Weekend Reading: Great Brittin

Do yourself a favor and dig into some Charles Brittin this weekend. His seminal work West and South is truly something to behold. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of reading the long-winded beatniks. The photography of this era, however, is always welcome on my coffee table. And nobody captured this time of creative upheaval quite like Brittin, who ruthlessly snapped portraits that stung the heart of 1950s Venice Beach, the beats, anitwar movements and general American boredom. And you know when guys like Dean Stockwell, Walter Hopps and David Meltzer are making regular appearances at your beach shack, you're probably doing something pretty awesome. Put on some Getz or Davis and let all the cool wash over.

[images via Hatje Cantz and Eat Tarantula]

This and That

Bust Issues

[via Fourteensquarefeet]

The Mad Shattered

I am a firm believer that a steady diet of slow-motion samurai, shattered glass and screaming brides can make for a creative life well lived. Luckily, so too does The Naked and Famous. And their latest music video for the bombastic single "No Way" is an absolute sensory stunner. Directed by Joel Kefali and Campbell Hooper - who make up the design collective Special Problems - the pseudo-Lynchian video is a welcome reprieve from the heritage-y Americana that is saturating (and spewing) over so much of our creative cultures. Put on your leathers cause this video is a controlled power-slide of all things awesome. And the song isn't half bad either...

[via Inspiration Grid]

Stussy Surf

I do love a good studio visit. And if Shawn Stussy is involved, well, let's just say we should all pause for a couple minutes and enjoy the view. For most, the name Stussy is immediately associated with streetwear and mega collaborations. And for good reason. However, what many forget is that it all began in the shaping bay. A quiet place where the dust flurries and fiberglass sorcery became the reality of a super-brand known the world over. With the launch of a new board-only shop in Tokyo, it seems only fitting that the Citizen Kane of street-cred step back into his lab and start plowing out some handmade quad-fin rosebuds. Luckily, Shawn helps us keep a proper sense of perspective with his Ferrari earmuffs and Rolex. The smoking jazz soundtrack doesn't hurt either.


Shawn Stussy at his Studio from Seth Epstein on Vimeo.

[via Aether]

Utah Moon

One of the many highlights of my trip to Sundance was the intergalactic view from the window seat. It's a sparse, multi-layered landscape full of mystery and intrigue. A place, when viewed from above, that transforms into something truly out of this world. In all honesty, words don't even do these images justice. One part post-modern abstraction and two-parts Kubrickian. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Utah Moon.

Hell Bent

Way back when, Mr. Hunter S. Thompson decided to tag along with the Hell's Angels for two years of unrefined grease and grime that, to this day, still live on in the folklore of his mysticism and genius insanity. They were modern outlaws with no sense of direction, and yet every sense of renegade style; the cowboys of the wild west coast, if you will, with nothing but their boots, fists and sense of wild adventure. Like them or not, they changed the course of the open road, taking the road less travelled only to leave it battered and bruised with a bloody smile.

California, Labor Day weekend...early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levi's roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo, and East Oakland heading for the Monterey Peninsula, north of Big Sur...the menace is loose again, the Hell's Angels, the hundred-carat headline, running fast and loud on the early morning freeway, low in the saddle, nobody smiles, jamming crazy through traffic and ninety miles an hour down the center stripe, missing by inches...


- Hunter S. Thompson via Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga

[images via Aesthetes Anonymous]