Kahlil Almustafa is from Queens, a place he describes as being located between New York City and Nowhere. “[It's] now overpopulated with Crown Fried Chickens, Popeye’s Chickens, Chester’s Chickens and take-out Chinese food stores that sell chicken wings and French fries as if it were the national dish of China. Queens, the home of bootleg DVD collections, 99-cent stores, birds chirping, sirens blazing, subprime mortgage crisis, suburban schizophrenia.”
If you didn’t notice, Almustafa has a way with words. His book Growing Up Hip Hop has been in a stack of books I’ve been meaning to check out for a long time– and I’m damn glad I pulled it aside this evening and dug right in.
There’s no better price than free with the current economic climate, especially when it comes with a laugh. Two recent animated spots for the video chat service TokBox feature relationship phone follies that could use some visual interaction (including one that starts with flowers and ends up being lost in translation.) Produced by Mekanism and written by Drew Hoolhorst, the brief videos are obviously ads trying to convince you to sign up for the free chat and video mail service — but at least they’re funny. Your personalized TokBox link can be added to your blog or social network profile, making it easy (and cost effective) to share your own romantic faux paux.
We’ve been following the work of Neil Duerden for a few years now. So we were thrilled when he launched some updates to his website and prints. Neil is known mostly for his stunning work combining organic photographs with explosive colorful scenes. His new work features his amazing ability to take images to new levels and almost other worlds of color. Check out his new works on his portfolio site or his blog. He’s opened up a few of his images to be purchased as prints from Click for Art.
Patagonia’s refreshed Tin Shed site is what every branded microsite strives to be — beautiful, informational, and chock full of multimedia content to keep you coming back. Built to replicate the shed where the outdoor equipment retailer first made climbing gear, the site is a hub for information about environmental awareness and great historical footage of the company’s founding members — overalls and all. Whether video of surfer/author Gerry Lopez reading from his memoir Surf is Where You Find It is your bag, or striking images of virgin summits in Alaska are more of interest to you, the effort will make you want to get off your chair and go surfing/fishing/ascending.
We’ve seen this pop up in a few places, but wanted to remind everyone about the Double Label series of collaborations. DC Shoes has teamed up with famed French designer agnès b (unusual yes, but their record shows support for contemporary artists across a wide spectrum of mediums: graffiti, illustration, music, movies, etc). A true fusion of their two unique styles, the partnership has yielded three colorways (blue, sesame, and black). To celebrate the project, the brands will present FORWARD3, a graphic design exhibit. The shoes will launch March 5, 2009 during Paris Fashion Week before traveling to New York for the March 31, 2008 release. Only 1500 pairs will be released worldwide in select sneaker boutiques.
Kahlil Almustafa is from Queens, a place he describes as being located between New York City and Nowhere. “[It's] now overpopulated with Crown Fried Chickens, Popeye’s Chickens, Chester’s Chickens and take-out Chinese food stores that sell chicken wings and French fries as if it were the national dish of China. Queens, the home of bootleg DVD collections, 99-cent stores, birds chirping, sirens blazing, subprime mortgage crisis, suburban schizophrenia.”
