Zouk Mambo Fighter: “Streetsmart” vs “Booksmart”

This past weekend, a friend and I got lost looking for the A-C-E subway station in Chinatown and we decided to approach a scruffy-looking ang moh dressed in a plaid shirt for directions.  Given his hipsterish demeanor, I expected him to be a seasoned commuter, able to tell Local from Express stops and the travelling time between W4 and anywhere in Queens, down to the exact minute.

But all he could was to sheepishly bite on his lower lip and shake his head .  “Sorry, I have no idea.”

His Brooklynite struggling artist appearance belied his Murray Hill cluelessness and predilection for travel by taxi. Back to your Blackberry and your Grey Goose, imitator!  I cursed the faux-hipster with his streetsmart under my breath for not having the MTA subway system at his fingertips.

My friend then mused that we never hear of the term “booksmart” being a compliment, while “streetsmart” always conjures a sense of cosmopolitan savviness.

I can still fondly recall the time in BMT when some overzealous ex-JC canoeist kicked his ex-Poly platoonmate to motivate him to do his stretches properly before the morning jog.  Something in that ex-Poly kid exploded, and he lunged at the ex-JC kid like a wild dog, barking accusations of “you look down on Poly izzit!!!???!!!”  This turned out to be an issue everywhere I went in the army.  The general consensus was that JC kids couldn’t really do, we studied.  The Poly kids on the other hand, were the streetsmart ones who got things done and were generally, well, cooler.  JC kids were just tut.

So imagine my surprise when I found out from an old friend that a couple of RI kids from my class (Class of 1998!) had competed in Zouk Mambo Jambo’s 16th anniversary dancing competition, and they WON!  One for us nerds!  Who says people can’t be booksmart and really cool at the same time???!!!???

Video of the triumphant revenge of us nerds here (they’re the team on the right):

Thank God for the cellphone, another angle here for those of us still savoring the victory:

[BTW, for a very concise and spot-on description of the Mambo experience, this one from Absolut College Girl is the (absolute) best I’ve read.]

Tags: army, booksmart, dance moves, dancing, hipster, Mambo, Mambo dance, nerd, Raffles, streetsmart, Zouk