justeezy.

“No, I don’t like you – I just thought you were cool enough to kick it”

As I get older, I find it harder and harder to form platonic relationships with men. I don’t really have that many dude friends out here in Victoria, and I really miss it. Here come the ancient cliche questions: “Can men and women just be friends?” “Do guys only think of boning you when they first meet you, or do they actually want to get to know You?” There is no straight answer. I truly do believe that men and women can just be friends, but (in my experience), it always takes time to reach that level of comfort. Rarely do you see a guy + gal hitting it off right off the bat, remaining super tight without any sort of attraction from either side, at any given time. The whole “I just wanna be friends” and/or “Sorry, I don’t wanna bone” song-and-dance holds me back from reaching out to cool guys that I want to befriend or hang out with more. It’s a headache. What also gets me, is that I love making friends! But this year, I’ve only formed one good platonic relationship with the opposite sex.

There are obviously bigger issues in this world to ponder, but humour me for a sec. Am I jaded because of the type of men I’ve encountered in my own experience, or am I simply living in an era where casual-soul-killin-bonin’ overrides expressing non-physical love? Where the platonic love at?

So… How’s Your Girl?, 1999 | Featuring: Father Guido Sarducci, Josh Haden, Money Mark, Paula Frazer, and Sean Lennon | Producers: Dan The Automator, Prince Paul

“Forget about your sorrows
Forget about your heartache
Life is nothing but a shadow
Forget about your worries
Forget about the bad times
Life is nothing but a shadow
Without your sunshine”

source: myk1e.com

“Freedom! You askin me about freedom. Askin me about freedom? I’ll be honest with you. I know a whole lot more about what freedom isn’t than about what it is, cause I’ve never been free. I can only share my vision with you of the future, about what freedom is. The way I see it, freedom is the right to grow, is the right to Blossom. Freedom is the right to be yourself, to be who you are, to be who you wanna be, to do what you wanna do.” Assata Shakur

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” ~Tim Cahill

I went back home to Edmonton for Ally’s wedding this past weekend, and ended up having one of the most eventful five days that I’ve had in awhile. Some flicks from Friday night at our usual watering hole, The Common:

One of the hugest things I miss about being away from my girls is vibin and dancing with them.

I met this girl when we were 15 years old.. And what I loved most, she had so much soul. Forrealington – Annaliza is bomb.

Daniel – one of my oldest friends and a huge influence on my life!

Patrick is the best dancing partner ever. Ladies, he also has developed some muscley arms from all that rock climbing. Just so you know.

Okay enough of this cheese.

HAVEN boys

Kurly

RoRo

Nori is one crazy mofo.

No idea what’s going on here…

This month’s art on the walls.

Quality, 2002 | Produced by: Kanye West | Sample: The Chi-Lites – I Never Had It So Good (And Felt So Bad)

“Kweli – spruce to the tree, Bruce to the Lee”

Album: “#WayOfAWayfarer” | Track produced by: Gold Panda | Video directed by Dr. Woo.

I love when I wake up with beats in my head. Today it was this one, along with a huge smile on my face Happy hump day!

“marry me, itch-bay”

moral compass

perspective

Dead Serious, 1992 | Producers: Andre Weston, Willie Hines | Samples: James Brown – Blind Man Can See it, Quincy Jones – Body Heat, Malcolm McLaren – Buffalo Gals, James Brown – Funky President (People It’s Bad), James Brown – The Payback

Yabba doo, hippity-hoo, crack a brew

My friends make fun of me all the time for checking Craigslist’s Missed Connections on the regular. You can call it creepy, but for me, it’s just another form to get inspired. I love seeing how people express themselves, and the site just seems more “grassroots” than a magazine article or even a blog. I view CL’s Missed Connections as an underground forum for self-expression. Most posts are kind of lame and irritating to read, but once in awhile you come across little gems like this:

Hello, World – m4w
Sometimes I think about you, and wonder if you love me too. I am rejectable in a thousand ways, and commendable in a thousand more. I am both the light and the shade, my acceptance and my mortification. I want to move into your light, and peek into your shade. When you pass me off, that’s when I chase. And when you chase, I hide. I am a body to shoot your arrows into, because you shoot but will not say; call you on your words, and none of them will stay. Is it better to suffer the slings and arrows of cruel, cruel misfortune? It is a marvelous thing, and I give thanks everyday. I will drink a thousand cups of coffee and I will always think about the day, when at a party and during a song, you’ll come by and be my girl, and be happy to know the words to that very general song, apply to me and you. And the look seals it. It cuts through all the song and dance, and lets you know that I know, that I love you too. Until then, I’m going to keep pretending I’m angry.

Writing steez and skillz for days!

I love Badu, but I feel like this song is way more powerful live, with Jill Scott’s ‘all-woman’ voice. Plus, they got that Philly vibe goin on.

“That snake could be that chick
and that rat could be that cool cat,
that’s whispering, ‘she tryin to play you for the fool Black’
If something’s on your chest then let it be known
See I’m not your every five minutes all on the phone
and on the topic of trust, it’s just a matter of fact
that people bite back and fracture what’s intact”

Blu is a mf’n genius. And my idea of poetry.
Introspective lyrics, incredible wordplay, and steezy beat-choice skills. And he digs Billie Holiday. He has classic tastes. *swooon*

“I used to have
Peace, serenity, teaching divinity
Break bread, sipping the blood, eating with enemies
Blind, pearl on my mind thinking we fittin’ to be
This, that, and the third
Boy did I learn, tables turn
Billie holiday burned down to play when my nerves drowned my focus away
Swerving in the locomotive, far from my hopes and motives
Back to boasting at shows to get a standing ov
From all the fans I know on some of that
Sapphire rapid fire soul stuff I used to hit ‘em off with
But now I’m some ol’ “pay the toll” for the way I played the role
Cautious when I lace a flow, cause, pose? think I’m painting codes
Patience grown thin, home sick and haven’t been home since
Fuck a rapper, I’m an actor in a film called:
‘Leave me the fuck alone til’ I find a real job’
Busting chrome grills off at these soft-hearted breakbeats bouncing with 808′s and gray ink
Blue heart, red skies, true art died in the heart of my mind
Kept trying to fulfill this, blank-scribbled realness, even if it kills this
Poet inside

Used to speak sweet with sympathy
Tease to mimic me, sunshine every line you ever sent to me
Heaven sent, heavenly scent that later crippled me, shit
Simple men don’t learn, where was your empathy?
Couldn’t see the fork in the road
Kept straight forward, straight towards a humble abode we both hate more
Now that I fumbled and folded that open letter said “dead men walking don’t dream”
You taped yours, and you told me I could rent it
Thought it was invented for my viewing pleasure
Human error, the apprentice turned teacher, preacher turned God
Couldn’t reach ya, just a façade, the main feature
Modified for blogs, podcast the past, hi-definition, she laughed
Pass the message, now I’m guessing that the jokes on me
Cause I’m the only one threatened
The wretched by the windows sketching
Pencil mural of the method, don’t sweat it, techniques turning, burning incense
Listening to Billie burn my intent, definitive days that turn my nights to fiction
Friction-less, just a pen trynna pimp this stress, cause I couldn’t keep a lid on my life
Naïve as the dry leaves on the ground, looking past the tree to the blue sky asking:
‘Why me?’”

“To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent on things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them – while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease.”
- Eckhart Tolle

08.11 | Downtown, Victoria, BC

carl: “steezy! watch out!”
justeezy: “hmmm?”