Mutants, Misfits and the Mighty (Part 1)...

Monday evening was fur sure a night to remember,

Sponsored by Loft in Space, Fresh Cafe and Lightsleepers, there was a nice remix of art, based upon the cartoon and comic book folk we all grew up with. 

Lofa, the event curator did a body slam job of bringing in a HUGE crew of over 50 peopz to the table to be a part of the show, unreal.  Through the Cafe's entrance, you got that posh vibe, where people were ordering up food and having casual convo, and then you could walk around the cafe to check out some of the art for the show. 

A whole other batch of goodies were also displayed in the "events" area aka Loft in Space, where there was slammin music straight from Cav's turntablism, which was a nice fresh brew of hip hop, a lil bit of old school and some killer street and jass infused beats...sick.  In true creative 808 fashion, there was also a comic bookish photo taking area, complete with sound effect signage and props for you to use.

As always, it was good to see a bunch of the Hawaii heads many of which were contributors for the show.  Below are a bunch of pics I quickly took, there's a whole bunch so I'm including them in four parts.

One of my first aritst buddies...

When I first got into collecting,

One of the first aritst peopz I met (online) was Marine Ramdhani, one cool dude alllllllll the way in Indonesia.  At the time my collection was nearly zilch, I only had a few pieces at the time, and Marine was just steppin' into the scene, blastin' sketches of some of his Jouwe characters. 

I thought his ant-rhino hybrid inspired sketches were a hella cool idea, and he was tryin' to get his sketches done into figures, and I told him that the day he turned his drawings into figures, I'd be there as a frontline fan of his work.  He put it out there to see if there were any companies that would be willing to work with him in making his dream a reality.  Being the kind of guy to help out, I hit the pavement and looked up a number of companies and forwarded them to him.  He was hella stoked that I shared in his dream. 

Well time had passed, and we kept in touch from time to time.  But I remember it vividly, he emailed me to let me know that (as a secret not to get leaked out to the public) that he was producing a line of figures.  I was hella stoked for him and his resin Jouwe Digi Wings and his Jouwe Tummy figures were born. 

During the vinyl production of his Jouwe Tummy figure, I asked Marine if it would be cool to do a show here in Hawaii on his behalf.  I got his blessings and went all out to launch of the "Feed My Tummy" show.  It was a HUGE production, but man, it was worth all of the hard work.  The show also helped put Hawaii on the grid in the urban vinyl/resin scene. 

In all humility, I can't take even a pinch of the credit.  I had John Hook, aka Contra808 take photos, Lofa helping blast the event online, team Prototype giving me the approval to host the event at their store, a number of heavy hitter urban sites like Toysrevil, SpankyStokes, Vinyl Pulse, Plastic and Plush, etc. supporting the cause.  I got the huge honor of working with a number of Hawaii and wordly talented artists.  Pancho, KatB, Arkiv, Leecifer, Scribe, Brent Nolasco, Squidnik, CKaweeks, JPK, Newkon, Lou Pimmentel and Phu volunteered their time and creativity to be a part of the event.  And there's the Hawaii heads who came by and showed up to support the show.

Since the "Feed My Tummy" show in Hawaii, Marine has networked with his peopz and has help launch Jouwe Tummy shows in Los Angeles and Germany, unreal.  Marine continues to hit the pavement and very recently he and a crew of unreal talent from Southeast Asia have been makin' on the urban grid, like Arkiv, Phu and The Yellow Dino.

Marine and I keep in touch from time to time, and it truly is a trip to see how far we've both come even though we're thousands miles away from each other.  Propz....

Beautious day...

So my good friend,

Gave me a buzz, yep, another adventure.   Today we hit it on over to a spot not too far from where I'm from.  It was a beautious day, my friend wanted to get out of the crib and take a dip in the ocean and search for shells.  On my end, I saw it as an opportunity to take some pics, so I grabbed my camera and one of my JLed figs.  I got me some pretty sick pics, feel free to check 'em out below...

Local attire...

 My fav pic...

Mountain shot...

Mountain/ocean shot...

 Ocean shot...

Coconut anyone?

Green bottle...

 Some overly greased up dude...

Treasures of the ocean...

Postcard shot #1...

Postcard shot #2...

Got crabs?

This shirt is sick...

Talk to da Hand...

Here's a pic of a fig I took awhile back,

From Mr. David Flores.  It's kinda hard to describe his style, but it's hella sick, where he takes different icons, some which are mainstream and others that come from his unreal mind.  What he then does to 'em is "stylize 'em" where they're "blocked off" and have an almost "stained glass" appearance to his work.  You have to jus' look up the guy to fully understand what I mean.  But this is a pic of his Konartis fig which was produced by Kidrobot, it's a hella cool fig.  He's one of the many artists I'd like to meet in person someday.

Blastin' into 2011, literally...

On the eve of the New Year,

We headed on over to my mom's again, this time to bring in the new year as a family, along with good friends.  As usual, it was a night of good times.  We spent the night talkin' story, sharing laughs and munchin' down on some serious grub.  As far as food goes, there was turkey, noodles, potato salad, char siu (sweet pork), chicken, sushi, shrimp cocktail, mashed potatoes, and ya, I think I got 'em all.  The ladies washed it all down with wine, my brother, the men, with beers, and the kiddies, my sister in law and me (being the non-alcoholic self that I am, haha), with some cokes and bottled water, haha.

After all of that, there was still dessert.  Yups, there was custard pie, strawberry shortcake, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and the two and a half gallons of icecream that I bought, which was an epic failure cuz it was all melted.  Haha, oh well, happens to the best of us.

Throughout the evening, my niece and my friends' son popped fireworks, and I stood there as the fire marshal making sure that my mom's crib wouldn't burn down to the ground.  The stuff they popped were legal fireworks, but where my mom lives, there was a whoooooole bunch of peopz blowin' up the "illegals" or "aerials", the kind you see at Disneyland.

The eve of 2010 marked the ending of popping fireworks in Hawaii.  From now on, popping fireworks is illegal.  That whole new law is irritating to me, much due to the fact that the ban was brought up by "concerned community members" which I theorize are transplants who move to Hawaii and have a hard time adjusting to local culture.  That strikes a huge nerve for me.  Ya in the past fireworks has torched homes, caused burns and what not.  (But hey, that's what you get when you play with fire right?)  Those were the very reasons that came to the table when the bill for the ban was first introduced, but the more bigger issue was because of the smoke and the noise.  You gotta be friggen kiddin' me.

The celebration of New Year's in Hawaii began with the Chinese, with the intention of warding off bad spirits and bringing in good energy.  Since then, it has become local culture in Hawaii, where families and friends come together, share food, pop fireworks and bring in the new year with your loved ones.  To me, THAT'S what's more important than the smoke and the noise that the "transplants" are grumbling about.  Can I get a witness in hea?  Haha.

But more concerning to me, is now there's law in Hawaii that puts a ban on people from practicing their culture.  So the Chinese (and others) are banned from popping fireworks.  What next?  A ban on pounding mochi?  A ban on fishing in our ocean?  Food for thought...

But back to positivity, I really did have an awesome time with my family and friends.  I must say, 2010 did have its bumpy roads, but it was overpowered by the many good times I had.  I'm super stoked that I've met people from across the globe in the urban collecting world, many of whom read my blog.  It's only been about three months and the blog has gotten over 1600 hits so far, that's pretty sick.  I'm super humble by that and much thanks to all of you out there, my fellow buddies.  I'm looking forward to 2011 for more positive memories.

Much aloha

Bringin' in the new year with a Zumba sesh...

So one of my good ole college buddies,

Gave me a ring, asking me if I wanted to bring in the new year with a Zumba sesh this morning.  With me always being up n up on a new challenge I accepted her offer.  So my friend picked me up in her spankin' new Honda Pilot (beautious) and I went all ready and rev'd up to jam for my first ever Zumba class. 

When I got there, it was 95% women, lol, and I must say, there were some beautiful ladies there, damn!  And when I saw the instructor, I was like, double damn! 

So anyways, with my hip hop background I thought I'd be able to kick some royal Zumba rump...BIG NEGATIVE!  That instructor worked me over like no tomorrow with a steady workout that worked every inch of my bod, arms, back, legs, rump, you name it, we did it.  She was hella good, and very positive and motivating, which is what I liked best. 

My friend cracked the hell up as I did my impromptu hip hop in between some of the moves.  After our sesh, we hit it to Jamba, my friend got some yogurt granola thing and me, my fav, Razzmatazz (no bananas sub straw).  But ya, for those of you who haven't done Zumba before, you gotta try it jus' to say you did it, and for those of you folks who do Zumba, major props, cuz I know I'm gonna feel it tomorrow, haha.  Happy New Year peopz!

So what's up with the cap icon HaynMade?

You may ask,

So what's up with the cap icon HaynMade?  Cuz you see it everywhere, on 808orbit, on the Kidrobot forum, on Twitter, etc.  Well, I like it for different reasons.  For those of you who don't know, it's a special edition New Era cap, which were designed by two very good friends of mine.  This father and son team own a Hawaiian clothing (and accessories too) company called Sig Zane, named after the owner himself, Sig.

His son Kuha'o took it to the next level in reaching out to a younger audience and created this sick cap.  Along with this cap, Kuha'o did shirts, converse shoes and shirts, and followed up with other colorways and designs, which were hella popular when it came out.  Both Sig and Kuha'o are a powerhouse team in Hawaiian fashion.  Their Hawaiian wear is of awesome quality, and waaaaaaay above those tacky aloha shirts you see in Waikiki.  I really like wearing their shirts cuz they're comfortable and stylish.  Locals here know when someone's wearing a Sig.  The quality and comfort of these killer wearables are definitely worth the price in my opinion.

The thing that I really like about Sig Zane's clothing is that there's a story behind all of their designs, and I have an appreciation for people who have depth and stories behind their work.  The design in the cap icon I have is their 'ulu or breadfruit design.  In Hawaiian context, 'ulu represents growth and for many Hawaiian quilters like my grandmother will often use the 'ulu as their first design, because it represents that other works will "continue to grow" thereafter.  'Ulu also represents strength, the sap was used to glue canoe hulls, the leaves for sandpaper, the wood for poi boards and surfboards.  I'm sure that's what Kuha'o had in mind when he first chose this design as well.

So for me, the Sig Zane new era cap icon represents that growth for myself, personally and professionally.  Like the 'ulu, growth happens when you take care of yourself and help others along the way, and that's what I try and do in my everyday life.  Every now and then you get those peopz, that take advantage of you or envy what you do, but that's okay, like the 'ulu it's about staying strong and continuing to grow.  It also represents that you can survive and enjoy these urban times, while still keepin' it true to your roots and your cultural foundations.  Okay, damn, that was deep, take a breath now, haha.

But if you want to check out Sig Zane's killer fashion, check out their site at www.sigzane.com.