Naturally Unnatural

I got an e-mail from my good friends over at Wootini giving me a heads-up on their exhibit schedule for the next few months. Their first exhibit for the new year is titled Unnatural History and will feature works by Bloo Empire and Tony Shiau a.k.a. "Nakanari" (curator of the Funny Club Show).Bloo Empire is a close-to-hometown artist, hailing from Charlotte, North Cackalacka, our largest city. Not my personal favorite city, but I guess I have had some bad experiences there that deter my return. Nakanari originally hails from Taiwan, but has set up shop in Florida. The show will feature paintings, custom 3D pieces and a special Nakanari exclusive only available on opening night. The opening will be Friday, February 10^th from 7 pm until they kick everybody out. Uzi and TJ of "Family" will be providing the beats, as usual. You can get info about the rest of the upcoming shows on Wootini's News page.

Get Alife Online

New Alife online store The Upset now up. Get it now while it's hot. This is the definition of Limited Ed. Some pieces have already sold out.[via Freshness]

New Kid In Town

There's a new urban vinyl toy store in town ('town' in this case, being the internet), Fugitive Toys, set to stir up the pot a little. They sent me an e-mail with their press release letting me know about their new urban vinyl community and toy store. Their website is meant to be a community for collectors to come together to communicate. Visitors can create their own groups, befriend others, suggest toys, message each other, and much more.

“By allowing the collectors to have their own individual groups, we’ve allowed them to expand on and specialize in topics not achievable on your average forum,” says owner Josh Pigford. “We wanted to give toy collectors a chance to really bring in non-collectors and let them experience the community that’s involved with this.”

Sounds cool to me. The store has a large selection of vinyl toys ranging from the latest Dunnys to older, classic In-Crowd figures. Just one more place on the internet to get your urban vinyl fix on.

It Hurts

A couple of things I forgot yesterday while waiting for Blogger's maintenance to end so I could post. First off, the new issue of Music Hurts, their third, has gone live. It includes a free 'digital supplement'; As Told by Others, "an astonishingly perfect homage to Johnny Cash, realised through film, sound, images, graphic fiction, and the odd bit of inspirational typing." Featuring visionaries as diverse as JT LeRoy, Futureheads, Cut Copy, Hedi Slimane, Shepard Fairey, Aisle 16, Sylvie Simmons, Rob Hann and Woof Wan-Bau. They grapple with video, audio, illustration, images and words, offering wonderful contemporary interpretations on the influence and inspiration provided by the Man In Black. This issue also includes fine and far-reaching coverage of wedding DJs, Dennis Wilson, the law, lounge lizards and Belgium, alongside great art, beautiful images and our brilliant partnership with iTunes to bring you tracks that inspired the creation of the issue; including Peaches, Frank Sinatra, the Pixies, Devendra Barnhart, James Taylor, Chic, Spiller, British Sea Power, David Toop, and Derek & Clive.

Next, in honor of Valentine's Day (usually my least favorite holiday because I only get gifts from my mother, but this year I have a girlfriend which should make it a whole lot better), Threadless is having a contest for the lonely losers out there to win a date with Threadless. According to Threadless, "Boys and girls are both welcome to submit - beggars can't be choosers! To be eligible for the contest, you must be at least 21 years of age and reside in the continental United States. There is, of course, no purchase to enter, although you must be a member of the Threadless community to enter." Just for submitting a love letter to Threadless (if you are one of the two lucky Grand Prize winners chosen), you will receive round trip tickets for two to see the Threadless offices, eat dinner with the Threadless crew at Ballo, party in the VIP suite at Crobar, spend the night at the W Hotel, and get $250 in spending cash to enjoy in downtown Chicago. Twenty First Prizes of a $20 Threadless.com gift certificate will also be chosen. The contest ends at 11:59 pm Central Time on February 3^rd. Sounds like a sweet deal to me.

That's all for now, but I will be back later to write about the new Kidrobot 11 Valentine's Day figure.

What The F#@k!

Damn! Blogger has been down most of the day today and I have so many good things to share with you fine people. I'm glad they have finally finished whatever maintenance they needed to do that took from yesterday at 4:00pm PST until just a few minutes ago. They said it would only take half an hour, but it has taken nearly 24. Just like that show with Kiefer Sutherland. Whose brother Rogue went to Princeton with my brother Seth. Who was presented the award for Best Narrative Short at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival by Kyra Sedgewick. Who is married to... Kevin Bacon.

Anyway, enough of that for now. The first thing I gotta' share is the Cut & Paste 2: Live Art Jam (not Electric Boogaloo, but similar) featuring artists Tristan Eaton, Travis Millard, David Ellis, Kenji Hirata, tattooist Troy Denning, and DJ's Rich Medina and Spinna at the Supper Club in NYC (240 W 47th St. between Broadway & 8th Ave.) on Saturday, February 4^th at 11pm. $20 general admission / $15 with RSVP. Must be 21 or older. Limited complimentary beer provided by Budweiser (yum?)! Personally, I have always enjoyed painting in front of a live audience, and DJ's would make it even better, so I think this will be quite a fun event.

Next up, I received an e-mail from Liz Nord today, letting me know that her documentary Jericho's Echo: Punk Rock in the Holy Land is now available on DVD for sale exclusively at www.jerichosecho.com. Its worldwide retail release in stores won't be until August of this year, so until then this is the only place to get it. The DVD features Liz's behind-the-scenes of the movie's screening in Israel last year. I haven't seen it yet, and can't afford to buy any DVD's at the moment, but as soon as it comes to my local Visart Video I will be sure to rent and enjoy it.


Lastly, Kidrobot announced the release of their new Acid Head Dunny by Tim Biskup which will happen today, January 26^th! I sure do love acid. Anybody got any? Anyway, the Acid Head Dunny will be a Kidrobot LA and Rotofugi exclusive. The release of this Dunny coincides with Tim Biskup's art opening at the Kidrobot LA store. The rest of the LA Dunny Series will be released on February 2^nd with a party at Gallery 1998 in LA that will feature original canvases, customs, and appearances by Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Shepard Fairey, Joe Ledbetter, Buff Monster, Thomas Han, Nic Cowan, and more.

Well, that's all for now. I'm pretty sure I missed some stuff, but this whole Blogger maintenance thing has really thrown me for a loop. Send me an e-mail if I missed anything.

So Much Stuff

So little time. I got a lot of work today, so I'm going to try to make this quick. First, I got an e-mail from Assault! Design today letting me know that they have a couple of new Limited Ed. button badges in stock. Badges! Badges! We don't need no stinkin' badges! Unless of course they are as cool as these two. First off is the Limited Ed. Assault Soldier button badge [pictured above, left], featuring a play on the Jordan logo using a soldier with a helmet and a gun instead of Michael Jordan with a basketball. Are they trying to tell us something about the nature of society, or is it just for fun? Second is the Limited Ed. "I Rock Deadstock" button badge [pictured above, right]. According to Assault, "If you rock those vintage deadstock kicks, you need to let people know!"

I also received an e-mail from Wootini this morning letting me know that their latest figure release, the Limited Ed. Squire vinyl figure by Jermaine Rogers, will be available for pre-order very soon. It comes in four different flavors: the Regular Squire, limited to 600, the Shadow Squire, limited to 250, the G.I.D. Squire, limited to 50, and the Clear "The Stalker" Squire, limited to 25. Pictures of each of them are below.

Living On Cloud 360

I wrote about this earlier, but I got an e-mail from my cousin Scott reminding me that the new Air Max collection, including the new Air Max 360, was released this weekend with quite a bit of fanfare. I am not a huge fan of the Air Max, like I said before, I prefer more old skool kicks, like these Hemp Nike Dunk Lows available at select Journeys locations, but Solebox in Germany is getting the Air Max Evolution Pack in stock coming up on Thursday, January 26^th and I am quite fond of the new Air Max 360 Evolution [pictured above]. There isn't any information about it on their website, other than a picture, but it appears to be geared for the great outdoors with what looks like a brown, laser-cut leather upper and heavy-duty lugs on the sole for better off-road traction. Of course, you wouldn't want to get these Limited Ed. kicks dirty by dragging them through the mud. Also, if I were going to get a new pair of sneakers from Journeys, I would get these Hemp Rasta Adidas Superstar II's.

A.G.N.S.

Here's a little something that has gotten me all randy this morning. Maybe it will get your blood up as well. Today's Daily Candy is about a new line of panties appropriately titled Sexy Panties and Naughty Knickers, or S.P.A.N.K. for short. If you are anything like me, than you are almost blind and your palms are covered with fur... and you appreciate a nice pair of panties and a good spanking. According to Daily Candy S.P.A.N.K. are, "The brainchild of Pom Lampson (a funky young Brit photog who’s also the cousin of It model Liberty Ross), it’s a line of Parisian-inspired retro briefs, bras, and camis that packs quite a punch." I don't know if "punch" is the appropriate word to use in this situation. People usually frown on black eyes at dinner parties. But spanking is a different story, as long as you don't leave too bad a mark. Remember, psychological abuse is much more effective and only leaves deep, inner scars. Anyway, these sleek silk and elegant lace panties feature modern, wearable shapes with no bulgy bows or ruffles. S.P.A.N.K. also produces simple, well-cut cotton boxers for men, so we don't feel so left out. These sexy underthings are available online at sexypantiesandnaughtyknickers.com. Now, I've got a monkey around here somewhere that needs a good spanking.

Cap-A-Toe

I got an e-mail from my sis, Leia, about CAP USA Sportswear in Harlem. Apparently, according to Daily Candy, CAP USA will paint anything on your kicks... for a price. For $110 for bring-your-owns or $220 for a pair of their Nike Air Force 1's, they will spray paint, reupholster, or emblazon your footwear with colors, dyes, fabrics, textured paints, or photo images of your choice. Or you can choose from their in-house collection. If I could, I would want to get a pair of Wicked Wicked Wilson Pickett memorial Nike Dunk Lows. Just another reason for me to move up to NYC. CAP USA Sportwear is located at 112 West 125th Street, at Lenox Avenue (212-864-1000).

Toys, Toys, Toys

Didn't they get the message? Designer toys are soooo 2003. But they keep producing them, and they are coming in bunches. I guess some people must still be buying them. Time to move onto the next trend, people. Pottery! Anyway, I got an e-mail from My Plastic Heart yesterday afternoon letting me know about several new toys that they have newly in stock. Here are my three favorite sets:

        

First, Toy2R has several new Qees available through MPH. I really like the cute, street-art-inspired, Limited Ed. MÖTUG series Egg Qees. I especially like the Doze Green, Obey, and CES Eggs [pictured above, L to R]. I paid homage to CES in my painting Entering a City: Redux available for purchase at Wootini. He is probably my favorite old skool tagger. And I really like Doze's part in the movie Wild Style. And I always appreciated Shepherd Fairy's phenomenology campaign experiment with the "Andre the Giant has a posse" stickers.

The next new toys that MPH has that I like are Touma's new Limited Ed. Aniballoon vinyl figures produced by Wonderwall. They are so chubby and cute. If I wasn't so manly I would get the one with the pink flocking [pictured above, left] and sleep with it beside me on my pillow. I also really like the panda [pictured above, center], but it is already sold out. I'm sure the others will sell out quickly, as well.

Lastly, MPH has the new Limited Ed. LMAC (a.k.a. Les Minimal Autistic Children) Gehenom Zombies vinyl figures produced by Flying Cat. These removeable-head zombies are ready to bash your brains in, with their articulated arms and club accessory, and then eat them. Luckily, there were only 100, 200, or 300 pieces of each version created, unlike the zombies in George A. Romero's Land of the Dead. My favorites are the Reebok Exclusive, Candy Creature, and of course, Glow Version [pictured above, L to R].