Mr. E l y

I'd like to meet:

+Fun People
+Designers
+Artists
+New Friends
+Cute Girls

Music:

I'm big into hip hop, but I like anything with a good beat. I'm open to new music, but I really don't care for country.

Groups (in no particular order) :

KRS-One, Nas, Smif n Wessun (Tech & Steele), Too Short, Questionmark Asylum, OGC, Cunninglynguists, Little Brother, The Roots, Hieroglyphics, Living Legends, Jurassic-5, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Black Star, DJ Hi-Tek, Lyrics Born, Blackalicious, Quaanum Collective, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Apathy, 8th Wundah, Dj Revolution, KRS-One, One Be Lo, Binary Star, Reflection Eternal, Xzibit, Tha Alkaholiks, DJ Quick, Snoop Dogg, Dilated Peoples, Kanye West, Twista, Tech N9NE, Timbaland, Geto Boys, Ludacris, The Arsonists, Busta Rhymes, Camp Lo, E-40, Erik Sermon, MOP, Ozomatli, Pep Love, Del the funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator, Kid Koala, Asheru & Blue Black of the Unspoken Heard, Blueprint, Cut Chemist, Casual, Opio, Pep Love, Immortal Technique, Atmosphere, Murs, Grouch, Eligh, Erick Sermon, Apathy, Big-L,Cage, Damian Marley, The Decemberists, Architecture in Helsinki, Sufjan Stevens, Queens of the Stone Age, Rage Against the Machine, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Steel Pulse, Capleton, Sizzla, Sean Paul, Busta Rhymes, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Some Club hits (They're the best to dance to, admit it :).....more to add later....

Television:

Arrested Development, The Simpsons , South Park, In Living Color, Chapelles Show (mmmm bitch), The Daily Show (sooo good), Reno 911, Sealab 2021 , Aquateen Hunger Force , Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast , CSI,

Books:

The boondocks collection, The Dark Tower Series - Steven King, The Hyperion Series - Aaron Mcgruder, The Graphic Designer's Guide to Clients, How to use your Eyes, Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Charles Scheffield, The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolken, Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan, Anything by Philip K Dick, Mens Fitness.... do magazines count? :)
Check out my man The Brown Baron
And his classy myspace page I helped design :)
Why I like Graffiti
by Katharine Harer
a personal manifesto for Jack Hirschman

Because we're not supposed to do it
because buildings are holy
billboards precious, walls
worth more than gold
because we're not supposed to do it
touch thier buildings, climb their fences, hang like a bird
from their roofs
leave our mark

Because it's there for everyone to see
no museum guards to track you, no fish-eyed lady
collecting your entrance fee to another airless palace
of "legitimate" art no cultural dues to pay
to prove you can look and if you're young and the wrong
color and lively
you're asked to leave ushered into the street
where you belong

Because it's out there in the breathable air
framed by the sky and the hustle
curved Hebraic letters of tags
peaceful bombings
murals full-scale pieces mesmerizing fences
charm bracelets across eyesore alleys
nonviolent violence
without laying out a dime to the gods of advertising
right under the noses of the civic censors
late at night on a bicycle a backpack full of paint
art where it belongs where we can see it

Because when I look at graffiti I know what I would make
with my spray can nozzle, my paintbrush, my broad-tipped marker
women's faces, all kinds
in repose, hilarious, tragic, divine, girls and crones
so we can see ourselves
not on the oil slicks of billboards singing for whiskey or
cigarettes or love

But floating across a vacant lot on Harrison
pressed into the abandoned walls of a brewery south of Market
high-styling an office building
meditating on the financial district, its spilled curbs
and unopened windows, on financiers, laborers
and the dispossessed
real women looking us straight
in the eye

And in spite of the aneurysms of culture
the instinct to close the door turn
up the heat and die peacefully with what I already know
graffiti makes me love the streets again:
wild horses, Malcolm X, whimsical dogs, urgent signs
kids screaming their names
because we're not supposed to do it
make this cemented world ours