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.