a beautiful day in the neighborhood

an interesting day after work... iz picked me up at the j and we shot down to the east vil to chill for a bit. after picking up some krylon we dipped into toy tokyo (7th st. & 2nd ave.) for a moment where, lo and behold, i ran into my favorite agitprop artist, ron english!

"hey ron—you don't know me but uh, i bought a piece of yours and don goede at softskull had you sign it for me... charlie brown with the yin yang head—44 bottles of beer."

"oh yeah," he said, "that was a while ago."

so he and i got to chatting for a bit, primarily about our toy obsessions (he told me a friend of his has two storage spaces stocked with unopened packages of his favorite toys—in triplicate), and i introduced him to my latest fixation, domokun. "it looks like a turd," he said.

i told him how much i appreciated his work and about some of my a.g.'s planned forays into billboard liberation and stenciling. he liked our ideas a lot and gave us his blessings.

after 15 minutes or so of standing on the street shooting the shit with ron (he was very kind and gracious—at least, i didn't feel i was riding his jock and apparently neither did he), iz and i headed over to soma, nyc's finest underground botique, which hosts a grafitti art gallery, gear for the tag artist, and a fine array of glass pieces for the herbal enthusiast. on my way in i could not help but hear a familiar voice blaring overhead from the soundsystem.

"is this rocker t?" i asked the dude at the counter. "good call," he said, and handed me the case for rocker t's all new cd, more luv, which is due in stores later this month, and which, frankly, i wasn't even aware of. he then passed me up a flier for the may 9th launch party of the new nyc culture 'zine animal new york, at which rocker t will be performing with the i.r.t. band! w00t! i ain't seen t perform since cannabis cup band's last show at the wetlands. i'm supadupa excited.

then bucky, the owner, walked in and i asked him if it was plausable to go bombing in the rain, as i've never really been on such an outing before, and he's sort of the resident expert. he assured me it would not be a wise idea and that spraypaint and wet concrete do not mix well together. thus, this evening's stenciling activities have been curtailed. sigh. i'm sure i'll find something else fun to do.