HIP HOP GEEKING - "Somewhere in Flatbush Ave 2011"

hey kids, whasspoppin?
I just remembered I haven't shared one cool story from NYC yet.
You remember the classic Blackstar - Definition? I bet there's noone out there that doesn't.
Anyway when I was in NYC I actually somehow traced the spot where this video was shot - and I can tell you one thing, it hasn't changed one bit. 13 years later kids. Check it out.
Word up!

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WTF?

ahahhahahh, this has been a funny week already! What day was it? Tue. I promised myself - no more drinking! - as I've clearly overdone it since I've been working at The Baltic (Vodka bar - over 60 different flavours of vodka - says it all). but then, it comes to an end of the night, you're watching everyone eating, drinking and having a good time - and you just want that drink. 
so anyways, there was these two guys, my customers, they're the last ones to leave the restaurant and to be quite honest - they were doing my heading. The guy was trying to be funny all night, worst sense of humour ever. Usually I'd give them a little smile just to keep them sweet, this time I couldn't even be bothered w that. Looking at how the night ended, they must have loved that. 
Sooo, they finally pack their bags but then offer a drink to me and my work mate Peter...oh well, go on then. We all walked home the same way and ended up at the last resort bar in Waterloo (i.e. Da Vinci = drinks in plastic cups). you know how it is, after a few drinks everyone seems to have something vaguely interesting to say so even the guy's terrible sense of humour sounded funny at points...BUT the night couldn't have ended more bizarrely - this guy Justin - he randomly drags out a dice and a pile of cash and starts putting it on the table - 20 quid, 40 quid, 80quid...I didn't have any cash on me but he still wanted to play - whoever drops a higher number wins...I won - but I was like "look mate, just take the cash, I don't feel cool about it" and he insisted I keep it! "you won it, it's yours"WTF?!

how did I find myself in this situation? I'm still thinking he might roll up in my restaurant and want the money back but fuck, is that random or what?! 

Back to London

Well well so what's the news.just went down the road to a laundrette nice west Indies lady with a beautiful patois talkin the righteous talk. Lord almighty! I do love London for this reason-so many different environments in one I seriously doubt there's another place like that.for what I've seen there ain't.neanwhile I went for lunch to a fish n chip place soul funk tunes in the.background + the sounds of bubbling grease oh good ol England where have u been so long ;)
I think I'm still so keen on living in brixton,I'd quite like to continue w my "b"tour (last year I've been to pretty much everything worth mentioning starting w b-Bled,Brighton,Bristol,Brixton,Brooklyn)
Keep your fingers crossed for the bright future,i"m excited! Spread the love spk the truthxxxxxxx

BIRTHDAY PARTY ON WALL STREET

I mentioned my flatmate Cameron before. He's still crazy as fuck and he knows everyone. From a tramp on the street to super posh people. So yesterday he was like "come to the birthday party of this rich fashion designer woman'. Cool, we're coming. Get there, the flat was on Wall St.!!!!! just a few houses down from Trump empire. You should have seen the lobby, all I can say is wow!!!! I mean that flat must have been worth millions. So yeah been hanging out at this chick's super posh apartment, mingled with people, had a good laugh and then ended up on a hill billy boat in Bushwick.

walking down Wall St 

the Wall St. apartment

the apartment "lobby"

the parteeeey 

breaking bottles of wine on Wall St....

The heat of hilly billy boat pool...

It's hot again today so I think I'll go down to Rockaway beach. Another reason why NYC is so amazing- you can actually go to the beach on a Subway track!!!!! I mean yeah, there's never ending reasons to love this place and I'm already feeling the urge never to leave this paradise land.

I'm making a plan. Winters in London, spring and early summer Slovenia and late summers in New York. If I succeed in being a freelancer one day, all of this is going to be possible.

A girl's gotta dream. No problems only solutions.

Now you tell me, is this a perfect world or what?

Big love peeps, you should stop wasting time and come over.

SUMMER TIME IN NEW YORK IS FUCKING AMAZING/BLOCK PARTIES

Yo what's poppin'?
I can't believe this is only my second weekend in NYC. It kinda seems like I've been here forever, every day is so filled up with stuff that I imagine these four months feeling like a lifetime.
Last week was still super hot so I went to the block party down the road. It was mega cool, all the cool kids were out, there were water hydrants, free pizza and some fantastic bands. And it's was happening all day long, not just at night. That's proper summer time fun if you ask me. The sun's out, go and play, what a better thing to do?!
This party was happening right in front of Roberta's pizza, just outside Morgan subway stop. I remember my first day in NY, I went there for my lunch. It's a really really cool spot. And every second Sunday afternoon they have a super cool free party in Tiki bar next door. Damn there's been some really great, fun and sweaty times...

Block party - check these kids, they were so much fun

sweating in Tiki bar onna Sunday afternoon...

mattress stage diving at another block party...

gosh this chick was so wasted...

Another (the millionth)reason why NY is so fucking cool is there's so much free stuff going on. And quality stuff. Block parties, Central park summer stage, outdoor cinemas, you name it.

People around here are nice, I'm having a really good experience so far. My street feels like South America. Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. Brooklyn's massive and it has it all -they call it The Planet for a reason- and where we live in Bushwick is becoming the new cool. There's new trendy bars and restaurants poppin up, such as Narrows (really cool cocktail bar), Roberta's, Tandem and Northeast Kingdom just to name a few. More and more hipsters moving in. It's not as trendy as Williamsburg but in a few years it might be a different story. Williamsburg is such a lovely area.Yeah it is massively gentrified but it's still super cool. Very different vibes than for instance, hipster flooded, gentrified Brick Lane. But I could say that for NY in general, much nicer vibes in the air than London. 

The other day I went for a walk and walked around the area for hours. Beautiful people, really nice bars and restaurants. Yeah I have to say, people here are so beautiful - both men and women. They're all sporting this natural beauty thing and it really works. All the chicks wear really short cut jeans shorts, and a vest. Men pretty much same outfit just a bit longer shorts. Everyone's covered in really cool tattoos, I mean really good ones. 
It only really hit me a few days ago - "I am in NYC!"
It takes me one train to get to work, it's in Union Sq Manhattan. When I walk out of my office I see Empire State building. It's really bizarre - one week into being here I already work in a big ass agency, doing my thing. Amazing. I give myself a little tap on the shoulder.

FREEDOM TUNNEL

Chris Pape re-visiting the tunnel in 2011 (found out he's been there only a week before me, would be funny to bump into him)

can't believe I actually stepped my foot into this legendary place. If it wouldn't be for a few graffiti enthusiast I was hanging out with in NY, I'd probably never do it.

entrance to the tunnel

So in short, it was named the Freedom tunnel after a graffiti artist/painter Chris Pape tag "Freedom". The guy painted lots of good art in the tunnel for about ten years, between mid 80s to mid 90s and even lived with the homeless when they moved in there.

 There's still loads of his work left down there but some dickhead, most likely the Amtrak train authorities started painting over it.Go check it out while you still can!

You can read an interview with Pape here

It's a bit tricky to find and it's illegal to walk through which means you can't just walk in. The way to get in is : You get off a subway in Riverside park(can't remember the exact name of the stop)in Manhattan, walk along the rail until you find a hole in the ground. You get yourself in there and slide down a pile of crap that seemed to belong to homeless people.
and then, just like in some crazy movie, you enter this space, this underground "gallery", this massive space that holds an important part of graffiti history. There's some really famous shit from back in the 80s! but it's a shame, someone started painting over them so who knows how long for they're still gonna be there.
I was so hungover on the day we went there, which made the whole experience totaly ZEN. it takes about 45 blocks to walk the tunnel and it's right underneath the park. There's rays of light shining through the air windows above the tunnel which makes the place look so magic. It feels like being in some kind of vacuum.
So anyway, I knew about Freedom tunnel for ages. I just didn't know it was in NY or if it still exists. I've seen it in a documentary called Dark Days, which I absolutely loved so I'm totally chaffed I've seen it.





The tunnel looks very different nowadays than it did in the movie. There seems to be no people living there and it's all cleaned up. But still fucking brill.

out of the tunnel 

125 st Harlem

The tunnel ends on 125th street in Harlem. we were pretty much the only white people out there but I never minded that and neither did the others. we had some ace jerk fish at a little caribbean joint and then went to chill in the park. BLISS! yes please!