Over the past few weeks, the crews of season two of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew were featured in exclusive interviews on BakitWhy.com.  The dancers explored what it meant to represent Pilipino-Americans in the mainstream, discussed their experiences on the show, and shared interesting facts about being Pilipino-American.

During the taping of the last BakitWhy.com ABDC interview, the season two champions, Super Cr3w, showed viewers how they get down for Pilipinos. What started as a shoutout to BakitWhy.com turned into whirlwind of Super Cr3w wackiness as RJ "Rockadile" Puno led a Tagalog rap with the entire crew. 

Hey Southern California! Just as a reminder, this weekend Bakitwhy.com will be at The Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture in San Pedro. Drop by our booth to engage in fun-filled activities!

What can you expect at the booth?

Create a Vlog: Record a video that showcases who you are and highlights your experience at FPAC! Be creative and you just might be featured on BakitWhy.com.

Create a Blog: If you're too shy to be on camera we'd still like to know about your experience with FPAC and the Pilipino-American community! Write a creative blog and it may become a feature post on BakitWhy.com.

Balloon Pop and BakitWhy Prizes! We're holding an exciting balloon pop game. A selection of the prizes include:

1. BakitWhy Stickers!
2. Limited Edition BakitWhy T-Shirt
3. Be in a special vlog featuring popular Pil-Am YouTubers, such as Tsud123, NinjaDrops and many others
4. One lucky person might win a vlog featuring Christine "HappySlip" Gambito

Meet and Greet HappySlip! Christine will be at the BakitWhy booth for a couple hours before her Saturday comedy set at 5:00 PM. Don't miss the opportunity to meet her!

Dance with Kaba Modern! Want to learn some of the sickest dance moves in existence today? Look for the "Dance with Kaba Modern" sign on Sunday around 2:00 to 3:00 PM and learn two 8-counts from a world-famous dance crew.

We hope to see you there!

Image from graciepoo

This unassuming wooden man/woman has been a classic cultural symbol in many Pilipino households.  Nestled in in the glove-like hold of its rotund armor, the figure awaits for a curious visitor to take a peek. One quick lift of the barrel and the little man inside says hello...Boing! Gotcha!

A barrel man or barrelman is a souvenir doll or statuette popular in the Philippines. The statuette usually consists of a crude male figurine carved out of wood, partially hidden inside a round wooden barrel. When the barrel is taken off, the male figure inside is revealed, sporting a prominent phallic protrusion in the lower part of the figure's anatomy.

The souvenir is fairly common in gift shops in the Philippines and is somewhat popular among tourists who may be surprised the first time they encounter the object and lift its barrel. The souvenir's origin is relatively unknown, but the figure has been referred to as an Igorot, suggesting that it may represent the mountain inhabitants of the country's early history. Although unconfirmed, it has been suggested that Ben "Dizon" Tingzon is the originator of the original barrel man.

Does the barrel man have a long cultural history, or is it last-century adaption of Pilipino woodworking skills? An upcoming event in Chicago agrees with the hypothesis that the barrelman is a basic form of cultural artwork.  The exhibit shows that Pilipino art has evolved from the basic woodcraft...or "Beyond the Barrelman" so to speak. Continue reading for more information about this Chicago-an event.

Beyond the Barrelman
Barrelman [Wikipedia]

FPAC Show and Prove Street Dance Showcase
Sunday, Sept. 7th

What an amazing year for Pilipinos in street dance! With so much Pil-Am sensation, representation, and domination in shows like MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew," it is hard to ignore the gifted dance talent within the Filipino community.

"Show and Prove" is a showcase that celebrates the success of Pilipinos in street dance, and pays homage to the long lineage of Pilipino street dancers--from the pre-WWII zoot suiters to the hip hop gurus of today. Can you hang with the best of 'em? Show and Prove!

Participating Dance Crews:

Kaba Modern (Irvine)
PAC Modern (Long Beach)
Undeclared (Oxnard)
All In Motion (Carson)
Carson Street Dance (Carson)

Here's a special behind-the-scenes photo album for your viewing pleasure! Do you have pics with the crews? Share them!

Watch out on Friday for a special message from SuperCr3w and the following Monday for an exclusive interview with a very special group from the Philippines...

After Super Cr3w took the title of America's Best Dance Crew, many thought the second season was over...until MTV announced a special show where the top crews from seasons one and two battled for a spot on the Video Music Awards!  BakitWhy attended this special taping to interview some of the crews.


The BakitWhy Team with Jia Huang of Kababayan at UC Irvine's Kaba Modern.

Kaba Modern, Break Sk8 and Status Quo from ABDC season one joined Fanny Pak and SoReal Cru from season two for the chance to prove themselves once again.  Last season's winners, Jabbawockeez, and the new champions, Super Cr3w, combined forces to open up the show with a joint "SuperWockeez" set that got the crowd out of their seats.

BakitWhy had a chance to ask Kaba Modern, SoReal Cru, Super Cr3w, and Jabbawockeez about how they were after a full season, how it is representing Pilipino-Americans in the mainstream, and their personal shoutouts to BakitWhy.com viewers.


The ABDC Battle for the VMAs first aired Saturday, August 30 at 1:00 PM ET/PT.  To catch the re-runs of this special show, visit dancecrew.mtv.com.

Related Posts:
Representing Pilipinos on the ABDC Finale
BakitWhy.com Exclusive: America's Best Dance Crew
Pil-Ams and America's Best Dance Crew

Did you miss BakitWhy friend Justin Rivera's set this past week on Comedy's Central's The Gong Show? Don't worry, we have it here for easy viewing!

Justin Rivera blends comedy and magic for a unique twist on stage performance.  For more information about this innovative entertainer, check out his interview here:
BakitWhy Interviews Comedians Edwin San Juan and Justin Rivera

Any reactions from the host and judge's comments?

 

You may be familiar with parents confusing "he's" with "she's" and vice-versa. These (understandingly) little mistakes may come when you're thinking in one language and then speaking in another language, or just by accident!

It's a common mistake and I'm sure your parents, family (maybe even you) do it too!

Stacksvinyl.com FPAC Tribute to the Filipino DJ
Sunday, Sept. 7, 2:30pm

Parallel to this year's festival theme "Our Native Ways," the Stacksvinyl.com Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture Tribute to the Filipino DJ hearkens toward celebrating the "original" pioneers of DJ culture and also honoring those DJs who are making an impact on our community. Also called "turntablism," DJing has much to owe to the Filipino community. Aside from the elite cadre of Filipino American DJ veterans who impacted the DJ scene worldwide, the sheer magnitude of Filipino American DJs is worth celebrating.

During this 17th Annual FPAC we will highlight a few notable DJs who have each brought something special to both the DJ and Filipino American community.

Like the many layers of the Filipino American experience that make our community so unique, DJs navigate our ears through the many layers of beats and rhythm. Bringing to the DJ scene something "SOOO FRESSHHHHH," we want to pay tribute to not only our awardees, but to all Filipino American DJs who are moving the art forward!

Awardees:

DJ Kuttin Kandi
Candice L. Custodio-Tan known as DJ Kuttin Kandi is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished female DJ's in the world. She is a member of DJ team champions 5th Platoon, Founder and DJ for the all female Hip-Hop group Anomolies, Cofounder of the famed NY monthly open mic nights "Guerrilla Words" and Founder of the coalition R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop (Representing Education, Activism & Community through Hip Hop). DJ-ing for over 10 years, Kandi competed in over 20 DJ competitions such as ITF and Vibe. She is the NY Source Magazine DJ Champion and has been the only female DJ to make it to the DMC USA FINALs.

DJ Nasty Nes

At the age of ten, Nasty Nes moved to Seattle from the Philippines. Beginning in 1980, Nes hosted the first Hip-Hop radio show in the West Coast, "Freshtracks" on 1250 KFOX. Nes' 18 year career on radio has landed him on KFOX, KCMU, KUBE & on KDAY, KMEL. 1985, Nes co-founded, NASTYMIX Records with Sir Mix-A-Lot. Nes is featured on the late Eazy-E single "Radio!" Nes is one of the youngest students at the original Bruce Lee Jun Fan Gung-Fu Institute since 13 years old. As an actor Nes has been featured in films, "House Party 4" & "Kung Pow! Enter The Fist."

All of us at BakitWhy.com would like to say thank you to everyone that came out and supported us at our First Annual BakitWhy Southern California Barbecue! It would not have been a success without you. We wanted to put together an event that showed our appreciation for the support that our audience gave to BakitWhy over the past few months.

The Food...
We carefully thought about what we wanted to serve you guys that said "beach day" and yet be "SoCal-inspired." Thus, we offered delicious "BakitWhy" cheeseburgers and the famous bacon-wrapped hot dogs--Los Angeles "after the club" style! We also didn't forget about those who are conscious about eating meat with our uber-tasty Boca Burgers! They were so good that I personally couldn't tell the difference.

by AJ Calomay and Xylophone Films

This new video showcases the enormous community involvement and attendance of this awesome festival. If you'd like to showcase your business to this huge audience at the Festival of Philippine Culture from September 6-7 at San Pedro, California, please download the information below:

FPAC Business Packet