The Ready Set, aka Jordan Mark Witzigreuter, served up a delightful set of eletro-pop to the New Jersey crowd at Bamboozle 2011 last weekend. Jordan’s story is interesting, he’s really just a one man band using hired guns to perform and tour. He decided to go by The Ready Set because he thought his last name, Witzigreuter, would inevitably be too hard for people to pronounce. Its a clever way around that whole, band-name-is-my-name dilemma.
People can’t seem to stop talking about the Foo Fighters right now. Having been around for over 15 years, they still remain as relevant as ever. On Tuesday night at the closing of the SXSW Film Festival and Interactive activities in Austin the band premiered their latest endeavor, a documentary film called Foo Fighters Back and Forth.
After hearing about this project for the past 6 months I had some expectations. I knew the band was recording in Dave Grohl’s garage in his home on tape, with legendary producer Butch Vig at the helm. I knew that cameras where there for something like 3 months capturing the process. I also knew that they shot at least 5 hours of footage at the bands secret show at the Roxy Theatre last month. So my anticipation was that this film would focus on the latest and greatest antics and the making of a fresh but yet nostalgic process of writing a record.
Every piece of plastic that has ever been stamped, “Made in China”, or by any other country for that matter, still exists. Yes, some small portion has been burnt, but that just released toxic gas to the atmosphere. The rest sits in land fills, in your neighborhood park, or swims with the fishes in one of many swirling pools of plastic debris the size of Texas in our oceans. Tonight, two So-Cal boys named Tanner Hoss and Clay Wendel are out to change that.
Their “Oceanic Awareness Collaboration” has brought together 70+ artists from around the world, including my lovely boss lady Barbie Brady and this photographer’s favorite “photo stylist”/artist Renee Lawter, for an art show and silent auction this past weekend in Pamona, CA. I had a chance to chat up the founders for a quick minute over the roar of the show and the following is what they had to say…
Go to any music festival and you will most likely come across someone wearing a plush animal hood that has scarf like appendages that flow into mittens, or paws if you will. These fuzzy fashion accessories are products of Spirit Hoods. Made in Southern California by a group of hippie/hipster/vega/activists these hats represent a love for wildlife and efforts to give back to critical wildlife initiatives.
Fashion can’t be avoided. We can’t leave our house without clothes on. Based on your geographic location, possibly multiple layers of clothes on. But there is a distinction between “fashion”, “clothes” and “style”. Let’s see what the interweb has to say about it:
“Though often used interchangeably, there are distinct and important differences between clothing, fashion, and style. The term clothing first appeared in the thirteenth century and refers to garments in general. Fashion and style are fourteenth-century words. Style describes the form of something, while fashion refers to prevailing styles during a particular time. All clothing can be described in terms of the style of specific features, such as a mandarin collar or a gathered sleeve, and if the style is currently popular, it is considered fashionable. Garment styles periodically recur, though usually in slightly different forms. Coco Chanel, the famous French designer, once said that anyone who claimed originality had no knowledge of history.” – Answers.com
Derick Melander loves clothes. Perhaps not in the same way that you and I love clothes, as Melander makes ambitious sculptures from carefully folded and stacked second-hand clothing.
I discovered him at Project in Vegas quite accidentally while wandering the show floor. A “shameless self-promoter”, Melander told me that he connected with Project through a friend designer who exhibits here each season. Paramount Apparel International (PAi) and Tom’s Shoes both donated their wares to let Melander have his way with them.
Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that I like things that look like things that are really other things. For example, a ceramic grenade that is actually a bank, or a lollipop made of plastic that’s actually a speaker for my mp3 device. It’s no wonder then that I have loved Molla Space for a long time now.
3 of the nicest men you’d ever want to share a beer with, (insert your favorite uncle image here) got sick of the machinery of corporate fashion. Having all worked together at one point in their illustrious careers or other, Jack Steinweis, Mark Kane and Kevin Crowley finally decided to put up or shut up and Unstitched Utilities was found. Hailing from New Jersey, Baltimore and New Hampshire, the men connected to hatch a vision that their individual talents, know how and charisma might be the building blocks to launching a truly environmentally thoughtful brand.
Step one, find a truly remarkable, environmentally friendly, durable material for manufacturing footwear.
While mindlessly glancing around the Burbank airport, waiting to board a flight to Las Vegas for the Fashion industry trade show, MAGIC, something shiny caught my eye. Super slick, hot pink, patent leather sneakers graced the feet of a rather unusually understated Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas. I noticed the shoes first, the superstar second.
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Sometimes I absolutely love Los Angeles. Where else can you catch a band as big as the Foo Fighters playing a legendary theater such as the Roxy on a Monday night? Lately if you are in the “know” and following the Foo tweets you can find yourself at one of their secret shows. Let me put this into some kind of perspective for you kids out there who maybe don’t get how big this is (that’s right my nephews…I’m glaring at you).