May 10, 2008

{     Ice Cube's Death Certificate     }    

After careful examination of his career trajectory, in addition to current market trend analysis and extensive demographic research, it becomes clear that the strength of Ice Cube's street knowledge rested in that drip-droppy Jheri Curl of his. I realize that some of you may be scoffing at the notion of Cube being some sort of modern-day ghetto fabulous Samson, but to those people I say look at the facts. Cube's Soul-Glo-era is virtually impeccable: Straight Outta Compton with NWA (aka the Voltron of Jheri Curl), Amerikkka's Most Wanted, Kill at Will and Boyz N Da Hood are all steady drippin’ perfection and activated like a mufucka. This fool shaves his head and what do we get: Anaconda, “We Be Clubbin”, and Are We There Yet? You do the math.

But "Hey!" you might say, "What about Death Certificate!?!"

May 5, 2008

{     Haribo - Happy Cola     }    

Haribo have proven that they truly are the Cadillac of the gummi candy universe. The German candy wunderkinds most famous for their Original Gold-Bears, have managed to achieve a sort of gummi-nirvana with these delicious 1 1/4" cola-flavored confections. Sticking with the "firmer is better" gummi-philosophy they are known for, Haribo's little bottle-shaped nuggets of goodness retain a wonderful level of pliability, releasing ample flavor with each mouth-crush. They are also delightful to look at, resembling an old-fashioned glass soda bottle half full of cola, easily the most whimsical and charming candy design on display in the wide-ranging world of gummi candy products. And as fabulous as they appear, the taste is even more phenomenal. The cola flavoring has a nice pungency, the soft spiciness of cinnamon meets the mellow sweetness of caramelized sugar for a rich overall taste that falls a bit closer to Coke than to Pepsi. It's nicely complex, revealing darker and lighter flavor notes as it is further chewed, and the fact that the same ingredients are used here as in real cola allows it to come closer to it's intended flavor than fruit gummis, which are often forced to shoot for chemical approximations that fall a bit shy. In my experience, the Happy Cola stands as the pinnacle of gummi achievement.

May 1, 2008

{     Common Market - Black Patch War EP     }    

Let's just go ahead and get this out of the way upfront: This is not an EP. I know it's labeled as such in the press release and that it will be listed as an EP when it hits retail, but trust me when I tell you that there's more material and depth layered into the 7 tracks that make up Black Patch War than what you'll find in a dozen full-lengths from the reigning Top 40 crunkbuster crowd. This thing drops with a weight that can only be described as monumental, courtesy of lyrics penned, chewed up and spat back by RA Scion with devastating production from Sabsi (of Blue Scholars fame). The energy between these two is chocolate and peanut butter, start to finish, the whole piece has that "MC/producer collab hall-of-fame" feel, you're def hearing a couple of heavy hitters at the top of their game. And this is just the lead-in to a full-length?
That's the word, with their Tobacco Road LP set to hit in September.
It's blowing my mind to think it's even possible to follow this piece up that quickly, but the foundation is definitely here and after seeing what these two are capable of in 7 tracks there's no doubt that they've got the momentum to keep it going. Black Patch War is one of the smartest, freshest and most listenable slabs of hip-hop I've heard in a long while.

April 26, 2008

{     Chicago Art Fair Snapshots 2008.     }    

Ahhh... Chicago. City of Angels, The Big Apple, Wild, Wonderful Chicago, The Keystone City, City of the Rising Sun, Home of the Chicagalites. Da' Hares! If you can make it there you can make it anywhere right? Mmmm... Wait a second...What's the catch phrase for Chicago? Isn't the Blustery Bear their mascot?

Hell, I don't remember. What I do remember is that I took a buttload of snapshots at Art Chicago and The NEXT fair. Art Chicago voted for Bush in the last 2 elections but wishes it could take back the second time. NEXT chanted "Yes we can!" all the way to election day.

Check out what I mean here.

April 11, 2008

{     Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Pershing     }    

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is not for everyone. Well, it is pop music which is supposed to be for everyone but a good majority of people still hate things that sound poppy. I am not one of those people. My love for bands like Tilly and the Wall has made me as tolerant of pop music as they come. With that said, Pershing is an acceptable follow up to SSLYBY's first album Broom.

April 10, 2008

{     Tinbot     }    

I have a lot of music on my iPod. Really, a lot. Presently I have over eleven thousand tracks on my iTunes. I actually believe if I’m kept apart from my iPod for too long the results could be disastrous, perhaps fatal, as so many of my fellow iPod addicts know. Now comes a solution to one of our greatest quandaries: how to safely store our iPods. The Tinbot line takes the idea of storage and makes it art.

April 7, 2008

{     DicE Magazine     }    

I bought my first motorcycle after hearing a local poet give a reading. One of his poems was about his vintage Triumph. I saved up as much as I could and was lucky enough to find someone that took pity on me and sold me a bike with matching numbers that was not a complete horrorshow. Looking forward to finding a group of likeminded folks that could share the love of vintage riders, I sort of forgot that the rest of the world was in the middle of drooling over marathon viewings of “American Chopper” in between marathon wank-fests over back issues of “Easy Rider”.

. . . no joke, people, if I have to talk about the merits of a windshield and a radio on a motorcycle to one more dentist wearing a leather bandanna and a $1,000 leather jacket I’ll lose my shit and go on a rampage. You’ll know it was me because you’ll be able to follow the trail of motor oil from my bike all the way back to my ghetto hideaway.

April 3, 2008

{     New York Art Fair Snapshots     }    

Another round of art fairs wound up here in New York this past weekend and again crowndozen.com was on the beat taking snapshots of the cream. I had Sunday afternoon, one charged camera battery and a gig of SD card space to get it all so the fact that the pickin's were slim this season wasn't a problem.

Here are the fairs I had time to see:

The Armory Show
Pulse New York
Scope New York
Bridge New York
Volta New York
LA Art in New York

Other blogs have already reported their favorites with much gusto. Check out artinfo.com, artfagcity.com and the always solid artnet.com for their excellent reporting. And, of course, if you want to do some in-crowd star gazing artforum.com never fails.

In case you don't have time to go through all those links here's some opinionated Cliff Notes:

Pulse muscled their way up the food chain. Scope sacrificed edge for austerity and sank. The Armory while doing away with secondary market chaff added nothing groundbreaking or spikey to augment thus falling sadly flat. Volta had some mojo but was difficult to get to in midtown (across from the Empire State Building? What were they thinking?). The LA Art Fair was there. Bridge stunk as it usually does. Attendance and sales were down across the board as recession jitters kept folks who don't have to worry about that kind of nonsense from writing too many checks. Quality and ingenuity were down but so was quantity which felt good. There's been too much art for a while now. I hope the recession thins the herd more. We need it.

April 1, 2008

{     Insight • Spring-Summer o8'     }    

Insight is a label I can only describe as obscenely cool. Definitely unique in urban fashion design, you have a good chance of finding something completely original with the Insight label on it. Dressing for the warmer seasons will never be so easy, with the styles Insight is sporting. With a mix of retro cut and new current art and patterns, Insight has managed to really make a cool spring and summer line.

March 23, 2008

{     Steel Cake     }    

Steel Cake is the brainchild of Matthew Burnett, a designer dedicated to bringing street-level innovation to watchmaking while eschewing the bling-bling bravado of the prevailing urban aesthetic. His pieces are smooth, solid and functional, with an emphasis on shapes, materials and forms that both overtly and subtly challenge industry standards.

The Steel Tag series (seen above) is a stellar example of this, combining the familiar image of the dog-tag with a fully functional chronometer. The result is a casual and cool approach to timekeeping- cast in polished steel, it looks great without falling prey to diamond-encrusted pretension. The piece has significant heft and hangs solidly around the neck, a unique but unassuming accessory. The Steel Cake logo is frosted across the surface, and the Tag has an almost industrial utilitarian feel to it, in keeping with the military origin of the dog tag. With that origin in mind, I'm wondering if maybe this isn't also a bit of a sly commentary on fleeting mortality, on the tendency of modern man to clock-watch every minute of one's perpetually diminishing time on earth. The Steel Tag serves as the perfect reminder of the still-beating heart that rests beneath the chest it adorns, it's the signature timepiece for the kind of person who couldn't give a fuck what time it is.

{     Komodo     }    

There are very few smaller companies that have truly impressed me, but Komodo is definitely one of them. Started in 1988 from a small Indonesian island, Komodo was the venture of Joe Komodo in an effort to create some jobs for himself and his friends. Komodo is a brand that follows an ideal that is beyond the shallow minded designs of its competitors.

{     Why? live!     }    

Ever since I found about the Anticon label and the various groups and projects that fall under the name of Anticon I knew I liked these cats. I think my first encounter with them was when I heard Doseone on the track Drawbridge with Aesop Rock, I'm not sure though, that could be a lie.