Also Pharrell’s been a producer, artist creating odd items such as a chair with human feet molded in for chair feet, and has worked with Takashi Murakami to create artwork so expensive it’d make your eyeballs bleed. What he’s doing now isn’t so much a solid item as it is a teaser for the future of his musical endeavors, always exciting since he’s good at that sort of thing, and all. This orchestra, the HMI Orchestra that is, will be coming your way again soon hopefully by the end of 2012.

The first time Pharrell mentioned this piece seems to be an Esquire interview in which he said the following after being asked “How important is fashion to you as far as it relates to your creativity — to your everyday life?” After noting how many “industry machines [are] locking up,” he’s been “fixing things” by bringing on the heat:

“There’s a storm coming. You’re gonna see me working in other musical mediums, too. Hip-hop? Yes. R&B? Yes. Pop? Yes. But watch. I just did a classical piece. It’s gonna be cool.” – Pharrell

Then here’s where it gets weird. The original story written up about this situation appears to be the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, whose story was titled “Pharrell Williams Records with Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.” This post is now down, but a cached version of it remains thanks to Google. The text from this post can be found here in its entirety for all of you to know and love:

January 13, 2012 — Coral Gables, FL — The University of Miami Frost School of Music announces that multi-Grammy Award winning music producer, singer, rapper and composer Pharrell Williams was at UM Gusman Concert Hall this fall to record a new work for orchestra entitled “i am Other” with the Frost School’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.

Williams hired the all-student orchestra for the session upon recommendation of producer Quincy Jones (honorary D.M.A. ’99). A video clip is provided below.

Williams composed the mixed-genre orchestral work—which features soft and ethereal atmospheres contrasted with fortissimo brass themes and driving rhythms—to explore a different side of his musical creativity, and to encourage his hip-hop fan base to expand their musical horizons. Shelly Berg orchestrated and conducted the work, and Director of Recording Services Paul Griffith (B.M. ’83) was the recording engineer. Pharrell Williams is best known for his work with Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Shakira, Jay-Z, Ludacris, and Snoop Dogg.

The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra at the Frost School of Music is comprised primarily of graduate student “fellows” who are focused on developing cross-genre performance and entrepreneurial skills that will help prepare them for today’s professional world.

[via WavTelevision]

Full disclosure, one of the folks on staff over at BobbleDroids is a friend of mine and did make an Android figurine of me to use as an example for the site’s launch. You can get a better peek at it below, but check out the source above as well. It’s just fantastic how simply awesome these little folks are, and how simple the combination is for complete Android victory. And look, mine even has my little baby girl on a front strap, for real!

And of course the glasses. Look at those glasses! The detail is fabulous, the presentation is sweet, and the price is right for a hand-made piece of artwork designed to your specifications. Head over to http://www.bobbledroids.com/ right the heck now and see if you can resist. And don’t forget to give yourself a nice pair of shoes!

Those of you familiar with the storyline and have payed close attention to the names of the planes, you know that none of the game takes place on earth. Instead, though it might SEEM like your own planet is being invaded by bloodthirsty demons of all sorts, its waht’s called “Sanctuary” that you’re protecting. Here you see Leah hear the demonic Azmodan speak of the future in which the forces that in the film here seem unstoppably massive overcome the world of Sanctuary. The animation will have you having a heart attack and the epic nature of the product will have you salivating unholy liquids.

Then, as a bonus, have a peek at this Diablo retrospective, also made and distributed by Blizzard Entertainment for your redigestion of 15 years of the Lord of Darkness. Take a quick look through the beginning all the way to 2008 when Diablo III was formally announced to 2012 when the game is set to be released. What will become of our everloving awesome massacre of guts for everyone?

Months now, just months left to go!

What’s going on here, essentially, is that D-Face (and crew) have devised a way to attach spraypaint cans to the bottoms of skateboards, these cans then remotely controlled and able to spray paint on command. They’re spraying a pool on commission and, by the looks of it, are creating pathways that skaters of the future will be following for years to come. Look like a pool you’d like to drop into? Or would you have a massive headache after 10 minutes and fall down and bust your arm and head right the heck open?

This apparently has been a dream of D-Face’s for some time now, culminating here in this “Ridiculous Pool” project documented in this video. Attach paint to a device, make the device move, find a way for the paint to exude as the device moves. When you’re making something like this happen, it’s the middle part of the project that matters the most.

First, you can get these prints right now (unless they’re sold out of course) over at GraffSupply for $95 USD each or $250 USD for a full set. Each print is part of an edition of 250, each is hand-numbered, and each of them is a Giclee Print on Epson Somerset Fine Art stock 255GSM. That means they aren’t a screenprint, they aren’t painted, they’re printed from a printer – a very, very nice printer on very, very nice paper. These will last you basically forever is what that means.

These cans were recently part of an exhibition at MOCA called Art in the Streets, and Gastman once again now has them in his home (or in a closet somewhere wrecking the linoleum on the floor, I’m not sure on that.) What I am sure on is that I’ve got some work by Gastman on my bookshelf right now. This is the guy who created the book Freight Train Art, helped start one of the coolest short-lived magazines in history SWINDLE with Shepard Fariey, (may this magazine rest in peace, by the way,) and back when he was 19 he borrowed $4,000 USD from his mother to start a magazine by the name of While You Were Sleeping, a graffiti inspired magazine that you won’t have a whole heck of a lot of luck finding any information about on the internet. Grab yourself an issue from Electronic Bay if you’re feeling lucky today.

The image you see here shows Gastman sitting amongst a small part of his massive collection of graffiti history, this photo taken by Freshly Serious back in March of 2011 for a post called Graffiti Gasping by S.D. Rockswell. Gastman is currently pursuing art projects, archival projects, and a general continuation of his collection of most excellent Graffiti artifacts. — thanks for the tip, RG!

What we’re looking at here is a set of three skateboards, gum green, gum pink, and flat white, each of them with a screenprint-esque pattern of Snow While faces amid the Supreme blog logo. If you’d like to keep any of these decks in tact, that meaning not slapping on some grip tape and taking them for a ride, you’re rewarded with another bit of text and box logo on the top of the board.

Next there’s a tool case with a lock, all red with white lettering on top. This makes the box logo go 3D for real and you’ll certainly be able to keep your stash, whatever that may be, safely inside with a front-facing lock. After this you’ll see a set of pins as well as a rug, both of them playing off the classic LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana, both of them highly inappropriate for children.

A set of three scarves can be found here in this late 2011 collection, checkers on one side and a correctly sized box logo on the other in several combinations: black and mustard, white and red, and white and black. You’ll also be able to keep warm with a new set of fingerless gloves, each of them with a leather (or pleather?) palm and SUPREME MFG CO COLD WEATHER printed on the wrist in some rather plain block lettering.

Next there’s a set of many bags, each of them having a similar checkered motif to the scarf mentioned above only this time they’re similar tones of the same color. there’s a set of three duffel bags, three phone cases, three messenger bags, and three backpacks, each of them in black, red, or blue. All of these bags also have the Supreme box logo. There’s also a completely mis-matched set of three coin pouches in red, yellow, or bronze with a snakeskin-like finish.

A set of belts will be available, these in red, blue, black, or army green. These belts have a leather/pleather front clasp area with Supreme non-box logo stamped on one side – the rest of the belt has a row of flies, or the same fly rather, sitting one after another along the entirety of the belt.

There are several colors available for an ash tray – red, black, or white, with the non-box Supreme logo printed on one side and SEE YOU IN HELL printed on the other. This combined with the “classic” dice and lighter set makes for a real swanky ultra-set incoming. The lighter is of course a gold ZIPPO with the red box logo printed on one side near the base. The dice have Supreme printed on each of them, each of them being a transparent red with white ink dots, five of them contained in a glass box with Supreme logo printed across the top. These dice appear again in a much larger size as a set of banks, white with black, red with white, or black with white, each sold separately.

Several keychain sets are coming with this release, the first of which is a set of three floaty block box logos. These should be familiar to you if you live in an area where fishing is prevalent as keys dropped into the water as you’re bagging a few dozen sunfish isn’t going to make your day sweet unless you remember you’ve attached them to a Supreme-brand floaty. Whether these floaties actually float or are just for show is not yet known – we’ll see!

Next there’s the number one shaped plastic keychain set which I’m CERTAIN I’ve seen before (without the Supreme branding, of course,) but cannot place at this very moment. What you’ll find on the front of every one of these five keychains (black, red, white, green, or white) is the Supreme non-box logo while the back has the slogan “YOU’RE NUMBER 1 WITH US” as well as an image of a human hand displaying the middle finger and the text “FUCK THE REST”.

Of course none of these items compare to the final two items in this collection, both of them religious in their origins. First there’s the simpler of the two: a relatively elaborately modeled Jesus Christ on a cross with a rose on the back above the word SUPREME. This lovely metal keychain then also plays host to a fold-down knife blade of course for all your stabbing needs.

Then there’s the perhaps even stranger piece of this puzzle: a Saint Christopher pendant necklace. If I hadn’t seen the Jesus cross direct from the source as well, I would have thought it was a mistake, especially since it says Supreme nowhere on it at all, but here it is. It’s got an airplane and a car on the back above two saintly figures and the letter “M” with stars around it, while the front has three holy characters below Saint Christopher himself who is surrounded by the words “ST CHRISTOPHER • BE MY GUIDE”. Of course we all know that Saint Christopher is the patron saint of travel. The most famous story of how Christopher became a saint involved his wish to serve the highest king, whom he found to be Christ. To serve Christ, he was instructed by a monk to use his immense size to help people across a river. One day he had a child request passage. Upon crossing with the child, the river grew deep and the boy felt heavy as lead. Upon reaching the far side of the water, Christopher said to the child:

“You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were.” The child replied: “You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but Him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work.” The child then vanished. — STC

Cool story, huh? What Supreme gets out of all this I cannot say, but because Saint Christopher is a radically cool character and because your humble narrator shares his awesome name, I can’t say I don’t want the necklace in question here.

Supreme also has a bunch of clothing coming out soon, all of it along the following lines:

Release Dates:
August 25th (Thursday) – NY & LA
August 27th (Saturday) – Japan
September 1st (Thursday) – Online
September 22nd (Thursday) – London

Grab it all!

First let’s have a look at this jacket. The jacket goes with the green shoes, but we’re going to look at the green shoes last because they’re the best. This coat is called the Galactic Scoundrel Flight Jacket and has both embroidering and screen-printed ink on the back and on the front. This jacket has a sort of 1980′s look to it with the stretch bottom of the jacket as well as at the wrists, an army / dark olive green accentuated by the massively bright red zipper pulls and checked red strip on the front right side. What makes this jacket unique here is the gigantic name of the brand as well as the specific model name for the article of clothing – streetwear is quite meta at the moment I would certainly concede to saying.

Next there’s the Darth Vader Stan Smith 80s Mid – the name Stan Smith, for those of you that don’t know, being the model of the shoe regardless of the Star Wars content. Darth Vader here appears very much to be a Ralph McQuarrie concept illustration of the dark lord, the time at which this drawing was made and the style of the shoe again both reflecting the late 70′s/early 80′s look seen in the jacket. The shoe is white and black on the whole save for an entirely blue interior, gold printed Adidas logo on the back, stitched gold and black logo block on the tongue – plus a little bonus at the top with two gold metal lace loops as well.

Then there’s the extremely wearable Galactic Scoundrel Forum Mid, a high-top sneaker with green laces, a zip-up green lace cover with orange pull, and a black leather (or pleather) velcro strap with orange rim – this strap leads down to the sides of the shoe where you’ll see the “Originals Galactic Scoundrel” along with the Millennium Falcon embroidered in the same orange thread. This black strap makes sort of a big “X” and leads down to the back of the shoe while the other line wraps around the back of the shoe and moves down below the three Adidas stripes on the outsides of the shoe.

The inner side of the shoe is mainly the green canvas material that covers the bulk of the shoe with a white rubber sole, black dot and orange arch underneath. On the tongue you’ll find an embroidered logo box that has the Adidas logo, “HAN SOLO” complete with quotes, and a lovely portrait of the #1 scoundrel himself, all of this orange thread on black material. The insides of the shoe are also the same burnt orange tone.

Look like a few items you could wear on the street without getting stomped on this time around? They’re Star Wars but they’re not the most nerdiest threads on the block, if you take my meaning. Wear without fear. Each of these items will be released inside September 2011, prices incoming. They’ll all more than likely be available at bigger malls in your area as well as at Adidas online store of course.

This film contains interviews with several folks including the fellow responsible for putting a mohawk of green turf on the Winston Churchill statue near parliament, Noel Godin whose famous for tossing pies in the faces of celebrities. Then there’s a talk with Michael Fagan, the man who broke into the Queen’s bedroom and sat at the foot of her bed: “I looked into her eyes, they were dark.” Rattling stuff.

What The Antics Roadshow examines is a bunch of stories surrounding some of “the most audacious stunts of recent times” including what motivates them and what makes them go about their business, be it heavy political business or just some fabulous finding of fun. It’s free to watch and if it’s taken down here by the time you get to this post, leave a comment and we’ll find you another one.

Each of these posters are created with some rather new software, likely Adobe Illustrator, and each are available, (most of them are available, that is,) each on their own as well as in a 9-up poster of only Google Plus, Facebook, and Twitter posters. Aaron Wood also sells Euro-type stickers with things like +1, AFK, and ROFL inside them, this leading us to note that Wood seems to focus on internet-based subject matter on the whole, appealing then to consumers across the world – quite modern.

Each of these posters at the moment costs $7.50 and will be printed on an 11-inch by 14-inch sheet of paper. You can also purchase a limited edition 18-inch by 24-inch poster with 9 of these social networking posters on it below which “Social Media Propaganda Posters by Aaron Wood” is printed. These limited edition posters are printed on C1S 80# glossy paper and are indeed limited to a run of 250, costing $25 USD.

In the images you see above and below you’re going to see a quick look at the city as it continues to stand built and painted many years ago. As Erin notes, she aims to peek at the elements that provide an obvious documentation of the history of the city. She also notes that big cinema productions are “moving upstate” because places like Schenectady are both visual stimulating and relatively cheap to use for movies. Erin recently found herself face to face with Ryan Gosling just across the river in Scotia as well – filming in New York, who knew?

Photos below come strapped with descriptions made by Erin Colligan, again, and all photographs were taken the first week of August, 2011. Can you feel the sweetness in the small businesses? Look at the killer wild letting in the lettering up in BI-MOR – and Pablo’s, with only a sign to the side of the window, nothing above? Completely undeniable.

Then there’s the Yellow TV set painted on the wall that we’ve been tipped by a T. Falk as being SACC TV – 16, a former public access station in the city. Additionally, there is a bit of information on the “Mr James” storefront as well, as noted by another trusted commenter:

“Mr James” Scolamiero arrived in Schenectady from Italy at age 4 in 1907; became a barber at the Van Curler Hotel, now Schenectady County Community College; moved into the red facade building on State St in 1963, at age 60; and reportedly was still cutting hair there at age 94.

If you’ve got any more info on the buildings pictured, feel free to let us know!

[via Times Union]

Seeking an ancient interview by Internet standards, we’ve uncovered NIGO x BredBand talk conducted somewhere in the early 2000′s in which he speaks in detail about the figures and how they came about, along with who worked on them and how their clothing was made specifically by A Bathing Ape, in addition to a factoid about how NIGO had each of the Beastie Boys’ heads photographed 360 degrees for the project, but then lost his full set of the original photos. Indulge with us if you will:

Interviewer: What’s your deal?
NIGO: My name is NIGO, I’m 30 years old, from Tokyo. I started my clothing line namedA Bathing Ape in 1993 with my friend SKATE THING. And we started our toys section, Ape Play, and music label Ape Sounds in 1999. I released my own album, Ape Sounds,in 1999 which featured Ben Lee, Money Mark, Cornelius, U.N.K.L.E. and more. I will release a hip hop album featuring Biz Markie, Rakim, Beatnuts, GZA, and Flava Flav. And oh yes, Mario C remixed the tracks for the Ape Sounds remix album.
Interviewer: What other figures have you made?
NIGO: Futura 2000, U.N.K.L.E., SDP (A Japanese rap group) and Planet of the Apes figures, and myself.
Interviewer: How long does it take to make one set?
NIGO: Usually it takes 6 months or a year. But it took 2 years to make Beastie Boys action figures.
Interviewer: How many sets of the Beasties figures were made?
NIGO: 1,000 sets.
Interviewer: How are the heads made, especially the incredibly accurate faces?
NIGO: I asked Hama Hayao who is famous molding artist to make the face. He is so great.We took pictures of the Beastie Boys’ heads from every side, 360 degrees, as the data for the dolls. I lost the pictures though.
Interviewer: Do you make the clothes or does someone else?
NIGO: Yes. All clothing was made by A Bathing Ape. I made whole thing except face and body.
Interviewer: How did you decide on the outfits that they would come with?
NIGO: I tried to reproduce Hello Nasty album jacket for the action figures. And about the extraQuasar outfit, I and my friend Matt Takei had helped to find their uniforms in Tokyo when they had come to Tokyo for the Quasar tour. And I also helped to make their stickers to arrange the outfit with Beastie Boys’ direction. And Beastie Boys gave us their guitars as our friendship.
Interviewer: Is it safe to take them into the bathtub?
NIGO: NO WATER!!!

At the time the figures sold through GrandRoyal.com, aka the Beastie Boys 1992-2001 vanity record label which took a place on Beastie Boys records from the moment they left Def Jam Recordings to work with Capitol Records. The figures sold then for around $500 USD. The figures today cost $750, and all proceeds, again, go to charity. Two charities actually, that being The pablove foundation and Alex’s Lemonade Stand, both of these being foundations for childhood cancer.

The reason these fantastic figures are up for sale again after all this time is, first of all, the renaissance nature of the newest Beastie Boys record, “Hot Sauce Committee Part Two”, as well as the appearance of these figures in the newest music video of the moment, made for the newest single off the album: “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win” featuring the Beastie Boys and Santigold! Have a look at the video here:

As the original description notes, “these are some real limited edition, explicit, bottle service/ v.i.p. type items. And no, we are not trying to take you for all your Mozarell.” This “Motzarell” they speak of is of course the cash you’ll be laying down for said goods, and not taking it means they’re, again, sending it all in to the dialing charities. What the actual package contains is thus:

• 3 Action Figures (1 MCA, 1 Mike D, 1 Ad Rock – each 11.5″ tall)
• Action Figures come dressed in button down shirts, pants, and shoes
• 3 Doll Stands
• 3 White Jump Suits
• 3 Safety Goggles
• 3 pairs of Work Boots
• 3 Safety Vests
• 3 Belts
• 3 Japanese Decal Stickers
• 3 Extra Hand Attachments
• All inside a 16×12-inch metal box

This set also comes with the 2-disk special edition of the Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science complete with an 88 page full-color 11.3×11.3-inch book with photos and lyrics. All of this is, of course, while supplies last.

What do you think? Holidays close enough that you can toss a few dollars down on your old friends the Beastie Boys in a fabulous tin of three?

The first of three pieces of clothing now available at the Pop Shop is Radiant Baby, this being one of Haring’s most universally recognized symbols, a human being on knees and hands with light emanating all around. Next is a lovely robot in gray and black with red electricity jamming out of his hand, the final romper being the fabulous Dj Dog, most certainly playing some Dogg Pound music, if you know what I mean, all in white ink on black t-shirt material.

Each of these rompers is available in 12 months, 18, 24, and 6 months, and is available in one color combination. Both the Dj Dog and Radiant Baby are black t-shirt material with white ink, the Robot being black, gray, and red ink on a white material. Each of these rompers is $24 and is in stock as this post is being written in all sizes. Check em out and pick em up.

The homepage of Fashion Fabrics Club lets you know they mean business instantly, with an absolute overabundance of links in all directions, your browsing made easy with every different kind of fabric listed out for you: canvas to cotton to denim to fleece to faux fur and back. What more could you ask for? High quality imagery? They’ve got that too, of course!

Hang out in the following gallery for a bit and get your fingers wet with some fabrics from all areas of Fashion Fabrics Club, then if you do so dare, go directly to the club to see their full collection. I’m sure they’d appreciate the business, and with 1000′s of Notions and Supplies as well as 15% off storewide, you’ll appreciate the time and effort they’ve put into their business. Once you’ve purchased your product and have made a magnificent piece of magic, post it here or at LEAST tell them what you’ve done.

MOCA Los Angeles’ current exhibition is ART IN THE STREETS, the latest in a long string of graffiti-inspired shows popping up across the United States for some three years or more – a resurgence, if you will, of the graffiti art in shows scene shown in the film Style Wars. As Mr. Cartoon will show in several framed paintings made with paints generally reserved for metal painting on cars, pinstripe style painting on a bench, and his famous Ice Cream Truck, the art form is both alive and exceedingly diverse. The Ice Cream Truck in particular will show you exactly what it means to be a true genius of an art form, in Mr. Cartoon’s case, paint applied in his own tattoo style.

Jumping out the S Class to do a throw up is a bizarre look, you know what I’m saying? – Mister Cartoon

The exhibition you’re getting a peek at is, again ART IN THE STREETS which will be up at MOCA Los Angeles until August 8, 2011. We recommend you get out there and take a look – Mister Cartoon is only one of many artists in the exhibition, and as seeing a Mister Cartoon work up close alone is worth the trip, surely the bonus is more than just that. Below have a look at the video, then below the video have a look at a gallery of cuts from the video to get a still look at what we’re going through here. Mr. Cartoon – low brow brilliant.

Every owner of a bit of the BAPE legacy knows that the cost of said branded goods are enough to turn any casual purchaser away forever. For the cost of more than five t-shirts at your local Target Superstore, you’ll be able to purchase a single BAPE, and should you decide to grab a new winter coat, you’ll be talking at least a week’s wages from a $40,000 a year salary. Big money for fine craftsmanship and cool designs, sure, but what you’re REALLY paying for is exclusivity as the pieces you’re purchasing are always limited edition, and brand power, as BAPE is certainly a name to be remembered.

Then there’s this season’s collection. There’s quite a few items that should have been expected: college tees, a Baby Milo head pattern, and worker shirts for several marks (that being the ones with the tiny graphic on the left breast and a larger item on the back center,) but there’s some treats to be sure. Some treats that begin with a few non-traditional items you should be freaking out over because they’re cross-branded: two brands synergistic power goes greater than one and one and two!

Porter is the subject of this season’s most predominant cross-branding, this showing up in a few bags with simple Bape camo and bright single-color insides. There’s a backpack, there’s a messenger bag, and there’s a few little pouches. One of the pouches even costs the mighty-low amount of $40, and that’s not even the least expensive item in this season’s full fabulous collection!

There’s a “1st Camo Mobile Mascot” that runs at $30, a cool little sewn patterend Milo that’ll hang nicely from your cellphone or from a bag or whatever you feel to be hanging it from – and even THAT isn’t the least expensive item in the set.

The least expensive Bathing Ape item you’ll be able to purchase this season comes in two sets. One is a bright Bape Camo set, the other is a set of tartan patterns, here known as “Check.” These are file folders, each of them having a see-through ® registered trademark symbol to accent their coolness. Each set costs $22, and if inexpensive Bape items of the past are any indication, you’d better pick them up quick because they’ll be selling off the shelves in a matter of days, if that.

There are some strange items with color choices, an example being this Jack Tar Milo Tee 03, black and some odd neon-yellow set on a navy blue t-shirt. If I didn’t know better I’d say it was a mistake – I suppose the designers know something I don’t. The beige combination is a much snappier colorway.

There’s an Argyle tee in gray or navy that’s amongst the $86 t-shirt choices, this being a rather nice text-based selection you can make in the lower-tier of shirts right this moment. The higher tier, as I’m sure you’d be interested to know, will be costing $100 per. We’ll see a few selections from that set soon as well.

The Surfer Tee is one of a few new logo items, a strange sharp-faced ape rolling hard on a sweet wave crashing in with some hardcore 3D font bashing BAPE into your brain. The wave-crashing ape’s face is quite reminiscent of the BPAWN faces you’ll see on a t-shirt later. Very strange new vision of the classic logo mark.

Jack Tar is back again with a Milo Tee inside a honeycomb sort of six-sided shape, another new font rolling a “Bape Equipment” on harshly and rather nicely in black with all gray ink or navy blue and white ink.

ABA ASNKA TEE is probably the most unique text-only shirts in this season’s collection, having A BATHING above and APE SHALL NEVER KILL surrounding APE in the center, the center of the P containing the face of the ape. If you’ve not figured it out already, ABA is A Bathing Ape while ASNKA is Ape Shall Never Kill Ape. It’s interesting to see the names broken up in such a way here and on at least one other shirt which uses “Shall Never Kill” by itself – brand deterioration appears to be a non-issue in the BAPE world.

Jack Tar makes his final appearance (for now) in a set of shirts called Jack Tar Milo Tee 05, “Prepare for the Season” and “Let’s Go!” being the lines for sweetening up the feeling here. Again there’s a couple of odd color choices, those being black and gray on gray with the eye of the monkey being the darker bit, same being true of the red and black on white, accents on the oddities.

WGM or World Gone Mad makes a big impression on several items, the first being inside the pouches mentioned previously, next here on this WGM Football Tee in which an Average Chimp (or is in a human?) is shown running to the left, then to the right and the left on the back of the shirt. This football theme is repeated in a Milo shirt as well, though with completely different aesthetic choices in execution.

There’s an American Independence Day shirt for those who need a single-day shirt for that one day we all celebrate the country’s independence from England by blowing up a bit of it, a patriot monkey with a flag in tow – I wonder if these tees are available in Japan as well, or only in the US season set?

There are a few daring – and lovely – ladies selections, dresses and rompers for the new hipster in our cities of superfashionability for the super rich attempting to look poor — good luck to them here, these are strictly high-class.

Probably our favorite selection from the entire season (in t-shirts, at least,) is this Bape Frat Party – a completely unique image that appears very much to have no predecessor, BAPE below in college font and the ® registered trademark inside the outline of a classic Bape Head. Wild and one wicked winner.

The strangest – hands down – selection in this season is the BPAWN Tee. It’s what we THINK is a take-off of the classic Spawn comic series in a sharp “wicked style” font being used on the front and back with a couple of hovering Spawn-like Bape heads looking on surrounded by electric lines again on the back. Completely out of left field once again.

Take a peek at the whole collection below and head on over to your local Bape to pick up your favorites if you so dare – they’re also available online at http://us.bape.com/

You’ve just got to know by now that NVIDIA has a quad-core processor in the works (as well as every other step up into 2014.) The chipset we’ll be seeing before the end of this year is a quad-core project code-named Kal-El (aka Superman.) This project combines a “battery friendly powerhouse of a quad-core processor” with a 12-core NVIDIA GPU that supports 3D stereo. What we’ve got today to demonstrate the capabilities of this new superpower is no less than a hands-on demo video of a demo game by the name of “Glowball” running on project Kal-El.

What this game does is serve primarily as a demonstration of the abilities of the processor on which it’s being allowed to run. Globall consists of a glowing ball moved around via the accelerometer inside the device you’re using. This means that as you move your device, the ball moves via the virtualized gravity your machine creates – the ball moves, drapes around the circus ring in the game move, and you’ve got a fully interactive situation going on that will certainly blow your mind.

The ball itself is the light source for the entire environment in the game. This situation provides the opportunity for Project Kal-El to show off dynamic lighting rendered in real-time with physics – NVIDIA reminds us that this is done, indeed, in real time, with no canned animations of any kind. This is, according to NVIDIA, the first time this type of lighting is feasible on any sort of mobile device.

This demonstration also shows Project Kal-El’s four CPU cores working at different levels as the ball rolls back and forth, bumping over barrels and activating jack in the boxes, etc. You’ll notice in particular the massively impressive drapes surrounding the arena move in perfectly realistic ways as the global passes underneath them.

There’s also a point in the video where only two CPU cores are used instead of Kal-El’s total of four. What you’ll see is a degraded experience that’s certainly not nearly as realistic as when the full four-cores are activated.

What do you think? Impressive? Also, this game is for demonstration purposes only, but it seems massively entertaining to us – would you like to see it developed into a full multi-level experience?

This group takes a plastic bottle and breaks it down into tiny chips. These chips are then processed into fibers, those fibers are then weaved into Bionic Yarn’s yarn construction. Apparently this amalgamation can then have the feel of cotton, nylon, or essentially any application that you can think of. This process takes bottles that would otherwise be buried down into the earth in landfills.

A statistic Toussant notes on how this process is going to be affecting the environment is 1.7 million bottles. That’s the amount of bottles that have been kept out of the earth thus far with Timerland alone. He goes on to say that it’s not out of their realm of possibility to have that number climb to 10 million by the end of the year given that they get the collaborators they need to create products with the materials they’re creating. Some collaborations they’ve done thus far are Kiehl’s, Moncler and GAP Japan, and what we must assume will be Billionair Boys Club, right Pharrell? Maybe some Bionic Ice Cream shoes?

Take a peek at this video courtesy of Complex Magazine:

Want some more news from Pharrell? Check out everything on this site by heading to our big fat portal: [Pharrell Williams]

[via Complex Magazine]

Each of the images you see below in thumbnail form will open up upon clicking to become high-resolution versions for your download and/or use. They’re under copyright to Ralph himself more than likely, so don’t go printing them up and selling them, but feel free to use them as wallpapers n such. Mr McQuarrie is a kind fellow who would love for you to use his artwork to liven up your digital device.

Then here’s some food for thought – what if McQuarrie had gotten into product design instead of conceptual film work? Would his fantastical paintings have translated to products that’d change the world in a completely different manner than his movie paintings did? Until someone takes the objects in the artwork he’s already made and pops them up to full size 3D, the world may never know.

ALSO take note – we’re still looking for a big version of the “mother-in-law” painting, a thumbnail of which you can see here – EAT THIS EWOKS!

In this video, Gaga defines the moment as one where she’s allowed to create characters she’ll be recalling forever. Her undergarment self, the Mother Monster, the giant haired Evil Mother, and the birthed evil. Certainly the undergarment character is playing a role not unlike Christ, brought unto this world to emit a soul-deep freedom of both spirit and body, while the birthed evil represents a charming devil, one that not only with a single partner, (this which I’m almost ashamed to admit I see as relatable to the Sith paradigm,) but with a flock of pink hair and suit shall attempt to tear hearts asunder – cold dead eyes watching.

You’ll see Madonna’s face at the end of the video with the gap, Cher throughout as the undergarment self, and pop objects like Superman and Alien also locked amongst not what I’d call brand new imagery, but certainly a refreshing attachment of image to music. Some of the effects are hard to watch – the mirrored areas near the birth for example, but they’re engaging in how difficult they are to process. Skeleton faces and sheets across skin remind one of the horror inflicted by Aphex Twin and Chris Cunningham, and a surprised look will appear in any young face you tell that this sort of video would not have been allowed on daytime television 10 years ago.

Behold a masterpiece, and please allow yourself to enjoy Lady Gaga now, as she is a true pop art force in her absolute prime.

If you’d like to see more works by the artist, head over to CHEO.co.uk, there you’ll see a lovely gallery and some cool videos as well. Cheo appears to have a sharp semi-pro style, one that we very much enjoy. Looks really fab!

If you’ve got any tips on more pop-culture graffiti coming up in the world, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!

While we were hanging out in Barcelona this past week, we heard several reports that the 3D fad is going beyond the movie theater, in fact being offered very soon via the smartphone by the name of LG Optimus 3D, both for capturing 3D media and displaying it without the aid of glasses. Sounds fantastic – will Kayne West and Hype Williams employ it?

The video you’re about to see, if you like, is a music video for the song “All of the Lights” by Kanye West featuring Rihanna and KiD CuDi. It’s also got mentions of a half-dozen other artists that apparently gave their voices to the spectacular as well. Lots of lights, lots of flashing lights, lots of typography that’s lovely.

See a bit more of CrazeOne’s artwork here, totally wickedly lovely and awesome:

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple weeks, the above news note may have little to no meaning to you, but if you haven’t, you know Egypt had its Internet turned off amid protests in the streets totaling in the millions of peaceful citizens. Having their Internet turned off lead to an amazing joke by Conan OBrian – “If you want people to stay at home and do nothing, you should turn the internet back on.” And the protests continue.

I’m watching Scott Pilgrim on an airplane. It’s trepedacious. Trepidatios? Cheerios? My wife and I are on our way to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando Florida. I’ve got two phone and my keys in one pocket, and a super cool black and blue wallet thing with my iPod Touch in it, and it’s got a Gelaskins skin on it, one with the London map of pixels by Eboy. The phones are a an Optimus… something, and a Samsung Continuum, which is a Galaxy S phone. Does any of that make sense to you? Both of them have Android inside and are totally whacked out with a billion apps because I’m busy reviewing every single app in the app world for SlashApps. We’ve gone through the doorway to the sky and now were in the sky and soon we’ll be eating lots of M&M’s.

Did you know that the lady gal in this movie is the same one that’s in Tron: Legacy? This movie is magical and the music is fancy and there are stars everywhere. There are lightening bolts flying out of my head right now. I can see lots of blue all around and I think we’re pretty high above the earth. HOLY CRAP THEY’RE FIGHTING AND THIS IS COMPLETELY AMAZING. You know what this reminds me of? Speed Racer – that live action Speed Racer that came out a few years ago with the colors. They said that move was ahead of it’s time, but now it’s a benchmark movie, the benchmark I use for all my reviews of every screen that’s supposedly godly.

What? They’re using Seinfeld music and laugh track in this scene. It’s totally well played. I wonder how much it cost the people who made this movie to get all these clips and sound clips? Or maybe they’re getting payed? Oh god they probably made so much money! Oh awesome now they’re playing Teenage Dream by T-Rex. That rocks so hard.

This crazy comic popping up thing isn’t getting old. I’m noticing it, and I’m liking it. We’re already in Atlanta (over Atlanta) and it seems like we’re going fast. Long story short story long, this movie is totally bangin. It’s brutal, and it’s sketched out, and it looks like they did a double-dose of paint over all the places where normally there’d just be a pencil drawing (even with Chiaroscuro shading.) Even with Chiaroscuro shading, even Avatar pales in comparison to this as far as WOW-factor.

Kairen McCulken – that’s who that is, right? This is a really frackin cool role for him. This is also Michael Cera’s star role. This is the height of his career. This is the role he was BRONSE to play. Next time, I’ll be deadly serious next time. Whatever! Even that nasty black square they’re using in this coffee shop to block out the Eff-Bo-omb is great. Like the bleeps on a Busta Rhymes album – excellent.

My eyes have gunk in them because we got up at 5:20AM and when you go outside to let the puppy out (actual dog) your gunk freezes. Knives – is she Cho? This movie doesn’t let up. We’re entering the dong of the United States. The lights, the lights behind the stage here when Envy is playing are outplaying the letters. I think it’s because of Tron again. I think the two movies are connected. Split screen. This music sounds like the only good pop music on the radio, and that’s just, you know. Don’t throw up, at least try not to.

I will trade this review for a new computer. You cocky cock! I like that everyone has special powers in Toronto. OH NO HE’S VEAGAN! I get it, it’s because everyone’s hipsters. Oh no Vegan Academy. It really looks like we’re not moving much. My new backpack is full of cords. I wish there was a better way to connect to everything (BlueToot) that worked for everything. There’s a problem though, once things get too small, they get lost. I also have a new camera, another CyberShot (I have like four more that I used until breaking) by Sony, a company that is totally mean and switches their memory cards every few camera generations. Sony, thank you for your user interface, you tech me.

Your will is broken! Oh crap! We’re descending! This review just became unique! We’re coming into Gate 71 so this is going to be a chopped review. Whatever.

Best movie ever.

Steal it.

See you next time.

Dr. Lyndel Meinhardt, Lead Researcher and Dr. Dapeng Zhang, Lead Geneticist from the USDA Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland were in charge of analyzing the plant. Meinhardt notes: “The international cacao database has 5,300 entries. None are Pure Nacional with white beans. Cacao pods with 40% and 100% white Pure Nacional beans are an unprecedented discovery.”

The location at which the beans were discovered is between 3,500 and 4,100 feet, the highest altitudes EVER reported as hospitable for cacao. Since shortly after the beans were confirmed to be rarities, Horsley has lived with the farmers, helping them turn their cacao into chocolate, working with them to strike a deal with Maranon Chocolate to sell the product to the world.

Pearson got a move on to visit Switzerland where he’s having the beans made into unique chocolate by an unnamed yet renowned chocolate maker recommended to him by Franz Ziegler of Ziegler Consulting and Paul Edward of Chef Rubber. Ziegler a renowned pastry chef and his colleague Rubber said of the beans, “In our combined 50 years of working with chocolate, we have never tasted flavors like this. We had to experience this ourselves, so we both traveled to Peru, met the farm families, saw the trees, the white beans, the genetics tests and then watched the next evolution in post-harvest processing that they developed. We saw the past and the future of chocolate.”

Yum yum! Feel free to send me some to review! Check out the full press release below:

NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Pure Nacional, a variety of cacao, the plant used to make chocolate, that was once thought to be extinct, has been rediscovered in Peru. Pure Nacional, with its complex fruit and floral flavors, once dominated the fine chocolate market worldwide. In 1916, diseases struck the Pure Nacional population in Ecuador and within three years 95% of the trees were destroyed. The prized chocolate was thought to be lost, until now. The chocolate has been rediscovered growing in Peru. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the world’s foremost genetics laboratory for the DNA testing of cacao, confirmed this discovery and after two years of hard work chocolate is being produced from these precious plants.

Late in 2007, Dan Pearson and Brian Horsley were sourcing fruit in Peru’s Maranon Canyon when they discovered cacao trees growing on small isolated farms in a remote horseshoe-shaped canyon surrounded by 6,000-feet canyon walls. The trees were growing football-shaped pods filled with a rare mix of 40% white beans and 60% purple beans in the same pods, or in some cases, the pods were completely filled with white beans. Familiar with only purple beans, they were curious about the rare white beans and sent leaf samples to the USDA for testing. “When they called with genetic test results and asked, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I knew we had found something special,” said Pearson.

Dr. Lyndel Meinhardt, Lead Researcher and Dr. Dapeng Zhang, Lead Geneticist from the USDA Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, analyzed the genetic structure of the beans and found that they were Pure Nacional plants native to Peru. “The international cacao database has 5,300 entries. None are Pure Nacional with white beans. Cacao pods with 40% and 100% white Pure Nacional beans are an unprecedented discovery,” said Meinhardt. They tested random leaf samples from various trees throughout the Maranon Canyon and confirmed that the Pure Nacional plants were growing throughout the valley. Dapeng said, “We are excited about this confirmation. It means that these cacao trees were indigenous to Peru. They are not exotic introductions from somewhere else.”

The high canyon walls in the Maranon Canyon created a unique microclimate for the trees. The trees thrive at some of the highest altitudes ever reported for cacao, between 3,500 and 4,100 feet. Horsley lives with the farmers and worked with them to turn the unique cacao into chocolate. The beans needed to be transported first by foot, then burro, then motorcycle and finally by all-terrain vehicle. Horsley said, “The small farmers and I had to learn quality practices together. White beans must be fermented and dried differently than purple beans, but it is unknowable in advance which is which,” said Horsley. After two years, several site visits by fermenting and drying specialists, independent laboratory testing and 81 fermenting and drying trials, they found the answers to processing the rare beans and founded Maranon Chocolate to offer their exclusive product to chefs and consumers.

Pearson traveled to Switzerland to have the beans made into one-of-a-kind chocolate by a renowned Swiss chocolate maker who found the white beans added a nutty flavor to the Nacional fruit and flora profile. The chocolate maker was recommended by Franz Ziegler of Ziegler Consulting and Paul Edward of Chef Rubber. Ziegler is an award-winning author and was named Pastry Chef of the Year in 2008 by the World Pastry Team Championship, where he has served as head judge since 2006. Ziegler and his colleague Paul Edward of Chef Rubber said, “In our combined 50 years of working with chocolate, we have never tasted flavors like this. We had to experience this ourselves, so we both traveled to Peru, met the farm families, saw the trees, the white beans, the genetics tests and then watched the next evolution in post-harvest processing that they developed. We saw the past and the future of chocolate.”

The team will assemble at The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in New York City on January 11, 2011 to announce the launch of the chocolate. ICE Chef Instructor Michelle Tampakis, a respected chocolate expert who was named one of Dessert Professional’s Top Ten Pastry Chefs for 2010, will be on hand with Ziegler, to guide a tasting of the unique flavor profile of this precious chocolate. Pearson, Meinhardt and Edward will present the story of the discovery of the chocolate in their own words and discuss the road to bringing this chocolate back from extinction. Pearson said, “The rediscovery of Pure Nacional and the first ever discovery of white beans in this pure thought-to-be-extinct variety opens peoples eyes. However, it is the remarkable delicate flavors, aromas and unique tastes that open the hearts of those who are passionate about chocolate.”

For more stories of discovering Pure Nacional, visit www.maranoncacao.com.
About Maranon Chocolate

Dan Pearson and Brian Horsley and their Peruvian family members have been working in Peru since 2002. While sourcing fruit in the remote Maranon Canyon, they saw pods resembling small footballs growing from the trunks of trees. Told that the beans inside are used to make chocolate and curious about the 40% white beans, Pearson sent leaf samples to the USDA lab for testing and confirmed the beans were Pure Nacional. Now they make these rare beans into their signature Fortunato No.4 chocolate, named after the farmer who owned the land where the trees were first discovered. Pearson runs U.S. operations, while Horsley runs operations in Peru, living with his wife and daughter with the farmers in the canyon. They pay premium pricing and a percentage of the profits to the farmers, being sure the farmers receive a fair price for their work cultivating this rare and precious cacao. For more information, please visit www.maranoncacao.com.
About ICE

The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE®) is New York City’s award-winning center for culinary education. Founded in 1975 by Peter Kump, the school offers highly regarded 8- to 12-month career training programs in Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts, Culinary Management and Hospitality Management. With an intensive curriculum, dedicated Chef Instructors, a strong record in externship placements and a clear entrepreneurial focus, ICE is widely regarded as a great pathway to begin or continue a culinary career. ICE also runs one of the largest programs of hands-on recreational cooking classes and wine education courses in the country, with more than 26,000 enthusiasts taking any of the 1,500 classes offered each year. In 2008, ICE was named the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ (IACP) Culinary School of the Year and a School of Distinction by the ACCSCT in 2006. ICE’s 42,000 square-foot facility is open seven days and nights a week, 350 days a year and is located at 50 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010. More information can be found at www.iceculinary.com.

Let me get rather completely and utterly technical for a moment so those of you that’d know what’s going on here in such a way can get more into it: Mitchell is working on a package called CalcNet, networking software which uses his “Doors CS” – shell and GUI for TI calculators. In the video you’re about to see, he’ll tell you he’s demonstrating the high reliability and throughput of his network.

To demonstrate his network, he’s running a game called NetPong, a version of Pong made specifically to play over a multi-calculator network. Marvel at his coolness for connecting so many screens, then join in the antics by checking out the linked documents

- try it all yourself. Ziff!

[Via Hack A Day]