Rebirthed

Well, they have gone and done it. Propellerhead Software has released ReBirth for the iPad. My favorite software synthesizer/drum machine/techno micro composer is now available on my favorite device. I have been rocking on ReBirth since the late 1990's, and now, what I used to spend hours sitting in front of my desktop machine plotting away at, I can carry around with me to any gig I want. Sure, it has been out for the iPhone/iPod touch for a while now, but with an entirely redesigned interface for the much more touchable iPad, it is finally the music making device I have always desired. It comes with all of the bells and whistles of the original software, the two 303's, the 808, the 909, plus all of the distortion, delay and other effects. It also has mod support and comes with five original user mods. This is the multi-touch, music production tool that I always dreamed of, and now it is here.

Festival Of Lights

Hanukkah is fast approaching, with its early appearance this year (December 1-9), and I am already getting excited! Being a Jew, I don't have to wait until the end of December to receive (and give, of course) presents. So I am already making my wish list. At the top of it is an 11-inch MacBook Air, but since that is a dream that will most likely have to be deferred, I have a few other choices. The Native Shoes Fitzsimmons, size 12 in Academy Blue or Bottle Cap Gray, for example. Or the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2 Digital Micro Four Thirds Camera in either black or red (which won't actually be available in the good ol' US of A until January, but I will take a rain check). Or an Alpha Industries N-2B Shortwaist Parka [pictured above], XL in Replica Blue. Or a Republic Bike Aristotle CRMO custom fixie bike. Or a Tokidoki x Marvel Comics skateboard deck [pictured below]. Or maybe just a hug! That's all I really need. Happy Hanukkah everybody!

Go Native

Native Shoes, a relatively new (founded in 2009, but I just heard about them) footwear company out of Vancouver, BC, but made in China of all places, has got some of the coolest shoes I have seen recently. Their shoes are made from injection-molded EVA and are all one piece, making them extremely light and flexible. It also makes them very easy to clean and supposedly comfortable. They look like Crocs, if Crocs were at all stylish. My favorites, their Fitzsimmons hiking boots [pictured above] look like they would be very useful for the upcoming cold winter months. The Millers are reminiscent of the classic Vans Authentic kicks, the Corrados are nice, mid-top chukkas, and the Jeffersons are rips of low-top Chuck Taylor All Stars. All of them, except the Fitzsimmons, are slip-ons, which would be nice in the spring and summer months. Because the shoes are made in China and are one-piece injection-molded, they are relatively inexpensive. Check out their stockist list for where you can get them in your area. Or you can just get them online at Zappos.

Update: I got a pair of Fitzsimmons in Academy Blue for myself and a pair of Millers in Torch Red for Anne and they are both great shoes! They are so light and comfortable. They are really good looking and eye-catching and they seem to be very easy to clean. I am interested to see how they will wear over time, but right now they look great. And I am amazed by how light they are. Going from my Vasque Sundowners, which are about the heaviest boots I have ever worn, to the Fitzsimmons is like a revelation! I feel like I am floating, which is helped along by the soft, bouncy soles. I am quite happy with these boots and will probably get myself a pair of Millers to rock when it gets warm out again.

Native Shoes Miller

Native Shoes Corrado

Native Shoes Jefferson

Rare Air

Two new MacBook Air models: 11-inch and 13-inch. SSD, multi-touch, instant on, new App Store, new iLife 11, etc. FTW!!! I want!!!

Coolest Bikes Ever!

Alright, here is one reason I wish I stilled lived in LA. Not that I could afford one of them, but I think that Derringer Cycles makes probably the coolest bikes I have ever seen! Based on board track racer bikes from around the turn of the 20th century, these bikes feature a 4-stroke gas engine along with their regular pedal power. With the size and weight of these bikes, they can get up to 180 miles per gallon. That's nearly 360 miles on the 1.8 gallon tank. And they have pedals, in case you would rather use human power than gas power. With all of the hills here in Chapel Hill, the gas engine would come in real handy. Each Derringer is custom built for it's owner. Rather than stocking them, they prefer to consult with a customer first, then build one that reflects their personal taste and style. So they don't come cheap! I'm not sure how much their custom-built bikes cost, there are no prices on their website, but they have made a special Limited Ed. model for Equinox Fitness Clubs that'll run ya' $2300! And that one doesn't even have an engine in it. I like the brown one pictured above, with it's matching engine color and very useful saddlebags, or the spicy pumpkin orange one, with it's classic white tires, pictured below. Those would be real nice to ride to work in the lovely fall weather. I wonder if they ship from LA to NC?

We Wood, Wood You?

I am a big fan of watches, especially those that are unique. And I can't think of any more unique watches than these wooden watches from WeWood. I'm not sure how waterproof these watches are, I probably wouldn't take them diving, or even in the shower, but they are beautiful, sustainable, hypo-allergenic, and free of toxic chemicals. They are made from reclaimed wooden flooring and for each watch purchased, a tree is planted. You can't get any better than that. And they aren't priced out of reach for your average joe watch collector at only $119 each. My favorite is the Black Crono (pictured above, center), crafted from ebony, "a tree that the greeks called 'fruit of the gods' and it was used as an antidote for poisons. Even today it is believed that this wood is able to ward off evil spirits." Sounds pretty good to me!

Update: I got my Black Crono yesterday and it is pretty damn sweet! I like all but two things about it. Those being: 1) the clasp is really difficult to open. It is nice that it stays closed so tightly, I am not afraid of it falling off of my wrist, but it would also be nice if I didn't have to use a screwdriver to pry it open when I want to take it off. And 2) the analog and digital times are not at all in sync. The analog is slightly faster than the digital, so they get a little off from each other as the day goes by. This is annoying and, after a while, I can see them being very far off from one another. I keep having to reset the digital time to be aligned to the analog side. Maybe I will just keep the digital side set to the stopwatch and not use it for telling time. Other than those two things, I really like the watch. It looks beautiful, it is light and fits my wrist well, and I really like the blue indiglo light. I would give it a 7.5 out of 10 on my scale of coolness.

Something To Do Tonight

If you are in the Carrboro, NC area (which I now am), there is something that looks like it will be fun and toy/art related going on tonight. Tonight is the re-opening of Wootini at their new gallery space (not in Carr Mill Mall anymore) along with the opening of the Wootini Gallery Roadshow, featuring works of art by the likes of Steff Bomb, Fish McGill, CHema Skandal (apparently the "H" is capitalized, this is not a typo), Mike Ski, Evoker, Shawnimals, and other people with equally ridiculous names. There will probably be music, possibly by Family, and maybe even some beer or wine or other drinkies for the folkies. And of course, they got toys! Anne is going to a wine tasting, but I prefer an art opening, so this is where I will be. Maybe not from 7-11pm, but at some point.

But I Never Win!

This past Saturday night was the Rotobox Vinyl Anatomica Ganmetall Celsius Custom Show at the Toy Art Gallery right here in LA and for some reason I didn't know about it! How can something like this happen where I live and I don't know about it? Rhetorical question, but I will answer it anyway. It is because LA is huge and there is just no way to know about everything that is going on. Of course, being in general contact with the toy community at large and toy customizer and participant-in-this-event Tony Nakanari specifically, I should have known about this. Somewhere in the bottomless pit that is my e-mail inbox there is probably an invitation or two to this show. But I didn't know all that. Nope, I was completely oblivious. Until I walked past the show on the way to see one of my roommate's friends perform improv at the Comedy Sportz Theatre which is right next door to the Toy Art Gallery. There was a Kogi-ripoff Korean BBQ taco truck parked right outside, and my roommate and I both wondered to ourselves what it was doing there. We noticed the throng of people gathered around and as we walked past I peeked into the gallery window and to my delight saw several customized art toys. I convinced my roommate to venture into the gallery with me because we were quite early for the improv show. As we entered, we were both handed raffle tickets for prizes that would be drawn later that night. I really didn't think much of it, I didn't think we would be back at ten o'clock that night for the drawing. I didn't think the improv show would go on that long. But it did, and as we were waiting for my roommate's friend to change clothes after his performance and meet us to see what we were going to do, we went back to the gallery for the raffle drawing. To my amazed surprise, bemusement, thrill, and shock I was the first raffle ticket picked for a prize. I won a pre-release Ganmetall Celcius figure, Overheat, which I guess will be released sometime later this year. I'm not sure, there isn't any information about it on Rotobox's website other than that there is just one of them and it was the raffle prize. The new Jadon G.I.D. Exclusive Debametall Fahrenheit figure, which was released for public consumption at the show, was the other raffle prize that was given away. Spencer Ong of Rotobox even signed the feet of my prize Overheat Celsius figure for me! It was pretty sweet! And I normally never win anything! You can see pictures of most of the customs here. You can see the two that were given away below.
This is the one that I won.
This is the other one that was given away.

I ♥ NC!

This is why I love North Carolina. I have to get back sometime in July for these!

[via Anne via The Consumerist]

Who?

Alright, there is a street artist in LA going around using my name on his paste-ups! I just wanted to let people know, now, so that I don't get in trouble for it, that this is not my work. I kind of wish it was, because it is really nice and the kind of thing that I might do. But this other Alec thought of it first. Damn you, other Alec! The image below is even from the building that the art studio/gallery that I worked in used to be. Also, I never even thought of using my actual name as my tag, I thought it would be better to remain anonymous. I guess this other Alec doesn't agree. Anyway, you can check out Alec Monopoly's website and his work on his Flickr page here.

WTF?!

Alright, WTF Apple?! I am really pissed! No iOS 4 for first gen iPod touch users?! Loyal users who were early adopters get screwed again! This is total BS! Well, FU Apple! See if I buy an iPhone now, you a-holes!

Wild Style

I just "found" the coolest little graffiti tools for the iPhone/iPod touch and computer. They are called DustTag and Graffiti Analysis and they are so much fun to play around with. They use GML (Graffiti Markup Language) to create animated 3D renderings of graffiti tags. DustTag is an iPhone/iPod touch app that allows you to write tags on the screen and control them by dragging and pinching or rotating the device. You can also upload your tags to the 000000book.com website, then download the GML files to your computer so that they can be further manipulated with the Graffiti Analysis software, for results like the image above. It sounds complicated, but once you watch the videos on the Graffiti Analysis website, it is pretty fun and time consuming to mess around with. You can check out some of my tags on the 000000book.com website here.

Also, happy 25th anniversary, Wild Style! Only three years late! What?

Art March Again

My artwork will be featured at an exhibit at Gallery Godo in Glendale, CA starting next Friday, March 26th. There will be a reception from 7pm until midnight and the exhibit will be up until April 2nd. I have a couple of new paintings that I just completed that I will be showing. So come check it out if you are in the LA area.

Update: Unfortunately, I didn't sell anything at that exhibit, but you can still take a look at pictures from the gallery opening night here. I now have three of my paintings in an ongoing group exhibit at Artisan Venice in Venice Beach, CA. If you are in the area, you can check it out. It is located at 80A Windward Ave.

Most. Beautiful. Toys. Ever.

I am speechless after seeing these amazingly beautiful and ridiculously expensive Limited Ed. artisan toys from Ducobi. They are all 100% hand-made black lacquer with mother-of-pearl inlay. I can't imagine the amount of time that went into creating these. They are definitely more art than toy. They are actually very traditional in style and remind me of some of the work that I saw recently at the Japanese pavilion at LACMA. There is an entire room of hand-carved, miniature, polished wooden toys from the 17th-19th century. They also have a really nice lacquered stationary box that also features mother-of-pearl inlay. So it is no wonder that the prices on these artisan toys range from $750-$1,440! My favorites are Koi - Special Edition [pictured right], which has some beautiful pink mother-of-pearl inlay and Guardian of Organ [pictured center], which features some really nice iridescent mother-of-pearl inlay. If I were a rich man, yaidal-deedal-didle-dum! My birthday is coming up, maybe one of my rich friends will get me one of these. Yeah, right! Anyway, back to the job hunt.