Writers Block..Preview To Streetwear Culture Project...Sneakers..

Hey guys, for those who don't know, I'm going to Langara for Journalism next september, after I graduate from my filipino dream of becoming a nurse. haha. Anyway, every year since grade 8 I've been doing big writing projects on my spare time, for example, my 'Chicken Sabao for the Soul' Chronicles(which are still compiling, actually), 'Penny for my Thoughts' chronicles(can be found on my old xanga www.xanga.com/atari_er which includes my recent blog "Stand") and to my latest accumulation of writing "Writers Block". 

The past 2 or 3 years, streetwear culture has been beneath the shadows of the young peoples fashion, mainly because, none of us could have ever afforded those clothes, especially with half you guys not even eligible to work 3 or 4 years ago. This past year and a bit before, streetwear is on it's way to reach the top of it's height in popular fashion. The top 10 freshmen of XXL magazine are all decked in your most popular brands and styles, from the 80s baby style, snapback caps and vintage crew necks to your slick shit boys with cheap monday jeans and japanase-can't even tell the time-watches. Everyone is jumping on this streewear thing, and it's not even a branch out of hip hop anymore, it's becoming it's own culture, with it's own branches. That's what I intend to explore, or, exploit? 

To preview it for ya'll since I've been talking so much about it lately is a small peice I wrote back in '04 when I was in grade 9, when Stussy was the only brand out there, and El Kartel was the only ones doin' it, and dunks only came in plain white with the grey bottoms. When sportswear was the biz. Here goes..

"I heard some guy in El Kartel saying to his friend that he maxed out $1500 dollars on kicks in one month. Ridiculous? Yeah. I thought that having the 20-25 pairs or so shoes I had at the time was big, this guy had it "going on". I thought to myself, neither I or he could stop. Stop what? Stop buying shoes. Like many sneakerheads, we need that fix. Similar to a drug addict, a junkie, I am a sneaker-junkie. It satisfies us so much to feed our endless appetite of new kicks. It's this internet thing. The only reason I know about all these things, is because of the World Wide Web. With online ordering, ebay, credit cards for the older cats being pushed in our faces, it's hard not to see why our pockets will forever look flat. Flat pockets, sneaker junkie symptom numero uno. Walking into a shoe store, going over the internet, signing in to my crookedtongues account only feul the fire, and SLAM magazines annual KICKS edition throws in some wood for those flames. I've had my relative or friend look at the stack of shoes in my room and I hear the same diagnosis, "You've got a big problem". Of course, I don't see it as a problem. Do people say the same thing about people who keep old records, stamps, or action figures? Being a sneaker junkie at the age of 14 makes it even harder for people to comprehend. People always ask, "where do you get that money?", "What do your parents do?", "Are you spoiled?". But this isn't a problem. Sneaker Junkies have been here long before me, and my generation, these older cats grew up with these sneakers that are getting "re-releases" and the shoes that are referred to as "classics" and "retros". They witnessed first hand, the birth of sneaker culture, the first Jordan shoe, the converse weapons and the dasler brothers rise in thier own sneaker lines. Those are the OG's. Sometimes people tell me that I have alot of sneaker knowledge, I say I don't. I don't even know half of it. All I got on are a pair of dirty brown vandals and saved up allowance stuffed inside my invisble jordan 1's sitting beside my beat up clydes. What do I know about sneakers? I know that I need them. I know that, they're meant to be worn."

That's just a preview of a what was s small project now turned into a huge one. Alright, that's all I gotta get back to studying. - God is Love