The challenge was to not pipe into the Internet everyday. My peers and I boasted about going consecutive days without logging on or turning on a computer. I'm aware of the long hours sitting in front of a computer screen. The RACINGMIX subtitle reads, Digital Lifestyle & Global Culture. Why am I shocked that people are absolutely addicted to the Internet and seemingly cannot live without it. It's not newspapers that are seen when riding BART public transportation around the San Francisco Bay Area, it's cell phone texting, iPhones, Blackberries and e-reader's. If the ridership was younger, it'd be a portable video game console.

What is the feeling when you bust out a previous generation phone or read a newspaper? It dates you, and that is an uncomfortable feeling that works against the denial of aging for older generations, especially baby boomers (born 1940s through 60s). I see baby boomers everywhere and the fact is, as the biggest spenders and most powerful citizens of our community, they don't know how to use the Internet or technologies that bank off the Internet. Identify the baby boomer - they have a late model iPhone/laptop and are playing card games on it. Ironically, baby boomers are the ones who implemented the technology (both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were born 1955).

I believe in digital everything (8-bit generation); I did go through a brief time jaded before ultimately realizing analog trumps digital every time. But digital and analog need each other like China needs America and vice versa. With that said, step up homie to the 2010-compliant-you or get stomped into the dust of yesterday!




Pharrell in Paris 2010 by Karl Hab


Pharrell, a 36-year-old American musician (NERD) and music producer of the decade 2000-2010 (The Neptunes), joined a keynote discussion at Midem 2010 in Cannes, France in the new year. He touched upon the struggle with technology and importance of digital literacy:

"The real issue is: can we keep up with the technology? It's getting better not by the year, but by the moment. Literacy is an unresolved issue of the past. Technology is spinning things out far more and faster than the public can keep up with. People are not up on it, they're not able to keep up with whats going on. That's the new struggle. Are you able to communicate and are you able to get around on the Internet? Cause if you're not, you're going to be left behind. One of my biggest agenda's is to make sure inner city kids become more acclimated with technology."



Listen to Pharrell on Digital Literacy

Pharrell's discussion was a surprise as I expected him to boast entirely about his accomplishments but instead showed maturity and compassion. He may appear young, he is after all wearing snowboard boots during the discussion, but he isn't exactly young, nor old, it depends who you ask. Pharrell is in his late 30s prime and has a strong team around him to help produce his ideas and visions into the real world. His agenda is bringing computers to the 'hood! Can you believe gang members are still throwing up gang signs and inner city violence exists today? This isn't 1990s gangster rap era, it's 2010! I suppose twittering gang affiliations wouldn't have the same impact. Analog trumps digital every time!




The ODALC Board, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums


The City of Oakland is inner city, Oakland is raw and Oakland has a new organization that already acts and provides upon Pharrell's biggest agenda. A local Bay Area organization that bridges digital and analog real world together:

The Oakland Digital Arts & Literacy Center ODALC focuses on Oakland's young adults and professionals between the ages 18-35 who are in need of career development. Through teaching computer, Internet and digital literacy, the ODALC supports and enables creative minds to stimulate job creation. ODALC aims to provide up-and-coming productive citizens a vehicle for expression and saleable computer skills.

Find ODALC online through ODALC Facebook and ODALC Youtube.

Stream / Download

I wonder...is this what people mean when they suggest, "Be Well." Illustrating a half-donut bite of a Portland, Oregon, Voodoo Doughnut in the chocolate glazed cream filled variety. Be well.

Whenever it's wet and raining in the Bay Area, it's snowing in Tahoe. Those than don't ride are gloomy and depressed when it's wet out but those that are in the know are stoked when it's storming - so long as the riders can get to the mountains! That's the yin yang perspective. Catch 'ya later at 8,000 ft!

RACINGMIX has been published online since 2000. Ad-free, commercial-free, cost-free, reward-free. Publishing content online takes time and time is money. In the past decade, I've seen many come and go. The following outbound links were removed from the outbound links roll call in the right column:

- 1115: It's quite alive, but it's such a bore. My friend's crew runs this site, but politics get boring, unless there is fighting or gunfire. See Freshjive below.
- 2Flippant: My friend, Ben, from Brisbane, Australia. Good thing the family is up and running!
- A Color: A Blogspot hosted and created site by Dino John, apparently was part of the elite fashion world. Reviews of catwalk shows, basically taking Kanye West's fascination with Milan to the extreme.
- Dzark Design: Some hot stuff back in 2006 regarding graphic design, illustration, digital art. Broken link, but amazingly no back pack girl...yet!
- Element Lounge: San Francisco night spot that hosted the 05/05/05 RACINGMIX CD Release Party. Run by a group of swell guys who struck gold in the first dot-com boom and cashed out to invest in nightclubs. But I'm over parties. Still down to throw down, see deephousesoldiers.com for a mixtape caled "2010 Mude".
- Esteban Sabar: First Friday's Art Murmur epicenter, Esteban ran the best art gallery in Uptown Oakland. His departure from the physical space and art scene, along with partner artist, Marty McCorkle, signified a sad decline in the Uptown Oakland Art Murmur. Esteban brought charisma, class and refinement to the Pabst white-trash gentrification of Uptown. But I'm not complaining about the gentrification, really. It's still better that the scary ghost town that preceded it.
- Euro Tuner Magazine: A link to the VW Double Down article that my brother and I were featured in a full color seven-page spread written by famed The New York Times author, Richard S. Chang, and photographed by Wes Alison! The absolute heyday of the Import Racing scene in California, pre-Fast and Furious. The article was first published in Super Street April 2001, and later published in a second run for Euro Tuner magazine. The link is now broken - Euro Tuner and that whole segment of import mags has undergone so many editorial and publishing ownership changes, I lost track long ago.
- Fresh Jive: What used to be a clothing company for the hip and trendy two decades ago has dissolved. The site is up in a different direction having become a tree hugging environmental movement? However, the splash page flash movie is a rude awakening, who has the source to that humdinger?
- Glutter: Hong Kong democracy girl, behind the original artwork of Chairman Mao wearing a SARS mask, started a family down south and I think she had to put her rebellious ways aside. A long time running blog with quite a reputation in Asia.
- Heywire: Has since become Artst. Although pitched as a guild and community, it continues to pimp Pharrel's photos and his "art", with the community artists offering phone snaps of their finger nail paint if that says anything of the level of art exhibited.
- House Arrest Events: The streaming DJ mixes from past events at this Chicago nightclub featuring House DJs like Derrick Carter, Green Velvet, Diz, Hiroki, Kid Koala, Louie Vega, Doc Martin, Mark Farina, Sandy Rivera, East Coast Boogiemen, and the list goes on! Unfortunately, it's a dead link. Someone has to pay for this service! Support it or die, and I've been around long enough to know that House music is underground 'cause it's broke!
- Jamie Doom: Once part of the Sinosplice network last seen roaming the vast ocean in 2007. 403 Forbidden, son!
- Jeff Jones: Maker of the trickest titanium mountain bike to date ran a blog showcasing his builds for customers in which he chronicle the full build, ride, disassemble and ship the completed bike. Then a report about a customers bike being jacked in the UK - an $8000 build no less! Went into a cold spell and has since reported technical difficulties although the main site is still published.
- Just Jared: A celebrity Hollywood site that did it with just a wee bit more class than Perez Hilton. But who am I kidding reading this bullshit.
- JTuned: Followed "Wilson's Import Racing Mix" to the tee in formula, represented for a year, found out the hard way there ain't no money in feeding eye candy to a bunch of pimple faced teenagers! And without passion, you get JTuned.
- Original Made: See JTuned above.
- Perez Hilton: Like reading a magazine on the shitter, I would bemuse myself with the latest gossip while eating lunch. But the last time it was bemusing or entertaining was when Perez was a fat queen bragging about hanging out with Paris Hilton and broke - it was rude, raw and underground. Then it became mainstream, diluted, and got passed off to assistant(s) writers, turning PG in the process, and needs to be dropped off the face of the planet.
- Stereo NYC: Cigarettes being choked on inside the club. That's VIP New York for you.
- Watch Movies: Used to provide streaming movies that were newly released. Like getting the $3 bootleg DVD sold at the hamburger stand, but for free, on your computer, on the same day as the film was released!
- NJS Frames Supermarket: It was the hotness and source to score an ex-racer NJS frame direct from Japan. Since I ride 58-59cm, I mostly viewed, for amusement, $1000 used steel frames (many times rusted and/or dented) being purchased direct from Japan like hotcakes. One time, a sparkling iridescent blood red 58cm came onto the market at $1300 but with the plethora of boutique builders in the United States that would build a truly custom bicycle at the same price, passed on that. The blog then turned into a store and dissolved into the nothingness of commerce.

As the saying goes, "No News is Good News!"



It's a sign of the times when the newspaper racks report yesterdays news and are half empty or half full depending on your outlook. These abandoned newsracks litter the metro city landscape. RACINGMIX photographed in Downtown Oakland, 19th Street, BART train station.

RACINGMIX, created in 2000 by Wilson Tai, a Chinese American, native resident of the San Francisco East Bay. Presenting a vision of global Generation-Y lifestyle through original photography and image production. Read more...

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