Artist: Coconut Records | Album: Nighttiming | Track: West Coast

July proved to be one of the busiest months within my tenure at Hypebeast, yet was probably one of the most exciting. Aside from working on various upcoming projects, I was able to make it out to the Agenda Tradeshow and then back out to Encino for a feature with newly crowned X-Games Gold Medalist Paul Rodriguez and Nike SB. August will surely be another pleasant month with a trip to the tradeshows out in Vegas and meet up with the homie and fellow editor Mr. Kan.

Getting back to the title - currently playing in my iPod is this track (West Coast) from Jason Schwartzman’s music project outside of Phantom Planet, cleverly dubbed Coconut Records. The man does everything, from song writing to instrumentals to vocals. Probably one of the best transitions from film actor to musician. Oh yea, the video features awesome footage of the legendary Mark Gonzales.

Hasta Mañana,

L.A.

I totally forgot about these images until I was clearing out my crowded desktop this morning. Here are some more random shots from the May trip to the Vans Headquarters. Like I said, next time I head out somewhere interesting, I need to make use of my camera.

We were driving in Downtown when I noticed the Flynt Publications building..I was like yea, I’m sure we’ll see Larry Flynt pop out of the building any second now. Of course, he didn’t..but on our way back we got stuck at a stoplight, right behind a Bentley with the license plate reading HUSTLR and heading towards Flynt Publications. Could it have been Larry?

Anyways, the trip was excellent. Met some new faces and old ones, and had a great time, plus I saw the fellas from West Coast Customs. In the words of Ish.. “That’s too many hot!”

Many thanks to Adriana/Chris from Vans.

As youth, we tend to take our fathers for granted, never truly understanding the amount of hard work, dedication, and love it takes to earn the title. Sure, fathering a child is easy, but the true test of any man is how he follows through and contributes to his sons life. Being a member of the media, especially within fashion, is a time consuming and rigorous affair, and at times, my son feels the hit of his father not giving him enough squirt gun battles. Sometimes, we just need to kick back and enjoy life for what it is, not take everything so seriously and make the best of our situations. This series of photographs by Marius Aksijonaitis bests exemplifies the hard work necessary to be a good father and how the journey never ends. Sometimes a good kick in the butt is necessary to remind us of how important we are in the eyes of a child. These images offer me further motivation to be the best at what I do, whether it be an Editor for Hypebeast or the cool dad that rocks Pennys, plays Kung-Fu Panda on Xbox, and knows exactly who lives in a pineapple under the sea.

I was raised on a healthy dose of Michael Jackson… who wasn’t?? …but probably my best memories of the King of Pop were on the video game set. As a youngster, the Super Nintendo and Genesis were at the pinnacle of 16-bit gaming. MJ’s Moonwalker was by far my favorite title, the star tossing was probably a bit flam but the game had a killer soundtrack. The 90’s weren’t very positive for MJ but no matter what, his music will always live on.

RIP.

Im not huge into jewelry per se, but I can always appreciate the design and craftsmanship that goes into jewelry making. The other day I received a package from the good people at CEMENT. They recently worked up a couple pieces for the Cool Cats and presented their own range of Summer product on our main page. Its always awesome to see the product we show in person, so much thanks to goes out to Daniel from CEMENT.

Although I find Jimmy Fallon to not be very funny, my favorite Hip-Hop band, The Roots, will be debuting their new single “How I Got Over”, on the show tomorrow. The fact that they are Fallon’s house band makes the show respectable, and therfore I will be watching. Im hoping the new album, scheduled as a October 20th release, will bring forth some of the classic Roots sound, which I found lacking on Rising Down. Game Theory was amazing, dark and edgy, which was almost the complete opposite of Phrenology, my top pick for Roots albums.

Read more here

Vans hooks it up with a closer look into the upcoming collabo with Crooks & Castles. The kicks are part of the East vs. West Pack that will also feature the likes of Acapulco Gold. Each pack will feature a matching tee with the newly designed Moda Hi sneaker, a fusion of the SK8-Hi and Mountain Edition Hi. The new design still retains a retro flair  with more progressive technical features. The luxurious looking kicks, sporting Epi Leather uppers are set for a March 2010 release. Stay tuned for a closer look into the other models.

Being a part of Hypebeast means having to be on the computer a load (to say the least), answering countless emails, and getting phone calls from people about why we didn’t post something up. With all of the tiresome activities also come the spoils, one of them being a ton of invites to cool events, art shows, trade shows, etc. I was going to post these pics up back in early May (when it took place) but ive been swamped since I got back, so I figured I might as well share some of these before they go into my external. I wish we could have taken more pics now that I think about it (I def should have), but most of the time I was pretty beat up from all the LA logjams, Hertz messing up on our rental car, and the plane ride that feel like a roller coaster. Anyways, Rick the Intern and I flew out to LA for Vans special book launch celebration. This trip was definitely one of the nicer ones, considering we got to stay at a brand new beach hotel, drive an SUV around and meet some cool folks. Finally tried Roscoe’s..honestly, chicken and waffles seemed kinda weird, so Rick the Intern tried it out. He said it tasted basically like chicken with waffles….the place looked like something straight out of the 70s.

During our first day, we checked into The Shorebreak, walked around Huntington Beach, meet some of the good folks at the Vans Headquarters and got kidnapped by LA traffic. It took us about 2 hours to get from Cypress to Los Angeles…by that time the shops on La Brea were closed..but we did manage to get a peek at the first person in line for the Yeezys..at least he/she was prepared.

Set to launch March 5th of next year, Tim Burton gives a sneak peek into his latest film project, more specifically his rendition of Alice in Wonderland. I still don’t understand how someone can possess such a stunning imagination which he’s shown in pretty much all his films, from Batman to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The film was wrapped up in December of 2008 but still has to be merged with CG animation and motion capture, therefore it won’t hit theaters until 2010. Another highlight is that Burton will continue his long standing relationship with Johnny Depp (playing the Mad Hatter). Should make for yet another interesting work of art.

A close up view of each image can be found via USA Today.

Source: Kanye Blog

The other day I drove out to the city, which I dread most of the time, to work out of the HomeRoom office and catch up with my good friend Alex. As always, ALVAL has some sort of project up his sleeve. Most recently hes been working on a bag for a dope brand which I have to keep my mouth shut on and getting emails from Kanye, dope eh? We went out to Nation’s which was a default choice considering how much I hate the faux food offerings from Chipotle and time constraints. We also drove out by Ocean Beach to do some product shots for the new Summer 5-panels. It was a good day, aside from the terrible traffic to-and-fro San Francisco.