Wednesday, June 30, 2010

R.I.P. Rammellzee

Another HipHop Legend leaves the circle. Rammellezee lost his fight
against cancer last night.
R.I.P. !



Always ahead of his time, New York artist and performer Rammellzee
was born 1960 in Far Rockaway, Queens. Credited with being one of the
inventors of graffiti art in the late 1970’s as well as one of the original
hip hop artists from the New York area who introduced specific vocal
styles which date back to the early 1980s. His influence can still be
heard in contemporary artists such as The Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill
and his legendary hip-hop single “Beat Bop” with K-Rob was financed
by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and has become one of the most
sought after hip hop releases ever.



In the mid-80’s, Rammellzee became associated with a group of artists
who painted or tagged in a style known as East Village wild style. This
was an illegible, dynamic style of writing letters derived originally from
the Gothic script of Medieval manuscripts. In 1982, he appeared in the
seminal hip hop documentary Wildstyle by Charlie Ahearn, his fame in
graffiti circles was established when he painted New York subway trains
with Dondi, OU3, and Ink 76, and Doctor Revolt. Rammellzee’s graffiti
and artwork are based on his theory of Gothic Futurism, which describes
the battle between letters and their symbolic warfare against any
standardizations enforced by the rules of the alphabet; his treatise,
“Iconic Panzerisms”, details an anarchic plan by which to revise the role
and deployment of language in society.


Rammellzee’s work has been exhibited internationally. His work is in the
collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He performs in self-
designed masks and costumes of different characters of his own creation,
one featured within his board art named “Reaper Grimm”.”



Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Nike Clog Story


In febuary 1981 Phil Knight sent Rob Strasser to Holland with the
instruction "Sell shoes". When Strasser arrived at his Amsterdamn base he
quickly found that Nike had a bad quality reputation amongst european
consumers due specifically its production in Korea, image suffered.
In America, Nike's Volume came from people wearing athletic shoes to
supermarkets and bars. In Europe, life was more formal and sneakers
weren't street fashion. Adidas owned the soccer market, their quality was
perceived as better and the product was cheaper. To combat the Adidas
market Strasser tried to sell the American dream to Europe through
running, Nike's heartbeat. He targeted the largest frontline populated
country the U.K, 55 million and made Britian's premier distance runner of
the 70's and later BBC athletics TV commentator Brendon Foster head of
the U.K operations. Foster and Strasser soon realised that to beat Adidas
it would have to be football, they signed a deal with English football club
Aston Villa and built a soccer boot in Nike's British factory, Barwen. Villa
made it to the final in 1982 against Bayern Munich, it was Nike Vs Adidas!
Peter Withe scored Villa's winning goal and Nike a name from nowhere
held a loft the European Cup.

During Strasser's first year in Europe he purchased blank Dutch wooden
clogs and had them sprayed and stencilled at the U.K factory with the
Nike logo and matchstick heel company name.
Strasser shipped 30 pairs Nike in Oregon to the most important Nike people
of the time. The clogs were presented at a meeting in Beaverton, each pair
had a specific employees name and shoe size written in pencil on the soles.
The blue and white shoes pictured above owned by Trainerspotter belonged
originally to Lisa Mckillips who joined the company in its BRS early days,
10 months before Steve Prefontain's fatal car accident in 1975. Lisa was
and still is a 10k runner, Mckillips is currently Phil's secretary also.


*Thanks to Lisa Mckillips and Nike archive's for their help in uncovering the story behind
the unofficial Nike wooden shoes.

Monday, June 28, 2010

In the Twilight


Wenn Licht und Schatten Plätze tauschen

Saturday, June 26, 2010

CMD @ Mad Flavor

I already posted a flyer some time ago about the CMD Exhibition @ Mad
Flavor.
The Vernissage was yesterday and altough I only had 10 spare
minutes to visitand watch,
it was definetly worth it! Here are some im-
pressions of the displayed art.
For a more detailed
look, you will have to go and see for yourself.






Mad Flavor Berlin

Solmstr. 33

10961 Berlin

(U-Bhf Gneisenau Str.
)

I am a monster magnet

Best outfits, best pyro-liveshow-with-strippers, best powertrip.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

To Have & to Hold



To Have & To Hold is a 'musicmentory' to celebrate the age of vinyl records...
including interviews, fresh graphics and good music.
Directed by Jony Lyle for Goosepimple Productions 2010.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Monday, June 21, 2010

What a night!

…birthday princess//warm-up drinks//last minute dress-change//walking past
endless queues//friends and foes//more alcohol, more smoke//boomin base/
/dance dance dance//shooters and shots//hotstepper//bouncing crowd//high-
heels and sneaker//looks and laughes//boys'n girls//crews united!





















Pictures by Tony Toupet and me

Sunday, June 20, 2010

The Archive

This is already old, but I just had to post it…

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.