Ever since my last visit at the Skullz Press, I have been waiting for these posters to drop. This shit is just….well, the shit! Can’t wait to have these on my wall. Full recap later.

VIA Rebel 8:

It’s that time again! Please join us this Friday night from 6-9pm at The Skullz Press for another night of free beer, good vibes and new artworks. I’ll be debuting the first few pieces from the “Las Cholas de Frisco” project as well as some new illustrations on paper. I have a new poster design to offer as well.

The Skullz Press is at 260 Divisadero Street near Haight. Hope to see you there!

(Also, please come dressed to impress if you’d like to be photographed for my upcoming street fashion project. Thanks!)

By MIKE GIANT

The dead ain’t done playing yet. I kind of tagged along with some folks for a Monday night dinner and chaos yesterday at the 24th and Mission area. Seems like the past day has been nothing but celebrating, but this was kind of a site to see.

To my knowledge, the Day of the Dead is an homage of some sorts in where the living pay their respects to the diseased. There was a certain a mount of seriousness to this whole thing where you kind of just had to watch it and take it for what it is. At times, it was actually kind of sad.

But the beauty of it all was the acceptance of this holiday by all races. Whites, Blacks, Mexicans, Asians, Indians….I mean everyone was out and no one was treated any different otherwise.




Sorry for the crappy video. I am thinking about changing cameras if I can soon. ¡Feliz Día de los Muertos!

Seems like Halloween is the hot thing to post….so here goes mine.

While searching for some things to add to my costume, I stumbled upon some old kicks that literally never see the day of light. I actually purchased these used off some guy around 05’ and almost 5 years later, I have only worn them like 5 times in my life. Still chalked as one of my favorite shoes of all time….I guess I just don’t want to devalue them any more then they already are.

I have this idea though that I’ll keep about 10 other kicks like these and break them out when I am 65 years old and wear nothing but priceless, valuable kicks till the day I die. I’ll be the coolest gramps on the block, or some old fool that gets mugged.

If it’s not broken, then don’t fix it. I keep trying to live this youthful past I never had since my collage years were kind of a bust. Every year I feel like a tween and get all excited to go all out for one of the most hyped up holidays of the year….and every year as that day ends, I always say “it was aiight”. But SF goes hard on Halloween. As the kids slowly settle into their houses, that is when all walks of life come out to play.










And what the hell. Sunday was so nice with our late Indian summer that I just had to see some god damn animals. Yes, me rikey the animals.

I heard little to no buzz about this new skatepark. Apparently someone got it in their mind that they wanted to build a new skate park in the big Rich since I don’t live there no more. Since skating has never been something I did as a kid, it was always a dream that I could go to a skatepark closer to home when I was in my early 20’s. 8 years later, they finally did it.













Pics courtesy of Dean on the Slap boards. It’s not the best but hey, it’s a park. All these park openings in the past week oddly happens when I am on the verge of retiring from skateboarding. Boy do I hate how I suck at something I so passionately like.

I took a firm stand a good couple of years ago. I told myself I would never set foot in a rave infested environment ever again….yet, I find myself walking past the entrance into Lovefest.

I have already heard some testimonies from other people that were there. Sex in the port-a-potties, a couple of OD’d civilians….a public dick sucking contest?! It’s hard to decipher truth from fantasy since everyone seems to be in a dream state anyways.

When was the last time you saw this and said “Look at Susie acting a fool again!” chuckle-chuckle. You more or less like “Check out the dirty ho shaking the corn kernels out of her dookie-booty!” Hi-five your broham next to you and proceed to chug your Bud-Light.





This guy was having a hard day. Must have had just one too many and hurled all over the ground and rolled his face in his own puke and decided to take a nap right then and there until the cops showed up. Dude had a nice pair of Nike Blazers on though.






I know what you are saying. Shots from day to night and no naked chicks! For whatever it is, it just wasn’t in me to get shots like this and this and this and this. Blame it on the wind and the lack of catching a buzz I guess. Oh well, Halloween is around the corner.

Some cool stuff in the East Bay happening today. First is the opening of a new skate park near West Oakland and a viewing party at 510 of all the Anti-Hero videos ever made. As usual, don’t sleep.

I am becoming a fanboy more than ever. I had my sites set on seeing Ghostface on Haight St. Friday but the powers that be made him unable to come to the signing that he had, so I ended up just trotting over to Mike Giant’s studio aka Skullz Press.

With his permission of course, Mike allowed me to take some pics of his unique studio or the place where he smokes bud and draws some shit. Check out his wall of inspiration.

He also let us take a sneak peak on his new project Las Chicas de San Francisco where he takes photos of girls from SF and hand tattoos each photo of their bodies with nothing but a sharpie pen.

This was one of the two posters that was on sale specifically for that night. An ode to San Francisco.

And second was a poster called Against the Stream which was made for Noah Levine’s meditation center.

More exclusives! I thought this was another one of Mike Giant’s prints but this was actually the original drawing for FTC x Rebel8 Zip Zinger that will be made in the future.

This is Derick Montez. A tattoo artist at Haight Ashbury Tattoo & Piercing and one time apprentice of Mike Giant. He’s got a show next week at Skullz Press to show off some original art work.






And a poster for the crib. I am thinking I might have a bunch of these things.

Without deliberately giving out the coordinates to my secret lair, I am conveniently located within blocks of the Yoshi’s jazz club on Fillmore St.

Fillmore St. bleeds music from the soul. I don’t think it has the same street cred as say Chicago, but the feelings and passions are pretty much the same.

Coming into the show, I had lost faith in the Blackstar camp mostly through seeing two bad performances from the Mighty Mos Def. I would say as far as star power is concerned, Mos should rank higher then his brethren brothers Kweli and Hi-Tek. I mean the guy did after all do a movie with Marky-Mark and Charlize Theron in Italian Job….but after seeing Kweli’s performance with Idle Warship, I think he just bumped him off the pedestal.

Kweli is good for a couple of reason. One of the most important things in a live performance is creating a relationship with your audience, even within only a 2 hour time span. Kweli took control of the show but made sure it wasn’t a straight shot experience. I want to say him talking about some dude shitting on his performance on Twitter was only something that we saw, but maybe I could be wrong.

It also helps that you have a pretty good range of songs to get yo damn hands up. I have a pretty hard gripe on hip-hop shows for this very reason. Some of my favorite hip-hop songs have been disasters live on stage due to the song’s impact not being necessarily appropriate for a live audience. Not to attacking Mos Def again but Umi Say is a pretty boring song to hear live, but on the Bart train to work it can be kind of uplifting to hear.

And throw me a late pass on Res and Graph Nobel. I never really heard of these chicks but I hope Idle Warship produces more star power for the two. Their voices don’t resonate but they compliment each other as a trio doubling up as MCees and singers. Think Fergie but with more talent and a cuter face.

Good to know that some of the rappers that I listened to in college are still doing there thing in this industry. Overall the show was good and most important, it didn’t put a dent in my pocket.

What?! Meet Pretty Tony! Get the fuck outta here! I want him to shoot verbal darts in my mouth….yes homo. And if you haven’t already, go out and buy, steal, rob or beat someone up and get Ghostface’s IRONMAN. Some of his best songs off the album are below:

The story of graffiti is a pretty interesting story, but nothing we haven’t seen through other channels (see skateboarding for further proof of this theory). I think Style Wars may have been one of the first mainstream exposures of the illegal lifestyle of graff. Something as simple as writing your name on a wall can either put your ass into jail and get you butt-fucked by Bubba the Love Slave or grant you the utmost respect amongst your peers.

Fast forward to the millennium era. Now getting up is as cool as popping ping-pong balls out of your cooter. People with half a talent in this art form hardly feel the need to bomb trains or wait till 3am to get up on that sweat billboard that they just put up on 6th street with the half naked dude modeling that shitty underwear company.

Nowadays we have shows….legit ways to get your name exposed without the repercussions of getting your ass stomped by NYPD’s finest. Even though the culture is relatively still new (hip-hop culture spans only about a little over 30 years old), I think a lot of these older artists will tell you that they just don’t have the same mentality that they used to. They have careers to worry about and family to support….but regardless of it all, it is still cool to know that they can throw down with the best of them.

Probably my personal favorite. Something about an giant octopus with a spraycan.







Make sure to check out the show at the 1AM Gallery and to also check out the Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle in Oakland on October 10th.

And to cap the weekend off, did a quick shoot of some simple photos for Phil’s wedding.

The Velasco Family family in their entirety….Phil, Kana and their dog Haru.

Roughneck Hardware is at it again on their infamous Bart Tour. They make the usual stops in the East Bay but later make there way to the SF Library and later to the Potrero Skate Park for a free BBQ and free giveaways at all stops. Check the videos below for last years recap:

Almighty Toons blessing his signature on his Montana x Mister Cartoon spray paint.

I can always count on Berl to be at the same spots as me. Dude stays heavy on the scene with his own unique eye on SF.




After the quickie at Upper Playground, I spent the rest of my days at FTC’s Blabac Photog show. Dude is a pretty large figure in the skate world, capturing the early days of Girl skateboards and pretty much acts as the key person in exposing all the skaters at DC Shoes.

Back when DC Shoes was something to talk about. Stevie Williams switch heel.

And newly acquired rider Nick Dompierre with a insane backside noseblunt.

Blabac all smiles. Give me your job homie!

This Saturday the Chili Bowl contest goes down at the Protrero Hills skatepark. This is strictly a SF creation in where there is a chili contest as well as a bowl/pool contest for the skaters. I didn’t go to last years and unfortunately can’t go to this years but heard it was one of the best contests ever. Check the video below for the experience.

Jesus, I forgot how much Filipinos and Hennessy go together. Went to another wedding this weekend. Got to see a lot of the high school homies I really don’t see no more. In a gay way, everyone actually still looks good….which is more then what I can say about myself since I am slowly morphing into a middle aged man.

Okay, the guy rubbing his tits is Edler (I told him and the guys and I would put this up on Fatlace). Apparently he is my numbo-wun-fan. I am trying to give him his 15 minute shine. I’ve known the guy ever since middle school. I think he clowned on me for having whack sneakers during PE class. What a fucking traumatizing event! That and a slew of other stuff made me into the crazed shoe maniac that I became in the later years of my life. I didn’t think having some wrecked Reeboks was that bad of a thing, but I guess that must be a measurement of ones penis size. I guess I have the last laugh since my penis must be 20 feet long now. Right! The rest of the crew L to R: Gino, Edler, Eric, Ryan, Adrian and Reindeer.

More tit grabbin’ and Zoolander posing. Brett, Ryan, class clown of ‘99 Darwin and Jon.

Brett, the best man Nick and the man of the hour Vic.



Devon the dude. Part ring bearer, part beat freak.

And the lovely couple Vic and Melissa. Who says high school romance can’t last. Congrats you guys!

Wow! Big event this Friday for those that want a pretty cool souvenir. Always wanted something more then just a signed book or poster. Official Mister Cartoon x Montana spray paint collabo. Would a be a really dope piece for the crib.

Peep here for more details: http://upperplayground.com/wordpress/?p=19253