? Why don't you try and be in the mood that I am in? Give compassion to every person in the world, accept them like you would accept a best friend? Why aren't you doing this already? If you see me being happy as a problem, it's only a problem to you because you aren't happy! ;)
*Signing Out*
So why am I happy?
Put it this way, why should I not be happy? Sure I'm not completely satisfied with my life but it doesn't mean that I should me angry and annoyed all the time! I might have not achieved everything that I want to achieve but I guess, right now, achieving them make me hopeful and give me a euphoric feeling.
Now when I'm around people I'm just that very happy amiable guy!! I may not have the best chat at times, I may not have the best looks and I may not have a few other material things...but I can make people feel really good about themselves - or at least get other people in a great mood!
You could say that's my purpose here? To make others feel really good about themselves - or to get other people in a great mood? Hell, I wouldn't care if that was what I was put down on this Earth for! That would be AWESOME!
But this does have a bit of a flaw...I hate shouting! Especially if it is other people shouting at me, they feel the need to shout because they feel that if they don't they won't get me to do something. Put it this way, would you respect the manager at your work if they shouted at you all the time? Or would you respect the manager that came upto you and spoke to you on a level you could both understand, calmly and firmly? 'Tis all to do with understanding social situations I guess.
But even if people do shout at me, I don't shout back...I save my energy ;). Also, people say I apologise too much...how? If someone tells me I've done something wrong, I apologise right? But this is where it can get confusing, some people may think I can get away with doing anything cause I "know how to apologise". I feel sorry for those that have to shout at people, that have to have something against a person...unless they've done something to you to REALLY strike a nerve there really should be no need to expend any energy on them.
As my workmate Orson said "Chaz you seem happy all the time, it cheers me the f*ck up!!".
So I guess to summarise: I am happy all the time because I have no reason not to. I feel happy because I am able to, and because I can. I hate it when people try and put me down because I am like this; this is most likely because they can't be in that state themselves.
Actually!! At training I'm know to "talk"...but what am I really doing? Are you to feel bad when you train? NO, you want to feel great when you train because you'll feel motivated and excited like nothing could put you down. I guess that's what I do, I make people feel great about themselves and this helps my crewmates train.
People can say ALL they want about the state I'm in. But for the one's that have to try put me down, why? Why don't you try and be in the mood that I am in? Give compassion to every person in the world, accept them like you would accept a best friend? Why aren't you doing this already? If you see me being happy as a problem, it's only a problem to you because you aren't happy! ;)
*Signing Out*
Sunday, 7 August 2011
A start to the end of ChazB? Let's hope not.
Right now I'm feeling pretty uninspired to dance right now; I'm not dancing like my usual self anymore. I'm not feeling creative or free right now. I have a few reasons why this is happening...I'll go through them:
1. Overview of my breakin' from a different perspective
I'm really thankful that I have a crew where everyone is better than me, so with everything they teach me/criticize me on I'll get better and improve - this also helps when I'm creating new sets and they can help me with my form and give me different ideas and such.
Although, here is what I want to achieve from breaking...I don't want to be the generic, stereotypical b-boy that you see; in fact I don't want to be labelled as a European B-boy, or X bboy or Y bboy...I want to be ChazB and for me to be ChazB I have to feel free and look different because it is congruent to who I am as a person.
I don't like structure, in the true sense of the meaning, I feel it restricts me from doing things. I understand that people have their opinions on what every bboy should know, but does it mean you need to physically know them? Or does it mean you should be mentally in tune with them, without needing to be perfect at the physical part of them?
So then how did I choose to come to these conclusions? It was when I started to choose what I wanted to achieve as a dancer.
It started when I saw Y-Not (Rock Steady) dance, his toprock was just inspiring as f*ck, what he was doing on top I wanted to do everywhere...not just for toprock, I wanted to transcend his level of musicality into every movement I did. It was then I had that session that changed everything - I moved to the music and did not care how it looked or how stupid it was, I felt great about it.
When I really want to follow certain parts of the music, I came up with so many different movements that felt amazing to me even if they looked average or sloppy. It was then I had decided to go off and do whatever the hell I wanted. Obviously I work on the movements that helped me achieve some heightened level of musicality, just probably not enough because of what I feel.
Then this sort of all changed for me :/
It was when I was beginning to prepare for our shows at TITP that I was told to clean my stuff up. Obviously I understand that when you're doing shows you need to be clean and dynamic and the list goes on...so i needed to be cleaner.
After the shows were done I still needed to get my shit cleaner, so I practised my footwork and all sorts to make em cleaner so that when I did fuck around I'd look better.
What has this done to me? It's made me feel generic, sometimes look it too. I'm doing movements that aren't even like me to do, sure they may look cool on me and they may suit me but are they congruent with who I am and what I want to achieve? No. It's also made my mind claustrophobic; I find it harder than ever to go off now.
2. Too much shit happening in my life
Yep, there's too much shit happening in my life. I've been on a low because I feel that my speech problem could be getting worse, so I've already taken action to prevent it getting worse by doing breathing exercises and such - they're working great but my confidence to cross social barriers isn't helping my emotional state of balance.
I also found out some other information, I guess consciously I'm not worried about it but subconsciously I think it's taking a toll on me. You try and establish some control in your life so you get the most out of it, and yet what am I getting out of it now? I feel like shit when I'm not myself...unfortunately that's happening more often now, I'm just very good at hiding it.
____
So what do I do now? Do I go to an event just to cypher and film? Do I take time off from breaking to clear my mind and pursue other passions of mine? Or do I make a mini documentary about my dancing outlining the same things as here? I dunno, the documentary seems more appealing and emotional to the viewer. F*ck it, I'll do all 3. Looks like I could do with a break from it all.
Put it this way, in my scene I'm still a creation...a work in progress shall we call it. People see me battle one time and I do x and y, but then the next battle comes up and I do a and b. That's how it should be, predictable is a word I will never take hold of in this dance.
*Signing Out*
1. Overview of my breakin' from a different perspective
I'm really thankful that I have a crew where everyone is better than me, so with everything they teach me/criticize me on I'll get better and improve - this also helps when I'm creating new sets and they can help me with my form and give me different ideas and such.
Although, here is what I want to achieve from breaking...I don't want to be the generic, stereotypical b-boy that you see; in fact I don't want to be labelled as a European B-boy, or X bboy or Y bboy...I want to be ChazB and for me to be ChazB I have to feel free and look different because it is congruent to who I am as a person.
I don't like structure, in the true sense of the meaning, I feel it restricts me from doing things. I understand that people have their opinions on what every bboy should know, but does it mean you need to physically know them? Or does it mean you should be mentally in tune with them, without needing to be perfect at the physical part of them?
So then how did I choose to come to these conclusions? It was when I started to choose what I wanted to achieve as a dancer.
It started when I saw Y-Not (Rock Steady) dance, his toprock was just inspiring as f*ck, what he was doing on top I wanted to do everywhere...not just for toprock, I wanted to transcend his level of musicality into every movement I did. It was then I had that session that changed everything - I moved to the music and did not care how it looked or how stupid it was, I felt great about it.
When I really want to follow certain parts of the music, I came up with so many different movements that felt amazing to me even if they looked average or sloppy. It was then I had decided to go off and do whatever the hell I wanted. Obviously I work on the movements that helped me achieve some heightened level of musicality, just probably not enough because of what I feel.
Then this sort of all changed for me :/
It was when I was beginning to prepare for our shows at TITP that I was told to clean my stuff up. Obviously I understand that when you're doing shows you need to be clean and dynamic and the list goes on...so i needed to be cleaner.
After the shows were done I still needed to get my shit cleaner, so I practised my footwork and all sorts to make em cleaner so that when I did fuck around I'd look better.
What has this done to me? It's made me feel generic, sometimes look it too. I'm doing movements that aren't even like me to do, sure they may look cool on me and they may suit me but are they congruent with who I am and what I want to achieve? No. It's also made my mind claustrophobic; I find it harder than ever to go off now.
2. Too much shit happening in my life
Yep, there's too much shit happening in my life. I've been on a low because I feel that my speech problem could be getting worse, so I've already taken action to prevent it getting worse by doing breathing exercises and such - they're working great but my confidence to cross social barriers isn't helping my emotional state of balance.
I also found out some other information, I guess consciously I'm not worried about it but subconsciously I think it's taking a toll on me. You try and establish some control in your life so you get the most out of it, and yet what am I getting out of it now? I feel like shit when I'm not myself...unfortunately that's happening more often now, I'm just very good at hiding it.
____
So what do I do now? Do I go to an event just to cypher and film? Do I take time off from breaking to clear my mind and pursue other passions of mine? Or do I make a mini documentary about my dancing outlining the same things as here? I dunno, the documentary seems more appealing and emotional to the viewer. F*ck it, I'll do all 3. Looks like I could do with a break from it all.
Put it this way, in my scene I'm still a creation...a work in progress shall we call it. People see me battle one time and I do x and y, but then the next battle comes up and I do a and b. That's how it should be, predictable is a word I will never take hold of in this dance.
*Signing Out*
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
T in the Park 2011 - A Jalapeno Story
You know how sometimes the first sentence or paragraph of a story get people interested in something? Well this could be the case here, because T in the Park was probably the best experience I've ever had in such a long time! There was so much for everyone to do; and over the 4 days I was there a hell of a lot happened! From doing a late night show when completely hammered, to cockblocking a friend (supposedly), to watching your favourite acts perform, to generally having fun and getting smashed!! Anyway, I'll start from Friday, a very good place to start.
Friday: Setting off, Setting Up and Setting Down
I'm going to be honest and say I was kinda nervous about the whole trip. The fact that I've never been to a big festival before scared me a little, but I knew that I was with my crew - who have been there 2x before - and so the worry went away as the time was drawing near. I was meeting my crewmate Sam in town to go meet Maule, so he could take Sam, Tiger, Stevie and I to TITP.
After going to the meeting point (Tesco on Argyle St) for 2pm we had to wait about 40 minutes for Maule to turn up, then left another 30 minutes later (took 20 minutes to get all our shit in his car, then 10 minutes for resources aka booze!!
The trip to TITP was still funny as fuck, just all the random shit we all came out with was mental - Stevie always on about girls which made everything else we said after just something we wanted to remember!! On the way there we had to stop at TEESHIRTNATION. Maule had commercial Flyin' Jalapenos teeshirts to sell to get the crew name out there, in actual fact he sold quite a few which was dope! They look amazing too, I bought one myself and plan to get my name printed on it soon ;).
When we got to TITP we had to get our bands and our tents and such set up. It was a little wait for the band and was quite a trek getting to the spot that Kat and WongK had set up. It was the 2nd time I'd ever set up a tent, was a challenge but one I could defeat! :P. Stevie was mentioning that if we kept a tight circle of tents it means no one else will put a tent in the middle of us and ruin our social circle...so we moved our shit around accordingly and it proved effective!
The point of us being there in the first place was that we had shows to do in the Healthy T tent, 5 shows in total. In preparation for the shows we came up with quite a few routines, an order for each show and colours to wear for each show...so we looked different for a few but yet colour coordinated for the bigger shows!
It came to our first show, which was a freestyle, and I was a lil' nervous. I didn't want to fuck up cause I wanted to do the crew really proud, but then thoughts like this go through people's minds all the time when something like a show comes up.
The set up for the first show was a lil' strange, we had to wait a while for the last show to clean up...obviously they hadn't cleaned up everything which made it a lil' harder for us to dance...but it wasn't actually that hard when it came down to doing the job, we had hardboard to lay down - only problem was the stage was slightly slanted. But before the show started we had to arrange an order for this show (which was a freestyle), so Maule said "Pick a number between 1-12"...i picked 4, right after Sam...shit! That meant that for every blow up I could do Sam could do it better...no blow ups for me :(.
Then the first show came about, and I was hyped! I couldn't wait to go out and dance, didn't matter if I messed up in bits (which i definitely did in every show), I'd just have so much fun out there. And I did! I had a hell of a lot of fun that show, everyone kicked ass!
Since we were "staff", it meant that we got to get food from the staff catering service at breakfast lunch and dinner. After quickly rushing to get dinner after our show, we proceeded to relax and see what food they had. The food the catering staff had the whole 3 days was pretty good actually!! Was warm, filled you up, mixed choice, you couldn't go wrong with it! But walking through the event at night was really exciting; everywhere was lit up, everyone was having fun and you couldn't help but feel good from the experience. That night Jordan won a pink snake; we heard a bit of Artic Monkeys and Ke$ha and generally having fun drinking and such back up at the campsite.
That night myself and Sam had to share a 2 man tent, and boy it was a struggle! I only got about 2 hours sleep that night, if that! Didn't matter how much people were joking about it, it really was difficult to get any sleep in there. Ended waking up at 6am to get some food, water and orange juice from a local BP garage thinking that there is no way I'll be going back to sleep. I got back about 6:50am and suddenly went to sleep.
Saturday: Pushing the Boundaries
After not the best of sleep, I woke up at about 9:15am and headed for breakfast shortly after. A rehearsal was scheduled for 11am at the spot so that no one would be on the stage getting set up, so an early breakfast was on the agenda! Not everyone turned up to breakfast on time cause they turned up late, which meant rehearsals were later too...ended up getting about 10 minutes of rehearsal just for positioning and such.
There was a lot I wanted to do that day, a lot that I wanted to see too - House of Pain was a biggie for me! I also wanted to see how much I could get done that day so I could get the most out of TITP...instead of just dancing then doing nothing. :( Obviously my purpose there was different from what most other people's purpose was; everyone else had paid their £200 (roughly) to set up camp and get shitfaced but we paid nothing to do shows and get shitfaced! :P
Anyway, it came to our second show at TITP and this was the first of them that had a structure to it. Well, I say structure but there is always going to be something that doesn't go right...but why get stroppy and say the show went shit if something doesn't go right? I don't mean someone fell or crashed, i mean if an order is broke...how are they meant to know what order we have? It's not a program to a charity festival, it's a show! But anyway the show went on, and I thought that we were all better than the first show. We had a few routines here and there, which was pretty cool to be a part of! The crowds during the day weren't as hyped as the crowds at night, probably because the crowds at night have had more to drink and enjoy it more haha.
It was after the show that I REALLY wanted to go see House of Pain. Sam, Tiger, Nico and I were back at the campsite trying to figure out what way we should go to the NME stage to see them, but it took longer than we wanted to because we went a really long way round (a way that we thought was really short). We thought that we could get into a few places with our passes, but we were terribly wrong. We ended up jogging along a main road for 5 minutes to realise that we had to jog some more to get into the park again...by that time Nico's out of it, "Fuck this, I'm guna go back to camp!".
What a mistake he made, we made it to House of Pain with about 15 minutes to spare...and the atmosphere was electric! In actual fact we started rocking out in our wellies, Tiger trying to do footwork as always, I wouldn't be surprised if people did dance to House of Pain 'cause it was fucking awesome! Then Jump Around dropped, and everyone screamed in excitement...as did I! Throughout the song I felt really hyped and literally jumped around for the whole song!! I LOVE HIP HOP! It was the first act that I had actually wanted to go see, sure there were other acts that I saw before them that were OK (Ke$ha and Artic Monkeys) but HOP were mental! I'm really happy I got to see them, it's something I can cross off my bucket list.
That afternoon was a beautiful day, the sun was literally beaming down and it put me in a great mood. When we were walking from the NME stage (where HOP were playing) to our campsite we just took it easy, it was a Saturday and we had much more time to do whatever we wanted...all we need to do was turn up at dinner for some time before our shows. It's funny walking through the park, and seeing people of all ages getting wasted - you end up talking to anyone because no one gives a shit about anything there! It was one of the first times I ever felt like I was at a festival, just seeing all the people doing their own shit just having fun, guess that's what it's all about!
In the evening I wanted to see Slash but I lost my crew mates, so I had to watch most of Slash on my own - before I headed for dinner. And lemme tell you, that guy can still play! It was great to see him shredding, and when he played Sweet Child O' Mine and Paradise City...well put it this way it was EPIC! Everyone went nuts, well who wouldn't - it's a classic. But I went off to dinner by myself, 1. cause I didn't have anything else to do and 2. I was hungry! When I finished dinner that's when everyone else came, least I had a reason to stay you know?
The show we did was a blue show, and was our best show yet! Why? It had a better structure and better routines! If I'm correct there haven't been many routines in previous TITP performances from 2009-2010, but regardless of if there were or wern't I thought this show was great!! I felt that as the shows went on my solos got better; maybe I was relaxing into it I'm not sure.
It was after the show we all went to go see Beyoncé, and since we're "staff" we got to go through some special doors to be near the front. When Beyoncé came out, I was amazed! I had never seen a celebrity, with as much status as her, in the flesh like that before...it was electrifying! Getting to see her dance and play some of her most famous songs was mental, I can finally die happy and say I saw Beyoncé haha.
That night was pretty cool too! Jordan, Tiger, Sam and I went on a wee wonder through the festival at 11pm. We somehow lost Jordan and so me, Sam and Tiger just did our own thing. The rides there are too expensive but I still went on one of em...forgot how much fun they were. We were there until the main area closed, and proceeded to make our own way back to the campsite...until we passed a massive tent that had a lot of noise coming from it. Not knowing what was in it we asked one of the security guards that were guarding the back entrance what was in there. It was the main campsite bar - open from 12-2am. I use the "We are the Flyin' Jalapenos, we are dancers that are doing shows in the Healthy T tent to promote health and fitness", and we somehow managed to get in! Honestly, that sentence is a bunch of bullshit, I didn't think it would ever work!
We made it in anyway to find that it was just a bunch of random fanny's bouncing about not knowing WTF's going on. Somehow we had started a cypher, that lasted about 15 minutes, and it was honestly one of the strangest cyphers i've ever been a part of; throwing yourself about in wellies in the dry mud was strange as hell but fun! I tried to see if we could dance on stage but obviously the bouncers just don't trust anyone these days! So after cutting about there we just headed back to the tents, drank some more, set up Sam's tent that Nico had happily given to him as a spare, and went to sleep!
Sunday: The Final Shows and the Fun that came after!
It was the last day of shows, and I was relived it was all coming to an end! It's been great doing the shows, but you do feel great once the shows are over.
Unfortunately I don't remember much of Sunday, but I can tell y'all what happened with the shows and after the last show:
The first show we did that day was the Puma show. Basically someone hooked up with Puma and managed to send us gear from their new range all the way from London!! The only confusion was miscommunication with getting the gear from Maule's car and then to the show, I was fairly relaxed about all this but a few people wern't...but Davie helped calm me down even more - thanks dude! The result of that show wasn't as good as it could have been, because a few of us (including me) messed up at a few points and the show as a whole wasn't as strong as the blue show. Overall we tried to do a repeat of the blue show in the Puma gear and it didn't work out as well as we'd all hope it would - nonetheless I still found it fun, I didn't dwell on that show.
The last show was a total freestyle, come dressed in what you think is fresh and everyone just went out whenever they felt like doing so...obviously Stevie did help bring some variety to the show by putting together a little order, since he knows what moves we can all do and so he sorted us out accordingly. That show went great!! I thought it was our most hyped show of them all, my solos were much better that time and everyone else did really well too! As a gift to the crew we got a few crates of Tennents given to us and started drinking once we had finished our show, with Maule and myself declaring "LET'S GET FUCKIN' STEAMIN'!!!!" Even then the vibe at Healthy T was much better as we had stayed around to groove and pull a girl or 2 - well a few of us pulled anyway. Dinner was much more relaxed and happy that night, probably cause the relief was there and we could all properly relax and enjoy ourselves.
Walking back from the tent we saw the Foo Fighters, and a hell of a lot of muddy people! It had been raining pretty badly that day and just made the grass all muddy! People were sliding belly first in the mud, and it made Tiger curious to why people even did this...mate it's Scotland, shit happens here.
And the drinking still carried on going back to the tent, and at the tent. It was also decided that a lot of us would kick about the whole festival (main area and others), and see what kinda shit we end up getting into. I brought my bag with me, which had about 11 cans of Tennents and 2 bottles of Miller (for Sam), so we wouldn't need to buy any alcohol there...it's too expensive! Walking through the campsite singing "Ye canny throw yer granny off a bus" and "We'll be coming!" was one of the best parts of the trip! That wasn't the only place we sang that though, whenever someone mentioned "Oh ye canny" Michael would come out with some operatic "throw yer granny...off a bus!", it was one of the funniest things I'd seen!
We were told we could go perform on that stage in the main campsite bar, only to go and be rejected for no reason at all! We're then chilling outside the Cabaret tent to find that one of the staff recognised us, and asked if we wanted to do a show in there since a group had to pull out. We warned the people that were were pretty f*cking hammered but would still do the show, and it turned out to be amazing!! From past knowledge of the cabaret tent it would never fill up, it'd only get to about half full for a few acts...this time it was different...we packed out the whole tent! But after Michael could hardly stand for himself, it was kinda funny really - but at the same time it was kinda worrying too. After feeding him we all went back to the tent and just got even more hammered than normal! Oh what a night it was, I have never seen Tiger that wrecked ever.
Monday: Packing Up and Leaving
Not much to say at this bit, we all woke up later than normal, went scavenging. Tiger found 60 cans of beer, me and Stevie managed to get a 10 man tent and I went home early with Michael. I was originally going to go with Maule but I thought since Michael was leaving already I could go with him - was really nice of him to take me home too. I later found out that Maule got his car stuck in the mud and didn't get home until about midnight.
__
What can I say? I had the best time here!
One thing that I was a lil' annoyed at was that I did quite a bit of promotion for our shows, telling all the people I knew that were going to T in the Park to come see our show - I gave times and everything. So after all the promotion I did guess how many people I knew came to see us dance? Two...two people that I didn't even tell! Oh well, not that it has affected anything.
Hopefully we'll get the gig again next year, and we will be much better prepared for it. Roll on 2012!! ;)
*Signing Out*
Friday: Setting off, Setting Up and Setting Down
I'm going to be honest and say I was kinda nervous about the whole trip. The fact that I've never been to a big festival before scared me a little, but I knew that I was with my crew - who have been there 2x before - and so the worry went away as the time was drawing near. I was meeting my crewmate Sam in town to go meet Maule, so he could take Sam, Tiger, Stevie and I to TITP.
After going to the meeting point (Tesco on Argyle St) for 2pm we had to wait about 40 minutes for Maule to turn up, then left another 30 minutes later (took 20 minutes to get all our shit in his car, then 10 minutes for resources aka booze!!
The trip to TITP was still funny as fuck, just all the random shit we all came out with was mental - Stevie always on about girls which made everything else we said after just something we wanted to remember!! On the way there we had to stop at TEESHIRTNATION. Maule had commercial Flyin' Jalapenos teeshirts to sell to get the crew name out there, in actual fact he sold quite a few which was dope! They look amazing too, I bought one myself and plan to get my name printed on it soon ;).
When we got to TITP we had to get our bands and our tents and such set up. It was a little wait for the band and was quite a trek getting to the spot that Kat and WongK had set up. It was the 2nd time I'd ever set up a tent, was a challenge but one I could defeat! :P. Stevie was mentioning that if we kept a tight circle of tents it means no one else will put a tent in the middle of us and ruin our social circle...so we moved our shit around accordingly and it proved effective!
The point of us being there in the first place was that we had shows to do in the Healthy T tent, 5 shows in total. In preparation for the shows we came up with quite a few routines, an order for each show and colours to wear for each show...so we looked different for a few but yet colour coordinated for the bigger shows!
It came to our first show, which was a freestyle, and I was a lil' nervous. I didn't want to fuck up cause I wanted to do the crew really proud, but then thoughts like this go through people's minds all the time when something like a show comes up.
The set up for the first show was a lil' strange, we had to wait a while for the last show to clean up...obviously they hadn't cleaned up everything which made it a lil' harder for us to dance...but it wasn't actually that hard when it came down to doing the job, we had hardboard to lay down - only problem was the stage was slightly slanted. But before the show started we had to arrange an order for this show (which was a freestyle), so Maule said "Pick a number between 1-12"...i picked 4, right after Sam...shit! That meant that for every blow up I could do Sam could do it better...no blow ups for me :(.
Then the first show came about, and I was hyped! I couldn't wait to go out and dance, didn't matter if I messed up in bits (which i definitely did in every show), I'd just have so much fun out there. And I did! I had a hell of a lot of fun that show, everyone kicked ass!
Since we were "staff", it meant that we got to get food from the staff catering service at breakfast lunch and dinner. After quickly rushing to get dinner after our show, we proceeded to relax and see what food they had. The food the catering staff had the whole 3 days was pretty good actually!! Was warm, filled you up, mixed choice, you couldn't go wrong with it! But walking through the event at night was really exciting; everywhere was lit up, everyone was having fun and you couldn't help but feel good from the experience. That night Jordan won a pink snake; we heard a bit of Artic Monkeys and Ke$ha and generally having fun drinking and such back up at the campsite.
That night myself and Sam had to share a 2 man tent, and boy it was a struggle! I only got about 2 hours sleep that night, if that! Didn't matter how much people were joking about it, it really was difficult to get any sleep in there. Ended waking up at 6am to get some food, water and orange juice from a local BP garage thinking that there is no way I'll be going back to sleep. I got back about 6:50am and suddenly went to sleep.
Saturday: Pushing the Boundaries
After not the best of sleep, I woke up at about 9:15am and headed for breakfast shortly after. A rehearsal was scheduled for 11am at the spot so that no one would be on the stage getting set up, so an early breakfast was on the agenda! Not everyone turned up to breakfast on time cause they turned up late, which meant rehearsals were later too...ended up getting about 10 minutes of rehearsal just for positioning and such.
There was a lot I wanted to do that day, a lot that I wanted to see too - House of Pain was a biggie for me! I also wanted to see how much I could get done that day so I could get the most out of TITP...instead of just dancing then doing nothing. :( Obviously my purpose there was different from what most other people's purpose was; everyone else had paid their £200 (roughly) to set up camp and get shitfaced but we paid nothing to do shows and get shitfaced! :P
Anyway, it came to our second show at TITP and this was the first of them that had a structure to it. Well, I say structure but there is always going to be something that doesn't go right...but why get stroppy and say the show went shit if something doesn't go right? I don't mean someone fell or crashed, i mean if an order is broke...how are they meant to know what order we have? It's not a program to a charity festival, it's a show! But anyway the show went on, and I thought that we were all better than the first show. We had a few routines here and there, which was pretty cool to be a part of! The crowds during the day weren't as hyped as the crowds at night, probably because the crowds at night have had more to drink and enjoy it more haha.
It was after the show that I REALLY wanted to go see House of Pain. Sam, Tiger, Nico and I were back at the campsite trying to figure out what way we should go to the NME stage to see them, but it took longer than we wanted to because we went a really long way round (a way that we thought was really short). We thought that we could get into a few places with our passes, but we were terribly wrong. We ended up jogging along a main road for 5 minutes to realise that we had to jog some more to get into the park again...by that time Nico's out of it, "Fuck this, I'm guna go back to camp!".
What a mistake he made, we made it to House of Pain with about 15 minutes to spare...and the atmosphere was electric! In actual fact we started rocking out in our wellies, Tiger trying to do footwork as always, I wouldn't be surprised if people did dance to House of Pain 'cause it was fucking awesome! Then Jump Around dropped, and everyone screamed in excitement...as did I! Throughout the song I felt really hyped and literally jumped around for the whole song!! I LOVE HIP HOP! It was the first act that I had actually wanted to go see, sure there were other acts that I saw before them that were OK (Ke$ha and Artic Monkeys) but HOP were mental! I'm really happy I got to see them, it's something I can cross off my bucket list.
That afternoon was a beautiful day, the sun was literally beaming down and it put me in a great mood. When we were walking from the NME stage (where HOP were playing) to our campsite we just took it easy, it was a Saturday and we had much more time to do whatever we wanted...all we need to do was turn up at dinner for some time before our shows. It's funny walking through the park, and seeing people of all ages getting wasted - you end up talking to anyone because no one gives a shit about anything there! It was one of the first times I ever felt like I was at a festival, just seeing all the people doing their own shit just having fun, guess that's what it's all about!
In the evening I wanted to see Slash but I lost my crew mates, so I had to watch most of Slash on my own - before I headed for dinner. And lemme tell you, that guy can still play! It was great to see him shredding, and when he played Sweet Child O' Mine and Paradise City...well put it this way it was EPIC! Everyone went nuts, well who wouldn't - it's a classic. But I went off to dinner by myself, 1. cause I didn't have anything else to do and 2. I was hungry! When I finished dinner that's when everyone else came, least I had a reason to stay you know?
The show we did was a blue show, and was our best show yet! Why? It had a better structure and better routines! If I'm correct there haven't been many routines in previous TITP performances from 2009-2010, but regardless of if there were or wern't I thought this show was great!! I felt that as the shows went on my solos got better; maybe I was relaxing into it I'm not sure.
It was after the show we all went to go see Beyoncé, and since we're "staff" we got to go through some special doors to be near the front. When Beyoncé came out, I was amazed! I had never seen a celebrity, with as much status as her, in the flesh like that before...it was electrifying! Getting to see her dance and play some of her most famous songs was mental, I can finally die happy and say I saw Beyoncé haha.
That night was pretty cool too! Jordan, Tiger, Sam and I went on a wee wonder through the festival at 11pm. We somehow lost Jordan and so me, Sam and Tiger just did our own thing. The rides there are too expensive but I still went on one of em...forgot how much fun they were. We were there until the main area closed, and proceeded to make our own way back to the campsite...until we passed a massive tent that had a lot of noise coming from it. Not knowing what was in it we asked one of the security guards that were guarding the back entrance what was in there. It was the main campsite bar - open from 12-2am. I use the "We are the Flyin' Jalapenos, we are dancers that are doing shows in the Healthy T tent to promote health and fitness", and we somehow managed to get in! Honestly, that sentence is a bunch of bullshit, I didn't think it would ever work!
We made it in anyway to find that it was just a bunch of random fanny's bouncing about not knowing WTF's going on. Somehow we had started a cypher, that lasted about 15 minutes, and it was honestly one of the strangest cyphers i've ever been a part of; throwing yourself about in wellies in the dry mud was strange as hell but fun! I tried to see if we could dance on stage but obviously the bouncers just don't trust anyone these days! So after cutting about there we just headed back to the tents, drank some more, set up Sam's tent that Nico had happily given to him as a spare, and went to sleep!
Sunday: The Final Shows and the Fun that came after!
It was the last day of shows, and I was relived it was all coming to an end! It's been great doing the shows, but you do feel great once the shows are over.
Unfortunately I don't remember much of Sunday, but I can tell y'all what happened with the shows and after the last show:
The first show we did that day was the Puma show. Basically someone hooked up with Puma and managed to send us gear from their new range all the way from London!! The only confusion was miscommunication with getting the gear from Maule's car and then to the show, I was fairly relaxed about all this but a few people wern't...but Davie helped calm me down even more - thanks dude! The result of that show wasn't as good as it could have been, because a few of us (including me) messed up at a few points and the show as a whole wasn't as strong as the blue show. Overall we tried to do a repeat of the blue show in the Puma gear and it didn't work out as well as we'd all hope it would - nonetheless I still found it fun, I didn't dwell on that show.
The last show was a total freestyle, come dressed in what you think is fresh and everyone just went out whenever they felt like doing so...obviously Stevie did help bring some variety to the show by putting together a little order, since he knows what moves we can all do and so he sorted us out accordingly. That show went great!! I thought it was our most hyped show of them all, my solos were much better that time and everyone else did really well too! As a gift to the crew we got a few crates of Tennents given to us and started drinking once we had finished our show, with Maule and myself declaring "LET'S GET FUCKIN' STEAMIN'!!!!" Even then the vibe at Healthy T was much better as we had stayed around to groove and pull a girl or 2 - well a few of us pulled anyway. Dinner was much more relaxed and happy that night, probably cause the relief was there and we could all properly relax and enjoy ourselves.
Walking back from the tent we saw the Foo Fighters, and a hell of a lot of muddy people! It had been raining pretty badly that day and just made the grass all muddy! People were sliding belly first in the mud, and it made Tiger curious to why people even did this...mate it's Scotland, shit happens here.
And the drinking still carried on going back to the tent, and at the tent. It was also decided that a lot of us would kick about the whole festival (main area and others), and see what kinda shit we end up getting into. I brought my bag with me, which had about 11 cans of Tennents and 2 bottles of Miller (for Sam), so we wouldn't need to buy any alcohol there...it's too expensive! Walking through the campsite singing "Ye canny throw yer granny off a bus" and "We'll be coming!" was one of the best parts of the trip! That wasn't the only place we sang that though, whenever someone mentioned "Oh ye canny" Michael would come out with some operatic "throw yer granny...off a bus!", it was one of the funniest things I'd seen!
We were told we could go perform on that stage in the main campsite bar, only to go and be rejected for no reason at all! We're then chilling outside the Cabaret tent to find that one of the staff recognised us, and asked if we wanted to do a show in there since a group had to pull out. We warned the people that were were pretty f*cking hammered but would still do the show, and it turned out to be amazing!! From past knowledge of the cabaret tent it would never fill up, it'd only get to about half full for a few acts...this time it was different...we packed out the whole tent! But after Michael could hardly stand for himself, it was kinda funny really - but at the same time it was kinda worrying too. After feeding him we all went back to the tent and just got even more hammered than normal! Oh what a night it was, I have never seen Tiger that wrecked ever.
Monday: Packing Up and Leaving
Not much to say at this bit, we all woke up later than normal, went scavenging. Tiger found 60 cans of beer, me and Stevie managed to get a 10 man tent and I went home early with Michael. I was originally going to go with Maule but I thought since Michael was leaving already I could go with him - was really nice of him to take me home too. I later found out that Maule got his car stuck in the mud and didn't get home until about midnight.
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What can I say? I had the best time here!
One thing that I was a lil' annoyed at was that I did quite a bit of promotion for our shows, telling all the people I knew that were going to T in the Park to come see our show - I gave times and everything. So after all the promotion I did guess how many people I knew came to see us dance? Two...two people that I didn't even tell! Oh well, not that it has affected anything.
Hopefully we'll get the gig again next year, and we will be much better prepared for it. Roll on 2012!! ;)
*Signing Out*
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