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During this quick trip out to New York I’ve been staying out in the hipster-mecca of the world, Brooklyn’s  Williamsburg neighborhood. So since I don’t have much time before I jump on a plane and head back to Los Angeles for tonight’s Beautiful Losers screening (after party w/ Money Mark rooftop performance!), I thought it would be ultra-appropriate to post this hilarious little cartoon by Devin Flynn based on the fashion phenomenon known simply as “Lady Pants”. Loosen up your belt, or belts, and enjoy. I’ll be seeing you L.A. Style Chudz soon, “Westside!”

With my editing roots stemming from the world of music videos, it’s always great to see clips that push the boundaries of conventional music video making. Radiohead’s latest, “House of Cards”, instantly comes to mind. I hate to admit it, but these types of videos are few and far between these days. Anomalies even. But every now and then one pops up that instantly grabs your attention and reminds you that there’s still much more to explore within the medium. And when your friend is responsible for such an offering it makes it even better. Have a heart and peep Chris Milk’s latest video for Gnarls Barkley’s “Save My Soul” which also reminds you what it’s like to be in a failing relationship. Bastard.

Sorry. Super busy. Don’t have much time. Working on multiple projects. Upcoming trip to Japan for movie release and art exhibition (more to come). Not much sleep. Need to do laundry. Hungry too. In the meantime, chew on this visual candy by PES. Sorry again. Be good.

Last week I let my feelings be known on California’s new anti-idiot law. A few days later the good peeps at United Front let theirs be known as well via this viciously hilarious viral video. Please enjoy their brand of Blue Toothiness.

Thanks to my man Michael Abbott for producing this (ear)piece!

Last month I took the time to chuckle at our lovable mums for Mother’s Day. This Sunday, the 15th is Father’s Day so I thought why not honor them in the same way? By laughing at them. Now I don’t intend this to come off as mean spirited or hurtful in any way, but more as an alternative to the greeting card/gift giving mentality most of us are accustomed to. So take a look at some funny pictures (see above) at a site called manbabies where fathers and sons heads are chopped off and affixed to the latters bodies and maybe you’ll be inspired to do the same for your pops. Sure it sounds a bit morbid but hey, it’s Friday the 13th after all!

Additional video added!

(from left to right: Harmony Korine, Mark Gonzalez, and Carlo McCormick)

On Sunday May 18th, my first full day back stateside, I was treated to a special “conversation” between filmmaker Harmony Korine and artist/skateboarder Mark Gonzalez which was later moderated by magazine editor Carlo McCormick at Tokion’s Creativity Now conference at Cooper Union in Manhattan. The two playfully started off their discussion by going through their list of “Name Poems” which are names of celebrity types dissected and reshaped to form whole new names. This exercise in adolescence started in Harmony’s Prince street apartment at the start of their long standing friendship and through the years has grown into a list of hundreds. Starting with their first foray into their new art form, Harmony recited the original name poem “Emily dicked her son” (Emily Dickinson). And from there, back and forth they went laughing with childlike pride at some of their crudest and funniest inventions which included; “Dick rides around in a van looking for dykes” (Dick Van Dyke), “Is it a kite? Harvey can’t tell” (Harvey Keitel), “Burt Reynolds wrap”, “What’s Stephen Hawking?”, and “Kirstie was raped in an alley” (Kirstie Alley) to which Mark replied, “That’s just mean.” Mean indeed, amusing yes, and the audience of students and young and old people enjoyed it all. Here’s a bit of video of the tail end of the name poetry segment:

From there Carlo McCormick joined the brouhaha and attempted to turn the conversation into a more insightful one with sincere answers. This was not easily done with the Harmony and Mark revelling in being the jokesters they are. At one point Mark completely interrupts Harmony mid-answer when he started playing his harmonica on his mic:

But not all of it was fun and games as Mark gave one of the best answers of the day when Carlo asked him how his process when making art involves leaving his errors in finished pieces, to which Mark responded (in so many words), “the mistake is part of the make.” A lesson I’ve been slow to adhere to being a perfectionist for most of my life, but a lesson I now live by as I understand the beauty in drawing outside the lines. As these two creators have been doing for most of theirs.

Thanks to the lovely Heather Seccia of Tokion for getting me and my brother in.

When I was in Modena, Italy a couple of weeks ago Cinzia and Manny from Sartoria took me to a spot where I could check out good local graffiti. It was there that I learned about their friend Blu and his stop motion graf piece he was working on overseas. They went on and on about how talented their boy is and how he was doing some next level shits. Stop motion graffiti?! I was intrigued to say the least. I got back to the states a couple of days ago and what do I find in my inbox from Chris Pouy? A link to that very piece and it is indeed the amazing. For those who have yet to see it, please watch now:

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

And here’s Blu’s piece from that wall in Modena that got the conversation started:

Check out more of what Blu’s up to on his frequently updated blog worldwidewall.

(click images to see more of the politically charged art on display at LA vs. WAR)

A couple of weeks ago I was able to check out the LA vs. WAR poster/graffiti/screenprinting art show which was held in downtown Los Angeles during the weekend of April 10th-13th. What I failed to do was follow up and mention how powerful the art actually was. On a beautifully calm Sunday evening which brought many people to the downtown Firehouse venue, I was fortunate enough to make a return trip and take some more photos as well. On display was the touring exhibition of anti-war posters and screenprints from the likes of Futura, Doze Green, Shepard Fairey, along with many other artists-both known and unknown. A timely, clever, and often comical look at our recent state of affairs as the world’s first nation of war, the art on display defiantly speaks for itself. And perhaps for many of us as well. Please check out the pieces for yourself by clicking the images or this link to be taken to my Flickr set.

You can also buy the book “Yo! What Happened to Peace?” which contains all the poster art featured in the show at www.yopeace.org.

After making his first stop to our country as the incumbent Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI flew back to Rome on Sunday which was incidentally the day before I made my own journey to Italy. I couldn’t help but think about how random it was that as I’m making my first trip to the center of Western civilization, the Pope of all people was concluding his trip to the center of the downfall of Western civilization. With that in mind, I wanted to show you this Pope print I came across last week. The signed and numbered print (in a limited edition of 666!) is by artist Michael Ian Weinfeld who was commissioned by online New York culturists ANIMAL. This piece of pop cleverly brings together two of the latest crazes to engulf the masses of mainstream America: Pope-passion and Obama-mania. Now if you’re not familiar with what type of Obama madness I’m talking about, look no further than these following sentences to check out Shepard Fairey’s own creation and contribution to the craze.

Shepard, already a master at turning the unknown into the ubiquitous as seen with his “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” stickers amongst others, unleashed his screenprint onto the world during a time when Barack had a very comfortable lead over Hillary somethin’-somethin’ back in late January/early February 2008. With Shepard an art icon among young people and collectors alike and Obama a front runner as the next resident of the White House, what soon followed was unlike anything I had ever seen in terms of people going crazy for a piece of memorabilia. More popular than a Jose Canseco rookie card during his 40/40 year, scarcer than a “Tickle Me Elmo” doll during that one Christmas, the Fairey/Obama prints went on sale on the Obey website for a mere $25 a pop. Needless to say, the 350 signed and numbered “Progress” prints sold out immediately and were just as quickly being sold on ebay for upwards of $2000. And people were buying them. The same thing continued with Shepard’s subsequent release of the “Hope” edition, also limited to 350. And even the “pasters” (which were newsprint versions of the prints, not even signed, and specifically intended to be wheat pasted around cities by street teams) were going for hundreds of dollars on ebay even though they sold for only the $15 shipping cost.

I admit it, I was one of the thousands of art/collector crazed people who kept hitting “refresh” on my browser in the hopes of being one of the select few to buy a print when they went on sale. When that didn’t work out I turned to ebay where I was shocked to see the unreasonable prices but at the same time I was completely unfazed by all the hysteria. Of course this was going to happen. It was the perfect storm. Timely art hand in hand with timely politics was going to equal major commerce, unfortunately it was mainly for people cashing in on their new found poster fortunes. The proceeds from the prints sold on the Obey website went towards funding the broader campaign to spread the word on the streets through free poster and sticker give-aways as well as wheat pasting across the country.

Since the initial craze, the prices for both Obama prints have considerably gone down on ebay. And I mean very considerably, as in “buy it now” prices going for around “only” $400. The commodification of art is nothing new of course, but the way it went down with all the hype surrounding Obama and the flurry of sales raises some questions for me. Does this precedent make it okay for the hysteria to happen again or will artists like Shepard Fairey compromise their established signing and numbering procedures to prevent “art scalpers” from ripping off true fans in the future? And what happens to those prints if Obama is elected president? What happens if Obama is elected president and then is assassinated? Of course it will be the least of our worries, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see those prints on ebay again. Maybe then they’ll be going for $20,000.

To read what Shepard Fairey had to say about it, check his website here: Obey on Obama as well as an interview on Creativity with Shepard on his endorsement of Obama here: Shepard Fairey: Obey Obama

And for a recent article on art in politics in the New York Times check here: The Art of Politics

You can buy the “Pope” prints by Michael Ian Weinfeld on ANIMAL here: Pope print

From surf/skate brand Osiris and Consolidated Skateboards comes The Drunk. A clever play and obvious jab at Nike’s iconic shoe, The Dunk.

From the sneakerfiles.com:

“The Drunk, a thinly veiled comedic wordplay on a popular shoe style from one of the large sporting goods companies, bears a signature banana logo on the side of each shoe. It was created as a playful knock on the large sporting goods brands that are now making a strong push to take a share of the market in the action sports industry. The shoes are going to be sold only at core skate and surf shops in support of the Don’t Do It campaign, a movement that seeks to put the power back into the hands of those companies that built the action sports industry.”

The shoe looks rad and the Don’t Do It Campaign sounds even better.  Join the Don’t Do It Army to help put the power back into the hands (and feet) of the creators of their communities.  Downloadable stencils, sticker designs, and other propaganda on the Don’t Do It website at: http://www.dontdoitarmy.com/.

Does this mean I should be getting rid of my Futura Dunks (which look to be the impetus for the above Drunks)?