The perfect accessory for hurricane season, rising crime rates, or covert beat downs: “Our Unbreakable Umbrella has no unusual parts, no more metal than an average umbrella, it does not arouse suspicion, can be carried legally everywhere where any weapons are prohibited.” |Newslite|
After an energy drink called Cocaine was launched in the U.S. and stirred up a whole bunch of media attention and faux outrage, a British company is attempting to do the same with a slightly different name. It’s called Simply Cocaine and the brand’s owner says they’re marketing it in the same vain that high fashion brands do: “I can’t see what the fuss is all about. It’s a marketing ploy in the same way as Yves Saint-Laurent uses the name Opium for its perfume.” |BBC|
Hauling around tripods is a pain in the ass and in NYC, could even attract unwanted attention from the police who aren’t so versed in laws pertaining to photography in public places. But worry no more, Monsterpod is here. The “viscoelastic polymer-based material that’s said to be like a rubberized honey” can be affixed to a variety of surfaces for “one to ten minutes” (that’s quite an ambiguous time frame), including Central Park’s bumpy perimeter wall, while supporting a 20-ounce camera. |DVICE|
Good grief! “Grin”, the evil Charlie Brown toy produced by billboard liberating artist Ron English in collaboration with Made By Monsters and Chapel of Dawn, will soon be released in new “classic” colors for Japan: orange and brown. |Hypebeast|
Adding to the relentless flurry of products emblazoned with Barack Obama’s image, a merchant in South Africa is selling brightly colored pillows, pouches, and rugs depicting the 44th President of the United States. Even his limo made its way onto the pattern with the words: “Hooray for the President.” |Obama Art Report|
The greedy shenanigans on Wall Street have caused a worldwide economic crisis, unprecedented federal bailouts that threaten the free market, and a general consensus that the country is screwed for generations. To highlight the crumbling of the stock market and the financial system, the ladies over at the DesignGlut created the Dow Jones Hanky. It features an embroidered graph of the dipping Dow Jones from 2004 to 2009. For extra money, they’ll even customize a graph of your plummeting stock portfolio. |Swiss-Miss|
While many of the vinyl toys being released mostly suck nowadays—mostly because of Kid Robot—leave it to billboard liberating artist Ron English to design one that we not only care about, but are anticipating also. Here’s the production sample of his ‘Evil Charlie Brown’ character made in collaboration with Chapel of Dawn. |Hypebeast|
As is the case with many luxury modifications, they’re often impractical: either outlandishly expensive or just wasteful, cue the $112k track bike. But when it comes to these exquisite gold plated hubsets designed by legendary Phil Wood and company, the addition of some weighty precious metals are wholly justifiable. Celebrating 38 years of designing world class track hubs, the company is offering 100 sets in a variety of colors: “50 silver hubsets ($575/pair), 20 black ($605), 10 red ($655), 5 blue ($655), 5 green ($655), 5 purple ($655) and 5 gold plated ($900).” Now the bad news, the prized components are only being released for the Europeans. |Bike Radar via Born Rich|
Like the MTA and its line of artist designed t-shirts, Standard hotel honcho Andre Balaz is also exploring alternate streams of revenue, releasing his own series of graphic tees—for $55 a pop! He tapped the likes of Jose Parla, Eric Haze and Natas Kaupas to create designs “that represent their personal street style and handwriting in each of the cities reflected on the front, which include Miami, New York, and L.A. respectively.” Former public property destroyer HAZE, was responsible for this NYC version. |Cool Hunting|
At this point, the MTA is doing whatever it can to squeeze out additional revenue from any source it can, graphic tees included. Adding to its ever increasing stable of products, the continually mismanaged agency is offering this edgy line of t-shirts featuring the photography of Travis Ruse, a well known, photo documenting commuter. Cop ‘em HERE for $24 and contribute directly to the MTA’s money wasting fund.
Editor-in-Chief:
Bucky Turco
Contributors:
Copyranter
Kari Ferrell
Marina Galperina
Website design:
Michael Ian Weinfeld
