Televsion Wonderfulness

While I was nursing a minor hangover yesterday I caught some amazing television on MTV of all places. First, the new Real World Brooklyn looks as promising as a 3rd marraige. The intriguing cast includes a post-op tranny, a returned Iraq war soldier, a dolphin trainer, an ex-lesbian and best of all two Utahns, one a closeted gay mormon from Happy Valley and a non-mormon chic from SLC. My friend who happened to be visiting from Brooklyn over the holidays told me that tons of businesses wouldn't let them film and some restaurants changed their signs so the exposure wouldn't attract unhipster like attention. What's not to love about this?

Later I caught a brilliant documentary called Planet B-Boy. A 2007 film directed by Benson Lee that makes a compelling argument for break dancing as an artform by following various crews, individual dancers and their families leading up to the 'Battle of the Year', an international B-Boy competition in Germany. The cool thing about B-Boy-ing, besides it's resurgence, is it's overall positive philosophy, sense of community and the love shared between the members of these crews. Many come from broken families and dangerous street culture and see it partly as a non-violent way to express themselves. And who knew Korea had the sickest breakers in the world? Needless to say, television loves me and MTV provided some much needed hope in my fragile state.