Plopculture - An Inside Look Into The Inside

And we are off to yet another exotic locale...Fresno

2009-11-04T08:23:00.001-08:00

Today the Plop is off to lovely Fresno to meet our client Jorge Gurgel who will be fighting live on Showtime Friday night. The fight should be amazing and I am really excited to link up with Jorge and Mark Dellagrotte but Fresno??? I have friends that travel to places like London and Barcelona for business and I get Fresno...FML.

P.S. before I leave for Fresie this afternoon I am going to a talk held by the White House Department of Education to discuss our country's abysmal education system and how Hollywood could get involved. I am interested to hear what they have to say and you can bet I have an earful of questions for them. Updates will most likely take place next week to round up the trip but since I have my laptop, if we are not too busy with press, cutting weight, medicals, etc., I will try and fill you all in on my amazing time in Fresno.

Sneak Peek Jorge Gurgel's Walkout Shirt for Friday

2009-11-03T08:10:00.001-08:00

So on Friday night my client and good friend Jorge Gurgel will be fighting the fight of his life against Billy Evangelista (undefeated record) on Showtime. If Jorge wins this bout (he will) he will get a shot at the championship belt in a fight that will most likely air on CBS (crossing fingers).

In his bid to train his ass off and get a quick win under his belt so we can get the frick out of Fresno, sponsors like FullTiltPoker.net, Rockstar Energy Drink and American Fighter have financially enabled JG to do that. Thanks for the support...watch the fight live on Showtime Friday night and you will undoubtedly see me during Jorge's walkout...damn I'm ugly.

Happy Halloween - go have fun..

2009-10-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

Halloween is the one holiday where the freaks get a chance to be themselves and it is socially accepted. Me...I don't dress up and don't like most candy (unless it is chocolate) so call me Scrooge if you must. However, I do hope you all have a blast...don't ingest any razor blade laden apple martinis.

Boo.

The Plop closes its doors to favors

2009-10-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

Due to economic conditions, increased scrutiny by the FTC and people constantly badgering me to either work for free, do them favors for free or flat out lying to try and get at my contacts and resources I have declared the Plop a NO MOOCHER ZONE.

From here on out, we will not be posting anything for anyone unless it follows the following requisites:

1) You are a Plop/RPRT client
2) The post has to do with me and my business in some way
3) I think something I post, which I randomly find, is cool and thus post on my own recognizance
4) You pay me
5) You give me free product I actually want
6) You come and do my laundry

P.S. This applies to my actual BUSINESS as well.

Thanks. The Management.

SF...here comes BARON (and me)

2009-10-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

Baron and I will be headed to the cold in December so Baron can DJ a party for the I AM SNOWBOARDING art benefit. I am pretty stoked because I haven't been to San Fran in about 3 years and always have fun when I am up that way, despite freezing my goods off.

That weekend is also the Thrasher Magazine Skater Of The Year Awards so it should be pretty hectic being up there with both the Flip and Deathwish crews. I hope my liver comes out alive.

For more info on the event...go here...now:

http://iamjla.org/

Who needs the Beatles when you have the Bulldogs?

2009-10-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

(Rodeo...er Abbey Road)

Some say nothing good can come of kids sitting on their asses all day playing video games (oh wait...I say that all the time) but alas this should shut them the hell up. A "friend of ours" and former client, Johnny Fratto, sent me a link of a website his 7 year old son (with dad's help) put together with some friends. Turns out these cheeky little bastards love Rockband Beatles so damn much that they started to dress, act and try and be them. SOOOO...now they have a full fledged site with pics of them in just about every iconic Beatles' pose you can remember.

It turns out Kid's LA, a new magazine from the hood, liked the shoot so much they are doing a full issue on it with Rockband integrated...Here is a sneak of the cover:

I thought this was cool enough to post because even without a pack of multi-cultural grommets rehashing what once was, the photography is really cool...Check it out:

http://www.meetthebulldogs.com/

Adding Twitter Shit Like Nobody's Bizness

2009-10-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

So you may or may not have noticed but now you can follow the Plop in real time just by visiting the blog and getting our twitter feed. You can also join my twitter feed and tweet my posts to your friends.

As always...if you want to add me the old-school way my Twitter handle is @MattRPRT

Me hopes the Plop will get more interesting...

2009-10-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

(Why am I talking like a pirate?)

A lot of interesting stuff is taking place in the near future and though, to me, it seems this site is getting more and more boring I am hopeful that it could get a lot more fun very soon.

Until then there will be days of stagnation, shitty posts, stupid pictures. Bear with me and you will be duly rewarded with amazing, fun, frantastic content.

Just sayin.

Chrisso and Brie from Bouscoulade in LA!

2009-10-26T12:43:00.001-07:00

Chrisso and Brie, part of my NYC posse, are in LA hustling for their new showroom, Bouscoulade. They have picked up three lines so far and are on the warpath to get them into the top shops about town. I especially liked this new jewelry line they have called Lady Grey. The line is a metallurgy collection that uses a really nice array of cast themes like bones, trees, architectural design and semi-precious rocks.

Check out dem bones:

Pat Milbery to sign for 2 more years with Capix

2009-10-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

Noggins will continue to be safe on the slopes now that Pat Milbery, an RPRT client, has re-signed to a newer, fatter helmet deal with helmet mega co. Capix. Pat will act as brand ambassador and will continue to have a signature and pro model helmet. Also look for some slick new collabos coming your way...more on that soon.

Congrats Pat...watch out for that treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Curren Caples wins another contest (surf this time)

2009-10-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

I got a pretty cool call this weekend. Curren Caples is with his family taking a vacation in Kauai and this weekend randomly stumbled upon a Volcom grom series SURF (mind you Curren is a skater) contest at Pinetree's. A ton of the local Hawaiian hot prospects were signed up. Curren decided to give it a go for fun even though the surf was small and chopped. After all the heats were done, Curren won the whole damn contest.

I love that my client is a double threat. Line up now sponsors...

The Plop is the new Nostradamus?

2009-10-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

I am a minute late posting this because I was out yesterday but I have to do it anyway. I am not doing this post to give a huge multinational corporation and world renowned designer more free press rather I am doing it to tout my intuitive powers.

About 3-4 months ago I posted a tweet that said "Prada for Target" and it caused an uproar on my Facebook page. I did it to be funny (not that I am funny) but to also make a prognostication (I searched for the tweet and the comment string but it was too long ago and would take months to find). It turns out my psychic powers were not far off when it was just announced this week that Jean Paul Gaultier will be designing for Target. This is the dawning of a new age...price point is king but iconic labels are still in demand. I knew it would happen when luxury would go cheap-o and it has. All those years spent skipping upper division economics classes at UCLA have finally paid off.

Anyone looking to hire an analyst?

AMA's + Jenni Pulos + pre-taped segments = day out of the office

2009-10-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

So yesterday one or two of you may have noticed the Plop was AWOL. We were with client Jenni Pulos all day shooting pick ups for her AMA red carpet co-hosting gig. The early morning shoot was over at Dick Clark Productions where Jenni and Jai Rodriguez shot some in studio shout outs, ad libs and b-roll footage for pre-show promos. Below is a round up of the day:

JP and JR pre-shoot...lookin good. Congrats to Jai on the release of his new movie.

JP look so innocent...she had the room in stitches the whole time they were shooting her. I have a feeling she is going to have a pretty solid role in the pre promotion of the event. Can't wait til the promos go live.

At the Grove we did about 3 hours of "Man on the Street" interviews and pretty much got every stereotype of person we could find to play with Jenni on camera. It was a blast and people were great sports. Jenni had people dancing, singing and goofing off with her in public. Alfred and I played casting director and would pull characters from the passersby...DCP we better get our producer credits! haha

He better put a ring on it.

Wait til you see the promos. This woman is AMAZING. She had on an afro Michael Jackson shirt and was going off on how much she loved the Jackson's. Look for her on myspace, twitter, facebook and everything else because she had to let us know ten times she is on all of them!

SHAKE JUNT in the house. I saw this cat walking by in a Shake Junt shirt and had to pull him in so Ellington, Heyl, Greco and the boys could get a shout out on ABC. Turns out he was a friend of the crew and was awesome. He was basically ballroom dancing with JP in the end...Thanks Mr. Bill Allegar. Deathwish for life.

Finally the shoot P.A. Alfred standing next to producer and all around world champ Assaf Blecher. Alfred wound up carrying everybody's sunglasses and had the illusion that by putting them all in his shirt he would somehow be influencing worldwide trends and eventually Kanye would copy him and give him a shout out as the man who started the fad of the decade. Sorry Alf...bring me a coffee. Thanks.

Hey...be glad you have a job...(so odd how many former co-workers Alf and I saw at the Grove shopping mid-day during a work week).

Something so small (a tale of international smuggling)

2009-10-23T08:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my shit Blackberry (I think I am turning on the Blackberry devices slowly but surely) this pic doesn't really tell the story but after 20 tries I couldn't get it to take a good enough pic...anyways...what you are looking at is a sea urchin spike I had in my big toe since Mexico. This damn thing couldn't have been longer than an eighth of an inch but the damn thing (along with its smaller cousin) hurt so much for the last week it would keep me up at night. I finally got around to carving it out with a very sharp pocket knife.

This post sucks.

Alright People...

2009-10-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

Geoff Rowley interviews Lemmy!!!! Legend (Pt. 1)

2009-10-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

Thrasher Skateboard Magazine

Freebie Friday (on Tuesday) - Filter it!

2009-10-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

So some of you may remember the company Watergeeks which sponsored the first Expose NY about a year ago. Well, today I got a little care package from my friends over there who sent me an array of their new filtered water bottles. I absolutely love these bottles and have been waiting for them to come out for a WHILE. Basically they are personal Brita water systems integrated into a stainless water bottle (aluminum is a no no). Since I drink about 3 sips of water a day (no kidding) hopefully these bottles will help me to remember to stay hydrated while at home and work. I love that my sink has now become a safe resource again for drinking water on the go and I no longer have to use it just to take baths...

*Thanks to Rebecca Lightsey at Gifted Presence for sending the care package to the Plop!

Today's COOL/NOT COOL - Decades

2009-10-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

COOL - The new decade is coming...the new decade is coming. Time for change people. Let's make this a good one. I am mid-life and don't enjoy the struggle at this old age.

NOT COOL - The last decade pretty much blew. I was so hopeful and though I am not cursing it as a whole (I have a lot to be thankful for which took place during this decade) but I am pretty sure things can only go up from here. This is a bit early to be posting but I am looking forward to a new decade of possibilities. 2000-2009 can pretty much suck it.

WERDLIFE.com live

2009-10-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

RPRT clients Mark Appleyard and Geoff Rowley just launched their newest project WerdLife which will feature a hodgepodge of postings from them and friend Todd Bratrud. Expect to see anything from skateboarding to art to music to life to Rowley's butt (if this interests you go to Videorama and watch the post...my computer chose to freeze up right when Geoff drops trou and didn't load for a minute after).

Las Gav '09 - Fogged in and surfed out

2009-10-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I headed to Las Gaviotas in Baja California for my brother in law's birthday. My sister got him a two night stay in a 2 bedroom house we always occupy when we go down there. Usually the trip is a complete blast but there really isn't much to report this time around (I even debated not posting anything)...the surf wasn't as big as expected, the tidal shifts were huge making the dawn patrols useless, Las Gav was a ghost town and I didn't really fit in with the crew of guys that rolled down. So...I spent a lot of time chilling on the couch or in the jacuzzi when I wasn't paddling my ass off to get into the slow waves I could hardly see since the fog was pretty much hanging over our heads the whole time we were in Las G. Nonetheless, here is a very small wrap up of a relatively sedate trip south:

What looks like the start to a very good trip. No sight better in my eyes than a car filled with boards.

The house after being there 2 hours. You would think we lived there for months...That is what happens when you send 4 guys loose to stay on their own without ladies to keep order.

The view from the balcony during the 40 minutes of non-fogginess we had at Las Gaviotas.

Due to the drug cartels and corrupt ass Federales (police) down in Baja, the Mexican government has finally sent in a US backed military to run shit. It feels much safer than last time despite being stopped by guys with M-16's and face covers so you can only see their eyes (so the Cartellistas don't recognize who they are and cut them up when they are off duty). This pic is hard to see but it is one of the many bunker set ups they have to check cars for drogas y guns. Good thing I left mine at home in Venice where you really need them.

P.S. While we were there someone cut up and maimed a guy and hung his naked body from a freeway bridge as a message...Don't foca with the cartels.

Since the other two guys that were with us were too scared to leave Las Gav because there was military soldiers with automatic weapons, Daws and I would venture out looking for surf. Here is Daws getting a look at a WEAK K-38...not worth the paddle.

So we headed south and wound up at La Fonda. Though the tides were huge, La Fonda seemed to be the only local spot still getting swell and pushing through. We surfed there Saturday and Sunday morning. It is pretty much like a slower Huntington but there was nobody out and we scored a few long rights.

Since you don't think I am just bitching and complaining (which I am known to do), this is the view we had pretty much the whole time. Can't see shit...which was fun when you were in the water trying to get waves that you could only see when they were 8 feet in front of you...

All in all, it is always nice to take a few days off but I think after this trip I need a vacation.

The Plop is off to Las Gaviotas, Baja California - Mexico

2009-10-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

So we are off for a few days to catch this swell in Baja Cali, Mexico. Going with my brother in law Daws and his two friends. Since I have not gone yet I wanted to give you a photo montage of what the trip might be like:

You get the idea. If for some reason this is my last post ever, I have either:

1) Gotten abducted by the Mexican Mob and forced into a life of cartel King Pinnery
2) Gotten thrown into a Tijuana jail indefinitely where a guy name Jose who smells worse than the toilets in abovesaid jail will be making me his new wife
3) Died from food poisoning, tequila poisoning, ocean pollution poisoning, being so out of shape and surfing to heart attack status, cartel gunfire or falling asleep in the wrong bed
4) Decided to not come back to the Norte and continue my journey south until I get to my final resting place which could either be Costa Rica, Nicaragua or Brazil. I will taken any of those.

Paz y Vaya con Dios amigos. Word.

Free Exclusive Download - Baron x Black Mountain from Spin.com

2009-10-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

The album comes out in a week (yes I have advance copies...hmmm do I smell a Plop giveaway?) but you can get a free track that will rock your face off from my client BARON and Black Mountain thanks to the fine folks at Spin.com...

Go get it here:

http://www.spin.com/articles/exclusive-download-baron-featuring-black-mountain

Spin the black circle folks (yes I know what that means and no I am not advocating drug use it was just a cool thing to say so I said it grandma).

Super secret meeting at Juice Magazine

2009-10-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

So this morning I spent 3 hours with the Juice Magazine team and pro skater/all around legend Eric "Tuma" Britton discussing a project we all may partner on. I am pretty excited for this one and can't quite talk about what we have cooking but if it happens it is going to be a nice notch on all of our belts.

I enjoyed talking too much with them about the hood and our experiences and can't wait to move forward...

Tuma, Terri Craft & Dan Levy talking story about the "Ghetto By The Sea" that we all call home. Juice Magazine has been covering the local surf, skate and music scene for 16 years and is the Bible for all things Dogtown...From what I have been told The SMITHSONIAN has just recognized them as a historical resource for the Venice area which is a huge honor.

I think I have some catch up reading to do!

FOX Really Awards with Jenni Pulos - REALLY????

2009-10-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

So last night, in the rain (L.A. folks don't know how to operate in the rain) I attended The Fox Really awards with Jenni Pulos to walk her through the press line to trump up her AMA co-hosting gig on Nov. 22nd on ABC.

I am not really going to comment on the show because I left after I walked JP through the red carpet but JP was by far the best dressed and most presentable (and talented) person on the carpet. There were some amazing people who I have no idea who they were, but it was fun and Jenni got to do interviews for E!, TV Guide, InTouch, Fancast.com and a few others.

Jenni, the red carpet co-host for the AMA's, getting interviewed by the red carpet host of the Really Awards - Lance Bass.

Jenni stunning the Paps with her red carpet grace!

Today's COOL/NOT COOL - SOCKS (that's right, I'm going there)

2009-10-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

OK people (men) listen up. It not ever ok to wear ankle socks. Sorry...not ever.

COOL - I don't care what color, pattern, material your socks are (unless you are wearing shorts) your socks should at least come up to the bottom of your calf. I am a white socks guy (though occasionally I have to dip into the blue or black socks when I neglect the mounds of laundry that inevitably pile up) but please follow this size rule.

NOT COOL - Ankle socks are never cool. Not in a car. Not in a boat. Not on a train. Not in a moat. I do not like short socks at all, I do not like them Sam I am.