Pintura Project 2010

Alright so it's been quite the lengthy amount of time since I have done a blog post. After spring break, school got pretty ridiculous with the schedule and the classes that i have taken. I recently just lost everything I had set up for my blog in iphoto recently, so as you can see I have been in no condition whatsoever to even think about doing a post without at least trying to recover my short video and picture files. I recently just bought a camera so some photography will be on the way for you folks to check out. But since my last post was about graffiti I would like to keep that topic in effect. Although my computer archive of my personal graffiti stash has been taken away from me (fucking iphoto) I would like to post some pictures that I have taken with my cell phone when I attended the Pintura Project 2010.

First I would like to give you a little bit of history of what exactly this particular event entails. Back in 2008 a group of graffiti/hip hop heads decided to put together a one day event that would bring graffiti writers from all over the states to display a piece of their work on a purely legal wall. As some of you may or nay not know, Graffiti is highly illegal and will get you in serious trouble with the Law if you're not watching your every move when partaking. Trust me when i say this, I know from personal experience. There are not many walls in the U.S. that let you paint on them in a purely legal manor but for one day a year, Orlando let's you paint the Blackbox collective lot outside. This year was the third year that they have done this event. Some artists that have been in attendance over the years are T-KID, CES, BREAK, JEE, SEX, CHICO, WORD, FX CREW, MSG CREW, FDC CREW and TUFF CITY STYLES CREW, are among some of the artists that attend this one day event and paint all day.

As the artists are painting through out the day, Local Hip Hop DJ's take the turntable and local kids who come to the event have a breakdance mat set up for everyone to watch as they have an old school break dance cypher. This year was the first year I was able to attend and I had a blast. I felt like Harlem, NY moved down to Orlando for the day and just took over. The styles that were being brought to the table that day were amazing. Not only was their the display of talent beyond superior, but they also had a BBQ with awesome music being played as you were free to walk around the place with your camera and watch the artists paint.

I'm a huge graffiti fan and have been for years and years, so to see some of my idols painting literally 5 feet away from was such a refreshing feeling. Getting to talk to these guys about how they started graffiti, what influenced them to write, and seeing their technique was such a treat. I recommend everyone going to check it out next year if they continue to put the event on. It was $10 to get in and cameras of all shapes and sizes are welcome. At this time I am going to post some pictures of the graffiti that I got to see being produced in front of me.

Here is the link to my photo set on Flickr. Go Check it out and I hope you enjoy!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50045442@N07/sets/72157623909724591/

New sketches/New Beginnings

So as I mentioned in my very first post and also the subtitle to this very blog, I will be posting sketches every now and again whenever I have the time and whenever I think the sketch is good enough to present to the public. But what is a good black book without seeing the cover? Blackbooks in general are known for having very eccentric designs or even collages of different throwups, stickers, and other graffiti oriented objects on top. Anyways, I think the cover of a black book not only represents the artist but it is a little prologue to what you are about to see and get into. It represents the culture and all the vibes associated with graffiti. That being said, I would like to give you guys a brief history of how I started doing graffiti in the first place.

Growing up just 30 minutes outside of New York City, graffiti has always been around no matter where I looked. Whether it was looking outside the NJ Transit train and seeing all the graffiti pass me by or when I would take trips up to NYC to visit my family I was always staring and was constantly intrigued by this renegade style art form. It had a certain style/funk to it that no other art obtained. I've been to museums and seen traditional fine arts in the city but let's face it, that shit is fucking boring and it's all the same. Portraits of old assholes constantly shrugging at you is definitely not cool and honestly it is quite creepy with all do respect. Graffiti moved me in a way because it was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life. Their was an entire underground culture attached to it and in reality, Graffiti is a way of life much like Hardcore is. In fact they both coincide hand in hand.

Every time I would come back home from looking at all this great graffiti, I would immediately start drawing and researching what this culture was about. It wasn't until about 7th grade that I embraced this culture with full force and started writing everyday. I started researching what "getting up" really meant, who were "kings" of the trade and that I would remain a "toy" until I proved myself worthy of at least intermediate styles. I would post drawings and paintings of mine as the years went on in forums all over the Internet. I would attend the writer's bench up in Newark every couple of weeks. I did whatever I had to do to be the best in my town. But being in a town where only 4 other people did graffiti, there wasn't that much competition for me as there was in the entire state of New Jersey and let's face it, New Jersey heads KNOW how to get up and that's a fact.

I spent around 6-7 years constantly writing/tagging day in and day out. I would get up extra early before my walk to school and tag everything in my path. I had a blast doing it because it was like illegal art but it was compelling and it moved me all at the same time. I joined the Navy when I was 18 years old which lead to my graffiti writing into a screeching halt. My friends down here in Orlando have inspired me enough to get back into it whenever I have free time and some of it has even been used for album covers/logos for Trustatement.com, which is going to be a HUGE Hip Hop movement in the very near future. Thank you guys for inspiring me to continue with my artwork. After this cover has been posted, I will post more sketches as they are done. Thank you all!

Another Adventure

Its been a while my friends. A lot of new and exciting things are brewing and will be posted in the near future. Sorry for the delay in posts as my schedule just keeps getting busier and busier. I may or may not start another blog to combine all aspects of my media I decide to put out under a new alias but we’ll deal with that accordingly when the time comes. I’ll be posting some audio next week of a track I’ve been working on as of late. But for now I present to you another drunken adventure with a good friend of mine in the great city of San Diego. Enjoy!

What Happened?

“Without Music, Life would be a mistake”—Friedrich Nietzsche

This is probably one of the best quotes I have ever heard and can honestly relate to. All my fellow musicians, artists, songwriters, or simply fans of music can attest to the statement above. I honestly think this is the truth. There is not one single person out there that does not love or at least like music. Whether it’s being a full-blown fan, or someone who just grooves to music while they’re mopping the kitchen floor.

With today’s current state of music (specifically what sells, and what’s being played on the radio), life just does not exist and if it does exist it sure as shit does not have any heart. It upsets me just as much as anyone else who believes what I am about to say in the following passage.

Let’s start by asking a few questions shall we?

Where is the heart?

What happened to the passion?

What happened to hard work?

Where is the message?

What happened to saying FUCK the system?

What happened to starting a movement?

And finally…

What happened to the talent?

These are all questions I am constantly asking myself every time I hear the bullshit that’s being played all over the world. What pisses me off is that children listen to this crap and actually think it is music. My main target is obviously fools like T-Pain, and people like that. Seriously, FUCK HIM. How does someone honestly get famous for sucking so bad that they use a voice correctional tool in all its capacity on his voice?? This boggles my mind. What boggles my mind even more is that there is no message or substance. Today’s music industry has drastically changed from the past and I can adapt to how albums are a thing of the past and singles are the way to go. The general public do not want albums anymore, I don’t blame them because most of them suck through and through these days anyway. However what I do want is some quality music that displays talent, a story, a message, or at least have some sort of substance and atmosphere to it. Now I know most of you might be thinking “why am I so disgruntled when I don’t even listen to music on the radio for the most part anyway?” Well I’ll tell you why…

I’m obviously a HUGE fan of Hardcore, Hip-Hop, and Jazz music. That being said, all true forms of these genres of music still hold true to their value, nature and still obtain substance. They are by far the most underground types of music and are the only genres that the media hasn’t completely torn to shreds.

I can remember back when I was kid listening to bands like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Cypress Hill, Gorilla Biscuits, Agnostic Front, Black Flag, and Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Smashing Pumpkins, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Cream. You just don’t see bands breaking the rules or breaking boundaries anymore. No one is taking a risk. While there is talent out there and it is waiting to be found, why isn’t the general public or the people that make up the vast majority that buy music wanting more than what they are given? It’s simply because they are not presented with what we had access to back in the day. Imagine this scenario if you will, Eric Clapton is an up and coming artist playing gigs all over the nation but is not famous. You want to know why? Because Eric Clapton wouldn’t be given the time of day in this market. That to me is a fucking disgrace. You have such talented artists out there trying to break through and make an impact on music and change the current state of music and no one gives a shit what they have to say. There’s just simply no heart in popular music anymore and I don’t care what argument you present to me saying that there is.

I understand that even back in other eras of music there was bubble gum pop bullshit still peaking its ugly head out just waiting to shove its bullshit down our throats, but at least we had good rock n roll, at least we had the grunge movement, at least we can listen to B.I.G. talk about the struggle, at least we could listen to Henry Rollins scream RISE ABOVE! To conclude this lengthy rant, I urge everyone to take a stand and promote REAL music. Deny what the stupid music executives are trying to pound down your throat. I am a firm believer that it is Generation Y’s sole responsibility to fix this. Stop buying into the bullshit and support your local artists/bands with actual talent. Go to shows, rebel against your parents, stick it to the man, do whatever you have to do, just DON’T buy into bullshit artists like T-Pain, Ke$ha, or any other crap you find out there.

Graffiti Demo

Ok so there has been a little bit of a delay for this Graffiti Demo video to come out but alas here we have it. A few weeks ago a good friend of mine asked me to design a logo for his entertainment group called Tru Statement Entertainment. This group is holding down true Hip-Hop and everyone needs to go check them out. If you support true Hip Hop and good music, go do yourself a favor and head over to their website. They just released a FREE Valentines Day album that is pretty dope. Anywho, here is the video along with a link to their website. ENJOY! http://trustatemententertainment.bandcamp.com/

UPDATE!!! and new video post

I would first like to start off my apologizing due to the lack of posts this last week or so. I have been digging around my computers looking for videos to put up and seeing what else I can come with to post. In the next day or two I will be posting some graffiti that I have recently completed for my friends entertainment group. I documented the entire drawing process so everyone who is curious to see what goes on while creating a graffiti piece will get his or her fix.

Anyways, moving along, I know this might be a little late to be posting a video of this nature but most of you who are reading I’m sure wonder if I am man enough to roast a whole turkey. Well the answer to that is FUCK YES! As a matter fact Thanksgiving ’09 was the SECOND time I roasted a whole turkey, and roasted it to perfection I might add! So anyways, my roommate took a few videos on his phone of what went on that day. I thought it would be kind of cool to show it off and show a different side of me, which is of course the cooking side. ENJOY!

Old Pranks

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So here we are once again. The weekend has been done and gone for a few days and I just started new classes this month. I have taken some video of me doing a graffiti sketch that I will begin editing tonight and adding in some background music to basically give you an idea of what kind of art I am into and what it takes to complete a sketch. For now though I have edited yet another funny clip for you guys to enjoy.

Yet again to give you some history on what this clip is about….

When I had joined the Navy I had no idea what would be in store for me, who I would meet, and what I would do. I honestly didn’t think I was even going to have free time at all. But as you can see by these videos we did have a little time to ourselves. That being said, my good friend Mike and I would always pull pranks on each other late at night whenever we were drunk or just felt like being funny. Of course I was the first one to commit this heinous crime but whatever right? I thought it would be funny and the rest of his household thought it would be too. There wasn’t any planning it was a spur of the moment type of thing. The video was taken almost 3 years ago and I had no idea what to do with it, I just kept it around and watched it whenever I was having a shitty day to brighten up the mood. So of course what I do with the video? Post it on the Internet so everyone and their mother can see it mwahahahahaha (evil laugh). So I apologize in advance to my friend Mike because he absolutely has no idea I am posting this and probably doesn’t want me to. But I think everyone is entitled to have a good laugh every now and again so here ya go!

Movie Review...

So I just displeased myself by watching probably one of the dumbest movies I have had the unfortunate chance to see. This movie is……….(ready for it?) 2012. I honestly knew going into this movie that it was going to be the same as every other “end of the world” movie that has came out in the past. Seriously though, Roland Emmerich needs to stop making movies ASAP. He just seems to have this horrible formula that is stuck with his so-called “craft” of making movies. Let’s take a brief look at his past “achievements” in movie making history. Back in 1996 this cat released a little movie called Independence Day. Now if that doesn’t tell you what is yet to come with his movies, I don’t know what does…. this movie was just about as corny as it gets. Next, we have the much anticipated, hyped reboot of Godzilla. If you even remotely liked that movie then you obviously have shitty taste or no taste at all. Then we have of course the infamous Day After Tomorrow which is your typical “end of the world” movie with a typical “end of the world” plot. Does the world end in that one? –NO, Does everyone miraculously meet each other by going on some crazy crusade through a frozen United States- YES. I mean seriously dude, your stories cannot get any better. Then, we have 10,000 BC…I don’t even want to get started on this atrocious piece of shit. As you can see Roland Emmerich has a horrible track record of the some of the shittiest movies ever. The only two movies that are even worth mentioning are of course the original Stargate, which was pretty decent despite Kurt Russell being a retarded military jock, and The Patriot, which I really can’t say anything bad about.

So just to give you guys a run down of how ridiculous 2012 actually was I’ll give you some mental notes I took while watching this movie.
--Why would you have the “end of the world” star be John Cusack, is there really no hope in casting a somewhat decent actor? His acting is almost even more sub par than Nicolas Cage----and that’s a bold statement if I do say so myself

--The acting was so shitty that it was even hard to believe that these people even cared that the world was crumbling right before their eyes

--What was seen to be the noblest act and turning point of the film turned into a huge train wreck of a situation. I mean you try and save people from dying and be sensitive but honestly in these types of movies they just wind up sending you up shit’s creek with no paddle.

--Just when the plot thickens and you honestly think they have no hope in saving the human race, we find out that the Chinese have been building “Arcs” in order to rescue as much of humanity as possible. Oh and did I mention that these “Arcs” are literally the size of Texas and everyone has luxurious rooms as if it were a fucking Carnival cruise ship and they can just so happen withstand any impact ever? (C’mon man!)

--The “Arc” ship smacks right into MT. EVEREST and still survives after being tossed around like a rag doll…wow right?
In particular I recall this one scene where John Cusack’s whole family is locked in a compartment somewhere in the ship and the water is rising and they’re having a full blown conversation introducing themselves to their so called “rescuers.” (I don’t know about you but I would cut the chitchat and get the fuck out of dodge.)

--There’s a Russian Businessman throughout the movie that sounds even dumber than a blackout drunk Sylvester Stallone.

So again, recapping on what I said before, this movie is a total shame. Don’t even waste your time like I did watching it. That is unless you like really cheesy movies and your stupid. The one thing I will say that was decent about the movie was the Special FX and some of the Sound Design. However even some of the ADR was screwed up.

In conclusion, Roland Emmerich has tried ending the world numerous times and he still hasn’t got the right formula. The only formula he has right though is
Bad Actors + Terrible Script + Plus Horrible Directing + Awesome Special FX = Great Movie?

In the Beginning...

Welcome friends!

So this is my first attempt at blogging! I decided to hop on the technology bandwagon and try this whole thing out. Hopefully you guys enjoy what I will be posting. So from now on I am going to try and post something everyday or whenever I get some free time in my busy schedule. I will be posting videos of me and my friends being stupid, pictures, stories, some of my artwork, music that I make, maybe even some music I recommend, CD reviews, and whatever else I can pull out of my ass to make people laugh. This is not a serious thing so mach as it something fun for me to do and keep me busy. I hope everyone enjoys what I post. Tell your friends and drop a line or two!

So here it is, the first video of several to come...

Just to give you a little background on what this video is from:

Me and my buddies had just returned home from a 7 month deployment overseas, we decided to take a weekend trip up to Ocean City, Maryland. As some of you may or may not know Virginia beach is about 2 1/2 - 3 hours south of O.C. Obviously we were all pretty antsy to be home and couldn't wait to get to the beach and let loose. Anyways, my buddy Henry is a complete goof. Henry and Perez had a little "Bromance" going on the entire trip and I decided to record it because it was honestly too funny. Henry gets on Perez's nerves after a while, but what Henry didn't realize is that Perez used to wrestle for his high school years ago. Check it out and Enjoy haha