My main companion is a trusty MacBook Pro and my Kindle E-reader which got a new custom made felt ‘owl’ cover.

Besides that I spot my Golden Half camera and some film, a spork, moleskine notebook, handkerchief, scarf, earplugs, usb cigarette lighter plug, markers, lip balm/chap stick,  broken ipod (which urgently needs replacing) and an ear light which regularly comes in handy. Also as I’ve just moved I’m carrying around  a measuring tape, has come in handy on a regular the passed weeks. Lighters, pens, … and a toothbrush finish off the clutter more or less.

Latest addition is a Duracell usb charger by the way. Got my hand on the larger version and have been testing it for a while as my iphone is not that reliable anymore. You can easily charge a variety of USB-powered devices with it and the battery itself recharges through a wall socket at home. I can only repeat that its a comfort having back-up power on-the-go in this day and age. Previously I had been using my PowerMonkey (and still do sometimes), but Duracell offers a battery that can handle any device through its own usb cable.

Besides all the other stuff I’ve also got copies of The Word Magazine‘s & Subbacultcha‘s latest issues. Worth a read!

Now as I’ve shared my junk… what do you carry around on a daily base

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Spent past weekend in the Ardennes, a bank holiday in a sunny autumn setting with great/longtime friends.

Chalet Suisse life mainly existed of good food, drinks & little sleep.

It usually also involves maps, guides, walking …

and sometimes people who rather wear their trousers in their sock.

It also means not being allowed in certain areas, I blame the 1% for this personally.

Did I mention ‘a weekend amongst good company’ already?

Fitting club to come along as Volvo was so kind to lend me my horse and carriage for the weekend: V60 R design DRIVe by Volvo A great driving experience overall, with brakes that work like a charm, I can testify after having tested them intensively during a wild bore vs car stand off.

You can see me and the V60 here btw, sporting a green winter jacket and a bordeaux sweater by an unknown brand. Shoes: from the walking type with fancy red laces and stuff. Oh, I’m such a personal blogger … watchout LookBook here I come!

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Kid Robot & Swatch have been a favorites of mine for a while so I could not have been more delighted to see yet another collab as this take place. I had been longing for one of my own for a while … et voila

Its Frank Kozik‘s (his name by creating full-color silk screened posters for various legendary rock bands of the 90s) contribution to the collection. ”I wanted to make the designs as clean as possible,” he explains “I like Swatch for its plastic future sense.”

As Flava Flav‘s iconically states “What time is it?!”

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Last week I happened to hear see that Sneakerpedia (which we previously had mentioned) draw lots of attention as it finally got launched. Love the project & idea behind it as it finely illustrates the sneaker mania that is picking up momentum everyday. A great idea and way of documenting this phenomenon anyways.

Besides the authentic collector pur sang there are also a lot of sneaker addicts out there who will do just about anything to show off their love for sneakers. Having said so, over the past few weeks videos featuring sneakerheads doing some extraordinary things have emerged online. Amongst which this great example of sneaker street art in Paris.

It has been inspired by Foot Locker, who in order to celebrate the global Sneaker Movement and capture all of its enthusiasm, has set up www.itsasneakerthing.eu, a hub for passionate people to come and share their passion for sneakers! I have gone through some pretty awesome contributions/content and must say I favourited the Lace Street Art most until now.

Got sneaker mania? Join the sneaker movement.

This post was sponsored by

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Regular readers probably do not need an introduction when it comes to Shepard Fairey. For many he symbolises part of the Obama presidential campaign as he gained global acclaim by altering the image above which was widely used throughout 2008-2009.

Fairey has been creating great iconic (street) art since the 1980s and can be considered an icon himself.

What follows is an interview with Obey at the end of last year. A great introduction for anyone who might not be that familiar with Shepard’s work.

through gestalten.tv

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Besides making great products they also make great content such as the following clip of an expedition this past September in which TNF Snowboarder’s Xavier De Le Rue , Lucas Debari , and David Porchron ventured down to Chile with the Transworld Snowboarding crew to shred some long forgotten lines inside a volcano.

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Strange we had not picked this up before. A great production showing the city we live & work in from another perspective.

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So this coming Friday the 8th of October we’ll be heading to Antwerp for Het Grote Antwerpse Gedoe! An evening we’re looking forward to as Faberyayo, notorious member of De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig and LeLe will be performing for a limited crowd at Art Space Leguit.

A small showcase for his recently released “Het Grote Gedoe”, and if you want to be there and witness the maaaaster at work yourself you have two options:

[update] All tickets are gone!!

1. Tweet the following to all your followers: “Ik ga vrijdag naar Het Grote Antwerpse Gedoe met @Faberyayo http://bit.ly/dyWV1f!”

or

2. Share the following link/event http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=162029043813956&ref=ts with all you facebook friends and add the following message: “”Ik ga vrijdag naar Het Grote Antwerpse Gedoe met Faberyayo!”

Then leave a comment or send us a mail so we can verify and put your name on the list

First 5 people to do so are in with a friend of their choice! So that’s 5×2 tickets we’re throwing out the door thanks to EigenMakelij & Ill City!

[update] All tickets are gone!!

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Couple of weeks back I was asked if I would like to receive a Sonos music system for testing and reviewing purposes. This sounded like music to my ears and I gladly accepted the offer as I had always been curious to uncover if it would be something for my household.

On first sight, I immediately fell for the Sonos’ design, its described user friendliness (as the installation would not take up a lot of time, 10 minutes or so with unpacking, …) and various possibilities.

The Sonos’ advantage is its “Plug & Play” characteristic and well, after having unboxed and connected everything, this turned into Plug & Pray for a while as a couple of small hiccups stood in my way No worries though as it mainly was due to a missing part on my end and the distance I wanted to bridge with the Zone Bridge player being placed up in our attic. Once this was solved nothing but groovy beats all night long!

Now Sonos is one of the leading developers when it comes to wireless multi-room music systems and I have experienced first hand why this is the case with the Sonos. This all-in-one wireless music system is controllable with an iPhone, iPod touch or the Sonos Controller (which we also had delivered). Easy & extremely practical I must say.

The Sonos leaflet states a couple of things. I though I ought to break these down to their bare essence, judging them with what I exerienced:

Room-filling sound is one of those elements and I must say that the five integrated speakers and five dedicated digital amplifiers really do provide crystal-clear audio that filled the entire area with music.

Unlimited music from iTunes and the Internet is what I really like as the Sonos gives you instant access to millions of songs and stations, including your personal music library stored on your computer, hard drives, … And because Sonos connects directly to the Internet, you can access a world of music directly without ever turning on your computer.

Music streaming services are in hands reach as you can connect with music services like, Last.fm and Deezer (depending on the country you live or register in). Together with Internet Radio (Laidback Radio off course!), this makes the Sonos great, as there is no computer required to access these streams. Just pick up your controller of iphone/ipod and you’ve filled the room with fresh tunes which is extremely nice in the morning.

Your music library is also accessible, whether your music or iTunes collection is stored on a PC, Mac or external NAS drive. Here I did experience some troubles, files that could not be accessed/read together with streaming issues (breaking up sound) at time.

Everything can be controled with an iPhone or iPod touch. Just download the free Sonos Controller app and, choose the music you want and control the volume in any room from anywhere. bare in mind that a remote seems necessary in my eyes as it makes it so easy and everything accesible everywhere at any time. It also seems more logic to by an ipod touch instead of the wireless handheld Sonos Controller as it gives you more possibilities besides controlling the Sonos.

Wireless expandability is probably one of the final great aspects when considering Sonos as you can easily add more systems wirelessly without changing everything.

To be perfectly honest, I love having the Sonos at home and would suggest it to anyone who can spare the extra ca$h as it isn’t the cheapest sound system/solution. For that reason I must admit that in my specific case I would be able to provide more or less the same musical possibilities for my ground floor with a significant lower budget as its totally wired for sound. Speakers have already been installed into our kitchen & bathroom ceiling and two separate speakers are mounted in the sitting/dining area and all are connected on separate channels. That being sais though, it would never be as easy as the solution the Sonos offers me.

Will have do some more in-depth testing the next days of course but for now this transmission is out of the air.

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Another couple of great mini docs. Now go out into the sun and don’t forget to wear some sunscreen.

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Coca Cola released three short films, Ride, Playground, and Peepshow, to kick off their new campaign for their energy drink Burn. What makes them great? Well, the subtle way they position the brand in it, a different approach from the in your face Redbull ads/clips we all have gotten used to throughout the years.

The first clip is probably the one which will be popping up everywhere, as it features burning skateboarders and shizzle, but definitely also take a look at the other two clips which in my eyes are even better

Ride (above), was directed by Garth Davis in Mexico City. It features a group of skateboarders, who actually were set on fire during the shoot, in order that they left flaming trails in their wake.

The other two films are more straight-up documentaries. Peepshow follows the exploits of a group of young female snowboarders, while Playground focuses on a young Philadelphia rapper who’s speciality is creating beats by hitting and beating objects around him An eye-opener worth watching/listening to. Out.

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One of the nifty features certain of these guiding systems offer is the possibility to customise the voice guidance. Tom Tom (amongst others) is one of the manufacturers who make this possible and it seems they have just made it possible to download Darth Vader (amongst other Star Wars voices) for their navigation system.  Can it get any better Out.

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Kim Jong-il is North Korea’s commander in chief,  part-time resident evil and each time I hear his name I wonder who this mad man really is.

The Boston Globe often features great pictures sets its Big Picture category. Kimmy is the subject this time and might I say a nice example of some good old propaganda. An authentic Kimmy visiting the grocer in his short sleeve shirt while sporting a pair of sunglasses as true fashion icon. Very casual I might ad.  Kimmy in the army, Kimmy playing at the cotton plantation, Kimmy at the energy plant, and so on. Somehow sounds like a comic strip with a new adventure every day for our little Korean (It is said he wears platform shoes and favours a bouffant hairstyle in order to appear taller than his 1.57m), but really its a 31 piece photo set to exhibit their nations greatness.

By the way, did not know Adidas had a factory in Korea? Oh right, they are North-Korea’s interpretation of the iconic 3 stripes At least we know Kim can dig a good pair of sneakers! We also get to learn that they got corn, apples, fish, … in the land of nuclear threats it seems. Amazing I might ad.

Anyways, the guy has always fascinated many as there are a lot of legends/rumors surrounding him. I once read he has the biggest movie collection in the world for instance. A true Hollywood addict it seems. It is also rumored that he is a vain & paranoid womanizer who guzzles down cognac like no other.

The cult & legends really become marvelous when you dig into those surrounding his birth. According to official North Korean accounts, he was born in a log cabin at his father’s guerrilla base on North Korea’s highest mountain Mount Paektu back in 1942. This was reportedly marked by a double rainbow with a bright star in the sky!

The unoficial version is rather dull, as his birth is placed somewhere in Siberia in 1941 when his father Kim Il-sung, was in exile overthere. Strange how stories can differ dependig on the source All I can say is: whatever?! For as long as I live, I’ll always be reminded of his part in Team America. Wonder if his collection has a copy. If not, send me his address and I will be more then happy to send him a copy. Out.

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X-mas and the New Year is nearing so time for me to get my serious shopping done. Now as I’m rather lazy I decided to try and buy everything online this year. One of the gifts I often like to get for close friends are great T-shirts. Coincidentally a couple of months ago I discovered Ghent based Aaitski which brings us a collection of great Tee’s. Their story grabs your attention and I was sold right of the start.

ONCE UPON A TIME…

On a bright and illustrious day, a young lad who went by the name of Kingseys, took to designing in a most naïve and child like manner. And he saw that it was good. One sleepless night, a little dark prince known throughout as The Knight Writer, e-magined kitties and cows, girlies and miaouws. And he smelled that it was good. And when night turned into day, these two coolios took to bathing, but the water was burning hot and both screamed: “AAITSKI!”

A BROTHERHOOD WAS BORN

Soon enough, The Aaitski! Bros. grew into early manhood. And so, with the dawning of peach fuzz on the horizons of upper lips, it was decided to launch a coolafied brand of T-shirts through that great, big, world wide web. Little blighters could wear them and old tossers too! And rockers, and rollers, and people happy or blue! All could choose from three categories: ‘Boy Meets Girl’, ‘Animals’ and ‘Vehicles’. It remains to be said: the sweat hit the fan… so you might want to get one, while you still can.

With such a story these shirts just have to be bangin’.  Latest addition to their endeavour is their own sweatshop by the way. Great name

Want to sport your own Bulldowzah or Submaweenah? Well, for the BE cats up in here, there are several shops in Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels & Leuven that carry the shirts. Others can always order them through the site. Support your local scene never the less. Out.

Connect with Aaitski on faceski, myski, netski or twitski

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