Happy new year to my fellow bloggers, family, friends, fans, gangsters,bombers, hipsters,haters and New Yorkers.

KLUGHAUS Gallery website is up.

When I played soccer as a kid I was always in love with the Brazil team (and still to this day). Socrates was one of their best player and my favorite one. I didn’t miss one game of the world cup played by the Seleção during Espana “82. That summer he did the most incredible moves and scored perfect goals. I had a chance to see him play against Switzerland in the mid 80’s in Basel and I kept great memories of that game. Socrates became a doctor after is soccer career and a big political activist in Brasil. He was a really smart gentleman. He had one problem. He loved to drink and smoke so much even when he was a professional player. That lead him to major health problem and ultimately to his death. REST IN POWER doctor Socrates.

Our Victory journal issue 3 came out yesterday. We got amazing contributions from super talented photographers Christopher Anderson, Cheryl Dunn, Anthony Blasko and Chadwick Tyler. Our friend Mickey Duzyj also delivered an amazing illustrated story of the 86 Mets. Here is a sneak preview of the issue.

Shout out to my NY Shaolin brothers and sisters who took many trophies this past week end at the KTC in Queens. The competition was fearless and over 800 martial artists competed. It was an amazing experience that reminded me the electricity in the air of classic b-boy battles.

After being in the street wear game for over a decade, I totally lost passion for it and moved on to new creative outlets. It’s rare that nowadays I find a local brand that’s original or true to who they really are as persons. Last week I visited my friend Micah in Harlem who has been building at a steady pace his brand Only NY. His brand is one of the few remaining small NY brands with an individual personality. Micah loves to fish, loves NY, likes to take photos, draws really naive artwork with bold color combos, and guess what? His passions are reflected in every piece of his line. By the way, thanks a lot for the goods… I am actually wearing them. Check also his newsstand section. There is a lot of visual goodies.

I have always been passionate about street photography and I have been doing my fair share of it. If I was doing it as a full time job, I would probably try to compete against Tom Gould. Tom and I share the same passion and kind of visual filtering of New York cityscapes and its chaos. But that’s were the comparison stops and that’s why he is a photographer and I am just an iconoclast. His photos are amazing and he is stepping up his game month after month. If that’s not enough, Tom also shoot some dope videos like the one bellow. Support him and hire him.
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ACTION BRONSON - ‘BARRY HOROWITZ’ (DIRTY) from Tom Gould on Vimeo.

Alexis Arguello was born a shoemaker’s son in the poorest barrio of Managua, Nicaragua. When his family could no longer afford to send him to school, he turned to boxing and went on to become the greatest champion in his country’s history. Known as “El Flaco Explosivo” – literally “the explosive thin man” – Arguello meted out a brand of fistic destruction so elegant it blurred the lines between boxing and ballet. As a featherweight and lightweight, he was without equal in the 70s and early 80s, knocking out Ruben Oliveras, Bazooka Limon, Alfredo Escalera and Boom Boom Mancini. He became the sixth man in boxing history to win titles at three different weight classes, but is best remembered for his gallant pursuit of a fourth. He wore this shirt in training for his 1982 welterweight title fight with Aaron Pryor, a brutal and controversial battle Ring magazine would later anoint “The Fight of the Decade.” Available here

At No Mas , we tell stories trough garments. We had the opportunity to work with “The Real Rocky” aka Chuck Wepner and you got to love it.

Before his unlikely 1975 heavyweight title fight against Muhammad Ali, Chuck Wepner was the quintessential journeyman heavyweight, best known for a capacity to take spectacular punishment that had earned him the nickname “The Bayonne Bleeder.” Don King’s tagline for Ali-Wepner—“Give the White Guy a Break”—made clear it was it was supposed to be more show than fight. The finances made it clearer who was the star: Ali’s purse was $1.5 million, Wepner’s $100,000. That was still was enough to give Wepner his first ever chance to train full-time, and after eight weeks in the Catskills, the ex-marine was ready when the bell rung. He went to-to-toe with the champ all night, knocking Ali down once in the ninth and falling only 19 seconds short of going the distance.

If this story of a working-class palooka getting a once-in-a-lifetime shot against a flamboyant champ sounds awfully familiar, it’s because Wepner’s story made a deep impression on a struggling New York actor named Sylvester Stallone. “Rocky” went on to win an Academy Award and spawn five sequels. Wepner all but vanished into obscurity without so much as a royalty check to keep him company. But with an ESPN documentary set for release and a feature film in the works, “The Real Rocky” is finally getting his long-deserved close-up. In celebration, we present this replica of the t-shirt Wepner wore to train full-time for the first and last time. Get it here

Rugby World Cup 2011 Semi final. Pre-game warrior chant Haka by the New Zealand All Black