"Fashion" is a track from David Bowie's 1980 album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).
I was never much of an early Bowie fan, a bit too daytime-soap-opera for me. Bowie suffered a nasty case of over-exposure at the time, a time when the electronic underground was starting to lay the foundation for life as we know it ;)
But his 1980's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) album did it for me.
Fashion is a work of art and poetry, with Bowie at his insightful best. Well done ol' son.
Jon Stewart Talks Climategate
UPDATE 10 December 2009
At last some of the real scientists are being heard above the clammer of politicians and climate $peculators trying to save their collective arses from the impending doom.
Once respected scientist has a solution...
From Australia's ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2764827.htm
Kill the IPCC
Bob Carter is a geologist from James Cook University, Queensland. He is a palaeontologist, stratigrapher, marine geologist and environmental scientist with more than thirty years professional experience.
...the study of climate change, under the aegis of "dangerous global warming caused by human carbon dioxide emissions," has long since been captured by the small group of well connected, well networked and well funded atmospheric scientists and computer modellers who advise the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and whose nearly every utterance confirms their ignorance of the true course of climate history and change on our planet - a topic that is the domain of geologists, not meteorologists and computer jockeys.
However, the stately progress that the IPCC was making towards achieving international action at the COP15 climate conference against carbon dioxide, an environmentally beneficial trace gas, has been shattered by the Climategate affair.
The Climategate files have demonstrated the scientific malfeasance of an influential and internationally well networked segment of the climate research community. A small group of scientists and computer modellers - with the aid of an enormous supporting cast of environmental activists and organisations, self-interested business groups, and crusading journalists - have managed to turn the global warming issue (which in 1990 was an entirely sensible matter to have raised) into the scientific scam of the century, if not the biggest ever.
UPDATE 8 December 2009
Wow, mainstream media is really starting to pick up on Climategate, far more interesting and important that who Tiger Woods penis has been entertaining.
These UN crooks have also censored any other climate scientist who wanted to publish research that disagreed with the CRU. That's a criminal offence in many countries and those who have been harmed by the crooks are getting lawyered up.
You can be sure the Politicians in the Copenhagen climate talkfest the next 2 weeks will achieve absolutely nothing, that's what they do best.
Except agree that there needs to be more taxes from everybody else, so they can do it again.
Get your Climategate files make up your own mind, this file site is searchable
http://www.eastangliaemails.com/index.php
UPDATE 7 December 2009
Throughout the history of the Earth it has been unusual to have one polar ice-cap; it is unique for us now to have two of them.
Yet, in the context of the history of the planet, this is not a normal period.
More average conditions would be significantly warmer, producing lush vegetation and hot conditions - BBC (UK)
more here >>>
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/understanding/iceage_01.shtml
We are currently in the middle of an ice epoch (longer than an ice age) which has lasted millions of years and is likely to continue for millions more.
Yet, in the context of the history of the planet, this is not a normal period.
More average conditions would be significantly warmer, producing the lush vegetation and hot conditions that prevailed aeons ago, when dinosaurs walked the Earth for millions of years.
The reason why we are in the middle of such a cold epoch has a great deal to do with the positioning of the land masses. Almost imperceptibly, the great continents are constantly moving and changing location.
Throughout the history of the Earth it has been unusual to have one polar ice-cap; it is unique for us now to have two of them.
The Milankovitch model states that variations in the Earth's orbit can account for our weather pattern during the present ice epoch.
The reasons behind what may trigger an ice age, or cause the mini-cycles of optima and little ice ages is likely to be down to a complex combination of factors including the Earth's magnetism.
AUSTRALIA GUILTY OF DODGY DATA
Well finally the Australian mainstream media is taking notice, and no wonder they didn't want to look. They call it Climate-gate. How about that I wonder were they heard that from ? ;)
Seems Australian scientists are part of the con - very bad indeed seeing the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd flatly refuses to discuss any of this in public, has refused public debate, and answering public questions, so he can railroad a new mega tax-on-everything to...well he won't tell us what the new tax will do. Thankfully it's an election year in 2010, we can answer him at the only poll that counts, the election, then perhaps jail him for fraud afterwards.
Quit the cover up Kev, we'll find out sooner or later.
Here's what experts say about Australian Weather stats [The Age]
The programmer found the Australian weather data to be riddled with entry errors, duplication and inaccuracies and described as a ''bloody mess'' attempts to homogenise information and entries.
In his text file, the programmer documents his attempts to make sense of the reams of raw historical data that was used by the CRU. He railed that the global information he has to work with has ''no uniform integrity''.
UPDATE 5 December 2009
At last mainstream news is picking up CLIMATEGATE
**** ABC Australia
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Hundreds of pages of correspondence between climate scientists in Britain and America have caused outrage at the United Nations as it prepares for the biggest international gathering in its history.
The University of East Anglia is now being investigated by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change over claims that its leading professors fudged data and suppressed evidence that contradicted its theories on manmade global warming.
Our Europe correspondent Emma Alberici.
EMMA ALBERICI: They're calling it Climategate and it threatens to derail next week's negotiations in Copenhagen.
A string of emails sent from the University of East Anglia's climate research unit, mostly from Professor Phil Jones, who has stood down while the investigation runs its course.
In some of the leaked correspondence Professor Jones is asking for all emails from one certain scientist to be deleted.
In others he's asking for some research papers to be excluded from the UN's next report by its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
But one of the most troubling lines was this one. It reads, “I've just completed Mike's nature trick of adding in the real temperature to each series for the last 20 years and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline”. [see complete email below]
more: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2009/s2762904.htm
**** There's only about 100 posts so far, compared to 50,000,000 by bloggers. Here's the latest
Things are hotting up.
**** Al's now returned because he looked like a coward and he's under contract to promote his new book called 'Our Choice' perhaps 'Poor Choice' is more appropriate ;) But he won't be doing any public appearances where he could be asked inconvenient questions like how much of this scandal did he know about, it'll be just a safe photo op waving his book in the air while smiling.
**** Palin has called on Obama to boycott Copenhagen in protest because of the Climategate scandal
...and I'm sure there'll be more to come ;)
As MSO readers will know, I'm skeptical about everything lol, I've seen so many scams over the years, I need a lot to convince me of anything.
But this is looking like the real deal and it'll probably trigger another financial collapse in our already stressed world with all the green stocks bombing out.
My advice: Duck and cover.
--------------------------------
SEE AL RUN
Al Gore has done a chicken run and pulled out of the Climate fest next week in Copenhagen, where guests have paid $1200 per handshake with big AL. He says it's because of a scheduling problem, we think it's because of over 50,000,000 Climategate posts in just 2 weeks !!!
And the mainstream media still hasn't said anything, not even the word appears. What does that tell us about the mainstream media ? COVER-UP BIG TIME. Why would you trust them again, if they won't tell you about Climategate now?
Why are the mainstream media moguls so shy, why does Google - self proclaimed champion of free speech restrict alerts for Climategate ? They are restricting search results or Bing is a better search engine. Naturally they'd deny both ;)
See for yourself.
Latest search Google CLIMATEGATE 31,000,000
Latest search Bing CLIMATEGATE 51,000,000
3 hours later it's 57,400,000 for Bing and still 31,000,000 for google.
----------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE 4 December 2009
About 2 weeks ago 1000's of emails and documents from the world authority on climate science in the UK, were released online by an inside whistle-blower, exposing the Global Warming scam.
World leading scientists have been deliberately cooking the books because there is no global warming, the earth has been getting colder. The 'trick' is 'to hide the decline' says one crook to another as they discuss how to commit fraud...and commit it.
The biggest question is why the mainstream media has not said anything about this. It even involves a British Lord and Head science adviser to the UK govt, and the Nobel Peace Prize awarding dodgy science, well not really science at all, just a con job.
Aren't we all supposed to be happy we won't be burnt to a cinder now that Global Warming is a con job, just like the Weapons of Mass Destruction ?
I mean why are they silent ?
In shuffle culture, we encourage people to be informed and make educated decisions about everything. Whether we agree or not afterwards, we are still friends and always shufflers.
I mean, when I buy a computer, I want to know it's capabilities good and bad, because I'll find out easy enough when I get it home and switch it on. So what's the point in lying ? What else is going on ?
Why pretend CLIMATEGATE doesn't exist, why not call out the bad scientists and throw them in jail ? Why not have transparent proper government inquiries into it and help preserve peoples respect in the scientific process?
Why just duck for cover at the first mention of FRAUD hmmmm?
Here is what they don't want you to know...
Here's my source: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/19/breaking-news-story-hadley-cru-has-apparently-been-hacked-hundreds-of-files-released/#more-12937
Here's the original released files: Link valid at 4 December 2009 65 meg of files, no virus/Trojans, all legit looking text and charts. Freedom Of Information FOI2009
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XD050VKY
Here's one of crooks emails:
From: Phil Jones
To: ray bradley ,mann@xxxxx.xxx, mhughes@xxxx.xxx
Subject: Diagram for WMO Statement
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:31:15 +0000
Cc: k.briffa@xxx.xx.xx,t.osborn@xxxx.xxx
Dear Ray, Mike and Malcolm,
Once Tim’s got a diagram here we’ll send that either later today or first thing tomorrow.
I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.
Mike’s series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998.
Thanks for the comments, Ray.
Cheers
Phil
Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) xxxxx
School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) xxxx
University of East Anglia
Norwich Email p.jones@xxxx.xxx
NR4 7TJ
UK
Here's some of the latest posts in My Latest Vid section of the MSO forum. Anyone can post their shuffle vids on the MSO Forum.
Anah
Pleaase comment in my video..im a shuffle beginner...but please..can u comment?
http://mso1.cultureforum.net/my-latest-vid-f7/beginner-girl-shuffle-t326.htm
IBD/ShiroX Rawk!
Hey Mates For a week i have a new video and i want to
show u my video
Hope u enjoy and give meh critism in a comment and rating
(: Maybeh u want subscribe meh ?
http://mso1.cultureforum.net/post.forum?mode=editpost&p=1857
THA Anip and Aiai
http://mso1.cultureforum.net/my-latest-vid-f7/the-hardstyle-agentz-videos-t279.htm
KHS Shuffling vid :)
http://mso1.cultureforum.net/post.forum?mode=editpost&p=1768
RoH// Pure
me and Fluro shuffling, im the one in the phats mainly. lawl. i use my left foot wayyyyyyy to much, but im better now
xD
http://mso1.cultureforum.net/my-latest-vid-f7/roh-pure-vid-t309.htm
PHS//Dr3kar
My new video. Tell me what you think
I filmed the middle part with a toe infection!
For some reason on here it does not give you the HD option. sorry.
yes i know the running man is not as good as it should i have already fixed that. no use commenting on it.
http://mso1.cultureforum.net/my-latest-vid-f7/phs-dr3kar-shuffle-t301.htm#1677
PHS// Koty
Bored on a stormy day. What better to do than shuffle? 
Shuffling to Spuerstar DJ and Paxi Fixi
How original...
http://mso1.cultureforum.net/my-latest-vid-f7/phs-koty-new-shuffle-video-t306.htm#1728
Advice? Tips?
http://mso1.cultureforum.net/my-latest-vid-f7/my-first-noobie-video-t298.htm
4MR - For Mother Russia have been busy with the Second Russian Melbourne Shuffle Championship held a few weeks back. Here's their promo and you can find lots more video and pics of the event: More details here
Second Russian Melbourne Shuffle Championship/ Второй Андеграунд Melbourne Shuffle Чемпионат 13.09.09 @ "Dub club"
Millie, Pim, Rodney and Musti from Dutch Shufflers, show us what they've been doing over summer 2009
Do you want to find other shufflers in your part of the USA ? Or join/start a local shuffle crew, or have a local shuffle meet-up?
Of course you do !!!
Just leave a message or comment on the MSO Forum and get those crews and meet-ups happening...
mix title: swing
shuffle music genre: swing
purpose: to develop smooth full body motion.
level: beginners > advanced
speed: nice and easy 90 -120 bpm
time: 9 mins
Swing is a 1930's-1940's development of tap dance. Tap is a fusion of Celtic clogging and African-American folk dance from New York around 1900.
Swing is also the music style that dominated the scene. Swing is a development of 1910-1920's trad jazz combined with European styled marching military band orchestrations typically called Big Bands, 15-40 members. A small band was typically 4-7 members usually for smaller venues, clubs, speakeasy's etc.
The Big Band was for big occasions in big venues. Such as Earls Court in Melbourne 1950 (pic right) getting it's dance floor resurfaced.
Swing loosened up the tempo to allow for a broader louder dance style, generally called 'dance hall' these days.
Dorothy Dandridge is a fantastic singer and dancer from the era. She has a faultless sense of timing and a personality that simply glows on the screen. It is little wonder she went on to a successful movie career.
Swing is a full bodied dance. You really need lots of room and you literally swing yourself, and partner around.
Shuffling in relation to swing is a soft shoe dance routine [1:40 in first vid], actually called a 'Shuffle' at the time, and is where the name Shuffle today originates. Basically a shuffle is tap without the wood or metal taps on the shoe soles, performed in a small area concentrating on the footwork. Just as we think of shuffling now. Swing lets loose and takes up as much space as it can get :)
In these clips you'll find lots of big suits (Zoot Suits) baggy pants, gliding, shuffling, spins and splits.
And a warning...the Nicholas Brothers are seasoned pro's, if you try doing the splits like them, without years of training first, you'll pop hamstrings all over the place and end up in hospital for weeks ! (True - be careful !)
Glenn Miller Orchestra, The Nicholas Brothers, & Dorothy Dandridge Chattanooga Choo Choo!
Boogie was a bar room stomp, which people such as Count Basie elevated to high art. It often has coded sexual euphemisms in the lyrics.
There's no real dancing in this last clip, but Dorothy's amazing voice and cowgirl outfit more than make up for it.
A new clip by Scooter - J'adore Hardcore has emerged online with lots of Shuffling shots in Melbourne.
It's worth a look. The shufflers look like hired pro dancers who know shuffle steps, rather than Shufflers. They do the oldskool steps well, but just repeat the same couple of steps over and over. It would of been nice to see some more variety.
But that might have been out of the control of the dancers. It's really a marketing clip to sell this track, not a Shuffle vid. The record Company wouldn't like people to be more impressed with the shuffling than the lead act, Scooter, who doesn't dance at all.
Cultural: How did the clip maker go at representing the Melbourne Shuffle on it's home turf ? - We like to do this to correct any cultural misunderstandings. In a city that speaks over 200 languages in day to day life, we find it's a benefit ;)
Well they got the roof top shuffling right, plenty of space fantastic view, and it was usually the roof of the building oldskool shufflers lived in.
They got Laneways right as a cultural reference (read more www.NicholasBuildingArts.com ) though we never really shuffle in them, Basically because they're too narrow, we've got plenty of really wide open places to shuffle.
And Unlike that freshly swept laneway in the vid - with fresh never walked on chalk to grunge it up a little, in your average Melbourne back alley and lane there's always gravel small stones, broken glass, squashed food from waste bins, rats, vomit and piss on the ground, not to forget junkies used syringes. Not the safest or most enjoyable place to shuffle.
We'd go for a polished marble floor in a building foyer. Most often we'd shuffle outside our studio front door in the polished vinyl passageways of our buildings. It's the only way to glide, in socks too ! :) Or multilevel carparks, with smooth concrete plenty of room, under cover. There's hundreds of them all over town.
We'd have Laneway parties for sure, but they'd be packed wall to wall, standing room only, you wouldn't shuffle there.
I think they're a bit confused with the graffiti too. Graf isn't part of shuffle culture it's part of hip-hop. By 1990 we'd already had a decade of 1st-time-'round hip-hop.
We wanted something new, we got into animated computer graphics and experimental video making, then broadcast them on our own tv stations, exactly the same as shufflers do today posting Shuffle vids on youtube, kind of a cultural biggy...so, missed on that ;)
But never mind, just having some fun with ya there Scooter, the clips not a bad job.
But a rave anthem hands up in the air ? ...no no Scooter, you should be shuffling feet, this is 'dance' music. You should try it. It's easy to learn, even little kids can do it...
Checkout the MSO SHUFFLE TUTORIAL to learn. ;)
UPDATE
Seems scooter's been a naughty boy and not only copied his look from Billy Idol, but copied the other idol clone Vanilla Ice, stupidly stealing tracks
But first I must state, that he may have actually paid for their use, quite rightly. After all his big 1996 hit was a happy hardcore version of Billy Idol's 1983 hit, Rebel Yell.
You can be sure Mr Idol's lawyers made sure license fees were paid in full by Scooter ;)
So judge away friends.
J'adore hardcore - Scooter Copying
Scooter 1996 cover of Billy Idol, Rebel Yell.
4MR (For Mother Russia) are having fun this summer in Moscow. They're shooting video for the Global Shuffle dvd documentary, and showing us what it's like being a Shuffler in Moscow. Which includes going to dance parties ;)
Here's some great shuffling, jumpstyle and hardstyle done Russian style at HARD HEADZ a few weeks back.
2 BROTHERS OF HARDSTYLE, S.I.D.R., Andy Wolf, Dertexx, Hardstyler, Pitch Project, Screamer, LoLo, Solovey, МС B-Kicker, J4S, 4MR, E.A.T., MHD, H4L.
HARD HEADZ @ 16.05.2009
22.07.2011 – TECH FAULT Please note due to yet Another annoying Google formatting stuff up, images may not display correctly. We are correcting the code by hand, thank you for your patience. 24.07.2011 It appears there’s some formatting artifact from youtube when trialing their new iframe structure – NB It didn’t work ! 13.12.2011 Ok, the slide show is kinda nice…grumblegrumble…but don’t let it happen again grrr!
More than 800 years ago Welsh seamen danced on the wooden 
hulls and decks of their boats in wooden clogs, and Clogging was born. In traditional Celtic language Clog means 'time' as well as a lump of wood.
'Time' as in keeping in time with the music when dancing. The clogs were the percussion / drum section.
The KLOG sound wooden shoes make against wooden floors give them the name. The same as Kloppen is the name for clogs in Dutch. The rest of the music usually provided by pipes, banjo's and later fiddles (violins) and guitars. All portable instruments, no pianos, pipe organs, or large floor standing harps. Small lap size ones Celtic Harps.
They weren't the biggest of boats, so it was a confined style. Just a few paces if that. Not much room to fling your arms around without hitting someone or something, or loosing your balance on a rocking boat, so you kept them mostly at your sides.
Simple enough for a baby to start learning, with a stomping foot, and complex enough to keep you interested in dancing it for the rest of your life.
It's from here the Melbourne Shuffle inherited it's core basic steps.
The Clog dance quickly became a favorite from sea port bars to village fairs where they'd construct temporary wooden dance floors for clogging. And that's pretty much where you'll find it still practiced today many centuries later.
Clog dancing is also known as Step dance, Irish dance and Stomping, which is what the oldskool Melbourne Shufflers called themselves - Stompers. 
Clogging, or Stomping as it was called locally, was the standard dance style in Melbourne for much of the 1960's to 1980's as traditional folk dance became popular in the folk revival years.
Melbourne has a very large Celtic population. Much of the population were forced out of their home countries by the Scottish Highland clearances of the mid 1800’s. Wealthy landowners in Scotland could make more money from grazing sheep and selling the wool to the new industrial revolution’s knitting mills, than renting ancestral land back to the Scots. Scots were staved of food and their homes burnt down in the forced immigration to Melbourne – including others such as San Francisco, New York and Canada. Other Celts came from Ireland around the same time also as forced immigrants starved out of Ireland in the potato famine years.
Wearing culturally identifiable clothing (tartan etc) performing culturally identifiable dance, music and speaking your native tongue, Gaelic, were outlawed for decades by the English crown in an attempt of cultural genocide against the Celts. Mid 1800’s they were also actively doing the same to India, China and pretty much every other country they set foot in forcing the world to speak English and be British.
So with the forced immigration of Celts to Melbourne, came a fierce independence and pride in their banned culture, with a renewed determination to never let it die, even to this day.
Fortunate for the new arrivals, gold was discovered in the near by hills of Melbourne and a gold rush spanning 50 years began, with Melbourne becoming the richest city in the British Empire outside of London.
Queen Victoria was not amused with these people she had sent to the end of the earth as being less value than sheep, suddenly striking 
gold. People who in their own ancestral lands were denied the vote and forced into factories as child labor in the new urban slave class. So the Queen imposed heavy taxes at the point of a gun by her soldiers, on miners in Melbourne , often twice a day.
This lead to an armed rebellion against the British crown and the movement to make Melbourne independent, 
even creating a new flag based on the navy blue and white cross of the Scottish flag (Saint Andrew's Cross) and a star constellation only visible in the Southern Hemisphere, The Southern Cross (Pics above and right the original surviving flag, and complete design)
In 1901 Melbourne became the first capital city of the new country called Australia. The southern cross is now on the Australian flag, so too is the British Union Jack which many Australian's, especially in Melbourne, see as the flag of the oppressor and would still like to see removed when Australia becomes a republic – one day.
My personal 'cultural heritage' as we call it in Melbourne, where today we have over 200 languages spoken daily, comes from 
Norway and Sweden on my dad's side. My grandmother was born in Bergen Norway from a northern Sweden Sami family (Sami Flag right) Sami language (Saami), and Sami song-chants, called yoiks, were illegal in Norway from 1773 until 1958. She married a Norwegian Sami born on the Isle of Skye, who’s family were forced out in the 19th century clearances and they moved to Melbourne when their family lands in Norway were given to missionary settlers early 1900’s. My grandfather expressing horror when arriving in Melbourne that “…you people live by the ocean and you don’t teach your children to swim ? You would be called negligent in Sami culture !” He then set up a learn-to-swim class in town sponsored by the Herald Sun newspaper for school kids to get their ‘Herald’ certificate, demonstrating you could swim 25 yards unaided in open water.
My mum's side, my great grandmother an Irish Catholic/Sami and great grandfather a Scot Protestant. Both families were involved in the fashion industry mostly bespoke and retail. My grand father quite the dresser apparently, my mother still has his 1890’s swagger stick, typically used for a stroll around town – or doing the block as it was called in Melbourne. They couldn't live legally as husband and wife in either country, so they came to Melbourne where they could. Both families arriving from around the 1880/90's.
I learned to play piano on the family piano handed down to me from my mothers side. My grand father told me he and my grand mother ‘courted’ on the same double seated bench piano stool I’d learned to play on. I was in my late 20’s when he told me, and to tell you the truth, I’ve felt a little awkward about sitting on it ever since …but both the piano (in need of repairs, I’m a piano builder/tuner) and the stool are still cherished.
The music of Global Shuffle was composed on that same well worn piano, then recorded with synths. The solo flute, reed pipe and warble sounds come from Sami Yoiks my grand parents and father sang to me as a child. Banned for 200 years in Norway until 1958, when I was 3 years old, suddenly everyone started singing out loud….all the time.
The music always sounded weird to me and still does, but every year or two in winter I need to go down to Cape Schank in Melbourne which faces the southern ocean, stand specifically on the volcanic rocks and feel the salt spray on my face, blown from a wind straight from the south pole…and everythings fine again. I don’t really know why, but that doesn’t seem to bother me. - The north pole skin and small sinus arctic nose on a humid Melbourne summer day, I get ! No further explanation required. :)
Melbourne is a sea port city built on this Yarra river estuary (Pic below 1895) from the 1850's gold rush days. 10,000 new 
arrivals a day at it's peak. The gold rush boom lasted from 1853 until 1913.
You'd finish your daily chores, had your evening meal, and it was up on deck to relax under the stars.
He writes of the balmy nights on deck with clogging and Highland sword dance to the pipes...with lots of refreshments and 70 young maidens (single girls) being Court Marshaled by the ships Matron, for breaking curfew - again. Preferring of course to stay on deck all night where all the fun was
Not a whole lot had changed in Melbourne 100 years later. In the oldskool Flinders Lane district, where I've spent the past 20 
years living in my various studios, we'd do exactly the same at the end of the day. Go up to the roof and relax under the star (yes a joke, the city lights washed out everything else, but we could imagine pretty good) and we'd shuffle on the roofs, often waving to each other like ships passing in the night.
This is the sort of Melbourne that would have confronted my families (pic left). Flinders Street 1875.
This shot looking down Flinders Street shows the Degraves Laneway on the right. It leads directly into Flinders Lane. If you weren't looking for it you'd miss it, a sort of hole in the wall place.
This is Flinders Lane 1875, (Pic Below) it's the back alley to the Flinders Street grand shop fronts. As you can imagine, all the sorts of things that happen in gold rush towns main harbor road back alleys, went on here, and still does.
It was in artists studio parties down this very Lane in the early 1990's that the first oldskool shuffle parties were held.
I lived the last 10 years in Flinders Lane in this same building on the corner of Flinders Lane and Swanston street, and like many friends, shuffled on it's roof. The Nicholas Building (Pic left 2004)
The folk revival was quite huge in Melbourne 250,000 turning up to local folk act The Seekers in the early 1960's for instance.
We also had a warm to hot climate and out door parties in the bushland hills of Melbourne were well attended. Most of these hills areas were semi rural, so there were lots of barns, sheep shearing sheds and church halls etc with wooden floors for clogging.
They'd be big family and village social occasions. Barn Dancing, Square Dancing, Irish Dancing or simply 'The Dance' as we'd call it. We'd been holding these dances for 100 years. Just as our ancestors had been doing for centuries.
Melbourne 1872 Dance Card copyright registry
The sort of purists who booed Bob Dylan and called him a Judas, when he first used an electric guitar on stage mid 1960's. But they could be a bit of a stick in the mud too. Not permitting any modern cultural elements to be included.
Melbourne Hippies, liked Hendrix feedback type guitars and psychedelic synthesiser sounds Pink Floyd etc. Not on the list of most loved bands for clogging at the time.
But we danced the same clog stomping way, we'd grown up with it, we liked it, but it just wasn't cool enough for us anymore.
So we did the same steps, but in normal shoes, (no wood or metal taps), usually Melbourne made rubber soled Dunlop Volley canvas tennis shoes or bare feet. And called it Stomping.
If ever there was an authentic traditional Melbourne Shuffle shoe to recommend shufflers, it would be this classic, Dunlop Volley 'SANDSHOE' made in Melbourne 1924.
In 1924, The Dunlop Rubber Factories in Melbourne decided to make Sandshoes. This was to compliment their Rubber Boots (Gum Boots) which were first manufactured in 1915.
The sole pattern was inspired by the Dunlop car tyre tread, Dunlop also make car tyres. Dunlop Volley's were first introduced as a tennis shoe in 1939 by tennis player Adrian Quist.
The Dunlop Volley is a classic piece of footwear, basically a rubber soled clog. Strong sturdy cheap. 
It's broad weave canvass upper allowed your feet to breath on a hot Melbourne summer day, when our beach sand can scorch your feet in 40C heat. You could wear them into the salt water at the beach too. That was a big plus. Apart from bathers and surfies etc, there's lots of recreational water craft in Melbourne, water skiing, yacht clubs, bay fishing, people would go snorkeling in them over shallow water reefs.
You'd just wash them out with fresh water after the sea, let them dry overnight, and off you'd go again the next day. Fresh shoes everyday of summer.
They were flat soled for outdoor and indoor tennis courts where healed footwear is banned. The heals dent the court surface, not a good thing for a tennis court.
They'd last years, fit sooo comfortably, and you could wear them with bare feet or socks.
Yes we'd get very attached to our old worn out Volley's. Worn with great pride. So much that owners post pics of them online like these.
And because they were canvas, and we're in Melbourne, that means you've got to paint them too.
Today you can customize your own canvas shuffle shoes with a high top or low cut from msoPHATS online. http://www.msophats.com/
So stomping moved off the wooden floor onto the dirt and ankle deep sand. We like our beaches in Melbourne.
I won a stomping dance competition on the beach when I was 9. It was 1964 and surf music was big. I lived on the beach road, this Beach (Pic below) was my front yard.
Most of town lived on the beach in summer, so there was the usual summer entertainment for kids. The comp was run by a commercial Melbourne rock radio station. Stomping (The Stomp) was very popular among the Melbourne surfies. There's not a whole lot of ways to move your feet in soft deep Melbourne beach sand, but Stomp !
A simple two step in time with the beat, throw in an occasional kick, spin or trick and you were set.
In the 1970's we simply dropped 'stomp' as a label and called it rock. Not to be confused with 1950's rock couples based dancehall.
I was in the crew running the Upwey Dance in 1975. 1200 sharpies, hippies and suburban kids a month turned up to them at the Upwey High School Hall. They were raves, live acts, dj's, flashing coloured lights, lava lamps, UV and fluro decor, balloons, mirror balls, smoke AND Bubble machines, big stadium sized hall, big sound system, with pinball machine arcade, cloak room and munchies bar.
The Police actually encouraged the dances, telling us that the crime rate went down for our whole region of town the weekends our dances were on.
So we helped the Police set up their own, because we were full to capacity. The Police did the same setting up regular monthly dances called The Blue Light Disco all across Melbourne. They used police blue flashing lights, the local high school kids would do the decor, and the cops were the DJ's...yes seriously.
100,000's of Melbourne high school kids packed out the 'Blue Lights' for a decade. All stomping and rockin to whatever the music was being played.
So when raves hit town, people in Melbourne just kept dancing the same, because it works for so many styles of music, not just different music styles over the decades, but centuries, adding our own cultural spin on it, to pass on to future generations.
Except we Shufflers wore soft soled trainers/runners/gym shoes designed to give grip on polished surfaces. Not the smartest move when you want 'slip'. But the shoes were worn as a fashion statement, not for practicality.
So not to be held back by this fashion-over-design detail, we sprinkled baby talcum powder on the floor to give us some slip. Problem solved, fashion statement preserved, everybody's happy.
All the instantly recognisable shuffle moves are in traditional clogging.
Hardstyle (Stomping), Shuffling (sideways movement by twisting heel/toe) kicks, running man, glides.
Some of the clearest and best performed of these moves can be seen in the legendary Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers with Pete Seeger (1967)
Impressive not only for it's clogging routine, but fitting it onto such a small band stage with 8 dancers is very impressive.
I'll draw your attention to the stomp move as you can see in this first video still (below). It looks exactly like a horse pawing at the 
ground. Horses are sacred in Celtic lore (using the broad definition of the Celtic language group) many chieftains being buried with their prized steed along with their sword to take them to the next life.
Often all of them buried on land, in a boat !
Horses were making these moves before the dawn of the human species, I have no doubt the same stomping move inspired stone age ancestors of early Celts to mimic it as 
homage. Especially seeing as 2500 year old Celt jewellery is covered in stylised horse tributes. (Pics right)
And probably why the French quadrilles were adored. They were first an 18th century military equestrian display with 4 horses and 4 people. Later it became 4 pairs of humans, but the horse move remains a feature. Even the clogging rhythms sound like trotting, canter and galloping horses hooves.
A number of oldskool shufflers were actually known for their great dancing horse like shuffle moves.
Variations of clogging spread to different regions by the sailors when they were in port, often combining with local folk dance traditions over time to form Irish dance, Scottish dance and Flamenco in Celtic Iberia/Spain, as we know them today. 
Over the centuries regional variations emerged and distinct local cultural styles developed.
The full wooden clog made way for a leather top clog around the 1400's as the dance moved inland to wooden floored dance halls. They became a cheap strong footware, such as the traditional Lancashire (UK) wooden soled clog worn by 19th century industrial revolution mill workers. Who entertained themselves by syncopating foot taps with the rhythmic sounds made by the loom shuttles, creating the rhythmic foundation for Tap dance. (pic above)
During this 19th century England, clog dancing competitions were held and there were professional clog dancers who performed in the music halls.
Clogging was taken by Irish, Scot, Welsh and English immigrants to the new city of New York, where it combined with African-American culture and evolved into Tap ...despite racial segregation laws of the time forbidding either cultures associating with each other.
In the 1920's these racist attitudes led to dance being banned in New York City, along with alcohol. It was the prohibition era. The ban on alcohol was lifted pretty quickly, but despite protests and high court trials, the ban on dancing remains to this day...and yet the dance lives on. 
It wasn't just moves that we inherited from the Sailors. We can thank them for Phats as well.
Melbourne Shuffle Phats are based on traditional sailors bell-bottom pants.
The large cuff size of the pants made them easy to roll up to the knee, so they didn't get wet working on deck or wading to shore.
They were also great to Stomp in
were first an 18th century military equestrian display with 4 horses and 4 people. Event : Singapore Shuffle Meet Up
Date : 25th July 2009
Venue : Vivocity (Skypark)
Time : 12pm ~ Late night
Organizer : HazardMinors David
Crews coming : THA , HM , HSR , HSRockerz , HardtekSG , SDF , THAT , .h.e.m , THR , EMO , HK , T.H.I.S , ex-crews and more! Wanna be part of the local scene? Come down and spread the word across Singapore.
F.A.Q
Q: How to get there?
A: Most understandable way is to take the MRT to Harbour front and proceed to the highest top of the building.
Q: I want to come but i feel alone. What should i do?
A: Bring a friend along or contact anyone in the local scene such as to keep in touch.
Q: Will the security interrupt the event?
A: Most probably no because we have held such meet ups before.
Contacts available(also can ask for their No.) :
SDF Xero - dantelucia@hotmail.com
HSR Aizil - b-inage@hotmail.com
THA Sufyan - ProJoker17@hotmail.com
HM David - davcantdance@live.com
HM Panda - pandax369@hotmail.com
[25th July 09] Singapore Shuffle Meet Up PROMO [READ DESC]
Russian shuffle crew 4MR//For Mother Russia have set up the first Russian Melbourne Shuffle League (RMSL), in fact it's the worlds first Shuffle league too.
MSO supports the League and the winner/s will be appearing with 4MR on the GLOBAL SHUFFLE dvd.
Here's a compilation vid of some of the great shufflers in the league. Fantastic to see so many girls in the league too.
Lots of great shuffling all around, with some very distinctive styles. Check out Emilio's unbelievably amazing spin 2:04. I had to replay it a few times to make sure it wasn't faked ! What training did you do ? Very well done Emilio.
There's a couple of other mighty fine spins in there too. Check it out...leave a comment.
Russian language RMSL site:
http://vkontakte.ru/club5079747
First Russian Melbourne Shuffle League - Highlights '08 - '09
Millie and Pim from DANCE MAX in the Netherlands, form the Dutch Shufflers crew. They're both well known regulars on MSO and we have enjoyed their shuffling vids for ages.
Their latest vid shows us they just keep getting better. Great sound track too. Well done guys. Check it out.
Dutch Shufflers will also be featured on the MSO shuffle documentary Global Shuffle.
Dutch Shufflers rockin' - Pim & Millie 2009
Apart from having a great crew name, Hazard Minors from Singapore have got some great shuffling too.
Checkout Ah Do the leader of Hazard Minors and other members in their new 2009 compilation.
You can chat with Ah Do on the MSO Forum.
Hazard Minors [ HM ] Singapore 2009 compilation
Hazard Minors [SG] Ah Do *PART 2*-alone in the dark
MSO started Global Shuffle in 2007, as a fight back to a campaign to Ban the Melbourne Shuffle
Naturally shufflers went berzerk and staged protest boycotts of the Sydney club owner who wanted to ban the Shuffle. He said Shufflers took up too much room on the dance floor. Club owners prefer to have people standing on the dance floor drinking alcohol, they make more money that way.
So we set the date 17 May 2008 as a challenge to this fool, to prove that Shufflers were no push-over, and there was no way he could ban Shufflers shuffling. We would defiantly shuffle where ever we were around the world on that day, banned or not.
Shufflers started to avoid clubs in general that didn't allow Shuffling on the dance floors as a protest too. Everybody just started having meet-ups in public parks, malls, carparks all the free places. That really pissed off the club owners, they had no control over us, and others were avoiding clubs in protest to support us. The clubs were loosing lots of money.
The Sydney club owner fell out of favour very quickly as other Sydney club owners abandoned him, and publicly announced their support for Shufflers and Shuffling. All of the calling him an idiot.
By the time 17 May 2008 rolled around, the anti-Shuffle guys club had closed, and nobody has heard of him since.
About 4 weeks before 17 May 2008, a young lady named Jancis from Singapore contacted me to see if she could hold an official Global Shuffle meet-up event in Singapore. It would also be Singapore's first official Shuffle meet-up.
There wasn't much time, so we worked really hard and fast getting proper permission etc to hold an outdoor meet-up. In Melbourne we just go out and do it, but Singapore is a little different with that sort of thing ;) So we did the right thing, we didn't want anybody having any excuse to ban shuffling...anywhere.
So 4 weeks later Jancis and her fantastic SG crew staged the 1st GLOBAL SHUFFLE DAY 17 May 2008.
Here's the official video (with SG officials credits) You'll see quite a few from Shifter Hardstyle Prodigy there too. It was a good occasion for them to cross the border from JB Malaysia and meet-up with the Singapore Shufflers. Shufflers support each other regardless of what crew, religion, language or nationality they are.
Global Shuffle Day became our Victory dance, the Shuffle survived and is now going stronger than ever!
I had many people contact me afterwards about what the next Global Shuffle project was.
So after some chat, we started working on a documentary dvd about the Melbourne Shuffle from it's first steps in 1990 to the Global scene it has become today. The dvd documentary is called GLOBAL SHUFFLE. It will be released in March 2010, to mark 20 years of the Melbourne Shuffle.
Shufflers from around the world are contributing to documentary, with interviews and shufflers showing us around their towns and their favourite shuffle spots, sneak peeks at www.globalshuffle.com
In the mean time we are still doing Global Shuffle Day as a celebration (rather than a protest) each year 17 May or a date close to that on a weekend.
Here's some great vids of Global Shuffle Day (GSD) 2009 in Singapore.
HSRockerz at Global Shuffle Day Singapore
SDF Short Rocks At GSD
simple short rawk in GSD '09
Global Shuffle Day 2009 Officially Started
Some users may have problems accessing MSO pages, which are stored on Blogger.
It mostly effects IE and users in China who are currently blocked from accessing Blogger.
Google is working on this problem now. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Here's a great new compilation from Singapore Shuffle crew SDF Shuffle Dance Freedom. With some fantastic editing by Vahle, nice soundtrack too ;) Check it out.
