Tag Archive for new york

Put Blame Where Blame Is Due

Hurricane Sandy Building Collapse 2012 NYC 3793

Photo from Brechtbug on Flickr

Here’s my rant about this building that we’ve all seen and heard so much of; I find it irresponsible to put the blame on Sandy for this. It needs to go deeper than that, it seems obvious to me an incompetent, possibly corrupt, builder/contractor needs to be held accountable.

The facade of a building doesn’t just fall off. And by all means should it stand up to high wind and rain if up to legal code. Look at the buildings on either side of it, how is it the check cashing place’s awnings and vertical sign are still in tack? All the window units for air conditioning? The restaurant canopy?

It just makes me sad that this has gotten so much face time as an example of Sandy’s destruction when there is so, so, so much worse, still, and so much more directly as a result of the storm.

The city needs to investigate and prosecute the rightful party. There are more than enough slumlords in nyc and will continue to be unless they are held liable.

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R.I.P. Tracy 168, True Legend

Tracy 168 T2B

Wildstyle (complex, interconnecting graffiti lettering) innovator Tracy 168 passed on this morning. He was a true New York legend whose influence is incalculable.

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BaoHaus X Sophia Chang Art Collabo

Atmosphere and an appeal to the senses are everything next to taste when it comes to a restaurant and BaoHaus has got it on lock (yes this also applies to dingy hole in the walls, you know that adds to the experience). Not only does their in house playlist consist of classic hip hop from the 80′s to the naughts (classic doesn’t gotta mean old) which they post online but they also take care of your sense of sight while taking care of your sense of taste.

Enter their art collabo with Sophia Chang. She tackles the Bun Bao experience with a perfect combination of cute and hardcore, taking the bun and spittin out  a hip hop pun. I’ll let her work speak for itself…with assistance by the lyrics of Action Bronson, Tribe Called Quest, Camron, Juelz Santana, and more.

 

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King Brown Magazine Release Party & Art Show

If you’re in nyc today you gotta go down to KlugHaus Gallery (curated by Melissa McCaig-Welles and John Leo) in Chinatown and check this party out. Mike Giant is going to painting a mural, there’s going to be skating and a best trick competition. And a gang of dope artists.

And New York is lucky to get this party. King Brown Magazine is a high quality art zine/book coming straight outta Australia. Boooooom. Featured artists: Morning Breath, Mike Giant, Andy Jenkins, Greg Lamarche, Chris Cycle, Dave Kinsey, “Grotesk” aka Kimou Meyer, Stefan Marx, Kevin Lyons, Raza Uno aka Max Vogel, Zach Malfa-Kowalski, Steve Gourlay, Jay Howell, Ben Horton

For the full press release…

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Fred Pharaoh- “Just For Fun” Download

This upcoming Harlem spitta flows over some great jazzy, boom-bap production on his debut mixtape, “Just For Fun” (which is more like an actual album than just a mixtape). Kind of reminds me of Lupe Fiasco when he was first coming up, he’s got enigmatic energy and that hunger in his voice.
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Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace

The Two Sisters

Mr. Wiley is back with the same style, different subject. Some may have said “Okay, his portraits are epic and novel in the treatment of their subject matter and decorative background, but where does he go from here?” (I said this, I wasn’t sure how he could move on or what his next step would be w/o being redundant.) Well, it was one of those obvious ones, instead of doing classic portraits of men taken off the streets of Harlem, do them of men from around the world, such as the political hotbed of Israel and Palestine. Good, but still men and too similar. Boom. He goes back to the streets of nyc but flips the script and changes the subject matter to the female. The ladies get their due, their well deserved due. Enter, “An Economy of Grace,” his latest show at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York.

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