Otis Funkmeyer, The Ph.D. of Popping

BRIT IS OTIS: VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

I am writing this at the suggestion of a friend of mine who was lamenting the fact that I have not done a very good job of keeping in touch. You know who you are. This friend suggested that I send out a semi-regular newsletter as a way to keep in touch, so here in your electronic hands is Volume 1, Issue 1.

I hope if nothing else to encourage you to do the same. I would love to hear what you have been up to as of late, or over a longer period of time, and I’m sure a lot of other people would as well. So, get to it…

This, that you are reading, inspired me to write a longer, more self-indulgent version of my life which I will put on the website I will be creating, appropriately enough called otisfunkmeyer.com (http://www.otisfunkmeyer.com) [it's not up yet] . Which brings us to the name situation. You may know me only as Brit or Brit Wolfson and even a few as George Brit Oehmig-Wolfson which is my full name. It is just as likely however that you know me only as O or Otis or Otis Funkmeyer or even just “oh yah… that white dude?” Either way, they’re one and the same. All just lil ‘ole me.

Anyway, back to the topic. This version is for you if you don’t like to read that much, don’t really want to know that much about what I’ve been up to—just enough to relay to mutual friends when they ask “so who have you heard from lately?” I guess it’s a little long for that, but you get the idea.

On the web site is a much longer, more long walks by the beach, reconnecting with old friends, my-God-how-could-it-have-been-so-long version. It also has lots of nice pictures so that you don’t get too bored. I think it is much more interesting, but then, it’s about me ☺

So I’m going to start in January 2003, which is when I began to lose touch with a lot of people and before I knew a lot of others. I was living in Minnesota working at a place called the Jobs Now Coalition (http://www.jobsnowcoalition) and ultimately it was killing me, because shit, I’m a dancer….

So I quit that, went back to Maine for a few months, talked to my friend Todd (known to some of you as PopNTod), decided to shake things up, flew to Chicago and then to Minneapolis, where my car had been waiting for me, and started a road trip.

I went from Minnesota->South Dakota->Boulder->all over New Mexico->Phoenix->Vegas->LA where I met up with Todd and we headed up to Montana to work at Glacier National Park for the Summer of 2003.

This was an amazing place to be. Just completely out in the middle of nowhere (13 miles to the nearest road) with nothing around but mountains and tourists. I hiked and chilled and worked, as a dishwasher, line cook, and janitor, but mostly just had what was at that point the best time of my life. It was there that I really started feeling more comfortable being myself and that whole thing just started the snowball rolling.

After the summer, I drove back to LA by way of a West Coast road trip (my highlights were Taos, New Mexico; Vancouver, BC; Bellingham, Washington; and Olympic National Park, also in Washington.) When I got back to LA, four poppers, myself Otis Funkmeyer (Brit Wolfson), PopNTod (Todd Breithaupt), JRock (John Nelson), and MaddChadd (Chadd Smith) decided to move in together. The apartment search was loooong and hard because none of us had anything resembling good credit, but we finally ended up in lovely Sherman Oaks—the Valley.

Around the same time, I started going back to school at a distance learning university in Montpelier, Vermont. My thinking was, if I’m going to back to school, I have to be doing what I want to be doing anyway. So the school was perfect because you get to design your own major. The only requirements are you have to read 20 books on your chosen course of study and write papers on them. And spend 8 days in Vermont twice a year. No problem.

So I lived in LA for the next year and a half and just loved almost every minute of it. Our house, as I see it, became a kind of Mecca for dancers. We called it the Kester Hostel because we had dancers staying at our house almost every week and we lived on Kester Ave. We just danced and danced and watched footage of dancing. I had gotten unemployment because my work at Glacier was seasonal, so for 6 months, I was chillllllin’. After that I worked at a sell-your-stuff-on-eBay store, so if you need eBay help, I’m your man—that is, if you’re willing to pay of course ☺

So living in LA was really about just integrating and becoming a dancer and going for it once and for all. The whole time I was there (up until February, 2005) I don’t think I made a dollar from dancing, but that wasn’t the point. I just wanted to be a part of the action. I went there to meet people, to study, and to LEARN. Which I feel like I did, a lot.

During the summer of 2004, I decided that the heat in the Valley was not for me, so I subletted my apartment for 2 months and took another road trip. I spent 2 weeks at a meditation retreat called Ananda, which comes HIIIIGHLY recommend by me (http://www.ananda.org) and that began another little shift in my consciousness, as I began to open to spirituality. I also went to Calgary during that trip to study with Boogaloo Sam, who many see as the creator of popping. He NEVER teaches and this was one full week of classes with him, so it was worth the 37-hour Greyhound bus ride next to a very large woman that it took to do that. July 26, 2004, the day I met Sam, officially became the happiest day of my life (there’s a picture of me with Sam that day that I’ll put on the website. You can tell it’s a big deal for me by the shellshocked look in my eyes.)

I got back to LA and just continued where I left off. By this time, I was in my second (of three) semesters at my university and I started getting the feeling that this whole LA adventure was winding to a close.

There were several rough months when one roommate moved out and had to be replaced by someone from “the Internet” who skipped town and headed to the border shortly thereafter with about 5000 dollars of someone else’s money. It didn’t get much better when his prostitute girlfriend took over his part of the lease. And that’s when JRock and I (the only two remaining) decided that the grass was definitely greener elsewhere.

So I left LA in February of this year, spent a month at the same meditation retreat (also known as an ashram), and there the whole spirituality thing really started to blossom. I ended up taking discipleship with a specific line of teachers that I feel very very connected with (Yogananda for those of you who know). This was done in some ways (as writing about it is also) as a method of admitting to myself how important spirituality is to me. I was so worried that people would think I was some cult member or weirdo or something, but I knew I had to do it. So I did. And it’s the best choice I’ve ever made so far.

Then I came back to Maine to live with my lovely mother Donna and step-father Norton and to start my final semester at Vermont College. I had tried to start a dance group in LA with several EXTREMELY talented dancers, but for a variety of reasons, nothing materialized. I had decided about two months prior to that that my days of solely being a student were numbered, and I was ready to put myself out there. Once the group fell apart, I was definitely “bummed.”

I had always had this idea of doing a one-man show when I was well into my Thirties and talented “enough” to be worthy of such a feat, but I just felt like shit, might as well go for it. And so I did.

So from April until early November I was solely focused (thank you parents) on creating this show. It got hard and at times progress was slow, but I ultimately created what I think is a very good with the potential to be very very very great show combining dance and monologue. The show is autobiographical in nature and is an hour long, with about 15-20 minutes of dancing and 40-45 minutes of monologue. They are blended, if I do say so myself, rather seamlessly.

The first performance was November 1, 2005, the day before I graduated, and the show was very much a hit. My goal with the show is to inspire other people toward spirit (or energy or God or Christ or Allah or whatever you want to call it—the unnamable) or for those of you who know the term, is my form of karma yoga. From the response I received, I feel well on my way. The best way I can describe it is that by the end, a lot of people were really really crying, which was the goal (but not in a sad way, more a recognition of beauty I hope).

And then I graduated the next day. So congratulations to me. Ohh yah! My degree is a BA in Liberal Studies with a concentration in POPPING. Yes that’s right friends. Not a misprint. I have to say, it feels good to be the only person I’ve ever heard of to have a diploma with POPPING on it (doing BIG THANGS and thanks to all of the EBs for teaching me how to dance! and all the other dancers for being a constant source of inspiration).

It didn’t hit me what a big deal it was to me until about two hours before when I just started crying uncontrollably, but the combination of that and performing the show, which is DEEEEEPLY personal, was just overwhelming. It felt like a lot of things that I had been afraid of for so long had just been released all at once.

So, now I’m off to the Middle East in mid-December. I was accepted on an all-expenses paid trip to Israel for 17 days, and I will extend my ticket for a mere $50 and spend another six weeks traveling in Egypt and Jordan. I am cautiously optimistic and I hope to meet saints. I figure if I say it, it is more likely to happen, contrary to the whole birthday wish stigma. That’s my only plan, so don’t be surprised if there aren’t pictures of Giza and Petra, but then again, don’t be surprised if there are.

I come back from that trip in mid-February and then I am moving back to North Hollywood—again, the Valley—on February 15, 2006. I figure I will stay there for a while and see what happens. I’m hoping to really take a lot of dance classes almost every day (something I have never done and which I’m really excited about), take some acting classes (the part of my show that needs the most work), work on my show, maybe tutor some middle-school kids, and make most of my living as a street performer. So we’ll see.

So, that’s about it. I feel like this is something one is not supposed to say in public, but I feel like saying it, so what the hell. It’s as much for me I think as for you. My sole goal in life is to find God and much more so, to help other people find God—whatever that means to them, and that’s really all I care about at this point. For all I know, my trip will get cancelled and LA will get destroyed and then who knows, but that’s all I really care about at this point.

Either way, I want you to know that if you are receiving this, I consider you family and someone who I want to have in my life. So thank you for being you and for the connection that we have shared.

I love you all.
Brit is Otis

….Issue 2, the mix tape, will hit the streets when I get to the Middle East. It will without a doubt feature certified bangers, club classics, and a whole lot of me. So be on the lookout, cuz the streets is watching. ☺

P.S. I really would love to hear from all of you. I LOVE to hear what people are up to, so if you feel so inspired, please write something similar. In fact, send it to everyone on your contact list. They’ll be glad you did (or at least I will)!

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