The Brilliance!

Ha…I really don’t care. I should posted this up last week…I haven’t been posting much lately! So yeah, Apple announces 37 new ipods, discounts every Apple product by 87% and hints at a new ‘iHome’ that will be ‘...insanely great. The best home we’ve ever built with multi-touch, wifi, and the best iPod we’ve ever made…’ Ha, jokes, nerd jokes. But honestly…we’re all thinking there is just going to be a new Nano or whatever…and they refresh the entire line while adding a totally new iPod, touch, and knock $200 off the cost of the iPhone. The wifi store, the nutso Starbucks thing… Apple has just an amazing velocity right now…seriously. I’m very curious as to what happened in the past 18-24 months that made Apple literally just sky-rocket both in social cache as well as just the market share it has now. What 12-30 year old wants a PC over a Mac? Honestly? And then you’ve got the whole customer service thing they are doing…the fact that we get a $100 store credit for buying the iPhone when it first came out makes me love the brand even more. Maybe I’m getting sucked into their perfect marketing…but the letter I linked below is pretty wild - it was announced only 2 days after the keynote! Ha, come to think of it…what if all of this was planned? They knew the $100 discount would be given, etc. Ahhh…Apple, so clever. Long post about my favorite company.

Ha, I am not done yet…and people thought Kenny Chensey was gonna out sell them both. People placed bets that Kanye would easily be behind 50. What an interesting moment for hip hop. However being number 1 isn’t really the goal, Stadium Status is the real goal, worldwide. Anywho this post is really about pictures from the weekend and all the cool-guy-whistle-blowing goin on about the GOODLIFE video. Compare the creative director (So Me) and directors (Jonas & Francois) in the credits of D.A.N.C.E. then ask yourself what the big deal is. HA. I guess they bit their own style. Indie mentality kills me. Once I find my camera chord I’ll post a couple pictures from the VMA, Graduation Day run. He’s trying to do pre-internet numbers so everyone re-up their burned copy and be GOOD.

And another one. Covering all angles, this time heading back to the art world to connect with Josh Keyes. We actually posted about his work not too long ago which is when I was first put-on to his work…and shortly after that we are interviewing him. I really love having a blog for that exact reason. So yeah, his work is amazing, our interview with him is a nice in-depth read, and with accidental perfect timing - he has a bunch of new work releasing in the next couple weeks. Perfect. Check the interview and really check his work on his site rather than out little thumbnails….really awesome stuff. Next level creative. Hope everyone had a good weekend - I had a nice longer one with some travel, refreshing.

Umm…this is next level architecture in my book. The renderings leave nothing else to be said. Shingeru Ban has turned on a light blub for modern urban living. Its such a smart idea, big metal shutters that allow you to open up your unit like a big window. This building is gonna feel so “alive” with each unit opening and closing their shutters. Kinda plays with the notion of opening and closing your small window on a normal façade doesn’t it? And the website for this project, sheesh. Even though you cant do much on it yet, its awfully well designed. Units in here are gonna sell like hot cakes. If I was crazy rich I’d buy a unit with out even looking at the floor plan, yikes!

What!? Yes! These links are steamin’!

-Epson StylusPro 3800 - Yeah, I just got this printer and it’s ridiculous how nice it is. If you do photography, a printer on this level is not even a question.
-My official ‘Stop using the word ‘creative’ as a noun thread’ on YayHooray. Seriously, art directors of the world listen up.
-Pictures that make you LOL thread on YayHooray. This is truly a gem of a thread if there ever was one on a messageboard. I’ve spent many days revisiting this thread specifically to laugh.
-PBF Comics. A perfect follow-up link to the last one…PBF Comics…what can I say. Seriously hilarious.
-Manystuff. You might think a lot of it is boring (I do too) but every now and then you’ll find some really fresh design on here.
-Watch this over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. And again.
-Jody Morris Photography. Beautiful action sports, music, and lifestyle photography.
-John Dyer Baizley’s artwork. Someone tell this dude to return the messages I’ve sent him on Myspace. Seriously though, if anyone knows John Baizley personally, tell him I’m a fan and would love to talk/collaborate/print his work and sell it as my own/buy him lunch.
-Threadless Store in Chicago. Go support ‘em! Not that they need it, but hey…

That’s that! Oh, one more below.

Thanks to the whole bunch of people who sent us emails about who is behind these awesome pieces of work. His name is Thomas Broome and you can check his site out right here - Thomas Broome. Awesome work…Check the link below for one of my favorites.

Just when it was getting boring and we we’re all retreating back to ‘the good old days’...hip hop comes around and does something proper for all its followers. Two things. (1) Kanye stepped on 50 cent. He’s certainly doing pretty hood in his pink polo. 957,000 albums sold one week. How many came from the ‘Ellen DeGeneres’ demographic? So brilliant. (2) The Billion Dollar Remix. I’ll be real honest, we didn’t hear the best performances from any of the artist on this track. But it’s a fantastic to see ‘a billion dollars worth of hip-hop’ on one record. In a peaceful display of the success these culture-shapers have achieved. I love these parts of hip-hop, seriously. And ha, the ending line from Jay: ‘I wouldn’t want to be outside of the bubble on this.’ ***Link to download the track below.

Common Projects took such a perfect approach…keep it simple. Focus on the shape, easy colors, and quality. I don’t need a bunch of logos, straps, stitches, reflective materials, bullet-proof laces, tongues with ‘stash’ pockets, all-over prints, pictures of things, and my least favorite - knock-off Chuck Taylor toe-caps. Stop doing those, they’re not good…like, ever. Yikes, this is a little bit of a rant post. But I just love how simple Common Projects’ shoes are. Really beautiful. Love the little stamp on the back too, nice touch. My next issue…why does the stuff I like have to be so hard to find?? Minus snacks and Coors Light. Who knows where I can get these online??

Yeah…so we are pretty much back up now after our little crash there. Big shout to our hosting company, that was real awesome to lose a bunch of data. Thanks…let us know when you want to do that again, it was a blast!! Sarcasm…snaps. But yeah, seriously, thank goodness for Google’s cached version of our site…or those posts would have been gone forever. We’ll be fixing the images and stuff here soon too…just trying to get back in action. Fortunately we are still REALLY, REALLY INTERNET.

Remember those afternoons in high school, couped up in semi-lit classrooms with the TV-VCR up on the stand watching random movies, trying to understand the point. Ahh… he good ole days when life was easy. One flick we had to watch was Fahrenheit 451. For some reasons I had a flashback of the movie the other day. I loved the aesthetic, the was it was shot, the color saturation and of course the subject matter. Plus it always interesting to see what they depict the fashions of the future. Its on some Jetsons-esque, but anti-Jetsons view of what the future would be like. Basically books are outlawed and, no one thinks critically or goes against the grain. You watch the main character fireman in charge of burning books, Guy Montag come to his senses. Next person who uses this film as a basis for some theme, I’ll know where you got it from, THE BRILLIANCE has a make-believe patent on this concept, especially if your starting a streetwear brand.