All these hammers I've been dropping on these gremlins lately had me thinking of this POETS t-shirt.
If anyone should get a pass from any and all artists to sample their work and place it on clothing without paying a single cent of royalties it is Gino Iannucci. Why? Because I said so and I speak on behalf of The Galactic Council on this matter.
Am I joking? Not really.
I spoke about spiritual gridwork in yesterday's post and how I engage in it without even having a full conscious understanding of what I'm even doing. Gino's been blessing this planet with spiritual gridwork for decades. Mostly pro bono. Why do you think every skateboarder with a soul says they would rather watch Gino push?
The reason it feels so good to watch Gino push is because the dude's emitting a vibration so elevated you stiff cronies can't even touch it with a ten foot pole yet. You're ancestry did a bunch of fucked up shit that has your body carrying all this energetic density and when you see Gino push it's a little sneak peak of what it's going to feel like once you wake the fuck up, deal with that shit, and start cleansing yourself there partna'.
Every time Gino pushes that shit is reverberating out the niceness into the quantum field and has been planting the seeds for this planetary ascension since the 1980's. I said my ex-wife is getting a medal of honor once open contact happens; well trust me, Gino's getting one too.
I've never met him but as a fellow Long Island skateboarder he's always been on my radar. I got my first dunks at his shop in Westbury as a kid and always lurk the internet every few years to see what he's up to.
If you caught my Tiny Chair Talent Show there's a portion of a song called The Masc I perform in there. Within that song there are a few bars that go like this...
My dad is a slave
My bosses are gay
My idols are addicts
And I'm so in pain
Who were those idols when I was younger? Gino. Pappalardo. Dill. Welsh.
Addict. Addict. Addict. Addict.
I mean, last dude literally had a pro shoe entirely based on Newport cigarettes; and not to belittle his lived experience but from the little bits I've witnessed of all those dude's journeys that giant sweatpant wearing whiteboy seemed to have the tamest ride.
Then comes Barry McGee. I wouldn't say he was necessarily an idol like those dudes were, but when it came time to get my first and only tattoo at the age of 19 I wanted Barry's art on my arm. I have conflicting feelings about it now that I'm 39 but out of all the potential artists of that era I'm still so glad I chose his work to be on my body.
If I got a tattoo of that other dude that ended up doing Uniqlo shirts I would've went 127 Hours on my own ass by now and cut my fucking arm off.
I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I think Barry's friends with that dude whose art I smashed the other day and when I was was editing that fellows interview for that movie about himself he said "and Barry just does work for nobody".
That phrase will forever reverberate inside my soul.
Why am I so grateful Barry never did work for brands? (Baker gets a pass) Because he's a partial reflection of a higher version of myself and I was never supposed to be doing that shit either. I always thought it was weird and felt so out of place in that world; especially once I stopped drinking.
When I got that tattoo I had just moved to the lower east side and was fully equipped with my wannabe artist starter pack. Obey Mr. Spray silkscreened print in my room. Pages cut out of Kaws' book and framed in my living room. I was never really into graffiti and my occasional tag was embarrassing but deep down inside I always wanted to be an artist like them. Not some film dude. I was fucking lost though and didn't have a path. I can't paint. I haven't drawn since I was a kid. I need to be blackout drunk to rap and I don't have anything of substance to say.
If I buy these things and go get drunk at Max Fish with my high school friends but not actually make art does that make me cool? I still skateboard when I'm not too hungover and I'm getting better at this editing thing, does that count for anything?
I don't even know how I discovered Barry. Honestly, I think his book was being carried by WalMart online back then. I probably searched something generic like "graffiti" or "cool street art". There was an instant connection when I saw his art though. I was like, that's my shit. I bought the book, picked out my favorite characters, did a custom layout, and searched for a tattoo artist that was the best at doing recreations. That ended up being Eric and InkStop that used to be on Avenue A by Tompkins.
It's a whole half sleeve. One of Barry's bottle drawings is on the inside of my arm that's pouring out all the red background to the front. I was too busy getting drunk back then to get it properly finished. I missed my final appointment to get touch ups and finish the color on the inside. Whatever.
The only substantial change I made was the two characters on the dude's hat in the photo above. I think in Barry's original art it was two numbers, but for me I put an HB instead. What does HB stand for? Huffy Bandits.
Me and my East Northport friends would ride around that town on our bikes going to keg parties and bars that would take our fake ID's. Shitfaced and flipping over our handlebars like savages. If you weren't cool and were on some Dyno type shit you were rolling far behind us with that crew the Sissy Strollers.
Man, I've been seeing a lot of custom motorcycle jackets around here in Hawaii. A Huffy Bandits jacket would be fucking epic. (vegan of course).
Honestly, the tattoo always kind of made me uncomfortable. It was personal. I kind of felt like a poser. When people would recognize it I wouldn't really know what to say. I showed friends when I first got it but it's not something I ever really flaunted.
In the recent past it became uncomfortable in a different way. I've been all about catching those high vibes and this tattoo is the polar opposite. For a while I was making an effort to cover it with something when I was laying down with my shirt off at the beach. No tank tops ever. Man, I hope the people at this ecstatic dance thing don't notice it. It's not the type of energy I wanted to emit out into the world from my body. And it was also like, dude, I'm doing my own shit now. I don't want someone else's work on me. The current removal technology was just never going to cut it though.
Nowadays, I have a more evolved perspective. If there was some magic solution I could erase it in a second with I would but for the time being I can live with it. There's a fellow mystic named David Lion that has been incredibly helpful to me. If you've been enjoying any of my music, you can thank him for picking up on my secret passion for rap and encouraging me to pursue it in a private session. Then Jubilee's music and her feedback on my first track opened the floodgates. I was over rap until I heard that Can't Hide track. It made me see the possibilities and realize poetry is a profound tool for healing and ascension.
Anyway, the reason I mentioned David Lion is because I saw a post he made recently that articulated something that I've always understood but never verbalized. He talks about the difference between frequency and vibration.
Vibration is your state of being. Frequency is the level of your awareness and reflective of the vibration you're capable of leveling up to once you fully embody it.
A lot of addicts are high frequency people with a low vibration. They are sensitive. They are empathic. They are hyper aware and tuned into their surroundings. Many are very evolved beings that feel constricted by the mainstream. They see and feel the hypocrisy and imbalance of power in the current state of the world. Because of that sensitivity and awareness they are lost, angry, in a lot of pain. They haven't found a way out of it and don't realize how truly powerful they are yet.
I used to be like that too and these are my people. The potential I see within them is enormous.
I'll feel a much deeper connection to a homeless addict than I do some complacent dude in dungarees with a PHD. Homeless dude's catching a rocket ship into the sixth dimension once the world wakes up. Kool aid drinking button up guy wearing spandex on the weekends is a flatliner that's about to have his whole reality shattered. What he attempts to do to other people upon his descent into the underworld will be frightening to many. Good luck fellas 🍀
I never knew what these Barry McGee characters meant until last month. I didn't read one word in that book or about him when I was 19. I just chose the pictures I liked. Turns out they're referred to as "everyman heads" and represent homeless people. Who knew?
And guys, guess what? I'm homeless. Like, for real.
401k gone. Checking accounts overdrawn. Every credit card maxed. Food stamps. You name it.
This car camping thing has turned into no longer being a choice and this car's leased. The only known source of guaranteed cashflow coming in at this very moment is roughy 5% of sales from the Geoff McFetridge film. The finances for that are on that other dino shit and who knows when I'll see quarterly payments or if they'll even be substantial.
I had an 800+ credit score and a condo before I poured everything into my healing, art, and this twin flame journey I'm not telling you shit about. Guess what?
I don't care and I feel fucking incredible. Let it all burn. I'm still not editing your commercial. I'm still not selling my cameras.
This is a cakewalk after what happened to me in the hospital and you only start becoming a reality creator when nothing scares you anymore. The money thing will bounce back and I'm grateful to be healthy and happy. I'm pulling a complete 180 and the rotation just hasn't finished yet.
Gino Iannucci, thank you. Pappalardo, you're getting one of those medals too. Not for skating but for being so brave and ahead of the curve on that Instagram handle. You will be vindicated.
Barry, thanks too man. Thank you for protecting your integrity all these years so I didn't have to preform surgery on the left side of my body. Thanks for holding that line for two decades when everyone around you was selling out. You and everyone like those skateboarders I mentioned are my people...
High frequency but on varying levels of the spectrum in terms of vibration.
This is why I still feel some pride in having this tattoo.
I hope I can return the favor to you all by blazing some trails and providing a path to salvation. I'm pretty sure that's what I'm here to help contribute to.
Dill, you've got some serious work to do man but you'll be alright and Jesus still loves you. I have some ideas. Page me 📟
Peace.