Late night solo mission in the big city. Freestyle floater. Not by choice. All the paintable spots at the layup were taken so I had to go above. Don't like to waste a trip to the yard, if you know what I mean. Once I'm in, I'm in. Also, I didn't or couldn't see real well and had no Idea what was below me. I guess they are suppose to be trees. Oh My......... Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get as high as I would have liked on this one. Cool thing is, I wasn't able to get any good shots of this the night of, I was really hoping some benchers would have caught it and sent me a copy. Still do, This photo isn't quite the best shot of it. Got some sun shadows. Anyway, I was downtown St.Paul watching the Red Bull Flutag event at Harriet Island and decided to take the kids on a little bit longer path back to the homefront. As I was driving along the River, "BAM!", There she was, sittin' high and dry, right across from a parking area. I did the best I could to get a good shot but this was from a vantage point about 20 feet down. Either way, I was just glad to get a shot. The night I painted this, I went with a whole idea of doing one of my Celtic Style EROS pieces but when there wasn't anything on the ground to paint, I decided to simplify and do some of my regular letter styles. One thing that actually turned out better and isn't as visible as I thought, was the fact that I finished the back half of this piece in the rain. Not pouring rain but still rain none the less. I'm impressed with how the paint held up. It must have dried over night. Funny thing is, I was suppose to hook up with a couple Homies to paint but they decided not to go because they thought it was going to rain. They were right but I still had a good night. This piece was kinda like when you were a kid and you wanted to go out and jump in the mud puddles during a storm. Damn, that used to be fun. I just couldn't stop myself. haha

Painted with the Homie Shape 2 after a long day of painting a legal mural. Freestyle. Photo by Shape 2. He supplied most of the paint so that we could have a matching color scheme. Thanks Homie. Of course, his piece is about twice the size of mine. Looks like I didn't get the memo that we were going big. LoL. After a short journey to find the layup, which seemed to take forever after a long days painting, we decided to look at some boxcars that were layed up a little further down the tracks. He told me that they were all filled up with stuff but I didn't want to listen and forced him to make the journey with me to see. It was so dark that night that we couldn't even see the boxcars until we were about 20 feet away. After we arrived, we looked them over and he was totally cool about it when I said, "yeah, I shoulda listened to you." because there wasn't an open car. Oh well, it was only an extra quarter mile of walking. Once we got back to where we started, we picked out the car that suited us and got busy. It was real chill and everything went off without a hitch except for damn near getting eaten by the mosquitos. It took a little longer then expected because I think we were both pretty tired from some long days and we got off to a late start but I was pretty happy with how it turned out in the end. The colors he chose were probably colors that I wouldn't have ever chosen but came off pretty fresh looking. I'm glad I let him pick them. Luckily our fills weren't that complicated with the bugs. After we finished, I swear I fell asleep 2 or 3 times while driving home. I don't think I've had a good night sleep in 5 years, especially since getting back into Graff again. Like the old saying goes, "I'll rest when I'm dead!"

Freestyle painted in 2010, Mid summer. Solo mission. Photo by Monoe. Thanks Homie for sending me a copy and killing it on that right panel. Good lookin' out. This piece was done in the daytime inbetween boxcars. I saw a fresh set of freshly painted Red Box Cars and I couldn't resist. I had actually gone there a few days earlier and rocked a different one and went back to see if they had moved the cars so I could get some day photos. Unfortunately, they hadn't but the cars were still there. So I flipped it. I had a bag with some scraps and extra paint in it from a previous mission. I went back to the ride and grabbed it and proceeded to make it happen. Crazy little tid bit that happened while I was rocking this one. I don't know why or where but there happened to be some young adults playing football at a place just outside of this yard. I could hear them like they were 30 feet away. I don't think that there was a park or anything on the other side of the woods separating the yard from the area that they were playing on but I really didn't know. All I know is twice while painting, a football flew into the woods and would land right behind the boxcar behind me. I could hear them arguing over who had to brave the woods and go get it. Then I would here them come down the wooded hill and search all over for the ball. One time, the kid was literally right on the opposite side of where I was hiding and was yelling back to the others that he couldn't find it. I saw exactly where it was and just wanted to yell to him where it was but couldn't. It was kind of comical. Anyway, not shortly after finding it for the second time, they rolled out and left me to paint in peace. I never was able to get any good shots of it and it pulled away shortly thereafter and landed in Monoe's yard. Good thing to. I always hate when I rock a piece I like and can't get a flick of it. I have quite a bit of those out there and hope to see them return home someday. I. G. times!

Freestyle painted with Stalk. Purple and Gold for the Vikings. Stalk called me up about going out and rocking that night. I was down and asked if he wanted to collaborate on a little fr8 production. you know matching color sheme and shit. He wasn't really feeling it because he was trying to get rid of some old IronLak and all he had was Gold and some other color. I was like, why don't we just do some color skeme with the colors we have. I had done Gold pieces outlined in Red, back in the day, that looked pretty sick so I suggested we use that. He wasn't really feeling it and suggested we use a Blue or a Purple. I was like, That's it, we got our production. He was confused so I clarified it for him. Purple and Gold. Viking's colors. I told him I'd bring the purple and he would have to bring the gold and the yellow and some Green. We met up at the spot and began to rock our outlines. I told him when we were done with our outlines that we would have to fill in the green first and I showed where it was going to go. He still was a little bit iffy as to whether it would come off because he just wanted to rock something fast and simple. Finally I layed out the field and began to fill in the pieces. I went back and put down some yard lines and at first they were too close so I had to fill in some green to make them a little more evenly spaced apart. That's when he kind of realized what I was doing and it made sense. After we were done with our pieces, I had him put up the Viking Style in the middle while I did the goal posts. It took quite a bit longer then expected to rock these pieces due to the engine rolling through a couple of times but worked out in the end. You could say a Touchdown! I would have liked to do more but I think I'll plan another full out one for later in the season. We'll see. Also, I wasn't able to get a full shot of the car due to where the next line was layed up. You can find it on the H.R.Paperstacks site.

Painted in 2009. Freestyle with Stalk and River at a local layup. This photo was actually sent to me. So, if it's yours, hit me up and I'll give you the credit. This was done in the late summer early fall. Done at a spot that I usually don't get the chance to hit because cars are rarely layed up there. When they are, all the fr8 heads know about it and let everyone know so we can all go and get a little taste. I was notified by the Homeboys, Stalk and River about this spot. It was cool. It's a real chill spot to paint once you get in the yard. On this night in particular, the moon was at the right height in the sky to give us just enough light to somewhat see what we were doing. Atleast for a little while. After I got about a half hour into this piece the moon had moved lower in the sky and was partly blocked by a tree. It really sucked because now I had shadows all over my piece and made for a hell-of-a difficult time seeing what I was doing. Therefore, I had to do the old, use the l.e.d.s of a pocket friend. (you know what I mean.) Anyway, prior to getting to the spot we met at a local bar and I decided to carpool with the fellas, instead of driving myself. Not a good move. While reaching in and out of my pocket for caps or something, I must have clipped my keys by accident and dropped them on the ground. In the midst of painting, I never even noticed. After we were finished, we walked away from the car and got some distance, when I realized that I didn't have my Keys with me. I asked the guys to go back and help me look and so we did for a little while with no luck. Now, I was questioning whether I had brought them at all, so I asked them if they would drive me back to my ride. Once there, I searched all over and still couldn't find them. So, I asked them if we could go back to the train again and look one more time. Still, we came up empty. I have no idea what could have happened to them. Finally, I asked River if he could just drive me home. He was cool about it and did. (Good Lookin' Out!) The next day, I came back with wifey and the trains were gone, so I had no idea where to even look. I made a small effort and then went and picked up my ride with my spare keys. The worst part about it, my spare never, ever worked as good as the ones I've lost and since have stranded me many times, where my car won't start because of a bad key and locks up with my alarm going off. What a pain in the ass. Therefore, when I look at this piece, all I remember is how much of a bitch of a time it was dealing with that. Even though I like this piece, I get pissed off everytime I see it. Shitty times!

Freestyle, painted towards the middle of summer with an up and coming Twin Cities fr8 King, Hbak. The first of two fr8s I painted that night. I usually only do one fr8 a night when I can get out. I don't have a lot of time to paint, so when I do, I just try to put my effort into making one good one. This night was no different but I had a dope layup with a young fr8 killer, so I had to do my best to keep up with his young writer stamina. I didn't quite get there, he ended up doing 3, to my 2. Still it was a good time and a great challenge. I had already been painting all day long and had a whole trunk full of paint. I was working on a mural at Intermedia Arts at the time. Earlier that week, Hbak rolled up to me at the wall. We got to talking and I told him I was really digging what he was doing on them lines. We chatted for a little while and ended up exchanging numbers to go paint sometime. He probably didn't think I was actually going to hit him up but a few days later, as I was chilling at Subway eating my dinner, I had some extra energy and decided to take him up on what we had talked about doing earlier that week. I hit him up and unfortunately, he was at work. He told me he would see if he could get off early and hit me back. About 10 minutes later he hit me up saying that he was getting out of work and he was down. We met up and headed to his favorite layup. It was cool. It was one that I really didn't frequent but had many, many years ago. We made our way in and looked over the cars. We ended up choosing the one right across from the entrance. It was clean and made for a good location to paint. Only bad thing is, the mosquitos were in vampire mode and had a field day eating us alive. Either way, it wasn't going to stop us. After we rocked this one, we moved further down the line and found some more good ones to hit but that's a story for another day. This photo was actually taken as the train pulled out of the layup. I could only snap off a few quick shots. Thanks Homie for taking me to your dope layup and the fun night. We will have to do it again next year. Good times!

Painted in 1998 with Kaper in Phoenix, Az. , caught by the Homie, Alamo in Minnesota 2010. Thanks for the flic. A little sun damaged and fading but still there. I guess this wasn't the first time either that he's caught this car. That's pretty cool to think of all the places that the piece has probably seen in it's days. I may be over-romanticizing it but it does make you wonder........

The night we painted this was a pretty cool night with a smooth breeze. A perfect night for painting. Unlike the daytime temperatures that were clearly in the low 100's. The yard spot was in an industrial area within the center of the city. It was completely dead and was full of line after line of Hoppers and BN ridgies, no boxcars though. So we grabbed the next best thing. I remember kind of being a little let down thinking, "Shit, I could paint these back home." Either way, I was just glad to be rocking with the Desert King, Kaper. This all took place after learning of each others existance and having a mutual respect for each other as writers on the lines. We got in contact with each other the old fashioned way. We traded flicks by sending packages to each other and built up a relationship as friends. Something that used to take quite a bit of time back in the nineties. Something that now can be obtained with a few clicks on a computer. It's pretty cool to see how things have changed. Seriously and I know that this is going to date me but to all you young writers out there, you have to imagine NO Internet. There was the internet, just noone really knew how to use it. Email and chat rooms and places like Flickr, were a distant innovation and guys like me didn't grow up with computers as real learning tools in school. I actually got Kaper's address and phone number from another writer that I was trading photos with in Cali. It was a pretty cool thing to do, go visit a new city and paint with a complete stranger that you have never even seen his face. The first time I met Kaper I was chilling at a local meeting spot in Tempe. He approached me and we ended up going to Hooters and downing a few pitchers of beers and talking graff while looking at some ass for a couple hours. It was good and we pretty much hit it off. The next time I met up with him, his whole NG crew of homies were there. Some real cool cats. We all kicked it at this pub and got up in each others sketch books. It was a good night. Kaper and I ended up painting one more Fr8 together on that trip and a wall with a bunch of writers from Phoenix and LA on the outskirts of town. We lost touch over time and I haven't really talked to him in over ten years. I hope to make it back out to Phoenix someday soon and hopefully crush a few cars with him again. Seeing this photo, really brings me back to that time, plus knowing that my piece has survived 12 plus years of service, makes me feel good. Thanks again, Alamo for the photo and thanks Kaper for the memories.

Painted in 1999 on Rail box. E to E with some members of the crew and an addition. I believe this was painted with Intel, Logik, Emer and a writer that was put down that night, that wrote Eski/Eskimo. One of those, well if were putting someone down, then we better go and get up together. So that's what we did. I want to say that we first met up at a club or something to start the night off but I can't really remember. I just remember that my piece was just smashed in tight to the end of a crushed car, nineties style. Which means, small pieces and everyone's invited to the party. Which leads me to the real story........ Well, sometimes you learn a lesson in haste when you put someone down without really putting in the effort to see if they make a good fit. I believe this train was done within one week of Eski leaving and going back to her home city, which I think was Seattle(?). Either way, it didn't really matter. I had never seen or heard from her again. I don't know if she still writes or not but all I can say is, make sure you do your due diligence when putting in a crew member. It's one of the most important moves you can make in this game. My crew has had it's share of successes and failures. For the most part, the failures came from not really knowing the character of the person. I look at it like this, any and all that have come and gone from AKB, have been either weak, dishonorable or misinformed about this culture, the graffiti writers code or ethics and how seriously passionate about it, some of us are. We've had people make bad choices that have put us all at risk and others who didn't have the heart to speak up for themselves when they weren't getting the attention they desired or thought they deserved. Either way, you live and you learn and the crew always moves on stronger and with a lesser degree for error. It's unfortunate but it's the way it's got to be. Back in the day, if you were mad cool and had similar interests as some of the crew members, you had a good shot at getting in. Nowadays, it's become like the elite organizations of the military, you have to earn your way in and it's not going to be easy. This is due to how strong our bond is, all the history, plus the bullshit, trials and tribulations that we have endured over the years and how tight we are on a personal level. To most outsiders, we would look like a bunch of disfunctional people that wouldn't have anything in common and couldn't relate to each other on a personal level..... but they don't understand Graffiti culture or the mindset of Graffiti Writers. We all come from different backgrounds, have differing degrees of education, family and social structures and status but we all share one common goal, "To rock the city and represent for AKB". No matter where we are at, or on what type of surface, we have a complete understanding and total control over that inner drive that compells us to get down and paint and represent for our crew. Sure, our families come first but that's why we call ourselves the AKB family. Everything else in life, is just gravy. Good times!

Painted in 1996 with Chaka, recaught in 2009 and sent to me. My bad for not remembering who. Much apologies. I didn't keep track when I got the reprint. I'm actually too drunk right now to remember where I painted this train. More then likely, it was in a major yard, in the TC. This photo was featured in a couple mags from the 90's. I think one was Mass Appeal, another was On The Go. Good lookin' out to the Homies that printed it in their mag. Recently, I've been able to get out some old school AKB members on some fr8's. It's been long overdue but the passion is still alive. For me, it's like the older I get, the more passion I feel for the game. I think you realize a point when it comes full circle and you realize the magnitude of what the graff world is. God bless the internet and the lines, even though I can see our time may be limited and our days may be numbered. All I know, appreciate it while you can. You never know what tomorrow can bring. This was all rusto at the time. Notice the tags next to the pieces. There was nothing on the train when we painted it. Cool to see the life it took since 1996.

Painted in 1994 at the now famous AKB Lay up in the Twin Cities. Not really anything special about this freestyle, I had plans to go and do a little bit more on the lines but this was really the only good car on the line. I was with a few other writers too. Nobody wanted to hit the Middle over the doors on our attempted E to E. I had made a comment to a few of the younger Homies in the crew to "Not be scared" and urged them on to just man up and do it. Everyone just kept saying that it looked like it was going to be too much work due to all the bars and shit and were really timid about hitting it. So, finally after about 10 minutes of people giving their reasons for not wanting to hit it, I just said I would take it. I rocked this out real fast with fat caps. Like I said, I wasn't really trying to do something big but as a joke and a reminder to all the other writers with me that bitched out on taking the door, I hit up real big, "OOOH SCARY!". Like it was no big deal. It kind of had a double meaning too, looking at my piece, that shit was pretty scary looking at the time. Lol. I'm not trying to bust anyone's balls with this now, back in the day, for sure. Hitting the door in the 90's was something most all writers hated doing. Usually when a group would get down on a train, the best guys would always get first choice and the up and comers would get the doors. It was just the way it worked. If you look back at a lot of the pieces from that era, you would see this hierarchy. You would also notice how the pieces in the middle always look a little janky. It was the low man on the totem pole scenario. Which is always how it should be. Making the younger writers take the difficult spots only made them stronger over all. They would learn how to rock over really fucked up abstructions and when they got on a good wall, they would come off so ill because they had built up all this hard earned skill which made flat walls easy for them. This pushed them into believing they could hit anything and most did. It was an unwritten strategy that really worked and helped in developing some incredibly ill ass writers. Fun times!

Painted in 1998. Freestyle that ended in the rain. One of the pieces that I really liked the letters from that time period. Even though the rain stopped me from finishing it and adding some nice touches, I always dug this one. Could be the two different out line colors too. It was just real different then what I was doing at the time.

Painted in 1997. Quick solo freestyle at one of my favorite train yards. The lower photo was caught rolling about a year later. (I can't remember where or by whom or who sent me the flick anymore) This was done in a live and active yard. I think my Canadian Hopper was moved 2 or 3 times while painting this one. Each time, I just hid out for a minute, then watched closely to where they moved it and followed it over to finish. It's a type of patience that I generally don't have anymore. Which is strange because you would think the older you get as a person, the more patience you would have. Unfortunately, that doesn't translate into the graffiti writers world. I don't have all that much time in my day to do things like this, so when I get some time, it has to happen and generally happen quick and that night. If a Train pulls my car out now, I generally, find another one to rock or chalk it up to another missed opportunity and hope to get the chance to get out another day. Back in the day, I was quite the spot hunter. Nowadays, I rely on the younger writers to hip me to good spots. Still, if I get the opportunity to rock a spot I'm not really familiar with, I will. It just requires a lot more of the right things to fall into place. I've heard a bunch of younger writers complain that the older writers of their crew don't get out enough and paint and/or paint with them. Something that they really would like to do. I always say the same thing, Find a wall, really scope it out, call them up and even offer them paint if you have too. That's all you can do. If they don't take you up on the offer at that point, keep trying. Once you get them out and they get that blood flowing again or that feeling back in their fingertips, trust me, you won't have to ask them too many more times before they are asking you when the next time you can paint. Also, if they pioneered the way for you to get down and do what you do, you owe it to them to atleast put in some effort for them. That is if you actually give a damn. Good times!

Quick and simple, painted in Phoenix, Az. in 1998 with the Homies, Kaper, Sug, and unfortunately, I can't remember who else. I'm sure I have full photos of the train somewhere, I just don't have the time to dig through the crates to find it. I don't remember much from that night but I'm pretty sure I was feeling pretty good off some libations and who knows what else. I think that this might have been the end of a long day of painting a wall, that ended up with some partying at Kapers crib, which turned into some drunken quick pieces in the fr8 yard. Looking at my 8 in 1998, I'm pretty sure that had to be the case. I just remember that we all rocked some simple silver and gold ones and afterwards, I wasn't satisfied with what I did and Sug insisted it was dope and that the whole train came off. To anyone that was lucky enought to get a DJ Sug mix tape back in the day, you might have heard me on some soundbites talking some hardcore graff shit and explaining why I use arrows in my pieces. (Thanks Sug!) Good times and to those Homies out there that did it like we did back in the day, I tip my glass to you. Cheers. Good times!

Painted in 1996. A quick freestyle. I was limited on paint and time and was going through a phase of my life where I thought the fill should transend the outline. Meaning it was to overshadow the initial letters. Not by being the freshest fill designs and colors or anything, just be what your eyes focus on over the letters and shapes. I only did this for a few pieces because I was painting both styles at the same time and always liked the more traditional ones better when looking back at my photos. All in all, it was just another one on the books, then back to punchin' the clock on the graffiti grindstone, the next day.

One of my older canvases, 2007. I strive to continue refining weathering and rust techniques but no one does it quite like mileage and mother nature!!

"going on ahead". Conrail Twitty's last quote before his passing on 1 / 11/ 08.

Freestyle, painted in Mid-fall with the Homie DAESK. One of those times when two guys talk about getting together and doing something for years and finally one day, it happens. The Homie DAESK is an old school Minneapolis writer who has done a lot for the scene. It wasn't until recently that he had expressed a real interest in going out and actually painting illy style, that I actually felt he was serious about it happening. For years I had heard the lip service on the ill shit but when it came to getting down on legal gigs and jobs, he always came through. Good lookin' out Homie! It's for those other times that I had to keep putting that bug in his ear..... but like the old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink". Finally, he started to wet his pallete. A little here, a little there, that's all it took to get them juices flowing again. Sure as shit, after I had pretty much wrote it off as another year of near-action, he hit me up....... and was real serious about getting down on them lines. After all the hyping up I had been doing, I felt totally obligated to make something happen. We met up and went to a few choice spots and everything looked like it wasn't going to happen. I started to feel the pressure when, luckily, I had recieved a call from another Homie informing me of another, special location, not far from the area we were in, that had shown promise a few days earlier. Sure as shit, the lead turned out. After getting to the layup, we made a few long walks to find the perfect car. After spotting it, we walked even further to make sure it was clean. Unfortunately, it wasn't. So after about a half hour or more of fucking around we ended up walking all the way back to our original spot and began on the next best thing. It was pretty dark and the shadows from street lights made my piece damn near impossible to really get a good read on what I was doing. Luckily for me, my fr8 neighbor hooked me up with a little innovation that helped out. I was very happy to see he came well prepared, not just for himself but for me as well. That's what makes up a good partnership when painting. When you know that the guy next to you is looking out for your best interest, as well as his own. We continued to rock and other then having to take a small break when trains passed, we completed our first train mission together. All the talk was over. It was a done deal and ever since then, he has hit me up with more innovations and more ideas for rocking this next year. I look forward to testing them out and making it happen.

Good times!

Freestyle painted in the late summer of 2009 with the homeboy Logik One AKB. The Homeboy came into town and wanted to get down so I took him out to a special yard that I had recently learned about. The yard was tight and the mood was right and so we got down and did our thing. Logik was one of the crew members that I had personally put down and brought up for the crew. It was a long process but we ended up painting a shit ton of boxcars together back in the mid to late 90's. He was pretty much my partner at the time. Also one of the most talented artists in the crew. He is currently seeking fame in the artworld. I wish him a lot of luck and look forward to the next time he gets back in town, so I can get him to feel that love for the Fr8 art world again.

Freestyle, painted in 2010 at a local yard layup. Painted with an up and coming Minnesota fr8 King known as, Hbak. This was the second fr8 I painted for the night. A rarity. I seldom do more then one fr8 in a yard at a time. This night was a good one and I was really glad that I was able to do a second piece. Sometimes, I wish I did more then one a night. I think by the second piece, my style tends to get a little looser and my lines a little tighter. Unfortunately, I usually am pretty tired or bored with painting by the end of a piece and want to just call it a night. Call it, "Old Man Syndrome". lol. Anyway, this was a new experience for the two of us. We had never painted together before and didn't really know much about how the other one works in a yard. Luckily for both of us, we worked similar and efficiently, so there was no problem. Except when we perused for the second car to rock. We both spotted this beautiful, freshly painted, UP. It was clean, real clean but it was short, real short. Not big enough for the two of us to get on it together and E to E that bitch. I quickly claimed it. I know he wasn't too happy about giving it up but was a total gentlemen about it. I'm sure he gave it up out of respect for the "Old Schooler". Either way, I was very appreciative and we searched out and found another car equally as nice and he was cool with rocking that one. When all was said and done, he ended up with 3 trains to my 2 for the night. Right as we were about to take our flicks, sure as shit and without warning, the railroad decided to pull the line in deeper into the yard. I snapped off a few shots of our pieces while running along the train and we were out. All in all, one of the good nights. Much Respect to Hbak for lookin' out for me and hooking me up with a fresh line to rock. Someday, I will repay him back with a hot lead on a fresh car. Lookin' forward to rocking more in the future. Good Nights!

Painted in early fall, 2010. Painted with the Homie Maple TCI. One of those times when we got off to a late start and only had about 2 hours to rock. I freestyled this one and he rocked a freestyled version of a sketch that Intel had done for him. This piece was done with some left over paint that I had from the previous nights activities. You can see that piece in my EROS Freight album. It's the pink one with green flames. I just reversed the colors and used up my scraps. Everything went smooth and we were able to get in and out without a problem. Luckily, I was able to come back the next day and get some decent day shots. Good times!

Freestyle painted in 2010. Photo by Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! Edited by EROS. Thanks Homie! Great shots of the whole train. I hadn't been able to get out for a little while and was starting to get ansy. One of the Homies came to town and really wanted to get up. Another Homie was already getting up and when we contacted him, he told us to come meet him out in the yard because he had room on the car he was rockin'. In his words,"The panel next to me is open". We were running a little late but made our way out to the spot about an hour or so after he told us to come out. When we got there, we ran into a couple of the local writers finishing up and about to make their exit from the yard. It was like a tag team. They left, as we were just about to get in the ring and have our own battle with massive, steel beast. We chatted for a little while with the Homie and since I was the old guy, I took the panel to the right. As the younger crew member was about to walk away, I said to him,"where you going?". He looked at me a little sideways and said "well since your taking this spot, I'm going to go find another car to rock." I politely reminded him that the door looked pretty nice and that way we could all rock an "E to E" together. Something that the Homie and I have never gotten a chance to do with our Graff names. He took about a half minute to look over the door and then just started going at it. I was really impressed at how unselfish he was and his "Yard Core" spirit. A couple hours later, we all finished and sat back and reveled in our accomplishment, then bounced. I have to say, Rocking E to E's over the doors and really filling up a train with dope pieces, still and probably will always be, the stuff that makes me get up in the morning. (next to the Fam and that annoying alarm clock....... haha) Anyway, it's times like these where real memories are made and great experiences with friends are to be had. I wouldn't change it for the world. P.S. If you like "Last Night!"s, then you'll like todays too.

Painted 2010, solo mission, freestyle (in a Jepsy influenced style). Photo by All Seeing. Edited by EROS. Thanks Homie! Great shot and it's much appreciated. This was painted on a night when I was anxious and needed to get out and flex. I had just got a whole bunch of new Montana Black from the Homie Heat and had to try it out to see how fresh it was on a fr8. I generally don't prefer to do floaters but all the cars at this layup always tend to be hit up, so, I had to get my float on. It was dark as fuck that night and literally, even with how dark the car was, I couldn't see shit. I had really no idea what the colors I was fading would look like together, I just knew that I had put them in my bag in a specific order. I did my best to try to follow my original outline but really just used my muscle memory on this one to pull it out. After all was said and done, I took my night shots and when I got home and looked over what I had done, I knew that this one would shine compared to the rusty boxcar and the older pieces that I had made sure to leave unscathed. Much respect to anyone that I rock my pieces above or next to and big respect to those that pioneer styles.

Painted in 2009. Freestyle on a hopper with River. I got this photo from someone, I can't remember who sent it to me or where I grabbed it off of, so if it's yours, hit me up and I'll give you the photo credit. As for the night we painted this one, it was a little crazy. This was the first time I had hit this layup. It was set up really nice and had all the potential to be one of the freshest in the city. First, River and I had met and grabbed a beer before to get a game plan for where we were going to hit. We decided to jump in his car from the bar and roll out. We literally drove around for over an hour checking spots and nothing was really layed up or doable. So, we decided to call it a night. On the way back to my vehicle, parked at the bar, I noticed the layup. Being I hadn't been very active in a long time, I asked River if he knew what was up with it. He didn't seem very interested in painting and so I had to do a little convincing that we should check this spot out. After a couple minutes of coaxing, he changed his attitude and was down. We made our way into the lay up and found the perfect car. There was about 20 Hoppers layed up. Some were already hit and some were just not that fresh and shiny looking. So we found the nicest, cleanest looking one. It just so happened to be in the perfect spot. We decided to get loose. He took the Left side and I, the right. The one problem with this line, was that the bottom of the hoppers were pretty high up off the ground. It didn't leave us much room to go big but we were able to find some rocks to help us stretch that extra foot or two to make it worthy. About half way through, we hear this crazy speaking voice coming from behind us. We move to a good hiding/vantage point and proceed to see and hear as some crazy fool walks through the yard and is singing and talking to himself the whole time. He appeared to be heavily intoxicated. We waited for about 5 minutes but he just wasn't moving fast enough so we decided to go back out and paint. He crossed over the tracks about 100 feet down from us and headed our way on the opposite side of the cars. It was pitch black out and we had no clue whether we should have been cautious of this fool or not so we painted on and just kept a listen to see where he was at. We certainly didn't want him to notice us and also didn't want to scare him. After about twenty minutes of painting and waiting, the guy finally was on the opposite side of the car we were painting. It was hilarious. He obviously had some serious mental problems and was carrying on in a conversation with himself. One of his split personality voices was that of what sounded like a pirate. I couldn't help but laugh. When I looked under to see where he was, he had literally disappeared. Both River and I stopped for a while and looked around for him but he was nowhere to be found. It was freaky as hell. One of those places where they would and could make horror films and the feeling in the air was that of spirits lurking. Sounds weird, I know but trust me, it was eerie. There was this loose cable slapping itself against the grain silos the whole night that kept us on our toes. All in all, it ended well. We both left with our heads and another train car was rocked. Cool thing about this piece, is it was featured in the local City Pages as background for a story. That's always nice to see.

Looks like it got caught. See previous 2005 sketch. I was sent this from one of the Homies. I thought I would post it to go with the sketch. Late night mission with a writer whos coming back out to paint after a long break. He found the spot and hit me up and let me know that the reefer was there. We met up later, went out to the spot and after about 40 minutes of checking the cars and trying to find the right spot to park the vehicle, we decided to get started. Bad thing about this yard was that it was in a residential neighborhood. Also, the side that was more visible at night (from the moonlight,streetlights and porchlights) was the other side of the train. So this was done in Damn near pitch blackness. Which made for a long evening. Right before we began, We noticed what looked like some movement farther down the tracks. We decided to check it out before proceeding in case we had to scare some fools out the yard. We walked for what seemed like a mile or so and realized that there was noone there, we just saw some shadows from trees moving in the wind. That was a waste of a long walk and pushed the mission back even further. After setting up and getting loose, I realized that going off a sketch, especially a difficult sketch, took way longer then I thought and was much harder then I could have imagined. It made me realize that Freestyling was way easier. It was so hard to see my sketch and my rough outline that I had to finish each letter separately before moving on to the next one. This worked good and helped to minimize the confusion with the letters. It started to get real late and I wasn't really feeling like doing all that I had in store so I just hurried to get it done and in the process forgot a couple forcefield areas. Oh well, it was well worth the effort. I hope to find a few more spots this year that might have some of these layed up and rock them right. I figured since these were such prized cars, I can't come with no simple shit. I see what all you dudes are doing. Man, they are so smooth. One thing that I didn't really realize was that in the high humidity that we have been experiencing in the Twin Cities, that these cars actually sweat. Seriously, the condensation that was occurring was nothing short of trying to paint in a light rain....... Crazy. All in all, a good night and a great experience with a new type of car for me to paint. A big thanks to the Homie Hyte for hooking me up with the spot. Good looking out Homie!

Painted in 1998, freestyle, with Heat, AST and Zine. Painted in what I was told was the Great, Late, Nace's yard. (considered his yard because he lived nearbye and painted it often) A real honor to be up in there. This was painted during a trip to New York that I had made with Heat, where we hooked up with the Homeboy Zine and The Homie AST. Both were real cool cats that helped us by giving us a place to stay and guided tours through "The Big Apple" and trust me, it was the "BIG" Apple. There was no way we could have made it to all the dope legendary spots without all their help and direction. We looked like two fish out of water and the New Yorkers were quick to point it out. Everywhere we would walk, we would have people stepping out of their place of business to look us up and down like we were aliens. Mostly, due to my main man, Heat, whom to a lot of people would be considered a giant. Especially, in this graff game. As for the trip, it was quite a unique one for me. It was the first time I had met Heat and all the other guys. I basically went blind on the trip, with no place to stay and no way of getting around, all due to a phone call that I had gotten from Heat. For some Months, I would receive these random calls from Heat. He would hit me up and we would talk for hours just about graff and style and all those good things that only graff writers are passionate about. I had never ever even seen him or met him but we had created this sort of comfortability with each other and had a pretty honest long distance friendship. During one of our conversations, Heat opened up that he would really like to make a trip out to "The Graff Mecca" and see what it was all about. I stated back to him that I was feeling the same thing and had been sheltered in my style for so long, that it would have been nice to see how it was done in the Graff Capital. He called up Zine and about a month later we were on our way. I met him for the first time at the Port Authority. I had no idea what he looked like and would have never guessed or even thought he would have looked like he did when I saw him. It was weird, having only talked to him on the phone, I had a total different vision of him in my mind. It didn't matter and we ended up hitting it off and having a great experience the whole time we were there and created a life-long bond. Every experience was a new one for us both and we both got to see things for the first time, which only added to the hype of our trip. On this occasion, we were carted off to this spot via vehicle and after parking it in close proximity to the yard, had to super suspiciously walk across the Freeway, 4 deep, carrying our bags of paint. Once we zipped in the entrance and got over the weird nervousness we had developed from our suspicious behavior, we realized we were in a Graff heaven. Multiple hoppers and Giant Flat Boxcars. It was like a dream. I swear I probably annoyed everyone with how amazed I was. I wasn't used to painting day freights and having a yard like this at the time would have been a God send. We were completely alone in a yard of "Metal Giants" and we were just these "Little Guys" (to quote Dondi) We moved around a little bit, snapped some Photos of some recent BFK burners and others and finally picked a spot right on the edge of a bend and got loose. We rocked this car, got our Flicks, did a few quick throws on some hoppers and made our way back to the city. A good day made better by a great yard!

Painted in 1999. Freestyle, in a major Twin Cities yard. Painted with Logik. Mid-summer time fun. This piece is very similar to the styles I rock still to this day. I call this one of my favorite Pieces. I didn't really pay it no mind, just looked at it as another piece, until the Homie Heat told me a story a few years ago, about when he saw my photo album, many, many, years ago. He could recall this piece damn near perfectly. It always amazed me that he could look through my entire photo album and this one stood out the most. I had to figure that this was one of my best and something that I had to cherish. So I did. I have never released this photo out to the public before. I don't even know if it ever got caught. I do know that all the UPFE's are either gone or repainted, so that's why I consider this rare. Also, knowing how he became one of the biggest UPFE slayers in the game, if he took notice and can remember it to this day, then it was worthy of something special. I thought I would break this one out for Christmas sake and share. I like to release special photos to me on special days. It keeps it interesting for me. When I find a photo I like, I save it for what I consider a special day. Silly, I know but hey, I'm only going to do this for so long, so why not? It adds motivation. On that note, I just want to wish everyone out there a Happy Holidays and a safe and Merry Christmas. I hope that next year brings to you all huge success, lots of paint, fresh walls, incredible skills and many burners to go with it. God Bless!!!

Painted in 1997. Freestyle. Just trying to keep it simple. I don't remember a lot about this car. I probably was just using up some scraps. Painted with what I'm pretty sure at the time was all Krylon. I don't think I painted this one with anyone. I think it was just a solo mission. I always liked this photo because the light, clean, paint job just clashed so much with the dark, rusty, green, background. I think this photo was actually sent to me a long time ago but I don't remember from whom. If it is yours, please let me know and I will give you the credit. Thanks! To anyone that might be interested, the Twin Cities just got hit with one of the worst snow blizzards we've had in many, many years. I personally had a minimum of 2 feet of snow cover the ground at my house. It made for a horrendous amount of shoveling and pretty much locked most people down for the last two days. I'm pretty amazed at how much snow we have. It's pretty incredible. It actually collapsed the Metrodome stadium (Where the Vikings play) and our game had to be routed to another states field for play (I think Detroit). You can actually watch the dome collapse online. It's pretty amazing to see. I, on the other hand, spent all my time these last two days, plowing out the families and friends homes. Not to mention it took 6 hours to do my own driveway yesterday. Shits Crazy! Oh well, that's why we call it Minne-Snow-Ta........

Painted mid summer with the homeboy Stalk. Freestyle on a holy roller. We just met in the yard and found the best looking car for the night. We arrived separate and left at different times. He finished before me. I added a little extra shit to mine, like highlights etc..... One of those lessons, if you leave early, I will add more elements to my piece to burn yours..... J/K. Naw, it's not like that. I had already planned on doing my extra highlights and shines. He was in a hurry to get home that night so he came and rocked really fast and then bolted without putting any finishing touches on his piece. If you were to catch this train, you would see one flat looking piece and one with a little more demension to it. It would almost be like two different pieces from two different eras. The next day he went to go and get day flics and the cars were gone. I was really hoping that he would have seen how I added the extra elements to make my piece stand out a little. Oh well, I guess he gets to see them in photos.

A boxcar mixed breed!!

Painted in 2009 with the Homie Stalk. Freestyle. Not sure who's photo this is, so if it's yours hit me up and I'll give you the credit. As for that night, it started as a group mission with about 4 other writers meeting up at a specific layup. They were at the meeting spot, which was a bar and I decided to just go straight into the yard. I figured they would catch up when they got there. I found the best spot I thought to rock but it was dark as hell. Literally, I could barely see my hands. One of those nights where God turned off our natural nightlight, the moon and the stars. So, while I was painting I decided to give myself a cheater and bust out a small light to try to help me out and use. It helped but after turning it on, I was pretty much screwed because now I had fucked up my natural receptors for night vision. So now I had to rely on the light to see anything and this was in a location where lights in the layup, could have gotten people to take notice. I had to make up my mind, continue on with no sight or just say fuck it and use the light anyway. So, I said fuck it. I was by myself and didn't really care what would have happened. I needed to rock. About halfway through my piece, I get a call from River telling me I should turn off the light because it was really noticable and could blow up the spot. I didn't have time for that and just kept going and used it a little more sparingly. I also told them if they didn't want to take the risk, which was understandable, to go paint on another car. Which they did, except for my man Stalk, who's a real G out on them lines and stuck by me and rocked the panel next to me. I finished up and let Stalk know I was going to go rock another one and made my way to a better lighted area and rocked a quicky. We all met back over by the first car and chatted for a little bit about the cars we had just rocked then made our way back to our cribs. A risky night, that turned out for the best and another one rocked for 2009. Good times!

Painted in early summer 20 10. Solo mission, freestyle. Not much of a story here. Just did my thing and got in and out without a hitch. This is an example of how crazy and different the times are from when I began. When I started painting freights in 1991, the idea of going over someone or someone going over you, was just not even a thought or consideration in your mind. There was just too many clean freights out there. Nowadays, people go over other peoples stuff all the time. It's a good thing and a bad thing all at the same time but I'm not even going to attempt those politics tonight. Still, for the most part, I always try to avoid it at all costs. Even going over relatively wak shit. If there is an open car, I will try to utilize that spot before taking up someone else's spot. Granted, the old rules still apply, "If you can burn it, you earn the right to the spot" but I don't tend to go around and test the ideals of other writers and those from other cities. I've attempted it in the past and it always seems like the ones that can't handle it, go off and do real dumb shit, to get back at you. So, fuck that. It's not worth the trouble, the time, the paint and the energy. As for this piece, I went over 2 different sets of thowups that went over some pieces. I wasn't trying to cause any shit, I just knew that I was going to rock a full color piece over some throws and that it was the only available spot to paint in the yard. Fun times!

Painted in the early fall of 1999 at a local layup for Morton Salt that is no longer around. Freestyle. It was a pretty unique spot to paint because it was always layed up with dope flat cars with sick graff from all over the country and the cars always seemed to come back, over and over again. This is actually a photo of the piece after it came back about a month later. I know that these cars used to go out west a lot because they used to come back with a lot of graff from Salt Lake City, Ut. Also, my man Sinek out of Phoenix told me about a time a few years back when him and some of his crew members rocked some burners next to it and made a conscious effort not to go over it. So, much respect to those guys for that.

This piece actually was done at a time when I was slowing down with painting fr8s and really didn't want to go out and paint a fr8 that night. I pretty much just did it because my man Logik was in Art School and needed a film project for one of his classes. He actually filmed me painting this piece and later did an interview in my garage. I don't know if he ever used the footage or if he still has it. I never got a copy and never got to see the finished project. I also painted it somewhat in between a building and the layup which made for really bad photos. I was really happy when this came back even though the night shot of it when it came back doesn't do the piece justice. We had to paint on the inside because there was a spot light that barely shown on this side of the train and without it, he couldn't have gotten any footage. This was the last time I ever painted that spot. I sure miss it nowadays. I have a whole new outlook on painting in areas where you can't get good flics. With the internet and all the benchers, now most of my good photos are ones that someone else caught. The Good ole' Days..........

"Smokin' Joe" #20,015. Seen in Philadelphia East Falls 2010! 1986 through 2002 and still smokin'!!

Painted in 2009. Freestyle with Stalk. Our layup was all crushed so we had no choice but to rock some floaters or go home empty. This photo was sent to me. Not sure where or who took it. If you think this is yours, please contact me and I will give you the photo credit. I of course wasn't able to get a good shot of it and appreciate the catch. I just rocked another one of these the other day and hope that it gets caught. If you happen to catch it, please send a copy my way. Side angle night shots in tight spaces never seem to look right. Happy Fathers day to all the Writers who are Dads and all the Dads of all the writers. We need to keep building our culture and the best way is to create more people in the world like us. The more we make, the better. haha. From some of the photos I've seen of all the Fresh down ass hunnies out there that allow ya'll to paint on them, I'm sure that there's plenty of takers on that notion. lol

Solo mission, freestyle in 2010. Scrap can killer. I had come out to check to see if I could get some good shots of a train I had painted earlier in the week and found another dope boxcar parked in a good location. I decided it was worth going back to the ride and grabbing a bag of scrap paint that I had used from the night prior and found I had enough to make something happen. So, I did. The train I had originally gone out to get photos of was blocked in, so I wasn't able to get any shots but decided to make the best of the situation. I went late when the sun was going down and wasn't able to get any good shots of this train when I was done, so I had to come back again in about a week and luckily they had moved both my trains in open spots and I was able to get decent shots of both of them. A real lucky break because usually the trains I hit there tend to leave within a week or two, rarely seen again. Someone told me that eventually they all come back through that spot but I have yet to see one of mine return. All in all, a good day and a good opportunity to get another one done for the season. (I do say season because this is "Minne-Snow-Ta" and usually by November we have snow and the cars become wet and coated with a slush like frost substance. I generally don't paint trains during that time. I've done it in the past only to come back the next day to get flicks and find half my piece on the ground. A real bummer and a waste of paint.

Like boxcar swatches!! Spray paint and acrylic on canvas( 5" x 5"), 2012 by T. Favin

Painted in 2009. Freestyle. Painted during a Minnesota Vikings vs Green Bay Packers football game. Minnesota Viking Football, especially when playing their rivals, the Green Bay Packers, is like a state holiday. Therefore, I pretty much figured that everything would be closed down and noone would be working in the yards or even out and about at that time. So, why not seize the opportunity and rock a yard in the day when noone is paying attention. It worked out pretty good. There really wasn't anyone around or on the streets. I was able to get in and out without a problem. I started rocking and throughout the piece, I was forced to text back and forth to the TCI Wisconsin heads on how bad their team was going to lose. It was cool. Do a little fill, give and receive a little jab from the Homies, on the game. It lasted the entire game and made for an interesting piece. Crazy thing about this one, the only access point to the yard was by a gated entrance owned by the railroad. About half-time, I hear this SUV rolling down the dirt road adjacent to the tracks. Luckily, I was painting on the backside when the truck rolled passed me. It came up real fast and just kept going. It rolled to the end of the line, stopped and just chilled. I waited to see if it was going to do anything and if anyone was going to get out but noone did. About 5 minutes later, another one rolled by. I stopped and watched as they both just stopped right near each other and noone seemed to move or do anything. I kept painting. Every once in a while, I would hear some yelling and clapping and cheering. It appeared that my foresight was correct. The railroad workers were not paying any attention to me and were watching the game together in the yard. I finished and unfortunately, the only exit was the way I came in and was forced to walk right past them. I did and was just waiting for one of them to stop me or question me for being in the yard. Noone did and I just kept on going as if I was doing nothing wrong. Empty, clinky cans and all. It was a great time to paint and even better knowing that the Vikings had pretty much stomped all over the Packers.

Painted in 2010. Solo Mission, freestyle at a favorite layup. Photo by: a.low.key.guy. Thanks Homie. I wasn't able to get a photo of this piece and was really pleased to see someone caught it and posted it. It's much appreciated. I wrote Sloppy Seconds on the freight because normally when I get to the layup, all the panels are either already hit from earlier nights or had been hit by other respected writers in other cities. This night was no exception, except that the guys that usually get there before me and rock panels, decided that they were going to start to rock floaters. I didn't mind. There was an open floater panel on the far left side that might have been a little more out in the open but still in a decent enough spot that I was able to hit it without any problem. Funny thing about this spot, I had actually hit it about 15 years prior. I only did a couple pieces there back in the day and really slept on it for what I considered to be a better yard at the time....... and it was. That one is now dead and gone but this one seems to now get all the fresh cars in the city. It's not recommended for any newcomers to try to hit it. The few writers that utilize it, wouldn't take to kindly to having someone else try to get some space. Plus, one thing younger writers need to realize, when a spot is good and is getting hit, you want to minimize the usage and exposure to it, to prevent it from getting burnt or become hot. People do take notice. If they see a bunch of kids entering into an area at night more then once, rest assured, someone is going to start asking questions and call the haters to come check it out. I've seen it happen many times. It's best to find new yards and learn the intricacies of them, then protect them from other would be newcomers to the spot. Another crazy detail about this night, as I was entering the yard, I saw this car pulled over right by the entrance. The interior light was on and the driver was slumped over the steering wheel. He looked like he had been shot and might have even been dead. I debated on whether to try to help the person or just do what I came to do. I spent a good couple minutes walking around and looking into the car for any signs of life or a struggle or blood or anything. I couldn't find anything. I didn't want to spook the person in case he had a gun or something and thought I was the person after him, so I just decided to go take care of business and if he was still there when I came back and in the same position, I would attempt to make some effort to help. After I was done, I was heading out of the yard and noticed the man and the car was gone. The only conclusion I could make was that the person had just come from getting drunk at the bar and actually passed out in the car. Luckily for him, I wasn't after anything. He would have been an easy target and was clearly parked in an off-beat location. Still, it gives me a little chill up my spine to know that the mother fucker drove on the roads after being that intoxicated. Seriously, I thought he was dead, he was so out of it. Hopefully, he made it home safe without killing himself or worse yet, someone else. Crazy times!

Painted in 2010. Photo by H.R.Paperstacks. Edited by EROS. I figured once this hit the Internet, I might as well post it with the story behind it. Solo Mission freestyle. I went out to rock a spot that had been layed up for quite a few days. I rocked a piece with Stalk the night before this and one the night after with the original EMER AKB. One of those, you gotta take advantage of the spot, when you can, type of deals. We hit it hard but not enough to blow the spot. Just make the line look real hot. For this one, I used the new Montana Black Line Hot colors that I received a few months back. I was shocked to see how bright and vibrant the colors were. Even this photo doesn't do it justice. One of those that if the sun is shining on it, you could go blind, type of pieces. I decided to go with more of a traditional EROS fr8 style. I've been trying to get hip on all this new school style of filling in and shit, that I was kind of forgetting about what I was good at. My bread and butter, bar style. While painting this, the Engine rolled through the layup twice and I had to snap off a couple quick photos before he made it through in case he posted up in front of the piece. I've lost a few photo opportunities at this yard and learned. The bad thing is, unlike 35mm film, when using digital, you can't just point and shoot. My little digital camera has like a 5-10 second pause before it takes a shot. Real annoying when your trying to get off that quick one for the album, in case the Train, Shot blocks you. Luckily, H.R. was able to get a good solid one after they moved the two lines in front of this one. Thanks Homie! Another cool thing about this night, when I decided to roll out there, I ran into some Homies going in at the same time as me. So, even though I wasn't painting with them, I still had some extra eyes in the yard. All in all, I was proud of this one and was glad to be able to come off. Also, notice the 3rd Rail on the Tracks in front of this piece. The railroad had put in a new track on one side and left the old one right in the middle. It made for a real crazy step back to look at your piece during the night. I swear I forgot to look down like 3 times and tripped over that bitch. I just wasn't expecting it to be there and at night, it certainly wasn't easy to see. lol.

Freestyle painted in the hot part of summer with the Homeboy Heat. Painted in Northern Minnesota during a mancation. To anyone who don't know what a mancation is....... that's when a group of men go and do manly things. You know, like fishing and hunting. This trip was all about fishing. On one of the days on the lake, while soaking up the hot sun and talking guy stuff, you know......... crew politics, women and all the other guy topics, we got a wild hair up our ass to see if there were any yards nearbye. So, after a brief lookyloo on the favorite search engine of choice, my man Heat had come up with a few hot spots to check out. Each one between 45 minutes to an hour away. The next day, we set our course and headed to the first spot. Whereas, it did show promise, it was smack dab in the middle of a small ass town and we just couldn't find any real good spot to park and look it fully over. We had already stood out like a sore thumb and everyone was taking notice. So, we moved on to our next location. This one was amazing. It had everything. A lake we could fish, hotels to sleep and restaurants to eat. Unfortunately, we were there for business. After spending the first part of our day scoping the yard and it's surrounding layups, we now had to find our hotel and that wasn't turning out to be too easy a task. Only because we knew that getting a hotel was a waste of our money because we really had no plans on sleeping. Unfortunately, we didn't have any room in the vehicle, so we were looking for the cheapest shit out there. Due to the fact that this town was a tourist location, finding a cheap spot wasn't an option and we ended up spending a small fortune on the closest one to the yard. Which worked out real well for us. We brought our paint into the hotel, got it all organized and after a fast-food belly warmer, made our way to the yard on foot. It was real quiet...... Real quiet! So quiet, that no car in the ten minutes of walking came by until...... we were about 50 meters from the yard entrance. This was probably the worst spot it could have come by for us. We had no reason to be there and there was no escape. Luckily, it wasn't the haters. We make our way in and everything seemed real chill but real dark and real humid. That combination in these parts means trouble. If you don't get eaten alive by mosquitoes, there is a real good chance it could rain. As we moved further in this dark and open yard, we began to feel comfortable, real comfortable, too comfortable. We were strolling right down the workers road towards the cars we had scoped earlier, when out of nowhere, an engine smack dab in front of us starts up and turns it's lights on us full spectrum. Heat turned to run and ran smack dab into me and smashed some boney part of his body right into the area around my eye. No big deal I didn't feel shit, I was too busy running myself. We both took off to the right, jumping through some barbed wire and through this small field to a safer location and a good vantage point. While there, we quietly discussed how fucked up that was and looked over my now bleeding and swollen eye socket. It was really fucked up but not enough to thwart our adventure into uncharted waters. After we waited for about a half an hour and watched as two trains pulled in and through the yard, we decided to make another attempt at circumventing the yard and coming in from a different location. Finally, we made it in and to the cars we had scoped earlier. Now after completely dousing ourselves in bug spray, we began to rock. It was dark as hell because this train just so happened to be open on the side away from the moon, so we had very little light to see what we were doing. We did our best and as we began to get close to the part where you fill in the background and make everything look pretty, it began to rain. By rain, I mean downpour. Now, being we were on foot, that meant a long walk back to the hotel in the rain and It really sucked because that meant leaving an unfinished piece. So, after circumventing the yard back to the start of our journey, we made it to the hotel. Now we had to literally walk through the front door of the lobby, completely soaking wet, in the middle of the night, coming from the middle of nowhere and hope to not run into the night staff. Lord only knows that we didn't have any excuse if questioned. Luckily for us, noone was at the desk. Once we got in the room, we were able to change into some dry clothes and catch about an hour sleep until we needed to be up and on our way. On the way out, we stopped by the wayside closest to the tracks and Heat jumped out and hopped through the yard to get day flicks. It was cool because the train was still there and even though the night didn't turn out how we would have liked it to, it was still an accomplishment. Plus, I got to walk away with good reminder of just how fun it was. My Eye still hurts. LoL..... Still, I wouldn't change that experience for the world. Well, maybe just a few details...... Good Times!

Started in 1994 on a hopper with Monk and Spel. I believe this was based off a simple sketch and was the first time I had ever painted with Spel. Especially, in this yard. Monk and I had been crushing this yard for months. Going and hittin' shit pretty much out in the open, at night, next to a live line and while they were humping trains, sometimes, even on the same track. This was a huge yard right smack dab in the middle of the city. Others were also hitting small layups around the area and some even ventured into the beast to rock. We really had the idea in our heads that we didn't really give a fuck if anyone saw us but still would hide when the worker would get about 2 cars down from us. We always knew that we could outrun them and that the chances of them even chasing us was minimal at best. On this particular night, we decided to rock some Floaters. We had gotten pretty lucky because they had parked a flat lumber car right next to this hopper. It was real fresh because back at this time, train cars would be layed up within 3-4 feet of each other and you could just straddle the gap with ease, just like back in them subway days. (not that I would know but I've seen pictures) On this night, Monk took the front and began to rock this ill ass bar style burner in some sick fill colors. I waited until he had gotten his letters on the car, then I began. This was also during late fall, early winter. Spel then waited for me to get my outline down and then he began. Monk was just rocking and burned this one out really fast. He was always a fast painter and usually beat me on almost every train we did. I generally did more designs. As you can see in this one, I was working on some pretty intricate little designs when he finished and told me he was going to go to the other side and catch some throw ups. I was like "Cool". It wasn't like we really needed any look outs or so I thought. At the very moment it appeared that Monk had disappeared over the coupler, he jumped back yelling something. Both Spel and I just looked at each other and jumped down. Next think I know, I see this light flash coming from the middle of the cars. I start to run and in my panic, run right towards the light as Monk passes me and is going in the opposite direction. He was yelling something to me but I really couldn't understand him. As I ran towards the light, I realized that I was running towards the guy chasing Monk and literally jumped under the platform train we were standing on, right at the moment the chaser and I neared each other. I never stopped to see if he stopped, to go after me. I was across the tracks and out of the yard in no time flat. Still, not really knowing what was going on or who was after us. I literally walked around the yard in ditches and hid, which took like an hour to get to the other side. Once there, I called my brother from a pay phone and had him come pick me up. We drove by the yard and I couldn't see anyone or anything. I just knew that we all had left our bags on the platform right across from us and I wasn't going back to get them. Fuck that paint, It was too hot. The next day I called Spel and we both were in shock at what happened and had both tried to get a hold of Monk but he wasn't around. Spel also informed me that he had hid out in the yard and grabbed all the bags when things calmed down and crawled across the road to safety. I was amazed. That was a real ballsy thing to do. Unfortunately for Monk, he had actually ended up getting caught. From the story he had told me, the guy with the flashlight was actually "The Bull" from Chicago. He had been called by the Union Pacific Yard to come out and track us down. He had been camped out in the yard for 3 days and actually had no idea that we were painting. He was one car down when Monk had jumped over the tracks and landed right in front of him. He was just doing his rounds. Talk about bad timing. Monk saw him, jumped back over the tracks to get away and warn us. A real honorable thing to do. When the guy missed me as I was running towards him, he continued to chase Monk, whom in the process had tripped over something and had fallen and got back up as the guy made up ground on him. The Bull then proceeded to yell at Monk from behind to, "Stop or he would shoot". Monk didn't call his bluff and stopped. The guy ran up and handcuffed and arrested him. He later took Monk to his Bronco and they chatted, while waiting for the police to show up and that's when he told him the details for being there. He also said that it was going to be his last night in the yard before going back to Chicago. He said he didn't see a single person until that moment. Wicked bad luck! Monk spent a few days in jail and later got out with a court date. At court he was fined more then $600 to repaint the train and I think had to do some community service. Ouch, for that time but not real bad compared to what they can do to you nowadays. As for the train, I saw that shit rolling for like 3 years after that fateful day. They never even attempted to paint over the graff. I always hoped to catch it in a yard layed up and finish. Crazy times!

faces I-5 between Centralia and olympia, view by over 100,000 passer- bys ever day for the last 2 yeras

Painted in 2009 with River at a local layup. I was looking to do something a little more old school and when I was looking to come up with some ideas, for some reason Zephyr came to mind. So, without looking or referencing a Zephyr piece, I decided to try my best to kind of emulate his style in this freestyle. It's not even close to as fresh as Zeph would have come off back in the day but it was definitely in his honor. I never actually seen a Zephyr piece in person, just photos of them in Mags, books and videos. I know of other writers that have paid tribute to the pioneers and done similar productions to the ones that they used to rock on subways and I always think that is real fresh. I can only hope that someday, some youngster in middle America or wherever, will try to do the same for me. To me, it's the utmost form of flattery. I never get mad when I see someone directly or indirectly utilize my style or bits and pieces of things I've done because I know for myself, that's how you evolve and get better. I try to help as many of the younger generation as possible get to be as good as they can, as fast as they can comprehend, to keep our culture alive and strong. They are the future and it is up to us to build them up and teach them the ways of the ones that came before us and the ethics and rules to the game. To hoard any knowledge is to stop progress. I don't give it all away at once but if someone is truly down for the culture and have put in the work, I certainly don't hold anything back when asked the right questions. Learning this artform is not an easy task and I have learned that anything that comes too easy, is never fully appreciated. I've also learned in my years, the greatest way to teach is to lead by example.

Painted in 2008 with Hope 4 and Much. Freestyle. This was painted with Ironlak. How do I remember? Well, this train has been caught a few times by people and even I once caught it rolling and it has completely faded to a grey color. It's not what was intended but it actually looks kind of cool faded. That was from an old batch of Ironlak and from what I've seen, heard and experienced with the newer stuff, most of the fading has been minimized. This piece in general was painted in mid fall. I had really just come back out in 2008 after atleast a 5 year absence from the steel. I had really only hit a few cars from 2000-2007. Nothing serious, just quick ones and stuff to try to get that passion back. Sometimes, once you lose that passion, it's real hard to get it back. Atleast for me at the time it was, with the realities of daily life and the family etc.... but now I'm glad I was able to find it again and hope to continue to rock them lines for many years to come.

Which brings me to an unfortunate story that I was able to hear from a fellow writer, Nektr. A couple nights ago, a writer named JKAT was killed. JKAT and Nektr were painting a wall along the train tracks that was visible from the freeway. On there way out of the spot, while walking down the tracks (3 set of tracks relatively close to each other, they were on the right set), an Amtrack train approached at a very high speed from behind them. It was nightime and the area was lit up with a bunch of industrial lights which made it difficult for them to see. Plus, they had the bright lights from the Amtrack blinding them as they looked back. As it quickly caught up to them, they thought the train was on the tracks that they had been walking on. In an effort to get off the tracks and out of harms way, Nektr ran to the right off the track while JKAT ran to the left. He was struck and killed by the oncoming Amtrack, which was actually on the middle track. A real unfortunate accident and tragedy. My prayers and thoughts go out to him, his family and his friends. It's a sad day when a young writer is struck down in such a horrific way. In an effort to salute him as a brother of this culture and honor his memory, I said I would post this story to remind everyone of the dangers out on them tracks and in them yards. Please be careful and try to avoid walking down the middle of the tracks if you can and don't make any sudden movements when it's next to you. This tragic accident was preventable. I know from his friend and graff partner Nektr, that he was very passionate as a fan and writer of graffiti culture and fr8 painting. Please think about him and his family and friends the next time you go out to rock and please be careful on the lines.

Here is Nektr's exact words of advice to writers:

"Basicly my advice to everyone would first of all be, dont walk the tracks if you dont have to. Second, never walk with your back to the racks and third, if you do find yourself in that situation, run the quickest way completely off the train tracks, dont run to other tracks, just get off them."

Wise words from a fellow graffiti brethren and a witness to a tragedy that could have been prevented by heeding his advice. Thanks Homie for taking the time to share your story during these unfortunate circumstances. Much Respect.

God Bless.... R.I.P. JKAT

A slice of railroads yesterdays. An old flat Southern Pacific S.S.W. Cotton Belt. Hydra Cushion!!

flak