12ozProphet

Now that I’ve gotten the new site up (and worked out most of the major bugs), I can finally take a quick break and actually get around to posting something on the blogs before getting back to work on the new sections we have planned. With all the effort that went into the redevelopment of this site, it makes me look back on how far 12ozProphet has come.

Originally launched as a graffiti zine back in 1993, 12ozProphet continued along for a full five years before we even got around to registering the domain back in March of 1998. Back then the World Wide Web was still pretty much in its infancy, and the technology used to build websites and access them was crude at best. Companies were just barely beginning to realize the potential of the Web and why building an online presence could eventually be useful, if not important. In those days internet access was still pretty rare for most people, and mostly seen as more of a novelty than the ubiquitous part of life it’s become today. When deciding to bring 12ozProphet online, my motivation was mostly a personal response to finding newsgroups way too complicated, which is how most graffiti-related discussion on the internet was happening at that time. Likewise, in those days ‘Streetwear’ had just begun to splinter off the action sports industry, and most of the pop culture heavyweights and artists we admire today were still deeply rooted in graffiti or hip hop, assuming they’d even begun doing their thing yet. Some 11 years after the fact, the forums here on 12ozprophet.com have grown to become the largest hub of graffiti and pop culture related discussion found anywhere on the internet, as well as now being one of the longest running online communities of its kind.

With the relaunch of 12ozprophet.com, I feel like we’ve hit a new milestone with the remarkable array of talent, experience and accomplishment represented on our blog lineup. Not just limited to masters of graffiti style, our roster has grown to include a top notch assortment of designers, photographers, artists, musicians and other personalities. Though the heritage of 12ozprophet.com is firmly established in graffiti, over the many years since its inception, our efforts have evolved to portray a much wider view of life, style and the culture surrounding it. I welcome you to sit back and read up on the life and times of many of the key individuals that are shaping it. Enjoy…

In acknowledgement to 12ozProphet and its early years, I’ve dug up an old shot of me and my right hand man Julio (in our much younger and slimmer days) back at the original 12ozProphet warehouse shortly after receiving the shipment of Issue #6, which was the breakout issue for Os Gemeos back in the summer of 1998. Shout out to the original 12oz Crew circa 1998… Cody Hudson aka Struggle Inc, Julio Jimenez aka PSM, Caleb Neelon aka Sonik, Sandra Guarin aka Shorty Rock.

12ozProphet Magazine Issue #6, Featuring Os Gemeos

Over the years I’ve heard the case pled by many graffiti writers that the results of their efforts are no worse than the intrusiveness of commercial outdoor advertising. That ‘liberating’ a billboard or taking over a high profile outdoor space is no worse crime on the public at large as the product and corporations that are given official sanction to violate these same spaces with their own messages. The opposing argument to this stance (and generally most widely accepted) is that because the latter has paid for the rights to push their message, there’s a clear distinction between the two, and so little more regard is usually given to the rest of the world that is unfortunate enough to have to pass by the paid advertisement.

I’m not going to argue the merits (or flaws) to either side of the graffiti versus advertising argument, but it would seem that thanks to the ingenuity of TruMedia Technologies and Studio IMC, it has become a moot point anyways. In a move that puts the world a huge leap closer to a Minority Report-like interactive advertising era, miniature cameras are now being embedded into advertisements to help track the effectiveness of the message being broadcast. Further, in true Orwellian style, those sensors are feeding the captured data to facial recognition and pattern matching software so that it is now possible to distinguish and track the general age, gender, frequency and time a person spends engrossed with the propaganda with 85 - 90% effectiveness.

Perhaps now a compelling case can be made (as well as widely accepted) that as a (somewhat) free people, it has become our duty to now systematically do graffiti over these advertisements for the social good. Now that it would seem that some people’s intrusiveness is now a lack of everybody else’s invasiveness, the distinction that defines the true quality of life villain has become more blurred than ever.

Newsweek article via PSFK

For those of you from the Big Apple, you’ve undoubtedly seen the crowds around Union Square gathered around the gentleman with the English accent touting the wonders of the vegetable peelers he’d peddle out of a wheeled case. Unfortunately, I just learned that he has passed away at the age of 75 years old this past Sunday. The guy was definitely a character that added to the texture of personality that makes up the regulars of Union Square Park. His enthusiasm for perfectly thin sliced carrots will be sorely missed.

R.I.P. Joe Ades…

More about the life of Joe Ades.

Okay, I know this isn’t an official Playmobil release, but with all the other obscure playsets they make, it should be.

via www.ilkilkilk.com

My man Schuster has a knack of being in the right place at the right time and capturing the moment. Constantly on the move, and always with a camera within easy reach, my man did it big recently with all of us in Beijing for some pre-Olympic Nike festivities, and most recently for Obama’s inauguration down in D.C. Anyhow, CBS just did a spotlight on his most recent efforts, so check it out. Good stuff…

www.stephenkschuster.com

Watch CBS Videos Online

I just got back from having lunch with Todd James and Martha Cooper, and Marty happened to have a copy of the 25th Anniversary re-release of Subway Art. I’d been hearing about it from her for a while now, and no doubt the original was a classic, but I must say I was totally blown away by it. It’s a massively over-sized coffee table type book that really does Marty’s photos (and the trains she documented) huge justice. It was also great hearing Todd’s comments to the shots since he’d seen many of the trains first hand. Plus lots more never before seen shots off the same rolls of film that many of those classic Subway Art shots came from. Really great stuff…

Available for preorder on amazon.com

Marty Cooper just hit me up with some photos from her opening at Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects Gallery out in Los Angeles. Here’s some info and a few shots from opening night. If you’re anywhere near the area between now and February 13th, make sure and check it out. Marty’s been documenting the sport of graffiti and the Urban Blight longer than just about anyone. All those classic old school shots you’ve been seeing over the years… Chances are Marty Cooper was the one to capture the moment. Here’s your chance to see some a few more shots that been hiding deep in her personal archive.

Martha Cooper has been photographing creative kids in action on city streets since the mid-1970s.  In Street Shots, opening January 16th at Subliminal Projects, her photos reveal the imaginative children of pre-renewal New York City as they mined the abandoned lots of the city to create toys from trash.  Cooper, renowned for her graffiti and hip-hop pictures, brings those classic images together with ones depicting inner-city kids building forts from scrap, catching flies in cola bottles, and racing homemade go-karts - all without adult supervision.

The opening of Street Shots also marks several debuts: Coopers’s new book, Going Postal, a collection of photos of postal labels bearing street art; her image collaboration with Shepard Fairey, available as a screen-print poster; and her own Obey line, with photos printed on clothing, bags, and skateboards.  All will be available for purchase at Subliminal Projects, along with Cooper’s other books, including Subway Art, Hip Hop Files, Street Play, We B*Girlz, and Tag Town.

EXHIBITION DATES:
JANUARY 16TH - FEBRUARY 13TH, 2009

SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS GALLERY
1331 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
www.subliminalprojects.com “|” map

Sign of the times I guess… Best part is the reviews people gave this toy on Amazon.

*Drug sniffing dog not included.

via reason.com

Here’s a few pictures I took at tonight’s opening of Rock On Mars at Deitch Projects to follow up on my previous post about the Soho Louis Vuitton store. Presented in collaboration with Louis Vuitton, Rock On Mars is an homage to the late Stephen Sprouse designed by Marc Jacobs. The show presented a small assortment of fashion pieces contextualized amongst a sort of larger than life mood board come gallery show. The crowd itself was an odd mix of fashionista, tourist, and socialite, but seemed to miss much representation from the culture it was inspired from, which I felt left it lacking the sort of electricity that could have really set the show off. Regardless, it definitely worth seeing, so stop by.

STEPHEN SPROUSE - ROCK ON MARS
January 9 - February 28, 2009

Presented in collaboration with LOUIS VUITTON

DEITCH PROJECTS
18 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10013
212 343 7300

www.deitch.com “|” map

Perhaps Grotesk can fill in the blanks on what the hell exactly is going on in this video since it’s all in French, but here’s to hoping it gets picked up and syndicated on American TV. Really doesn’t even need to be translated.