As I said on Twitter, I’ve been neglecting my only child.  Apologies for the lack of posting, it has been a little hectic with the approaching Spring Break and midterms exams around these parts.  But no one wants to hear excuses, so we’ll move right along a la the self checkout line at your local super market.  Today was a day spent between the massive concrete Lego blocks of New York City.  Just in case you’re not on the East Coast while reading this post, we had absolutely immaculate weather for the past two days.  I’m talking about t-shirts in the beginning of March weather which is none too common.  With all sorts of New York’s finest (those that don’t wear blue uniforms) on the street, it was only proper that we joined in on the warm weather festivities.  A few weeks back I stumbled across a hole in the wall ARMY NAVY store down in the Lower East Side, and we’ve been trying to find our way back to it every since.

Good old Greene street down in Soho. Big ups to the brother Mike and Hyun from LTD who run this block with an iron fist similar to Stringer Bell from the great television experiment known as the Wire.  Going to be stirring up a ruckus with those two blokes sooner than later.  Rasta Monsta!

You’re all very familiar with this character, one of the many partners in crime.  Demetri’s headphones never leave him these days.  Which reminds me, I’ve never had an iPod my entire life.  What sort of travesty is that?  It may be for the better however.   I think that if I actually walked around with music in my head at all hours of the day I would actually never speak to anyone.  I’d get far too carried away with the music, and me singing Patrice Rushen on a crowded Subway at full lung capacity is probably less than desirable for anyone unfortunate enough to be within earshot.

Me explaining something of utmost importance.  (It’s strange captioning yourself.) Most likely concerning hobbit hole construction.

Back to the center of this story-the mission to find the lost ARMY NAVY shop I stumbled across a few weeks back.  After wandering around and finding a bunch of other worthy destination we finally came across the small canvas-green hole of vintage military goods sandwiched firmly between a deli and a 99 Cent store.  It’s actually pretty easy to miss if you’re walking quickly, that is if the sight of 60 assorted patches pinned to a board doesn’t immediately make you stop in your tracks and being salivating like a small dog.  If you can muster up enough strength to walk in the door without fear of being laid out by a veteran like the guy on that Oakland bus a week ago then you’ll find what is basically a glorified closet of insanely cheap priced military surplus goods.  We call that waxed canvas and cotton gold folks.

For those of you in New York, you definitely want to give the shop a quick look see.  The small Asian women who owns the shop along with her husband asked why we were taking photographs.  I immediately tried to explain the concept of a “blog” to the small sixty year old woman who came up to my torso before realizing that it may be a lost cause.  When I explained to her that it might send more business her way she said, “Oh great, more work for me,” in a voice dripped thick with good hearted accent.  So because I don’t want her to have to do more work, I’ll just say for you NYC heads that take a stroll around the Reed Space area and you’ll be in luck.  Some nice finds if you take the time to look around.

That’s about it for this evenings recap of the daily happenings.  It’s 2:17 AM and I am going to be leaving for Los Angeles in less than 24 hours.  What?  Did he say Los Angeles?  West Coast invasion, the funk will be spread my friends, the funk will be spread.  I have to figure out how to pack clothes and a 21″ iMac into two backpacks alongside a bunch of hats.  Speaking of hats, see that nice little fitted above?  Courtesy of the good folks at Mighty Healthy.  Go check out their Pop Up Shop if you’re in NY you crazy blokes, good deals for days.  Click HERE.

Award Tour family in LA you folks need to holler! West Coast, lets get acquainted.

Stay Safe-Phil.

This past Saturday the entire family assembled mob style like it was ‘92 minus the over sized parkas and rode the underground steel chariots of NYC down into Bushwick, Brooklyn to support our brother Erick, better known as Erick Arc Elliot, as he continued on his conquest to tear down as many stages in the New York City area as possible.  In a crowded loft we all stood, baking with the body heat of seventy-five people jammed into a room made for twenty-five.  From wall to wall gangs of not quite showered bearded white men, aging and somewhat lost looking black men, and strangely dressed young ladies of all varieties looked on in anticipation or drug assisted wonderment as the artists graced the stage.  After following a heavy metal band that broke nearly every piece of furniture in the building, Erick performed a select number of cuts from his latest mixtape NOIR.  The boom bap drums filled the loft and the sounds of sampled keyboards softly rose and crashed through the room as he graced the microphone and launched into his set.  The pictures complete the tale.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Oh yes, it feels good to be home with a camera.  That fourth picture?  Someone let the blokes of the universe know that I’m back.

If you haven’t downloaded Erick’s latest mixtape, improve your life and do so now by click here.

Stay Safe-Phil.

Anyone who has ever purchased a new camera knows exactly what it feels like to rip the thing out of the box, pop off the lens cap, throw a memory card in, and whip the thing into action.  Most of the time however, there is nothing laying around that demands photographic evidence, so most people end up taking pictures of their cell phones, hands making obscene gestures, or their room.  Well lucky for all of us that I have a pretty interesting room/dungeon/headquarters/stockroom/mood board/area of existence.

Turning the corner into our humble on campus apartment and the first thing you will be met with is the impressive bull horns which rest triumphantly above the threshold of my room.  These bull horns are 100% authentic.  I wrestled them from the bull myself.  Although that is a complete lie (the wrestling part), the impact of these bull horns is not lost.  A truly grand welcoming mat for all who enter.  Not the authentic but pretty awful Haitian painting and Pabst Blue Ribbon tin hanging on my door.  Though I do not drink I am not one to front on great design, and that tin is a perfect example of it.

Let’s move on, walk with me on this awkward beat like Giggs.  I guess it’s important to mention that my room will only look like this for a few more weeks.  About every three weeks or so I get sick of the set up and change the entire room again.  Granted there isn’t much room to work with in a 11×15 ft. room but every month we seem to find a way to create some funk in here.  As for the wall?  All of that nonsense is highly necessary.  Everything from Mexican blankets courtesy of the girlfriend to posters stolen from the walls of my parents living room at home.

Music is incredibly large part of my life, this is no secret.  Record covers coat more wall surface in my room than the paint does.  That’s a Thriller cover next to the Tribe, Rolling Stone, and some Haitian band known only to older Haitian Aunts and Uncles called Tabou Combo.  I have no idea what that means but the cover is incredible.

More of the same on walls opposite.  To the right you can see the now infamous Shepard Fairey Obama poster.  Well to be honest with you, I’m not a particularly enormous fan of Mr. Fairey or that poster, so I got bored one day and attacked with with a silver paint marker and a Sharpie.  I think the poster looks much, much better for the record.  I give big man Barry O’ back his essential cool.

I’m still debating on whether I should give him a 60’s-esq Black Power afro or a Kid N’ Play high top fade.  You tell me.

This picture signifies the part in MTV Cribs where said celebrity walks into their bedroom and says, “This is where the magic happens,” or something to that effect.  The desk and the iMac that rests upon it is the center activity in the dorm room and the center of operations where all things Award Tour are concerned.  (That is unless we are off camping somewhere in the woods.  In which case life in general is much more the center of attention.) Those vinyls against the wall believe it or not are Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On,” James Brown “Ain’t Funky,” Jimmy Cliff’s “Follow My Mind,” and Young M.C.’s “Principal’s Office.” All classics in their own right and sadly being misused as decoration due to the fact that I broke the needle on my last turntable.  A bit of freshmen year art there on the walls as well courtesy of yours truly.  Every once and a while I finish a painting.

As for that half way epic Award Tour poster resting quitely up near the cieling?  Yeah those never made it into mass production, didn’t know how we would feel about being hung up on people’s walls.  It’s a little strange but I have to admit that it looks pretty good up there on my own wall.  Hell, maybe it’s even weird that we have ourselves on our own wall.  Oh yeah, check out that Club Soda bumper sticker.  Grand.

I could probably go on all day about all the nonsense that’s on my walls.  This is just about half of it.  It’s funny I intended this post to be some great statement on the necessity in living in an environment that inspires you at all times.  Well that quite obviously didn’t work out as planned.  Hopefully the message somehow still leaked through.  Don’t settle for living amidst normalcy.  This summer my brother and I are building a hobbit-hole in our backyard.  You don’t think I’m 100% serious?  Oh lord.  Never question the work ethic once an idea is laid down on paper.  More to come on that later.

Stay Safe-Phil.

I’m back.

-Phil.

Well I think it’s clear by this point that I need to do something about the madness that takes place in the Corner Store every time there is a drop.  I’m working with a few people on updating the system some how so that we can make it a much more smooth process without the typical bugs and kinks about half of you seem to experience.  I personally kind of like the may the best man, or fastest clicker win sort of approach but we’re going to do something to make it a little more reasonable for the folks at home who may be a little challenged with the whole thing.

No particular reason for this photo to be here. Just the most grand Award Tour image ever.

With that being said, there ARE going to be some refunds for the Girard beanies.  So many people checked out with those beanies in their carts at the same time that Paypal allowed more than a few to be oversold.  So prepare yourself for that, the refunds will go out tonight/tomorrow morning early.

For those of you that missed out this time around, I have some good news for you.  I’ll be dropping another few  beanies at some point next week.  I saved some and stashed them away on the side for the second rounders to have a chance.  I also hopefully have all the beanies out by Monday.  I’m striving for a new fast shipping method here, we’ll see how it works.  Enormous thanks to everyone who supported.  Due to your madness I’m going to be sitting around staring at Paypal for the next 24 hours sorting it all out.  But I suppose I can’t complain.  Thanks again.

Stay Safe-Phil.

Reminder for the folks at home just catching up: The Long John Beanies will release at 6:30 PM EST tomorrow Friday February 19th.

Nothing dramatic here.  Product releases are sort of fun because it gives me an opportunity to participate in some lazy blogging.  I can throw up this picture here which is doing little else besides taking up place and showing off some artfully crafted and applied patchwork and act like I’m doing something in the world.  A truly grand thing for a Thursday afternoon.  Long John Beanie release tomorrow at 6:30.  Get your index finger ready, it’s sure to be a fast and slightly ridiculous frenzy of purchasing come dinner time tomorrow.  Best of luck.

Stay Safe-Phil.