negative, ghost rider, the pattern is full. the weather has turned and we finally have pool days. we haven't quite come to beach days yet but next week all will be well and sand will find my toes and inevitably, my car. weather permitting of course. i miss the summers of just going to the beach, to the pool, to the jacuzzi, then going out to placate hunger while gunky and still chlorinated. so basically i miss high school. but this weekend high school came back for a short visit.



we had two pool days. we played marco polo. fish out of water! we played ultimate frisbee/football. we met two little girls who played three flies up with us. one of them was crushed by adam. imagine a huge guy diving over a ten year old girl to catch the ball. he is, how we say, a little competitive. he is, how we say, hard to bring out in public. the mom was probably ready to come beat that ass and i was fearing for the little girl's continued existence on this earth. but she was tough and survived the impact. if i ever have kids, i am so not letting adam "play" with them. "uncle adam" won't be allowed near them until they are thirty. maybe fifty if they happen to be girls. safety first kids.



i'm tempted to write a review of gene's performance but i am afraid that my words would only do a great injustice to gene's work. so i will not review, only comment. and congratulate. plus, my reviews tend to be rather sarcastic and caustic or mocking. and gene is none of these things. so my review of gene's performance on saturday was that it was "good." taken however you like. i would like to use bigger words such as "excellent, breathtaking, eye opening, panty dropping, stupendous" but then i would be coming close to reviewing it. we have a video of the entire thing, hopefully that will be put up later, for your enjoyment. if we could bottle gene up and sell him i feel like we could solve all the world's problems. he may suffocate and die a terrible gasping death but it would be a small price to pay for eternal joy.



here's what i will review though: bustagroove 2003. we are dance show whores. it's probably not a good sign when you know the names, histories, occupations, dance styles, social security numbers of people you've never met. hong's a bigger whore than i am, but that's only because he's friendlier and gets out more. plus he's a model. but anyway, this was our third or fourth bustagroove. the first half was wack, devoid completely of energy or innovation. the second half was dope. they back-ended all the awesome groups for the end and it was hit after hit. the right groups won. kaba irvine is off the hook, nobody can compare to their pure dancing skills. they are so tight. everyone moves together, twenty as one. it really has to be seen to be believed. i feel like people don't appreciate how freaking hard it is to coordinate the most minute movements of a group of people so that they look identical. then again, i always fucked up left and right so i'm easily impressed. but seriously, some of these dance groups are tiiight. with three "i's."



the dancing out here however, is in my very humble opinion, stagnating. it's hit a point where most everything is starting to look alike and the moves and styles are being recycled. it's hard to get better each and every year once you've hit a technical plateau. it becomes much more about showmanship and entertainment after you get past the technical aspects of these type of shows. these people are the best, these groups are doing the "hottest" coordinated hip hop dancing. but that growth is also slowing down because it's hard to shock and awe people anymore. the moments of "holy shit!" come fewer and farther in-between. then again, this may just be because i'm a dance whore and have seen too many performances. but i feel like there needs to be another giant leap, another huge evolution in where all this goes. so that it's not just "the same ole shit" year after year. then again, there's nothing wrong with that because the same ole is enough for me. it's also exciting to think about how dope funktion and dance2xs are gonna be in one year, two years, five years. i mean, the west coast is the place where it all started but now it's spread to the midwest and there's so much potential there, as far as for growth of the dancing, the audience, the everything.



my question, for real though, is how the fuck do these irvine kids have the time to study and to dance all at the same time? i can barely sleep and eat without running out of twenty four hours a day. do these people not study? are they just so good they don't have to practice much? what's the deal?