Blue Underground is releasing the DVD version of the 1983 Frank Frazetta film Fire and Ice. Frazetta is, like, the best artist since Manet (mostly because Manet never used any furry bikinis). I didn't even know the dude made a film, and the best part is that it was done in '83, which was prime time for fantasy films; Dragonslayer in '81, Conan in '82, Conquest in '83, Krull in '83 as well, The Sword and the Sorcerer in '82, and then Legend and Ladyhawke (Rutger Hauer, what!) a little behind in '85. In the words of Gwen Stefani "OOH, This my shit, this my shit."

Brooklyn bound this weekend for Independance Day, hit me up on if you want to let me know about anything cool going on between Sunday night and Tuesday night... Not alot going on in streetwear this week, but here are some ruminations and such...

• Can I just say "nigga what" to Minor? Ever since it dropped it's been consitently bitchin, and with little electronic fanfare. The joints are on point, strictly black and white, and no hip hop shit either.

• For the chain rockers: Tom Binns. Chain length can be a hotly contested subject; Go too long and you'll look like Ja-Rule (not a good thing), too short and you'll look like a woman (might be a good thing, depends on who you hang out with...). I say stick around 24".

• 930 F Street is playing at the 930 Club in DC Friday night. I checked the joint at Silver Docs, and it was off the hook! Devo concert footage from the eary early '80s, HR from Bad Brains, Ian Mackaye from Dischord, and even Chuck Brown in the mix. Peep insane game, bitches!

• I don't "do" these, like, cute novelty insta-print t shirts, but I do "do" ha-ha you're probably anorexic meets Star Wars. Also I don't even like skinny chicks, even if they do more coke than Princess Leia. This broad is more my speed, NSFWly enough.
  

• Screwed my favorite Kenny Loggins song for U Mean, check it out.

Black Bart Simpson was quite the low budget phenomenon back in 1990. The Washington post even did an article on the cultural significance and economic impact of black Bart bootlegs, 15 years ago yesterday, in the hot and hazy "Pump Up The Jam" summer of '90...

The homies @ Mishka NYC hit me off with their summer '05 line, peep the feature. I don't know, but maybe it's time for you to hang up that Big Johnson shirt and get with something real, buddy. Check for Akeem the Dream- realest since kumbaya. Mishka has infiltrated some of the dopest retail joints- check for it at Goods, In4mation, Drooghi, SSUR Plus, Colette, and Just Be. Realest since kumbaya. What does that even mean...




People are acting like Scientology is news, what with Tom Cruise acting exactly me... when I was in the 6th grade. Holler at somebody real: it ain't. I've been reading up on Scientology for a couple years now. Let me tell you, this stuff is AWESOME. One word- Xenu. And Tom isn't the only... well I was gonna say awesome Scientologist, but he's not really awesome... but you know who is awesome and a Scientologist- Chick Corea. Yep. However, this is the guy who record the songs "Beyond the Seventh Galaxy" and "Vulcan Worlds," so we all saw it coming. He even has an album dedicated to one of the systems of Scientology; affinity, reality and communication, or, A.R.C. Now, those three things might not realy sound like a bad thing, but maybe read about Xenu and what Time magazine called "a cult of greed" and you'll see what the problem is. Once you think this is funny, then you can send me $500 and I'll teach you the level II secerets of my secret blog religion. My brother actually read Dianetics in high school, so he's very impartial about the whole thing, that is to say L. Ron has warped his mind.

After Sunday/Monday's meltdown I got some nice emails from folks with suggestions and such; thanks dudes. I did find a couple months worth of stuff that Google had cached, so look for those to start showing up as I rebuild my "internet empire". If there are any ASF readers out there with my pages in their temporary internet files, I will definately get you a hooker or some cok... ok I'm not going to do that, but if you do, and you have the time, send 'em to me.

Not much time to surf for new stuff to cuss about, so let me shoot from the hip for a minute. Hip Hop kinda sucks in 2005, straight up. When I saw the new Slim Thug video everyone is crapping themselves over it made me want to vomit. What does my vom have to do with ASF? As one of many streetwear/fashion/style/tshirt type dudes online, I must say streetwear needs a sharp dose of anything not hip hop related; lucky for the more progressive among us, it's getting just that.

Microphones? Not so much. Aerosol? Pass. Gold teeth? Over.

Heroin? yep. Arabia? Count me in. Prog Rock? Do me all night long. Pirates? Mmm.

You know what I'm saying? In about a year or two, two or three new people are going to show up and make everyone starting out this year doing overt hip hop graphics eat a dirt sandwhich.

More better blues tomorrow.

After I got home from seeing Batman Begins, I decided to tool with my blog template and whatever... Next thing you know I'm hitting "DELETE BLOG" on A Silent Flute. Total accident, I was under a different blog that I was using for experimenting with templates. So, hopefully the nice folks at Blogger can recover the 6 months I deleted with two clicks... I apologize to all the new folks that came over from The Brilliance... I posted some quality stuff this year, trust me? If anyone has any experience with deleting their blog unintentionally, hit me up... I'm pretty distraught, honestly.

• For new jacks, there are two interviews (NYC Artist JK5, and Kevin from Hypebeast) up at asilentflute.com.

• Tokion has new t shirts out. You can cop from them or from that place Karmaloop. Please don't tell anyone I went to the Karmaloop site, k? Anyway, Kim Jones flips a classic Garbage Pail Kids moment for the Tokion folks, and check out the Cho hoodie while you're at it. I actually had my own personal GPK card back in the day. And not like they just used my name ; it's an actual drawing of me, my Dad was in a frat with John Pound... Check it out. That's what I look like, for serious.
  

• Killer block party up in NYC. Gang Gang Dance played too, check out the pics. Since I sometimes find myself making mixtapes with mostly, like, Paul Horn, Weather Report, Ravi Shankar, Amon Duul and other trippy/jammy type stuff, I've really taken a liking to those cats. They're like Osibisa, but white, hipster, and on mushrooms.

• Sneakersnstuff from Sweden have their own NB 577. Is it just me, or has sneaker news run it's course?
  

When I was taking art classes, my professor was a really gentle and deep Korean cat, Jinchul Kim. His work falls, I suppose, in the photorealism column; you know, quite technical. What reminded me of his work recently though were the Dan Colen portfolios on TinyVices and The Rivington Arms. Technically, Colen's paintings are obviously super on point, but also from a conceptual angle these paintings and his style have quite a lot of merit. Like Kim, his style is photorealistic, unlike Kim his style incorporates some surreal elements, as well as a number of street/street art cues. Plus, have you ever seen the guy? When they have "starving artists" sales at the Holiday Inn ballroom I doubt this is what they have in mind... Oh, also- on the patented A Silent Flute superficial/commercial tip, Colen did some decks for Supreme...

In other fluted news, Radio 1 will be available on Sirius in 2005. Listening to Richard Christy retch has been a real pleasure the past couple mornings, but I hadn't yet seen myself paying for this treat in 2006. However, adding Fab and Groove and the whole Radio1 crew into that equation makes it seem like a much more sensible and justified expense. The idea of actually being able to listen to Westwood, Tong, Rob da Bank, Gilles Peterson and the rest (yes, even Fergie) while driving around on weekend nights or whenever has me considerably chuffed.

• New Playtex video. The whole video is a side scrolling fighter, a la Final Fight, Double Dragon, et al. Literal jaw droper right here folks, do not sleep.

• OHHH, fact checking! I thought you said fat checking! Yesterday I posted a bit about Digi Grav dropping lines, etc... whatever I said wasn't actual and factual; they didn't drop lines, as it may appear. The company is in the midst of moving the operation out west, and are in the process of reintroducing the brands and sorting it all out. So apologies to DG for the lies, although you might want to keep people in the loop on your website in a conspicuous manner. maybe.

• If you think you had a hard time tracking down T19 Dunks, go after some of these T19 joints...

• Just Be Complex now has SSUR. TEEWS!!!

• When they say WHITE DRUGS, do they mean "drugs that are white," or "drugs that white people do?"
  

• Rod Lee in NYC this weekend. Wait a minute Mr. Postman... how mad is that?

Remember when Supreme used to run ads? These joints used to show up in, like, Grand Royal Magazine next to Triple Five ads from when they were still "word, son" and not lost in wishy washy marginalism. However, if you're one of these new jack internet sycophants, you might just recognize a couple of the guys as "the mean skater who made you cry when you went to buy a box cap and a backpack".

• In that issue of Grand Royal, by the way, there was a crucial interview with Ted Nugent, of which you can check out an audio clip @ Glorious Noise.

• Milkcrate gives Bmore some ups this week. Pretty dope; the "Ballamore" isn't totally necessary, but maybe I don't get it. By the way, did anyone else notice that Digital Gravel dropped their entire "Shine" section? That included my homies Mishka Barton, SSUR's Rebel Ape, Knowledge, Lush Life and some other on point brands? Weak.

• Yo, and if you think you're up on streetwear, then prepare to have your mind blown!

• Check out the very originally named, and apparently semi-resourceful GDEH2005 for some pics of Levi's X Fragment shirts, Junya Watanabe X Nike shirt, and a GDEG tie dye. You know, it's funny, cuz I almost called this blog ARIZONAJEANS2005, but I changed my mind at the last second.

ASF's JK5 feature was brought to you by Rip Slyme and Adderall, because without them, it probably would have been another week or so before it got published. Seriously. That stuff is crazy though; every other time I took a shower at 5 AM it wasn't because I was bored.

Things I learned at Pride:
- Twinks are suprisingly light.
- Even leathermen enjoy the odd gyro.
- "Holler Back Girl" is officially a gay anthem, on par with "It's Raining Men".
- Ru Paul does not magically make fags dance, as previously thought.
- You know how lesbians always wear cargo shorts? They put knives in there.
- Bears seem to like my friend Jeremiah.
- No gay dudes want to dance with my female friends, which is what they were counting on, for whatever reason.
- Gay dudes having good fashion sense is a big misconception.
- No one, gay or straight, likes those bucket drummer guys. Jesus, fuck them!
- Wearing chainmail and assless white denim is NOT a big deal at least one day a year.

• He's a womanizer, but he's an expert at throwing knives.

• New Era's EK line looks fairly promising, but not really enought to go on for now, plus they did a Common tie in, which, well... yawn. Shit should drop in August.

• Salvor has some nice woodland type jump off t shirts. Fairly serious.

• More Keiichi Tanaami and Supercar/Studio Coast jammies @Blue One.

• Far out pool pics @Epiclylaterd.

• Nuts, dude! NSFW!

• Mastermix.org vol 2

• Club Awesome

NY's JK5 took some time out from listening to James Taylor and making artistic power moves to shoot the shit on some real talk. Jump over to asilentflute.com for the interview.

Assorted shirts, prints and posters from tripped out graphic designer Keiichi Tanaami @ Toy Tokyo. In case you hadn't picked up on it, I'm a big proponent of all things psychedelic. Check out Tanaami's show@ Transplant NYC through the 24th, and make sure you smoke some hash in the park before you go. Heavy.

• Capski waited in line for the Wild & Crazy Kids Air 180, check the pics.

• DJ Eleven & Ayers got poop on lock with The Glamorous Life 2. Which, coincidentally, will match your 180s.

Ru Paul is coming to Baltimore this weekend for Baltimore Pride. I'll be up front in total look D Squared shaking my "Stinky Dinky". No comment on rainbow colored '80s sneakers and their appropriateness at this event.

Yesterday while researching Apollo Express for a blurb on Cam'ron's Vivali line, I Googled upon the work of author Asante Kahari.

Kahiri's body of work includes Homo Thug, The Last Hit, Principals of the Game, and Murder Inc. Now, some searching elicited postings, however nothing official, about Kahiri being put in jail for his fictional work. Gutter Publications (Kahiri's possibly now defunct publishing company) posted statements in a couple places with the same press release styled, yet essentially bullshit, format. Obvs, they're less than impartial.

A more objective source, Lexis Nexis, shows an article from The States News Service stating that Asante Kahiri/Aaron Fraser was found guilty of one-count of bank fraud, four-counts of uttering and possessing a counterfeit security, and one-count of mail fraud. Cut to the chase, Kahiri is in the pen for, well you do the math; "The bank and mail-fraud counts each carries a maximum sentence of not more than thirty years' imprisonment, and the counterfeiting counts each carries a ten-year maximum prison sentence." 30+30+4(10)= a long fucking time. Anecdotaly, this was not Kahiri or Gutter Publications first run in with the law; in 2003 they spent time in court over use of the name "Niggertainment Monthly".

Before going on his bid however and more importantly, Kahiri produced a stunningly ghetto body of criminal slang laced literature. Lulu Self Publishing carries Kahiri's work, complete with quite lengthy samples in .doc files for you to peruse, which I reccomend without reservation. Here's an excerpt from Principles Of The Game: A Manual for Longeviety In The Streets;

20: WHAT BALLERS DO AND DON'’T DO.

1. ballers don'’t dress up to go to bbq’s
2. if you wear timberlands with dress pants your no baller
3. if your rims is dipped your no baller
4. if you look uncomfortable in a suit and can'’t be versed in both forms of attire your no baller
5. ballers don'’t have baby mamma drama because they take care of their kids and are generally family men.
6. Ballers generally don't hang with a bunch of niggers.they are usually with a female out on the town or at home playing house with the kids.
7. Sunday is always family day for him. There'’s a slim chance you even know where he lives.
8. Ballers usually fuck with high maintenance chicks. I'’d rather have a high priced hoe than a low class chicken any day.
9. Ballers don'’t have big whips and live in the projects with their section eight girls or parents.
10. Baller's chicks usually have good jobs and are fashionably conscious. They also hold their men down when shit gets twisted so the outside will never know he'’s fucked up.

The rest of Principles is along the same; general rules for the streets, how to handle the legal ramifications of your profession, strategic drug dealing, and an insightful passage about urinating on women. Hometown hero Skinny Suge and company could have undoubtedly picked up a couple jewels from Kahiri, but it also occurs to me that Kahiri himself could have followed his own advice more closely, as he'll be pooping in a steel bucket for the greatest part of his life. And you thought Fabolous was the last real nigga alive...

Beyond Kahiri there is a whole world of street fiction, thugged out or otherwise; for example, Crunk: A Novel by Tariq-Rudd-Jones....

Answer is moving units through their own website.

American Apparel is bringing it's brand of feel good manufacturing to Baltimore this month, with one of it's now verging on ubiquitous private brand retail shops. I always say, if it plays in Baltimore, somethings got to be wrong with it... needless to say this an interesting development. One of the things about Baltimore is that a very small percentage of local shopping goes on within the city. There isn't one specific row or blocks of shops like in most normal cities, e.g. downtown Seattle, Soho, central Philly or South St. Yeah, ok stop protesting I recognize that there are a few areas with small boutiques, but they are marginal as fuck when compared to the ones I just rattled off.

Without a central urban shopping district for white people, American Apparel has decided to set up shop on Light St. in Federal Hill. Now, if you know Baltimore then that probably strikes you as kind of funny. I have never gone shopping in Federal Hill. I can't name one person who does regularly. I am not sure what shops are even there, honestly. I'm betting that AA has a "no mall" policy; and now it appears they may be experimenting with a "no profit" policy. If they really wanted to make loot, which ostensibly is the point of any retail, they would be up in Towson rolling in cash. However, keep in mind AA is a strong and expanding brand, with a built in fan base, and Baltimore is a town that likes things to be fly and reasonably priced, so it may be a match made in heaven.

• Couple new clubs in Baltimore too, both hilariously bogus. First up is Aqua Lounge. Ok, I'll just cut to the chase- IT'S THE POOL OF THE MERITT ATHLETIC CLUB! How Bmore is that; fronting like your old lady lap swimming ass pool is some bougie hedonistic getaway on a budget. The whole point of Miami is that you can't afford it. If you could afford it, then you wouldn't want shit to do with it. The other joint is Club Mate; "Baltimore's Newest and Most Impressive Night Spot." Yo that's funny how they also have "Baltimore's Crappiest and Most Generic Website." The best bit is where they claim to have "5 clubs" & "7 lounges." What are you Baltimore city itself? You don't have no 5 clubs and 7 lounges, you bammas...

• Speaking of potentially disastrous strategic management, Cam plans to drop his Vivali line in Italy, then the states. That's like Justin Timberlake opening a noodle bar in Daikinyama.
  

• The Third Floor dropped some sweet science recently; check Nerve's article on Bmore clubbing and The Baltimore Crime Blog. Badonkadonks and handgun violence: the black and white of Baltimore. BELIEVE.

• Was unaware of this till today, but Surface 2 Air is peddling gear through Style.com. Some good looking shirts and pendants up for grabs...

• Squat has some interesting t shirts by Raw Power.

• Why did it take Evisu, like, 5 years to hop on the high top train? I mean, even Avita got in on that action a couple years ago. Here's the other pair, which are actually kind fly.

• You must check out dj/rupture's mix for Lemon-Red ASAP. The whole thing is just progressive as fuck.

Nice, ? Stadiums are pretty much the shit; the price is poser prohibitive, and they are one of the last American classics to avoid the mass market. Ok, I'll shut up now...



T shirt from last night's I Pity The Dolls! opening, by Razeon and Mishka.

• RTHQ sez: Sneakers played at ICA. It's true. Troop also has a vicious Drooghi competition; hopefully there will be some rad flips on the RNS logo, although true PS heads know that .jpg could be a little bigger and sharper... That's the challenge though, so stop being so reactive, pussy. I'm going to win that there windbreaker, for reality.

• You know why the internet is fucking awesome? Because I can order t shirts outta New York from a store in Portland and have them shipped to Baltimore. Only in 2005, son. Still, I'm psyched to cop yet another aNYthing shirt, missed out on all the good sizes before... whaddup to The Don and shit, smoke that weed, son!

Any NYC people go to the Surface/Kangol party, or whatever? Send me links/pics, I wanna see that alife shit...

What would an ASF... post be without ubiquitous Sneakers. Playing at SILVER DOCS 2005, Sneakers is a 60 minute documentary produced by Submarine for Dutch national public television; that's Amsterdam and shit, son. The joint is playing Saturday 6/18 @ 10 PM in Silver Spring MD.

• SILVER DOCS 2005 runs June 14th through the 19th. In addition to Sneakers, highlights include; Human Hambone/Rave Against the Machine; a double feature about human produced rhythms and the Sarajevo rave scene... well sorta. Favela Rising; Rio slums, crime and music. 930 F Street; a look back at the DC punk scene and a history of the 930 club. Holey moley.

• Big guns come out this weekend. Driving to Philly to party is straight, but cruising down the street to Sonar for Low B/Ian & Michelle from Wierd War is much more far out. And driving to DC? It's nothing.

• Don't sleep on Baltimore, either. Can't tell what club that is exactly... Paradox? Hmmm... that's gonna bug me...

DC Hip Hop Summit on Financial Empowerment. I wonder if Santana schooled Suze Orman to the powerful financial tactic called "the stickup," but maybe he just extolled the virtue of making really fucking awesome crack. I'm still feeling the Jughead look either way.

• Step your reading game up, sneaker freaks; Nike Free 5.0 article in the Wall Street Journal. Is ProQuest in the house!?

• Finally got my hands on Mr. Beats AKA DJ Celory Beats Legend. The second 16 on Soul Scream "Hachi To Chou" could be no further off the hook. Check it out.

• Liquidation going on @ Krudmart. Couple good joints in there...

• Uh-Oh, Cross Colours better get on the ball!

• Kaito Color Of Feels.

Human Crack Berry In The Flesh was the pop of pops. Spankrock made mad orchestral maneuvers in the dark, putting everyone on the path to bottom righteousness. Remember when Paul Simon did all that afro-world music stuff in the eighties? Fuck that shit, doggie. I gotta give it up to the two drummer dudes; those cats were mad mad real. The whole experience made me wanna put my Osibisa records on when I got home. Everytime I go to a Spank show he adds one more element, looking forward to the horn section, right? Not to leave out Kudu. Sylvia has a thourough stage presence which took the tracks to the next level. They know the ledge. Movie. Oh yeah, and that white chick could rap her ass off, what's the deal? Illest since Gangsta Boo. What, no La Chat Wikipedia entry?

I can't stress enough how NSFW this next one is.

• Dip Set might want to yell at Justin Slayer about getting some beats, cause this porno producer has the most fire trailer soundtracks I have ever heard!!! First things first, LIL QTs comes through with not only some fat bottoms, but a 16th note hi-hat running, Bob Seger "Night Moves" sampling, mix tape ready phat asstromental. Crack. Miami Culo Grande features Nat Turnher (no relation), mature phatty Monique Fuentes, and a Justin Slayer heater built on a Phil Collins & Phillip Bailey "Easy Lover" sample. Like no other. By the way, did you know Phillip Bailey was in Earth Wind & Fire? I had no idea. Check out Slayer's latest film, Black Orientations, for some triumphant horns straight outta Santana's Town.
  

• Hell Rell and JR get sentimental over some measly crack rocks. These guys talk about crack like I talk about t shirts.

Lemme put you up on shemagh, if you're not already. Notably, Supreme, GDEH UK (1), and a few other brands have incorporated the shemagh style print this year, and if you live in LA or NYC it's probably old news, I know, I peeped it. You can get your own shemagh scarf through a number of online army surplus shops if you want the realness. So while some people may be clapping like retards because brands everyone knows put out limited edition shiny things, find solace in the fact that you know what's actually going on in style in 2005. By the way, surplus is insanely slept on nowadays; you can really get some gear if you know where to go and what to look for, plus we all know mad streetwear, or whatever, is just surplus staples with new logos.

I think it's reasonable to be very wary of any new t shirt labels that come out in 2005. It's nuts to me that so many people are jumping in as a "brand" when all they have is t shirts that they are dying to sell to anyone and everyone. Everyone cites Bape, but no one learned a thing from 'em. What I am getting at is that, despite my wariness, PegLeg seems on point. While hand gun gangsta-isms and old english face are at the least trendy, if not played, I think the shit is cleared for take off. Just make sure you charge over $35 a pop and get picked up by Colette, and you're good to go.

• Another day, another pair of jean shorts. This time the offender is We. I mean yo, what the fuck is it with the jean shorts? Shorts are straight, jeans are real, but the two together is really on some next level (the bad one) type steez. I mean, obviously, there is a curve here; but I think We is a little bit ahead of it. I don't imagine the Kohls '94 look is going to catch on any time soon. Don't get me wrong I like We, I just don't get it with the jean shorts... Plus, man, get a new model- that dude is mad hairy.

• FTC has a few cool shirts by Diamond, Rasa Libre and Instant Winner. These are skate brands, just in case you are a total fag.

• U Mean Competitor keeps having hot Dip Set MP$s.

I know this is, like, a late take on things, but that Deepthroat dude doesn't look very hot; I guess he can really get 'er done. I always thought Deepthroat was straight porno, anyway. Am I missing something here? What? Not that Deepthroat?! STFU! Anyballs, I am in the middle of an intense Japanese hip-hop bender, I'll fill you in on the details later.

• Vandals are the shit. Vandals are the shit.
  

• Elton John took nude pics of Kelis, deal with it.

• The new Royksopp is far fucking out. "Alpha Male" sounds a bit like Sonic Youth meets Kraftwerk released on Marlin Records.
  

• Newish Alife hoodie. Isn't it? Yo, by the way, cop slip ons yet? Not to be that excitable collector guy, but... EVERYONE IS GOING TO BUY ALL OF THEM AT ONCE. It's awesome how currently shoe manufacturers just have to sit back and relax while the consumers get all Iranian/QVC on one another.

If you ever find any good street style galleries online, put 'em in the comments. Crooked Tongues used to be dope, but they never update regularly. Pe-Style has a couple good galleries; 1, 2, click around for a couple more. Also, mad props to Dopefiend for doing street style snaps, while we're on the topic. I personally cannot get enough of this shit, so pick up the pace dudes and you may have a monopoly since it seems like most streetwear blogs spend their time scouring BGHD for content... boooo.

• NY Times has full story on the Nike ID Boutique; with pics, Vince Carter. I posted the pics over at 5D, if you don't have a NY Times log in. If you don't have a NY Times log in or 5D log in, what the hell are you doing with your life? Anyway, there are some good peeks at the goods. To whom it may concern when it comes to invites; you know I got mad flavor, son. I will be on the Chinatown bus as soon as I get that invite...
  

• Ubiq has the new re-up of Alife RTFT slip-ons, as well as an installation by Luke Ramsey. Check out the forum for pics of Mason's own ID Air Force Ones.

• DJ Friction The Next Level.