Ok, so I got off the Hip-Hop this week and went Metal.  I have to say I liked this song a lot more until I saw the video.  What Cheeze dicks.  It is like a bad rip off of Iron Maidens Somewhere in Time.  If you look in the cover of that album, it is all the dudes from Maiden in future type cars in the desert.  This must have been real big in the 80’s because Dokken did the whole desert scene thing in their Walk Away video too.  At any rate I had this song as a 5 star power ballad….dropped it to 4 because of the video. 

I was just going to tweet about this one, but then there’s a chance you’d miss the dynamic photography that tells the story. If you read the title of this post, it may sound odd. There’s no level in any Tony Hawk game that takes place in Uganda, and ESPN likely won’t be seeking out Kampala as a city to host an upcoming X Games.

No matter because Jackson Mubiru and friends took it upon themselves to create a skate park in rural country with a shortage of paved roads, in a city where skateboards are, maybe, seen on television. I guess there’s no abandoned pools around either.

View the full set of pics at the BBC website. Learn more about Jackson and his fellow skaters at the Ugandan Skateboard Union blog.

no real content here. just a test. go about your business. or someone else’s.

I’m a sucker for English Electro Pop when I’m in the mood.  Also Mathematics created some great motion graphics for the video. http://www.mathematic.tv/

Last year when I visited my cousin in Milan he took me to La Rinascente http://www.rinascente.it/webapp/ to get an espresso and take in a view of the Il Duomo.  He knew I am into the history of Vespa / Poiaggio and all accessories, so he showed me some great designed helmets from Les Ateliers Ruby while we were at La Rinascente. http://ateliersruby.com/.

If you visit Manhattan then check out Duncan Quinn’s store on Spring Street for great croquet shirts, helmets, cuff links, ties, etc.

If you like New Order then check out Delphic from Manchester.  Good electronic pop.

This is a really long clip.  You can check out this link Fora.Tv and you can view the clip in pieces.  Fora.TV also has some other really good stuff on their site.  This is the story of an under cover FBI agent, Jack Garcia, a Cuban American imigrant who sucessfully inflitrated the Gambino crime family under the alias Jack Falcone.  Two weeks prior to becoming a “Made Man” the FBI pulled Jack from his undercover operation.  It was the closest anyone has come to inflitrating the Mob since Donnie Brasco.  Jack Garcia has chosen not to go into withness protection.  He has a book out called “Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family”  and a movie is in the works, said to be out in 2010. The movie is being produced by  Steven Soderberg and screenwriter Peter Buchaman (CHE) .  In this clip Jack talks about some really interesting details that went into his undercover operation.  I watched the whole thing, real life is better than fiction sometimes.

Documentary / Rental of 2009

It’s 5:30 in the morning and I have been up since 4am.  I watched FOOD,INC. last night and I think I can’t sleep because of the documentary.  David Edelstein from NPR couldn’t say it any better, “In a year of stunning activist docs, Robert Kenner’s film has the kick of The Matrix — a movie where humans find out they’re living in a simulacrum, a virtual world of fake food (and farms) they mistake for reality. If we are what we eat, we’re in deep trouble.” I was a vegetarian for 5 years and probably will never be one again, but today I will start changing my habits by:

• Buying Organic or Sustainable Food
• Go without Meat once a week
• Reading Labels, know where your food comes from
• Drink more water, fewer sugary beverages
• Support companies that treat workers, animals, and the environment with respect

Points taken from http://www.takepart.com/foodinc

This is not a vegetarian vs. meat post,related to politics, or some hipster organic post, so please don’t get all crazy…..I’m simply recommending to watch a great documentary and maybe be inspired to be more health conscious, live an active lifestyle, and respect for the human planet.

If you’ve never checked out the designs and illustrations by Mark Weaver, you should. He has done layouts for Paste Magazine and created designs for the SXSW festival.

His best stuff though is part of his Make Something Cool Every Day project, which includes eight series.

Check them out:

“Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller” explores the collaborative problem-solving design process employed at Herman Miller.

Here are some upcoming dates and locations:

Goldstein Museum of Design St. Paul, MN, November 23, 2009 – January 17, 2010
Henry Ford Museum Dearborn, MI, February 6, 2010 – April 24, 2010
Everson Museum of Art Syracuse, NY, August 15, 2010 – October 17, 2010
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts San Angelo, TX, November 7, 2010 – January 2, 2011
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum Wausau, WI, January 29, 2011 – April 3, 2011
Hunter Museum of American Art Chattanooga, TN, January 2, 2012 – February 26, 2012
San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design San Francisco, CA, June 17, 2012 – August 12, 2012

http://www.hermanmiller.com/
http://www.hermanmiller.com/discover/good-design-stories-hit-the-road/

HOW IT WOULD BE IF A HOUSE WAS DREAMING

The conception of this project consistently derives from its underlying architecture – the theoretic conception and visual pattern of the Hamburg Kunsthalle. The Basic idea of narration was to dissolve and break through the strict architecture of O. M. Ungers “Galerie der Gegenwart”. Resultant permeabilty of the solid facade uncovers different interpretations of conception, geometry and aesthetics expressed through graphics and movement. A situation of reflexivity evolves – describing the constitution and spacious perception of this location by means of the building itself. by urbanscreen.com

Each Monday I will be posting a song that starts off the week.  NIN w/ Saul Williams filmed with the Canon 5D Mark II HD.

http://nin.com/
http://www.saulwilliams.com/

Awhile back I viewed a picture of the Wallpaper Chair Arch,but did not find this behind the scenes video until today.

http://ercol.com/

“The former Talking Heads frontman discusses his passion for bicycles and what he thinks New York City should do to become more bike friendly.”  by New York Times

Still in Atlantic City…..I don’t gamble so woke up in the morning and took a walk on the boardwalk and wished I had a bike to go with this beautiful morning.  This video is a little old but if you live around NEW YORK CITY you should go ride a bike around the city.  You will see the city in a new light.

Down in Atlantic City with my son and wife and just viewed an interesting water fountain show with multi colored lights and thought of Pedro Vilas Boas artwork.

http://www.vilaz.tv/

I am not a sneaker head by any means. I usually just stick to the classics…Adidas Samba, Vans, or Campers, but the collaboration between Nike and Maharam is unique. My associates degree in college was Textile Development & Design and I was able to meet with Maharam and also write a paper on their textile development which gave me access to some great swatch books. Maharam is one of the world’s leading suppliers of textiles for Architects and Interiors.  “With these $250 sneaks, Michael Maharam shot for what he calls “restrained opulence,” choosing a luxurious but underused fabric, horsehair. Nike calls horsehair “a renewable resource” because it’s clipped painlessly from the horse’s tail, but Maharam concedes that horsehair is not a practical replacement for everyday fabrics. “It grows slowly, is woven on arcane Victorian-era looms at a tedious pace, and costs a fortune,” he says.” by New York Times

http://www.maharam.com/

If you haven’t already, check out the creative mind of Jasper Goodall.

http://www.jaspergoodall.com/
http://www.electricbluegallery.com/home.php

Reggae legend Buju Banton busted in Florida for trying to buy 5 kilos of cocaine, looking at 20 years in prison.

The Associated Press

Check out this great animation for Christmas from Mr. and Mrs. Smith

http://www.mrandmrssmith.tv/merrysmithmas/

http://www.mrandmrssmith.tv/

I alluded to this pairing in My Venture Bros. Christmas post. I remember seeing this video on MTV  in the 80’s, but in 1977 David Bowie agreed to appear on Bing Crosby’s 1977 Christmas special. Sure thye make an odd couple and that’s enough of a tale, but the day of the shoot Bowie told the show’s writers he hated “Little Drummer Boy”, and asked if he could sing something else. Within 75 minutes, the writers and the arrangers wrote an original tune, “Peace on Earth”, with a melody and arrangement that would interweave with “Little Drummer Boy”.

The Christmas special moment that almost wasn’t was miraculously saved, creating a most memorable performance that was bootlegged for years, before ever being released in an audio format. The show aired on television in 1977, unfortunately Bing Crosby died before its air date.

But the moment is ever preserved on celluloid, and now on YouTube and the rest of the Internet, uncomfortable, odd-sounding banter and all. The Washington Post tells the full story best.

“Inka Järvinen first graduated from the Helsinki University of Art and Design in 2004 with a BA in fashion, but realized she had been doing all her designing through illustration and that that was where her true interest lay. A second degree later, in graphic design, and she finds much of her work going into her own t-shirt range, Girls of Boredom. A lot of her output is dark, detailed collage work drawing on inspiration from old sci-fi movies, posters and images of the future that were current in the 1960s and 1970s. ‘Because I mostly work with collage, every piece already has a story of it’s own that I just make different to fit my own and the client’s ideas.” by Wallpaper

http://www.inkajarvinen.com/

Ok. By now anyone who follows us on Twitter must be aware of my love of all things Venture. And I know there’s a bunch of you, even if 25% are spammers trying to lure me into whitening my teeth or buying your eBook on how to gain more Twitter followers. Well, if any of you are also smitten with The Venture Bros. television programme (Ye olde spelling for no darn reason), no doubt you are a bit despondent with the hiatus between parts one and two of Season Four.

I’m hoping I’ve got something here combined with holiday cheer to help fill your void before you begin your requisite holiday gluttony. Cranberry sauce, anyone?

Venture creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick have bestowed yuletide gifts upon the rabid fanbase in previous years. And I’ve collected a few links so you can load up your iTunes with some of the finest holiday jams to ever spring forth from a cocoon. Play them at your gathering and leave befuddled uncles and aunts scratching their heads saying, “What the hell are we listening to?”

The links go to posts from Quick Stop Entertainment, and include The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend’s reenactment of the David Bowie/Bing Crosby take on “Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth” (the Bowie/Bing combination is another post in itself). The couple even include the a version of the banter between the two musical icons. They even return with a duet of The Pogues and Kirsty McColl’s “Fairytale of New York.”

Henchman 21 and 24 also squeeze in a recording between the charity work they do for Murder for Tots and The Make a Death Wish Foundation for their cover of Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime”. And the entire cast combines for a performance of Band-Aid’s “Do They Know it’s Christmas?”

Happy Holidays. Here’s the links:

Little Drummer Boy/Fairytale of New York/Venture Aid 2006

Wonderful Christmastime

***** (Five Asterisks, must mean something good, right?) 12/25/09

Hammer & Publick have played Santa again. Tim-Tom, Kevin & Henchman 21 play Simon, Theodore & Alvin to The Monarch’s David Seville on “The Chipmunk Song.”

Christian recently posted about his True Blood withdraw since the season ended, which rekindled my longing for another season of Dexter. By far one of my favorite series on tv this year. While I wait months in anticipation for next season I have started to watch Dexter Early Cuts an Animated Webisode Series that can be viewed on sho.com or here Dexter Early Cuts

Have a Merry Christmas All!

Whenever I am designing on the computer and my son wants to sit on my lap to watch I throw the song “Windowlicker” on by Aphex Twin and he goes crazy!  I have played out this song so much that I probably shouldn’t play it anymore, but the video is a classic by Chris Cunningham.