Turfin': Big With DC-Based Media Companies

I thought I was mistaken when I saw Slate.com tweeting something about Turfing in the Rain. Surely they must be referring to something other than the ecstasy-influenced, creepy dancing that guys do on street corners in Oakland, their garage in Walnut Creek, or their cul-de-sac in Hercules. Or wherever. But sure enough, on their Procrastinate Better blog, a Slate editor (or intern, or whoever) had posted a video of the Turf Feinz [sic] doing what they do on Macarthur and 90th in East Oakland. Their description of it is pretty great, in a how-the-hell-are-you-supposed-to-write-about-this kind of way. They call the "mesmerizing moves" alternately "balletic and Michael Jackson-inspired". They also call them "plainclothes dancers", which I find befuddling - should the dancers be in uniform? Either way, it's more articulate than, say, me pointing out that it's "hella weak". Their link is now dead, but the video is still up on YouTube:



Perhaps to solidify the, uh, less hetero aspects of Turfin, the dancers are named No Noize, Man, Dreal and BJ. The music is by Erk the Jerk, Oakland's vapid swag rapper who never really had enough swag or clever-enough flight metaphors to really take off (ha!) in the way that Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y have.

Anyway, back to DC-based media companies. I was checking The Atlanic today, and looked at their "Other Works of Genius" sidebar - the Nah Right Lite of The Atlantic, if you will - and spotted "The Interns Recommend: Dancing in the Rain", with the iconic photo of Albert Einstein razzing the camera hovering above it.

Truly dedicated NoT readers will remember when I personally ended a young Filipino turf dancer's career. He went by Tufapino (at times, parenthetically, "a Filipino that turf"), and I thought everything about him was hilarious. You can't find any of his videos anymore, save for this one ("ThiZzWiN ent's masterpiece"), because he has removed them all. I can't help but feel somehow responsible.

Given the fact that the DC media world seems fascinated with this trend, maybe I can pitch a story to The Atlantic about how, in a moment of youthful indiscretion, I ruined a young, talented dancer's online career, and how I go to track him down. Maybe he'll be working at a Best Buy in Dublin, or a Game Stop in Moraga, or a Soup Plantation in El Cerrito. You know, I interview him about his day-to-day life, ask him if he ever turfs "just for fun" or whatever. See if he's still cool with GiggDestrian, etc. It will be redemptive, like that Chris Hitchens piece where he visits a family whose kid got killed in Iraq because he read too much Chris Hitchens. Except it will be about turf dancing and rap blogging, which are far more interesting than the war in Iraq. Who's in?