What's your choice of Weaponry in High Fashion

Since we are sometimes afraid of what Fashion will leads us next, Diddo Velema decided to come up with Designer Gasmasks and other products that can defend you in the rugged warfare of the fashion world.

Check out the Cartier Weaponry

Whats your choice of weaponry?

1,000,000 WiFi's in SF

Take a look at this snapshot of the density and quantity WiFi networks has flooded throughout SF.

I wonder what it looks like in New York City?

"Backseat in my Lex, lets swing an episode"

So it looks like some cars are focusing on the backseat than the passenger and driver.



Check out the new Lexus LS 460L's executive-class back seat which comes with options such as a backseat air purifier, a refrigerator, and an ottoman.

Even the Maybach 62 which costs around $395,000, doesn't have cup holders, but champagne-flute holders! It's glass roof can either be transparent or opaque just by a push of a button.

Check out this interior tour of the Maybach 62:

U.S.'s new Gold mine out West

Since the dollar has not been doing so well and the US has fallen into a recession, the state and national economies will see somewhat lower overall growth largely in response to rising interest rates and high energy costs.

Expected state unemployment rates:
5.5% 2006
5.6% 2007
Manufacturing Jobs Lost in 2006-07:
8,000

Personal Income Growth:
5.3% in 2006
5.4% in 2007
Overall job growth:
1.2% in 2007
New Jobs:
35,000, 2006
34,100, 2007
tnjn

With gas rising, oil topped today at $143/Barrel which makes the average gas price At $4.086/gallon.

Well there's good news folks, I was watching CBS news tonight and found out that there's at least trillions of barrels of oil in Western Colorado.

This may take a while since all this oil is found in the mountains and Shell states it wil take about 4 years of research here before it will know if it has the answer. There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock — essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract.

The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado — about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil.
The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.

This new discovery of oil shale holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil.
Maybe we can get our troops back out in the Middle East.

Berlin's new camera hacker

You are probably asking, what in god's name is this?

This is the Image Fulgurator by Julius Von Bismarck.

The Fulgurator manipulates photographs. It actually intervenes when someone is taking a photo without the photographer to detect anything. The manipulation is only visible once the photo is taken afterwards. Seems like a clever hack to me.

So this is how it works, the device is an old manual Minolta SLR. A flashgun fires through the camera in reverse, from the back. The flash picks up the image of a slide inside and projects it out through the lens and onto any surface.

When the device's sensor sees this flash, it fires its own unit, throwing up an image which is captured by the hapless photographer's camera while remaining unseen by the naked eye.

Check out the video and see for your self.

SUCK MY KICKS Sneaker Battle in Hartford, Ct.

If you happen to be up in Hartford, Connecticut this coming week and think you got the fliest sneaker collection, bring your heat and see if you can rock your flyest sneakers for this coming Wed. July 2nd.

After party will be at Life Ultralounge with special guest DJ - DJ Clark Kent.

81 Asylum St
Hartford, CT 06103
Contact:(860)524-5433

The Hatchery

I was finally able to check out what the Hatchery VC collaboration was all about after being invited a few times by Yao Hui Huang and numerous times I was going to go but something came up.

Dr. Yao Hui-Huang who is the CEO of Gigapixel Creative, a New York-based design and branding firm has been in charge of the Hatchery since 2007.

My first gauntlet took place at F.I.T. and they seem to have their events in different places throughout New York. I had no clue what to expect but they had a pretty good turn out at of about 150 people when I arrived and you are given a name tag and they had food & drinks where you can meet other folks that attended.

Within 30 min. you are directed toward the sitting area where they begin the gauntlet and introduced 4 panelists:

Perry Allison - VP of Social Marketing Innovation, Eon
Christian Busch - Vice President, Marketing, Takkle
Dan Porter - Senior VP, Corporate Development, Virgin
Sarah Tavel - Associate, Bessemer Ventures

I was only able to see the first company who presented which was a company from Portugal - Wizi which the company allows people to share their location with friends, family, and let people know where you are. One cool feature was that since they are already in Europe, if you are stuck in traffic, it can give you alternate routes.

One thing that bothered me about this idea was privacy because they are targeting the mobile market and currently they are building Wizi on the following Platforms:
- Android
- iPhone
- JavaME
- Blackberry
- Windows CE

If they succeed on finding investors they will definitely target the U.S. next which would be interesting to see.

Miguel I believe is the CSA of Wizi and is currently looking for people to join the company.

Feel free to contact him via email.

I know that Sarah Tavel did mention privacy and also how it would be an issue. Christian questioned the presenter on how are you going to generate revenue with the weak advertising going on in the mobile market and Dan Porter just thought in general through his experience that if they want to succeed they better come up with better metrics and have them ready in case investors are interested since these days you need your metrics and know your target market.

Unfortunately I was only able to catch the first presenter. I know that Tech Crunch was next but I think I will check out the next event which will be on Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 6:30 PM - Of Interest Hosted at HSBC.

For those that are looking for investors, I strongly suggest you checking out one of these events because it is the real deal and you definitely will learn something out of this.

Spain wins 2008 Euro Cup

After 44 years Spain finally wins the 2008 Euro Cup.

Spain 1 Germany 0

Fernando Torres scored the only goal at 33 minutes during the game.

Classic Car Club Manhattan

Meet one of the most exclusive Gentlemen's club in Manhattan. You may not know this club but you probably have seen some of the wheels that have been driven around the big apple.

This is the Class Car Club of Manhattan. This is the world famous private club that gives its private members the keys to an entourage of the most Elite cars ever built, from Ferrari's and Aston Martins to Classic American muscle and modern racers. From a 2005 Ford GT

to a modern 2008 Maserati Gran Sport


or go back in time with a 1972 Jaguar E-type or back to the future 1957 Carrera Coupe:






But it's not just about the cars, no matter how beautiful they are. Manhattan's Classic Car Club has been an escape from the ordinary and the cause of a riotous time, be it rallying across the continents, racing on the track or just sharing a drink and a story with fellow members at any of our clubrooms around the world.
Membership is as rare as it is privileged, so click on the club nearest you to learn about what will become the ride of your life.
Once you are a member you can stop by the club anytime of the day because it offers its members 24/7 access to its exclusive lounge and keys to the cars. Members of the Club receive an allocation of points that can be redeemed throughout the year for dozens of driving days with any of the Club's classic sports, luxury and touring cars. The only cost to the member is the fuel they burn. All the other costs of owning and operating the cars (insurance, tax, maintenance, repair, storage, security, breakdown recovery, etc.) are 100% covered by the club.

Colette X Gap

Looks like the French are hooking up with the English this time.

Colette is a concept superstore, on rue Saint-Honore in Paris, devoted to the latest in design, style, art, food, fashion, and don't forget, superluxe is teaming up with Gap.

The WWD said Colette will be opening a pop-up store in GAP’s rotating concept shop in Manhattan, New York at 54th Street and 5th Avenue flagship.

The store will be called Colette x GAP and will open from September 6th through October 5th.

It also will stock limited edition Colette merchandise designed by the likes of Oakley sunglasses, Hello Kitty watches and Asics sneakers.

It will be featuring exclusive Colette merchandise and limited edition GAP T's. Just so you know Colette will be closed from July 7th to August 25th, Japanese architect Masamichi Katayama’s Wonderwall studio will be giving the 11 year old store a face lift just like how he did the Bape store in Aoyama, Tokyo, A.P.C in Daikanyama district in Tokyo, and a bunch of others. He's by far one of my favorite architects out there right now.

Check out this clip:

NRF & UWANTGAME, NIKE ID

Earlier this week I checked out the official NRF Post Season Party at the Manor.

NRF teamed up with UWANTGAME which is a non-profit organization dedicated to building the personal and professional life skills of at-risk high school student athletes. Through the program, former collegiate student-athletes serve as mentors for select high school student-athletes. UWANTGAME provides a well-rounded three year enrichment program. During this partnership, each participant will be taught the value of building and connecting the powers of the mind, body and spirit on the playing field and in the game of life.

NikeiD Design Consultants came along and brought the NikeiD Studio downstairs in the Manor and I was able to customize a pair of Dunk Hi's with the help of Izzy, Muhammad, and Jackie.
Also big up to Dancing Ray who was killing us with stories about Kanye West, Jake Gyllenhaal , & Mandy Moore

Here's a snippet of the Mason Dunk Hi's

Adonis, good seeing you and hope to link up with you later.

The Singapore Toy & Comic Convention starts today

I wish I was in Singapore because if you are an avid toy/vinyl collector and avid comic reader.

The first time this convention have come to the shore of Singapore.

And…oh yeah, if you don't know go get the Free Be@rbricks( 2 colorways) for the first 1000 visitors!

The event will starts today the 27-29th of June at Suntec Convention Centre.

An update on Randy Pausch

I don't know if you remember my story about Randy Pausch but here's an update on what he's been doing since.

Here's a short summary if you do not know who this man is but since I covered him he's reached millions of people around the globe. His site that has been updated since.

Back in the fall when he testified before Congress, representative Roybal-Allard hosted me,and she was also kind enough to have this very flattering entry put into the congressional record...

Here is the last up to date thing he posted:

"Health-wise, I continue to regain strength in the hopes of trying another treatment once I'm strong enough"

Meet the lazy line painter

Somehow ran into Robert's blog the other day and had to share it with you all.

I must say the work he portrays is linear with a subliminal message, but i did like this piece called SPAMMED.

and LOGO vs. LOGO

Can you guess the logos here? Its two big companies that you see on the regular.

Greyhound vs. Puma

Creative Recreation Summer Release

Here's a preview for the summer releases by Creative Recreation

I gotta give it up to Rich Cofinco, Robert Nand and Brandon Brubaker who are the founders of Creative to come up with a shoe that covers the athletic, business, & leisure world, which targets a more versatile, fashion-conscious, working group. You can wear it at a casual work environment or you can rock it with your APC jeans.

Did you know that each pair of shoes are limited to 500?

It has caught my eye the past few years and this shoe definitely out of the summer collection is a shoe I would like to cop because I'm a fan of patent leather.



Here's a look at the rest of the summer collection

A very nice and clean job they did for Flash.

Why I Live at least One More Day in this Cold, Cold World

Bollywood is the sh*t!!!!

Shaq-Fu

I'm not sure who I should feel bad for...Kobe?...or Shaq?....

Youtube

So I was able to catch Oprah yesterday briefly and she did a Youtube show and had a few folks that really made an impact on being Youtube stars.

don't know if you know this but this is the most viewed video on youtube. Meet Mr. Evolution. Supposedly he's coming up with a newer version of this dance.

Also if you didn't know who the founders were, here they are:
YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen





You probably saw this already, but hey its such riot seeing it again. Supposedly Tyson taught himself.

Funkmaster Flex, FMF Sneaker Battle, NJ Convention Expo Center- June 28th

Once again this year we have FMF will be hosting another sneakerbattle at the NJ Expo Center in Edison NJ.

This year we have a whole line up of big name DJs and artists that plan on coming back. This year's host will be the irrepressible Suraj Kaufman of Sneaker Room in Jersey City.


Suraj, whats going on brother, hit me up or if anything hopefully see you this weekend there.

Feel free to contact Roberto Jordan if you have any questions or would like to participate.
Email: rjordan@teambaurtwell.com
Jayden Inc(Funkmaster Flex)
914-479-1600phone
914-479-1690 fax

www.youtube.com/djfunkmasterflex
www.myspace.com/funkmasterflex

NERD - Seeing Sounds & Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

So a lot of people have asked me if I was able to check out the new NERD album Seeing Sounds

I honestly was not too impressed with their 3rd album and I know that they were a bit more experimental and expansive. I would have liked the trio - Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) and Shay Haley to have dug a bit more deeper than coming up with a hot Drum & Bass beat like "Spazz" or the Sixties soul "Sooner or later". I would have to give NERD 3 out of 5 mics.

I would have to say this wouldn't be on my heavy rotation but on another note I do recommend this on my heavy rotation. This trio which consist of Tim Hoey, Mitchell Scott and Bennett Foddy who dropped because he went for his PHD, so Dan Whitford – came along and took over as vocals. The group is called Cut Copy and a few months back released their sophomore album and I gotta say I have not stopped listening to this band since it dropped. The album was more a refreshing modern day New Order (beats) meets Dream Academy (vocals). Kudos of course to the album co-producer of the album no other than LCD Soundsystem member Tim Goldsworthy. I would have to give Cut Copy 4 out of 5 mics.

The Converse Weapon - art or fashion?

A lot of folks have asked me to post this obsession that I have for toys. I'm not talking about the G.I. Joes or Elmo dolls. I'm talking about Vinyl and anything toy that I find interesting and this could range from Kid Robot, Medicom, to a character done by Takashim Murakami.

Out of all my toy moments one has stuck out, its gotta be the Converse Weapon Advance Action Suit Prototype 2.2 By Limited Resource Design. I was in High-Five in Williamsburg Brooklyn one day when Toy tokyo decided to open a new branch in Brooklyn around summer 2006, so I had to check it out. I ran into Camo Feet Pete who managed the shop and I asked him if I can take a look at this artwork.

Within seconds I had to cop it. Never have I seen this before and it was interesting to see the artist who had a vision from a Converse shoe and converting it to a Figure.
I had to find out who the artist was, so I contacted him.
The artist's name is Oscar Lopez from Brooklyn. Oscar at the time was planning to reemphasize the connection between style & hip-hop culture - which is currently becoming a measure for all that is mainstream.
When hip-hop started, there was a strong emphasis on what shoe a person wore on the block.
It was the shoe that measured how mainstream a person was and was able to show an individual their style by what they wore to match the shoes and how fly they could match or clash. It was determined by the street on how cool they were, or how 'whack' they were. Oscar is placing the Weapon back into the hip-hop mainstream culture and since then the sneaker culture has taken on another level where individuals in NYC from Union Square down to Chinatown you see a lot of folks wearing different styles of sneakers to express themselves individually. The sneakers for men have become a form of style just like purses have for women.
While most artists are used to working on their mediums - such as metal, canvas, sculptures, or walls. Using the shoe as a neo-canvas, Oscar was forced then to think outside the box. How many different directions can the art go?
How does an artist interpret its form and layout and use it in conjunction with their own designs to create art? That was the question that came to my mind when I saw this piece. Oscar has tried to push the envelope with the Converse Weapon, Aerosol Warfare hopes to successfully conceive an entirely different form of art that would have otherwise never been born and bring this style to new audience with a higher level of visibility. The last time I spoke to Oscar he was planning making a tank out of a couple of Nike Blazers donated from some of his friends.

He's not the only artist that is doing this, there's also a Vancouver artist named Brian Jungen who had a show in the New Museum back when it was on Broadway and had a show of his collection of Air Jordans. He had completed Prototypes for New Understanding 1998-2005, a series of 23 Northwest Coast Aboroginal masks made from Nike Air Jordans.






So what do you think? Is it art or is it fashion? I'll let you decide.