chumpchampion

(Sneak peek of the Nike/UNDFTD billboard on La Brea and 1st St. Design by Keith Scharwath)

On Friday August 29th, Beautiful Losers makes it’s Los Angeles premiere at Landmark’s Nuart Theater. To date, the response to our little film has been overwhelmingly positive and audiences have eagerly embraced our message of inspiration and creativity with open arms. With no major film distribution company behind us, we’ve been fortunate enough to have gained the support and good will from audiences who have seen the film and have continued to spread the good word amongst friends, family, and something called the “internets”. Hopefully this grass roots approach can continue to bring our film to more and more cities as we have just added Boston to our tour which already includes San Francisco, Portland, and Chicago.

The 7:30 and 10pm shows on opening night will feature Q&A sessions with myself, Aaron Rose, and Money Mark. Tickets for the L.A. premiere and theatrical run are now on sale and can be purchased at Landmark’s website here (Make sure you’re purchasing tickets for the correct shows. Dates are listed in the pull down menu above the showtimes!)

Fresh from Tokyo, Japan after our official theatrical world premiere (much more on the Japan trip coming soon), Beautiful Losers makes it’s homecoming with the U.S. theatrical premiere on August 8th at the IFC Center in New York city. This release has been a long while coming as we’ve been on the festival road for over a year now, even capturing a documentary jury prize along the way. Select showings of this weekend’s special release will feature Q&A sessions with several artists from the film. The lineup goes as follows:

Friday, Aug.8th @ 8:20 - Aaron Rose, Steve Powers (ESPO), Chris Johanson, and Cheryl Dunn

Friday, Aug.8th @ 10:20 - Aaron Rose, Cheryl Dunn, and Lenny Mesina

Saturday, Aug.9th @ 8:20 - Aaron Rose, Tobin Yelland, and Lenny Mesina

Saturday, Aug.9th @ 10:20 - Aaron Rose, Cheryl Dunn, and Lenny Mesina

Tickets can be bought right here. (Make sure you’re purchasing tickets for the correct shows. Dates are listed in the pull down menu above the showtimes!)

The New York theatrical release at the IFC Center will run from August 8th through the 28th before shifting to the West Coast with runs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and finally end in Chicago (the film may have a longer run depending on the success of this initial roll out).

In addition to the the film’s U.S. launch, Nike Sportswear has partnered with us to give back to the people. “Make Something!!” is a series of D.I.Y. creative art-based workshops taught by some of today’s best creators aimed at inspiring and educating young people. The first set starts in New York and runs from August 8th through the 22nd and then moves to Los Angeles and goes from August 29th through September 8th. The workshops range from sign painting, photography, skateboard graphic design, toy design, filmmaking, tattoo art, footwear design and zine making. Classes will be taught by the likes of Aaron Rose, KAWS, Todd James, Tobin Yelland, Cheryl Dunn, Mike Mills, Ed Templeton, Money Mark, and yours truly to name a few. Come by my class August 30th where I’ll be teaching kids the dark arts of film editing! More on the workshops to come as they happen.

The paint is still drying and the time is almost upon us. The highly anticipated show will open tomorrow night at the Laforet Museum at 6pm! Like the sign says…

Yesterday I failed to mention half of the other artists involved in the Beautiful Losers opening at the Laforet Museum. Here’s whose crates of artwork arrived yesterday: Thomas Campbell, Shepard Fairey, Harmony Korine, Chris Johanson, Geoff McFetridge, Mike Mills, and Ed Templteton (Mark Gonzalez sculpture to be included as well if we can track it down somewhere in Shibuya). And here’s who arrived via plane last night:

It’s the lovely Jo Jackson straight out of Portland!

Elevator at the Laforet in Harajuku.

This week I’ll be chumpchampioning from the far East as I’m in Tokyo for the Japanese Premiere of Beautiful Losers on August 2nd. A bunch of other peeps are out here as well as our director Aaron Rose will be curating a group show with Steve Powers (ESPO), Jo Jackson, Josh Lazcano (AMAZE), and Alexis Ross of the Gents of Desire, and will also include original pieces by Margaret Kilgallen and Barry Mcgee. The show also features Nike’s Lightning Bolts artwork and will open at the Laforet Museum in Harajuku the day of the film’s premiere. I’ll be documenting the setup of the show leading up to the premiere, so stay tuned as there’s much more to come!

(Another fine flyer design from Keith Scharwath)

This Sunday June 29th, kick down your old new shoes for a good cause. Nike, Undefeated, and the illustrious Gents of Desire are kicking off a benefit for the East LA Community Youth Center where every pair of unworn shoes donated will be generously matched by Nike. In addition to helping out your fellow peoples, Nike and Undefeated will be hosting a picnic for you filled with food, drink, music, and a “lady pants” competition in their back alley featuring the artwork of the Gents of Desire. Your ticket in is the pair of shoes you’ll be donating. Read on for more info:

Time and place:

June 29th

5pm-9pm

UNDFTD Los Angeles

112 1/2 South La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036

My work is now done, finally. On Monday May 12th and Tuesday the 13th here in Beijing, Nike launched two of the coolest events I’ve ever had the good fortune to be a part of. The first being the Nike Sportswear opening featuring video portraits by artist Robert Wilson and the 64 HD screen video installation I worked on along with the crew I was working with in Italy, Sartoria. The second event was the Nike 6.0 BMX demo and Lightning Bolts Art Show in a jaw dropping venue simply known as “the Gas Tank” in Beijing’s 798 artists district. Artists from this show included Michael Lau, Andy Jenkins, and Nick Philip among others and featured pieces using Bob Haro’s original number plate as a canvas. Over those past two days an amazing collection of talent, taste makers, celebrity designers, executives, and head creatives, converged on Beijing to produce another innovative Nike experience. Here’s a peak at some of the madness with more pics to come very soon!

Director Paolo Fresci (maestro of our installation), Suitmen’s Adam Glickmen (hugely responsible for bringing me aboard the project), DJ Alex Turnbull (created the banging beats for our piece), and Sartoria’s mad genius Giorgio Di Mitri (the visionary period) watch on as the other 32 monitors bombard them with video in our installation room.

New Nike Terminators with a Robert Wilson portrait of skater Shingo Iwasaki.

More new Nikes with Wilson’s portrait of dancer Sofia Boutella.

The outside of the Nike 6.0 event at the Gas Tank.

The impressive insides.

Another angle.

Too many people to name in front of Michael Lau’s piece at the main entrance (although that’s Nike sweethearts Jill Meisner and Drieke Leenknegt on the left).

I hope these pics whet your visual appetites because there’s much more to come soon!

UPDATE: The hotel accommodations I’ve been given have also made the whole airline debacle somewhat less painful. Check the room I’m staying in at the Sofitel Hotel. Ridiculous.

You’ve heard those nightmare airline travel stories from one friend or another at some point. You’ve heard how they aimlessly wandered around airports for hours on end waiting for their connecting flight. You’ve heard how they barely missed that connecting flight because their incredibly stupid credit card company put a freeze on their account because it was used overseas even though they told them before they left the U.S. that they were going to be using the card in a different country. Yeah, well add me to that list. Here’s my visual account of 5 airports over the past 2 days.

Aeroporto G. Marconi di Bologna (Bologna, Italy to Frankfurt, Germany): With hours to kill and hundreds of Beautiful Losers stickers handy, I decided to do some International promotion. Boredom=vandalism.

Frankfurt Airport (Frankfurt, Germany to Toronto, Canada): More of the same.

Pearson International Airport (Toronto, Canada to Washington D.C.): At least I got to see the Lakers win game one of their series while enjoying the most delicious Canadian beer I’ve ever had.

Dulles International Airport (Washington D.C. to Beijing, China): Barack Obama is my homeboy.

Beijing Capital International Airport (Beijing, China): A cute smiling Chinese girl waiting for you at the gate while holding up a sign with your name on it makes it all worth while.