Dance Stylez I've tried

1. Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
2. The Birdy Song
3. The Time Warp
4. Barn Dancing
5. Disco
6. Breakdancing,( Popping, Locking, The Windmill, The Caterpillar ,Freezes, Top Rocking/ Up Rocking etc)
7. The Moonwalk (Michael Jackson)
8. Slamming, Moshing
9. The Running man (MC Hammer)
10. Rave
11. The Macarena
12. Salsa, Merengue, Cha Cha Cha
13. Lion dance
14. Line dancing
15. Capoeira , Maculele , Forro , Funk
16. The Electric Slide (Cameo - Candy Song)
17. Superman (Souljah Boy)
18. Zumba and Kizumba
19. Passinho
20. Shuffling (Cutting Shapes), (LMFAO)

Dungeons and Dragons

The first Dragon I ever encountered was Puff the Magic Dragon as featured in the song by Peter Paul and Mary which was also amongst the first 7 inch vinyl records I played.
Dungeons and Dragons (the American fighting fantasy role playing game) was introduced to me and many of my generation by the Stephen Spielberg Film "E.T.".  (The film E.T. also introduced many of my generation to Extra Terrestrials, BMX bikes and the American Halloween custom of “Trick or Treat”. )

 To those that werent aware of the role playing game, "Dungeons and Dragons" was simply the name of a childrens animated cartoon.

When my mother learned I had become interested in the game Dungeons and Dragons she was somewhat concerned. A friend of hers from church, had told her it was "Satanic" in the sense that it introduced innocent children to "occult" concepts. My Mother was a devout Christian and made it clear to me she didn't want me involved in the "occult" but she never forbid me to play Dungeons and Dragons.
Glenn Danzig lead singer of the American punk rock band "the Misfits" who I became a fan of a few years later,  Was the first to  introduce me to "occult literature" in the form of the Nag Hamandi scrolls . One of my favourite Misfits tracks was London Dungeon , written about the time he spent the night in a cell while the Misfits were touring the UK supporting "The Dammed"

As I grew older my interest in fighting fantasy games waned, I became interested in Skateboarding, Computers, Music, Girls ,Surfing, Rave Culture ,Science, Mysticism.

Through exposure to the hardcore scenes of the late eighties I became aware of what it  meant to "Chase the Dragon".

While at University I had a friend who paid her course fee with money she earned as a dominatrix , I was told stories of Dungeons & BDSM. 

Meanwhile the activities of  Spiral Tribe sign posted a way to the more the experimental work  of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV  and the  magickal activities of Thee Temple ov Psychic Youth who performed at another T.G. (Torture Garden)

The concept of a "Dungeon Master" was central to Dungeons and Dragons. I probably first encountered  "The Master"  in "Dr Who" or "Star Wars" with its Jedi Masters and Sith Lords.

 The Master became relevant again when I began learning Martial Arts and entered into a Master/student relationship with my Kung Fu teacher. Over time I have come to see martial arts as a "mind, body and spirit" discipline, with the aim of achieving a knowledge of self and a level of self mastery over ones behaviour, thoughts, emotions etc. My Kung Fu style "Yellow Dragon Fist" also reintroduced me to the concept of the Dragon. In some Secret Societies and quasi Masonic orders e.g KKK the Grand Master is referred to as Grand Dragon. 

Both Masters and Dragons are strong/powerful. The Dragon also symbolises wealth & knowledge it is a magical figure often feared & persecuted (They can be good or evil)  often hunted and locked up or forced to hide in underground caverns like the Dragon in the vaults at Camelot that taught Merlin. 

I see the path of the martial artist as one of self development, learning to transform energy , learning to navigate the Labyrinth of the mind. Over coming both physical and psychological challenges. The Dungeons and Dragons of our own lives.

Click the links for more on  Dragons , Dungeons and Dragons , Dragon Dice and Puff the Magic Dragon

Tricky Bizznizz

"It's Tricky" was a song by Run DMC released 86 

"Tricky Disco" by Tricky Disco (GTO) was a hardcore rave tune released on the warp label in 90 

I have blogged briefly about the graffiti artist "Banksy " before ,He formed part of a group of graffiti artists including "Goldie", "Inkie", "3D" who are all associated with the Bristol hip hop scene.   On more than one occasion as a teenager my friends and  I arrived at the Barton Hill youth Club mini ramp and to our frustration find it unusable as its being painted with their latest piece (I suppose today we would ask them for their autographs)

"Inkie" used to go to school with my brother.

 "3.D." (who produced Neneh Cherrie's "Man Child" ) seemed at the time the epitome of cool, However over the years I remember meeting the various members of Massive Attack and despite loving their music, I was disappointed to discover they were in reality just flawed human beings like the rest of us. So it didn't surprise me to read about the very public falling out over the years of the various members, To be fair their first album "Blue Lines" was always going to be an impossibly a hard act to follow. The pressures must have been immense.Today I read the latest episode in that "Massive Attack" saga "Tricky's" attack on "3.D."

It was Massive Attacks "Tricky" who has most triggered me. An undeniable musical talent I first met "Tricky" in my local pub which for some reason he visited just after the release of the first album.At the time I was on a date with "hot" young lady he made a b line for her and began to chat her up ignoring completely. He quickly asked her to go with him  and she paused (too long) to think before eventually declining,  to which his response was "If you go home with me I'll give you some massive attack t-shirts" again she gave it some thought before declining.

I almost forgot about "Tricky" (to my mind he never repeated the quality of his work on blue lines) until a few years later when he had an encounter with another "girl of mine" we weren't actually in a relationship, but she was staying with me and I was keen on the idea so imagine my annoyance when she came home one night excited telling me she had met Tricky at a party and he had autographed her underwear ! - suffice to say that friendship was short-lived.

So it seems Tricky has the habit of exposing my deepest fears and insecurities and so I wasn't surprised when his attack on "3.D." evoked similar emotions about what it is to be "pretentious" "self confident" , "cool" , "a white guy"...

Reading about Trickys life I realise how privileged I have been . Life has dealt him some hard knocks but despite that he managed to use his talent to make a successful career where others might have fallen by the way .

The Black Dog

While I've touched on the subject of Black Dogs & White Wolves before but I've been evading a detailed blog on the subject. Perhaps I've been too lazy or embarrassed to explain the connections, however the recent 20th anniversary of Jeff Noons cyberpunk novel "Vurt" (with an interesting take on "dog" symbolism) and the fact I have experienced a sync flap on the subject has prompted me to rewrite this post.

I started noticing the Black Dog when I first moved to London and our local students union was visited by a stage hypnotist whose gimmick was a black Labrador "The Hypno Dog" I was studying hypnotism at the time as part of a Psychology degree so took the opportunity to be hypnotised as research.

During the long hot summer that followed more Black Dogs came my way ;Dog Town (L.A. /Skateboards), Dead Dog Mountain (UK PUNK REGGAE), Snoop Dogg (LA Hip Hop). The Black Dog (uk techno ), Bark Psychosis (uk extreme noise/ambient ) ,Dogs on Acid (UK Drum and Bass).

For a while one of my flat mates (a Jamaican guy) owned a Black Doberman. It was the first time I had ever lived with a dog in the house. Another interesting experience was when I met the black dogs owned by the boss of the temping agency that I had been working for since finishing uni. She offered me a lift home in her sports car after a Christmas party. She and her partner (who was driving ) were in the front seats. I was expected to share the back seat with two Dobermans!

I started thinking about the Egyptian symbolism of the Black Dog when I went to see the techno act "The Black Dog" play at a club called vapour space, for some reason it surprised me to see two statues of Black Dogs (Anubis) mounted on the computer.

The Egyptian God Anubis depicted with the body of a men and head of a Jackal/Wolf  is often associated with travel between the worlds and as the guardian of dreams.

Slowly courtesy of Robert Anton Wilson, Spiral Tribe, TOPY, Robert Temple & much later J.K. Rowling  (Sirius Black) it all clicked into place

The Dogon ,The Dog Star (Sirius), The Dog Days ,

Arrowsmith explains much of the symbolism well at his Blog The Black Dog Star

Click the links for more Bull Dogs, Pig Dogs or Strange Dogs 

Probably a Robbery (Part 2) - Team Robbo

The now well documented Graffiti Star wars  between Banksy and Robbo got me thinking about a couple of things (aside from whether its all a publicity stunt) and no I wouldn't say that to their faces ;-)

I haven't really taken sides in this war I have resonance with both.
The first Robbo I ever heard of was a onetime member of The Misfits and a member of Black Flag. Black Flag and  The Misfits were both american hardcore punk bands of the eighties Black Flag were quite political, The Misfits were more theatrical. My favourite Misfits song is London Dungeon which Glenn Danzig wrote when he was thrown in prison one night during their only uk tour supporting  "Steve Strange and The Dammed. Another classic Misfits song was Halloween and I've blogged on Glenn Danzig vs the North Side Kings and the synchronicities  between the Graffiti artist Fist A and my kung fu school  Yellow Dragon Fist ) here.

I live in North east London these days and a favourite Team Robbo work was the reappropriation of the Banksy "Tesco flag" in upper street Islington. Banksy comes from my home town Bristol an area which featured riots over the opening of a new tesco. There were no riots in Clapton Pond (where I now live) over a new tesco, just middle class disapproval. 

Banksy's anonymity is stuff of legend. Some have suggested he is 3D  Robert del Naja of Massive Attack.

I remember as a teenager visiting the Barton Hill Skateboard ramp where Banksy,  3D,  Inkie and Goldie  regularly painted.

For more Robbery's see below

Probably a Robbery - Renegade Soundwave (Part 1) can be found here

Probably a Robbery -The Shadow  (part 3) can be found here

The White Room

A synchronistic chat with an activist for Black Rights reminded me of the unreleased album entitled  The Black Room by The JAM'S / Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and Extreme Noise Terror. 

The KLF's commercial success peaked with The White Room  however before It was an album, The White Room was the name of a film and earlier still the name of the chill out/Ambient room at Paul Oakenfolds "Land of Oz" night at Heaven where "Transit Kings" Jimmy Cauty of the KLF/Orb and Dr Alex Patterson of The Orb were resident DJ's.

I was introduced to the concept of "Lucid Dreaming" by another DJ /production duo known  as "The Jedi Knights / Global Communications ". While talking with friends including Lisa Love Bucket , Jonny Jedi and Horton Jupiter on the subject, we decided to experiment with techniques for lucid dreaming and dream telepathy. we formed our own chapter of Jedi  and needed to agree a meeting place in the dreamspace, that would be fairly easy for us all to visualise. So settled upon use the concept of The White Room ( much like the white room that Morpheus uses to train Neo in the Matrix film)

Click the link for further details of my adventures on Thee Dream Frequency 

LOST TRIBES

I heard this week that a new project by Goldie  Graffiti artist / STUSSY TRIBE member /  UK Jungle / drum and Bass (Reinforced ,Metalheadz and Moving Shadow) artist and actor, is called "LOST TRIBES". 

Today I saw a flyer for a forthcoming Easter Sunday "LOST". "LOST" were renowned underground techno parties in the early nineties featuring Jeff Mills (Underground Resistance) and Steve Bicknell. During that period I was quite into the hardcore rave scene and influenced by some of the TRIBAL ENERGY being propagated by Thee likes of Mr C,  The Shamen, TRIBAL DRIFT and SPIRAL TRIBE  among others. One idea I that got into my head was that rave communities were the incarnation of tribes from the past and their dances were places to create positive energy and elevate conciousness through rhythm, dance,... to envision positive futures and bring healing to the world . Naievely optimistic  perhaps, but I was a psychick youth awakening but I was soon brought back to the reality of how negative energy like e.g. fear, jealousy, greed can shatter those dreams. 

Two records I played a lot during this period were a feel good house tune called "LOST TRIBE" and a more melancholy pscychedelic tech house tune called "LONELY TRIBE" I also went to a big rave Universe rave called TRIBAL GATHERING but it didn't quite live up to my expectation.

A couple of years ago I was having a discussion about my philosophical views with a friend at work who wanted to know what religion I am , His conclusion (perhaps because he couldn't fit me neatly in a category) was that I am "LOST".

Popes

                               Yoda

I've had a resonance with Popes since early childhood when JP11 visited the uk, My parents were very excited about going to seem him in Coventry and we got up very early on a cold day to travel to Coventry, unfortunately I was taken ill and had to be taken in a red cross ambulance to the red cross first aid tent ( always a Templar) so my mum missed seeing the pope

I didn't think much about popes until around the age of twenty three when I was reading alot of Robert Anton Wilson and heard about the Discordian view of Popes (see below for a summary)

Thoughts of Popes returned briefly when I read Dan Browns the Da Vinci Code

Pope Benedicts visit to the UK prompted the meaning of the the Pope to be salient in my conciousness again

I'm very much a product of my catholic upbringing so have an interesting relationship to "Popes", What archetype does Benedict resonate for you ? The Good Shepherd ? the Rotweiller ?

And what of his resignation ?

The new Pope Francis is a Latino. Will he be a progressive force for change ?

The Discordian perspective

According to the Principia Discordia, a pope is “every single man, woman, and child on this Earth.”[12]
Included in the Principia Discordia is an official Pope card that may be reproduced and distributed freely to anyone and everyone.[12] Papacy, however, is not granted through possession of this card; it merely informs people that they are “a genuine and authorized Pope” of Discordia.
While the powers of a Pope are not enumerated in the Principia, we are given some idea from a note under the card which states, “A POPE is someone who is not under the authority of the authorities.” Some Discordians have also taken it upon themselves to further elaborate upon the powers of a Pope. On the back of some Pope cards, the following message can be found:
The rights of a Pope include but are not necessarily limited to:
To invoke infallibility at any time, including retroactively.
To completely rework the Erisian church.
To baptise, bury, and marry (with the permission of the deceased in the latter two cases).
To excommunicate, de-ex-communicate, re-ex-communicate, and de-re-ex-communicate (no backsies!) both his-/her-/it-/them-/your-/our-/His-/Her-/It-/Them-/Your-/Our-self/selves and others (if any).
To perform all rites and functions deemed inappropriate for a Pope of Discordia.
The third right (requiring permission from the deceased in cases of burying or marriage, but not baptism) may be a reference to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practice of baptism for the dead, or it may just be a witty conflation of marriage and death.
This understanding of the notion of Pope has far reaching consequences in Discordianism. For example, the introduction to Principia Discordia says, “Only a Pope may canonize a Saint. … So you can ordain yourself — and anyone or anything else — a Saint.” The last enumerated right of a Pope may be an allusion to the Necessary and Proper Clause.
A female version, with the word Mome substituted for Pope, has also been promulgated.

The Lighthouse Family

My mother came from a small town called Hayle in Cornwall located near St Ives and as a child each summer we would go to the beach of St Ives Bay ,with miles of golden sands, beautiful blue seas and a wonderful view of Godrevy Lighthouse. In my teens I learnt to surf at St Ives bay and one summer enjoyed the simple pop music of "The Lighthouse Family" by the time I attended university I was slightly disconnected from my Cornish roots and one summer was invited by two sisters to visit their family in the town of Thurso in Scotland to surf some Scottish waves , imagine my surprise after I had travelled all the way to the tip of Scotland to enter the living room of their parents house and see on the wall above the fireplace,  a painting (by their dad) of St Ives Bay and Godrevy Lighthouse.

The lighthouse "meme" returned a few years ago courtesy of the Transit Kings with their single "The Last Lighthouse Keeper " - Living in a giant candle winking at God.

Tiger Style

I have been experiencing a "Tiger flap" the last few days which began went i caught up with a mate who a mutual friend has nicknamed "Tiger".I was asking if he had heard the dubstep/grime producers "True Tiger" who have recently been given a late night show Friday night/Saturday morning on Kiss.
I started resonating "Tigers" in a big way a couple of years ago in (the year of the tiger) when my son was born and my neice and nephew took a photo of him as a new born next to a cuddly toy of "Tigger" from Winnie the Poo" every few months they would measure him in units of "Tigger" .

Prior to that I had only a vague interest in the meaning of tiger symbolism. Prominent ones being the used of the tiger by "Esso" and the "Eye of the tiger" in the rocky films. More recrntly  I wondered about the meaning of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"

My recent cluster of Tiger syncs deepened when i was competing with my son to access my computer and noticed "Cosmic Tigger" had made a post referencing the Tiger in " The life of Pi" at I hadn't had a chance to read it when my son pulled up the webpage for Kellogs Frosties with its animated Tiger. This minor sync gave me the motivation for a blog post of my own and as I logged on to compose it what was the first image I saw but the one I have attached which had been shared on facebook by a work colleague.I had never seen the different breeds of tigers alongside each other like this in a photo and it seem to mirror my discovery a day earlier that there are in fact two varieties of Tiger Balm on sale red and white.