Gary Oldman

Rare Video with My Idol: Hiroki Nakamura of Visvim

First it was people like Ricky Henderson, Dwight Gooden and Ozzie Smith. Then the likes of Johnny Depp and Michael Hutchence, followed later by Mike Carroll and Rick Howard. All were my idols of my younger years. Hiroki Nakamura has been assigned that role for a while.

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Comments on the video:

• Interviewer is clearly a total space cadet fashion-head
• He is visibly bored with the interview
• I want that shit: July 8th.

138 Words on Being From Texas

I was born, raised and lived in Texas for 31 years. Strange thing is, I never identified myself as a ‘Texan’ until I came to NYC. So few people you meet here are from here. For the first time in 31 years, I had to address the fact that I am from Texas and all of the negative stereotypes and to a lesser extent, the positive ones. Now that I am forced to think about how I may be perceived as a Texan, I have developed this strange pride in being from Texas. I like the fact that I’m apparently a horse-owning, BBQ-eating, Bush-loving, trailer park-living, redneck-having, Willie Nelson-listening, pickup truck-driving, hillbilly from Texas who within 2 years, has been able to milk a little success out of this big city. (Because apparently, I owned cows as well.)

Make Moves and Stay Up

and

Maya Angelou

Personal friend of Malcolm and Martin.  Unlikely influence on Tupac.   If you have a chance to catch her on Iconoclasts with Dave Chappelle on The Sundance Channel, don’t miss it.  Both of them are remarkable individuals.  With people like Maya Angelou in our world, it makes you wonder how we ever became obsessed with the celebrities we obsess over.  The other night, Spencer and Heidi were on Larry King.  The world would be a slightly better place had he opted to have Maya on.  Just a thought.

138 Words on Father’s Day

This will be my first without my Dad. He’s by far the closest person I’ve ever lost, and his loss inspires the strangest feelings. I’ve only made very slight changes in my life since his passing. I have a new filter for the big decisions I make on a regular basis and it’s heavily influenced by him. My desire to tighten the amazing relationships I have with my Mom and Brother has strengthened. Most days I live on, un-phased by his passing. Others days, there are moments when I hit a wall and break. A movie. A song. Or the realization that when I want to tell him something that happened or ask for his opinion, I simply can’t. You can’t experience that feeling without spending ten minutes to get over the fact that he’s gone allover again.

Who I Blog For.

I often joke here about my carefully curated blog for whatever that means.    The word ‘curate’ is interesting.  I think the dictionary says it means something like ‘to organize, oversee’.   A friend of mine recently interviewed a museum curator for a magazine article she was writing and asked for some advice on questions to ask.    I have always wondered who a museum curator organizes for?   Do they have a particular person in mind that they ask themselves ‘what would Jane Doe think about this selection?’ and essentially Jane Doe inadvertently influences the contents of a museum or the pieces in a exhibit.  Make sense?

Since I started writing my blog, I have always casually told people that I write my blog or post photos with two people in mind.   Yeah, I may have a few hundred daily visits and I appreciate anyone that would take the time to read anything I have to say, or look at the pictures that I post on my carefully curated blog.  But I wanted to introduce the two people I write for:

Nancy Wells – Mother, Wife, Sister, Aunt, Friend to thousands, Dallas’ premiere purevyor of the finest in ladies shoes and accessories.

Peter Nguyen – Jack of all trades, changes cars like most people change underwear, best friend for life, even though he has never seen E.T. or Star Wars

Follow Peter on Twitter.

There ya go.

Marion Cotillard

Two of the many faces of Marion Cotillard.

MGMT – Kids Video

Road Tested: Visvim Logan Lattice

Click any image to enlarge.

Ya know, when these first came out, I was a bit disappointed with the resemblance to Vans SK8 Hi – which happen to be my least favorite Vans shoes. I thought, why would anyone drop that kind of dime on a pair of overpriced Vans? Then I saw these in person at Union NYC and then came to fully understand the difference. First, the resemblance to a pair of Vans in purely aesthetic. The quality of materials from top to bottom is pure Visvim and the details are NUTS. I never fully grasped the ‘lattice’ concept, but I suspect that it is inspired by traditional Japanese architecture or something. They literally sliced/scored every inch of the leather in this lattice pattern, which makes their already soft leather feel even softer in your hands. Unlike anything I have seen and of course, they are highly recommended. How could I not like something from this brand. Now if I could shed about 100 lbs, maybe I could squeeze into some of their apparel.