Archive for January, 2009

We shot this video in and around Hollywood in a single day. The band didn’t want to be in the video so I cast an unsigned rapper named BLACK MAGIC. We worked on his performance for a few days before the shoot since we were stealing all the locations and would only have one or two takes at each spot. He did such a great job with his performance that most of the crew actually thought it was his song. My hopes for this video were that if someone was channel surfing on mute they might think it was a 90′s rap video. The Bronx had just been signed to Island records when we made this video and when I delivered it they were not happy…

My good friends Studio Skateboards have put up a new site with a good little promo clip. Makes me miss Montreal a great deal. Watch for several artist collabs coming from these guys soon.
http://www.studioskateboards.com

1. Caterpillar in a Men’s Shirt Shop
2. Caterpillar in an 80′s Analog Movie
3. Caterpillar in Garden

Printed on reclaimed fabrics!

“our film is slow but in the works. It will cover the construction of the park, interviews with the skaters, a super hero short film, skating footage, and lots of goats and ducks”

They have some amazing photographs and stories on their blog, like how they originally had to skate barefoot and how the first mini ramp was destroyed by heavy rain last November (the structure of the ramps are actually made from soil). The website has some additional information about the work the Uganda Skateboard Union are doing to bring skating to Uganda’s youth through small donations from all over the world. You really need to take a look at the photographs they have, really inspirational stuff.

Like Uganda’s boardmaster says… Skate and feel free

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I shot this photo in the CEO’s office of an aluminum foil container company. My, how the other half live, with their penny resin toilet seats and bathroom telephones!!

Atelier Bow Wow are amazing folks. Tonight was their show at Redcat in Los Angeles. They’re best known for their Pet Architecture projects, which appears in a book. Basically, it’s an explanation in drawing form of the tiny and weird shaped buildings in Japan. More than being an architecture firm, they’re also creative artists and pretty cool. The above image is a side view of a huge circular chair. It has cushions in it and it faces a sunset. It’s actually a relaxing place to chill out. Of course, being in a gallery setting, it faces a wall with a projected sunset that never sets until the power is shut off. In context for Mumble, is the fact that these are the folks who might be working on what might become a famous skatepark in Tokyo.

I watched a sun set.
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Steve Powers might just be my all-time favorite, definitely right up there by any measure. I got hooked on his ESPO pieces all over Philly in the 90s, and moved to NY just in time to catch him everywhere here too.  He just opened a show in Brussels at Alice that spans a whole bunch of paintings from the last few years.  I’m always impressed by how topical Steve’s work often is, but a couple of pieces in this show are kind of astonishing – the Somali pirate and Marcus Schrenker are practically still breaking news. Sheesh, now that’s setting the bar pretty high. Highly recommended.

The Kid is having a art show tonight at Hensley’s!

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I think it might be a fairly obvious statement to make that a lot of the reason why Patrick O’dell’s Epicly Later’d series on VBS.tv is so popular is because it gives you a view of professional skateboarding that you are rarely, if ever, given the opportunity to see. The latest episodes with Anthony Pappalardo are truer to this than any so far, in fact I can’t remember ever even reading a written interview with Pops, never mind being taken to his backyard or into his private woodshop where he talks about skateboarding, shoe sponsors, what’s in store for his future and his relationship with his dog.

Below is the final chapter where he talks about needing something to fill that hole that skateboarding always did for him. This entire Club Mumble site is kindof a testament to some of the things that are said in this episode. Thanks again, Patrick…

My first posting! I figure i’ll kick it off with this photo of Mel’s high school buddy Tommy. Makes me miss the days of hanging out in your friend’s bedroom, so bored you’ll light your hair on fire for kicks.