Hifana New Music Video

Irieman introduced me to Hifana a few years back and I have always remained a fan of their Japanese, crazy-style, eclectic hip-hop music. Irieman informed me that they have just teamed up with Wieden Kennedy Tokyo Lab to make their newest video, "Connect". It was directed by +Cruz and WOOOOG with animation and design by Mark Okon, Genki Ito, and Ian Lynam. A very very cool animation follows some very very strange beats. Thanks for the heads-up bruv!

Hello Kitty Bling Part 2

Ok, the first time I posted something regarding Bling & Hello Kitty, I thought it'd be a one-off ha-ha type post. Little did I know that I could actually make a series out of it! Pink Tentacle had this to say about these ridiculously expensive and pointless Hello Kitty Pure Gold Playing Cards:

"Each of the 54 cards (2 jokers included) measures 58 x 89 mm and is made from 0.73 gram of 99.99% pure gold . Pressed to a thickness of 7 microns with precision rolling technology developed by the Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, the cards are sealed in a protective laminate printed with colorful designs that depict Hello Kitty in royal dress."



Whoever buys these, I hope you get mugged by your peers in a game of poker!

TAMOTASTIC TOY GIVEAWAY : STAGE 2

Welcome to the 2nd stage of our Toy giveaway competition: "TAMOTASTIC" in association with Crazy Label Toys.

We'd like to give a BIG thank you to all of you who took part in our first competition for the custom Tamo by Selph(ESPV), and congratulations to Tedder who was randomly selected as last months WINNER!

DON"T DESPAIR if luck wasn't on your side last month!...Because you can enter our 2nd TAMOTASTIC giveaway and win this month's TAMO, customised by Dkoda(ESPV).

Once again, all you have to do is leave a comment and your email address in this "STAGE 2" post, and you could be in with the chance of scooping the prize this time round!

And remember, by entering any of our TAMO Giveaway competitions you are automatically entered into our overall prize-draw for the heavily-in-demand Treeson, 2nd Birthday Box-set by Crazy Label!!!

Read below for the comp rules and guidelines.


To enter, simply leave a comment and your email in this blog post and we'll randomly select a winner at the end of each month! The eventual prize draw for the Treeson will take place after all 4 ESPV TAMO have been won, with the winner announced in conjunction with that of the final ESPV TAMO.

You may enter only once for each monthly ESPV TAMO give-away. You have to enter at least one of the TAMO giveaways in order to qualify for the Treeson prize-draw.

The Winner(s) must reply to our notification of victory within 72 hours of it's despatch.

Goodluck everyone!

Diesel Holographic Fashion Show

If this is how the future of fashion will progress, then I'm all for it. Diesel have made their Spring/Summer 08 a real treat to watch with the use of a futuristic world of bioluminescence entitled 'Liquid Space". There are robotic fish, mecha polyps and cyber squid all holographically projected into the paths of the walking models.




The first time holograms of models and actual models have been used on the same catwalk.
The visual work was done by a collaboration between Barcelona-based animation studio DVEIN (CGI and 3D Animations) and Danish multimedia production agency VIZOO.






Images [VIA]

Hells Angels Biker Funeral Video

I finally compiled the video footage for the Hells Angels Biker Funeral that was held in London 2 weeks ago. It was so interesting to see the different custom bikes and characters from all over Europe and beyond. 4,000 bikers coming together for one man was a pretty touching scene. Enjoy the vid. Strength & Honour.
See original post HERE.

Star Wars Millenium Falcon Lego Set

OK, I know that recently I have been saying alot of "I want! I want!" but seriously, there are so many cool toys being released nowadays that it's starting to make me feel very poor, frustrated and helpless! The biggest LEGO set ever is out now. The Star Wars Ultimate Collectors Millennium Falcon has 5,000 pieces and comes with a heavy ring-binded instruction manual. At almost 3 feet (90cm) long, the $500 Lego set is built completely to minifigure scale. The previous record was held by Imperial Star Destroyer, with 2,000 less pieces and a $200 cheaper price tag. Pre-orders are open now and the starships will start shipping on October 1, 2007.




A single customer can have maximum of 5 sets. The five minifigures included are the Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa. This Exclusive First Edition set includes an individually numbered Certificate of Authenticity, sealed within the product box.




Images [VIA]

Body Art

Saw these images on Spluch and had to share! An interesting way to make up a face composition using many bodies. Annoying thing is that I can't find out who painted them! Anyone know?

Arthur De Pins Illustrations

Arthur de Pins is a French illustrator who seriously knows how to draw in the classic comic/pin-up style. He is an animator, illustrator, character designer, and director.



"De Pins multi-medium artistic style is fluid; all his works contain a very strong vectorial and clean graphic simplicity that is shared from one medium to the next. Some of his beautifully rendered illustrations contain stereotype characters, doing stereotypical things - many too, are glamorous, terribly sexy, humorous, bold and colorfully delightful. His excellent online portfolio contains over 180 illustrations of cartoons, sexy comics, advertising, posters, cute pin-ups, caricatures, and a plethora of other illustrations to see." Words [VIA]




Info: you can view Arthur’s online portfolio here, the site contains adult material that is not suitable for children and is NSFW .

Or you can just watch a Youtube compilation of his work instead:

SteamPunk Magazine Issue 3

The rather excellent Steampunk Magazine has released it's 3rd Issue now and is available to buy at a very decent price or you can just download it from their WEBSITE. Full of great antiquated customs and there is alot of good background knowledge given. In their words;



"The term “steampunk” was coined to refer to a branch of “cyberpunk” fiction that concerned itself with Victorian era technology. However, SteamPunk is more than that. SteamPunk is a burgeoning subculture that pays respect to the visceral nature of antiquated technology.
It’s about “steam”, as in steam-engines, and it’s about “punk”, as in counter-culture. For an excellent manifesto, refer to the first article in our first issue, “what then, is steampunk?”
SteamPunk Magazine is a print publication that aims to come out seasonally. Full quality print PDFs of it are available for free download from our website [www.steampunkmagazine.com], and we keep the cost of the print magazine as low as possible. All work on the magazine, including articles, editing, illustration, layout, and dissemination, is done by volunteers and contributors."



Support the Cause!!!!

Jen Stark

This artist makes pretty psychedelic installations using pads of coloured paper that have been cut in a specific way. When you check her WEBSITE out, be sure to rollover the images to get the close-up view too. Really inspiring stuff!

US Missile Base For Sale!

Ever wanted to own your own missile base? Well now you can;

A US intercontinental ballistic missile base, equipped with a vast underground network of tunnels and rooms but no atomic warheads, is for sale in a remote corner of the United States.

The warheads and missiles went when the US government abandoned the Titan bases in the 1970s.

Located near the remote Moses Lake in the northwest state of Washington, the former Larsen military base includes 4,000 square meters of “usable” space on 23 hectares of land, and the owner is only asking for $1.5 million -- which might buy a small home in Hollywood.

The seller, Bari Hotchkiss, sees the base as a “gorgeous” property and potential resort. He has put it up for sale on the eBay auction site.

The website missilebases.com offers up a similar underground base for Titan missiles outside of Denver, Colorado, touted as a “very rare piece of history” with mountain views and only 20 minutes from the local airport. All this for the asking price of $1.8 million in cash.



[VIA]

Mid-Autumn Festival

Sorry for the lack of updates yesterday, it's that time of the year when ESP has to stick to our roots and gorge ourselves on good Chinese food as it's now the Mid-Autumn Festival. I actually challenged Tai to a eating contest at his familie's house...(we managed to eat 5 bowls of rice and a shitload of excellent vegetables, meats and mooncakes!)



For those of you who dont know this Mid-Autumn Festival;
Back during the Soong dynasty when the Chinese were oppressed by the Mongols, their rebel leaders sought to overthrow the Mongol overlords. As meetings were banned it was impossible to make plans. Liu Fu Tong of the Anhui Province came up with a plan by requesting permission to distribute cakes to his friends to bless the longevity of the Mongol emperor. He made thousands of cakes shaped like the moon and stuffed with sweet fillings. Inside each cake however was placed a piece of paper with the message: ‘Rise against the Tartars on the 15th day of the 8th Moon’. Reading the message, the people rose against the Mongols on a local scale. This rebellion enabled Chu Hung Wu, another rebel leader to eventually overthrow the Mongols. In 1368, he established the Ming dynasty and ruled under the name of Emperor Tai Tsu.
Henceforth, the Mid Autmn Festival was celebrated with mooncakes on a national level.

We will be back tomorrow with more great posts, so until then, enjoy yourselves and eat like pigs!

Images VIA.

Chris James Hewitt

An amazing motion animation done by Chris James Hewitt (Dstrukt)

2007 Dstrukt Showreel
Director: Dstrukt
Audio By Hecq / Ben Lukas Boysen

"Originally hailing from Manchester, Chris is a self taught Motion Designer, Photographer and Director. Inspired by movie titles and with a background in both online and traditional media, Chris began working under the name Dstrukt producing work for a number of high end clients scattered globaly including MTV Networks Europe, Channel 5, BBC, EMI Records, Discovery Channel , BBC and VH1. Chris is also regularly featured in design and industry publications, such as Computer Arts, IdN and Stash whilst presenting at design conferences around the world."
Check Dstrukt's Website HERE.

Charles Krafft Show

A show that is definitely one to see!

Thursday 20th September, 6.30pm - 9.30pm
Seattle artist Charles Krafft utilizes the traditional techniques and materials of decorative Delft ceramic painting to explore the sometimes-Orwellian realities of our times. Images of natural and socio-political catastrophes decorate his ceramic objects. In addition to ironic commemorative plates and plaques, Krafft makes porcelain weapons and ammunition. "Contemporary art should be relevant to our lives and experiences," Krafft has said. "The time we live in produces curious and splendid souvenirs of the events we live through."

It's at the StolenSpace Gallery @ Dray Walk, The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane

Usugrow X Secret Base "Rebel Ink"

Usugrow has teamed up with Secret Base to release a black and white edition of "Rebel Ink". Wonderfully detailed tatoos that look sick on a skull body. Apparently, they are retailing for about 30GBP and again, I would love to get my hands on both colourways. Check the great images below to see more detail of his toys.






You can see more of Usugrow's work HERE.
Beautiful Images found on TOYSREVIL.

Fruits Basket

Fruits Basket is a shojo manga series written by Natuski Takaya and in 2001 was relased as an anime directed by Akitaro Daich. It is a very popular series as both an anime and a manga and has won awards for both. The anime follows the manga up to vol. 8 and centres on Tohru Honda and the Soma family. The Soma family has a curse on it where certain members are affected; if they are hugged by a member of the opposite sex they will turn into an animal from the Chinese zodiac. Now even I thought this sounded cheesy when I read this and passed it off as another silly girly anime. But I was wrong in a big way; this anime has so many different layers to it and you can watch it over and over again and not get tired of it (and yes I have done this).

One of the main reasons why Fruits Basket is so good is because it has many themes in it: rejection, gender stereotypes, and acceptance just to name a few and a lot of people can relate to these. The title Fruits Basket is a children’s game in Japan; and we find out that as a child Tohru was rejected by her classmates when playing this game. This anime is very dark in places (even more so in the manga) but it is also very funny and will have your sides splitting with laughter. The manga is a lot longer then the anime and there are some major differences in the manga that the anime left out. Therefore if you love this anime I would suggest that you read the manga as well you won’t be disappointed. Now I would not be doing my job if I did not mention there has been many attempts from fans to get a second season to the anime made. But in 2006 both Takaya and Daich announced in two interviews that there would not be any more work on the anime for a number of reasons. I think one factor in this decision is that in the manga Akito is a girl raised as a boy and in the anime Akito is just a boy.
I would recommend that you watch this anime and don’t let the fact that it may seem girly put you off, it wont disappoint. For all you guys out there that may be thinking I could never watch this because it’s a girls anime, I say to you 'if you have a girlfriend then watch it with her no one will be the wiser. If you don't then what does it matter watch it on your own no one will know, that is, until you start talking about it and you will because it is that good.

(This is a clip that will give you a taster of the anime but it does have some spoilers in it so be warned before you watch it.)

New Antony Micallef Prints

Antony Micallef is an artist with some very high profile followers such as Damien Hirst, Jude Law, Robbie Williams and more.
Today he released 4 prints via Lazarides Gallery priced at £1000 each and limited to 400 prints. If those are out of your price range then there is 1 new print via Pictures on Walls priced at £300 and limited to 1000 prints.

This final Print is the Pictures On Walls 1/1000

Source VIA