MSTRKRFT, Justice, Hallowieners

A long time ago (last weekend) I had a birthday. I went to New York. Overall the weekend was MEGA awesome. On Friday I met up with a few friends from uArts and we all hoped on the CHINAR bus and two hours later we found ourselves in New York. I broke from the pack to have birfdai dinners with Amy. We went to this restaurant called "Ali Baba Turkish Cuisine". With a name like that I wasn't expecting too much but OH MY GOD IT WAS SO FUCKING GOOD. It's on 34th St. between 2nd and 3rd and I recommend all of you go there some time if you even remotely like Turkish food. It's not the cheap cheapest of places, but it'll fill you up right good. Soo good.

After that I hooked up with H-Rod and Mr. Minimilltastic himself. We made our fabulous way over to Studio B in Brooklyn for a bit of a sweat-fest among other things.

DJS:

DJ Trouble Maker: This DJ did some cool cool stuff. He was one of the earlier DJs so people were still coming in so the energy wasn't redonk but he was still pretty fun.

DJ Laz Casanova: This was the dude that Cara (one of my friends who I came with) knows the girlfriend of. He was pretty rad. He through down some Justice tracks and the Pryds remix of Pink Floyds Education (I love the song but mills and Harry think differently). I liked him.

Z-Trip: Trip was AMAZING. I have had one of his CDs for just about ever but I never really got into it. I actually didn't even know he was a DJ. I just thought he was a music dude...whatever that means. He had a slick hip hop line-up as well as a drummer who solo'd like a crazed animal (Again I'm a huge fan of redonk drummers and I thought this was rad but Har and Chris not so much...although it did go on a bit long). Plus, he through in Tarantula from Pendulum. SO intense.

And of course the highlight of the night was MSTRKRFT. They. Were. SO. Intense. The best part of this show was sheer amount of relentless energy absolutely pouring out of those club speakers. In the entire 1-3 hour set they did there wasn't a single break in foot stomping ear pounding energy. SO MUCH FUN. Oh God were we sweaty afterwards. They were so much fun. They also ended up playing about three encores. In all honesty, my legs and I could could have probably done with out that last one, but gosh was it fun.

Justice
The end of MSTRKRFT hardly brings a close to this weekend however. I stayed in New York on Saturday night with Amy and Sunday morn I took that Chinar bus back to the 'Delph.

That night I saw Justice. Justice is kind of one of those DJ Duos that you kinda must see. They were definitely in the top 5 DJs I want to see before I die list. OH man did they rock so hard. I feel retarded writing about all of this stuff I did because I want SO bad to experience this with ALL of you. Just so you can know how fucking rad it is. I can't say it enough. Such an intense show, such intense strobe lights and overall so much fun.



The only slight downside to the show was the intensity of the audience. As soon as the first bass hit I couldn't move. It's not only that I couldn't move but if your arms were in the air, you couldn't put them down and if your hands were at your side good luck raising them. It was so crowded and so packed. At the first bass hit the entire place surged forward and I made very good friends with the dude in front of me. Unfortunately, not really someone I wanted to make such good friends with. It was uncomfortable but the sounds penetrating my ears were so loud and electrifying it made it all worth it.

Highlight
As amazing as the show was, one of the definite highlights was SHACKING THE HAND OF GASPARD AUGé. I went to the after party for Justice at some bar and Gaspard just STROLLS in no big deal. He wasn't exactly being flocked so I ran the fuck over and shook his hand. I said the show was amazing and he patted me on the back. So awesome. I SHOOK JUSTICE'S HAND. ashgashgashgashgashgashshgashgashgas

VIDSORITDIDN'THAPPEN



Halloween

I hope all of you have a great Halloween. Post a comment with your costume ideas. I'd love to hear. As for me, I don't know what I am going as. I went to a Halloween party this weekend and I was Purple...so maybe I'll do that again, but I don't know.

Enjoy yourselves.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday!

To quote birthdaycelebrations.net's "German Traditions" page:

"When men reach the age of 30 and they still don't have a girlfriend that they have to sweep the stairs of the city hall. All there friends will throw rubble on the stairs and when you're finished they'll throw some more rubble there. This way every girl can see that this man reached the age of 30 and still doesn't have a girlfriend."

I can't wait to be 30.

But right now I'm 19 on the 19th

OHSHITSAHSAHSGASHAGSHAGSHAG

Daft Punk, Tiger Army, and Minisplozuns

This past weekend I met up with Todd (Drexel) and Eric Goldschmidt (MICA, he was visiting Todd) to go see a show. We saw Tiger Army, Street Dogs and The Static Age. I hadn't heard of any of these groups before but Todd and Eric were sort of into them.

The story of how Todd came across Tiger Army is hilarious also. He heard of Dragonforce originally from somebody (Jer?) and he was trying to find songs of theirs online. He couldn't remember the name but typed in Tiger Army thinking it was right. Haha, turns out there was actually a band called Tiger Army that was halfway decent and sounded SORTA like Dragonforce. Teh craze.

Anyways, the show was fun, but I actually ended up having more fun than I think they did. First of all, the scene was MUCH more punky than we thought it would be. I didn't know what to expect because I didn't know any of the groups but it was crazy. Mohawks and leather out the face. The music they played, according to Todd, was much faster and much harder than on their CDs. Todd wasn't too pleased about this and neither him nor Eric really enjoyed it. BUT, I had fun because the music was loud and the energy was there so I was dancing around. I don't really like the punks but this was fun. I just probably wouldn't do it again any time soon. I actually much prefered Street Dogs over the headlining Tiger Army. They are like an original punk type band with good things to say. They were cool.

The lead Singer of Tiger Army looks like a vampire.

They did do one AWESOME thing though. I don't know if this characteristic to all punk shows or just Tiger Army but this Mosh Pit at this show was redonk. They did something called a Tornado Pit. First of all, rad name. Secondly, it involved a mass of people running as fast as the could in this circle of people. These dudes were just hurtling themselves around this ring and smashing into everything and going fucking mental. It was so crazy to watch and so intense. Unfortunately, I did not participate.


At uArts the Anderson building is where most of the visual arts work is done. It's an eight floor building right on Broad St (Main Central street in Philly). I have all of my foundation classes in there as well. So this morning I was in 2D class and some guy runs down the hallway yelling "THERE IS SMOKE IN THE BUILDING, EVERYBODY OUT" Shit shit, so we I grab my laptop and walk out leaving my portfolio and all of my arting supplies. Going down the stairs you could smell smoke and the first floor was flooded with a murky dark thickness. We get out of the building and cross the street and wait for about 20 minutes. In the meantime 3 fire trucks, 2 ambulences, at least 30 firefighters arrive at the scene and do their business. Some guy comes and tells us to go home the building is closed.

So I leave to find out later that a small explosion in the basement caused the small fire. It had to do with some electrical thing, I think. I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that all of the stuff I would need to do homework with is locked in the building. I GUESS THAT MEANS THE ONLY THING I CAN DO TONIGHT IS GET CRUNKT OH WELL.


Also, in case you haven't heard the new Daft Punk Mix here it is. DP hooked Louis Vuitton up for his Spring/Summer 08 Runway Show in Paris. Like all DP related works, this mix is hotter than hot. Check it the fuck out. Kanye, Justice AND Ratatat oh fuck. It's so slick. DP does it right every time.

It's almost my burfdais tomorrow hooray

UPS, Shoes and Cookz

My lack of posting this past week is due to my inability to use my camera. I have been working on a stop-motion 3D project for the last week and I can't really move my camera or I'll disturb the set up. I'll post up the project when I am done and until then I'll be using my rad COMPUTER CAM.

If you watched the Hacker History video I posted a little while ago you may have learned something. I did. Basically if you are confident enough, you can get people to believe just about anything. Well in order to fuel my street art addiction I went to the local post office to see if I could get some free mailing stickers to paste up. The first time I went the lady somehow convinced my that if I were to get stickers I would need to buy boxes too. HAH, I'm not paying for this stuff so I left. That time was just a trial run. The second time I went in I told a story about how I had gone into the shop a little while ago and purchese a bunch of boxes and now I needed the mailing stickers to go along with them. I told them I had 8 boxes that needed stickers. She bought it and I walked out with about 20 stickers. (She threw a few extra in I guess). Dope, free stickz.





I decided to try one more thing. I heard that UPS will give supplies to businesses or small companies if they need it. I figured I'd give it a try and I registered on UPS.com. I set up an account and said I had a small business and all of this stuff and two days later I check my mail and there sitting in the mail box is 100 4"x8" stickers. Oh god I was so excited. These are PERFECT for sticking together and creating big pieces as well, which is fantastic. I haven't even put up ONE sticker and now I have over 100 to play with. I gotta come up with some crazy idea then I'm golden. I <3 free things. The best part about it is that I can do it again and again! Anyone can do it. It's great!
The picture doesn't really do it justice. Trust me, it's a lot.


ALSO, I got new kicks.
YAY. I love them. Only $65 too thanks to a SNEAKER VILLE sale.


Lastly, I got cookies. It's my birthday this Friday. I don't know what I am doing for it but I'm excited. I'll be 19 on the 19TH HOLY SHIT. Gah, I don't want to grow up. I'm tempted to go to MSTRKRFT and rock out with C Milla and H Dog but I don't know if that will happen. It's okay for you all to mail me presents also, no worries.

I'll see you on the other side.

Sneaker Pimps

Before I say anything let me give you a run down of my rad weekend.

Friday: First Friday. You read the blog you know all about then. Then there was the shoe release party at Ubiq. Free beers and chill tunes. 'Twas cool. Then we went to a beer pong tournament thing. Kinda lame, but we got drunkd. The house it was at was INSANE though. Five dudes live in this 3 story MANSION and they are paying less than I am for housing. Sucks a nut. They had a hookah room upstairs with block lights and carpets on the walls and a disco ball and pillows all over the place. SO awesome. Then after we went to Little Pete's diner. Not the same as Sherwood but it's open 24/7 and thats all I needed.

Saturday: SNEAKER PIMPS (You'll find out all about this in a mo). Then we went to another house party. This house was pretty chill. I had a big ol' chat with Ry Ry and he told me his woman troubles. ASK HIM ABOUT IT HE'LL LOVE IT. Got drunkd, went home.

Sunday: OUTFEST. It was a gay pride festival that took place on my street and a few adjacent ones. It was pretty gay. That's about it.

Action packed weekend. It was fun fun.

SNEAKER PIMPS
Sneaker pimps was huge. SO many trendy dudes and SOOO many hot shoes. I wasn't really sure what to expect before going but oh man it was fun. There were a couple of live bands and some hip hop dudes which was sweet but obviously the shoes were the main attraction.

They had HUNDREDS of custom shoes. Soooo many shoes. I've never seen so many ace looking pieces of rubber and leather in my life. Here's just a peak. You can see nearly ALL of the shoes on my facebook.













The crew. Starting with me going clockwise it's Me, Jackie, Geoff, Cara, and Andrew. Each sporting his/her kicks to the fullest.


We also saw DJ Tyger Lilly and COLETRAIN:



This guy was hanging(get it?) around with us outside of Ubiq after Sneaker Pimps.

Nike IDs

Honestly I wasn't sure if I totally liked my IDs when I opened the box. They were, after all, pretty ridiculous. It took a few days to get used to them but now I love them. I think I need more.

CHECK THE KICKZ

For those of you who don't know Drencrom is one f the spiked milks that Alex drinks in the Korova Milkbar in A Clockwork Orange . Drencrom is a shortened version of Adrenochrome which is basically adrenaline in drug form. RAD.

Whatcha'll think?

First Firday + Ubiq DJ Niel Armstrong

On the first Friday of every month a ton of local artists gather on 2nd and Market Streets to sell stuff they have made. This area of Philadelphia has a ton of art galleries too which all open up for free. There is music and people dancing and people creating art on the spot and a whole bunch of shit going down. I missed last months First Friday so this was my first time going. I'll be going again mos def.Do you see that little Asian boy in the red shirt? His name is Nhut. Pronounced: "Nuh". I hang out with him all the fucking time. He's so rad. He's TINY, too. Last First Friday Nhut sold over $150 worth of paintings and stuff. I don't know how he does it, but I'm getting myself a little portfolio together and I'm going to make myself some CASH.


I can't remember how much this guy was selling these for but nearly everything at First Friday is super cheap. It's mostly cool stuff too.


Fucking spray ork man. This guy had a huge crowd around him watching him do his thing. I wish I had gotten a chance to see the end result :(


Jackie was selling a bunch of decks she painted.



See those characters on the upper right there. I met the guy that does those, he actually goes to uArts. These dudes he's created are EVERYWHERE. There is a sticker up on just about every mailbox and newspaper bin in the city. I never thought I'd actually meet the dude. So awesome. Apparently he's getting his OWN shoe with VANS as well. Fuckshitman,iwantthatsobad.


Here's some more of his stuff in a gallery. I love that character so much.


I took advantage of the Monster Truck. They were just pouring these free Monsters into my arms so I had to keep them. I ended up putting about fifteen in two plastic bags and fashioning some completely uncomfortable makeshift backpack. I proceeded to bike the next 15 blocks in uncomfortable agony. BUT NOW MY FRIDGE IS FULL OF MONSTER IT'S OKAY.



Friends. We had to pack up all of the stuff they were super fast becuasssse:

PO PO GETTIN US DOWN. I thought this First Friday thing was deemed A-Okay by the State of PA but apparently not. The police were giving everybody a hard time about not having any permits to sell things and they were threatening citations.

First Friday might have ended early but the night was still young. Next up was DJ Niel Armstrong at Ubiq for a custom shoe release party. When we got there the scene wasn't as hopping as we thought it might be, but the beer was free and we got to meet this dude:


He was not fun. He looks fun. He was not fun. This is what he ACTUALLY said when this picture was taken: "I used to be a photographer. I could use this baby arm as a prop. You know what I would do with it?! It'd put it here! It's a penis!" He later told me to soak magic mushrooms in a jar of honey for a month and then lick the honey.

We checked the DJ, downed the beers and bounced. As cool as that dude was I wasn't about to spend all night talking to him.

Check back soon, I have some big news.

As I am writing this I hear cheering outside my window. I look outside and see one of those mechanical bulls and a crowd of people surrounding it cheering. My roommate just told me it's a festival called Outfest about some gay pride thing. THAT'S WHAT THE GAYBOrHOOD IS ALL ABOUT RIGHT RIGHT. So, uh, I'm going to go ride the Bull. Later.

The BLOW, Karl Blau, and Saturday Looks Good to Me

I saw a show last night at the FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH. My first thoughts were "ABANDONED CHURCH?? PARADISO??" But then, how could that be, this isn't Amsterdam after all, only Philadelphia. I have heard some good things about this church in the past though and apparently the hold a lot of good shows so it can't be that bad, huh?

Well, I was right, it was a pretty chill spot. Very intimate, low stage, and we were right fucking close which made it more fun. It's not really someplace I prefer over club type venues but it was pretty gnarly. Sunday School plays take place on the same stage, there are little kid drawings all over the walls, and the stage is covered with a colorful rug that attempts to teach the ABC's. Where was THAT in Paradiso...

So, Karl Blau came on stage and opened first. More like Karl BLEH, GET IT? He kinda sucked. He had two recorders which he beatboxed and played the bassline into while he riffed and sang over it. It was interesting...but that's about it. Meh. I didn't even manage to snag a picture of him. Shade.

Next up was Saturday Looks Good to Me. Alright, these bros were better than Blau but not by much. Again interesting music but nothing to get excited about. Worthy of a few pictures, I guess.



And for the main event we saw The BLOW. The BLOW, for those of you who don't know is Khaela Maricich and YATCH. YATCH recently left Khaela, so now The BLOW is just Khaela doing her own thing. She's a one woman artist who sings on top of a CD (kareokeish). SOUNDS LAME, I know, but the tunes and pretty bouncy and she dances like a maniac. I was slightly reminded of HNATIW, except no synths or drum machines to sit on. Check the pics and CHECK the vid. Shit's fun.


The first time she jumped into the crowd NO ONE EXPECTED IT and she fell to the floor. She climbed back on stage and said "This time I'll aim or those guys." The crowd was ready the second time. It was great. Rad socks too.


She had this whole thing with this piece of plastic. It was some metaphor for her boyfriend or something. It was so bizarre it was hilarious. She was very funny all around too, she joked with the audience and talked a bunch about ridiculous stuff. One of her things was "explaining being alive". She explained it by saying "You know what it's like? It's like everything. You know, all of this. Yeeaaah. Yeah you know it's like all of everything like this." It made no sense. Then she would go om about how if the audience was a polar bear, and in order to make good music she had to flirt with it, but like with the whole audience. Polar bear. She was so weird she was great.


DANCE DANCE DANCE She was so fun to watch. "TAKE IT OFF" lollolololllol

It was a fun night. A Wednesday too! Word.

Phone Phreaks & Captain Crunch

THE HISTORY OF HACKING
If you haven't seen this video yet, then you have been missing out. I think some of you may have seen it before but perhaps not. Either way, WATCH IT AGAIN. It start with Phone Phreaks (So fucking awesome) and goes all the way up to Kevin Mitnick which is possibly one of the raddest dudes ever. The Hack is beyond me. I love this shit.

HACK THE PLANET

In other news, this is mega awesome. MEGA


Lastly, check out my Campus Philly album on Facebook. There is no way I am uploading all of those pictures here so CHECK THE LINK.

Last lastly, Happy October! This month should be pretty ridiculous:

• JUSTICE
• My Birthday
• Halloween at Art Schoool
• Sneaker Pimps shoe festival
• Diplo
• BLOW

JUST TO NAME A FEW. I'm excited.

UPDATE: This is hilarious.