Never Missing a Beat

I just love lazy Sunday afternoons on a summer holiday weekend. This is about the time where the fog of the upcoming work week begins to roll in; but not today. The only thing left to do today is fire up the coal and get that Copper River Salmon on the cedar plank.

There was some afternoon napping taking place, so I decided to spend a little quiet time doing a hard drive clean up. Some of what I happened upon was things that I saved with the hope of finding some space to post to the blog. I have notes and images I kept that I thought that one day I would weave into a post on some city related story.

How long do you think I was holding onto that image of CHiPs star, Larry Wilcox?

Sometimes the image is too odd or specific to make into a story. The moment passes but the ones and zeros remained encoded after the leaning light pole or skate park debate has passed. Sometimes, something is so interesting (to me) that I hope that I can use it one day. I usually end up waiting.

Today, I crossed paths again with something I had hoped to write about a while ago. There were images and links residing unused. On some level, I was going to comment about how people seem so enamored with places other than where they are from.

Europe is commonly invoked during these discussions.

People will point to their heath care or their gun control or their views on drug laws and try to infer that it stands as a model that should be emulated here. It is a cozy afterglow from a pleasant vacation. I decided not to write about it. It was too long a road to travel to get to nowhere. At the time, it began to mirror our national politics too closely. B-o-r-i-n-g!

My “What’s So Great About Europe Anyway?” post is scuttled. It is a conversation best saved for dinner party where pissing off some poseur in person is much more satisfying.

But still, there are these clips! Surely, they cannot go to waste. Therefore, I must digress.

Beatboxing. I was going to weave in human beatboxing into a discussion on modern European culture. Of course, the concept of a human beatbox is not American. There are plenty of other cultures that have had people mimic the percussive sounds around them. I am really referring to the form of human beatbox employed in the Hip Hop culture.

When I think Old Skool beatbox skills the name Doug E. Fresh comes to mind.

Part of the reason the original beatboxers displayed their skills was born more of necessity. Lacking the funds to buy an electronic drum machine, these skills could provide a street corner rhythm section. Considering how primitive the original drum machines were, this was hardly as awe inspiring as what it has evolved into.

This brings me back to Europe. Hip hop and Europe seem to be odd bedfellows but when you consider how many Jazz greats went to the old continent to reap their rewards it does suggest that Europeans do have discerning taste when it comes to American culture. Unfortunately, two words poke holes in that statement: David Hasselhoff.

Whatever the reason, I happened across a few of my favorite examples of human beatboxing and they are all from abroad.

From Serbia:

From Japan:

At this point, if you are getting tired of this, you can skip to the last example.

From The Czech Republic:

From France:

From the UK:

And finally, my favorite and the genesis for this post. A bus driver who drops a beat over the intercom.

From Russia:

If you heard the horrible 1980s German pop song he was mimicking then you would understand the greatness of his rendition.

I guess it goes to show that Rick Steves is only giving you half of the story. If you dare to venture away from your Frommer’s guide you will see another place entirely. A place where the locals don’t dress up in ethnic costumes playing to the tourists (much like we have sweaty teenagers donning a mouse head and waving for photos).

On this Memorial Day weekend, the same weekend that sees my native Detroit hosting the Techno and Electronic Music Festival: Movement, it goes to show that our biggest export is still our culture.

For what it is worth.