MOVING!

i am moving all of my content to lowbrowko.tumblr.com! please follow me there!

<3,
j q i

big daddy's.

for my eco art class at laney, we sometimes meet at a community garden in emeryville called big daddy's. it's a testament to guerilla gangsta gardening. it was once a gas station, but it got blown up long ago. now, it's a sprawling neighborhood garden, complete with metal sculptures built by vickie jo, founder of the garden & fab cook.

so our class is spending time working there & building art pieces for a show on may 6th, in conjunction with the oakland art murmur. "conversations with earth" is its name. i'm collaborating with a constructing genius/artist on a six-foot cheeseburger built out of cardboard, chicken wire, & papier mache. those photos to soon follow.

there's a place i love.

jutting out above berkeley, peeking across the bay at sf, the albany bulb is an unexpected place of quietness & natureness mashed up with concrete blocks & graffiti. once a landfill, now a sort of urban park. there are remnants of what used to be an extensive bum camp, but there are still many thriving in tents on the bulb.

i've heard of the bulb for a long time, but had no idea what it was or how to get there. a couple of months ago, kelsey & i googled a bike route & biked from bart. not only is the ride easy, the bulb is right next to golden gate fields. i had never been to a horsetrack before, but $1 beer & hotdogs sounded worthwhile. it was not. well, sort of. we just obviously did not belong, confirmed by the stares of every person there. plus we had no idea how to bet. next time we'll take a seasoned vet.

so i've made a few trips up since, when the weather & my schedule allow. this last time, i brought paint & some homies.

go there.

how to waste a lot of time.

watch tv.
lie around in bed.
download new music.
update your myspace that you haven't used in several years, in lieu of not having a facebook account anymore. (wow, you must be really bored)
obsessively think about how pathetically you're wasting time when you should be doing a lot of stuff.
foolishly decide that everything can wait while you idle just a little longer.
idle for several more hours.
write this post.
still do..nothing.

good thing i skipped school for this.

kid muscle.

yes, this is from the simpsons (kudos if you recognized it!). tv raised me. it's only now that i realize how much i've been influenced–nay, infected–by the cartoons i grew up with.

i'll admit i was a huge simpsons geek. well, maybe not huge huge. i didn't recall episodes by their number or even season, but i sure had simpsons jeopardy & a box of krusty o's (thxx jess), could recite several hundreds of lines of dialogue, & secretly wished i could live in springfield. i'll also admit that i fell out of the yellow fever for a bit when i went onto college & thought i should be more growsed up (& the episodes got bad). the problem with having particular interests as a kid/teenager is that people seem to think those are the only things you like, consequently buying you so much memorabilia, your loved ones are the biggest contributors to stamping FREAK across your forehead. i mean i couldn't have a room plastered with simpsons, hello kitty, & giraffes forever, could i?..could i?

so, after a couple of hours tricerahopped-up (tricerahops is an amazing double ipa that packs a punch) getting nostalgic about the golden years of the simpsons with my brotato joseph on saturday, we got branded the next day. i'd like to think i've become a tad more sophisticated, but i can't ever hold myself back entirely. i love this tattoo. just another reminder to myself that farts will always be funny & my heroes are all two-dimensional.

i will always be a kid. & i am totally okay with that. the gets-excited-to-pour-glue-in-their-hand-to-peel-it-off-when-it-dries kind. like ralph wiggum.

long live the flying hellfish!

<3

p.s. sorry you had to find out this way, mom. luff you.

animal suicide.

an idea that's been on my mind for several years now. turning it into a series.

bible.

like a jo-ho (just heard this cute little nickname for jehovah witnesses who ain't so..saintly), i have my own book i carry with me everywhere i go. i religiously fill its pages whenever i feel that tinge of boredom or an idea hits me over the head with a hammer. inside this halfsheet-sized, most expensive ($17) sketchbook i've ever bought are my newest drawings. just an itty bitty update on random things that, most times, i don't even know where come from.

 

gregg.

working on a ceramic sculpture of my totem: the sguiggly, elusive, octopus. king of invertebrates.

need to reattach some of his arms after he's fired.

into the kiln!

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luis armando prieto muñoz.

you were very much my inspiration and influence in the kind of art i do now. actually, you are one of the biggest reasons why i fell in love with illustration, street art, & just straight up lowbrow shit. it's a damn shame the world won't get to see more of what you could've done, but i'll try my best not to make wack shit.

i miss you. 'tards 4 life. <3

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oakland.

this post is dedicated to the city of oakland. hi. i'm a big fan. i've only lived here about a month & a half & although the move across the bay bridge might not seem that lifechanging, like many of us who have lived in san francisco for a few years or longer, the east bay is a foreign land rarely visited & gets little love from sf.

stop now if your hipster eyes are rolling to the back of your head. mister uhmygawd why would you like ever leave san frandisco, this isn't for you. you're probably the biggest reason why i hate writing blogs. so go away, hypothetical person i hate with a passion.

like i was saying, oakland is seriously underrated! i had toyed with the idea of heading east for a couple of years now, & it felt natural when i returned from the far east to finally do so.

there are so many little gems here & i find myself having more & more reasons to love this place.

number one, taco trucks galore. i live in fruitvale, which is heavily latin. these trucks have amazingly good food & the price is so right. there are lots of sweet little shops all over. i had a chicken parm hero today at uncle dougie's near my school & it was damn good. not to mention uncle dougie is this skinny asian dude with a thick ny accent, who claims his sammies are the next best thing outside of nyc.

beside that, laney college, although a bit rough around the edges, is quite nice. it's a small campus, but not too terribly impacted. plus the art center is right next to a duck pond. booyah! yeah sure, there's chicks yelling at each other across the quad & the computer system crashed for four days. all in all, i 'd say it's sups dec (as in "super decent". maybe a post of a glossary of terms to follow).

well friends, just wanted to let you know life here in oakland has been sunny. the streets are rougher here & i'm still getting used to commuting on my bike (which i'm fucking loving minus the underkept roads & NO bike lanes in my neighb). people seem more at ease here & less caught up in...for lack of a better term, bullshit.

come visit me! let's hang out! don't be afraid you might like it.

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2 0 1 1 .

already?

i've been going through a lot of adjustments since i've gotten back from korea (it's already been a month, holy shit!). i haven't felt 100% about...virtually anything since my return, but i'm slowly creeping back up to normal person status. still trying to process what the hell happened in 2010.

i'm living in oakland now, but commuting about four days a week into the city for work. i've been having a bad string of luck with laney college, my new local community college. they can't seem to clear some damn hold without me coming in for a counseling session, which i personally do not want or need. classes start in a week & i still can't register. i can't blame them solely. i've had trouble motivating myself to get up in the a.m. the two attempts i've made ended in utter failure. the first time, i got there after 3 p.m. & it was packed. i went today, but nobody told me it was mlk jr. day. sorry, dr. king. tomorrow is another day & fuck all, i'm going to get shit done.

i'll have some new things posted soon. to whomever reads/looks at this thing, thxx.

<3 j q i .

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