Peeled, Pasted & Posted, Nov 26th - Dec 20th

Thirty Fingers of Death (Vinyl Killah Remix)
Digital Mash-Up Sticker on 12" Vinyl
St. Paco, 2011

If you're in San Jose (or within drivin' distance), you are cordially invited to the Peeled, Pasted & Posted sticker and street art show at the Gift 2 Gab Gallery. This is an event dedicated specifically to the adhesive arts, featuring works by more than 100 bombers, slap-taggers and street artists from across the globe. And, as you can see from the photo posted above, the mighty St. Paco will also have a piece hanging amongst the gallery's senses-shattering offerings. In addition to some fantastic art, you can bet that there will also be massive amounts of stickers on hand for trading (including some of my own), so do remember to bring along your black book...as well as your checkbook.

Peeled, Pasted & Posted
A Sticky Situations Art Show
Opening Reception – November 25th, 6PM to Midnight
Show Runs from November 26th – December 20th

Gift 2 Gab Gallery
190 Martha St. Studio D
San Jose, CA 95112

For more information, check out Gift 2 Gab wall on Facebook.

Shibuya or Bust (Attn : Library)

If you're in Tokyo (or within driving distance), The Kosmos Lane Gallery cordially invites you to attened ATTN : LIBRARY, a Booklet Library exhibition at Kosmos Lane Gallery in Shibuya (Tokyo, Japan). This extremely limited event runs from November 8th to the 13th, and features 300+ art related, small-press publications and zines contributed to the Booklet Library in 2011 by 200+ artists/authors, from 16 countries. Copies of Kung Fu Grip! #3B, #4 & #5 are on hand for the show, so be sure to check 'em out! For more information on this as well as other pop-up shows and events in Tokyo, visit the Booklet Zine Library website.

ATTN: LIBRARY

Kosmos Lane Gallery
2–29-6-1F Uehara,
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 〒151‑0064
November 8th - 13th, 2011

Heavy D - Final Bow

Through the years, I have managed to keep hold of only two two ticket stubs from my early days as a hip-hop junkie: Eric B & Rakim headlining at the Chicago Amphitheater in 1990, and Dana Dane co-headlining with Heavy D at the historic Regal Theater in 1988. As might be expected, each of these little mementos carries with them a sizable memory. Especially the latter.

Heavy D would effortlessly live up to his growing reputation as a consummate showman that night in March of '88: he powered through rhymes with style, leapt in and out of dance routines with finesse, and delivered roses like a plus-sized pimp during the Al B. Sure chorused "Don't You know." The Overweight Lover was in the house that night, showing fans what it really meant to be large and in charge.

Years before other emcee heavyweights like Fat Joe, Notorious B.I.G., Big Pun or Rick Ross would come to play the role of "big papa," there was Heavy D. He was the first rapper to throw his weight around not as a goofy gimmick (a la The Fat Boys), but to show-and-prove that bigger could also be better. He was one of the best to ever rock a mic, and his place in the pantheon of hip-hop greats is remembered.

Dwight Arrington Myers (aka Heavy D)
May 24, 1967 – November 8, 2011

Download: Mr. Cee's Heavy D Tribute Mix (Courtesy of the HOT 97 “Throwback at Noon” and Strawberryblunt.com)

Smokin' Joe Frazier - Exit the Champion

Joseph William Frazier
January 12, 1944 – November 7, 2011

There's a saying that goes, "to be the best you gotta beat the best." In 1971, Smokin' Joe Frazier shocked the boxing world by handing Muhammad Ali his first loss in the ring. In the process, Frazier would become a heavyweight champion, as well as the much-heralded other half of one of boxing's most memorable rivalries. Thanks, Champ.

Kiyoshi Nakazawa - Drunken Master

When I read over my interview with Dadá Mini before posting it to the web some weeks back, I winced when I got the question where Coco Muro asked for the names of some of the publications that were amongst my favorites. Though I remembered to give Giant Robot and some others a shout, I completely spaced on Kiyoshi Nakazawa's Drunken Master zine. It sucked too, because I know Kiyoshi and DM is really one of my favorite zines.

Well, to add insult to injury, Kiyoshi was interviewed last month by one of the guys at the Ain't It Cool News website. And when that intrepid interviewer asked Kiyoshi to name some of the zines that he enjoys, did Kiyoshi have the class to remember to mention Kung Fu Grip! amongst his favorites? Yep, he sure did.

As if I wasn't already beatin' myself up enough for forgetting to give Drunken Master a shout, I really started to feel bad when I considered the fact that Your Kung Fu Sucks! (the newish name of this blog) was directly inspired by Kiyoshi. I don't even know if he's aware that I bit/borrowed the slogan that he used on a t-shirt some years back. But, as the great Pablo Picasso once said, "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

Truthfully, for the first five or so minutes after re-naming the blog, I actually didn't remember that Kiyoshi had used it as a t-shirt slogan. But this is my chance to give credit where credit is due. B'sides, we all know that great minds do think alike, right?

Anyway, check out the interview, by visiting Ain't It Cool News. And if you decide that cha wanna add Drunken Master zine to your reading pile, visit Kiyoshi's Etsy shop and order copies of #11 and #12. (And check out my half-page ad in issue #12, which came out in time for the San Diego Comic Con this past July.)

I should prolly mention that after you read those two issues, you're gonna wanna order the others that are still available...whenever he remembers to update his stock, that is. And be warned, 'cuz Kiyoshi Nakazawa's kung-fu does NOT suck. In fact, the guy's a master.