I look radical.
Ok. So I gets up early. And i am waiting for my ride outside at 745am. Shows up at 8AM. Shoulda known. Going 30mph on a motorcycle is fast. I say this because for the past 6 months I have been on motorcycles that travel no faster than 20mph thru the city. Plus, weaving thru the traffic in a tightly packed city adds to things.
We got to the Government Building Auditorium. We had breakfast there. We watched a couple of the other groups and then it was our turn to practice there. If it weren't for me, the instructor would have set us on the stage so that I and a few others would fall off during one of the dance steps. It was ok i guess.
After that we headed back to the school where i was given a headband....NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! The sun was out today so I was wearing my mirrors. Man...in this outfit...I look like I am a member of the cast to "Breakin' 3: The Return of Boogaloo Shrimp's Superfly Style"
I got the mirrors, the head band, the shirt, the pants, the shoes, and the gloves. All I need is three plaid ascots, about 5 swatches on my right wrist, and a bunch of slap bracelets on my left wrist. Oh...and a green vest. Then I would be totally breakin!
The practice at the school was irritating because a few people kept making mistakes and the female headmaster would yell at them...and they would yell back....but according to Coco, this is just talking. I have been here 6 months and I still have yet to find the difference in Cantonese yelling and talking.
We ate lunch.
These freaks were trying to put make-up on me after lunch. I was like, why do I need makeup. I am already white. Chinese people when they put on make up for performances, they basically paint their face white and then accent it with various things: blush, yellow around the eyes with sparkles and other crazy things. So, Coco, was like, "Ok...well, at least you need some lipstick." So I sat down and she put it on. When someone starts to giggle while putting makeup on you, you start to worry. I stood up and everyone started laughing. WTF! I went to look in the mirror. AIYA! It was gross. I spent about 5 minutes walking around trying to find tissue because chinese people don't believe in tissue, and I found some and whipped it off. I then yelled "chi seen!" at Coco which means, "crazy". Of course in a funny friendly way. And the chinese folks here love it when I say that. Its the only word I know where I sound like I am from Guangdong. I got rid of the lipstick, but some still remained and it accented my lips just enuff that it was ok for the stage. To imagine the horror or whorer that I looked like, picture Steve Buscemi from Adam Sandler's "Billy Madison" when Adam Sandler calls him up to apologize for the way he treated him in highschool, and then Steve Buscemi hangs up and puts on a gob of bright red lipstick. It was that creepy.
After that we headed to the Government building. Peter left his tripod at the entrance and I picked it up. It was 2pm and people were still filling in the auditorium. Yumi showed up while we were just about to start practicing. She watched our dance and was giggling underneath her hand when I went to talk to her. Yeah, its that bad, isn't it. She nodded her head in that japanese way. So we all went into the auditorium. I set up my camera and the show began. Turns out that we were the 3rd act. I headed out to get ready.
Dance time! It went ok. I screwed up a couple parts that I have never screwed up in practice. Go figure. Nothing major. Personally, I fel the performance was lame...but I also thought the dance was lame to. After getting back to my seat, I realized that most of the other dances were uber-lame as well. I don't know why but the chinese take so much from crappy US Culture: Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, diluted/commercial hip-hop, and horrible romantic movie chick flicks (ie Someone Like You). Its just so depressing. Alot of the music was the same chinese dance crude. There was teh occasional Backstreet Boys/NSync throw in, and a surprisinlgy cool dance mix of Jacko's "Billy Jean". Other than that, it was poop. This is why I am happy to see a law being passed like this: Chinese adviser urges lip synching ban. Maybe they should pass this in the USA so that actual artists with real skills actually could benefit from their art instead of having mindless zombies shelling out money for over-produced lack of talent cretins.
The dances were pretty funny. The best in the totally chinese category, which I unfortunately had turned off the camera long before to save tape, had a couple guys buzzing around the stage on those little lame jam scooters (those thin metal skateboards with rollerblade wheels and handlebars). They were wearing some shiny silver and blue outfit. At the end of their dance they had three guys with Twist N Pop Confetti Fireworks that blow junk all over the place. Well, they popped them in time with the music. #1 and #2 went of great, but #3 had some problems. The audience started to giggle and #3's face got all red. After the applause ended, I added, "Yangwei" only loud enuff that about 10 of my coworkers hearrd it and laughed. Thru my "Outrageous Chinese" book that Chad so graciously gave to me on my departure from AA, I learned that the chinese name "Yang Wei" means Great Yang. Yang is a common surname in China and all parents want their kids to be great, so they name them Yang Wei, "wei" meaning great. However, what they forget to remember is that the word "yangwei" is now synonomous with impotence. So, any child with that name will be made fun of. I said that after the guy couldn't pop his firework and the chinese girls around me giggled.
After the performance was over I headed to the computer store to buy 40 DVD-Rs. I need to make 3 copies of the last DVD for John. We then headed to a resturant for dinner. It was pretty good. The dance instructor came to borrow the tapes I recorded at the dance recital. Her team won "SPECIAL PRIZE". They were the best, but they also had 2 dance instructors in their troop. When they won it they were all "surprised". Whatever. Then for the following results:
1st Place: 8 teams, including the team I was in... how can there be 8 first places...it makes no sense.
2nd Place: 8 or 10 teams I can't remember.
Also during dinner, Coco tried to tell me that since I spent so much work in the dancing that I dont' need to come to class a couple days this following week, but I declined because they school bought me shoes and a radical Break Dancing outfit. How could I not come to class.
After dinner, Yumi and I headed over to Peter's place cause a bunch of folks were there. I was super tired from the long day and almsot passed out on the couch. While there, Peter told me a great story. He and Echo needed a taxi at one point. Peter wasn't in the greatest of moods. The taxi guy told Echo, "He is a foreigner, he should pay more." Peter responded to that with, "You are chinese, you can kiss my ass." Awesome. Absouletly awesome.