Justin Bieber swag

Since Biggie, Eazy-E, Big L and Pac passed I've constantly been on the look out for an emerging rapper to pick up the mantle, to own the game, to dominate the mic like a real G.
Well, it is with great pleasure that I can tell you that I'm pretty sure I've found the new kid on the block with the baddest skills. Let me introduce to you a young buck who goes by the name of Justin 'stray gunner' Bieber. I don't know where this badass dawg hails from but what I do know is that he can spit lyrics.



Via DJ Rue Beaux Rhubarb

How to score an own goal

If you're gonna score an owner you might as well make it simply SPECTACULAR:

Ghanaian cinema: 2016

Who needs awesome special effects when you can have jaw-droppingly shit special effects. Go Accrawood!

Double-dip recession, what double-dip recession?

Here's one for all the coke-snorting, hooker-hooked Wall Streeters who read ArchBlog. Are you looking for a sweet pad in New York but only got $165 k a month to spend on rent? Well, look no further than the Astor Suite at midtown Manhattan's Plaza Hotel:

Reebok Pump Fury "London"

I'm not purchased a pair of trainers in at least a year. I used to be totally bananas about trainers but when Nike started reissuing all my old faves like Nike Air Span, Stab and Pegasus it kind of ruined it all for me. Those faux vintage yellow soles really are the pits. That said, I do still get the occasional twinge in my sneaker love muscle. These Reebok Pump Fury "London" (2012) numbers I just peeped over at Hypebeast are pretty dope. I totes dig the Olympic themed colour way.



Here' she hype talk from HypeBeast:
The Reebok Pump Fury “London” infuses the five different colors utilized in the Olympic rings in anticipation for the London games in 2012. The illustrious event as well know is an all-encompassing event so it seems only aropos that a tribute shoe should go all the way in paying homage. Boasting a synthetic/leather upper, the bold red, blue, yellow, green and black seem to light up just like the Olympic torch.

North Korean children jamming

Most in the West feel that there is little opportunity for individuality in North Korea AKA Hermit Kingdom. This video of small children playing large guitars whilst perma-smiling (as if they have a gun to their back and their life depended on it) is pretty unlikely to change perspectives that much.

Time to (seriously) consider decaf?

When Greggs attacks

Eat your heart out Same Mendes ...

Via D.C. Hines

Tokyo Bike

There are few things I own which I adore more than my moss green Tokyo Bike. At risk of coming over all Grand Designs, I'd say it is the perfect cumming together of design and function. My only complaint is that the tyres are so thin I slightly shit myself riding over manholes in the rain.

Via Tokyo Bike blog
Photo credit: Matteo Sanguinetti Bird
www.matteosanguinettibird.co.uk
info@matteosanguinettibird.co.uk

The world inc. animals

If only for the bodysurfing penguins:



Note: If this doesn't warm your heart I suggest you prick your finger to check you are not a robot.

UK-US Special Relationship: Epaulet Daltrey Sportcoat Harris Tweed mash-up

This mash-up tweed jacket from New York label Epaulet really fits the ArchBlog gimme dat bill in that it is a) virtually unwearable b) hideously pricey ($850) and c) effing cool.




Below, please find reams of blurb ...

We're thrilled to present the Daltrey, our premier half-canvassed sportcoat, in a spectacularly handsome combination of three Harris Tweeds. Together all three tweeds, the navy marl, oatmeal herringbone, and a gray-green basket-weave, form an amazing patchwork. It's a serious dose of trad edge.

Made for Michael Kuhle of Epaulet by Southwick in Massachusetts, the Daltrey imparts classic style, a handsome natural shoulder, quality workmanship, and understated elegance. This "Anglo-American" piece represents our favorite elements of both British and American tailoring.

The Daltrey's basic features include 3-roll-2 styling (where the top button sits as ornament and rolls away for the second button to be fastened), double rear vents, slim notch lapels, flap patch pockets, royal purple full lining, goat suede elbow patches and goat suede undercollar, and Southwick’s superb half-canvassed construction.

London 2012: Greco-roman wrestling countdown

Every few days I get an email from the overstaffed offices of London 2012 reminding me how to use the London Underground (cheers) or pointing me in the direction of where I can buy some frightfully disgusting Olympics merchandise. Caps. Bum bags. Pencil cases. Teddies. It's doing my head in.

But however hard Seb Coe & co. try and ruin my excitement about the Olympic Games, there is nowt they can do to dampen down my surging enthusiasm for attending the Greco-Roman super heavyweight finals. Obvs I know nothing about Greco-Roman wrestling but five minutes* in the (YouTube) company of Cuba's reigning champ (and all-round beast of a man) Mijain Lopez tells me it's gonna be off the hook/heezy. Check the power in the slam-down on 2.25.

*I should level with youse that it did take me about a minute to stop thinking about how outrageously homoerotic it is (like most sports from ancient Greece) and begin to marvel at the brute strength and sheer athleticism on show.


Vid via fellow attendee Rue Beaux

Potholing

Via Prog Porn

Young bucks

Via Prog Porn

Making up

Via Prog Porn (see blogroll)

Men & sex

This is a family blog but, from time to time, it falls off the wagon and has adult moments. Apologies in advance to all my readers who are minors

Hunt in Pairs - Slow Dance

It's high time you checked out Owen Gundry and Xan Blacker's music vid for debut duo Hunt in Pairs. The vid perfectly compliments the track. I'm no Quincy Jones but I'm pretty sure that's the whole point of a music video. It was shot on London's derelict Heygate Estate, which I'm told is not the sort of place you bowl around with expensive camera equipment after dark (unless you are Floyd Mayweather). Props fellas!

Hunt In Pairs - Slow Dance from Hunt in Pairs on Vimeo.

Prufrock: Coffee kings

Anyone's who has had a cup of Joe at Shoreditch's Present London will already be aware that Prufrock make the best coffee in London.
Here's a Prufrock barista demonstrating the painfully complicated syphon method which the Japanese have pioneered. Although the process is more than a bit wanky, I sure bet the results taste better than Nescafe Gold Blend.

Syphon@Prufrock from ALI RAFI on Vimeo.

"The kid gloves are off"

This has to be the most intense motivational speech I've ever seen. If QPR ever does away with Warnock, this cold-hearted maniac is who I want taking over as manager. I don't care if he knows nowt about football, the guy knows how to talk to pampered pros



Via TT

Indian talent show troupe go hard

ArchBlog's Washington correspondent D.C. Hines spotted this gem on Kottke.org, a weblog about the liberal arts edited by Jason Kottke since March 1998. Self-professed "professional link finder" (sweet job if you can get it) Kottke says this Indian talent show contest is the "craziest thing you'll ever see on the web." They start off by biting fluorescent lights bulbs (as you do) and then step their game up. Massively. I'll not spoil it (!) for you by revealing any deets but what I will say is that it makes Abu Graab look like a play school where the emphasis is on free play.

Cech this out

Swank

H i g h l i n i n g

Two French geezers have pioneered a new extreme sport called highlining. Once you've seen what it is (below) you'll never be able to think about anything else ever again. Seriously. Warning: Your 'life' will seem crushingly boring after viewing this (even if you work for Sapient Nitro)

I Believe I can Fly ( flight of the frenchies ). Free segment from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.

Via Agent Scully

"THIS IS THE PLACE YOU FEEL RIGHT, IT'S ALL ABOUT WHERE YOU WORK"

Here's an amazing idea that (until now) no-one has managed to engineer ... a tinny, poppy rap-tinged music video homage to work. Upstep the impossibly happy, Macbook wielding bad boys from Sapient Nitro* ...



*Besides rock a mic, I have no idea what the SN posse 'do' at work

Helicopters are the new reporters

Don't believe me? Well, then check out this chopper's coverage of a recent street protest in Warsaw, Poland:

Yuketan Dress Chukkas

I don't own a pair of Yuketans. And, until I win the pools, I'll doubt I will. That doesn't stop me admiring these 'Chicago tan' & black Yuketan Dress Chukkas:


You can snap 'em up from The Hideout in Soho, London.

Only in America ...

would a presidential hopeful be this dumb and still stand a chance:

Via D.C. Hines

90-foot wave

If crack invented waves:

Gnarly-as-fuck surfer Garrett McNamara has just broken the world record for largest wave surfed by successfully navigating this 90-foot wall of watery death. The previous record —77 feet — was set by Mike Parsons in 2008.

Protect me from what I want

The postmodernism exhibition currently running at the V&A is mildly interesting. The artwork which has stayed with me is one of Jenny Holzer's Truisms. In 1982, Holzer took an ad (the Public Art Fund paid) on a Times Square LED billboard. It read simply: "protect me from what I want." It was a cutting comment on modern consumerism in the age of "society of the spectacle" ((c) Guy Debord). It's now emblazoned on message t-shirts sold in the V&A shop.
This H&M stampede in Toulouse, France, shows that the protective layer guarding us from advertising, branding and the like has been peeled off whole. We're in the palms of the corporations. And we love it:

Tony Blair's HUGE stimulus package

"Gordon is enormous and it's not unnatural to get on the bandwagon"

I don't care if Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are both old nooze. This New Labour mash-up is quite possibly the funniest thing I have EVER seen. Period. It's the work of Gloucestershire-based Mr Lee, a self-proclaimed "desk jockey with a thirst for the lulz." Watch his other mash-ups here.



HP is the sauce

Most droll

The most relaxing music ever?

WARNING: Please don't listen to this if you are currently driving a ride-on lawnmower.

Photo credit: Megapixel Eyes

Living life in the closet

I come across some pretty wild and wacky stuff in my endless internet nooze trawling (for work). This just about takes the biscotti:

From Associated Press:

Woman hides for year in bedroom cupboard

A homeless woman has been caught after spending a year living undetected in a man's cupboard.

The woman sneaked into his house in Japan and was only discovered after he became suspicious over the mysterious disappearance of food.

Police found the 58-year-old hiding in the top compartment of the cupboard in a bedroom in Kasuya.

The homeowner had installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home and he called police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.

"We searched the house ... checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," a spokesman said. "When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side."

The woman told police she had no place to live and first sneaked into the man's house about a year ago when he left it unlocked.

The cupboard is part of a Japanese-style room, one of several in the single-storey house.

Police were investigating how she managed to go in and out unnoticed, as well as details of her life inside the closet, and if she had taken anything else besides food.

She had moved a mattress into the small space and apparently even took showers, the spokesman said, calling the woman "neat and clean".

Photo credit: Phillie Casablanca

Crescent Down Works Down Shirt

Here's something you don't seen everyday - a down shirt. Ideal for nipping to the corner shop for a big bar of Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut.

Here's the hype from Tres Bien Shop:
"Founded in Seattle back in 74 and directly inspired by the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, Crescent Down Works delivers outerwear to rely on. The down shirt is made from a heavy 60/40 cotton poly outer and filling from down and feathers. Snap buttons with leather enhancements. Chest pocket with snap button. Perfect as a 2nd layer under a more dressy coat. Made in the USA."
Cop it here for 300 smackers.

QPR 1 Chelsea 0

It's been almost a week since the Rs beat Chelsea. I'm still not over it. Will I ever be? The moment when Juan Mata was so spooked by the R block that he had to hand over corner duties to Lamps was golden. For those whose weren't there, here's the only piece in the mainstream media worth reading about the best Sunday afternoon at Loftus Road EVER.

Thumbing a ride home

Props to Prowser the Arouser for the spot

The new Libya?

Sarkozy, Cameron and Nato will all have their fingers firmly crossed that Libya does not turn out to be another Iraq (ie ungovernable, violent and divided). This is a bad sign:

(Can't see the image like you'd like to? Stop moaning; just tilt your head you lazy so-and-so)

Get down with (a young) Louis Theroux

Stay classy John Terry

Chelsea's Monday morning just got worse ...

Maison Martin Margiela Cable Knit Detail sweater

Bib designs on jumpers are not a personal fave but this oddity from MMM is intriguing. I'n not sure what Geoffrey Boycott would make of this but I'm sure Chris Gayle would approve.

You can buy it from Por Vocacao

Porter x White Mountaineering wool tote bag

It's the walnut suede trim which makes this bad boy ...


Snap it up for 600 LARGE from Tres Bien

Sunny Sports Native Fleece vest

This is probably what Brian Jones wore round the house for those 30 odd years.

Purchasable from Oi Polloi

Washing

Mt. Rainier Design Nordic meggings

Phew, the woolen shorts problem (see below) is solved. You wear the shorts with these Nordic bad-boy meggings (male leggings) under them for that snazzy courier look.

Available from Inventory

Mt. Rainier tweed woolen shorts

I cannot possible imagine when I might wear a pair of tweed would shorts but that doesn't mean I don't dig these tweed wool shorts from Mt Rainier Design. They sold out almost immediately from Inventory.

When I fuck up who bales me out?

Not everyone Occupying Wall Street is in a tent fucking. Some people are r e a l l y there to protest against the system as is ...

What girls (used to) like

Bill Gates' Jordanesque 'hang time'

I'm married

I don't care if it's basically one joke repeated again and again. The joke's damn funny.

Slow spotlight dance (who can you count on to be by your side???)

There's SO much to dig here. As my source Xan B says, "its shits all over the X-Factor."
Here are seven reasons I can't stop watching this oh-so tasty slice of American good times:

1) Rich's vintage Nike kicks. So fly.
2) The fact that Mike is thinking of his mum while dancing with his slow dance sweetheart.
3) Pisces' killer vaders.
4) The $ sign in Pisces' hair.
5) Pisces' name.
6) Pisces.

Chin up whiteys!

Tips on fighting

Pre-Abu Ghraib, the US Army manuals were a little less health and safety obsessed ...

Breaking nooze

The blinking meedjah are all in bed with one another

You guys should check out this awesome news sites called PeriscopePost.com. Everyone's talking about it ...

In Arsene We Trust

Pretty sweet skills for a guy in his fifties who never cut it as a footballer

Bore off Westboro

It's a measure of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs achievements that even his enemies were drawn to his products

The Wrong Stuff

Via Twitter (apparently not a hoax)

Chocolate surprise

Yes, I know this is incredibly babyish. Wotevs!

Via always-ace Prog Porn (see blog-roll)

Crack-flip

When you are sky-high on crack cocaine you think you are unbreakable. You have no fear. You do things mere humans wouldn't dare. Like back-flip of the top of a house. And walk it off.

Nigel Cabourn x Brady Handy Fishing bag

Right, that's settled it ... I am going to become a fisherman. With this and the Filson Fisherman Parka (below) I'll be the dapperest (and most penniless*) guy on the canal. Please post bait advice.

*Available for just £895 from End Clothing

Bleu de Paname gilet

Continuing my recent obsession with somewhat pretentious workwear, here's a snazzy little gilet from Gallic label Bleu de Paname. It's made from 100 percent cotton twill. The wooden buttons are a nice touch.


Yours for £90 from End Clothing

Filson Fisherman Parka

Traditional US outdoorsy brand Filson is the mutt's nuts. They make old-fashioned clothes with teak-tough materials. I have a green Mackinaw cruiser which I adore. In recent years, they have begun to be stocked in more places in Europe and have begun doing lots of 'funky' collabos (Vans etc). Check out their Fisherman Parka that has just dropped at End Clothing. The Navajo blanket lining is killer.

(Awesome yet sadly over-priced) grey The Real McCoys sweatshirt

A grey sweatshirt of the sort a Green Bay Packer or Chicago Bear might well have worn in the 1950s during the warm-up is something every man really ought to own. Not that I do. This one from The Real McCoys is the nicest one I've ever seen. Here's the deets:

Made in Japan in Wakayama prefecture exclusively for McCoys, the cloth is produced on a loopwheel machine, creating a heavy weight fabric that is tough on the outside, soft on the inside. They are designed to last for years and will age beautifully over time.

They have been specially made for Superdenim and Inventory Stockroom, limited to just 80 sweats 40 at each store.

Garbstore French wool back chinos

I love the colour of these 'petrol' Garbstore chinos. It's the colour of one of those jazzy Parker inks you made your mum buy you in WHSmiths to pimp out your first fountain pen. Not 100 percent sure about the wooly bum unit though. Thoughts?

Woolrich Woolen Mills multi plaid cotton shirt

I'd love to add this beautiful monstrosity* to my collection of shirts-I-love-but-never-wear-'cos-I-look-like-a-twat-in-them collection:


*Just ideal for that job interview or meeting with the bank manager.

Via Selectism

Heritage Research Waxed Hunting jacket

I'm a big fan of this forest green Heritage Research jacket. It's based on a jacket worn by JFK in the fifties.

Via Selectism

DYNAMO JACK, chi healer

I wish I could believe in chi. Jump to 1.31 for the money shot.

Via Prog Porn (see my blogroll)

Jog on

The International Monetary Fund has suggested Chancellor Osborne needs to seriously consider a plan B. How much longer will Georgie Boy plough on with extreme austerity measures?

The Big Pink - Stay Gold

Check out the great new tune & vid from The Big Pink. Mahoosive congrats to my old pal Milo Cordell! Do have a gander at his killer Kanye East blog - see my blog-roll.

Crossing paths with the English Defence League

Out and about in Bermondsey the other weekend, Tsanga & I happened upon the fag end of an English Defence League demonstration (a full-on march had been outlawed by Home Secretary Theresa May). It was the most heavily policed event I've ever witnessed in London, or anywhere. It was hard to tell whether the cops were out in force because the EDL is genuinely dangerous (?) or because the MET will do anything to avoid losing the streets again like they did on occasion during the anti-cuts protests and recent riots. If you're interested in the EDL a) this is sort of the wrong site for you b) here's an interesting piece by The Daily Telegraph's Damian Thompson on their place in modern Britain.



I have no evidence whatsoever that this trash was scrawled by a EDL member but it was right next to their coaches ...