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.
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:
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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.
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2Flippant: My friend, Ben, from Brisbane, Australia. Good thing the family is up and running!
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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.
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Dzark Design: Some hot stuff back in 2006 regarding graphic design, illustration, digital art. Broken link, but amazingly no back pack girl...yet!
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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".
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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!
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Jamie Doom: Once part of the Sinosplice network last seen roaming the vast ocean in 2007. 403 Forbidden, son!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Original Made: See JTuned above.
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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.
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Stereo NYC: Cigarettes being choked on inside the club. That's VIP New York for you.
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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!
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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.
2010! Peace to the 'Aughts and hello to the modern adult. "The Generic Man" doesn't need branding and logos to make him feel confident or stylish. He understands quality construction, clean refined lines and the significance of simplicity.
First week of November 2009: Sold the Volvo on Saturday night. Gone car-free, it feels 'effin fantastic to lose 3,000 lbs. Equipped with my single speed steel bicycles, no more pumping gas that feels like money in the bank; movement is powered by the heart, not combustion. I look out on the five-lane freeway from atop the BART platform, the freeway is congested like an ant trail with flashing brake lights, one car after another in file formation. Ironically, I fail to see the "freedom" that the car has been associated with for its marketed life. For excluding myself from the commute of grief, I spread a beaming smile cheek-to-cheek and step through the doors of the BART train. Not the first nor the last, a self-righteous elitist mentality it may be, but I can accept that in exchange for the pros. As the two things that connect me to the lowest common denominator have been eliminated from my daily ritual: the television and the car.
P.S. Thanks to Dave F. of Santa Cruz for showing me the light - we miss you in Concord. Miles' dedication and commitment to Wheels of Steel. Fossil Fuel and Rock the Bike for making me sweat it out Halloween night in the Mission. Thanks to the White brothers of Lafayette for the inspirational proof of cycling's pros for the physical and behavioral. Cotton of Walnut Creek and his essential commuter tips, looking forward to headwinds and rain. Thanks to the family for their support. Respect to those who are green, walking-the-walk, car-free; not anti-car, just pro-bike!
Update March 2010: Google updates
Google Maps engine with
bicycling directions!
"Since Wisconsin is also the home to Waterford, the makers of Schwinn bicycles, Paramounts litter the streets and are falling from the sky. You just have to catch them before they hit the ground." -
Prolly, January 2010"
"Norcal makes L.A. look and feel like Tijuana. -
Buscemi, Gourmet, December 2009
"There's an evolution in media moving toward digital. It is just the way of the world. Newspapers performed a huge function for many decades, but the world has changed now: video, photo galleries, all born of immediacy. When people get things on demand, publishing cycles do not work. So it is not a contest of print versus digital but an immovable, unstoppable force." -
Harvey Levin, TMZ founder, November 23, 2009
"You are wrong, I'm bone thugs in harmony." -
Tiger Woods, October 1, 2009
"I think the better thing would be to save your visual impact for select moments when you want to make a statement. It's all timing. You want to save your moments." -
Syd Mead, visionary, September 13, 2005.
"I believe Americans should be forced to work harder and sweat more. Worse, we continue to delude (deceive / dishonest) ourselves. Dunkin' Donuts slogan is 'America runs on Dunkin.' This is ridiculous. The truth is, America isn't running anywhere - America sits on its collective scranus and gets fat on Dunkin. The problem with commuting by bicycle isn't that it's too strenuous; it's that it's too dangerous. Straining makes you healthy. Danger kills you." -
Bike Snob NYC, September 24, 2009.
"A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it and you know it.β -
Andy Warhol, 1975.
"As in other fields, women seem to break through the glass ceiling just as the air-conditioning is being turned off in the penthouse office suites." -
Alessandra Stanley, Good Evening America, The New York Times, September 6, 2009
"Craig Newmark, without wavering, believes craigslist works because people are good. Whether you accept it as true will depend on your standard of goodness. By eliminating marketing, sales, and business development, craigslist's programmers have cut out all the cushioning layers that separate them from the users. Any right they have to teach lessons in public service comes from the odd situation of running a company that is directly subservient to the public. Here's the lesson: The public is a motherfucker." -
Gary Wolf, Wired, August 24, 2009
"Michelle Obama does not need to be rescued. She does not need you commenting on the finer points of her body. And she most definitely does not need our permission to wear shorts." -
Kate Dailey, The Human Condition, August 17, 2009.
"Because technology keeps moving, it keeps the tension alive between free and expensive, so it never stabilizes. In a sense, this rewards the innovative and punishes those who cannot innovate or change rapidly.β -
Stewart Brand, Futurist, 70 years old, July 20, 2009.
"Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, said when he was a college student along with Larry, they invented Google based off of open source, Linux. Morally, Sergey wants to give back to the open source community because it enabled Google. This business would not have existed if it were not for open source technology. So what other businesses can you create on this type of technology? Google has a role is mentoring businesses get off the ground. I think in a very broad view, different from a traditional CFO focused on bottom line and incremental action - not an incremental vision but a many-year, long-term vision. That is one of the reasons Google is successful today, and will continue to be successful. For that reason, I agreed to come work at Google. As an entrepreneur, Google's leadership doesn't block, but rather, enables every one of my visions." -
Andy Rubin, July 17, 2009, CNN Money.
"Life is pain and anyone who tells you different is selling something." - William Goldman, The Princess Bride, 1987.
"Sitting at a cafe in the alps and the two dudes next to me are drinking beer. It's not even 10am on a Monday." -
Lance Armstrong, Twitter, June 29, 2009.
"We (Founder Craig Newmark and Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster) both know some people who own more than a billion dollars and they're not any the happier. They also need bodyguards." - Craig Newmark of Craigslist.org.
"Shima is known for how and where he does his royales. Brian Aragon is known for his robotic and smooth style plus he's the spin king. Richie looks like he's always about to fall but he is actually so under control. Franky...well, he's Franky! Murda is a weirder black version of Aragon. Broskow is just weird - and solid. Bailey is just stupid because he has a unique style in the craziest spots."
bladerboy201, Shima Killer Boots, YouTube.
"I feel like a wall covered in graffiti. Anybody can just run up and leave a mark but the wall underneath remains solid. I need to wash off all the marks - I feel so saturated with everybody's bullshit...I need to get clean again." -
David Flores, Artist, Santa Barbara, California, May 26, 2009.
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Stella pictured on Lower Haight Street in San Francisco. You can see the last of the showers in the concrete. Peep the size 13 waterproof gore-tex SB Dunks (vintage 2007). Stomping 2009: good news, those close and in contact know just how stoked I am. It's been 5 years in the making. I consider it a more significant accomplishment than my bachelor's in Literature at Santa Cruz circa 2001. To think that factually, 10% of the population are college educated, yet having a University of California bachelors is dime-a-dozen. It's like the 10% rule: 10% create and contribute, the other 90% just shit on everything.
Finally, the snow base is over 100" and the powder fell from the skies and blanketed everything into a crusty white coral reef. Just waxed my board for the second time this season. If you're headed to South shore Lake Tahoe, Heavenly season pass ticket holder here, so hit a brotha' up!
Tags:
Doze Green, Lib Tech, 2006 Pacifier, Lindsey Whittaker, Dragon Motif, Secret Saturdays, RACINGMIX, Deep House Soldiers, Metrotuned, Opus One, 8-Bit Generation, Duck Foot Stance, Fakie Rider, Heavenly Mountain, Bay Area Riders of the Storm.
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"I've always been somewhat disillusioned with the educational system. Some people have said it was originally based on the idea that we're training factory workers, so it was very important to teach them to do some repetitive task for eight hours a day. What's going to be really exciting is when this Nintendo generation gets a little bit older and starts becoming teachers in schools. I think that's going to make a bigger difference than any kind of educational reform ever will. In the future a lot more learning will happen in the home." -
Will Wright, Inventor of SimCity, Wired Magazine, January 1994.
Re: BART Police New Years Shooting Fruitvale station subsequent riot protest.
I'm Pissed and Want a T.V. Let's Riot.
"After watching the news this morning and seeing the people rioting and looting in Oakland, allegedly for justice in the BART shooting, I want justice too. (Justice is what I'll name my new T.V.) I'm organizing a riot at the Best Buy in Dublin to protest. I'm not sure how destroying the neighborhood and private property, stealing merchandise, and lighting cars on fire is a protest to what happened. It doesn't matter. The people doing it didn't know either, but if it means that I can get a new 52" 1080p 120Hz Flat-Panel LCD HDTV with DNIe (Digital Natural Image engine), wide color enhancer and CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp), and 2 built-in 10W down-firing bottom-mount speakers then I'm all for it. So here's the plan. Email me and we'll figure out what time to meet up at the Starbucks next to Jamba Juice. We'll probably "get our pissed on" when everyone arrives and start the riot right there. We can start this riot right by smashing some coffeehouse windows, setting those paper sleeves on fire, and looting some white chocolate mochas. (It's gonna get cold out there.) With our bellies full of caffeinated brewed goodness we can move our angst and desire for "Justice" across the parking lot to the Best Buy before the cops get there. When they do finally get there we can "hoot and holla" about nothing in particular while we jump up and down on their cars and smashing windows and stealing more stuff. Gonna be great. We'll need someone to make some signs on 8"x11" pieces of paper making reference to the BART shooting to really make this legit. And if anyone knows how to use an espresso machine, that'd be great. Once they see how angry we are, the Starbucks employees will probably flee. See you tonight! P.S. Will need at least one more person with the ability to lift 80 pounds. Thanks!" -
Rants and Raves, Craigslist, January 1, 2009
"Hip Hop used to be about being fearless, standing out. Now it's all about fitting in. Hip Hop is like a big high school. That's why I respect people who can do whatever they want to do. -
Kanye West, November 19, 2008, MTV Raw.
"We now have a "Clean House Depression" - you know that TV show where pack rats fill their houses from floor to ceiling with junk they never use or even know they have. The US has plenty of houses, cars, computers, TV's, Appliances, Cell phones, Game consoles and other Junk, most of which were made in China. Some people actually managed to own their junk by runs around the system - most bought their junk on credit that will never be repaid. So we can turn off the Chinese Factories for 10 years until some of the junk wears out. But all those workers will starve. The solution to the infamous depression was to blow up the world's cities and put people back to work building new ones. A mismatch between productive capacity and consumption. Computers and robots will do all the work but robots don't buy the stuff they make, they work 24/7/365, plus faster than humans." -
Jet, Nov 22, 2008.
"John McCain said he cannot even send e-mail! We need a President who can send e-mail. I think that sort of thing is important, don't you?" - DJ Z-Trip,
944 Magazine with Shepard Fairey.
"At the end of the day, we are responsible for our own lives. Once you learn that, you're on your way." -
Isaac Hayes (1942-2008)
"But I know that time reveals truth and heals wounds. I definitely do miss the Fugees. We were a crazy bunch. We used to do some wild things, we had a lot of fun. But the funny thing about liberation is that once you get it, anything other feels awkward." - Lauryn Hill,
August 26, 2008.
"Respect is not creative...Chanel is an institution, and you have to treat an institution like a whore - and then you get something out of her...I'm only interested in my own opinion. If I have a project, you like, or you don't like. There is no second opinion. If you are not 100% sure about what I want to do, you ask someone else." - Karl Lagerfield,
August 24, 2008.
"I guess it's bittersweet, you spend half your life trying to become larger than life and the other half trying to just live a real life again." -
Kanye West, July 6, 2008.
"Please note that saying 'someone' needs to do 'something' will not be any more helpful on that issue. We are already well aware of that." -
Michelle, Drupal.org, June 19, 2008.
"U.S. officials repeated their call yesterday for China to stop subsidizing fuel for its citizens, arguing that it contributes to surging demand for oil and thus higher global prices. Since Chinese citizens pay a fraction of the market price, they have less incentive to pull back in their use of gasoline and heating oil. But while China's population is larger and consumption is growing at a much faster rate than in the United States, the Chinese note that the average American consumes about 14 times as much oil as his Chinese counterpart." -
The Associated Press, June 18, 2008.
"Pay respect to the elders and take the suggestions of the intellectuals; treat them as your teachers. Consider those who will not flatter but always criticize you. Because good and bad, kind and evil, and right and wrong are not easy to tell apart. Some things are similar in appearance but different in nature. For example, green bristle grass seeds can look like rice. The hide of the cow is the same color as the tiger's. Bone can be mistaken for ivory and worthless stone for pure jade. All of these are
apparently right, but actually wrong. So if you want to distinguish between them, you must observe them carefully." -
Duke Wei-Wen, Tang Dynasty Official
"Gavin Newsome + Mary Jane = True Love" -
Sarah Hromack, April 16, 2008
"The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low, that every person of sense and character detests and despises itβ -
George Washington
"...Boning you on my helicopter." -
John Mayer, March 7, 2008
"Real mixtapes. Once cassettes died, the music started dying, both literally and figuratively. Mainly, the cassette tape forced the listener to appreciate an artist's entire album of work. None of this skipping-around CDs introduced. And now, you can completely ignore a musician's finished volume thanks to iTunes and single-downloading. You can even forget about the artwork, since the music vendors are threatening to pull tangible CDs off the shelves. So yeah, let's bring back the cassette. The only problem: No one has a tape-player!" -
Bobby Hundreds, April 4, 2008
"As humans, we are subjected to an overload of sensory stimulation every second of everyday. We are bombarded with millions upon millions of images and sounds. Yet, we can only comprehend things as they happen. There is so much to take in, even when things seem calm...that is when I wonder, what is important? You can hear, see and feel the most incredible things when nothing is happening at all. The most common occurrences can become events of such magnitude that seem as if they taken years to orchestrate, and who is to say that they did not? Thoughts move through my mind too fast for me to get them down on paper. These thoughts end up manifesting themselves in dreams that make sense only to me. When you spend enough time watching, listening and thinking, you can almost transcend to a place where you believe in anything. It keeps me continually engaged with the pleasures of life." -
Jacob, designer & photographer.
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I'm excited about today's opening of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. From what I've heard from friends in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, they are excited just to have the Olympics over with as the publicity and fever tension of the marketing campaign is exhausting. Either way, having the Olympics on 08-08-08 at 8:00pm is about as blatantly "lucky" of a moment one will ever witness in this lifetime.
Yahoo's Flickr photo hosting website canceled one of my freshly paid pro accounts with no advanced notice, literally erasing 2 years of titles, tags, descriptions, groups, sets, and connections. Of course I have the original photos, but the order and the information I attached to each photo was lost. The portfolio had 400 photos and was viewed over 50,000 times. It consisted of photographs of custom design furniture after it had been delivered to the customers home - a real portfolio of original photographs. When is a collection of photos not a portfolio, not selling something (your lifestyle, skills, style, view, yourself?) The official response from Flickr was: "Don't use Flickr for commercial purposes. Flickr is for personal use only. If we find you selling products, services, or yourself through your photostream, we will terminate your account." If you surf around Flickr and through your contacts, you'll find that the majority violate the terms and that's not a bad thing for the Flickr community. When my Flickr renewal notice came up, best believe I thought doubly about renewing my RACINGMIX Flickr pro account.
History of image production output 2006-2008, especially in 2006 when Mr H. Saba sponsored RACINGMIX. Psst:
Zen Photo. - wilson@racingmix.com 080808
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