Burning in paradise

welcome to burning in paradise

  • Ep.6 The Charlie Brown Shuffle

    Ep.6 The Charlie Brown Shuffle

    Tracklist

    Given Up On Me – The Weeknd

    Life We Chose – Nas

    Hey Nineteen – Steely Dan

    I want You Back(Remastered) – Don Julian &The Larks

    I Don’t Trust Myself(With Loving You) -John Mayer

    aruarian dance – Nujabes

    Chiney Brush Instrumental – The Alchemist

    Hair Down -SiR ft. Kendrick Lamar

    Lost and Found Freestyle 2019 – A$AP Rocky, Tyler the Creator, Nigo

    Coastin’ – Victoria Monet

    Best Of Me, Part 2 – Mya, Jay-z

    Happy – Ashanti

    JUST LIKE THAT – Snoh Aalegra

    On Sum – TOKiMONSTA, Anderson .Paak

    Jungle – Drake

    Changes – Charles Bradley

    Speedline Miracle Masterpiece – Tunde Adebimpe, Sal P, Sinkane

    The Only – Static-X

    God Gave Me Feet For Dancing ft. Yazmin Lacey – Ezra Collection

    Gal Teacher – Chico & Frisco Kid

    Salio El Sol – Don Omar

    Na De Na – Angel Y Khriz

    Llora, Llora – Tego Calderon

  • Mad Max

    Mad Max

    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.

  • Lone Skaters

    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.

  • Nora Vasconcellos, Let It Kill You

    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.

  • Ep. 5 The Ups and Down of the Spin Cycle

    Ep. 5 The Ups and Down of the Spin Cycle

    Tracklist

    Open Heart – The Weeknd

    Then we could be free.. – Mike

    Every Morning – Max B

    Cycle Dance – Friction

    Cool Out – Style P

    Lifetime – Paul Hardcastle, The Jazzmasters

    No Horse to Ride – Luke Grimes

    Track 2 from CASIOPEA (self-titled) 1979

    Moon River – Frank Ocean

    Texas Sun Khruangbin, Leon Bridges

    Power – Roc Marciano

    Dead Presidents II – Jay-Z

    Name Ring Bell – Wale

    What It Be Like – Stalley ft. Nipsey Hussle

    Chun Li – Wale ft. Nipsey Hussle

    Smoke Break – Curren$y

    Find Your Wings – Tyler, The Creator

    Ridin’ Round – Kali Uchis

    Back to Me – Kanye West

    Wolf Like Me – TV On The Radio

    Banned in DC – Bad Brains

    Awake – Trash Talk

    We Roll Deep – The Conscious Daughters

    Her Light – Cleo Sol

    That’s Why I Love You – SiR, Sabrina Claudio

    Blackbiird – Beyonce

  • A few landscapes from the summer

    A few landscapes from the summer

  • What is burning in paradise?

    It’s my last hope. It’s being in the greatest country in the world, and watching it all burn down to the foundation of what America always had the potential to be. As the waves of the internet erode what is left of humanity and winds of politics push the sails of cultural separation. The elements that have been in our cloth since the beginning of this country. Where our ideas are greater than our actions. The lead up is always better than the follow through. We want to believe that we are the best, but what are we the best at? War? Making profits? Creating ghettos? We have a constitution that reads like a poem and feels like a dream that we can’t quite make a reality. That was intended to draw us together for our strength but even the author didn’t believe the opening words he wrote. America has been nothing but years of rebellion. One man trying to hold another man to his standards of him, standards that he doesn’t impose on himself but believes that it must be this way for the “greater good”. It is sad to say that America, though the idea is beautiful,is full of shit. Full of greed that has hollowed out the few values and morals we have because someone always wants to be in charge. And the person that always wants to be in charge, never should be the one to lead. You lead by example, not out of wanting to lead. The same way a writer doesn’t want to write he just does it. These things pour out of people. But this business doesn’t want who’s best for the job, they want who tries the hardest. The one they can control. Burning in paradise is watching all the destruction and demolition of society enjoying the way down. Trying to find beauty in what feels like the last days of society before total anarchy breaks out, (we might already be there) and take a picture of what’s really happening on the surface instead of what’s being portrayed on the television screen. 

    In simpler words, burning in paradise is my dirty toilet stall where I can throw up from morning sickness or a night of drinking. Covered in the graffiti with discolored tiles, a single bulb flicking in the center, as shit and piss everywhere but the bowl. On the side of a gas station in the middle of nowhere, between a rock and a hard place. And though the floors are dirty and smell like shit in here, I lie on the floor nauseous, trying to figure it out.  

  • Some Substance: Capitalistic Nihilism

    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.

  • Fanum x. GQ

    Fanum x. GQ

    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

  • Victory Light Podcast, I’m Home!

    Victory Light Podcast, I’m Home!

    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.