What You Want Me to Do? I'm Sorry! I'm Back!

[Post title refers to: Jay Z, "Show Me What You Got"] Ah, where to begin after such a long absence. The song, first, of course. For those who are not Jay Z aficionados (not saying I am an expert, just a huge fan) I should start be providing some context for the song title. "Show Me What You Got" was Jay Z's first single from Kingdom Come, which was the comeback album after Jay's little break-y-poo. And what a come back it was! Wreckz-n-Effect's saxophone loop from Rump Shaker? Check. (Yes, I know it is actually from Darkest Light, but who doesn't want to reference Rump Shaker at any given opportunity? Notice how I didn't hyperlink to the Rump Shaker video, thanks.) Flava Flav voice sampled? Check. A video shot in Monaco with race divers? Double check. So, yes, I guess by referencing this...

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Party Rock Is In the House Tonight. Finally.

[Post title refers to: LMFAO's "Party Rock"] Wowza. So it has been way, way, way too long since I blogged last. The worst part about this is that I realize that when starting a blog, the best way to keep your audience is by consistent posting. That said, I hope you people are still with me. Where to start. Maybe with random updates? First an ode to the blog post title: while I may not adore LMFAO’s musical stylings, I think the dudes are funny and catchy. And I secretly think I should be a backup dancer or something for them. If it just requires having big hair and being weirdly random, I am a shoe-in! Catch me at the next party doing the dance. Second update-I am switching jobs. From one firm to another firm. Still in the same city. Still doing the same kind of work. Needless to say,...

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Flat battery

For those following the live blog yesterday-sorry for stopping before the end of the show! My phone died side stage and mid post. I'll do a full post about the weekend soon! Sent from my iPh...

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Bruin continued!

Jawani girls are about to go up. Their new suits are beautiful and the ladies look pumped for their performance. Amy is doing the intro/sher and her voice is absolutely amazing. Amazing energy, clean choreo and the crowd seemed to love them. Aeg is up next. Waiting on side stage looking for them and just realized they are entering from the audience! They are wearing grills the glow. Yes, I just said that. Formation changes are cray good. Dudes just grabbed the daangs with the saaps. Makes no sense now but the video will. They just did a laser thing a la beyonce at the billboard awards. Holy moly they just finished the dance by going into the audience and dancing in the aisles. They totally won this crowd over and are serious, serious condensers. Sent from my iPh...

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Bruin!

Khalsa junction/apd collabo is up next. The energy in this place is insane! The guys are behind a prop with the kj logo and getting totally pumped up. Mix started with a VoiceOver introducing the teams as the hometown heros. The guys are setting up the infamous truck. Saap intro and the crowd went nuts. Every single Dancer is going full out and it's so Obvious they are loving every single second of this They just a two man tower in full Choreography. Wowza. They pulled in yaar anmulle and given the history of these teams, I might have a tear in my eye. Three level tower at the end to seal the deal. They just won everyones hearts if not first place. Standing o from the cro...

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Bruin, again!

Smd is up now killin em. Energy is crazy good and the crowd seems to be responding well. Like I said yesterday, the mix is fun. It sounds a little quiet back here but that might be because I'm off to the side. They just did the dougie, in case you were wondering. And now they are doing dhamaal to beyonces "run the world." their formations look a little crammed on stage but they are adjusting well. Crowd is giving them a great respon...

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Bruin live post!

Hi all! I'm posting from side stage at bruin so Please pardon the sloppy formatting! So far: bruin committee performed and hyped up the audience! Bk went first and killed it. Violin player for the win. They were fun to watch-great energy and the crowd loved them. Second up was the hpd/vdw collabo. Riculously good. I'm side stage so I can't see formations and details but from here, the performance was sick! I love watching these guys dance. Barbie is up now and brought out a dude dancer. They are the second team of the night to use the "choli ke pichhe" beat. Stay tuned for mo...

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Turn Up The Lights In Here Baby

[Post title refers to: Kanye West "All Of The Lights"] What's good! First post from Bruin! Sorry for the delay--the weekend has been nuts and it is only Saturday afternoon! A couple updates: The mixer was great. The teams met in the lobby around 9pm to be bussed over to the venue in Century City. Everyone was suited and booted and looking foine. Despite some difficulties with the venue, the Bruin Committee pulled through and delivered a good time. The DJs were great (a wonderful mix of hip hop and bhangra) and teams actually stayed and hung out! The food was good and, as promised, those plastic plates really made a difference. I tried interviewing a couple people while there and am including the interviews below! Thanks to everyone for putting up with me asking the same questions over...

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Now Let Me Welcome Everybody To The Wild Wild West

[Post title refers to: "California Love"] It is officially BRUIN TIME, BABY! (And a vacation day for me yippee!) Hence the California Love reference. I feel like that song plays at least 36 times over the course of Bruin weekend and every single person does the C-Walk and throws up the West Side sign (even if they are from Arizona...I mean some other non-California state). Exciting news: I will be blogging the events of the weekend! And as long as things work out as they are supposed to, this will include fun video footage from the various weekend events--mixer, team practices, pre-party, performances, etc. I mean, don't expect the most amazing quality video for all of these events (my trusty flip should be able to do the job) but DO expect some wonderful and funny footage. To the...

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As My Reflection In Light, I'ma Lead You

[Post title refers to: Common, "The Light" ] Whoa, whoa, whoa--another long period between blogs?! Oops! Big things going on in my world. Ya'll don't even know. For example, I got a car wash the other day. It was pretty crazy (no, really it had been like a year or something absurd so it was long overdue and definitely an aberration in my usual weekend activity). This weekend my friend Jon and I decided we needed a random sports team to be really excited about between basketball and football season (I don't like baseball and the impending end of the NBA season is just too much for me to handle). So, we have adopted the Club Deportivo Chivas...

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Let The Record Reflect The Records We Set

[Post title refers to: Lupe Fiasco, "Never Forget You"] Oh no! Another big gap between my last post and this. Between family stuff, work and playoff basketball, my brain has been fully consumed. Speaking of playoff basketball, how ca-razy would it be if we saw a Grizzlies-Hawks finals!? I mean, it is not going to happen, but the way these teams are playing right now I just can’t get enough! My early season call was a hopeful one for a Thunder-Bulls matchup. I am still holding on for that. But I am sure you didn’t come to my blog to read about my perspective on basketball. So, back to bhangra. Actually before I get back to bhangra I have to share an idea! I’d like to analogize bhangra team personalities to basketball team personalities. I don’t actually mean I’d like to as much as I mean...

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Your Reach Ain't Long Enough, Your Peeps Ain't Strong Enough

[Post title refers to: Jay Z , "Takeover"] Sorry for the delay since my last post! I hope you are all still interested, excited, pumped, other adjectives signifying that you will continue to read. Between work, visitors and the Janet Jackson greatest hits concert I was a little behind getting this writing done. On the real, the Janet concert was pretty amazing. I can’t sleep now because I am still all overstimulated from the crazy good show she put on. The woman is 50 and still working it. Next time someone tells me I am too old to compete I am screaming out “If Janet can do it, so can I!” I can hear the response: “But you aren’t a world famous bad butt with millions of adoring fans calling you back to dance.” Minor details. You say tomato, I say tomahhhhto. I don’t actually say tomahhhto....

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Somebody Told Me This World Was Small, Used to Live in the Same Building On The Same Floor

[Post title refers to: The Roots "You Got Me"] Email Gold. My next post was going to be about Bruin itself—the mixer, practice, the show. BUT as I was remembering details I realized I forgot about one of the best LBC emails I have received to date and decided that I NEEDED to include it. I got this email from an LBC original-Sukh-on April 30, 2006, just a couple weeks after being asked to dance with LBC and a few weeks before the show. It is hilarious and very telling of the kind of guys LBC dancers are. Note that I don't edit out the sarcasm or the random comments.  If you are aghast wondering if my parents are reading the not-totally-Punjabi-parent-friendly...

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First Things First, I’ll Eat Your Brains

[Post title refers to: Kanye West featuring Nicki Minaj, "Monster"] I'm a Monster. I figured I would start my post about how I joined an all guys’ team with a Nikki Manaj reference. Not that I love her. But her verse on Monster is really working for me. Like when I listen to that song when running on a treadmill I run at 8 mph singing out loud, twisting my wrists all around like I got somebody to yell at. It is ca-razy. A lot of people ask me how I joined LBC. Here’s the story. In the Fall of 2004, I watched a competition in Houston, Texas. LBC was performing there. I had seen these dudes’ videos online and heard about them, but didn’t know much aside from the fact that they were well-respected dancers. When I saw them perform, I absolutely fell in love with their grace, their choreography,...

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Thanks people!

You don't get anywhere without some help right? Thanks to Harjot at gabroo.tv, Reena at reena.me, and Joe at his new bhangra Tumblr for the links and support! Gabroo.tv reena.me giuseppecampanella.tumblr.c...

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Explored The World To Return To Where My Soul Begun, Never Look Back Or Too Far In Front Of Me

[Post title refers to: Common, "Be"] I am hoping friends and strangers alike are reading this blog. So by now, many of you might be asking who the heck I am. I am a long-time, and proud-about-how-long-it-has-been, competitive dancer. I grew up doing semi-bhangra, semi-hind filmy, but all-bad dances in Arizona. I danced at random Vaisakhi shows, cultural events, birthday parties, anniversaries, etcetera. Same as most other Punjabi kids. (I really hope none of those videos surface.) I started dancing bhangra competitively in college the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) in the Fall of 2001, but I had not exactly intended to join the...

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If You’re Fresh To Death Then I’m Deceased

[Post title refers to: Slum Village featuring Kanye West, "Selfish"] Yippee, a bhangra history lesson! For those of you that have lived this bhangra past with me, it won’t be a lesson so much as a walk through memory lane. Lace up those sneaks and let’s get to strolling. Competitions One of the first major bhangra competitions in the US was Bhangra Blowout. This competition, now in its 18th year, is put on by the students of George Washington University. Another early competition, Dhol Di Awaz, lovingly known as DDA, started in 1998. This was put on by the students of Cal (what I like to call the “other” blue, since I went to Michigan). In...

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Even Scuba Steve Would Find It Hard To Breath, Around These Leagues

[Post title refers to: Lupe Fiasco, "Dumb It Down"] For today’s entry, I provide some basic background. If you are asking yourself, what the heck is this “bhangra” this girl keeps referring to and what is its history—rest assured that will become clear to you as you read on (also, YAY that you are reading this!). For now, I hope it suffices to say that bhangra is a traditional folk dance from the North Western region of India. It was traditionally performed as a celebratory dance around the time of harvest and centers on the beats of a two headed drum, or a dhol. Wait a minute, there are bhangra teams? A preliminary note for those non competitors out there who might be asking what a bhangra team is and what a competition entails: A bhangra team often consists of anywhere from 8 to 16 dancers....

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Sing It Out, Girl You've Got To Be What Tomorrow Needs

[Post title refers to: My Chemical Romance, "Sing"]Welcome.  To my blog about bhangra. My bhangra blog, if you will. That girl in the middle of that picture there--that is me. Hi. I am waiving at you (with both hands). I am also bobbing my head to the PCBCA Elite 8 mix. It is fire. If you have no idea what I am talking about--you are in the right place. And if you have every idea of what I am talking about--I am glad you are here. Some background questions and answers regarding the blog, and regarding my background, are below. These are just the basics--to get us started and hopefully to get you interested. There is much, much more to come. Why...

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