Cultural adventurer and social butterfly who enjoys the art and wisdom of good conversation. With a passion for art, film, fashion, and food this ECONISTA loves to travel, take pictures and explore new places. www.reggieworld.com www.thefete.com

A lifelong resident of Queens' Long Island City and direct child of its burgeoning art scene, Shan Nicholson was reared on the streets of New York City during the politically turbulent and artistically rich period of the early 1980s. Within the span of his 15-year career as a music producer, renowned graffiti artist and DJ he has worked extensively within the genres that have since dominated the sounds of both the city and the greater world, and continues to record and publish music with his collective, Cloudkickers. Nicholson, initially introduced to filmmaking as a student at SUNY Purchase, first realized the documentary concept, as well as the grand cultural and fiscal opportunity that it presented after his audience gave him continual questions throughout a particularly energetic/successful period deejay set. The artists and music featured in Downtown Calling remain crowd-moving staples within Mr. Nicholson's legendary DJ sets at some of New York City's premier clubs and parties. Downtown Calling is Mr. Nicholson's directorial debut.
Most famously known as the lead singer/songwriter for the iconic new wave band Blondie, Downtown Calling's Narrator, Debbie Harry, is recognized the world over as the iconic sex symbol of the year zero punk generation. In addition to writing and performing smash hits like "Heart of Glass", "Call Me", "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture", Harry has acted in over thirty film roles and numerous television appearances.
Ben Velez has turned a lifetime steeped in downtown NYC culture into a craft for launching and growing brands. Known for rebranding and growing the international streetwear brand Triple Five Soul (at which he served first as Global Brand Director before becoming Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations), his career has also included playing an integral role at Burton Snowboards' higher echelon line, Analog and UK luxury streetwear brand, Maharishi. A multi-disciplinary background in deejaying and music journalism to fashion styling and public relations, combined with an anal-retentive professionalism and a lifelong set of strong relationships with peer creatives and businesspeople alike, has led Velez through a successful and renowned career that has traversed the high-end sportswear, streetwear, action sports and music industries. Velez has also spent the better part of his life compiling and curating music for fellow artists, producers and companies, and is currently the owner of his own full-service marketing consultancy and music supervision company. In addition to his corporate skillset, Velez has, over the course of his lifetime, built a strong, personal network of music celebrities and record label honchos upon which he relies upon regularly to combine work and pleasure.
David Viola, a native New Yorker who has been working in the film business in varying capacities since his graduation from Binghamton University in 1998, is a film producer at Filbert Steps Productions in New York. He is currently in post-production on Trumbo, a film about the Hollywood blacklist and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's resultant experiences. Featuring Liam Neeson, Paul Giamatti, Nathan Lane and David Strathairn, Trumbo expects to make its world premiere at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival. Previously, David produced Runaway, which premiered to rave reviews at the Tribeca and Toronto Film Festivals and won the Best Narrative Feature award at the 2005 Austin Film Festival. Runaway starred Aaron Stanford (X-Men 2 and 3, Tadpole and The Hills Have Eyes) and Robin Tunney (Vertical Limit, End of Days, The Craft and Fox's "Prison Break"). Before joining Filbert Steps, David's experience included stints at Julia Roberts' Revolution-based Shoelace (now Red-Om) Productions and indie-leading Artisan Entertainment during the Blair Witch Project and Requiem for a Dream projects. He had also freelance-evaluated scripts for independent production companies and studios throughout the city. Viola brings his invaluable, personal industry relationships with top festival programmers, agents, distributors and sales reps to the Downtown Calling production team.

Here is the run down."How to Make It in America" follows two enterprising Brooklyn twenty
somethings as they hustle their way through New York City, determined
to achieve the American Dream. Trying to make a name for themselves in
New York's competitive fashion scene, Ben Epstein (Greenberg) and his
friend and business partner Cam Calderon (Rasuk)
use their street
knowledge and connections to bring their ambitions to fruition. With
the help of Cam's cousin Rene (Guzman), who is trying to market his own
high-energy drink, and their well-connected friend Domingo ("Kid
Cudi"), the entrepreneurs set out to make it big, encountering
obstacles along the way that will require all their ingenuity to
overcome.
"How to Make It in America" also stars Lake Bell as Ben's ex-girlfriend Rachel, who is concentrating on her own career and a new relationship; Martha Plimpton ("Beautiful Girls," "200 Cigarettes") as Rachel's boss Edie, an eccentric interior designer; Shannyn Sossamon ("40 Days and 40 Nights," "The Holiday") as Gingy, Ben and Cam's artsy friend; and Eddie Kaye Thomas ("Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," "American Pie") as David Kaplan, a successful hedge fund manager and high school friend of Ben's.
Creator and first-time writer Ian Edelman is collaborating with Emmy nominee Rob Weiss ("Entourage") on many of the show's scripts. The pilot and other episodes of the show are being directed by Julian Farino. Additional writers and directors will be announced as they are confirmed.
"How to Make It in America" is produced by HBO Entertainment; executive producers, Stephen Levinson, Rob Weiss, Ian Edelman, Julian Farino, Jada Miranda and Mark Wahlberg; producer, Jane Raab.
The Boneyards launch party was Friday night in LA. The clothing and stores collaboration launched June 21. Punk rock music, smoke machines, hot dog stands and carnival prizes accompanied the launch to showcase the sneakers. The exhibition-installation upped the ante for product launch parties. Much of the inspiration for the installation came from 80's NYC art legend and underground conceptual sculpturer Cady Noland. (more about Cady later) In New York, Kids were waiting in line overnight to see the new line. A mixture of biker, flannel, motorcycle high and low art, tattoos and San Pedro chic . I am proud to say I worked on some of the images in the Boneyards newspaper launch. Location images were shot by art director Rob Abeyta, then converted to analog slides that I projected over the models like tattoo artist, John Hall. Pretty cool. Here are some pics. Official Boneyards site

Danielle Decker and Undefeated's Jupiter, FUCT's Erik Brunetti and myself, Rob and Christina Abeyta with daughter Engracia, a carnival worker from the launch and Skate photographer and Tokyo pal Rip Zinger.






It was one of those gorgeous spring days in Tokyo. The cherry blossums were starting to come out, and so were the kids. I headed over to Yoyogi Park to take some photos. Yoyogi is one of the largest parks in Tokyo, located adjacent to Harajuku Station and Meiji Shrine in Shibuya. It is peaceful, beautiful and on a sunday afternoon, the place to see young Tokyo.

What I love about Japan is that the people are so refined and regal, they care about their cities and the elegance of nature. Notice these teens brought an ashtray to the park instead of using the ground. They also sell ashtray necklaces that people use to stub out their butts so they dont have to litter the streets. It's sad that teens smoke--yes, but at least they don't litter and smoke.

This gentleman didn't quite get the "youth culture" thing but you gotta love that he's out there just reliving it.





This exhibition brings together two artists - Daniel Guzmán (born 1964, lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico) and Steven Shearer (born 1968, lives and works in Vancouver, BC, Canada). Both artists work in a variety of mediums exploring issues of male identity, extended adolescence, rock culture, death, and the seductive ambiguity of self-portraiture. Experiencing their work, one immediately sees a parallel adoption of 1970s and 1980s pop icons and bands as surrogates and personal avatars.
Daniel Guzmán draws. His work is a tidal wave of drawing that also becomes a dynamic inventory of drawing styles. His myriad influences range from Aztec codices, Haight-Ashbury psychedelia, comic books from his youth, and Mexican muralists, particularly José Clemente Orozco. The topics of Guzmán's drawings fuse old gods with current events, cultural idols, inventories of deadly sins, and cardinal virtues.
Guzmán's sculpture is a natural extension of his drawing techniques. He uses the simplest of materials to sketch a three-dimensional incident and establish encounters with the magic realism of the everyday. In much of his work there are two levels of interpretation - what it is (the sum of its parts) and what it signifies (the poetry of its allusions).
While it is impossible to think of Guzmán's art outside of the context of Mexico, it is equally impossible to ignore the wider cultural context provided by the United States and the world beyond. It is the ease of his citations (be it William Burroughs or Roberto Bolaño, Bruce Nauman or Kiss) that creates a floating universe of sublimely mismatched equivalencies.
Steven Shearer curates collections. He maintains thousands of digital files from which his art is evolved and created. In service to his work, Shearer harvests the aspirations of those souls wandering on the Web, riffing on air guitars, catching their zzz's, selling their stuff on eBay, or posing as the stars they yearn to be. From these enormous files, Shearer creates collage accumulations that are epic documentaries of the possessions and the poses of a slacker paradise.
Shearer also paints the ghosts of the Web. His portraits of anonymous adolescents and fallen teen idols are replete with the keyed-up color of the Symbolists whom the artist admires, but they also come with the subjects sheathed in a psychedelic aura that has vibrated around metal bands for decades. It is, in fact, the names and lyrics of metal bands from which Shearer derives the acid-etched poems that are reminiscent of William Burroughs' cut-up techniques.
Shearer's sculpture has grown to be an increasingly important part of his work. It comes with narratives that imply design as a tool for character reformation and psychic healing. Like the music Shearer references, his sculpture is both a narcotic promise and a harmonic convergence.
The exhibition is organized by Richard Flood, Chief Curator.




The chief executive of American Apparel Inc. has long been known as something of an exhibitionist. Dov Charney is beyond frank when discussing his sex life and sometimes wanders around his factory in his underpants.
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| Dov Charney |
But the business operations of Mr. Charney's rapidly expanding clothing empire have not been nearly so transparent. Even as American Apparel rose to prominence over the past decade with basic T-shirts, clingy dresses and sexualized marketing campaigns, its status as a private company has shielded from view its chronic financial problems.
Now, American Apparel is opening the kimono -- and it's not necessarily a pretty sight. Since going public last December in an unorthodox maneuver, the company has conceded it suffers a number of "material weaknesses." According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, these include "inadequate expertise in the application of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles." The company is grappling with its fourth sexual-harassment lawsuit, and its former insurer says it won't pay any damages.
The company says it's blameless in the suit and that it's working to correct its other problems. But it also details an unusually long list of risk factors, including a recent query from Immigration and Customs Enforcement requesting citizen documents of factory employees; a current government tax audit and high levels of debt.
American Apparel had healthy sales of $387 million last year, up 36% over 2006, and reported a big 37.5% gain in same-store sales in the recently ended first quarter. But its shares are off more than 40% since December. Friday, they closed at $8.30, up 30 cents.
to read the entire article go to the Wall Street Journal:
By NICHOLAS CASEY
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120796037535209509.html

Comme
des Garcons' founder and head designer Rei Kawakubo will create this
autumn's guest designer collection at H&M. Rei Kawakubo, famous and
admired for her creativity and artistry, will design a women's and a
men's collection, with some pieces for children too. Accessories and an
exclusive unisex fragrance will also be included in the collection.
"Rei Kawakubo has been at the top of our wish list for a long time and we are thrilled that she has chosen to collaborate with us. We have tremendous respect for Kawakubo's fashion philosophy of questioning fashion's ingrained patterns, and admire her artistic approach to design. We are particularly excited that the collection will be launched in Japan, Kawakubo's native country, at the same time as the launch of our new store there", explains Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor, H&M.
The world launch of the collection will be at the opening of H&M's second store in Tokyo, Japan, in the beginning of November. Launch date for other H&M markets will be a few days later.
Comme des Garcons Ltd was established in 1973 as a company based on creativity and originality. Always pushing the frontiers of design and never accepting the status quo, Comme des Garcons now produces 14 different brands and employs nearly 700 people, with shops in over 25 countries.
H & M Hennes & Mauritz
AB (H&M) was established in Sweden in 1947 and is synonymous with
affordable as well as up-to-date and high quality fashion. H&M has
a wide product range that is divided into a number of different
concepts for women, men, teenagers, children and cosmetics. The
company's clothing collections are created by its own designers,
pattern makers and buyers. H&M has around 68,000 employees and over
1,500 H&M-stores in 28 countries. For further information visit www.hm.com. photo: Getty images, text: HM

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