The US is home to the world's most dominant air guitarists. And as such, the AirForce is home to the US' elite air guitarists. The AirForce was born out of the SF/Bay Area, in 2010, after an immortal showing at the legendary Fillmore West, and comprised of the Bay Area's most dominant airists, the Original 12, formed by SF master air guitarist, Tiger Claw.

The family first started out with a world champion (Hot Lixx Hulahan), a legend (Bjorn Turoque), and several veterans of the trade, of which four from SF went on to win multiple regional championships over the years since the US Air Guitar Competition came to SF in 2006. In 2010, US Air Guitar issued an award - the Profile of Excellence in the Field of Magnificence, to two individuals, both from SF.

2011 saw the expansion of the AirForce as a show of appreciation, a way to honor, and an effort to bring those who would express the same appreciation, honor, love, passion and dedication to the art the AirForce holds so dearly, together as one.

The AirForce is proud to be represented in other regions, in addition to SF's Golden Gate Chapter, throughout the US: Capitol (DC), Cascadia (Seattle), Chi-Town (Chicago), Mid-Atlantic (Charlottesville), MidWest (Kansas City), NorthEast (NY), Pacific Coast (Los Angeles), PacNorWest (Portland), SoCal (San Diego), SouthBay (San Jose, closed), Southern (Houston), Twin Cities (Minneapolis), the UK, and Russia.

We are the jedi masters of air guitar. AirForce Command, is strong, with the force.



Thursday, June 30, 2011

Latest Addition to US Air Guitar Trading Cards




check out the card bio close-up at www.usairguitar.com




#22 Brock Mcrock, out of Houston, Texas. This was one of the SF Air Force's first chapters, the ASouthern Chapter, with Commander Brock McRock. He deserves every bit of this accolade. After conversing over time, and hearing about his extra-curricular activites involving air guitar, I knew right away, he lived and breathed air guitar, thus exemplifying the very essence. Congratulations, my friend. You deserve it.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

SF Regional Air Guitar Championship

We survived another year. One of our best ever, that saw changes to veterans' formats, to a new crew of rookies, and our newest members to the SF AirForce. Welcome to Sgt-Major Six-String General, who should have been on board earlier, but he hails from LA, and has competed in Vegas, and well, is similar to Claw - he beats to the sounds of his own air drums.

Next, we have a slew of new Captains, Black Airish, Mexicutioner, and Sonic Boomer. we're still waiting on responses to Tony Dilemma, Shred boy R.D., and Snake Riffken, who would actually be Sgt-Majors, and newbies Benny, Esquire and Gran Motley Poo.


Ultra super thanks to our own April Air'Neil, aka Christine Zona, for her undying love, passion, and devotion to her art, of bringing out the best of us. She has uploaded a shtload of photos at her Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000032293285 , for your benefit. Claw highly recommends you credit her in the process. Or else. GRRR.

Also, Claw can download and upload videos, but email servers such as yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc, are limited to a small amount of MB, so if you want or need to download your video from the SF AirForce page on YouTube, you'll need to follow Lt. Facemelter's instructions, which I copied here:

Hey, dude. If people want their own copy of the videos, they can easily download it directly from youtube using a number of free websites out there. http://downloadyoutubevideo.org/ is one of them, but I prefer using a Firefox plugin called "Download Helper". You just need to have Firefox installed and then install the add-on here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

There's instructions all over the site and it's pretty simple to do. Allows you to download the original uploaded file in its full quality and all. Way easier than you putting everything on flash drives one at a time. Just a thought if you don't want to go crazy doing it all yourself!


Here is the link to OUR page:

www.youtube.com/sfairforce

spread the word

There are two weekends left, this weekend, in Seattle and Portland, where our own SFAF members Facemelter and Whalin BigAir are competing (Seattle and Portland respectively), and the weekend after that, in LA and San Diego, Facemelter's home turf. Claw and the SFAF wish them the best of luck. The more SFAF we have in Chicago, the better chances we have of taking it. Let's do it troops.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

and of course, there's Singar..




The SF AirForce's free spirit of the group, Singar, the Goat Demon, represents us well, which is why we love him dearly. On the extreme side, his character may appear controversial, but he means well. And in today's world, so much can be taken out of context, that is not a clear and accurate representation of the man at heart. Dude, I hope there was a lesson in there to be recognized. Chin up, brah. There will be no discharges today, honorable or dishonorable.

Welcome aboard our newest Captains..





Congratulations to our newest additions as Captains in the SF AirForce. You rocked the house with your energy and devotion our art, and are welcomed with open arms.

2011 SFAG pics from Friday


















Congratulations to all of the SF AirForce competitors on Friday night. Our own Shred Nugent Nugent won a narrow victory over Dirty Airy, and Our own Judas Priestess made it to the second round, as well. 3 out of 5 AirForce in the second round, is pretty fucking awesome. Saturday will also be spectacular. As the CIC of the SF AirForce, I'm looking for all 5 in the finals, being SFAF. Kick ass.

The phots above are the professional work of our own SFAF correspondent April Air'Neil, Christine Zona. you can also find other works from her vast global portfolio, at www.czona.com . Thanks the April, for all you do for us.

Day One Sf Regionals

Well, the first night is in the books. Of the 5 finalists in the second round, 3 were SF AirForce. I, along with the rest of the officers this evening, couldn't be prouder. The winner of the first round, Shred Nugent, tied Dirty Airy in the second round, but by virtue of the first round victory, the win goes to Shred Nugent.

Our civilian correspondent has already posted photos on FB, and a report on East Bay Express, which you can read here.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/us-air-guitar-championships-present-men-in-tights/Content?oid=2812488&cb=4510ab08fc78e4e489c6a120be5f1dcf&sort=desc#readerComments


Wednesday, June 22, 2011

SF AirForce strikes again...




The Force congratulates our Kansas City Chapter Affiliate Commander for his honoring by US Air Guitar with his own USAG Trading Card #19. Well deserving, especially since he actually conducts his own air guitar events throughout the year, which is why he is in the SFAF in the first place. His undying love and devotion to our great art. Ladies and gentlemen, that's six out of 19 represented. Growing stronger by the day. Thanks for everything you do, Mean "the machine" Melin.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Competition updates



Big, big shoutout to our own Cold Steel Renegade for securing last Tuesday's USAG Champions Trading Card #18. Welcome to the club. That's 5 of us, out of the total 18. Not a bad stat.

Wow. A lot of upsets in the regional air guitar world. Cami Phillippi takes Minneapolis, Tommy Fretless in DC, and Airistotle in NY. This just in: veteran Shreddy Mercury takes Brooklyn.

Tomorrow is Boston, and Phillie on Saturday. Pheww...another 4-day stint. Don't forget folks, it's SF a week from tomorrow, and Saturday.

Advance notice: First place awards have been confirmed for the SF Air Guitar Competition, on both days. The start of a good thing, for the future. The rest is classified. I could tell you, but then our resident, secret, covert, underground, black OPS special forces would have to permanently extract that piece of intel from your memory banks, without damaging any other cells in the process, of course.

SF AirForce press kits going out next week, to all members. I just wanted to make sure I had the most up-to-date intel in the kit. I thought the USAG cards were done for the season. Then, lo and behold, our CSR emerges as #18 to days ago, necessitating a change to the contents.

Another change, or I should say, addition to the ranks. A test for your special forces skills in the communication sector, with a specialization in research and discovery. It is a truly an honor for the SFAF to include this visionary and air guitar fanatic, if those words can even be used in the same sentence. Claw believes so. entirely.

Good luck to all who remain to compete in upcoming battles. Your day will come.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Competition updates

Well, troops, after 5 shows, with another tonight in Kalamazoo, tomorrow in Minneapolis, and Saturday in Washington, the SF AirForce is in the thick of it. Our Midwest connection out of Kansas City, Mean Melin, took the Regional, and will go to Chicago for the finals. Brock suffered a crushing, narrow defeat in Austin, as did Lost Heartbreaker in Milwaukee, to a rookie. It happens. But we're veterans for a reason. Heartbreaker will try again tonight in Kalamazoo, and if that doesn't work, the hometown if Minn. will be difficult for anyone else to thwart our Lost Heartbreaker. Twin Cities will dominate.

Here's a vid from Mean Melin in Kansas City, 2011

http://youtu.be/GgEG7W6r5j4

Here's a consolation compilation of the McRocker

http://youtu.be/0rFOe5nvW6A

We'll drop the Heartbreaker in a couple days, since he's still midway through his 3-city tour. Watch www.usairguitar.com for news and updates. The link can be found on the left sidebar down below.

In other SFAF news:

Speaking of US Air Guitar, they've completed this year's rounds of trading card issuances. All of the Hall-of-Famers have been represented, along with some non-HoF's and non-regional champions, for which TC is deeply honored.

The SF AirForce press kit is moments away from being done, but is still a work-in-progress. An advance version went out to the Heartbreaker to help with motivational and spiritual support, but also, as an aggressive tool backstage, to intimidate all those who oppose us. The SFAF officers headquartered in SF, are meeting (read: partying) on the Saturday a week before our gathering, at which time, copies will be made available. Next week, copies will be sent overnight to all our chapter commanders, for the same purpose: motivation, and intimidation. Sun Tzu: "Battles are won before they are even fought".

And...

The US Air Guitar Competition is unique, not just in the underground phenomenon known as air guitar, but in its ability to pull off this whole affair on a skeleton budget. Claw is impressed. This year drew a tear, as they worked without a sponsor. But that's beside the point. The air guitar competition, as professional as any other organized sports endeavor, not only was there no actual award for first place, on either the regional, national or world championship levels, at all for the last 8 years, we as its competitors had no problem with the established notion that your award is "bragging rights". That alone was enough.The free ride to the national and world championships was icing on the cake.

But enough is enough. Claw recently purchased 5 small 6-inch trophies to commemorate the judges' exclamation that he had the best technical performance of the night, for each year he competed. It's a small token he afforded himself, especially since the judges said so. Ego self-gratification, but also another intimidation tool (grrrr).

As I said, enough is enough. The trophies of old, metal molds atop marble bases, are a thing of the past. Today, they are plastic. But they still look the same. They just weigh less. Due to the materials used, the costs are a fraction of what they once were. My five cost $9 each.

So, since USAG is working without a sponsor this year, Tiger Claw will sponsor the first trophies to be awarded to the SF Regional Air Guitar Champions, for Friday AND Saturday, and the US National Champion, in Chicago. This is a donation on my part.

Also, the first SF AirForce Medal of Honor will be bestowed upon our first recipient at the SF Regional Air Guitar Competition, Friday, June 24, and repeated on Saturday, june 25, so that all can stand witness to the induction. This will be done backstage, so all of us can be present.

This is a good year. No, a great year. A great year for air guitar. And an even greater year for the SF AirForce, and all of its Commanders across the US, and abroad.

To all in SF, Crusher, Gobo, Shred, Priestess, Iroc-Z, Singar, Freeberg, and Dirty Airy, we rock 2 weeks from now. Northeast Commander Ricky Stinkfingers will rock next week, on Wednesday, July 15, in NY. Then it's NorPacWest Commander Whalin BigAir, one third of Airpocalypse, in Portland, on July 9, and our own SoCal Commander in San Diego, on July 15.

The force is strong with us.
Never forget. Always believe.
And remember:
Crush your enemies and see them driven before you.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

news and updates...

Thursday, June 2 -

First things first, the past. Claw missed a comedy performance by Awesome, in the Mission, last week. Hopefully, it went well. Is there a video of the performance floating around anywhere? Although not air guitar-related, there's always the possibility of an impromptu air performance. Claw will gladly take that chance. Which necessitates the usual reminder: if anyone's got something coming up, whoever you are, or wherever you hail from, or whatever you're doing, air guitar or not, cuz there always exists the chance of a lick or two of air, drop Claw a line, and the word will be passed on to the rest of the force. And so on. And so on. Like an exploding supernova, before retracting into a super-massive, magnetic black hole, sucking in everything within its vicinity. There's no return from the event horizon. Except Claw's right hand. From the wrist down. Hurdling through time and space. Fingers flailing like there's no tomorrow...sorry, tangent alert.

Secondly, the post on Joe Cocker a week ago, that appeared in the SF Parade section of our Sunday paper, that highlighted a question about him being the first to do air guitar - well, he was definitely a force, but there was also the mention of Bill Reed of the Diamonds in 1957. After seeing the video, which you can see for yourself below, Claw agrees this is most definitely the first exhibition of air guitar in recorded history, but by far not enough to be billed as the Godfather of Air Guitar.

That distinction remains with Joe Cocker, based on his performance of With A Little Help From My Friends, at Woodstock, 1967. Bill Reed was also a bass player, but that's beside the point. Air guitar is air guitar, whether it's electric guitar or bass guitar. The form is the same. Watch the video. It's only 1:54, and the moment in question, is at the :55 second point. It's actually pretty cool, when you witness it for yourselves. Clearly, it was totally improvised by Bill Reed, based on the shrugged-off reaction of the dude standing next to him. Obviously, dude couldn't handle it. Hint of jealousy for the spontaneous, attention-grabbing action that would become air guitar decades later? Claw thinks so.



Here is the defining moment in air guitar history, that firmly cements Joe Cocker as the Godfather of air guitar, from the :30 second point:



Unfortunately, Claw could not locate a video archive of Joe Cocker on Dick Cavitt, explaining what he was doing with his hands when asked by Dick. It IS in the Woodstock movie, though. As mentioned before, Dick asked what he was doing with his hands, and Joe replied, "I always wanted to play the guitar, but never learned." That alone represents probably 80%+ of air guitarists' reason for what we do.

Lastly, we are mid-season into the US Air Guitar Competition. It's busy here at the SF AirForce headquarters. Check the site regularly for the next few weeks. Meanwhile, Claw continually strives to clean up, update, enhance and add to the site. It occurred to Claw while updating the AirForce ranks, that Shred Nugent, a regional winner for the short-lived San Jose competition, and multiple competitor in SF, not to mention an all-around killer mofo, and hailing from his home turf down south. Even though San Jose is considered a separate market in various industries (radio, TV, etc), it is still part of the 9-county metro that makes up the Bay Area. But since San Jose was represented as an official region, outside of SF, Claw believes Shred has earned the distinction of representing, as Commander of the SouthBay Chapter, out of San Jose. Claw has an upgraded credentials badge waiting for our next path crossing. Bjorn, your upgraded credential is in the mail. Upgraded from Major-General to General. Claw wishes everyone the best of luck in their upcoming competitions, and hopes to be upgrading as many of you as possible.

Celebrities continue to exhibit the 5-second air guitar. none of which is available on tape. You have to catch it when it happens. Just the same, everyone does it. LOne could almost say, you're allowed to air guitar, without being mocked, if it is kept under 5-seconds. (Another aspect of the 5-second rule.) Which prompted the Claw to watch, again, the Colbert air guitar tribute. The link is on the site, on the right sidebar. Scroll down. Click on it. And drag the bubble to the 3:50 mark. A 30-second montage of Colbert air guitaring. Not just a fluke performance, or 5-second exhibition, but a bonafide collection . This montage was put together for the sole purpose of honoring air guitar. It's why Colbert was honored as an SF AirForce civilian media correspondent. He got his badge and kit. Sooner or later he will have no choice but to honor us with an appearance...on the Colbert Report. As far as Claw is concerned, much more worthy and attractive than half the books promoted on the show.

Pretty lengthy, but 'tis the season. More to follow in the coming days...

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Stinkfingers honored...




New York's Ricky Stinkfingers, formerly from SF, inducted as #15 USAG official trading card. Most deservedly. Started here in 2006, won in SF the next year, and again in Portland and NY later on. Multi-champion, across multi-cities. All of us are proud, man. Keep it up. And hey, don't forget your roots, brah.