Shameless self promotion part 1

Real quick post here.... Just a reminder that my novel (written under my government... Anthony S. Thomas) is out there and you can indeed order it or go to any local book store and order it. It's a horror novel, the first of many. This book is now available.
Again... if you would like to get a copy, you can order it over the net (Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com etc. ) or go to your local book store maybe even have them stock their shelves with 666 Newark Avenue A novel by
Anthony S. Thomas aka SAINT

I'll make my next post more in the spirit of the other SAINTed views (but what's the point if having a forum if you don't promote your own works as well.) There will be more of this from time to time as I'm working on plenty of creative things.

Have a good night.


SAINT

Wrap your head(lock) around this.

Okay here it is. (Professional)Wrestling over the years has become a hot button issue. It's comes down to the same old complains leveled against all sports figures and businesses. People behaving badly, making way too much money and drug use. Hell, in some cases even murder. Well, when you apply that to the world we live in there's a lot of that to spread around to all industry and life. Right? To be totally honest, I think it's a fact that entertainment and sports business generates way too much money.... and I'm in the entertainment industry(the broke part lol). In a fair and just society most of that money would be in the pay checks of teachers. Maybe, in turn, less of them would feel like they are spinning their wheels when things get rough on the education front. But this is not a fair and just society and that's another blog.
We are going to talking about the art that goes in to the act of wrestling professional. Rather, is it an art? I'd have to say it is. Wrestling is a form of fighting using holds and throws design to pin or take control from your foe. As I understand it, the Greeks are credited with the style. This is still taught in schools and such to this day. The modern profession form, has a history in the United States dating back to carnival strong men staging fights to entertain the locals. Today this has been regulated under a polished and profound promotional network that I don't think is equaled by any professional wrestling's peers.
Most won't agree but professional wrestling takes all the artistry of a play, a ballet or a circus. The performers in a wrestling match are only there to entertain, so there is really no competing going on in the ring. There is however, a well planned and executed dance of movements, holds and death defying stunts. Just to learn and perform such moves is an art. To take that away from them is like taking the high note from opera singers or the dramatic pause from soap actors. Just like walking the tight wire most of us can't do it... so some respect is indeed in order.
Now this isn't every ones cup of tea and I understand that. I can count my favorite musicals with out every leaving this one hand. But if you are to really get into what makes art, art... you must learn to at the very least recognize when something takes incredible timing, great skill and in the case... amazing strength.
Now please enjoy a few of these pictures from my weekend in(mostly) sunny Orlando, where I got to see The Hall of Fame for 2008, The brunch with the W.W.E superstars (basically a fund raiser for The Make a Wish Foundation, good cause) and Wrestlemania where I saw the end of a 35 year career of one of the business's greats, Ric Flair.
Okay, I'm out of here... I going to find out what people eat here. Always eat at least once like a local... it's good for the soul (If you can that is... somethings are just no no's)












SAINT

Pick ups....

First off, I'm sorry for my poor editing job in the last post... We will indeed be working on that(bare with me) (bear) (be-air) lol. Now as far the very first post... I failed to get you guys some good footage of performances.
This I hope will help make up for that. Since everybody and their grandmother has a My space page... I collected the links to a couple of the people /businesses I spoke of in the post.

http://www.myspace.com/therealakrobatik http://www.myspace.com/fatbeatsrecords

Check them out, listen and judge for yourself. For the first time in the history of music for sale, the underground sounds are just a google search away. Any music... all music... your music without a radio personality spoon feeding you what's 'hot' for the record company with the most pull. Jazz, Blue, Rock, Rap, whatever... seek it out people, support it.

Oh yes, before I forget... clearly the above photo is of me. It was taken by D.C Artist.
This was a completely spontaneous photo at a convention... no studio, just one shot.
Imagine an all shoot under controlled circumstances .
Yeah.... sounds good don't it.

Just a little pick up.


SAINT

In your backyard.

This will be short and sweet, more will follow soon I promise. Anyway, as I ask the question is it art.... I of course have no real choice but to let you know 'it's all right there in your backyard'.
Now lets face facts here, your back yard isn't the same thing anymore. Not when with the stroke of a few keys you can scan the globe twice. In this case however we find that in the classic sense right here in the D.C area you can fine what you need.
What you need is an affordable Photographer/ Graphic artist.... is it art.... now don't be silly... of course it is. When in and around D.C why not reach out to Paula Bannerman best known as D.C Artist (and a host of other names such as Inari and Oya. This is a true sign of the artist in the mix, known for many names but the birth one lol)
Any how Paula is a dream for any one seeking top level work in computer imagery including but not limited to 3-D works, basic web design, make up and of course the thing that brings her to the dance every time, Photography.
Now I have a few examples of D.C Artist's work and contact info... but the most important part of this little article and the many like it to come is that you all have talented people right next door working in the fields that can help enhance your business and very lives. Let's start getting them the work we farm out so often to huge corporate firms unnecessarily. Let's leave the big boys for the big nation-wide corporate things and get the local art back to the local artist.
just a bit of a SAINTedview.


SAINT
© 2008, SAINT. All rights reserved


Contact D.C Artist:
www.myspace.com/dcartist
email Paulab@dcartist.com
www.dcartist.com ( under construction for right now)


P.S.
D.C Artist asked that I Shout out to all her friends and family who put up with all her silly ways. You guy know who you are.

Hip Hop a universal culture part1

"... Now back to this thing we call Hip- Hop and what it meant to D.J Scott La Roc" KRS-ONE

For my first Urban Code blog, I had to go home to the cultural event that help shape me. The birth of Hip-Hop and the very varied forms of art that the modern culture entails.
Of course there is so much to go in to. It means so much to me and many others that I won't be able to do it justice with a single wordy online essay. We will return to this quite a bit.
I love to ask the question 'Is it art?' Now the question is more for others than myself. Every where I go, I see the lighter and darker side to a multiverse of forms and styles of artistic expression. Most times I find that the masses (that's you folks) denies art that is darker, sexual or raw in nature. It forces people to call entire forms in to question because we are conditioned to. This is partly why I'm doing this in the first place.
Odd thing with Hip-Hop related art forms... the darker side is all but disproportionately pushed mainstream. Gangsta rap has become the norm. Losing the educational value that came from earlier groups such as N.W.A. and Ice T on the subject of gangs. Most mainstream Rapper have all but forgotten the D.J element of the music as well.
I love hard and dark art..... but the balance being off is a problem. But it's your problem... if you want more from your Hip Hop related art, seek it out. It's out there Under Ground in every city around the world. The business men who has package and mass produce it, only understand that they can sell it.
They are(for the most part) not concerned with promoting the wide, vast, wisdom and riches that can be found out there.
It's call show business not show art... If you want to see or understand the art.... go where it's done without the promise of money and a guest shot on B.E.T.late night.
These art forms are perhaps the purest most natural progression of a hybrid civilization in history. It can conform to and or conform any other existing form to it's complex simplicity.
Back when this thing started many people said this culture didn't have real music.... that what D.J's do is nothing like playing an instrument. That spray painted letters on highways underpasses isn't visual art. Rimes on beats isn't a form of singing. This hasn't changed much. I have to disagree, each and every time. Art is a reflect of reality rehashed through a talented persons chosen medium. This view may be rose colored or jaded...and the entire spectrum in between. With that in mind I must insist This Is Art on the most earthy and elemental level.
I have a few videos of a Fat Beats show taken on a trip back to where Hip-Hop was birthed , New York, N.Y . Fat Beats (an indie label almost as old as the culture itself) put on a show featuring a great collection of artist from around the country, with more than a passing interest in keeping the music alive and expanding.
Listen to Rap artist like Acro (Acrobatic) and his crew then tell me this man doesn't have something on his mind far removed from material things and bling. Look and listen to D.J. J Roc. and tell me this doesn't take the same talent and education as guitar.
I had a group of vids of these talented performances, sadly my cameras audio feature didn't work very well. I also recorded the colorful offering of the spray-paint can masters of three to four states while traveling by train.
Now if you just don't like it, you don't, there are plenty of forms I don't enjoy. But lets begin the task of erasing the mind set that states if I don't like it it must not be art.












SAINT
© 2008, SAINT. All rights reserved.
No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author.