Crooks and Castles Footwear

Although Crooks and Castles' usual product is not exactly my rage, I have to admit their new footwear line due to launch Spring 2010 is definitely interesting as the streetwear brand clearly steers away from the hypebeast "crazy color x all over print x too much going on" look. Using monotone colorways with simplistic designs with suede and canvas materialization, it's pretty obvious who their influences were. They utilize what seems to be an imitation Italian cup sole..a look destined to look other brands that price their shoes at minimum 300.. I am pretty sure these kicks are priced under 100 (I may be wrong?)


The Chukka model was a standout, yeah, that's fasho.

Noah and the Whale @ Roxy // Canon FG //

Hit up the Noah and the Whale show @ the Roxy with GB MOONZ. He was equipped with a Canon FG, we took some shots, had a laugh, headed on home.

Sloppy Secondz //

I've been messin' around with some fixed gear tricks lately, pretty fun! It feels good learning new tricks...reminds me of the skateboarding days!!

Sloppy Secondz from Will Chang on Vimeo.

Happy Halloween from STZMCHN //

Happy Halloween from STZMCHN

Check out the video here

Supreme LA //

Yesterday I checked out the Supreme store on Fairfax. I've always been a fan of Supreme in a weird way..(def. not in the hypebeast way ; ) .not entirely in the love-of-product way but more of their branding techniques. It's always been amazing to me how powerful and successful they have been able brand themselves over the years. The brand is insanely sought after all over the world, with their box sticker massively producely yet still rare to find for sale. Some of my favorite skateboarders have also been Supreme affiliated (Jason Dill, Girl Team, etc..) so that's probably also been a factor for my liking of the brand.

The skate bowls they install in their stores are also an infatuation of mine, the exposed underlying wood construction is uber sexy. I remember a couple years ago there was an Arkitip issue on these bowls.




inside the LA store

rad.

bonus pic: @ the hundreds store

Little Dragon //

A coworker recommended the Swedish fourtet from Gothenburg. At first the band name was a turn off for me but after listening to their new album "Machine Dreams", they could be called Diarhea Eaters and that would be chill too.

No Guitar, No Need. Avante-garde electronica steeze. Great tunes for a chill-out sesh in joemama's basement.


www.myspace.com/yourlittledragon

pretty ricky ain't so picky

PRETTY RICKY THEME SONG - MARK MORRISON - RETURN OF THE MACK


holla front playboyz, pretty ricky signin in for my first post jea boi, been doin' some photoshootz throughout so-cal, love da womenz in da area!



stimulation, ya need some action?


mah bod is worshipped as the finest of kings everywhere I go


hung out in Portland at Nike headquahtuhs, hooked mah sexy bod up with some Nike Supreme Dunks (850 dollar value son!) for their upcoming "Nike Exposed-Beefcake style" shoot


gonna be travelin' a bit the next couple dayz doin some shoots for various magz and vidz, holla back, until next time,

Pretty Ricky xoxo

CR Sample Sale

We're having a sample sale this Fri.- Sun. so come on out to Melrose at the Sportie LA parking lot. Proto-ass-types for joe indie needs. I'll be helping out Saturday so come say hello.

barpsins for pumpkins

Aww yah fashizzlerz my sizzlerz, cha BOY Jerome signin' in..Saturday I visited Will at STZMCHN HQ 1 in Yorba Linda, CA.. put this here clip togetha for da pumpkin lovas from other mothas.

Barspins for Pumpkins from Will Chang on Vimeo.

ANKUR + AMIL + BELLA // orange county visit

Devendra Banhart - Baby




Phoenix - Rome ( Neighbors Remix ft. Devendra Banhart) <--straight challin..

The man with the hippie steeze, Devendra Banhartizzlerz is coming out with a new album. From the sounds of the EP, it seems promising. Pretty upbeat and filled with feel good 17 point combos.

Paid a visit to STZMCHN INDIE MD. N.D.M.D. No. 1 A. Patz, ladies give him a call, he's single and ready to mingle. 714 - 337- 4445. Ask for Graham (Ankur's SEXCRETARY)

India's finest, N.D.UH'S finest enticing joe ass with his large brown eyez..

India's Finests' competitor. Paid a visit to Amillie Amillie Amillie's Bachelor Pad in Villa Park, CA.

Finally, the long anticipated meet and greet with the official STZMCHN dog, Bella.

High Five, DAWG x dog . YEAH, DAWG x dog, AWW YAHHH.

COLLAB.

Watch out for some sick COLLABS BETWEEN Bella and Pretty Ricky soon.

yeah DAWG!!

extreme // "urban freestyle"

Came across this video, either I'm just out of the loop or this is some ridiculous shit that I wouldn't even consider to be "extreme". It's beyond extreme. I think I laughed about 10 times watching this video...and it wasn't the "haha that's so funny" laugh it was the "WTF" laugh. It makes it twice as funny that it's in Paris. Is this even legal? I love how this dude can pivot and ride off walls and nose wheely thin slabs of concrete but falls due to water on the ground in a parking structure (56 seconds). Keepin' it real and remindin' the audience that he's just anotha mortal brotha from anotha mothuh fasho. ..keepin it humble, I like that. I gotta say though, the bridge riding at 47 seconds is pretty wild. He even kicks his leg out on top of the bridge for some style points. Legitass Showman, that's fasho.


STZMCHN APPROVED !! √√√

in P a r i s // Chanel Rub On Tattoos @ SPRING & SUMMER 2010 SHOW

Chanel models rocked these tattoo chains at the SP/SU 2010 show in Paris. At first it seemed a bit goofy slash kiddy, but after second thought, throw on some overlappin' real physical chainizzlez ..pretty tizzite fashizzlerz damizzlez.... rub a couple on joe friends, now that's a chain gang.



photo thru: jak+jil.

poseur or legit? // Urban Outfitters "FiXiE" Bike Review

J.leto. Apparently these photos were used for his upcoming music video.
Makes me wonder what the video is going to entail..
Clipless pedals and an aerospoke? Looks like he uses it to ride to his local grocery store. Wooooo!





post edit @ 6 pm: while I'm at it, mind as well throw in the Pharrell and Kayne photos...



I don't care if you are co-owner of Brooklyn Bikes. Pharrell can't skate.....can he ride?


"yo fasho, take a picture of me on my track bike, even though my pant leg is about to get caught in da chain in 2 seconds"
"by the way, I don't know how to track stand yet so I'm gonna have to use this counter for support"
"and let's take it in front of my huge kaws painting..aww yah baby"

yah fasho kayne's 2nd track bike, don't know what to say, probably got the Brooklyn after the Cinelli cuz he thought it was better, faster, stronger, legiter.


In other fixed gear poseur news, most of you have seen the Urban Outfitter's Fixed Gear Bikes they started offering through a contracted bicycle company named Republic Bicycles. My passion for the fixed gear concept died a little when I first saw this, but it's always necessary to remind myself to keep my head straight and focus on what has meaning to me, without the BS that seeps through from outside illegit sources. It's inevitable that legit ass products / cultish passions / trends become slaughtered by poseur stores / companies (i.e. skate culture and brands eventually ending up being portrayed as bro-BRAH-Breh-gnarlified at Pac-Sun and Tilly's)
Let's talk about the U.O. bikes. The worse part about these bikes is that they aren't worth their value. They weigh over 24 lbs and are fake track bikes pretty much. Opposed to chromoly steel, these U.O. bikes are made of high -tensile steel ( rust like mad, YO!) .At any rate, you're better off with a Windsor from http://www.bikesdirect.com/

"Only practical application of those bikes/frames is for geometry class to measure angles, other than that not much. would rather take the bus than be seen on that, personally." - Michael Mumford

Yashica EZ F521

Many say Yashica's presence in the photography world started to diminish parallel to the transition into digital means. Their popular Electro 35 which they introduced in 1965 was the first electronically controlled 35 mm camera, ultimately selling 5 million units. STZMCHN hater Carly AZZ YuS recently acquired one so hopefully I can get my hands on it and upload some photos taken with it.

News of Yashica's EZ F521 surfaced a couple weeks ago with the rumor that it is a "digital holga", which by the looks of it, seems true. Priced at 89 USD, this 5.0 megapixel point and shoot has a fixed lens, 2.4 inch LCD screen, and an automatic ISO setter. However, rumor has it that it's manual focusing.

What looks promising to the holga cult maybe end up being a flop. MOMODOMO'S GB MOONZ claims "supposedly cheap and vintage, but takes photos and videos" I guess only time can tell as sample photos start surfacing.

STZMCHN welcomes Pretty Ricky

Miike Snow - Burial (DJ Medhi remix)

We here @ STZMCHN would like to welcome Ricky aka PRTYRCKY to the team. "Pretty Ricky" has been a major influence and has been behind the scenes in helping us put out our "finest" material on STZMCHN. Aside from his claim to fame from the "Pretty Ricky Late Night Special" video, Pretty Ricky has traveled around and through various lands of all conditions.

We were lucky enough to follow Pretty Ricky at a photo shoot conducted at STZMCHN HQ 1.

Damn. Look at that pose.

Welcome.

PRTYRCKY in Egypt

PRTYRCKY expects quality. What better quality support for his chocoskin than some gold snakeskin leather? PRTYRCKY approved √

Hopefully Pretty Ricky will have more free time in the future to contribute some posts for STZMCHN.

rahooly wooly update // hparkizzlerz

Jus†ice- We Are Your Friends (Barretso Remix) (yes, it's probably remix number 234232323543634523423 but hey, I actually enjoyed this one)

rahooly ass wooly is still a tornado full of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, sweeping everything in his path in various countries of South America

Jon Forester sent in a photo of him doin some mad work at Club Caliente Mamacita


The number one trait that we love about Rahooly Wooly is how "real" he is.

He isn't afraid to show how he feels about any current situation...in this case he displays his "awww yeah...awwwww yah...." emotion.



Meanwhile, word has it that H. Parkizzles is in New York city, Harlem shakin' through Queens and the like.

Word has it he has been seen sharing the streets with Grizzly Bear and other Brooklyn indie bands who thrive on living in areas of gentrification and guys who have Colonel Sanders mustaches/beards.

Miike Snow- Black and Blue // Bianchi D2 Pista// Volume Cutter V. 3

MIIKE SNOW - Black & Blue from vincent haycock on Vimeo.

I was at City Grounds (Great shop/staff/space) in Newport Beach today and saw the new Bianchi D2 Pista in person.

Pretty dam sexy..it's supposedly stronger than the Pista Concept.

also, saw the Volume Cutter V. 3 in sea crystal green..pretty dam sexy in person for sure.

I've been holding out on buying double straps for a couple months now. Reason being, it was either A. Buy 30-40 dollar Soma / All City Double Straps and have them eventually stretch out on me, or B. Buy 110 dollar Toshis. So basically I told myself I was not going to buy a product that I knew was going to turn out to be illegit..and obviously I was not going to pay 110 for straps...so then the Cadence Double Straps came along.The Cadence double straps are now on the pedal whip along with All-City plastic cages (No idea why I prefer the plastic cages to metal ones) but they were sold out everywhere except City Grounds. Word has it that the Cadence doubles are the next best thing after Toshis (a staff member at C.G. showed me a comparison between the Cadence and Toshis and I guess the only difference is that the Toshis are thicker..so we'll see how the Cadences work out.

J. Lee visits STZMCHN OC

J. Lee visited STZMCHN OC.




Bonus Photo: AJ. sxmchn Gurbz posing for the ladies, 714 3##-####.

psychic city

Yacht's "Psychic City" album cover...pretty rad!

Rick Owens

the kills- cheap and cheerful (sebastiAn remix)



If I were to choose my favorite designer right now, it would have to be Rick Owens. Vampire hunteresque threads with layered sophistication ultimately becomes a simple silhouette of legitness. This is straight up "next level shit he's got goin' on".

Rick Owens recently designed some furniture for an exhibition in London.



Fall 2009 has definitely IMO been his best so far.