Alex Knost is one of the most influential surfers these days, has ridden the comp. circuit seeing little point in them. So recently he has been doing this thing in Newport Beach and is just happening to be changing the way we all look at surfing.

He is also in the band The Japanese Motors which are very surf/beach cultured sound and based out of Costa Mesa. It also happens that Costa Mesa has this awesome club called Avalon Bar which we hit up last friday.Ye, check it for sure if your in the area.

Japanese Motors - Bummin Out

Japanese Motors - Single Fins And Safety Pins

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Yesterday we were strolling down Robertson the other day shopping and living the dream in LA and sure enough the paparazzi were in full force chasing peeps and taking photos of the famous doing everyday things when they all started booking it to the gas station taking super photos. Sure enough it was Sienna Miller filling up her car. I found photos of the event on z17online.com so check them. On Robertson we checked Kitson, WeSc among others.

Keep up to date here with more photos of LA and my super adventures involving Siggraph, LA, Beverly Hilly, Santa Monica, NewPort beach and everything else fun.

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I’m straight up saying that its a known fact that Nostalgic Electro is now in. With my previous post about what is next with electro, these 3 tunes will now prove this theory even further. They are by NYC based Chew Fu who is a contributer for Palms Out Sound, Kissy Sell Out a UK producer who has a show on BBC1 and the Parisian Ed Bangin producer sebastiAn.

Ben E. King - Stand By Me (Chew Fu RMX)

NightSwimming - R.E.M(Kissy Sell Out Bmore Re-Edit)

Baba O’Riely - The Who (sebastiAn Remix)

What is next in music, there’s only so many nostalgic tunes that deserve to be brought back from the dead, when we exhaust these what will we do…?Is electro going to last for ever or fade out soon?The music industry is blending every other style of music and its getting pretty ridiculous so why not just go all out? What will it be replaced with? Folkno (folk & techno), Op-unk (opra & punk), hip-tic (hip-hop & celtic)?

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The Ottawa based company Overlay.TV has just released their 0.9 Beta and it is looking awesome! There are so many new features built into the player it is great. Not only is Overlay.TV have a new player their site is wonderfully redesigned making it much easier to navigate and use. Take note that the featured video on the landing page is non other than Parisian based, DJ Mehdi’s I am somebody(ft. Chromeo), AMAZING!

I strongly suggest you sign up to Overlay.TV, create some Overlays and have some fun!

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I posted about Muxtape in this previous post when it was first released. They have added some awesome new features such as more favorites, new colour picker, large file upload etc and I’ve finally got around to making a complete “Muxtape” check it here jshaw3.muxtape.com. Like serious my Muxtape will entertain you for hours.

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One of the most creative artists I have ever come across has been Roadsworth. Hailing from Toronto/Montreal Canada his work has never failed to impress and make the viewer contemplate their surrounds.

Peter Gibson, a.k.a. Roadsworth could face up to $100,000 in fines for his controversial ’street’ art. He brings urban banalities to life by creating candles out of crosswalks, for example. He makes one stop to reflect, as does all good art. The question is, should his conscientious work be scrutinized and treated as public vandalism? Or should it not be considered in a different light– as poetic activism, and, as art?  

Taken from the National Film Board of Canada. There is a documentary Roadsworth: Crossing the Line being funded by the National Film Board and it is looking to be an amazing story about the artist.

What are your personal thoughts on Street Art? Graffiti? Are they the same or completely different? 

Is Roadsworth an artist? a vandal?

What should a city do when a publicly loved (street)artist is caught? Should his art be buffed? 

There has been instances in the UK where Banksy’s art has been left due to his popularity/fame and general worth of his piece… Banksy’s art is considered by many municipalities to be “tourist attractions”.

Is Roadsworth in a similar situation  as Banksy but a Canadian version? (Banksy hasn’t been caught from my knowledge though).

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Funky Forest from Long Tran on Vimeo.

I first found out about Theodore Watson with his collaboration with Evan Roth(ni9e) with the graffiti analysis / lazer tag project. However his work is amazing, completely interactive, loved by everyone who takes part in his installations and always visually addictive. Taken from his bio here is more information. He was a source of inspiration for our Senior Thesis project this year - Emocapsule.com

Theodore Watson is an artist, designer and experimenter whose work is born out of the curiosity and excitement of designing experiences that come alive and invite people to play. Theodore’s work ranges from creating new tools for artistic expression, experimental musical systems, to immersive, interactive environments with full-body interaction. His recent work includes the Graffiti Research Lab’s Laser Tag, laser graffiti system and Funky Forest, an immersive interactive ecosystem for young children. Theodore works together with Zachary Lieberman on openFrameworks, which is an open source library for writing creative code in C++.

Theodore Watson’s work has been shown at MoMA, Tate Modern, Ars Electronica, The Sundance Film Festival, Res Fest, REMF, Cinekid, Montevideo, OFFF, SHIFT, ICHIM, The Creators Series, Deitch Projects, Eyebeam, Pixel Gallery, Museum N8 Amsterdam.

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I’ve recently been loving the publication/blog Refinery 29. They are out of NYC and cater to Fashion, Travel, Music, Deisgn oriented people. They have a LA edition as well. The site has everything from Shop directories per city as well as online video content. They are “devoted to seeking out the people, products, and ideas that set the bar for originality and exceptionally, season after season.” Which is great!! Since I first came across Refinery 29 i have notices significant content updates and site improvements which really emphasizes their whole “forward thinking” ideals.

I would defiantly mark Refinery 29 as a bi-weekly stop on your online browsing.

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