Things are not always as they seem

Photo by The Dominion Post.

As if I needed yet another example of how old and uncool I'm becoming, today's paper brought me King Homeboy.

Let me explain. Yesterday afternoon I was driving to pick up my oldest son from school. I was stuck in traffic near Cuba Street, the hip magnet of all creatures great and small. I looked to my right only to see this large bloke elaborately tossing his flowing manes around. Instinctively my hand shot up to the lock button on my door. Making sure to avoid eye contact, I nonetheless found myself magnetized by this man tossing his head back and forward with the perfect timing of a fly fisherman.

Poor guy must have Van Halen stuck in his head and be reliving his heavy metal days, I thought to myself. Yet the folks lying on the grass in front of him didn't seem to mind - but then again this was Cuba Street and their sangfroid may have been chemically induced.

Still, I was transfixed by this striking looking man waving his locks around. Ah, the wonders of Cuba Street, I thought to myself as the traffic eased and I drove off. I gave the apparation not another thought.

Until I opened up this morning's paper. And there he was: King Homeboy. Now I can only presume that's a nom de plumage, if you'll pardon the pun. Turns out he's a beatboxer.



Not that until recently (this morning) I knew what the hell a beatboxer was, but Homeboy appears to be some sort of champion at it. Later this month the man the Dom Post described as "statuesque" will be competing in the World Beatboxing Championships in Germany. I must also confess, now that I am acquiring knowledge in this area, that Homeboy seems to be quite good at what is officially described as "a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice."

Homeboy can be found and listened to every night on Cuba Street. Having only just discovered that he's made it to the bigs, Paul Teariki Toki, for such is his name, is now desperately trying to raise money on facebook. While he will be going up against the best, Homeboy is the world record holder for continous beatboxing performance, coming in at 35 hours.

So there you have it. I'm sorry I mentioned Van Halen.