posted on October 9th, 2008 by Tobias in Design, Fashion, Video
Watch: Boing Boing TV has an infotaining interview with Toots Hibbert.
I joined BBtv’s London-based music correspondent Russell Porter for a visit on the venerable Mister Toots’ tour bus after an amazing set at Outside Lands, and we sat down with him for a conversation about the history of reggae, and what Toots thinks about contemporary hip-hop and dancehall — and where his legacy leads. The generous vanity intro he did for BBtv is a thing of beauty, we can all die happy now.
Buy: Apple sells Dr. Dre´s Monster Beats headphones.
Developed in collaboration between legendary music producer and artist Dr. Dre, engineers from Monster Cable, and renowned industrial designer Robert Brunner, the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones bring a professional producer’s experience to music fans everywhere.
Read: The New York Times published a story on bullet proof fashion in Mexico City.
What we offer is one more chance at life, said Javier Di Carlo, the marketing manager, as he showed off the top-of-the-line Black collection in a private fitting room. We don’t want people to say to the criminal, “Shoot me.” Nobody should feel like Superman. But if the criminal does shoot, we give our customers a chance to run away.
Win: Nokia, FM4 and Vice are searching for support DJs for their Austria tour.
Das Vice Magazin sucht für eine Reihe von Parties in österreichischen Städten noch DJs, die vor internationalen DJ-Größen wie z.B. Sascha Funke oder Zander VT hinter die Turntables treten. Gage gibt es natürlich auch.
posted on October 3rd, 2008 by Tobias in Article, Audio, Fashion, Photography
Wow. Dancehall is prime time international TV news. Well, almost. CNN International reported about him being cleared on Jamaica tax charges.
A little more in debth is The Guardian´s story on The Clash
scraping the punk barrel in the bid to find new material
and thereby insuring their pension plan.
From plans to pants: Wayne & Wax post about dancehall dancers´ gayish routines and outfits made it on Dancehallreggae.com and caused a very vibrant discussion. Head over to Wayne´s blog for the outtakes.
Head over to Facebook to see some nice photographs which I totally slept on: “Ever wondered where Jamaica´s Gold Come From?” – some shots of Jamaican training facilities Peter Dean Rickard´s took for the New York Times´ coverage of the Olympic tournament in Bejing. Also see Pete´s “A Beautiful Nerd” series in Futureclaw magazine.
posted on October 1st, 2008 by Tobias in Design, Fashion
This gully style quilt and pillowcase have been designed by Dutch team SZN and are sold to
fund housing projects which prioritize supporting young people in finding work or continuing their education. (via CtotheJL)
You can buy it here if you feel like it.
And if you´re really bored, vote for Yendi Phillipps´ wardrobe on the Jamaican Star´s website. (Sorry for the lamest link I´ve probably ever posted. Better go read Attorney Street and Cyan Wait, of course.)
posted on September 24th, 2008 by Tobias in Article, Fashion, Video
This must be one of the best blog posts about Jamaican popular culture I´ve ever read – head over to Wayne & Wax – a place which is always worth a visit when looking for hi-quality links – and check his view on a Jamaican dancehall scene.
A scene, in which anti-gay lyrics still are an easy forward while especially dancing crews show what Wayne calls metrosexual references in their fashion, styling, and routines. Also, his observations on the role of the web for the relationship between Jamaica and its diaspora are pretty interesting.
What is of most interest to me in all of this is, to put it clunkily: the increasing and vividly/video-ly mediated exchange between yard and foreign, JA and BK(etc.), and the way that Jamaican and black (youth) cultural politics have been changing as a result of this greater degree of (digital) cultural production and p2p exchange. Jamaican (countercultural) style, at least since independence, has been very much animated by cosmopolitan/metropolitan movements and strivings. It’s not surprising that as black (American) youth culture has embraced rockstar/nerdcore/racially-transgressive style — often marked by what might be labeled “metrosexual†fashion — so have Jamaican youth in Brooklyn and Kingston alike, an ambivalent development for many observers/participants but nothing truly beyond the pale as far as JA-appropriations of foreign steez go (just check 70s reggae photos for tight clothes that put today’s fashions to shame).
posted on September 11th, 2008 by Tobias in Design, Event, Fashion
These cotton gems have been out for some weeks now, but I never found the time to put them in the deserved videolight of this blog. I´m talking about the new Man Recordings shirts which label-don Daniel Haaksman dropped with the help of German creative apparel platform Spreadshirt right after mashing up Melt! festival.
The logos were designed by Paul Snowden who some of you might know from his “Wasted German Youth” and “Minimal My Ass” shirts. No? Well, you might have seen the work he´s done for Nike, Levi´s and Lacoste then.
Anyway – I want you to know that the “Funk Mundial” and “Baile Funk Masters” shirts which were e.g. seen on the hip chests of the Crookers, DJ Beware and MC Gringo are tight like briefs of Brazilian beach volleyball playerettes and are available online via http://manrecordings.spreadshirt.net in the EU and via http://manrecordings.spreadshirt.com in America.
P.S. And ye, don´t miss Haaksman´s next “Big Booty Clash” in Berlin on October 11th. Trend and jet-setting Tim Turbo has the details.
