According to some, the streets are at a crossroads. Not long ago, the art covering the bricks and blank spaces of the city was more likely to get you in trouble than in Christie's, but today's take leans more towards halos than handcuffs. This shift can partially be attributed to the quality of today's work (and the hype that surrounds it) but also, strangely enough, to the financial opportunities that have arisen within graffiti. No matter the game, the rules change when money and fame join the party — and they've certainly started to party with street art.

In order to suss out if these fears had a foundation, we decided to take a sit with Doodles, a 20-year-old out of the Bay Area who we consider a member of the ‘new school' of street artists. He also happens to be in school, adding another interesting element to our interview. Say hello to the future of graf art, readers — it's looking good.

READ MORE…

First, Incase surprised us with their incredibly relevant, timely, and bad ass KRINK/Arkitip collaboration laptop sleeve. Next up, they’re collaborating with Dutch artist Parra. Known for combining bright colors and his mastery of fonts (and in this case it looks like great embroideries), I think we’re really in for a treat. The product will be available for sale in the Arkitip curated section online on the 24th of October. And we can’t wait to see what they do, and who they work with next.

Though is nothing funny about going hungry. The World Food Programme hosted a competition calling for creatives to shoot videos related to the topic. The one that receives the most views by October 16th — World Food Day — will get to document one of the WFP’s relief operations in Asia, Africa, or Latin America. The five finalist videos, all a minute or less long, range from light to intense in tone, and all deliver important messages on the topic. And, if you think solving the world’s hunger problem is too costly consider this: according to Jimena Gamio’s video, it would cost $3 billion. This morning Congress signed a bailout bill for $700 billion.

When crisis takes over a country, its citizens, as history has shown, oftentimes returns to its cultural roots to help find stability in all the chaos. Woodstock, for example, proved that unrest during wartime adds water for creativity to grow. This is the philosophy being promoted at the exciting Antidote: Cultural Actions in Conflict Zones International Seminar taking place in Sao Paulo as we speak, an annual look at how art and culture persist throughout violence and war in rural and urban areas across the world. Documentaries profiling the different people living in favelas across Brazil, what America would be like without immigrants, and violence in Colombia are just some of the films that are being shown at the free event. Sprinkled in between arefilmmaker debates and hip-hop and samba performances (speaking of culture). You can watch one of the more famous docs (above), Falcon: Boys of the Drug Trade, albeit in parts. There’s a weird comfort in knowing good can come out of the bad. The commendable-worthy programming runs till Oct. 23.

If you are in London over the next two months you have to go see JR’s exhibition 28 Millimetres: Women at Lazarides Gallery.This is JR’s first solo show, which might lead you to think he is a ‘rising star’. Maybe he is a little, but most rising stars haven’t had the Tate Modern put one of your images up the side of their building. His work with the Tate and around the world as a street artist involves blowing pictures up and plastering them on walls. Which leads us to his exhibition at Lazarides. JR has always tried to focus on those things that go unnoticed, but shouldn’t. Spending time in Rio de Janerio he became confronted with troubling stories of women being overlooked spite being victims of some serious crimes. His response was to plaster photos of the eyes of these woman across the buildings in Rio. Have a closer look at the image above and you can see sets of eyes asking for help and looking out for one another. The exhibition at Lazarides Greek Street and Charing Cross location. The really cool thing is that the two galleries are linked together by some of JR’s large scale street art work. The exhibition begins today and runs through November 14th.

If you happen to be in Amsterdam in late October, you would do well to check out an exhibition of Evan Hecox’s Urban Abstract, a collection of city life close-ups from cities across the world. You might remember hearing about the Urban Abstract book here earlier this year. The show, which opens on October 24th, features work representing two cities out of the many Evan has already depicted in this series: New York and Amsterdam. The realistic snapshot style offers a unique streetwalking view of the cities. Check it out at Chiellerie.

Josh Kenyon and Colby Nichols have been on our radar (as well as each other’s) for quite some time now. While it’s often said that familiarity breeds
contempt, their familiarity has bred nothing but appreciation of the other’s awesome design work. The two talented artists, who have both contributed to some of the same projects, are now a team. As art directors of the Portland and Chicago offices of Tangible Worldwide, Nichols and Kenyon  have teamed up for their first project, a limited run poster promoting Tangible Chicago. To sneaka closer peak at the work being done at the burgeoning interdisciplinary design agency check out their new site and then stop by their online shop to snag yourself a poster before they’re all gone.

What’s more fun, Mortal Kombat or politics? If you guessed combining both into one amazing web game you are correct. Now is the time for Kung-Fu Election where you can pick your candidate of choice and battle MK style to the presidency. Representing the Democrats is Obama, Michelle and Biden versus McCain, Cindy and Palin. Each fight is to the death and no one “respects anyone’s service to America.” Sadly there aren’t any fishing moves but there are combos. The game is actually put together pretty well and kind of hard. One word of advice: don’t under estimate Palin. She does this roll on the ground thing and sneaks right by with a hockey stick stab. Totally killed me even though I have tons of experience with Moral Kombat from years ago. The game was developed by the awesome programmers at Starvingeyes Advergaming and sponsored by Adom.

“I'm working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it, in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age.”

At the conference he couldn’t provide specifics and it took nearly two years to finally release the story, and it’s now public.  His mission is to create awareness about an extremely drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis which is killing one person every 20 seconds around the world, and it’s completely preventable.  Watch the gripping 3 minute video and help make a difference now, please spread the word.