Chinese New Year of the Ox performances, Los Angeles 2009

Chinese New Year of the Ox celebrations, Los Angeles 2009 from stephen pang on Vimeo.

If you wanna busta blood vessel...try this

In the past I've tried buying an Obey print online. It was such a major hassle that resulted in nothing, but harsh words and frustration!

How often would you wait around by your computer anxiously awaiting the availability of "blank?" The blank in this case was a book design Obey did for Penguin book's re-release of "Animal Farm."

Instead of the internet being the consumer's friend and ally, today it became a nightmare: server crashes, constant browser refreshes and web administrator passwords to stop the barrage of hits. And then when you finally got to your shopping cart...it was empty! After numerous attempts and more foul language I just decided to close my browser tab and write an email to the Obey team to tell them how bollocks the website is. They wrote back. Bollocks to you all!

House of Pain? So, when I saw that Shepard Fairey was releasing "Iconic", billed as a 24×36″ limited edition print, signed and numbered, priced at $500.00. Limited to one set per person/household I just sniggered and thought..."who you calling a sucker?"

There will be plenty out there waiting patiently for 11am PST on January 23rd to roll around. I won't be one of them.

Lauren Cooper...Am I bovvered rap?!

"I can well spit lyrics..." You know Lauren's character is too funny!

Low culture still rules...No Change

Fox's "American Idol" scored primetime's biggest TV viewers numbers on the day of President Obama's inauguration! Yep, 22.4 million viewers got bored of the celebratory coverage and switched over to see one the longest running reality shows instead. Not bored of that!

Still, Nielsen said that the previous low attention span for an inauguration came four years ago for Bush's second ceremony.

Hip-hop for Obama

Not one of Obama's best interviews, but he named Jay Z's "American Gangster" as a great story. He talks about "they", but when did you ever hear the next president (senator at the time of the interview) talking about hip-hop as an artform?! Even if change isn't here, politics has definitely taken a refresher course in what the people want.

And for this coming week's inauguration aka party time, the hip-hop heads are celebrating with parties across the country. If you're traveling to Washington D.C. check these out.

Monday 19th
The Stussy DC Chapter in conjunction with Commonwealth and rappers Wale and Bun B are hosting a "Historic" inauguration party on Monday January 19th from 6pm-9pm. Pass through and your have a chance to cop a Stussy DC limited edition commemorative t-shirt.

Bobbito and DJ Spinna and hitting D.C. too for their "Inauguration Edition of Wonderfull: Stevie Wonder Tribute Party." Phew, that's a long ass title!

DJ Spinna and Rich Medina doing something for the late night crew (2am 'till 6am) with their "What The Funk Inauguration Edition: James Brown vs. Fela."

Tuesday 20th
Funk 4 Pace Ball with DJs Afrika Bambaataa, Fort Knox Five + Live Vocal Performances and MCs between 8pm-4am (Modern 3287 M St. NW, Washington, DC20007.)

Martha Cooper book launch

Last night Subliminal Projects in Echo Park had a book launch for prolific New York photographer, Martha Cooper. I was hoping she'd be in attendance so I took a pic of her and me from 2004.

Although billed as an exhibition of her pics of NYC street life, rather than her usual hip-hop snapshots (graffiti, b-boys, writers) the show was actually the most comprehensive retrospective of her photography spanning decades.

Whole car I'd never seen the photos of the graffiti and the writers behind the art printed so large (and displayed so raw.) These photos that we know and love are timeless and, even though I wasn't in the US, feel very familiar to me as a devotee to Subway Art. The new, unseen photos included Keith Haring painting (in colour) and kids playing in the streets of urban NYC (in black and white). The latter captured a sort of innocence rarely seen amongst the hustle and bustle in the city today. Or may be it was monochrome that did that for me ;)

Martha Cooper signing photo of me and her taken in Los Angeles, 2004.

Piece and quiet I left last night with a numbered poster set (#69) which included a pre-order for the augmented Subway Art book coming out in the spring. I went back to Subliminal to get a closer look when the hipsters aren't blocking the view. Enjoy the video below.

Love to hate it...Japanese fashion

Since I've been away from London the mighty pound has kept cool retail concepts buzzing. That restaurant concept (open for 80 days?!) Flash has come and gone. Now another fashion victim's paradise opens. Nowhere is a jv between BAPE and Undercover (another Nipponese hothouse label) and takes over space in the basement at the ultra chic Dover Street Market. Whatever happened to Kensington Market days, eh?

If you're interested in seeing the store (supposedly a replica of the Harajuku, Tokyo spot) and new, exclusive products and re-editions of LAST ORGY 2 pieces then get yo'self to London, kids. For me I'll just carry on selling bootleg BAPE gear on eBay... :)

As you can guess, I only wrote about it to diss it. I'm a hater, yup!

Nike and Notorious

Last night I got to see Notorious, the Biggie Smalls biopic, hosted by Nike (and Flux) at its Montalban theatre and concept store. Honestly, a pretty shallow effort, whose only real insight into the man was a scene in the studio when he laughed at the Mtume album cover when Puff asked him to rhyme over Juicy Fruit! Look how that ended....platinum. But that's exactly what this film was...a commercial serving of Biggie. Not the back story.

Montalban The space was interestingly low-key and slightly industrial. May be Nike saw the economic downturn coming and thought it would be distasteful to flaunt (sports) luxury and opulence, unlike the chi chi sushi spot Katsuya up the street.



Amateur night But the biggest memory was how shite the organization was at Montalban. All that staff and not a manager in sight! Montalban has no idea how to handle a 300-strong crowd! Where do I start? The box office didn't open on time (which doesn't help the hella long lines.) The crowd control was outta control. And don't even mention the phone and camera check station. OMG. Was it amateur night at the Montalban?!

Been there, done it Seriously, this party isn't worth the wait and effort. Once you've done it once, you've done it all! There's no point in repeating this waiting game: 1+ hours for tix, then 30+ mins to get in, then 30 mins+ for doors to open. And all to see a free film three days early and have some free booze?! Nope, not even MC Lyte djing was any real consellation.

Inspector Gadget...original b-boy?

F-F-Fresh! Inspector Gadget is a hip-hop classic believe it or not. See below for the rap renditions, but Inspector Gadget never got much love from the classical music crowd. Until now. Check out the treatment Greg Pattillo gives Gadget! Yowzer!



Flautist Greg Pattillo (and YouTube star...check him out)


Watching too much TV?

Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick (aka MC Ricky D)


Bad Boys with Veronica (bargin bin?)

It's a b-boy weekend on MTV

This weekend on MTV in the US comes a chance (well four to be precise) to watch "Planet B-Boy" one of the most engaging films about a b-boy's ascent to world champion. More accurately, this is a film about five b-boy crews repping their countries (France, South Korea, Japan and the USA), but you get up-close-and-personal with key members of the crews and their motivation to succeed. It's addictive viewing and real reality, not fake shite!

Tune into MTV
January 11th, 11.00am PST
January 12th, 12.00am PST
January 14th, 1.30am PST

Last summer, director Benson Lee was interviewed for UCLA Asia Institute. It's a dope interview that gets into the thinking behind the film. When asked about why he chose to focus on the "here and now" of b-boying, Lee said:

"If you're gonna do any justice to the history, you either just skim it, or you go for broke. The history...it's like a black hole. Once you get sucked in, it's kind of hard to get out. You are constantly walking on eggshells. And you are constantly questioning the authenticity of information and you know it's a scientific approach with no scientific evidence. It's all just like "I was there," "He wasn't there," or it's just constant bickering. It's very political, there's a lot debate within the community. I'm certainly not the person to go in there and say that this is the definitive history. It's actually much safer not to do that. The last group I want to disrespect are the b-boys."

Who could forget January 7th?

Recently, I found a napkin tucked away in my kitchen drawer. On it were six email addresses...Hmm. Mysterious? Not really, these were my fellow passengers stuck in Guangzhou Airport in 2007 thanks to China Southern Airlines and the Chinese immigration authorities.

Remember the sad tale? China Southern Airlines (aka Suck Balls Airlines) decided not to let us transit in Guangzhou to our plane to LAX. This picture only does some justice to the relief and fatigue we all felt at the hands of China Southern Airlines' hospitality!

Never again. And never transit in China. Hello to my fellow travelers. Happy 2009!

Bristol: Rise Up

The Beeb did a big story on the Bristol scene that went beyond the usual references to the 1990s Bristol musical genre namedropping (trip hop's Massive Attack, Tricky Portishead or drum and bass' Roni Size).

Radio 1's Mary Anne Hobbs went that extra mile to introduce us to the new Bristol scene. Still electronic and still eery, dubstep is the new sound of Bristol. Hobbs’ two-hour special aired on the 2nd December 2008 and is called "Bristol: Rise Up." This video clip is well embarrassing, but it's true-to-life Bristol...check out the old lady who says, "I know what dog shit is, but not dubstep?!"



If you want a more street-cred exploration of the Bristol dubstep scene then check this documentary out.



Hobbs goes as far as to hand-pick 12 dubstep artists that capture the sound. To read more about Appleblim, Forsaken, Gatekeeper, Gemmy, Headhunter, Jakes, Joker, Komonazmuk, Peverelist, Pinch, RSD and Wedge check out the online article. You'll also find how the Bristol sound developed from the 70s onwards (punk, and punk-fusion, soundsystem influences, jungle and drum and bass) and how the student and West Indian population make Bristol a real melting pot of musical experimentation. Rock on!

Happy New Year...hooping fo'ever!

Thank God for hooping! ;) What tune would you remix this to?