Now, for those that actually know me, and the many that know OF me, all KNOW VERY WELL that I put more than my fair share into the graffiti game from 1989 – on. I for damn sure crushed Richmond, VA to a pulp, along with MANY others. NOT that it is a big town, but if there was one thing people from my era were up on, and that was GRAFFITI HISTORY.

Nerdier than kids about their pokemon characters, knowing the players and shapers of graffiti’s past was huge part of your right of passage… If you couldn’t muster the trip down memory lane, you basically had no right to speak on it. Whatever criticism you got you got. I took a great deal of pride in reaching out to anyone and everyone I could find. And in 1993 I landed an interview in a zine I started with one of my idols, an interview with Zephyr. Zephyr sent me countless stickers, images, copies of outlines and copies of photos.

It went STRAIGHT to my HEAD.

ALL my own glory days aside, some goofy chick corners  me in some BS conversation on graffiti and is AGASP when I say STENCILS aren’t REAL GRAFFITI. That is Street Art or guerilla art or whatever. And yes, MANY REAL graff writers dabble/specialize or whatever in that jazz… but that isn’t what makes them REAL writers. If anything stencils are seen mostly as a cop-out.

“Okay, okay… so what is “REAL” graff?”

1. YOUR NAME WRITTEN ON THINGS illegally (preferably with a buttery ass style)…

2. When in doubt refer to rule number one.

That is pretty much it. Graffiti is about letters, and on a more modern tip it’s about STYLE.

You get yourself your tag and you go for it. You get some notoriety or cheap fame and race your name to the top of the charts. Have some fun… form a crew, work in numbers… Go it alone and go for self.

You can do it gracefully and with style or you can fuck up and go over someone and catch a lump on your head and either come back swingin or try and move more diplomatically.

Maybe you start doing Simple bubble letters and “throw ups” or maybe you NEVER move beyond the TAG. WHICH IS FREAKING FINE. An amazing handstyle is just as much graffiti (and art, bitches) as your fucking go-all-out wildstyle super letter, crew combiner block burner. If anything I have seen more tags that interest me than “mural” like graff burners.

ANYWAY… I found myself losing more and more control over my self as this conversation progressed. I don’t consider people like Banksy, Sheperd Fairey, Blek Le Rat, or any stencil/sticker/poster people “Graffiti” writers. This only further labeled me as “ignorant”. They also professed that “Graffiti started in London with Punk Rock and was later adopted by Hip-Hop.” I could feel Cornbread, Taki 183, and Ancient civilizations all moving around in the cosmos around me like wriggling, uncomfortable, and offended people in a trapped space of anger.

Some history

First of all Graffiti in it’s native form: “Fuck you Ceaser” & “jesus LIVES” are as old as the names I’m making fun of… The word literally is the base of the word “to write” in Greek or some crap.

Secondly, modern Graffiti, aka all the shit kids are so crazed on these days, was done MOSTLY with spray paint. The rest of it was done with big ass pilot markers, deodorant sticks with a chalk board eraser jammed in and filled with T-Grade marking ink, and, occasionally people would get creative with big freaking rollers and a bucket of paint and do something BIG as crap.

Saber, from L.A. spent over a year on this. It’s done with big ass rollers, supposedly you can see this shit from outer space. You can definitely see it from a plane.

Either way, you did it YOURSELF with YOUR HANDS. NOT with a fucking stencil, poster, wall paper paste etc, etc… Now… if someone were to take a bunch of stickers and go over a whole block and SPELL OUT their tag, then yeah. Graffiti achieved.

You would think with all this “internet” out there, people wouldn’t be so dumb who claim to be so smart. Since I’m basically doing this to vent so I don’t burst a blood vessel in my eye, you can go visit artcrimes.org and  149th street. And I suppose wikipedia. And you get your internet learn on.

This article : http://wordpressgarage.com/tips/displaying-single-post-pages-differently-in-specific-categories goes over some great methods for using the default Single.php file as a way of determining which category you are viewing, and then which special categorical version you would like to use there after to display your special content.

You replace your php in Single.php with this nice little conditional statement. A conditional is just like it sounds “IF” certain criteria is met, in this case a certain category’s content is being browsed to the single view, “THEN” pass it off to this other special file that deals with that content in a certain way. “ELSE” if it is in this OTHER category pass it to this OTHER view instead.

Check it:

Inside of the original single.php, delete everything and replace it with this:

<?php
$post = $wp_query->post;
if ( in_category('9') ) {
include(TEMPLATEPATH . '/single2.php');
} else {
include(TEMPLATEPATH . '/single1.php');
}
?>

From here you would make a Single1.php file.

This is great as you can separate these views and easily manage their differences or assign them their own unique CSS files.

I highly recommend checking this article out.

Anyway, The last month or so, I have spent my time being overworked and underpaid on a few massive projects. One of which was LTDmag.com and it’s full massive redesign. And by redesign I don’t mean “Let’s make the links and background a different color.” or “skinning” it. God I hate it when people say “skin” in reference to what would otherwise be IA/UI/UX. As if… But I digress… Part of the big task was moving LTD off of wordpress 2.5. and onto the future…

Now we all know Wordpress is fully updatable and it’s backend is completely separate from it’s presentation layer, so why all the fuss? Well some “agency” decided that they know all about information architecture and admin UI in addition to apprently being “experts” on Wordpress, and built some kind of un-upgradeable hacked version of Wordpress. It was a impressive backend, but it was amazing how they were ignoring what WP has built in that already does EVERYthing they needed it to do. They are called custom fields YO!

But far be it from me to claim expertise and perfection, for lo and behold I thought it’d be awesome to convert a directory of stores that was trapped in FLASH, and spit them out in clean XHTML and CSS. Yay! I love Flash, but seriously… this is a database of businesses with google maps yo. Shit needs to work on muh phone… nah’mean?

Long story, longer… I made a parent PAGE that listed all the CHILD PAGES. Boom. Done. Only problem is… paginating static pages and matching my query… not so easy.
Obvious fix, make Spots a Category under the POSTS timeline. Pagination done! New Problem: converting like, 100 PAGES into POSTS
Nevermind LTD’s sweet hardworking intern already entered all the busted data from v1’s flash hackjob into HTML; PAGE by PAGE, but now we gotta go back and re-make them POST by POST.
I SAY BULLSHIT!

Check this out : P2P converter! Saves ASSES!

This guy makes a plugin that amazingly converts ANY PAGE into a POST AND ( no way right?) ANY POST into a PAGE. AMAZING. Donate some Cheddah to homie! I am!

Now, I know there are ways to make mySQL databases just change tables, and table names and shit. But I don’t speak nerd-command-line. If you do, holla at me, I wanna hang.

Anyway, if you have found yourself making IA blunders like me, this amazing plugin freaking rules. Holla.

C1RCA Teamriders: MVP Peter Ramondetta, Sierra Fellers, Scott Decenzo, Tony Tave, Ryan Gallant, Walker Ryan.
Video Director Lee DuPont
Art Director Dennet Oyanguren
Production Manager Chris Zamoscianyk

http://skateboarding.transworld.net/2009/08/20/2009-skate-create-c1rca-broken-dreams/

Part of skateboarding is always being down to help your fellow skateboarder.

And today I have learned the name of a fellow skateboarder who could really use our support; and his name is Nick Mullins.

Today is Nick Mullins day.

And we are all gonna get down with Nick Mullins.

I don’t care if you remember my name or not. But today, you will remember the name Nick Mullins.

Nick Mullins.

Say it.

Write it down.

Take a picture.

Because he represents the future of skateboarding, and he also represents the very strong  lifelong bond shared by anyone who has ever been a real skateboarder.

And Nick Mullins is in trouble and needs your help.

Nick Mullins has been battling a Staph infection and the Berrics has been communicating with his filmer and has finally shared their effort in the form of Nick Mullins Day.

Please join me, LTDmag, the Berrics, and the skateboarding world in support of not just a skateboarder, but a talented young man who deserves our attention and assistance.

You can email him and show your support at NickMullins@theberrics.com

Please watch this message from The Berrics’ own Steve Berra about Nick…

Below is a listing of videos, sites and info on how to learn about and support Nick Mullins.

email your support to Nick here : NickMullins@theberrics.com

From ohio skate

“If you haven’t heard by now, The Berrics put up a couple videos in support of a skater from Ohio by the name of Nick Mullins. To be brief, Nick had a staph infection spread throughout his body and it could potentially be fatal. So far the updates on his health are good.

Click more for the videos that are up on the berrics. They gave Nick an email address at the berrics which is nickmullins@theberrics.com.
If you want more info visit The Berrics for the videos unless I already have them up when you see this or go to this youtube for the filmer’s page that Steve mentions. For now here is the latest update.
We wish you the best Nick and Steve Staffon, spreading the word on behalf of your friend is one of the realest things you could do for him so good lookin man.”

From Steve Staffon

NICK MULLINS!

I have supressed much of my discontent on the topic of track bikes being scene-stered the fuck out since I first rode one in 1993. Not that me riding one then makes me some fucking track bike OG, I don’t go to the velodrome, I don’t enter alley kat races, and I am not a courier.

I just happened to end up with one and liked it with it’s super minimal amount of hardware and light weight. It’s beautiful and simple elegance, and it’s fucking durable components.

Anyway, apparently Urban Outftitters has decided to sell “fixed” gear bikes, OR “fixies” if your some bitch with an ironic moustache and severe need of PBR. And I just don’t get it.
I didn’t get it when obey bikes came out it in regular bike shops, and I don’t understand why urban outfitters is selling track bikes.

Oh wait… yes I do.
The same reason you can buy a REALLY SHITTY skateboard at toys r us: Money/greed/ignorance of consumers.

People who say “fixie” are bitches(given I know it is used in this article in a sarcastic sense, no offense to the author), people with brakes on fixed gear bikes are retarded, just ride a goddamn single speed bike with a freewheel nerd… annnnnnnnd people in williamsburg should move back to their respective shit suburban town/city/parent’s house and wait to turn 35 for their trust fund check.

That being said, build your own fucking bike.

You can get one, and pretty much all needed parts off any of the thousands of abandoned ones left for dead on the streets in NY.

the problem isn’t car > bike ratio. It’s lazy fucking pussy ass consumerist American’s and their “oh it’s cool? I’ll buy it now that you said it’s cool.” status quo mentality.

I built my last bike lovingly and afforadably from a vintage Schwinn World Tour frame that I purchased for $7. I can’t think of a worse company to give money to other than Urban Outfitters, it rips off the designs of others in the fashion and textile industry and constantly tries to bulk sale gentrify the shit out of a lot of my childhood, cultural relevance, and general lifestyle.

I don’t want you being like me. That’s why I’m me.

You go fucking be yourself.

Over the last few years, I have seen so many amazing and creative and original things. I have seen a full re-emergence of The Transformers line as the Unicron Trilogy. I didn’t follow it amazingly close, but damn the toys were really getting back to where they needed to be.

The character art was really strong, the sculpts were impressive and I was seeing less and less crappy beast wars/machines clear plastic in fruity colors and more and more heavy solid and strong figures.

Especially this :

But one thing always struck me as interesting. Through all of these changes, and series. Optimus and Megatron and for the most part, the characters remained RECOGNIZABLE and these various authors RESPECTED the work/timeline/universe/history/fact that the original goddamn toys were awesome.

Anyway.

Any person who has any sense at all would have looked at the Unicron Trilogy(Micron in japan) and seen how freaking amazing the art and story was and said “Damn this is bad ass”.

But instead, Douch le rouche(® Joey Rubin) Michael Baytard and Steven Spielhump said, “Hey let’s let a bunch of fucking over excited fuckers redesign a bunch of Matrix reject looking transformers.” “That’ll really get those kids off their rock-em-sock-em robots!”

Major fail douche turds.

How can what bay made be more “Modernized” than this:

He could already fly and shit Bay. You’re a loser for not giving a shit about the real deal.

That is how real female transformers get down. Heavy guns. I’d totally check her oil if I was a robot.

This guy is pretty pissed, all though I couldn’t agree less on the jetfire comments, but whatever :  awesome podcast nerd rant on why you shouldn’t see The new transformers film.

At any rate. The GalaxyForce/Cybertron series had amazing character design by Takashi Kumazen and why the fuck Bay/Spielpuke or whoever even remotely thought for one second they were qualified to make the decisions they did, is beyond me.

I can’t believe it. But there is all kinds of attention being brought to transformers. Why? Becuase the average American money spender, who can’t watch “animation” as a feature film, now feels that Transformers are “real” and will therefore now spend on said property.

I happen to remember a time before the animated series, before all of this shit. When toys and robots were awesome in their own right, and when animation reigned supreme. Ah the magic of childhood. Kids toys today pale in comparison.

Fucking Boombox yo.

There were some other Gun Robots that never made it to the states. And, Megatron was actually a good guy. You know, to shoot the bad guys with.

In short, screw you michael bay. No one cares about your bastardazation of our beloved characters, toys and the stories. We know the real deal when we see it.

Oh and if you ever wondered what optimus prime’s real purpose was, it was to deliver shit and get to work. And his real name is convoy.

And yes he was blue AND red.

OH. And I have no idea who was responsible for ruining devastator but this is the real deal – You know. Construction Robo.

For the measly, basement bargain price of $118.00 you can get a year subscription (6 issues) and 2 back issues of your choice AND a FREE really nice art book…

check them out at: idnworld.com

So if you’re at le book, come by the second floor and hola at IDN yo!

I’m hanging with Lauren and Amrita from IDN. Lauren loves to eat paper.

Should be fun.

If you’re going holla at me over here: http://twitter.com/MrSeanG