Thursday, February 28, 2008

Don't Sleep Tour Features In Computer Arts...

Computer Arts kindly featured a page in the re-designed issue on the Don't Sleep Secret Wars European Tour...



Thanks to Tom and Garrick!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Introducing Mr K - A star of the future...

A couple of flicks from a new Monorex recruit "Mr K"...

One of the selected new artists joining the Monorex family for 2008 - his profile will be going live soon...


Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Teck and Stika paint wall @ Cafe 1001 for SW Final

check out the recent collaboration between Teck 1 and Stika - this is one of the surrounding walls in the SW battle arena for this years final.

Birmingham Semi Final - phill blake vs newso / agent vs kungfoienihi - 2 battles, one huge night

my morning after blog..
also at spinnermagazine.co.uk
- seeds



i'm weak at the knee's, i've had about 2 hrs sleep - i think i'm still mildy intoxicated but i have to write this up before it starts slipping from my memory..

so its 9pm, there was hardly anyone about and i thought to myself "maybe we're gonna have a quiet secret wars semi final here?! surely not..?"

but surely not indeed, as the door starts getting a pounding by half past and a ton of secret wars fans started flooding in.. as the clock hits 10 i thought we'd better get started, and with the 4 artists finally collected together (phill blake v's newso / agent v's kungo) we take a stroll out to the smoking area and discuss who's gonna get the board with a slightly dodgy join in the middle of it (no one really wanted it, although it really weren't that bad lol)

after much coin tossing and general drunkeness i eventually get the artists to pull straws... an unlucky newso got the shortest and therefore the gnarly panel.
and off they go..

"unleash the lions" said sloba..
and they were all growling from the outset :)

Agent, looking quite hammered, went straight in big and attracted the crowds attention immediately with a mad head with its lid removed..
next door to him his opponent Kungfo was furiously hammering lines of perspective out, to his right Phill Blake slowly kicked off with a selection of "ladyshapes" beginning to appear and then Newso with his "bad" board was in the same frame of mind as Agent with big stuff going straight in..
it was apparent that all 4 wanted to win, badly. you could almost smell the hunger..
a huge crowd looked on.. pressure built by the second.

dj Skunkboy and Heartless p totally tore the roof off for an hr and we were in full swing..
then (as no Reeps 1 appeared, what happened to you mate??) Basix (Rupert) from scratch club birmingham did a showcase human beatbox set.. damn that guys hyperactive!
judges boogie Dave (drop beats not bombs) the go go plastics crew and Mikey sweden all looked on with their work obviously cut out.
and all this time, more and more people are flooding into the jam..
bigger than barry gets the rainbow rammed out, but it was literally as busy by half 10/11ish..
big ups to everyone who reached. you made the walls sweat.. we love you.

a few audio tech problems later and Evolucian, Elliot fresh and Heartless wreck the backroom with dope live uk hip hop, and the front of the pub is bouncing with Adamn noise and Didi giving it some heavy stepper bussssinizzzzzzz..
the artists had an hr left and everyones work was top notch.. it was anyones for the taking by the half way mark.. gents lift off head character was forming nicely by now with a variety of odd stuff coming out the top, Kungfo's lines were now becoming a mad grid full of his trademark cats, and Phill's ladyshapes had now become "secret whores".. Newso now had a giant beast up and some very nice lettering going on..

we open the 5th box of grolsch and everyone in the place is enjoying the secret wars vibe..

so its crunch time.

we started with the crowd votes for Agent and Kungo..
and there was hardly anything in it, but Kungfo just took it by a decibel or 2
then we moved to the next crowd vote for Phill and Newso
again hardly anything in it, but Phill took it...
1 vote for Kungo
1 vote for Phill
so i pull out the envolopes from the judges and felt a bit like we were at our very own secret oscars.. a vote for Agent.. and another vote for Kungfo.
finalist number 1 is declared - Kungfo
same deal with 2 more envolopes..
but unluckily for Phill, Newso gets 2 staight judges votes and takes it..
and we have your second finalist - Newso

and there it is.. breathe out.

everyone proceeded to party hard for the remaining couple of hrs, big props to everyone involved in making the sounds so dope.. and a massive shout to all the punters who really did make some noise all round..

now there can be only one

NEWSO V'S KUNGFOGIENIHI
MARCH 22nd
THE RAINBOW WAREHOUSE

you know what to do.. ;)
flyer on its way

quality photo's from this semi coming real soon
(if your one of our photo folks, get at me!* i left my phone in sheffield friday night so email me yeah ;) ..doh)

congrats to the winners and unlucky to the losers

"there's a war going on outside, no one is safe from.."

get ready for the final

;)

SEEDS

props out to all the artists
lyd x
slobadan the man that can
holly
ad, lee and the rainbow crew
skunkboy
evolucian, elliot fresh + heartless p
basix
adamn noise, eva, verity, all staffs crew
carlos and asif on the door (we'll sort you some tee's, i threw em all out into the crowd)
didi
mikey
boogie dave
go go plastics crew
sasha
jimmy, n4, salter, tra, nuk, mandoo, leyton, linds etc
all the brum peeps
base (mad mate!)
skank at the bench
pete and the bar staff (fine work ;)
everyone who came out and represented.
edding
ecko watches
and all the sponsors
and a big shout to skink and el tel

now i sleep lol

back soon with vids and stills galore..
i did actually have a camera's worth. Until i lost my camera in the chaos
however, we have poloroids, digitals and video coming, stay tuned.

Seeds (big up sloba!)
Spinner?
lml
Secret Wars Birmingham

Monday, February 18, 2008

PUMA GLOW BIKE - COOL IDEA! NEEDS SOME ARTWORK THO..



How come no one's thought of this before is beyond me. Puma's third in their bike series features a glow in the dark bike. It's not only very cool looking but has the added bike-safety benefit of higher visibility when riding at night. The bike uses a paint that absorbs light during the day and at night the glow can be seen by all admirers. The frame is single-gear and can be folded for portability and space-saving storage. And for any would-be thieves who are covetous of your prize, the bike features an integrated wire lock system, which means if it's stolen and rode without the wire, the bike will auto-destruct. I don't know if that includes lots of flames and explosions but I like it. |via Slamxhype / product dose|

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Secret Wars is going Worldwide!

Announcement:

Secret Wars is currently in the early stages of setting up SW Australia, Germany and Switzerland...These will be structured as a whole competition involving 8 artists (same as the UK).

IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND YOU ARE AN INTERESTED ARTIST FROM THESE 3 COUNTRIES THEN PLEASE APPLY NOW - STUDIO@SECRETWARS.CO.UK (SUBJECT SHOULD = NAME OF WHICH COUNTRY YOU ARE FROM)

Keep an eye out for more cities as we are constantly evolving...

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Secret Wars Southampton Semi-Final Zadok Vs Gustav

The first Southampton Secret Wars Semi-Final was always going to be the talk of the town, but even I had no idea how controversial it was going to be. Zadok Vs Gustav was a battle all Secret Wars fans were looking forward to. Even King Terry made the journey down…the Soul Cellar was packed; the artists were ready and so began the show.



I’d love to tell you all, that this was a heated battle, but the truth is Gustav was the only one representing. With Zadok disappearing in the middle of the battle, it allowed a member of his 54 crew to scrawl over his piece. Gustav, not leaving the stage or loosing focus continued with his work, closely supported by the crowd and the rest of The Undergrowth Collective.

It was clear by Zadok’s piece he had no intention to go through to the final. If the Vote for Gustav suggestion wasn’t a big enough clue his final actions in the remaining minutes did more than prove it. With a couple more minutes to go, Zadok grabbed a pink spray can, and marked the words “graffiti is dead, secret wars killed it”.



Of course rules state that this is strictly a Black on White contest and no other colours are to be used, resulting in Zadok to be disqualified. An all time first for Secret Wars. The only thing missing from the night was a classic Eastenders cliff-hanger drum roll at the end, which would have been perfect.



The night raised a lot of issues, a lot of questions and many opinions, which is what makes this event stand out from anything else out there. As with anything that reaches the masses and becomes popular, there are always going to be those who have been in the scene for years objecting to what’s going on. Whether they believe Secret Wars has in some way taken away something important from the art form, like putting it up on a stage instead of a protected building, isn't certain. But it is in no way a crash course in graffiti techniques, open to all for admission. It's an illustrator’s battle, yes many of the guys who compete do come from a graff background, but the fact of the matter is, it’s completely different. It’s as far removed from the graff scene as Paul McCartney is to Heather Mills. Secret Wars gives artists a platform to launch themselves and show what their capable of. It also introduces a whole new art form to people that wouldn’t usually get to see something like that. Am I wrong? Answers on a postcard.

Anyway, enough of that…………..

The crowd carried on partying to the sounds of DJ Muffle and R-Kid and the rest admired and discussed the work up on stage. All in all, it was another great night for Southampton.

Gustav will now meet the winner of the next Semi-Final Reeps 1 Vs s0bac on Thursday 28th February @ Soul Cellar (78 West Marlands Road, Southampton)

Friday, February 08, 2008

AWAY ON HOLIDAY! THAILAND RECHARGE...

On my way to Thailand as I write this, currently in Bahrain airport (Middle East) waiting for a connecting flight...

Tried to sleep on the first flight but was constantly spoken to by my new friend "Paul" - He was telling me all about his life and what he was doing in the Middle East (Constructing radio systems)....Nice guy but talks for England! :)

will post some pics when I get a chance - but hopefully that will not be anytime soon as I want to recharge my batteries down on a Thai beach :) apparently full body massages (no dodgyness) are like 4 quid for an hour!

I will need some of that after this 26hr journey - which involves 3 flights, 3 taxis and a private speedboat (Miami vice stylie) to get to the island Koh Samui.

Anyway guys and girls, until then take care and speak soon.

See you all at the Secret Wars London Grand Final - 29th Feb @ Cafe 1001

T

UPDATE - SOME FLICKS

MY NEW FRIENDS!

ONE OF THE ISLANDS WE WERE CHILLING ON

REPPING THE SW..WITH PRAWN TAIL IN MOUTH :)

A REAL LADY BOY - URGHH!

ONE OF THE MANY AMAZING TEMPLES

Monday, February 04, 2008

SECRET WARS VISITS TOKYO....

TECK1 & ZADOK @100% design, part of tokyo design week...

This was back in October - just have not had the time to blog it! but we were invited out by our good friends @ Designers Block (Rory and Piers)...To put on a live art show over the 4 days in central Tokyo.

We had a real good time - meeting lots of cool people, eating lots of sushi along the way...

looking forward to getting back there some time soon













Sunday, February 03, 2008