Of The Sol

Does self count?

Sat, 25 May 2013 18:57:33 -0700

Does self count?

aha. This is my alternative design. It isn’t as polished...

Sat, 25 May 2013 18:49:00 -0700

aha. This is my alternative design. It isn’t as polished as it could’ve been but I’m impatient and hungry.

The next time I sit down to design for hours I’ll prepare by buying snacks.

The line “We test our gold with fire, we test our people with gold” is an altered passage from one of the writings of Baha’ullah. My friend, a great writer and teacher who follows the Bahai faith, said this to me once when I was feeling down. It’s a reminder that life isn’t meant to be easy, and that the really tough ones among us are probably the most tested as well.

This is a piece I’m working on for my illustration class. The...

Sat, 25 May 2013 16:29:00 -0700

This is a piece I’m working on for my illustration class. The assignment is to re-draw a poster of my choice using only adobe illustrator… but I have NO illustration skills. So, I picked an easy image. I think I will remake it the way the teacher expects me to, but I also want to make a version that’s special, with a different quote on the bottom. I’ll post it when I finish.

TOP PHOTO BY Roy DeCarava MIDDLE THREE BY Alex Webb BOTTOM TWO...

Sat, 25 May 2013 14:55:29 -0700

TOP PHOTO BY Roy DeCarava

MIDDLE THREE BY Alex Webb

BOTTOM TWO BY Steve McCurry

East Oakland, CA 2012 Danielle Akilah

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:22:00 -0700

East Oakland, CA 2012

Danielle Akilah

2010 MALCOLM X JAZZ FEST, OAKLAND, CA

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:22:00 -0700

2010 MALCOLM X JAZZ FEST, OAKLAND, CA

Does anyone know where I can find overalls like the ones Mekhi...

Mon, 20 May 2013 03:36:00 -0700

Does anyone know where I can find overalls like the ones Mekhi wore in Clockers? I mean summer is here.

Rage Against The Machine: People Of The Sun This is such a...

Mon, 20 May 2013 03:25:00 -0700

Rage Against The Machine: People Of The Sun This is such a succinct, tight little album. This song is where I got the title of this blog from. People of the sol. Zach’s lyrics introduced me to so many topics I had never heard about before. He’s a trill poet.

Did Kanye really just project a video onto dozens of buildings...

Sat, 18 May 2013 03:31:00 -0700

Did Kanye really just project a video onto dozens of buildings worldwide last night? Did that video focus entirely on his face in a photographic style reminiscent of Black on Both Sides Yasiin, while Ye rapped about racism and the prison industrial complex? Yeah, that happened.

A few months ago someone showed me a picture of Kanye wearing a mask while walking down the street. I said “Damn, he’s the new Michael Jackson.” There will never be another MJ, but what I meant to say is he’s our generation’s most talented, sensitive and relevant musician. And much like MJ he is critically misunderstood.

He’s honest, and people call him a jackass. I think the real jackass is the man who has a home in Chicago and D.C. A leader who wouldn’t put his voice to a mic or pen to a piece of legislation to eradicate gun violence when it affected thousands of black lives, but went on a gun control campaign the moment white children were the victims. Morally deficient, hypocritical jackass would be my label for that kind of behavior. On the record.

“The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues.” Erich Fromm

"Gwyn once told me that she could do anything and I would come crawling back. At the time I was very..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:57:26 -0700

“Gwyn once told me that she could do anything and I would come crawling back. At the time I was very much in love with her but even then I told her not to depend on it. A woman holds dreadful power over a man who is in love with her but she should realize that the quality and force of his love is the index of his potential contempt and hatred. And nearly no women or men realize that.”

- John Steinbeck

Future Perfect I kinda like this one here but I never knew what...

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:59:00 -0700

Future Perfect I kinda like this one here but I never knew what to do with it.

11/1/2010

Going Thru It Samples Stevie Wonder. 2/19/2011

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:56:00 -0700

Going Thru It Samples Stevie Wonder. 2/19/2011

Harlem Hardly samples Sam Cooke, an opera record and some old...

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:20:00 -0700

Harlem Hardly samples Sam Cooke, an opera record and some old obscure jazz no doubt. 1/3/2011

383 songs I made overall. That’s 20 hours of music. Most of it is utter shit. I made beats by piecing together drum kits, bass, sometimes guitar/piano and slicing in samples from sources as diverse as Nas and the score of the film Spartacus.

Here’s a list of the best song titles I made up:

Brubeck on Two Decks

Cubist Nudist

Last Lucid Lady

Sketches of Brain

Thugged out Mao

Teach Me How To Michael Douglas

Sun’s Shadow

Mmmhhmmm

Ohm 2 OMG

Organica Plantico

Shakespeare Shoegaze

U R A Sweet Wine

Radical Virgin

Intellectual Pu$$y

Penultimate Ex

Bet I Am samples Billie Holiday and some other shit I...

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:49:00 -0700

Bet I Am samples Billie Holiday and some other shit I can’t remember.

11/13/10

I’m bored and avoiding writing so I’ve decided to post a series of unused beats I made from 2010-2011 on my hacked version of Fruity Loops and Ableton trial software.

for BART Revisited I sampled a BART train rolling through a...

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:42:00 -0700

for BART Revisited I sampled a BART train rolling through a tunnel + Phife Dawg from ATCQ.

3/25/2011

OPMGBTA

Sun, 12 May 2013 18:07:18 -0700

ODD PAST MOM GANG BIRTH THEM ALL.

NYC, Danielle Akilah 2/2012

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:26:19 -0700

NYC, Danielle Akilah 2/2012

"I don’t want to understand the people I photograph. I don’t want to be with them, but inside them. I..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:38:18 -0700

“I don’t want to understand the people I photograph. I don’t want to be with them, but inside them. I don’t want to look at the pain, but feel the pain. Solidarity has to go through the flesh. Words and thoughts are not worth much. They just help to identify the nature of the gap between the other and myself.””

- Antoine d’Agata

These photos, that bizarrely just showed up on my cell phone,...

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:01:49 -0700

These photos, that bizarrely just showed up on my cell phone, take me back to a particular time and place.

To friendships, the real ones.

My birthday 2012

Thu, 02 May 2013 01:05:15 -0700

My birthday 2012