Just getting back from San Fran and figured I’d give you a quick synopsis of my trip.  Really just a few short observations.

1) San Fran was cold, but definitely not nearly as cold as this Detroit weather

2) People in San Francisco love “views”.  And they have a lot of them.  Over every hill you see something beautiful.

3) Mexican food in San Fran is dope, and the city is very vegetarian friendly.

4)  It’s hard to find high life to drink out there, but pbr’s and tecate are in abudance.

5) The homie 5 ill of USM definitely has a good thing going out there and I hope I got the funds to make a trip back there this summer.

All and all my trip was a good one.  I got some relaxation in and was able to work on some music with 5 ill and also my homie Black Nature from the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars.  If you don’t know about them you can check them out here @ http://www.refugeeallstars.org and really get involved with their movement.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to check out the Full House residence, but I did hook up with Kimmie Gibbler. With that being said and me being home I also wanted to shout out Ro Spit and Monica Blaire for their new video “Renaissance State of Mind”.  I love Detroit so check the video after the jump.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoLCYbeI524

"When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself." --- Suzuki Shunryu

What’s up my people,

I know I usually reserve this space for many things music.  Of course, I write about myself musically, and my friends musically, and just music in general.  This is because music is a huge part of my life, however, it is far from the only part of my life.  There are many things I see on a day to day basis that inspire me and the work of my man Wendell happens to do just that.  I don’t know what it is about that photo of his I posted above, but I really would like to write a whole album around the emotions I get when I look at that photo.

I’ve spent the day looking at the work on his website and flickr account, and was moved to shine some light on what he is doing. (http://wendellsummerville.com/splash.html and http://www.flickr.com/photos/wen-sum respectively so click on these links now or after you read this).

Now as with all things I write about on here I’d prefer for you to be the judge so I don’t like to cloud your observations with my opinions and critiques (if I am writing about it, that should already tell you i dig it) but I will say this.  What I am absolutely in love with about Wendell’s work is his shots of Detroit and the light he shoots the city in.  So often, people that photograph Detroit show the gritty, hard, and dark aspects of our city.  As that definitely has its place, Wendell opts to show a very beautiful side of Detroit which is not often seen through the medium of photography.  Here’s a couple examples.

If one were to ask Wendell where he took these photos, it is my belief that you would be quite surprised.  I have had the pleasure of asking him and getting a response.  As I could write that here what fun would that be.  The fun would be in contacting Wendell and finding out for yourself (The Internet is more and more interactive so meet a new person and let him know that you are looking).  These pictures are just a quick sample as he has a vast body of work, but I posted the above because this is the Detroit I often see, and I feel I am not alone when I look at these.  As a lot of my friends that have moved from Michigan ask me why I still stay here, I can now show them these photos.   As a picture says a thousand words, Wendell has definitely given me good reason to save my breath.