More B-Boys With Politics

This is like a deep fried Twinkie to me. I will never, ever get enough of B-Boys or politics. NEVER!

He Wants to Move

Finally. Someone put together two of my greatest loves ... B-boys and politics. I'm in satirical heaven.

MY FRIENDS! IT'S ON!

Thanks, Teferri!

Men Snob Loves: Breakers and Black History Majors

Oh, What Wow! He's the Greatest Dancer
(Who Knows What Placage Is)

While exercising at the gym last night I caught the broadcast of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew and while watching it I thought of two things: "Oh my God! Dance porn!" and "I wonder if TJ Holmes can do a pop n' lock routine?"

And then my eyes rolled into the back of my head and I grabbed the handles on my elliptical machine to keep from passing out.

Then I recognized a pattern in what I considered to be attractive:

A) TJ Holmes with Aaron McGruder's brain and the ability to execute a flawless pop n' lock routine

B) Johnny Depp with Aaron McGruder's brain and the ability to execute a flawless pop n' lock routine

C) Wentworth Miller with Aaron McGruder's brain and the ability to execute a flawless pop n' lock routine.

Or D) Tiger Woods ... with Aaron McGruder's brain and the ability to execute a flawless pop n' lock routine.

What I'm saying is this -- my dream man is Crazy Legs with a degree in African American history.

I also like journalists, reformed hooligans, fey actors and fist pumping, but verbally eloquent, gentleman jocks. But there is nothing sexier than a man who can tell me the significance of Plessey v. Ferguson while doing the robot to an extended remix of "Buffalo Stance."

That is so hot on so many metaphysical levels that I can assure you, you cannot comprehend it.

First, let's dissect why I (Heart) B-Boys. I outed myself as having a B-Boy fetish June 16 in a celebrity photo post.

I like the dance crew show (as it's like my version of soft core porn), but it is very, very hard to find anything as thrilling as standing in a circle in an abandoned warehouse watching some guys do back flips off each other, nearly breaking their necks until the cops show up and shut it down.

It's really hard to go back to just watching "Beat Street" or suffer through the bad acting of "You Got Served" after some guy has taken a flying leap over your head as part of an elaborate stunt that could knock you unconscious if it goes horribly, horribly wrong.

But when it goes right. Man, that guy is hot!

But um ... I've totally never gone to an illegal dance battle in an abandoned warehouse.

Never.

I loved B-Boys back when they were cool in the 80s, then became uncool in the mid-90s and I continue to love them today, happy that they are now cool once again.

From authentic breaker anthropologists like the Rock Steady Crew to pop n' locking, cheesy boy bands, I am a connoisseur. It knows no bounds.

Por ejemplo, in the battle between the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync, I liked N'Sync because Justin Timberlake could beat box and N'Sync's worst dancer, Joey Fatone, could massacre Backstreet's worst dancer, that dude who looked like he was 40. Also, let's be honest, they could have cut Joey, Chris Kirkpatrick and Lance Bass from the group and replaced them with Darrin Henson of Darrin's Dance Grooves and Paula Abdul and they would have been just fine.

And their dance routines would have been off the hook.

People make fun of Paula now, but that bitch can dance her ass off. And she can tap dance, incredibly, and it is hard to find a women who can pull a Gregory Hines. And she's a former Laker girl who used to choreograph for Janet Jackson. And yes, I was a fan of Paula Abdul in the 1990s as the first two cassette tapes I owned were "Forever Your Girl" and MC Hammer's "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em."

And it was no accident that both were known to be better dancers than singers/rappers but still manged to create "U Can't Touch This" and "Straight Up."

I like dancers. And I come from one of earth's most dance loving ethnicities. If you've got an ounce of the motherland in you, you like to move. But not all black people are gifted with this ability. While my moves wowed my wonderfully sweet, white Rhythmless Nation co-workers, I'm probably the Joey Fatone of my ethnic subgroup. I'm good enough to keep up, but I'm in the back of the class. I don't have the athleticism or talent of my little sister who is a theater and dance major. She is four feet and eleven inches of pure kick ass.

This doesn't stop me from loving dancers. How can you love music (and I really love music) and not love dancers? I love ballet, tap and jazz, breakers, ballroom and boot scootin' boogie. I even like interpretive dance even though I don't get it and there's no beat involved.

But specifically, I brake for reckless breakers who defy gravity. I only mention pop n' lock routines so much because I know I have a better chance of meeting a guy who can RoboCop over a guy who can actually execute the capoeira influenced moves of breakdancing. Don't get me wrong. I will gladly take one if I can get one, but it is not a requirement that you be able to spin on your head or perform a flawless Kid n' Play kick step routine (fast forward to 2:17 into the video), including the whole "grabbing your foot and hopping your other foot through it" gambit.

You don't have to do that. Just be able to Moonwalk into my heart and I'll be happy.

Now as to why the black history grad? Well, isn't that obvious? While I have fallen for a many B-Boys, from the sweet, happy-go-lucky Philosopher Kings to the "He's no damn good, girl" bad boy players, B-Boys aren't necessarily known for their keen insight on world affairs. They aren't the most well read or the most politically astute people. I don't know a Rhodes' Scholar who can get on the floor and bust a windmill. I know of an MC Stephen Hawking, but renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking can't dance.

Mostly because he's hobbled and bound to a wheelchair from ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease.

But I'm highly attracted to intelligent people. I'm a nerd with an appetite for knowledge. I'm an artist. I'm a student of the world. I can't imagine dating some gent who can't hold a decent conversation about at least one or two of my top ten things to obsess over. Like politics or history or modern sci-fi films or all sorts of cinema or international affairs or journalism or music. A man who can conjugate verbs properly while discussing subjects he is passionate about is a gorgeous man.

All I want is a guy with a graduate degree who can do the wop. Is that so wrong? A news reporter who will dance with me at a party, not act all weird and sit down while I'm busting a move with the Rhythmless Nation. Dance with me, nerd boy! What is your damage?

The closest I can get to my dream guy is watching a bootleg video of the Jabbawockeez while listening to remix of Maple Leaf Rag.

Sigh. One of these things simply will not be like the other.

Rihanna And the Attack of the Ugly Outfits In Canada and Other Hit or Miss Celebrities

I didn't run my celebrity photo essay on Friday (I was helping a friend out that day. She's pregnant and I offered to help out around the house.) So this is a make-up feature with some new material from over the weekend. Including an Essence gala feature Kanye West's ex-fiancee Alexis Phifer, notables frightening me at Canada's Much Music Awards and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson looking delicious but needing a shave.

Per usual, I encourage you to add your own observations to the hit parade.

ESSENCE MAGAZINE PONDERS "IF LOOKS COULD KILL"

Aspiring designer and ex of Kanye, Alexis Phifer kind of looks like MTV's Real World Los Angeles alum Tami Roman in this picture. I don't know how to feel about the dress, which is kind of cute on her, but also reminds me of toilet paper.

Keyshia Cole. She's cute, but I'm not feeling the anything she has on.

I have no idea who this "Mashonda" person is, but she's in nearly every picture at this event.

I'm going to assume Toyota is some kind of sponsor considering everyone is posing like this is Low Riders International.

RIHANNA AND THE MUCH MUSIC OUTFITS OF DOOM

It didn't start out that bad ...

Her hair was cute.

Then the "WTF?" alarm started blaring over the weird white harness looking faux suspenders.

And it only gets worse from here.

I'm just going to say it. She looks like she's auditioning for an all-female version of the Village People, but I can't tell if she's a cop, soldier or a sailor in her pleather pants.

As for other WTF moments. Did you know New Kids On the Block are back?

I was never a big NKOTB fan (it's all about New Edition), but I would be lying if I didn't admit to liking a few songs (which all managed to get played on BET back in the day).

While the "bad boy" of the group, Donnie Wahlberg (the lesser Wahlberg because it's ALL about Marky Mark and his Calvins) won me over as a cop on the aborted NBC drama "Boomtown," my favorite New Kid is/was Jordan Knight because I bought his solo album seven years ago and it was a nice dose of pop. I especially loved his take on Prince's "I Would Never Take the Place of Your Man" by slowing it down and making it a ballad.

That said, who wanted this? What sick bastard was demanding to hear "Hanging Tough" one more 'gain? Was it the gays? Was it the 30 year old women who watched that crappy New Kids cartoon back in the early 90s? Who, dammit?

Just get on the floor and do the New Kids dance!

And now for some randomness ...

Here's the pop n' lock, break dancing crew Jabbawockeez. I won't make fun of them because I totally have a B-boy fetish that knows no bounds. Even if it's cheesy. I see a guy do the robot and I fall in love. I honestly cannot tell you why. B-boys are just sexy to me. They can dance and they are always in excellent shape. I've never met a B-boy who was a complete asshole. They reduce me to giggles and blushing. In Bakersfield there was a breaker I knew who I called "Farm Boy" in my head because he always wore plaid shirts and had red hair. Alone he looked unassuming. But put down some cardboard and he suddenly came alive the most magnetic man in the world with that big smile and all the spinning.

But I'm going to stop writing about it now because if I go on for too long it starts to get embarrassing and all TMI -- too much information. So I'll leave you with this: I have a B-boy fetish. It is the only fetish I have. I don't advertise that, lest I have every skeevy guy who studied a Darrin's Dance Grooves video pushing up on me.

As if the Pussycat Dolls weren't ridiculous enough, now we have Girlicious. They have a "I'm hotter than you" song called "Like Me." It doesn't suck. But then I like crappy dance pop. I own an Eden's Crush album.

Seriously, it totally did not suck that hard. There were some good tracks on there.

But I have utter disdain for the Pussycat Dolls. Other than their overplayed "Don't Cha" I've found them dull. But hey. If you have abs and you're willing to be half nekkid all the time, I say go for it.

You could do worse.

THE ROCK FOUNDATION

And her is Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, gorgeous as ever, but in need of a shave at a premiere event of his new film "Get Smart," where he stars with Anne Hathaway and Steve Carrell. (I love all three actors so I will be plunking down my $7.50.) This premiere was held in Las Vegas as a part of his charity The Rock Foundation. (The Rock loves the kids!) He received a Brenden Star inside of the Palms Casino Hotel.