Brooklyn to Bronx to West Village

This past weekend...

Brooklyn: Friday night: We were extremely grateful to attend Swell Season's free concert in Prospect Park (again a part of the Celebrate Brooklyn BRIC concert series). Swell Season is the band made after the movie Once was such a hit - by indie film standards. (check out their most popular song "Falling Slowly" on Youtube.)

For those of you who haven't heard of Swell Season (or the movie Once), go check them out. Glen Hansard (lead male vocalist) is extremely passionate about his music, and it spouts out with great force through his vivacious vocals.

The Bronx: Saturday afternoon (July 31: Declared: National Dance Day by So You Think You Can Dance's Nigel Lithgoe):

After weeks of being in the home land of bboying/breaking, and Andreas not finding any fellow bboys....finally Andreas found online a breakdance jam happening in the Bronx. Old-skool breakdance revolutionaries from the late 70's and 80's put on the jam and were the honorary judges. The event included a three-on-three battle, and a single bboy cypher. Three bgirls did show up for the 3-on-3's which was pretty cool to see some bgirls represent. ;)

Andreas didn't plan on "competing" but decided last minute to, and got 2nd in the cypher. :)

It was a free event, and great to hear some of the "fathers" of bboying sharing the history of breaking in the Bronx and at St. James Park (a park located in the Bronx where bboys used to meet up back in the day to jam).

West Village: Saturday evening:

We were invited to the Marivaldo Project's show at SOB's in West Village by Marivaldo himself. Marivaldo is part of the famous rhythmic "off Broadway" show STOMP. He has his own band: Marivaldo Project that is influenced by the musical culture from his home country of Brazil! He rocks out on the bongos and other percussion, with trumpet player, bass guitarist, electric guitarist, a female vocalist, and another guy from the show STOMP rocking the drums. It was great to dance, enjoy the music, and we even were invited backstage to hang out with the band between sets. Thanks Marivaldo for letting your warm culture generosity/kindness shine through by making us feel so welcomed! :) "This is how we do it in Brazil!!" -Marivaldo (bringing on the beats and the fun.)

Back to Brooklyn: Sunday:

Sunday was the lazy day of the weekend. :) We went to church, chilled with our new friends from church, and I also chilled with some dancer friends aka my "Flatbush Friends" (Colleen and Sonia) ;)

Next weekend...We may be going to enjoy the musicality mixing of DJ Q-tip. Also to a little YWAM "Alumni" get together in Manhattan. updates to come...

Me very seriously (haha)...reading a book about Modern dance in the train to or from a class at Alvin Ailey...