“This award-winning documentary illuminates the unlikely pioneers that shaped the way we see pools.”

Thats pretty much says it all. Summer’s finally here, and that means that its time to gear up around the pool and get ready for everyone’s favorite drunken activity: catching a ball in mid-air while jumping in a pool. With the exception of watching 2 topless girls play chicken it’s pretty much the most fun you can have at a summer bash. The sketch group The Birthday Boys made a parody like “Dogtown and Z-Boys” that “illuminates the unlikely pioneers that shaped the way we see pools.” It’s a fitting tribute to a much-loved, but long overlooked pastime, and we love how they paid tribute to the Z Boys.

POOLJUMPERS trailer

If you are anything like me, you spend 6 of the 8 hours in your cube wondering what went wrong in your life to bring you to this 5×5 ceramic grave. Life is brutal in the corporate world, especially now when most people are willing to trade their first born for a shot at employment. I will admit one thing, in the big corporate companies, its easy to hide. If you just feel like slacking off, or writing on your super hip and successful blog (ZOOTPATROL.COM BABY!!) then you can probably get away with it without anyone noticing. There people took the idea of slacking off to the limit, and made full on art projects with company supplied goods. We love it. We support it. We envy it. Check out these awesome things made with nothing but office supplies.

Packing Tape

Pencils

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This oil spill-inspired piece in Mobile was done by Priest, an Alabama-based street artist who appears to be “slightly” influenced by Banksy. That is something we fully support since Banksy is one of our top artists. Nice work Priest!

Of all the iphone applications out there, this one seems to be one of the more important and complex I have seen. The point is to virtually care for your app. You can virtually feed him, virtually put him in a sleeping bag, or virtually ignore him. This homeless digital pet was created by Publicis London for Depaul UK, the largest charity for young homeless people in England. For some reason the app isn’t available in the US yet, but Im sure its only a matter of time. iHobo lives on your iPhone for three days. Look after him, and he might survive. Ignore him, and his life spirals out of control. “He might even OD.” I wonder what that looks like. Does he just start throwing up all over the inside of your iphone screen?

An explanation from the creative directors at the ad agency:

We wanted to reach that elusive generation of young, affluent donors, who tend to exist in a world defined by their mobiles. It’s been a complicated process getting live interactive footage onto an app, but doing something that’s never been done before was never going to be easy.

Rub your eyes again, what you read is true, this thing is really happening. Universal just promised $20 million to RZA to finance his next project ‘The Man With the Iron Fist.’ RZA will direct, score and star in the film as a blacksmith that supplies a village in feudal China with weapons. Whats a black man doing in China working with metal? Who cares. Eli Roth will produce the film as he also co-wrote the screenplay, describing it as “Kung Fu with a spaghetti Western mindset and a Hip Hop influence.” Those are 3 things that in my opinion have the potential to make this one hell of a movie. RZA is a kung fu genious, and Eli is the king of “torture porn” so we can at least expect a decent genre fetishism film.

Shooting starts in Hong Kong this September. YES!

Poster Boy is an anonymous New York City based street artist whose only utensil is a razor. We have all seen the mangled ad posters in the subway, and we have Poster Boy to thank for starting that movement. He is known for satiric collage-like works created by cutting out sections of the self-adhesive advertisement posters in the platforms of New York City subway stations, and pasting them back in different positions. He lives in Brooklyn, REPRESENT! and says that he wants to stay anonymous so that the movement behind his work is about the message in the art, and not about him as a person. Poster Boy also refers to a ‘Poster Boy movement’ where other people produce similar unsigned work in the New York City subways imitating this original artist. The only thing about him staying anonymous is that he didnt do such a good job. Poster Boy was sentenced to 11 months in jail on Monday for a felony charge of criminal mischief. In the mean time, Poster Boy will be appealing the case, but you can write him at this address. Send him some fan mail, the dudes doing 11 months!

Henry Matyjewicz
NYSID: 02915787R
Otis Bantum Correctional Center
16-00 Hazen Street
East Elmhurst, NY 11370

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When someone has a ton of good stories, most of them turn out to be bullshit. If you’re Spencer Elden, you have a life that is well documented, and also true. Spencer was the baby on the cover of Nirvanas debut album Nevermind, that has since gone on to sell 26 million copies. Now 19 years old, he is an employee of the Los Angeles Obey studio run by Shepherd “Obey” Fairey, who is one of the hottest artists in the game right now. He was credited with helpign Shepherd with the Obama “Hope” campaign and has since started a line of his own. Check out the video and the website for Spencer. This kid has had a hell of a run so buy some of his art, and keep his good times rolling. On a side note, he mentions my favorite artist Mike Giant as one of his inspirations, so that won some points with me.

Nirvana Baby, Spencer Elden from Barry O Donnell on Vimeo.

Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and original member of the Beat Generation, an anarchic group of young men and women who combined poetry, song, sex, wine and illicit drugs with passionate political ideas that championed personal freedoms. If you have never read On The Road by Jack Kerouac, or Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs then get to the book store and pick up a copy. It will wish you were in your mid 20s during the 1950s. Ginsberg is best known for his poem Howl, but his photographs have also helped shape the Beat Generation.

Ginsberg took snapshots of his famous friends and wrote captions on them. Now, these snaps and scribbles are exhibited as academic documents of the all but forgotten Beat era, of an exterminated phase of New York and a time we all wish we had lived for even a day. These are pretty good pictures and pretty interesting notes.

“W. S. Burroughs at rest in the sideyard of his house looking at the sky, empty timeless Lawrence Kansas May 28, 1991. But “the car dates it” he noticed when he saw this snapshot.”
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HOLY SHIT! Thats all I have to say after viewing this trailer. Robert Rodriguez’s highly anticipated grindhouse film Machete finally has a release date after nearly 2 years of waiting. The flick stars Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, Jeff Fahey, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Rose McGowan, Tom Savini and Danny Trejo! Wow, thats a stacked line up. Seriously, Seagal!? I usually dont write with this many explamation points, but I just cant help it today.Hes a quick break down of the movie.

The highly skilled Federale Machete is hired by some unsavory types to assassinate a senator. But just as he’s about to take the shot, he notices someone aiming at him and realizes he’s been set up. He barely survives the sniper’s bullet, and is soon out for revenge on his former employers, with the reluctant assistance of his old friend Cheech Marin, who has become a priest and taken a vow of nonviolence. If you hire him to take out the bad guys, make sure the bad guys aren’t you!

The movie will be out September 3rd, 2010. Perfect for Labor Day weekend!