I love Arlington. I always say I’m from D.C. but that is not quite right. A-town. Retroceded in 1847. Arlington will surprise you with how awesome it is from time to time. My man Hendrick runs a fine arts collective called artoutlet based right here. They do these crazy events that take 1 crapton of work to set up and often only last one night. I keep returning the fairly hard-to-grasp analogy of vomiting pure light. Two years ago they did an event called flux at an abandoned garage behind our old studio. This year they did something similar at a sick studio on Columbia Pike. It belongs to Jazirock. He’s a graf writer and photographer and all around madman visual artist. They got some good press about the event. Flex Mathews (who was just voted DC’s number one rapper BTW…ehem and will be putting out future projects on F.A.R.C.) and I showed up and freestyled with DJ seven in from Japan.
Flex Mathews & COSMO
The space itself is bonkers. Dripping visuals blend around corners and give a fluid vibe to the whole scene. We’re trying to set-up some all ages shows soon. I know it’s not that useful now, but there was a bunch of other good stuff going on yesterday…

Flex spent the day teaching kids how to freestyle. I spent the day returning from Philly after seeing my best friend’s MFA thesis show at Tyler. I didn’t really get his exhibit until we had a chance to talk about art and how it fits into our collective understanding about the arc of history. He did a whole collection of art inspired by VA luminaries. My favorite was his Arthur Ashe sculpture. 80’s sportswear is so wonderfully hideous.

Later, I happened upon an African music even at 1640 Columbia Rd. It was transcendental… the leader was playing a wooden tonal percussion instrument, and just putting it all on the line with undulating cyclical vocals… truly amazing – one of those moments wherein you can feel everybody’s attention collapse to a singular point. But it was at a church and all these aging lesbians were there to get in touch with their inner negro and, well world music isn’t really my scene, also I had to get over to a flavor tripping party held by DJ V-Roc, so I only stayed for one song. But it kept a smile on my face hour hours – the kind of experience you can revisit for a week or so before taint can besmirch the power of its memory. As I sipped Guinness that tasted like a blended coffee beverage I began giggling inconsolably.

more pics from jazirock

and check out a similar (but much larger spatially and temporally) art event in Crystal City calledInked Souls bigups to Art Whino for pulling that one off