On Saturday, July 31st: Civil Clothing in Junction with our good friends at the Crosby bring you Birds of a Feather, a party commemorating our Fall 2010 Season Launch.

Birds of Feather is an event that brings together all of us celebrating art, good music, and dope vibes.
…
We’ll be bumpin 90s, Hip hop, Funk and soul, Dub, and a variety of tastes from our multi-talented sound selectors that get the dance floor poppin.

Come have a drink with us and vibe out with us for good times.

Music Selections for the Evening Provided by:
YAKUZA YUKI (ROULETTE / SHANGRI-LA / JAM CITY)
http://twitter.com/yakuza_yuki

UNCOVENTIONAL SCIENCE ( TOKEN RECLUSE/ FUNKY SOLE)

http://www.tokenrecluse.com/

http://www.myspace.com/funkysole

DJ MARK MARCELO( MINDZ ALIKE/ VICTORY NIGHTLIFE)
http://dj.markmarcelo.com/
http://twitter.com/markmarcelo

In addition: Free clothing giveaways of Civil with be going on through the night!!!

All going down @ The Crosby.

(21+) FREE ENTRANCE & FREE TEE SHIRTS GIVE AWAY TO LADIES & GENTS.

The Crosby
400 N. Broadway
Santa Ana, CA 92701

http://www.thisisthecrosby.com/

Civil Clothing LA

http://www.civilclothing.com/

Here is one of their latest singles titled “Only For You“. Enjoy!

“After more than 20 years, everyone’s favorite moonwalker (may he Rest in Peace)  is finally getting another video game made for him. Ubisoft’s Michael Jackson game, simply titled Michael Jackson: The Experience, is going to be developed for the PSP, DS, Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3. According to Ubisoft, The Experience will utilize the Wii MotionPlus, Kinect, and Move. Get ready to Beat It, Jackson fans.

The Wii version will be similar to Ubisoft’s Just Dance, while the Xbox 360 version is going to project 3D images of the player onto the screen (can we say Michael Jackson costumes?). Both the DS and PSP versions are said to be tap-based games. Not too much has been discussed about the PS3 version yet, but be sure that we will keep you updated as frequently as possible about The King of Pop’s latest video game appearance.”

-The release date is set for late 2010!

Here’s a clips of someone practicing for the game. He will win any tournament thrown at him. He’s ready! Bring it.

Myself and my crew had the great opportunity  to actually see and watch Pablo during the times he was around. We watched  bboying take a giant step as Pablo took the fore front of power moves. He has created a move that potentially can be used in the Olympics.With that being said Pablo is a perfect example of why we created a brand like Civil. Civil is for people like Pablo whom is legendary and has innovated thousands…but if I asked a random person on the street who bboy Pablo was…most would not know. Thus; Civil was born…here to spread the message…We are the defenders of the underdog. All those who pay dues with nothing to lose.Noi Le Persone:We the people…Civil 2010 ‘ Support Unity’. Bboy Pablo rest in peace.

Featuring:

Delicious Vinyl
Joy Rich
Civil Clothing LA
Rojas
Dime Piece
L.A. RAP!
213 Jump Street
Mindy Lebrock”Electrocute”
Hello Drama jewelery
Beat Swapmeet
Barracuda
Dim Mak
Miss Mars
+more tba

B-boys, Super air bouncers, and a lounge section.

Artists from Delicious Vinyl as will be in the house.

This  going to be a on going event through out the summer time. The first installation will be on 6/13/10 (this Sunday) and starts @ 2pm; ends @ 8pm.

Featuring:

Summer Street Sale this Sunday, June 13th. Fashion, music, art galore!!!
With special guest Dj sets, drinks, dancing and shopping shopping shopping!!

There will be a Bouncer to jump around in, ice cream truck, gourmet organic food truck, cotton candy, snow cones as well as all the fashion for your summer wardrobe. “vintage and new”

This is a free event!
spread the word and come join us!!!

Ill video. Peep at 3:26..

Nigel Sylvester has been documenting his journey’s as pro BMX rider in NYC, from the daily grind, tricks to epic moments and places to eat.

Sylvester is known for “street riding” which is a typical style of bmx biking. Sylvester owns one of four main bmx shops in New York City, the others being Front Street, Dah Shop, and Post. Two of which Post and Dah Shop are owned by Sylvester’s fellow Animal team riders Edwin Delarosa and Tyrone Williams. He is known for an exceptional video part in Nike 6.0′s Writing on the Wall. Sylvester is one of the best street riders in the new generation of bmx.

Civil LA makes a Special Appearance at 3:26 of the video…. woot!

Crumbs: needs no introduction to the bboy community, for over a decade he has been the man to beat, consistently staying on top with his explosive,innovative style. The 90s saw the emergence of the most unforgettable dynamic duos of all time, with partner Remind, illustrating to the bboy community what a true Batman and Robin (Superman) team should be: flow with styles that complimented each other perfectly, yet sharing elements of similarity and contrast.

Whether it was rocking cyphers, solo battles or crew battles, Crumbs has always left the audience breathless with a sense of awe, at the same time leaving other bboys to take notes. Fresh of his battle with the versatile Hong 10, Crumbs illuminates to us his view of the battle. Dig deeper into mind of one of most influential bboys of all time, as Civil picks  the brain of Donnie Counts Jr.

For our readers who are unfamiliar with whom you are…please address yourself and let them know what you do.

My name is Donnie Counts Jr. aka Crumbs. I am a BreakBoy in short a Bboy. I do other things as well but that is my passion, my art and my job.

In my eyes bboying has changed quite a bit; and I came into the scene in the early 2000’s. The same generation as Battle Monkeys, Knuckle Head Zoo, Floorgazms and many others…I have only been around to witness ‘some’ things change. What has changed from your perspective? What things would you change about bboying today?…and what are some things from the past that newer generations don’t have?

Well obviously everybody is going to have different views on this but I can only speak on what I’ve seen change from when I started Bboying from then till now. There is negative and positive in everything so I’ll try to give a balanced answer.

In my eyes the main thing that has changed from the early 90′s to now is the major lack of creativity. Not just creating moves, but majority of heads can’t even find an original way to compose those trendy moves in thier own way. There is a lot of clones these days. Same moves, same flows, same combinations and same mentality. I seen this transition starting to happen around the year 2005. Thats really when I seen the “traditional” Bboy style take over and when i say that i mean the “traditional” with no originality to blend with it.

The difference from the era I came up from and the era now is that we were never scared to be ourselves. We are all about progression. There are too many followers these days and not enough leaders. I truly feel that many people follow trends because they are dying to be accepted. They want to be “In the circle.” I’ve seen a lot of Bboys that were dope back in the early 2000′s with original moves etc.  conform to the popular way to break of today and basically throw what made them dope in the trash. I see some of these heads like that and i’m like “are you serious!” That dude was ill and now he’s just basic. Too many of these kids jumped in that hot tub time machine!

Now don’t get it twisted. In no way am I clowning the basics or the original formula of this dance. By all means, please learn the basics. Do your research about this dance. Understand it. The key is to grow from the knowledge and try to bring something to the game as well, like the original Bboys did. They were creative. They created all the basics thats popular today. Do you honestly think all the Gee’s want to see everybody only doing what they created in the beginning? I don’t think so. That was the late 70′s & 80′s. It’s 2010! The beautiful thing about this dance is that there is no limitations. Thats the difference from then to now. Majority of heads are making themselves limited and we never had any limitations and never will. The good things from then till now is that heads are rockin the beats better these days and there are some super athletes out there. Most of those super athletes are only good at one style and can’t put it all together but that one thing they do is AMAZING! Thats the only really good point i can make. Long answer I know but It’s a good question.

I would like to bring up one battle I have watched countless times. One of my favorite battles to watch is style elements vs. Renegades at Radiotron 1996… How much does this battle mean to you and what were your thoughts going into it?

Man that battle was the beginning of a new generation. It was huge. I believe that battle meant so much to all Bboys involved and still does to this day. It is a timeless battle. In one word… historic. That was easily the best battle of the whole 90′s decade. So many heads got inspired to break just from watching or hearing about that battle. It changed the game for sure.

Going into the battle I felt confident and hype. I knew that Renegades were the crew to beat. I knew that they were pretty much untouchable in the power aspect. What made me feel so confident is that I also knew that we could at least hang in that area and we also had many other angles that made our crew so unique that we could hit them with. By no means did we easily win. It was a very close battle.

How did you feel when Jazzy J did that monster power set…haha…

Well honestly i was happy when he came through. I was happy when anyone from Renegades came through in that battle cause we wanted a war. Nothing less. In all honesty, the floor got super slippery 5-10 minutes into that battle. It was summertime, lots of heads in the spot and very hot. So a lot of us were slipping. I’ve seen Jazzy J hit better combos then he did in the battle against us but I know it was because the floor was hard to deal with. Still what he pulled off was amazing. Especially for that time. We all could have done better but we had to work with the conditions we had in the moment.

Are bboy crews more like teams nowadays…or do you think crews still have some strong ties that holds them together?

I’d say 50/50. You got real crews still. You also have teams or super crews as they say. Everybody knows who the real crews are and who the made up teams are. If you look at our crew Killafornia, a lot of heads think that we are a super crew because everybody is good in our crew. That is far from the case. Every member we have known, been dancing with for years and have chemistry with. For instance our newest member Machine got in the crew well over a year now. We have been knowing him and dancing with him for a long time. Still he had to pay his dues with us before he officially got in. I believe he was grinding and doing battles with us for about 2 years before we even considered it. Thats how we work. It don’t matter how dope you are. There has to be that chemistry and it has to make sense. A super crew is hand picked good individuals put together to try and win competitions. Killafornia is no where near that. I’m sure everyone can seperate the real from the fake quite easily.

What was your most memorable battle and why?

I have a lot of memorable battles so it’s hard to point out just one. I’ll give you 2 crew and 1 solo. The 2 crew battles would be The 1996 Renegades battle like i said before it was the beginning of a new generation. Another crew battle would be our battle against South Side Rockers at Battle Of The Year 1997 because once again it was the first time exposing our unique styles to europe live.  Heads had no choice but to love us. I would say my most memorable solo battle would probably be my battle vs Benji in France because at the time he was looked at as unbeatable. He was tearing through cats and thought he could do the same to me. I was suppose to get destroyed. Just like I am in every solo battle I do. When you been in the game for so long and done so much, people pray for your downfall. Unfortunately for them, I didn’t allow that to happen. In that battle everything was against me. I was shockingly to me, the underdog and had to battle him in his country. I love that though. I like the extra pressure. So basically i loved that battle so much because i got to shut everybody up… again! I love showing heads that either if you hate me or love me, you have no choice but to respect me on the dance floor. Or else you get your ass handed to you.

Looking back at the Hong10 battle…How would you critique yourself?

First I would say that definitely is not one of my best battles by far. There is reasons for that but speaking truth sometimes can be looked at as excuses so I wont even go there. That being said… looking back I thought I did really good for being in the situation I was personally in. I know for a fact that 90 percent of Bboys would have quit. I showed a lot of heart in that battle. In fact, I was all heart in that battle. Disregarding all that, breaking down the battle i thought Hong 10 had better energy, speed, endurance and blow ups then I did. On the flip side, I thought I was way more original, the better dancer, showed many more styles and more looks than he did and I also thought I was cleaner. What made me look bad was obviously my lack of energy. That being said I truly felt that I still won that battle by 1 round. I watched it with a lot of respectable Bboys and asked them for their honest opinions and  mostly every single one of them scored it round for round the same way I did. Only 1 person thought it was a draw and 1 other thought he won.

No disrespect to Hong 10. I am just giving my opinion. I think he is amazing and I critique myself as well as him. I thought he crashed a lot in our battle on his chest and on his hip. A lot of heads don’t see that cause he has a very fast style. They think that crashing is just part of his style cause he can flow out of crashes well. He also kind of showed the same style almost every round. I came out with a different style every single round. As far as dancing to the music, I feel like he has gotten better in that area but in our battle every time he hits the floor he gets in rapid speed and is no longer on beat. He hits a beat every now and then, don’t get me wrong, but majority of it is off beat. If you look at every one of my rounds in that battle from top to bottom I am flowing to the beat the whole time and never fall off. Most of the beats the Dj played in this battle were Hip Hop beats. So I was In that speed and mode. It looks like he is breaking to a fast breakbeat every round. Also I have to point out that He did signature moves from me, poe, reveal, boo rock and remind in our battle. I only did me. All that being said I thought he came hard and I definitely got the best Hong 10 that night. If I didn’t think he was one of the best in the world I would not have taken this battle. This is just how i look at this battle and Im sure if you ask him, he will see it totally different. I wish I could have given him a better battle that night.

If you had to make a Fantasy bboy team…who would be on it and why..

A fantasy Bboy team huh… wow i guess it would be Myself of course lol Remind, Machine, Ivan, Ruen, Moy, The End, Kill, Hong 10, Physix, Thesis, Ken Swift, Crazy Legs, K Mel, Orko and Flo Master. Damn that would be nuts!

Quick questions:

Biggest inspiration- Im inspired by lots of different things, not just people but I’ll just say my biggest Bboy inspirations. Ken Swift, Crazy Legs, Mr. Wiggles, Sidewalk Breakers, Every one of my crew members from Style Elements and Killafornia, Flo Master, Orko and Lil Cesar.

Best bboy ever- I don’t believe there is a best Bboy ever and never will be. This dance is too diverse to pick out just one.

Best current bboy- Once again no current “best” bboy. That can change day to day.

Can you do tombstones- No I don’t have good tombstones at all. Never really practiced them.

Favorite break beat- My 2 favorite breakbeat would have to be “The Mexican” by Babe Ruth and also “In a gadda di vida” by The Incredible Bongo Band

Can you explain your purpose behind your webisodes “The Crumbs Chronicles”

Well the main reason behind these webisodes is just to spread a message, give training tips, help elevate the scene and just for fun and entertainment. The main message behind “The Chronicles” is to find yourself and don’t let anybody tell you how to do your thing. I believe every member in our crews Style Elements and Killafornia embody this and it shows in our dance. If you look at our crew, nobody dances the same. so I show them a lot in different settings. A lot of crews these days, almost every member dances alike. So hopefully “The Chronicles” will inspires heads all around the world and start to diversify crews. Thats what I do them for. Also I think It would be a good reality show on TV. So Hopefully It can get picked up. Of course on TV it would be cut down to the most memorable stuff but I just use a lot of stuff for different looks and moments. I try to show all sides of “The Bboy.” The serious, the funny, the skills etc. I really feel like “The Chronicles” is something refreshing and has never been done and thats what I am all about.

Any future projects we should be looking out for?

Just be looking to see me in more battles. Movies, commercials music videos etc that is all irrelevant. Look for me at the jams. Also make sure to check out past and future webisodes of “The Crumbs Chronicles”  at this link

Shout outz

Just one big shout out to the whole world. Peace to every one and keep living your dreams.

=Thanks to Crumbs and all the bboys and b-girls out there World Wide! Civil Los Angeles 2010 “Supporting Unity”=

=The shirt Crumbs is wearing in the pictures can be found here!=

LA was taken to new sonar heights this weekend, as Steven Ellison debuted with the epic live band, Infinity, to best illustrate the premiere of his latest album, Cosmogramma. Music is often difficult to put into words, the feeling it leaves you is something that is deeper than human verbiage can express. This so ever apparent with Ellison’s current album which features Thom Yorke’s haunting whirlwind voice in “The World Laughs with you”, which remains a prominent track in Cosmogramma.

Born to Winnetka, which is home as well to other musical royalty, including Styles of Beyond, Ellison was raised with a great musical lineage with aunt Alice Coltrane, a jazz harp and multi-faceted virtuoso who drew upon Indian and Middle Eastern influences, as well is being influenced by the burgeoning and quite genius video game soundtracks of the late 80s, early 90s.

Cosmogramma marks a strong inkling of development and maturation, that serves to propel Ellison into a much rarefied air touring with such acts as MIA and Thom Yorke. As next level as Reset and LA were, its refreshing to see artists like Lotus take their forward thinking minds and souls to the next level. The limits of the universe and rules of engagement were meant to be broken.

Few images courtesy of La Times blog.