skaboi-j's Blog

9/27

i've been checking out other web sites and found a few more ska-bivores. i actually found a web site for hepcat and fishbone!! okay, i know, i know! where have i been, they've had web sites for years! okay, alright already! i'm new to the web and all - so sue me!! now that i'm in the know ... i've requested that they be my friends - and they accepted!! does it get any better?! maybe, just maybe if i get this pod cast up and going i can invite them to show up at the cafe for a few shows, or to taste a few dishes and offer their opinion (?) ... yuh never know.

classes started. yes, i graduated but i'm going back for more torture. i'm taking post-baccalaureate classes so that i can get accepted into graduate school. it's nice having a bfa, but practically everyone in the bay area - sort of - has a college degree, and they're still pumping gas, waiting tables, tearing tickets or parking cars. that's kind of scarey. so i'm going to try and better my skills even more. will it make a difference considering the financial mess that the country/government's in?

at any rate, one good thing is that there are more ska-bivores out there, not just me. it feels good. sometimes i feel like i'm the only one. of course, i know that's not true. i see 'em all over the place, but sometimes i don't have the confidence to go up and talk to them. what if they turn out to be rudies?! i give 'em props and respect but still ... i'm trying to invite as many ska-bivores and potential ska-bivores that i can to check out my web page, trying to connect and meet people. it's harder than i thought. but i don't give up on the power of skankin' music!

i found some old paintings that i did when i first started painting, not too bad. i uploaded them. feel free to comment on them. i'm getting frustrated that people aren't making comments on my blogs or pics. then i found out from a friend that she actually checked out my site but that in order for her to comment she had to join mevio!!! what's up with that?! no wonder no one's been commenting. not everyone wants to join a web site just to make comments! very annoying ...

if anyone finds a way around that little road block, let me know.

9/12

keeping up with blogs is getting tedious. i'm new to all of this. i get excited putting web-pages together, but after that it's hard to stay on top of them. i joined myspace.com and checked out a few people, hardly any of them - none of them! - posted blogs. some of them had been members for over a year! so i guess i shouldn't get too concerned.  i'm trying to get connected, got a few 'so-n-so wants to be your friend', chicks wanting to meet guys through the internet. kind of creepy. i'm not that type of guy. i like meeting females but there's something ... i dont' even know the word for it but i feel kind of put off. especially when their accompanying photo is pretty risque ... not sure i want to meet up with any man-eaters. i guess this isn't the best of blog posts but it'll have to do. 

9/8

finally found one of my reggae hero drawings!! this one is an oversized charcoal/pastel drawing of david, the lead signer form steel pulse. i chose him for my 'heroes' series bcz one, they started out as a punk band and he would perform on stage sometimes wearing a klan outfit, like thumbing his nose at them. he was david, their stage was the valley of elah and the racist system was goliath.

the reference material came from an album cover, i chose it bcz of his gaze, he's looking up and over at someone or something, very focused, very steady.  i got to see them perform at the warfield in 'frisco and actually sat on the stage for a few songs - awesome.  every generation needs a hero.

aug. 19, 2008

skaboi -j with another posting.  like i said in the 'welcome' posting, i'm a ska-bivore; and i also said that there would be much more words about ska. i can change that a little by saying that i'll share my feelings about the artists, musicians and writers/poets who have influenced and uplifted me. i received my bfa this summer. my sr. show was called 'muses by the palette', it was an homage to a few of the legends that have carried me. if i figure out how all of these little icons in the header works i'll add some of their images in this and later postings.

so... one of the paintings in the show was a portrait of peter tosh, from the album cover 'stepping razor', it's a compilation of some of his greatest recordings. i feel that here in the u.s. peter doesn't receive a lot of recognition for his role in creating and introducing ska, rock-steady and reggae to the world. here's a little trivia: the two-tone man for two-tone records is a b/w reversed image of peter tosh. yup, neville used a photo of tosh from jamaica's rude boy era. i love it!! in the carribean, europe and africa, peter tosh is not forgotten. i would like it very much if peter tosh and jacob 'killer' miller lived on in the minds of many :) !!

my play list/podcast - so far - is packed with ska tracks. one of them is the band 'red ska' and their third track 'vivo' is a live recording that opens with an audio blurb of tosh. much props to those guys. i think they're an italian (?) or portuguese band, not sure, but it's kind of cool skankin' and head-bobbin' to these guys that have heard and felt the vibration regardless of language barriers... much respect.

this may take a while but i'm now going to attempt to down-load an image of my peter tosh portrait to this posting. the painting is in oil, 40" x 36", and is called 'blue razor'. i used a cool blue monochromatic palette for his image and a warm, orange palette for the background. sometimes reversing the temperature in a composition can 'pop' the image out from the background. here we go ....

well ... i could have cropped it better but it'll have to do for now.  peter tosh (all of the wailin' wailers!) is one of my heroes. i admire him for being real, and i think it's rad that he rode a unicycle :)!!  the next posting will be dedicated to one of my favorite authors.

i welcome your comments.