todd had an art opening on Saturday night

it was a celebration of his entire career which has spanned designing the skateboard decks for several companies, a wide world of art, and his cartoons for legendary magazines like Penthouse

in fact Penthouse was there to interview the man of the hour

the place was packed with family, friends, fans, and even kids who got their decks signed.

what’s amazing about Todd is he is one of the few artists you know who have been able to avoid “real jobs” for most of his adult life. for the exception of the short time that he was roommates with me in Frisco, Todd has always made his living from doing art.

and whats best of all is Todd’s art doesn’t hold back. it’s in your face, it’s dark, it’s powerful, and it’s funny. all the things that will stop you from being able to go commercial, but the thing about Todd is he couldn’t care less about commercial.

he has been put on this earth to let it all out.

he’s here to keep it real.

and if not entirely real, real gross.

the show was held at Shepard Fairey’s gallery on Sunset, Subliminal Projects.

before the show i asked Amber what she wanted to get from the night and she said “inspiration”.

she asked me what i wanted and i said, i hope Shepard is there.

not only was he but he was super nice to everyone and provided the soundtrack to our lives.

i nearly brought this Obama sticker that I wanted him to sign, but i couldnt find it, and anyways the night was about Todd.

while i was thanking Shepard for hosting the night, he said, “oh man ive been a fan of his for years.”

earlier Todd said that Shepard was into the skating scene from way back, which i totally forgot.

Shepard said he first met Todd in the 90s with Tony Gonzalez or Mark Gonzalez, someone, and that guy showed him the Anti Hero Eagle series and Shepard was all

oh yeah.

right there.

a trio of those decks welcomed people into the gallery, which couldn’t be more appropo.

afterwards amber and i watched exit through the gift shop

to complete the theme.

I went to the Obey Sample on Saturday and all I got was this great shirt

and that great shirt and that one and that one and a sweatshirts and sweaters and a free hat because i donated some toys for the kids.

originally i tried to drive down there on Friday after work but when i was in Culver City i took a closer look at the Friends and Family invite I got from a long time busblog reader, THANKS G! and i saw that on Friday the pre-sale was over at 7pm. so i figured id wake up early in the morn and swoop

didnt get to bed until late (dont ask) didnt wake up till 9. Got to Irvine around 10 and look at this giant line. (no pun intended). thank god i had that pass, they let me cut through and i was in.

they give you a sticker that tells you when you gotta get the hell out and on the floor i saw that someone was there at 7am, and i assume that meant lots of people were there at 7am which made me feel good that the kids still know where the cool shit is and how to get it at discount prices.

speaking of, you know i got that Waste Youth shirt. duh.

they had some great designs but weirdly even at 10am sooooooo much was gone. lesson: take off on Friday so you can beat the 7am line.

ladies, the women’s selections have grown over the years. this year they had tons of dresses. i may have gotten a shirt or two for a Christmas gift.

because im old and fat i no longer get Mediums or even Larges. I bust for the top shelf XL. which sadly there werent tons of at 10am. but i got a few sweet ones that i’ll show you one day.

almost got a bag but remembered im not in skool no more.

they call flannels “wovens” now. they call windbreakers “Coaches Jackets” and man were the coaches jackets all the rage.

there was a taco truck outside. a DJ inside. and rows and rows of your wardrobe just waiting to get boughten.

hats too. scarves too. wallets too.

the checkout line wasnt so bad because they were limiting the number of people in the warehouse. i only did $175 of damage. i had a spare friends and family invite so i gave it to this sweet mexican couple and i said this will let you cut the line and they lit up “really?!” and i said don’t thank me, thank Obama. and we did.

i had quite a full day yesterday

it started off early because karisa and i wanted to go to the Obey / Giant sample sale down in the OC.

the sale started at 9am so on friday she said, lets go early how early you wanna get there? i tolder as early as possible. she said that she gets up at 8am, which she knew would be tough for me to match since i usually dont wake until 11am thanks to my beautiful job which im about to hand over.

sigh.

so i said i better get used to waking up early so i will meet you at your beach house around 9:30am. she said, no way. i said way, and the deal was on.

at 9am i tolder i was up, showered, and had pockets full of cash to give to shepard fairey and his subversive elves and at 10am there was me and karisa at the manhattan beach starbucks getting some lo fat breakfast and listening to the new steve aoki cd on our way to the OC.

at 11am we found ourselves in the longest line that ive ever been in to buy clothes.

let me tell you a little something about me and clothes. we dont get along. i do my best to get by on items my mom buys me for christmas and birthdays, and clothes of any style find their way on anyone other than me.

the rare exception are the weirdo threads by the good people of obey giant.

last year and the year before i made my way to the sample sale and all was well, but for some reason this year every one knew about the sale and they told two friends and so on and so on.

after 10 minutes the line hadnt moved so i said karisa, fuck. this. shit. and she said we’re here, where else are we gonna go? i said anywhere except this non moving line. but she said, maybe youre just hungry, go get some tacos over at that roach coach and we’ll see if the line moved at all. so i did as instructed and when i returned the line had moved a little.

two dudes came out of the exit door and i said, bros, when did you get here? they said, we got here at 6am. may i remind you it was 11:15am when i asked them that question. i looked at karisa. then they said, but our line was waaaay longer than yours, you probably only have a 2 hour wait.

now again i hate clothes. i love obey and i love karisa. i hate the OC but i hate lines even more. i love tacos. but i love karisa and never get to see her. but i hate clothes. why am i here? but karisa and i can talk up a storm about anything so the two hours went by pretty quickly and the one saving grace was the kids in line were all dressed really cool, and many of them were of the college aged variety and quite attractive. so if one had to be in a two hour line, this was the one to be in, and next to karisa didnt suck either.

sadly it was a three hour line.

when we got in the place had been picked through pretty well, and the prices had increased since last year. $20 tshirts that went for $5 last year were $8 if you bought 4, and there werent really any big jackets or pants. and there was only one skull cap for my sensitive bald head.

still somehow i managed to blow $160 because as i said i hate clothes, so if once a year i stock up then i can have that last for a good long while.

when i got home i went to this art show. it was supposed to be the most offensive christmas art show in hollywood, but maybe my tastes have dulled over the years but it wasnt all that offensive. it was funny. it was good. but not as offensive as i wanted. still i said hi to the curator. took tons of pics that will be on LAist tomorrow, and got out of there.

then i went to my former cohort bree’s 25th birthday. bree and i worked at buzznet together. when i first worked there there was only 4-5 people. after i got hired they hired 3 more younger kids to do a variety of things. all 3 of them are still there including bree. i hadnt seen her in a long time. the party was at the Cha Cha in silver lake next to a really great record store.

i met some of her friends who were really nice, i said hi to one of the original buzznetters, Steve, and said hi to a few other current buzzneters including their PR lady who kept mum regarding a partnership of sorts between one of my favorite music blogs Stereogum and buzznet. why keep mum over something good? dont ask me, but buzznet never made a lot of sense to me, but of course i was fired from there so clearly my brand of thinking and theres were often at odds. whatevs. it was nice to see everyone and since i had never been to the cha cha, it was nice to check it out out.

afterwards bree and i ate fish tacos in the cold outside at King Taco and had such a nice conversation that i thought about it all night.

last week i was on the phone seemingly all week. people were calling me non stop about my new job, people were emailing me, chatting, everything. yes i was very happy to talk to everyone, yes it was terribly exciting, but for a year and a half i had pretty much stayed to myself and only talked to people via email and IM. to actually use my voice for 7 days straight was a bit much.

which is ironic because yesterday chatting with karisa all day in the parking lot of Obey, and then later that night in deep personal conversations with everyone at the bar and the taco stand… i dont know. it was sorta powerful. and then today my bro Kemp came over and we talked about black colleges and bill cosby and dave chappell, the good talks just kept going.

it made me hope that my conversations at the newspaper will be equally thought provoking and actually meaningful cuz isnt that what its about – being surrounded by smart people talking about smart things? it is for me.

it made me grateful that i have good friends, and it reminded me that im not so much a loner in this dark world. there are others who might not look anything like me, but theyre more like me than they think.

ps happy birthday bree. i dont know if you read the busblog but if you do, thanks for inviting me to yr party!