DUMBFOUNDEAD, Shot by Jason Lewis

Quick update from the R16 B-boy tournament in Korea. Last night in Seoul was off the hook at The Bunker Party, held in the unrenovated basement of a mall. It felt like a massive, warehouse space like in Brooklyn. Cables and pipes hanging exposed from the ceiling, bar made out of milk crates, cements walls…But then you saw the DJ stage, a huge LED display showing sick graphics so bright, you felt like you were in a pyschedelic techno spaceship.

DJ Skeme (Rock Steady) and DJ P-trix warmed up the crowd before Rakaa (Dilated Peoples) and my boy, Dumbfoundead took the stage. Rakaa has amazing stage presence and straight up killed it while my boy DUM brought the Korean/LA connection w/ some smooth & silky West-coast flow. When Rakaa dropped “This Way” the crowd went APESHIT! It was truly a hip-hop moment. Maybe even history in the making. And what was even more incredible was that a few hours earlier, none of it had been planned. Cut Chemist was originally billed to play the show but pulled out at the last minute. Since there’s so much talent here for R16 right now, a world-class impromptu performance is only a few phonecalls away. Like most things in Asia, what you get is never what you expect. Sometimes its blows you away.

Thank you Korea. Let’s see what you got tonight.

Call it a comeback. Sat front row to catch Liu Xiang, China’s former world champion hurdler and national treasure kill it in his first race since pulling out of the Olympics. Although he didn’t come in First, he came Second. And not just any petty Second, it came down to 1 measly microsecond. Amazing finish and truly awesome how much support and love the people of Shanghai have for their local hero.

“I didn’t expect I could run so fast……but once I stepped on the track I could not hold back,” … “I felt like I had been infused by an enthusiastic spirit” – Liu Xiang

It’s been pretty crazy for me on the travel tip. Beijing, X’ian, then heading to Korea this weekend for R16, then Vietnam for a couple weeks w/ my girl. Finally Portland, U.S. of A. X’ian was wet & rainy. Jenn and I were out there getting footage of the Nike Human Race City Challenge. Despite the rain, the crowd came out in numbers to run. Many with trash bags on their heads. You gotta love Tier 2 cities. If there’s a will there’s a way.

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Better late than never. A couple weeks ago I took a weekend trip to Beijing. My friend Chris was opening a new store (Source Beijing) so a bunch of us caught the overnight train down just for kicks.

Even with the 7am hard stop (attendent girl basically knocks on your door every 5 minutes to wake you up), the train is actually not bad. You can get private rooms with four bunk beds to each room. Sam promised they had an amazing kitchen on the train with wok-fried food, but he lied. All they had were shitty vacuum-wrapped chicken legs (quite common here) so we spent most of the night drinking whisky, playing cards and making a shameful mess.

Props to Lin Lin & Sam (Jellymon), Chris, Tony and the rest of the Source crew for throwing a kick-ass opening party. Lin Lin later told me she hadn’t slept in 5 days, but she was still partying (and fighting) like a champ. Super Dragon Lady!

We checked out the 798 space w/ Lin Lin, Tim Biskup and his girl, Nicky. Peep Tim’s shoes. They are glow-in-the-dark Nike Zvezdochkas custom made for him by Mark Parker. Only 10 in the world.

Lin Lin took us to this amazing ramen bar in Xin Tian Di. Perfect for curing a Sunday hangover.

We checked out an antique and books with Allister. He found this guy who had several books filled with collections of candy wrappers, firecracker wrappers even old passports. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure fer sure.

And what’s a FATlace blog post without food? My dad recommended this Peking duck place which was amazing. Thanks Dad!

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Current reading material. I’m learning new tricks and studying what it means to be a Warrior. In an organization as regimental and hierarchical as the military, this unit of its most elite don no uniforms, sport long hair & beards, and have little sense of rank. This is a book on fighting the good fight.

Hopefully. They say don’t judge a man by his tools. But every new tool I get just makes me better and better, learning new ways to do things… Here’s my newest tool.

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover…but some of my best finds have been based purely on cover graphics. I picked up Blood – The Last Vampire at a recent trip to the local DVD joint. It’s like a Japanese version of Buffy the Vampire slayer with better fight sequences, a stunning set (An American military base in Japan) and awesome Cinematography (from the makers of Crouching Tiger). The eye candy ain’t bad either. Although hard-core anime fans will hate it or love it (It’s a remake of an older anime classic), this one works for me on multiple levels.

Back in the ’70’s and ’80’s, an ambitious train tunnel lay dormant on Manhattan’s Westside. During this time, homeless people built shacks and dwellings in the tunnel. It also became a haven for graf artists…This newspaper clipping from ‘89 paints a good picture of what it was like back then.

Today, the Amtrak is running once again on the tracks and the underground shantytowns are all gone. Most of the original artwork has been painted over by “Toys,” but if you’re willing to dodge trains and risk stepping in unknown “mud,” legendary pieces can still be seen. A couple weeks back, my buddy took me on a lil field trip to explore the site…

Espo Unabomber

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Finally stopped by my friends Phil, Gary and Sonny’s studio in NYC a couple weeks ago. They have an amazing store front/studio in Brooklyn that’s filled with all kinds of books, artifacts and paraphernalia. Had a beer w/ Phil and checked out some of their recent work including a series of Print-On-Demand zines for the NYC Zine Fest, and Clayton Patterson’s new book “THE FRONT DOOR” – bound to be a classic. Even though most of work centers on Digital, I am fascinated by printed matter. And these guys are killing it….See you guys in China in October!

Fogelson-Lubliner

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Dat’s right. We comin’