Letter From The Editor: For Whom The Bell Tolls

Blessed. 

It’s how I’m feeling these days. 

Like the stars are aligned. 

The crazy thing… I don’t feel this way because good things are happening. I feel this way because bad things are happening. And after the bad thing happens, it’s followed by something good that’s directly related to whatever crap just went down.

In the last 5 years I’ve always felt like I was headed in the right direction but only recently have I felt like I’m living life the way I’m supposed to be living it. Doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

Of course there’s a million things that I want to improve on, but just in terms of being where I want to be, doing what I want to do. This feels right. Righteous even.

Example of the bad—>good:

I spent the sunny hours of my Saturday waiting for a tow truck, getting towed, and getting a new key fob configured for the car. 

I lost my spare key fob a few weeks ago. 

Misplaced it. Well, it’s still misplaced so I guess you can say I lost it. 

And the main one… I misplaced it.

In the SLEEVE pocket of the jacket I was wearing.

Like an idiot. My head was all over the place that day.

Now, the fob I misplaced in my jacket was dead, but had I found it I would have tried to replace the battery before towing.

The whole thing cost me about $500. One day after I got my car inspected and was told I’ll need two new tires before the summer comes round. Two days after my recently increased insurance payment for $330+ hit, which is insane might I add, and one day before my car payment went through. In total, it was a cool $1000+ right out the account.

Boofuckinhoo.

Turns out, that may have been a blessing in disguise.  Because if all this shit didn’t happen I would’ve never met my man Frosty. 

If I knew where the spare was, I would have just ubered home, picked it up, and ubered back to the car to unlock it. Even if I just locked the fob in the car and only needed someone to unlock the car, I wouldn’t have spent enough time with Frosty for us to make a connection and recognize that we might be able to help each other out in a few ways—business connections, advertising opportunities, connections, grant search support, event attendance, and most importantly somebody I’m looking forward to grabbing a beer with in the future. It appears that $500 could turn into $5K easily thanks to us kicking it for two hours.

Blessed I tell ya.

Quick time lapse on the evolution of The City Root.

Dec. 2020 — The vision comes forth and The City Root is officially established

2021 first half — pitch to local media / hire web designer & first marketing coordinator

2021 second half — forget local media / fire designer and do it myself / launch a crappy instagram

2022 first half — launch crappy website 

2022 second half — relaunch a better website

2023 first half — improve social / branding

2023 second half — launch Boom Box & develop Phight Club

2024 — Kick in the Door.

back To What Matters

I’ve missed the clacking of the keyboard. Been dreaming, sculpting, and scheming on a notepad, but I let the publishing get away while I’ve been busy / lazy / chasing / making / working / flirting / farting / living / rocking — all the excuses.

It’s been a minute, doggonnit.

Happy to say aloha again from this locale.

Long story short — I’m back to doing what I love in more ways than one.

Caught the academia bug while substituting last school year. So after a short stint in the engineering industry that was plagued by an immediate workload dump after my boss quit within my first month, I felt called back to education. I’ve been at Sayre High School and I’ll be there throughout the school year. I’m an assistant coach with a talented, but frustrating boy’s varsity basketball team.

On a related note, I’m hooping again. Not only with the high school team but in the runs I organize at Saint Philomena. I really hit a wall athletically this year. It’s going to take a real commitment to be a quality hooper again. So I’m coming for 32 lookin like Jason Kidd in his Suns years rockin #32 with the blonde hair.

I might just mess around and bleach the top. Really commit to the part.

That’s the energy.

But at Sayre, and more specific to The City Root, we’re in the process of launching The City Root Z — basically a high school version of The City Root as an extracurricular program for interested students (which we already have aplenty) that will improve their reading and writing skills, learn about branding, marketing, and launching a business, and hopefully put their social media addiction to much better use.

Not too far down the road, I’m looking into launching a college version—The UCity Root—in collaboration with UPenn and/or my alma matter, Temple University, and using my experience at Sayre to prep myself and launch UCity in smoother fashion.

Need to attend a UPenn Kelly Writer House event soon.

A more long-term goal would be teaching a creative writing class at Temple, like my mentor Dr. John Marra, where I’d do my best impression of his class and offer the students whatever feedback, advice, and resources possible.

De toute façon.

It’s been great. As a full-time job, education is the new Plan B, but if that’s what I end up doing 20 years form now, teaching / coaching / writing / publishing on my own terms, I’ll be a happy camper.

Not only do I feel like I’m actually doing something important, but I enjoy the work. I also get to teach, coach, and get some of my own work complete during prep periods and be home or at the gym before 5pm.

I’m exhausted by then, but all I need is a little afternoon pick me up if I’m going to do anything besides lounge. A coffee, a C4, a dance with Mary Jane to reengage the brain.

It’s been an incredibly rewarding position in just about every single way besides compensation. That should change in a week’s time when I meet a 20 day milestone that activates email/internet access, and a higher pay rate… but I’m interested to see if the School District decides to incentivize their subs or decentivize them.

So far it’s been the latter.

Hard to set a line for this one. 

Plan A is a larger development of projects that I’m bringing together under the umbrella of The City Root. And one of them is THE BOOM BOX. BUT FIRST:

Pieces of peace

Thank you OJ Spivey of the Philadelphia Tribune for his attending and article on the event and House of Umoja’s initiative!

Two years ago I popped into Ultra Silk Gallery and met Kenya. Only plan was to check out the shops on Lancaster Ave and celebrate them.

I left excited about us finding ways to work together and maybe throw an event here one day! They ended up becoming The City Root’s first Philly sponsor and two years later we were able to put on Pieces of Peace: Reading Is Resistance w/ House of Umoja.

It’s also going to be a whole lot more than a little show like I first envisioned. It’ll be two music acts, free food, and a celebration of black history month and community in collaboration with House of Umoja, DASH, and of course, Ultra Silk Gallery.

Three impressive organizations coming together to bring our collaborative visions to life.

Things are also starting to come full circle. 

THE BOOM BOX

The first show of 2024 was underwhelming. We were supposed to go all out on Friday, Jan. 12th, our first Friday, but we were double-booked and, rather than wait until March, we graciously accepted an opener spot for the Treacherous Twins DJ show the following weekend. It was the coldest night of the year and we opened the doors at 7pm and only got to rock out until 9:30. Still, we had a great group of friends and music lovers come on out and only fueled the fire to make the Friday, March 15th show a legendary display of local talent, immaculate vibes, and the only place to be in Philly that night.

Been learning HOW to throw a hell of a show and enjoying it. Sowing from the roots of Rock n’ Roll makes the Boom feel holy. 

Loving every minute of the HOW. 

Of The Process.

NEXT SHOW — FRIDAY, MARCH 15TH — EARLY BIRD TICKETS ON SALE NOW

* Read the greatest press release ever written right here. *

THE PROCESS

But of course it’s not a sunshine and puppies out here. My struggles lie in the natural balancing act of it all. It’s in putting the same time and passion into things that don’t have a similar deadline-specific nature.

But no matter. The time is now. Like a goddamn Power Ranger, I need to morph. Morph into the publisher & producer of Rock, Paper, and Docs in Crocs* that I’m capable of becoming by mining anything that resembles a resource, collaborating with the right people, and staying consistent and persistent in the editing room. The last of which being the toughest due to time, lack of experience, and amount of footage to sort through. I’ve had 4+ video editors quit on me, but that’s for a tale for another time.

A SPORADIC SIDE 16

Do it in some crocs

got the energy to pop

the adrenaline is pumpin

and the medicine is not

Swing the hips and hop

Never cold I’m runnin hot

get it on and bring the shock

cuz the real it never flops

So I’m stunting on E 

Flexin with fake Jewelry 

Bustin on Beats 

Like Dwight Schrute on some loose leaf

Jim in the Sheets  

Stanley in the Streets

Prison Mike out here yellin like FUCK, TO-BEE!

In Scranton boy, The Electric City scene UGH

LIKE I SAID, LOVIN’ THE PROCESS.

It’s the process of becoming the professional publisher, of which I’m more than capable, with focus and the mining of anything resembling a resource. HQ video content and legitimacy is what I’m after in the next two weeks.

It’s time the early evolution of The City Root complete its course. 

Graduate and ship for the Moon.

For Mars.

PHIGHT LIFE

As for the “Doc in Crocs,”* I’m of course referring to PHIGHT LIFE and its related platform gearing up to launch — PHIGHT CLUB — that highlights the Philly & South Jersey Mixed Martial Arts Scene filled with UFC, CFFC, PFL, Bellator, and other professional level scrappers. 

Leading the video series with the full documentary — PHIGHT LIFE — the inspiring story of Delco, Philly, and South Jersey’s own, Andre Petroski. Petroski is a UFC Middleweight (5-1) who has defied the odds en route to a successful prizefighting career in the world class promotion of mixed martial arts. More than that, he’s a great teammate, friend, and dad, despite his debilitating croc addiction. 

Phight Life is about more than Petroski, it’s about the life of an MMA fighter, the family (i and out the gym) that supports one another so strongly.

UFC FIGHT NIGHT 239 in Atlantic City

MARCH 30th @ Boardwalk Hall

ANDRE PETROSKI VS. JACOB MALKOUN

Pat Sabatini is Now on the card AS well!

versus Nate Landwehr

AC GON’ BE ROCKIN!!!

espn.com/mma/story/sean-brady-vicente-luque-headline-ufc-return-atlantic-city

This project as a whole has become incredibly important to me and I now have an obligation to do right by those involved. That’s Andre of course, but also Team Taino, led by Eddy Torres who’s been incredibly welcoming while I’ve stumbled through the process. What we thought was going to be a three-day shoot leading up to Andre’s Fury wrestling match has become a full-fledged docuseries spanning three UFC fights and a broader focus on Andre’s story, as well as the culture around the Philly/NJ MMA scene. We also see potential expansion into singular episodes with individual fighters in the future.

Cameron Scalio, Edgardo ‘Baki’ Caraballo, Andre Petroski, Parker Kropman, Eddy Torres

chasing gold

Beyond the fact that Phight Club could easily be one of the most important pieces in getting The City Root to a place where it can blossom and benefit a whole lot of people; beyond the fact that I’m learning a ton about the film-making process, the thing that makes it feel RIGHT is contributing something to an inspired team and community.

In the short term, the goal is definitely to bring more resources to this group, especially at Team Taino which has been my “home away from home” gym since June. And we’ve got a chance to do so while moving the docuseries further along in lead up to Andre Petroski and Pat Sabatini’s return to UFC Fight Night on March 30th in Atlantic City.

Although I’m not actively training with UFC dreams like many of the serious fighters in these gyms, I do have every intention of becoming the absolute best at whatever I’m doing.

There’s only so many places you can go where there’s multiple people trying to be the best in the world at something, and these gyms are on that list.

I feel that.

And my doing is writing, publishing, producing, creating, and rocking the fuck out.

My championship belts are number one sellers, award-winning articles and writings, critically-acclaimed and commercially successful films, hit songs, sold out shows, exceptionally dope commercial advertising campaigns.

Getting my hand raised in a ring isn’t something I haven’t thought about… maybe one day.

Wait until I get new wrists.

Then it’s ova wit.

VISIONS & INTENTIONS

Inspiration comes from interesting places.

The City Root itself was born out of legitimate depression, a lack of resources, and loneliness. City Root Z is its new offspring in the works which came from a miserable substitute teaching experience on my first day at Sayre. I had booked an assignment that would last all of December and after one day I didn’t know if I wanted to go back. So I thought about how I could make the most of the experience. Last on that list, was City Root Z — think of it like a school paper but it’s an online magazine without the school district restrictions.

A magazine because magazines are cool.
And that’s our goal…

To Make Reading Fucking Cool Again.

For the kids, yo.

Speaking of FTK…

Let’s take that same approach to charity fundraising through The City Root.

Raise funds for a year, or even six months, and top it off with an epic show… and we’ve already got one of those.

In the future. The not so distant future.

Around the Corner

The future looks vibrantly clear to me for everything myself and those working with me are pursuing, but I can certainly understand why it may look murky to outsiders.

A business specific vision — collaboration in every medium and across all forms of media publishing.

Online publishing (video & text) hasn’t seen any significant renaissance since every single newspaper, magazine, or any other print publication switched their focus online. It’s still subscribers and advertisers just at a very different level. Ultimately I believe it will be the collaborations and popping of internet paywall bubbles between larger and smaller content publications. 

I forsee collaborations with The Philadelphia Inquirer, PHLY, WHYY, Comcast Sportsnet and other local media. 

Outside of Philly, the opportunities look the same.

City by city, town by town, person by person.

There’s sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll all over.

It’s a global interest economy. 

There’s no limitations. 

Not in the year of the Mamba.

There’s no denying what’s destined.

For whom the bell tolls… it tolls for thee.

Blessed.