This is my homie Neal Santos‘ new project, No Proposal, which I’ve been working on with him for the past few months. If you know Neal, you know this shit is going to be official. The idea is old, but its a new approach to this brand hustle. If you are a brand, a media outlet, a shop, or a skatepark and want to get down for the ride, holla.
“This is not a proposal, this is an invitation.”
NoProposal.tv would like to invite you into the very heart of streetwear. Why? To show you that it is still alive. With today’s financial and world climate being what it is , so called streetwear brands are falling off left and right. Marketing, advertising, PR budgets are gone. Product lines are being scaled back. Stores are going out of business. But if the history is any indicator, regardless of what happens to business, the culture will survive. It is in this vein that NoProposal, in association with Teamworks and Deadline, are launching NoProposal, a cross-country journey dedicated to seeking out the culture of streetwear, or what ever you want to call it, wherever it lives. Too much communication takes place without people these days. Everything is a blog post or twitter feed, brands don’t know who their customers are, and customers don’t really know who’s behind their favorite brands. NoProposal wants to bring it back to the days of the traveling salesman with the belief that people will stick with who they know personally in this increasingly impersonal world.
NoProposal is Angel “NA” Nieves and Neal Santos, native New Yorkers who were shaping the industry before its conception, living and breathing the skateboard/bike/street lifestyle that gave birth to “Streetwear”. They are well known by reputation. However, they’ve realized that rep isn’t anything outside of New York; except what the internet says about you. With that in mind, NA and Neal are hitting the road to seek out the shops, the brands, the artist, the skaters, the cool kids, who are keeping the creativity and progression alive, even while everything else seems to be turning to shit. At each stop, NA and Neal will connect with the connectors, sharing with them the experiences of living in the epicenter of the world, NYC, and giving them access to their unique style of trend forecasting by way of the brands that have joined them on NoProposal. In return they will get true street level insights from every important local market in the country. There is no better way to understand the minds of the consumers than to meet them face to face.
In order to share their experiences and the important insights these experiences bring, NoProposal will document every part of their journey. From truck stops to skateparks to strip malls to boutiques, NoProposal will capture every person, place and thing that they come across. The end result will be the truest living representation of the current national streetwear scene. Although the backbone of NoProposal is inherently old school, the project also has a decidedly modern component. Each week, NoProposal will produce a professionally filmed and edited three minute webisode featuring the most enlightening and entertaining portions of the tour. These webisodes will be broadcast through the major influencer info hubs and will paint the realest picture yet of this so-called streetwear lifestyle. Be Prepared.
I had to move last week due to the unscrupulous tactics of the Hudson Corporation, who took over my building, The Cobble Hill Towers, and jacked every rent they could in an effort to force out as many tenants as possible. Why would they be doing this in a recession? Well, the building has been rent controlled for a long time and corporations sure don’t like that, so the Hudson Corp revoked the preferential leases that had always been offered by the previous saint of a landlord, Mr. Frank Farella, and pushed every rent to the max. Once each apartment is vacated, the unit goes out of stabilization and the Hudson fucks can charge whatever they want. Anyways, I fell vic to this and had to bounce. Luckily the timing just happened to coincide with the opening of a spot with my ill homies Anton and Alex in Prospect Heights and now I’m straight country clubbing it up all summer! But back to the Towerz, this place had spiral staircases that were barely even wide enough for a person, much less a couch, and my poor baby had to come down the hard way, well hard for her at least. Yes this is what moving is like in Brooklyn. Thanks for the help Java!
My homie and writer extraordinaire Mark Borden just put Shaun White on the cover of February’s Fast Company magazine. Mark is known for turning boring business stories into dope pieces that transcend traditional business reporting and this is no exception. I won’t divulge too much of what the story is about because God knows magazines need some support, (go out and pick this up at the newsstand!) but I will say that it’s a remarkable tale about how a 22 year old skater/rider has gotten super powered brands like Target, HP and AmEx to see the full potential of investing in the action sports market. Love him or hate him, you can’t front on S Dub’s accomplishments and you’ll be surprised to learn that he’s turned down way more deals than he’s done. Mark just sent me this behind the scenes video from the cover shoot. Check it out!
I couldn’t think of a better way to start off the new year than with some words from the man for whom “keeping it real” should be the Wiki definition. My homie Aari Jubran from Goods Magazine linked up with Primo just before the holidays to talk about the three major lyrical forces keeping hip hop alive: Jay-Z, Nas, and Lil Wayne. This dude is the epitome of knowlege god, peep as he says what we all think every time Nas drops an album of sick lyrics and wack beats! Thanks Aari!
This is just some bugged out shit. My dad’s side of the family is from an even smaller town five minutes outside of this one. My cousins out there have been telling me about this cult for years and have taken me to the house to see the loonies with the lists and the cameras come out to try to freak you out. I kinda thought it was all bullshit but damn apparently not!
My homie Trevar Cushing at VBS has been killing it this year with his ode to the history of snowboarding, Powder & Rails. After winding through snowboarding’s west coast heritage through Damian Sanders’ neon lenses, Trevar is bringing it back east with the true don of east coast riding, Jeff Brushie. Covering everything from his discovery as a knucklehead grom to the bag of dreads his mom still keeps in a ziploc bag, these episodes will bring you back like Garbage Pail Kids and Straight Outta Compton! Shouts to Trouble, Keir, Driscoll, Nico, Rene, Liam, The Carpenters and more!
When it floods over here we get all “oh call in the National Guard,” and “better declare this a disaster so we can get some of that good disaster money!” In Rio they bust out the Jetskis. Valeu o Lucas pelo link!
My homey Joe from Montreal just sent me this. In addition to running a nice site called Limited Hype, Joe also happens to be an art director for adidas Originals. Check out Red and Meth, Young Jeezy, Russel Simmons, DMC, Missy Elliot, Katy Perry, The Gonz and even David Beckham at what would have to be the best house party since that one in Old School with Blue and the jello wrestlers. Man if only last Thursday’s jumpoff in BK had gone off like this!
I tried to resist the urge to post this but just couldn’t! Somehow on one of my recent (and often) youtube blackouts I came across this video mashup of a 1988 Fugazi show synched to an acapella choral version of “Waiting Room.” The group is called the Blue Ribbon Glee Club and I don’t know shit about them except what I picked up from their site. Seems like they are a bunch of Chi-town hipsters who sing Dead Kennedy’s and Pixies songs at beer halls. WTF? Someone out there knows them - holler at me!
AKA Timbo J Baggins. AKA Caranguejo do Norte. I live in Brooklyn in the country's first housing project where I imagine that the sound of the BQE is actually the waves lapping at the beach in Brasil. Eu falo portugues. The only thing I've ever learned is that nothing is constant. Let the fun begin!
Love me? Hate me? Email me:
timbojbaggins@gmail.com
