A BASE Jump World Record

The Burj Dubai - a crazy-high skyscraper under construction in the United Arab Emirates, reaches 2,684 feet over the sea. This makes it the tallest man-made structure ever built. In May of 2008, a crazy Brit, Robin Schmidt, and his French buddy, Jan Bednarz, climbed all the way up the unfinished building and completed an (illegal) jump each. Watch them tell the story of their world-record jump and see the incredible footage in the video embedded above. Their jump is pure art to my eyes. Wow. (Via Laughing Squid).

Check Out Some Of The World's Chicest Creative People

Portrait and fashion photographer Todd Selby showcases portraits of the chicest creative people you could ever want to meet in their homes and workspaces on his website TheSelby.com. Makes you realize that you are not as cool as you might think :-) Via Modern Tonic.

Cool Art Show Reception With DJ Shepard Fairey

Art Show February 28 - March 21, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 28, 2009, 7 - 10 pm
The show will feature noteworthy artists who freely use, base imagery on, thrive, and excel in both the mediums of visual art and music. The artists taking part in the show are Raymond Pettibon, Daniel Johnston, Ron English, Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers and Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. If you're in LA, you should check it out.

Catch An Interesting Lecture in NYC Next Week

The Fair Use Project at Stanford's CIS is representing Shepard Fairey in his suit against the AP. If you're in NYC (which I am, but busy attending DMW's annual Digital Music Forum East), don't miss this session with Professor Lawrence Lessig (who is moving from Stanford to Harvard next week).

Unauthorized Concert Rocks IKEA Store

On February 15th Orange County rocker Will Crum and his band were able to sneak their music equipment into a IKEA and performed a 3 song set in one of the kitchen sets before being shut down (via Laughing Squid). I'm a big fan of improv and I belive that there is a marketing opportunity here for IKEA too. Think about it, what if they embraced Will Crum and invite him and fellow rockers for a couple of gigs at the store. Sure, it would take some of the fun out of it, but what if the customers didn't know? I'm sure someone would upload the videos to YouTube and you would have great WOM. Either way, fun video. Also see Will tell the story about how they escaped below.

Inside Outside - Street Art and BASE jumping

Inside Outside seems like a great movie (I've only seen YouTube clips, the whole thing is available on DVD through the great site www.resistancefilms.com) about Street Artists from all over the world and why they are doing what they are doing. Is it free speech and art or vandalism? You be the judge. Safe to say that there is more to this underground culture then just "putting your BS name all over the place." Same goes for the sometimes controversial sport called BASE jumping. In a series of webisodes well worth watching, professional BASE jumper Iiro Seppänen gives you good insight into his world. In the episode embedded below, he shares his views on the legality of the sport. Also safe to say that there is more to this phenomenon then just "jumping off buildings."

LA's New Triple Threat?

LA darlings Pop Noir are a triple threat; they're models, artists, and musicians with some of the rawest blend of post punk and indie pop that will throw your body into joyous spasms, according to a little bird. I don't know about that, but I think it's worth checking out their gig at the Garden Party (event listing to the right).

The New Digital Factory

Airborne Mobile, a leading full-service mobile media company, today announced a license agreement with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Airborne will be the first to (legally) bring artwork by the American King of Pop Art to cell phone carriers across the US and Canada. I have said it before: As cell phone screens become bigger and better, it will be only natural to show art on there. The question is why it has taken so long for artists and galleries to catch on? To display Warhol's art on cell phones makes perfect sense. I bet he would have been thrilled to see his art exploited in such innovative new ways :-) The (digital) factory is still alive!

Party Like An Art Star Contest

One of my favorite email newsletters, Favorpill, has a cool viral competition for a weekend in NYC. All you have to do is to sign up a friend to be entered into the competition. But perhaps the best thing is the name. Here's what you can win:
Accomodations at The Standard Hotel
VIP access to The Armory Show party at MoMA
Flavorpill-curated weekend
Chauffeured transportation in Mercedes C300 provided by Mint
Round-trip airfare to NYC

The Big Wall Graphics Art Show

In 2004, START SOMA started putting on art shows in the newly created Hotel des Arts, a boutique hotel located across the street from the Chinatown Gate in San Francisco's Union Square. They are doing some very progressive art shows, combining new technology, digital media and art. The exhibition will feature repositional wall art from premier emerging artists + designers from around the world. START MOVING PICTURES is extending the concept of the original PAINTED ROOMS at the Hotel des Arts, and is CREATING an entire collection of BIG WALL GRAPHICS in an exciting new medium. And EVERY piece of art in this show will be available for less than $70!

• START MOVING PICTURES is accepting JPEG SUBMISSIONS VIA EMAIL through MARCH 30, 2009.
• Artists globally are encouraged to submit artwork that will be printed on premium repositional fabric paper at <48">
• Cutout shapes are encouraged, and the formal spec for laser-guided cutlines is available upon request.
• This is a juried art show, and the jury includes Tavia Campbell (the founder of START MOVING PICTURES), Chandra Michaels (founder of SUGARLUXE), VULCAN (aerosol art legend), and John Doffing (founder of START SOMA + START MOBILE).
• Artists selected for inclusion in our BIG WALL GRAPHICS ART SHOW + CATALOG will receive the same commission that ALL of our current artists receive: 50% of net sales, or circa 10x the industry average of 5%. We want to delight our customers AND the artists we work with!
• ALL of the artwork included in THE BIG WALL GRAPHICS ART SHOW will be available for sale via START MOVING PICTURES, and every BIG WALL GRAPHIC inluded in this exhibition will be available for $69.

Any questions? Please contact submissions@startmovingpictures.com.