I remember a quote from Warhol, which more or less goes something like this, "I love seeing people who are dressed badly, it makes me wonder what they must think is bad, if they think what they are wearing is good", thats kind of a funny statement to make, appreciating others values while depreciating them by even making the statement, but thats Warhol for ya, I often wonder about people who say they are influenced by Warhol and wonder if they are influenced by the man or by the art? They are very similar if you look within, but it would be easy to mistake the two if you just thought about the aesthetic and not the real intentions of his version of Pop Art. 

The reason I mention this quote is because I got a few interesting emails this week, where basically readers of the site, were concerned about the changing state of the sites content, "where are all the sneaker updates?", "how come you don't mention '.............' anymore?" etc etc, or the funniest one was someone mentioning how HB were beating us to all the new sneaker releases LOL, I've also seen a widening gap in our bloggers content.. there are disctincly two very different sides to Street Culture emerging, and while I'm very happy to be a part of one side of the emerging groups, I still find it interesting to read and see the other side, where I do get confused is where people can't see the difference, or pay too little attention to see whats going on. Sure its all still Streetwear and its all still derived from one thing, but theres no way you can't deny the emerging space, and the different groups emerging within. I guess everyone comes into Street Culture from different backgrounds and interests, which is one of the reasons the culture is so great, people from a hip hop background, art, design, fashion, skate, and so on, but again this is the attitude that confuses me, if you come from the hip hop background, yo can't assume you know more about the fashion side than someone from that derivative? perhaps its just the type of person i deal with, but if i dont understand something fully, I want judge it, i wont leave a comment on a hip hop site about how how wack the new kanye album is.. i don't know anything about that? I might not like it, but it doesnt mean its not good..(infact that statement is a poor example, i actually like some of it) There was a comment on a damian hirst post this week, saying simply 'wack', now from that I assume you're more of a street art fan perhaps, and don't know who Hirst is, in perspective thats like saying Pollock's work isnt good just because you don't like abstract impressionism, that comment has to be simply one of the worst and funniest comments I've seen on Slam X Hype, probably ever, when you stop and think about the persective of it.

There are numerous brands out there within Streetwear that i don't like and wouldn't wear, infact they just have no interest to me at all, but given this, I probably don't know a thing about them so I'm not going to make comments putting them down, they are obvious popular amongst their consumers and so who am I to judge, i can wonder, but to make bold statements I don't think is right.

This goes for bloggers alike, we don't all share the same interests and for this reason having blogs on sites is such a great thing, it enables content to come from numerous avenues and people, the news part of Slam X Hype is basically my daily curation of whats out there and what me and my team think is cool, but the blogs enable a much wider range of content, there are bloggers on Slam for example, if you put them in the same room as each other, they would have nothing to talk about at all, there are also bloggers on slam that probably better suit having a blog on HB or bloggers on HB that better suit slam, you can even bring Clot, Honeyee and others into that mix, even Riottt. If blogs were as structured as many other aspects of the industry or as strategic as some people play this game, in theory what should happen is the editors of all these sites should sit down and have a draft as such, seperate bloggers into sites which they best fit, If everyone was honest with themselves im pretty sure there would be no argument over who goes where, thats a big 'if' though.

For the same reason, I sometimes wonder why people have blogs on a number of different sites, there are exceptions to this, but surely if your content resonates with a slamxhype reader chances are it probably won't be as well received by the reader of another site. Ironically I say this, while this actual blog posts syndicates on Riottt as well as Slam, but i think we can all appreciate that riottt is a different situation. There are people i know that hate these posts of mine, that make that perfectly clear, in their own little covert way, which brings about another point i will touch on shortly, but there are others who really like them. Likewise there are blogs on Slam that i never read, there are blogs on honeyee i never read, and there are blogs on slam that i rss feed from and read everything of, likewise for Honeyee. Blogs as a networking tool? A whole other debate. Self Promo via the internet, not a bad idea, but you better play that game right! Its not easy at all, so think before you leap into that game.

Before I say anything else, I just want to clear something up.. if you are not enjoying this post, STOP reading, there is a number of buttons above that will take you to other pages, and there is even a little red x which will close the window, you're not stuck here, so don't get angry and feel as though you need to leave a negative comment, which is very unlikely to have your real name or email anyway.

Which brings me to my point about hate mail, negative comments etc, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I don't think i ever say anything directly against any group or person, which leaves you with only one argument you don't like me? Thats fine too, but hardly anything to start typing about, perhaps you just don't agree with what im saying, thats fine too, how about explaining why? And whats with the covert operations? Really? I think everyone knows whats so weak about that.

Im speaking from my perspective but Im talking about our culture on the internet as a whole, I mean, look at the comments left on a mini interview on slam this week, or look at the fact someone made a tee shirt saying hiroshi can't ride a fixed gear, hey, maybe he cant, i dont even know, but why do we need to comment on it?maybe he's not riding a fixie to become the next member of Mash, maybe he's just having fun? maybe im writing this because i can, not even expecting anyone to read it? maybe im just venting? is that cool?

I read a blog entry by someone on another site this week, who was obviously trying to be a bit intelligent over the movement of street culture into corporate identities and branding, in my opinion, it showed this person doesn't really know what they are talking about, nor can they articulate, BUT.. I think the fact that they wrote this is great, they are thinking, they want to reach a new level of understanding, and who am i or anyone to judge them, there are people reading this right now, thinking i cant write, i dont know what im talking about, im in no position to be saying any of this, and so on.. i'm not going to email that person and say 'you're an idiot', or leave a comment' saying 'wack' (i really like that one LOL)

One of my favourite hate mail topics i get, is who do i think i am to be making remarks and talking about the culture, or supposedly driving alot of what goes on, who decided i should be that person? well, no one did! and why not! just because I say something doesn't mean you have to go out and do it, this goes for every blogger! The whole point of blogs is that they are a way of saying what you think and letting 'friends' or interested people know what you've been doing or have to say. While some people seem to think they are a tool to play a game, thats not what they were originally meant for, some don't assume everyones playing this game.

Till next time.. Leave your comments below ;)