Der Lauf Der Dinge by Peter Fischli and David Weiss
This is a super dope movie I saw recently in Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
It kind of explains my life.
I first noticed it because there was a fly dark haired, blue eyed, Quebec French girl sitting by herself watching it in a side room of the Museum. I decided to join her and when it was over, said “Bon jour”.
In a few hours, The Del Mar Race Track begins and marks the start of the best six weeks of the year in Southern California. Well, at least it is for International Playboys.
It is no secret that I have had a long and passionate love affair with The Del Mar Race Track for years culminating in the Top Spot.
(Side note: Don’t shed a tear for me. I might be having the best summer of my life.)
Being that I am probably the most prolific writer on The Race Track Lifestyle since Damon Runyon, I have put together a definitive guide for The Del Mar Race Track for any up and comers that want to take the title.
Who knows though? Maybe I will pull one last “job”. So no slacking, or I may just come and peel your girls like Alpha-Hydroxy.
The cat has taken some heat on the Internet for his work and has plenty of doubters and haters (not unlike your humble author).
This guy has mad talent and is meeting a monstrous need in today’s media landscape . And when I say “meeting a monstrous need”, I mean like a coke dealer meets a monstrous need of a Hollywood Hills Mansion after party with 20 fly girls and 4 guys in attendance at 2:30 am.
His work is basically a flame that burns within the soul of The Modern Day International Playboy: its a complex overture that delves into the psyche of the male mind; part dazzling fantasy, part demonic nightmare, part vibrant dream, part jagged reality and he mixes it and puts it in a pot like Gumbo.
Hell, he is bringing to fruition an idea I have had for many years in grand royal style that I lacked the aptitude for. My version would be a little more Drug ridden, Crime Ridden, Cigarette smoked out, Boozed out, more Street and with the machine gun sound of the speed bag and clicking of the money counter as the soundscape, but that is neither E-tab dreams nor triple beams.
(Sometimes I really do wish I was born with talent for the camera or video camera instead of talent for Smoking, Drinking, Swooping fly girls, and separating people from their money. But then again, you can’t have it all.)
He has a new video called New York Episode 1.5 – Fails, extras & pick-up tips, peep it below.
First off, anything that can hold my attention for 10 minutes is in and of itself, astonishing. But more than that, it is really entertaining. And I think young cats getting into “The Life” can learn a lot from it. Furthermore, he plays up the “player on a budget” angle, which we all know has mass appeal like Guru of Gangstarr (RIP) said.
This video is all about Pick Up Failures. Watching this reminds me of myself as a young prototype G on the rise on the beaches of Southern California.
I have said it before and I will say it again, no one, and I mean no one has gotten rejected by girls more than me.
In this video Andrew Lindy breaks down rejection. He has fun with it. Bottom line, you have to love rejection.
To the young cats reading this, it really does make you stronger. Hell, I get rejected still all the time, and guess what? It is the funniest thing to me. Especially since I know that any girl that rejects me is making the biggest mistake of her life.
Straight up, if you take yourself too seriously, and you can’t have fun when you are swooping fly girls, then The International Playboy Lifestyle is not for you.
“My old man wrote me a letter from prison once. It said, ‘if you don’t want to end up like me, stay away from Crime, Women and Drugs‘. Problem is, it don’t leave you much else to do, does it?” – The Business – a Nick Love movie
“It’s better to be someone for a day, than no one for a lifetime”.
Writer and former graffiti tagger Roger Gastman has turned his love of the spray arts into a lifelong career. At 19, he sold graffiti supplies, later founded a boutique media agency that specializes in street culture, and as a 33-year-old, co-authored “The History of American Graffiti” with graffiti artist Caleb Neelon. The book chronicles the history of graffiti in more than 25 cities. Most recently, Gastman co-curated an exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) entitled “Art in the Streets.” It’s the first major U.S. museum survey of graffiti and street art. Speakeasy spoke with Gastman about graffiti as art and his book.
The Wall Street Journal: I understand you have first-hand experience with graffiti. Where did you paint?
Roger Gastman: I ran around Washington D.C. area in the early 90s to the mid-2000s, which is how I met many of the people featured in the book. I did traditional letter-based graffiti, painting freight trains, subways and various spots around the city. Then I would travel a lot to meet other writers and paint in their spots. Go to see a concert in Milwaukee for a long weekend and paint some graffiti while I was there.
When you say “writers,” that’s what you call other graffiti artists, right?
Yeah, local graffiti artists.
How did you get your start as a “writer?”
I grew up listening to hardcore punk rock music. Everybody I met had a tag, and I thought, well, I guess I need to also. So I started writing graffiti. It was all related to the music and straight edge [subculture of hardcore punk that advocates abstinence from drugs and alcohol]. Little did I know it’s part of a much larger world. Lot of my friends got into trouble and got into something else. For whatever reason, I stuck with it.
Your co-author mentions loving the adrenaline rush. How much of graffiti is done for the thrill of it?
There’s all kinds of different adrenaline rushes attached to it. From doing a really sketchy spot and getting away from it to seeing the underpass where you did a piece of graffiti or getting a photo three months after you painted something on the side of a freight train from across the country, in the mail from a friend.
Have you ever worked in the “heavens?” I know taggers in Los Angeles will lower themselves from freeway overpasses so they can scrawl their names on freeway signs.
No, but the bigger the city, the more daredevil tactics and crazier people have to do to get noticed. Everybody is doing it for a different reason and they all have different skill sets. Some people are just taggers and not artists. Just scrawling their names across something is maybe their way to feel validated.
What’s the difference between taggers and street artists?
The name taggers is a derogatory word for graffiti writer. A tagger is typically a much younger and inexperienced person who doesn’t fully understand the entire culture and just wants to scribble their name.
So, tagging is basically how new street artists cut their teeth?
Absolutely, like A ball in baseball.
Your book is divided by city. Can you see the regional differences in the work?
The work is definitely different city by city. Especially up to the late 90s. Then, city styles become much more diluted due to magazines, digital photography and definitely due to the Internet.
Since I have been back in The States, I have been putting a bunch of international biz deals together. The downside of this is I have to hang out with a bunch of corporate heads as I am trying to tap into some of that corporate long money with distance.
So, earlier, I am rolling with this corporate cat and this track comes on the radio:
Corporate cat then say to me, “You know, I have always loved that song, but I have no idea what the rappers are saying. Especially that last guy rapping”. (The Notorious B.I.G.)
I respond, “You are kidding right.”
“No, am I being serious. What are they talking about?” says Corporate cat.
This completely blew my mind. I never knew people like this existed but I guess they do.
I started to explain a little of it to him, but I couldn’t stop laughing as I explained each part.
So for the others out there in this same predicament as that corporate cat, here is the translation below (my translation for corporate heads in bold).
Uhh, uhhh
B.I.G., P-O, P-P-A
No info, for the, D-E-A
Federal agents mad cause I’m flagrant
Tap my cell, and the phone in the basement
Translation:
Here he is introducing himself to the listener by name and what he is all about.
For instance, he is letting you know that if the Drug Enforcement Agency contacts him, he is not going to give them any information about his potential involvement in illegal drug sales.
Which is a distinct possibility since he regularly breaks the law, and does it with style, so the Feds have already have made him a target and knows who he is.
The Feds have even gone as far as putting him under surveillance.
My team supreme, stay clean
Triple beam lyrical dream, I be that
Cat you see at all events bent
Gats in holsters girls on shoulders
Translation:
However, thus far, his co-workers have not been apprehended. The reason they have not been apprehended is they are the best in their chosen line of work.
Regardless, he is the epitome of a poet that is also a top notch character in the drug game
You might have even seen him before, if you are invited to big social events and he was probably the guy at the party who was inebriated on Marijuana and/or alcohol
He is ready for action at all times, and has no problem with the opposite sex.
Playboy, I told ya, bein mice to me
Bruise too much, I lose, too much
Step on stage the girls boo too much
I guess it’s cause you run with lame dudes too much
Translation:
Now he is talking about someone else who is not as cool as him and who’s co-workers and friends are not as smooth as him and his associates.
Me lose my touch, never that
If I did, ain’t no problem to get the gat
Where the true players at?
Throw your rollys in the sky
Wave em side to side and keep their hands high
While I give your girl the eye, player please
Translation:
Here he is saying he could never be like that other guy who is not as cool as him.
But if he ever fell off his lofty perch, he would have no problem fighting his way back on top. Even using violence if necessary.
He is asking other successful people to celebrate the fact that they are sinister and successful by displaying material wealth, in this case, waving their Rolex watches in the air and from left to right.
He is also saying that he could take your girlfriend from you if he so desired.
Lyrically, niggaz see, B.I.G.
be flossin jig on the cover of Fortune
Five double oh, get the phone number
your name, I got to know, I got to go
Got the flow down pizat, platinum plus
Like thizat, dangerous
on trizack, leave your ass blizzack
Translation:
Here he is saying that he is living a life of luxury and it’s easy for other people to notice.
His lifestyle and wealth are akin to a corporate CEO that is on the annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations
Now he is saying again that he gets girls phone numbers but he is busy (presumably with other girls) so he can’t stick around and chit-chat
He finishes up by saying that he is an expert in poetry, selling multiple millions of copies of his records, displays his skill on every song he puts out and he will also shoot you if he has to.
DJ Greyboy breaks down his thoughts on Music, Samples and Vinyl. Fast forward to 1:59 if you don’t want to hear about BMX. The young DJ’s out there need to listen to this:
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
If you are anything like me, you have a tough time watching crap American movies. I can’t even remember the last one I sat down and watched.
Recently, I saw Johnny Mad Dog. Its pretty dope and it’s filmed in that manner that makes it look like a documentary although it isn’t. Without ruining it, it is about Child Soldiers in Liberia. These kids are heavy and make the droogs in A Clockwork Orange look like a bunch of accountants on a work retreat.
Johnny Mad Dog is the leader of a crew that terrorizes, plunders and pillages towns all the while doing drugs, drinking booze and dressing in crazy gear (which I am guessing is the height of fashion for the Child Soldier set).
Peep it. It is the best movie I have seen all year.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
