
Here’s a conclusion I came to recently. Your best friends are the ones you send memes back and forth with.
Fuck, that would make a great Hallmark card.
But come on, think about it. There’s no quicker way to develop jokes, learn someone’s humor and develop close friendships. Here lies the origins of Left On Read, an interview series where we creep through one of our friends’ phones.
I’m talking notes, camera roll, search histories, movie recommendations, memes, and more.
Today, we’ve unlocked Akwasi Owusu’s phone. Akwasi’s made a name for himself as a one of one skater, with a slew of Instagram magic that only he could pull off. He operates somewhat under the radar, so as we wait for the next Asics project and fingers crossed, Sci-Fi Fantasy full length, we figured he’d be perfect for this series.
Enjoy the scroll, and a little secret, his phone password is 42069. Jk, we didn’t get that intel, but we got everything else!
Right now, guitar. I was kinda bummed when I left home because I wanted to have my guitar. First thing I did when we started this trip [editors note: Akwasi is on an Asics trip] was buy a classical guitar from this shop in Japan. I’ve been bringing it around with me everywhere.
There’s this artist I just discovered while in Paris. Her name is Celine Dessberg. I’ve been listening to her every day. It’s been a while since I’ve found new music that I like. She plays something, I forget what it’s called, but it sounds like a harp. It’s music for when you’re in a chilling mood. I’ve been listening to guitar heavy songs more too.
This was at Republique, and I wanted to see if I could do a slappy losi grind on this crunchy curb. It was really hard.

This is an older one. It had “Sound and Color” by Alabama Shakes playing over it [laughs].
Food near me. Guitar shops near me. Germany area code. When I’m traveling I mostly try to find food that I eat back home, like Aćai bowls. If I’m with friends and go to a place with traditional food from the place we’re in, then I’ll try something new. But like I’m in Helsinki right now, and I just had pizza [laughs].
It’s one of those fake Apple Pay pranks. You know how when you pay for something with Apple Pay it makes that ding sound? People go on YouTube and find that sound effect and go up to people in public and put their phone close to a stranger’s phone and playing that sound bite. Then they go like “Oh, thank you for the $100.” and people freak out. They think they just got scammed or something, and this one had me cracking up.
When I used to drive for Doordash I used to always listen to this podcast called Business of Hype. The host is Jeff Staple, he’s a streetwear guy. It’s cool, they talk to artists or people that started brands. Eric Koston was in one. It’s kinda like How It’s Made, this NPR podcast. It’s the same concept but with more culturally relevant brands.
@chessmakta It’s a chess account. I play chess almost every day. I just did a shoot with Asics with a chess board involved, and I was like, “Can I keep this after the shoot?” and they said yes. It’s a nice one.
Deep in my notes I found this dream journal that I was keeping in 2023. I stopped smoking weed around this time and my dreams started coming back really vivid, like gnarly dreams. That’s why I started writing them down. On this day I had three different dreams, and they were all nightmares. I forgot completely about it. It’s a little embarrassing, but whatever.
Tempo Slow Mo. That’s an underrated app for musicians. You can slow down music without changing the pitch, so if you’re learning to play a song by ear, which I usually do, it’s great. You can hear everything clearer.
When I was in Paris I was buying weed from this delivery service and the kid came to deliver my weed and he saw my skateboard. He was like “Oh, you skate?” and he was like “Look at this,” and he showed me his tattoo. It’s insane. Across the chest, so big. I had to take a picture.
This is a photo of me from six or seven years ago [laughs]. I’m fully unc’d out. That was back when I didn’t care about anything. And I look happy, I need to go back to that. The photos in front of the skatepark in Rancho Cucamonga, the city I grew up in.
Police interrogation videos [laughs]. I like to see how they play the game, like how they don’t know anything and let someone create this whole story and then they’re like, “Well, actually, you couldn’t have been here because we have footage of you HERE.” and seeing the people go “Uhhhhh, uhhhh.” The detective work feels like chess almost, like the way they can prove someone did something, and how in depth they go, is super interesting to me.
I’ve always thought that, like maybe if I watch enough of these videos then maybe I could [get away with murder], but from what I see they always get caught. And sometimes it’s the littlest thing that you wouldn’t even think about.
The Peripheral. It’s a Sci-Fi type show, where they put on a VR headset and go into this world, but you actually feel everything that happens in the world. It’s probably not the best show, but it’s interesting. Since I started skating for Sci-Fi I got more interested in watching Sci-Fi movies and tv shows, especially futuristic ones. It definitely influenced me.
Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. When I read his book I related to a lot of the stuff he was saying as an artist. It was nice to hear.
It was a vintage Asics backpack. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend the money on the bag, but it’s pretty rare.
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June 12, 2025 5:52 pm
ban dinks i’m thonkers
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