Not Drugs – Art, Graffiti, Music and Culture for the Almost Grown-Up

So if you know anything worth knowing about this here internet then you’re well aware of the very cool, very viral video that Ok Go made a ways back. You know the one where they’re all dancing on treadmills.  But you may not have seen there next crazy video aptly titled WTF?.  As someone who’s into graphics and shit I’m real down with that second one.  But no matter what your flavor is you’re gonna be dazzled by their latest music vid.  I won’t even spout shit about it, just check it:

It’s called District B-13.  Yeah, it’s French but don’t hold that against it because it’s sick as shit.  The big hook is that the main hero is played by this dude David Belle who apparently founded parkour. That and it was written by Luc Besson, the dude who gave the world Fifth Element and all three Transporter movies.  The sequel, District 13 Ultimatum, comes out on DVD next month.  So if you like action, or parkour or just sweet movies then peep this shit!

It’s 6:30am. I awoke to my phone’s buzz. I don’t have to be in work til 11am, and normally I’d roll back other and ignore any advancements my phone makes towards me until I was ready to participate in the day. But I was curious as to what was poppin’ off at such an early hour. So I checked my phone, it’s a text from my boss: “The store’s closed. Have a good snow day.”

Snow Day? Do we have those in the real world?

Three years ago, while I was still an undergrad, the college I attended had it’s first snow day in over 30 years. All buildings closed; no classes, no anything. As a college student, when something like that happens, there’s only one way to cope: hammered. You drink all day while giddy-ing up in the snow, then you take a nap and get a second wind when you arise for part 2. It’s the only way to deal with a shut down of that sort. But is it suitable to relive those times now?

When I was 9, snow days were as close to Heaven as I thought I'd come.

It’s 10am now, and I’ve ate a homemade breakfast and will soon shovel my sidewalk. After that, I may read my book, watch a movie, or write more for you to enjoy on your, possible, snow day. Is this what a snow day has come to? Am I okay with it? We’ll see how this day plans out.

Until I return, watch this video (over and over and over again) of Stephen Curry (from the Golden State Warriors) completely ruin Birdman (aka Chris Anderson of the Denver Nuggets) with this shot that occurred last night.

Dwb.

I don’t know if its the grungy I just got out of prison; fuck the world; this is my girlfriend/sister, yeah she was exposed to high levels of radiation SO WHAT??! feel that the Afrikaner group, Die Antwoord have going on about them, or the secondhand bootleg beats underneath, but I think I might like them.

Zef Side

Maybe it’s their artful use of primordial dwarfism?

Enter the Ninja

Nothing is timeless anymore.  Everything is new and souped-up and slick.  Rugged will not exist in the 2010s.  And that’s something that truly saddens me.  You, more than likely, saw this yesterday:

This is Apple’s new iPad…or as I like to call it: The absolute end of print anything.  We’re not going to need magazines soon, because they’ll all be digital. (Half of them are already headed that way, anyway.)  However, print journalism is not the only thing dieing out.  In a few years, kids are not going to have to lug books home to and from school.  There texts will be right there…on the iPad.  You won’t need to purchase that copy of The Great Gatsby or The Cather in The Rye anymore…or borrow it from a friend. (I straight up split both of those books with my locker partner in high school.)

Why?  Because you’ll have it right on your iPad.  And perhaps it will be easier…I mean, it will definitely be easier.

But not the same.

There’s something timeless about holding a book.  Putting it down and picking up.

There’s something timeless about lugging a shitload of books to school during finals week.  That was half the work, man.

There’s something timeless and picking up a magazine in the grocery store or on the street corner…whether your a devout reader or it just catches your eye.  And that feeling…that timelessness…is about to roll out  Peace.  Hasta.  What-have-you.

Thank you, Steve Jobs…for forcing to me to evolve faster than I wanted to.

On the other hand, the combination of new and timeless is kind of dope.  I definitely want to cop these Wooden Turntables I’ve been staring at for at least an hour.

Stay up, kids.

As number of systems owned increases, average yearly salary at age 34 increases.
As number of systems owned increases, number of times laid per sophomore year of high school decreases.
As number of systems owned increases, number of times laid per life increases.
As number of systems owned increases, likelihood of finding gold stuck to the bottom of your shoe increases .0097% per 8/11ths of game console.

I’ve had 15, how about you?

I like eerie shit.  Stuff that makes part of you say, “This is soooo cool”, but also makes part of you shudder.  It’s a weird balance, I know.  Dig on this video I spotted while at work today:

Download all of Gil Scott-Heron if you can.  Or, ahem, you know, drop by your record store and cop some of it.  I know, I know…who goes to record stores anymore?

I do.  Get off the computer, ya’ robot. (But if you’re on your computer, check out ND.  Shameless, I know.)

One.

Goals are important in life.  They feed ambition, vision, drive and passion.  Goals make the world go ’round.  Maybe it’s just me that thinks that.  Maybe it’s not.  I hope not.  We’re all screwed if it’s just me thinking that.

I didn’t always have goals.  For years, I rode on the cusp of life, taking whatever was thrown at me and usually firing back at it times three.  Now, as I enter the last year of my early 20s(GASP.  I’ll be 23 in March, kids.), I find goals to be the driving force of my life.  I need goals…I don’t even need to complete them, I just need them there for me…to be…even if sometimes the goal of the day is to not have any goals.

Today’s goal is to be I-L-L.  In any way shape or form.  If you read this, stop for a second and think of how you have or if even have been ILL  at all today.  DO IT…NOW. While you watch, dig this video by The xx…pretty much the only thing on blast in my car at the moment.

The xx – VCR from welovemusique on Vimeo.

Well…have you been ill today?

If the answer is no, please….PLEASE….go out and do something ill.

Ask that girl/guy/what have you out for a night this weekend.

Go pick up some dope kicks to rock on the street.

Buy yourself a handle, call up you crew, get nasty, fall down, repeat.

Or if you’re real sick (And I’m talking “sicker than your Grandma sick”), send some cash to Haiti.

Make being ill you’re goal today.  Tomorrow we’ll have a lesson in being dope, maybe?  I’ma just start straight teaching classes about proper demeanors to hold in 2010.

Remember that time those jackasses from NotDrugs found out about a drink that glows under a black light? They threw a party, covered the house with black lights, gave everyone the fluorescent blue magical drink, filled water guns with it, spray painted shirts with it, and got so mirthfully sticky that they passed out.

That was using synthetic stuff. This is raw, straight from the earth ROOT–in a drink. Q TONIC.

I bet this glows so bright it'll blind ya. Wear sunglasses while drinking.

Explanation: Tonic water (Gin and Tonics) that contains quinine glows. This is because quinine glows. Quinine was used by Quechua Indians of Peru to mitigate fever.  Spanish explorers figured out it cured malaria. When European soldiers colonized southern countries (Africa, India, etc.) they drank tonic water so they wouldn’t die from malaria. Tonic water tastes awful, so the Brits added gin. This is how the Gin and Tonic was invented. YES. Why does it actually glow? Ask a scientist what a stable fluorescent quantum yield means.

As for me? I’m going to continue to keep a water gun filled with it.

High five for the Zesty Perspective.