The 12th installment in the Hitler Wears Hermes series by Westside Gunn.
Some songs that caught my ear from the first play through:
2. Bosewell
3. Adam Page
10. Outlander
Category: Shared
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The Victory Light podcast continues its tear as they bring up MIKE for today’s episode and I died laughing. With hosts like Rainey and Mero you’re always going to have a couple of laughs but when MIKE felt the vibe it was like they just bro’d out and laughed at everything from MIKE’s first time in Japan, to MIKE touring in the UK. Laughter was today’s therapy for sure. Love the pod for bringing MIKE on. MIKE is a real one.
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Tyshawn grew up skateboarding in the streets of New York and though he’s been in the Breakfast Club’s backyard for years, he’s still relatively unknown in major media spaces. He sits and talks about coming up in skateboarding and he’s watched things change since he’s been in the sport. From skateboarding being an outcast sport to being accepted, a lot of people still don’t understand how a person becomes a pro in skateboarding or how the business works and Tyshawn does his best to shed some light on his perspective of skateboarding.
I wish this was a bit longer but maybe Tyshawn will be back
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It’s been a few years since I stopped practicing my faith and since then I’ve been wandering around searching for a northstar. Somewhere to plan my flag, a foundation to push off on. I’ve left religion for philosophy, reading the bushido code, Huey P. Newton, watching video essays on Carl Jung, and nothing feels quite right. But I think I’m closer today than I was ten years ago. Or maybe I’ve been building my own philosophy, my own code. Every man needs a code. A set of rules that they abide by out of internal conviction rather than external obligation.
That’s what religion brought me. An unquestionable way of life that can’t be challenged, or at least that is the way it was presented to me. Everyone tries to live a certain way, following the rules of the bible.
What I found in reality was no one was living the lifestyle. Though everyone was trying but when emotions ran high the real person bleed through. The person they were trying to leave behind, the person their religion told them was no good, was still there under their Sunday’s best. The person never changed, they were just repressed. Push down under as far as he could go but eventually coming up for air.
I don’t think that religion or at least the way that it addresses the human condition in the church, doesn’t address a man’s soul. It leaves everything to imagine and metaphor, open to interpretation. Their examples don’t always translate to the individual but rather sets a standard of what it’s expected. It draws a finish line with no map and no contexts.
Man is meant to be tested and come to his own conclusions after conscious contemplation and reflection. How else can he know his limits and his capabilities? He doesn’t want to find his limitation when it’s life and death. A moment that challenges his entire being doesn’t want to be a split moment decision like in the movies. That means making mistakes, having regrets, not trying to imitate a god-like man. Originally and self-experience built character
But then I start to question, how does a child find the basics, morals, valves, right and wrong? Is it the duty to the parents or society, community or history? And even then these things are sliding scales. Some parents lie to their kids to preserve their innocence. They say the Easter bunnies and Santa Claus, tooth fairies and what not. Killing a human can be viewed as honorable if it’s done for your country.
The best option is just to lead by example and show the child, rather than teach them. Be patient and explain when necessary.
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Fuck man, every time i’m about to fall asleep I find a piece of internet gold that keeps me up for another few hours. I’ve been typing Max Schaaf’s name into a bunch of search boxes and abusing the infinite scroll. I found a couple of clips!
1. DicE Magazine did a little short on Max.
2. Vans x. 4Q(Max Schaaf) collab on a Sk8 mid. This is their commercial for it. Showing off his shop and the personal touches he did for the collab. I’m definitely going to add this song to my library.
3. Max Schaaf’s Non Fiction Part. In the Lone Skater article I wrote, Max talk about living in Oakland (in the video) and having a bunch of the neighborhood kids come by and just hang out with him at his mom’s place. You get to see some rad clips in this parts of some of the kids doing some fakie ollie on Max’s ramp. They probably had no idea who Max was in the skate world to them, to them he was just the crazy guy with a skatepark in his house across the street.
4. BIG HONGRY! I’ve been seeing Big Hongry on Thrasher and on Instagram, interviewing skaters and making music. Bro can really rap! From what I can piece together he owns and runs a shop in California somewhere. He seems to be plugged into the scene out there. Which is awesome because I haven’t seen many dude like him on the more rugged side of skating in the mix with big profile name. Shoutout to Big Hongry! But tonight I found his sit down with Max Schaaf on his podcast, Break Free. Him and Max talk about growing up with Jake, Phil Sato and bunch other names that do really get the commercial recognition but are legend in their own right. You had to be there to see it but if you didn’t see it people like Max mentioning their names pushes their legacy further into the spot light to get their just due. Max even gives an update on the kids from the last video in a full circle moment.
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One of my favorite things about skateboarding, outside of the actual act, are the personalities behind the skaters. A few people are dicks, most people are humble and super cool, and then some people are just loners. People that skate alone and don’t skate for the social interaction of meeting homies at the park or to have a community/family to rely on. These lone skaters don’t skate any different whether the camera is on or off, or wait for the homies to hit them up to hit the park they skate. They skate cause it’s what they do. It’s their therapy, it’s their solace.
I don’t know when I became a lone skater, but most of us start skating alone. When you’re first learning how to skate, it’s a lot of trial and error trying to figure out the basics. Over time you find a crew of friends and you guys usually meet up to skate somewhere, playing games of SKATE (or HORSE, for non-skaters), hang out and try to progress as skateboarders. But if you really want to get better you have to put in your own time outside of those crew sessions. You need to focus, not that you can’t with friends around but there’s a different level of focus when you are alone.
A lot of artists and creatives get lost in the comfort they find alone. With an unrelenting focus they can make their dreams or ideas a reality. One of the unofficial principles of skateboarding if you ask me.
A few weeks ago I watched a clip on Max Schaaf. A lone skater that came up skating a vert ramp in his living room in oakland. He had a long career, successful as a skateboarder and even a videographer. About 20 mins into the video they discuss what being alone did for him and his skateboarding and how it may have looked on the outside looking in. Then later in life what that solitude did for him as he moved into different avenues in his life.
I think you’ll like it, check it out.
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If you haven’t heard of Nora Vasconcellos, this is the perfect video to introduce her. One of the best female skaters, she eats shit like a pro, super creative. I don’t think there’s one person in the industry that doesn’t like Nora. We learn about her upbringing, why and how she got into art, how she went from essentially nobody to one of the biggest creative in skateboarding, male or female. All around Nora is just rad, definitely a person you want to meet and just have around at a sesh.
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I found myself doom scrolling and I came across this youtuber, Dasia Sade, that has a very interesting take on capitalism and nihilism. She uses the words “nihilistic capitalism”, which I haven’t heard used together before. I’ve heard of them being used separately but I never thought of using those words in the same phrase. I always viewed the two ideas separately. I thought of capitalism as a system and nihilism as a philosophy but the way she explains nihilistic capitalism hit home for me. It explained perfectly this feeling I’ve been having as I attempt to fill a void with online content after a long day of work where I worked hard and still feel fucked at the end of the week. It explains the same system that my employer tries to impose on us, telling us to work harder, faster, and longer but won’t consider offering avenues for raises in pay. At the end of the day, I blamed myself for feeling miserable, questioning if I worked hard enough while scrolling online and watching friends living their best lives.
This video not only piqued my curiosity in nihilism again but also gave a better understanding of what nihilism is. Before I watched this video, I believed that Nihilism was just a negative point of view or better said a perceptive in which the hopeless found hope. Now I see Nihilism as more of a reaction to the environment in which one is in, looking for meaning in the meaningless. I know these two ideas sound oddly similar but the perceptive switch comes from the meaning of nihilism to the cause of nihilistic thought.
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Fanum stopped by GQ again. Kieran Press-Reynolds wrote an in-depth article about a day in the life of Fanum and how the Fanum name has become what it is today. The article touches on the forming of AMP and how they met, what pushed fanum to begin streaming in the first place, his favorite movie (which I still have on my watchlist, maybe I’ll watch it today)
Article below:
https://www.gq.com/story/fanum-gq-hype
This isn’t Fanum’s first stop at GQ. About a year ago he did his top 10 essentials where he infamously brought a refrigerator full of his favorites on set.
6 months ago he did another piece where he spoke about and made well-known New York sandwiches. He flexes some skill as he used to work in a deli back in the day.
Today he goes undercover on the ethernet and answers fan questions
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The Victory Light podcast has made me feel like I’m with family. A cast of 1st generation Americans with a bloodline back to Dominican Republic, it’s brotherhood that you have to live to understand why Dominicans are the way they’re. A people that can make humor out of anything, and when I say anything I mean ANYTHING. Passionate people trying to find a better life, a complex people trying to navigate the seas with nothing more than a few constellations.
I love knowing there are other Dominicans out there like me.
