YO!!! WHERE ARE MY MTV RAPS!!!

I heard an ugly rumor the other day that this was coming back on sometime this month. Why ugly?! Because if it isn't true, that person's gonna catch a mean beatdown!!!

Raf Simons Pocket Trainers

Looks like Mr. Raf Simons is up to no good this spring. I've always enjoyed the work from designers who've crossed over from other industries. In Mr. Simons' case, it would be from industrial design over to menswear design. Another famous designer that's crossed over from another industry. Yup. Tinker Hatfield. 

Levi Straus's brand

I recently saw these two ads and was kind of shocked to see Levi's coming out with this new line of ads where I ask my self 2 questions:

1. for the top pic, where 2 out of the 5 women are wearing jeans and the other half look like they belong to Hugh Hefner.
2. for the bottom pic , you have this girl wearing the jeans but she's taking a shower? It is effective in the lines of sex appeal but do people normally shower with their jeans on?



As you all know Levi's has been around as one of the leading fashion jeans brand since 1853 founded by Levi Strauss. Since then it has hit more than 100 countries world wide and offers products such as shirts, vests, skirts, and even shoes.

This past March, the Jordan Brand collaborated with Levi's on a limited edition package which consisted of a T-shirt, a Retro 1 AJ sneaker, and 501 premium jeans (only 2,323 sets available) valued at $395.00. Available at Niketown and Levi's stores.

Source



This package was designed by a small design group from England across the pond in the south coast about an hour from central London. This tight team consists of a diverse array of different clients which consist of a lot of large US brands. You gotta be inspired by their work for such a small talented team and it shows if you have the right chemistry in your camp, it will get recognized. I hope eventually my design team also will get to that level. What do you think?

Innovative Designs

I have been looking in more of different design elements lately and found these were quite innovative.







This is the Sonic Chair designed by Holger Fritzlar, Frank Hussong, Michael Kientzler and Daniela Reuter





These are the Mini Ok Chairs strictly for the kids and it also comes in black leather.



This I actually do own, which is the Senz Umbrella which recently was released to the U.S. It was designed by Gerwin Hoogendoorn who got fed up with broken umbrellas from 20 mph winds.
What caught my eye about this product was actually on GMA when Sam Champion was using it against a wind fan in the studios.

It has been a 2007 red dot design award winner and nominated for the german design award 2008.

It has been tested here at 133 km/h. See for your self.






Check out this design by the Swedish fishes - Lervik Design

Imagine having this indoors in your loft - Dr. Yi? ( I miss the nights at 1027 10th & Arch....ah the good times in Illadel)

Been looking at the sneaker industry lately and really haven't seen any shoes out there that really have blown me away except the Nash Nike 360 X Visvim FBT collaboration of 2007 which I thought was a very innovative shoe.

I also was feeling Supra for coming out of the shoe game this year with Skytops NS line - the Skytop SLim and Trinity which features premium leathers, perforated panels and some snake/crock skin which reminded me of FEIT when they came out early last year in 1/07 with the Feit - J1 PNTHA HI Black which is one of my favorite shoes that I own (big shout out to Josh @ Feit out in East Sydney Austrailia)

Check it out:

Supra NS's



Feit Pntha Black Boots



Another shoe that has caught my eye for 2008 is when I saw this on Kanye's blog a few weeks ago and definitely am feeling this collabo of Kim Jones X Umbro (yes I can't believe it either) when it comes out. It looks mad comfy and probably be more of a shoe to rock indoors than on the street, but you never know until you try these on.

WHY DO WE FLIRT ??

flir·ta·tion (flûr-tā'shən) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. The practice of flirting.
2. A superficial and usually temporary romance.
3. A brief involvement.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


I read recently in a TIME article about a certain field guide on flirting and first and foremost there are 2 types:

1. the singles club

2. the married club

So why do we still persist in this game that we all tend to know?
What does the game consist of you may ask, is probably one of the questions?

Well here are a few signals to watch out for the next time you are in a social setting:

-stance (notice how you lean towards the person you are talking to, you see this quite often when you are at a bar, it really happens unconsciously and when you drink a bit to much the neck just falls on one of the shoulders)

-gestures (see if the ladies tilt their head to the side exposing their long necks or even your Jugular, women also tend to flick their hair quickly)

-eye movement (the gaze at a bar or that quick eyebrow raised once eye contact is established)

Now notice how all of the above are non-verbal but yet prepared for engagement when the timing is right.

But once you move toward the verbal phase of flirtation, it's pretty much all intentional.

So once you learn the game, it becomes second nature and you don't even notice it until your partner starts calling you out and then you start entering the danger zone. Now let me brief you on this emotional capital that we all embrace and I'm not talking about the Benjamins, but the intangibles. Now I don't see nothing wrong with it because sometimes you need to flirt to capture interest whether it could be trying to get those AJ's at a local foot locker and the sales manager/rep. happens to be of the opposite sex, or if you know the PR women in front of the club/event and you don't want to wait in line, a lil eye movement, a nice smile, and dropping a name at the door might get you in quicker than standing in line.

This social lubricate can seem quite helpful at times for your everyday transactions but one thing that I never get, is these damn local stylist/hair dresser that the ladies always return to. Have you ever not met a male stylist/hair dresser who doesn't flirt? Women go to these specialist not to just look better but also FEEL better, because the better they feel about themselves the happier they are and will frequently come back for their daily dose. Flirting is almost a law set for these specialist and on top, if they are gay, its a wrap because the women will not feel like they are coming on to them and feel safe.

Now the murder happens when you step out of the stylist/hairdresser's chair, things are not that simple. If you flirt the wrong way with the wrong person you are bound to get a foot up your a#* or a lawsuit similar to what Isiah Thomas encountered recently.

So for all those specialists out there they have an existing client el, you may want to revamp some of the business processes and see if your customer are completely happy with your service. Now this leads me to a whole another entity which is consulting but I'll share this some other time......

"So go ahead all of you out there, go flirt but remember with great flirting, leads to great responsibility."

Do you guys remember this image? Well the image now has changed to the new logo due to Nike claiming that MIKE 23 label was copying Nike and Converse's trademarks in connection to all of you know Michael Jordan.





Scott Nelson is the owner of MIKE 23 and I ran into him in Feb.'05 out in MAGIC briefly and if you visit his site all he wantd to do was to pay tribute to the man who we brought the game to a higher level - Michael Jeffrey Jordan aka "Air Jordan".

Nelson is supposedly forced to disable any of his products that portray any logo/mark/design that infringes NIKE & Converse rights, which means he has to withdrawl all of those "infringing" products from the market and to disable MIKE23 immediately or at least take down any pages that refrence these logos/designs in reference to MJ.

Nelson is in no shape of trying to fight this giant but hope that there will be a resolution to all of this. He hopes that the corporate giant will reconsider since he has not damaged the company's brand, in fact has helped it indirectly but when it comes down to intellectual property there is a very fine line...and it comes down to the consumer if they can seperate his product vs. knockoffs that are being sold on the shelves.

I feel that this situation is similar to what happened to DJ Drama & Cannon last year down in Atlanta, GA when R.I.A.A. went after them. Here's the NY Times article.

Lets just hope that Scott and the folks at NIKE come down with some sort of resolution. More on the article here.

This "street culture" brought up by artists has always tried to connect to the consumer by re-interpreting pop culture and iconic logos/designs....(i.e. Andy Warhol to KAWS) Warhol has been doing this back in the 60's with Campbell's Soup Co. and Coke.

Re-appropriation of images for their subculture has gone on and on and will continue to draw controversy and debate about originality and legality whether its in music, art, or fashion.

I close this blog with one of my favorite quotes which summarizes Warhol's revolution in "pop art" which shows an ambiguity of perspective that cuts across nearly all of the artist's statements about their own work.

What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.

– The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: (From A to B and Back Again), 1975, ISBN 0-15-671720-4

What a great way to release your stress and afterwards catch some winks for some rest!

The pillow fight is happening again this year in Union Sq.

A massive pillow fight in New York City! Feathers fly and teddies soar as we gather for a massive urban pillow fight! Swing and whack as you evade pillow-wielding assailants. Bring a pillow to Union Square and wait for the signal. Pillow fight!

Costumes and funky pillows encouraged.

Based on popular opinion, it has been moved to the first Saturday of Spring for maximum comfort

There will also be pillow fights happening on this date in London, Paris, Shanghai, Vancouver and many more!

Cost: FREE!
Time: 3 pm shart ( be prepared to get fluffed up!)

You can not deny that this man has not touched you regardless if you like him or hate him - He's a man of clarity and conviction. This speech will go down in the history books for our kids and reflect in an era where CHANGE really is happening right before our eyes for a better country as a whole. He's a modern day fundamentalist where he can lead the path by which America can work together to pursue a better future.

After hearing him speak today, he has opened America's eyes to the rest of the world to think beyond race and to give this country hope again.

So why not BOTH the hope and faith for the future of our country having Obama's energy with Clinton's expertise....it may seem too early to see this chemistry but I think it may be only in another lifetime.

But just so everyone knows, we do have a choice in this country so take advantage and get involved, because it comes down to "We the people..."

I am not telling anyone out there that he is the future because no one wants to be told how to vote - and we make all kinds of judgement about politicians these days. This is free press, as Jefferson noted, is part of our system of checks and balances which is 1 of the few guarantors of Democracy. So we need to preserve both the reality and the appearance of this freedom that we all have.

Murakami is coming to Brooklyn April 5th! For more info, check out the Brooklyn Museum site 

I'm gonna be honest here...I really wasn't feeling the 23s when they first came out...but this color way is FIYAAAHHHH!!!!...dropping April 5....the 11s are still my favorite though...

I'm looking forward to this album...

So recently I have been trying to get back into the music scene vs. listening to Jackson and Mason's music all day which consist of the Cars soundtrack to Elmo's world and anything on Noggin. I don't but the color red is hat hat hat for the kids. I know that they have done tests for children to see what captures their attention but c'mon! I have never seen kids go crazy over these red characters. I wish I had the formulas because it truly is. Oh and if you ever wonder why they have fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances at every parade in town, its for the kids. The kids go crazy for them.

Anyways, Skilz passed me this mixtape of this artist named Drake and after listening it straight through I was kind of blown away by this artist from Toronto, CA. I had never heard anything about him and after seeing who he got on the album I gotta say I was impressed with the lineup from Robin Thicke to Lil Weezy.

I must say as a rapper, he seems more commercial than a lyricist. but still.
For him to act, sing, and rap as well as he does, he still gets my vote for a talented artist.

Check Drake out if you ever get a chance, I give him props for holding it down in Toronto.

Remember these days?

This pic was taken when Table 50 was poppin' in NYC. The highlight of that night: Bobbito walking around in his bball shorts and white tee, while everyone else was gallivanting in their "dress to impress" gear.
Sorry, couldn't see his kicks cause it was too crowded.

Stretch & Bobbito Jumpoff!?!?!?!?!

I have been trying to kontact Stretch the past few months but homeboy has been too busy traveling and doing his thing but supposedly him and Bobbito may have a reunion of what went down in KCR back in the 80's - 90's where I was up at night with my tape decks and recording their shows and then popping them in my tape player and walking to the bus to class.

So Stretch is trying to get a lineup of artists that YOU would like to see involved for this reunion.

Check out the list so far and it will change, but you gotta check out his blog to see the update.

Drum roll please....

Artifacts 20 (Jerzey representing!!)
Organized Konfusion 13
A Tribe Called Quest 12
Kurious 12
Natural Elements 8
Pete Rock & CL Smooth 8
Company Flow 8
Kool Keith 8
Godfather Don 7
KRS-One 6
Gang Starr 6
Large Professor 6
DITC 6
Souls of Mischief 6
Nas 6
Natural Resource 5
MF Doom 5
Beatnuts 5
RA The Rugged Man 5
Black Moon 5
Arsonists 5
Main Source 5
Craig G 4
OC 4
Supernatural 4
Lord Finesse 4
Siah and Yeshua 4
Redman 3
Pharcyde 3
Talib Kweli 3
Cenobites 3
De La Soul 2
Wu-Tang Clan 3
Tony Bones 2
Jeru The Damaja 2
Ak Skills 2
Al-Tariq 2
Boot Camp 2
Mr. Live 2
Cage 2
Necro 2
3rd Bass 2
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien 2
Brand Nubian 2
Royal Flush 2
Kool G Rap 2
Akinyele 2
Percee-P 2
Mos Def 2
DJ Riz 2
Hit Squad 2

Being that the lineup has not been finalized, Stretch would like to know what artists YOU would love to see. He's not only interested in involving artists that were integral to the show, so those that were already established before 1990 don't count, and artists that didn't emerge 'til after 1998 don't either. Feel free to comment on his blog.

R. I. P. B. I. G.

I got 7Mac11s,

8Thirty8s,

9Nines,

10Mac10s,

the sh*ts never end,

you can't touch my riches,

even if you had MC Hammer and the 357b*tches...

Today, we pay tribute to the late great Notorious BIG...even though he's gone, he's still got our heads bobbin'....

Just to let everyone know that I-Saw's "Engraviti", hand engraved trainer customisation is being featured in the first ever book on customised sneakers. Called "Customised Kicks" and put together by the great Dutch design partnership MAKI, it's published by Laurence King and will be released some time in May, currently available on pre-release order from Amazon.

Posted by sneakouture

THE POT BROWNIE

People be straight killin me to the dome piece....straight to the dome.

The Pot Brownie

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I couldn't believe this, you gotsta be kidding me!

When I saw this on Jeff Staple's blog, I feel that there has been a total loss of originality and folks just can't create but only re-create something and throw their label on there.

You can't compare from the OG design.

It just shows that you can't stop the sharks out there because theres to much meat out there and someone always wants more and they could of just asked but decided to do it themselves.

I don't see how this could actually attract the mainstream, but what do I know.

Jeff, as you said you gotta keep re-inventing your self and be the trend-setters vs. the followers.

A Good example of a modern artist of all traits

I'm very inspired by successful artists of all trades. I believe in living life to the fullest and exploring all different camps, both personally and professionally and most of the time I am moved by people who've able to be successful in different fields.

There were times when this was common practice- the renaissance period of course, but also during the enlightenment is was common for 'gentlemen', as they used to say, to 'dabble in some science'.

Had this not been a common practice at those times, we may have missed out of some of the wonderful discoveries of Thomas Edison, Ben Franklin, and etc.

But we seem to not value this ability so much anymore. In fact, people are usually automatically suspicious of a person (or business) that branches out into other areas. They like to see you do 1 THING well.....Have you ever noticed what happens when a company known for something tries to extend their brand to something else? In many cases, it just doesn't fly with the public/mainstream......but I'm digressing a bit, sorry.

So here's the question: Who is a good example of a 'renaissance man or woman" in our times?

For me I would have to give it up to this person:

I met Dr. Roxanne Shante a few years back at BBKings in NY and caught up with her and she introduced me to her son at the time and I asked what she's been up to? She told me she got out of the music industry at age 25 and went back to school to study Psychology and earned her PHD at Cornell University with the help of a record label and currently today now does a lot of guest speaker events around the world and she owns an ice cream parlor in Queens.

I read online recently on ew.com about Queen's guitarist Brian May going back to the system and finishing his PHD in Astrophysics! Something new about dust clouds. Who would have thought that? I love to hear stories like this!

I'd like to hear any comments on this topic, as well as any other examples you may have.