12FT DWENDE : RETROSPECT ISSUE by Nick Naraja

12FTDWENDE MAGAZINE

THEY CALL THEM GOLDEN HANDCUFFS

AN ARTICLE BY LEIA LAYUS

KEEP RHYTHM... FLOW AND SIMPLE

BAY AREA ARTIST CHRISTOPHER DE LEON TALKS ART

TABLE OF CONTENTS

YUKUMI NAGANO: THE 12FT INTERVIEW THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE?

LAUREN SMITH INTRODUCES US TO THE FREEGANS

PHONTE COLEMAN: THE 12FT INTERVIEW

JAKE BROOKS’ TOP 5 MOVIES OF THE 21ST CENTIRY

JAKE TELLS US HIS TOP 5 MOVIES OF THE 21ST CENTURY (PART 2 of 4)

TALK SHIT, SWALLOW...SPIT

CHAZ TALKS HIP HOP WITH ALEXANDER SPIT

HOLY GOLD, WHAT A WEEK

AN ARTICLE BY DAVID SCOTT

RETURN OF THE DWENDE EVENT : PHOTOSET

38 2

TAKEN BY JORDEN YEE

12ftDwende: A Retrospective 2009-2010 As we head into our third year of 12ftDwende, we are proud to bring our project to the next medium: the 12ftDwende Magazine. What has always been a long term goal is finally coming to fruition with the release of the premiere issue next month. The magazine will compliment the website content with the same quality and thoroughness you have come to expect from 12ftDwende. To give you an idea of what to expect with the new format, we’ve decided to put together some of the most memorable moments from the past two years into a retrospective compilation - including two of our most notable 12ft Interviews, Yukumi Nagano and Phonte Coleman. The most common response when putting folks onto Little Dragon is, “Her voice is amazing!” The Gothenburg-based Yukumi Nagano has a sound that’s strong, yet vulnerable; playful, yet sincere. This interview, conducted right after the release of Machine Dreams, gave us a glimpse of the artist behind the music, her creative process, and her start with Little Dragon. What more could be said about Phonte Coleman that hasn’t already been said? An accomplished emcee, singer, and performer, the Grammy nominated artist is currently headed into the next step of his musical journey with his much anticipated solo album, due sometime in 2011. This interview was conducted after the release of the second Foreign Exchange album, Leave it All Behind. Coincidentally, as I type this, I have the Arthur Verocai Timeless DVD playing in the background. Most hip hop heads recognize the name from the song “Caboclo”, sampled by 9th Wonder on Little Brother’s The Minstrel Show. We hope you enjoy what we have coming up for you in the next few months. As always, any comments or concerns can be sent to jon@12ftdwende.com. Peace to 2010, Jon Reyes 31

THEY CALL IT THE 2

HANDCUFFS

BY ORI 7.18

L E I A L AY U S I G I N A L LY P U B L I S H E D 8.2009

“Two-oh-five, two-oh-six, two-oh-seven..” I paused for a moment to peer into the side of the espresso machine, brushed my hair aside and dabbed at my smudged mascara. ”Two-oh-eight, two-oh nine, two oh ten…eleven.” Stacking the receipts and stapling the final paperwork. It was a ritual signaling the end of the evening and the only part of a busy night that I knew by heart. It was fourty-five past the hour and Chris, the evening bartender, had only just begun to take over tables. Awaiting for a moment to catch him, I pulled my cell phone out and typed into the screen: “I did it.” Send. “It just slowed down. It was pretty busy tonight, wouldn’t you say?” “Definitely… Hey, Thanks for your help tonight. Here are your tips.” “Thank you,” he smiled and folded the bills into his pocket before the tone in his voice softened. “So, when are you done here?” “I suppose 2 weeks… so not next friday but the following.” The words felt unfamiliar and surprisingly lovely as they escaped my lips. “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you leaving?” And then incredulously, “I mean, how are you going to find a job that makes you as much money as this place?” They were the same words that had played over and over in my mind… but they had grown too familiar and exhausted themselves from meaning anything. “At a certain point, the money doesn’t matter. You just want to be happy.” The corner of his mouth curled up. He nodded his head, “I dig that.” A small chatter pulled Chris to attend to a table having a slow round of drinks. I leaned against the register and stare at the blaring light overhead. It was that harsh lighting that buzzed when it was turned on and always seemed to make everyone look like they had increased perspiration. Chris was a mere 22 years old or so and had just graduated from the State University nearby. As his school year came to a close, his work schedule picked up right where it left off. Chris caught his breath, placed the serving tray aside and leaned against the register once more. “…. so, you’re ready to be happy… i like that.” “Well, look, everyone is working, working, working. Everyone, even the investment bankers you’re serving out there, we’re all working hard to save for that day when we’ll have enough to afford putting everything perfectly into place so that we can finally be happy… but that day is never going to come… because it’s now. It’s all happening right now.” A soft beep came from my cell phone as a text message was being received. The clock was shooing me out as Chris nodded goodbye with a sense of understanding. As I exit the building to close out for the evening I pull my cell phone close and open the message: “Yay!!! Welcome to the rest of your life. It’s a Choose Your Own Adventure!!”

Keep Rhythm... Flow and Simple

B Y A I L E E N PA G A D A N G A N A N | O R I G I N A L LY P U B L I S H E D 2 . 2 5 . 1 0

them as female robots,” he said. “I’ve always loved the female form. I think they’re always elongated and graceful looking, but strong.” From the sights of de Leon’s pieces it’s evident he’s distinguished a style that collides his fascination with the imperfections of authentic objects with the beauty of the female form. He’s produced a progressive style that showcases different realms of his interpretations through various mediums. From wood burning to sculpting to painting to sketching, de Leon creates from the heart in liberation of his mind. And sometimes unknowingly he creates themes among his work. Last year, de Leon implemented a heart into each of his robotic pieces supplying every one of his paintings with the shape. And when asked if there was meaning behind that action, he reassured me most of his pieces don’t have a deep meaning upon its initial creation. “I

As Christopher de Leon steps onto the 38, he quickly flashes his MUNI pass at the driver and searches for an empty seat. He walks toward the back of the bus and pulls out a pen and his Moleskine. Quickly, he glances through the adjacent windows and begins to scan the view of the city outside. Subconsciously, he starts to analyze every object that passes his view. From old rusty buildings to fire hydrants to people walking down the streets, de Leon finds himself in the middle of a thought process prologue to creation. Stop after stop, de Leon sketches the first image that manifests his mind repeatedly adding details throughout the bus ride. Never seeking to erase until his time on the bus has exhausted. Similar to freewriting, de Leon sketches on the fly filtering his ideas all over his canvas until reaching destination. At the end of his route what once was a blank page is now covered in sketches of a female aesthetic to his imagination. Often inspired by imperfections, this 26-year old artist finds beauty in those tarnished. “Urban decay [and] anything with little bits of rust coming through. Little imperfections like that” is a visual de Leon keeps in mind when painting. Utilizing a mellow color pallet and paying attention to intricate details, he is an artist often known for his signature robotic-female looking pieces. “’What I’ve been hearing lately is a ‘de Leon girl.’ The way I draw my females, I sometimes draw 5

analyze it later on and if I get something out of it then that’s good. But usually I just paint.” For de Leon, there’s no blueprint to his work or any prior sketches needed, he simply paints off impulse and allows each of his projects to come alive at their own pace never jumping forward of the visual before him. However, it’s been heard that his audiences have viewed his work in ways he’s never interpreted before. An individual told him his work conveys positive messages. “ “She told me: ‘No matter how worn out, torn or scarred up my subject matter is, [usually] there’s always some sort of glimmer of life in between.’” de Leon said. “She doesn’t know how it conveys to me personally though, but that’s usually what people see from my work. Something like there’s ‘life after death’ in my pieces.” Now however you choose to see his work, this artist leaves that notion up to you. He likes to leave the door open for his viewers to interpret their own when they first see his work. He appreciates a viewer’s individual understanding of his paintings and embraces both positive and negative comments from onlookers. He feels that with any reaction taken he’s been rewarded with the attention from another being. “If I can get someone to stop and admire a piece, to take a second or two out of their day I’ve done my job. Even if I got someone to talk shit or admire my piece, I still feel accomplished to get someone’s attention.” de Leon says he is just doing what he loves and is trying to stay alive while doing it. As a student of his craft for about 6 years on-and-off, de Leon has progressed into an artist he’s always dreamed of becoming. “I’ve become an efficient painter now. And my paintings have definitely got more intense and more solid. The style is coming more into itself and my technique has

gotten a lot better and tighter.” What just started as him painting in his homemade studio, he has now transformed into an artist in high demand at local venues and galleries all over the Bay Area. Now doing live art shows on a regular basis, de Leon is reaching more attention from curators and other artists. In 2009, he had a show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, as he was elected as one of the first painters to ever paint on the museum walls. In front of a crowd of approximately 400-500 people there de Leon stood for two and a half hours painting on the huge canvas de Young provided – an action he never dreamed up till that day. And in that year alone, he was doing an average of 2-3 shows a month, but now he’s found himself coming off the month of January with a personal record of nine shows proving that with this kind of momentum de Leon is on his way to making a name for himself. But along with live art comes another factor in de Leon’s life. While his initial focus was to hone his craft to begin with, de Leon has branched out and found another way for him to outlet his creativity. Just this month, he’s been chosen to help teach and facilitate an art class at the Filipino Community Center in the Excelsior District in San Francisco. Every Friday, you can catch him interacting with the community interested in pursuing art. Now taking aspiring artists of all ages, he finds this as an opportunity to share his knowledge with folks by engaging them in techniques he’s developed over the years. So when I found out he was teaching, I urged myself to ask him for advice on painting. This is what he said: “Just keep rhythm… flow and simple.” That’s it. Words he originally recognizes as his motto, but words I now recognize through the fluid motion of his art.

C H E C K O U T C H R I S A T: myspace.com/truevisuals O R F O L L O W H I M A T: t w i t t e r. c o m / t r u e v i s u a l s

BY LEIA LAYUS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 3.2.10

THE 12FT

INTERV I EW

YUKIMI NAGANO

The Swedish vocalist, Yukimi Nagano, is best known for her sultry, soulful voice and catchy melodies for the Gothenburg–based band, Little Dragon. Last week, Nagano was able to set aside time in her busy schedule on tour to discuss Little Dragon’s latest album release, cultivating creativity, and the path that has led her to actualize herself through Little Dragon. 9

I understand that when you originally graduated from high school you wanted to go to music school. You didn’t end up going, but you did end up going on tour doing music. What was the original motivation to go to music school and what have you learned since not going? I just wanted to do music without having to work any other jobs. I was at that point where my only option instead of working was going to school. I had friends that went to music school and I really wanted to go. I was really, really, motivated to go, really determined and so I worked really hard. My problem is I don’t know any music theory or read any music. I [thought] they wouldn’t care about that, and I’ve never cared about that. I’ve never needed to read music to sing, you know, what are you talking about? And I just thought I’d go there and sing and they’ll be like: “Yeah you’re in” but it wasn’t like that. I was extremely nervous and extremely shy and [at the time] I was singing with Koop. I had a friend who was on the panel, so everyone knew the “girl from Koop” was there. I know what they said, they were like “Oh, I thought she was going to be good!” Oh my god! It really, really hurt me. I was like, “I can’t believe they said that!” I was really crushed. I think I’m really happy I didn’t go now. Some of the schools that I tried out for… I can really feel that because I was at a pretty fragile age at a pretty fragile time 10

in my life where I was extremely influenced by people because I wasn’t as sure what I wanted to do. I think that if someone said, “No, you can’t sing like that, you have to sing like this,” I would have probably listened and established right from wrong. I think in that way it was probably a good thing that I didn’t go to music school because some of the people I heard just aren’t very interesting as vocalists… as my take.

Well, I was reading up on your background and it sound like you have gained a lot of personal success by going on tour even outside of Little Dragon. You’ve worked with successful acts such as Koop and Jose Gonzalez… Yeah… …and it seems like you’ve been able to put together a successful music career for yourself.

Well, for me personally, I was recording with a lot of people when I was younger. Other projects… including Koop, which was one of the more acceptable out of the other projects I’ve been featured on. But um, I guess if you ask… I mean for me, it’s a little bit difficult to relate to the music I’ve sung on. If you ask any kind of producer or musician in 10 years [about] all the music that they’ve done, you know, the earlier stuff will always feel difficult to relate to. Especially for me, especially a lot of the songs I sung on were sort of… they were all lyrics and melodies I hadn’t written myself. And at the time I was sort of so eager to be singing on anything, even though for me… I was kind of like “erase it”. If you sing on it and if it happens to get a little bit of hype, it’s out there and there’s nothing you can do about it. In a way it’s good, but personally for me, um, I’d rather erase about half of the things I was featured on and wish that it hadn’t been this successful. (laughs) That’s a pretty hard thing to say. No, no, no, I think I understand what you mean. The whole point is to create things that more closely represent yourself, right? Yeah, but I think at the same time it’s not that I regret doing it. It’s maybe that I’m a little bit disconnected to a lot of it, actually. I feel a little bit embarrassed about a lot of it because I don’t feel it represents me. I feel that it’s my name there, loud and clear, you know? So it’s like, I represent it even if, say it were a saxophone playing that melody. It would be

whoever wrote the melody that would become the name and not the saxophone player. And I was sort of like… just an instrument in a lot of cases, being someone else’s voice. I mean, it was a part of my journey to be where I am now… [but] I wish (laughs) that I wasn’t so visible. I’m actually curious about this, let’s delve into it a bit more. I’m interested in understanding the journey of finding creativity as a musician and clarity in life. Ah, cool. Although these past projects are works you wish you could “erase” out of regret for misrepresentation of who you are, they are also the projects that created a sense of urgency for you to create what you are creating now with Little Dragon. Yeah, it’s moving, definitely. I think some artists are very clear. [They have a] goal, they know exactly who they are and what they represent. For me, it took time. I had to go through a lot of different things and, you know, singing other people’s music to a point where I couldn’t stand singing anyone’s…. I just wanted to sing my own lyrics and sing my own melodies. And when I finally found my place, you know with the band, I felt so at home that I was pretty determined that I didn’t want to do anything else ever again because I’d done it so much. I’ve been sort of dictated enough. In the beginning I was sort of shy and I didn’t even really speak my mind, even if it was something that I wasn’t feeling. I was just so eager to sing

on anything. I think it’s like what you said… it’s definitely why I’m at where I’m at now. Yeah, everyone, sort of has [his or her] own path and for me, I had to go through a lot of phases. It’s interesting to hear you say that you want to ERASE the past projects. For me, I’ve only recently started listening to Little Dragon as of this past year, and so your past works to me are already distant because I didn’t learn of them until after I’d heard of Little Dragon. So I feel like in a lot of ways, merely continuing to create and write for Little Dragon, it is an erasure of the past in some way. Well, that’s great to hear because for me, it’s become a big deal in my head. (laughs) But I know it’s not a big deal in reality…in the world. So it’s just like, for yourself, one of those things that I occasionally kind of dwell on… umm, when I’m feeling in that kind of mood (laughs). So it’s nice to hear that. Yes, absolutely. So, tell me about the creative process so far. I understand that when Little Dragon first began, you didn’t really have a name, you didn’t really think of yourself as a band and it was merely getting together with your close friends and you’d just play and create things… but there’s always a certain amount of pressure for a 2nd and 3rd album. How has this changed the creative process? I mean it has changed. I can’t really deny it, even though we’ve tried really to keep the same 11

about it --- to keep the same philosophy about making music. Yeah I think we realize it’s not really worth um…getting paranoid or becoming too nervous, you know? Because it’s one of those things, like we were talking about before, you can easily get too caught up with yourself when you come out with an album. And it is a big deal, for 12

you and for the band, and for the fans and everything. But at the same time, it’s like you can be so caught up in your head, cause you’re so into the music, and then all of a sudden you’re going to release it. And when it becomes too serious, when you become sort of scared and paranoid, it can take away a lot of the fun about it, especially in

the writing process. We had that sort of vibe when we felt that, at the end of the day, “you started doing this cause you loved doing it and you have fun”. [We] find a way to survive together in the studio and cause we really have this ambition to make something that fills you and inspires ourselves with the sounds. To make music we love and that somehow

feels fresh and warm. Because I think we were a bit tired of music. A lot of stuff on the radio felt a bit bland and that’s sort of why we were jamming. We got so caught up in that bubble in the beginning, and I think now we try to get back to that place and just… it’s a cliché I guess… just have fun.

Yeah, I recall in a video blog, someone asked you, what are you doing to and prepare for recording and you said very simply: “I’m just going to show up and see what happens”. It seems with any creative endeavor, “thinking” doesn’t belong there. Right, yeah. I think it’s true actu-

ally. I mean especially on tour, it’s different kind of kicks, you know? Because when you’re on stage, you can get a kick out of that, and in the studio…. For me it’s sort of like [I’m] in this state of mind where I’m listening to something over and over and over and I’m just getting really into it and I’m trying all these melodies and lyrics and 13

show, you know, where it sold out, and the crowd was very up for it. And then we had the sort of, disaster shows, as well, and disaster venues. It was a lot of contrast, a lot of hard work, but [an] amazing experience. And it really made us grow as a band. Are there any shows in the US that stick out in your head?

I’ll listen for maybe two or three hours. It’s just the same thing. And every now and then it feels like it just fits… the puzzle fits. Sometimes it feels that way a few days later or a while afterwards and you don’t really realize it, because maybe you’re too self-conscious or you don’t like it for some reason. That can be a real kick as well, in the studio. It seems like you guys have had a pretty positive response since the release of your Self Titled album. Was there ever a time when things looked bleak for Little Dragon? Yeah, definitely (laughs). I’ve actually heard a few times when I’ve done interviews, “How does it feel to have so much Success?” And it’s weird, but um, I don’t look at it that way. I mean, we’ve done so many shows… so many shows. [I remember] a few in Ireland that were just disastrous. Just ten people came and twenty people… and oh my god it’s fifty people here. It was really, really tough. And you can do those shows for quite a while… and it 14

can get to you. One thing that I learned from doing those shows is you’ve really got to use your imagination. I mean, if you have a show and there are ten people there, you’ve got to pretend like it’s full. And then, you have to pretend like it’s a ringing applause when it’s just ten people. And you have to really get into the music with yourself. I think that’s something that made us grow as a live band. We had to make it fun; we couldn’t depend on the audience. So uh, I think that made us more free. Obviously, you get shows where people really do show appreciation and then you still have [bad shows] and you get really humbled by them (laughs). Last Fall, Little Drag on had just done their first US national tour. How was driving through our country? Yeah, It was very heavy actually. I mean, it’s a big country. So there were some pretty, uh, long drives and I think that the shows were very well varied. We had everything from the very perfect

Positive ones? Well, in both ways there are shows that stuck out. I mean, I can remember one show in Syracuse, that was maybe one of the more difficult, um, shows that we had (laughs). And then, you know, we had like the El Ray that sold out and like [it was] a sort of perfect ideal show. San Francisco was great as well. The good ones stick out and the bad ones stick out. In between you sort of get blur, blurry, in your memory after so many dates. Yeah, Well you’ve sort of been on tour for the past few years, haven’t you? Uh yeah, well, we’ve been home in-between here and there. It’s been a lot of touring, yeah. Little Dragon released their latest album, Machine Dreams, in late August. I understand that Little Dragon wanted to create a more upbeat and dance driven album for their audience. How has your audience responded since touring this latest album? Actually, last night was really good. I think a lot of it is about having the right promotion --promoting the album properly. I

felt that people were sort of reserved in the beginning but by the end of it, I could tell everyone had warmed up and were having a good time. Yeah, so uh, I think maybe Europe is a little bit more reserved. But it was good. I understand that you’re currently in Marseilles. Yeah, it’s been pretty busy. It’s been busy from last fall until Christmas. We had a break at home and we’re writing some music in the studio and stuff and now it’s uh, getting pretty busy again. So we’ll be on the road for a while, yeah. What has working in a touring band taught you? I think being in a band humbles you for sure. Everyone has an ego, everyone wants to shine, and you have to work together, you have to compromise. You have to spend time together even at the most difficult moments when you’re ridiculously tired and hungry. Yes, [touring] has taught me to be humble. I would have never been able to find my own personal style without the guys, and I’m actually completely dependent on them when I make music. I really need them when I write. Any collaboration we do these days, I bring them. Even if people only want my vocals, I always bring them with me because it always turns out better. What are your thoughts on the current music industry and the future of music? I feel very optimistic, actually. I just feel like everyone’s kind

of like, panicking, and record labels are totally, like, negative and whining and everything. And of course that affects the artist because you don’t feel the love from them. They’re not paying for everything you want them to pay for. You get a lot of “No’s”. We do, you know? I’m still… optimistic because, [for example] when we played in Poland, nothing really happened too much there. But we kept going there playing…and this [last] time it was full and it was really great vibes. We sold out shows and everything. A guy at one of the shows was saying that they don’t even have iTunes in Poland. There’s no way for them to actually pay for the songs because they don’t have access to it and the only way for them to get it is to download it [free]. For us to actually go out there and play is obviously a lot better than not going there and playing, and we wouldn’t have that opportunity if they didn’t download our songs [for free]. Now obviously they can buy it in stores. In Sweden a lot of people use Spotify. You pay for a fee and you get a music library.

anything you think of. I think it’s about finding ways that can catch up with technology, basically. At the same time…[the current industry] is giving a lot of opportunity to [allow young bands] to reach to people all over the world if you’re really ambitious and you work hard on your profiles on Myspace, Twitter and Faceboook, and blah blah blah. There are a few artists in Sweden, not my favorite, who got blasted on the radio all summer. This guy, a nerd, in his room, you know, Euro –Disco, by himself, no label, really good at a nice Myspace and music for ringtones… and making loads of money. There are a lot of opportunities but at the same time, everyone feels that labels are still necessary. They just don’t have as much money to promote artists these days… unless you’re with a major. But there are still ways. I mean, it’s not like people aren’t interested in music. People feel more interested in music than ever.

Yeah, we’re trying to establish systems like that here in the U.S.

I would say, just trying to work your imagination really hard. Those moments can be very difficult on the road or at home. Any show that’s been difficult, you sort of just pretend like it’s great and it actually feels great. To be positive, to be flexible and to imagine good things. I think that [works] to your advantage in all sorts of different situations in life. You can do a lot of work in your mind if you just use your imagination.

I’ve heard labels really complain about the program saying they never got paid. But I think it’s just because it’s in that “in-between” stage where they haven’t really gotten it to work. I mean everybody [in Sweeden] uses it and loves it and is just amazed by it. I mean you have your phone, or whatever, and you just have all the music on it… like

With that said, what is your mantra for creating and living?

BY LAUREN SMITH ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 3.20.10

THE BEST THINGS

IN LIFE ARE FREE?

12F T READ ERS MEET TH E F REEGANS F re e g a n s a re pe o ple wh o e m p l o y a lt e r n a t ive s t r a t e g ie s f o r livin g b a se d o n limit e d pa r t ic ipa t io n in t h e c o nv e nt io n a l e c o n o my a n d min ima l c o ns u mpt io n o f re s o u rc e s . F re e g a ns e m br a c e c o mmu n it y, g e n e ro s it y, so c i a l c o n c e r n , f re e do m, c o o pe r a t io n , a nd s h a r in g in o ppo s it io n t o a s o c i e t y ba s e d o n ma t e r ia lis m, mo r a l a p a t hy, c o mpe t it io n , c o n f o r mit y, a n d g re e d .

MORE INFO VISIT WWW.FREEGAN.INFO

have strong convictions centered around community and eating. I believe that food is a great way to foster community and I come from a family with not a lot of traditional values but when we got together to eat, we got together to eat. When I first moved to New York City, I was on a strict budget. I had to get mad creative out here creating community around eating. We found the open bars to hang out at. We discovered the joys and banes of cooking. We picked up food out of garbage bins. (cue record scratch) Yes, you read right. I was, at one time, dressed in some less than cute outfits, rummaging through discarded bags for food. All kinds of food. It was not because I was homeless or even necessarily without money for food. Many of the other participants were regular working schmucks. So why dig for what we could buy? I first read about this group of people in Jane Magazine (RIP). And presented the idea to my roommates at the time, considering we were attempting to live a life of simplicity, a tenet for the volunteer program we participated in for an entire year. My community was receptive to the philosophy but the practice was a little less exciting. I kept reading and devouring as much information as possible and discovered that the group meets regularly and sometimes will create an entire shared meal of free food that was found in a recent dive. A banquet composed entirely of free food? My curiosity was peaked. One other roommate and I decided to brave our first ‘dive’ together. We brought along empty grocery bags, an open mind and some hope that we would be well received. I felt like an foreigner coming into a strange land. I read all the “tour guides” but nothing could prepare me for the actual experience that was to take place in Midtown East. After the credo of freeganism was explained, the digging began. I was starting to get a butterflies in my stomach at the thought of digging through garbage but when the dig started and someone unearthed a beautiful granny smith apple and then 30 or so more, I began to peel away my initial boundaries. I was opening garbage bags and revealing fruit and vegetables in nearperfect condition. Around the second stop on our trash tour, a lightbulb went on. These things – that were

totally safe to eat – were about to be disposed of, that night, if there was no one here to send the “garbage” through a second filter. The tour consisted of 5 stops total and included local grocery stores and chain donut shops. One of the freegans explained to me that she dives for about 80 percent of her food using the grocery store around the corner from her apartment in Queens. Two other freegans discussed the logistics of the Freegan Feast that would be happening the following weekend. When our bags were full, we were bid farewell and we came home with all kinds of random but good food. Salad mix, bagels, a couple oranges (I have to admit I ate some of my food on the train. It was too tempting to wait.) I know it sounds absolutely insane but these cats are on to something. I grew up in a household where I was expected to eat everything on my plate. If there were leftovers, they were shared amongst family members or reimagined into another meal the next day. Waste was unheard of. I think that was the initial appeal for me to the freegan philosophy. It felt like home. Thinking on a more global scale it is an atrocity to see good food going to waste when there are hungry people out there. There is an awful stigma the US has created around imperfections (bruises and nicks on fruit) and expiration dates that, if not strictly adhered to, can put a business at risk or out of business. Post my first trash tour, I found my way to a group meeting and another trash tour and one of the Really Really Free Markets that is locally hosted and offers free music, beverages, clothes and literature on top of free food. I’m still on the mailing list and every now and then, I open them up just to see what the freegans are up to next. I don’t participate in trash tours any longer but I hope that I can cast some light on the goals of this organization. I live in a place that is so incredibly wasteful and if I am not vocally speaking up and acting out against it then perhaps I am for it. I’m not telling you to go digging for food at Safeway. I am encouraging you to act on as local a level as truly inspecting a package to find out if its contents are safe instead of relying on printed dates. I am asking you to not take on more than what you need. To consider the amount of waste you place into the Earth. If we’re all taking small steps, huge change can come about. 17

BY DAVID SCOTT ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 9.29.09

THE 12FT

INT ERV I EW

PHONTE COLEMAN

Phonte Coleman is pretty much what you would get if you crossed Pablo Neruda with Carlos Bulosan, William Faulkner and Etta James: Soulful, uniquely southern, precisely half-past battle weary with open-hearted pourings that could line the Milky Way with sincerity and polish it with hard-bitten wisdom. Phonte has no trouble reconciling his duties as a member of the fiercely loved Little Brother and the fan-favorite duo The Foreign Exchange, who are currently touring in support of their latest project, the critically lauded and publicly loved Leave It All Behind a melodic tour-de-force offering that can best be described as PostWhen Everyone Shut The Fuck Up and Stopped Trying To Categorize Dope Shit. On some truly real talk, Phonte Coleman is a hero to more than a few of us at 12ftDwende and his insight, honesty and passion have helped each of us move through dark times with the courage and joy illustrated in his craft. It was beyond a pleasure to snatch a few moments of his time and scrawl down his thoughts.

Something that really interests me about you…what seems to characterize your fan base, is that people hella like you: The person you are, and particularly the way you articulate things. Thank you, man. I’m wondering when it comes to that, what makes up Phonte – your ability to really cut to the heart of issues, where does this come from? How were you raised? Well, my upbringing was pretty much just me and my mom. And my mom had me when she was real young – she had me with she was 15. And so, when you’re growing up in a single parent household and we didn’t really have a lot of money, a lot of times we were straight up brokebroke. When you grow up in that kind of environment you pretty much become a bottom-line person very easily. You know, you learn very quickly to cut through the bullshit and get to the heart of things: If we’re going to the grocery store and mom only got ten dollars to spend you know “Okay, I can only get a couple chicken pot pies and some juice. That’s it.” You know what I mean? Like, that’s just how that shit is. So growing up in that kinda environment it just makes you a real cut to the chase kinda person. You just learn very quickly to just deal with reality. And so because of that, a lot of people have criticized me of being what they consider “pessimistic” or cynical view on things. I don’t really think it’s a cynical view, for me, I just take it as a realistic 20

view. I’m just a bottom line kind of dude. So I guess that’s where it comes from when you talk about my ability to see things for what they are; it’s just the environment I came up in. I didn’t have the luxury to see things any other way. What has your relationship been like with your mother throughout this time?

they protect you, you know what I mean? They want to hold on to you because you’re the man in their life. So it’s a very strange thing, they have trouble letting go. At the same time they feel they have to do two jobs at once, you know, they feel like they have to play the father role as well, so in the risk of trying to quoteunquote “make you a man” they can also sometimes emasculate

Me and my mom, it’s been up and down for the most part we’ve been cool. Anyone who’s been raised by a single black mother will tell you there’s a very interesting dynamic – a very strange dynamic in a lot of ways. On one hand, it’s like, they love you and

you in the process. So once you get older, once you start defining your own manhood, y’all really start butting heads, y’all really come to clash on a lot of issues. So for me and my mom, we have a cool relationship now. But there was definitely a time where

we didn’t speak, we didn’t talk to each other. But I think that’s just a part of it…I thought it was just me, but I talked to a lot of my buddies, they all shared similar stories of dealing with your parents. And you know, I assume it’s the same with any person, if you grew up in a single parent household, but particularly for black men growing up in single black households with a single black

your insights on relationships between men and women. Was she really influential on developing that perspective? Well, I think for any man your mother plays a definitive role in shaping your views all over because your mother’s your first teacher. So I would definitely say the way I grew up shaped my views all over, some for the good, some for the bad, quite honestly. But as I get older I just try to, as I mature more, I try to cut away the good from the bad. Or at least have an understanding of where its coming from – If you feel a certain way, certain emotions, you at least wanna know “Okay, well, why do I feel this way, or what happened in my life to make me feel this way?” So when I speak on men and women’s relationships in my song, again, I try to come from a very honest, realistic place. And just try to make sense of it as much as I can, as everybody does. On the tip of trying to figure things out, has having children lead you to exploring new things, or affected the creative choices you’ve made in your music?

mother, its hell! (laughs). It’s gonna be some crazy shit y’all are gonna go through, so that’s just part of the game I guess. That’s interesting because I feel something else your fans really appreciate about you are

Well, with having kids, the main thing is just time. It’s just really trying to find time between finding time for your work and time for your family and time for your career…you really don’t have a lot of time for yourself. And that’s just something I’ve come to accept. I guess that’s why I put so much of myself into my music because that’s really the only “me time.” People are always like “What do you

do in your spare time?” I’m like “What the fuck are you talking about?” Like, “I don’t have no spare time!” (laughs). So like, having kids man, for me it just means you have to work even harder because financially you got a big obligation. So for me it just made me go even harder – Not that I was bullshitting before, because I wasn’t, but if I was going 100% before, kids let you go 150%, 200%. Definitely. Has father affected the way you make songs, or the songs you make – like, the title track on Leave It All Behind was a type of lullaby to your sons you made after witnessing the Sean Bell verdict and aftermath, right? Well, I don’t think directly as maybe indirectly. You know, in music, we all put our experiences into it. So I’m sure fatherhood has in some way shaped that, but I don’t think it’s as direct as “Oh I’ve got kids…so I can’t say ‘bitches’ now.” It ain’t THAT straightforward. But in the particular case of that song, it was inspired by the Sean Bell verdict, but very rarely do I ever talk to my kids in my songs, or make songs for my sons. I just kinda make my songs and they are what they are. And if I have a message to my children, I’ll put it in my song. In the case of “Leave It All Behind”, that was just one song about a world event that made me just think about my kids and the world we are leaving for them. So that was just a song that was to maybe try to give them some hope.

As someone a little older than myself, with more accumulated wisdom than myself Not me, brotha! Not me, man! (Laughter) Well, still! Still, as a mind that I respect, where do you see things going? In my lil’ ol’ 24 years I feel like this is a uniquely crazy time and I’m just trying to make sense of it and I wanna know what you think. Yeah man, I mean. Part of me, the realistic – the real, I guess “pessimistic” person – is like “Yo, this is the worst fucking time ever, this shit is crazy.” But another part of me just thinks we’ll look back on this era and think “Damn, that shit was wild.” I just imagine that when you look 22

back into the history books and you read about cats getting dogs sicked on ‘em and motherfuckers getting sprayed with water hoses and shit. Like, you look back on that shit and you just be like ‘Damn, that shit was CRAZY.” But then you talk to people who were IN that, and you never get the idea from them that they weren’t gonna make it – they never gave up. They never just threw the towel down – they kept fighting through it. And that’s what a part of me thinks, with everything going on, from crazy motherfuckers shouting out during damned congressional hearings, cats bringing guns to town hall meetings, and the economy just kinda going to shit…I mean these are some really fucked up times, but a big part of me believes we will look back on this

and just be like “Wooooow. How did we make it through all this?” On the whole theme of looking back and looking ahead, if the post-Leave It All Behind Phonte could say anything to the Phonte just getting in the booth for The Listening, what would it be? I would say to just not give a fuck about what people think. And to use all of his talents, don’t be boxed in by anything. The biggest difference between me now and then was just that I was so focused on rapping. I just wanted to be the greatest emcee ever, that was all I did. I had probably neglected my other passion – and cats since The Listening had told me that I should sing, and I was like “Dude, I

don’t really sing like that. Ain’t even really nothing I do.” And now – Five, six years removed from The Listening – I’m getting more calls to sing on hooks than I am to rap on records. Its just kind of an interesting thing, you know? So I would just tell the younger Phonte to just go and do whatever, don’t get boxed in to doing one thing. Whatever greatness inspires you to do, or whatever you can do great just do it; whether its singing, or rapping, or you act, or write children’s books, or you’re a fucking game show host. Anything. Whatever. Anything you can do to inspire people and help maybe make people’s lives better you know, just do that. What did it take for you to really commit to singing? Because even though you sang growing up and R&B was the first form of music you were exposed to, its only recently that you’ve really stepped into that lane. Was it some sort of epiphany you experienced under an Oregon sunset, or like…? (Laughs) Nah, I don’t know if it was just one event. We were at the end of The Getback, we were finishing up that album, we had got out of our Atlantic deal and had also gotten out of that ABB deal. And we had for the first time in four years, a clean state. I could really just start over. Like, I had gotten out of everything: My publishing deal, everything. Every kind of bullshit legal entanglement you can get yourself in the record business we had been blessed enough to extricate ourselves from. And so with that it was like, man, I’m really free

– Why not just do something different? Why not just go there? And that’s what I was really feeling but I was still unsure, but then once me and Nic started working on the album and he started sending me tracks that kind of confirmed my feeling that I was on the right page because he was on the same feeling that I was on. Since you’re working with different tool sets, is there a different approach to crafting an album like Leave It All Behind as opposed to something like The Getback? ]The same amount of time goes into it, it’s just from different places. In writing a rhyme, it might take you an hour or 45 minutes or whatever. But by the time you write it, you can spit it in ten seconds, you can do it in one take and its down. But in singing, a melody or a line can come to you in ten seconds, but it might take you an hour to do the song to get it where you want to get it, or you’ll do a couple different takes of the melody – you’ll try different variations on it. So, you know, it’s just different. For me, neither one is necessarily harder than the other, it’s just using different sets of muscles. Push-ups ain’t “harder” than sit-ups, it’s just using different muscles, and whatever song I’m doing at the time requires different muscles, you know what I mean? Right. It seems like you and Nicolay wanted to leave a lot of the imagery and the feel of Leave It All Behind open to interpretation while still evoking very powerful feelings in the music and arrangement. Like,

no definitive “This song is about this and this other song is about that” – is that intentional, and more of the direction you want to head in? I think it really just happened to come about for this project. Me and Nic didn’t just sit down and say “Okay, we’re gonna do this.” The only thing we knew about this record was that we didn’t want to repeat the first one and so once he started sending me tracks I was like “Oh yeah, we definitely can go more left.” But really dude, that was a thing that just kinda happened. But now that it has happened, Pandora’s Box has really been opened so to speak, I think cats will really hear that, particularly with Nic’s new project – the City Lights 2: Shibuya joint – it’s almost like a continuation, the next logical step from Leave It All Behind. So pretty much, for me, I just really see myself taking it forward and continuing to move in that direction. I mean, I still haven’t abandoned my hip-hop shit. I’m still knocking hip-hop shit out and for my solo record I’m putting out next year its gonna be mostly emceeing…Well, I won’t say that, it’s gonna be a lot of emceeing, I’ll say that. (laughs) So, you know, I haven’t left all my rap shit behind cause that’s where I come from, but I’m definitely excited about the new stuff that me and Nic are doing. Wait. Wait, I just gotta pause for a second: Its confirmed?! We’re about to have a Phonte solo album right now? Yeah yeah yeah! Next year, I’m doing one. I’m kinda like…I 23

feel like I wanna do one just to do one. Like I’m honestly tired of the album format. And it’s funny because Radiohead put out a statement a while ago and they was just like ‘We’re not doing anymore albums.” And it’s funny because when I read that I’d been feeling like that for a long time. Not because I don’t wanna make music, I don’t want you to misunderstand me, but it’s kinda just the idea the process to me of working on something for months on end; you know, sitting 24

with it, putting it together, waiting for it to come out. And then by the time it gets to your fans, that shit is old. It’s old to you. So I’m just kinda in a space now where I would wanna be more, maybe just release songs when I complete them. Or do maybe do a little EP or whatever for the weekend and do that, know what I’m saying? I dunno. But to answer the question, yeah, I am gonna do a record: We’re shooting for fall of next year.

Man, I don’t know if you have any idea, but whenever I would tell folks about this interview, EVERYONE was like “Bruh you gotta ask him if he’s got some solo shit coming out!” So I’m pretty sure everyone’s finna have a collective orgasm when they read this shit right now. (Laughs) I hope I can live up to that! I’m just getting started man, I’m only three songs into it right now. The plan right now is

me to thank them for they faith in me and repay them. So I gotta get back to my raw shit. That’s what’s up. It’s really dope that you honor the relationship you have with your fanbase and just another thing people appreciate with you. Aaaand so you think you could perhaps provide any idea of the producers you’ll be working with? Just a few names? Tidbits? Naaaah not yet! I ain’t putting nothing out!! I’ll let y’all know when its done! (laughs) (Laughs) Perfectly understandable! So, the second thing you made me think of when you mentioned Radiohead is the idea of artists who are also innovators within the actual industry of music. You’ve spoken before on Trent Reznor’s genius in this regard, so I wanna know what sort of new moves are artists really going to have to commit to in order to survive in this changing terrain?

to do half-rhyming, half-singing or maybe more 3/4 rhyming the rest singing, or maybe one whole side of soul shit and the other just raw hip-hop shit. It all depends on how inspired I feel, but I know a lot of cats been waiting for me to get back to emceeing and I appreciate all my fans taking the journey with me with Leave It All Behind and Zo! And Tigallo and stuff like that. I appreciate them for having that faith in me and believing I could pull that off, so now it’s time for

In order to really make a statement, the only way any that anyone is going to be able to survive in this business is to really have a relationship with your fans and to let your fans know that you are in business with them and not with anyone else. They need to know that you’re beholden to them and not any corporation, Proctor & Gamble, Warner Music Group; whoever. And the only way you can do that really is to say no more than you say yes. You gotta turn some shit down. You know, if you wanna go the route of just putting stuff out and

doing anything for anybody and just doing this-this-and-that, that IS a model, it’s a business model. But I think its a very short-sighted business model. To be quite honest, there are some cats who are like “Look, I ain’t in this for the long haul. I just wanna make my money now and be gone.” And I think if you posed that question to a lot of “starving artists” you would be surprised at the answers you would get, it is something to consider: You think about it, would you rather get 2 million dollars for a day, or would you rather make 50,000 dollars for the next ten, fifteen years? It’s something to consider. So to the cats that do go the other way, I don’t have no disrespect to them – every man chooses his own path – but for me, I think you really just have to get your fans and just keep them in your pocket. The biggest thing that we’re fighting for now, we ain’t really fighting for people’s dollars, you’re fighting for people’s time and attention. Every time somebody open up they Internet Explorer…well, I hope they ain’t using Internet Explorer…. (Laughs) Yuh! But every time they open up their internet, they’re getting bombarded with YouTube links, “Check Out My Free Mixtape,” check out this, check out that, so when you do finally garner people’s attention and you garner their good will, you gotta do everything you can to hold on to it and the only way you can hold on to it is by constantly keeping them in mind and thinking like a fan. And that’s why Trent Reznor I think is just so great in what he’s 25

doing because he really thinks like a music nerd, like a music geek – he thinks like what a geek would want! (laughs) And that’s why I just have so much respect for him, on top of his music being dope, the dude just gets it. Word. You quoted Nicolay once, who said that artists aren’t really selling music – you’re selling hope. What’s one such song that came to you in a time where you really needed it? 26

This was, I think…just off the top of my head, is “In Between” by Jazzanova. That was a record that I got exposed to right before we went out with Hiero for our first tour back in ’03. I got turned on to it, and you know, my oldest son’s mom at the time, we were living together and it was just bad. And a record on there it was called “No Use” To this day, I don’t know what the lyrics are, but the hook is just “There is no use” and that just spoke to me ’cause that was just how the fuck

I was feeling: There is no use in us doing this shit, it is fucking over. And so when that relationship ended, *Laugh*, I just played that joint over and over ’cause it explained exactly how I felt. It was comforting to know there was somebody who felt what I was feeling ’cause that’s JUST how the fuck I felt. And y’all collabbed later on, right? Did you bring it up during the session?

I told him about it, I told him how much I loved the record, yeah. We’ve all accepted it, for various reasons – There will never be another Michael Jackson. But I wanna hear in your words why you think that is. What it was about Michael and what’s changed in the world that makes that so. I just think for a lot of reasons, man, I just think…There’s just certain forces in this world that

are beyond comprehension. Certain energies in the world that are just like “FUCK” – just beyond belief. And I think Michael Jackson was just one of those energies. The cat was just incredible in every sense of the world: Incredible singer, songwriter, dancer, just all around entertainer. From a business standpoint his loss is such a big thing, because he’s the last of the mega-stars, you know what I’m saying? Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna are the last of those big 80s video stars. So he came up in the era of video and that whole kind of crazy excess, and that era is over in the music business. So the business won’t be able to manufacture another Michael Jackson; they don’t have the power any more to “make” stars because everyone’s attention is in a million different places. Just on a purely business level, a recording artist selling 30 million physical pieces of one CD or one album, it just will never happen again. So that’s just on one level. And then just even on a deeper level. Its kinda sad…When I was in London and I was watching, we did a show at the Jazz Cafe, and the DJ was playing “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” – a song we’ve all heard like a million times. And people were out there dancing, singing the song and it was a happy sight but it kinda made me sad because you start thinking, who is something from our era that would make people sing and dance like that? What is a song from my era, from stuff that we’re creating, that would make people just, you know, scream and you could see the look of absolute joy on their faces? And so on that level, it’s

really sad, because there’s not an energy that will be felt like that ever again. It was a hard blow. I mean, like, the best way I could put it: You know music is in trouble when the biggest rock star in America is the President. You know what I’m saying? (laughs) Barack Obama is a bigger rockstar than any rockstar. More people probably watched the State of the Union address than they did the Grammy’s. Motherfuckers don’t care. Just, an energy like Michael Jackson, I could talk about the shit forever. It’s just something that we will never get to see again, something on that level: Someone being the most famous person in the world. We won’t see it on that scale ever again. Amazing. Thank you. Anybody you wanna shout out real quick? Ah, nah, man. Just thanks to all the fans. Thanks for supporting us, thanks for just being there for us and enjoying what we do. Look out for more music, we got more stuff coming: Me and Nic got stuff coming; we got stuff comin from Zo!; Carlitta Durand’s new album is coming. Yeah, I just really wanna thank everybody for supporting us. Thanks, and come see us at a show!

JAKE BROOKS’

5MOVIES

P L

A L

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2 U

People always ask “oh, so you’re into movies. What kind of movies do you like?” and my answer is invariably “Good ones.” That’s just a tad vague though. What, in my mind’s eye, constitutes “good ones?” Whenever anyone asks my favorite movie, I am flooded with hundreds of potential answers. Well as it happens, the first decade of the twenty-first century just wrapped up (Were you aware of this?) which presents me with an opportunity to engage in that age-old tradition of respected film journalists and bloggers (who vary somewhat as far as respectability is concerned): making a list of the best of movie in a given period of time. They do this every year (around Oscar time I suppose I will too) and every ten years they get to do their Best of the Decade lists. Now I know what some of you are thinking: “but new guy, there was no Year 0 and so a new decade technically begins in 2011.” To you I must ask have your technicality-based observations made you more popular within your social circle? No? Thought not. Yes we know that 2011 technically begins the new decade but then 1990 would be part of the 1980s and that just confuses everyone. Now the more jaded movie review reader may ask “but didn’t everyone else do their decade list back at the beginning of January?” Yes, yes they did. But I wasn’t writing for an e-zine back then. Now a lot of these lists end up looking very much the same so I took the liberty of eliminating any film that has even been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. That means no Mystic River, Brokeback Mountain, or Inglourious Basterds (all of which are just swell). Hell, that means no Lord of the Rings trilogy (which, my pacing issues with the third installment notwithstanding, is one of the more impressive achievements of modern cinema). I would also like to specify that these are my Top “5” FAVORITE Films, as opposed to the Top “5” BEST Films of the ‘00s. I’m not so arrogant as to tell people that what I like is definitively better than what you like (despite that being the exact nature of film reviews). I hated the living shit out of New Moon, but if Taylor Lautner sets your heart (or other body parts) aflutter than who am I to tell you’re wrong? (Although I must point out that VAMPIRES DON’T FUCKING SPARKLE!)

The person who imprisoned Oh Dae-su is not done with him by a long shot. Oldboy may be the best movie ever made about revenge. Multiple characters set out for revenge and some achieve it but no one really walks away satisfied. Does this movie have a happy ending? I suppose that really depends on your perspective. Enough seriously fucked-up things happen that most will not say so. This is not a movie for the faint of heart, and I do not just say that in reference to the violence (which while intense is not worse than other movies you’ve probably seen before). Seriously disturbing things happen and that is not a warning to be taken lightly. Oldboy leaves an impression. It is the second film of Park Chan-Wook’s “Vengeance Trilogy,” following Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and preceding Lady Vengeance, but it is the standout best of his entire ouvre. He has made other great films worth checking out like the political murder mystery Joint Security Area, the insane asylum-set love story I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK, and the non-sparkling vampire film Thirst. It has been said of him that he crafts the visuals of his films with a jeweler’s precision and I can’t disagree. The visuals demonstrate the technique of an artist who knows exactly what he is doing. Oldboy may not be the feel-good movie of the decade but it is a film that stays with you.

Oldboy (2003) Director: Park Chan-Wook

We first meet Oh Dae-su in 1988. He is an overweight businessman at a police station being detained for drunk and disorderly conduct. His friend JooHwan bails him out and goes to a phone booth to call his wife and young daughter. As Joo-Hwan makes the call, Dae-su disappears. It turns out that Oh Daesu has been abducted and placed in a private prison resembling a seedy hotel room. He is fed fried dumplings every night and frequently knocked unconscious by mysterious gas so the room can be cleaned and his hair can be cut. His only company is the television, which is how he learns that his wife has been murdered and he has been framed for the crime. He stays locked in the room for fifteen years. Then, in 2003, he is released without any explanation as to why he was even imprisoned in the first place. THIS ALL HAPPENS IN THE FIRST 15 MINUTES! Now with his wife dead and his daughter being raised by her Swedish adoptive parents in Stockholm he sets out to learn what the fuck the whole imprisonment deal was about. But knowledge is not always a good thing.

Memento (2000) Director: Christopher Nolan

I am a fan of hardboiled detective fiction: your Phillip Marlowe/Sam Spade types. The story is simple enough: a man sets out to find out the truth, but the way to the truth ends up being anything but simple. Enter Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), the protagonist of Christopher Nolan’s Memento. His wife (Jorja Fox) was raped and murdered and he sustained a blow to the head that left him with anterograde memory loss – the inability to form new memories after his injury. He retains all knowledge from before the injury and remains aware of his surroundings, but everything that happens to him sort of fades away. He doesn’t let this stop him, though. He is out to catch and kill the man who killed his wife and fucked up his brain. The film opens with a Polaroid picture developing in reverse. Instead of becoming clearer the image fades away. This is the perfect visual metaphor for Leonard’s state of mind and the perfect introduction to this puzzle of a film. After that, the film splits into two parallel narratives. The first is in black and 29

what his forthcoming film Inception is about but Nolan is a master storyteller and his name in the credits is enough to get me in the theater.

Almost Famous (2000) Director: Cameron Crowe

I dig music. That is one of many reasons I love Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. I love the fact that Crowe actually LIVED this story and after making movies (Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire) for over a decade he decided it was finally time to tell it. Crowe’s onscreen alter ego William Miller (Patrick Fugit) is a teenage rock writer who follows around the band Stillwater (Billy Crudup, Jason Lee, Mark Kozelek, and Jon Fedevich), a fictitious 1970s rock

white and proceeds sequentially. The second is in color and scenes are presented in reverse chronological order. In any one of the color scenes you know what is going to happen next but you do not know what just happened, much like Leonard himself. Detective stories tend to include a twist ending but with the structure of the movie, EVERY scene provides a twist on the scene that just preceded it. By the end of the film the two narratives finally intersect and the whole picture becomes clear. Leonard goes through his life not knowing if he can trust his “friend” Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), a women he meets named Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), or even his hotel clerk Burt (Mark Boone Junior). Leonard may not even be able to trust Leonard. His entire investigation revolves around notes he leaves for himself (some of which are even tattooed on his body). He can never be sure that he isn’t being manipulated. Nolan’s previous film Following and subsequent film The Prestige also made great use of nonlinear storytelling, but Memento is still the pinnacle of the technique. Nolan would go on to remake Erik Skjoldbjærg’s Norwegian film Insomnia with Al Pacino and Robin Williams, before going on to reinvent the superhero franchise with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. I have no clue 30

band that serves as an amalgamation of Crowe’s experiences shadowing the Eagles, Humble Pie, The Allman Brothers Band, and Led Zeppelin. Oh, and Jimmy Fallon plays the devil. Not literally or anything like that but his character embodies everything wrong with the music industry and he is painted to be the biggest tool humanly possible. The movie is about the supposed “death” of rock ‘n roll, something

people have been complaining about pretty much since the birth of rock ‘n roll. The Greek chorus of the film is Crowe’s real-life mentor rock critic Lester Bangs (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman). In his first couple scenes with William, he pretty much outlines everything that will happen: people will use him to make themselves look cooler. They try to bring respectability to an art form that has always been righteously unrespectable. The other thing I have to mention is Kate Hudson. In this movie she will break your heart. Firstly because of the tragic delusions of her character, secondly because after this movie she churned out shitty romantic comedy after shitty romantic comedy when Almost Famous showed us she could do so much better. One of the themes of this movie is betrayal: William betraying the band’s confidence, Russell (Crudup) betraying Penny (Hudson), the band betraying William. Lots of betrayal is what I’m saying. But in the end, the movie has an oddly hopeful feeling and makes you feel good that people are out there creating things (an idea underscored somewhat by the AMAZING 1970s rock soundtrack). Anyway back top an earlier point: is rock ‘n roll dead? With the rampaging awesomeness of people like Josh Homme and Jack White, I’d venture to say not (plus a lot of the old-timers are still going). As Neil Young said “hey hey my my, rock ‘n roll will NEVER die.”

man Nino Quincampoix (Matthieu Kassovitz, who directed the great movie La Haine). A rich cast of supporting characters help to create this own magical color-corrected world in which you can’t help but feel everything works out for the best. Jean-Pierre Jeunet uses innovative camera work and imaginative special effects to make Montmarte into a fairy tale place where anything can happen. I don’t even want to summarize beyond what I already have because every second of this movie should be left for you to discover on your own. I hate to overuse the phrase “feel good movie” but it really is insanely appropriate. Those types of movies often find themselves passed

Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001) [International Title: Amélie From Montmarte, U.S.A. title: Amélie] Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

J’adore ce film. Amélie est un example de cinema magnifique. Okay, enough of that, I’m only in my second semester of French and I’m pretty sure a lot of that was wrong… A blurb on the cover of the DVD says that Amélie is the “feel good movie of the year.” I go further. Feel good movie of the decade. Even further: feel good movie of the history of cinema. In my last article I said I wanted to live in Wes Anderson’s world. That might be cool for a while but the world of Amélie is even better. The movie is set in 1997 in Paris’ Montmarte area. A young woman named Amélie Poulain (the adorable Audrey Tautou) decideds on a whim to become a do-gooder, improving the lives of the people around her in unseen ways. Of course she completely neglects the things that might make HER happier, such as the oddball young

over on “best of” lists in favor of more somber [read: depressing] fare. But if a movie can make you feel good and give you hope and fill you with the sense that the world is full of wonder and mankind has an unending capacity to do good things even though everything in the real world seems to contradict that then I’d say it damn well does belong in the “best of” category (I wish I could say all that in French). At the very least it is one of my personal favorite films of all time, so if you have not already seen it then do yourself a favor and enjoy every magical frame this movie has to offer. 31

WALL-E (2008) Director: Andrew Stanton

So unlike the previous installment in my Top “20,” I decided to prepare for the Top 5 by actually rewatching the films (which is a lot easier to do with five films as opposed to “15”). Good thing too because Wall-E was originally set to be my number 3. Until I watched it again and realized how naïve I was that it could be anything but number 1. I love this movie. I love every single frame of every single second of this movie. There is not one damn thing I would change. The story, the visuals, the characters, the message: all are pitch perfect. Perhaps best of all the movie begins with an almost totally dialoguefree 40 minutes that must make Charlie Chaplain weep with joy from the afterlife. I have a weird urge to go back and re-watch Chaplain’s Modern Times now, because Wall-E reminds me very much of ol’ Charlie’s mix of physical comedy and sentimentality often delivered without a word (though his later films were talkies). Ben Burtt, the sound designed best known as the “voice” of R2D2, works his 32

magic to design robot noises that give the impression of words and dialogue and even “voiced” the characters Wall-E and M-O himself. Elissa Knight brings a playful energy as the “voice” of E.V.E., the Apple-like (computer, not the fruit) probe that captures Wall-E’s (figurative) heart. The scenes on Earth of Wall-E romancing E.V.E. while showing off his collection of junk and cute pet cockroach (how often do you get to say that?) are sublime and would have been more than enough for a great movie, but Pixar wasn’t satisfied. The story continues beyond the Milky Way to give us a truly horrifying (in a Disney way…) vision of the future of humanity. The message is not a subtle one but, as mentioned in my previous entry on Pixar, it is EARNED with a strong story. Jeff Garlin is great as Captain McCrea, who learns a thing or two about responsibility and Kathy Najimy and Pixar regular John Ratzenberger have a great subplot about two people becoming aware of their surroundings for the first time. There really is no way to oversell this movie because it goes so far beyond what any words of mine could express. This movie is, along with all Pixar movies and other films like Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, a sign that family entertainment does not have to be inane pandering drivel with juvenile humor and moralizing condescension. More than that, Wall-E is a testament to everything the medium of film can do right.

TALK SHIT,

SWALLOW...SPIT

B Y CHA Z W H E E L E R O RI G I NA L LY P U B L I S H E D 2.22.10

Hip Hop needs heroes… Now more than ever, in a era where a rapper’s fashion sense is more relevant than his choice in flow patterns; we are in dire need of brave individuals that will rise to the occasion with originality and fresh ideas. It seems like more and more rappers are scared to be themselves. Promotional ground work and street teaming, show rocking and merching. All once vital elements of the indy artist grind are slowly being replaced by keystrokes and blog posts. The digi age is breeding a new generation of emcees who burn out overnight because they have been culturally sculpted to place a higher value on image than talent. I really don’t think 22 year old Alexander Spit has that issue. “I’ve taken a lot of thought into the idea of this “Blog Generation”.”

says Spit, a LA transplant but Frisco native who’s latest release Open 24Hours has got him more buzz than a 24 of Pabst. “As it started to emerge a few years back, it had me really jaded with the idea of “making it”. I came up during the years in Hip Hop where an artist was expected to pay dues …I’ve based my career off of that formula. But as of recent, an artist can become internationally known from the comfort of their suburban bedroom …you have to either adapt, or you’re just that bitter artist coming up with excuses to why they ain’t where they want to be at.” A go getter at heart, Alexander seems to apply a very DIY/ hands on approach not only to his music but his career in general. “I enjoy handling all of my work myself. It makes me responsible for whether I’m successful or not. If things pop off well 33

for me, I know its a result of constant grinding and hustle.” That independent nature has spawned not only a budding run through the underground circuit, but critical acclaim as well; most recently w/24, and previously with Hip Hop collective The Instant Messengers. “Prior to the birth of The Instant Messengers, I already had considered myself a solo entity …and even when the crew was together, I was still putting out my own material in between our releases. So, when The Instant Messengers came to its end, I simply just continued what I already had been doing. Except, now I was able to commit 100% of my time and energy to the material I worked on …being in a group taught me a lot about the power from strength in numbers.” Taking previous experiences and applying science to an already impressive rap sheet of live shows and unreleased material; ’09s ground work has Spit poised to be one Cali’s next “New School” powerhouses for the 2K10. “The West has kind of been quiet as of late. In the next 5 years I see it booming in the same way the South did the last 10 years. Every artist I know coming out of here that’s pushing themselves hard is so damn talented. It’s insane how good some of these folks 34

coming out are now. It’s such a shame the rest of the world hasn’t heard what we out here have the luxury of hearing on a day to day basis.” I had the rare experience of actually seeing Alexander Spit perform live before I ever heard any of his music …or before even hearing of him for that matter (#noshots). With this said, I can unbiasedly say his production and song crafting capabilities are bankable and pair well with his semi-monotone, raspy, yet playful flow. Rambling passionately about a lifestyle that seems to be evenly inspired by art as much as excess, Alexander uses soulful samples, dusty snares, contorted synths and auto-tune (the non-corny kind) to shed light on America’s forgotten generation of skaters, hipsters, hustlers, and well-to-do nobodies. “I try to rep SF in everything I do …I’m defined by the hard working class of the city. The folks who have to work a full time job to pay off overpriced rent simply so they can reside in a beautiful city. I’m a part of the folks that work so much, that they have to become creative individuals in order to escape the stress of a 9-5 week. I rep the kids that party hard every night in order to make their Clark Kent days feel worth it.” Sighting influ-

ences everywhere from Morrissey to Dipset, Spit packs party friendly bridges and breakdowns that’ll have the dance floor active, but are still down tempo enough to jam when you ride out with a PYT. It’s this genre crossing blend of boom bap, electro, and soulful hip hop that has garnered the young vet major kudos in his region amongst fans, venues, and fellow artist. “I think it’s important for artists to come together. There’s a lot of folks trying to climb over one another on the ladder, but for this thing to get its shine, folks need to work with each other.” If there’s one thing Alexander knows how to do it’s shine. His whole angle on music is to illuminate his hometown until it is rightfully viewed on the same plateau as his current place of residence. “The Bay turned me into an artist, and LA lets me shine as an artist” he states. “The Bay Area births a lot of unique creative energy and community amongst its artists. Living in San Francisco had me surrounded by elevators of music and artists constantly pushing the envelope. Unfortunately, there is a mindset in the Bay that pigeon holds a lot of artists to not

want to break through its bubble …it comes from a pride standpoint of keeping what we have there for ourselves only. But, being born in LA and getting a brief exposure to the idea of success through your craft, I learned a lot about what one can do from a business standpoint with their art. Having both a knowledge of these two spectrums of working the industry has been a huge blessing for me.” It may be that very same artistic business savvy that lead Spit to link up with LA based street wear conglomerate The Hundreds to release Open 24Hours last September. Constantly making new moves to secure a spot as one of the Fresh Coast’s elite, Alexander Spit is more focused on the grind then the hype that comes with it. “I see myself killing it hard with this music thing in the next year… The way things have been lately, every week a new stepping stone is met. I get new opportunities to put my music out there all the time. So as long as I continue my end of the work, and the world stays interested, it’s all good from here.” C H E C K O U T H I M O U T A T: w w w. a l e x a n d e r s p i t . c o m

HOLY GOD,

WHAT A

WEEK

(Dwende faithful, ya boi’s a little sick right now. Here are some thoughts cooked up at 3 this morning…I hope they’re coherent) Inside of ourselves, we know one thing: There will never be another Michael Jackson. At the risk of salting a wound with what I believe to be medicine, I think there’s evidence of something else here: There will never be another one of us, either. Here goes. We’re long in the practice of reading celebrities, icons, historical figures from the their gifts (more specifically, from the places where their gifts have touched us) on inward. We take what they’ve given us – special feelings and once-in-a-lifetime moments – to be who they are in total: special, once-in-a-lifetime people. I’m unsure whether or not this is exactly “backwards” or whatever (after all, is there a “right way” to read something as complex as a human?). I mean, it certainly does make a type of sense – for the most part, our relationship with that person is defined by our relationship with their work. I don’t experience John Madden as the-dude-whocheats-at-Monopoly-and-plays-his-music-too-loud-on-Wednesday-nights. I experience the John Madden who made the time spent watching Sunday afternoon football in the 90s something damned special, and in turn, that’s how I understand John Madden the terrestrial being. Now, what’s interesting to me about living in a social arrangement with a highly regimented division of labor that compartmentalizes everything (into job sectors), is how something that’s been fundamental to the development and narrative of humanity – art and entertainment – gets moved to the periphery of human existence as it becomes sectorized. IE, you don’t officially qualify as an artist or entertainer (or writer, or comedian) unless your talents are making and baking you enough bread to live by. Until then, you’re just a dreamer – or an enthusiast. Fair enough. This also makes a particular type of sense.

But I think its important to remember that no one person, however talented, or particular vocation – however esteemed – has a monopoly on the magic of making art out of this life. So I think we shouldn’t preclude the possibility that the checkout clerk at Safeway just might, with a few words and a smile, turn our evenings upside down similar to the first time we laid ears upon our latest favorite summertime song. As a matter of fact…let’s rewind to this past Sunday. Safeway before closing in Rancho Cordova is the embodiment of every Red-Scare fantasy that pulp writers in the 40s were desperately trying to cash in on. The type of exhaustive laboring that sacrifices joy and individual identity (and the joys of individual identity) upon the altar of a “greater good” – a hallowed chopping block that’s half-Hegelian and half-horseshit and 100% obscured under various promotional, manipulative rhetoric. In every grocery aisle there’s a sweaty back turned to you, the muscles thick and bursting piggy banks; every checkout occupied by an impatiently shifting body with eyes fully-forward – the pupils dilated, dialing, calculating the seconds left on the shift clock. Eyes lost in the “Fog of War”, or rather, the “Fog of Production”. Most of the scripted interactions here seem to be made more out to your Visa and your Franklins then they are to you – “You(r Visa) saved 93 cents. Thank you(r Safeway Club Card) and come again, comrade.” Something like that. Whatever. Maybe more than any other time in my existence as a consumer, I feel myself as a literal product when I’m whisked through Safeway at night. Real talk – most of the clerks don’t look at me, don’t smile, don’t say anything. Security inspects me to make sure I’m not “defective”, a quality risk, and then I’m put in line and quickly pushed through like any other commodity: I’m an interchangeable part in a process designed to make this company money. And I’m not mad at the Safeway clerks; being a clerk is hard fucking work and you’re definitely crazy underpaid. Its just an observation. I am a product here. An object in this place. So again, given this context, it makes sense that this is likely the LAST setting I expect any type of life-affirming human interaction, yes? But dude, it totally happened. And it was totally great. I’ve been sick the past few days, so I stopped in before closing on Sunday to pick up some knockoff Dayquil. The clerk checked my ID, we had a brief conversation about how its a pretty silly precaution, and he joked that if anyone was gonna try to make some lean using Dayquil they were probably a damned determined motherfucker and were gonna do it anyway. Upon seeing my birth date, he laughed, told me his was a few days after mine and wished me an early happy birthday. And I wished him the same. It was nothing mind blowing, but it was an entirely sincere, genuine interaction with eyecontact and honesty. And it completely made my fucking night. Maybe we’re not all going to get to be the legends, the trail-blazers, the rock stars (or the rock…writers?) of our unfettered fantasies. It sucks. But each of us do have the opportunity, in nearly every moment of our lives, to choose to bring out the best and/or the fullest of ourselves in our interactions with each other. To offer eye-contact and a moment of sincerity as a opposed to a cold-shoulder; to take a moment to commiserate with someone who’s going through some tough shit instead of just leaving them alone with their hard luck. Because isn’t that what we love about the artists who we truly value? That they gave us the best of themselves, even when telling us about the worst of themselves? I think that’s what I really appreciated about Michael – he seemed to just always want the best for everybody, and he put that out there as much as he could. Seems like we can do that too, even if on a much smaller scale. So…I guess from here on out. I’ma do my best to be like Mike. Maybe I’ll never rock a stadium…but it seems like it really doesn’t take much to rock a stranger’s world. Just a few short, thoughtful sentences plus some empathy and sincerity. And since there’s never going to be anyone else like us, I guess that gives us each superstar-like potential to make a little bit of potent art out of our every day living. I don’t know. My fever’s back on up, but tell me what you think.

Be Like Mike. 37

RETURN OF THE DWENDE EVENT PHOTOSET : TAKEN BY JORDAN YEE

FROM CLOTHING

BRAND/WEBSITE

TO MAGAZINE 12ftDwende started in August 2008 as a clothing brand with a blog as our website. The original concept of the blog was to have people that we found interesting blog about their lives. We recruited a number of people from different lifestyles with one thing in common: they all did what they loved to do for a living. We felt that we could introduce readers to different ways of life and perhaps even inspire them to try new things. So we recruited fixed gear riders, music artists, producers, aspiring journalists, fashion gurus, photographers and a whole bunch of other interesting people. In order to have new daily content, we came up with a blogging system that would designate days to each writer. Through this our readership grew greatly and we started to concentrate less on the clothing aspect and more toward the online magazine. For 2011, we are putting all of our focus on branding 12FT Dwende as an online magazine, our online magazine will consist of a website with daily entries from several different writers as well as a digital magazine spread. We are not sure how often we will release an issue but we are aiming for every month. Our staff is working hard to bring you the authentic content that you crave in a legit manner. This retrospective edition issue is an example of what we have to offer. We thank all of our readers and hope that all of you enjoy the new 12ft Dwende! On behalf of the 12FT family, Nicholas J. Naraja Founder/Creative Director

12FTDWENDE

MAGAZINE