Their BMX bikes are more louder than yers…

While the trend of fixed gear cycling explodes around the globe, a distinctly louder single geared biking phenomenon has been quietly evolving in the unlikeliest of places: the suburban backyards of Queens, NY. Fueled by a passionate and tight-knit group of Trinidadian teenagers who squeeze every spare cent into the $4,000+ soundsystems ingeniously integrated into their BMX bikes, the resulting Frankenstein-ian contraptions have become a deafening mobile spectacle in the borough on weekends when members roll out their thundering soundsystems in processions through the streets that can literally be heard for miles around. “MADE IN QUEENS” is a new short film directed by NICOLAS RANDALL and JOE STEVENS chronicling the group, led by teenage master builder NICHOLAS RAGBIR in their quest to build the ultimate bitchin’ mobile ghetto blaster. Explains Stevens, “In this age of obsessive video sharing and social networking nearly every action is designed and packaged for public consumption. Especially with young people. The immediate charm of Nick and his crew is that they’re the exact opposite of all that. There is nothing calculated or self-conscious about who they are. They’re just a group of friends doing something to challenge themselves and have some laughs. It’s a story which would have never come from kids who were born here.” HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

The biggest complaint we’ve got about life in the 21st century, aka: “The Future,” is the near-total lack of the really cool inventions Pop Culture has been promising us for the last 50 years. Yeah iPhones are kinda cool, but you still can’t do a video or hologram chat on one (WTF Steve Jobs?!?), laptop computers have just created a race of modern information slaves, and anyone found traveling by Segway is pretty much guaranteed (or at the very least, deserves) a severe beat down (especially the fat lazy cops who ride em). We want our flying cars, time machines, and jet packs now! And while you can pretty much file the flying car and time machine ideas in the “never” category, this week inventor GLENN MARTIN unveiled the first fully functional consumer-grade jet pack in the futuristic town of Oshkosh, Wisconsin proving that some semblance of a Jetson-ian future might not be too far off. Demonstrating the pack in the video here was the inventor’s 16-year-old son (after all, you can always make more kids, right?) who was prevented by spotters from taking to full flight in public until more test flights have been completed. Designed to fly an average-sized pilot 30 miles in 30 minutes on a 5-gallon tank of gas, the MARTIN JET PACK can be had for a measly $100,000 Earth dollars, and since it is designed to conform to the FAA’s definition of an ultralight vehicle—which weighs less than 254 pounds and carries only one passenger—a pilot’s license won’t be required for users. No word yet on when the death machine will go on sale but we’ve got a short list of “friends” we’d love to gift them to…

Digital artist LENA GIESEKE has created an incredibly captivating 3D video model of PICASSO’s masterpiece 1937 painting “Guernica.” Says the artist of her inspiration: “The idea of creating a 3D version of an influential artwork came out of doing jigsaw puzzles of famous paintings. When you assemble a jigsaw, you study a painting in great detail and you become aware of the very lines, shapes and colors that the painting is composed of and how these elements merge to create a unified expression. Through the puzzle, you explore the artwork, examining details your eye might not have caught otherwise.” For those needing a bit of historical backend, “Guernica” was Picasso’s commentary on the Nazi bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest pieces of modern art ever produced whose relevance still seems more timely than ever…

Coincidentally, recent examination of “Guernica” by expert art conservators has determined that the painting is in “serious but stable condition” in its current home at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and can not afford to undergo any further restorations. The painting’s most serious (and damaging) restoration was undertaken in 1974 when superstar art dealer/actor TONY SHAFRAZI spray-painted the words “KILL LIES ALL” across the work in what can best be described as a cheap fame grab that subsequently catapulted him to the highest echelons of the international art world. Funny how things work, innit? Read more HERE…

Oh, the voluptuous horror of Louie Cordero. This is actually a self-portrait…

One of our favorite upcoming artists, LOUIE CORDERO calls the Philippines home, where he’s recently mounted his most ambitious solo show to date, “Absolute Horror,” (until July 27th) at MO SPACE in Bonifacio Global City. Deeply influenced by the flatness and graphic style of local self-taught painters in his country and the pervasive influence and iconography of Western trash culture—particularly B-movies, heavy metal, Garbage Pail Kids, and pulp horror—on society (particularly adolescent minds) Cordero has paid tribute to both in his latest series of inspired paintings and sculptures. Of particular interest is the large-scale statue of rotten-faced twin zombie boys and Cordero’s paintings that bisect (and use as stands) life-sized sculptures of young Beavis & Butthead-type boys lying on their backs on the gallery floor, making it one of the most fun shows of the summer. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, the rebellious vigor of Norweigan Viking youth…

For those scratching their heads at the sight of the following images, in the last two decades a bizarre and violent musical subculture called Black Metal has emerged in Norway. It has its roots in a heady blend of splatter movies, heavy metal music, Satanism, Pagan mythology and adolescent angst. In the early-mid 1990’s, members of this extremist underground committed murder, burned down medieval wooden churches, and desecrated graveyards. What started as juvenile frenzy came to symbolize the start of a war against Christianity, a return to the worship of the ancient Norse gods, and the complete rejection of mainstream society. American documentary photographer PETER BESTE has spent the last eight years working in the milieu of this insulated and secretive community. Beste’s access and insight has been absolutely without precedent, resulting in an amazing photographic journey as he earned the respect and trust of this impenetrable, suspicious and often elitist community. With each visit Beste saw more, photographed more and eventually accumulated enough material for his new book “True Norwegian Black Metal,” ($60, Vice Books) a stunning visual testimonial to this subculture. In it, Beste and editor Johan Kugelberg have created a unique photographic narrative that explores black metal from a truly visceral perspective that offers an in-depth look at the amazingly-named key players and bands in the scene including Nocturno Culto and Fenriz of Darkthrone, Necrobutcher, Hellhammer, Blasphemer, and Maniac of Mayhem, Samoth of Emperor, Frost of Satryicon, Enslaved, Abbath of Immortal, Gaahl, Infernus, King, and Kvitrafn of Gorgoroth, Nattefrost of Carpathian Forest, 1349, Dimmu Borgir, Ildjarn, Aura Noir, and many more. Fas can keep their eyes peeled for shows of Beste’s black metal photos in Exhibitions in London, Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin, Los Angeles through 2009. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

The world is David Byrne’s instrument…

Talking Heads founder DAVID BYRNE has had one of the most varied and original careers in rock, constantly vacillating between the worlds of music and visual art with rare grace. Throwing yet another curveball through the rarified air of NYC’s art world, Byrne presents music as art in “Playing the Building,” his new CREATIVE TIME-sponsored 9,000-square-foot, interactive, site-specific installation that transforms the interior of the landmark Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan into a massive sound sculpture that all visitors are invited to sit and “play.” Consisting of a retrofitted antique organ placed in the center of the building’s cavernous second-floor gallery that controls a series of devices attached to its structural features—metal beams, plumbing, electrical conduits, and heating and water pipes—these machines vibrate, strike, and blow across the building’s elements, triggering unique harmonics and producing finely tuned sounds. Open to the public through August 24th, it’s definitely an experience that must be had firsthand to believe. Shedding some light on the methods to the artist’s madness is the show’s curator, ANNE PASTERNAK, who talks at length with Byrne in the following interview. READ ON: Read the rest of this entry »