all or nothing #35 - do you promise?
table of contents
1.events 2.words 3.missed connections 4.horoscope 5.listen
»looking forward
lucidity came slowly by mikko castaño
they once believed that photographs stole a little bit of one’s soul with every picture captured. now, that belief is no longer commonly held, but if we’ve never proven the existence of the soul, then we also haven’t proven that photographs don’t actually capture little pieces of one’s soul. anyway, photographer mikko castaño will be exhibiting various photographs and maybe souls at his exhibition, opening at all street’s 119 hester spot today, december 11, at 7pm.
»current
topl3$$ america by paula romeu garcia
we all have bodies. fleshy meat sacks that contain all of our vital organs and allow us to take the miracle of being alive for granted. despite the scientifically awesome functions of our bodies, we choose to instead obsess over skin and controlling the superficial associations society has attached to certain body parts rather than just cherishing the beautifully utilitarian purpose of our bodies. join us and the interdisciplinary artist paula romeu garcia in saying f*ck their rules with her exhibition topl3$$ america, which will be on view at our east third street location through december 15th.
words
+how to unsuccessfully be a hypocrite+
one of my all time favorite albums is jay-z’s reasonable doubt. on this classic record, there’s a lyric that's always stood out to me on the track “coming of age,” featuring his one-time and now entirely forgotten protege, memphis bleek. i also think about memphis bleek a lot. like, what happened to that dude? imagine how tough it must be watching all of jay-z’s new sidekicks thrive. he was literally the only one who didn’t make it out of being that one guy featured on that one jay-z song. well, that’s probably not true. there have probably been hundreds of failed rappers in the depths of roc nation’s roster that once held a great deal of promise. maybe kanye and j cole are just the ones we know about because they’re the ones that survived the many purges of a major label and perhaps jay-z knew when it was time to discard his lyrical offspring and invest in new blood. anyway, though, you’re probably wondering about this lyric i mentioned before and now i’ve unintentionally hyped it up by delaying the reveal. well, prepare to be underwhelmed. “the only thing i got in this world is my word and my nuts. and won't break 'em for nobody.” for context, in this verse, jay-z and memphis bleek are doing a classic back and forth verse, trading bars in a manner he would eventually do with artists like the notorious b.i.g. and kanye west on songs that are far more well known than this one. but memphis bleek held his own. he really did. it’s also entirely possible jay-z wrote both of their parts, though, so who knows. but back to the reason we’re all here: to analyze 90’s rap lyrics. you’re probably wondering why this seemingly mundane lyric stood out to me. well, it’s a combination of a couple things. it feels extremely silly yet incredibly bleak (get it? :), a little insightful, and ultimately very quotable. classic jay-z, am i right? i have a pretty good memory, but to be totally honest i can’t quite remember if it was jay or memphis who said that particular line. and obviously it’s a google away, but we don’t always need to rely on computers. let’s just sit in the mystery. remember back in the day before the internet when you used to have conversations and you’d come to a question that no one knew the definitive answer to and you’d just have to accept that you may never know? sure, it may have been annoying in the moment, but it did force you to think deeper, scouring your memory for the answer. so, let's collectively think on that and maybe by the end of this essay we’ll all know the real answer. for a long time, i was convinced this was an original jay-z/memphis bleek quote, straight from the imagination of shawn carter or whatever memphis bleak’s birth name is. years later, to my great surprise, however, i learned that this oh-so-clever line was lifted from a film that you may know as the third most popular basic bro college dorm room movie poster, after fight club and pulp fiction of course. scarface! yep al pacino doing his best cuban impression originally delivered this absolute bar. interestingly, though, on coming of age, the rocafella mcs opted to swap “balls” for “nuts.” the reason for the switch may be as simple as the flow of the song and the punchiness of the word “nuts,” but there could be a very elaborate backstory to the word switch. however, even if we googled it, we probably wouldn't find an answer and that’s ok. the concept behind the song “coming of age” is actually really sweet,. it’s basically jay-z taking a paternal role and then just going back and forth with memphis complimenting each other in efforts to establish a mentor/mentee collaboration sort of dynamic. and the song literally ends with them taking a marriage-like vow together, gleefully exclaiming “till death do us part.” i’m sure jay-z has made sure that memphis is all good, but they have certainly parted ways from this sort of intimate dynamic. and if i had to guess, it was probably the billionaire jay-z who backed out of this vow. so. does that make him a hypocrite after literally inflating the value of his word as absolute bond in the same verse? no, it doesn’t, because memphis bleek actually said that line. in this song and in scarface, “nuts” or “balls” are a symbol for bravery or pride. in combination with one’s word, the quote underscores the intangibles that essentially make up one’s integrity. now, i do not like donald trump, or at least how he presents publicly, all of the opinions he shares, his fashion sense, how he talks with his hands and how he pronounces words, and basically all the things. on the surface, he presents as someone devoid of integrity. behind closed doors, he may be totally different and a very reliable and maybe kind father or whatever but from everything i’ve witnessed, not a fan. inversely, i’m also not a fan of joe biden. like, not down at all. but obviously voted for him because abstaining would be literally voting for donald trump, which a lot of y’all did this past election because somehow you’re too liberal? which doesn’t add up to me, but whatever. despite ideologically not f*cking with joe, i – like many people – see joe as well intentioned because we’ve all been programmed to feel sympathy for bumbling old white men because of their proximity to babies. it’s hard for them to put together logical sentences, can’t walk straight, and have very thin or no hair at all; such a combination is kryptonite for our biological desire to care for the needy. despite slowly benjamin buttoning into a large old baby president, joe still very much hangs his hat on being a man’s man full of grit, dedication, probably a lot of vitamins, and., of course, integrity. i’m not a fan of joe biden, but i wholeheartedly believe in many areas of his life he has integrity, particularly when it comes to his family. he has experienced a great deal of loss and thus cherishes the people closest to him. unfortunately, he recently came up against a choice that situated his role as father versus being a good president and he very, very, very publicly chose the former, breaking his word in the process. but he also kept his word because there’s a nonverbal contract everyone agrees to when they have kids, which is of course to do everything in their power to protect them and he did just that. in doing so, he looks like a humongous hypocrite, which in the face of the wild sh*t that’s currently happening in our world that will inevitably get worse over the next couple years, it doesn’t really matter and this will ultimately be a blip in time, but it does feel like a sign of what’s to come. because this was a really bold and ballsy move by joe, so if even he’s willing to openly accept being a hypocrite, i can only imagine what trumps willing to do. but all i know is a world with no words and just balls sounds like quite a bleak future.
missed connections
+12.5 argu collective’s how to be a novice reception
You: wearing a carhart jacket with more holes than jacket
Me: wearing various distressed sweaters posing as a winter jacket
Description:
we shivered in the cold as we shared a cigarette outside the gallery together and it was perfect.
+12.5 secret concert
You: a fixer
Me: unbreakable
Description:
somebody has to bend. and who will it be? i guess you’ll have to tune in next week to find out.
+12.9 topl3$$ america opening reception
You: just watched and laughed
Me: got hit in the face with the wing of a pigeon taking flight
Description
it didn’t feel like you were laughing at me, but it also didn’t feel like you were laughing with me, either. maybe you were just laughing. idk, but it was cute. maybe we could laugh together sometime.
horoscopes
+Aries+
we promise that what you’re feeling in this moment will pass as long as you forget whatever happened because that’s how memory works.
+Taurus+
the only promise in life is death. so, does life even really exist, or is it just perhaps a stage of death, since comparatively to your short short life, death will be your fixed state for eternity. the holidays are here, so it’s time to think about it.
+Gemini+
find the tabernacle of the floating dalai lama and you will inspire your future self to be bonded to the rooted ground you and your ancestors planted both mental and literal seeds into. water it and water it good. confused? perfect. read a little bit closer. closer. yep, even closer. touch your nose to that screen. we can’t not promise anything will become clearer to you, but we can promise the more you read, the more you see, and eventually you may see things that were never there in the first place.
+Cancer+
you may be feeling like you haven’t fulfilled the promise you gleefully entered this year with and you’re right. you haven’t. but there are a couple weeks left in the year. who are we kidding, you don’t have the juice like that to make a meaningful change now.
+Leo+
do you know what rhymes with promise? honest. well, i guess technically it’s more of a slant rhyme. but is that really a coincidence? i don’t think so and if you ask yourself why, you should know the answer.
+Virgo+
promise everything and deliver everything and then one day, maybe you too can be a little french dictator general that joaquin phoenix will one day play in a biopic.
+Libra+
here’s a revolutionary idea: stop lying all the time you freaking kleptomaniac. we’re kidding, but that didn’t feel good, right? so maybe you should reconsider your relationship to passing the buck and instead start holding it yourself.
+Scorpio+
a famous canadian once crooned, “promise to break everybody off before i break down,” which is technically not physically possible so don’t try it. this month you’ll be tempted to do great and seemingly unfeasible things, and our advice, don’t do them.
+Sagittarius+
next time you’re reminiscing about your lost youth remember that a lot of kids die, so if you’re old and reading this you must be doing something right.
+Capricorn+
be patient, your time is coming, we promise. as long as our society stays intact. but don’t worry about that because you have no control over the world you exist in and you must accept that.
+Aquarius+
you once had so much promise, but what are you really left with now? take stock of your life and your surroundings in these coming weeks and you’ll see you have absolutely nothing, but that’s okay. you can always rebuild, but know that anything you build will eventually become nothing again when the sun explodes.
+Pisces+
we promise it will be better in the new year, but the rest of december will suck for you.
playlist
+send us your writing, ideas, notes, observations or anything you want to gallery@allstnyc.com to be considered for future editions of all or nothing+
image credits
artworks by Sebastian Guerrero and Jah Levy previously on view at the argu collective’s how to be a novice exhibition at our 77 east third street location.