Let me tell you a story about Mr. Bryan English...

Around 2002 I was in college. I had a radio show called "Banned from the Back Porch", with a friend of mine, Joe Fey. We played various punk, metal and indie stuff. Anything a solid radio station would play so, one that obviously wasn't in Syracuse. I could go on about this, but lets make this long story short. Joe and I were both Resident Advisors in our dorm. One night during our show some kids came down to the station and picked a fight with us. Some words were said over the air that obviously shouldn't of been said. The event, which was recorded as well as on air, brought down the attention of the great judicial board of Cazenovia College. And even though I had backing from my residents and professors the board decided I was unfit to keep my position as an RA, as well as my positon at the radio station. Joe wasn't fired, but I was. I was made an example of, kicked from my dorm, and lost my position as an RA, which also meant I lost a scholarship that paid for my room and board. Eek! (but not the cat)

Being tossed from my dorm I landed in my friend Todd's room. He lived in the dorms over the shit hole we called the 'cafeteria'. While living with Todd, a bunch of us always played Counter-Strike. A sweet, online, multiplayer, first person shooter game. We all got nasty at it. Todd made me his secretary while I lived with him for that semester, not because I offered, because he was kind of a dick. He had this friend of his who always called his phone looking for him. When Todd wasn't around, or didn't answer, he told this kid to call my phone, or instant message me to see if he was around but just not near the phone. All the time.

Fast Forward 2 years, I was living with my girlfriend at the time. This one night her friend Rochelle was goin' on a date, and Melissa thought it was a good idea to double date. I may be wrong but I think it was Rochelle's first date with this dude. I asked Melissa, "So who is this dude Rochelle is bringing on this thing?" She told me he was some x315x Hardcore kid named Bryan. I had a lot of hardcore friends at this time, but most hardcore dudes are dicks and super pretentious, even though hardcore music at the time was against a lot of shit like that, so I was like effin' great! I get to go on a double date, with fucking with some straight edge, hardcore kid and Rochelle.

Fast Forward 25 minutes. They show up and after some introductions and small talk, Bryan and I get on the topic of Counter-Strike. I start tellin' him how at college our whole floor played, etc. He's all like "What college did you go to?" I said, "Cazenovia College". He was like, "No shit?! Do you know Todd Bregande?"  I was like yeah, he's kind of a dick. He laughed and agreed, but told me Todd and him were bro's from high school and on. 

Then it fucking clicked. I said, "Wait a minute, your name is Bryan? Is your screen name _________." He was like yeah. Turns out this was the same Bryan who was using me as the Todd Bregande answering service. Bryan and I have been tight ever since. We have gone through some crazy shit together, and are super good buds. For his Birthday this year, a girl we both know asked me to do some shoes for him. She told me he was always tellin' her how he wanted a pair, and how dope they thought they were. Bryan actually asked me to do some pairs for his Sister and Bro-in-Law for their wedding a month ago ( I still have to post those pics ). He has been trying to get me to do him a pair for a while now. Knowing that this girl was getting him some, I just kept putting it off. 

We are always doin' eachother favors. He has helped me out, and hooked me up with some pretty dope shit over the years, not to mention he came to my mom's wake, which most of you know is a big deal to me. I knew that these shoes had to be dope as fuck, and not ordinary fuck. Mr. English is a bad ass gamer, he platinums games on PS3 just for fucking fun. He is a technology teacher, builds everything on his house himself, has lighting fast VW's, is straight edge and will flash grenade your face off before lighting you the fuck up with a Aug. He is also one of my best buds I know I can always count on. The shoes I did this time around, are hands down my fucking favorite. I think it is time I make some for me, but I dunno if they will be this dope. 

Happy Birthday ball sack! Hope you dig the shoes!

The city I live in is sometimes lacking in cool shit going on. There use to be a trivia night at Clark's Ale Hous every wednesday. Hordes of kids would pile inside and out of the bar every wednesday night. Due to a city landmark wanting to expand, Clark's had to shut it's doors. Wednesday's in the summer are now lacking something..but wait..what's this?! The Sound Garden to the rescue! The stellar crew over at The Sound Garden, Syracuse have put together Flicks on the Crick. Every Wednesday night (starting last night) this summer they will show a movie on the front of their building. With the new Creek Walk park right out in front, you can bring a lawn chair, a brew or some soder pop, and enjoy a great movie. You can find out more info over on the Flicks on the Crick Facebook page. It's bound to be a great event every Wednesday this summer. I helped out by designing a poster for the event, the dudes over at the garden liked it. I hope you dig on it too!

Who loves owls? Courtney fucking loves owls! I have kinda known Courtney for a while, she went to college with me, but hung with different crowds. Any hoot! My great friend Tia has been friends with Courtney a while and wanted to get her some awesome fucking shoes for her birthday. I was like oh hell yeah! Courtney is also a great artist, so I just had to bring some freshness! I can't lie these are probably my favorite ones I have done to date. Courtney dug the shit out of them, but not like a pug. Happy Birthday Courtney! Here is your Owl!

Tiffany emailed me for some shoes. She was all like, Hey Tommy my man Chris needs some kicks for his birthday in June. I was all like yeah no problem! Tiffany and her man Chris live in Germany. I know great cars, pretzles and BEER! She told me he dug on green and blue, german cars and bagpipin'. These were a little tough for me, got a lil creative block but that didn't stop me from rocking some shoes out. Chris, I really hope you dig em! Happy Birthday!

Latest, and maybe GREATEST! shoes to date. Audrey said to me "Hey Tommy, can you do ME som shoes?!" I said "Hellz yeah!! What do you want on them?" She said an "Octopus, maybe the color pink?" I said "Hellz Yeah!!" So, I reached inside of my brain and pulled out a special pair for just for ms. hicks. She thought they were über rad. I am glad she dug them, I wonder what kind of shoes I will bust out next...

This is a label I did for a beer that I made, it was delish. You shoulda had some.

I know this really fucking rad chick. Her name is Livvy. She lives in San Diego with her husband. I went to grad school with this super rad chick, and for fucking years she has been trying to get me send her some of my art. Livvy is also a fan of comics, and hits up the con every year in San Diego. So, I told her I would paint her up a catwoman for her birthday to add to her collection of all things catwoman. She told me she would pee herself if I actually did. I should have an adult diaper and said "please attach before viewing". Lou, I am sorry if she messed on the floor. I went out of my normal style for this one. But I really enjoyed doing it. Happy *late birthday Liv! 

This is one of my favs.. This also went at auction, there was a pretty high bidding war on this puppy. It now resides in the room of someone I also did shoes for. 

This was another one that was donated. Another designer I work with snagged this one and hung it up in his hex.

Not TOO long ago I donated some paintings to an charity auction at my work. It was to raise money for the United Way. This was one of those paintings.

Trevor Tarte a lacrosse player, who goes to college in Ohio hit me up for some sweet new vans. I was stoked to do them, and he was stoked to get them. Who's next?

shirt!

A good friend of mine packed his band The Dead Friends up and headed out on tour with White Picket Fences. Before he left, he had me help him out with some merch to sell on the road. He came over, we listened to the album and I did him up some merch. I suggest you buy this album today if you already haven't. If you have then buy a shirt! If you already have a shirt, buy another one because they make great gifts!

Here is a recent pair of shoes I did for this kid Louis. I was asked by his mother to make him some fresh kicks! I told her it was no problem. She sent me some samples of some clothes he likes, and I slapped some argyle on these with a stitched, overly big "Stay Fresh" on the toes. I hope Louis digs these, as much as I liked goin' for a new pattern!

One of my friends growing up has this mom. His mom, has this cousin, his name is Shawn James. Shawn James founded this, The Green Point Gallery. His birthday was coming up, and Mrs. S was going down to see him so, she had me do up some shoes for good ol' Shawn. I figured an artist would be stoked on some colorful shoes, and since he seemed to like the color green I focused on that. I saw a picture of Shawn out to dinner with the shoes, he was stoked on them. You can get stoked on them too.

I am a little behind in my posting of shoes. I am starting to catch up. Why not start with these. My buddy dave at work popped his head over and said. My daughter likes; Blue, Cows, and Music. Can you hook me up? I said, Dave.. No problem. Cows listening to headphones with cow spots. She dug them. He dug them. I dug them. You should dug them too.

Macy just turned 13. Her sister was like "I need to get my sister a pair of those kicks you do, for her birthday. Whatta think about doing them on converse?" I thought ,Converse have a lot smaller area to work in, and the canvas is different from vans, but I was up to the challenge! Long story short, there is a 13 yr old who is way more RAD than you because she has these, and you don't. Happy Birthday Macy!

Here is another pair of fresh kicks I just did for this kid Steven. He is effin' dope! And thats all you need to know! He dug them, I hope you do too!

I know this kid Jimmy Phelps. I know him because he is my cousin. He goes to FSU and is pretty freakin' smart, and pretty freakin' fresh. Of course, to start off the new school year fresh as fuck, he needed some fresh as fuck new vans. He asked me to stay away from Florida colors, so no blue and orange. I told him I could see what I could do, this is what he got. 

Let's face it... I know some pretty rad mother fuckers. There is this one chick I know, who is married to one of my best buds, her birthday was this weekend. I whipped up this lil guy for her. She dug it. Maybe you will too!

This dude Tom I work with stopped over to my desk the other day and was like, "Hey dude, it's my daughter's birthday friday, do you think you could whip up some of those shoes you do, for her?" I was like for sure! I asked him what she was into, he was like, "Forensics, Mt. Dew, and Swedish Fish." Here is what I did for him for her. Happy Birthday to Lauren!

Sometimes my friends want tattoos. Sometimes they ask me to draw them. Sometimes I do. The other day.. I did. 

STRANGEco teamed up Shep Fairey(OBEY) to do a vinyl Mr. Spray figure. They did some variations on color, one black, one red, one gold and one silver. They are all limited and I got me a red one which they only made 350 of. I am pretty stoked on it. 

I have collected a bunch of these lil fuckers. I wanted to post some of my favs out of all my toys. This Kozik: Clockwork Orange Dunny was the golden ticket in series 4. He is pretty effin rad, and has a good story to go along with him..

So a while back KR decided to have a lil contest for the 2009 Dunny launch. This involved a scavenger hunt all around NYC, to find little bar codes. You would then have to take a picture of said bar code and email it to your KR account, Tthen your account would register that you had found that particular "dunny"(bar code).

I was at quite the disadvantage considering the fact I lived in SYR and had no iphone or blackfairy at the time. My good friend Eric was the one that turned me onto the lil game. He sent me an email with a link. This link was what the phone sent your KR account to let it know you found a dunny. He asked if I knew a way around our lil problem. I looked into it. About an hour or so later, him, me and one other buddy all had won the contest. 

We then received an email telling us that there was no way we could have won, because all the barcodes had not been placed around yet... well fuck me. So knowing we cheated they offered up this lil guy in exchange for the information on how we hacked the contest. We told them. We all got the dunny. I also told them that if they wanted better programming they should hire some guys I know. 

My new speedster. Thanks canada.

Last week, for that same Mural Project, we had our annual day of caring. Where our agency gets together in a hood and does some good. Then we go booze for the rest of the day! This was the poster I did for the day. I started to think, I should start posting some old flyers up here I use to do for my good buddy mike. I think those will be added this week.

I tried blowing my head off with what I thought was a laser gun. Turned out it was a shrink ray. Now I’m stuck with this baby tongue.

Who dosen’t love pie?

SHIRT!

SHIRT!