Its a ForwardEver Photo Special. The year 2005 in photos, or outtakes from I & I travels. Word bless.
Big respect to San Francisco photographer Robin Russell for the images displayed here.
Above is Cokni O Dire spicing up the crowd at the Umoja Reunion night in Los Angeles, March 12, 2005.
Also at the Umoja event, Cokni O Dire, the Dallas-based former House of Pain and Scheme Team MC, also did his thing on the One's and Two's. (L-R: DJ Daz, Culture D and Cokni)
LA's DJ Jun rocked more than classics and Italo-disco cuts at the Umoja Reunion, he rocked the illest home-done haircut of the night.
The night also saw a plethora of LA's best DJs roll through, including Al Jackson (pictured right) of the Soul Children, and legendary underground club Juju.
Cokni (left) with DJ Culture D (right) of the club's Reggae Hi-Fi, Jamaica Gold and Flavor. Culture Damon is currently mashing up the undergrounds once again with his tight reggae selections. Man is also a champion fisherman as well. Trout watch out!
DJ Tomas showed his "Techniques", literally, pictured here spinning two cuts of the Stallag riddim on said Jamaican label.
Just remember this crowd shot when you see all those beer ads depicting fake "in the club" party scenarios just to shill their wares on the backs of our lifestyle. The Umoja Reunion was the real deal: No hype, just DJs, decks, records, culture, and knowledge on the part of the dancing audience. Respect doesn't get any deeper than that...
The Year Continued...
Another of my year's highlights: running into DJ Felix The Dog (pictured right). The always stylish breaks and mash master from Birmingham, UK. He was a mainstay of SF's Groundscore crew who threw the club Eklektik/Hektik for years. Of course Felix's DJ name is a cheeky take on that other DJ cheese-master tha' Housekat. But our Felix is a man of style, made obvious by his domino dogtag chain. 'Tis as real as his gold fillings. Trust me.
Seriously though, leave Chariots of Fire for those idiots at Blockbuster, and instead, witness the best runners on the planet zoom by at 8 in the AM through the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park at the annual Bay To Breakers. All these Kenyan runners pictured here placed in the top 5.
In the end though, it was all about mother nature. The impossible beauty of a naturally purple sea urchin living humbly in the tide pools is all I need to remember my relative unimportance in the universe. Somehow that's comforting.
