normanbelike-blog

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Art Instagram

If you like any of my photography, my instagram account for all my art related stuff is @normanistic

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In the daytime, workers are doing business at this Citibank office. In the night however, it can be rented out as a venue. So naturally, a punk show was hosted at this bank. To enter the office space where the show was hosted, you had to follow the music and walk through the bank and a bunch of empty offices. When you reach the room, you are greeted with the nice, loud sounds of punk music and people moshing. It was a mix of local bands and a headlining band from Atlanta. We later found out that the person who manages the band from Atlanta was one of the people who set up the infamous Denny’s concert. That infamous video of a band screaming “what the fuck is up Denny’s” while performing inside of the restaurant is a legendary video. I was glad to share my presence with such a legendary person. The show promptly came to an end when a speaker fell and broke a window. The window got duct taped and everyone called it a night.

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In my city of Miami, we have a local roller skating rink that has been a famous local spot for a long time. It’s a great place that has not changed since it’s creation. Is still has all its neon lights and those beautiful, colorful rugs. A local curator named The Boombox got the venue and hosted a rave there. Some unlucky employees had to work till the sunrise giving ravers pairs of skates and other employees had to feed the hungry ravers in the kitchen area. It was a sick concept, roller skating in a rink while a dj plays in the center is so fun. But the thing about raves is most people are intoxicated, so it was quite funny watching people fall while roller skating. The vibes were great though and the music played by the djs was really good. The main thing that surprised me was the amount of racers who were pros at roller skating, I was not expecting them to be busting out crazy movies like the I i saw.

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SFHC!: The South Florida hardcore scene definitely changed the way i view live shows. I had never seen over 20 people jump on stage, sing every word with the vocalist, take the vocalist mic and sing the song themselves, then those same people dive off the stage and start flailing their limbs everywhere and mosh. This was a hardcore one day festival hosted by Equinox Booking, they brought bands that have been a thing since the early 2000s. Although I had very little knowledge on these bands, I could tell they were legendary from the way the crowd was acting. The crowd knew every word and were rocking the band’s merch. I risked my camera to take these pictures and got kicked in the ribs so hard that I couldn’t breathe. It was a fun time documenting this show and if you are not afraid to get punched, I recommend you check out any local hardcore shows happening your area. I end this post with a quote from the band Know the Score, “We are the asshole olympics of hardcore, we perform every four years and fuck everything up!”

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Halloween Hillbomb: In the capitol of Florida, Tallahassee, they take halloween very seriously and even have a name for it. The name is Talloween and the mainly college populated town goes all out for it. Me and my friend stumbled upon a flier for a halloween hill bomb block party, so we got our boards and checked it out. When we got there it definitely was a hill bomb. People were skating down this huge hill and hopefully not falling off their board and becoming a meat crayon. It wasn’t just a try not to die contest, there was a dj, free drinks and concerned neighbors wondering what was going on outside their home. In the theme of halloween, skaters wore a ton of sick costumes. Someone was in a full Gumby outfit, some others were in full insane clown pose makeup and a cigarette smoking dude dressed up as Hunter S. Thompson was hillbombing as well. Skaters were jamming out to music, hanging on to random cars, having ollie contests, and just mostly having a chilllll time. Oh and the best part was the group of old men down the road who had these crazy trucks painted with bible quotes while they held signs spreading the message of god. 

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Photography Journal: A TeenAge Riot

Throughout the past year of my life, I have been involved with the art “scene” in South Florida. From a rave at my town’s local skating rink to a rock show hosted at a crappy motel’s pool area, I knew I was witnessing truly passionate people express themselves through various forms. I bought myself a camera and began documenting moments that occurred at these events. I just had this urge to document moments that could potentially be forgotten years from now. I was assigned by my class to create a blog on anything, so I decided to create a blog to show my photos.