Mister Fongstarr » Randoms

GAME OVER

fongstarr — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:29:09 +0000

First off, I would like to give a shout out to all the people that I saw at the Fatlace 10 year anniversary on Friday. It was nice to finally meet a lot of you guys and gals. My writing can get pretty absurd at times on her but as you can see my e-thuggery is false impression who I really am. Here is to another 10 years of awesomeness….

These broke wind twice over the weekend. Sometimes I think back and it amazes me the kind of mindset that I used to have. I got these for $250 on release day….probably one of the most expensive shoes I have ever bought and to this day after like 6 years, all it does is just sit in my closet doing absolutely nothing.

Carmen’s was going to be the stomping grounds for the Pac-Man vs. Cotto fight on Saturday.

This is Pat, my sister’s boyfriend. The restaurant was actually acquired by his family a couple of months back so we actually got front row to view the fight at his spot.

And this guy Pacquiao. Honestly I am not a fan of the guy but it’s hard not to see how the spotlight is on him. I am about the same weight class as the dude and I can only image what his fists would do to my face seeing how Cotto’s looked like. By 12th round, it was game over. The guy really is just a great fighter and he is not only skilled, but is a humble as I have ever seen one.

My cousin’s got in the spirit of the night and did some karaoke singing afterwards.

That stumbling walk home. You kind of look up like a 5-year old with a gaze of amazement. It was like being on LSD and peering at the gay version of heaven’s gates.

THIS IS 50

fongstarr — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:36:45 +0000

Believe it or not, I read Fiddy’s blog site almost everyday at work. Hip-hop culture is stale as hell but I still kind of want to know what is going on and keep track of what the youth is being inspired by. He puts a nice spin on things and he actually got me to hate Fat Joe and Rick Ross, so he’s doing something right. He showcased his cologne at Macy’s yesterday and in order to have your picture taken with him, you had to buy his $70 stench as the fee. Regardless the line literally went out the door, so I am sure he made some chump change from all this.

Fifty fans are funny. One minute they are like “Fuck that nigga! That dude ain’t shit!”….and then when he comes in, “I love you Fifty! My god you are sooo foin!”.

Dude lost mad weight too. He’s not as dolo as he used to be but I am sure that hasn’t effected his sex appeal at all. All dude needs to do is take a pic with someone’s kids and everyone in unison proceeds to say Aaaaaaaaaahhh!

GIANTS AND NINERS

fongstarr — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:54:29 +0000

Struggling to get out of the usual Friday bliss, I declined the last round of beers and headed to catch the last 30 minutes of Mike Giant’s Las Cholas de Frisco unavailing.

So we’ve all written with Sharpies right? They stink, they bleed, and they make those nice dots on your pants when the cap comes off (we’re talking about a pen and not the menstrual cycle).

What makes it amazing to me is how Mike Giant can literally make these markers seem like ink graphics that come out of a inkjet printer. Remember when you write with these things and you make a line, stop and leave the marker there for like half a second and when you lift it up, it looks like you made some long sperm tadpole? Yeah, I saw literally no dots on any of these photos.

To my knowledge, I think most of the originals will be sold off (update: only 2 left for sale) and disappointingly, will not be made into more affordable posters.

Did happen to sneak in a shot of the Giant X Cinelli graphic for you bike lovers out there.

And this indian summer thing ain’t no joke. I got some flowed some free tickets to go see the 49ners lose to the Titans on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

First time going to a Niner game ever and it was in fine fashion. I literally sat five seats from the sidelines with one of the most intense football crowds ever.

3 and 5 for the season. It’s starting to sound like same sad story again.

ALL HALLOWS EVE WEEKEND

fongstarr — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:31:03 +0000

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.

A VISIT TO THE SKULLZ PRESS

fongstarr — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:01:56 +0000

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.

THIS IS DEDICATE TO EDLER

fongstarr — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:19:00 +0000

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!

MANNY MANIA

fongstarr — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:52:22 +0000

Del tha Funkee Homosapien in the house.

A+ of the Souls Of Mischief crew in the house.

Karl Watson in the house.

Chico Brenes in the house.

PRIDE 2009

fongstarr — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:41:02 +0000

I must apologize in advance if I might be a little crude with the next couple of words that are typed out. Talking about gay pride is like walking on pins and needles. On one half, you want to be as open minded as possible and to realize that these people (Wha choo mean these people!) are human beings like the rest of us on this planet. On the other hand….well, this is pretty weird shit for even an out of the box person as myself. First things first, got to get the stomach prepared.

Crepevine is literally everywhere in SF. It’s nothing really that tantalizing, except for there Asian chicken salad that was….oh my god, to die for!

On to the show. This are just a smigit of what I saw but for some reason I was getting headache spasm from all the techno music that playing, so I couldn’t be as photogenic as I could have been.

First off we have Mr. Lonely Butts here. Claims himself to be a vegan but looking at his love handles and his 3 inch butt crack, I’d put money on it that this guy was a half ass liar. The message was good but the execution was about a negative 39. Kudos for the matching head piece and purse enhancements though. Martha Stewart would have been proud, until you said you were an ass pirate.

Frank mutha fuckin’ Chu was in the house as usual. Once a protesting whore, the guy practically says nothing now, but embraces his star power as he literally has hundreds of people walk up to him to take a picture with him as if he was Mickey Mouse himself.

These guys were a riot. I think I gazed at there booth for like half of a milli second before they frolicked over like a pair of fairies, insisting that I buy a Now Go Homo shirt. I explained that would be a conflict of interest seeing how I liked vaginas and other holes of that nature, but felt like they thought they could suede me the other way if the had the power to.

The picture explains itself….or maybe not. And no that his not his wiener. It is a wooden shaped dildo that is replicated to be his wiener. What kind of man do you think this is!

Holy….

shit!

These guys were popular for about two seconds until the about 5 drag queens stole their thunder and marched off with the crowd. I mean who hasn’t seen men on stilts before. I should have taken a dump on the streets and declared myself the mayor of all feces everywhere. Probably would have gotten a picture or two and a nice hand slap on the ass.

And my favorite picture of them all. If there is one thing that is embedded in my mind, Pride is about being openly happy and freakin’ colors. Everyone came out in fine fashion with their best dressed attire. It was entertaining for the most part, but I was so jaded by all of it from my sleepless nights from before. I guess I can finally say I went to Pride for once. Not for the squeamish at heart (my cousins said some girl getting plowed in the porta potties) but if you look past it all, it really is just a big ass party.

WORLD PREMIERE

fongstarr — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:49:12 +0000

Went to three skate premieres all in one night. Nike’s Debacle, Transworld’s Right Foot Forward and Zoo York’s State of Mind.

Debacle, hands down the best Nike skate video to be made all at a whopping 20 minutes or so. Skits that weren’t as pointless as the last film (shattered glass was the theme) with great editing thanks to Jason Hernandez and great parts by all the AMs. Daryl Angel had probably the most solid part to me. Solid trick selection and smooth style without that robot thing going on. Crowd favorite goes to Theotis and Grant Taylor. Grant Taylor has sure come a long way since his little kids steez but the guy is flying like a bat out of hell. Second video was the Transworld video. Again not to spoil anything but Kellen James and Joey Brezinski both readlly had stand out parts. The things you can do with your skateboard nowadays just blows minds. 50-50, coffin grind to manuel. Yeah, that’s what I said….coffin grind.

After made my way to the MILK bar for the last premiere of the night. Free Miller Lites were flowin’ to help celebrate local Zoo York AM Matt Miller on his part in the State Of Mind video.

The Zoo video wasn’t without its problems and unfortunately wasn’t up to par with the others that I saw. There is just a different comparison to New York City gritty skating to that of the cleaner and larger tricks that happen here in gold coast. They started things right with their star skater Westgate going huge with his utterly ridiculous pop (why ollie down stuff when you can ollie up it) but it never got any better then that. Just sucks with such a great team that they aren’t really displayed in a proper manner.

Still, Zoo York (regardless if backed by Marc Ecko) isn’t for the kids and is for the people that know what’s up with skating in the city. It isn’t for the trying at heart and is for people that have a natural flow in just cruising down the streets knowing you can get broke off at any moment. I love it all….cause for the most part, I can’t do any of it.

HAIGHT ASHBURY STREET FAIR

fongstarr — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:52:24 +0000

This is a easy formula, and apparently something that will be happening almost every weekend in the summer. Close a street, get food vendors, music and trinkets to sell, post up fliers and posters about it and watch as hundreds of people come out to have a good time.

Haight Street used to be the hippie epicenter. Peace love and the freedom to free-base and smoke mad herb. Now it is filled with rejects on every corner, asking if you can pull their cock for a dollar so they can add it to their savings fund for a Miller High Life. If you don’t contribute, they call you a rich prick and spit on the ground while they stroke their dog Ginger that is wrapped in hemp rope. Still don’t know why they all have nice dogs.

Everyone and their ~~mama~~ daughter had a DLSR that day. Not as photogenic as Bay To Breakers but everyone had their gear in hand.

Funniest corner of the day goes to Haight and Clayton street. Hecklers with a sense of humor.

Apparently I don’t stay down on hip-hop no more. Do you know who Knobody is? From not knowing, dude is the new addition to the Heiro camp. Shit must be hard for an MC. He was getting down in the nitty gritty of self promoting and actually MCing on a flatbed truck towards the end of the festival, gathering the loose end pedestrians that were fleeing to the bus stops. I guess you got to do what you got to do to get your name out.

“Wit life in the pen, every page a breath, my last days, so its only a coupla pages left, I said fuck it, raise the stakes, I done made my bets, I’m all in, I’ll see ya struggle & I raise u stress.” – Knobody / What U Think

COME RIDE WITH ME

fongstarr — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:48:38 +0000

On a fine beautiful Saturday morning, I dropped by DLXSF to check out some of the new goods as well as talk to the crew. Spoke to the Rasa Libre designer there that just launched the new site and even some local photography savs that shoot for the infamous Low Card zine.

Pretty much nationwide now, the new Stefan Janoski’s should be at all your finer skate shop retailers. These are the brown joints that released with the black ones as well. Limited to the first batch, the shoe also came with some cork insoles as the Janoski family has it’s foot in the wine industry. Comes in a sweet wine bag too.

Spoke to the manager at DLX and he gave me the scoop that the Fallen team will be in the house next Sunday. A signing with all your favorite Zero goons as well as a small demo at 3rd and Army right after.

Walked down Market St. a few blocks down to catch the Civic Center Bart and realized I was near the Market Street Gallery.

Actually someone at my work told me about this as I was carrying some decks to work. Just a little local show with a great cause. 50 artists doing hand custom painted skateboard decks in helps to raise money for the homeless youth in the Tenderloin.

Drove down with Maria to Fort Miley area to stretch out our legs out in the nice weather with the slight wind chill factor.

The Legion Of Honor.

One day when I stop drinking and eating scraps on the daily, I’ll save some money to go on a trip to Europe to see some real art. Not graffiti, not weak ass chicken scratch…. but REAL ART. Where people dedicated their livelihood to practice something that brought no real physical treasures, but only pride and satisfaction of accomplishing something that takes real mastery and skill. One day….

Later on we drove back to the heart of city to check out Ian Johnson’s new art show and get my board signed. Full coverage here.

And what a better way to end the night. Steaks, some veggies, sangria and a HBO special. What a great day! Can’t wait for the sun to bring out some real heat. I am ready for it.

CONVERSE X JOHN MINARDI

fongstarr — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:19:28 +0000

My buddy and fellow SF State Alumni John Minardi just informed me of his Converse shoe that he help create for the Converse (RED) campaign that they have going on. A hundred artists were specifically picked for their art and idea for their shoe and he was fortunate to be one of them. I know sneaker heads will think these are kind of bogus to rock but if you look at it from a designer’s perspective, it’s kind of cool to just have a shoe in general, let alone be a Converse one.

Here’s the original drawing John did for the shoe. I actually have seen in it person and regardless of what people think of the art, it looks pretty damn clean. Doodling is actually kind of a hard art form to perfect and John unknowingly does it with ease. Congrats dude! I got my pair coming soon.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

fongstarr — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:25:48 +0000

One of the best bang for your buck happy hour spots (minus the crowd) is Palios on Sacramento street. Get two alcoholic beverages and receive this nice thin sliced pizza for free.

The beautiful streets of North Beach. Only about a couple blocks up was the line for Dave Chappelle’s show at Cobbs. I found out about his show on Wednesday and still couldn’t get tickets for all 3 of his shows this week.

So it’s not like I haven’t been hip to this info before. Apparently one of SF’s most slept on venues is the night life experience that they have at museums and exploratoriums. Okay, don’t expect top notch ho’s and booty shakin’ strippers. This is just an alternative thing to do when you’ve done almost everything in the city. Still, when you have enough drinks in your system, the place does turn into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory at times. But for some reason, science and liquor just hurt my head.

I am not going to go out on a limb and say this was totally worth my while, but luckily Maria knew someone that worked at the Exploratorium and we got in for free. We grabbed about two drinks each and called it a night and ate cheap chinese in Chinatown. Consider these pictures a window into this place and just save your money but this is an idiot telling you that science is dumb.

A LITTLE R&R PART 1

fongstarr — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:48:43 +0000

To coincide with my cousin’s days off, I decided to take a much needed vacation from work on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Sounds kind of cliche to go to the beach on a vacation day but if there was anytime to go enjoy the smoggy fresh air of San Francisco, it was this day. Brought some bento boxes and did it Japanese style with some fresh Stellas to chase down the food.

Later decided to go to Golden Gate Park and take a piss at one of the free bathroom facilities iat the De Young museum since we didn’t want to pee in the ocean. It probably wouldn’t have mattered since the water is infested with boots and spare tires, but the water was freezing cold and my nuts would have sadly fallen off from frost bite.

And to finish the day off, we set off to little Manila to celebrate Filipino Heritage Night at the Giants game.

And yes you are seeing things right….that is a pet rat the size of the guy’s forearm.

The game was straight and Renteria was the man slapping in the game deciding grand slam home run. Got to the stadium a little late but still managed to see Manny Pacquiao on the jumbo screen with that dreaded knock-off bobble head that they were passing out that night. Speaking of which, I am sure all you Pacman fans know by now but Fatlace will be exclusively dropping his Nike Trainer 1 shoe on May 2nd. Don’t even get at me with any hook-ups or info cause honestly I don’t have them, but support the store anyways and wait in line like all the other die hard fans. Good luck to yah.

EASTER SUNDAY

fongstarr — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:22:25 +0000

For today, I tried to do the noble thing. Past couple of days have been nothing but drinking and hanging out so I decided to spend some quality time with my cousin, uncle, aunt and my Bachon (grandma in Japanese) at the Japanese Tea Garden.

There is a lot of history affiliated with my family and mainland Japan (for those that don’t know, I am half Japanese). My late grandfather fought in World War 2 where he lost his brother in the line of duty. I remember when I was a kid, there was always a shrine downstairs in the basement for his brother and everyday my grandfather would take some time to pay his respects. Now we have a picture of my grandfather down there in its place and sad to say, I haven’t seen that thing in quite some time.

At my grandparents place, there used to be a Japanese garden in their yard. Nothing nearly as nice as what I had seen today but the silhouettes and shapes are the same. A bridge, ponds with fish, afro looking bushes and other plant life.

Shinto shrine in the building.

Ironically enough as clean as everything was in the garden, the pond was just infested. Sad to see even koi fish in San Francisco water. Half of them didn’t even move and the other half looked dead.

The cherry blossoms are in full effect. Gotta love this time of the year! Everything and everyone looks so damn good. Hope everyone had a good Easter. Back on the grind starting tomorrow.