Empire Begins
Empire is a forthcoming film about riding bikes in New York City. And whether you prefer tricks or traffic, this new teaser delivers.
Empire is a forthcoming film about riding bikes in New York City. And whether you prefer tricks or traffic, this new teaser delivers.
Along with MORAL’s fire extinguisher tags we mentioned the “house on a house” painting in Williamsburg. It turns out to be the work of Miss Tint, who has compiled a video of her/his house and tic-tac-toe paintings called “Kid Drawing Made With a Fire Extinguisher”.
People are always calling graffiti artists childish without having any real hard evidence. Well now they do. Join Miss Tint as s/he sprays numerous kids drawing using a fire extinguisher on walls throughout New York.
As Bucky pointed out, “What you’re looking at is not ’street art,’ it’s pure, unadultured vandalism by way of fire extinguisher.”
Deathbowl to Downtown – The Evolution of Skateboarding in New York City looks at skateboarding’s “epochal shift from the parks and pools of the 70’s, to ramp skating in the 80’s, to the street ascendancy of the 1990’s as seen from a New York-centric perspective.” The film will debut in New York City this summer, and nationally in the fall. [Gothamist]

According to the Daily News, graffiti is on the rise, at least by number of complaints. While not the most prolific writer, MORAL is one of the names going bigger than the rest with fire extinguisher tags around Brooklyn and Manhattan. CURTIS and STER have been at it too, and someone painted a house on a house, which is pretty meta.

First, don’t sell self-incriminating t-shirts and second, don’t take holidays off. On Christmas Day 2006, the Made U Look crew was at work below Central Park, painting the now infamous “Cash is King” whole train. They painted ten subway cars top to bottom and end to tend, spelling out the crew’s name over 750 feet long. Xplicit Grafx, the international graffiti magazine interviewed Made U Look, helping to shed some light on their feat and confirming speculation that law enforcement actually was behind the sketchy website that popped up to sell t-shirts and a video of the hit.
According to Made U Look, the now defunct website, madeulooknyc.com, was created by “New York authorities, in an attempt to confuse and perhaps slip us up.” “We had nothing to do with any of that – website included and if it was up to us no on would have seen what we did for a very long time.” So if you had the bad sense to order one of those cheesy t-shirts, you can figure some “NYC authorities” have started a file on you.
Photographs and part of the Made U Look interview are excerpted below.
Following video of Joshua Allen Harris’ inflatable polar bear, comes this monster sculpture.
The main race of Monster Track 2008 has been canceled. “Our reasons are many but the overall factor was that the race has become unmanageable due to the large participation and our concern for the participant’s safety.” Though disappointing, we’re confident the organizers have the best intentions with this difficult decision. Full press release from Squid:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The organizers of Monster Track 2008 have decided, after careful consideration, to cancel this year’s main race.
Continuing our coverage of streetwear brands with sports teams, we present: 10 Deep Skateboarding.
Here’s a video from Team Spider parodying DKNY’s lazy effort to promote bicycling in NYC. It’s funny that Gothamist took this as a serious video produced by DKNY.
“Here, the best sneaker stores in town, for ardent collectors and casual walkers alike.” [New York Magazine] Photo: Noah Sheldon