Here is a sneak peek at the two cover versions for issue #1. 1,500 copies will be designed by JOR and 1,500 copies will be done by DALEK  Click here for a breakdown of the issue.

So another person we have in issue #2 is Clayton Patterson, photographer, documenter and long time resident of the L.E.S.  A lot of you have probably seen clips from his DVD called Captured.  Captured is a collection of his video footage from the Tompkins Square Park Riots. We met up with Clayton….shit, probably like 6 or 7 months ago to interview him.  I think we only got to ask him two questions and he talked for over an hour.   It always amazes me when someone has such a good grasp on their ideas and beliefs, that they can just spit them out.  I can’t do that at all, I need to think everything over and over and over and then I have the worst time explaining things, which is probably why I am having such a rough time with this article.  Clayton talked about so much interesting stuff that I don’t want to exclude any of it, so I am having a rough time trying to figure out what the focus of the article should be.  He obviously talked about The Tompkins Square Park riots, documenting the Hardcore scene during the ’80’s and ’90’s, how he changed the history of the hat..yeah Clayton made that claim..crazy right?  But I think this dude might actually have done that.  He talked about the NYPD and the changes they made as a result of his tapes, he talks about the shift in technology and what effect it will have on subcultures going forward???????? What the fuck.  I want to print his views on all of this.  So here I am writing an intro for his interview and trying to work everything down to give this some direction.  I am locking myself in my office and not coming out until I am done.

It is great though because Clayton is totally working with me on this.  I am going to give him the first round of our interview along with my intro and he is going to kind of fill in any gaps, elaborate on stuff, touch on stuff he may have left out etc.  I think being able to work with people in this way is going to make the content so good.   We have been doing this with all our interviews/articles, doing like 3 or 4 rounds of interviewing so that the content is on point.  Anyway I need to get back to work on this so until next time….peaceeeeee.

On Saturday night we finally linked up with DALEK for an interview.  Due to conflicting schedules we thought we were going to have to push him to another issue, but everything worked out.  It was real cool because Chip who apprencticed for DALEK for a couple of years is the one who conducted the interview.  This worked out real well because Chip knew all the right questions to ask to really make this interview different from anything DALEK has done in the past.  Probably the most interesting part to me was talking to DALEK about the designer toy industry and his experiences in that field.  DALEK had a ton of success with the vinyl toys, but he had a lot of real interesting stuff to say about oversaturation of that market. He also talked about his graffiti days and being down with NAA.  He  gave us a few good top 3’s for 80’s flicks and music albums and he talked about traveling and moving all around the world as a kid and the influences that had on his art work.  The interview was over 1 hour which means I will be transcribing like a mother for the next few days but it will be worth it for a good finished product.  DALEK sent us over a grip of images and photos this week.  We have also decided to do a split cover, so 1,500 copies will have a cover designed by DALEK  and 1,500 copies will be a cover designed by JOR.

So last night Me, Uncle Dannuch, and Matty Brown met up with Actor Peter Greene, who is probably most well know for his role as Zed in Pulp Fiction and also his role in The Mask along side Jim Carrey. But the die hard fans remember him from such roles as Clean Shaven and Laws of Gravity. It was such a dope interview and a fun night. Peter was completely down to earth. We hung out, drank some beers and had a good time. He told us some real interesting stories about working on Pulp Fiction and his role as Zed. Peter also talked about working with Quintin Tarantino. Besides some of his more high profile roles we also talked about his early days doing off, off, off, off Broadway theater on the Bowery. I don’t want to give too much away so you will have to check it out in this upcoming issue. Check out these movie clips.

Today we went to JOR’S studio to get a few shots for his section in The Art of Storytelling issue #2.  It is the third time we visited his studio in the last few months.  His section was probably one of the funnest we have worked on since we started the magazine.  It was great because he really worked with us to fine tune everything from the questions, getting original photos, doing hand drawn stuff for us and anything else we needed.  If we can continue to work with people like JOR, it is really going to help us deliver original content in every issue.

After spending some time with JOR, we hit the streets to get some product shots for our online store which is getting closer to being released.  We basically took a hangar, a bunch of t-shirts and walked around getting cool shots.  It was a real fun day.

Ok so this is a great story.  I was down in Virginia for the Issue #1 release party and somehow Bas Rutten came up in conversation.  I had seen him before, but I am not really that into MMA so I really didn’t know who he was.  These guys were showing me his youtube videos and we were dying.  This dude is a character.  So one of my friends was like “I can get this dudes phone number, he would be great for the Soapbox section. I agreed, but after some reasearch and realizing how famous and legendary this guy was I didn’t think there was a way in hell to get in contact with him.  Three days later I get a text message from an undisclosed source with Bas Ruttens cell phone number….I was like dope.  I called my boy and was like “so who is going to make the introduction.  Does this dude know I am going to be calling?”  My boy was like “na dude this is on some cold call shit, no one is supposed to have this dudes cell phone”  I thought FUCK THIS.  This guy is an Animal, he is going to fucking kill me if I call him unannounced on his cell phone no less.  If it was an office number that would be cool, but I could see this dude being like “where did you get my fucking number?….who the fuck are you?…..what made you think it was ok to call my cell?  But lets be honest, I had to give it a shot, it was too good to pass up.  So I call this dude and I have to

admit I was shaking, I really didn’t want to piss this guy off for obvious reasons.  So Bas picks up, I state my name, that I publish a magazine and he’s like “This sounds great, lets do this baby!” Just like that.  He acted as if we knew eachother for 10 years. I sent him a magazine priority mail and called him two days later.  He picks up and he answers “JOEY what up my friend?  This magazine is beautiful…the paper….the paper is amazing.”  He kept talking about the paper quality….he was like lets do this, I have story’s for days.  So we did The Soapbox.

I didn’t want to get some generic stock photo of him so I had to find a photographer in Cali.  By a stroke of luck, I end up linking up with Estevan Oriol a couple of days later.  He was another one, he acted like we were boys for years….super cool guy and he was down with the magazine and doing stuff with us.  A few days later Estevan drove up to Bas Ruttens dojo and they took photos for The Art of Storytelling issue#2 Soapbox… We will have totally original photos of Bas for issue #2 and an original never before told story as well.  I love when things come out of left field like this, it is probably the most exciting part of having a magazine.

Check out these Bas Videos.

So this past Thursday I went to NYC to the Method Man, Redman, Snoop show.  I got stuck outside with no media passes standing next to some dude hustling mix tapes. I felt pathetic.  Everyone was telling me “yo me and Meth like this, kid.” but everyone was standing outside with no tickets, go figure.  Fast forward to Saturday night.  I end up in Atlantic City on some rest and relaxation and guess who happens to be playing at The Showboat.

I got a call from my boy Jeff that we would be able to get back stage and take care of the interview.  After yet another hour of waiting It seemed like I was going to be assed out again.  It was Halloween and the only people making it back stage were the hood rats dressed in slutty police uniforms…..but to be honest, I can understand why.  At any rate after some heavy bargaining and a phone call to Snoop Dog’s brother from PJ and Big Mike from Serious Pimp we were able to slip in the front door and got back stage just in time.  Unfortunately Redman had to leave but we got to meet up with Meth.  I have seen interviews that Meth has done in the past and in a lot of them he didn’t seem too happy, so I was prepared for the worst but he was actually cool as shit.  He hooked us up with a dope story for Issue #2 soapbox, gave us props on the mag, and we were on our way.  To top it off I won $30 on a slot machine.