August 22, 2015 Six thirty wake up to walk to the tube to venture across England from London to Weston Super-Mare to visit Banksy’ Dismaland theme park art installation. Two hours and forty minutes on one bus just to spend another hour on another, the thirsty was quite real, but worth it. I was with a friend as his girlfriend that were with me traveling to the UK to make films and learn about British filmmakers. Riding the second bus we were enthused wondering if we were even going to be let in with the website problem, the hype, and the easy access to almost every part of England from everywhere else, along with that the cheap price for entry, 3 pounds. We were worried but even just seeing the outside would be worth it because we’d in all likelihood be the first Americans to see the place, vanity is essential when convincing yourself to do things. We got out of the bus and walked towards the installation noticing some of the piers that were on the beach and looking off into the distance to see Whales and some other unhabituated islands. The beach walk was moderately full of natives and the small pier level theme park they had there was being put to use. We started thinking of other things to do if we were turned away at the door of the installation, mini golf, McDonalds, swimming to Whales. We walked into the queue at eleven with around 700 people in front of us who likely had been there since seven or eight in the morning litter of breakfasts and empty beer bottles were everywhere. We waited for 3 hours in line, talking about the 8-page paper we were ignoring to see this and the how we only had 4 days left in London and what we should do with it. My friend spoke about other art shows he’s been to and started noticing all the children, young children that were brought here by their parents. With that scene set it’s on, I’m almost sweating because it’s almost fate that we were giving the chance to see this. As it approached 2pm we get to the front of the line, our bags already checked, a man yells out “Next ten victims” and we’re escorted across the street to another security check point, at that point I encounter the first of many disillusioned theme park workers in a pink caution vest and spray painted micky mouse ears. I asked “Can I take a selfie.” I hear “if you must.” In a very monotone unenthused heavily accented Russian voice, I proceed to take it, I’m smiling she’s barley opening hereeyes, I laugh, my friend told me earlier that he did the same with another worker. She said “Are you my fan?” he answered “no.” he took the selfie, she said “you are now” you walk into the second security check point made completely of cardboard sculptures, even the security workers have cardboard pockets on their shirts, I get asked “If I’m sure if I packed my bag by myself” I answer “yes” then told to look into the camera and walked through a cardboard metal detector, then another worker scans me with her own personal cardboard metal detector, asking me “you look familiar, have you been here?” I laugh, and answer “nah” then I take photos of the cardboard computer station and cardboard model of black and red Air Jordan ones going through a cardboard X-ray machine. I walk out into the park and hear first accordion music and chiming in over the music is a baby voice? Not sure saying things like “Use you kindness now, because cruelty is good for later.” And “Don’t trust visions that don’t include buckets of blood” Another pink caution best worker hands me a map of the park stating the phrase “End-Joy” a homophone for “enjoy” which also made me laugh in the dudes face. Everywhere in the park there were pay-for-lounge chairs that are in every park and beach in Europe but were free here. The first thing you notice in the park is the castle, which is Cinderella’s castle and a fucked up version of it, it look like a swamp ate it and threw it up, it looks like a place that should have the words ‘free candy’ spray painted on the front, it looks like a place that would continually be raided for meth even though no one has been in it for ten years. The place that the park was built in was an unused pool so the middle of it was filled with some rancid swamp water, which was good for bugs. I immediately went to the gift shop and bought two shirts, after I walked out I started walking around noticing the lady being attacked by bird while sitting on a bench, the caricature drawings of the back of everyone’s head. The scorpion like gas truck, the slave ship motor boat controller the oil spill pelican the knock over the anvil with a ping pong ball, the rides that aren’t really rides at all. There was a place where you can relax and watch a series of vimeo art films, one of which was a computer simulation of hooligans attacking each other and being destroyed by metal bar spinning them around like a blender. I sat and watched several of them drinking a cider. I took in the atmosphere, there was a billboard of a billboard that was being crushed by someone, there were notes that read, “I love the way you caress my body ego” I was sitting there in my own head thinking about the amount of work and energy it took to make this, the simple detail the research wondering if anyone else that was here around me took the journey that I did or further. I finished my cider and walked to the other side of the park and saw the Orca jumping out of the toilet through a hoop that’s too small and into a kiddy pool. I was approached by sign makers that were spray painting “eat the rich” on old card board, wasn’t sure if they were a part of the park or not, gave them a head nod and went to the next installation. There was library that had alternative reading and small synopsis of books there were on display, the library of course was in a trailer and filled with saw dust. The next trailer was a cruelty box that was filled with fucked up antihuman shit governments make to keep people away from each other, I was only able to get a small ingestion of this we were kicked out for maintained. The next place was ‘NoBorders’ book store and a place where you can sign up for acorn, I bought a small book about the Russian Revolution and a pin that said strike, I was rush out of there. Next to that was a tent that had anti war posters, but being real the place smelled like way too much BO, every tent or closed place smelled terrible. There was mini golf that no one could win at. But I looked over to the gallery, which before had a huge line, but the line was gone so I walked over to it again, stopping half way to get another cider. I walked in to a grim reaper dancing on a bumper car to “Stay in the light” then saw a baby in a vending machine, before walking into the art gallery where a security guard told him finish your cider then come back in, I walked back into the room chugged it, walked into the gallery, the guard told me that the room you standing in is worth 1.7 billion and that I should know better. I was blown away, early in the month I was standing in a room with Warhols self portrait and Monroe and Roy Lichtenstein’s Whamp thinking then, shit this is an expensive room, then standing there like shit, not to look at everything with a monetary stance its still something to be jaw dropped about. At the end of gallery there was another room with a huge city model of a city being completely ravaged by riots, the detail was amazing, to me the best thing in he entire park, besides the entire park. I left the gallery and remembered that there was a Cinderella castle that I wasn’t allowed in earlier, so I walked back over to the front of the castle to a sign that said no entry and walk into a path that got darker and darker as you walked in then you see flashing, and the over turned magical carriage given to Cinderella by the fairy god mother you walk around to see, barley only when lights are flashing, the flipped carriage and Cinderella hanging out of the side bright blue eyes wide open whilst the police instead of helping are taking pictures of her. Eerily similar to what happened with Princess Diana. I walked out of the castle and met back with my friends, they took photos and I sat in the pay for lounge chairs, until it started to pour rain. We left the park, after I placed a couple Jiveass stickers around the park and five finger discounted some merch.
The scene in question begins at 5:09 This is a critique on the some social implications of the film ‘Mama Don’t Allow’ made by Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson and shot by Walter Lassally. The film takes place in a jazz club filled with working class youths. I wanted to examine a scene in the film that is subtle but very culturally relevant. The scene is after the subjects of the film are finished with their work and have already arrived at the club but haven’t yet started dancing. The feel out part of the night and the film, the thirty-second space where you can start to make your assumptions about where the film is going. The scene is simple in it’s production, it’s complex in it’s meaning. It’s a simple a man walks in the middle of a group of man bumps into someone, conflict is raises enormously, in a two second scene the film could have gone anywhere, asking and answering questions; are these working class people animals? Can they be civilized? Can they control their instincts? When the man that initiated the confrontation quails the situation the questions are answered, civility is present. To some this scene is simple, a blip in the radar, B real to the fill the frame, but to someone put in that situation before you have to believe if nothing else is relatable in the entire piece that scene is, whether you’re in the movies, at a club, or standing on the street, in 1956 or in 2056 it’s all the same. Testosterone runs ramped through a young mans body added to that it being in close proximity of women before a night of dancing, mucho levels were likely at an all time high.
Music: There was a build up in the music that leads to this transition. The music went from tuning notes by the band to an actual song that was lead by the trumpet player. The music in film is great by the way, leading force in a powerful collection aesthetic visuals and sounds. The music was the back bone of the film, with it having zero dialog to lead you through a story the climatic arch had to follow only the sounds of the band and it followed it perfectly. It was my first indication that the scene was massively important. Why would pioneers of an entire film genre put an emphasis at this point in the film?
Production: Going along with the music on the other side of the change there was the start of the dancing which is the second biggest play in the film. If we were to break down this film from a purely aesthetic stance you would assess it: music the absolute expression of the time, jazz, the hip-hop of it’s time, the music you had to hide in your Beethoven sleeve when you bought a record from the record store so your parents didn’t break it into a million pieces. Second in the line was the dancing, it was fierce in this film, spins footwork, movements that excited and made you dizzy just from watching. If the music was the expression of the time than dancing was the expression of the people, something you had to be good at or face ridicule. And interestingly enough the it also was something that was shifted by this exact moment in the film, the first couple to start dancing started after the music shift in the exact sequence conflict – music change – dancing. I’ve been doing design for years and I know that every artist in the world puts specific things in specific places for specific reasons and there’s a reason why they would put that sequence of events together in that order and in that part of the film.
Cultural implication: Completely from looking at the film as an outside observer I have to relate to the things that I can relate to. Looking at interesting things in the film that I like and relate to. Working hard to play hard later, seeing my friends in a social setting, feeling empowered to people we’re meant to inferior to, courting a girl, being rejected by a girl, hearing the one jam in the club knowing it’s your jam finding the nearest member of the opposite sex and taking her straight to the middle of the dancing floor. All of those are tackle very well in the film, especially the exploitation of the rich kids in the film, showing up late, not paying, looking awkward, and eventually leaving. That part of the film was blatant, well worked and something they wanted everyone who watches the film to see and recognize easily, applause to the filmmakers for that. But I think it was the subtle measured scene of the quailed conflict that is what reins supreme in the film. This is a hypothetical situation that I want to apply to the making of this film. Being that this is free cinema, being that almost every movement in the film is to address something culturally relevant at the time, being that the filmmakers went to prestigious universities, so I’m going to make the assumption they knew what they were doing and possibly addressing a problem. I’m going out on the limb and saying that there was possibly a problem with confrontations at these nightclubs at the time, the collection of men and women, in a particularly boring period in the history of the world, when the 20 something’s were too young to participate in he war, but old enough to understand it, and having built up a ‘I want to fight’ attitude, maybe there was a subtle almost subliminal message being presented in the story in the initiation of the dramatic phase of the story, subtle enough to missed by the majority of the patrons of this film but bold enough in the placing of the shot to be noticed by the people that it was directed to. Think about all the Disney movies that Walt had is his hands one having all the subtle and sometimes very bold parental messages in his films, or the subliminal messaging in propaganda films released at the time. The definition of free cinema being film that is free of everything except what the film makers want to do, digging deep here is essential based on their excellence in film making, off their education, their ability to make other messages clear and bold they had to be making a statement. We are here, we are having fun, we are young, and we don’t need to fight each other. Maybe not in that order, and maybe the reason the subtly could be because of the awareness of the audience they are reaching. Directing the bold part of the story towards rich kids to let them now they’re not welcome or at least to tell them when they come to the club to come correct and the subtle part to few people from the club that go, that need to realize that every night there could be as great at the film portrays.
Chase Meë @tortaandtequila
Lost Keys..
What time is it? Shit supposed to be out of here fifteen minutes ago. Got big things planned for today Shit people are calling I got my nicest denim and they’re crispy, got this brand new shirt I bought at the last dunk exchange that some lamed sold because it didn’t fit, got all white vans in the winter because I’m a rebel like that, I got a fresh cut but the barber didn’t edge my beard because it was 5 extra dollars but it doesn’t matter, this whole days is about to be lit, I even woke up before my alarm went off, because it’s that lit, the little voice in my head said today is going to be the day, well fuck everything is working out perfectly. Well, Until now
What did I do last night?
I was at Seans house we were shooting darts that were a little too close to the door, almost hit Ash in the face, it would have been funny, but not so much Sean is an EMT so it would have been straight, dude got all sorts of medical shit at his house. Last night was on, I kind of remember it but I don’t, shit, I know I drove, fuckin’ John was throwing up out his car, I wonder if Ash knows he was trying to smash, Ash-Smash, smashly, shit I’d smash too, she was giving me the eyes. Should have said something when she walked by me to get to the fridge, now that I think about it she drank my last coors lite, asshole, fuck her.
Anyways, where the fuck are –
Shit, ‘Hello? I know, be there soon, peace’
Scrambling around my room, not here, not there, fuck, okay when did I get home?
I had one of those Jack in the Box munchies meals, now that I think of it my fuckin’ stomach hurts, tarter melt sauce wasn’t on point
Seven and half minutes later –
Fuck, I’m, fuck. Phone rings, I ignore it this time. Okay I stumbled in and ate, well what was left, stopped at 6 lights only thing left was tacos, ate one, tossed the other, shit phones at 2% dammit.
-looks through message history-
oh shit, six different ‘you up?’ messages sent, fuck. Only one reply, text history full of straight Marvins Room level bricks; horny, lonely, drunk three states of mind that should always keep their exclusivity.
Okay well that’s done, anyways where are my –
Fuck, I have one flat elevated surface in my entire room and it’s completely cover with clothes, empty soda cups, condom rappers, I wonder how long this beer has been here, shit, fuck, hahah, I had this that night that one chick came over, damn, she was nice, why didn’t I keep talking to her? She was feeling me at that last function when I slide through with Pagille hoodie I only worn that night because some lame bricked and spilled his Lime-a-rita on it. She hit me with all types of game that night told me my whole cypher was on point from the dusted vans to the very broken-in Dodger fitted. Hmmm I miss her, but that was almost 6 months ago and this beer smells like a broken dream.
Sets beer can back in place –
I wore, this last night, okay, who’s number is this? Ehhh, tossed it down, shit it’s, fuck, okay, fuck it I’m just going to stay here, cologne hasn’t been applied, so I’m good, with it. What a waste.
Wait –
Yes, man, left them in hanging in the door,
Always losing my fuckin’ keys..
Hate/Hate war between people and police..
Today, January 15, 2015 there’s this war going on outside, cops verse the people that aren’t cops. Which is crazy, you see police rolling around in tanks and walking with M16’s down Main Street and as a citizen you’re like what? They can do that? You get scared, you get worried, and you get mad. There are so many people walking around that are just out and out scared of cops, I’m one of them, I personally have never had a bad run in with law enforcement but when I notice a cop is behind me I think, he could pull me over, and that could be the last of me. Is that right? I’m from LA, crips and bloods and 18s and MS13s, I went to school where there was one of the biggest riots in Los Angeles, right? But the police is what scares me. It’s like a systematical impregnation of information that is fed to make me hate. And hate what? Hate a person that I’ve never met, a cop, a uniform, I dislike and am scared of someone before any interaction. That by definition is prejudice, I feel as if that I’m very open minded and excepting of people, so admitting to something like that is hard. I have a prejudice toward police. I know that I’m not the only person that feels this way. And we cannot, we also cannot let police do wrong, but we cannot hate them without reason, we cannot hate a person without reason. I know the biggest way to solve this issue is empathy; we have to empathize with people wearing the uniform. I sat down with a good friend of mine and talked to him about becoming a cop, how it is during this time a tension, and what makes him want to put on that uniform everyday.
What’s you name?
Omar Pacheco
Rank?
Sheriff Safety Aide for the Alameda County Sheriffs Office
How far up in the force do you want to be?
My main goal to achieve in the field of law enforcement is to join the canine unit and the SWAT team. However I do see myself going higher than that once I get a little older like joining the command staff and becoming a police Sergeant.
When did you figure out you wanted to be a cop? And like why?
Ever since I was 12 years old I knew I wanted to be a police officer. A huge part of that was because my brother also wanted to become a police officer and naturally as a younger brother you tend to want to be like your older brother. As I got older though I actually began thinking if being a police officer is really what I wanted to be or was it just because of my brother. The determining factor was dad’s side of the family. Many of my family members from that side are on the opposite side of the law. My father is a drug addict, My grandfather has been in prison my whole life and most of my uncles and cousins are in gangs. Growing up I felt my last name was soiled. Being a “Pacheco” was seen as a bad thing. So now my brother and I are going to change that. I want to be able to change people’s lives and truly help my community. By doing that being a “Pacheco” will now be a positive thing.
How does it make you feel when like your peers give you shit about it? Like in my case when I tell you, you’re going to go to the police academy and learn all those snitch tactics?
Honestly my friends making fun of me for wanting to become a police officer does not affect me at all. When it comes to your friends you have to know that shit talking is part of being friends. Shit talking is always going to happen and if you get upset over it then being friends is out of the picture. You cannot take it seriously because you know that at the end of the day they are the ones that have your back. I know that all you guys support me in achieving my career goals so the shit I get from all of you is just funny.
If I played ‘Fuck the Police’ by NWA in the middle of a party would you feel uncomfortable?
Derogatory music towards the police does not make me feel uncomfortable. A lot of the artist and songs that I listen to has a negative attitude towards police officers. If you like hip-hop and rap music you have to learn to accept that there will be songs showing their hatred towards police officers. You have to understand that many of these artist growing up had a lot of negative confrontation with the police so they show that through their music. The song is not meant towards me directly so I do not mind hearing that in music.
We’re young ya know and like it’s interesting to think that being a cop is something people want to do, you said you’ve wanted to be a cope for a while and from my point coming from LA dealing with the LAPD I would never ever think being a cop is a good career choice, ya know, but you did where do you think the opinions differ, or like why do I think one way and you think the other?
I think maybe it has to do with the confrontations that we have both had with police officers. I do not know about every time you came in contact with a police officers but I do know that most people that hate cops is because they had a negative experience with the police or know someone that was screwed over because of the police. In my cases since I have been involved with the police in a positive way. Ever since I was 12 I have done a lot of community service with the police and the jobs that I have had in law enforcement gave me a different point of view of law enforcement. I have gotten to know police officers on a more personal level and have seen for myself that there is truly good cops out there. I feel like there is more good cops than bad. So my opinion for them is not soiled when I seen something on the news of a cop that messed up.
I know you and your brother well and you guys are both kind of floating the same boat, both cops, both in some long term relationships, both have your own houses before ya’ll were 25, crazy world, what makes y’all so career driven, how did you guys get put on the right track?
I think we both got our work ethics from our mom. I was raised by a single mother who always provided for us and growing up I saw how hard she worked in order to support our family. She raised us to know that going to school and getting a good job was important. Also my brother and I did not want to follow in the steps of our father. Growing up we were able to see both sides. With my mom we saw the positive effects of staying in school and working hard to get a good job. With my dad we saw what your life is like if you don’t finish school and turn to drugs. My mom had a good job and a loving family and my dad was a homeless junkie that was in and out of jail. So that became a huge motivation to become better than our father.
I know both of your guys and I think you guys would be some good cops, I don’t think either of you to would be out there on some Training Day shit. I know there are plenty of cops out there that are good guys, why do you think that there’s such a bad rep for cops?
The bad rep towards cops has everything to do with the media. The media is the number one cause for all this hatred going around. What the media does is tell stories that are one sided in order to get more viewers. You can never get the full story when you watch the news. So all you hear about is cops doing bad things or them making mistakes whereas they never report on positive things that police officers do. No one really cares about a police department hosting a fundraiser but as soon as a cop shoots someone it is all over the news. Also most of the times they make the police officers seem as if they are in the wrong when they actually just did their job. I am not justifying any of the recent shootings I am talking about in general. So when they media reports that a cop killed an innocent man no one knows the whole story but they all jump to conclusions that the officer was in the wrong.
I’m not going to ask you what you would have done in the recent situations because you’re still working on your career and I don’t want you to say that wrong thing and have it jeopardize anything, but what I do want to ask you is do you think that the way news and other social outlets play these stories out to the public force you to take aside? And to follow that up does it help or hurt the situation?
The media definitely makes you choose sides. most of the times they make these cases race related so if you take the side of the police officer now you are seen as racist. If you take the side of the victim you hate cops. What about people who just want justice and not to take sides? This is devastating to our nation we are being torn apart by the propaganda that the media is posting. If the media really wanted to help they would stop spreading around all of this hate. If we want to see change we need to come together and seek justice but that is not done by rioting and looting. That shit is stupid and ignores the issue nothing gets fixed by doing that. All we are doing is stealing things from someone who had no control over what happened and destroying peoples business. Instead we just all need to come together as a community and unite with the police in order to find the officers that maybe shouldn’t be cops and rid them so that the corruption stops.
Do you think that every experience with a cop should be treated differently? For example if you were hassled by one cop one day and then got pulled over by another should you or would be an asshole to him? It’s really interesting because the same way people tell people to not be racist you could say that some people hate all cops no matter who they are which could be a type of ‘ism’ how do you feel about that?
I do think people should treat every experience differently. Police officers are just people and as such they all have different personalities and different views on things. You can have an officer one day pull you over that is having a shitty day and be a complete dick and then the next get pulled over by an officer that is really chill and just wants to let you know your headlight is out then send you on your way. Most people that hate cops tend to be disrespectful to an officers right away which makes the officer give that same respect back. As any normal person would do. So these people only see that side of police officers. If people are just kind and respectful towards police officers 9 times out of 10 they will respect you back. Every police officer is different and they deserve to be treated that way. It’s very sad that the few officers that do mess up and are truly bad people ruin it for everyone else. It’s also sad that this hatred put a huge dived between citizens and police officers. We should be working together because we all have the same goals in mind to keep our communities safe. Yet there is this us vs. them mentality and it makes no sense.
No matter who you are someone somewhere down the line is going to hate you without even knowing you and by being a cop you upped that number considerably, and let’s be real you’re probably the nicest person I know how does that make you feel man?
Anyone who wants to go into law enforcement has to except the fact that a lot of people are going to hate you for no reason. If this is something that truly bothers you then law enforcement is not for you. The way I look at it is that it is nothing personal they do not hate you they hate the uniform you are wearing. So who cares what people think. A police officer needs to be trained to be able to ignorer what people are going to say because it is part of the job. Even at the job I have now people talk shit all the time or just mean mug me but I do not care. It does not hurt my feelings in any way. These people do not know who I am they do not even know my name so why should I care what they think? I let them live their lives with hate while I go on having a great day. I think the best way to get over it is just to laugh about it. When I am at the airport writing a ticket and someone runs out and cusses me out I just laugh and become extra nice to them because it just pisses them off more. It makes getting yelled at pretty funny. I think this goes for anyone though when people hate you or talk shit but yet they do not know you then just take it with a gain of salt and move on.
A discussion between Omar Pacheco & Chase Meë..
Jiveass in 2014
Shit was cool I guess, we finally got over the undergraduate hangover and moved into full adult life. Adult life sucks being real so we went back to school. We went to Europe, we saw Kanye, we dipped our hairy ball sacks in the Mediterranean, how many of yall can say that? Enough of the flex sessions. We tried to establish ourselves we signed to DTMWIN to the roster and let me tell you he’s going to blow the fuck up. I promised my dude we on a Coachella stage in the net two years, we’ll be collecting checks at SXSW soon breh don’t trip. It’s good to build with some on the squad, the Degenerates show will be something special. I mean how could it not be? We got the DTMWIN release party coming soon too, so like its 2015 same squad, same name, new year, new set of goals. I mean how could we not make it?
Highlights
We opened the Shop it was something special to finally release shirts under the tag.
We started and finished the Big Willies photo series
We fucking killed the last supper shoot
We did the promotion for Zeta Omega Oasis
And I got boo’d up by a badass hottie
Low lights
Lost yet another car RIP to the rocket
Got fired from the day job(who wants to work a 9-5 anyway?)
There’s so much room for improvement and so many more things to come, and that on the real is dope I’m excited to see what we come with this year, we got OASIS III, we got Mexico, we got EDC, we got some Vegas trips, we got a new thing like every week. I mean we’re like that big ass bolder in Indiana Jones we coming for you. That was a corny ass 07 lil Wayne like. Ey Kanye on tour this year? Oh we’re there. We’re about to have a year where Kanye, Drake, Kendrick, and Frank Ocean all come out with albums how lucky are we? Man I say it all the time dawg, this is our time and by ‘our’ I mean anyone breathing so let’s get it theres enough money cars clothes and fame to go around, there’s always enough bottles to pop, there’s always extra tacos left over from the taco man, so let’s all get it and make it, lets all get that all mighty gusto, because if you grinding you deserve it.
Cheers,
From the capitan of the fuckin enterprise, the mothahfuckin badess mothahfuckah living on planet mothahfuckin action Chase Meë..