A-Trak is back to prove he is North America’s best DJ/Producer. After DJ AM tragically passed away he became the new hope for the auspicious title of “The Peoples DJ”. Starting as Kanye West’s personal DJ, A-Trak has been able to blur lines between popular music such as hip-hop and the previously more underground sounds of electro-house.
On his latest endeavor, a preview of his forthcoming Dirty South Dance 2, he takes Roscoe Dash and Soulja Boy’s “All the Way Turnt Up” and flips it on his head by turning up the BPMs, adding bleepy techno sounds, and a vocal sample from Claude von Stroke’s “Vocal Chords”. The result is fantastic and ready to tear up clubs.
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Ricky Gervais was at Wembley Arena last night in London. The show had elements of Gervais’ classic themes of obesity (he has an interesting solution to the epidemic) and homosexual humour mixed in with his brutal, crude humour.
BUT what made the show just fantastic was his ongoing ability to entertain himself, and his reading/commentary of the classic Biblical tale, Noah’s Ark. Pages projected on the gigantic screen, Gervais questioned how Earth can have over 5 million species of animals when Noah’s Ark just probably wasn’t that big…His commentary of each sentence, the ambiguous relationship between God and Noah and dialogues between the animals was hilarious – 2 toucans discussing if they should walk or fly to the Ark – was stomach hurting funny.
Gervais is definitely something to see when he returns to London in September or during his upcoming North American tour.
Pamela Love is definitely an eye catcher. Her pieces are a beautiful balance of raw imagery and delicacy. They have no gender bias and just seem to always catch my eye in boutiques or on a fellow wrist or finger. Her designs have appeared in countless editorials and she participated in Opening Ceremony’s Where the Wild Things Are special collection.
Check out her interview here with Full Frontal Fashion about her learning process, design aesthetics and her opinions on style and the ongoing significance of jewelry.
We’re big fans of BRAHMS over here at Handsome. Their blend of dreary eyed melodic electro pop hits a lot of spots. This time out they take on the UK’s The Joy Formidable, taking their popular song “Whirring” from indie-rock to a more Postal Service territory.
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BONUS: o0o0o0o also recently released a great remix of the ever popular The Big Pink. Thumbs up.
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Angels & Airwaves played a solid show last night at The Sound Academy in Toronto. Tom, the apparent front-man lead the band through a high energy and dramatic set. He was fueled by the crowd’s ruckus who chose “Tom” as their common chant over “AVA”. It was hard to take time to sympathize with the other band members as most were focused on Tom who debuted his newest dramatic hand gestures and interpretive dance moves.
The band stayed true to their positive message as Tom made sure to drop encouraging words and advice of pursuing dreams inbetween songs. One apparent change from their previous shows was the infiltration of Blink’s influence on Tom’s stage presence. His previously sobering AVA stage mentality was accented with booby jokes and a tongue flailing out of his mouth during his explanation of Love Like Rockets.
The band lived to their expectations and a similar vibe to their previous tours. Highlights and changes included a talking space computer and their new military jackets emblazoned with AVA crests and American flags. After several years of touring it was apparent the band had crowd-pleasing to a science. After Tom’s inspirational words and lyrics he closed the show emotionally singing out, “Torontoooooo kicks the shit out offfff….Vancouver.”
For the graphic designers out there that haven’t had the chance to check out font house You Work For Them, I highly suggest you do. YWFT is a contemporary blend of fonts, stock vectors, brushes, and images created by a community of designers. If you frequent the pages of Need Supply, there’s a good chance you’ve been exposed to their elongated sans serif fonts. Their latest font Burocrata, is a personal favorite. YWFT: “Burocrata is a geometric sans-serif typeface suitable for display / headline purposes. It was influenced by the early mid-century geometric style imposed by Herb Lubalin.”
Additionally, YWFT has been working on an “image blog / community” since 2008 called Buamai that is simply amazing. I suggest taking a moment to check it out (correction: you will need a few hours), and a “word of warning, some images might not be safe for work.” (YWFT) Enjoy.
We’ve been following contemporary activists / humanitarian label Apolis Activism for some time now and are very eager to get our hands on their Spring 2010 release. Personal favorites are the Chambray Shorts and “Classic Button Under.” Hand crafted in California out of 5.5 oz Crisp Italian Chambray, these shorts are sure to complement any summer breeze. Swoop them up here.
“Apolis Activism is an independent contemporary brand that began with dreams and thread. Three brothers — Raan, Shea, and Stenn Parton — created a unique bridge between commerce and sustainable development. Through their travels they discovered stories of struggle and survival from visionaries and activists for change. These experiences shaped their perspective, resulting in a union of ideal and action. They anchored this vision in the word Apolis, which translates as “a citizen of no country” — where there are no flags and no borders, humanity is our common cause and greatest priority.”
“Dropped promo for a season of Tim Burton’s films in a Dutch on-demand tv channel. ”
A video for all the Tim Burton fans out there. The imagery is classic Burton style and probably something you won’t stumble across in his usual repertoire.
Justin Lawrence, a Handsome fan, sent us the video above for no apparent reason other than he is rad, and understands our small obsession with space and space travel. The footage is from Camera E-8 on the launch umbilical tower/mobile launch program of Apollo 11, July 16, 1969. It is an HD transfer from the 16mm original.
The camera is running at 500 fps, making the total clip of over 8 minutes represent just 30 seconds of actual time.
Our recommendation is to turn on HD mode, put on our Outer Space Mix, press play, and then mute the narration. Adventure time.
Verameat – A jewelery line by Vera Balyura features hand-crafted, super cool, detailed pieces out of New York City. After woodcarving as child with her grandfather, and moving from Ukraine to The States, she’s now spawned her exceptional line which has been featured in NYLON magazine and on Zach Galifianakis’ finger.
One of our favourite pieces from Verameat is Scissorhand, a Tim Burton-inspired pendant. Here’s Verameat’s description of the piece:
There are certain films, characters and beautiful objects that just stick in my mind. The scissorhand is one of those things that is such unexpected perfection. This is a homage to one of the best creative mind of our time & his masterpiece work. We all feel we snip a little too much off with our good intentions. Special thanks to Stan Winston who originally came up with the scissorhand idea. Enjoy this everyday reminder of what beauty comes when we least expect it. Hand comes on a 24″ silver chain.
Check out a video ahead showcasing several of their new pieces.
