I spent 3 amazing days in the mountain with my friend Serges and his family. Before we headed back to Geneva, his son Lee asked me to built a character for him. I sat with some left over wood, glue and acrylics and freestyle this little dude. Hoop designed by Low Rider ! Lee, merci pour l’inspiration. On va faire un truc super avec ton dad pour Los Angeles.
Posted on August 04, 2008 at 04:21 AM | Comment (1 comments) | Digg
Before I moved to NYC almost 10 years ago, I discovered with a lot of laugh a Thai family restaurant who opened with the best “go fuck yourself” logo ever. The fast food name was Mc Wong. His logo was basically an upside down “M” from Mc Donald’s logo, its color ways as well as the NIke Swoosh to add to the name… I knew for sure that the homey will have to change his logo asap for copyright problems. Here am I in Geneva almost 10 years later eating with my old crew at Mike Wong...In deed he has to change his name from Mac to Mike but the funniest shit is that he opened a new one next to Mc Donald’s. BIG UP Mike!!!!
Posted on July 28, 2008 at 05:11 AM | Comment (2 comments) | Digg
New tee for SIXPACK and CLARK MAG available online at SIXPACK.
Posted on July 23, 2008 at 04:10 PM | Comment (1 comments) | Digg
So it’s been about a week that I landed in my birth place of Geneva Switzerland. I realized something funny popping out of a lot of windows and balconies: WEED. A lot of it. In deed the law are pretty sweet in Switzerland as far as weed. You can’t go to trial or get fines anymore if you get busted with small quantities of weed or if you get busted smoking a L. You are also allowed to grow your own material. Those laws also dropped the crime rate related to drug deals a lot. Less violence, cheaper prices, better quality, etc… People basically grow their own so they don’t have to go buy it in the street… People got pounds at home… Too bad I don’t smoke anymore....
Posted on July 18, 2008 at 03:44 PM | Comment (13 comments) | Digg
I finally landed in Switzerland 2 days ago for 5 weeks of family time, work and resourcing. I will try to post some local stuff that might still interest the 12 Oz followers. In the meantime, here is few shot from my last 2 days in Brooklyn before I left. I can’t believe how much shit happen and how many eye catching things you see everyday in New York… I’ll be back!
This dude was running with a “boombox back pack” and maracas at 8 am like he was flying above the ground. Probably a buddhist god reincarnated
Ghetto tech photo studio.
Kanye’s new bear mascot?
Sunday morning fire.
The dry cleaner is gone but not the JA tag.
FDNY graffiti removal squad
Posted on July 17, 2008 at 08:24 AM | Comment (1 comments) | Digg
A SELECTED VISUAL HISTORY OF AMERICAN HARDCORE MUSIC
I bumped in my friend Nate this morning who passed me a promo leaflet for his his new amazing book:
Radio Silence / A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music.
Radio Silence documents the ignored space between the Ramones and Nirvana through the words and images of the pre-Internet era where this community built on do-it-yourself ethics thrived. Authors Nathan Nedorostek and Anthony Pappalardo have cataloged private collections of unseen images, personal letters, original artwork, and various ephemera from the hardcore scene circa 1978-1993. Unseen photos lay next to hand-made t-shirts and original artwork brought to life by the words of their creators and fans. Radio Silence includes over 500 images of unseen photographs, illustrations, rare records, t-shirts, and fanzines presented in a manner that abandons the aesthetic clich’es normally employed to depict the genre and lets the subject matter speak for itself. Contributions by Jeff Nelson, Dave Smalley, Walter Schreifels, Cynthia Connolly, Pat Dubar, Gus Peña, Rusty Moore, and Gavin Ogelsby with an essay by Mark Owens.
More here: radio silencebook. This book is siiiiick! Get it!
Posted on July 10, 2008 at 06:24 PM | Comment (2 comments) | Digg
2 days ago BH swang by my office with his cute daughter. It was really nice to meet a real New Yorker with some much passion for the graffiti culture. MIke is a “Discovery Channel” of graffiti. He told me few stories, talked about growing up in Canarsie Brooklyn next to a train yard and catch few tags in the office.
The man on my rooftop.
BH found in his archive this amazing ad from the Village voice.
This ad is for a graffiti art show in NYC. As you can see, many legends of graffiti were there. The ad says you could get one of them to write your name for $ 2.50.
A lot more photo from Mike here: BH Flickr
Posted on July 09, 2008 at 06:53 AM | Comment (1 comments) | Digg
BASKETBALL JONES AKA BEST BALL CARTOON EVER
The best damn basketball cartoon ever with the hottest cheerleaders ever!
Posted on July 08, 2008 at 08:45 AM | Comment (1 comments) | Digg
My dad sent me few month ago some great photos of vintage spray cans. My pops is a scale model maker and architect for the past 40 years. Back in the day he used to paint a lot of his models with spray paint. He moved from cans to airbrush and other techniques less polluting the past 2 decades. The good and bad thing about my dad is that he can’t throw anything away from his studio… He found in his painting cabin this great selection of vintage spray cans all from 1974 to 1988… Still ready to spray. As you might know, I am from Switzerland and some of those cans were only available in stores in Switzerland. That’s why they might look obscure to you. Thanks again pops!!!
Posted on July 05, 2008 at 05:42 PM | Comment (6 comments) | Digg
Yesterday Mister Raven invited me to meet Ottavio and Gustavo aka Os Gemeos at the Deicht gallery while finishing their amazing art show: “Too Far Too Close” As far as I am concern, It’s the show of the year in New York. The body of work, the poetry and the amazing craft they put in this show is just incredible. If you are in NYC, DON’T MISS THIS!!!!!!
Os GEMEOS
“Too Far Too Close”
June 28 - August 09, 2008
Deitch Projects
18 Wooster St. NYC.
Posted on June 28, 2008 at 01:07 PM | Comment (1 comments) | Digg
Today I bumped into my friend OC that I haven’t seen for 4 years… It was really good to catch up… We use to hang out and cruise in his Jaguar listening to unreleased tracks from him with Big L, Jay-Z and other crazy joints.... Long story short OC is about to have a crazy summer. Tomorrow he’ll be playing at the Crooklyn Doddgers Reunion free concert in Prospect Park with Jeru the Damaja, Chubb Rock, EMC featuring Masta Ace, DJ Permier, Ali Shaheed Muhammad. With masters of ceremony Buckshot of Black Moon and Special Ed. Then he’ll be in Europe for a summer tour and in September he will release his new album with AG. Omar offered me to come visit his new D.I.T.C. studio built next to DJ premier lab in the legendary building that used to house D&D studio.
Expect soon some sick pictures with some of my favorite hip hop heads.
OC & AG “ 2 for the money” produced by Showbiz with cut by Dj Permier
Posted on June 27, 2008 at 05:31 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
Last September I was really sad to hear that my friend Elf passed away. I met him at Alife when he was sleeping in the store front window on Orchard street as part of his exibittion. Carlucci was a great dude with a huge heart. Alife designed a tee shirt to raise some money for his family and I was honored to be part of it. Rest in peace Carl.
Alife press release:
Alife lost a dear friend last year: Carlucci Bencivenga, also known as ELF MPC.
Hailing from the Bronx, in his early days Carlucci ran with the infamous MPC crew, and his influence on ALIFE predates the inception of The Alife, Inc. Carl was an endless stream of ideas and inspirations. He has been an inspiration to us and to the entire neighborhood of the Lower East Side ever since he touched down here, years ago. We all miss him dearly and daily. We have designed this tee shirt as a memorial piece to Carl. All proceeds from the sales of this piece will go to the Bencivenga family.
For a very brief insight on Carlucci’s world, visit vikingetiquet
Left, Elf in his studio. Right, the infamous bed in the Alife store front where he slept for few nights. ©Alife2008
Some pieces from the master. ©Alife2008
Posted on June 26, 2008 at 11:55 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
9TH WONDER AKA JAM OF THE NIGHT
Chillin’ home with a little too much scotch, enjoying this amazing album from Digable Planet.Reachin’
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 08:38 PM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
BH-THE BOYS STRAIGHT FROM CANARSIE BKLYN
Since my new baby boy and daughter keep me home most of the time at night, I am meeting more fresh people online and less in openings downtown… I guess it’s better for my health…
I met Mike aka BH few days ago on the world wide web. BH-THE BOYS grew up in Canarsie, Brooklyn in the 70’s. As he claimed himself he was a small-time writer. He was friends with KADO-TB-CIA and knew SARO from the neighborhood. BH crew was THE BOYS, the only one he wanted to put up. His main influences were HATE168 (TB founder), and the TOP crew (HURST, JEE2, FA, OI, IN) on the BMT-L train. SARO put him in TB in 1980 but he didn’t carry it to his standards. Unfortunately he was arrested early in his career and had to be a bit more careful. He hit mainly insides and some throw-ups at the L yard at Rockaway Parkway and the M yard at Fresh Pond rd. When SARO put him in TB, he and most of TB were retired already. SMAC came back for a while, but we never bombed together. Mike says “I used to see KADO at clubs and invite him to the yards - my treat on paint - he didn’t take me up on it. I wrote mainly with CAM, DECK , and CRAZY COKE (CK). Like BH said, “I was a small-time writer but a big-time fan of the art.” Since then, he has hooked up a many people with photos from back in the day they didn’t have, like LED, KR-one MAFIA TSS and ZEPHYR to name a few.
Mike was maybe a small time writer but his photo collection has nothing small. BH has hundreds of photos of trains and walls. Some might not be the best quality, but they are archives of an amazing time that many writer’s mom often trashed… I was really excited to see classic trains shot from a non professional photographer. The crappy quality of the print somehow make it more real… Enjoy! More to come from BH soon..
The boy itself...Done in 1981 in JHS 211 alley in Canarsie, Brooklyn. Note the rusto with the scottish guy !!!
Blade. A whole car after 2 years.
Two legends on one train. Style Master DONDI and KID 56 - IRT action. Early 80’s
Duster. Photo taken at E 177th street - Parkchester Ave station , Bronx NY
Fome TC5. Taken at Rockaway Parkway. The train was parked in the L yard.
Jester. Photo taken at E 177th street - Parkchester Ave station , Bronx NY .
MIN. Photo taken in the Bronx. Believe to be at Gun Hill Rd. Note the Martha cooper shoot out on the right bottom.
The one and only Mitch.
Classic Lee piece in a Lower East Side Handball court early 80’s.
Large Lee piece. L.E.S. Early 80’s
Scaffold project done in the early 80’s in Manhattan by Zephyr, Futura and Haze.
TRACY 168 - MARTHA UNISEX. BH happened to drive by this hair salon by accident and had his camera on him… Good one!
ALL PHOTOS © BH-THE BOYS
Posted on June 23, 2008 at 02:19 PM | Comment (10 comments) | Digg
The 14th of next month will 5 years since the summer 2003 black out happened. At the time I was working around 36th street and we were listening to “fight the power” from Public Enemy when the power when off all around the city. Within an hour we heard that it would take hours or days to put it back together… Within 3 hours, all the cellphones and other communication devices were gone. So me and few friends started to walk downtown towards the Williamsburg Bridge to go back to Brooklyn. The city was so quiet… It was a great feeling… It was about a hundred degrees and people where fighting for water. No more car were allowed to circulate in order to let the cops and fire fighters to do their jobs. It took me about 3 hours to go home and by the time I arrived, the brooklyn’s streets were pitch black like I have never seen before… Good memories… Look forward for the next one....
Posted on June 20, 2008 at 09:25 AM | Comment (8 comments) | Digg
I can finally go back to my family life after 3 month of brainwashing play offs for my wife and my nerves ... Big up to my wife and Paul Pierce!
Photos courtesy of NBA®
Posted on June 19, 2008 at 06:07 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
RIDIN’ DIRTY AKA 6TH AVENUE SCI-FI
This poor old man jay walked at the speed of light on 6th avenue with his spaceship (cane attached on it!!!!!) and got busted by a cop. The cop got off his space shuttle and gave an intergalactic ticket to the human screaming at him. Happy ending no ray gun fired.
Posted on June 17, 2008 at 09:03 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
NY SUBWAY JIGSAW PUZZLE CIRCA 1971
I found this jigsaw puzzle for $3 on a stoop sale in BK… Nice for the kids… Not one missing piece.
Posted on June 16, 2008 at 12:06 PM | Comment (1 comments) | Digg
Wednesday I went for 2 hours in Philly for a meeting. After the biz, we walked 20 blocks with my boys to get a Philly Cheese Steak at the notorious Jim’s Steaks. This visit was too short but the sandwich and the graffiti made my 2 hours great. On those 20 blocks, I discovered the local hand style and I was amazed how unique it was. With way less “out of towners”, the Philly style remains special and preserved. It has the same kind of personality as Pixação from Sao Paulo in Brazil. To the Philly Heads reading this post… Don’t hate if I didn’t show the right stuff...Those photos are just my observation on a few blocks…
Posted on June 13, 2008 at 03:57 PM | Comment (4 comments) | Digg
THE MEDIA LOVES GRAFFITI STORIES
2 interesting articles sent to me by my friend Handselecta for the graff heads and all the peeps who wants to learn more about where our taxes go in New York and how advertising firm are the biggest vandals.
NYPD “special force” full article
Ad agency thugs full article
Posted on June 11, 2008 at 06:31 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
The last few days has been crazy blazing hot.... People have been looking for some refreshments.
Posted on June 10, 2008 at 07:10 AM | Comment (0 comments) | Digg
HANNES ISAKSSON’S NY GANGSTERS CASE STUDY
While surfing the big web, I bumped into an amazing artist from Sweden. His name is Hannes Isaksson and he is a bad ass illustrator. His naive style is hard to compete against… I contacted him to get a little bit more information about him and his fascination for the New York most notorious gangsters. Here is what Hannes has to say:
Think it was in 2005 after I had seen Paid In Full, that I read the FEDS article about Alpo, Rich and Azie. I found it incredible that it was actually based on a true story. So that got me a little curious of the American crack era. After that I started reading about The Supreme Team, cause of the whole Murder Inc/Supreme thing. And the more I read about it the more the more fascinating it got; lookouts with walkie talkies on rooftops, embroided Supreme Team jackets, assault teams armed with machine guns, the way they dressed, that they had names like Robo justice, Prince, Divine, Black Just. I actually made board game about the drug trade in Jamaica Queens. By that time i was pretty much obsessed with drug crews and kingpins. I find their life stories beyond compelling, even though they’re kind of similar. They start to hustle, they come up in the game, live like kings for a couple of years and then they go to jail for the rest of their lifes or get killed. I think most people can relate to that, the wish to become someone, even if it means spending the rest of your life in jail. I can anyhow.
Here is Hannes’s Bio:
Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden.
Attended Stockholm Art School in 2003, went to Nyckelviken School of Arts 2004.
And in 2005 i enrolled at Idun Loven art school wich I graduated from in 2007.
Right now Im part of the Detroit Stockholm art collective and last year I released a book/magazine called “Aint no Uzis made in Harlem” on Cederteg Publishing
Posted on June 09, 2008 at 08:05 AM | Comment (9 comments) | Digg
