The pound in the shitter

This weekend I told folks to starting going to Europe cause it's hella cheap...For once in a decade earning the dollar seems to be worth something...!

Hip hop summer block parties...NYC

It's coming...the Tools of War True School NYC Summer Park Jams! See below for the latest info...

Digger's Delight @ St Nicholas Park in Harlem, every Tuesday in August feat. record collector celebs and DJ celebs who collect.

Tools of War True School NYC Summer Park Jams TBC @ two legendary Bronx parks. June 4, 11, 18, 25 + July 9, 16, 23, 30 + August 4, 11, 18, 25, 2009

Rock Steady Anniversary will be held from July 23 - 26, 2009 in NYC.

Universal Zulu Nation Anniversary in November, 2009.

Alhambra represents...A DJ and a drummer

Keeping it real...I was killing time online and found this video clip. A DJ and a drummer from Alhambra, CA, better known as JustinCase and Lloyd, who rock their parties with freestyle improvisation (I guess it's the same thing.) Sure, the novelty wears off after a while, but when it drops it's hot.



Now, I guess these cats are too young to know it's been done before by the greats. At the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) in London I saw a couple of Max Roach videos where he jammed along with a DJ and an MC. Here's something from back in the day in NYC with the New York City Breakers. ILLLLLL and original!



This is dope...the spoken word in rhythm. Two legends together.

2, 3 Break...Norway style!

Bust a move to this...yes, this Madcon tune has been big on the scene a while but I only just found the name?! :) Check out the video on iTunes...it's funny to see those young kids pogoing to Madcon!? They're all blonde...is this in Madcon's home country of Norway?

Kaws comes to town...

My mate JC hit me up to the Kaws show that opens tonight at Honor Fraser in Los Angeles. But someone forgot to send me an invite to Royal-T's pre-opening event last night...pah!?

KAWS - "The Long Way Home"
Honor Fraser gallery
February 21, 2009 — April 04, 2009
Opening Reception February 21, 2009 6:00 — 8:00 PM

Now, I'm not sure when I first saw Kaws' work, but it's memorable in a Hello Kitty kinda way. It even looks Japanese in style. Those "X" eyes, skull head and Mickey Mouse hands are all so familiar.

If you don't get to see the show try visiting your local Stussy store since it commissioned his mural work for its store walls. The last time I thought about Kaws was when I was chasing after the limited-edition i-D magazine issue that he illustrated (but, I got bored and eventually gave up. ;) )



i-D magazine interview

High Snobiety interviews Nick Walker

Saturday mornings are for surfing the web...well every morning is web morning in the Stevio household, but today I caught something interesting in my net.

Fellow Bristolian, Nick Walker, was interviewed this month by the High Snobiety blog. It's a big deal. It's a US blog that tracks all thing hot and hype. To bubble over from the parochial UK scene to gain international attention is like Dyson vacuum cleaners being available in John Lewis to seeing them on US national TV!

Here's a classic quote from Nick, aka Apish Angel.

High Snobiety:
"I want to ask you about Bristol. From over in the states, it seems that in Bristol there are a number of urban arts bubbling at once. From Roni Size, Massive Attack and Aspects in hip-hop, yourself and others. There is so much artistic impulse in the city. Is there something specific in the environment that breeds it?"

Nick Walker:
"One year, I think 1816, one of the Squires monks tipped this stuff in the resevior. They were never able to rid of it, and it infiltrated the water systems. From then on people have been drinking this infected H20 which has turned us into jungalistic graffiti nutters.

I have no idea. People ask what we eat for breakfast. What does anyone eat for breakfast? Especially in Bristol. I’ve heard that type of question posed a few times. Its weird, I’ve always seen Bristol as a place quite connected to New York since the late 1970s. People from this town have been going backwards and forwards. When things began to kick off in New York, it was only a matter of months before we were aware of it. Due to people connected at the time. It has always been that way."

And, here's that Dyson advert

Rapper's Delight! Hip hop sing-a-long

It's back...Hip Hop Karaoke, aka Your Chance to Rhyme, has found a new home in Brooklyn after taking a short break at the end of last year. If you're looking for real hip-hop love with fans for all ages and backgrounds then this is the place to be...

How's it work? Pick a song from our song list, get on stage, let the beat drop and grab the mic!

Look out for the 3rd Annual Biggie Tribute Night hosted by Hip-hop Karaoke.


Friday, Feb. 20

Southpaw, 125 Fifth Ave btw. St. John's Pl and Sterling Pl, Brooklyn

Doors/Sign-up at 9:30, Show @ 10:30

Nearest Subway: R to Union St., B,Q to 7th Ave.

Blockhead (renowned hip-hop producer for Aesop Rock) + DJ Album Cuts spin at 9:30

DJ Wex spins classic hip-hop afterwards

Cost: $5 cover, Free to perform

Age: 21+

Those Krauts! The art of automobiles

0-15 minutes of fame isn't quite what Warhol famously said back in the 80s, but my interpretation is fueled (ok, no more puns) by the current exhibition at Los Angeles' County Museum of Art, more affectionately known as LACMA.

The exhibition of BMW Art Cars is only on display for 12 days before heading off to New York and Mexico. The four cars, rarely seen outside of BMW's Munich museum in Germany, are designed by Roy Lichtenstein (1977 Group 5 320i with its wild wing and body work), Robert Rauschenberg (1986 6-series was not a race car so seems more restrained than the other Art Cars), Frank Stella (graph-paper 3.0 CSL), and Andy Warhol (1979 Group 4 M1 that Warhol painted with a brush). All three race cars competed at Le Mans with their new paint jobs.

As part of the exhibition are rare, behind-the-scenes footage of the four cars including a youthful-looking Warhol working on his BMW and Robert Rauschenberg sharing his inspiration and influence.


BMW Art Car By Andy Warhol

Who got the keys to my Bimmer? Not shown on this tour are the most recent additions to the BMW Art Car program which currently has 16 cars including David Hockney (1995), Jenny Holzer (1999), and Olafur Eliasson (2007) who was the man behind the controversial waterfalls installation in New York in 2008.

Surprisingly, the BMW Art Car Project was originally dreamt up in the 1970s by a Frenchman. Hervé Poulain was a racing driver who in 1975 commissioned American artist Alexander Calder to paint his BMW racing car. Since then both racing and production BMWs have been given the priceless touch by leading artists of their generation, all chosen by an international panel.

Go test drive now BMW Art Cars can be seen on display at the L.A. County Museum of Art BP Grand Entrance through February 24, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., (323) 857-6151.

Let's go to Little Chef for Valentine's Day, love!

Welcome to Little Chef! "Hmm. To start I'll have the Scottish mussels £4.95 (A pot of rope-grown Scottish mussels in a white-wine sauce, served with brown bread) and a entree of braised ox cheeks £9.75 (Slow-cooked for 72 hours, served with mashed potatoes) please."

No longer will Little Chef be the sleepy roadside cafe place you went as a kid for a cup of tea and a toilet break during a long road-trip to somewhere or another! Nope, not now Heston Blumethal, the three-star Michelin chef famous for creating bacon-and-egg ice-cream, quail jelly and snail porridge was let loose reinvigorate the menu and the staff. All was captured for British TV watchers to witness last month.

After all that hard work and media and customer curiosity the Popham branch of the struggling restaurant chain relaunched itself with a new menu designed by Blumenthal: “People always associate me with snail porridge,” he said. “I do lots of other stuff: this is Little Chef, not Little Heston.”

“Little Chef has changed, pop in and see us” So what did Blumenthal do with the Little Chef classics like the Olympic breakfast, fried bread and burger and chips? “I had to make some bold moves,” Blumenthal, 42, said. Out are the huge US-style portions and in are scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, “organic” and “sustainable” produce and meat. “My idea was to caress the original menu and just make it better,” Blumenthal said. “One of the hardest parts though is the compromises – keeping the food under budget. We don’t have that problem at the Fat Duck.” (Blumenthal's Fat Duck Michelin-star restaurant in Berkshire has a tasting menu for $200 a head!?)

Of course the food isn't the only thing that got a makeover...the restaurant’s decor and toilets have been given the 2009 flavor by Ab Rogers, a designer who worked on the Tate Modern contemporary art museum on the banks of the River Thames.

What next? If the Popham branch works out then changes will ripple across the other 177 cafes across the UK. But it could be a struggle to change the existing customers' minds. “The coffee smells like Bakewell tart,” a confused customer says. May be the answer is to get new customers...“People have a lot of affection and nostalgia for Little Chef, but there is a lost generation...Some people haven’t come here since the mid-1990s,” said Peter Ward, the new boss.

Grandmaster Flash goes to BBC Radio 1

Grandmaster Flash went to the BBC studios to lay down a minimix live for Annie Mac's show. Catch it online and if you're in the UK you can download the podcast. Thanks to Paolo for hitting me up.

Friday 13th...If you think you've had a bad week...Check this out...

I love this show...it never fails to make me feel better about life. This guy is such a loser! Sorry, I'm not reveling in Sam's suffering to make myself feel better! Oh, may be, just a little ;)

Worst Week is based on the UK show, but for some reason the original didn't do anything for me. It just seemed awkward and a little uncomfortable, yet the US version has me shouting at the TV..."Oh no he didn't!?"

US Version on CBS


UK version on BBC America

Shepard Fairey spills the beans on his Obama art

"You know, I actually don't know who took that photo.."

Two weeks after this interview with Shepard Fairey aired on NPR's Fresh Air I read that AP (Associated Press) is pursuing Fairey for infringing its copyright.

In a preemptive move, Fairey has now fired the first shot over AP's bow by filing a lawsuit to defend his position (Fairey v. The Associated Press, 09-cv-01123, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.)

AP's spokesperson said the lawsuit was a surprise because the company was “in the middle of settlement discussions” and agreed not to sue until these were concluded.

Fair use vs. Permission So what's the heart of the story? Fairey says his work is protected by the Fair Use statute, which means that individuals can have limited use of copyrighted material for various purposes. AP's business is creating and selling stories that it owns so of course it says that this is poppycock: “The photograph used in the poster is an AP photo, and its use required permission from AP...it is crucial to protect photographers, who are creators and artists...Their work should not be misappropriated by others.”

Other experts can't agree. But I think I'll leave it to the Stephen Colbert Report on Comedy Central to decide the fate of the lawsuit.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Obama Poster Debate - David Ross and Ed Colbert

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

Legit bootlegger The Smithsonian Gallery has acquired the original campaign poster and now the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston has opened a 20-year retrospective of Fairey’s work until August 16th, 2009.

I hate to love LA: fitness

I was watching Current TV this Saturday afternoon after a rare lie in and found something that is definitely part of the LA scene...

Trafalgar Square fountains freeze over!!

I love this picture. The overcast skies, the grey stone and Brits dressed up in dark winter clothes. Makes me miss the UK a bit.

These past few weeks have brought historically cold weather to the UK and there was even several feet of snow fall which I haven't experienced for years...probably cause I've been in LA for nearly 5 years now! :)

The weather watchers say that Britain was gripped by conditions that put Iceland and Greenland to shame with temperatures close to -12C (10.4F). That's how cold it needs to get to freeze the fountains in Trafalgar Square, London! Wow! Pretty!