I’m not too keen into real estate, but for some odd reason (probably due to some of the homes I post on up on this Blog), some of my friends keep asking me to help them on their high-budget house hunts. During one of my recent procrastination sessions both my assistant and I came across this. The New York Times took a look inside the triplex penthouse of Brooklyn’s ClockTower Building — where the most striking features are the four 14′ clocks housed in gigantic round windows. The ‘DUMBO’ building was built by a cardboard box manufacturer and renovated by ‘DUMBO’ developer David Walentas. The approximately 6,400 square foot apartment is on the market for $25 million — “more than double the highest price known to have been paid for a home in Brooklyn.” In addition to the clocks and amazing views, the triplex features 16 foot ceilings on the main level and central glass elevator and floating staircase. I’d never be late for work again.
So a long time ago, I posted some super basic sketches up on twitter by the illustrator Christine McAleer, and it was announced that some sort of collaboration between us was on its way. The drawings were roughs of advertisements for DJ Storm female t-shirts that will be released around new years. I was quite enthusiastic to see how great the finished products would come out when I saw the women they were referenced from, (the first and last of the ladies were referenced from close friends of mine, while the picture above bears a stunning resemblance to the lovely Csilla Ray). I’ve already gotten numerous request by various girls, and I have all those accounted for. But if your interested in one, and you wear shirts between small and extra large, send me a direct message on twitter @YoungStark. As for the illustrations, I’d like to thank Ms. McAleer again for blessing me with some of her time and artwork.
Today’s buses have a reputation for being large, slow and — even when powered by electricity — rather inefficient. However, this could all be about to change thanks to a pioneering design from a Dutch scientist which was shown last week in Amsterdam. The “Superbus” is the work of the Delft University of Technology and Prof. Dr. Wubbo J Ockels, a Dutch physicist and astronaut, to provide a realistic alternative to cars. The Superbus is fifteen meters long, but that’s where the similarities with a normal bus end — instead of the square shape and high roof of a traditional bus, the Superbus looks something like a stretched sports car.
This aerodynamic design enables it to carry 23 passengers at up to 250 km/h, far faster than normal coaches which normally travel at around 100 km/h on highways. Remarkably, it achieves this using electricity and consumes as much energy as a regular bus traveling at 100km/h thanks to the use of lightweight materials provided by Aerospace engineering firm TenCate. The entire structure is constructed of carbon fibre composite and uses ten doors instead of two to enable more seating space in the interior, where passengers can enjoy seat belts, airbags, TV, internet, air conditioning and heating. Although the Superbus is still very much a concept, the team hopes that a version could be implemented by 2015, perhaps on a dedicated track that would enable it to reach its top speed of 250 km/h along sections of the route. A video from the Delft University of Technology, which has been working on the concept, appears to show that the model could be used first in Abu Dhabi.
The Chinese painter Liu Boulin has adopted a unique and interesting style of displaying his artwork. A mix between body painting, and total bad-assery, Liu has mastered the technique of scoping out an environment, and painting himself, and his clothes to fit perfectly into his surroundings making him the real life “Where’s Waldo”. Check the method below and keep in mind there is no Photoshop wizardry afoot, this is all Boulin’s skill at work.
So we’ve known Weezy has been back for quite some time now, but I don’t think I’ve been as impressed with Wayne’s material as I have with the lyrics from “6′ 7″ (Six Foot Seven). The beat is somewhat reminiscent of “Don’t Like The Look” by Gudda Gudda ft. Lil Wayne, but none the less, its quite the impressive track, and is sure to be a hit among Weezy fans all over.
The Lo Curro house is a project by Schmidt Arquitectos Asociados, an architect studio led by Horacio Schmidt C., Horacio Schmidt R. and Martín Schmidt R. specialized in the design and development of projects such as urban, corporate buildings, houses, interior, furniture and industrial design. The Lo Curro house is located in Cerro de Lo Curro, Santiago in a place surrounded by 30 year old eucalyptus. To make the house look natural and integrated with its surroundings, they choose materials and textures that look natural, like different types of stones and wood. The wide glass windows are also a neat touch here, since they allow you to enjoy the nature around the house without loosing privacy. This is another great architecture’s master piece. A beautiful house placed in a very inspiring spot, surrounded by nature and beautiful views. Is like having a modern and cozy hidden spot in the middle of the forest, simply great. Check the method.
Assia caught my attention with the nickname “Ms Million Dollar Smile”. This early ’20-something’ model was born in Montreal, Canada in 89. Assia is half Morrocan and half Canadian. She attended the Academy of Art and Design to study in Fashion and since the age of 18 Assia was surrounded by fashion thus solidifying it as a passion of hers. She starting modeling at 17 but became interested in Eye Candy recently when she realized that bringing the sexy out of her suited her personality. She’s now ready to take it to another level and start appearing in videos, magazine etc. She’s done multiple videos in Montreal with local artists, and now she is going for bigger things outside of Canada. She also says she would eventually segue into acting, while keeping modeling one of her primary focuses.
Everyone loves an artist who knows how to have fun, and Maino has proved it again, on his latest release “We Keep it Rockin”. The song showcases a crazy New York line up featuring Swizz Beatz, Jim Jones, Joell Ortiz, and Jadakiss spitting over a re-imagining of Tupac’s ‘California Love’. Click the pic to take a listen.
Telegramme Studio’s is a graphic design house that happens to be responsible for mastering one of my favorite poster styles. Its a simple, crisp clean type of design with a a retro-ish edge. Check the method.
Contrary to what you may have thought when reading the title of this post, no this isn’t some sort of new dance craze. The Zombie Walk is an event held in different cities where people of all ages dress up in their best zombie garb and walk the streets. The photos in this post were taken from a walk in Canada. With the success of shows like “The Walking Dead” on AMC, or the slew of zombie movies over the last decade (28 Days Later, I Am Legend, Resident Evil, and Dawn of the Dead) it was only a matter of time before a spectacle like this became a cultural cult fascination.
So its a pretty widely known fact that Ms. Nicki Minaj and Lil Kim are engaged in a lyrical tiff. In her most recent release on the matter, Lil Kim may have had a line about feelings on Diddy. Diddy has been working with Minaj which some say is a reason for Kim to be upset. Diddy got on Hot 97 recently to discuss his feelings on the matter with Funk Master Flex, and had some relatively calm and insightful advice on the matter. Check the method below.
In my generation of my mom’s side of family, we have somewhat of an induction ceremony with folks marrying into the fold that involves playing a very intense game of Monopoly. (basically if you come out of it with your life… your part of the family.) So the Monopoly board game has always had a very revered place in my heart. When publisher Parker Brothers dropped their new ad campaign, I was intrigued. The new ads have a colorful print style developed in Germany, using the tag line, “Own it all”. Four photographs of actual properties, washed in green and red, show 124 Mediterranean Avenue and 74 Baltic Avenue (the two cheapest properties on the board), 807 Boardwalk and 153 Pennsylvania Avenue (two of the most expensive on the board). The Monopoly “Own It All” campaign was developed at JWT Frankfurt, Germany by art director Petra Sievers.
I’m almost 90% certain my very first post on this blog was about the release of one season of Entourage. In that post I put it out there that Entourage is one of my favorite shows on television (now approaching its final season), and one of the reasons this HBO hit is one of the highest on my list is because of Ari Gold. I could write for half a day to describe Ari, but I’ll skip that, weather your familiar with the character or not, below are 25 of his most popular quotes from the show. (NOT necessarily my top 25, but the 25 most popular. If you have any to add, feel free, I’d love to hear your favorites.)
Ari Gold: Call me Helen Keller because I’m a fucking miracle worker!
Ari Gold: Listen to me, Lloyd, do you want to make it in this business or fold shirts at a Chinese laundromat? Pledge.
Ari Gold: Listen, Lloyd, I want you to put all my files, folders, binders, *everything* into a box! If you find a used condom, an executioner’s mask, and a fucking spike paddle, don’t think, just pack that bitch! Chop suey!
Ari Gold: You know what they feed people on an indi set, Vinnie? Nothing! They don’t give you a trailer. They tell you to go sit on an apple box. Ever try to bang an extra on an apple box?
Ari Gold: I’m ready to go here, all right? It’s like R. Kelly at recess. Honey, honey, what are you doing? Are you kidding me? Baby!
Ari Gold: You can have it if you want to live in Agora fucking hills, and go to group therapy, but if you want a Beverly Hills mansion, a country club membership, and nine weeks a year in a Tuscan villa, then I’m gonna need to take a call when it comes in at noon on a motherfucking Wednesday.
Ari Gold: We are gonna get drunk with Russell Crowe and we’re gonna head-butt some goddamn kangaroos.
Ari Gold: Smoke more weed, Turtle. Seriously, smoke more weed.
Ari Gold: My assistant is to be gang-raped by a gang of one.
Ari Gold: That was a good speech, Lloyd. If I was 25 and liked cock, we could be something.
Ari Gold: Tell Drama he’s on the top of my list of things to do today, along with inserting needles in my cock!
Ari Gold: Dana I have never cheated on my wife, not since she became my wife, but if you wanna jerk me in the car now, I’m game.
Ari Gold: Mohamed Ali came back once too often too, Terence.
Ari Gold: I knew you liked dick, Babs, but i didn’t realize you were a cocksucker.
Ari Gold: It’s like high school. You can’t fuck the prom queen until she finds out her best friend jerked you off underneath the bleachers!
Ari Gold: You fire a guy, you create a rival. You fire a woman, you create a housewife.
Ari Gold: I drove to work today in an $80,000 Mercedes and I’m going home in a prop car from Fast and the Furious… my life is over!
Ari Gold: Fuck the phones, Lloyd! Unless Carmen Electra calls for an emergency titty-fuck, don’t answer!
Ari Gold: I would say hug it out, but I don’t want you drawing wood.
Ari Gold: All right, when you talk to Dana, tell her I’m going to take the pictures from Cancun, and start a website called imahollywoodexecutivewhore.com and there will be no password or fee required, and I will take out a full page ad in the LA Times promoting it. Tell her I want a fucking call back.
Ari Gold: Fuck you. Where’d you hear that, Friendster?
Ari Gold: (golfing): Rusty cunt bucket! FUCK!
Ari Gold: You will come back stronger then ever. Like Lance Armstrong. But with two balls.
Ari Gold: No Indies E! Think of it as the holocaust, never again!
Ari Gold: Fuck Richard Roper. You know I went to college with him? Yeah when he was pledging we used to tie beer cans around his nuts and make him walk across campus. I think last night was payback.
And if those weren’t enough, OR your not already familiar with HBO’s super agent… Here’s a little more.
I couldn’t in all good conscience put this under the “Music” category, its purely entertainment, But Ja Rule will face two years in prison after pleading guilty to gun charges on Monday, according to a Manhattan District Attorney statement.
The 34-year-old MC faced one second-degree weapons charge after he was found with a loaded firearm on New York’s Upper West Side in July 2007, the statement said. Ja Rule will also be registered as a gun offender. “Despite having some of the strongest anti-gun laws in the nation, gun violence continues to plague this city,” District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said. “Gun crimes are serious offenses, and today’s guilty plea should send a serious message to anyone thinking of illegally bringing a gun into New York City.” Now for your entertainment, here’s the exchange of tweets between 50 Cent and Ja Rule which I found to be all too hilarious.
Ja Rule/50 Cent
Up early bout to get ready for court… Good morning!!!
For $1 million per month you can now charter the world’s coolest super-yacht, the 164-ft. Exuma built by Perini Navi, in the South Pacific. The Exuma, the first motor yacht from the world-famous builder of the Maltese Falcon, and can accommodate ten guests in five luxurious staterooms. The aluminum-hulled Exuma is the first model in the Picchiotti Vitruvius series, a collaboration between Perini Navi, Vitruvius Ltd. and architect Philippe Briand. Interior furnishings were designed by Perini Navi’s in-house team with a focus on classic maritime style tradition, using oak, teak and Italian marble. The sleek ship has a range of 5,500 nautical miles at 12 knots and comes equipped with a fully customized 16.4 ft. amphibious vehicle and a Hov Pod 12 ft. hovercraft housed in two tender garages with gull-wing doors. The Exuma will also be available for charter on a weekly basis for $250,000.
Photography is something I’ve always had a deep interest in. All different examples, types, subjects, and processes have caught my eye as extraordinary over the last few years, but when it comes to the oddities department, I haven’t come across too many galleries like this one. I couldn’t find the information necessary to credit every singe photographer, so there are no credits given. (Because that would be unfair.). So check the method below, and comment if you know who took a particular picture.
“Thought of You“, is an amazing 2D animation about dance and memory. Obviously classical styles of dance dance aren’t necessarily my thing, but this is probably one of the best 2D animations in recent memory, it’s a remarkable work of Ryan J Woodward. The animation is very fluid and movement are very detailed. Check the method below.
Floral typography is the technique that combines typography, calligraphy and lettering to create dynamic, “flourishing” designs. With the help of floral elements you can create very tempting and vivid artworks in which the typography seems to be shaped by plants and flowers. In this way you can convey your message in a very artistic way. In fact, various floral ornaments – which are the essential component of floral typography – can make the design stand out and help the artist to create inspiring, refreshing and thought-provoking pieces of art.
First and foremost I want to apologise for my recent absence. The issue doesn’t deserve an entire post, or that much of anyones time, but long story short, the DMCA felt the need to restrict my access to my own site because of the content in a post regarding a musician whose material they are responsible for. So I just wanted to take this time to say f*ck the DMCA. Moving right along.
InterContinental has confirmed that it is to launch boutique Hotel Indigo brand in Asia-Pacific, opening the first property in Shanghai by the end of the year. The new Hotel Indigo Shanghai on the Bund will sit alongside luxury properties such as Fairmont’s Peace Hotel and the Peninsula Shanghai, although it’s set to offer travelers an altogether different style of service — and likely a different price range. The 184-room property eschews the grandness favoured by its competitors for the more distinctive, design-led approach common to Hotel Indigo, which prides itself on reflecting the culture, character and history of its neighbourhoods.
Despite also designing the neighboring Peace Hotel, Hirsch Bedner Associates opted for a very different look and feel for Hotel Indigo, building a gallery space featuring illuminated sculpture installations into the hotel’s lobby area. The rooms are designed to evoke Shanghai’s history, featuring eclectic furnishings that incorporate historic elements with bright, contemporary functionality. Guests can relax in the hotel’s outdoor swimming pool or enjoy the view of downtown Shanghai and the Huangpu River from the rooftop restaurant and bar. The Shanghai Hotel Indigo marks the brand’s entry into Asia, but it won’t be too long before other Asia-Pacific regions boast their own properties — openings are scheduled in Xiamen, Taipei, Hong Kong and Bangkok over the next three years.
Maria Millions, born in Medellin, Colombia in 1987, is a Latin newcomer in most modeling circles but this scintillating, bodacious Latin beauty is continuous in her efforts of creating the perfect shot. Maria epitomizes stylish confidence mixed with provocative sensuality. An inspiration to Latina Models Worldwide, Maria has already begun to receive honors a large majority of models would never obtain during their careers. Earlier this year she received the honor of 305HipHop.com Ms. Hard Body for the month of January. Add to that a growing number of Magazine Features, several of which will feature her as the cover model. Maria Millions aka Ms. Fuego is currently grinding hard to capture her lifetime dream. Maria is confident her 5’0, 34C – 27 – 37 frame, while not favored in the Run Way Market will be highly adored in the world of Urban Modeling, Fashion and Print. It is Maria’s hope to soon be plastered on every magazine, poster, add and calendar in circulation. “With every photo shoot I raise the bar”, she says. Not to overly confident, this South Beach resident admits to being her worst critic. Utilizing her past success as a catalyst, Maria intends to keep her fans salivating in 2009 with appearances in Music Videos, Urban Men’s Magazines, TV Commercials, TV Shows and much, much more. Maria Millions aka Ms. Fuego is an exotic and natural beauty, a ‘living piece of art’, and is sure to saturate the urban modeling market.
The Source interviewed Drake to talk about his upcoming European tour with J. Cole, Kanye West getting 5 Mics and more:
Kanye’s 5 Mics Album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
“Kanye put together a great album. It’s a really solid project. I think people had so much time to sit with the songs, that it threw them off a little bit when the album came out and so many of those songs were already on it. But at the same time, when you get that project and you can imagine getting all those songs on one day and we didn’t have to deal with the power of leaks and internet stuff. I definitely understand why people hold that album at such high regard. It’s a great project and it’s definitely given me something to strive for because perfect scores are hard to come by nowadays and I’ve seen a lot of them on that album. That definitely lets me know what I’m gunning for on this next project. ”
Gearing Up To Tour Europe With J. Cole
“Just being with Cole and going to Europe for the first time, I wanted to do something different set wise and setlist wise. I wanted to bring an adaptive show out there. Cole is in my city tonight, man we are just having fun. Just having fun being young and rapping and living and enjoying it. Being good, responsible people, I mean we meet on a whole bunch of levels. It’s great because before I got to talk to him I didn’t know where our relationship was heading. When I finally got to meet him I realized like ‘oh man, this guy is so easy to like.’ I know what people are trying to do between us, but I’m going to like this guy and we are going to be friends and make great music together, hopefully for years to come. Cole is one of those guys that I can coexist with even though we do two completely different things. I mean, the one area where we meet on is lyricism, but that should be the case with any rapper regardless of genre. I meet on lyricism with a lot of people. There are a lot of lyrical cats out there doing great shit. I mean, it’s really easy for me and Cole to get along, and getting along with someone like that usually leads to great music so being on tour that long and me having a new album on the way and him finishing his project, you never know. It’s something I want to do so I’m all in man, it’s whatever. ”
My Dream GRAMMY Performance
I would love to do a medley with me Wayne and Nicki. Only because having Wayne is so amazing, and the year Nicki has had is so great, and to share a stage with my family would be incredible man. That would be the craziest thing, or performing “What’s My Name,” with Rihanna would be crazy. I haven’t performed that yet.
And it’s all about the outside. A simple, minimalist interior in a house that throws open its walls and plays second fiddle to the great outdoors. What a pool. Those palm trees … swoon. Gently sloping green green grass and the star of the show, rain forest hemming in on all sides. All this anchored by stone walls and gravel courtyards. I’d quibble that the house needs a few more personal touches, some spectacular art but then how can you argue with that view. And all of this is in one of the most beautiful places in the world, Byron Bay, Australia.
So I’ve seen quite a number of “awkward white guy high five’s” while working in the club industry. So when my assistant showed me this video, I only thought it right to share with as many people as I could. Check the method, and enjoy.
Great Accessories in Music History: Mozart’s powdered wigs, Elton John’s sunglasses, The Ramones’ black leather jackets, Tommy Lee’s “third” drum stick, Kevin Federline. Now designers Min-guk Ji & Hong-joo Kim & In-oh Yoo & for Metatrend Institute have invented what could be the greatest music accessory since the groupie. The “Transparent OLED Headphones” (working title I’m assuming) are made from flexible OLED panels that allow the user to custom design a lighting show or patterns across your cranium. These custom designs can also be set to your current track or “color groove setting”, scroll any message texts or simply remain whatever color you’re feeling like that day. The left side button controls your sound functions while the right side button controls the light show. I think these headphones are so revolutionary they just may need a new segment name. How about headtirps? or eargasms? or maybe headbands?
