Ersendaam

• http://twitpic.com/2d880 – Nabby the great becomes a librarian #
• Life Is Good. #
• http://twitpic.com/2ec2x – Expo ! Citgo #
• http://twitpic.com/2f3c9 – Ad space available for free. #
• If dallas texas was my lover Then phoenix Is a dirty stripper and we understand each other. #
• http://twitpic.com/2f4fa – No more songs About you after This one #
• Chillin with Norah jane and mr and mrs @patbeasley Awesome. #
• Mixed green apple green tea with my dr pepper tonight. Thanks for the idea @ducommunist. Thanks for the purchase @patbeasley . #
• enjoying a plum and some tortilla chips. this is mother nature’s way of saying she loves me. #
• turns out mother nature wasn’t down with the tortilla chips. juiciest plum i’ve ever had in my life and now my shirt is soaked. fml. #
• http://twitpic.com/2gbrk – Ok Then. #
• http://twitpic.com/2ggq1 – Three fifteen #
• http://twitpic.com/2gsq1 – Less than three #
• I.m in a car Underwater with time to kill #
• Dear Zumiez Thanks for direct depositing my paycheck Into a closed account. Love bob #
• We.re Dead in This ghost town #
• One of the few Good things About Chandler mall Is the music They play. She and him followed by midlake? Awesome. #
• ZOMG Just saw one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. @ryanloewe Remember When you were running and saw @thecoolside? #Unrelated #
• Some are dreamers. Some are realists. But we all welcome change. #
• This world’s not half as bright When There’s me Without you #
• Baby baby let me in Let’s throw precaution to the wind #
• This day Is So Beautiful. I’ll refrain from dropping an eff bomb to be used as a Superlative But It’s that Beautiful. #
• I woke up to my cold sheets and the smell of New jersey. When do i Get to wake up to You? Tonight i can’t forget that I’ve Got these… #
• My buddy @woke Just lost two teeth Playing hockey. Nice. #
• http://twitpic.com/2k7zf – Holy roided out calves #
• Closing Training part 15. It appears we have some internal theft. Fourth conservative close We.re short on Cash. Awesome. #

I can’t,
Breathe,
Without you,
But I have to,
Breathe,
Without you,
But I have to.

Citgo

Citgo is the creative imaginative taskforce that occupies so very much of my waking hours. We’ve got some exciting campaigns in the works. Here’s a couple stikcers I’ve doodled. Perhaps I’ll make some available for download.

Here’s a brief primer on my involvement with the group. Citgo started as a graffiti organization in the 213 (Los Angeles) region of California. There is still an active presence in LA. My friend Serb (graffiti name) aka Robot aka Kapow aka Rockit moved to Arizona and carried the Citgo name with him. The Arizona chapter of Citgo has only four full fledged members and one associate. Between the four of us, we’ve got screen printing, can control, stick ups, letter form, poster work, wheat pasting and throw ups as a list of services we provide to the community.

I’m an advocate for graffiti because I’m an advocate for equality. It should be stated here that I’m a bit of an anarchist. I’m not really a fan of capitalism. It’s frustrating to me that everywhere we turn, we’re being told to buy something. That we need more shit in order to be complete. That our quality of life will be increased as we stockpile more stuff. I don’t believe it. And I want other people to really consider if they believe it too.

You can buy just about anything in America. You can buy food. Shelter. Clothing. Pleasure. Drugs. Sex. Power. Influence. Justice. Convenience. Immediacy. Distractions. Intimacy. You can even buy a voice. In fact, if you want a voice, you damn well better be able to pay for it.

Billboards are everywhere. Newspapers are full of advertising. Commercials fill the airwaves. Advertisements pop up on your web browser. Money is being exchanged on all sides. Somewhere, somehow, someone is trying to convince you that you need their product or service. And you can have it. For a price.

And that’s all well and good. We need each other. We need to fill our lives with something.

I’m just not so convinced that we’re buying the right things. Or that we should be paying for it with paper. That we should exchange our time and energy as part of a cog in a giant machine so that we can accumulate a little bit of money in the hopes that we can buy the quality of life that we’re looking for.

Fuck that. No thank you.

And so I write. With markers. Pens. Pencils. Paint. Ink. On stickers. On stop signs. On bathroom walls. On fast food drive thru menus. On newspaper stands. On sides of buildings. On buses. On benches. In daylight. At night. Whatever. Whenever. Wherever.

I go by a lot of different names. Malt. Wer. Knes. Erse. Daam. Expo. Bliss. Blah. Ersendaam. My identity isn’t what’s important here. Getting you to think is what matters to me.

And so I write. Do Not Be Afraid. Live Free. Ask Questions. Dream Big. Try Honesty. Examine Everything. Kill Your TV. Read a Book. Feed the Hungry. Take Only What You Need.

And for the time being, it’s sloppy. Primal. Vandalistic in nature. And i don’t mind. I’ll stab the beast in its belly. The risk of arrest and fines is well worth the opportunity to have a voice. Even if it’s just a whisper. Even if it’s buffed out. Painted over. Covered up. Erased. Taken Down. At least I know that for a moment, somebody encountered a message that made them think for a brief second that maybe we’ve got this thing all wrong.

But Ambitions are brewing. I’m coming for you billboards. With campaigns. With ideas. With giant posters and buckets of wheatpaste. Keep your eyes open so you can buy what you’re told to. Or look the other way and see a broken world that you can have a hand in fixing.

Citgo

Capitalism is the Greatest Offender

Cause I Tried Getting Over

Canvas in the Great Outdoors

Creating Images the Gods Ordained.

Sometimes I tear pieces of bacon in half so I can feel like I”m meeting more of it than I really am. I love bacon.

Taylor Swift. Yeah, I love her. Deal with it.

taylor swift play counts

I was having a conversation with my friend Javi at work today. He was interested in knowing which rapper I enjoyed more- Notorious or 2Pac. I didn’t feel like I could give him an answer because on any given day my opinion on the matter was subject to change. I think that’s the nature of my top five lists. Subject to change.

These albums that I’ll mention today are my favorite albums that I chose today. It’d be difficult to put them in any order, so I’ll just alphabetize them by artist. Here we go.

Help – The Beatles
This album is one of the first that I can recall listening to straight through. I grew up in a world where secular music was considered evil. I had up until this point listened to the radio or watched mtv to get a quick fix of music. It was my sophomore year of high school at my Aunt Ginger’s house that I fell in love with this album. I copied a cassette of the album from her cd and never looked back.
Recommended – I Need You and It’s Only Love

Plans – Death Cab For Cutie
I was introduced to Death Cab by my friend Stefani way before they were cool. I had no idea they’d one day release an album that would literally change the way that I look at the world.

I think the best description I have heard of this album is from DCFC’s drummer Jason McGerr – “if Transatlanticism was an inhale, Plans is the exhale.”There is a line in the song What Sarah Said that goes “And it came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time.” This album manages to be loving, passionate, ruthless, cruel, matter of fact and profound all at once. There’s more truth in this handful of songs than I heard in countless sermons growing up.
Recommended – Crooked Teeth and What Sarah Said

Mockingbird – Derek Webb
I can’t remember if it was my good friend Mikey or Rebekah Mosqueda who first recommended Mockingbird to me, but either way, I’m glad they did.
One of the few reasons that I’m still willing to sometimes identify myself with christianity. This album destroyed the mindless acceptance of my faith that brought me from my preteen years to my early twenties. It allowed me to deconstruct my faith piece by piece and really start to examine the mechanics of my worldview. I ended up delving into pacifism, learned to find truth, beauty and light everywhere I looked, and started down a road that took me to my current political standing of anarchist. This album saved me from myself.
Recommended – A King, A Kingdom and A New Law

Stay What You Are – Saves The Day
I have a slight obsession with Saves the Day. My brother John introduced me to them at some point while I was in high school. I don’t have a favorite STD album, I love them all. This just happens do be the first one that I heard. This album is without a doubt their most popular, and it’s not hard to understand why. There’s plenty of energy, disgustingly good lyrics, wonderful imagery and the songs are super infectious and will leave you coming back for more.
Recommended – Certain Tragedy and Firefly

North – Something Corporate
Every bit as wonderful as the rest of the albums on this list. I’d say it’s impossible to put this album on and not listen to it from start to finish. Impossible. Every track on it is absolutely fantastic. There is absolutely no reason at all that you shouldn’t love this entire thing. None whatsoever. Get on it.

Recommended – As You Sleep and Ruthless

Putting together this blog and i’m super hungry. What to eat? Cereal? Mayhaps.