Peace & Quiet - Air Guitarists Vie for World Domination
Brooklyn's "C-Diddy" recently "stunned the crowd" at the East Coast US Regional Air Guitar Competition with his "near-perfect combination of technical mastery, stage presence, and the ever-elusive ‘airness’." Who will win the US Finals and go on to Finland for the World Championships, whose "main agenda is to promote world peace"?

David Jung, known on stage as "C-Diddy," beat other air guitar competitors such as "Air do Well" and "Bjorn Turoque" with his rendition of Extreme's "Play with Me," a song he chose for the contest, as well as with the compulsory song "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," by Smashing Pumpkins.

The 31-year-old actor-comedian will compete in the US Finals at Los Angeles' Roxy Theatre on June 28, where the West Coast Regionals will have taken place earlier that day.

The June 23, 2003 issue of Newsweek puts Jung in a small group of front runners, along with Angela Shelton ("Cherry Vanilla") and Shawn Mason ("Dick Maynard").

The US winner will join the national champions of Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium, Norway, and the Netherlands in Finland for the 8th annual world championships of air guitar. The global competition, which also will admit a few other entries who survive a qualifying round in Finland, will take place Aug. 28-29 in Oulu, Finland, as part of the Oulu Music Video Festival.

A live webcast of the event is planned. The compulsory song, which all contestants must perform in addition to their chosen piece, won't be announced until the night before the competition.

The first prize is a 2500-Euro Finnish handmade electric guitar, the "Flying Finn," which presumably the winner does not actually need.

Visit the Air Guitar World Championships and the Oulu Music Video Festival

Learn more about the US competitions, including pictures, press releases, and a video of the East Coast finals

Read the New York Post article, which includes pictures and quotes.