This weekend Lebron James and family will be heading to Toronto for the Toronto Film Festival. That’s because the “More Than A Game” documentary will be making it’s big screen debut. It’s about how basketball has shaped the lives of Lebron, and all of his friends and teammates. It’s a combination of footage from Bron’s high school career with interviews, home videos and family pictures.
They say it’s about more than basketball, it’s about “friendship, loyalty and love”. This movie was directed and written by Kris Belman. He started this documentary in Lebron’s senior year at St. Vincent’s Saint Mary High School. Lebron hopes this film will inspire the youth.
Adam Kimmel’s fondness for unusual presentations continues apace. (This is, after all, the guy who famously features art-world friends in his look books.) The latest iteration? Previewing two suits from his Spring ‘09 collection in a skate video shot by photographer Ari Marcopoulos. The movie, dubbed Claremont after its location, is oddly compelling, and not just for Patrick Rizzo’s excellent open collar: Skip to 2:24 for an epic, high-speed downhill trip.
Word on the Web is that the surviving fellas from The Grateful Dead — bassist Phil Lesh, guitarist Bob Weir, and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann — are getting back together to tour in April and May of 2009. There are no further details available at this time and no indication who will join the core four to complete the lineup. Past lineups of The Dead and The Other Ones have included Warren Haynes, Steve Kimock, Mark Karan, Jimmy Herring, Susan Tedeschi, Joan Osborne, Jeff Chimenti and Rob Baracco amongst others. Prior to any 2009 tour details, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart announced last Friday (8/29) that they will join together again on October 13 to perform a benefit concert for the Presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama, with the city, venue, special guests & other details to be determined pending further discussions with the Obama campaign.
Dubbed “The Prince of Americana” by the New York Times, Jackie Greene is steeped in country, blues, jazz, rock and folk traditions, defying easy categorization. This Northern California native has been around for a while, but is slowly defying a new genre of music with his Bob Dylan-esque look and classic American sound.
“I’ve been writing, recording and performing non-stop. I’ve lived in cars, hotels, basements…slept on floors, couches, strange girl’s beds. I wrote lots of songs in those places. Some I’ll never remember, but that’s all part of it, I guess.”
Greene, who happens to be in his late twenties already has four albums out, a DVD, and miles upon miles of touring under his belt. Greene’s newest album, “Giving Up The Ghost” is by far his best work as an artist. He is currently living in San Francisco and touring various places along the east and west coast, although he is scheduled to play 14 shows with Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead) in New York City at the Nokia Theater beginning on Halloween night.
After visiting Jackie Greene’s MySpace I was instantly captured by his sound, but what lured me in even further was his past and his progression as an artist. If this isn’t good music, I don’t know what is.
A little while ago we featured the Lakai “Fully Flared” skate video, which contains hands down, the greatest intro to any skate video ever. The video has suddenly inspired a series of t-shirts as they incorporate scenes from the intro. The intro (seen after the jump) features a slow-motion progression with prolific explosions as captured by the t-shirts. Also, check out the rest of the t-shirts after the jump as well.
It took 30 years to produce this 2CD/DVD set from the Dead’s legendary September 1978 run at the Sound & Light Theater, outside Cairo, nestled in the dunes just a short mummy-walk from the Great Pyramid and the mysterious Sphinx. Then, Dead Heads had to endure the long, restless weeks between the announcement of the release and when they could actually order it. Dead.net is NOW accepting preorders for this beautiful and historic package, Rocking the Cradle: Grateful Dead, Egypt 1978, which includes two exceptional music CDs and a DVD with over 95 minutes of concert footage from the Egypt shows (plus an impressionistic “Vacation Tapes” mini-documentary that shows the band and Dead family at play). What’s more, all preorders placed through dead.net by the official release date, September 30, will receive an exclusive bonus CD of still more great material from the Egypt gigs. Rocking the Cradle will be available everywhere on September 30, but the bonus disc will be exclusively available with dead.net preorders.
In case you haven’t heard, in addition to gunning for a ninth world title, Kelly Slater is making a 3D film for IMAX Theaters. The premise of the film, which focuses on exploring ocean waves, takes a scientist and Slater around the world doing what Slater does best - Surfing.
With an anticipated release date of Fall 2009, Slater and crew are knee-deep in production. As usual, Slater consulted with Surfline’s Sean Collins before heading to Tahiti. And with a large-scale production team in tow, being at the right place at the right time is all the more imperative.
Sean Collins explains how this particular Teahupoo expedition came to fruition:
We basically had a three-week window to tell them when to ship everyone down there. We went for these last two swells at the end of last week and this weekend. The swells didn’t look all that great during this period but we had to pick the eyes out of it and get a couple medium-sized swells so they could get some footage in the can. Kelly shipped in from Bali, Dorian from Hawaii, and the IMAX crew with millions of dollars of equipment and production people from Canada and the USA.
Most computer makers looking to make their lineup seem greener would be happy to slap a bamboo sticker on the outside and call it a day, but not ASUS. Their new Bamboo Series Notebook ($TBA) features artisan-grade Moso bamboo paneling, and energy-saving tech to back up its eco-friendly looks. Its Super Hybrid Engine technology can extend battery life between 35% and 70%, and yet enable users to boost their systems’ performance by up to 23%. Other features include a 12.1 or 11.1-inch screen, Intel Core Duo processors, Wi-Fi, a built-in multi-card reader, up to 4GB of RAM, and more.
After giving musical instrument manufacturers Hohner USA plenty of potential ad fodder with pictures of him using their harmonicas, Bob Dylan has decided to partner with Hohner to create his own line of the things, according to Hohner’s website [via Billboard.biz]. In unrelated news, we’ve still got our fingers crossed for a line of Bob Dylan undergarments.
Each harmonica in the Bob Dylan Signature Series — available individually or in sets of seven– features a machine stamp of Dylan’s signature and a Dylan-designed logo. Hohner will also manufacture 25 sets of seven Marine Band harmonicas (in the natural keys of C, G, D, F, A, B, and E) that Dylan himself has apparently pre-tested, plus 100 individual Marine Band harmonicas (in C). Both of these limited run items will bear Dylan’s actual signature, and will be available exclusively via Sam Ash Music beginning October 29.
Dylan has a full schedule of shows to play over the next week and a half, continuing tonight (August 30) in Colorado.
8-30 Snowmass Village, CO - Jazz Aspen Snowmass
8-31 Park City, UT - Deer Valley Resort
9-1 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint @ The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
9-4 Temecula, CA - Pechanga Resort and Casino
9-6 San Diego, CA - Concerts on the Green @ Qualcomm Park
9-7 Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl
If you love the MacBook Air, but won’t be switching from Windows anytime soon, the Samsung X360 ($TBA) may be for you. The ultra-lightweight notebook weighs only 2.8 pounds — less than Apple’s sexy thing — and features a 13.3-inch screen, 3 USB ports, a built-in HDMI connection, a 34mm express card slot, a 7-in-1 memory card reader, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. There’s also an option for an ultra-fast 128GB solid state drive (SSD).
Today Patagonia launched The Tin Shed, a multimedia mini-site that’s loaded with dispatches from their friends and ambassadors traveling the wilder world — in high-quality video, audio and the written word. The Tin Shed was once home to the whole company, where a small band of friends who made great climbing gear. Learn about the origins of Patagonia’s obsession with making quality gear and their concern for the environment.
Head over to The Tin Shed @ Patagonia, or hit the jump for a glimpse at what’s inside!
A Look Inside The Tin Shed:
Henry Barber (video) – Watch rare footage of one of America’s most prolific first ascensionists climbing Wheat Thin in Yosemite, c. 1977.
Operation Oman (video) – Brittany Griffith, Zoe Hart, Jonathan Thesenga and John Dickey travel to the Arabian Peninsula to climb the desert big wall, Jebel Misht.
Steve’s Gear (video) – Patagonia ambassador Steve House walks us through his ice tool collection and the weight-saving sleeping-bag-for-two he built himself.
Hand Cut (video) – Preview the new backcountry ski and snowboard film from Sweetgrass Productions that looks at the rugged, callused-hand history of North America’s mountains.
The Baltimore Club Kings Aaron LaCrate and Debonair Samir once again deliver the goods, producing an all-original B-more Gutter line-up for Jamaican Dancehall King Mr. Vegas. Yes, the 2nd Delicious Gutter EP is “Oh My Gosh”, and the title says it all. This collection of exclusive grind-worthy insta-party jams is the perfect merging of the undeniably inventive production style of Aaron LaCrate and Debonair Samir. The Gutter experience is elevated to pop-club genius when Mr. Vegas adds his ultra catchy lyrical melodies to the mix - the results are audible sizurp! Mr. Vegas has mastered his own near perfect hybrid of singing and chanting, his sing-songy flows mirror the Gutter sound remarkably well - pulling you in closer while intoxicating the listener into a sound clash between the best of Baltimore and Jamaica - two of the most worldly and notorious sounds in club music today.
“Oh My Gosh :: (Aaron LaCate and Debonair Samir Gutter Remix)”
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One of the top and rising artists/producers right now has to be Black Milk. Some have claimed that he might be the next Dilla; however, that is a very bold statement. Black Milk has a new LP coming out called Tronic on October 28th via Fat Beats Records. The features on the album include Pharoahe Monch, Royce Da 5′9, Dwele, Sean Price, DJ Premier and many more. This guy has adds great sound to mostly anything he touches and is definitely an artist/producer on the rise. Follow me after the jump for the tracklisting of his new album.
1.) Long Story Short ft. Dwele
2.) Bounce
3.) Give the Drummer Sum
4.) Without U ft. Colin Munroe
5.) Hold it Down
6.) Losen Out ft. Royce 5′9
7.) Overdose
8.) Repin for U ft. AB
9.) Hell Yeah
10.) The Matrix ft. Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price, DJ Premier
11.) Try
12.) Tronic Summer
13.) Bond 4 Life (Music) ft. Melanie Rutherford
14.) Elec (Outro)
Magma Pizza has one mission: to create innovative cuisine that is natural and delicious. They have a unique way of cooking our food. The heart of Magma Pizza is their new volcano oven/rotisserie where pizza is baked and roasted over lava rocks! They blend traditional Mediterranean with new American cuisines. They are committed to offering food that is nourishing and enjoyable. They believe that good health begins in eating healthy, fresh and natural foods - and that’s what you’ll find at Magma!
and natural
foods - and that’s what you’ll find at Magma!
We heard Ma Duke’s would be doing an interview to follow up the recent article from the LA Weekly which we covered in our entry J Dilla Estate Suffers From Bootleggers. It was published and in it Ms. Yancey reveals her current estrangement with the executors of the Dilla estate. Hit up the LA Weekly site for Jeff Weiss’ An Interview with J Dilla’s Mother, Ms. Maureen Yancey.
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