hope you have a good barber

Amen to that, props to the person behind this image.

the great arlon jabus and mamie palmer

road to recovery

The pic below was taken a few hours after I fell off my skateboard, the break was no bueno, I had to wait 9 days to get the surgery done, they added a 6 inch metal plate in my forearm...now its been healing for a few days and I am starting....just starting to feel better.

Norway Pops gets Barber Shop Props

Oyvind Nissen is from Norway and rides a board like natural pro. I am grateful to have people like him as my friend half way around this small world.

Mad props go out to Bunzi-D for sporting one of my shirts!

This is a banging track, and I am beyond words that Bunzi-D is reppin the Barbers Nation all the way across the Atlantic in the UK.

Click here to check out his myspace, and listen to his other tracks...good stuff.

Also BIG shout outs to my Norwegian friend Oyvind Nissen for the connection.

We're getting the band back together!

Oh Yes I Did!

Last month I built a Photoshop template to assist me when choosing shirt colors. I can now set my designs on top of any color shirt body, and once colors have been selected send them off to the printers.

The night before the inauguration I came up with this Obama shirt and printed a couple by hand right here in my studio at home.

The image does not show it...but the back reads "Yes We Did!"

Sketchy Stuff...

This post is dedicated to Sydney Nadine Metcalf, born at 1:38 p.m. on February 2nd 2009 - Groundhogs Day! This 6lb 11oz little groundhog girl is the daughter of my friend Chris "Sketch" Metcalf and his good lady of Oregon, congratulations you two, and much love! Send pictures???

In true sketchy Chris Metcalf style...I took a brief hiatus, or maybe was hibernating in a cave for the last few months I cannot remember and as edith Piaf sand "no regrets". I admit, building the foundation for this business has been slow going and the global economic situattion has not helped. I did have take a little break there for a bit with all the Holiday travels and work and such. Although I have been working more the past few weeks...and it feels great.

Below are just a few recent sketches I have been working on, I have also been doing a LOT of the administrative red-tape inevitable paperwork one must do when starting a business, the fun part!

The bottom image shows the progression from idea, to quick sketch in coffee shop and then two more drafts.

As always click on the images to see them bigger.

this is a test

It's been so long since I posted anything...I had to test my skills. It's just been one of those busy seasons life can sometimes throw our way.

Upcoming local art exhibit sparked my interest!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW RAC'S WINTER EXHIBITION

Barbershop: “Good Hair/Bad Hair” Smack Down (This Time it's Personal)
This is an interactive multimedia installation that celebrates the social and cultural significance of two Black institutions, the barbershop and beauty shop. They are explored for their historically social and cultural relevance to the African American community, through narratives of barbers, beauticians, patrons, and artists young and old. Walk through a fully replicated set of the barbershop; with old school barber chairs, clippers, razors, and hair products. Stand along the wall of a beauty shop circa 1950's with authentic jars of hair preparations, singed curling irons, crimping irons, and antique hair dryers. Scan the photos depicting the subtle nuances and artistry alive within these shops then and now. This exhibit focuses on the issue of Black hair as it relates to identity, social consciousness and self, and the stigma created within the black community about so called "good hair" and "bad hair" that continues today. It’s an educational forum that explores the range of Black hairstyles as "classifiers" and of what the Black Diaspora consider beautiful. Learn how beliefs about hair texture, curl, and kink defined what was termed as "good hair" and "bad hair." See the evolution of Black hairstyles, Black consciousness, and Black pride. Hair type, styles, management, and treatment are discussed from the process, to the perm, to the natural.

I found the picture below a few weeks ago, a really cool shot of an O.G. barber shop in Egypt...I like all the razors hangin on the wall...and the way the child is curiously looking at the cameraman.

Happy New Year! 2009 everything will be just fine.

The writings on the wall...

I shot this picture with my cell phone camera just after getting a nice good cut here in Point Richmond...they say NO two barber poles are the same, and I beleive that.

Interesting...the internet say's the darndest things!

While searching for images related to Barberin, I came across the one below...but the blog that it is from is the interesting part. John Kricfalusi or John K as he is commonly known...was the creator of the 90's cartoon Ren and Stimpy which came out of Spumco, which was a cartoon animation studio.

Well John K has his own blog which is filled with cartoon and animation insight, history and info. He also offers advice and damn helpful lessons and such...pretty cool hands on way to disseminate and connect with a vast audience.

click here to view john k's blog

I just got a Woody.

I am not sure I really get this...but I like it.

Shave a pig, make a wig, sell the wig and buy some snuff...hmmm...okay.

click here to see more of this comic book artists interesting work

Not a bad strategy, distract the kid with a comic...then cut his ear off.

Get Shorty

So after re-reading that article below, I decided to learn more about the place where Shorty Maniace cuts it up, the F.S.C. It turns out to be much more than a your local neighborhood barber shop, it is a mighty fine establishment.

click here to learn a little more about the F.S.C.

Why do you think they are called the Knicks?

This online NY Times article was sent over to me today, thanks...good looking out.

click here to read the article

click here to view the slideshow

Guess who's back...

3 months ago when I purchased the domain, I set up this image as a placeholder for the site...not many people saw this, as I was not running around telling people to go to a site, which was not up yet. The post it note is no joke...those things haunt me.

Someone asked me why it reads 2009, I simply replied, patience is a virtue and all good things take time...oh and I probably won't get anything going until then which seems about right.

It's alive!

Today lightning sparked life to the official Barber Shop Clothing website.

Click here to check it out!

This was my first time designing a site, and although I am happy with the simplicity and layout I am working on an updated site to launch in Spring, along with my first line of goods.

Hustler Barber Shop?

Now I am all for hand painted murals...

But the picture of a guy alone smoking a cigar in a bathtub drinking champagne and watching TV...holding electric clippers in one hand and a comb in the other...for some reason does not connotate a hustler to me.

Let it be.

Stuart Davis is one of my favorite artists...

Stuart Davis (1894-1964)
Barber Shop Chord, 1931
Lithograph
Signed in pencil.
Edition: 25
13 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches
Cole and Myers 14

Norman Rockwell kept it high and tight...

bric-a-brac barber style

It's actually a pretty cool little sculpture, dig the sleeping dalmation.

Lord High Executioner executioned in a barbers chair.

If you like to read, click here for the story.

no sir, it aint like mine...the bomb squad get's buzzed and faded

Bombsquad "It aint Like Mine" from Joshua Dixon on Vimeo.

Who needs a haircut?

The Unabomber really needed a haircut, why do you think he wore the hood and glasses, embarrassment.

Could a nice visit to the local barber shop have prevented Ted Kaczynski from becoming the Unabomber?

Let's think about this for a second, looking good is the beginning to feeling good, as proven by the end exchange between Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd in the 1983 movie Trading Places.

So Theodore grew up as a smart child, moving through school in the 50's and 60's and eventually receiving a degree from Harvard and a PhD in math from the University of Michigan.

I am willing to bet his hair was cut frequently during this time, it was when he starting teaching at UC Berkeley when he started to cross over into the Una-world, those damn free radical liberals.

Let's face it, when they found him in his remote cabin he looked like a mess...now Michael Landon never looked that bad and he lived in a little house on a prairie.

If I looked as scruffy as Ted became, I may hide out too...and start thinking weird anti social thoughts...on occasion I have been known to do this, and I quickly run out to the barber for a trim and a shave...and the world is a lot better afterwards, trust me.

Now you may think I am being shallow or naive for connecting physical looks with a persons mental state, and especially that of a psychotic murderer, although am I really? I admit I am not a specialist, nor do I hold a PhD in Mathemetics or any such prestigious title of that nature, yet I personally think I may be onto something.

Take a look at a timeline of pictures, he looks perfectly normal as a kid with a bird on his shoulder sitting next to his brother, who would have guessed he would have gone full goose bozo and did what he did?

So do the world a favor go get a haricut and start looking good...but more importantly FEEL good.

diagram of a tryptophan overdose

Mohawks, brohawks or fauxhawks pick your poison.