Friday, February 26, 2010

Alex Zavaleta on Burgers and Thomas Keller

Alex Zavaleta on Burgers and Thomas Keller



Witness the defacto pilot episode of Alex Zavaleta's new Food Show. Regular guy tours the US giving hilarious opinions and reviews on the finest restaurants and their so-called celebrity chefs. Anthony Bourdain better watch out...It's On.

Your truly will serve as Cameraman, Editor, sidekick, sounding board, straight man...lackey and body guard.

RIP: Chilly B, Founder of Newcleus: One of the Best Old Skool Hip Hop Bands


Newcleus-Jam On It

DIAZ | MySpace Video


If you grew up in the 80's, songs like "Jam On It" were played almost non-stop on all the mix tapes you traded with your buddies. Chilly B, Thank you for the unforgettable soundtrack of my youth.

chillybth
Bob "Chilly B" Crafton, founding member of the influential 80's electro/hip-hop band Newcleus, passed away this week from complications associated with a stroke. He died at age 47. The stroke had left him brain dead and in a coma. On Tuesday, February 23rd the decision was made to remove him from life support and he passed on not long after. Chilly B's signature moments were his classic verse from "Jam On It", his funky bass guitar licks from "Jam On Revenge (The Wikki Wikki Song)", and his booming deep vocal and sizzling synthesizer solo from "Computer Age (Push The Button)". In recent years he was involved in independent production, including working on a new Newcleus album, and touring with Newcleus. He is survived by his wife Valerie and his sons Justin, Jason, Joshua and Isaiah.

About Newcleus
The origins of Newcleus lay in a 1977 Brooklyn DJ collective known as Jam-On Productions, which included Ben “Cozmo D” Cenac, his cousins Pete “Master Quadro” Angevin and Monique “Niqué D” Angevin, and Ben’s best friend David “Dr. Freeze” St. Louis, (all teenagers and still in high school). Many members (MCs as well as DJs) came and went as Jam-On rocked parks and block parties all over the borough. In 1981 Cozmo decided to create a recording group as an extension of Jam-On. The group included Cozmo, his wife Yvette (“Lady E”), Niqué, and Niqué’s future husband Bob “Chilly B” Crafton. The foursome originally took on the name Positive Messenger, but would later name their group Newcleus as a result of the coming together of their families.

By this time, Cozmo had begun to accumulate a collection of electronic recording equipment, and the quartet recorded a demo tape of material. With several minutes left at the end of the tape, Newcleus included on the tape a song that was a favorite at their parties, which had vocals that were sped up to sound like munchkins. The track, “Jam-On’s Revenge,” immediately impressed producer Joe Webb, and it became the group’s first single, released as “Jam-On Revenge” by Newcleus featuring Cozmo & The Jam-On Production Crew in 1983 on Mayhew Records. A huge street success, the track became known unofficially as “the Wikki-Wikki song” (after the refrain); when it was re-released later that year on Sunnyview Records, it had been re-titled as “Jam On Revenge (The Wikki-Wikki Song)” by Newcleus. “Jam On Revenge” became a smash R&B hit, launching a new sound on the world and adding the phrase “wikki-wikki-wikki” to the English language.

In 1984 Newcleus followed up by rocking the planet with the all-time Hip-Hop/Electro-Funk classic “Jam On It”. It was a worldwide smash that still packs dance floors all over the globe today. They had also established themselves as the very first self-contained Hip-Hop band, playing all of the instruments themselves live. They toured nationally with funk masters Cameo throughout ’83 and ’84, and then were part of the very 1st national Hip-Hop music tour in history, The Fresh Festival, with Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, Whodini and The Fat Boys. They then released one of the most revered albums in Electro-Funk history, “Jam On Revenge”, and added another all-time classic Electro song with “Computer Age (Push The Button)” and also an Electro Breakbeat classic with “Automan”. Then, in 1985 they released their light-selling yet highly acclaimed and respected 2nd album “Space Is The Place”, which was one of the first albums to fully utilize the brand new MIDI technology that would change music and the world forever! In just 3 short years Newcleus had solidified their position in Hip-Hop and Electro-Funk history as true innovators and pioneers in the genres.



via: Boing Boing and the Daily Swarm

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Vinyl Addiction EP 4 Preview



Check out the latest episode of Jesse Hernandez' Vinyl Addiction. It features a segment on Patrick Ma of Rocket World as well as coverage of the IWG Custom Toy Show. Don't blink or you will miss the pan of my custom Kikaida Bear. Missed it? Don't worry, here's a screen shot. lol... Yes, i'm that shallow.

TBS on Vinyl Addiction

IWG Humans Beware Custom Show

Next Generation D&D: SurfaceScapes

SurfaceScapes Promo Video from Surfacescapes on Vimeo.

Microsoft Surface is very cool. I've played with it first hand and it's crazy. Like Star Trek Next Gen kinda thing. Seriously. Now that it's been out for a while, expect to see more and more people writing apps for it. So far, you will see it in Casinos, Hotels and on Cruise Ships, but don't be surprised if you start seeing it the next time you visit your Doctor or Dentist in the waiting room.

Above is a new take on a very old game. This is for all of you D&D geeks out there that can now afford a Surface. I envision entire walls and Desks made to be giant Surface interfaces. After all, it's essentially just a big pc acting like a coffee table.

Mishka Echo Park Store Tour with Greg Rivera



Check out our man Greg Rivera at his latest store in the Mishka Empire: Echo Park in LA. Love how he's got all the toys going on....

Hell...just for kicks, here is an old video of Greg doing a Office and Store tour of his Brooklyn HQ released about 2 years ago.

Mishka - Office & Store tour - Brooklyn, June 2008 from DigitalGravel.com on Vimeo.

Toys of Week Episode 5: Yamazakura, Gargamel, Cure, Panzer Ace




Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura is one of my favorite new toy lines. I love the two sculps and the paint applications are amazing. I like the different rub techniques employed. They are the perfect size too. Just around 5" inches tall. The first sculp has a half face / half skull head and body. The second sculp has a new Oni / Serpent head. Many thanks to Amy and Luke over at Lulubell Toys for constantly feeding the beast within. Looking forward to new versions. Wouldn't mind seeing some clears in the mix. New head and body sculps also welcome.

A first for toybot studios, I only took one, single picture for each version. Partially due to laziness and time constraints, I thought it would be fun to try and only take one picture per toy.

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Yamazakura Festival!

Super 7 Shogun Stormtrooper on Action Figure Digest

afd186webcover 400x519

Check it out. Super7 Super Shogun Stormtrooper makes the cover of Action Figure Digest..!

Thanks for the heads up Plastichunter!

Lumitectura: Music Video about the relation of light, music and architecture

Lumitectura from barno on Vimeo.

wow...one of the more amazing music videos out there. It's as if someone is playing the music on this building and surrounding landscape.

Musicvideo about the relation of light, music and architetcture.

Music by Saltillo
"The Opening" from the album Ganglion.
Go get it on itunes and amazon!

The clip is defined by 3 elements.

-One videofile, shot between 2 and 6 pm.
-The speed of playback of this file, which is synchronised manually to the music.
-About 50 different masks, wich define where the underlayed movie is going to appear on the screen. This makes it possible to have multiple light situations in the same moment.

So basicly, the sunlight caught from the building is the "natural" palette for the entire colors of the clip.


From ONEEIGHTNINE

Created by Arno Bruderer a student of the Institute of Technology in Zürich , Lumitectura is a short visual piece that looks into the relationship between light, music and architecture. Since 2000 Arno has made time free for him to practice his video filming and editing skills so what we see in front of us now is the result of ten years practice. I had a short conversation with Arno and he said to me the work of Oskar Fischinger, who is a german abstract animator, filmmaker and painter was his main influence for this piece. the concept was to find synergies between architecture and light, a brief given by the client, the professorship of Gregor Eichinger who holds the view that architecture is not only building for the needs of people, but also a part of our cultural production. Arno believes that in this way, architects have to be open and attentive for other parts of culture, music, videos and so forth.

Heres what the creator had to say about the piece :

“In some ways, there are big similarities between the work of an architect and the work of an instrument maker. They care about the durability of their object, the design (“firmitas” and “venustas” as Vitruvius would say) and most importantly, both craftsmen have to provide a tool, which has a potential in it, that they eventually cannot influence. What they can do, is to give this tool big abilities to be used. While the instrument maker designs his object mostly in regard of music, which is probably one of the most abstract artforms that exists, architecture is also in strong demand of usabilty (“utilitas”) which is something quite trivial, but not easy to achieve. So in the end, architecture does play its “music” on many different layers, and one of them is light, and that’s what this music video is about’

Music is from the album “Ganglion” by Menton J Matthews III

1945A by Ryan Nagata

1945A from Ryan Nagata on Vimeo.

Cool little short by Director and Writer Ryan Nagata (no relations to Mark I don't think)

1945A is a presentation I made with George Edelman about an alternate timeline where the Nazi's unveil all sorts of futuristic sci-fi technology at the end of WWII, turning the tides in their favor. It's essentially what 5 minutes of the feature film could look like. It was made for a budget of less than $2000. Most of the costumes were made by me for a previous project. We only had five helmets to share between actors, so I had to repaint the different markings between shoot days. Weapons like the Browning .30 caliber machine gun were made from plastic sheeting. I rigged a motor/gear system inside which moved the charging handle/bolt back and forth when the trigger was pulled. All of the tanks and vehicles are done with radio-controlled 1:6 scale models, shot at 48 frames per second. I wanted the project to have a very tangible, non-CGI feel to it. The Nazi "Spider" tank was a custom made puppet.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Arbito Far Out West Show at Super 7

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010



The Arbito Far Out West Show at Super7 this past Saturday witnessed the triumphant return of the best personality in the business today: Alex Zavaleta. As we interviewed poor Jesse, he was lucky to actually get in a word edgewise. Regardless, it was a great show and we finally learned the origin of the name Arbito.

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Arbito @ Super 7 Feb 2010

Mishka Echo Park Opening...!

Mishka Echo Park Opening

Check out the scene from Mishka NYC Echo Park grand opening this past weekend. Looks like a blast. I spy some of my old high schools friends hanging out. fuckers. There were a couple of store exclusives including this adFunture x Mishka Bootleg Kaiju Morbius version and a MonstreHero Orange Resin Ape.

Mishka Echo Park Opening

Mishka Echo Park Opening

Mishka Echo Park Opening

Mishka Echo Park Opening

Mishka Echo Park Opening

Mishka Echo Park Opening

Mishka Echo Park Opening

Mishka Echo Park Opening

Mishka Echo Park Opening

Mishka Echo Park Opening

party pics via STREET LEVEL
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