The Harlem Shake is stupid.
Let's back up. As of February 2013, the Harlem Shake has become a viral video meme in which one person, typically with a helmet, dances alone to a song entitled "Harlem Shake." After eight bars, the beat drops; the video then smash-cuts to a huge group of people who dance along with the person in the helmet. After about 15 more seconds of everybody dancing, the video ends with a few seconds of slow motion footage.
The original video went viral, and was then aped by seemingly thousands of people who apparently found the concept incredibly hilarious and were moved to make their own.
Among the types of groups that have made their own versions are libraries, professional sports teams, college clubs, groups of professionals from all walks of life, and at the University of Arizona, a man in a Jesus costume who interrupted a sermon performed by infamous college evangelist, Brother Jed.
What's been lost in all of this video-pushing is that the dance being performed in the video isn't even the actual damn Harlem Shake.
That dance move was created back in 1981, purportedly by a man named Al B. According to an interview with the man himself, conducted by InsideHoops.com, the dance is "a drunken shake anyway, it's an alcoholic shake, but it's fantastic, everybody loves it and everybody appreciates it. And it's glowing with glory."
Unfortunately, that glory has faded, not unlike a pair of acid wash jeans, or whatever people wore in the '80s.
Now the Harlem Shake, much like Gangnam Style before it, and anything LMFAO did before either of them, has become completely and totally played out, earning segments on national morning talk shows and jokes on late-night fake news programs.
Please, as a lover of old-school hip-hop and someone who can do a damn fierce Running Man, I beg you all: Stop with the Harlem Shake. If you're going to ruin dance moves from the '80s, for the love of all that's good, kill the Safety Dance.
The Week On Our Blogs
On the Range, we continued following the anti-gun violence crusade of Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords; visited the opening of VII Grand; got excited for the mass of Food Truck Roundups around the Tucson area; sat in awe at the meteor explosion over Russia; got all up in arms about the Harlem Shake (as seen above, as well); explained just how dumb the fuss surrounding the now twice-moved Rodriguez concert was; nerded out about DC's Justice League of America comics; examined a bill intent on suppressing mass submissions of early ballots on Election Day; prepared you for the insanity that was #Fridaythe15th; read some more reader-submitted smut; and so much more!
On We Got Cactus, we congratulated Arizona-attached fun. for their Grammy win; jammed out to Outkast's "Happy Valentine's Day"; previewed the upcoming Kix Brooks show; looked forward to the recently-announced Band of Horses and Siversun Pickups shows; began shopping for whips to prepare for the Devo show; took a look at the new studio work that The Maine are getting into; and got ready for the free Far East Movement show at the Rialto.
Comment of the Week
"What's amazing to me is this story STILL appeared on the Arizona Daily Star website, front page, under "most popular" up til yesterday with a salacious headline with "female officer" prominent in it. If this were a male officer the story would have faded LONG AGO. Discouraging to those of us who hoped things were improving for women in previously male-dominate professions. I too, wonder GingerCat, what discipline, IF ANY, was imposed on the males involved!" - TucsonWeekly.com commenter "Saleslady2010," who seems to be disappointed in damn near everyone involved in the case of the Tucson Police Department sexting scandal (Danehy, Opinions, Feb. 14).
Best of WWW
Apropos of nothing, one of the best developments of the last week was the escalation of the feud between legitimate musician Patrick Carney of the Black Keys, and increasingly obnoxious teen sensation Justin Bieber, kicked off when Carney made fun of Bieber for his lack of Grammy recognition. Bieber got sassy, saying that Carney should be slapped around, so Carney responded in the best way possible: by changing his profile to pose as Bieber and trolling Bieber's massive fan base. This small space can't do it justice, so head to twitter.com/patrickcarney for some of the goodness.
