Exactly

Painting by GQ deputy editor Michael Hainey.

Eric Testroete

My buddy Dave sent this over to me today, and I thought it was completely insane! Papercraft self-portrait by Eric Testroete.

Artist Statement:

"I made this as my costume for Halloween 2009. It was kind of inspired by big-head mode seen in videogames. I really wanted to get the faceted geosphere look with wireframe."

Interview

I was interviewed by the lovely Jamie Watson from the very cool surf lifestyle blog Pineapple Luv. Also check out Jamie's interview with Liquid Salt magazine.

Collaboration

2009 has been a very productive year for me, and 2010 is already shaping up to be as busy, if not more. Along with the release of my skate board line Refueled Sidewalk Surfboards in the Spring, I'll be releasing the first in a series of Refueled Books. The first titled "Collaboration" - a collaborative photo/graphic venture between photographer Cari Wayman and myself. Cari and I have long talked about doing a project together and it looks like the right time has come. Stay tuned.

Humble.

The beautiful and talented Courtney Barton over at Inside the Loop is just one of the cool people who I've been receiving props from over the last couple of days since the release of issue four of my magazine Refueled. I am deeply humbled by all the great response. Refueled is a true labor of love and I am so honored to work with a cool group of staff and contributors. They help me shine. As long as you keep diggin' them, I'll keep putting them out. Peace.

Photo by Cheryl Schulke.

Refueled Magazine Issue 4 Available

Refueled magazine, issue 4, is now available for FREE online. It's packed full of style, music, surf & skate - everything from singer/songwriter Amy Cook to surf/skate streetwear icon Shawn Stussy. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Fun Fun Fun Fest

Who wants to go?

While SXSW lies in hibernation, Austin has awoken Fun Fun Fun Fest to pronounce that, deep in the wintry heart of Texas, the embers of merrymaking still burn strong. Now in its fourth year, Fun Fun Fun Fest features four core stages of some of the most progressive music & comedy representing Punk/Hardcore, Indie/Progressive, Hip Hop/DJ, & Comedy/Debauchery. In addition to Fun Fun Fun Fest’s ridiculous musical line-up, the festival will also host an array of activities to keep fans busy between sets. Fans can check out the festival’s mechanical bull, skate ramp, live screen-printing, photo booth, Flip cam interviews, API poster show, band merchandise and food and fashion from some of Austin’s favorite local businesses.

WHEN: November 7-8 / 12:00—9:00 p.m.
WHERE: Waterloo Park / 403 E. 15th St. / Austin, TX / 78701

Digital Expressions

I was asked to contribute to Susan Tuttle's new book Digital Expressions. May 2010 release.

Digital Expressions guides the mixed-media artist through 25 stepped-out digital projects created with Adobe Photoshop Elements. Projects like manipulating single photos, collage on a digital canvas, and digital illustration will inspire you to tackle all kinds of digital mixed-media projects using stock photography, custom brushes, textured backgrounds and your own digital photos. A team of talented contributing artists further illustrates the techniques in action. Plus, a bonus CD includes more than 20 digital design elements for you to use in your own projects!

Shawn Stussy X Refueled Magazine

Read my interview with surf/skate streetwear icon Shawn Stussy in the upcoming issue of Refueled magazine, which drops Nov. 1.

Refueled Sidewalk Surfboards

My board line, Refueled Sidewalk Surfboards, launches Spring 2010.

Refueled Presents 180˚South

Refueled magazine will host a special bonfire showing of Chris Malloy's new film "180˚South" on Jalama Beach in Lompoc, Califonia, early Spring 2010. In 2005 Chris Malloy took a trip to Patagonia with Yvon Chouinard and Rick Ridgeway. It was then the idea for what would be come the film 180° SOUTH was officially hatched. Chris had been considering this film for almost a decade prior and was finally inspired to dig into it after experiencing Patagonia first hand. Chris' aesthetic vision in his films Shelter, Thicker than Water, A Brokedown Melody and One Track Mind have helped usher in a movement in surfing that bleeds into popular culture world wide. His love for crafting simplicity and authenticity give him the ability to create lasting documents of time and place.

Chris Malloy will also grace the cover of Refueled's Spring/Summer 2010 issue. Myself and a small film crew will be shooting footage for the second installment of the magazine's "Behind-the-Cover" series.

Stay tuned for details.

Busy in the Studio Today...

Cai Guo-Qiang

Cai Guo-Qiang’s art installations are incredible. The movement and ferocity yet strange tranquility of his work is simply astounding.

Feeling

Really digging these pixs by Harry Bloom.

Dream Beach Home

Photos by Anson Smart.

Inside-the-Design: Refueled Magazine

As with any creative person I am inspired by the work of other creatives around me, people I have respect for, who’s work rides in that same vibe as my own. Time and time again I seem to turn to REM for a refueled spark. When I sit down to start planning the look and feel of each issue, and then finally putting together spreads, REM always seems to be playing in the background. After some recent banter with producer Steve Reiss, I revisited REM’s Road Movie, a 1996 concert film which Steve co-produced. Road Movie documents the entirety of the modern-day arena-rock experience, complete with dizzying effects, neo-punk camera angles and a let-the-music-do-the-talking premise - it is this vibe that has inspired the spreads in the upcoming issue, which drops Nov. 1. Road Movie’s set designer Mark Fisher layered and constructed beautiful, sometimes nonsense images into each song, giving the viewer an expanded vision - something I try and do with Refueled.

Amy Cook "Behind-the-Cover"

For two days, in the midst of a Austin Texas heat wave, carrying nothing but a camera and a smile, I captured footage of singer/songwriter Amy Cook hanging out, telling stories and doing what she does best - performing incredible music.

Amy Cook “Behind-the-Cover”, a short film produced by my new company Refueled Films, is the first in a series that will accompany my style+design publication Refueled. The idea to start documenting what goes into producing the cover feature and including it on the magazine’s website seemed like a natural progression. The goal for Refueled is to always stay current, if not on the edge, of what’s happening with online magazines - including video was the next step.

The nine minute short goes behind-the-scenes with Amy Cook while being interviewed for Refueled. Cook performs an special acoustic version of “Down to the River” from her upcoming release “Let the Light In”, talks a little about the making of the song “Saltwater” and spends some quiet time with friends down by the Colorado River in Austin, Teaxs.

A rare glimpse at an amazing artist. Produced & directed by Chris Brown and edited by award-winning editor Darrell Stevens. Still photography contributed by Cheryl Schulke.


Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/6705295
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT9LIF_3F1g
Refueled Magazine: http://www.refueledmagazine.com

Blaring at the Moment!

You have no idea about Emily Wells. I’m not even sure she’s real. She’s too cool to be real, too talented, too strange. She’s definitely a figment of my imagination, some kind of daydream. She could tour with Andrew Bird and Jay-Z and feel right at home. She plucks violin strings staccato, slides her trembling bow across them legato, plinks tiny pianos, strums ukes, snaps off healthy drum samples as if in her sleep, and loops them all together like some master seamstress. She croons with guile and moxie and something to prove then rides the beat right into an unexpected hip-hop segment. She’s really good. Maybe too good.

GODSPEED 45/06

GODSPEED 45/06
DOCUMENT is a quarterly collection of photographs documenting various bike builders, their work, and their workspaces.

Independently photographed, designed, and published, GODSPEED 45/06 DOCUMENT NO. 1 features Keino Sasaki, White Knights in the House of Kolor, Walt Siegl, and the crew over at Works. It’s 8×10 Inches, 158 Pages and is available is both hard and soft cover versions.

Thanks Ms. Schulke.

One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur

He was called the vibrant new voice of his generation -- the avatar of the Beat movement. In 1957, on the heels of the triumphant debut of his groundbreaking novel, On The Road, Jack Kerouac was a literary rock star, lionized by his fans and devotees. But along with sudden fame and media hype came his unraveling, and, by 1960, Kerouac was a jaded cynic, disaffected from the Beat culture he helped create and tortured by self-doubt, addiction and depression.

Desperate for spiritual salvation and solitude, as well as a place to dry out, he secretly retreats to Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s rustic cabin in the Big Sur woods. But his plan is foiled by his own inner demons, and what ensues that summer becomes the basis for Kerouac’s gritty, yet lyrically told, semi-autobiographical novel, Big Sur.

One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur, takes the viewer back to Ferlinghetti’s cabin and to the Beat haunts of San Francisco and New York City for an unflinching, cinematic look at the compelling events the book is based on. The story unfolds in several synchronous ways: through the narrative arc of Kerouac’s prose, told in voice-over by actor and Kerouac interpreter, John Ventimiglia (of HBO’s The Sopranos); through first-hand accounts and recollections of Kerouac’s contemporaries, whom many of the characters in the book are based on such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn Cassady, Joyce Johnson and Michael McClure; by the interpretations and reflections of writers, poets, actors and musicians who have been deeply influenced by

Kerouac’s unique gifts like Tom Waits, Sam Shepard, Robert Hunter, Patti Smith, Aram Saroyan, Donal Logue and S.E. Hinton; and by stunning, High Definition visual imagery set to original music composed and performed by recording artist, Jay Farrar of Son Volt, with additional performance by Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.