Alan's Brain Damage Blog

Good morning kidz, While doing some research earlier today I once again had to take a break so my head didn't explode. I came across yet another "scholarly" article about the history of Jazz Dance that listed the "Legends" of late 20th century. It seems that the "scholar" either needs to re-do her re-search or possibly just  go back to school. As some of you are aware, a couple years ago after seeing similar writings (or wrongings as the case may be) that listed "Master" teachers without mentioning one of the best, I wrote the following which was published in the online magazine, Dance Informa: Below is a tribute to that master, written by Alan Onickel, Black’s former student who went on to enjoy a successful performance career and who now teaches and choreographs internationally.  Phil Black. Photo courtesy of Alan Onickel. Over the past few years, I’ve noticed many articles appearing in various dance publicat...

Hello friends out in Blogland,     It's a beeyoootiful afternoon here in Harlem. The sun is shining and the air is almost breathable! soon there will be leaves on the tree and the pigeons will be singing.  So in our last get together I had just met the front end of some idiot's wrong way wride. I decided to take a little nap (4 days is little in the scheme of things). There we were on the side of some road that misty morning in E. London having had our journey jumbled: While awaiting the arrival of the jaws of life to rip me out of what had become a “former” car so I could be put into an ambulance, they (Sluggy & co.) got an interesting visit from a group of locals.   S ome folks from the nearest shanty  town or village. As we saw on the road to E. London they usually consisted of many tin, cardboard or newspaper type dwellings along with one brick building for the chief of that tribe or clan (or however you want to label that grouping). ...

Good Afternoon Kidz (It's afternoon here),      When we last left (not right) our hero (Me, he bashfully boasted) was wondering  (while he was wandering) what the hell TBI was. Well before he would find out he went back to where it all  began. So sit back, relapse.....um, I mean relax, and take yourself back to that mostly misty morning of April 3 1999........ I often wonder if anything other than “OH SHIT!!” went through my mind (or came out of my mouth) the moment before the idiot, who was driving on the wrong side of the road that fine London like misty morning (in E. London, S. Africa) forever changed my life. Sometimes I wish I would’ve brushed my teeth a little longer that morning or maybe watched the end of that dumb murder mystery movie (I still don’t know who did it) so we might’ve left even a few moments later because, as in the words of some phine philosopher, “It only takes a moment”. Yuval told me that as we came around the curve an hou...

Hello again pilgrims,    In case you're getting bored in your new land, here's the first little tease from  what's going to be BECOMING ONE OF THEM which (hopefully a good one. Witch, that is) will be  the book (as soon as I figure how to get it published) that recounts (yes even I sometimes can be off count) my little 19 year (so far) journey from  the successful delightfully dancing care free kicker I once was to the stumbling bumbling sometimes mumbling mass of more and more metal free care codger I've become.....  Wasn’t it enough that I’d almost been dead?  What more did they want? I’d already given blood and I had no first born to bargain with!!! I mean there I was, minding my own business, not really bothering anyone, or if I was, not enough to deserve this, and then BOOM! That fraction of a millisecond, and nothing would be the same… Wait, now wait a second lemme go back to the start: TAPPIN 2 TBI I was having     A ...

Hello kidz,       Greetings from deep inside the recesses (which used to be one of my flavorite subjects) of my slightly damaged brain. It's now time to embark (sitting, speaking, and rolling over to follow) on what hopefully will be a worthwhile (we'll see what it's worth in a while), if not slightly screwy view of life as seen from my own ocular organs (the eyes have it!!).  Nay, you say??!! Well I say hey, sit down, I'm not done! As you may have guessed, I have no idea what I'm doing. But if I would've discontinued doing every time I was devoid of "knowing knowledge" I'd still be the bored bumbling boy back home knowhere knear where I am now. No way!! Therefore (which is more than thereto) I'm choosing to continue on, to seek new lands and new civil libations, to boldly go where no sometimes stumbling bumbling brain damaged Jazz and Tap teaching dancer/choreographer has gone before (which is less than befive)!!!! So, over the nex...