Primitive Shoes and Apparel's Five Year Anniversary

Where the hell were you five years ago? I tell you where I was.

I was always finding myself in the Beverly Hills/West Hollywood area almost every day that summer, running around with an Olympus E-1 DSLR camera trying to capture a famous celebrity or an infamous personality, so that I can not only earn some quick cash, but to also make my friends jealous on MySpace with these images I got of famous people. I was unemployed that time since the recession got to me a few months prior from working at the Apple Store. They actually let me go, despite my explanation to them about why I have been missing a few days of work and my disinterest of the new teal shirts that all the sales associates had to wear from the start of the second retail quarter. I assume they didn't wanna waste anytime, so they just threw me out and got someone else that can dance and enjoy amusement park rides as much as I did.

It really was a start of a long tough rest of the year. Most of my friends from high school at the time had no time of hanging out that summer, by using the excessive excuse "It's cause of the economy." Somehow, without making a decent income aside from the paparazzi gig, I still had a car and I managed to go to a few parties, but just to only take photos of drunk people grinding into Lil Wayne's The Carter III and semi-thick girls caked out in makeup.

However, I was still into sneakers back then. This was a time when the so-called "shoe game" started to turn around and made some, if not, most of the OG collectors either sell their collection due to the recession or they just stopped collecting period. Nike's Jordan Brand did something different that entire year. Once a month through out 2008, they released a pack of two different pairs of retro Air Jordans entitled "The Countdown Pack" because the 23rd edition of the Air Jordan sneaker was released that year. The part that sucks about the pack was that they went for $310 and no other Jordan retros were released separately that year, aside from the affordable Team Jordan sneakers.

Towards the end of the year and around the time of the election, I heard about professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez opening up a skateshop/sneaker boutique somewhere in Encino called Primitive. I was like "All right, P-Rod owns a sneaker store. Giving back to the community. That's cool.", yet I never had the time to check it out and that was when my earnings were getting smaller and smaller. What interested me about Primitive at the time was that they were one of the few places in the Valley that has a Nike SB account. Previously, I would get my SBs at the Active Ride Shop in Burbank, Val Surf in Valley Village and sometimes Flight Club LA in Fairfax. Before that, I remember getting my first pair of Nike SBs at the Chapter II skateshop in Granada Hills (which was formerly 118 Boardshop) and when the Nike SB line were starting up, that was one of the only places in the Valley were you can get them at the time

Fast forward two years later, and I finally got a chance to check out Primitive after a old friend that I knew told me about it since she worked across from there. I already blogged about my first trip to Primitive a few times in the past, so it's best to read that rather than just re-telling it again. Primitive Two Year anniversary recap . After that, I was hooked into that place and I started going there more frequently. Then my find myself wearing Primitive Apparel like is the only thing I have.

As many of y'all know, I spent my whole entire life in the San Fernando Valley. The place is known for its multiple suburban communities, adult clubs, independent auto dealerships, locations for television and movie scenes, shopping malls, and its extremely hot temperature summers among other things. I'm used to all that for the past 25 years of my life. The guys who run and skate for Primitive have also spent majority of their lives in the Valley as well, and the store represents the lifestyle of the 818, especially the culture of the state of California. They just had their 5th anniversary celebration at the shop last week, and I was there of course.

Actually I was at the shop since 5:30 in the morning to line up for the Air Jordan 3 Retro "Fire Reds" that were dropping that day. I haven't lined up for a pair of Air Jordans since the White/Cement IV retro release last year at the Panorama Mall (which sold out very quickly) and its been forever since I purchased a pair of Jordans in retail price. The campout line experience was actually dope. I talked to several blokes in line, including this one woman who's around my age that's lining up just to get some Nike SB's (Civilist Dunk Hi's were also released that day) for her husband. I asked her why doesn't he get in the line? She then said that he's a doctor with an insane sneaker collection and that he had to be a work since he can't lineup for them. Then I said that's real supportive love and trust right there. Now I thought that I wasn't gonna get a pair, but fortunately I did, and I was like the 10th person in line. Already a week and I still haven't worn them yet, but but these shoes are nice. Those 3's, especially that particular pair, are quite significant to me because Michael wore these at the 1988 Slam Dunk contest, which was less than a month before I was born (birth day is on the fifth of March). Also, the Jumpman logo debuted that year, and it one of the most well know logos in the world.

After I got my pair, I went back home to trim my beard and change into my red Iesha Marie Van Styles/Primitive t-shirt and some Khaki Shorts from American Eagle Outfitters. I could've worn the Fire Red 3's to match, but I rocked the Black Toes Jordan 1's that came out earlier this year, which I purchased at The Holy Grail in downtown Los Angeles earlier this summer. Then I went back to Primitive for the anniversary party. It wasn't as big as the previous anniversary parties cause there weren't too many kids that attended and Paul didn't show up since he was at the X-Games in Downtown that day. But nonetheless, the anniversary was great, probably as great as the other ones. Ran into several people that I haven't seen since the 4 year anniversary party and met some new people as well. Unlike the other anniversary parties, I didn't go crazy with the photography. Hell, I didn't even bring a Nikon SLR with me, yet I did manage to capture some images through my iPhone 5. I think those few pictures I took are just as good as taking 300 pictures of the same event. Here are the photos that I captured on that Saturday.

Taken at 5:30 in the morning, just as the sun was about to set.

Cashier's desk inside the store. 

Ashley in the Air Jordan XIII retro "He Got Game" and Nicky Newcastle in a pair of Vans. 

Tim Middleton throwin' up the dubs in Primitive's dressing room. 

Primitive Apparel co-founder Andy Netkin in the center of attention. 

DJ Butch and 2 Deep 

Irene, Ashley and Nicky.  

Headshot of Tatiana Javosrsky 

Portrait of professional skateboarder Terrell Robinson from the Primitive skate team. 

Primitive Apparel's 5th anniversary t-shirts were given to those who attended. 

Finally got to meet my favorite inspirational photographer, Van Styles. The camera he's using is the Sony Cybershot RX100M2 that he just got that day, and behind him are my favorite models Christine Mendoza, Justene Jaro, Nikki Sotelo, and Dawn Jaro. Here's is his recap of the 5 year anniversary party Visual by Van Styles

Andy Netkin reflecting with his daughter, Bari. 

Elisabetta with her and Andy's daughter, Bari, both wearing the Primitive "Signature Script" shirts. 

Andy with his lady, Elisabetta. 

"First lady of Primitive" Elisabetta conducting the group photo. 

Original Red Cup Crew. 

Closeup of the Primitive 5 year anniversary t-shirts (one in black, the other in navy)

The Air Jordan "Fire Red" IIIs I purchased from there, along with some of the Fall '13 t-shirts and my Primitive 5th Anniversary t-shirts. 

That was one of the greatest days I've had this summer. Looking forward to more anniversary parties at Primitive. Thanks for your time reading this. 

Happy Re-Birth Day

I don't event know how to start off this post. I mean, I know what I'm about to write, but after days of planning this, I still can't seem to write this entry like I successfully did in my previous posts.

Its wild and confusing how we receive or earn something, be it a person, place or thing (money obviously). Then unexpectedly out of no where, we no longer have possession of it, which leaves us confused as to why it was taken from us in this wild reality.

Two weeks ago was Bezold Photography's final weekend working at the Westfield Topanga. Prior to that, I've been hearing rumors from my co-workers that we might close down or move someplace else. I thought that was fabricated bullshit,  until my boss sent me an email saying that the last weekend of August was gonna be the final weekend at the Topanga mall. All right, maybe we might go to Northridge mall the following week after that once I assumed after reading the message. Well, that idea was dropped when I met up with my boss that last Friday of the month for the first time since the start of the month. He said that the Northridge mall didn't want us there cause they already have a studio portrait, so for now, Bezold Photography is on hiatus, which doesn't look good. He also told me that he has another location in Burbank Town Center, yet they already have a full time photographer there. Before I met up with him, I was hitting on this cute girl in front of entrance after I parked my brother's car in the garage. He was in St. Louis that Labor Day weekend, so I had to watch over his whip. It was going well so far and I was about to score on her, but I needed to get my paycheck from my boss so that I can try to achieve a "double play" on her over a plate of sushi for lunch at a high end Japaneses restaurant inside the mall. Well, that didn't happen cause my boss showed up 30 fucking minutes late. I got here on time as I was told, expected him to be at the kiosk already, and the girl said she had another class at Pierce College just not too far from here in 45 minutes. I really didn't want to keep her waiting, so just out of respect, I told her she can take off for her next class so that she won't be late. I would've been fucking upset if I was 5 years younger, but I've dined with unknown females many times before, so this is nothing new.

But back to my boss and the situation with my work. He was there to sell the prints for the customers who came to pick up and had their kids' photos taken the week before. One of the customers raised serious hell on us and said that one of the photos, without going into details, was pure shit. She went as far to get the Westfield mall management and two security guards, and that's what made it much worse. The manager was a female who's around my age, but acts like she came straight from a boot camp in jail with a masters degree. Damn, she went IN on my boss, who twice my age with limited English (he's from Peru but I can still understand his English) and that gave the manager more advantage over him. It was a nightmare to witness this argument, which I was thrown in as well to defend my boss. Finally, we had no choice but to give the customer the rest of her photos for free. It was just me and my boss there that day. He gave me my pay and told me that I could take off right after that shit happened. I wanted to say till 9PM to help him sell the photos to prevent another chaos taking place from the customers, but he said that he'll get through it by himeself. As I walked away leaving him there by himself, I felt emotionally fucked up inside. I'm now back to where I was since the beginning of the year, without a legit job for now again.

I had issues with Westfield's management in the past from when I worked at Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks. Because of them, I vowed never to step inside the Topanga mall and any other Westfield owned mall ever again. I had many great memories going to Westfield Topanga for the past 13 years. I even remember when that mall was just a small strip from the Sears at the south end, all the way to the Macy's at the North end (before it was a Robinsons-May). The Neiman Marcus that's there right now used to be where the old Nordstrom was placed before being currently moved to the corner of Owensmouth and Victory Blvd. I was also there on October 2006 when they debuted the new expansion stores east of the mall along with a upgraded food court (that was the first mall I ever seen where they had REAL utensils instead of plastics and glass plates in a food court) and the Apple Store there was opened that day too. I used to bring majority of my classmates from Pierce College all the time to Topanga in 2007 and 2008 just to chill and act a fool there. Working there did save my summer as opposed to washing cars everyday in triple digit heat in North Hills before I came to Bezold Photography. That was one of the many blessings I was greatful to take use of.

I could've made those last paragraphs a separate blog post, but like I said, I was emotionally drained since I stopped working there and didn't have the energy to type. Some of the things that made me feel up to my feet were going to two Dodgers games and attending Primitive's four year anniversary barbecue event since September started. Thanks again as always to the staff at Primitive, Dawn and Justene Jaro, Shay Maria, Talisa Monet, Alexis Lopez, my homeboys Frank and Zishan for making my Labor Day weekend excellent. Oh and major shoutout to the Los Angeles Dodgers organization for upgrading me and Zishan's seats from Right Field Pavilion to Field Level closer to the action and still have us keep the All You Can Eat privileges, which is something that I'll probably never see again.

To me, its still hard to believe that 11 years ago on this Tuesday that many innocent lives were taken away unexpectedly in New York City as well as the Pentagon and United Flight 93. I already wrote where I was on that day on a previous September 11th post I typed to save the time. I'm glad that everyone got through the hardship and now September 11th is a regular day again. I was expecting it to be a national holiday or something cause that shit was intense. Was very fortunate to see the Twin Towers in person on my first trip to new York City back in Labor Day weekend 2000, just a year before they were no longer in existence. Still tripping out about it right now. I remember people discussing and recognizing it up every year just like how elderly pre-baby boomers are still mentioning the attacks on Pearl Harbor in December 7, 1941, cause that shit was intense to them at their time. Even thought I'm not affected by the tragic events from that day since it took place in the east coast, I just don't feel like doing anything or going anywhere today just out of respect for those who didn't ask or request for their lives to be taken away. That's how crazy that day was, and ever since then, people's views started to change differently, as if we all got re-baptized or something.

Not only is today the day we remember people lives being gone, but on a positive mote, today is also a day for a special person that I know through a good friend of mine in Nicole Stetter who's been given and received another year in life. I first met her at Nicole's house two years ago, and she (along with my other homegirl Chirstina Campa who's birthday is in two days) was the reason why I was there for their birthday party that day. If it wasn't for that night, I can't even think where I would see myself right now. Because of her birthday party that night, I was able to establish a wide spectrum of mutual relationships with others and expand my photography with them. It was there at that night where I saw Aftergloam performing for the first time ever, and if it wasn't for that night, I would've never met Elvis Galvez and his incredible family, and I would've never met Tianna Edmonson and have attend her unforgettable last minute kickbacks in her old garage every month. Just standing next to her and having a conversation with her at a soiree is like that emotion of a pitcher after accomplishing a no-hitter during a perfect game twice in the same season (which is super rare in Major League Baseball). I don't like to see her birthday being overshadowed by a national tragedy, but the bottom line is that she's just too awesome to get to know, and she has a nice smile. By the way, I first heard about instagram from her back in early 2011. Anyways, happy 24 birthday to Annamarie Rhyne today. Here's a photo I took of her in Nicole's room earlier this year. Thank you, Annamarie.

Thanks for your time reading this, and enjoy as much as you can in life before it gets taken away without warning.

A Mid-Summer's Nightmare Dream

I just had the most weirdest, unbelievable dream Tuesday night. It became a nightmare after I woke up realizing it wasn't real.

I was at some high rise building overlooking either Malibu or Laguna Beach (I know there's no skyscrapers in those cities but like I said, its my dream), for a job interview for some private corporation. I forgot what the company was but I think it had to do with marketing research mixed with sales or some thing like that, but it was very big though. I was told to go straight to the Chairman's office which look really large and nice like it was a master bedroom and it has a large glass window behind his desk overlooking the coast of the beach. He looks like some rich business tycoon in his late 40's with a hair transplant that makes him look young, and that he's a white guy who is about the same height as me. In other words, picture him as the late Chuck Daly, only two inches shorter. He then asked me some questions and I only remember giving him long ass answers that lasted 5 minutes at the least. Then out of nowhere, the board of directors came in his office, which, in some weird situation, it involved Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg as one of the members. I would say that this is T-Mobile Headquarters, but unfortunately, I was in Southern California and T-Mobile is in Germany.

We then move to this board room next to his office where they had to discuss an urgent situation within the company. I could've waited in the lobby, but the Chairman wanted me to get a hands-on first glimpse of the company, even though I wasn't hired yet. It lasted 10 minutes and I again I forgot what the problem was that they have to resolve. All I remember was that I gave in some input during the meeting and they were kinda pleased and has some arguments on my thoughts. After the board meeting, the Chairman and I went to his office and he then leaned on my ear and told me I was hired, ON THE SPOT. I was surprised and had so much emotion all of the sudden and the Chairman wouldn't stop shaking my hand for three minutes. Being that its a corporation he gave me an agenda list of all the procedures that the new employees go though once they been hired. The first thing it said that I have to go to a celebration hiring dinner with the Board of Directors, including Snoop and Paris, that's at some five star restaurant, all the way at Bakersfield in a Limo. Yeah, I know, very unique and unusual. Then the rest of the list says that I'll get a custom tailored suits and a two day paid orientation and some other neat perks once I get started.

Then later before I start to get ready for the dinner, I went to the beach to go swimming. I swam all the way to the deep end and for some reason the Pacific Ocean started to light up, which I though that was really tight. All of the sudden I was in a different setting, where I was driving at a university, probably UC Santa Barbara, and that they were two college kids, a boy and a girl in their early 20s driving a Police Interceptor Ford Crown Victoria who were driving behind me. I noticed that they were a 21 Jump Street-Style undercover law enforcement officers. The guy was Thai and the girl was either Iranian or Native American and they were wearing casual street clothes. I then start to lose them in traffic and after I lost them, I parked my car at a safe location and I walked around the campus. I was going to go to the student union until I saw this one girl that I knew from high school. She looked way nicer and finer than the last time I saw her, which was two years ago. She was wearing a dark blue sweater and some red tight jeans. She was with three other Asian girls and she had a 8 X 10 frame that she couldn't unwrap. I then helped her open it and she thanked me for it. She then asked me that she saw my photos on Facebook and I was about to tell her about my photography business and the new job that I got hired at... until those two undercover kids came up to me and the girl said "Can we speak to you for a moment David? This is very important" I was like "Shit, I knew it". I'm surprised that they found me, so I had to end my conversation with the chick I went to high school with. The guy told me that I was driving over the speed limit around the university campus and that they are going to impound my car despite the fact that I parked it at a safe place where no parking permit is required. After that then I woke up and I was upset that the whole scenario wasn't real (I meant the part when I got hired, not the part where my car got taken away at UCSB)

Other than that, I've been catchin up on taking photos for the past few days, which obviously explains on why I haven't been on here in a long time. The last few days have been, without a single doubt, very very awesome. Many events and occurrences took place on those days, especially in Los Angeles. Today is no exception. You got a laundry list of things that are happening in this city, and it will benefit you if you are a tourist on Summer Vacation with your family.

Today some of these include:

Michael Jackson burial grave site visit in Forest Lawn Memorial in Glendale.

Of course today is the one year anniversary of his sudden passing. Exactly one year ago, this news came out of nowhere starting with him getting into a cardiac arrest at his rented house in Beverly Hills, which broke news everywhere. At first I thought that he was just going to be rushed into the hospital at the UCLA Medical Center, get admitted for a few days and then he'd be released afterwards under intensive caring supervision since his condition has been discussed a few months prior to that. But then the story got even more serious since they started reporting that he has trouble breathing among other things and then later TMZ reported that he died afterwards, before it was publicly confirmed by other media outlets. That's when everything started to freeze up and then go completely ape-shit at that moment. First, everyone was saying that TMZ was making this up and that they needed more sources to confirm that he's dead, which the Jackson family announced afterwards to the public that he passed away. So basically, TMZ should be credited for breaking the announcement first while everyone else (which includes the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, CNN, MTV and other major journalism companies) waited an hour or two hours later after they got other credible sources and confirmations.

Secondly, this whole debacle caused the internet to crash, literally. Twitter was a huge victim to this action. Their were so many, and I mean SO MANY of it users responding to this news (I honestly don't like to use the word "tweet", it just sounds redundant) that its servers couldn't handle all the incoming traffic, which caused the site to break down for a few hours. The same thing happened with Facebook and other social networking site and forums off all genre, be it music, sports, technology forums or any kinds. That just shows how extreme and gynormus MJ was around the globe, and how he was a huge inspiration to all kinds of people, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, musical interests, and other reasons. They even had a public memorial at the Staples Center, which I STILL think it should've been held at the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl since it holds more people. The only benefit that I agree from that was that they made it free, despite that the Jackson family has some financial issues of their own. I'm sure his grave, as well as his childhood home, his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Neverland Ranch out in Santa Barbara County, will be flooded with flowers, MJ impersonators and tears which makes today look like the mid point of 2009 again.

New York Yankees vs Los Angeles Dodgers at Chavez Ravine

There's a reason why this game is too hard to get into. Aside for ordering the extra games package to get the tickets to this game, or the series for that matter, there's a lot of storylines between these two teams.

1) Joe Torre used to be the Manager for the Yankees prior to coming to LA back in 2008.

2) Both New York and Los Angeles are the top two large market cities in the United States with the most population.

3) Both of those teams WOULD'VE faced each other in the World Series last year since they were both in each other's League Championship Series, with the Yankees prevailing and the Dodgers losing to the Phillies, who also happened to lose to the Yankees in the big dance. Had LA and New York faced each other, the ratings would match the recent NBA Finals ratings between the Lakers and the Celtics.

4) Just like #3, they are the World Champs, and they have the most in Major League Baseball with 27 trophies.

iPhone 4 release at the Apple Store and AT&T store

I won't say anything about this device until I mess around with it first. (That doesn't sound right, but whatever) That piece of shit came out yesterday and I knew that there were gonna be long ass lines for it. But here's what makes it different from the previous iPhone releases. This time, they make customers pre-order the device first which means that on release day, you can just go into wherever you choose to purchase it after you put money down once your pre-ordered it prior to picking it up. It's more of a faster process instead of everyone just picking up the iPhone the day it comes out. But either way, that shit is still cause a line, cause its an Apple product.

I was at the Topanga Mall yesterday since I had to take my brother there cause he wanted to check out the H&M over there since he never shopped at that location before. He usually goes to the ones in Northridge and Hollywood, but never the Topanga location. Unfortunately, he didn't get anything there which I though he would get some clothes from that store after receiving a lot of graduation money from his church. Instead, he got Panda Express, which kinda threw me off cause there's three different Panda Expresses in Granada Hills that he could've gone to instead of driving all the way to the West Valley just for that.

While I was waiting for him, I checked out the Apple Store there, and to no surprise, there was a line. Not just one line but TWO lines. One for if you already pre-order the iPhone and the other line was for if you wanna buy something there, not browse but to actually purchase a computer of an MP3 player or any other Apple product. They had like three private security guards, two thirds of the Westfield mall security and the LAPD there at the store to make sure that no one sneaks inside the store or cut the line, which didn't move for two hours. When I saw the phone at the Keynote presentation, I thought it was a very decent product they made so far. The mobile version of iMovie and the zoom camera features got my attention. Plus its mad affordable starting at $200 as opposed to its $600 price tag three years ago.

Twilight: Eclipse premiere

It felt like two months ago that Twilight: New Moon came out in theaters, but it came out on DVD and Blu-Ray two months ago. I don't read the book, and I never watched the first two movies. They released this in the summer instead of the usual fall is because a lot of kids are out of school during that time and plus movies that are released during the summer make alot more money than any other release date season. When that movie premiered yesterday at the Regal Cinema theaters in Downtown LA, there was a shitload of people that camped out at LA Live just to be the first one to see this film. And when I say camp out at LA Live, I'm not talking 24 hours before it premiered, I mean they camped out WITH TENTS AND SLEEPING BAGS FOR DAYS SINCE AFTER THE LAKER PARADE ON MONDAY. Hell, there were parents who gave up work for a week to camp out with their kids, not just for safety reasons but to see the film as well. Its it really that serious to take up your time just to do that? Oh wait, its summer, school's out. I gonna try to do my best to avoid the whole "Team Jacob" V. "Team Edward" promotional bullshit for the next few weeks until the movie stops playing. I wouldn't be surprised if Twilight: Breaking Dawn (don't ask me how I know the names of the sequels) comes out at the end of the year

That's pretty much all the stuff that happening or been happening this week. Oh and finally, that Game 7 of the NBA Finals last week was epic. Super epic. I been saying in weeks past that the playoffs is fixed and everything, which I still think it is, but that night made me think that it was real, especially the performance LA pulled off at the end. I was at Busby's in Santa Monica watching this game. I was originally supposed to meet up with some of my old friends from my church there, but they called me during halftime and told me that they couldn't make it at the last minute. So I decided to stay and watch the second half of the game and at the end, the place went fucking electric. I was taking photos of and with random broads and Laker fans at the place. Its made last years victory against Orlando look like a regular season game. BIG MAJOR SHOUTOUT TO CANDACE AND ADAM FOR LETTING ME CRASH AT THEIR PLACE THAT NIGHT. You guys are terrific, seriously.