brand RMX looks into the accomplishments of jeff staple: founder & creative director of staple design, and owner of the reed space(s) in new york and tokyo. these short interviews showcase jeff’s effectiveness in multiple disciplines, reinforcing (in my mind, at least) that ‘design’ is a universal language applicable to basically anything.
part deux: more.
i’m back in the mitten. going through my final batches of photos from the summer, i found this one that i barely remember snapping off while waiting for a train at some un-godly hour…a scenario that sums up my experiences rather succinctly. it’s fitting that this is the last decent photo i took in new york.
another summer is slipping away, and lacking superman or at least an iphone application to halt the earth’s orbit around the sun, there isn’t much we can do about it. so we addressed the problem as well as we could: with some good friends, good food, and a keg of brooklyn lager. adam and lola hosted the mid-to-late summer shindig last weekend, and a healthy hungry elephant contingency volunteered their time to eat and empty the keg. the stage was set as an immaculate saturday afternoon transitioned into an equally perfect evening. let me regale you with a tale of bravery and valor based on actual events from my life on august 16th, 2008:
“freedom of the press is guaranteed to those who own one.”
a creative outlet is essential to creative inspiration. while technology aids in this respect, it is also extremely limiting. for instance, it’s exciting to have a little web real-estate in which i can do anything i want; it keeps me thinking critically and looking for new things to share. the problem is, i can’t make the site look the way i want it to. the technology is at such a point that it takes a great deal of time and know-how to craft all of the 0’s and 1’s into something dynamic. school, work, significant others and apathy are among many time-constraints we inherit that conspire against total creative freedom. we grow lazy, complacent to adhere to a daily routine for the sake of simplicity. living in the city helps to combat that urge by providing a plethora of things that i’d rather do than watch arrested development on my computer. one of those things was seeing beautiful losers last night.
the artists portrayed in this documentary had solutions to the problems i presented in the preceding paragraph. they had a gallery, and a whole neighborhood of support in the lower east side. they lacked money, but not time. what ensued was a movement, inspired by each other, that yielded world-class expositions from ‘freak’ origins. the film is inspiring, uplifting with a simple message: make something, including mistakes.
Beautiful Losers film trailer from beautifullosersfilm on Vimeo.
eight days ago, i went to staten island. today, i post some pictures. i highly recommend riding the ferry: it’s fun, free and really nice to get out of the city and onto the water. previously, my only experience with staten island had been through the wu-tang clan and the “true life: i’m from staten island” on mtv. given the brilliance of the first and the disgrace of the second, i abandoned all expectations for new york’s most remote borough. upon arriving, i never actually ventured more than a few hundred yards from the ferry station, so none of my preconceived notions have been upheld or discredited. i paid $10 for a salami sub on gluten-free bread and promptly boarded a manhattan-bound ferry, having never run into ghostface. or a pumpkin-faced, whining, helpless, incompetent girl, for that matter.
highline ballroom is a proper hip-hop venue. it has a booming sound system, two bars, and most importantly, VIP booths designed for seeing and being seen. last night, i met up with my friend kriss and his brother, mads, to experience the pinnacle of coke-rap, the black card era, virginia’s finest: clipse. pusha and malice were joined by ab-liva of the re-up gang, but sandman was conspicuously absent (this was supposedly the re-up album release party). as expected, an energetic show was provided with lots of gun-shaped hand puppets, neptunes production, and fans trying to grab malice’s $60,000 pendant.
group home preceded clipse but seemed largely irrelevant when compared to the rest of the bill. their incessant reminders of how ‘real’ they were, and that they have ‘been doing this since ‘88′ didn’t resonate with the young, impatient crowd. frankly, it just made it obvious that the dates were accurate.
equally as impressive as the headliners were openers dj das and inglewood-bred U-N-I. das was linking record after record in such a way that i remembered why djs are paid for their musical taste, and regretted not having such a distinguished knowledge of my own. on an unapologetically superficial level, U-N-I is ‘backpack rap’ if i’ve ever seen it. however, as some of the best-dressed MCs i’ve seen to date, they pull it off well. i picked up their street album, fried chicken and watermelon, and was impressed by the quality of the production and lyricism. already listed in XXL’s ‘Big 10′ and the source’s ‘unsigned hype,’ i’d expect a record deal for these college graduates in the near future. more photographs after the jump.
U-N-I in XXL’s Big 10
every once in a while, through all of the obnoxious t-shirt/shoe company filth, i come across something extraordinary. i believe that kendi is one of these things. handmade in new york city, their line is unique beyond the brilliant design. case in point: the hooded oxford. people talk about the idealized vision of ’self.’ i’m wearing one of these garments in mine. the ties make me wish i still had a reason to wear one. the lightweight fabrics and simple alterations to classic items make this label a gem.
dossier recently conducted an interview with james kendi here
this was too good to be true: public copulation of two of satan’s beautiful children (scientific name: hispanicus orca) in a romantic setting (filthy new york beach). the mating ritual culminated with a traditional “fight,” where the territory’s dominant male breaks the nose of the male fornicator for having sex with his sister/friend/ex-girlfriend in public.
there were several cameras within arm’s reach so brett and i collaborated on this exquisite, tasteful photodocumentary.
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