American Dream, Chinese Hero: Bathing Ape

We stay fly, no lie, you know this/
bloooooooooggin!

What up, party people? In the place to be,
Nah, who am I kidding? Blogs are not the place to be no more. Everyone and their momma is twittering away (literally; i'm expecting my momma to pop up on twitter anyday now... except I know that her attention span isn't attuned to the 60/60/24/7/365 internews cycle just yet) and the blogspots and wordpress accounts lie vacant. You know it's hard out here for a blog when your younger cuz rolls in all tiny and cute with teh microbloggin' in full effec'. We are primed for 140-or-less characters now: this is the txt/sms generation, after all. Gen teXt (if you use it, give props to the originator, word).

Anyways, if you don't know, now you know (you know?): I'm back on my b.s. (no Bussa bus... except maybe Bussa bus). And if you caught any of what I'm throwing out there, you're either Dallas, Rafi, Combat Jack, Prof. "Xavier" Conway, Sooey ajumah (ha! just playing 여동생), or Vic.

So then, for what it's worth: here's March through my camera. April to follow.

Tuesday03.03.2009

Waiting in Silliman to meet a student, I caught a sight of old glory, and I'm
not talking about the American flag.

Some faces on there I haven't seen in a minute... including a face that's
gonna be the visage of a married man soon.

Thursday03.05.2009

Vic had a little mishap; son tore hisself up on the court! Still he pushes thru
like a champion. Or like a bawse (nah it never gets old!).

After kicking it (in all senses but literal) with Vic, I
headed over to Living Water rehearsal. Jesse was
wearing this jawn.

Sunday03.15.2009

After a week traveling & singing with Living Water, I
headed back to New Haven for the span of a single
night (<12 href="http://www.greenecountyhabitat.net/">Greene County
Habitat for Humanity site, a 10-hour drive away in
Southwestern PA, for the next week.

KVE stickers, in front of HGS, York Street, New Haven.

pd sticker, in front of HGS, York Street, New Haven.

EGO86 sticker, in front of HGS, York Street, New Haven.
From the days back in the reign of terror... aka freshman and
sophomore years... relics still remain!

Josh snoozing on the lengthy drive.

Saturday03.21.2009

After a week of moderate labor, lengthy rest, and plentiful church food,
we again made the (all the more grueling the second time) 10-hour trek
back via roadway from Waynesburg, PA, to New Haven, CT.

While we stopped for gas, it only made the best of sense that I would
have the worst of luck to select a gas pump that was actually and
openly rejected under the standards and statutes of the State of
Pennsylvania.

At another rest stop; josh, burdie, and joe lee.

moh lei knocked owwwwwwt.

lill & kg.

Burdie. =)

Josh, pointing at the sleeping l & kg.

And after it was all said and done... two weeks on the
road, moving from place to place, singing and
hammering, and these remained:

A dog tag with a verse written on it, from the people of
Williamson First Baptist, in KY; ear plugs and spent
.22 cartridges from a nail gun in PA; an unused carry-
on luggage tag from the flight down to Louisville.

Sunday03.22.2009

First Sunday back to New Haven! The occasion
warranted a fresh spring look.

Play cloths season 1 at 25% off... more true-to-size fit
than I'd expected from a streetwear line. The rumors
about quality are all true, though: definitely a dope
piece.

The items from my last night's picture weren't the only
reminders of my Spring Break touring; this blood blister,
acquired on the penultimate day of Habitat work,
lingered tenderly until I finally shed it, some weeks later.

Monday03.23.2009

In anticipation of my upcoming birthday, while I was
traveling, I ordered a BAPE tee off eBay from my man
Kalvin (a/k/a Monkey Monster clothing). This joint
arrived over the course of my travels, and I waited, a
good kid, until the-day-of before breaking in & flossing
out.

Amy Jones needed to go shopping for some new shoes, and I, naturally,
felt obliged to provide an escort to downtown New Haven. For, you know,
safety.

The AJF5... Amy's brother has a pair of these back in Louisville... fire.

Then I discovered the baby shoes and it was all over... yo if I ever have
a little man running around, he is going to stay straight laced up!

These are the Skittles Dunk mini-highs.

More AJF action... XII's... greenbean? awh nawh.

Air Max boots? Wale somewhere out there shakin' right now, he's
fiending for these, i know it.

Ahhh with the premium tongue label! 熊猫, 中国文化
whaddddup? James Kim these are for your kid some
day!

And on my way back to Vic's place, from a quiet dinner with a couple of
buddies, we ran across the last and dirtiest snow pile in the city.

Tuesday03.24.2009

Headed out the door jogging... still too cold to run in
anything less than 4 layers!! Dang.

Just noticed, as I was running along, that Yale installed some new green-
friendly energy sources, including windmills on the top of Becton, our
engineering building.

Sure, why not?

Later on, wandering around Old Campus with some of the boys, we
came across a vacant (and longtime so, hopefully) bathroom in CT
Hall.

Wednesday03.25.2009

Knit ties are in this year, I'm calling it now.

And what's this????

On my way out the door I noticed a package at the front
door, addressed to me, from my boy Joe D (of NV$N
streetwear and internets fame).

He ain't lyin neither...

Joe is the king of vintage BAPE... he and I started kickin it back when I
copped a pair of 2003 (or was it 2001?) bathing ape selvage denims
from the kid... sonn is nasty with his game, he gets rid of more hot
gear than I think I might ever own, period.

Much appreciated, bro. Hope u figure out that MIDI controller & start
slayin em on the beats again!! Make sure Barry hollas at'chu!

Thursday03.26.2009

SOLE sticker, corner of High & Elm, New Haven, CT.

Monday03.30.2009

Monday nights I generally head over to kick it with homeboy Justin and
his buddy Aaron... this night Aaron couldn't make it, but I whiled away
the night with my (expected-to-be) future roommates.

Justin fixed dinner... I am gonna have to learn from him at some point.

J.

Le le.

Josh was there, too, but the only pictures I got of him
were pretty much embarrassing shots of mad eating
going on, so I felt like sparing him the internets
celebrity of that.

Next to come: all of April, and I ain't talkin bout that reporter that hung with the Turtles.

1/6 - 1/11/2009

Tuesday01.06.2008

Early Tuesday morning, my dad dropped Lydia and me back at the
New Jersey transit station in Trenton, and we headed straight back
into New Haven, by way of New York.

In New Haven's Union Station, we ran into Ray Park, waiting for a
friend: chilling and watching 30 Rock while eating Subway. Looked
like a good time.

Wednesday01.07.2008

My day-to-day routine for the week immediately
preceding the first Sunday back at UCW (and my first
sermon of the new school year) was inspired by a post
I once read by jeffstaple outlining his work schedule.

I'd wake up around 9 or 10 AM, work on
correspondence and reading until lunchtime
(1-2 PM), eat a light lunch, keep writing letters and
doing reading until dinnertime, go out (downtown) for
dinner with students; return home, watch a movie and
some television, take a quick nap, and work on sermon
preparation until around 2-3 AM. Rinse and repeat.

Our second day back - in lieu of East Melange (R.I.P.),
Lydia and I headed downtown to meet Soyoon and Will
at Ivy Noodle. =[.

Soyoon's view of old campus - deserted.

Hanging around.

Thursday01.08.2008

Look at that sky.

STEPS (?) tag sticker, USPS mail drop box, Elm Street, New Haven.

Friday01.09.2008

On Friday, after a day of work, I headed downtown (Lydia
decided to stay in that night) to meet up with Stephen, Joe, and a
recently-returned Gina. After Yorkside, we went back to Silliman to
explore Gina's ginormous single.