Sneakerplay goes public!

Up until now online sneakerhead community Sneakerplay has been operating on an invite-only basis while in its beta version. Now that they're switching to unlimited, everyone who has been wanting to join up can do so. Functioning much like Myspace or Facebook (But for shoes, of course, which are infinitely more interesting than people.), the site allows members to display, rate, comment on, and even battle with their personal sneaker collections. The site is for beginning collectors and veteran sneaker afficionados alike. Even some of the more famous enthusiasts are available for chatting, including Josh Rubin, createor and editor of Cool Hunting.
The interface is beautiful and the community can only get larger now that everyone can sign up. So check it out if you have any interest in sneaker culture whatsoever.

Attention all Typography Fiends!

Helvetica is a font with a lot of history. The Helvetica we know and love was created by Swiss designer Max Miedinger in 1957. The name is derived from Helvetia, the Latin word for Switzerland. The International Typographic Style of Graphic Design, a movement that lasted from the '50s to the '80s , emphasized the grid, and used exclusively sans-serif typefaces, adopted it almost immediately. After only a short time the font became the industry standard for graphic design all over the world. Nowadays, Helvetica is making a major comeback. Take a look around you, Helvetica is everywhere: American Aparrel, the MTA, and Al Gore all use it. And now, to the pleasure of many a graphic designer, Gary Hustwit (executive producer of Moog, that synthesizer documentary) is directing a film about the big H. Not much is known about the documentary other than that it will probably be really awesome.


Keep yourself updated on the film's progress and release by visiting the official site and joining the mailing list.

Download: Lady Sovereign - "Love Me Or Hate Me"
Download: Lady Sovereign - "Hoodie" (Spank Rock remix)


The SOV has already achieved the status of "biggest midget in the game" through her singles "Random" and "A Little Bit Of Shhh." Now at long last her first full album Public Warning will be arriving October 3 on Def Jam.

Here's a full track list:

01 9 to 5
02 Gatheration
03 Random
04 Public Warning
05 Love Me or Hate Me
06 My England
07 Tango
08 A Little Bit of Shhh
09 Hoodie
10 Those Were the Days
11 Blah Blah
12 Fiddle With the Volume

I trust that "Love Me or Hate Me," her first single, will be receiving a lot of radio play, and hopefully people will start catching the Sovereign Fever if they haven't already. Also, be sure to check out the cache of Lady Sovereign remixes available through Hype Machine, including the remix of "Hoodie" by Spank Rock, Baltimore's own Underground hip-hop/Dirty Rap fusion artist.

Download: Justice Vs. Simian - We Are Your Friends

Download: Justice Vs. Simian - We Are Your Friends (Lee Cabrera's "Lower East Side" Remix)

Let's face it, gay music sucks. Gay bars sucks. A lot of gay people suck. And being gay can really suck. But every once in a while there comes along a gay anthem that's more than just a song of loss crooned by a busty diva - songs like Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" and The Smith's "How Soon Is Now." These jams get adopted by the younger, cooler gays and lezzies because they are good in their own right but also carry a minor hint of homo. Justice Vs. Simian's single is precisely such an anthem. Any young gay man or woman can jive to it, and their straight friends can dance along too without feeling awkward or silly.

I'm especially fond of Lee Cabrera's remix because it is reminiscent of a lot of Baltimore Club music. It's full of mindless repetition and obnoxious looping, which in my book makes it all the more awesome.

Download: The Go! Team - "Bull In The Heather" (Sonic Youth Cover)

In the wake of Sonic Youth's new album release, one of my favorite newer groups, The Go! Team, has done a fabulous cover of SY's older songs, "Bull in The Heather." It's a black Kim named Ninja screaming at you, "Tell me that you wanna hold me/ Tell me that you wanna bore me." Exsquisite.

While you're at it, check out Deceptafreak!

Download: Sonic Youth - "Do You Believe In Rapture?"

Download: Sonic Youth - "What A Waste"

That's right, they're still alive. They're still touring. They're still kicking the music world's collective ass. And, somehow, Thurston and Kim are still really, really hot.

I bought it, I love it. You should buy it, too.

Myspace Makeover

There are a lot of reasons to dislike Myspace: the time we waste creating, updating, and checking our profiles, the social ineptitude that it breeds (my friend recently broke up with his girl over Myspace), how it makes it easier for idiots and weirdos to stalk us. But the thing that upsets me most about Myspace is the awful level of web design. People cram mp3s, videos, polls, virtual pets, etc. onto the page until it's overflowing with that crap and impossible to read. Part of this is due to some people's bad taste, but it's also a result of the poor CSS that went into creating Myspace that makes it difficult to change and customize. Well, no more.

I was recently browsing my good friend Mikey's Myspace page, and I noticed something. It actually looked kinod of...GOOD! And it was unique. He had a link on his profile linking to Mike Industries, the blog of Mike Davidson, a graphic designer and CEO of online news company Newsvine.

Mike D. has successfully hacked Myspace and come up with a CSS layout that is aesthetically pleasing and easy to customize. He gets around a lot of the clunky design of Myspace by replacing certain text with images. For instance, a person's name is now an image. Just take a look at his sample page for a glimpse of what your Myspace could look like. He even made room for a header!

What's even better is that the process of changing your page is all very simple. Just follow these steps.

1. Download the sample CSS folder

2. open the file named "myspace_withnotes," and copy paste the css there into the "About Me" section of your profile.

3. Go through changing colors, fonts, etc. Pay attention to the NOTES to know exactly what you're changing.

4. Now open the image files that come in the sample folder. Customize your name, header, contacts, and background to your liking.

5. Host them on another website. ImageShack and Photobucket are good ones if you don't already have a photoblog or something like that.

6. Copy the url of those images and paste them into the sample layout where appropriate.

And voila! Your Myspace page is suddenly more beautiful than everyoen else's!