MAINTAIN MEMORY LANE

I am digging in the shoe boxes for some pictures dating back to 2005 when MAINTAIN first began.

Enjoy!

Maintain Sunset is closing after 5 years but will reopen in the middle of summer 2011

5 Years ago I was working as a full time artist making good money and living a great life style. And although my life could not have gotten better it did. After realizing that painting excessively would ultimate lead to my demise as an artist I decided to take a break and open a small shop called MAINTAIN. My idea was simple, create a place of business that borrowed from my child hood passions, skate boarding and graffiti art and build a communal space where like minds can meet and generate positive energy. Maintain by definition means to: to keep in existence or continuance; preserve; retain: There are many ways that we all Maintain and for me my small shop was it. It enabled me to stay afloat long enough to reach my next level of evolution. The moment has come to finally say good bye to our old location. As of Monday the 31st of January our Sunset location will be officially closed.

There is no need for tears or sadness for we will still be in existence at our Cypress Park Location. And we will be moving our Sunset location and reopening it again in the middle of summer 2011.

I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to all of our supporters over the 5 years of Maintains existence. Without your support Maintain would not be what it is today and I would not have grown and evolved as a person. I am so lucky and
privilege to have been able to meet serve and befriend all of you. Thank you to all of you and please don't forget to MAINTAIN.


Please continue to visit us and support at 2643 N. Figueroa Los Angeles, Ca. 90065

Peace,

Alex Rodriguez
Owner/Servant


I leave you with a few memories from this past 2010 year and will be adding more pics during the week.

Its official!

Stevie Williams is on supra...What!


Check out this video I found on YOU TUBE. It features pro BMX rider Nigel Silvester and pro skater Stevie Williams competing against each other... cool video!

Not the Kings any more!

Krylon and Rustoleum where giants in the aerosol art scene during its early origins. They were the paint of choice. Its sad to see them making and inferior paint. The krylon is way to watered down now and the rusto's new look is not cool at all.

Amazing Graffiti

It amazes me that the quality of street art keeps getting better and better. I enjoy seeing our landscape be transformed into a living gallery.

Sea Level’ Premieres In Boston Tomorrow

If you’re in the Boston area this weekend, check out the premiere of Elliott Vecchia and Chris Fiftal’s new film ‘Sea Level’ tomorrow night at The Tower Auditorium.
Shot around the East Coast, the video features Orchard team rider Fritz Mead, as well as parts from Frankie Nash, Pete Moulton, Jimmy Lake, Nick Swanson, Jay Brown,Kevin Coughlin, Luke Suvino, Brian Kennedy, J Burton and John Desimas.

Adam Colton skates across South America

This is for all you long boarders out there.




Adam Colton
Adam Colton (you might know him from his Longboard Dancing trick tips, from all his work with Loaded, or from Adam Squared productions) took off on Monday to skate South America. This trip follows skating across America, then Europe, and the last trip was across New Zealand.
For this trip, Adam plans to take only what he can carry, and skate through Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile ... he'll be skating around South America until March 18th. Personally, I think he's nuts! But I'm also jealous, and very impressed. You can read all about his trip, and his previous adventures, on his website - WhoIsAdamColton.com.

Greatest Skateboarding Tricks

Jesus Saves Interview... Naw-I-mean!

Prolific graffiti writer in Phoenix gets one year in prison.

Prolific graffiti writer in Phoenix gets one year in prison.
December 2nd, 2010


(Reuters) – An Arizona man, dubbed Phoenix’s “worst graffiti vandal” by authorities, was sentenced to one year in prison on Tuesday for scrawling his work on about 300 places during a 20-month spree.
Joel Delgado, 27, also was placed on four years probation under a plea deal approved by Judge Daniel Martin in Maricopa County Superior Court.
He could have faced more than six years in prison if convicted at trial.
Delgado, who used the name “Jugs” or “Jugz,” had confessed to the graffiti crimes and said at the time of his arrest that he wanted to be put behind bars for his actions, prosecutors said.
“I get a rush out of it and I can’t stop. This is like a problem for me. Seriously a problem. I’m 27 years old. I’m going to be 30 years old, I’m like what am I doing? Writing on walls? Hopefully I end up in prison,” Delgado said at the time, according to a written statement released by prosecutors.
Delgado was tracked using new technology that allows authorities to observe all the places he tagged, pinpointing areas to target for surveillance.
City officials said it cost $20,000 to remove Delgado’s graffiti.

A 20-year-old writer was hit by two cars and killed near Los Angeles

A 20-year-old writer was hit by two cars and killed near Los Angeles after spraying graffiti on the freeway’s center divider.
December 13th, 2010
Poetic justice? Graffiti artist killed by cars after tagging freeway?

That’s a fucked up headline usa today put up on their website yesterday!



A 20-year-old tagger was hit by two cars and killed near Los Angeles after spraying graffiti on the freeway’s center divider, the Los Angeles Times reports.

For long, freeways in California and other cities across the nation have been turned into blighted messes by rampant graffiti spraying. But it turns out that tagging can be a deadly hobby. Raul Garcia Jr. of Lynwood and two other men had been tagging on the Long Beach Freeway in Compton when they were struck around 4 a.m. Saturday, the California Highway Patrol told the Times.

Garcia was struck by a Nissan Maxima that had just merged into the far left lane. He was then thrown into another lane and struck by another car. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

There have certainly been other serious injuries and deaths over the years among taggers. Daniel Supple, suspected of tagging the word “Ozie” all over Los Angeles, was critically injured in 1997 when he fell from an overpass in Los Angeles while tagging. That’s his tag in the photo. He fell 100 feet.

Via:usatoday

MAINTAINS GAME OF SKATE FOOTAGE

A little video Olivertrasher put together from Sundays GAME OF SKATE.

Sunset Graffiti art field report.

Today I decided to take a stroll on Sunset going west towards MAINTAIN. This stretch of sunset is very well decorated by graffiti artist. Recently Cache, Atlas and Eye have been repainting their chicken and Zapatista walls. They invited a Cat to paint with them. The size of these walls are huge. The pictures don't do them justice.

Christopher Chann

Christopher Chann... Winner of Maintains first game of skate 2011

REST IN PEACE DASH 2000

Last week I got word that a very well known, talented and Graffiti artist had passed away. The news is very saddening. And although it brings tears to my eyes as a result of his passing i have witness the compassion and humanity that people seldom show. His death has created unity within the Los Angeles Graffiti subculture.

I dug around the web and found some pictures and a video memorial that DCLINE from the COI crew created.

Go in peace bid DASH 2000

Dash 2000 Rest In Peace from Dcline on Vimeo.

Sean Pablo Murphy,

I met Sean nearly two years ago and I have to say that this kid rips. This footage is from the "Its Real Video" that a group of young skaters filmed and edited them selves. He is good hear but has gotten so much better... Sean has the potential to go pro if he keeps skating. We are proud to have Sean skate for MAINTAIN.

Keep it up Sean!

Final Pictures of the Maintain Character Mural at the Sunset shop

All the artists got down on this wall.

Maintain would like to thank Dcypher, Psyte, Butcher Grasss Roots, Mulk Chaco, Jerk and Jater.

"Kofie One" Los Angeles base graffiti artist video interview

Every once in a while I find my self surfing on the web and find some cool shit. This morning I ran into this video of graffiti artist Kofie One talking about his work and why he does it. One gets a good insight on his artistic process and approach to art and life.

This guy just keeps on moving... "Like A Shark"

Maintain Game of skate January 16th, 2011 Pictures

Today's game of skate was very competitive. Thank you to all of you that came and supported MAINTAIN.

Congratulations to all of the winners and don't forget to keep Maintaining!









The winners

Character Mural at Maintain Cypress... more pictures

Here are some pictures of the characters show for those of you that might have missed it... Enjoy!

PICTURES OF THE LOS ANGELES CHARACTER ART SHOW PART 2

Thank you all for coming down to the MAINTAIN Cypress Park store and supporting the event. I would like to send out a very special thanks to all of the artists who participated in this event. We were truly blessed to have so many talented artist participate in the show.

L.A. Skate Laws

For everything in life we must have rules because if there were no rules it would be every one for him/her self. There would be complete anarchy with out rules and life would be real boring. If there were no rules then we could not break them. Rules were meant to be broken. As much as it sucks even skate boarding has rules and laws that regulate the sport from being practice in public places.

Below you will find a list of rules you can go break when you are skate boarding. I would like to thank LASKATELAWS.COM for providing this info on the web.


Rules of the road :

Anyone under 18 years old cannot ride a skateboard unless they are wearing a Helmet.
The helmet has to be ASTM or CPSC certified.
All helmets need to have these have either a ASTM or CPSC label
No one can sell a helmet for skateboard that does not have the ASTM or CPSC certification
All charges against these laws/codes are dropped if you tell the court that it is your first offense unless the court can prove otherwise
Violations in this section are called infractions with fines $25 dollars or less
Parents will be equally responsible if your child violates the law/codes in this section.
Individual cities can police their own rules such as rules against riding on sidewalks, roadways, or highways
Motorized skateboards cannot be used on sidewalks, roadways, or any highway.
No one can ride a skateboard on any county road, street, highway, lane or alley which has a grade in excess of three percent.
No one can ride a skateboard on any county road, street, highway, lane or alley in excess of 10 miles per hour.
No person can ride, operate or use a skateboard or any other device moved exclusively by human power, on a sidewalk, bikeway or boardwalk in a way that puts the safety of persons or property at risk.
Piers, Beaches, Parks

Within the limits of any park containing a fishing pier:
No one can use a skateboard on a fishing pier, except as permitted by the Board or its authorized representative.
No one can ride a skateboard or other wheeled device on any pier (this excludes wheelchairs).
Any park or portion thereof designated by the Board as a skateboard facility, whether the facility is supervised or unsupervised:
No one can ride a skateboard unless that person is wearing a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads.
No one can use or operate any skateboard on county property at any of the following locations, except in areas designated for such purposes:
The Los Angeles County Superior Court at 200 West Compton Boulevard, Compton, California;
The Compton Branch of the County Public Library at 240 West Compton Boulevard, Compton, California.
Glossary

County property - means real property in the unincorporated and incorporated areas of the county which property is owned, leased, or controlled by the county, including, without limitation, public buildings and facilities and their surrounding grounds and improvements, walkways, footpaths, stairs, access ramps, railings, monuments, fountains, plazas, driveways, parking lots, or other paved areas.
Skateboard - means any board or any other object with a flat surface which has wheels attached to it by any means whatsoever and which is designed to be or can be ridden or propelled by one or more persons standing or kneeling upon it.
Penalty

Any person violating any of these provisions will be guilty of an infraction. Punishment will carry a maximum fine of $25 dollars.



If you ask me all of these rules suck!

Be safe when you skate and skate within your ability but other than that just rip, shred and grind everything you see:)

DUCE painting the LADY TIGRA bill board.

A phew years back DUCE from the Team Maintain Graffiti team painted this for a LADY TIGRA video. Check it out and listen to the catchy tune.

Maintain Game Of Skate January 16th, 2011

Its a new year and MAINTAIN is still at it. We will be hosting our first game of skate at the Sunset MAINTAIN shop this year. So bring your board and your best game face and be ready to have some fun and win some prices.

!st place gets a Maintain Deck, trucks, wheels and bearings.
2nd place gets a Maintain deck and blank wheels
3rd place wins a blank deck with grip

For more info please call the Maintain Shop on Sunset at (323) 906-9257

NEW EVERY1MONTAGE

Maintain Cypress Park has been opened for four months now and we have made plenty of new friends. Please view the video of our new friends Skating and having a great time in the Cypress park area in Los Angeles, Ca.

"All City Spray Paint" is now available at Maintain!

All-City Paint is now available at your nearest Maintain Location
low-pressure - matt finish - smooth valve system - Available at the low introductory price of only $4.99 per can plus tax /

Visit Maintain at 3318 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, Ca. 90026 or at 2643 North Figueroa Los Angeles, Ca. 90065c
for more info call (323)906-9257