GoPro Venice Beach -

Wassup everyone? Last month Binho from Brazil was in town and I had the pleasure of meeting the guy while I was setting up for the ROCKIN' 2011 Art Exhibit.  He managed to come to the opening and closing reception as well

So we managed to get together the next days or so and headed to Venice Beach for a quick paint session before he left to t he airport to catch his flight back home.

Equipped with two hand held GoPro cameras that belong to Doc43, we captured most of the footage. I grabbed all the filed and dropped them on my box and came up with this short video to the song of Cafe Tacuba's El Borrego.

LA's BYRDGANG -- HAELONE --

Now many ya'll know this blog of mine, as mainly anyone else's personal blog, is purely for my own shameless self-promotion, adventitious rants and the occasional random posts that highlights something, someone or a story I either find interesting or feel merited writing about and/or placing on my blog.  And whether or not you care about what I think of what is a worthy mention for my blog, I can care less too.  It's my blog...and this for me is MAKE'n NEWZ...

Anywho...for this quick blog blurp, Ima bring ya'll an interview on one of LA's tuffest BYRDS...thee All City, AT LARGE mob king HAELONE. 

From bus mobbing, to scribes, to stickers, to bombs, to throwies, to font-stylized pieces, to pooping on people...this all around graff king was recently interviewed and featured exclusively on Skate All Cities. 

Skate All Cities did a fantastic job and even went old school on all ya'll.  Keeping it OG, SAC conducted this interview the old fashion way...via... paper!!!...whaaaaat???? PAY-PER???...YEAH! How you internet, computer using, never handwritten a letter, much less held a pen, phone texting, tech communicating, non-snail mail knowing, computer generating-sticker making, spoiled bratz like that??? 

THIS IS WHAT YOU CALL A "PAPER" WRITTEN INTERVIEW EVERYONE

hahahaha....anyways...here are a few more pics before the SAC's intro...

HAELER - IN THE LADIES RESTROOM - photo credit: COY

WHAT HE THINKS OF YOUR PRESIDENCY

HITTING THEM TRAIN RAILS UP

So here is the interview....

What do you write and what crews do your represent?

I write HAELER, HAELONE, HAONE, HAELISM and I rep TNT, OTR, AL, MSK, LOD, DMS and the mobb BTM.

Which part of LA are you originally from?

I’m an Eastsider (Boyle Heights), East Los, Downtown LA. Born and raised.

You came from a couple generations of graffiti writers that have called it quits, so what keeps you going?

Yeah, I came from the Bus Writers, Bombers, Tag Bangers era and back to my roots again – straight bombing.

To answer the question, “What keeps you going?” My boy SKILL UTI put it best. Ten years ago he asked me, “I see you’re going hard right now, but when are you gonna stop? Eventually the gas in your tank is gonna run out.” Well I just seen him recently and after ten years he told me, “Damn I see you’re still going.” I said, “Yeah, I still got gas in my tank.” SKILL replied, “You know you’re the last of our bus mobbers generation that’s still going hard and you’re doing what I was doing when I stopped. I see you in me.” For him to say that to me coming from a good friend who inspired me growing up is what keeps me going. The whole AL squad and the rest of my crews from coast to coast is what also keeps me going as well. They all inspire me as much as I inspire them!

When will you or can you stop?

To read the complete dope interview on SKATE ALLCITIES click here ------> FULL STORY

Graffhead Small Feature

Check out Graffhead for a small interview and feature about my design for Esquire Magazine.

1. How did you get involved in working on the September issue of Esquire Magazine cover?
It was more a fluke than anything. It started out with me contacting them and proposing the idea. It took several attempts. When the idea of Sam Worthington holding a spray can came up, guess who they had in mind and contacted to do something graffy?

2. How much freedom did you have on the design? Were there other designs that did not make the cut?
I had complete freedom. The initial idea was to redo the entire masthead in graffiti form. But after thinking it over, I thought to myself, that it'd be best if I kept the actual script and just tweak it out a bit with drips and over-sprays. They fell head over heels over it and were totally not expecting it. It was pretty much the only design submitted.

click HERE to read more

Esquire Magazine Cover

Wuddup Wuddup?

Quick update status here. Just excited to let everyone know that my cover/masthead design for the September 2009 issue of Esquire Magazine is out on stands. The cover is also graced by Sam Worthington holding a spray can. LOL.

Anyhow - MAKE sure ya'll grab your copy.



Thanks ya'll

Belmont Memories Part 1

I was going to continue my write ups on my entire PRINCE obsession that I began blogging about a couple months back. A write-up that slowly became an extensive series of memoirs. I have gotten a little lazy about. And today, as I was about to begin writing part 3, I came across some old photos of the Pacific Electric Railroad Station.

Known globally as the Belmont Tunnel amongst graffiti artists, this vacant yard once served as an outdoor gallery for urban arts. Graffiti artists from all over the world, when visiting Los Angeles, made it an effort to come and paint the massive walls of the yard or at least set foot on this soil and be visually stimulated by the multi-layered elaborate pieces done by resident graff writers or out of towners.

I began hearing rumors about 20 years ago that the lot was sold and we no longer would have this yard. Cops would even often swoop in and hassle some of the writers notifying us that the yard would no longer be open to the public and if found painting would get arrested for not only trespassing but also vandalism. Well those rumors never came true and the yard remained open.

Those rumors would resurface every five years or so so when hearing them rumors again in 2002, that the yard or property was finally sold, I took it as "one of them rumors again". Albeit, I began to see developers, construction trucks and workers slowly move in, I still thought to myself - "this ain't gonna happen!" - not sure if I was in denial.

As writers began to storm in, some coming out of the woodworks or retirement, to paint their last piece at the tunnel, more and more construction workers moved in. The walls were still in tact and no serious tear down had begun. All seemed as it was just planning and settling before they all commenced to destroy our safe haven. Stash Maleski began to round up troops to prevent the yard's closure and tear down. Still, I was in disbelief and my attitude was a shrug of shoulder and a "if it happens it happens. Oh well." thought.

Not until I saw a video that my friend Ben Higa did did I feel the impact of what was truly happening. The reality of it all. I teared up and felt complete sadness when I saw the footage of a wall being torn down and watched the chunks of concrete crumble to the ground. It was as though a piece of me was being torn with it. I just couldn't believe that this place, where I made friends, almost got shot, got jumped, painted at, first saw the pieces that influenced me, witnessed the best graff battles, met my favorite writers, got hassled and gaffled up by cops, got chased, saw COLORS and other movies filmed, or just simply chilled and enjoyed the day drinking beers, eating some tacos or carne asada, while listening to the trios play rancheras and shooting the breeze with the homies would be no longer. I was devastated.

Anyhow - that's it for now...I will write more about this on a later date (maybe). I will also upload some articles I wrote for some magazines about the Tunnel. In the interim, I leave you with those images I ran into today. I have also included some links below for additional information.





From Crown Hill to t he Belmont Tunnel
Belmont Hearing Notes
Belmont Protest March