Mentioned the I Am Los Angeles portraits a couple of times before and just saw that some great portraits have been added over the passed weeks! One of them features Belgian artist & expat Chase who’s murals, paintings, and stencil art graces a huge amount of walls across LA and other cities. 

More portraits at iamlosangeles.com

Picture = work by Chase & Bue the Warrior, Ghent.

Yesterday RedBull Belgium premiered The Art of Flight in Brussels. The movie has been on a world tour throughout this fall (after having been released earlier in September) and yesterday Travis Rice & co found their way to Brussels. The ‘sold out’ (ticket were up for grabs through RedBull’s site) venue was Studio 4 in Flagey, a great location that was for this event.

The movie/documentary itself follows Travis Rice, John Jackson, Mark Landvik, Scotty Lago, Jake Blauvelt, Nicolas Müller, Gigi Rüf, DCP and Pat Moore as they dream up new global adventures and progress the sport to unimaginable levels. For this, production company Brain Farm gathered an arsenal of the most advanced and progressive filmmaking technology to bring the masses a snowboarding adventure of epic proportions. Filmed on location in Jackson Hole, Alaska, Chile, Aspen, Patagonia, British Columbia, … the movie brings viewers along for the perfect blend of adventure/travel drama and high-energy snowboarding action.

Overall the verdict was that its a great (and I really mean GREAT) snowboard movie if not the most epic of them all. Everything about the movie was super-sized, from the budget (read it was around $2 million) to the riding. A mix of sweeping landscape shots of enormous mountains and huge rides/jumps. Even the run time of an hour and a half is more than twice that of your average snowboard films. The sheer size of everything just blows you away and I reckon anyone will appreciate watching it.

The screening tour continues to Amsterdam, Paris, Stockholm & Moscow throughout the week. If you can attend one of the dates I suggest you do or get your hands on a copy  of the DVD. Besides impressive the footage the movie also has a great soundtrack worth checking out.

Thanks to the guys over at RedBull Belgium for the invites. Can’t wait to hit the slopes this winter myself although I will keep it more real(istic) & amateur

Skinemax is Koyaanisqatsi  for a generation raised on late night television and B-movie VHS tapes. It’s long form entertainment for short attention spans. An hour long VJ odyssey, it will move your body and warp your mind.

A nostalgic look back at a half remembered childhood growing up in the 80s and early 90s, Skinemax takes a close look at the culture of that era. The images that motivated, delighted, and terrified us on the silver screen, set to propulsive modern music that pines for a simpler time.

And what’s even greater, it stars Kurt Russel Lots of scenes shot by that I hadn’t seen in while …

“We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists“ is an upcoming documentary on Anonymous and the history of hacktivism. Expect this.

Mentioned SupaKitch & Koralie a couple of times before and today another great ‘making of’clip for one of their wall paintings popped up. Their work is so nice, have a look yourself. In the meantime stay out of trouble!

The Ghostvillage Project was created over 3 days on the west coast of Scotland. 6 artists (Timid, Remi/Rough, System, Stormie Mills, Juice 126, Derm) were given free reign to paint in an abandoned 1970s village.

Working together on huge collaborative walls and individually in hidden nooks and crannies all over the site the artists realised long held dreams and were inspired by the bleakness and remoteness of the site. Drawing on the history of the village the artists’ stated intent on completion of the project was to populate the ghostvillage with the art and characters that it deserved.

 One of the strangest subcultures I have ever read about is that of the Juggalos. Juggalo or Juggalette (the latter being feminine) is a name given to fans of Insane Clown Posse or any other Psychopathic Records hip hop group. Juggalos have developed their own idioms, slang, and characteristics.

Urban dictionary even goes further and defines a Juggalo as “A greasy, fat, teenager with a kool aid mustache and no friends who listens to songs about clowns in his step mother’s double wide mobile home when he isn’t hanging out at the mall food court.”

American Juggalo is a documentary that gives us a look at this often mocked and misunderstood group of hardcore Insane Clown Posse fans who meet once a year for four days at The Gathering of the Juggalos. The makers went to The Gathering of the Juggalos and let the Juggalos speak their minds. A nice look into this freak subculture, one I do not seem to understand yet

Tattoo Age is a documentart which follows Dan Santoro at Smith Street Tattoo Parlor. The first clip gives us the chance to get to know Dan Santoro, alongside his shop mates Bert Krak, Steve Boltz, and Eli Quinters. Dan takes a nostalgic view on how destiny landed him at Smith Street, and what a person can expect to find if they enter this hallowed bastion of traditional tattooing.

In the second episode of  we get enlightened about the flash that adorns the walls at Smith Street Tattoo Parlor, and since this is about Dan Santoro, we focus on what set his flash apart from the rest of the pack. Flash, for those of you who don’t know, is the term for the tattoo designs that are on the wall at a tattoo shop. Dan also goes past the tattoo realm with some of his more personal art, and shares it with us at his home.

In the final installment of the Dan Santoro series we get an inside look at the impetus behind his collection of antique objects, and how he turned his childhood dream into reality.

The sweat dripping from your face. The exhaustion after giving it your all. We have mentioned it before.

The following short film by Dave is a great caption of how the behaviour of fans at a gig is a key part of the relation between them, the band, and the music. Crowd surfing, along with pogoing and moshing, is an act of rock’n'roll defiance, a demonstration that you are there in the thick of it, lost in the music.

The fifth entry in the 2011 Short Stories film competition fuelled by Relentless Energy Drink, “The Pit,” takes viewers into a world of bodies and bouncers. Depares introduces us to the fans who risk ejection from the venue, the musicians who live it every night (including Liam Cormier of Cancer Bats and Lee Spielman of Trash Talk) and the bouncers who try to keep everyone safe. The film contrasts the focused energy of the band with the seeming chaos of the pit.

Crack the surface is the first in a series of short documentaries focusing on the culture of Urban Exploring.

Kidult might not need an introduction for many, allthough I reckon for some he might be new. He has become an infamous (yet rec­og­nized) artist mainly because of his actions targetting several high end luxury brands’ stores (most recently Supreme in New York), which he considers ‘hypocritical in a society that predominantly lives under the poverty level’.

A while back the French graffiti artist released ‘ILLEGALIZE GRAFFITI‘, a video which documents his controversial activities in the streets of Paris & abroad. “Angered and frus­trated by the sud­den ram­pant com­mer­cial­iza­tion of graf­fiti into the main­stream, French street artist Kidult has taken to the streets of Paris to remind peo­ple of the impor­tance of street art as a counter-culture move­ment.”

Brazilian street art took over the walls of the prestigious MuBE Museum in São Paulo (Brasil) for the biggest graffiti showcase of the year. 65 Graffiti artists from 13 countries descended upon São Paulo for the 1st Biennial International “Graffiti Fine Art” Exhibition at the MuBE Museum. In an art world where semantics matter, graffiti artists from around the world wonder what exactly is ‘Graffiti Fine Art‘. After all, once graffiti leaves the street… is it even graffiti at all?

A Documentary by Jared Levy.

It didn’t snow in Tahoe for almost the entire month of January. Out of curiosity and boredom Corey Smith decided to attempt to build some handmade snowboards. He was interested in long boarding style in surfing and exploring similar concepts on snow. He wanted to deconstruct contemporary snowboarding down to its simplest element and find beauty in simply turning.

So he ended up building some experimental snowboards. When it finally did snow record amounts in Tahoe he was glad it did. These boards provided a completely unique snowboarding experience and opened up a world of terrain previously inaccessible on traditional snowboards.

COMUNE // SPRING BREAK from COMU?E on Vimeo.

[through MashKulture]

Based on how objects slowly deteriorate and wear down.

Hong Kong is home to more than 7 million people. Amongst the high rise apartments, product designer Michael Leung founder of HK Honey, has created his own space bringing nature back into the metropolis one box at a time.

HK Honey is an organisation of Hong Kong beekeepers, artists & designers who aim to communicate the value of bees to the human food chain & the benefits of locally produced honey. With a network of bee farms and a design studio, Michael and HK Honey harvest local honey & design products and services relating to urban beekeeping.

Faith47 is someone worth introducing time and time again … we previously mentioned her work a while back but the following three segments are also worht sharing. It features Faith47 during the making of her Freedom Charter series.

Seems ROA has been in San Fran the past weeks in preparation of an exhibit at the White Walls gallery during the month of April. Spencer Keeton Cunningham documented this in a lovely fashion. More images can be found overhere.

[More Roa overhere btw]

“This mountain is like nothing you have skied before! Spend a day riding the tiny tram and shredding miniature backcountry lines in Jackson Hole. Or how tilt-shift is pretty awesome when used like this.

[through @OrT]

L’Eroica is an old-style bike race without any fuss, crossing Chianti’s landscape and its famous white roads. Having seen Flanders finest yesterday it seems more than fitting to share this one today.

We’ve mentioned this one before, but fixed gears keep on turnin’ and right now we got the full feature which has clearly turned out to become a nice piece documenting the trip from London to Paris which 10 riders took on as a challenge in 2009 in order to meet Lance Armstrong as the Tour De France came to a close. It takes a while to load in vimeo, so be patient

Crossing Lines is a short film that documents Irish artist Conor Harrington trip to Tel Aviv, Israel and Bethleham, Palestine in May 2010.

Check out this mad clip on Aaron ‘Wheelz’ Fotheringham, the 19 year old wheelchair shredder from the Nitro Circus crew. He gives the handplant a totally new meaning and even got the world record when it come to front flipping a wheelchair.

[through Radcollector]

Dupstep, often people love it or they hate it and lately I happen to find myself tuning into to it more often as I would have thought a while back. I reckon it grows upon you and as with all music, there’s as much good as there is awfull stuff.

A while back I also happened to get a hold on BASSWEIGHT, a feature length documentary that offers an unparalleled insight into the subterranean world of Dubstep. Having found the time to watch it last week we just had to mention this one as we enjoyed watching it.

Now the documentary isn’t all that spectacular, but its a nice piece of work and never seems to bore as the emphasis throughout the doc is not dubstep’s current success but rather dubsteps growth from its obscure origins in south London to global recognition today. It tries to give you an understanding on the mentality and context of the people and its scene at the moment everything started to grow and how & where everything will grow to in the future.

In order to do so, it features in-depth interviews with many of the DJ’s, producers and promoters who have been instrumental in the genres ongoing evolution: Skream, Benga, Kode9 and Mary Anne Hobbs are just a few amongst many others.

Besides this it also pays attention to the scene’s impressive spread across Europe, Brazil and Japan, demonstrating the impact artists have had on an international level. Or how underground music can still be relevant in this 21st Century.

Mmm, Gilette thought they’d create the world’s largest 5 o’clock shadow on Major League Baseball’s Derek Jeter. Can’t help but wonder where I saw this concept before …

Oh, right its a copy of the Stella Artois’ Ritual Project and yes we just happened to have mentioned the documentary Up There on the matter a couple of times before. Remember?

I first really read about JR with his 28mm project a couple of years back. Saw stuff popping up on the interwebs and loved the way it made people think about situations time and time again. Its that subtle form of social criticism that makes JR one of those artists that keeps drawing peoples attention and I reckon you ought to watch the clip below. Its an introduction on the TED prize winner.

and if you want to find out more I suggest you also read this piece in the NY Times on the man’s life & work. Or how one man has one wish to change the world.

The following is a documentary about a journey to “The Edge of the Earth”. The Gates of the Arctic National Park. This Arctic park, with no roads, facilities, or campgrounds, is one of the northernmost national parks in the U.S.

“For the next two weeks you must survive using the knowledge, skills and gear you bring with you. You will walk or float through intact ecosystems where people have lived with the land for thousands of years. You will experience solitude, self reliance and nature on its own terms. Are you prepared?”

Its a great piece of work and inspiration for journeys to come.

What has Kid Zoom been up to the last 6 months …

The project was created by Joris Debeij, a European currently residing in LA, who wants to document the city through portraits of intriguing and unique personalities living there. Each single one on people who found a specific niche for themselves in a city of millions.

Enjoy the selected clips, we know we did.

Salvador Preciado has lived in East LA for most of his life. Growing up, he always was impressed by the tattoos worn by local gang members and he later decided to become a full-time tattoo artist. Sal is now the proud owner of El Clasico Tattoo, a tattoo shop in Echo Park.

Sean Martin has been riding bikes for over ten years. He started out on a BMX and now feels “one” with his fixed-gear bike while riding through the streets of LA.

Imagine this: There are mature fruit trees planted and cared for all over your neighborhood, so you can just pick fresh fruit and enjoy it as you walk down the street, without ever needing to go hungry. The guys of Fallen Fruit started 7 years ago as a one-time project that involved mapping out the locations of public fruit trees.

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.