I.aM.mE and ICONic Boyz

I'm just gonna go ahead and copy & paste this straight off my Tumblr. I've been doing these reviews of each episode of America's Best Dance Crew this season on my Tumblr. It's down to the final 2 crews. I'm trying to get my message out to every one who Googles up anything related to the show: Vote for I.aM.mE

Warning. This is an extremely long analysis.

What in the world? The true finals happened in the bottom 2. Phunk Phenomenon and I.aM.mE killed it this episode. ICONic Boyz? Not so much. However, ICONic Boyz should be worried for two reasons:

1. I.aM.mE was beyond spectacular and even had the judges on their feet applauding with uncontrollable smiles on their faces after their last performance.
2. History is not kind to the crew that gets the free pass into the finals. Each crew that has won ABDC had to fight in the Bottom 2 to reach the finals.

With that said, let's get onto the reviews. I'll start with the Kanye West challenge first.

• ICONic Boyz - They started off nice...except T-Money. The kid really has to start putting some energy into his movements. The boogaloo section was decent. The isolation section got lost after the head/shoulder isos. I'll admit, the dougie on the ground was sick. I actually got hyped when they did that. The dougie section was good. Nice touch at the end making it rain.
  My rating: 6.5/10
• Phunk Phenomenon - They truly deserved to be in the Top 2. The beginning with the dougie was hot. I smiled when Cassandra played the part of the gold digger and the guy's pulled out their empty pockets when the song went "broke, broke". I died. Then Bebo went into a hollowback while bobbing up and down on his arms. Nasty. Seriously, Bebo is the MVP of this crew. He is hands down amazing. The swing under and jumping over Trey was jaw dropping. The isolation was hot. They even threw in some housing. I applaud you Xclusive.
  My rating: 9/10
• I.aM.mE - WOW! What in the world...the one edge that I.aM.mE has over every single crew this season is the tracks they use. They have like an endless supply of dubstep that fit the song perfectly. The opening with the isolations blew my mind. Pacman bone breaking and tying his arms behind his back then going down in the bridge with Jaja walking over him was amazing. They then did my favorite move with the shoulder isolations. Beautiful. That head spin between the arms was amazing. The dougie wasn't as amazing (I just used that word three times in a row) as the isos but that's freaking hard to top. However, they brought it back up with the boogaloo section. When they had Emilio, Chachi, and Jaja on the ground between the other 3's legs wiggling their legs, my mind was overloaded with awesome. When they swung Chachi up and Jaja came under, I lost my mind. Then Emilio just had to land a perfect flip over everyone else to cement the greatest performance of the season.
  My rating: 11/10

I really wanted to see what Phunk Phenomenon would do for their final performance. Hope it pops up on YouTube some time soon.

• ICONic Boyz - The beginning was nice, but they lost too much time just walking down the red carpet. But once they got down to the dancing, wow. I have no complaints with what they did. I love crews that can house. These kids can house. The tutting was completely unexpected. It was actually pretty nice. This is what they should have been focusing on all season. They have good footwork. Their footwork won me over again. I loved them in the beginning of the season, but lost me in the middle until this performance.
  My rating: 8/10
• I.aM.mE - Anyone who likes dance should watch this performance. I don't even know what to say but WOW! The song itself...WHAT?!?! PERFECT! The beginning had NO beat and they STILL killed it. I don't even know what happened in the beginning. I don't even know what to call it. The swift movements. The intricacy. Just watch and you'll understand. But that was only the beginning of the sickest final performance since Quest Crew (and I'm a huge Poreotics fan). They proceeded to highlight everyone's individual strengths through elements. Emilio's tricking was dope. Chachi's grooving was hot. Jaja's strobing was so raw and ill. I have to say this...Brandon had the hottest track in his solo. His footwork to the piano was beautiful. I'm so glad Moon got his chance to show off his finger tutting. Best finger tutter in the world I tell you. Pacman...this man is made of rubber. I learned how to do arm waves through his videos. So freaking fluid. You think that's it? NO! They have more after their solos. What is that they do with their entire body and tutting? It's so amazing. It's GORGEOUS! The ending was perfect. Spelling out "I" "M' "E" on the floor at the end was the perfect touch.
  My rating: 27/10

DO THE RIGHT THING AND VOTE I.AM.ME! It's not because I don't want ICONic Boyz to be ABDC. It's simply because I.aM.mE deserves it so much. After I finally finish this post, I'm watching both performances in this episode about 1203912x more.

Readjustments and Recognition.

The irks of not being home for a semester or two is relearning the little "subway spots". I use the word "spot" because I can't think of a better word. On second thought, it could work What are these "spots" within the New York City subway system?

It's which car you take and where you stand, or sit, in the car. For example, let's say there's ten cars on the train (I actually have no idea how many there are. The old ones used to have eight. Never bothered to count the new ones with the electronic maps and everything). Now, most New Yorkers get on the car that will drop them off right in front of the staircase at the destination. What if you don't want to count the cars as the roll on by? Well, most people mark their spots on the platform. Another example is I stand by the garbage can and bench so that I can get off at 14th Street right by the stairs. Why is all this even important? Well, New Yorkers are lousy time managers and we need to make each second count. If you get off at the wrong spot at a busy stop, you can face the longest traffic jam ever.

On to my point now that I got the explanation done. I completely forgot my "spots" while going to 34th Street. I was completely off as I got off at 8th Avenue to transfer to the E train. I had to the E up two stops. I remembered the spot at 34th Street for me was either the far end of the platform or the middle of it. I chose to middle to be safe. Wrong. Far end.

But, all is well now. My second try ended up more successful (though, I was one door off from the stairs. Oh well. Close enough).

On top of relearning all my "subway spots", I also went back to the dance class I took last summer. I haven't been there since last August. There was this one instructor that took an interest in my participation in the class. He was always happy when I showed up and knew I liked tutting. However, that was months ago and I was ready to start all over again and try to fit in to the new crowd there.

To my surprise, two of the instructors there (including the one mentioned) remembered my face and welcomed me back. It felt nice to be remembered. I was only in that class for a summer and yet they still recognized me. A woman taking the class who I saw often over the summer also remembered me. She asked if I was with this big guy who also took the class. He was the only other guy I ever talked to at the class. I don't remember his name which makes me feel terrible. He looked like a Michael. So, I'll refer to him as that. Michael wasn't there. I remember he told me he went to school in Boston and he was trying to make the dance team. He was an extremely friendly and approachable guy. I hope he comes back and takes the class again. It'll make it feel like last summer all over again.

Dance class is going to eat at my wallet. Will need to find a job. I don't really go there to learn as much as I just go so I can be around other people dancing. I'm fine dancing by myself, but it's nice to be around others.

Keep On Survivin' and Free Writing in the Mornin'

It's 6 AM right now and I, for whatever stupid reason, am not sleeping. I should be snoozing away. Judgement day didn't happen and I'm sure there's a paranoid preacher out there locking himself in a shelter somewhere.

I should be sleeping to wake up for church. A goal I set for myself this summer is to grow spiritually away from college. It's weird. I came into college thinking it'd be a spiritual desert away from my home church. That was my biggest challenge first semester of freshman year: prioritizing church above all else. I've been reaching it (can't say I've accomplished it).

However, the moment I go home, I am no longer motivated to go to church. Maybe it's because I've grown to like the smaller church atmosphere at school. I go to a super church at home. Super in the sense that it's huge. I roll my eyes every time I begin to think of all the cliques and socializing that is more apparent than God Himself at my home church. I don't grow spiritually there. Am I giving it a good honest chance? Maybe not. I already have this bad image of my church in my head.

I've kind of lost track of what I'm saying. But it's 6 AM and my brain is scrambled eggs right now. Back to growing spiritually this summer. One of the reality checks that's hit me in the head is that despite my eagerness to serve, I lack the wisdom to go with it. I think I'm solid when it comes to the Bible. I mean, I know my stuff but I can't spout out verses for everything. Solid. Not great, not terrible, but just solid. I'm still developing my views on certain topics that are touchy subjects in Christianity. I can offer my opinion, but I can't give you a definite answer.

This is quite the informal post I'm putting up. I actually had a whole different topic in mind. I'll save that for my next post. I guess I just rambled on with the hype over the end of the world passing by. My stomach won't stop growling, so I'm going to eat a doughnut (donut?) and sleep for 2 hours. What was I thinking making a blog post at 6 in the morning? I'm not delirious right now. Just free writing. Ok, not complete free writing since I kind of looked back to fix spelling errors. I may have missed some grammatical thingermabobs here and there. Cross my fingers I didn't because I need to sleep and can't afford to look back and read this all over again. Good night/morning?

Hysteria and the End of the World

The end of the world is apparently coming in three days.

I was not aware of this at all until just now. I've seen signs of "Christ is returning" and "The Rapture" but I've been ignoring them thinking it was more "I'm going to force my beliefs down your throat" kind of Christians.

But I did not know the prediction was May 21, just three days away. What happened to all the December 21, 2012 mumbo jumbo?

This is what I found online:

The first proof is based on Genesis 7:4, when God said to Noah: "Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."

When God referred to seven days, he meant both seven days and seven thousand years, because "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." The flood occurred in 4990 BC. Seven thousand years later is 2011.

How do you get 7000 years from seven days? That's just assumption. If you're going to quote Genesis, why not quote what the Bible says only two chapters later?

And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
- Genesis 9:11

Boom. Take that Harold Camping (that's the preacher who predicted this May 21 thing). The second reason is even worse than the first.

The second proof looks at the significance of the number of days between the Crucifixion and May 21, 2011.

There are 722,500 days between these dates. 722,500 is a significant number because it is composed of the significant numbers 5x10x17x5x10x17. Five signifies redemption; ten signifies completion; and 17 signifies heaven. The numbers represent the day of redemption (5) and the end of the Christian era (10) and the ascent to heaven (17) -- and these factors are doubled for added significance.

Really? Why multiply it only twice? Why not three times? I'm pretty sure three is a significant number in the Bible as well. That's the amount of times Peter denied Jesus. That's how many times Jesus prayed in Gethsemane before he was arrested. That's how many days it took for Jesus to resurrect. So why two? Why not multiply those three numbers three times? Again, mumbo jumbo.

It's like those statisticians saying Player A is the first player to record at least 32 points, 17 rebounds, and 14 assists in a single game. Of course he's going to be the first when you make it to the exact number of his stats. Not sure if I made my point clear there. Numbers can be played with is what I'm trying to say I guess.

So to anyone who is worried about impending doom, I say don't worry. This thing will blow right by just like Y2K did.

School and Summer

I was going to have a giant checklist of my summer plans and everything, but what checklist am I going to put up if I have nothing planned?

I'm just going to make one promise to myself (two if you count finding a job as one).

Come back to school in August being a better person.

Reality hit me this semester. Really this past month or two. I needed this reality check more than anything else.

The Man Who Died and The World's Celebration

My nap was rudely interrupted by drunk white girls chanting "USA! USA! USA!" outside my window and singing (quite poorly and even messed the lyrics up) Star Spangled Banner. I thought it was some drunk frenzy of patriotism. Leave it to Facebook to catch me up on everything.

Osama Bin Laden has been "found" (or killed...I don't know which one) dead.

The thing that gets to me is all these people rejoicing. I don't think I had one shred of happiness when I found out. Yeah, I live in New York City. I was a couple of blocks down from the World Trade Center. I even wrote a paper two months ago about the effect that the War on Terror had on the city. So, I can't even say that the man who died didn't affect me.

But, I will repeat it: I don't think I had one shred of happiness over his death.

I was beginning to think I just had no sense of patriotism. The man who our country deemed the most wanted man is finally dead. Only a small handful of people on the social networking sites were publicly ashamed of people's rejoicing. I'm sure there are more people, but they didn't make it public. Then, my friend posted a link to a blog on another friend's Facebook status (which was rather weird since he was describing Bin Laden being killed like it was Call of Duty). For those too lazy to click and read, I'll try my best to condense it.

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?
- Ezekiel 18:23

In a nutshell, if I applied this verse to the current situation, then it would have been most pleasing to God if Bin Laden repented and lived. We rejoiced over the death of a man. God wept. That's how the blog put it.

I don't care if that man who lost his life today was the world's most heinous of men. I just can't rejoice like how probably 90% of Americans are rejoicing.

Just some food for thought.