You know I get so lost sometimes in all the things going on, sometimes I forget the little things, the things that are just as important, but get brushed off for larger or more pressing issues. This blog for example, my websites (all of them, lol). I didn’t realize I was still getting a lot of daily traffic here. As you know I’m a full-time designer for Maisto, one of the coolest die-cast, r/c and toy companies around. That takes up a lot of my time, always something new, coming up with concepts, designing logos and packaging and day to day operations that sometimes spill into my time at home. No worries, I love my job, it’s just I also have a family, I do some freelance work, and I’m trying to expand my clothing brand “Gangsterbilly”. So sometimes I have trouble posting on my blogs or updating my sites, but that is why. There’s just so much going on. I’ll be traveling to Vegas this month for the Die-cast Super Convention and found out at the end of last year, I will be taking my first trip to Hong Kong (Yeah, as in China) in May. There are so many cool products I could post, art I could update you on, if I could just find some time to sit down and do it. That is my new goal to try to make time for daily posting, especially on Gangsterbilly.com and my new site when it’s done. That’s when this blog will be migrating over to my Castro’s Garage site. I hope everyone is doing well, and if you haven’t checked out my new designs at Gangsterbilly go check ’em out. They came out great! Take care!

WTF! I mean, really there is never enough time in the day to get everything done. Castro is only one man, and between freelance, a fulltime job, the family, and several art and business endeavors, I found it was really time to narrow things down. So I chose to buy a new domain name that will be live and direct shortly, www.castrosgarage.com, this will be my new and only site for my personal work/portfolio/art and business! Gangsterbilly is the only other site I will be working on also and continually updating, all others will go on the backburner. I’ll still have the twitters, myspace, and facebook, but as far as traditional websites/blogs only these two for now! Castro’s Garage and Gangsterbilly! So soon enough this blog (Castro’s Blog) will be moved to Castro’s Garage! Hope you like!

I know Michael passed last Thursday and the news is all over the world, people buying up his records, making short run tribute tee shirts. OMG, twitter was blowing up on Thurs. when the first reports of him being rushed to the hospital were going around, and TMZ (who I can’t stand) seemed to have broke the news of his death before anyone (which I still don’t get.) I can’t say that I cried, but I did feel really sad when I heard the news, I really didn’t want to believe it, just brushing it off as a rumor, because he was more than just a pop icon, and regardless of what he was accused of (never convicted), he made amazing music, and as one of his songs plainly says, he was here to change the world! He did just that, I remember when I was a little guy, I was all about MJ (I had a Michael Jackson action figure, yes action figure, NOT DOLL!), all about breakin, poppin, moonwalkin, and yes I would dance around trying to be just like him! (with the single glove y’all!) I grew up on his music, never saw him live, but always appreciated his music. When my wife and I got married our first dance together as a married couple was to “I’ll Be There” by the Jackson 5. So when the BET Awards were on last night and Jaime Foxx and Neyo sang it at the end of the show, while showing pictures of Michael, my wife and I were holding hands….and then finally, yes my eyes teared up, cause I realised yes, he’s really gone. He will truly be missed! I plan on doing a tribute art piece in memory of Michael and I will keep you posted with the progress. The pic above was a quick tribute photoshop piece I did with an image I found on the web.

I’d like to also send prayers and thoughts to the families of Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays…Just remember friends, Life is TOO SHORT! LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE!!!

Today is the day bitches! Maybe I can sneak out for lunch? nah, don’t think that will work. I’ll have to see it when I have some time, I’m not one of those freaks that has to line up to see a movie at 12:0o am… (Like Christian who than comes in to work late, and falls asleep mid-day) it’s cool, I can wait. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Transformers, I just don’t get all fanboy for nothing! Most likely I’ll see it Sunday morning, that’s when I like to go, when all the sheep are at church, and the lazy people are still in bed. Yeah….Bring it on suckaz!

Kobe and the rest of the Lakers did the damn thang last night and pulled off a 99-86 victory in game 5 of the NBA Finals! Props to Kobe, Gasol, Fisher (who saved our asses in game 4), Odem, Ariza, and the rest of the team, everyone did their part. Many haters counted them out, calling them the fakers, trash talking Kobe, and saying he couldn’t do it without the help of Shaq, but you have to respect the greatness of this team and the extreme talent possessed by Bryant. It was a great day, and 10 Championships by Phil Jackson? Come on!!! The man is a legend!

It was a bitter sweet victory though as everyone was so happy the Lakers won their 15th NBA Championship, afterwards instead of celebrating some low lives (yeah some real fu**ing scumbags! if you’re reading this, yeah I’m talking to you!) decided to cause havoc, burn shit and loot. I mean come on! What the fu** is the point? Really there is no need for that, and if you were out trashing the town, destroying property, looting and burning shit, really you should be shot! Seriously, you’ll never amount to shit, and never have. You give the rest of the working people a bad name. The world would really be a better place without the likes of people like that.

This poor guy’s sneaker store “The Holy Grail” was trashed and looted , here he is surveying the damage left behind. Just think people, this guy is just like you, trying to get by and you go and trash his shit so you can run off with some new sneakers…that’s fu**in low class. Read the story here! Sad day for L.A. when it should be a celebration!

Coming up quick take advantage of the endless possibilities of saving on your favorite brands. Look at the line up alone worth the $1 admission.

for more info hit up The Swap Sale or if you wanna twitter stalk them here.

(CNN) — American actor David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok, Thailand, hotel, according to his personal manager, Chuck Binder.

Binder said Thursday that the death is being investigated but could provide no other details. Carradine’s death was “shocking and sad. He was full of life, always wanting to work … a great person,” Binder said, according to People magazine. Carradine, who became famous in the 1970s when he starred as traveling Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the television series “Kung Fu,” was 72.

READ MORE…

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I remember growing up with the fear of God instilled in my little brain. As I’m sitting here at the courts, waiting to be called in for something stupid my son did, I’m reminiscing.  I hear some older people down the hall talking about how the youngsters have no respect, no respect for others around them and no respect for themselves! And it’s true! They have no respect, no self respect and they are spoiled beyond belief!

I mean I was no angel growing up, believe me, but I did have that fear, that fear of getting my ass beat if I did something wrong, or the fear of getting arrested and going to jail. I got caught shoplifting ONCE! And never did it again!

These kids have everything, way more than we ever dreamed of having, and they think the world owes them more! They think they can do whatever they feel like doing and there are no reprocussions for it. I tell my son, even the stupidest little thing can be misconstrude or blow up into something major!

When my mom was locked up my grades were the worst, and they got worse as time went on. Then when I moved in with my uncle I had that fear again, but he would also belittle me and try to make me feel so low, because of my mom and how we were raised. So I started getting good grades again, not from the fear of getting my ass beat, but to prove to my uncle that he was wrong! Prove to him I wasn’t just another stupid kid, gang banger, or lowlife!

Sometimes it takes a punch in the face or a close call for us to wake up and change our ways. Now I’m finishing up this little rant days later because we finally got called into the court room. I hope my son and all you knuckleheads reading this change your ways, learn from us older generation’s mistakes and wisdom, we aren’t just telling u to be assholes, but to guide you in the right direction. Unless getting killed or locked up is your sort of thing, but I decided when I was about 16/17 it wasn’t for me. No, I wanted something better…

You may see some things in my art that reflect the gangster lifestyle, shit my clothing line is called gangsterbilly (but that’s a whole different meaning to me), and that’s because I grew up with it, it will always be there, that doesn’t mean I go out and pull some shit late at night, or hang out on the streets with the homies getting fucked up, that’s my old life, it’s history. I’m a family man, I live for my kids and my beautiful wife. Familia is the most important thing in your life, never forget that. I’ve seen it way too many times, you know who will really be there for you in your life, your family will always be there…the homies, well they seem to disappear when you need them the most.