Once upon a time, snowboarders weren’t welcome on some mountains, the BMX was considered a children sport, roller-in-line was reserved to tourists, motocross to countrymen and skiing to older people, and skateboarders were chased by policemen… Wait, that’s still the case. But you know what I mean.
Those sports that used to be marginal back in the days, looked down upon by the masses, ignored by the traditional media, have today become the norm within most households. In a way, we’re collectively responsible for the transformation all the sport gear shops had to go through; but it all happened so fast! What happened?
The creation of the first X-Games in 1994 is without a doubt related with the increasing popularity of these sports. Because they were widely featured on television, a lot of people have been able to discover those disciplines and their athletes for the first time, and a whole young generation immediately joined in. Here’s a Top 5 of the most epic moments of the X Games that shaped the evolution of those sports.
5 - Dave Mirra’s BMX « Double Backflip » - Summer X Games #6 (2000)
Crowning a five-year-long total domination of the park, this double backflip earned Dave Mirra his 9th gold medal at the X Games. Dave Mirra still remains to this day the most decorated athlete in X Games history, with 21 medals, 14 of them gold.
Last night, May came over to my place holding a mysterious white box… « What’s that you’re holding May? », I asked. She said « Well Jay, I know there’s never any food at your place except old chips, so I grabbed something at Aux Vivres on the way ! »
-« What’s that, Aux Vivres?
-It’s a vegetarian restaurant, absolutely delicious. »
Ark! I expected this box to hold nothing but a bland salad, and boy I was wrong! She pulled out of it one of the biggest and yummiest-looking burgers I had ever seen!
Created in 2002, REDUX is an one-of-a-kind publication. Free, nonconformist and definitely culture-oriented, the art direction of each and every one of its issues is granted to a different artist. I asked Erwann Lameignere, the leader of this revolution, to be my guide through his hometown of Biarritz.
A little more than a week ago, the 2010 FIFA World Cup came to an end. It was a month long full of emotions, amazement, deceptions and vuvuzelas! That’s why I thought that you would be interested to know my point of view on this nineteenth edition of one of the most important sport events on this planet (after the Olympic Games, as you know…)
The Champions
Excepted their faux-pas on their opening game against Switzerland, the Spanish played a perfect tournament. On paper, their team is unfailing and they proved it on the field. Goaltender Iker Casillas, midfielder Andrés Iniesta and forward David Villa have been especially brilliant. I would have loved seeing more of Cesc Fàbregas, but an injury kept him out of the field for almost all the tournament’s length. No matter what, congratulations to the Furia Roja! This victory and this first star on their jersey are fully earned!
The Almost Champions
The players from Netherlands showed their savoir-faire by sending the Brazilians on vacation. At that moment, I thought they were going for glory. Unfortunately for them, Spain turned out to be an awesome opponent. The Oranje had to play very aggressively to stay up to date in the final match. It’s sad for them, because it’s their 3rd loss in history in an ultimate championship game. You’ll try again in 2014 guys! And don’t forget, you still have the most beautiful jerseys!
The Nice Surprises
No one can ignore Uruguay’s performance! Led by an inspired Diego Forlan, they weaved into semi-finals even though they had a more than hard time trying to gain their place for South Africa and they almost lost in quarter-finals against Ghana.
Speaking of Ghana, here is what I wrote in my Pre-World Cup blogpost on June 11th: “Algeria, Ghana and Paraguay are examples of countries that could unexpectedly extend their stay in South African land.” OK, I made a mistake with Algeria, but you must admit that I was right for Paraguay’s and the Black Stars’ course. These two selections honored their entire respective continent by overcoming the group phase and the eighths-of-finals, before finally failing in quarter-finals.
The Deceptions
I’m a positive guy! I won’t give names! But, you know…if you followed the World Cup’s newsreel, you know who have been disappointing.
I started this blog in December of 2009 in hopes of rapidly becoming an Internet star. I worked hard, I wrote hundreds of blogposts, I shot a dozen video episodes, I organized parties, I made thousands of Facebook friends. Everything is going down pretty good, but I’m still far from having the fame I dream of. Paul, an octopus!, became an interstellar and timeless legend in two weeks by having a small snack in a transparent box. I guess I should try that!
My knowledge is larger than life. Especially when it comes to fantasy movies! So when May told me she’d seen a great vampire movie recently, I had no idea how come it could have been released without me being aware of it. From what I understood, there’s a war going on between vampires and werewolves, vampires hang out outdoors in daylight, and also they sparkle… What?? But that goes against all the rules, doesn’t it? I tell you buddies, whoever pitched that idea won’t go far… It’s never gonna work!
As Jay (and most of you) really enjoyed my blog post about the festivals in July, I thought I should do it for August too!
Instead of snagging myself a culture advisor gig in one of the many summer shows, I’m creating my own occupation of international outdoors summer musical celebrations specialist. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in this niche.
So, I won’t make you wait any longer… Here are my suggestions!
Since I’ve been taking you on a journey around the world thank to MY friends, I still haven’t got the chance to set foot on Asia! To make up for this, I invite you guys to spend the day in Taipei and enjoy a visit custom-made by my talented friend Reach.
A true pioneer of the Taiwanese graffiti scene, Reach exported his trademark black-and-white style and colorful characters with bolt-shaped eyes and oversized teeth to Japan, China, and even Europe. An exhibition of his art pieces was recently held, and I wish I could have attended… Anyway! Thank you Reach for the tour!
Have you ever been to Cité 2000? This former rubber factory was turned into a real musical village. Hundreds of bands of all styles rent tiny rehearsal spaces there. While searching for a storage space for Bam Bam’s vinyl’s, I randomly met Hold A Grudge.
Since we’ve been friends for a very long time and they even scored my TV commercials that aired on RDS, I decided to ask them a couple questions about their music… And that was just the beginning of an adventure! I engaged in a multi-hyphenated punk-rock-hardcore journey that led me to the Katacombes and to meet the band Plus/Minus which is more or less composed of the same people as the Lifers Crew.
Today, it’s Anarchy on What Up Jay! Here’s my Hardcore-Punk webisode!
The very versatile Boogat, whom I previously mentioned HERE, offers us again an excellent free mixtape available online. This time, he chose to express himself in spanish on some next level raps. I already knew that he's a talented producer, but each time I hear his unique flow, I can only be astonished in front of such mastery. The only problem here is that I don't understand spanish. But, you know, sometimes the intonation itself is enough to understand the content.
In addition, the whole thing was mixed down by none other than Mr. Loud Bass himself, that is to say Poirier. Yes, the same Poirier who had blessed us with this mixtape.
To download Boogat's mixtape, you must click HERE !!!
A native of San Francisco, Persue is one of the pioneers of the Californian graffiti scene. He started in 1988 with other great names of the scène such as Risk, Saber or Slick, but also as a member of the inevitable Los Angeles crew: the MSK. He didn’t stop there: he’s also the creator of Bunny Kitty, his trademark character, a cute little bunny/cat hybrid (hence her name). This icon has been developed for a couple years already, in his graffiti pieces as much as on all types of media: canvas, tees, keyrings, mousepads, skate boards… And even underwear! And that’s not even it yet: Persue is also one of the main designers in the skateboarding scene. He created many iconic designs for DCshoes, Circa or Osiris (the Osiris logo? That’s him!)
Nowadays, this hyperactive Californian and Jean Reno-lookalike is also the VP and head designer for Vox, another skateboard which he designed a ton of kicks, each pair even more beautiful than the other. In his little spare time, he keeps on spray-painting and developing Bunny Kitty, who might well one day take Hello Kitty’s place in the kawaii merchandising market… Keep an eye on this artist and his multiple creative facets!
Skateboard, rock star, babes, bikinis, road trip, piñatas, Swedish massages… A buddy of mine recently told me about « SEO » : Search Engine Optimization. It consists in targeting keywords and using them, thanks to various HTML incantations, to get a better ranking in popular search engines such as Google or Bing. But some ill-advised bloggers and webmasters seem to use those tactics to lure poor innocent web users into content rather unrelated to their precious requests. Fear no more, webtrotter, that’s not Jay! I’m really gonna tell you about skateboard, rockstar, babes, bikinis, road trip, piñatas and Swedish massages today, on this humble blog.
Hey uncle! What kind of games did you play when you were my age? Did you know that kids these days don't get entertained with a hoop and stick? Welcome to the era of AUGMENTED REALITY. « What's that? » Well according to Wikipedia, it is "a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery". Instead of only playing video games, you get thrown INTO the game! Isn't that exciting?
Augmented reality is everywhere around us, just think about the yellow lines drawn on your TV monitor to help you see the players' progression when watching a football game, for example. But when it comes to video games, it's only getting started! If the first working test, AR Quake (an augmented reality version of the famous game Quake) was made in 2000, it's never been commercialised... And most of its followers also found the same fate.
Quand Jay m’a confié la mission de vous offrir une rétrospective des festivals de musique prévus pour le mois de juillet, je lui ai répondu : « Jay, il y en a tellement, c’est impossible que j’assiste à tous… » Il m’a rétorqué : « Choisis bien alors ! » Et ça a été vraiment très dur ! Mettez votre crème solaire et vos bouteilles d’eau dans votre sac à dos parce qu’on a tout un itinéraire !
