h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi. Just stopped by to say hi, like I just did...

B-girl, eh, couple of me best mates break... I have no rhythm though so...

And if you want to know what I actually look like, search for photos from the winter meet, im in there somewhere...

Oh hi! Sorry, just skipped off to the coffee shop with a colleague to moan about our jobs....

Anyway, after a long, hard search I finally managed to unearth a couple of pics. One with leather jacket and several with a vest. So I guess it's all true then!

I haven't been b-girling for that long but I love it. Bebel Matman thingy asked me about breaking recently and got such a long and detailed reply that I think he has taken fright and run away.

I'm curious about the meet as I considered going, but bottled out in the end. Does it spoil things? Or make them better?

Mind you, thats not a wifebeater vest, thats one of my range of Ripcurl/Nofear/etc 'surfey vests'

To be honest I dont know much about breaking, I've watched a few of my mates videos, of B-boy battles, and its always pretty impressive. One of my mates is more into body-popping I think, but hes also an amzing human beatbox. His vocal scratching has got to be heard to be believed...

I had a really good time at the meet, got very drunk and had a right laugh. It definately doesnt spoil things and allows you to put faces to some of the names. Chatted to a lot of people I chat to, and some who I didnt, but do now...

Where does your mate break? Anywhere in London? Bboy name?

Surfer dude!

Not really, though it is an ambition, I've been a skate bum, so on my list is snow bum and surf bum...

My mates break here in Bristol, they havent been doing it for more than a year and dont have b-boy names yet...

Ah! You're in Bristol. I'm hearing that there's a good hip hop scene there. Also my sis says that the drum'n'bass scene is better than London but I wouldn't know cos I'm not into that.

What's the metal scene like then? Can't be better than North London, surely....

The Drum n Bass scene is huge here... The best DJ's and MCs come from Bristol, im not sure about the hip hop scene as its not so much my boat...

As for metal, I wouldnt know what the scene is like in North London, but its hard to tell these days anyway. The real scene has shrank very underground because of the introduction of fashion metal and all the little next-gen shits...

>>>little next-gen shits

what, people under 20? how old are you, kiddo?

Oh, im 20, its not so much their size or age, its them...
Theres older ones too. What they all have in common is that they got into metal as the fashion drawn by MTV, not the way the rest of us did.

Metal has become a fashion these days, the kids buy the clothes before they've even got into the music, manufactured metal lives in the charts, and its destroyed the real scene...

Yup, agreed, although other musicals genres have this problem as well.

To be fair, it's not the poor kids' fault usually. They are pushed so much advertising, marketing and merchandising crap that they can't see the wood for the trees, as it were.

Most people who've got a brain and a bit of individuality do manage to break out of this and find their real scene. Sometimes it doesn't happen until they move away from their home town, go to university or whatever.

The rest of them - well, we can happily ignore them! I think that saying that manufactured metal has destroyed the real scene is probably exaggerating a bit. It's out there somewhere, you just need to dig for it (or help create it?). Where there are true fans, there's always a scene.

Well, maybe not destroyed, but definately decimated. 3 or 4 years ago there was such a vibrant metal scene, where everybody knew one another, the bands were always playing and there was a proper community. All the people still exist, some of them arent into metal anymore, some just dont come out to the old places and some keep themselves to themselves. Maybe the scene wasnt destroyed, but it was definately decimated...

Oh dear, you're not happy about that are you?

I don't know much about it, to be honest, and I'm very willing to believe your analysis of the scene where you are. I think it's okay in London, I haven't heard anyone complaining yet.

My sis in well into the metal scene so I'd have to ask her. She's into her Stoner Rock in particular. She's also going to see Strapping Young Lad this evening.

I still go to the odd metal club once in a while - I went to the Dome recently and it was all RATM and Pantera and stuff. Fantastic - the music of my youth!!!! It was funny seeing all the kids going crazy to Killing In The Name and remembering doing the same thing at my 18th birthday party.

Killing In The Name will always be an anthem, the classics are the ones that they still play at the local metal night which are good, a hell of a lot of pop-punk and pop metal. But theres nowhere else to go.

Dunno actually, Im feeling like some Drum n Bass, might end up doing that tonight...

Ah well, if you're ever in London on a Saturday night, try the Dome (downstairs) in Tufnell Park or the Garage (upstairs) in Highbury - both friendly, decent metal nights.