Less
More
Archive for January, 2008
Nice the Inquirer is getting in on the downtown dance-party thing with this Paperstreet/Tommy Up article. Paperstreet stuff is always fun but I knew next to nothing about Paperstreet-the-business and Tommy Up before reading this. Get on their list-serve to keep up with happenin’ goings on.
Nuttin’ like tellin’ it how it is. Kudos to Piers Fawkes for taking a solid position against the sheer craziness that is C.E.S. I love when people just put their shit on the line and talk truth. So check it out here… It is quoted at length below…
Another year, another electronics and gadgets conference that is out of whack with modern concerns around sustainability and the planet. The C.E.S. is an arrogant refusal to admit to the problems the electronics industry has created in terms of material waste, poisonous polution, energy waste and over-consumption.
Our man on the ground, Scott Burns, tells us that although some brands there might be talking about sustainability or at at least the advancement in technology in allowing devices to perform more with less power, the show itself is anything but green (aside from the mass transit and buses).
Ironically, CES says that it is reducing its own impact on the environment wherever it can - but it doesn’t seem to register that it’s actually contributing to a greater problem than the number of nonrecycled water bottles left over at the end of the show.
The fact is that the CES is another gory broadcast of all the products we don’t really need and that we’ll have to replace very soon. It’s fueled by the blogs like Engadget and magazines like Wired that hype the consumption of this plastic-metal and ignore any modern notions towards sustainability.
Wired sadly continues to talk double standards - their magazines praise 100mpg cars, their retail projects sell 21mpg cars and their coverage of the CES with 50+ posts, Wired fails to review the show with any eco-concern that can often be found in the pages of its magazine.
In the New York Times, this column by Brad Stone is just pointless geek masturbation to get eyeballs to the page - rather than what is needed: an engaging debate about why the hell C.E.S. is allowed to continue as it is without significant criticism of the companies who showcase there.
And as for Engadget… well, it’s always been a geek-porn site feeding the frenzy - maybe it’s time it had a conscience?
So I posted Heron’s old A-Ron interviews on THE MT a bit back during the A-Ron retrospective piece. Needless to say, after the hiatus I was excited about this new stuff from HP.com (see below)… But man, the guy came off as kinda’ crazy. “Whitewash”? “Blackwash”? C’mon, we don’t need that. And the irony too… A-Ron making his name off this really lux label that makes itself out as the definition of street wear and then playing it off like he is some kind of anti-rich, anti-capitalist. (yo, earth to everyone… street wear is Sean John Ts from TJ Maxx for like $9.99, not $150+ hoodies from aNYthing. Who from the street are buying them?) And I totally get it, but its not white/black thing, its a rich/poor thing. And unfortunately those two things correlate often, but you miss the point of whats happening in “the city” when you play that card. Furthermore, this guys got money. He is practically part of his “whitewash.” (Am I the only one who actually thought he was white?)
And his “Invite Only” “Secret Space”… um, yeah, not interested.
So, yeah, this post is coming off as a little harsh. The interview is like 5 minutes long, and you can’t judge the guy on 5 minutes. Agreed. And I think A-Ron is gonna do great(er) things. And Ill probably regret writing it. Still though…
As to his plans with OFF BOWERY Productions… 15 brands in the next year and a half. Secret Artist Studios. Skate park. TV Show. yikes.
The complex blog did post some scathing stuff on both A-Ron and HP, but then apparently took it down. Shame, Complex, SHAME… its all politics… (it is reprinted below from Complex’s cache)…
“Dick riding streetwear correspondent and so called “young tycoon in the making,” Heron Preston, kind of interviewed—it was more of an open platform for rambling—A-Ron the Downtown Don about his ‘Off Bowery’ brand recently. Last time we checked in with the “Don,” he was embroiled in lawsuits and getting countersued by trustafarian clothier and keeper of aNYthing, Kiernan Costello. Although there’s still plenty of legal drama going on, A-Ron spilled the beans about some developments concerning his new endeavor. For one thing, he’s got a venue, this time settling for a space in Soho, a far cry from the grimier Chinatown neighborhood surrounding his former holdout on Hester, but a spot nonetheless. We also learn that he’s planning on launching 15 distinct brands and running with some sort of Wu-Tang inspired business plan that comes together like Voltron during sale time. If you made it through Part 1 and can stomach more, here’s Part 2 too.”
And the Interview from HP.com…
Part 1…
Part 2…
Wow. If this turns out to be true… So much respect for Jay. He could’ve stopped making decent music and started his own reality TV show (ok, nobody thought that would happen), but instead he has totally blown up, making better music in the ’00s than he has in all his career (Black Album, Unplugged, American Gangster, ok Kingdom Come was a flop, but a respectable flop). But seriously, the two biggest names in pop culture at the moment potentially coming together? A marketing department’s wet-dream.
-Another Jay-Z Mashup. Radar likes it, kinda’.
-My Top 10… uggg…
1. The National - The Boxer
2. M.I.A. - Kala
3. ??? (Something goes here that I cant recall at the moment).
4. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
5. Kanye - Graduation
6. Cloud Cult - The Meaning of 8
7. Iron and Wine - The Shepard’s Dog
8. Jose Gonzalez - Not Veneer, the new one…
9. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
10. Jay-Z - American Gangster
(Yeah, no In Rainbows)
-And Party Ben’s Top 20… respectable.
-HP at the MET with D. Hirst and that shark.
-MUMDANCE vs DIPLO vs BLACK LIPS
-Graft in the Congo - NYT
-Rape in Brazilian Prision - NYT
More here.
