Writing the Arts

loRRa on the rise in these streets

loRRa mid-city, a young high-end streetwear clothing line, is beginnning to flood the urban fashion scene. lmc was started in Los Angeles by a young entrepenuer known as Jiro Jocelyn. jiro grew up in mid-city los angeles, but had the opportunity to travel to his families' native countries france and japan. the guy is brilliant and has a great fashion sense; one that would allow rappers to look stylish in streets and not have to wear skirts.

the logo of the clothing line is two large RR's as shown on the back the vietnam war jacket worn in the picture above. jiro's creativity is innovative to the streets, like how he used the french children's book character barbar and the news of mexican cocaine in sharks as ideas shirts and filled in RR's in the classic nike air force 1's. people are loving it.

my art collective, stachebox kings, collaborated with jiro to realease the first set of LA Bombers shirts, which was a trend this past summer. now, baRbaR is the trend in LA along with his loRRa lighter chains and loRRa bandanas.

 

 

apparently Matilda is a musical now

Once upon a time I used to take theatre classes in high school, and I paid attention to the Broadway scene. Today, after looking at the Tony Award nominees I realized just how out of touch I am.

I have no idea what "Kinky Boots" is about but apparently it was nominated for 13 different categories. Shoe salesmen gone wild??? I have no idea but the girl in pink seems to have missed the memo about wearing thigh highs. 

"Matilda" is close behind with twelve nominations. At least I'm familiar with the story here-a girl genius with evil parents finds out that she has telekinetic abilites. It's based on a great book by Roald Dahl (there's also a movie) but when I read it as a child, I never thought it needed to be turned into a show. I can't really picture Miss Trunchbull singing about anything.

The other two nominees for best musical are "Bring It On: The Musical" and "A Christmas Story: The Musical." I don't understand why a show about cheerleaders is included here. And don't shoot me, but I've never actually watched A Christmas Story. Well, I watched the scene where the kid gets his tongue stuck to the pole. And I know there's a leg lamp. But again, did it really need to be on Broadway? 

I guess it's all about the money but why can't anyone leave the movies alone and come up with something original?  Why can't a musical just be a musical? Why does it have to be based off of Shrek or Lord of the Rings or Spider-Man? Some of my favorite shows (Les Mis, Phantom) are adaptations of books but this is starting to get ridiculous. Next thing you know, Snooki and Honey Boo Boo will be on the Great White Way, rolling in the dough.

I respect it, but timing may affect free agency

recently, Jason Collins, 34-year-old Washington Wizard's center, expressed to the world his homosexuality. Collins has played in the league for 11 years with six different teams. i respect this and i am in total support of his coming out, but why now? i believe Collins used his sexuality as a stepping stone for social progress in major league sports, but a minor component attributes to getting some teams to look his way for the upcoming season. Whether good or bad looks, he will be looked at.

 

 this season, he averaged 1.1 ppg and 1.6 rpg playing with the Wizards. after this season, the veteran will become a free agent. i find it very unlikely that any team, especially the Wizards will sign the guy. although he has taken the title of the first active pro athlete to come out, i doubt he'll continue to be "active" after this season. his season ended long before the playoffs even started. No team wants him unless there's a dying need for a body during the labor day signings. JC isn't the only athlete to start the conversation of homosexuality in sports.  John Amaechi, the first NBA player to come out four years after his career, spoke on this before.

 

timing is everything, and Collins chose this time to tell us of his homosexuality. the time where his career is plummeted and he's a veteran free agent. JC's coming out now makes him somewhat exotic in the NBA. his marketability becomes questionable as he stated in an interview with Sports Illustrated's  Jon Wertheim. since the league is a business, it just may benefit or hurt some teams' sales/revenue to consider Jason Collins, the first active gay pro athlete, on their squad, but who knows?

 

On Instagram straight flexin'

    Instagram is app on smart phones for young bored people to take pictures of every day objects and with the correct filter the picture becomes artistic. Not to say that I am not guilty of shamelessly instrgraming numerous pictures of my cat but doing so I do not believe that I have a talent in photography. I have sat at my family’s dinner table and my oldest sister is across from me rearranging her wine glass, knife, fork, napkin, and turning her plate different ways to create the most ideal composition for a picture she is going to instagram, so that her one hundred some followers can see what the Taylor Family ate for Sunday night dinner. The whole idea behind Instagram and all social media networks for that matter is very egoistical, like does any one really care that while you were walking to work you saw a tree that with the right sepia tone looks edgy. Yes, the different filters do make a yellow pencil on a white lined notebook look weirdly enticing but it does not make you Annie Leibovitz.

A very calculated picture taken by my sister

My cat named Oatmeal. Therefore this is a picture of a box of Oatmeal. Punny I know.

 

Crocs: Why God Hates Us.

Lets talk about Crocs for a second. Despite being the world’s ugliest shoe they became super popular in 2007. Now six years later people are still wearing them. Why? For those of you who are lucky enough not to know what these monstrosities are, they are essentially clogs with holes in them made out of plastic, with a strap on for your heel. Barf. There are only two types people who can wear these shoes: anyone under the age of two and a gardener. Other than that, run away. It blows my mind when I see people in college wearing these. For people who’s argument is that they are comfortable,: No I do not buy it. Flip flops are comfortable, if you have the right sneaker, that is comfortable. Crocs are ugly. Also do you think that is really going to help you find someone who will want to date you? Probably not. I am pretty sure that no one has ever gotten laid because they were wearing crocs and if they did, ew. 

Cute!

Not even Chef Mario Batali can make this look cool. 

 

a very short novel

i had a copy of the anarchist cookbook, but i sold it to a psychopath for an ounce of weed in 1975.

lilou: the man with the ultimate moves

you may not consider a bboy to be among the most athletic humans in the world. i beg to differ. the best breakers are more "athletic" than the best athletes. take french bboy lilou for instance. compare his physique to the kobe bryants or lebron james of the sports world, and you may find me to be the fullest of shit. however, he trains daily, year round, no off-season, to invent, reinvent and perfect the art of breakdancing: where athleticism, grace and music intersect. lebron can jump from the freethrow line and jam it, but lilou can backflip corkscrew at eye-level to his competition. i've yet to see him injured, and if he loses, its usually because he focuses on  "clowning" the competition. in the words of trinidad james, "dont believe me just watch:"

Clowning = to debase a counterpart for comedic relief.  It is clowning/disrespectful to intercept a fellow bboy's limelight, despite being amdist a battle/cypher. 

 

he has won the red bull bc one twice (2005, 2009), an incomparable feat. he has been considered the best even when others have won. his 2005 championship battle against hong 10 is a glaring example of how his talents are beginning to recreate the art. 

the man with the ultimate moves #dope

Skirt Spurt in the Rap Game

things have gotten out of hand with hip-hop fashion. rappers began to deviate away from the classic streetware in the 21st century. they want showcase their expensive taste. and so, they wear skirts. it all started off with the kanye west's bloom in the fashion world while interning for high end clothing lines all over Europe, and then, others such as asap rocky follow the trend; this resulted in skirt spurt in the hip-hop scene.

rappers want to be rock stars now. it started with skinny (too tight) jeans, then evolved to givenchy leather skirts. in the 90's, hip-hop's peak, skirts on a rapper of any sort was unacceptable. rappers of the 20th century kept it "gangsta" in their fubu gear and coogi sweater.

21st century rap isn't about the streets and its attire anymore. although it's still about how well you can spit, but most iportantly, it's how expensive you dress. the more knowledgable about high end clothing the rapper is, the more fans will follow. like as rap critics did for asap rocky, they will say, "he's got his own style."

 

 

this idea of rappers creating their own swag/style with high end fashion provides an alternate avenue into hip-hop's mainstream. nowadays, some rappers are not being held accountable for their lyrics and wordplay, rather for the way they dress. for instance, travis scott earned his association with kanye west's G.O.O.D. Music record label because of his "stylish insight," as he shows in his xxl freshman class freestyle. ts is now considered one of hip-hop rising freshman. hip-hop's talent is no longer only about how well you rap; it is being acclamated how expensive you look.

sort of inspired by Roppolo's post but not really because I don't watch basketball

...but I do watch football and the Jacksonville Jaguars have recently updated their uniforms:

 ...according to the team's owner, Shad Khan, these new uniforms are "awe-inspiring"  but I don't understand why everyone's making all the fuss. I guess they're sort of snazzy but I think the Jags should probably concentrate on getting a new quarterback instead of new clothes.

Apparently this new helmet is supposed to look like a like a jaguar hunting from the shadows but it's more like an Easter egg dumped in some mud.

There have been images of "leaked" Dolphins and Vikings uniforms circulating around the Internet but I'll refrain from judgment until there's an official announcement. I don't actually root for any of these teams (I'm a Skins fan) so maybe I shouldn't care so much about this. However, I don't think there was anything wrong with the old looks. I'd rather see a change to the Cincinnati uniform. The stripes on the helmet are enough. We get it, they're Bengals. They don't need stripes on their pants and shoulders too.

take me away from country roads

so i know a lot of people are huge fans of john denver's take me home country roads, including my overly emotional father, but i just can't wrap my head around what the draw of this song is. it came on my itunes shuffle today and before skipping it i thought to myself, hey i'll blog about this. denver whines a lot in this song. he sounds like a child who's been sent away to summer camp and really just wants to go home. i think he's going for a sentimental vibe but i'm not feelin' it. maybe it's because i'm not particularly a fan of country music, especially the twangy fiddle ones that make me feel like i need to be riding a horse while simultaneously drinking a beer and doing the hoe down. or maybe it's because my dad decided we should play it on repeat when we were on road trips during my childhood. whatever the reason. i'm not into it.

so you can imagine my dismay when i came across this. hermes house band, whatever the fuck that is, decided to make this song worse. something i didn't think and really didn't hope was possible. this version is the original on crack. it repeats the chorus over and over again (inspired by the original's obnoxious repetition i assume). but again, even worse than the first dose of crack, around  2 minutes the song slows down to an agonizingly slow pace only to up its dosage of crack and end on a hamster in a wheel pace. ugh. please stop. it's not good for anyone. and just in case you weren't annoyed enough we're going to "la, la, la" at you for the last minute or so.