The US Air Guitar ChampionshipsBloghttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010-08-31T09:51:34ZSquarespaceAir Guitarists Invade Finlandhttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010/8/31/air-guitarists-invade-finland.htmlAir Traffic Control2010-08-31T09:41:36Z2010-08-31T09:41:36ZBjörn broke the Air Guitar World Champs story in a web-slash-photo blog, or wephlog, for SPIN magazine.  See and smell all the backstage deets here.

Air Guitarists Invade Finland

Dan Crane knows this universe better than anyone. Under his moniker Björn Türoque, he's competed at the world championship level (but never took home the top prize), written the book on air guitar (2006's To Air Is Human), and starred in Air Guitar Nation, a widely-released documentary.

What follows is Dan's personal account of the just-completed 2010 championships, featuring air shredding galore, saunas, sausages, beer mugs smashed on heads, and cameos by OK Go and Jose Gonzalez.

It's hard to explain why anyone would travel thousands of miles from across the globe to a small city in Northern Finland in order to play an invisible guitar for 60 seconds (120 if you make it to the second round). Yet, this year at the event's 15th anniversary, representatives from 20 countries as far as Malaysia, Australia, Canada, Slovakia, Ukraine, and of course the U.S., descended upon Oulu seeking air guitar glory.

Read the whole store here!

]]>France takes it twicehttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010/8/28/france-takes-it-twice.htmlAir Traffic Control2010-08-28T14:50:22Z2010-08-28T14:50:22ZRomeo DanceCheetah gives Finland his oh-face. Photo by lucky bastard West Hays.

Gunthar Love took Friday's Air Guitar World Championships for the second year in a row, but after scoring (big time) Romeo DanceCheetah got the Finnish People's Choice Award.

]]>Live World Air competition streams at 10:20AM Pacific / 1:20PM Easternhttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010/8/27/live-world-air-competition-streams-at-1020am-pacific-120pm-e.htmlAir Traffic Control2010-08-27T13:23:00Z2010-08-27T13:23:00ZThere was a typo in the registration packet.  It streams live at 8:20 PM Finnish time.

Just click "sign up" and give them a fake email.  It'll log you right in.  Stream also available here.

]]>World Champions draw orderhttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010/8/27/world-champions-draw-order.htmlAir Traffic Control2010-08-27T12:59:33Z2010-08-27T12:59:33Z1. Russia: Alexander "Devilseducer" Gott
2. Finland: Aapo "Little Angus" Rautio
3. Belgium: Kevin "Narvalwaker" Leloux
4. Australia: Cameron "Tommy Thundah" Bunney
5. Ireland: Deku Chan "Deku Chan"
6. Brazil: Alan "Xirtam" Foster  
7. Belgium: Corentin Fermont “AirGus”        
8. Denmark: Soren Stenbjerg Gregersen "Big G"
9. Canada: Cole Manson “Johnny Utah”             
10. Japan: Toshihiko Sunabe “SUNANEY”      
11. France: Soraya Garlenq "Eva Gina Runner"
12. Switzerland: Dirk Lüdi "Swiss Dirty Airy"       
13. Finland: Eero Ojala "Oulun oma poika"     
14. Germany: Christian Sweep ”Heart Buckboard”
15. Malaysia: (Albert) Chuah Eng Beng "L-bird" 
16. Slovakia: Peter Kurišcák "Pete Peacemaker"   
17. USA: Matt Cornelison "Romeo DanceCheetah"       
18. Sylvain Guimene "Günther Love"               
19. Russia: Kirill Blumenkrantz “Your Daddy” 
20. Ukraine:  Reko Gamrekelidze "Baron horse-stealer"
21. UK: Thom Wilding "W!ld Th!ng 37"                 
22. Czech republic: Bedrich Levi "Mr Babinoska"
23. Mexico: Karla Mendoza "Gotika"               



]]>ATC & Hot Lixx send 4 Dark Horses to World Championshipshttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010/8/27/atc-hot-lixx-send-4-dark-horses-to-world-championships.htmlAir Traffic Control2010-08-27T12:56:41Z2010-08-27T12:56:41ZHOT LIXX HULAHAN (Craig Billmeier–USA '05, 07, '09, World Champion 2008) and ATC (West Hays—6th place Phoenix, AZ 2008) were joined by Air Guitar Ireland and local all male nude revue owner Tsirhc Süsej on the Dark Horse judging panel late Thursday night.

The all-star panel of judges sent three men and one child to the Air Guitar World Championships.  With these new additions, there will be 23 competitors from all over the planet, and one local adorable blonde kid from down the road.

Devil Seducer (Russia)
Little Angus (Finland)
Tommy Thundah (Australia, he's good)
Narvawalker (BE)

ATC (West Hays) finds the quick route to the restroom.

 

]]>World Champions in Finland: Unscriptedhttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010/8/27/world-champions-in-finland-unscripted.htmlAir Traffic Control2010-08-27T12:39:30Z2010-08-27T12:39:30ZHOT LIXX HULAHAN (Craig Bilmeir–USA '05, 07, '09, World Champion 2008), ZAC MONRO (World Champion '01, '02), and GUNTHAR LOVE (World Champion 2009) participated in an all-star panel hosted by JUHA HIPPI (World Champion 1998ish).

Here are a few loosely transcribed comments:

JUHA: Did you achieve fame, and how did you cope?
Zac: The quality of the fame is better.  This is because you don't have to sell anything after winning.

Hot Lixx: [Farts, giggles]

Gunthar: There were kilometers of women waiting for me.  And sports journalists, because France didn't win shit in 2009.  Fuck those guys up the ass (this was through Gunthar's interpreter, who also had to comment  "this is what he said, I'm not making it up." I echo those sentiments.)

JUHA: What question do you get asked most often?
Gunthar: "I am always asked why I waste my time on this, and always by neighbor. All the time he tells me I'm wasting my time. I tell him I'd rather waste my time doing this than than waste my time hating my neighbor."


Left to right: Monro, Love, Lixx, Hippi.

]]>Profiles of Excellence in the Field of Magnificencehttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010/8/26/profiles-of-excellence-in-the-field-of-magnificence.htmlAir Traffic Control2010-08-26T18:45:24Z2010-08-26T18:45:24Z
 


We present this plaque, via jpeg, to those who go above and beyond the call of doody.

With so much attention being paid to those of us waving the air guitar flag here in Finland (aka "The Motherland”), it can be easy to overlook those who bear equal importance – the honorable men and women supporting our troops from home.

In this first installation of the bi-monthly "Profiles in Excellence in the Field of Magnificence" we introduced back in early April, US Air Guitar officially recognizes San Francisco's Dirty Airy (Aron Carlton).  For his coming in second a couple times in the hardest markets we visit, for his pirated copy of GarageBand, for his well crafted stenography, for his timeless dick-in-a-sock routine, and most importantly for regularly commenting on the blog: Dirty Airy: we salute you.
Dirty Airy at the Fillmore. Photo provided by SF Weekly.

 

]]>Finland: Air Guitarists attend OK Go concert and promptly take overhttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010/8/26/finland-air-guitarists-attend-ok-go-concert-and-promptly-tak.htmlAir Traffic Control2010-08-26T12:10:59Z2010-08-26T12:10:59ZTurns out our credentials – graciously provided by AGWC to all competitors and their entourage – get us into every club, cinema, and rintojen klubi free of charge. So we figured we'd try them out at the OK Go concert. What happens when a dozen World Air Guitar Champions stumble into a concert together their not scheduled to play?

Johnny Utah (Cole Manson - Canada '09, '10) shares a mike with Damian Kulash from OK Go. Background: Hot Lixx Hulahan (USA '05, '07; World Champion '08) and Zac Monro (UK '01, '02; World '03ish) get close. Photo credit: West Hays

]]>Zero Prospects prepares to take on France's Jaques Strap in Dark Horsehttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010/8/26/zero-prospects-prepares-to-take-on-frances-jaques-strap-in-d.htmlAir Traffic Control2010-08-26T09:05:48Z2010-08-26T09:05:48Z

It's been announced (by her mother) that the Edinburgh native ZERO PROSPECTS (Kate Gray) will be representing Scotland in the Dark Horse Competition in Oulu, Finland this Thursday.  Last year, before she and Björn Türoque got hitched, ZP took first place in the dark horse and thus advanced to the World Stage on the following night where she finished 8th overall.

]]>Oulu: Dr. Bjornhttp://www.usairguitar.com/home/2010/8/26/oulu-dr-bjorn.htmlAir Traffic Control2010-08-26T07:31:32Z2010-08-26T07:31:32Z

Moments ago Björn Türoque (Mr. Dan Crane), delivered a groundbreaking lecture on how air guitar will save the world.  Within the framework of today's political and scientific progress and inherent limitations, Türoque advances his argument on five basic premises:

  • Environmental
    • Air Guitar has a zero carbon footprint, and its traditional "windmill" move may one day be harnessed into a renewable form of energy.
  • Peace-induction of the hindsight variety  
    • In 2003, "Make air not war" was trademarked by then-performer Turoque, when he scribbled it across his chest before performing on the world stage (again).  Shortly thereafter, the Coalition invaded Iraq.  Now, some seven years later, things are sort of maybe changing. 
  • Love
    • Several world (and almost world) champions, including Zac Monro [UK 2001, '02] and Türoque himself, met their eventual spouses at air guitar competitions.
  • Freedom
    • Moshe Dayan, the Israeli military leader (who knows peace better than that guy?) asserts "freedom is the oxygen of the soul."  Of course, you can't have oxygen without air.  Additionally, you can't have air guitar with out air.  Therefore, freedom is air guitar. [See image below]


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