BoomBox

BoomBox is producer/DJ Russ Randolph and singer/songwriter/guitarist Zion Rock Godchaux. This pair of dynamic artists uses their rich musical history and their vision of music and popular culture to deliver a style of music distinctly different from anything heard or seen in music today. This signature sound and show brings live music to a new, elevated level. BoomBox evolved through the common visualization of a pair of forward thinking artists from diverse musical backgrounds. Raised by supportive and musically inclined parents, both Godchaux and Randolph had an obsession with music at very young ages. Godchaux, who grew up with deeply embedded rock and roll roots, began playing drums at the age of two, and played guitar and wrote his own songs as a teen. During the 90s, Godchaux was a well-received touring DJ based out of the San Francisco area. Randolph began as a young drummer, but it’s what was happening behinds the scenes that attracted him most. As much producers as they are musicians, it is Randolph’s understanding of soundscape and Godchaux’s knack for songwriting that keeps BoomBox resonating at higher levels.

Check Out BoomBox Live This Weekend @ Gratefulfest on (8/31/2008) in Garrettsville, OH!

http://thisisboombox.com/home.cfm

http://www.myspace.com/thisisboomboxcom

Vans Syndicate x WTAPS Bash “S”

Shop Now @ Vans.com

The Vans Syndicate x WTAPS Bash “S” has been released in the white colorway @ In4mation. The sneaker comes with various details and also some quality extras, such as the bag and the trademark WTAPS envelope. “This model is the void between analog and digital the late 80s to the early 90s as the concept a period that gave birth to hip-hop culture mashed up by high end fashion and street fashion expressing the fusion.”

Style Wars :: NYC 1982

“Some call it tagging, some call it writing, still others call it bombing–it’s all graffiti. Whether it’s art or not is another matter, but it’s undeniably illegal. Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant’s historic PBS documentary Style Wars tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the peak of its popularity, graffiti was as much a part of B-boy culture as rapping, scratching, and breaking. The filmmakers present a sympathetic, but well-rounded portrait of their subject through extensive interviews with taggers–notably Seen, Kase, and Dondi–art collectors, transit authorities, and even Mayor Ed Koch, who would eventually put the hammer down. Along the way, they documented the burgeoning breakdance scene, with a focus on the world-famous Rock Steady Crew. The soundtrack features selections from Grandmaster Flash, the Treacherous Three, and other tagger-approved icons of old-school hip-hop.”

Kathleen C. Fennessy

Buy Style Wars DVD HERE.

Kurt Vonnegut ‘Kilgore Trout’ GelaSkin

Above: The Kurt Vonnegut ‘Kilgore Trout’ GelaSkin For iPod’s & iPhone

GelaSkins envisions all iPods, laptops, and phones as portable canvases for art and individuality. Their focus on music, art, culture and personalization has created a stylish way for musicians, DJs and artists to become closer to their fans while providing a low profile alternative to bulky cases. From Hip-Hop to Country, Art to Fashion, and everything in between, there’s a GelaSkin to suit every taste.

GelaSkins offers an enormous variety of iPod and iPhone cases from multi-talented artists from all over the globe. My favorite artists they currently carry are: Bob Dob, Colin Thompson, Dave White, Dolla Lama, Ralph Steadman and of course Kurt Vonnegut.

To see a complete list of the iPod and iPhone cases, and the GelaSkin Artist Family click HERE.

The Image That Launched A Million Trips

R.I.P. Alton Kelley

The art world lost one of its great countercultural pioneers Sunday morning, June 1st when psychedelic artist Alton Kelley passed away in Northern California at age 68. He is best known as half of the famous poster design team of “Kelley & Mouse” (the “Mouse” in question being one Stanley Mouse) who together fabricated some of the most iconic images of the 1960s & early ’70s psychedelic movement. Both shared a profound love of hot rods, motorcycles, and general outlaw culture and the pair worked in tandem to create some of the most memorable concert posters for Bill Graham’s Fillmore East & West and Chet Helms‘ Family Dog venues, including the legendary and ubiquitous…

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Source: Supertouch

Ibu Oka’s Babi Guling :: Ubud, Bali

Ubud is a town on the Indonesian island of Bali. The town is located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the island’s central foothills in the Gianyar regency. One of Bali’s major arts and culture centres, it has developed a large tourism industry. The specialty in Ubud is the nasi babi guling (roast suckling pig), which can be found all over the island. This dish is an all-in-one platter of rice with pork meat, fried pork skin, pig intestines, gizzet, and vegetables and apparently the best place to get it is Warung’s Ibu Oka.

Babi Guling at Ibu Oku is considered a Balinese delicacy for locals and tourists. The food stall has stood there for the past 20 years, serving up what many say is some of the best pork in the world. Half a dozen live pigs are housed at the back of the compound, snuffling, eating, sleeping and generally enjoying life before the pre-dawn kill that will have them cleaned, gutted, stuffed and spitted by 4 a.m., ready for the Warung’s 11 a.m. opening.

For those of you who are curious to what Babi Guling actually is, it is a roast suckling pig packed full of Balinese herbs and spices, such as shallots, garlic, chili, ginger, galangal, turmeric and bay leaves, then roasted over an open fire for at least five hours while continulously being lathered with coconut milk. This is five hours of hot, heavy work for the cooks who rotate, non-stop, the wooden spit by hand, regularly dousing the flames with water to maintain the perfect cooking temperature. Getting the temperature right is an art that has been handed down from generation to generation, the suckling pigs slowly developing that warm golden sheen that makes for the best crackling, the inner meat cooking slowly until it is utterly succulent. Prominent chefs like Jamie Oliver and Anthony Bourdain say this is the best pork in the world.

Ibu Oka learned this art — along with the business — from her parents-in-law 25 years ago. She adds that her in-laws had been preparing Babi Guling for 33 years before she took on the business.

“The family has been making Babi Guling for almost 60 years. Two generations of us. Originally, the business started at the market. I ran it there for the first five years after my parents-in-law died, and then moved the warung to Jl. Suweta 20 years ago,” she said of the business that now involves her whole family.

For pork eaters, this is the mother of all pork dishes. The pork meat is nicely marinated and very tender. The fried pork skin is very crispy and delicious. The atmosphere is very casual, everyone sits on the floor, sharing a long low table while Ibu Oka, the owner of the stall I presume, shaves the tender juicy meat off the pig hanging on the kitchen. Ibu Oka is highly recommended just for the experience of a local food stall, and also for the lovely pork dish.

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
By: Jeff Chang

“Hip-hop is the voice of this generation. Even if you didn’t grow up in the Bronx in the ’70s, hip-hop is there for you. It has become a powerful force. Hip-hop binds all of these people, all of these nationalities, all over the world together.” – DJ Kool Herc, from the Introduction

Forged in the fires of the Bronx and Kingston, Jamaica, hip-hop became the Esperanto of youth rebellion and a generation-defining movement. In a post-civil rights era defined by deindustrialization and globalization, hip-hop crystallized a multiracial, polycultural generation’s worldview, and transformed American politics and culture. But that epic story has never been told like this. From the gangs of the late 60s to the icons of the new millennium, from the Ghetto Brothers and Universal Zulu Nation organizations to the hip-hop activists, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop presents the hip-hop generation in all its grime and glory with breadth, wit, and style.

Based on original interviews with DJs, b-boys, rappers, graffiti writers, activists, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip-hop’s forebears, founders, and mavericks, including DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D, and Ice Cube, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop chronicles the events, the ideas, the music, and the art that marked the hip-hop generation’s rise from the ashes of the 60s into the new millennium. Here is a powerful cultural and social history of the end of the American century, and a provocative look into the new world that the hip-hop generation created.

Source: The Giant Peach

“The Bad Boy of Cuisine”

Dubbed “the bad boy of cuisine” for his rock-star look and blunt observations about the world of restaurants, chefs and cooking, Anthony Bourdain is not your typical celebrity chef. Bourdain has been known for being an unrepentant drinker and smoker. Adding to his untamed image, Bourdain is a former user of cocaine, heroin, poppers, and LSD. A 28-year veteran of professional kitchens, Bourdain is the Chef-at-Large at New York’s famed bistro, Les Halles. His exposé of New York restaurants attracted huge attention in the U.S.A. and the U.K. It formed the basis of his critically acclaimed 2001 book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, which described in lurid detail his experiences in kitchens and became a surprise international best-seller.

Tony’s quest for the perfect dining experience was then smartly documented in his own television series: No Reservations. In No Reservations, Tony’s journey takes him to people and places far beyond the realm of food. Following his wanderlust, the show has taken the audience to far-out and familiar places, from Iceland to Vietnam and the Greek Islands to Indonesia. Having known about Bourdain for quite some time now, I thought I’d educate all the rookies who are unaware of his legendary lifestyle. Check out Bourdain on the Travel Channel as he travels around the world seeking the authentic experiences and food that flavor the world’s cultures.