Before you change the channel

If you follow me on Twitter, generally towards the end of the night, you’ll probably catch me hooping and hollering about one thing or another. It’s usually another. For a particular reason. During these sessions where I’m yelling out nonsense to my very lost timeline, I’m watching “TV”. TV in the sense where I’m streaming shows from my internet.





Now what about these television shows that make me lose my mind every night? Well they are drenched in melodramatics, so cheesy that the only thing you can do (after you’ve adapted to the cheesiness) is YELL AT YOUR TV. Why one character does this, why the other character doesn’t see that this one loves her, why he can’t see that his DAMN FATHER, and why he won’t let go of the past. There are a million of these dramas that like I said, once you’ve adapted, you find are DAMNED good.

What are they?



KOREAN/JAPANESE/CHINESE DRAMAS

I know I know! First off, this would probably only appeal to a person who is a sub-head. Generally those are anime watchers who have learned to both read and watch at the same time. BUT with Korean (and Japanese and Chinese) dramas you’ll find mangas that have been made into live action dramas, soap dramas, and BAMF action dramas. Oh course, I can hear you now, trust me. It’s good.

Examples you say? Why of course.

Manga/Anime turned live action drama.


Although not a drama, (in the sense of being broke up into episodes) I’m sure not a lot of people knew that series such as Death Note and NaNa while Hana-Kimi was made into a 13 episode drama.



Mulan was also been remade into live action movies while Jenny, Juno, ( a movie that mirrors Juno EXACTLY plot for plot, but created and published two years before) hit Korean screens successfully.

Sappy Ass Love Stories.


Whew. These are generally the ones that have my life in shambles. When I say they are dramatic…they ARE. Series such as Dream High, where the love triangle between Hye Mi, Song SamDong and, JinGuk will have you flailing…(if you’re a flailer). My Girlfriend is a 9 Tailed Fox, had me skeptical at first, but grab every tissue you own, the last few episodes WILL have you weeping like a babe without his pacifier. Coffee Prince tackles issues such as homosexuality (but not REALLY) and betrayal very well. More for womenfolk than anything.

Crazy ass Action Series.

In Japan, you have Karate. In China, Kung-Fu. In Korea, Tae Kwon Do. In any format, you’re gonna to get your daily dose of martial arts action flicks if you watch any of these dramas. Shows like Athena, Brotherhoods of War, and Dog and Wolf had me jumping around my apartment like I was Michelle Yeoh (but I’m a special type of human so ignore that). The latest and greatest action drama is City Hunter. THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE.


Based VERY loosely off the Japanese manga of the same name, it follows a young man and his father as they get revenge on what seems the WHOLE COUNTRY OF KOREA for what the government did to their familes in the past. All I know is that a whole buncha people getting they asses kicked and their lives ruined.

Simply, if you need variety in your life, and aren’t afraid of a foreign tongue, you’ll be surprised to find entertainment in places you never though to look.

Music Spotlight: French Pop

Right. So pretty much after being called Asian for months now (I AM A BLACK, DAMON). I’ve decided to let the masses know that it’s not just Asian things I’m obsessed with. Empirically speaking, I’m pretty much obsessed with things that are NOT English.

With that being said, I wanted to introduce you to another love of mine. French-Pop. Probably based on your perceptions, you were expecting to see overly romantic men with pencil mustaches and french woman in can can skirts. Wrong. French Pop is just as dance driven and beat obsessed as ours, while French Soul can be just as moving and feels goody as our music. Just in a different language.

A Haitian friend of mines put me on to French music a few years back, and I’ve never looked back. It’s pretty damn good. Let me show yo.

First up.

Ahmed Soultan


A Moroccan singer, Ahmed emigrated to a French district when he was young, and has been fusing Arabic, hiphop and soul, along with his French tounge. This song took me to a summer a few years back when music had that soulsly, everything is going to be okay, vibe to it.




Next up is Gage.

Full name Pierre Gage, he goes monogamously by just his last name. This singer of Haitian and Jamaican decent, has a very soothing voice, and tends to mix modern soul’eque sound with reggae into his songs. In this song Tu Peux Choisir, the funky use of horns and the smooth mixture of Vitaa voice compliments his. I REALLY like this song.


And last but not least is my favorite little cwo’sant (say it JUST like that) songbird is Shy’M.


Beset with a beautiful set of sultry vocals, Shy’M has been tearing up the French charts since she debuted. Not only is she gorgeous, but she can dance and she is pretty. Did I mention she is beautiful? *girl crush*




I’ll make you people culture aware if it’s the last thing I do. Toodles! Ce’la vie! Bon après-midi. A wee wee to you all as well!

Happy Birthday Toy Sldrs!

 

*yell sings in best Barry Manilow voice* LOOKS LIKE WE MADEEEE ITTTTT!!

 

 

No but seriously, we’ve come a long way. Usually I leave posts like these for more personal blogging, but shit, this calls for a celebration. I’m extremely proud of how far we’ve come compared to where the site started. A lot of you have seen it grow from this:

 

 

to well, what you’re currently looking at. Crazy huh?

 

I’ve never really went into any details as to how it all happened, but the site itself really came about from a few tee designs I created for myself. I had no intentions of selling them, it was just something to wear around the house and rock to handle small errands. Actually at one point I stopped designing all together. Cold turkey. I’d say about 2 years. Somehow I ended up meeting @reeality, who stayed on my case and with enough pushing, got me to jump back into it. Even at that point, I never gave much thought about actually running my own line. Being a fan of already established streetwear brands like The Hundreds, Crooks, Stussy and countless others, no way did I think I even belonged in the streetwear business. Not with power houses like that running around.

 

It wasn’t until this design (might look a bit familiar) did things really start rolling. There wasn’t anything incredible about it either. It was simply combining several things I liked into 1 image( Not much different than what I still do to this day). Iron Man, Nike SB Dunks and mimicking 1 of my fav. rappers sneaker pose. Still not fully on board with the idea, I was still timid when it came to truly showing anyone other than Ree. Eventually I took it to twitter and received such a positive response that it really helped push the idea forward that “I can do this.”

 

From there the researching started. I mean, you can’t start a line completely in the dark as to how you go about handling things, right? One thing I remembered was reading stories from different t-shirt lines telling viewers to be realistic. Not everyone blows right away. Or at all. I made sure to keep that in mind. Not in the back, but the front. It was no guarantee anyone would even buy a shirt, so I kept my goal very small.

 

Sell one. That’s it. If just ONE person out there would buy it, I’d feel like I accomplished something. I came up with the name, how I’d start marketing and waited. Then waited some more. Even more. A week went by. Nothing. All the while keeping in mind “it won’t happen right away, just keep at it.” It took 2 weeks before I got my first sale. I still remember it. Still can’t describe the feeling. Which tee was it? Well, this one:

 

That now makes 2 times Jay-z has entered his way into my designs (are we seeing a pattern here? ) The funny thing about this tee is its one of the few left that still refer to the line as ‘Toy Soldiers’. The name was shortened for marketing purposes. (Toy Soldiers is far too common of a name.) I never changed it, even after the shorter name. So if you have one, you definitely own a throw back. After selling our first tee, it felt like the pressure was lifted. From there I pushed the goal to 5. Then 10, so on and so forth. Since then we’ve continued to grow and so has the support. Theres still a lot of ground to cover but I’m grateful for everyone who supports however they do it ( DEE!, ALL of the IC fam on twitter, Spence, Dray…basically everyone who supports. Theres alot of you.) Referring us to friends, links on your site, reblogs, retweets, purchasing something, you name it.

 

All of the following have played some role directly or indirectly aswell:

Yeah New York

Doctor’s Office

Imagein.Us

When Keeping it Real, Goes Right

A Tribe Called E

Brooklyn Rooftops

Vapors NYC

Robot Army

One Fifty One


FINALLY, the blog staff. Jade, Nia, Chrissy, Adam… you’re all dope. You don’t HAVE to do what you do, but you do it anyway. Even if I have to twist your arm sometimes. You all bring something different to the features section (plus it gives me something to read other than what I type lol) It’s appreciated. Thank you. I was supposed to wrap it up here but forgot one last thing….our baby sldr is no longer a baby! He clearly deserves a name. And that name is…..

 

 

 

Sam. Sam Sldr. Sam, meet the viewers. Viewers, meet Sam Sldr. And with THAT said, same time next year? Hope so. Remember to check the 1yr anniversary tee in the shop! $11 + shipp! kbye.

Spotlight: D.GrayMan

Generally when I ask about this anime/manga, I get a blank look or a “Yeah I heard about it but I…”


Excuses.

D.Grayman is awesome, and is one of the few that has a better anime than the manga. (Only because the action is very hard to follow in the manga. Very.)

There are 3 good reason why you should watch the D.Grayman series; outside from its general badassary, good plot, and emotional toil)

1. The Exorcist.


The plot of D.Grayman is pretty simple, although the story is complex. There are the bad guys and the good guys who pledge their lives to stop them at all cost. The Exorcist are a group of human individuals who are able to link and harvest with a substance called “Innocence.” This rare… (I’m not EXACTLY sure what this is made of) is what allows the Exorcist to fight the “bad guys”. The Innocence is a power up and can be classified by types. Our Protagonist, Allan Walker has a parasite Innocence, while other Exorcist may have a crystal or an equipment type of Innocence. None the less, it makes them all more powerful to fight off Akuma. Each Exorcist has their own story as to why they are a part of The Black Order (the governing body of the Exorcist). With any order of people and a power that governs them, corruption and desperation leads to conflict inside the Order on top of the race to save the world from the Earl and his special type of “evil.”

2. The Noah.


Our antagonist. In the D.Grayman universe, all humans are descendants of the Noah family from the Great Flood (you’ve heard of it before.) This Great Flood, however was caused because the Noah Family have been battling the Exorcist for centuries and will continue to do so, under the leadership of The Millennium Earl(Adam). WHY exactly has been yet to be revealed, but we know that the Noah gene is immortal and exist in all humans, so that when a Noah dies, the gene is awakened in a human, who will then turn Noah. The Noah are pretty badass people. They pretty much don’t give a damn for non-Noah people (which is evident as they turn human spirits into weapons for their use). They are sadistic and cold, yet at the same time hilariously funny and witty. These are a series of “bad guys” that I actually like. The interesting thing about the Noah is their skin color (they appear with darkened skin). Ties in with black people being the origin of humanity (every human descended from The Noah)

3. Innocence


Innocence started out as a cube, and during the battle with the Noah and Millennium Earl many centuries ago, it was scattered across the world in 109 pieces. Innocence isn’t like your regular “power”. It chooses its user and at any given moment can judge a user’s morality and destroy that person (Fallen One: Suman Dark for example).
As mentioned before Innocence works by types. Equipment, Parasite, Crystal. The higher the Sync rate with its chosen master, the more powerful it can be. Here are examples of Innocence going from Level One to Level Two (Lenalee Lee), and the Innocence of the Generals (The most powerful Exorcist in the Order, kin to a Kage (Naruto) or a Captain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAeFlDHdIN4

This is a pretty shitty summary. Why? Because it’s so much more complex than this. This is an anime/manga that I’ve never been able to properly describe to those who ask because, it’s hard to explain. Everything running in chaos while incredibly making the most sense in the world. This is with me just providing the most basic of all information. The battle between the Black Order and The Noah is deeper than the members and the weapons they wield. But you’ll only get that if you watch it. And I promise. It’s worth watching.