Contrast Magazine

Photo my me
Canon Xti
50mm f/1.4

… developed another roll of 120 film from my Holga… this time I didn’t cross process the film. Here’s a photo I took of a building being built in the Sand Island area. I’ll post more photos throughout the week…

Photo by me
Holga
Fujichrome Velvia 100F film

“Liberty-shmiberty! Lets erect a kick-ass, sky-high, killer robot statue instead!” < < That sentiment would totally be in Nihongo, if I actually paid attention at Japanese school as a keiki. It doesnt matter anyway, it's merely how I imagine the proposal to build Tetsujin, a 60 ft. steel behemoth and relic of modern Manga, went down. Like it's sister project, the Tokyo Gundam, Tetsujin, once completed, should be able to move limbs and emit lights for its throngs of ankle-high spectators.

Mr. Obama, AT LEAST replace Lady Liberys torch with a lightsaber….please?

Widely known for creating the opening theme song to the Cartoon Network anime series, Samurai Champloo, SHINGO2 is in town doing a handful of shows with the SIQ Records camp. He was born in Japan, but was raised in London and Tanzania, as well as going to school in California. His flow and style unique and his music often has a deeper seeded message behind it. He’s also responsible for inventing the Vestax Faderboard with help from Vestax and KORG. Word is he may be doing a show with The Grouch over on Maui. Contrast had an opportunity to shoot a few questions to SHINGO2 right off the plane yesterday…

Contrast: You were born in Japan, raised in Tanzania, London and Japan and also lived in California for a period. How has all these different areas inflluenced you as an artist?

Shingo2: They all had a profound impact on me, it’s shaped how I look at the world, and hiphop culture gave me the tools to express myself. I really want to go back to Tanzania and check out the African hiphop scene. I have a couple of friends who travel and shoot documentaries, it really seems the world hiphop scene is creating potent stuff.

C: You went to Berkley for school in the mid 90’s, is this where you
took an interest in hiphop? How was the scene there at that time?

S2: For sure. Berkeley is the melting pot for revolutionary people from all walks of life. If I didn’t go there, I’m sure I wouldn’t be MCing. I started out more interested in graf, then I really got into music after I met the local musicians, including Del & Heiroglyphics, the artists from Living Legends. Bas-1 mentored me through the process of making albums and performing on stage. Then eventually I started meeting people around my age and formed a crew.

C: Your music has many activist themes, what are some activist
movements you are involved in?

S2: Mainly it has to do with peace and environmental activism. You can check out Operation Peace Crane, a cyber origami project and also the Stop-Rokkasho Movement, a call to bring awareness about radioactive contamination. Whatever social issue, we’re all interconnected, so we can’t take it lightly. I hear Hawaii has problems with Depleted Uranium use on the island, we’re all in the same boat. I strongly believe music and art can help spread the cause and change the world (including laws and regulations) for the better. That’s how it’s been for the past century.

C: Heard you’ll be here for two weeks, any fun plans?

S2: We got more shows planned, other than that, I’m sure my boy Meiso will take me around to appreciate the nature here! Mahalo!

Check SHINGO2’s music on his myspace: www.myspace.com/shingo2

Here’s a list of SHINGO2’s shows coming up locally (really looking forward to the 7/8 one):

7/3 - TONIGHT - Shing02 Live with Meiso, Amen, Ill Hill Society, Lionz of Zion @
Lotus Soundbar 18+
7/8 - Emi Meyer with Satomi Yarimizo Trio & DeShannon Higa featuring
Shingo02 @ Gordon Bierch 21+
7/10 - Hot 16 Writers Battle Hip Hop At The Trops featuring Shing02,
Meiso, Illaversion @ Tropics Cafe 18+
7/11 - Shing02 TBA
7/18 - Shing02 with CAVE @ Santa Fe Cantina Lahaina

Photo courtesy of Caori Photography

I stumbled upon this photo of Moe aka Moedigs and his brother Jon while I was looking through some older snapshots. It was taken at the Stay Gold art show back in January of this year. I think it was the first time I saw Moe since he had made his move to California… and the first time I had been to the Blue Hawaii Gallery in Kalihi (Check out Basil’s [Jumbo Karakuchi] artwork on their website). Good times with good friends. Anyway, here are a few more stills from that night. Still Gold.

Paint by Moe. The piece on the top is one that he did with Woebots which was featured on notcot.com in print form.

Woebots on metal. This is a small crop of a metal box that stood about 2 feet tall. The structure was painted on all sides and could open like a locker.

Jerk in 3D.

myCryptonauts by Aaron Lee. Aaron was the lab instructor during my first semester in the design program at the university.

Prints by Tes One.

Photographs by Jon “Amazing Panoramas” Radke.

Work by Jeff Sanner. Jeff also made that amazing ad for Five to Nine in Contrast’s premiere issue.

Here’s a clip of one of the featured surfers/people in our North Shore issue, Fred Patacchia. Footage is from the first two WCT Events of the year (Finished 9th and 3rd, respectively) and his win at Lower Trestles in the Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro.

See him in ICONS2, premiering July 10th at the Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy of Arts.

The first wave in the clip might look familiar….

… well, technically, I guess it would be Aloha Thursday. This is an extra good Thursday for two reasons… the first reason being that tomorrow is a Holiday and I am off! Second reason being that because I’m off tomorrow, and the 5th falls on a Sunday, we get our paychecks today! Chee! Can’t get any better than that! I love love love long weekends! Have a Happy 4th of July, folks!

Photo by me
Canon Xti
50mm f/1.4

…Not exactly sure what the correlation is here, but I, for one, am NOT complaining. In browsing the youtune library of “next to pop” Indie-blog-darlings, Miike Snow, I happened upon this interesting clip. Seems someone took the liberty of putting together a montage featuring AZN half-castes (my peoples!), set to the M.S. ditty “Song For No One”. Many of the obligatory Eurasian celebs make their appearances (Keanu, Hu, B. Lee, etc) but to my surprise a few “sleeper halvsies” were thrown into the mix… pun intended! A few of which include, Jessica Gomes (le growl), Natassia Mathe (EL ROAR!) and the Black/Japanese man that I can only hope to someday emulate, Jero *bows in reverence at the mere mention of his name*. Spock dude in action:

Alas, perhaps its for the best that I do not possess his amazing abilities, for like the One Ring of Power, it could lead me down a dark and twisted path……*ahem* ladies?

(haha, i kid)

So I finally got to roll around on my skateboard this past sunday. It had been a while and I wasn’t too confident in my fitness so I thought it was a good idea to bring a pair of cameras with me. I met some friends at the In4mation Boardshop and after a half-hour debate about what spot to hit up, we headed Downtown to a set of ledges that none of us had touched in a while. The crew consisted of some of my old partners in crime: Ryan, Darin, Grant, Ian Okui, Ian Kimura, Derek and Applenutz.

When we got to the spot, the sun was burning a million degrees celsius. My skateboarding motivation dropped a bit but everyone was happy to be out and rolling around. Ryan and Darin envisioning the potential.

Once the cloud cover came the temperature dropped a bit and the level of skating went up. Ian Okui, frontside blunt.

Grant and Derek showed up after the boardshop closed. Derek, Grant and Ryan.

Toward the end of the day Darin, Ian, and Derek were hitting up a ledge with a bike rack at one end. Darin, smooth as butter.

If you were up at the ungodly hour of 6:40am, then you saw Contrast getting some shine on KGMB9’s Sunrise Morning Show. If not, you can see the entire interview HERE. We would like to send a gigantic MAHALO to the entire Sunrise Morning Show staff for the help and time. We hope that we could back in the future and be guests again.

Be sure to join us for the Surf Film Festival at The Doris Duke Theatre July 10th - July 24th.

And join us First Friday in August at SoHo for a benefit for The Contemporary Museum sponsored by In4mation and Contrast featuring the art work of DALEK. More info coming soon.