Going Once, Going Twice, Sold To The Pardee In The Back!

A quick D.C. slang lesson, that you might only half learn on Urban dictionary.com… In the 90′s in D.C., there were several trendy slang words that were DMV (DC/MD/VA) specific. Those words were: Bama, Joe, and Tree.

“Bama”
Originated from Black youth in Washington DC.
1. Original meaning was “cant dress well” or “fashion misfit”
2. Now the word has a more general use meaning “person”, as how Whites use “Dude”
1. That bama wearing a coat in the summer
2. Tell bama to meet me at the store.

Joe
A Chicago based slang term taking the place of a person’s real name. Commonly used when a person knows your name but you don’t know theirs.
Mark: Man Joe you trippin’ -or- Mark: Wass up Joe.

That was sort of how it was used in D.C., expect even if one knew a persons name one would still say Joe. One almost ended (or started) every sentence with Joe.
Eg: Damn, Joee – you see that new line of clothing by Alex Pardee?

And finally,
TREE!
There are 52 definitions of Tree on Urban Dictionary.

Here’s is how it was used in D.C. in the 90′s…Tree – an expression of disbelief or surprise.
(After seeing a homie get bitch slapped)

“TREEEEEEEEEEE!”

It was also mainly used to describe excess. . . eg: Treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, your kicks are all the way scuffed up -or- Treeeeeeeeeeeee, that’s a big bitch.

TREEeeeeeeeeeeee. Just try saying it aloud on your own once.

Let’s fast forward from the 90′s. Hurley didn’t come to me and ask me to explain a cool angle (90′s DC Slag), to a concept of a clothing line (but maybe they should?!?!) – I just made that connection for the sake of an interesting blog post, but that’s not to say I don’t set trends – even if that means recounting the “throw back.” ;)

The great Alex Pardee has coupled up with Hurley and come out with his new cinematic clothing line called: Night of the TREEPLE (Tree + People / Tree-people, for the slow folks out there).

Pardee tells us on the myspace blog:

The idea behind the whole project was basically that I wanted to create a line of clothing that was both an homage to a genre of film that I love 70′s and 80′s horror / exploitation films), as well as a catalyst to introduce a new way of presenting apparel as a way of telling a story visually. In a way, the “Treeple” line is my own personal and original version of a 1970′s exploitation horror film, as told through my art and Hurley’s apparel.
I wanted to create “A Cinematic Apparel Line”.

In an era where gorgeous models fought aliens in space (Barbarella), where a group of farmers buried people in the dirt and harvested their heads (Motel Hell), where the government was ALWAYS at fault for negligence, where alien plants took took over and replicated humans (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), deformed Siamese twins became evil serial killers (Basket Case), and toxic waste was EVERYWHERE (Toxic Avenger, Empire of the ants, Food of the Gods, Robocop, etc), it was apparent that the reality of the story never mattered, it was simply fun and new to explore the “What if’s?” of storytelling and film making.
So I asked “What if toxic waste made trees attack humans and turn them into some kind of tree/zombie/slasher hybrid?! Like mother nature’s revenge for neglect.”

So yah, within the next week or so you should start looking for the TREEPLE line to start branching out into a bunch of stores, like Buckle, Macy’s, Zumiez, Hurley.com, etc.

These images will be available on a variety of t-shirts and hoodies. Check em:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKSsom7P7W8]
The bite behind the treebark, Alex Pardee interview folks.

I know I sound upbeat like you’d think I am getting backend money, but you know how much backend honey I’ll be in for? More specifically – do you know how many hippie chicks I am gonna get now when I wear one of these shirts? =)

Cheers.

$

Permalink Posted in: art, interview, quotes, shabooty, shabooty exclusive, video September 28, 2008