Buffalo, NY

I visited some friends in Buffalo recently and decided to go graff hunting one afternoon. These are a few of the bombs and pieces I came across. ATAK and HERT seem to be killin the city.

Corporate Shelter

Saw this on Vinchen's website. Such a well thought out piece. The accompaying text is great, and I like that when you view it, you have a piece of Columbus's corporate skyline visually shielded by the gov't building. Great placement and photo!

December in Cincy

(Respectively: Northside wall; WHEN; DEVI; RAPES; NEST; SAINT)

More murals for High St

Hopefully you've noticed the new murals on High St around 4th and 5th. Having stopped by to check it out and take some pictures, I had the chance to briefly chat with one of the artists/organizers for the mural projects. Jon Stommel has been organizing space(outdoor walls) for artists to collaborate and add their creativity to the city's visual landscape, in a legal way. So far his ideas have realized two stunning murals with help from both graff writers and fine artists. They have a contemporary alternative, urban feel to them. While the new mural production will see a winter-induced hiatus, the artists have already lined up at least one other wall space for the spring of 2010. After that, the plan is to continue adding murals throughout the Short North, slowly working their way towards downtown. GOOD LUCK!

These pictures are from the second mural, which went up in about 5 days around Thanksgiving.


Pictures from the first mural project here and on my flickr account, here.

December in Bustown: pics from the streets

Greenhouse CD Release Party

This past Saturday Greenhouse (Blueprint and Illogic) introduced Part 1 of their Electric Purgatory album at Skully's. Opening for them was Kam Moye (aka Supastition) from North Carolina. Props to him for a well-performed set and some feel-good type of music , albeit mostly focusing on how old he is and how much he's disconnected from "the mainstream".

From Blueprint and Illogic, overall I was really happy to hear a good mix of new stuff (including a delayed, but decent verse by Zerostar, and a hallucinogenic-imbued freestyle from The Catalyst) and some older stuff like "Break Bread". The whole thing seemed a little unorganized, with pauses between a lot of songs and some on-stage confusion, but then again it was a CD release party. I picked up a copy of the EP on my way out... good songs with a preference for "Never Gonna Make It", "Boys to Men" and "Cold Out Here."

J Rawls spun some music after the Greenhouse set and the b-boys took over most of the dance floor from that point on. We left Skully's and grabbed a slice of pizza from my new vice on High, somewhere around 3rd... you know, the one that plays episodes of the Chappelle Show and Family Guy on the parking lot wall. Expensive, but delicious after a night of drinks.

Goons remind us to Clean It Up

Happy Thanksgiving! Last night I was perusing some of the street art photostreams on flickr and found this. Chi-town paster, Goons (who recently launched an updated website), has created a new video for Orbit gum.... and if you know me, you know I'm not normally one to stand behind corporate-artistic partnerships, but this video is damn good... and finally the midwest street artrists are getting their well deserved props! Check out their video, Clean It Up:




...and for those who don't know, graffiti k-i-n-g REVOK was arrested in Cali recently... we'll see what charges actually stick when all is said and done, but for now... FREE REVOK!

Evidence and Brother Ali @ Skully's

Last night's show was great. Illogic and Ill Poetic warmed up the crowd with style and made me even more excited for the Blueprint/Illogic show in two weeks. It was my first time seeing Ill Poetic live and definitely not the last... great skills.

Toki Wright and BK-One had a good set and then Evidence stepped to the stage and brought an intense performance (as usual) mixing his solo stuff with Dilated Peoples tracks. Ali took the stage last. He showcased a good number of songs from his new CD, US, and gave some good new interpretations of his classics, starting the show with one of my all time favorite Ali songs, "Room with a View".

Picture: Illogic
Video (not uploaded for sound, so mute it!): Evidence

Mural on Magnolia Thunderpussy

Local High St. record shop, Magnolia Thunderpussy, is getting a new mural on its parking lot wall. The mural is an evolving conversation between many contributing artists and has continued to have new elements freestyled into the overall project for the past several weeks. These are the most recent pictures I have of the project:

Fresh in Bustown:

Respectively: RILA; "SUCK" by Sucko; ENDER; LEVEL; LOAF,??,DESTO

Bustown's November Hip Hop

Last night Talib Kweli shut it down at Skully's. Even though the show stalled and Kweli didn't take the stage until sometime after midnight, the crowd was PACKED and excited. Energy on both sides of the stage was high and we got all kinds of classics (tracks from Reflection Eternal, Quality, and more) plus a hint of whats to come on his upcoming album with Cincinnati's DJ Hi-Tek (yayeah!)

Opening last night was local group 3RD (pronounced Three Are Dee). Being new to the underground Bustown hip hop, I was glad to see these guys for the first time. Great stage presence and dance-able beats with MCs who know how to hold and use a mic.

While in line to see Talib, I saw flyers for (all happening at Skully's):

- Ghostface Killah, in town tonight!

- Brother Ali and Evidence, who will be here on the 14th (Nov)

- Blueprint and Illogic (collectively Greenhouse)are promoting their new album, Electric Purgatory on the 28th (Nov)

AND... (fingers crossed) there was buzz from the guy who brought Talib in town that De La Soul might be here soon!

DON'T MISS THESE SHOWS!
Also, you can download the new Greenhouse album for free starting on the 24th. Check it out, here.

Worth the Watch: Neozoon

I know I've posted before about Neozoon's street art - their upcycled installations made from discarded fur coats. Here's an interview with the duo, and some footage of the construction and installation of a series of pieces.



(via Wooster)

More Body Tagging

Earlier this year I posted a video of WorkmanJones, a duo out of Melbourne (and NYC) who do a performance-based street art, "body tagging." They create interesting shapes using the physical/structural form of the body that engage the built and natural worlds around them. Last spring some of us got together in Cincinnati to try this same concept. Here's the video/post on that.

A couple weeks ago I went down to Cincy for a second go at body tagging. This time the concepts were based around themes, where as the first time we were going for bright colors and random positions. The results were great! Ethan has put together two videos from the experience with his own original music as the soundtracks. Here they are:

soft bodies/hard bodies from Ethan Philbrick on Vimeo.

chiquita headquarters-- cincinnati, ohio from Ethan Philbrick on Vimeo.

Halloween Party at the Mockbee

Tonight DJ DQ (of Glue) along with a long list of others will be providing the music for the Mockbee's party, Halloween Massacre. The costume of choice... 80's porn star. I figured, since i have the mustache, why not?

Pictures(hopefully) to come.

--oh yeah, and on that note. I recently went down to Cincy for a second round of body tagging with Ethan and others. Pictures/Video of that to come as well.

New Vinchen work

I was just checking out Columbus-based stencil and installation artist Vinchen's website and stumbled across this new work with the accompanying quote:

"Let us happily clutch the old philosophies that squeeze life from our bodies when simply releasing these notions could ensure our survival"



...really like this!

Finally, a good reason to watch YouTube!

Marc and Sara Schiller, the SoHo couple behind street art super-website Wooster Collective are YouTube's "Curator's of the Month" and have also started their own YouTube channel, here. Be sure to stop by when your looking for some inspiration or just plain bored.

This is their introductory video for the WC channel:

Worth the Watch: JR Honors Women of the World

Wooster has an amazing video posted of new work from photographer and street artist, JR. Entitled "Women are Heroes," JR installed in Paris a series of large-scale portraits of women from around the globe, focusing on their captivating (and often telling) eyes.

VernissageTV interviews him in this video about the project:




Wanna see more from JR? Check out his work in Kenya (again, titled "Women are Heroes"). Working on what little infrastructural surface is around, JR puts together some great pieces using the local trains, some residential rooftops, and the hillside.

JR - EXTRAIT "WOMEN ARE HEROES", Kibera, Kenya
Uploaded by JR. - Arts and animation videos.

And for those really interested, here's the a longer clip from the woman interviewed throughout the Kenya video. She is amazing!!

Interview WOMEN in KIBERA
Uploaded by JR. - Watch original web videos.

Daymon Day Parade 2009

another short video for context... certainly not for sound quality (but the Snoop song in the background... yeayah!).

The parade marching down where campus comes towards the Short North:

Daymon Day 2009

In Columbus, it's an annual tradition around this time of year to celebrate the life of Daymon Dodson--one who seems to have touched a lot of lives in the local indie and hip hop scenes. 614 Magazine has a great article, A Day for Daymon, that really gives testament to this mans positive impact on his peers and in his communities.

Daymon Day has evolved over the past handful of years to become a day-long event that includes a basketball tournament and barbecue, graffiti writers producing a mural, and one of the most awesome parades I've ever been in.... let me explain:

The parade starts at 8pm on the north end of OSU's campus (mind you something like 56,000 students have just returned from summer break) and turns from Lane Avenue (a major street in the area) onto and down High St (Columbus's busiest stretch of clusterfuck). The streets, even though we're marching on them, aren't blocked off. Our procession holds pushy cars at bay on all sides. Bumping Tupac on full blast the marchers begin to shout "So What!" in conversation with someone singing on a mic. This, I find out, is one of Daymon's nicknames. Which is only less hilarious than us shouting his other nickname "Racist Joe"--which we did, repeatedly. After about 45mins (almost 2 miles) we concluded the parade at Milk Bar on 5th and High Sts.

Really fun to be apart of.

Check out some pics of the graff painted that day, and a short/crappy video of the parade's conclusion with everyone singing in front of Milk Bar (even though you can't understand it) "Bitch! You don't know Shit!" ...

Ab Rude and Busdriver @ Circus

Last night Rhymesayers rapper Abstract Rude and west-coaster Busdriver stopped through Columbus with a show at Circus. Before making my way to the show I decided to take a late-night stroll through Clintonville, a neighborhood in C-Bus. While walking under a bridge I heard a loud crash, so I went up towards the road where I heard the accident. Two cars hit head on, a crowd had already started to form, and the cars were on fire. Flames were small but smoke was EVERYWHERE.

At the show, Abstract Rude killed the crowd with his unique sound, both soulful and playful... kinda like Michael Franti meets Murs... good stuff. Busdriver's quick tongue had everybody nodding there heads, jaws open from the speed of syllables flying out his mouth. The sound system was acting up at first but after that was fixed, the show turned out awesome and the crowd let the performers know we came to party. Busdriver put on a lengthy encore. I tried to shoot some video, but the sound is horrible. Oh well.

Just for fun, heres a pointless video of the two cars earlier in the night:

Moxy and Lauren Flax @ Wall St, Sept 6

The night was slow to start out, but what night isn't anymore. The floor got full around 12:30 and NYC's DJ Lauren Flax played a great set. Too bad I can't distinguish Drum-n-Bass from House from Jungle to describe the sound better, but it was definitely keepin me and everyone else in the place moving. Bustown's own DJ Moxy's beasty ass got on stage and spun some good shit, but by that time I was pretty wasted. Pictures for those interested...

Worth the Watch: London Police

Saw this great video on Wooster. While in LA getting ready for their upcoming gallery show, "Brothers In Arms", street art collective The London Police made this hilarious video that talks about their work and friendship. Reminds me of Tommy Boy: "Brothers don't shake hands! Brothers gotta hug."

Skewville's New Do

Big time Brooklyn street artists Skewville just launched their new website. Nice gallery-style layout organized chronologically with info and pictures scrolling left-to-right (vs. top-to-bottom). On some of the pictures I wish I could get a closer view, but the site showcases a lot of their work and innovation, including shows at their own Factory Fresh gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

For those who don't know Skewville is a duo of artists that work primarily with installation street art. While stencils, graff, and wheatpastes are well within their repertoire, they are known for their thousands of wood cut-outs placed in cities around the world -- custom designed shoes strung together and hung on telephone lines.

Check it out here

Bustown Factories

Since moving to Columbus, I've stumbled across a couple old factories (graff havens) teeming with multi-color pieces and productions. The first time finding such a great spot is amazing. Every return trip yields nuanced changes or sheds light on things I hadn't noticed before. For instance, this one building I had explored a handful of times before I realized I was missing more than half of the best stuff in there. That visit I discovered three new rooms and a new set of stairs leading to a separate second floor layout. The time after that I found yet another new room with stairs leading to even more great stuff. The following are from the final room explored:





Respectively: ENDER; DESTO(top) and KAYO(bottom); "LEVSON" by LEVEL; WEBS

And... here's another example of how great these buildings are. From a different building, this is a video of just one of the many rooms/walls painted on the property.

NYC/BK Graff Shots:

I got to see some nice murals and pieces while up there, including a 2005 AKB (thats a graffiti crew, folks) reunion wall. Here's some of my favorites:





For more ( i mean a lot more) photos from this trip and others, visit the NYC + Brooklyn section of my flickr page.