Looks like the hardest working man in hip-hop show business is about to make a splash in the sneaker world. This morning on his blog, The Roots’ ?uestlove proudly unveiled his upcoming Nike signature shoe, the Air ?uesto 1. After a year in the making, the kicks will be available in select stores on August 1st in two very, uh, how do you say, interesting colorways–one of which will be a limited release:
25 lucky people across the US will open their boxes to receive a “golden ticket”—and unlike mr wonka i aint talkin a piece of paper.
the shoes will be golden (the one on top)—them shits are the ones to kill for.
i cant make the “official” announcement on what you will get if you are the lucky ones but lemme just say im gonna stand in line for my own damn shoe.
Best of all, ?uest will be dj’ing in several stores to promote the shoe’s release:
aug1- i’ll be at ALIFE in NYC
aug5- i’ll be at UBIQ in philly
aug 7th I’ll be at Undefeated in LA
Now, my question to you guys: Would you pick these up, or pass ‘em by?
If Kanye really is doing all the blogging himself, then he should definitely be commended on his efforts. The guy is an international celebrity, with a demanding schedule, and somehow he still finds the time to deliver several blog updates a day–you gotta respect that. However, if it’s all the work of a ghost blogger within his camp (which he denies), then it’s all pretty pathetic. Not because it’s false advertisement, but because I’d expect higher posting quality from such a person. I mean, assuming that a ghost blogger’s schedule wouldn’t be nearly as demanding as Kanye’s, I’d like to think that he/she would have a little more time on his/her hands to compose a bit more than just the one sentence, picture heavy, “oh look cool” type posts that we often see on Kanye’s blog (again, if it’s Kanye himself, he gets a pass, considering his hectic, stadium status schedule and all).
One last thing, and this is something that I’d like to explore further in a future post, I can’t understand why celebrity hip-hop blogs & fan sites feel the need to follow in the footsteps of existing hip-hop news and gossip blogs. Instead of sticking to the exclusive, behind the scenes content that you’d expect from an artist’s blog, many dish out the same news and gossip that can be found on hundreds of other hip-hop sites around the web. So disappointing, so disconnected.
MagCloud enables you to publish your own magazines. All you have to do is upload a PDF and we’ll take care of the rest: printing, mailing, subscription management, and more.
It costs you nothing to publish a magazine on MagCloud. To buy a magazine costs 20¢ per page, plus shipping. For example, a 20-page magazine would be four bucks plus shipping. And you can make money! You set your issue price and all proceeds above the base price go to you. Shipping is a flat $1.40/copy (USPS first class mail) for quantities 1-9, or a flat $13 for quantities from 10-100 (per box of 10-100).
I really wish this service was around way back when the idea of Gureala first entered my mind. Back when I wanted to bring the vision to life in the form of a monthly or bi-montly arts & culture mag, but settled on Moveable Type after peeping the costs of printing and distribution. I really have to tip my hat to HP on this one (yep-yep, MagCloud is an HP Labs creation). Lots of possibilities here. I’m really excited to see how bloggers will take to this service, as well as the types of publications that we’ll begin to in the MagCloud library (there’s already a nice little collection forming) over the next several months. Call me corny, but I’d really like to see some blog year in review-type pubs come out of this…crazy possibilities. What say you?
Ok, go ahead and hand me a super late pass on this (and I certainly deserve it considering I haven’t posted much of anything lately…my bad): apparently, while I was away from the interwebs, RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan and Chesspark joined forces to launch Wuchess, a chess-centered social networking site with a hip-hop twist:
Designed for chess enthusiasts addicted to hip-hop music, WuChess.com is the place where your favorite music, movies and celebs will be all while you get your game on. WuChess members will get exclusive offers such as MP3s you can’t get anywhere else, playing a surprise celebrity guest, access to one of a kind video clips and many more surprises. This is hardcore chess with half the stuffiness.
Chess x Hip-Hop x Social Networking…you gotta love it! What I love even more is that Wuchess doesn’t come off as just another social networking site fronted by a hip hop artist. You know the ones…self promotion first and foremost, with cheesy graphics and cluttered user interfaces, and blogs that read just like the gazillions of other gossip and hip hop blogs already on the net. There’s none of that here. It’s all about introducing young members of the hip-hop generation to chess, and offering chess veterans an alternative online gaming spot with comfortable, hip-hop laced atmosphere. Oh, and they even have an account on Twitter!
My only gripe/question to you: Can you get down with the site’s $48 membership fee?
Browsing through one of my new favorite photography blogs, Shoot the Blog, and stumbled upon this cool video that brings a gang of classic album covers to life:
Interesting report in the NY Times on a growing, Willie Wonka-like dinner party trend, in which guests are invited to sample a variety of foods while under the influence of a taste bud altering dru-, I mean, berry that makes EVERYTHING taste sweet:
CARRIE DASHOW dropped a large dollop of lemon sorbet into a glass of Guinness, stirred, drank and proclaimed that it tasted like a “chocolate shake.”
Nearby, Yuka Yoneda tilted her head back as her boyfriend, Albert Yuen, drizzled Tabasco sauce onto her tongue. She swallowed and considered the flavor: “Doughnut glaze, hot doughnut glaze!”
They were among 40 or so people who were tasting under the influence of a small red berry called miracle fruit at a rooftop party in Long Island City, Queens, last Friday night. The berry rewires the way the palate perceives sour flavors for an hour or so, rendering lemons as sweet as candy.
The host was Franz Aliquo, 32, a lawyer who styles himself Supreme Commander (Supreme for short) when he’s presiding over what he calls “flavor tripping parties.” Mr. Aliquo greeted new arrivals and took their $15 entrance fees. In return, he handed each one a single berry from his jacket pocket.
“You pop it in your mouth and scrape the pulp off the seed, swirl it around and hold it in your mouth for about a minute,” he said. “Then you’re ready to go.” He ushered his guests to a table piled with citrus wedges, cheeses, Brussels sprouts, mustard, vinegars, pickles, dark beers, strawberries and cheap tequila, which Mr. Aliquo promised would now taste like top-shelf Patrón.
He’d probably be strolling around the streets of Bed-Stuy with one of these:
No, not the girl. The thing she’s holding in front of her.
What may appear to be a virtual pet on a leash, is actually a futuristic take on the boom box, created by Israeli industrial designer, Inbal Dayagi.
Inspired by a children’s toy found in just about every hood in America (or the world, for that matter), the hula hoop, the boom box on a wheel runs on a self supporting, rechargeable battery and best of all it supports mp3’s. One thing’s for sure, its design is definitely one of a kind. Peep the full 3-d diagram here.
Right now it appears to be just a prototype, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing it in the wild just yet.
Speaking of Radio Raheem (RIP) and his boom box, with the crazy amount of 80’s fads being resurrected these days, I wonder why the boom box hasn’t made it back yet? I’m waiting to see someone walking down the street with their ghetto blaster proudly placed atop their shoulder, blasting the sounds of a good old fashion analogue mixtape. That would be great! Maybe I just haven’t been in the right places to spot this. What about you guys?
In the meantime, peep this site that I found that pays homage to the boom box. Their future predictions on boom box technology are, well, interesting when compared to the more advanced and much smaller portable music players available today.
On first glance I thought this was nothing more than a stop motion animation that had been digitally placed over an urban backdrop. But then I looked closer and began to notice all the faded outlines left behind the figures as they moved along the wall and sidewalk, and realized that the artist actually painted and shot the entire thing step-by-step, motion-by-motion right there on the street. I can’t imagine how much time went into creating this, or how many other works were wiped out in the process, but its simply amazing!
In addition to WaxPo, Monocle is another mag that I’m checking for pretty hard these days. The blend of World Affairs, Business, Culture and Design in each issue is just right for a curious minded individual like myself, and the look and feel (literally) of the mag is unlike any others that I’ve seen before. It’s almost like reading a newspaper in mag form.
Recently, I stumbled across this fascinating, albeit lengthy, behind the scenes essay w/flicks by Dan Hill (Monocle’s former Director of Web and Broadcast) that details that creative process that went into constructing Moncole’s online presence–from layout and fonts, to details on camera types and editing software used for online video production, to podcasts and mobile content, it’s all covered. Definitely worth the read.
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