The end of 2011 is nearing, time for some first new year’s resolutions and one of those is to try some new stuff. One of those new try-outs will be rugby and more specific attending a Six Nations Championship game. Tickets for the France – Italy game coming February in Paris’ Stade de France have been delivered and can state I’m looking forward to it. One more thing to get off the bucket list in 2012, hoping to add a premier league football game to this also.

Having said this, I will leave you with this year’s highlights.

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 …

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!

 

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?!”

Still owed you this post:

Couple of weeks ago I spent a weekend in Hasselt for the Street Art Festival surrounded by a great line-up. Coincidence has it that I happened to help out Mymo with here massive piece. Operating the bucket, painting where possible. Besides that some other great pieces got shape. Full set overhere but thought I should share a couple of them here …

A first for me and a great festival overall.

Mymo

Resto

Oli-B x Billy x Resto x Bue the Warrior

Polak x Locatelli

DinDin

Aryz

Also, as I have been getting questions/requests over the past 2 weeks I thought I should enlighten everyone that I did leave the StreetArtBelgium.com thing. Our paths were clearly going other ways. Several people had warned me for certain elements while starting our efforts, and in the end it seems they were right on this from the start.

Stuff has been done, stuff has been said, a story which has several sides to it, so I wish not to get strangled in between. Besides that I could not find myself within the way things turned out, kicking someone off a mutual project without discussing this amongst everyone does not float here.For that reason I decided to quit all efforts within the project and for what its worth, I regret it had to turn out this way as we had something nice going as a team. Personal side of the story available offline for the those interested.

For those of you who wish to support the festival and see it return once again, please join the facebook page which will keep you up to date on what happens in the future.

Also, on a final note, Oemebamo shot a great overview/recap of the festival. Hope this will return next year or the near future.

Met A Squid Called Sebastien for the first time while organising Youthwatching several years back. He would join in with several others at the end of the day, expo some of his work, … 

Couple of weeks back we met again over some coffee at Ghent’s Vooruit. He had just returned from the 9000miles tour he did with several other artists. Told me I should check the following book I just remembered (*note to self*) and also come check out his expo at ArtSpace Leguit (which previously also hosted one of our #youngscum get togethers).

If you’re in Antwerp this Friday, definitely go check his guest expo + live painting by 9000miles featuring:

Steve Locatelli
Stanislas Lahaut
Jan Opdekamp
Nadia ‘Cymo’ Oussehmine
Digsville Music
Third Digit

The expo itself, which brings a collection of new works on wooden sufaces made in the course of 2011, will run untill the end of the month. Check the preview below & the facebook event for further details and go see them fatties!

Artspace Leguit

Leguit 23

http://www.artspaceleguit.com/

Images courtesy of 9000Miles

What happens when you set up a four day paint jam somewhere in the English countryside? Supremebeing set it up and captured it all in the clip below which features live painting by artists David Walker, She One, Mr Jago, Will Barras and Bue The Warrior.

This has been in the make for a while. Already great work by everyone involved.

For all additional info visit http://streetartbelgium.com/ or feel free to contact us.

Work in progress, launch is imminent.

In the meantime check our facebook or twitter.

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.

Video for Pusha T feat. Tyler, The Creator ‘Trouble On My Mind‘. Directed by Decon’s Jason Goldwatch, taken from Pusha T’s project Fear of God Part 2: Let Us Pray.

There’s a new ipad app in town. For the natives, you can read all about it on Freaky.

“HeyHey Colors brings the colorful world of street artist Bue the Warrior in an amazing iPad coloring book to your child’s fingertips. Bue the Warrior’s iconic figures have been bringing joy and color to cities around the world. Now everyone has the chance to dive into his amazing universe.”

Nothing but love for this kids’ colouring app and the people behind it. I tested a beta-version of the app a while back and was blown away by its simplicity & great design. If you have kids, or to be honest even without kids, I would suggest you buy it and start colouring right away.

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.”

Onio, Ox-Alien, Rotterdam

Each and every day I walk by this mural. Its en route to our offices. Peeps better have a good look as it might just be your last chance to see it as demolition work has started …

Update: seems this wall will remain intact till at least September.

The Pool was more than a BMX comp, it was one of the most extra-ordinary gatherings of the BMX community this century.

From the draining of a soon to be demolished local authority swimming pool in Dagenham, East London, into a world class park in less than two weeks was a feat in itself, but to see the diversity and level or riding on display at the launch event was truly remarkable.

40 international riders with a brand new team format saw non-comp riders, veterans, street destroyers and park animals all throw down into something far better than we could have dreamt of.

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.

Musician Gil Scott-Heron, who helped lay the groundwork for rap by fusing minimalistic percussion, political expression and spoken-word poetry on songs such as “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” died Friday at age 62. – RIP.

Remember hipster avant garde Napoleon Dynamite? Well, seems an animated series is heading to Fox Network as they ordered six episodes of an animated show with the voices of the original cast. Gosh, vote for Pedro!

Everything Is Dancing by Fair Ohs

Seems a few spare hours in Ghent and hooking up with Bue results in the following. Read all about it at Insaland.

Unfamiliar with Insa’s work? Have a look overhere.

After “Jedi” was officially acknowledged as a religion a few years ago surely the next step is to make May 4th (International Star Wars Day) a public holiday all over the world… be you Sith or Jedi we could all do with another day off work right?!

Have a great International Star Wars Day.

Buraka Som Sistema just dropped a bangin’ hot track for the summer. You might remember them from their Sound of Kudoro (which featured M.I.A and started it all) or their Kalemba (wegue wegue) but for those of you who are really not familiar with Buraka, they are one of the driving forces for bringing the Kuduro genre to the masses with their mix of techno beats and the specific African kuduro sound.

Hangover (BaBaBa) is out on June 6th. But for now Wegue Wegue.

A while back I was asked by the people from Habbekrats to join them for a screening of Rabat, a Dutch production/movie which will be released in June across the Netherlands & Belgium.

Rabat, which is the first full theatre feature to be directed & produced by the guys from Habbekrats, is the story of 3 young friends on their way down to Marocco. A road movie which follows Nadir on his way down to Rabat where he has to deliver his father’s old Taxi. A trip from Amsterdam, through Europe, on which his two friends Abdel & Zakaria invite themselves to tag along. A trip which put their friendship through several tests as they reach their goal: Rabat.

Thanks to everyone at Habbekrats for the invite. Had been a fan of your work for a while. Something you should also have a look at. Oh, and they just dropped a video for the movies’ title track, De Leven, by Sef.

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.

Parra and Amsterdam’s Tom Trago released their latest Parra Soundsystem album. Great tunes declaring summer officially opened.

ParraSoundSystem | Von Smallhausen by ParraSoundSystem

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]