My WeekendWhat I Did On My Summer Vacation

***Quick Announcement - Rock the Bells Houston hath been cancelled. Go get your refunds. Then maybe go see it tomorrow night in Dallas.***

Once again yes it went down this past weekend in H-Town. Lil J Da Mex Connect's Birthday/Listening Party, Lower Life Form's live band (debut I think?) and the Red Bull Beat Riders After Party. Both top notch events.

Anyway, it went down.

Saturday night I met up with my man Craig D. Lindsey and hit up the TOC Bar to meet up with Lil J and my folks with Done Deal Records.

DONE DEAL RECORDS!


As evidenced by this ice sculpture.


Ivan and Omar of Done Deal






These drinks sort of got the best of Mr. Craig Lindsey but he bounced back smashingly and walked like a trooper the entire night through this here city with me. Why I have no photos of him, I have no idea.










Of course that girl Lizishot.com was in the building. Hottest hustler in that H-Town. Killin' em.





Then as Craig and I were about to leave, we were summoned to the stretch Hummer that also served as the "smoking section" and well things got real hazy from there. But I seem to remember having a great time.










Pretty sure this was only the second limo I have ever been in. The first one was with Court Dog in Kansas City.

So then after that we stopped by the house, drank energy drinks and chatted with my wife who used to work with Craig back in the day at the Houston Press, and then we headed to that Proletariat to see Lower Life Form play with their live band. Boys got drums, horns, guitar, bass, keys, horns, turntables and Brew and Phd rockin' and shockin' 'em on down.




Pretty sure the whole live band thing is about to takeover Texas. Mojoe, Bavu Blakes, Money Waters, Mr. Lucci, Trae last week, man hold up. Plus i think I said here before that I am assembling a band of young players for something special. Don't hate. Liverpool won the Euro Cup in 1984 for the 4th time. (Yes I am listening to John Peel right now. RIP my friend.)








Anyway they are freakin' killer.

Then Sunday night I made the trek out to Hiram Clark on that south side for another MAGNANIMOUS RED BULL EVENT! The Beat Riders Tour After Party. 660 Peopl through the door. Six more people and it'd have been evil, but it stayed at 660 and everyone made it home safely. But I'ma tell you right now, I helped promote this and was wondering just how many young B-Boys and B-Girls were gonna make the trek out South Post Oak on a Sunday night to a place they almost definitely had never been and man, it was packed! Club Taylors was off the chain last night.


Aerosol Warfare provided the artwork. Gonzo and NME killin' it as per usual! Look for a quick HoustonSoReal-Pushermania / Aerosol Warfare T-Shirt Jump Off Coming Soon.


See what I'm talm bout, it went down.


















ZULU GREMLIN IN LA CASA!


AEROSOLWARFARESOREAL!






DJKOSURISOREAL!










Rico and Romeo. Now for those who don't know, Romeo is like, the old school B-Boy Legend of Texas. The man has been doing it for many many years and is also the man behind the B-Boy City event every year in Austin. He and Havikoro got this whole game on lock and are amazing people to boot.





Anyway, all that is real fine and all, lots of fun, thinsg I like to do, but below are some photos of what I really like to do.

Gimme family, a lake, a place to sleep, a row boat, some beer, a rock to climb, some kids to whyle out with, good friends, more family, and I'm all good. I don't need much else.


I took this lil series of photos from about chest deep in the water. It was calm and beautiful and perfect and I was hoping this lil animated gif would work out, cuz this has come to become one of my favorite views of all time. This view has represented peace for me since I was like 5 years old.

See ever since I was a small child my mother and a group of her friends would pitch in and get a cottage on the beach at either Baer Beach of Kelso Beach in Erie. It's a little hidden enclave less than half a mile from a highway of sorts, but it couldn't be further from reality in my opinion. It's perfect. And it's in Erie, how weird.

Actually I've learned to appreciate Erie a lot more since I left 18 years ago. This lake is one of the things that makes me, me. Spent a lot of time in this here lake here. Anyway... The thing about that view is, ever since I was a young boy, I'd grab a raft or a small boat or a huge piece of floating driftwood or nothing at all and go way out in the distance. Generally I'd announce that "I'm going to Canada!" Then jump in, cuz see, just past the horizon is well, Canada. If America builds a fence across Lake Erie, like they are about to do to Texas, I'm going to be really mad. Fuckin' fascists. But I mean, yeah, this post is about peace.


And there's not much in this world more peaceful than swimming and building sand castles and burying people in the sand, etc...








And making pizzas. My Italian Uncle Bob did this sort of thing every night around 11 p.m., pizzas from scratch,every night new variations it was really nuts. And its something I look forward to every year. PizzaSoReal.

Got to see a couple old friends as well. My man Aaron moved to Cleveland recently and got a job with Jakprints, one of the biggest printers of music type stuff and such in the world!


This is Aaron.

And recently he connected me with the folks behind Crisp Clothing in Cleveland.



Dope stuff, these dudes are helping to bring together the very underappreciated Cleveland hip-hop community. Hoping to see big things come out of that city soon. Check out this dude called Drastic, I been playing him on Damage Control recently and he jams.


Anyway these days if you see me, you see me wearing a lot of Crisp Clothing.


Elena Stuntin'.




Eva and my mother on the deck!


My nephew Jake is still a punk rocker.




This is my boy Pete. He told me that he feels as though if he's gonna be on HoustonSoReal he has to do something with his hands. Here he is seen throwing up that LAWRENCE PARK! Anyway, Pete was the drummer in a band called Lost back in the late 80s. They were the band that helped me get my thang in action. They performed on the first show I ever booked (Laughing Hyenas, Knifedance and Lost April 9, 1989) and I booked three US tours for them before I was 19 years old.

We spent a lot of time listening to Ice Cube and Fugazi in backfiring vans on backwater roads back in them days and still we ride. Seen here with wife Jessica. Pete now teaches "shop."


BABIES are ensuring that this cottage will be rented for years to come.


This is what you might want the water you swim in to look like.



And then of course there's the Erie sunsets.




And beer.

However, I prefer (and drank quite a lot of) YUENGLING!

And that's that. A refreshing and relxing week in my hometown of Erie, Pensylvania. Now it's back to the grind and the adversity of this industry and the ringing of my phone and the onslaught of the emails from people who want so much to be explained in so many finite details when all I really want to do is sit and watch Flight of the Conchords over and over and over and wonder just how two men can be so free and still get on TV. Dealing with the bad that always comes to battle the good, and walking the thin line between middle class hero and broke bitch. It's the little things in life that tend to drive me crazy, but Budda says don't worry about that, so I try not to but it doesn't always work. Then I walk out my backdoor with my beautiful daughter Eva, fighting a headache cuz alcohol causes dehydration and you can't fight that with more alcohol and I am starting to figure that out and all of a sudden my daughter yells LOOK DADDY A ROSE, A ROSE HAS BLOOMED ON OUR BUSH DADDY A ROSE HAS BLOOMED ON OUR BUSH! ISN'T THAT GREAT? And yes it is and all is well in the world once again.

Ozone Awards Weekend is upon us, will I see you in Miami? Did you go vote for Devin yet?