Justin Timberlake

On Thursday, July 8th, we attended church. Not in the conventional sense but in a "creative" sense. In other words, we ducked into a petite white renovated church in little Italy/Chinatown in New York City that had been adorned to celebrate a colorful, dynamic multi-media gallery exhibit, T Minus 20, where experimental fashion and film melded into one.

The concept was two-fold. On the first floor, 20 eclectic artists re-designed a basic white t-shirt. In other words, there were t-shirts ripped, stretched, glamorized with jewels, tie-died, decomposed and knit upon. Artists included Christopher Lee Sauvé (the Canadian designer best known for creating the "Save Anna" t-shirts in response to incorrect rumors that Vogue editor Anna Wintour was going to be fired.); street-savvy painter / sculptor / T-shirt designer Scooter LaForge; plus Olek, Brian Kenny, Gio Black Peter, and Inbred Hybrid Collective, Marcos Chin and Fernanda Cohen; and photographer and Warhol Factory veteran Christopher Makos.

Then on the 2nd level was an installation of innovative video art. The intent was to "break down boundaries of art and fashion" and exhibit "art that won’t sit still…" Our favorite part was the 3-D installation by the dynamic experimental 3D video art by Sweatshoppe. (As you can tell we are in love with 3D these days after seeing features of the new Sony 3D TV; video with Justin and Peyton Manning HERE.) 

Pyramid sculpture video installation by Devan Simunovich above.

 

PS in case you're curious, T Minus 20 is a term used for choking when the game is on the line and when the odds of winning are 1000 to 1.

T Minus 20

Curated by Jason LeBlond and Ves Pitts of Ignite Licensing

Exhibition dates: July 8 – August 1, 2010
Christopher Henry Gallery 
127 Elizabeth Street, Nolita NYC (between Broome & Grand)

PS You can buy some of the shirts online HERE

Where can you find Lindsay Lohan, Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo, midgets dressed as monkeys, and 100,000 people dancing till dawn?

The Electric Daisy Carnival, of course.

RECAP: The 14th Annual Electric Daisy Festival (or EDC) is currently held in four separate cities: Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, and Puerto Rico but still remains a largely "underground" phenomenon; for instance, in Los Angeles, where the largest show was held Friday and Saturday, June 25th and 26th, 2010, it was 'business as usual' until you entered USC's campus and saw teams of youngsters in day-glo and tu-tus converging towards the exposition park like swarming bees. Once onsite, you catch on: The festival is a rave in the traditional sense. Kids dress up in ridiculous day-glo outfits, pacifiers in mouths, glowsticks in hand as 150 of the world's best electronic DJs coerced exuberant dance revolutions at each stage. However, while this scene may not seem culturally mainstream, it is currently the largest music festival in America - according to numbers of people per day (i.e. Friday boasted 85,000 people; Saturday at capacity at 100,000. [ah, to put that in perspective, that's the entire population of Boulder, CO. Yikes!])

What made this year distinct? People liked Will.i.am's performance so much they tried to bum-rush fences - [translation: not good idea], Steve Aoki coerced Weezer lead singer River's Cuomo - complete with his horn-rimmed glasses - to sing during his set, Italian stallion Benny Benassi got the crowd singing in unison to a sick Red Hot Chili Peppers "Otherside" Remix, Lil Jon was seen pouring champagne and leading crowd cheers on whatever stages he was invited to traverse, A-Trak and Armand Van Helden (the duo behind the new outfit, "Duck Sauce") DJ'ed in front of a gigantic, blow-up duck. The festivities carried on way into dawn both nights until Armand Van Buuren closed everything down Saturday (err...Sunday depending on how you count) with a flurry of fireworks that rivaled the upcoming 4th of July. (Seriously, see the picts below.) Oh - lest we forget - even the infamous party scenster Lindsey Lohan showed up (with court-ordered bracelet.) [You know it's a party when....]

Bottom line is if you haven't yet heard of the Electric Daisy Festival, mark your calendars for next year. It sincerely lives up to it's "carnival" name - with ferris wheels, clowns on stilts, fire-flaming trees, and various Burning Man-esque gymnasts and carni folk - including wicked witches of the West, Jokers, and yes, midgets. Meanwhile, it is by far one of the most impressive festival productions on the market: each stage is pumped full of confetti, stage-of-the-art audio systems, somersaulting dancers on trampolines, full-flamed goose-bump inducing flame-torches, and insane this-can't-be-legal pyrotechnics. Even if you've never picked up a glow stick in your life, you will be amused by the beauty and kinetic energy that comes from thousands of people dancing to the same beat - stage after stage, hour after hour, for two full days straight.

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS:

Lil Jon with Ben Benassi

Moby

Armin Van Buuren greeting fans

FINALE on Saturday

Will.i.am - Jump Around Remix

Benny Benassi - Other Side (Red Hot Chili Peppers Remix)

Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand

Steve Aoki's Stage Dive

Photos and commentary: Faith-Ann Young

 

The newest artists of Tennman Records, Justin's music label, artists Free Sol got a special honor today - by having their mixtape FEATURED on MTV, recommended by Justin himself!

See the video with Justin and the group below:

Meanwhile, just how loyal is Free Sol to their name? They've allowed their mixtape to be downloaded FOR FREE HERE. We posted about this last week but in case you missed it, click HERE to download!

On MTV, Free explained the concept: "The mixtape was an idea to paint a picture of what we're trying to do," Free said. "A lot of people, whenever they describe us, they say 'rock/rap.' So immediately you may think of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Linkin Park, something you've heard before. I think that that we do is something extremely different, original. I think the mixtape was an idea to kind of create the picture of what we're trying to do. We took a lot of older [songs], whether it be AC/DC or Smashing Pumpkins, and make them our own. Live bands, live musicians. We approached the mixtape concept through the eyes of a band."

MTV article (Feat Justin!)

Free Sol Mixtape

 

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