Self Journal Day 4

I tried One Journal and keep it to myself but that keeps me lazy.
So I decided to get back to this again.

Day 4 (Restarting Blog).

Succeeded in balancing work and working out for more than 3 days. Hence, the restart of this blog with the hopes that I can keep this consistent.

For now, the results of my work and work out is 50-50. Both are taking gradual improvements.

Until Monday (23rd) I will keep up with my workout to end my 6 day training menu. On Monday, I will update the menu. The new menu will have inner and outer muscle training module. It will change each day. I think the inner muscle menu should be combined with isolation training. This should gain me more control of my body. I would do my isolation training combined with rhythm training. This is because I need to drill rhythm into my body. As for inner muscle training, the focus should be on legs/waist, core body, and shoulders.

Pop training should be after completing this new training menu.

For now, I need to focus on improving the basics.

Rhythm training that I've learned from Hideki is easy to do while I commute to work. Gradually understanding the difference in rhythm in music. I should check in with Hideki to see whether I'm on the right rhythm.

Power of Imagination (inspiration from manga)

Lately, I've been reading this manga called "Baki the Grappler", which is a manga about various fighters fighting to become the strongest creature on the planet.

Sounds very similar to Dragon Ball Z right? But its totally different.
It is similar in a sense that the scale of the story and the power of the characters are unbelievable. They jump high, destroys elements like steel and concrete without any injury or problem, their skin stops bullets, bleeds continuously but they some how recover, the earth shakes with anger, etc.

Whats different is that this manga has beautiful drawings and introduces body mechanics, martial arts teachings and practices pretty legitimately to a point where it convinces you that some of the things they do is actually possible in real life.

This manga began to gain my interest once again because I've started to workout. This manga is definitely has the power to attract people who favors inhumane strength and fighters.

Within the recent episode I've read, there was a mindset I felt dancers can use more to improve their dancing abilities.

So! the story is about a Karate Master who is training to create a strike faster than the speed of sound by twisting every possible joints in human body (yea I know it sounds ridiculous lol).

The Karate master knows that there are 27 joints in human body. Thus, by twisting them in a certain speed, it will get him to create a strike faster than the speed of sound.

While he was training with his friend (Pony tail Kung Fu Master), the friend's master enters.
As he enters, he states that compare to Chinese martial art with 4000 years of history, Karate is like a little baby that barely knows anything about how to use their body.

This 145 years old man (yea I know, 145 is ridiculous) proves this statement through a demonstration. The old man tells the pony tail Kung Fu master to hold an egg attached to a string.
The old man strikes with his single arm, slicing the egg clean due to his unbelievable speed.

So the manga explains the mindset that I felt very useful for dancers after this demonstration. Please read the   episode !!!!
( Its in English. Read from the computer and click right to continue reading) right after the old man's strike.




PLEASE READ THE MANGA AND THAN CONTINUE TO READ MY BLOG :D






 Ok,,,,,,


Wasn't that cool? lol

 " Imagination has no boundaries...No limits"

I think we dancers applied this method to improve as a dancer.

Especially the O.Gs. They had no teachers or example to learn from. They created movements out of pure inspiration from their surroundings/environment.
Sure some may have been influenced by other dance forms. But how did they create those movements?

When I have conversations or a lesson with OGs, they have tenancies to teach their dance movement through a form of imitation rather than giving specific steps or angles.

For example, lets look at my two mentors, Jazzy J and Future Ninja.

When Jazzy J teach, like hand placements for example, he never says "ok your hands should be around your waist area" or "its 45 degrees to the right". Instead he say things like "Place your hands on the table", "you are surrounded by walls".

As he says things like that while demonstrating the movements, you can really see the table or the wall that he is creating from his imagination.
This makes his movements more mysterious and interesting.











Future Ninja is, in my humble opinion, a waving master of the East Coast.
When he taught me waving, he did not break the movement down by showing the order of how to bend the arms.
Instead he said "imagine that you have a long plate that has water inside, when you rock it side to side, how does it feel?"

When Future Ninja taught me this concept at Pop Shop, I was bugging out. Because I really FELT THE WATER......This allowed me to dance to the music while imagining the infinite possibilities of how the water changes its shape.

It felt great because ideas came out infinitely out of no where and I was able to move the way I never expected to do.


Knowing this power of imagination, the episode of Baki the Grappler made a click inside my mind.

There should always be some kind of basics, foundational movements that we can follow in order to practice any form of art.
But to truly appreciate the art and evolve as an artist, I think people should get back to this kind of mentality.

We are now so accessible to many information.
It is EASY to learn something or find the answer, just GOOGLE it.
We become smarter, and try to look for the right answers instead of dreaming.

But doing so will decrease our endurance, patience, appreciation towards things that takes time to understand its value, like dancing.

To be the best student of this culture (like how Mr. Wiggles tries to be) to help the evolution of this culture, I believe it is important to believe in the power of imagination.

The cleanness of movements is not the only thing that matters!
Stay original.

Peace and God Bless

SUGALOO

3 reasons why I would never forget this day.

There are 3 reasons why this day is very memorable in my life since I was born.

Let me tell you why.

1. Its my mothers birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

2. 6/25/2009 was my brothers graduation day.

3. It was the day Michael Jackson began his journey to the other side.

6/25th three years ago was pretty emotional day.

First, my brothers and I were happy to congratulate our mothers birthday.
Than we attended my brothers high school graduation. Although my brother caused numerous issues at high school, we were all happy that he graduated.

Than, Micheal left.

Man, what a shock.
I couldn't believe.....no, DIDN'T want to believe that it was true.

Iconic figure of the century passed away on one of the happiest day for my family.

My emotion was confused the whole day.


Its painful that we humans only realize the true importance of something once we loose it.....just like how Micheal sings to us through his beautiful song, Earth Song....

What we care about it always in front of us. But its so natural and organic. Therefore, we get used to having it around us and forget to pay attention to the small changes we make everyday with our selfish actions.

The action escalates and when we realize the problem, its usually too late....

Michael spoke the "truth".
"Truth" is something much important than money or education that we put so much focus on.
"Truth" is what my mother focused on when raising me. She wished for her sons to have a good heart instead of being smart saying "Education is important, but its not what I'm most concerned about. I want you to be a big heart. A person that understand others truthfully from the heart."
"Truth" is what I focused on when I lectured my brothers. I wanted all of us to stay united and build a strong bond, trust through telling the truth to each other.

We must listen and understand the truth behind messages.
Micheal had the power to spread that message within his beautifully, soulfully perfected music.

May you rest in peace King Of Pop.

Peace and God Bless..

Day 12: What is What The Funk?! Kamikaze?

So on Tumblr, someone asked the meaning of sugaloofujinfunk.

Well, this is the original blog post I made when we actually made the name and custom hats!!! lol

So here it goes....

_________________________________________________________________________________
Blog from What The Funk?! Crew

The idea sparked from SUGALOO and Poppin iLL talking about becoming a 2 man battle team of our crew since we've been battling together at events constantly.

We chose the name 神風(Kamikaze) because we want to become battling poppers that destroy everything that stands in our way (opponent)to reach the goal(winning the battle) and also to bring new flavor to the scene.

According to the ancient story of Japan, Kamikaze is formed by two gods know as Fujin (風神）god of wind and Raijin（雷神）god of lightning.

They are also one of the most well known gods in Japan because the painting by Tawaraya Soutatsu titled 風神雷神図 Fujin Raijin zu(picture below) is preserved as a national treasure in Japan.




To make this vision and hope to life, I created a customize hat and shirt.

he hat is done and here it is



RAIJIN/God of Lightning (Poppin iLL)









...................................................

































nah this is it LOL

RAIJIN/God of Lightning (Poppin iLL)



FUJIN/God of Wind (SUGALOO)




"Raijin and Fujin of kamikaze on the mission to amaze, create craze, taking over the dance floor that is our door to fame. What The Funk?! Crew for life!!!"

Peace and God Bless

Day 11: Second week weight section overrrrr :D

Man I hate lifting weights lol
Its not that I hate the workout process.
I like concentrating on the muscle you are working out and repeat the simple repetitive movements.

I just hate it because it CLEARLY displays how much weight you can handle in numbers LOL
Its like my capability is graded right on that spot and you see the numbers going up and down, up and down, up and down.........

until your face turns like

THIS lol

and realize that its still much lighter than others around you.

sigh. Its tough  lol

But this week I was able to challenge myself.
There is no significant changes, but I was able to workout using weights that are little heavier than last week.
 Its still very small, but I still made a difference. I hope to continue it to make a big difference by repeating this process.


Changing something is always difficult.
You have to believe yourself and over come boundaries, challenges that sometimes only you encounter.

Ernestine Shepherd, is a female body builder who holds the title of "Oldest Female Bodybuilder" in the Guinness Book of World Record. She began working out in her mid 50's and entered her first body building competition when she was 71 years old. now she is 75.

Can you believe she is 75????

Think about it. If your grand parents began saying "I'm going to become a bodybuilder" how would you react?

"That's dangerous. I don't recommended"
"Impossible"
"They are loosing their mind"

That's how we generally react.

But why? because we are educated to believe in such a way.

But seriously, consistent dedication allows human beings to accomplish amazing things.

Regardless of what you do in life, none of the effort is meaningless.
It will help you to accomplish something in life. You have to trust yourself. Nobody knows you better than yourself (and the god you believe).
If you stay humble and challenge yourself, you will accomplish something.

The size of the accomplishment doesn't matter.
What matters is that you made a difference, and you have to keep on going.


"Don't let the system control your mind. Be free minded and dream. Nothing is impossible"

Peace and God Bless.

Day 10: Japan and USA. Two of the greatest poppers.

This video is A MUST WATCH!!!!

R.I.P Skeeter Rabbit and Wild Cherry.
They are both one of the most influential poppers for Japan and United States and the world..

As far as I know, Wild Cherry was a DJ and a dancer responsible for bringing the Electric Boogaloos (especially Skeeter Rabbit and Popping Pete) to Osaka, Japan in the mid 90's.

Wild Cherry constantly brought them to Japan. Allowing Osaka to be exposed to the original Boogaloo style, which was an extremely valuable opportunity considering the fact that there was no Youtube nor reliable internet  usage like today.

Because of this, Osaka became the mecca of Popping in Japan. Popping became extremely famous and gave birth to world renowned dancers such as Acky, Gucchon, Kei, Tetsu G and so on....

However, I love this showcase because they pop using various popping styles instead of JUST STRAIGHT UP BOOGALOO.
To me, understanding and being able to execute different styles of popping and being able to express and ultimately be able to fuse with the music in the get down is what makes you a true Popping Dancer.

I've look up to Skeeter Rabbit for a long time because he is to me the most perfected popper on the planet.

Its always fun and entertaining to watch Skeeter Rabbit.
His dynamic Boogaloo moves, technical botting and dimes, funky heavy groove, quick and sharp movements from a huge body. These features create perfect balance that presents various popping styles to the max within his get down.

Although my favorite popper in Electric Boogaloo is my teacher, Jazzy J, Skeeter Rabbit has always been my top choice.

I don't know how many times I've though in my mind "what would popping world be like if he was still alive?"

I ask this question because as you can tell from the clip, he is very social, friendly, but a hard critique and serious about popping.

His students like Kid Boogie and Bionic Man told me how big of a positive influence Skeeter Rabbit has brought to their lives. And I constantly hear rumors of how he was serious about the dance and supporting the dance community.

Too many people now-a-days only think about themselves and their success. 


In my humble opinion, we need people like Wild Cherry and Skeeter Rabbit who contribute to the unity of the community by introducing Street Dance style, not for fame and success, but true love towards the dance.

"Let's stay together, I don't bang no more. I'm banging for my people....people all from the Streets. I don't care what color you are"-- Skeeter Rabbit--

Peace and God Bless.

Day 9: About Inhumanoids.

Tuesday is the busiest day of the week.

So I get up at 4:30 or 5 am in the morning to start my day. 

5 am, I got up, had my whey+oatmeal shake and left the house by 6 am. 

Worked out in the gym and than took the train to the city at 8:30 am. 

The place I work at in the city is a nonprofit organization  called "Career Transition For Dancers". Today they had a luncheon at a restaurant called Sardies on 45th street, right in the corner of Times Square. 

The place had many Broadway celebrities portrait. They depicted the character of each of them and was fun to look at.

We put the banners, flyers, and documents for the attendees and was ready to go. It was a really fancy restaurant and I enjoyed the food a lot :P lol

Free lunch!!! LOL

After work, I took off to do a rehearsal with the Inhumanoids.

Now some of you might not know about them. So let me introduced them to you. (or Click Here to jump to their Facebook page)

As far as I know, they are one of the newer crews in NYC compared to others like Elite Force and etc.. But they've been in the scene for a while.

They are one of the few popping crews in NYC. Now they manage Popshop at PMT Studio on Saturdays which is one of the most famous session spot for poppers in NYC.

I saw them first at Step Ya Game Up 2009.

Step Ya Game Up is an annual event organized by Budda Stretch of the Elite Force Crew. Its a 1vs1 competition that has various dance styles other than B-Boying, which is rare in NYC.

When I first saw them, they were all wearing different colored shirt with the DC comics Green Lantern symbol on. I didn't know what Green Lantern was at the time so I thought they were some kind of Popping Power Rangers or something lol.

They were forming a circle and getting down with higher level poppers. Thus, instinctively I thought they were a higher level poppers.

They all do different styles and feel of popping. However, myself being ignorant at the time (2009) thought "I can probably beat them with my boogaloo because they aren't good with boogaloo", but now I can say that they get down hard keeping their unique individuality with specific styles of popping Apologies for my ignorance, much respect.

I began to hang out with them after I battled one of the members, Brian (Puple shirt) at a no longer existent competition, Kings Of New York.

I did a three way battle with Brian and Swag (I believe from Montreal? I don't know, its vague but I know the guys name was Swag because I never forget the name when I lose). We both lost against Swag, but that gave me and Brian a topic to talk about. From that point on, I began to talk with them more often.

After that, we met at various parties and competitions. After they began to organize Popshop, me and Chill (blue shirt kneeling down) began to talk and hang out more.

This eventually lead Dr. Krawl (blue shirt in the back) to invite me to be apart of his showcase at Guardians Of Dance.

 They are one of the few poppers that represents NYC.

Although they rarely go out to battle out of state, they contribute to the community by teaching a class every Friday (Link to class information), organizing Popshop, and throwing events such as Urban Renewal.

I hope them much success in the future as a crew, and am excited to do a showcase with them on July 1st!!!

"In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight. Let all who worship evil's might, Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"

Peace and God Bless.

Day 8: Experienced person is a great working out partner!

So back to day 1 of the week.
Today was my chest workout day.
I hate this day because my chest is so weak and flat that I can't lift most of the weights......

What was worse was that I over slept in the morning.

So I had to go to the gym after I got off work.
What a great start of the day.

When I got to the gym it was around 6 PM, of course there was a lot of people at the gym.

I got very discouraged because I knew that I'm not going to be able to use the machines that I want to use in a timely manner.


However, surprisingly, today turned out to be a great workout day for me.


The reason was that there were a lot of people who is experienced in working out.

There was this one guy who literally looked like THIS↓↓↓ (0_0) lol

Usually you would get VERY discouraged working next to a guy like this right?

I mean c'mon.
They've been working hard and gained what you really want and are trying so hard to get.
They are better than others. Every rep that they do is amazing that all eyes goes to them.
And next to that person, here I am, with a body that's 10 times smaller, thinner, and weaker, working out struggling with small weights.

I think a lot of people would be like

"I'm just making myself looks stupid"
"I can never be like that"
"I'm trying so hard but why aren't I becoming bigger like him...."

and eventually gets discouraged and give up.

But somehow I was able to look at them differently.
I thought that they were the best living proof that IF YOU PUT YOUR MIND AND WORK INTO IT, YOU CAN BECOME HOW YOU WANT TO LOOK.


So I intentionally shared the machine and/or worked out next to the toughest person I can find.
By doing this, I put myself in a situation to fight against my limit and workout much more than I usually do.
This resulted in a better training because I kept on pushing myself to my limit.

It was tough, and I'm sure I looked stupid struggling with a small weights right next to the giants.
But it was all worth it.
Because I was trying my best to follow a the best example.

"Experienced person is the most reliable resource you can have"

Peace and God Bless.

Day 7: Happy Fathers Day/ Preparing for week 2

First of all, Happy Fathers day to all the fathers in the world!!! (Hope all of you are taking GOOD CARE OF YOUR FAMILY.....)

I'm very fortunate to have a father that provided me the opportunities to live abroad and have a college degree. 

He supported me in many ways. Even though he hated my dance at first, he gradually began to support it as I began to leave some results. Now he is proud and won't make fun of my dancing like he used to.

Having such an understanding father is a blessing.

I hope to become a father as supportive and understanding as he is to my future children.

OK BACK TO TRAINING TOPIC!!! lol

So today was relaxing day.

Although I had work, it was a relaxing to over sleep than usual.

I was able to shop and cook and now prepared for the second week!!! 

Here is how my lunch box looks like. 

I actually like this cheap lunch box I bought at Wall Mart. It allows has two small boxs that is a perfect size to fit the right amount of brown rice :) 

I'd like to end today's blog by stating a Japanese proverb my dad always told me to practice is life.

"Birds leave a place clean when departing"

It means that one should always try their best to be prepared before doing anything.

This way, there won't be any confusion and/or problem. Making your new step easier and successful.

Peace and God Bless.