Daymon Day Parade 2009

another short video for context... certainly not for sound quality (but the Snoop song in the background... yeayah!).

The parade marching down where campus comes towards the Short North:

Daymon Day 2009

In Columbus, it's an annual tradition around this time of year to celebrate the life of Daymon Dodson--one who seems to have touched a lot of lives in the local indie and hip hop scenes. 614 Magazine has a great article, A Day for Daymon, that really gives testament to this mans positive impact on his peers and in his communities.

Daymon Day has evolved over the past handful of years to become a day-long event that includes a basketball tournament and barbecue, graffiti writers producing a mural, and one of the most awesome parades I've ever been in.... let me explain:

The parade starts at 8pm on the north end of OSU's campus (mind you something like 56,000 students have just returned from summer break) and turns from Lane Avenue (a major street in the area) onto and down High St (Columbus's busiest stretch of clusterfuck). The streets, even though we're marching on them, aren't blocked off. Our procession holds pushy cars at bay on all sides. Bumping Tupac on full blast the marchers begin to shout "So What!" in conversation with someone singing on a mic. This, I find out, is one of Daymon's nicknames. Which is only less hilarious than us shouting his other nickname "Racist Joe"--which we did, repeatedly. After about 45mins (almost 2 miles) we concluded the parade at Milk Bar on 5th and High Sts.

Really fun to be apart of.

Check out some pics of the graff painted that day, and a short/crappy video of the parade's conclusion with everyone singing in front of Milk Bar (even though you can't understand it) "Bitch! You don't know Shit!" ...

Ab Rude and Busdriver @ Circus

Last night Rhymesayers rapper Abstract Rude and west-coaster Busdriver stopped through Columbus with a show at Circus. Before making my way to the show I decided to take a late-night stroll through Clintonville, a neighborhood in C-Bus. While walking under a bridge I heard a loud crash, so I went up towards the road where I heard the accident. Two cars hit head on, a crowd had already started to form, and the cars were on fire. Flames were small but smoke was EVERYWHERE.

At the show, Abstract Rude killed the crowd with his unique sound, both soulful and playful... kinda like Michael Franti meets Murs... good stuff. Busdriver's quick tongue had everybody nodding there heads, jaws open from the speed of syllables flying out his mouth. The sound system was acting up at first but after that was fixed, the show turned out awesome and the crowd let the performers know we came to party. Busdriver put on a lengthy encore. I tried to shoot some video, but the sound is horrible. Oh well.

Just for fun, heres a pointless video of the two cars earlier in the night:

Moxy and Lauren Flax @ Wall St, Sept 6

The night was slow to start out, but what night isn't anymore. The floor got full around 12:30 and NYC's DJ Lauren Flax played a great set. Too bad I can't distinguish Drum-n-Bass from House from Jungle to describe the sound better, but it was definitely keepin me and everyone else in the place moving. Bustown's own DJ Moxy's beasty ass got on stage and spun some good shit, but by that time I was pretty wasted. Pictures for those interested...

Worth the Watch: London Police

Saw this great video on Wooster. While in LA getting ready for their upcoming gallery show, "Brothers In Arms", street art collective The London Police made this hilarious video that talks about their work and friendship. Reminds me of Tommy Boy: "Brothers don't shake hands! Brothers gotta hug."

Skewville's New Do

Big time Brooklyn street artists Skewville just launched their new website. Nice gallery-style layout organized chronologically with info and pictures scrolling left-to-right (vs. top-to-bottom). On some of the pictures I wish I could get a closer view, but the site showcases a lot of their work and innovation, including shows at their own Factory Fresh gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

For those who don't know Skewville is a duo of artists that work primarily with installation street art. While stencils, graff, and wheatpastes are well within their repertoire, they are known for their thousands of wood cut-outs placed in cities around the world -- custom designed shoes strung together and hung on telephone lines.

Check it out here

Bustown Factories

Since moving to Columbus, I've stumbled across a couple old factories (graff havens) teeming with multi-color pieces and productions. The first time finding such a great spot is amazing. Every return trip yields nuanced changes or sheds light on things I hadn't noticed before. For instance, this one building I had explored a handful of times before I realized I was missing more than half of the best stuff in there. That visit I discovered three new rooms and a new set of stairs leading to a separate second floor layout. The time after that I found yet another new room with stairs leading to even more great stuff. The following are from the final room explored:





Respectively: ENDER; DESTO(top) and KAYO(bottom); "LEVSON" by LEVEL; WEBS

And... here's another example of how great these buildings are. From a different building, this is a video of just one of the many rooms/walls painted on the property.