This is my other better-half, Ben. The 2 of us founded The Hundreds together and to this day, continue to do a horrible job of running it. For some reason, people oftentimes get us confused, so I explain it like this. I’m tall and hairless. He’s round and furry. I’m Harold. He is Kumar. I write blogs. Ben writes checks. Got it?
Anyways, Ben loaded up the van with a chunk of his sneaker collection and brought ‘em down here to TH HQ. There was a time when we were both pretty heavy into sneaker culture. Ben was into collecting shoes, I was into admiring them on other people and saving my money for more important things like Jamster ringtones and shutter shades. But that was years ago, I’m pretty clueless now as to what’s going on in SneakerLand. What’s up with Crocs?
Oh also he’s always nagging me to plug his Twitter. SO HERE IT IS. Please add him so he’ll leave me alone. Please.
Abram, on the left, just had his bachelor party in Vegas this past weekend. Headed by his brother Adam of course. I love that tee that Adam is wearing, POLICE STATE. It’s vintage The Hundreds from several years back. On the back of the tee, spelled out in blood splatter and police arsenal acting as lettering, it reads “QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES?” Which is literally translated as “Who will police the police?”
I found the photo for that shirt deep in the bookstacks of L.A.’s Central Public Library downtown. It’s a decomposed photograph of former LAPD Police Chief James E. Davis. Davis headed the department in the 1920s and ’30s, which just so happened to be the most corrupt period in LAPD’s history, thanks to Chief Davis, who’s unsurprisingly regarded as perhaps the most corrupt Police Chief in LAPD history.
Did you see that movie Changeling with Angelina Jolie last year, about the LAPD police scandal surrounding the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders? Yeah, he was responsible for that debacle. Ben also told me that they now use the same exact photo of Chief Davis for Southland’s opening credits.
I’m not sure what any of that had to do with Abram’s Bachelor Party, but back to that.. I hear it went something like this:
James Jean lives close to me, so we had lunch and I stopped by afterwards to check out some of his current projects.
I like this set by Disasterware godfather, Charles Krafft. Porcelain brass knuckles? Right on.
That’s one of James’ early works from art school. The task was to relate a story through a painting. Pretty confusing story, if you ask me.
Some more personal work around his labyrinthine house.
Weaponry. Tools of the trade.
The master’s working on a hunting-themed creation.
WHOOPS. Can’t go there. James is currently working on paintings for his next showing, but he’s not ready to put ‘em on blast just yet. But here, you can get a sense of the scale in which he works in.
And here’s a detail shot.
James’ works-in-progress are stationed around his house. No matter where you turn, you’re bound to run into a different story in transition. The canvases are huge and bold, and pretty distracting. You can see he’s got a thing for Yellow right now.
I asked him if it’s difficult to live normal everyday life when you’re surrounded by unfinished paintings beckoning your call. But nah, he said he’s got the lines between work and play distinctly drawn.
Here are some more close-ups on different sections of the previous pieces, just to keep you hungry. I’m such a tease.
I commented on this whole “drinking” motif he always has running throughout his work. You’ll start seeing it too. I wanted to say something crass, but bit my tongue.
And here’s your first look at James’ newest book, KINDLING, which will debut later this month at Comic Con.
Stoked! More prints…
You remember this one, right? The piece he did for Dave Choe.
Being based here in Los Angeles, it’s hard to escape celebrity news. Especially when they pass. To this City, it’s as if gods have fallen, so you can only imagine how intense and magnified Michael Jackson’s death is resounding across the area code. Farrah Fawcett also deserves her due. She was only on Charlie’s Angels for 1 season, but she was more of a pop culture icon with her hair and Colgate smile. She also looked great on wheels.
We were sitting around this afternoon, flipping through news coverage of Michael Jackson’s passing and the NBA Draft,
when Derrick Rose poked his head in. Derrick’s a professional basketball player for the Chicago Bulls. In fact, not only is he Rookie of the Year, but was the #1 Draft Pick last year. So he wanted to stick around for a bit to catch the Draft live on TV, root for some of his friends and gauge the young competition moving into the league.
Then Ben and Robert enticed Derrick into a round of NBA JAM. It didn’t go exactly as planned for this future Hall-of-Famer.
