hollaback girls
i'm not imaginative or articualte enough, nor is my vocabulary robust enough, to accurately describe my experience here. in a a way my inability to share my experiences personalizes it, but i wish i could better explain my life here.
i was sitting in a cab yesterday afternoon. we were stopped at a redlight. on the sidewalk next to me, in front of a large plate glass window, were 2 nihon-jin girls about my age. they had a boom box set up next to them on the sidewalk. each was wearing classic adidas kicks, baggy camo pants cinched but slung low on their waists, a track jacket, a chain. i don't know if any of you know what a japanese afro looks like, but they had those too. really, their outfits were very well put together and really cute. think of the girls in gwen stefani videos - they looked like that - sporty, cute, half hip-hop half harajuku.
anyway, they were dancing, using the plate glass as a mirror. they weren't dancing in unison, but they were definitely kind of working off of each other, freestyling one at a time, then working together, developing a routine maybe. or maybe it was all just freestyle.
now, my knowledge/interest/expertise/experience/etc of dance is "limited" to say the least, but they had the sickest moves i have ever seen, and i'm not even exaggerating. and the fact that they were so dedicated and focused made this scene one of the most compelling things i've seen since being here. if i were spike jones (and if i had a camera), i would have filmed them and made them famous.
they were good enough to be professional dancers, and perhaps they were. they had the look and the moves. i hope they make it big. i was only able to watch them for a minute or so, until the light changed and i moved on without them ever knowing i was there.
everything about my life here is so fleeting - every glance, every emotion, every image. and i think that's what has made it so beautiful.
i was sitting in a cab yesterday afternoon. we were stopped at a redlight. on the sidewalk next to me, in front of a large plate glass window, were 2 nihon-jin girls about my age. they had a boom box set up next to them on the sidewalk. each was wearing classic adidas kicks, baggy camo pants cinched but slung low on their waists, a track jacket, a chain. i don't know if any of you know what a japanese afro looks like, but they had those too. really, their outfits were very well put together and really cute. think of the girls in gwen stefani videos - they looked like that - sporty, cute, half hip-hop half harajuku.
anyway, they were dancing, using the plate glass as a mirror. they weren't dancing in unison, but they were definitely kind of working off of each other, freestyling one at a time, then working together, developing a routine maybe. or maybe it was all just freestyle.
now, my knowledge/interest/expertise/experience/etc of dance is "limited" to say the least, but they had the sickest moves i have ever seen, and i'm not even exaggerating. and the fact that they were so dedicated and focused made this scene one of the most compelling things i've seen since being here. if i were spike jones (and if i had a camera), i would have filmed them and made them famous.
they were good enough to be professional dancers, and perhaps they were. they had the look and the moves. i hope they make it big. i was only able to watch them for a minute or so, until the light changed and i moved on without them ever knowing i was there.
everything about my life here is so fleeting - every glance, every emotion, every image. and i think that's what has made it so beautiful.
posted by digital bees at 13:35
5 Comments:
perhaps it's more fair to say life is fleeting everywhere. you've just had blinders on to the rest of the world, including (and especially) your home.
isn't it spike lee? or am i missing something?
maybe it's the non-routine that made me appreciate that life is, in fact, fleeting everywhere. if that's a universal truth, one shouldn't be faulted for coming to understand it in his own way. maybe it was ugly, but, to my mind, the import part is that i learned the lesson, and hopefully going forward i'll be a better person because of it.
it's actually spike "jonze." i had to be corrected. he's a filmmaker and photographer and music- and skatevideo director. spike lee is the lazy black filmmaker responsible for such gems as "summer of sam" and "girl 6." he ran out of things to say after "do the right thing" addressed race relations in an overly simplified, in your face kind of way.
spike lee...*giggle*...this from the guy who thought "Blood Sport" was a great movie!
Don't forget...Spike Jonze also gave us Weezer's "Buddy Holly" and the Beastie's "SABOTAGE"...
...great video director
Post a Comment
<< Home