One of the things I picked up a while back was this tour of Brooklyn he did in the lead up to the World Basketball Festival. For this Nike wanted to connect the Five Boroughs of New York City in a celebration of hoops, culture, and its iconic Air Force 1 sneaker. Five ambassadors from each of the five boroughs were asked to participate in 1LOVE, an online documentary series amongst other things as they also held a basketball tournament and a Manhattan block party.

First up is Brooklyn-raised rapper, songwriter and producer Theophilus London, who gives a little tour of the Brooklyn neighbourhood he grew up in and uncovers what makes his borough unique.

Besides Theophilus the other borrows got to do their thing also. Have a look as it gives you a great view on different communities & cultures which make p the wonderfull city of New York.

Episode 2 for instance features Harlem-raised rapper and XL Recordings artist Ms. Banks. In his short-film Banks discusses the streets she grew up on and takes a close look at the original stomping ground that inspires and influences her.

Episode 3 features Cory Gunz, a Bronx based rapper and Young Money Entertainment star in the make it seems. He gives us a tour of NYC’s northern borough, and according to Cory “The Birthplace of Hip Hop.”

Episode 4 takes us on a trip through Queens with FORMAT: a lifestyle and BMX shop owned by pro BMX rider Nigel Sylvester.

And last but not least, episode 5 features Emilio Sparks of Staten Island.

This reminds me I have to put “visit NYC” on the TO DO list for the next years. Out.

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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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Copyright law and what to do with it. A hard nutshell to crack. A discussion that has been going on for decades and one I do not really want to share my opinion on as different parties state different facts which make it hard to draw a line in it all.

I remember how when I was a kid tape and VHS cassettes used to be pirated on a large scale and were sold on local markets. I saw Napster and other services come up later on in life and I saw some of these services disappear as quick while others became larger than life. Evolution and revolution at the same time one might say and interesting times none the less.

Piracy, whether music/video or designer handbags, is something that will always be around in my opinion. What everyone must realise though is that creative people deserve to make a living. A liner note which our younger generations can hardly grasp as they never really grew up to value music for instance.They love music, they talk about & share it with their friends and they especially also download it. Logical in my opinion as they’re growing up in a digital environment with unlimited access to something with no value due to that reason.

Kids nowadays do not grow up in record stores. Flicking through hundreds and hundreds of records, looking for that one album cover to draw their attention, ordering limited edition releases from Japan, … They just can’t value the carrier which a CD or vinyl is for some older generations.

Now I do not want to blame everything on the kids, as older generations also download huge volumes. But I do want to explain  that current tactics fighting piracy do not work in my opinion. One must educate people and learn kids how to appreciate creativity. And that’s the hard part as one does not have the impression that they are hurting someone with a harmless download.

As stated, a long discussion and one with mixed opinions …

Now I stumbled upon the following clip. Its a clip in which director Simon Klose explains why he needs your support to finish the documentary called TPB AFK. This stand for The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard. Its a documentary on the notorious filesharing website The Pirate Bay, a long-standing enemy of the movie & music industry. In this documentary Simon follows the three founders of the site, and their reactions to being found guilty of being accessory to crime against copyright law and fined over 3.6 million dollars.

There’s already over 200 hours of footage saved up and there are plans to record more during the founders’ appeal against their previous verdict, which is set for less than a month from now, on 28 September, 2010. In three days, the director already raised over $30,000 on to pay for a professional editor and use of an editing suite in putting together the full length feature.

The court case, the political parties that have been started across several continents, the threats which get hilarious answers, … all interesting and something which many have been following up close for a long time now. All I can say: crazy Swedes. Hope they’ve got a stay out of jail for free card .

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#ROFL

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I grew up among denim. My father has been working for one of the world’s largest denim companies for like forever. It gave me an edge on many, a close viewing point of changes within the industry throughout the passed decade or so.

I remember visiting factories and being amazed by the process, the huge washing machines for stone wash effects or sandblasting denim for that rough/used look. I remember being asked to go fit new models and other clothes for the designers, doing summer jobs within the company, …

Come to think of it there’s a lot I have always loved about denim. I love its smell, its feel and its look. You can never go bad with a good pair of jeans in my opinion. Come to think of it I have an almost denim exclusive closet, sponsored off course

Now I know you must be wondering where the hell I found the inspiration for this post?! Well, it was the following clip that triggered everything for me. A clip I just on Matix, a company that recently launched its Capital Collection, which is a premium line of made and sourced in the USA denim, T-shirts, and cut-and-sew pieces. Each item in their line is hand made by American workers in the USA, something rare in this day and age of low-cost sewing facilities in Asia & Africa. Something to ponder upon when you consider blue jeans were born in the US of A originally.

Anyways, time to iron some jeans straight out of the dryer.

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One Night Stand from Jack Tew on Vimeo.

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Might just have to dig up the old Lego bricks. Also diggin’ the whole transformer table cloth/bed spread theme that’s going on. Memories straight out of the childhood years.

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Who is switching off the city lights at night?

Little piece of street art I (finally) spotted in Ghent the passed weeks. Seen several of these switches. Seems they have been around for a while. Need to get some new glasses guess Out.

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Now for the people who do not know, Radiolab is where science meets culture and information. Each episode is an investigation, a patchwork of people, sounds, stories and experiences centered around One Big Idea and you can download their podcasts through itunes for instance. Worth having a listen just as their latest episode on Words, which have the power to shape the way we think and feel. You can tune in to the Words episode here. Out

Don't forget us over on facebook if you'd like to stay out!

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I-dosing is a method of intoxication that is delivered by sound. Kids put on their headphones, drape a hood over their head and drift off into the world of ‘digital highs’. They believe the repetitive drone-like music will give them a ‘high’ that takes them out of reality.

Is it? Or is it just a placebo effect? For as far as I have been able to uncover it must be a combination of several aspects. Now, I am no fancy scientist/researcher but I do know how to read up on things. Most of the stuff I came across suggest that the specific sounds, especially if played with your eyes covered and a relaxed body, can bring one into a state of trance.

As with everything, some people may be more susceptible to the experience than others off course and  I can perfectly grasp the fact that the so-called binaural beats, which researchers have clearly documented, can bring forth temporary changes in peoples brain activity but after listening to several of the recordings I did not feel anything except annoyance really

Annoyance also because I am sick and tired of seeing crap like this being pushed by the press, especially when it concerns young folk. Belgian mainstream media gets the first prize each and every time for pushing foreign hype-able content (news, fait divers, stats, …) and claiming its relevant locally.

If we are to believe our beloved reporters i-dosing is happening all over the world. See that kid in the busstop with the headphones? I-dosing right as we speak

Lets say it as it is: if you had kept your mouth shut, a whole majority of youngsters would never have heard of it and probably would never have gone on to try it out.

All I can say: don’t believe the hype. Out.

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Mentioned the documentary & project a couple of times before (here & here) and happened to remember that I still had to feature the entire 12 minute clip.

Next level craftsmanship, showcasing another spectrum of street art. Keep you eyes open at the end as the credits contains the final time-lapse. Out.

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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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A tragedy is what you call the events in Duisburg this passed weekend! Sad to see that the Love Parade turned out to be a disaster for so many people.

Maltese irony is what you might call the screen above. Its a Times of Malta article on the events which took place. I had previously seen the image pass by in several reports but would not have thought to find it over at the Times of Malta site. Irony.

Always need some time to register the fact that the German paramedics are called Maltesers. I remember seeing them around the football stadium in Aachen a couple of weeks back when we went to see the Maltese national squad play Germany in a world cup friendly.

The fact they are called Maltesers and wear a Maltese cross still reigns from the Middle Ages when the Hospitaller Knights roamed the European countryside slashing people in holy wars by the way. But you can read all about this on the better wikipedia pages!

Anyways, I would also like to settle the discussion for once and forever: the Maltese population is made up of Maltese and not Maltesers . Out.

You can find the entire article overhere btw.

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Each time I think about bowling I think about the Big Lebowski. Those thoughts were no different when I first read about The Bowler, a short documentary about booze, broads and bowling by Sean Dunne in which he follows Rocky Salemmo. Rocky is a ramblin’ gamblin’ man, who for the majority of his adult life has hustled bowling for a living. Here is his story.

The Bowler from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

By the way, it is only one of the many other short documentaries made by Sean Dunne. You can check is work over at veryapeproductions.com.

One that also sprung out amongst his other work: The Archive. It features Paul Mawhinney, who has, over the years, amassed what the world’s largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection though. This is the story of a man and his records. Out.

through Nerdcore

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As promised, part 2 offf what we saw the passed days in Paris. You can read all about the first day overhere.

Friday – Big beamers keep on beaming

An experienced person is just someone that’s made a lot of mistakes. Hoss is very experienced. This is your opportunity to listen to Hoss do his first ever ‘acoustic set’ ? An intimate sharing of lessons learned, punctuated by the odd bit of work, including his latest collaboration with Rob Chiu, and a very simple explanation of how to be profitable on Apple’s App Store. . That’s what the description stated and I regret that we only caught Hoss Gifford‘s presentation halfway true.

Pity as his Things I have learned was really interesting. Not a shocking keynote but a collection of insights & stories that anyone who’s good in what he does should already have experienced but it was nice as I considered it a little fresh-up course.

“Don’t do anything for free and do not give discounts to new clients as you will never taste the same afterwards” is the one that stuck to me the most. An ongoing discussion I have had with a couple of people lately and his comparison was great. “Its like going to the supermarket, buying 6 yoghurts for the price of 4 and afterwards not finding the same deal.” A wise & bold statement. One to ponder upon amongst others!

Hilarious was also the fact he made an iphone app which has paid his lunch every day. An app that gives you the time, more or less

“Unicorns farting glitter metal band names”

He was soon followed by Tara Mcpherson. I bet you have seen work by her already! A great artist besides being a hot girl with tats (something you do not see a lot on stage at #offf) I am all for more girl designers, … taking the stage next time around

Tara is an artist based out of New York City. Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes. She exhibits her paintings and serigraphs in fine art galleries all over the world. Named the crown princess of poster art by ELLE Magazine, she has created numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Beck, Modest Mouse, and Melvins. Her array of art also includes creating toys with companies like Kidrobot, Dark Horse, and Toy2R, painted comics and covers for DC Vertigo, advertising and editorial illustrations for companies such as Wyden+Kennedy and Spin Magazine, and teaching a class at Parsons in NYC. A lot of stuff you can know her from and worth a look at

The program states that Firstborn came after her? Can not really remember from the top of my head what they showed us, so I will just refer to their website

Knife Party I do remember vividly. It was the point were a little voice inside my head yelled “finally” as our visual appetite had grown more hungry. ‘Coalition of the Willing‘ is an animated film about an online war against global warming in a post-Copenhagen world. It was written by Tim Rayner, who is the brains behind the campaign in this digital struggle against global warming following the failed summit. Bare in mind that the following animation is a collaboration between lots and lots of people who ech took upon themselves a part of the film.

Universal Everything continued to nurture our longing for great stuff. These are the guys who did the international MTV rebrand which means that all you guys have seen their stuff passby. I will let the following clip speak for itself but google them!

MTV / International Rebrand Overview from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

They also did some short reveal films for AOL’s relaunch for instance. These got used in web video, mobile, digital campaigns and outdoor LED displays. Nice stuff to say the least

You can find more stuff on their Vimeo which is worth going through.

Goodby & Silverstein are the big boys who took the stage. They are the agency who brought us the awesome HP ads with Jigga, Gwen Stefani, Jerry Seinfeld, … But they also did this campaign/viral for Häagen-Dazs in order to draw attention on their bee program. Hilarious Homebees

Then something totally different followed: SoSo Limited. These guys take word clouds to a master level as they are specialised in interactive installation and audiovisual performance. They create immersive works that play on the immediacy of live media by creating word art by the analysis of what is said. I can not describe it all that well bt the following clips will emlighten you I guess. The first one for instance is a four minute edit remixing the ministerial debates from the UK.

Sosolimited – Prime Numerics (Taster) from FutureEverything on Vimeo.

Prime Numerics (3 of 10) from Sosolimited on Vimeo.

We ended our Friday at the Wooster Collective meet-up near de Quai de Jemappe by the way. Great to meet Marc & Sara amongst others IRL. We we’re amongst great company to say the least

Saturday – The return

We had to skip the festival Saturday. Other stuff called. Pity as I heard it was the best day. Crowd seemed enthusiastic and some of the previous organisational problems belonged to the past.

That being said, it is a great festival with a good vibe, but we have some liner notes for the band

• communicate better, it is clear that this is not the organisations cup of tea
• queues ain’t good, if you say you can pick up passes earlier stick to it (we travelled a day earlier to the venue for nothing!)
• good WiFi = a must have
• more sanitary provisions
• venues? how about signposting these or at least getting your organization to know where what is
• check peoples tickets, we met a couple of people who got in for free where we paid full price #sad

Btw, its 2010 and we’re in a post-digital time as you all know. Organising means to get all digital communication streamlined can be great. Tell people what tags to use for their pictures, … and give them the tools at the venue in order to share their experiences.

Do not want to end negative though as I had a great time and will recommend the conference to anyone who’s interested in this kind of stuff. Maybe we should finish with the end titles for the sponsors. Yet another great piece of work! See you next year so Out.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Thanks to On Point & Eckelwood for the company and great talks/laughs thoughout the days.

You can still check part one of our report overhere.

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Captain’s log, Saturday 26th June. Returning from Offf 2010 in Paris. Thalys is on time. Mission accomplished.

Wednesday – Check-in for a day in the Sun

Travelled a day earlier to Paris as I had some spots & shops I had been meaning to visit for a while. This meant an early wake-up call in order to catch the Thalys. The call of sneaker, book, … stores & great street art was loud. I could smell it in the air

Arriving in Paris we first headed to our shelter: Hidden Hotel. One of the people behind this concept lodging was so kind to invite us for a stay in their great little hotel while in Paris. Its located in the heart of Paris, a small side street, just 800m or so from the Arc de Triomphe. I can only recommend a stay as its something I had never seen before. I recon I might right a more indepth review on it one of these days

Once we dropped of our lugage and put on some better clothing (hot as hell in Paris passed days) we were offf for some sightseeing and urban discoveries. You can find some pictures overhere and yes, I took way to little pics this time

Thursday – Queuing for beginners

Two hours! Deux heures! Dos whatever! Yes, the amount of time we spent queuing in the shade/sun that Thursday morning. Boring as hell by the way and the reason we missed the opening note But no worries as we were in!

In order to kick offf in style I suggest you have a look at the great opening credits. It gives you an overview of who we saw come by.

OFFF Paris 2010 Titles from OFFF on Vimeo.

Media Temple Animation from (HKI)™ HelloHikimori™ on Vimeo.

HELLOHIKIMORI was the first to really kick off the cool stuff for us. Warming up I guess as we had to get into the right set of mind for the next few days.

I was also looking forward to seeing the guys from H5, mentioned their Oscar winning Logorama before, but heard they chickened out I think they might just have got stuck in Cannes with the train strike which was going on or something else. Too bad they couldn’t continue. Early lunch so!

Craig Ward drew our attention right from the start after a long break in the sun. I was intrigued by his bizarre and beautiful typeface experiments. Check out his site Words Are Pictures to see and learn more, including some really impressive letterpress illustrations.

In his presentation, Craig demonstrated his continuing education in typography while tracing his evolution from designer to typographer to story teller. Fancy words to state he does cool stuff with lettering

Dixon Baxi followed in what I call a promo talk. Hey lets show another showreel and then will show another one. Followed by ooohs & aaahs! Or not. Mainly different idents they did for some television stations, … But nice work to say the least and great entertainment.

DixonBaxi | Five ‘Food Chain’ from DixonBaxi on Vimeo.

DixonBaxi | Five USA ‘Eye Contact’ from DixonBaxi on Vimeo.

We Walk from Christopher Hewitt on Vimeo.

The guys did end with We Walk, which is a short film that stumbles into the journey of a young girl desperate to leave the city in search of isolation and in turn, sleep. Shot in LA and Palm Springs, the film is based on a new poem by Writer, Brett Darling.

Later on we got to see Marc & Sara from Wooster Collective take the stage. Great talk for a fascinated crowd. A crowd that does not follow their blog/site as I had seen everyting they showed us previously I bet they got a new following after this.

They followed what I like to call one prick & 3 French guys (Neville Brody, the British graphic designer together with the people from Bazooka). Some old school fellas who were going to set us young kids straight. They taught they could shock us with ‘pornoghraphic images’ … #fail & out of luck guys. You all get the figurative ball sack as you sucked monkey balls.

Just headed on out from there so. Enough is enough

Stay tuned though as tomorrow morning part II with some stuff that’s really worth a view & read. My sincere apologies if its all a bit chaotic but there really is too much stuff to share Out.

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It has been/will be our main theme the passed days: Paris, the city of lights. Not being blinded by these lights I kept my eyes open. Quick overview of what we saw before posting the Offf report:

fixies & lots of other bikes in all shapes and sizes

cybergoths & even a pirate in the metro

blipstaz, hipsters & further evolved tectonic kids

lots of flourescent stuff (laces, clothes, nail polish, …)

girls sporting an androgynous look

oversized headphones x1000 (way more than in BE)

grannies who think they’re 21 year old spring chickens (simply nasty)

strange shoes, more strange shoes & sneakers

QR-code stickers on traffic signs, rain pipes, …

(cheap/knock-off) Ray Bans everywhere, in all colours imaginable

Besides this all we also spotted some art here and there. The city mainly exists of shitty tags which are in your face everywhere but once every so many many spots you find some real gems. Took way to little pictures this time around and will have to make that up next trip. Out.

All other pictures can be found overhere.

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Girl Power! It ain’t a reference for the Spice Girls, nor a shout driven by female emancipation. What is it so? Well, the first feature-length documentary film about girls painting graffiti.

The idea behind the Girl Power project was born in Prague in 2008 during the filming of a short video with female graffiti artists. After its completion and success they thought, why not explore this topic a little deeper. Soon the film crew soon found themselves travelling across 15 European countries, crossing the Atlantic to graffiti’s birthplace New York, …

GIRL POWER movie 2011 (teaser vol.1) [Berlin 2009] from Girl Power movie on Vimeo.

Girl Power movie (trailer 2010) from Girl Power movie on Vimeo.

Stay up to date through their facebook page or website.

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