Just a quick note to say that we’ll no longer be actively updating this site. It’s been a great run. And thanks for stopping by.
For Michael Hastings-Black’s current exploits please visit him here. Raafi Rivero recently wrote about social media in the New York Times and maintains a personal site.
During the peak years of this blog (2006-2010) we covered all things culture, and felt especially attached to internet culture. Now, the internet is basically dead and everybody has retreated to the safe and sanitized world of apps. But it doesn’t have to be that way!
I’m not even trying to say that we’re back, or that I’m back, even – hell, I hardly ever update my own site or Unarmed. But if there was ever a place on Earth built to talk about the web at large, then this is one of those places and my fingers still work, oddly. So anyway.
The main thing that we’ve always loved about the internet is the access to subculture. Someone gets really passionate about a thing and then they tell other people and all the other people who are into that thing gather. It’s great. What’s missing, if you’re a person who just kind of likes to dip into and out of a subculture, are the places that curate all the wonderful curios that you can still find out there.
One such place I’ve found is the front page of Imgur, which is, simply, the best place on the internet to find memes and other assorted hoots.
It’s a side project. Always a side project. But I made some hats. And they’re fresh. Cop one at Le Dunk if you know what’s good for your ‘hood and your borough.
(Update – 10 yrs later :) – Well, the hats sold out. And I’m still involved in streetwear, and basketball, and even more basketball. So it kinda all makes sense.
It’s hard not to be inspired after watching the above video depicting bed-bound graffiti writer Tempt create new works with eye-tracking software developed by the Graffiti Research Lab. Best of all, it’s open source. One definition of hip-hop holds that it’s an amorphous blob of culture built on technology and innovation. It’s only right that one of its fringes continues to explore new forms of expression.
It only took us five months since shooting… but we got it done. Here’s the video for Thaddeus Clark’s Downtown/Connect. The (banging) song is available for download at hellabasic.com. Special shots to my editor Jay Morales who slogged through many weekends and evenings to help bring this to the light of day.