KSPACE.TV » california

Intro: You Gotta Know Your Classics

Jonathan — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:21:56 +0000

We love telling a good story here at KSPACE, as much as we love playing around with the idea of all things classic – past, present, future and even future primitive (but that’s a whole other story). So we’re delighted at this time to be unrolling a story not previously told, of an iconic brand steeped in ‘the Classic’ and better yet we get to tell it with the help of eight highly credible international designers over the next couple weeks in ‘You Gotta Know Your Classics’

It goes a little something like this – between 1966 and 1986 California sports brand K-Swiss created and sold a single shoe: The Classic. In that short period, The Classic rapidly evolved from being the world’s most advanced shoe on the tennis court to being the first high-performance white leather sneaker. Dare it be said that every other leather tennis shoe that followed was derived from The Classic. Now um after a mere forty-four years after its launch, K-Swiss is finally telling The Classic’s story and sharing some choice secrets along the way about its quietly iconic shoe.

Secrets like why its original owners only produced a single shoe for twenty years and what the ‘K’ in its name actually stands for, all unusually interpreted and told with the help of Amsterdam storytelling agency Lemon Scented Tea and eight top emerging international designers visually narrating the story via a series of collectable and we do mean Limited edition posters.

Each chapter of this classic tale from ‘No Talk Policy’ to ‘K is for Kalifornia’ to ‘Blond on Blond’ and ‘We Killed Canvas. Sorry’ all provide a fresh unique ontext to The Classic, while the designers were given free reign to interpret the stories graphically. Each poster is a stand-alone illustration, underscoring the lack of hierarchy in The Classics’s own story.

Stayed tuned here as the story unfolds and for details on when and how we will be giving away these choice collectables and a chance to win your own Classics.

Sam Querrey Signs to K-Swiss Tennis; Brings The Samurai with him

tcroberts — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:22:57 +0000

California son Sam Querrey is now Team K-Swiss. He recently took the title at LA’s Tennis Open and is ranked 24th in the world, second-highest American behind Roddick. The 22 year-old has been touted as America’s next great talent. The 6 foot 6-er with the big serve is a big music fan, name-dropping Blink 182 and No Doubt recently in intereviews. Sam even has his own cheering section, called “The Samurai,” three high school buddies that paint their chests and bang a giant gong when he scores. Essentially they are there to ignore the etiquette and bring the noise. Sounds like what the game needs – awesomeness. Watch this spot for more on Sammy.

Welcome to Frezno: Central Cali Teenage Wasteland

tcroberts — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:07:05 +0000

People come to California, expecting a perpetual sunbathed beach front that glide right up to the Golden Gate bridge — a beautiful, exotic locale. However, there’s a big expanse between LA and SF, which is filled with some of the best agricultural and natural land in the world. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some incredible sights along the coast. However, there’s also one city, the equivalent of the flyover states for California, a town called Fresno. Nicknamed by many “the armpit of California”, the city is largely the resulting urban blight from decades of migrant farmers and capitalists decending on the ripe Central Valley. It’s been given the short end of the stick, however the names and the reputation are there for a reason. If you’ve ever driven through Fresno, you know that Fresno is weird, and oddly depressing, probably because of the largely immigrant population and the magnet for American low culture that has made it one of the biggest Meth cities in the world. Now, CA-born photographer Tony Stamolis has released a new book “Frezno” which examines life in California’s sixth largest city with vivid, stark and honest imagery. He captures his hometown, once a beacon of booming surburbia, with a harsh, unsettling light. However, beneath the surface there is a new kind of DIY culture brewing, something uniquely its own… and perhaps something even more interesting seen through his lens. No doubt there will be more and more wondrous bands, artists and the like coming outta Fresno.

Photographer: Ari Marcopolous

tcroberts — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:17:03 +0000

Ari has been shooting the zeitgeist that is his life, from snowboarders and skateboards that he calls friends, and the obligatory downtown characters, for over 20 years. He came up alongside the Haring and Basquiat, and had deep connections to the art community that nourished his raw talent. He is self taught and like many classic talents, he managed to find his niche outside of the typical professional track, always drawn to young talent, whether it be sports or budding film directors. He defined the style that so many point-and-shoot photographers have been drawn to lately, yet his images and his ability to capture moments are inspiring and simple at the same time. Marcopolous is getting a retrospective at the UC Berkley Museum of Art early next year. “Within Arm’s Reach” is a big show, filling two gallery spaces at the museum, but it seems appropriate at Marcopolous is a big talent.

via Slamxhype

Old Timers Rediscover Slalom for a New Gen

tcroberts — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:42:07 +0000

If you remember Dogtown and Z Boys, the early incarnation of skateboarding as a competitive sport was slalom. Eventually, the push towards freestyle would leave it in the dust, seeming like a relic from another age. However, the sport itself is still young, so there are many who still remember and practice it. No matter how you slice it, slalom is a skill. There is no fakery or trick to it, only precision and focus. Recently, there has been a resurgance which looks to be passed along to another generation.

Martin Reaves, 18, of Boulder, Colo., began racing in 2007. He finished second to Mitchell in the hybrid slalom pro class at the national championships last week and won the pro class in giant slalom Friday at the world championships. This summer he will compete in the Czech Republic, where slalom is more competitive and popular.

Four years ago, Reaves had never heard of slalom.

Technology has helped advance the equipment, especially from those early days, and with over 30 years of experience, some of the early slalom enthusiasts must be pretty damn good… or at least be damn good coaches. It may seem pedestrian compared to landing a 900 degree trick, but speed is a forgotten skill set. There’s hope for a rebirth yet.

‘Being Ed Templeton’: Art and Board Children

tcroberts — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:09:26 +0000

Templeton embodies the juxtaposition between modern art and suburban culture. He’s one of the few pioneers at the cross-section between street art and street skating, an intersection that has gone on to produce a new generation of artists and skaters. Actually, he is the cross-section. Just as skating took a leap toward innovation and singular expression, the art world began to embrace the same principals. It was also not a bad time to be a rebelious teenager, with little or no interested in an office job. Templeton, a latch-key kid with a rattled home life in middle-class Orange County, found his way into a pro skate career which allowed him the ability to explore the European artworld, a world desperate for new ideas. Ed Templeton’s mid-90s art career grew alongside Aaron Rose’s Alleged Gallery, which was open terrain for people like him to explore. Now, he successfully traverses the cultural overlap between being a skater and using the inspiration of that culture to create. This week ESPN’s Michah Abrams highlights Templeton’s career, and the series of strange (seemingly) oxymorons that come from a world-class artists living behind the greyed-out sprawl of deep Orange County, Calfornia.

Templeton was born and raised within this vast grid and, despite all that’s happened in the 36 years since, he refuses to leave. You can argue that he owes his twin careers—a skateboard pro approaching legend status and a fine artist with a growing international following—to this place. You could just as easily argue that he’s earned the right to live in a place that better suits his quirky sensibilities, a place that lacks the troubling personal baggage this one carries. Templeton has these arguments with himself all the time. He’s still not leaving.

Regardless what his provenance, Templeton defines the meta-culture of our new history. Suburban mall rats are the new runway models, skaters are the new masters.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Win: Nosaj Thing Drift

tcroberts — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:10:05 +0000

Nosaj Thing has quickly garnered attention from outlets as dispersed as the BBC, The Fader and Giant Robot magazine. Called an “essential purchase”, “startlingly good” and “the future of hip-hop and what producers will be biting in the next couple of years”, Drift, the electronic, beat-driven debut LP has already topped the Bleep and Boomkat (for electronic aficionados) charts, as well as a healthy spot on the iTunes electronic sales chart. Not bad for a small So Cal indie release, with little or no radio play. It helped that early on Kid Cudi tapped Nosaj to provide the beat for his “The Man in the Moon (The Anthem)” track. Nosaj Thing will tour Asia soon, and is working on a European and US tour later this year.

Win a copy of Drift by answering the following question: What is Nosaj Thing’s full name?

Send entries HERE. First 5 correct answers will WIN.

Live: Juan McLean and The Field @ The Glass House, Pomona CA

Matt Diehl — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:45:12 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Woe to anyone in Southern California who tries to put on any sort of non-basketball related event on the night of a Lakers game during the finals. Even the electronic-music nerds couldn’t tear themselves away from the Lakers crushing Orlando Magic 100-75, as was evident to The Field playing to 30 people exactly (yes, I counted) last night at the Glass House in Pomona. Come all the way from Sweden for this? WTF? Isn’t Pomona a college town? Where were all the dorm-room producers? The blog-house DJ geeks? Are they secretly jocks, too? I mean, yes, one Field band member was sporting a beret, but that’s no reason to stay home (they are European, after all…). Sure, LCD Soundsystem/DFA main man James Murphy, sporting a white linen suit, was in the audience taking a break from recording his new album in Hollywood, but still…

Regardless, The Field – main man Axel Willner and an band alternating on bass, drums, keyboards and Mac – devastated the miniature crowd anyway with their lush modular synths, swirling surround-sound ambience, and sweetly nostalgic ’90s tribal house beats. Indeed, the Field’s channels were minimal, but hardly basic: hypnotic bass guitar drones built on layers of synthetic sound, and Monsieur Beret even rocked a xylophone, giving a whiff of a Steve Reich chamber orchestra as remixed by 808 State. It was a fairly kinetic performance, despite the fact that Willner left the stage for what seemed to be a bathroom break during a particularly thrilling synth arpeggio. The intimacy of the crowd and offhandedness of the performance felt appropriate to the meditative, intimate intensity of Willner’s grooves.

The crowd swelled a bit, however, for headliners The Juan Maclean, riding high with one of the year’s best albums so far, The Future Will Come. Excitement in the crowd could be gauged by the number of bearded trainspotters surreptitiously photographing Maclean’s amazing vintage analog synth equipment in systematic fashion – no surprise considering one of the greatest analog synth dealers ever, Analogue Haven is just around the corner from the club. Juan Maclean himself did not disappoint the beards, ripping amazing extended, deliriously funky theremin solos on tracks like “Give Me Every Little Thing.” Juan’s co-star Nancy Whang was also an effectively robo-human diva frontwoman, throwing angular shapes like she was starring in Liquid Sky and resplendent in ’80s vintage pastel jumpsuit. There’s nothing like a cool chick whose formative punk rock moment was high-end electroclash, and I mean that as a sincere compliment, with no disrespect, to paraphrase Whang’s other band, LCD Soundsystem, incorrectly. Live, Whang is in fact less Miss Kittin detached than she is on record, displaying a more Yoko Ono-ish emotive caterwaul, making the vibe a bit more punk rock than synth pop. The best part of the show, however, was the percussion orgy that seems to be a part of every DFA act’s live show – it’s one of the greater spectacles to become orthodoxy in the neo-pop pantheon. Juan Maclean’s great blog-house smash “Happy House” provided the ecstatic climax, with Juan’s epic space-synth workout showing he’s an M.D. when it comes to “doctorin’ the tardis”. Best of all, both Juan Maclean and The Field managed to actually rock truly danceable beats while making music that proves both challenging and humorous; small crowd or no, each band made sure there was a sweaty party on the dancefloor and the stage. All in all… so excellent.