Banksy vs Bristol Museum

Hey all you UK art fans... everyone's favorite renegade street artist / mad genius Banksy is up to his old tricks again. He'll be displaying a new collection of work at the Bristol Museum for free daily June 13th-August 31st. All of you that won't be making it out across the Atlantic can checkout this sneak peak sizzle reel:

Levi's Powersliding Event @ The Santa Monica Pier Apr 15

Our friends over at Levi's (who to this day remain a go-to and creative Denim brand) and Cornerstone are putting together a wicked event at the Santa Monica Pier next Wed April 15th. For those of you who aren't aware of what "Powersliding" is, checkout this wacky video:



The event will feature top powersliders competing for powerslide top dogg glory, a performance by Matt & Kim, Screen printing by Hit + Run, a Polite in Public Karaoke Photobooth, AND best of all, complimentary food courtesy of everyone's favorite mouth watering goodness, the Kogi BBQ Truck.

Catchya there...

FoundTrack friend Camerin Kelly featured in Evil Monito Online Magazine

FoundTrack's good buddy Camerin Kelly (and a cohort of mine in film projects of days gone by) from Trademark Recordings was just featured in a cool Q&A by Evil Monito Magazine. For those of you that are new to Evil Monito, it's a two part project from which includes 1) a really conscious Online Culture Magazine, and 2) a creative branding / PR agency. This is the collission of one of my favorite Mad Genius' and one of my favorite Tastemaker's and I'm excited to see what the future holds for both of them.

Keep your eyes peeled for a potential guest appearance by Camerin at one of our new Thursdays events that we're hosting w our Puma buddies. Click on the E.M. logo below to checkout the article:

"Detroit's Underground Resistance": Rad Feature on Detroit Techno by Current Media

FoundTrack's friends over at Current Media (specifically TK) just posted this banger of a video profiling Detroit's "Underground Resistance" music collective, who are some of the main pioneers of Techno Music. In TK's own words:

"Underground Resistance is Techno's original highly efficient, aggressive and very strategic minded unit with an extreme approach to image and marketing whose mobile and fiercely competitive company is not dependent on trends, gimmicks or fads as are other forms of music and their related industries are today."

For those of you who aren't familiar with Current, they're a web and DirecTV based channel that features both user generated AND internally produced material (checkout their recently launched collaboration with Rotten Tomatoes featuring FoundTrack friend and all around funnyman Brett Erlich). Kick back and checkout the rad video... we definitely learned a dope thing or two!:



Source- FoundTrack's good buddy Blake... hopefully soon to be a contributor here!

Adam Bobrow makes "Ping Pong" and "Fresh" fit in the same sentence...

I never thought ping pong could be dope until I met our good buddy Adam Bobrow back in my college radio days at USC's KSCR. Every once in a while this funny dude would stop by our underground hip hop show and start busting freestyle raps in Yiddish, thus earning the MC name "Yid-One." It wasn't until a few years later that I could actually remember that he had a real name and this name was Adam Bobrow.

(Getting down with his "Balls of Fury" costar Christopher Walken. Adam was humble and made sure Walken got some screentime as well)

Adam is one of those funny dudes that everyone on campus seemed to know... crazy Trojan Spirit and I imagine if we were in high school together he would have been the mascot or the class clown or maybe both. Anyway a few years after graduating we started hanging out again and it turns out the dude is a renaissance man of sorts. He plays competitive Table Tennis (he actually refereed the Puma PT3 Tournament we covered a few months ago), performs standup comedy, acts (alongside Christopher Walken in "Balls of Fury" at that), AND he can bust a mad dance move. Mister Bobrow's got a great YouTube channel you should all checkout- To get started checkout this wacky video where the dude combines several of his talents and gets at it with some crazy excessive celebration:

(I've never met another Ping Pong Pimp that looks quite like this, and I doubt you have either)

"Found Poem: A True Story"...

FoundTrack friend Robbie Reaves (renaissance man of web design, painting, photography, AND scribbles) just shared this funny little "Found Poem" he encountered while sitting in cafe. Long story short he heard a very random and interesting conversation and began to transcribe it... turns out the conversation ended up making quite the poem.

Source- Cat Soldier

Bill McMullen's "Hype, Hustle, Rip-Off" @ The Constant Gallery

A bunch of the galleries on La Cienega held openings this past Saturday to take advantage of the expected foot traffic from the KAWS opening. One of these spaces that I'm super glad we stumbled upon was The Constant Gallery and the opening they were hosting for artist Bill McMullen. McMullen, an apparently super talented (and clever) designer and illustrator displaying a very cheeky collection of work entitled "Hype, Hustle, Rip-Off." I'm so pumped up for this work, it's nuts! While KAWS work is awesome, McMullen's show ended up being the highlight of my evening as his work is kinda more in line with my style.

Be prepared for some brilliance, sarcasm, commentary, and enjoy:



Hopefully we won't be unravelling as a country for TOO long...


This piece was carved ENTIRELY out of wood... INSANE!!!:



One of my funny faves:


I want this for my personal court one day! (only in purple of course...)


You can catch Bill McMullen's show until March 28th:

The Constant Gallery
2573 S La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034


And Finally, this WASN'T at The Constant Gallery, but I thought it was rad and was painted on the outside wall of another LA Cienega Gallery down the street:

Gill Bumby featured on V Magazine.com !

FoundTrack's very good friend and international man of mystery Gill Bumby was just featured on the website of one of my favorite magazine's, V. For those of you who aren't familiar with Gill, he's basically a mysterious dude who wears a bandito mask. No one really knows who he is (think Banksy or Daft Punk) but that kinda helps with what he does. Mister Bumby attends events and using his typewriter, he and his female counterpart Jill Bumby proceed to write "Fair and Honest Appraisals of Your Appearance" for the people attending said event. While the idea tends to initially wig some people out, by the end of the night the line to get an appraisal goes out the door. The price is right (think a couple bucks a pop) and the results are almost pyschic and pretty much always positive in nature- Gill was nice enough to provide his services at one of our FoundTrack music compilation parties last year and people were going bananas for him. Bumby's based primarily out of NYC and mostly does art events but is available to travel to any type of event around the world. Checkout this example and read the full article from V Magazine, here:



Source - V Magazine

"Hot Girl Body Spray"- Axe Commercial parody by Sans Pants Productions

FoundTrack Friends Sans Pants Productions produce wacky, wild, and hilarious short form comedy videos and post them on the interwebs for the general public's viewing enjoyment. The mature (see group portrait below) gentlemen of this comedy troop are based out of NY and have created several non-controversial (right...) videos such as "The Maury Povich Home Paternity Test," "Hitler Campaign," and one of my personal favorites "Let Me Get That for Ya" (about bathroom attendants- a topic coincidently close to our hearts).

(Our Mature and Pantsless Captains on this Voyage of Comedy)

Their latest offering, entitled "Hot Girl Body Spray" is my favorite of their most recent releases... it's a brilliant parody of those oh-so-edgy Axe Body Spray commercials. Kick back, crack open a cold one, take off your pants if you feel like it, and enjoy:

One Stop Shop: Banksy's Village Pet Store in NY

Lined up like school children, a throng of confused and amused New Yorkers waited patiently to take a walk through the latest hot-spot eatery/pet store? Designed by the infamous guerilla graffiti artist Banksy, The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill was the newest attraction to be seen on 7th Avenue:

In rare form, Banksy's shrewd animal-rights commentary was both disturbing and hilarious. A few items found on the menu included:

Animatronic fish sticks:

Chicken nugget chicks:

As well as a variety of sausages and links:

Yummy! If you tend to play with your food, this exhibition was a one-stop shop. The life-like animatronics were uncanny, making the leopard coat perched in a tree a particularly sarcastic touch:

What appears to be your token pet store bunny turns out to be another NYC diva:

The monkey watching TV was only more disconcerting when I realized it was watching a Discovery Channel special on MONKEYS!

All in all the shop was a sight to be seen, though in terms of dining you might be better off with a nice slice of NY pizza. Unfortunalidad, the Pet Store closed shop in October. I suppose the economy got the better of it (or perhaps an angry Hotdog Vendor's Union), but whatever the reason, I'm sure Banksy is cooking up something that will tantalize our minds and palettes in the near future.

Real Life Superhero "Jet Man" flies across English Channel

This Swiss dude Yves Rossy gets the bad ass of the week award. Yves is better known as his real life superhero alter ego "Jet Man." A few days ago, Yves jumped out of a plain in France and used his jet pack to fly across the English Channel. He totally reminds me of my favorite character from the 80s cartoon "The Centurions," Ace McCloud the Daring Air Operations Expert:





After 13 minutes of flight at 125 mph,Yves safely parachuted into England:


Source - National Geographic

Banksy does New Orleans

Everyone's favorite street artist / renegade mystery man Banksy, struck again a few weeks ago, this time in New Orleans- more than just a hop skip and a jump away from his secret lair in London, and his previous works in Los Angeles. His politically charged yet darkly humorous style is still in full effect:




And finally, the most controversial of the lot (I believe this one has already been painted over by the *ahem* "locals"):

"Man on Wire" Trailer

"Man on Wire" is a documentary about a wild French high wire artist named Philippe Petit who basically snuck on top of New York's Twin Towers in the 1970s, rigged an illegal wire between the two, and proceeded to dance on said wire for nearly an hour. I love true stories about folks that life life to the fullest (or, on the edge?) and this most definitely falls into that category.

I've been pretty stoked to see this documentary for a while now, and yesterday Nass managed to catch a screening wherein he confirmed how good it was. Director James Marsh's documentary was the talk of this year's Tribeca Film Festival, and here is the trailer:

A Sport I could Dominate - Texting World Championship

Behold, the most amazing, and conversely, the most retarded thing I've heard of this week- The World TEXT MESSAGING Championships held in New York. Yes people, you can finally put those crackberry skills to use and win yourself a cool $50k. I would woop up on anyone in this video:

Texting World Championship @ Yahoo! Video

Seventh Letter Street Art Crew's tribute to Heath Ledger

By now, pretty much everyone and their mother (even mine, and she usually hates action movies) has seen The Dark Knight. It's hard to argue that Heath Ledger's performance, and unfortunately his passing had something to do with the phenomenal level of awareness surrounding this film. While the film critics are singing their praises, the movie and Heath are also getting props from other types of folks, including artists.

Take for example LA's legendary Graffiti crew, Seventh Letter- You might remember them from their "modification" of the Murakami Billboard a few month's ago. The guys have posted a video of a little work they did to one of the many Dark Knight billboards around town... the footage is pretty sick to watch, and the little shout out to Heath at the end is especially dope:


Augor x Revok x The Dark Knight (video Logan x Keegan) Meatpost.com from Meat Post on Vimeo.

A few other artists have been influenced by comic book characters, and Batman in particular. Checkout this piece by Anthony Lister (more on his work, at MyArtSpace):


And this piece by Alex Pardee (more on his work, at Juxtapoz) of the Dark Knight being tormented by his demons (ie his rogue's gallery):