Pimp Decisions (pt. 2), The Battle, The Shake

Before I start doing this update, I just wanted you all to see what I'm looking at while I do this:




...Man, If '09 is the time that imma see mine, being cool ain't enough homie, imma freeze time...

May 30 (Evening), 31, and June 1

Classmates go to dinner and we come to conclusion that she needs to move out of her current living situation. Gave her my people's information. And she said she would pursue a place with them. Decided to walk her home seeing that she's had nothing but bad luck down there. It's about 10.30 and it's just getting dark in her area. And let me describe her area for you all. *Clearing my throat* IT'S THE HOOD! Just like home. Probably a little bit worse but with all the symptoms of the hood. There are liquor stores, clubs, and people selling drugs all over. And the really messed up part about it is that most of the Barcelona old city (this is the city that was around before they converted to the grided city plan) is the equivalent of alleyways. No matter what street you turn on, you're in an alley and none of them are well light. But I digress back to the story.

So as she and I are walking through the alleys, we encounter one in particular that's like a scene from a movie. Just her and I with a bum in a trash can and another rogue person walking towards us. It's at this point that my spider sense, which is a tingling of a certain part of my anatomy, starts to hit and my senses get heightened to everything. So I'm noticing that the bum looks at us quickly and then goes back to 'looking' in the trash while this guy walking towards us never looks at me or her. We passed the bum first; nothing happens, but I have him in the rear peripherals as well as the guy in front of me. Next we pass the other man (5'11" dark hair with a bucket cap that read 'USA' on the front, red white and blue shirt, blue jean shorts, muscular) and nothing happens, at first. As soon as we pass him he yells 'Hey, muthafucka.' Now in the next 5 seconds this all went through my mind *Inhale*:

Okay I'm going to have to fight this guy but he is bigger than me physically but I have the height and reach advantage which means I need to bob and weave and throw the jabs as much as possible. Now the girl needs to just stay behind me as much as possible so as to not get hurt and I ain't dying in an alley in Spain so this dude better bring it. The bum is no problem but if both of them come at me I have to get to the outside so I can use the one of them as a shield and run them into each other.
If they got a knife, so do I (bought one as soon as I got here).
If they got a gun, RUN and grab her too.
Be hard, show no fear.

*And exhale*

So after those five seconds transpired, I reply with 'who the fuck you calling muthafucka?! I got yo muthafucka?!' And so the guy comes and starts walking not at me but with me. Parallel with me. The bum never came so I figured he had nothing to do with it because we were too far for him to participate in the harassment. But anyway, the guy is walking parallel and proceeds to say how he hates tourists and doesn't give a fuck if everyone knows it but he 'likes' me and the fact that I have a white girlfriend (which I don't, she's my classmate and friend). It's at this point that he puts his hand on my shoulder and I give her the stiffest Bruce Lee arm windmill ever and now he gets angry and says 'Go ahead! HIT ME! KICK ME IN THE FACE!' It's at this moment that I realize that this man is drunk, a glutton for punishment, and looking for trouble. I just say I'm not going to hit him (unless he comes at me first). Luckily he doesn't harass my friend, and she gets to the end of the alley, where there is a plaza. Shortly after her, myself and this dude get to the end of the alley as well and he ends our interaction with: "You guys have a nice night and enjoy your stay in Barcelona." and walks away. F*cking INSANE! I was dumbfounded by what just happened. But I was complimented by my friend as being a 'calm cucumber'. LOL.

After all that excitement, I just finished walking her home and then watched a movie. My friend emailed the people I did housing with and I explained that they would probably reply the next day.

May 31,

So my friend did get a response today and she went to look at some of the properties in the area where I live. One happened to be in my apartment and it was nice to see her. I said hello and went about my day as usual which consisted of me sleeping, chilling out all day, eating, surfing the internet, drawing and designing. It's was a pretty lazy Sunday. Then I got a call from my friend who called to inform me that she got housing with my people and that she would be moving in today. It made me happy that I could help her out with a situation that she was having and let me tell you all: her housing was a situation. Here's a picture of the stair well:
Ridiculous I know. Shit was NOT cool. NO lift, stairs falling apart, sporadic electricity outages, and all around grimeyness. But like George Jefferson and Weezy, she moved on up to the East Side. So now I have someone to talk to every now and again which is awesome. Just coming home and not talking much is getting pretty tiresome.

But back to this morning. I wake up pretty early. Well, I guess this video can show you better than I can describe to you:

June 1 -

So today was a catch up day for my professor with the tours of Barcelona. My walk got cut short because of a music festival that cut off some of the tour so we just did that and saw some other sites. But you know I keep you with the funny videos so here's one of myself. First, I will paint the picture for you. Basically, there's this playground on the beach and it has this huge hex-nut on it and the inside of the hex-nut is an enlarged hamster wheel. I get this bright idea to attempt to accomplish what many would think is impossible. I want to just grip the sides with my hands and feet and have some one turn the wheel ALL THE WAY AROUND. Of the 47 times I played this out in my mind, this only happened twice. Click here to watch. Now this didn't happen today but on my first walk, it was hilarious and I just got the video so I wanted to share. Yes, I can laugh at myself. It's hilarious. And I STILL think I can make it around.

June 2 -

So I just spent a TON of money on travel arrangements and it has made me realize a couple things: 1. Money is getting a little tight. 2. Europe is expensive. 3. I love McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC for the value menu. 4. I need to save some loot for when I get home. 5. I'm lucky as hell to be in Spain. So these travel arrangements are for Madrid, Portugal, and a small city called Toledo which is close to Madrid. Plan is to take a train to Madrid, stay there for a couple days, fly to Portugal, stay there for a few more days, then fly back to Barcelona. And in all this travelling and whatnot, I have to find time to finish these New Balance designs so I can enter this contest that is due June 10th. That's right! I'm trying to make some shoes. I'm not revealing designs cuz dudes might try and steal the idea juice and I need all that. If I win, I go to London and 600 pairs of my shoe get made and sold all over the world as a limited edition. Pretty smooth huh? I think so as well. I'm really new at this stuff so I don't know exactly what they are looking for. I just know what I like color-wise and that's what I designed. It's been pretty fun actually. But I'll get you some pictures after Wednesday when the deadline passes.

But I digress back to the day. I've been actually working on the class work that I have to do and I been getting really frustrated with it. It's all based on the market that's in the header of the blog; Santa Caterina Market. I'm supposed to use the plans, sections, and anything else I can come up with to investigate and capture the interactions of the building with people, the surrounding environment, and the city as a whole. Sounds hard huh? It is. I was supposed to meet with my professor today to show him what I been doing lately and I honestly don't have a concrete idea of what I am doing. One, because I haven't been doing much with it. I just draw other stuff in Barcelona and put that on the back burner. And two, I have no idea how to approach this idea. But hey, I'll figure it out. But I was supposed to go meet with the prof. sometime today and just show him what I had. My roommate and I don't really have much to show so we came up with the idea to just email him and set a time tomorrow because it's a free day to do what you want. So we email him and he says cool. And so our goal today was to actually do something for it. I went to take pictures at the market and really came out with nothing to inspire. No spark from pictures, no ideas from drawing there. Just nothing. But in my mind I always do my work so it'll get done. No worries.

So my classmate that moved in, who will now be known as Shortie Do Wop, and I accompanied some other people from class to this restaurant by the name of Inopia. Now the motto of this section is "Try something new" because new things are the spice of life. And to be honest, this evening was spicy as ever. I mean I tried things that I have never even thought to try includeing sardines stuffed with sardines (it was ok), octopus (actually pretty good), seared tuna (pretty amazing), olives (I still am not particularly a fan, but they were ok), and fried shrimp (they ain't like at home homie, they just bread them, deep fry them and serve them WHOLE, BRAIN AND ALL!). After racking up a bill that was about 192 euro between 8 people, Shortie do Wop and I walked home and attempted to work on studio for tomorrow and failed. Ended up drinking and watching Angels and Demons on bootleg. It was ok but nothing great like the first one. Seemed to just move so fast. *SPOILER ALERT* I thought is was raw as hell though when the guy who was the like the deafault Pope stole the bomb and then hopped in the helicopter and everyone thought he was gonna just die for his religion. Then dude jumps out of the helicopter. That was some realism if you ask me. I would have done the same thing (given I was default Pope and the Illuminati was trying to kill me and anti-matter had been created). I'm not trying to die baby.

So I watched that, Do Wop fell asleep, and I ended up going to bed around three without doing any of my actual work. Not a good decision. But I'll come up with something soon. I work well under pressure.

That's about it for now everyone, I probably won't update until two weeks from now because I'm going to Madrid and I don't know what the internet situation will be. And don't think I forgot about the contest(s). I haven't should be a good time. But for now, enjoy the flight, stewardesses will be around shortly to offer you a drink and headphones for the in-flight movie called "Tony and Kendal's Random Adventures." Look up & Look out!

Lazy Friday, Big Purchase(s) & Pimp Decisions

Friday & Saturday (Early Morning) May 29 and 30

Soundtrack for the day:
Kanye West ft. T-Pain - Flight School
Drake - Still Fly
Adina Howard - Tshirt and my panties on
Charles Hamilton - Come back to you
Ciara - Promise, C.R.U.S.H.
Lil Wayne, Drake, Capcom - I Goin In


Today was a pretty chill and fun day. The only thing that was on the agenda was to go to the beach and go back to Champirones (the Champagne and Burger Place) afterwards. The plan was to meet there at 12:30p and just chill for the whole day. Which is cool with me because I have yet to experience a REAL beach. So the day started off with a hiccup because I got caught in the throws of this shoe designing thing (another story). Long story short, there's a shoe design competition with New Balance and I'm trying to win. Buuut anyway, I got down to the beach at about 1 and the first thing I do is call my classmates to let them know that I was present and I needed to catch up with them. I walked for 2 hours before I found them because people didn't know how to give directions. Now let me ask you all a question: If some one says to you, "we are to the right of the fish building which picture would you assume is the fish?"
Needless to say, I picked the last one and walked there. But they were closer to the first one. So after about 2 hours of miscommunication in our native tongue I found them and jumped on the sand and chilled.

But let's go back a moment. I know a lot of you are asking, "why did you walk around for so long Kendal? I would have been went home pissed as hell." I totally agree with you on this but there was two very important factors that kept me walking. Actually there were three. The first was my ability to keep things light hearted and keep my mind busy. I was just drinking water, walking, and freestyling the whole time and coming up with some really interesting punchlines if I do say so myself. And they were all getting typed into my phone so I still have them to the tune of Drakes Still Fly (yes, I have the song on my phone with windows media player as well, what! My phone is awesome). The second thing was the wonderful vista that was around me. The landscape was just too nice to leave. I loved it. And the final and most important reason is the shortest. It's three words and the fellas can feel me on this one and the ladies are probably going to be a little mad/disgusted but who cares? I'm only being honest. But here are the three words: Women's Tops Optional. OH! That's right, everywhere I looked. The twins were out. Some were not appropriate to be let loose but hey, you gotta take the bad with the good in this situation. And I was more than willing to do so.

Now don't misunderstand me. I wasn't out there staring topless chicks down and taking pictures, though I did see dudes out there doing that. I just could appreciate the ambiance that I was in and everynow and again there was something that would catch your eye. Turns out it was a breast. Brightened my day thoroughly. Had a great time. The water was cold as hell, but once you were in there, it was fine. I had a really good time once I found everyone.

So after about 3.5 hrs at the beach. We left and went to Championes again. It was packed to the point that I didn't want to go in but the hunger got the best of me and I just Debowed my way in there and got what I came for; it was worth it. After getting the burgers, we walked down the street, I found some G-Shocks in a window, noted the store, and continued to the metro to go home.

When I got home, I started to look at my sneakers and I started to feel bad. when I came here, to expedite and ameliorate (peep the vocab) packing and packing problems, I decided to only bring one pair of shoes; the ones I had on my feet when I left Michigan. I don't even know what type of Nikes they are; they are that old. All my sneakerhead friends would be ashamed at how I've treated these bad boys but I needed something that I didn't mind getting dirty on these long treks through Barcelona. So here is what I saw when I looked down.

Just atrocius. With that being seen. I had to buy some new sneakers. So the quest began (again). I had been looking earlier in the trip for sneakers stores and I found all the ones in Barcelona and the one I liked the most was a place called Trust Nobody. I found these the first time and couldn't pull the trigger the first time but with this problem on my hands I had to make a move. Now I'm not going to be wearing these all over Barcelona. It's more of a "You have the option to not look like a bum" shoe. So here are my pumps:

Don't ask how much they cost. I'm sure you can find that out really quickly somewhere on the internet. So those are the shoes I bought here. And before I copped these, BurnRubber had a Memorial Day sale and I copped these from there. I've had my eyes on these for some time now and just never had time (or money) to pick em up so here these are (they are the ones on the far right):

So needless to say, my shopping fix has been satiated for a while. But I like the two new pairs that I have picked up. But I feel like it's also time to step up the grown man attire so the next couple of outings will be the grown man look upgrade. But that's probably going to be done back home. Clothes here are really expensive.

After the purchase, I ran home and put them bad boys on and walked around the apartment like anyone would do, then put them back in the box for later. I got invited to a fountain show later on that evening and as I was getting ready for it, i realized that my outfit just called for the Pumps so I threw them bad boys on and walked with a confidence the likes of which I've not had since my haircut. It was awesome. It was like walking on air. So I get to this large fountain that rivals that of Buckingham Fountain in Chicago. I honestly think it is bigger than the one in Chicago but hey who knows. I missed most of the show but it was still pretty and I'm going to go next time and I'll take pictures and post them up for you all.

Later that evening, a group of people tried to force a good time and it failed. I hate to end on this kind of sour note but it is what it is. I wanted to go home after the fountain show but I got talked into going out (or at least I thought we were going out). So I went to one of my classmates apartments in the hood (everyone knows what the hood looks, sounds, and smells like so I need not explain it) and ended up just chilling in there and trying to force the good time. A fellow classmate that was with me also came along to the apartment and she pointed out that when we go in here, we never actually go out, and it's true. I came here for the soccer game, which we were supposed to go out and watch at Placa Catalunya, and we never actually left to watch it, only to see the after glow of the victory. But I was so caught up in the great music convo and drinking that I didn't realize nor care that we didn't actually leave. This time I did. The last metro scheduled to leave was at 2 and it was 1 so I wanted to get the good time rolling so I would forget about the train and not be mad when I had to walk home because the good time would be worth it. This never happened. Ended up stuck in the apartment until 2.45 then people wanted to get up and leave then when bars close at 3. Pointless.

Now the forcing really started and got on my nerves. So it's 3am and instead of just calling and 'L' an 'L', the group wanted to continue to attempt the forcing of a good time. And it was at this point that I had a decision to make, a Pimp decision. I could stay here and ride this out and hopefully something could work itself out or I could start that long trek home, be pissed, make two sandwiches because I was hungry as hell, and go to bed. I made a Pimp decision. I told them I was shaking and I left, walked 20 minutes to get home, made 2 ham sandwiches, laid in the bed, ate, and passed out only to find that these inconsiderate dummies didn't walk a young lady home and her phone got stolen as a result of it. Pimp decisions were not made throughout the group. Lessons learned: Make a pimp decision. Sometimes you can't drink with all ya white friends. Thank you Katt Williams for those wonderful words to live by. Truer words have never been spoken.



Look Up and Look Out!

Good Times

Soundtrack of the moment:

Outkast - SpottieOttieDopalicious, Stanklove, Slum Beautiful, Take Off Your Cool
Ghostface Killah - Run, BulletProof Wallets
Raekwon - OBFCL
Octane - Fresh

So I been trying to keep everyone up-to-date and I'm finding it harder than expected. But I still persevere through the struggles. For some reason my internet at home is not working so I have to trek all the way to studio to use it. And to remedy all the boring reading, I'll just give you the highlights of the trips. Some will be stories, others are random comments. Enjoy! But here's the update:

Tuesday May 26th
Since the last update many things have happen. I've been keeping you abreast with pictures of architectural stuff that I've been seeing but that's not all I have been up to. The real fun has been in the food and dance sagas. What I mean by this is the experiences that I have had with Spanish cuisine and the activities had at clubs.

So anyway the funny thing about the food is that I love it. But it does not fill up my American stomach in the least bit. I thought I was the only one on this trip that was not full off of the portions that these people serve until one amazingly fateful day when I food angel came to me and said "Kendal, I am still hungy too." It made me so happy to know that someone else suffered through the same struggles as I; her name is NoNo (character protection). NoNo feels just as I do about the food situation and we had an escapade. Where you ask? To a wonderful place where potatoes flow like the River Nile and Burgers come in sizes too large to hold with just one hand.

And they rain down from the heavens with rapidity and accuracy of lasers. A place where you can 'have it your way' so to speak. Yes my friends, I am talking about Burger King. Our hunger drove myself an NoNo to burger king and it was delicious. I've never attempted a double whopper before but I did that night and it was amazing. NoNo also delighted in a whopper. We delighted in our food tryste and then parted ways into the evening sun. Burger King is awesome.

And in reference to the club, Spanish people are crazy. Maybe it was not the club for me, maybe I was just tired, maybe I was an akward turtle for once but in all honesty this club was definitely a step out of my comfort zone, but in a good way. So there was this DJ by the name of MSTRCRFT (Mastercraft) that was supposed to perform at this club here in Spain. The guy is apparently an amazing electronic, techno DJ and some of my classmates were really excited to go to the concert. Myself, I really had never heard of the guy and just wanted to kick it with the group for a night on the town. I was not ready for what transpired. The name of the club is Razzamatazz and it's serious. It's like Clutch Cargos but on a more grandiose scale of lighting, music, and all around mayhem. There are people everywhere. So the first though in my mind is, "I need a vodka red bull." Not so much because I'm nervous or anything but because I find out that this club doesn't close until 7am, it's like 12:45am when we arrive and get in; I need more energy than I have and Red bulls give you wings so it only seemed right. So we dance and have a good time and kick it until like 3am. At this point, I'm getting to the plateau of my night where I would usually bid the group farewell and go about my merry way but I don't want to 'bail' on my classmates so I keep the vodka red bulls coming and 4 rolls around, then 4:30am. It's at this point that my eyes are burning from the CO2 gas and the shear fact that I'm exhausted from waiting for this guy. So I finally give up, leave, hop on the train and get home at 5am. The next morning, I find out that he came on like literally 5 minutes after I left. FML. But it was still fun.

Wednesday, May 27

So the day after that wonderful food (spanish and otherwise) our seventh walk commenced. This was by far the longest and toughest, but the most interesting of them so far. All in all the sites we saw were amzing. I got pictureques portraits of the city and architecture but a nine hour walk through barcelona was too much. Here are some of the pictures.

Myself climbing the many stairs of the Barceloneta

These lines are so sick! (They run all the way from one side to the other and up the wall)

Mies Van Der Rohe German Pavillion

Vertical Cemetary

So after this amazingly long (9hrs) walk through the wonderful Barcelonetta. I took my black butt back to my apartment thinking everything was sweet and the rest of the day was for me to recover. I forgot about the soccer game. Manchester United and Barcelona were playing for a championship tonight and some of my classmates were going to go out and watch the game at Placa Catalunya. For the past two and half days I haven't had internet at my apartment so I had been going to studio to check on things (email and whatnot) and got a gchat message about going to one of the classmates apartments to partake in some spirits before going out. They lived really close to the studio so I agreed and about 20 minutes later I was there having some beer and chilling with two of my classmates and some awesome apartment mates.

We never actually made it out to Placa Catalunya for the game but seeing that Barcelona won, we made if for the afterparty, which is everywhere in the streets. I don't know if you all have ever seen a soccer riot on television before but believe me, those reports only show half of what's going down. There was fireworks, dancing, drinking (of course), singing, and all around mayhem. But in a good way. See pictures below.

We hung out down there for about an hour and a half (it was roughly 2:30am) and then started back for their apartment. So we get back to the apartment and begin to kick it again with the roommates and they are honestly some of the coolest people I've met her yet. As soon as we get back to the room, they throw on some Outkast Spottieottiedopalicious and if you don't know what that is, kill yourself. Then we took it to Slum Beautiful, then to StankLove, and from there it was on. The conversation about music was SOOOO much fun and it could have just flowed forever. But I had to get up early the next day so I had to stop at like 3:30am and make my way back to my apartment. It was going to take a while seeing that I would have to go through the riot outside so I thought it best to start the trek because who knows what I'll run into out there right?

I say my goodbyes and start walking up the Ramblas towards my apartment. I was making great headway, very quickly. Then it happened. I don't know if you remember in Kings of Comedy but let me refresh your memory because this is poignant:

So like Cedric said, 'Nigga we break.' So as I'm walking up I stop because I hear police sirens. Then all of a sudden I see a crowd of people rushing towards me in the opposite direction of my travel. So what do I do, 'Nigga I ran.' Oh boy did I run. Did not even think about it. Just saw people running and I broke for the closest alley way thinking that I would avoid the cops that way. But when I got to the alley, there were people running towards me there, so I broke out again. And keep in mind, I have my laptop from earlier when I was at studio with me holding me break away speed to a regular man's pace. So I finally stop running and collect my thoughts and try to regain a sense of direction. After that was completed, I started walking parallel to the Ramblas but not on the Ramblas. But everywhere I looked, there were riot squads waiting and from what I hear, they aren't too nice so I am hesistant to encounter them.

With all that being said my first reaction was to get on the phone and call someone in the states who I thought would be awake because it would have been about midnight in Michigan and 9pm on the west coast. So I call my friend Lorenz, and she's really happy to hear from me but she was busy, which is understandable so I just hung up and called my brother hoping he was awake. And he was. So I basically talked to him until I passed the riot police. It was probably one of the scariest and funniest things ever. In retrospect, I have no idea why I ran from the police, but like Cedric says, I don't need no running coordinator, or coach or anything. If you running, dawg I'm running. And that was that. I got home but there was destruction everywhere. It was crazy.

Thursday, May 28

I just had one of the best experiences food wise that I've had here. It's a hole in the wall type place called campions I think. Basically take a Pete's Coney Island and put the place in Barcelona. It was amazing. Once again, the hamburger doesn't let me down. And guess what the compliment was to the food. Not fries, champagne man! I popped rose with my burger! What! It was awesome and I'm going back. Don't mind if I do! I would have posted a picture of the burger too but I smashed too of them before I even got my camera out. They were delicious. Don't worry I'll be going back very soon.

But until the next update. Look Up & Look Out!!!

Figured I'd give you some more pictures to look at while I do work for class and listen to Marvin. Real Update coming a little later on tonight.

Graffiti of the day:

For all of you that don't know I am the 2009 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Champion. Anybody that has a NES and TMNT. I'll beat it in 2 hrs tops. Test me. Go ahead.

Torre Agbar

Park Guell

Casa Mila

Some sculpture in a Plaza

Went to my first club in Spain and I must say, it was an experience. More detail later on tonight. I got work to do. Look up and look out

Pictures (The Spoils of War)

So there's been a large request for pictures from me. Here is a few to keep you satiated until the major upload begins. There's a lot of pictures ya'll. I take roughly 75 a day. Now multiply that by the number of days I've been here and all the walking I've done. Plus the photoshopping that I do to some of them and the need to go through and delete the ones that aren't too good. I'm starting to ramble... enjoy!

Trip to Girona for the festival of flowers. Really nice artwork but it sucks if you have allergies like me.

Miniature columns at a Gironan monastery

Some church that was next to my hotel room. So I joined a bunch of pictures together of it.

Mercat Canterina. It's really awesome. You should google it and look at the roof :-)

I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures but ha! I did it anyway. I'm such a rebel. Too bad the picture sucks. Santa Maria Cathedral

Santa Maria Cathedral

Sketches Of A Man

Soundtrack of the day:












Dwele - Sketches of a Man












Wale - Mixtape About Nothing (mixtape)
Kid Cudi - A Kid Named Cudi (mixtape) (I figured since I missed the concerts I'dhave my own)
Drake - Drizzy (mixtape)
Octane & Illite - Forgotten Choosen (album burnrubberdetroit.com), Cook It Cut It, Leave Me Alone

Graffiti of the day:















So today was a very nice and short walk through the upper Ramblas all the way down to the old city and to la Biblioteca (don't know if i spelled that right but who cares. I took French, not Spanish.) I actually did some sketches that I liked and have posted some of them. They're from various places on the walk including MACBA, St. Andews Cathedral/church, and a couple other places. I'm starting to realize that I need to find more time to hone the skill of sketching again. When I was little I used to do this almost everyday but somewhere in there, life got in the way and the skills diminished a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I don't suck, but I definitely struggled in the beginning of the walk and found my stride by the end. I'm not where I want to be with it but the progress from this morning gives me encouragement to continue. I need to get some more supplies for drawing as well. The one pencil and several pens I have are not enough to convey what I want to do with the drawings.

Other than the walk and school, I have found myself on a mission. It's very personal to me and I hold it very dear to my heart seeing that no one has touched me in this way for about four and a half years now. While in Spain, I am looking for a barbershop to cut my hair. Some people just don't understand where I'm coming from. My barber moved to Las Vegas approximately four and a half years ago and since then, I've cut my own hair. I've made mistakes, had to cut all my hair off, and even done a couple good jobs. But now, I've been doing it for so long that I have a hard time giving up the control of this necessity. But I feel like Spain, as random as it sounds, is the place where I have to let the control go and get a barber to do it. I know there are black barbers and I have seen a couple but I just don't know how to say what I want yet so I'm holding out until I get that language barrier taken care of. So Mission Fade Away is on and poppin.

Also with this trip and this excess of free time, I've found that a lot of things that I put off during school that I find interest in have come back into the picture. I'm entering a shoe design contest and think I can actually do something that is of some substance. The guitar playing has been put on hold due to the fact I don't have mine with me but Outkast "Take off your cool" is learned and now I'm on that Babyface "When can I see you again". Yes that's right, getting my Babyface on! What! I don't feel a [ || ] is necessary here because we all know that Babyface makes hits that both men and women enjoy. Also, my affinity for graffiti, stenciling, Maggin' (quick magnum pen tagging), and just creative things has come back. It's funny how when you are being forced to do creative things, the creativity leaves at some point and it just becomes something you have to do but at the same time it's still not a job.

And this blog thing has come back into play. Mad fun and it allows me to look back at stuff I've done with my life and say, "dang, that was kinda hype/funny/dumb/poignant/cool." Shout out to Dwele for an awesome album. I know I'm lllllooooooonnnnngggg overdue for that one but I figured I'd pay homage with a play on words title.

Chapter One - The Catch Up (pt. 2)

Soundtrack of the Day:













Black Milk - Popular Demand
Jay-Z - Ignorant Shit
T-Pain - Karaoke
Octane - Closest Thing To Him (album)
Kid Cudi - TGIF, Switching Lanes,
Stat Quo - Checks & Balances (mixtape)
Royce da 5'9" - Apart of Me
Toni Morrison - Once When I Was Little
Gorilla Zoe - Lost

Graffiti of the day:











Catch Up (The movie) - You probably gonna need a wide screen for this ...
Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs up.

Chapter One - The Catch Up (pt. 1)

Songs (and Mixtapes) of The Day:

Drake - So Far Gone & Comeback Season


Charles Hamilton - Come Back to you, Sat(T)elite, Theories of Wine, Well Isn't This Akward


Big Sean - UknowBigSean, Rollin, Tomorrow (ft. Octane), Supa Dupa


So I realized yesterday that I been in Spain for four days and no one really knows what has happened since I got here so this is the catch up. So here we go:

Monday:
So I landed in Spain in at 7am local time from an overnight flight from New York's JFK. I didn't really sleep that much because there was just oh so many great movies to watch. For all those who know me, I hardly make it to the movies to see all the great movies that are out because of architecture school. Isn't it ironic that I got to watch a bunch of movies because of architecture now? I thought it was. But anyway, I had to fill out these two forms, which were basically customs information and health info as well (keep this in mind. It becomes important at the end of the flight.) So I get to the airplane door to get off and wouldn't you know it, I lost one of the forms. You CANNOT get off the plane until these people have these two forms so I have to scramble with the little Spanish that I know and get them to understand that I lost the form. Long story short (and obviously), I got another form, filled it out, and got off the plane. I gather my bags from the baggage claim, get through customs, and am faced with the obstacle of getting to my hotel. I sit down and gather myself from the long flight and realize that I am getting tired quickly so I fake like I'm on the phone (oh don't act like you don't do it) so I don't get bothered by people, get some money out of the ATM and get a cab.

I get to hotel at like 8am and they inform me that my room isn't ready (BS) and I cannot check in until noon. I am exhausted and all I wanted to do is sleep but I can't so I got wandering around the city. What I did for three hours is walk around to the point that I thought I was lost and then get myself back to the hotel without a map. I made it back everytime I went out there. Saw a lot of old architecture that I found interesting that I will speak about later and post pictures. But anyway, after three hours of wandering around the city, I finally checked in at 11am got myself situated, and just chilled out for the rest of the day.

***Interlude/ramble***
I just wanted to say how much I LOVE technology. Even though I am clear across the world, I think it is awesome that I can still communicate with everyone that I care about on the other side of the globe. I honestly feel as if you are all here with me because I know I can hear or see you. Thank god for Skype, the internet, and the awesome Samsung IP-830w. For all those that make fun of my phone because they say it's a brick, screw you. This phone is amazing. It's a PDA, an international phone (that's right, I just put a SIM card in this bad boy and I'm good what does your phone do. Oh yea, nothing. Step ya game up.), web browser, it speaks Spanish, tells me Spanish customs, AND it's a remote control. WHAT!!! Shout out to Samsung for this awesome piece of technological equipment.


***Back to the update***

So after chillin and watching some WWE wrestling in English on television (that's right, it was all old school too. Big Boss Man and others. Had a Royal Rumble too.) I decided to go out and walk the streets...at 2 am. So I feel it's also time to let you know where I am currently staying until I find an apartment to stay in for the remainder of the trip. It's called the Hotel Rialto and it's located in Barcelona (google it.) It's located right next a street called La Rambla. La Rambla is like one of the most walked streets in Barcelona. It's a big tourist attraction during the day and whatnot. But at 2am, it's a totally different place. So here's the story:
I was hungry and saw a Burger King earlier in my walks around the city and decided to go check it out. So I start walking from my hotel to La Rambla to go the Burger King, which is about 5 minutes away. As I start walking down La Rambla, I start noticing things such as people walking around with six packs of beer, an abnormal number of females out and about, various 'questionable' people standing right outside of alleys, women that are a little bit off (because they had adam's apples), and finally a girl yelling at some guy not to touch her. It was at this moment that I put everything together and realized that I was in the equivalent of the Red Light District in America.
So now I have a important decision to make. Do I continue to the Burger King or turn around and go back to the hotel? I decide since I'm already out and probably closer to the Burger King than my hotel I continue. I get there and guess what? It's OPEN!! BUT there are far too many questionable people in there to go in and get food so I end up foodless, hungry, and I return to my hotel where I have to be buzzed in by the night desk man where he proceeds to tell me that it's dangerous out there at night. And I'm just reply with 'no way!' and I go to my room and go to sleep. Good times though. So Tuesday is next but I need to go do some drawing and hopefully get this apartment situation squared away. So until next time, Look Up and Look Out!

The Intro (continued)

Hello Everyone -
Summer is here and once again I am on a world-wind adventure. Where am I this time? Well it's a little bit further than Chicago this time. I went across the old pond to a lovely place where the food is spicy and so are the women. Yes, my friends (and family) I am in Spain (as you could probably tell from the email title). This email is just a test email to make sure the email list works. Also, I know there are people I am probably forgetting people so email me people that need to be on the list and I'll add as necessary. The blog-site will be up shortly but I gotta get used to the time change first. Six hours is a beast....

...AAANNNDDD shortly has now past. Here is the blog. So why am I in Spain? To answer that question correctly and completely we have to go back about two years. When I first started grad school, there is a sample schedule that everyone is shown in order to allow everyone to see how to graduate in 2 years (if your a 2G). Me being the person I am, I went against the grain. Long story short, the schedule suggests taking 15 credits for 4 semesters to be done. I took 12 credits my first semester (to ease my way in), so my whole Grad School career I was 3 credits behind for graduation and this Spain studio is the last three credits that I need to graduate. But to be totally honest, I wanted to get out of the country for a few to see the world. This place is big and I have a lot to observe.

So in the past month, I have graduated from Michigan (never going back) and the next step is this; Spain. So while I am here the class will be taking these walks through all of Spain, focusing on the architecture (obviously) and taking the time to draw, document, and enjoy all the spaces we are in. When I do some sketches that I am proud of I'll scan em and share with you all but I haven't done that I am proud of yet. Mostly in part of the fact that I am living in a hotel right now and getting housing is my number one priority, but that is another post for the blog.



So here's the setup. For those of you that were tuned into Inner City Livin', Big City Dreams (Chicago), It's pretty much the same format but this time I doubt that other characters will be participating and seeing that for the past three days I have seen some amazing (and really bad) graffiti around town I will be featuring some of it as much as possible. Pretty much it's just me and my experiences with the aid of the daily soundtrack. So from here on out, enjoy, leave comments, suggestions, questions, Spanish phrases that I can use because I speak absolutely no Spanish, or anything you think is pertinent. FlightDeck Captain Out. Look Up + Look Out!