A Son's Sacrifice

Musa Syed, a good friend of mine, and Yoni Brook recently completed a film called "A Son's Sacrifice". The movie is opening in the tribeca film festival and to promote it they are throwing a block party tomorrow, Sunday April 29th. I haven't seen it yet but looks like a great documentary and the black party should be good ol' halal fun. I don't really hike up to Queens that often but this looks like it will be worth the trip.

HalalFest Block Party
Celebrating the Many Cultures of Queens & "A Son's Sacrifice" at Tribeca Film Festival

When:
Sunday, April 29 1PM – 4PM

Where:
Madani Halal Lamb, Goat, & Poultry
100-15 94th Avenue,
Ozone Park, NY (A or J train to 104 St stations)

Celebrate the diversity of Queens and meet neighbors at a FREE block party for the documentary film "A Son's Sacrifice" premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival. This weekend a storefront slaughterhouse in Queens NYC will be transformed into a venue for music, dance, film and international cuisine.

MUSIC & DANCE from the Bangladeshi Institute of Performing Arts, Kashmiri-American band "ZeroBridge", Guyanese singing-sensation Nadir, and legendary hip-hop b-boy Fable Pabon and members of the Rock Steady crew.

FREE HALAL FOOD samples from local West Indian, Afghan, and Bangladeshi restaurants.

FILM SCREENING of "A Son's Sacrifice" a new PBS documentary about the family-run slaughterhouse premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.

TOURS of Madani Halal, where thousands of families gather to bless and buy their meat.

KIDS visit a farm petting zoo, learn Arabic calligraphy, get henna tattoos, and practice their cricket skills with NYC Bengals cricket team.

FREE BUS TRANSPORTATION from midtown Manhattan. Schoolbuses will pick up visitors next to Penn Station at 31st Street and 8th Avenue at 12:15 PM and 12:30 PM sharp and make return trips to Penn Station throughout the afternoon. Check the site for schedule updates.

Tribeca Film Festival Opening Day

I was hired to shoot the opening of the Tribeca film festival today which basically meant I had an all access pass (sweeet). So in addition to getting some great flicks, I got to see the first line up of films which all dealt with "the climate crisis". Some of them were real powerful and got the message across real well and others were just "eh", boring i guess you could call it. Global warming is a serious problem but it is also one that most people don't care about or want to be bothered about. It's a dry subject and if your making a film about it, it better be energetic, young and inspiring.
Here are some pictures from the night...






Jon Bon Jovi Performed



Check out this kick ass venue the after party was at

True Story, No Bull[Sh*t]

Ok, so true story. My boy would get to work at Merrill Lynch and log onto the Vane site, everyday, to stay up with us. And I mean EVERYDAY. And my boy is thorough, and he read every section on the site. Twice.

Well since corporate communications are monitored more than Al Queda airwaves, the site was revisited so often that it got red flagged. And then it was BANNED from being accessed from the Merril server. Vane is no longer welcome there. Single-handedly, my boy got our site restriced from that office forever.

hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Maaad props to Pino. Vane all day every damn day.

When Collie Buddz Come Around….He’s rocking Vane!

A couple of days ago we had a photoshoot for YRB magazine with the man that’s being hailed as the next Sean Paul in terms of his crossover appeal, although the man neither sounds nor looks much like him. His current single, “Come Around,” has been getting massive radio and MTV rotation, and has undoubtedly been rocking your favorite local club as well. What makes his mainstream appeal even more…umm, appealing, is the fact that he looks white at first glance, due to his half-Bermudian and half-white lineage. Believe me people, the dood is set to blow up crazy.

We were fortunate enough to bullshit with Collie on-set, and he was super humble, rolling only with his road manager and his publicist. It was funny because someone threw on his music to listen to during the shoot to relax him, but Collie wasn’t having it. He asked for anything but himself. I guess when you’re all over the radio, you tend to get sick of hearing yourself.

In any case, Collie was feeling the One Love Tee, and happily rocked it not only for the YRB shoot, but also out of the studio to his next gig. Shouts to Collie Buddz and his road manager Kevin, and much love to Sami and Darius at YRB.

Click here to buy this tee.

A World Free of TB by James Nachtwey

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the James Nachtwey exhibit at the UN. Well, I finally got around to checking it out. The project is called "World Free of TB" and is an attemt to raise awareness about Tuberculosis.
Someone at the show said "I didn't even know this was a problem." Thats so true, there are many issues around the world that we are so oblivious to, we don't acknowledge or just simply don't hear about.
I'm not even gonna try to explain how I felt looking at these images cuz, not to be corny or anything, I got no words. Here are some images from the exhibit. All images are property of James Nachtwey.

PS. I turned comments back on, I would like to encourage a dialogue about posts like this. What people feel about the images or the issue in general. So feel free to click on the link at the end of the post and share your thoughts.

To Him We Shall Return

A couple of days ago I was hired to shoot Mohammad Ali (Aerosol Arabic), a South Asian Graffiti artist from London. Mohammad was spraying a mural for the Magassa children, that passed away in a fire in the Bronx. The mural is about 20 feet wide and is a fusion of arabic and english. In arabic it say Inalillahe which translates to "From him we came." In english it reads "to him we shall return"

It was like a mini block party, people from all over the community stopped by to show their support. Local restaurants were sending us food. By the second day kids were cutting school just to see this go down. At one point Mrs. Magassa, the mother of the children, stopped by with food for everyone who was there. Coincidently that was the moment when Mohammad was throwing up the names of the children. Not being to control her emotions, the mother started crying and as a reaction to her other people there started crying and some teary eyed, even the artist. I have never seen so much emotion surrounding a piece of art. It was as if everyone there felt a fraction of her pain for that moment.

He did something that I thought was really smart. He gave every kid on that block a can of paint and asked them to contribute. This way the kids have a sense of ownership of that piece and will make sure that no one messes it up or takes it down.

If you would like to view the Mural take the 4 train to Mt Eden and goto the corner of Mt Eden and Townsend. Its a block from the train and is worth checking out.

I thought I would share some of the flicks from those days...

Additional Folk and Stress Footage Part2

If for one reason or another you weren't able to view the interview it is now on YouTube.

Additional Folk and Stress Footage Part1

Why?

Thoughts, Love, Prayers, Hope, and Condolences.


Don't believe the media hype:
There is humanity in us all.

Vane Spring Collection 2007

It took us a minute but the shop is up and running again. The "We Are All Vane Pendant" that we all been hearin about so much, is now available. Ladies, this is our first season puttin out apparel for you, check it out and let us know how we did. And for the gentlemen, now you don't gotta ask me "when is that shit gonna be for sale?" when you see me rockin one of these fresh new tees. So check it out, cop a tee, tell your friend, spread the word, blah blah blah...imm'a shut up and let you get right to it

Vane Presents: The Spring Collection 2007

Folk & Stress Interview

The post before this mentioned that Vane will be producing a lot more video content. This interview is first of many to come...

Folk & Stress
A pair of New York native sons hailing from LI, these boys hope to uphold the long tradition of the New York Emcees that have both lyrical credibility as well musical accessibility. The Vane Crew sat down with the two of them at their crib and make-shift recording studio in Long Island where we talked independent distribution, the division of hip-hop, Jethro Tull, and white rappers not on VH1. Click here to view...

Enjoy!

Shhh, SPRING is COMING......

So for all of our favoritest, most down Vane headss, we are dropping some new new shit for all of yalls. SPRING 07 drops tomorrow!!! Yeah, kind of a big deal, for all of yall who know us, we've been slaving away for the past few months designing and producing the new collection, which will include for the first of many, the Vane Jewelry piece, as well as another first of many, Women's collection [because we love all you ladies equally, if not way more than the doods].

Another big thing on the horizon is original video content that we will continue to update regularly. Some content will be funny, some will be poignant and relevant, and [most] will be absolutely ridiculous, so be sure to check back and peep what we got cooking up for you hungry sonsabitches in the Vane kitchen. We promise that for at least another 30 seconds, we will keep you amused, entertained, thought-provoked, or none of the above.

So, just make sure you, your momma, and your baby's momma's momma, come through and check out the Style Section, join our mailing list, and fucking like it. Cause we said so.

It

If you try and learn it, you've already lost it. If you have to ask for it, you won't get it. If you try to dress it, you're only posing. Money can't buy it, nor can you trade for it. The harder you try and get it, the more elusive it becomes. It is timeless, but once it has passed you over it will never return. Some have it, everyone desires it.It's not tangible, but it doesn't mean you can't see it or feel it. It will define you before you've even said a word.

Because it's not what you do, it's how you do it. It will never be about what you wear, but how you rock it.

Get your swagger on, young homie, get your swagger on.

VANE muumuu

Reinventing the muumuu is like redesigning the wheel. It's still round, and looks exactly the same.

That said, all hail Spring and then end of snow and ice and bone(soul) crushing cold maybe.

Boxed Up

Last Friday, we went to the Want 2B Square Art Installation, held downtown at the Skylight Studios. The event was put on as a cross promotional marketing event by Scion, in which the Installation consisted of a series of suspended cubes that were open at the bottom so the viewer could stick his or her head into it and see a 3-D panoramic piece of art. Each artist was commissioned to do a larger, 48"X48" and a smaller 24"X24" installation cube, and at the end of the night, the cubes were disassembled and each panel could be bought as a separate piece of art.


The idea was that the cubes were supposed to reference the boxy, cube like appearance of the Scion Xb. Honestly, if corporations can keep giving us events like these, I'm all for it. Some artists and designers get on the high and mighty tip with their work, but everybody's gotta pay the bills, and if you can do so by doing what you love without compromising the integrity of your work, more props to you. Art and commerce have always coexisted in precarious relationship of cat and mouse. Play the game or it plays you.


Dalek, Steve Vaughn, Maya Hayuk and Matzu MTP have some super ill styles, and I love seeing their work whenever I have a chance. We also got a chance to catch a live piece by Duflux, and the free booze never hurts. All in all, the event was pretty dope for what it was. Scion, if you're listening, it sure as hell beat any of your TV spots, but i still don't know if I would buy an Xb, that shit is kinda ugly, no matter how you want to spin it...

Everyday in Vane: April

Just remindin' you guys that I've been posting images almost everyday in the Everyday in Vane section. Which is a gallery of images from (almost) everyday of the month. So don't forget to check that out from time to time.

Passed Over [and Out]

Ok, so two Jews, two Muslims, two Catholics, and a semi-agnostic sit down for a religious dinner…..

Welcome to Passover with the Vane Fam! Orchestrated by Lady Vane Meg Live, with kitchen duties shared by our girl Maria [who, by the way, will one day make some Jewish boy with a Black fetish a very, very happy man] we feasted on matza, latkahs, brisket and cugle for what turned out to be both an educational and an extremely entertaining night filled with intelligent [and dumb stupid] conversation, stereotype deconstruction, and copious amounts of manisschewitz and wine.

But for those who don’t know what’s good with Passover, a crude analogy is that Passover is the Jewish equivalent of the American Thanksgiving, when they give thanks to God for health and freedom. Respect. Meg gave a service pre-meal, and it included many prayers and symbolic rituals and foods that I won’t go into detail because I don’t fully remember all of them [if you feel the need to have all the details, Google it you lazy fuck], but it was interesting to experience someone else’s personal and cultural history.

Now I know there are some people who might take offense to having such a untraditional religious holiday, but I think that in America, people are able to preserve their cultural and religious heritage only by making it relevant to their lives. And, this small piece of cultural knowledge was spread to people outside the religion.

And ultimately, there is always something lost in translation, for better or worse, but that’s what happens when culture transplants. Sometimes it survives intact [Orthodox sects] but more often they get Americanized or bastardized or whatever people want to call it. But this is a natural occurrence—if you want your child to be 100% traditional, then you’re going to have to move back to the mother country, because as our generations become more and more entrenched in the American way of life, old traditions will become more and more difficult to preserve. And that’s just the truth. Change and adaptation are synonymous with America. If these ideas make you cringe, well, the Earth is a very large place...

Want 2B Square Art Show NYC

Tommorrow Friday, April 6th for ONE NIGHT ONLY from 7pm-11pm, come to Skylight Studies and peep what promises to be a super ill show. Featuring original artwork by some of today's dopest contemporary artists that have putting out some of the most inspired and original works coming out of the street/contemporary scene, all works are for sale for collectors [and those who are slacking on the interior decoration game]. If that's not enough, there's free booze and good music. Peep below for the venue and all the details.

SKYLIGHT STUDIOS
275 HUDSON STREET
NEW YORK, NY. 10013
http://www.skylightnyc.com

WANT 2B SQUARE SHOW

AN INTERACTIVE EXHIBIT
OF BOX INSPIRED ART AND MEDIA

featuring orginal works by:

DALEK
SAGE VAUGHN
MAYA HAYUK
MATZU MTP
KELSEY BROOKES
FREDDI C
UPSO

music by:
THE RUB DJS
COSMO BAKER
DJ ELEVEN

APRIL 6, 2007
7:00-11:00PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY

OPEN BAR. MEET THE ARTISTS. ALL ARTWORK IS FOR SALE.

Bad Fashion

I whipped out a book I had bought a couple of days ago. It was called 80 Fashion Disasters you Swore you Never Wore.



The book was filled with fashion gems; all over pattern tees, leggings, the jumper dress, and the snood. At first the Vane Family joked about bringing back some of the looks they were making fun of in the book, but the more we thought about the better it sounded. So look out in fall 2007, for some fresh new takes to carvats, pasley prints or snoods. who knows what we'll be doing.

Labels Are For Jars

Labels Are For Jars was created by John Varvatos and group of other creative geniuses. The goal of the project to is to raise money for Lawrence Massachusetts, the poorest city in America.

Its an opportunity to help out some needy people and get a piece of clothing by a great designer.

Labels are For Jars

You Know Kirill will be there

come join the vane family in july, its worth the hike

Concert Details

meg

we all love street meg.

ps. the older dirty version of meg is on sale right now