I did an interview with Charlie Marks of JinjaBeard a couple of days ago. For those who don’t know, JinjaBeard is a great little menswear/streetwear blog based in Sheffield, UK that highlights a lot of the best up-and-coming and lesser known brands out there.
If you care about what you wear we recommend you subscribe to JinjaBeard because it’s almost guaranteed that Charles will unearth an amazing/exciting brand you have never even heard of before.
You can check out the full interview here.
This is for the writer in you that also happens to be aesthetic detail obsessed. Stationary company Smythson, artist André and retailer Colette have gotten together on this journal. The hardbound, black book features gold detailing of André’s art on the front and the marks of the three companies stamped on the back. The piece is available through Colette. Here’s a little history on Smythson.
September 29th 1887, Frank Smythson started a high quality and eponymous stationery line using the highest quality leather. 122 years later, and after producing for the imperial Japanese family, and governors from Bombay, Bengal, and Madras, among others, find the famous notebooks, with evocative titles and subtle colors, exclusively at colette for France.
The front cover artwork and detailed pictures ahead.
(more…)
“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you.”
- Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
Die Antwoord has been popping up everywhere recently with people just discovering this insane “rap-rave” crew. Our previous post about them has been the most popular this month so we wanted to bring to attention a very entertaining interview Vice did with them all the way back in September 2009 (respect for finding these guys so early).
Click here for the full interview. Their album “$O$” is dropping soon. Below are some of my favorite quotes and exchanges from the interview. Not safe for work.
VICE: Umm, rave’s been a bit quiet lately.
Yo-Landi: It’s never been quiet in our homes.
Ninja: Here in South Africa the taxis play rave music fokken loud my bru. You can hear it from the next city when the taxi comes through, you hear DOOM DOOM DOOM—they gooi the rap-rave megamixes pumping like a nightclub. So my main inspiration is the taxis. The whole album is based on the sound it’s gonna make when it’s pumping through a taxi—It’s that high energy shit you can’t compare.
Yo-Landi: Our whole philosophy basically is, like, drive fast and play kak music loud. It’s a zef rap-rave jol, with lasers, smoke machines, 3D graphics, rappers… and everyone’s gonna be there.
VICE: That may be true sir, but nobody from South Africa ever really makes it overseas. You do realise that?
Ninja: Ja, check it, but it’s like the long distance runners from Ethiopia—they always come to the Olympics and fuck everyone up heavy! Now why is that possible my blaar? It’s ‘cos in Ethiopia the air is fucking thin. There’s like fuck-all air there basically, so when they come to the levels of the Olympics they’ve got like super oxygenated lungs and fuck everyone up ten-nil. So that’s basically how I’m feeling about this; South Africa’s the fucking shit. All my inspiration, all my funk, all my flavour is from here but also we’re training at minimum oxygen levels, so I’m basically like a Ethiopian runner just waiting for the fucking Olympics. Give me the mic, give me the baton and we’ll see whose gonna take these motherfuckers out. I’m feeling that shit, I’ve got fucking goosebumps my bru.
Yo-Landi: Mmm, these pickled onions are very nice
Ninja: Ja these onions are pumping.
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DOWNLOAD: Die Antwoord – Enter The Ninja
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DOWNLOAD: Die Antwoord – Fish Paste
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DOWNLOAD: Die Antwoord – I Don’t Need You
Today, Handsome Clothing was featured in Yonge Street Media, a Toronto-based online publication. Check out the article for some insight into the company by journalist Julia Belluz.
“Yonge Street is a weekly online magazine named after the Toronto region’s main street and the spine that ties us altogether. Our mission is to see the future in what is working well in the Toronto region today. We will focus on the talent, innovation, diversity and quality of life stories in the region – all the things that create incredible demand for this place and keep it growing. Yonge Street also seeks to publish the news in a way that reflects the community and helps us all understand it better.”
Photo compliments of: Tanja Tiziana
I recently read a great article about “chillwave” as a genre and the effects of labeling a burgeoning scene over at The Bygone Bureau. A great read for fans of the genre that want to know its (very short) history & origins, and for people new to the scene who want to learn more about it. Below is a snippet but you can read the full article here.
“Since the middle of 2009, much of the online music community has been abuzz with talk of a burgeoning genre known as “chillwave” (a.k.a. glo-fi, hypnagogic pop). Acts like Washed Out, Memory Tapes, and Neon Indian were crowned the consensus forerunners of the scene, and observers scrambled to cover the phenomenon. What typifies this new sound? Here’s an excellent description from The Stranger:
Sonically, this stuff is generally as mellow and relaxed as its name implies, hazy and soft, with lo-fi washes of guitar, synth, and voice all blurring together; delay and echo are common traits, as is looping and the use of samples. Aesthetically, it’s bright but faded, beachy and pastoral. The genre’s great unifying theme is a kind of fond nostalgia for some vague, idealized childhood. Its posture is a sonic shoulder shrug, a languorous, musical “whatevs” (perhaps inspired by the bleak job prospects, especially for would-be musicians, in our current crap economy).”
Interview Magazine dropped an interview and photoshoot with Jay-Z. He covers some of his views on staying relevant, Kanye’s passion, politics and Quintin Terentino.
JAY-Z: Yeah, but that’s on a surface level—I’m talking about something deeper than that. I never even told him this, but I remember that Eminem came into the studio when we made “Moment of Clarity,” which he produced, on The Black Album. So here’s Eminem. It’s 2003, I think The Eminem Show had come out, and he was like the biggest rapper in the world—he sold like 20 million records worldwide or some ridiculous number. But when he came to the studio, I remember I hugged him, and I could feel that he had on a bulletproof vest. I couldn’t imagine being that successful. I mean, he’s a guy who loves rap and wanted to be successful his whole career. Then he finally gets it, and there’s this dark cloud over him. There’s this big beef between 50 Cent and Ja Rule—and between real people, too—so he has to worry about that. He has to be afraid to walk around New York freely. I was like, “Here it is. You’ve gotten everything you wanted, and now you’re a prisoner of your own fame.” That’s sad to me—that you have to walk around in a bulletproof vest after you’ve sold 20 million records. So, the point being, what I’m interested in is the thing under the thing. You can think you know where he was at when he said those raps, but I saw another level of it personally, and I found it sad.
Wallpaper* has come out with City Guide Apps for the iPhone & iPod Touch. Available now for a $3.99 purchase price, The City Guides “present a tightly edited, discreetly packaged list of the best a location has to offer the design conscious traveler. here is a precise, informative, insider’s checklist of all you need to know about the world’s most intoxicating cities.”
Current available City Guides: Berlin, New York, Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Amsterdam and Milan
Travel experts and international correspondents have done all the work so you can impress people with your knowledge of exceptional restaurant, bars, hotels, sites, stores, architecture and design. The Guide also includes up-to-the-minute information. Go make lots of friends.
As we grow older, we tend to invest in products that will last. The same can be said about durable, well made clothing. Here to guide us in the right direction are the good people at INVENTORY. They’ve recently released their first magazine Volume 01 Number 01 dedicated to “products, crafts and culture.”
“INVENTORY is a place to take stock of the items, brands and people that we connect with and find special. With a genuine appreciation for details and quality, INVENTORY is a curation of ideas in product, craft and culture.”
Ryan Willms
Creative Director / Founder
I suggest heading to their Stockroom to pick up Volume 01 as well as many other classic American pieces they’ve created through exclusive partnerships.
Check out more pictures in the “continued reading”.
Check the links for full reviews.
Live Shows:
1. Seinfeld
From the moment he sprinted dramatically on stage one couldn’t help but smile. Hearing his voice live was surreal. Hours of sitting in front of your television watching Seinfeld suddenly came rushing through the forefront of your consciousness causing a single tear to descend. Once everybody got over the fact that he does exist in three dimensions, the laughter was continuous.
2. Weezer
Rivers went bonkers throughout the entire show. He’s departed from his usual overtly awkward stage moves to what seems to be a satire of today’s rock hero. His t-shirt was sans sleeves, oddly places tattoos blotched his gym-visited arms and every few songs he felt the need to grab a New Era Fifty-Nine Fifty fitted hat from a fan in the crowd to wear on his visibly balding crown.
3. Jay-Z
Hov elevated out from under the stage; blacked out Jordans, black pants, black T, black leather jacket, black sunglasses, two Jesus-pieces, and a Jason Halloween mask. He tossed off the mask to show a more confident face. Run This Town blasted around him. One couldn’t help but be enveloped by his expression. It read: “I am the best thing that I could have imagined being. I came up from cocaine-dealing in Brooklyn to selling out shows around the world. Thousands of people get together to see me recite my verses on stage. I am great.” It was convincing.
4. The Killers
Flowers is a beautiful man. He came out and one could not help but aspire to be more like him. You stand there in awe wishing your pants were as tight as his, wishing your outfit was as well chosen, wishing you could write lyrics so desperate, for this night you even wished you were a few inches shorter just to be more like Brandon.
Two songs in, Adam made dreams come true as he put his mic-stand aside and flew through a repertoire of microphone slinging tricks. He threw his mic up into the air only to catch it the moment it was time for him to deliver a verse. He swung his mic outwards and it coasted in circles, wrapping around his neck only to make its way to his mouth so he could drop the chorus. He threw his mic away and whipped it back in an instant; around his elbow, into his palm. Perfection.
Albums:
1. Kid Cudi – Man on The Moon (The End of Day)
Man On The Moon stands as one of the best albums of this year without a doubt. Cudi’s debut has made it on to all the biggest lists of the year including the Grammy Nominations List and rightfully so. The album is close to perfect. It stretches the confines of hip hop with new collaborations and direction, but without the loose sound of experimentation. The concept is great and followed through and there’s nothing better than sincere lyrics that gradually envelope you over months of listening.
2. David Ace Dean – Imaginary Girls
David Ace’s newest album, Imaginary Girls is a available as a book/CD combination. The book is handmade and available through Montreal-based WithWords Press. The limited production piece features lyrics and poetry from David Ace combined with illustrations from Stu Getz. Beyond that very cool concept, the album is phenomenal over time. Subtle production and accessible lyrics will leave you relaxed and contemplative of girls that never had the chance to get away.
Raditude has taken some slack for being a gimmicky record after listening to Rivers’ thirst for Patron and a Lil Wayne guest spot. This is false. It was apparent that Rivers isn’t trying to convince anybody he’s cool. Raditude is a compilation of great live tracks and a slight variation on the packaging that contains the Weezer message: We’re not really cool dudes; we’re just doing our thing.
Movies:
1. Inglorious Basterds
Tarantino’s newest movie is as masterpiece. Anti-Anti-Semitic violence never looked so good. The graphic movie stays true to Quintin with great talking heads scenes, great cinematography and action. That’s all that’s going to be said. Go see it.
2. (500) Days of Summer
This was a surprisingly good movie and should not be mistaken with a typical love story. Accessible characters, artistic shots and the best soundtrack of the year make this worth seeing for sure.
3. Precious
This movie is very powerful and absolutely devastating throughout. It’s put together very well combined with exceptional acting it’s a great film contemplating the power of human intentions – for better or worse.
