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

I made a cartoon today.  I don’t know if it’s ill or dope…but it’s kind of funny.

Clearly based on a real incident that happened to me.

This is “Mrs. Wilson Likes Chocolate” by Julian Edward Williams. Stay up.

Whatup, Whatup?  It’s been an extended break.  Dig it:

Two close friends of mine, Maggie-Leigh & Chloe came from the cold east to the sunny west for a week in the sun.  I knew it was going to get wild…

Little did I know I was going to end up with a burn on my face, a new lady friend, and one of the craziest experiences I ever had in Las Vegas, NV.

These two girls ARE NOT DRUGS.  Much love to ‘em.

Williams. Maggie-Leigh. Newberg. Circa 2006/1974.

Chloe F. Baby. Photo by Williams. (2009)

The burn on my face with heal.  The memories of this past week will not.  Enough said.

Now, just cause I’ve been on vay-cay, doesn’t mean I’m not still up on my game.  Exactly the opposite, actually.  I’m here with 5 fresh new pieces of media that I feel all you Not Drugs folks should be up on this coming weekend.  Some special shit you can share with your peoples while you throw ya’ weekends away.  These following items are in no specific order, so dig on them however you will…but dig on them, nonetheless.

1) “Greenberg”

“Greenberg” is a new film from writer director Noah Baumbach.  He also directed/wrote “The Squid and The Whale”, “Margot at the Wedding” and co-wrote (with my personal hero, Wes Anderson) “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” and “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”.  Baumbach has a knack for capturing quirky, yet true human emotion in films and creating an untouchable comedic sense of drama.  In other words, he makes you think while you laugh.  And, from the reviews I’m reading, Ben Stiller is right on top of his game as the title character, Greenberg.

Did I mention the whole film is scored by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem?  Oh, well, I did now.

2) “The Runaways”

Alright, alright, I’ll be honest: I saw “Twilight”.  Once.  With a friend in my house because it was on.  We both fell asleep and were not impressed.  However, I think Kristen Stewart has some other gems that can’t be overlooked.  “Adventureland” and “Into The Wild” simply would not have been the same types of flicks without her.  I’m learning, more and more, that sometimes you have to do the Twilights, just so you can come close to making something like a Runaways biopic.  And if the word is true, “The Runaways” is fairly sick.  However, don’t take that to heart…the “word” has let me down before, and it’ll let me down again.  A Joan Jett movie, though?  Come on.  Where are my punk rock chicks at?  This one’s for you.

3) Erykah Badu – “New Amerykah Part Two: The Return of the Ankh”

If you’ve any soul and you’ve got ears, you heard “New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War”…or any other Erykah Badu album, for that matter.  You know what this woman can do when she gets on the mic, and this album is no exception.  Badu kills it.  Again.  With cuts produced by J Dilla, Madlib and 9th Wonder, how could she not?  It’s out March 30th, but if your wise, you’ll download it as soon as you’re done reading this post.

Please believe me when I tell you: I’ve heard it.  It’s sick.  It’s disgusting, actually.  You’ll be nauseous.  In a good way.

4) Delorean

Delorean – Dear Langston from Faux Real Crew on Vimeo.

Delorean is a rapper I’ve been hearing a lot about, but not a lot of.  That’s just do to my own nature: you can tell me stuff for months, but until I look it up myself, it will not register.  However, I caught this video recently and was 1) blown away with his smooth style, and 2)taken aback by the creation of his video: simplistic and clean.  Not too much.  Not too little.  Check this cat out if you can.

5) Nike Pepper Low – Black

Thank you Nike…finally: keep it clean, but make it noticeable.  Nike, after years of those goddamn Dunks blowing up my eyeballs, has finally hit the sweet spot.  I may just have to cop these and never, ever wear them.  They’re just too fresh.  Check out some more shots here.

Stay up.

So Chatroulette is clearly the next big thing in the world of all things webby.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not facebook or twitter, but it’s big and it’ll be around for a little while.  Why?  Because of people who find awesome things to do with it like using it to perform, be funny, make movies or play games with people (or just fuck around).  Obviously not everyone has a webcam and most people don’t have the patience for penises and weirdos to go back to Chatroulette more than once or twice.  But as long as people are doing brilliant stuff like Ben Fold’s did when he took a cue from this guy and improvised songs on chatroulette in front of a crowd of 2,000 in North Carolina, it’ll stick around for a while.

As for what’s next in the world of new media…well if I knew that for sure I’d be a millionaire.  One thing I do know is that everything’s getting more and more mobile.  I just got on foursquare the other day.  It’s essentially a game you play with your friends in which you check into the places you go to and earn points and badges.  Sounds kinda lame and a little big-brother-freaky, I know BUT it’s still new.  Imagine if you add advertising to that.  You’re trying to decide which bar to hop to next with your friends when you get an alert on your phone saying something like, “Hey, you’re just a block away from Bar X, head in now and show them this message and you’ll get a free shot.  You lucky dog you.”  Now that’s a big brother I can buddy up to.  I’m not saying that foursquare is the next twitter (far from it) but keep an eye out for that sort of technology to become a part of your everyday life.

NBA Jam is Back!  Yeah, you heard me right, you’re favorite video game ever and the greatest, dunkingest two-on-two basketball game of all time is back.  Or at least it will be next Christmas when EA sports unveils NBA Jam 2010 for the Nintendo Wii.  That and a handful of screenshots are as much as I can share for certain right now, but knowing NBA Jam’s history of hidden characters like Bill Clinton and Will Smith speculations have already begun about a possible Obama hidden character.  Personally I’d love to see a Lady Gaga character, I couldn’t imagine a more fearsome opponent charging up the court, flaming b-ball in hand, jumping 10 feet off the ground and throwing it down with a “BOOM-SHAKA-LACKA”

Dwight Howard looks to be the coverboy for this glorious remake.

Looks cool, but there's way to many men on the court. This is supposed to be a two-on-two slamfest, not a basketball game.

Nice dunk, but I'm confused about that whole Supersonics thing since they don't exist anymore.

BOOM-SHAKA-LACKA!!!

UPDATE

Here’s the trailer for this piece of magic:

I saw Theophilus London the other night (he’s track 8 on the March mix). He’s got some great beats, sick hooks, but he also plays with a live backing band and he just puts on a show.

Oh, did i mention the show was at the Natural History Museum in NYC. Oh yeah, I guess I left out that part.

A small stage was set up in the middle of the Planetarium. Videos were projected on a back screen, lights were thrown around the room, and all this while you can also read up on how a nuclear fusion can occur within stars. Nuts. Here’s a video (not of the show I went to, but similar, kinda explaining what goes down).

Also, I just got finished watching Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs The New York Knicks. I’m not a Knicks fan, and even though I respect Reggie Miller as the greatest 3-point/free throw/clutch shooter of my generation, I’m not a fan of him either. But the documentary was so good, pin pointing each turning moment of that rivalry in the mid-90s, right when I first started getting real into the NBA. As a basketball fan (and from NYC) I recommend this to everyone. Here’s the opening sequence:

Dope.

Dwb.

Like the grease from the very burger or the potato chip that he was chompin’ and pushin’ back in the day, JA had seeped into and saturated the folds of our delicious brains as this guy before Seinfeld. Not too far of a stretch from the role to come… You can say what you like about the man, but you cannot deny his talent.

Enjoy:

Dear Kid Cudi,

There’s something I gotta get off my chest so I’ma be straight with you; I do NOT like “How To Make It In America”. It has it’s moments and lord knows I want it to be good…but it isn’t. It moves too slow, it tries to hard and I hate all the characters (except for Luis Guzman of course). But I don’t blame you. If I were you and somebody said, “Yo, you wanna come be on the newest, hippest HBO show? We’ll only give you a line or two per ep and you can hook up with a different hot chick each week,” then I’d jump at the opportunity. And I still love your music, especially this jam “Pursuit of Happiness” feat. MGMT and Ratatat:

Thanks for the sick song and even sicker video.

Happy Hump Day.

Much Love,

Portman

Literally just lost my mind.  Legit just lost any sanity I had…and there wasn’t that much to begin with.

I’ve been waiting for the official trailer for years now.  Not a demo.  Not a teaser.  A legit trailer.  Featuring, at least partially the Daft Punk original score.

This past weekend…it finally came.  The trailer for Tron: Legacy.

And just in case you’re not in the know, here’s the trailer to the original Tron from 1982.

I just got this video in an email. I know Mr. Williams was high fiving these guys a couple days ago, but the only thing I can really get behind about these guys is the one guy’s beard.

Go to 1:30 into the video and check it out. He sounds like Nas too. Sort of.

-Winn

Just happened to catch this and decided it should be put on blast before I started the work day.

This is Thom Yorke, lead singer of everyone’s favorite(as of 2009) alternative band, Radiohead.

He’s playing a benefit party at the Cambridge Corn Exchange for England’s Green Party.

If you’re enjoying a snow day on the Eastern Part of America…give a listen to these new songs he’s playing.  If you happen to be on the west with me…get your ass back to work…after you watch these videos.

Really beautiful songs…I think.

One.