The Times

Graffmarket.com Is Dope

Graffmarket.com is a marketplace for graffiti art, supplies, clothes, books, and other street art based goods and products. It also has a social network feature and allows for people to open their own shops up on the site. It has groups of graffiti posts, private messaging, public messaging and a bunch of other entertaining features. The user functions are simple and the site is easy to use. Definitely check it out.

 

'Save Detroit' T Shirt Worn By Amiri King in Newest Video!

Louisville comedian, Amiri King, is wearing Nate Willis' 'Save Detroit Adopt a Crackhead' T Shirt in his latest online comedy rant video. In the video King goes on about how if people delete you as a friend over political differences or anything petty, it's cool because the're not your friends anyway. It's true and an all around decent rant. He does these videos regularly where it's topical and he says whatever is on his mind, a lot of times going after celebrities and stupid criminals in a high energy and entertaining way.

King is an advocate for community policing and law enforcement with a criminal history himself and his comedy appeals to both ex-cons and people involved in law enforcement. His humor can be defined as prison humor. Very raunchy, fuck how you feel about it, what's up? style that people involved with the prison system would be familiar with. 

King has appeared on just about every news network based on the success of his online vlogs concerning police and community relations and the importance of being self disciplined and owning up to your own personal actions and their consequences.

Follow the link to Amiri King's rant and find the video entitled: "Can't we all just get along? You can also find him on Youtube keyword: Amiri King and his page will be searchable. Very funny guy. Check him out.

Save Detroit Adopt a Crackhead T Shirt

Here's a throwback T Shirt design by Nate Willis. The Classic "Save Detroit, Adopt a Crackhead" t shirt. This sign no longer has this painted on it at 8 Mile and I-75 but the man responsible for this protest sign keeps expressing his discontent with the current state of the city.

Click Here To Buy This Shirt

AVN 2016 Red Carpet

I've been in Vegas for a few weeks just escaping the shitty weather in Detroit. My friend, let's call him 'Chuck', flew in from Detroit to spend a weekend with one of his girls from Los Angeles and we decided to kick it.

'Chuck' at the Hard Rock Casino (Identity concealed to protect political aspirations)

Chuck Facebooked me early in the day and let me know he was staying at the MGM in a suite. I made it down to the MGM and hike the exhausting path from the MGM's poorly placed elevator all the way down to his suite at the end of the hall. The hall must've been a fucking half-mile long. Once I got to his suite, Chuck was sitting on his couch relaxing and watching TV. The view from the suite was fairly decent but nothing to write home about. As I went for the mini fridge and opened it, Chuck immediately yells, "Stop! Don't pick up anything!". He went on to explain how he was charged by this smart little fridge by just picking up the items inside. Apparently MGM has a Temple of Doom setup in the fridges. Too sneaky.

In The MGM Suite

View from the suite 

Dramatized version of the view...

We were both getting hungry so we decided to head downstairs for a bite to eat. We stopped at the 1842 Pub in the MGM and I got an 1842 Burger with a couple of Guinness's on drought. Chuck and I talked business and for a while and he got in touch with his girl from L.A. She was at the Hard Rock Casino for the AVN Awards with her friend. She told Chuck to meet them there.

That '1842 Burger' Hell yeah...

We finished our meal and headed out to the strip. We stopped at the Walgreen's for some blunt wraps and I managed to roll up and smoke real quick. We got to Harmon Avenue and by this time the weed and beer was kicking in. We strolled down the avenue toward the Hard Rock, and as we did, we both noticed how we underestimated the distance and began to wish we would've just grabbed a cab.

Chuck and I finally got to the Casino and plopped down at the nearest bar we could find. Chuck was advised by his girl that the pornstars in town from the AVN awards would be walking past the center bar. We sat at the bar for a long time just nursing drinks and playing video poker. I had a few Jameson double's and he had some Gin and Tonic's. Sitting directly next to us was a BBW pornstar chick that was hella friendly. Sooner or later a bunch of big girls were around us taking photos while they were all half-naked with their huge tits all over the place.

Chuck's friend finally showed up to the bar with her friend. Chuck's friend, 'Julie', was a thin, tall brunette with straight hair and sharp facial features and her, 'Cheryl' friend was a short, big tittied brunette with a motor mouth. They immediately got friendly with us and started rubbing their tits on me. I for the most part just ignored it and stayed the course with my whisky.

The girls disappeared and not long after that came back and said they had found some baller ass seats for us to watch the red carpet event. Once we got over to the table, it was inhabited by some rednecks from Kansas there for the weekend. Cheryl told us that they would be leaving soon and we would then have access to the table for ourselves. The hillbillies hung around like a bad fart for about 20 minutes and then finally said bye and left for the flat and corny state of Kansas. Everytime I meet someone from Kansas I always think of the movie 'American Pop'. "Kansas? Kansas is corny!"

Kansas is Corny! 

Once we had the table to ourselves, the waitress and waiter kept coming around suggesting that we would have to leave because the tables were $300 to reserve. They kept repeating this to us for about twenty minutes after Chuck had been waiving his credit card at them, totally oblivious to the fact that we had the money to spend. Their first reflex was apparently to assume people are broke. Chuck finally got their attention and made it understood that we were going to pay and stay, everything was good.

We got ourselves a bottle of Jack Daniels and some Coke and the party began...

The pornstars starting filing down the red carpet looking classier than most Hollywood starlets on the red carpets at the Oscars. These girls were top notch with amazing bodies and well documented talents. Among the stars spotted were Ron Jeremy, Kendra Lust, Asa Akira, Sara Jay, Jasmine Jae, Ava Addams, Priya Rai and more. I managed to get some good shots while partying in the VIP section just inches away from the red carpet.

After all of the stars had gone into the theater where the awards were being held and things started to die down, we all decided to go to a restaurant for a meal. We got followed by two guys that had been with us in the VIP trying to get at Cheryl. By this point I was tired of Cheryl and her drunkenness along with the guys that were tagging along. One of the guys was a twerpy little guy that owns a cologne brand that got my nerves a little bit extra. His slimy persona was just all around annoying and I kinda wanted to stab him in the face.

After the restaurant, they all decided to go out and party some more while I opted to leave the Hard Rock and head back to the suite at the MGM. On the walk back, I realized that I had forgotten my phone somewhere at the Hard Rock Casino but decided to say "Fuck it" and just keep walking. I figured I could just report it lost and get a new phone the next day. No big deal other than the fact that I had promised my girlfriend I would be accessible to her if she called. Yes, I had to pay for losing it but that's another story...

While walking back to the MGM, I noticed a young guy walking closely behind me. He was obviously homeless and I figured since I didn't have my phone I may as well spark up a conversation with the guy. He was holding a lot of pieces of his artwork and was dressed in heavy snow gear while it was around 55 degrees outside. I asked where he was from and he told me Utica, NY.

I asked if he preferred being homeless or if it was a circumstance of misfortune and he told me the latter. I sat down with him for a minute and gave him the "what I would do if I were you" conversation. I gave him a few idea on how to hustle his art as well as some names to help him get his stuff out there. He was still a young guy about my age and I don't imagine he'll be homeless forever. Who knows, maybe he'll make something of his art career and remember me one day. Life is strange like that.

I finally made it back to the MGM suite and fell the fuck out! I was done. I had walked miles, I was drunk and high and the party was all out of me. I slept until about 6am until Chuck came back to the suite with the girls. Cheryl's annoying ass fell asleep on the couch for a few minutes while Julie was crying because her boyfriend in L.A. had made the most innocuous comment about her being "single next year", basically saying they were going to break up.

Chuck finally got the girls to leave to their own room and he crashed out in his bed while I stayed up for a bit, smoked some more weed, enjoyed the window view and ultimately hit the strip by myself for another blunt wrap and some biscuits and gravy.

After the weekend was all said and done, Chuck went back to Detroit, Julie went back to L.A., I went back to my spot in the Vegas 'burbs, and Cheryl ended up missing for 30 hours until Chuck finally got word that she was still in Vegas, had missed her flight and was out partying still while everyone was out looking for her.

"What do you think she was out doing?" I asked Chuck.

"Probably out sucking random dick" Chuck replied...

Yeah, he's probably right.

'My Grandma Gave Me This Chain' T-Shirt

'My Grandma Gave Me This Chain' T-Shirt, Buy Here!

Frizzo Presents - Esey x Yuks x Taksi

Sofles - Limitless, Infinite and Google Hyperlapse

Posted on Youtube about a week ago, this video by Ironlak has gone certified viral. The use of hyperlapse video editing has a lot of people wondering how the video was made. Hyperlapse videos are created by incrementally moving your camera and snapping shots then fusing them all together as standard video frames. This technique has been used by Ironlak in a previous Sofles video entitled, "Infinite". Both videos were created by the talented Selina Miles and have become very popular. In searching for examples and tutorials for hyperlapse editing, I came across a cool online program that uses Google Street View images to create awesome hyperlapse videos. Check out both Ironlak videos and the Google hyperlapse link below.

  Google Street View Hyperlapse

Thrasher Magazine June 1998 - Understanding The Urban Blight

     Ever since I was a kid I loved the "counter culture" as it was called. From the age of 11 the main staples of my life were weed, skateboarding and graffiti. Back in the day, Thrasher Magazine was my shit ever since my mom ripped out a few pages she deemed to be inappropriate, like a one-page article on JT The Bigga Figga back in 1995. I knew it was forbidden fruit and somewhere in between the creases must have been the truth that all pre-pubescent rebels of society searched for. Thrasher remained as a mainstay in my adolescent years and my interests never really changed. All I can say is that I manage to juggle the responsibilities of adulthood to the level of expected norms while at the same time gritting my teeth and withholding my contempt of our societal structure that has presented itself as an "All or Nothing" game that I have hardheadedly decided to win.

      Back in June 1998, Thrasher made one of its dopest issues. In the late 90's, other skate mags like Big Brother and Slap were starting to pop up and were making attempts at snatching a piece of the "publications for teenage assholes" market share. In this issue, Thrasher did something different than what it normally did. It decided to recognize graffiti art and give it a sweet little article in the issue. Thrasher always seemed to be hip to the art world but never as much to graffiti as much as it was to lowbrow. It regularly promoted it's sister publication, Juxtopoz Magazine in its pages. The style of art that I was exposed to seemed to be something that was naturally intertwined with the the unique kind of mind that makes a skateboarder. Skateboarders are working with artistic minds. It's the way you see the world and can see the line in another man's architecture. Where everyone saw a handrail to brace themselves while descending down a flight of steps on foot, Mark Gonzales saw potential for a rollercoaster ride. That's the shit I'm talking about. It's minds like that that create street art that turns concrete poles into cigarettes and gutters into a character's mouth.

I decided to dig through my old issues to fish out the article that has stuck in my head ever since my retarded days of yore. I had to refresh the imagery of the ill 90's style graffiti that I miss so much. One piece in the article has always left me wondering where it is and who it was done by. A few pages into the article, there's a sick piece that says, "Beloved Detroit" and the hand style on the characters is oddly familiar. I've seen it before but that was somewhere indistinguishable and a very long time ago. It eats at me.

I scanned the entire article so all you new jacks can enjoy it in its entirety. Feast your eyes on this throwback of epic public lewdness...

*The similarities of my writing to the writing of "Cycle" is purely coincidental and is actually kinda bugging me out right now.

Frizzo Presents - The TCK Crew - Detroit Graffiti

Another dope feature from Frizzo with the TCK Crew out of Southwest Detroit.

We Do This

New design available now in the Nate Willis online store!