The Kilt goes to SF

'Chuck Mung,' known to us judges simply as 'the kilt*,' won the Seattle competition Monday night, beating 'The Fro' -- just barely (Check the score card, I'm judge #3). Now he's off to San Francisco as Seattle's representative for the national championships.

The final song was a edited clip of Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time" and, by estimation, no one really hit it. 'The kilt' has the best chance of doing well in SF (he won the Cleveland regional last year, and competed in the 2004 World Championships,) so he got an extra nudge.

I should correct myself and say that someone did hit the final song, but it was Air Guitar Nation star Bjorn Toroque, who came on stage to show how it's done:


*Someone unfortunately did ask what was under Mung's kilt, with Chuck all too willing to show what wasn't under it.

More Pictures from the evening (flickr)

Here comes the judge

Late notice, but if you're out and about, I'm judging the Air Guitar National Championships (Seattle Regionals) tonight at Chop Suey.

I'm still trying to figure out how to judge 'airness,' but I figure I can wing it.

Here's the piece I did on the Air Guitar Nation documentary, for those unaware of what the heck I'm talking about.

To air guitar is human, to rock is divine

From the same folks who brought you Project Runway and Last Comic Standing, the documentary Air Guitar Nation was originally slated to be a reality series on VH1 for 2006, but instead ended up becoming a film festival favorite last year. Tomorrow night, it finally makes it on to VH1, a score of sorts considering it only recently made it to DVD.

AGN is the perfect meeting of two recent cultural trends, the first being the recent resurgence of rock, thanks in part to the popularity of Guitar Hero. The second trend is the recent run of fascinating documentaries dealing with obscure sport, like Murderball, Mad Hot Ballroom, Spellbound, Wordplay and the more recent King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

It's formulaic to an extent, this burgeoning genre of documentary. First, find obscure tournament. Second, find at least two fascinating subjects that are pitted against one another. Here, the two subjects are C-Diddy (LA actor David S. Jung) and the greatly named Björn Türoque (New York writer-musician Dan Crane). At first it seems like a silly notion, but the wild performances and quirky humor make it an addictive film.

Looking at the list of songs played in the film, it's easy to see the parallel to the Guitar Hero series, and listening to them right now, it's hard to resist the urge to get up and flail my own air axe. Ah screw it -- post over... I'm airin' out!

Playlist: Rssmbld Sndtrck - Air Guitar Nation
1. "Ace Of Spades" - Motorhead
2. "Cherub Rock" - Smashing Pumpkins
3. "Get Your Hands Off My Woman" - The Darkness
4. "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II" - KISS
5. "I Want You To Want Me" - Cheap Trick
6. "Hate To Say I Told You So" - The Hives
7. "Heroes" - David Bowie
8. "The Mole" - The Bags
9. "More Than a Feeling" - Boston
10. "Play With Me" - Extreme
11. "Take It Off" - The Donnas
12. "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" - Judas Priest
13. "We Are The Champions" - Queen
14. "Won't Get Fooled Again" - The Who
15. "Yankee Rose" - David Lee Roth