My name is Benjamin Lei AKA B-Boy Sleepless. I am a dedicated and well trained performance artist who has exquisite tastes in music, fashion and classic literature.
To Drug, or not to drug?
Welcome to the last week of this blog (T-T )
I am gonna miss all of ya ladies and gentlemen.
to be very honest, I probably would miss the ladies more.. xD
if any ladies want to meet up and have a romantic dinner after class, do not hesitate and leave a comment below 🙂
anyway..
I salute you if you are actually gonna read it.
If you really are, I highly encourage you to finish it all and most importantly, watch the video below.
This week I want to talk about drug.
You are probably wondering why I am talking about drug all of a sudden.
People take drug for many reasons: sickness, sport enhancement, muscle building, entertainment, etc.
There are the good drug, the bad drug, and all kind of drugs.
Particularly, I want to talk about the drug that is surrounding the dance culture. The impression of drug around the hip hop culture probably would give a negative impression to you. Mental imaginary of drug addicts and drug abuse could easily come to mind.
The entire hip hop culture is shrouded with this negativity which I disgustingly hate. We constantly see hip hop artists surrounded in a cloud of smoke is an example. Demeaningful lyrics like “f**k B**tches, get money” from artist like Lil Wayne does not help either. We need more positive lyrical artist such as KRS-1 to produce conscious rap to enlighten and educate our minds.
Drug can be just as enlightening as conscious rap if it is used in the right dosage and in a controlled setting. In my opinion, we determine a drug is bad largely due to the negativity that is associated with it. The problem with it is the impression we are taught that drugs are bad, but what about alcohol and coffee? Most people think they are not classified as drug. However, if you break it down, alcohol and coffee contain chemicals that could either slow down or heighten our perceptions. Is it not the same thing that what the so called bad drug does? I personally think when you use anything abusively, it will do you more harm than good. It is not the drug but the user is to blame.
Did you know coffee company Maxwell invented the culture of coffee break with behavioural psychologist J. B. Watson in the 70s just boost product sale? What is better to sell a product that is addicting and is cooperated into the society’s culture? This just an example that I want you to take a different perspective on looking at what we are so conformed to see everyday.
I was taught bad drug is bad growing up and I never question much about it. In fact, I was highly against it too. However, it was until I saw this video from Cosmologist Carl Sagan. He wrote an essay called Marijuana reconsidered. The following video is the said essay in audio form:
In the essay, Sagan mentioned he was able to understand things that he was not familiar with before such as contemporary arts and social issues during the use of cannabis. He described it can even enhance sexual experience. Therefore, my curiosity has led me to give this drug a try. Although I did not experience what Sagan did, I did feel a strange calmness when I was sitting on my bed examining the intricate pattern that I have never noticed before. Then I fell asleep pretty soon and I had a surprisingly good sleep that night.
During the calmness when I was under the influence of cannabis, I reflect upon Sagan’s essay and agree that “The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.” During my introspection of examining the intricate relationships between everyone in relation to our society as a whole, I conclude that We are so caught up in our daily life that we are unable to step back and relax for a moment. Cannabis should be used is such occasion because of its surprisingly ability to provide the relaxation we rightfully deserve, the sensation of calmness and euphoria.
At the end, I will leave you with this famous quote from Carl Sagan,
“ If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
(I bet Sagan thought of the connection between a apple pie and the universe while smoking up and staring at a apple pie in front of him.. xD)
Creativity or Plagiarism ?
Whhaaaaaaaaatttttsuuuup, folks! miss me?
i know you do! (especially the ladies) ( σ`∀′)σ
its me again!
your Manly Man Benjamin AKA BBoy Sleepless here!
Today, I want to talk about a form of plagiarism in breakdance. We all know plagiarism is a very serious offence in term of academia. Does plagiarism happen in breakdance? Yes! It does. In fact it happens all the time. Let me provide you with some background on what plagiarism looks like in breakdance. When a Bboy copy another Bboy’s move, we would refers the copier as a “Biter or he is “biting” other’s move. It is very similar to plagiarism that a student uses ideas from other materials without citing the original sources. You might be wondering since everyone is learning the same foundation moves in the beginning, wouldn’t that make everyone a biter already? To avoid this confusion, Bboys and Bgirls tend to refer others as biters when they copy other’s signature move. A signature move usually consists of some original movements that you do not see other people do. It might be based on a specific foundation move but it looks different because of the extra and unique movements added in.
Here is a clip of a recent event about a two world famous bboys calling one another a biter. You can think of biting as a form of copyright infringement. Since these extra and unique movements are a symbol of creativity, people in the breakdance community tend to be very sensitive to any form of biting. Why creativity is valued so highly, you might ask. Creativity essentially separates breakdance from other sport events like gymnastics. In gymnastics, everyone is doing the exact same moves. You are graded on how perfect and flawless you can perform. People do judge breakdance on execution but also how unique and creativity you can use your moves to make something new while going with whatever music that is playing at the time. This is what I think one of the best quality of breakdance. It is virtually limitless. After you have learnt the foundation of the dance, you can mold it into any shape and form you want. In this process, you are making something that is truly your own and original. People are usually very sensitive about the subject of biting because of the enormous time and effort they put in creating their signature moves. In my opinion, Benji is fairly accurate about the current trend of breakdance. Most people are doing similar moves and there is not enough creativity expressed through the dance in general.
Here is a video clip form a late 90’s dance documentary, Detours. It features 4 famous underground dancers. You can see they really took their creativity to the next level. Their movements are so unique that it does not look like any conventional form of dance. A lot of people argue that the loss of creativity is because of the rapid growth of that internet. People are sharing information so fast that it allows everyone to know everyone’s moves. People no longer think hard to be creative. Instead, they would search online and just copy others’ moves. Now here is my question to you: What do you think we can do to replenish the creativity in the community?
What is talent?
Hello folks!
How are you this week?
Your manly gentleman Benjamin Lei AKA BBoy Sleepless here!
With the blog post and rough draft of essay due, everyone is rushing again at the last minute to finish it right?
Dont’t worry. embrace the stress and adrenaline rush! turn it into your energy and write with the power of a thousand exploding sun! ლ(́◉◞౪◟◉‵ლ)
So this week, we are going to talk about what exactly is talent.
First of all, lets take a look at what the Webster dictionary has to say about the definition of talent.
Now take a look at this dance performance from a chidren dance group.
WoW! These kids are good, aren’t they?
You are probably thinking these kids are pretty talented right?
However, if you look back at the Webster dictionary’s definition of talent, what exactly is the “special ability” that allow these kids to perform so well?
We are judging these kids as talented dancers because we are relatively comparing to ourselves, and people we know that who are not able to do these amazing dance moves. It is likely that these kids put in countless days and nights to perfect their skills in order to achieve such high level of performance. If we think about talent this way, that special ability pretty much boils down to hard work, tremendous amount of repetition and practice.
Since we are always judging and comparing people’s abilities along a relative scale, we hardly aware the scale even exists. Also, if the differences of what we are comparing are really big and noticeable like those kid dancers, it is easy for us to make a conclusion about how “talented” they are. However, when we are asked to judge a skill set that is very common and has minuscule difference between people, it became difficult for us to judge or even confusing. For example, how talented are you using a pencil? You probably think using a pencil is hardly a talent. Everyone who has been to school probably knows how to use one. Do you think you have the “special ability” that allow you to write so well? Probably not. You are so good at it because you already have 10 or even 20 years under your belt of rigorous training of using a pencil. You have long forgotten the struggle you had when you first start learning how to use one. You do not think it is a talent because it has already become second nature to you.
Perseverance and hard working are the exact points I want to bring out in this week’s entry. Without these two ingredients, no matter how talented you are in doing something, it is nearly impossible to succeed. I have seen a lot of talented dancers who are able to pick up difficult moves in a short amount of time. However, people who are struggling in the beginning are also able to achieve their desired dance skills when they are willing to put in the time and hard work to peruse the skill sets. I am the perfect example. I suck at dancing when I first started. It was the “talented” people who inspired me to get better and continue to train until now.
that’s it for this week folks!
So.. what is your “talent”? 😀
BBoy or EBoy?
how is it going folks?
Late night rushing to finish the blog last minute right? (́◕◞౪◟◕‵)
Anyway…
Its me again! Your manly gentleman Benjamin Lei AKA BBoy Sleepless!
Today, we are going to talk about the exciting topic of what is BBoy and EBoy.
The term, BBoy, is often used to refer to people who breakdance. (If you are a girl, you would be a BGirl.) Pretty straight forward right? Now you might ask what about breakdancer? The answer is NO! Why?
The term, BBoy, originated from the early 70s when Jamaican-American DJ Kool Herc would play these “breaks” from a song on a vinyl record. Breaks are parts of a song that there are no lyrics but only music. The reason to play these breaks was to excite people to dance. People who dance to these breaks were then named Break Boys, or BBoys in short. Sometime they are refereed as Breakers too. After the dance was popularized, it started to appear in main stream media and BBoys were called breakdancer on the media. Later on, real BBoys who are dedicated to their art form and culture started to refer those BBoys who are not dedicated as breakdancer, and those who use breakdance as a mean for their personal gains.
With how easy it is to connect to the internet nowadays, it gives rise to another form of breakdancer called EBoy. It stands for Electronic Boys. EBoys is often used to refer to people who spend way too much time on the internet all day, especially on YouTube or other breakdance related forums.
What does a EBoy comment look like? Here is one.
Since these people spent too much time online, all they do is leave comments on BBoy related social media like YouTube and forums. Their comments are extremely bias. They often made it sounds like they are very knowledgeable on the subject but in reality they are not. Here is another example of EBoy comment.
Since they think they know everything, they love to argue that although certain famous international level BBoys are very good at what they do, they do not know the basic foundation of the dance. At this point, they are establishing themselves as a person who is well educated in the art form, but it only shows how much they do not know. If they are dedicated enough to the art and culture, they would look for evidences to find out whether these famous BBoys are really lacking of foundations. After all, Google is only so far away, but these EBoy are too lazy to because they think they know everything. If they would simply type these famous BBoys’ names in the search bar, they would find interviews of them. These famous BBoys are shown to be very skilled at their foundational moves. The specific moves they do are simply a personal choice. After learning all of the basic foundation of the dance, they have found a specific area of interest and they spent most of their time since then to train those moves. They are famous for their moves because the hard work and training they put in.
Here we have it boys and girls! Now you understand what REAL BBoy means!
Remember! Be a REAL BBoy or BGirl!
Don’t be a breakdancer or EBoy!
A GLORIOUS PATH TOWARD ELIGHTENMENT
YOOOOooooooooooooOOOO~!
This is your manly gentleman Benjamin AKA BBoy Sleepless here!
Before I start to bore you to death with all the text book mumbo jumbo facts about breakdance, I would like to tell you my story of how I connect with breakdance so you can get to know me personally. SO! Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, I present you my epic life journey of obtaining enlightenment through one of the greatest elements of Hip-Hop, Breakdancing.
Once upon a time, my known universe begins with two absolute powers, my all powerful mom and dad. Together, they are as powerful as Gandalf the White!
Their mystical power of “YOU SHALL NOT PASS” restricted and limited my desires every step of my ways growing up: go to bed, go to church, don’t touch this, don’t do that, etc. The list can go on for eternity. I was also naive enough to not question these laws of my universe so everything was in its working order until now.
However, everything was going to change when I encountered the game changing element of my universe, breakdance. I have never felt so alive ever before when I dance. The music, the dance movement, and everything about it fascinated me like I was witnessing the rebirth of Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, my fascination of breakdance has also greatly upset the balance of my known universe due to my parents’ constant interventions.
For the first time in my life, I step up to challenge the absolute authority of my parents. I engaged my parents with a series of supernatural battles of godly proportions!
(I am kidding of course.) In another words, we sat down and discussed the matter at hands like serious adults. What different from my approach was that I questioned my parents’ actions with careful examinations like how I would study the music and moves of breakdance. I also explained my motives with logical reasons like how I would explain certain dance moves to those who are learning them.
Thank to the intense mental training of breakdance, my parents and I have reached mutual understanding since the dawn of time! I have also gained a deeper understanding of my parents that all their actions were all done out of love and care for me. My parents are no longer the absolute power in my universe; instead, they are my kind advisers of life and the dearest people I have come to know. I have evolved from my naive self and attained enlightenment through breakdancing. I shall apply the same degree of diligence to whatever challenges I may face in the future.
Thank you for reading! Freshest contents coming soon!
what?! Not enough actual breakdancing?
here! Have a clip of me breakdancing! Enjoy! 😀
benjaminsclei 