The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #470: Reflections on Olympic Breaking (Paris, 2024), Sixteen Candles 40 Years Later, and Travelling

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #470: Reflections on Olympic Breaking (Paris, 2024), Sixteen Candles 40 Years Later, and Travelling

https://archive.org/download/podcast-470/Podcast%20470.mp3

This week, I’m discussing a variety of somewhat interrelated topics. One, breaking debuted this Olympics in Paris. It’s been disheartening to hear all the negative comments from folks – mostly out of ignorance, it seems, though some of the more vocal comments came from people in our own community who don’t want to see breaking on the Olympics. I get it – athletic disciplines that end up in the Games ultimately change as they become games, and breaking, which, despite the cheesy fad notions and movie appearances that made it popular in the 80s, is no game. It’s hard to separate breaking from its roots in urban poverty as a kind of stylized combat designed as an alternative to physical violence to settle differences and move up the social hierarchy and still keep the soul of what it is. Because when you add that darker side based in grit to the lightness of music and dance, you get the completeness of human existence. It becomes something both real and beautiful. But when you try to sanitize it by keeping the pretty bits minus the darker roots, it loses its meaning and just becomes doing moves to music. So I get some of the more vocal members of our community opposing breaking being in the Olympics.

That said, the only ones who can authentically say they have that as their history are in their 50s and 60s now. That history (i.e. the one born out the fires and rubble of the 1970s Bronx), is not my story. It isn’t even the story that a lot of folks of that generation have who just started breaking since some of their friends were doing it, or they saw it on TV. And it may not apply to folks in other countries or other parts of the US that are different in terms of demographics and socioeconomic status. The beautiful thing about the spirit of hip hop, though, which involves unity, is that it doesn’t really matter that much. We can all find a place at the table.

And, oddly enough, it was because of all those cheesy 80s guest spots and film appearances that the dance spread to other countries after it pretty much died in the US in the mid 80s. It’s also not like the Olympics is the first big breaking competition. In fact, there are plenty of bigger and better runs ones (e.g. Battle of the Year, Red Bull BC One, among others), so it’s not like something of this caliber is really new to anyone. But it’s kind of like when you as the unpopular kid finally get invited to the cool kids’ party after years of saying publicly you thought parties like that were stupid. Now, you’re conflicted. Do you go and enjoy yourself (or try to … as there’s a part of you that still is self conscious and thinks you don’t deserve it)? Do you say the hell with it all, stay true to yourself, and not be a hypocrite? Do you celebrate that fact that you’ve finally made it and no longer need to sit at the rejects’ table at lunch? As far as I can tell, this is the position the breaking community finds itself in. There won’t be breaking in the Olympics probably until 2032 at the earliest. Now that the community has had a taste of Paris, I’m really curious to see how things shake out over the next few years. It won’t change what I do (been doing this since 1998 when it definitely was not popular), but regardless, I’m proud of us and the work it took to get here. I think we can both work to pay respect to our history and not lose our soul in the meantime, though it will require folks to put aside their differences and embrace actual unity. I hope it leads to good opportunities for our community. After all, it’s hard to go back to the farm once you’ve seen Paris.

One reason for these cool kid analogies is that I recently rewatched the 1984 film Sixteen Candles specifically since I’d heard the bboy crew, The New York City Breakers, made an appearance. I’ve seen the film many times but couldn’t remember the scene. I caught it this time in a scene where students in headbands and red tracksuits are seen walking through the halls as the Molly Ringwald character and her friend pass by. I was hoping that despite having seen it so many times, I’d somehow missed a bit of a cypher outside prior to school starting or at the school dance. But as far as I can tell, it was just the blink and you miss it hallway scene.

I also had some other surprising thoughts in the film I discuss on the podcast. This article by Molly Ringwald sums it up pretty nicely and more articulately than I could.

I’d actually rewatched the film on a plane, where it was one of the ones you could watch from their library. I’m travelling as I upload and write this, in fact. I go through it more on the podcast and make some comparisons to parts of The Thirteenth Hour, but the essence of it is that things rarely, if ever, go according to plan. All the plans in the world don’t mean much if you get so attached to them that you can’t abandon them when the time is right, though that shouldn’t be an excuse to not make them at all. Travelling is a perfect way to play with all this in a hopefully low stakes manner. Ideally, you can apply that to other parts of your life.

Thanks for listening!

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Don’t forget that the original hunter action figure from A Shadow in the Moonlight is available on Etsy!

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Check out the growing line of Thirteenth Hour toys and other products on the Thirteenth Hour Studio Etsy store (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio). There are a number of custom figures from retro films being sold for charity that available there as well.

Check out this collaboration with past show guest Jeff Finley on handpan:

Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

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ynth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.

Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

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