LUPE FIASCO & ASHER ROTH at Temple University

Posted by Ebun | Posted in | Posted on 1:12 PM

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Last night, while at the studio, I was debating whether or not to attend the Homecoming concert featuring Lupe Fiasco and Asher Roth. I'm a semi-big Lupe Fiasco fan and not a fan of Asher Roth so I didn't feel the need to rush to grab a $13 ticket. In any event, I posted on my facebook status to see if any of my friends had an extra ticket. Luckily, my friend Dom had one and the night was set.

Upon arriving at the Liacouras Center where the concert was held, I was somewhat happy to find a mixed demographic in the crowd, but was upset when I realized that I'd be standing next to a loud, obnoxious, and obviously inebriated freshman for most of the night. At exactly 9:01 the opening act came on. This is a first for a Temple University concert. The concerts always start at 9pm but nev
er really start until 10 or even later (see Nas last year.) This was the first local act that opened for the headliners that I was impressed with. He goes by the name Dosage (http://www.myspace.com/therealdosage) and he is very talented. His first song immediately caught my attention and the subject m
atter was not the typical drugs, money and guns. Then it went downhill from there. One of his crew members walks on stage, grabs the mic from him and says "I'm gonna let yo
u finish, but...." Yep, everybody wants to play off the Kanye incident. Too bad they didn't get the crowd reaction they anticipated. Dosage proceeds to call the guy a jerk and you guessed it, he brings on some of his boys to start 'jerking' while he rapped to the 'you're a jerk' beat. Typical.


Then Asher Roth. I can't really say too much about the music quality because I don't really listen to Asher Roth, but the guy has energy and knows how to entertain a crowd. I was especially impressed with his drummer because I'm a drummer also. His DJ was pretty dope. His hypeman, as always, was pointless.
Now, for the man of the night: Lupe Fiasco.
Bravo. That's all I can really say about this performance. From the second he jumped on stage til the very last second he walked off, Lupe's set was all energy. I know it's his job and he is very passionate about it, but man, this guy was all over the stage. I was surprised he didn't have a Drake moment and tear his ACL. It was like a rock concert with Hip Hop music.
He opened up the set with 'The Cool' and I was very impressed since it is one of my favorite songs of his. Then the inevitable happened- my camera died. But that was good because I had more fun jumping around and rapping to every word instead of trying to capture glimpses of a wonderful moment for someone else.


My only qualm with the performance is more with his album title "L.A.S.E.R.S." than with the actual performance. At a point in the show he begins this nonsense talk about how "Love Always Shines Everytime, Remember to Smile"....uuumm, yeah ok. He goes on and on about this love shining down nonsense. I became so impatient that I yelled out, "play that s*** already" to the humor of some people around me. Thankfully, he obliged and 'Shining Down' came on. Bananas! This was the turning point in the concert. The energy level kicked up a notch and even the "sitters" in the crowd got up on their feet and bounced to the pulsating drums and weeping guitars of the 'Everybody Nose' remix.

All in all, it was a great night, I had fun as I'm sure everyone else did. Hope the pictures and video show you guys a little bit of the fun we had last night. Til next time, peace!

Futbol vs Football

Posted by Ebun | Posted in | Posted on 6:13 PM

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I know this post is going to cause a stir, and rightfully so: discourse is good. So as a fan of both American Football and futbol (soccer) I have to say this: Futbol is a much more enjoyable game to watch (and play) than American Football for a number of reasons.

First of all, there is an inherent finesse to the game of soccer that I believe does not exist in American Football. Even if you don't watch soccer often or at all, whenever you see a clip, you are amazed at the things that soccer players can do by themselves. For instance, I've "wowed" people just by myself on the corner of the street or in my alleyway juggling the soccer ball and doing tricks. I'm yet to see someone do something breathtaking by themselves with a football. Usually, you are wowed by a running back juking the crap out of a linebacker or safety or a wide receiver making a leaping catch over a cornerback. As amazing as it is to see someone get "Mossed" or Ray Lewis knock the wind out of Ochocinco, I find it more amazing to see a freestyler do an around the world 10x in a row or to see Ronaldinho juggling the ball solo.

Now, most people who I've debated this with always bring up the fact that in a futbol game you will be lucky if you see two or three goals scored. And to that I say that if you watch futbol, as a true fan of the game, it isn't about the goals. Goals are great to see, but I've watched some games that ended in nil-nil draws that have been far more entertaining than games with two or three goals scored. I doubt any American Football fan would leave the stadium happy if the game they just attended ended 0-0. Furthermore, I feel as though there is a culture that surrounds futbol that isn't found, or if so, very little in American football. If you were to take a journey to the most remote parts of the earth, what game will you most likely find the kids playing? you guessed it, futbol. Most importantly though, the biggest sporting event of a single sport is the FIFA World Cup. Some might rebut and say, "well that's because it involves all countries" and my response would be that that is representative of futbol's appeal on a global scale.

Ultimately, they are both great sports that have die-hard fans the world over. I choose futbol. What about you?



Maison de Verre

Posted by Ebun | Posted in | Posted on 6:41 PM

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Project 2 begins! I'm excited for this project. We were divided into teams of two (my team ended up with 3 people: myself, Rajesh Jose and Matiss Nigals). This phase of the project is to tear apart an existing house and diagram the quality existing within and without. Our house is "Maison de Verre" or House of Glass by Pierre Chareau. In short, this house is beautiful, and I thought I'd share it with you all. In the coming weeks I'll be updating with the progress of the assignment. For now, I'll leave you with pictures of this masterpiece located in Paris, France. Au revoir mes amis!





The Art of Evading

Posted by Ebun | Posted in | Posted on 11:47 PM

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Yesterday was the review for project 01 of studio. The project essentially began with us being assigned a human trait, mine being "evader" and progressed into us defining the trait, making a drawing about it and then surveying a site with instances of the trait being manifested in the site. Once this site mapping was completed, we were to begin to design for an inhabitant of our choice and to program the space.

My inhabitant was a government secret agent whose identity is meant to remain secret from the public. Thus, I designed an inhabitable space for him that rests primarily underground with a garage as an entry point. Then came the tough part. Initially, it was "pedestrian" as my professor so eloquently put it: it was simply an underground apartment. The intervention needed to inherently manifest the trait of being evasive. So I designed my ass off. Quality of space became the most important thing. Low ceilings, concealed points of entry, and walls that acted as obstacles rather than simply barriers all became the language I employed to make the space evasive.

Ultimately, the review went well with the critics giving suggestions as to how I can carry the design further. I remember little else of what was said because I was so tired. Hopefully I articulated my ideas well enough to them because all my work would have been pointless if I didn't do so. Too many times I've seen great work by my classmates and their presentations suck because they do a poor job of articulating their ideas to the critics. Til next time....

ZOMBIELAND

Posted by Ebun | Posted in | Posted on 7:06 AM

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No this post isn't about the movie coming out soon. This post is about Studio Life. The time is 7:08 am in Philadelphia, PA, sun is rising and no I'm not just waking up...I've been awake all night. in studio. designing. and building my model. I'm not the only one here, I'm accompanied by some of my other classmates. Our first "jury"/review is at 2:40pm today. That's approximately 7 hours away. I'm HOPING to get some sleep, but we'll see how that pans out. For now I'll leave u with some pics of what I've been working on for the past few days. Enjoy. oh, and please pray for me, thanks.





Les Trois Rois (The Three Kings)

Posted by Ebun | Posted in , | Posted on 10:17 PM

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I made this post to recap three of my favorite shirts, all of which have French football legends on them. Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane and Eric Cantona, respectively. If you are interested in any of the pieces on my blog or have any shirt idea in mind that you would like to see come to life, please feel free to send me an e-mail at ebun.olaloye@gmail.com

P.S. Look forward to the ad campaign for the first t shirt from the line of shirts: Live. Breathe. Futbol.

They are on sale for $15 a piece with FREE Shipping (for a limited time only). Just look to the right ---> to securely order through paypal. Au revoir mes amis.

For the LOVE of the game (and the city)

Posted by Ebun | Posted in , | Posted on 9:31 PM

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There is something intriguing about the city of Philadelphia. I live right across the bridge in south jersey and rarely visited the city for the 6 years I lived there before I went to school at Temple University in the heart of North Philly.

Upon going to Temple, I immediately fell in love with the city and the myriad of things it has to offer. In short, the city has character, attitude, panache and lots of it too. However, it wasn't till I got my own apartment and built a bike as my primary means of transportation did I really get to experience the city.

I especially love the soccer culture at Temple and other surrounding universities (Drexel, UPenn). To combine the two things I love the most about the city: soccer culture and attitude, I designed a graphic, t-shirt, stickers and hoody to champion my love of this city. Stay tuned for the design.

Under the Influence Pt. 2

Posted by Ebun | Posted in , | Posted on 11:18 PM

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My work is also influenced by the music I listen to. This post is dedicated to those artists that I listen to while I paint, draw, design, etc.


Femi Kuti. I love Femi's music. I won't even compare him to his father at all because his music is completely different. I love Femi Kuti's music because as "African" as it is, it, undoubtedly, has western influences, which makes the music richer. One of my favorite Femi tracks is called "Eh Oh" from his latest album Day By Day. The sweeping chords of the organs are simply dope. And "'97" his tribute song to his father and fallen sister is classic material.

This one WILL surprise you....


The Knife. A coworker of mine was playing "Heartbeats" and I fell in love with their sound. Of course that's all most people have heard from them, but I was curious as to what else they have and I love their music now. "Marble House" is THE most played song from my iTunes library. Their blend of electronic music with African-influenced percussion and syncopations is classic stuff.



Dub. A. El. E. (WALE) has been my favorite rapper since I first heard him a few years ago. His music is just "dope" to me. He is very clever and witty, but so are many rappers of the moment. What makes Wale doper is the fact that he is creating his own go-go influenced sound. And as a drummer, I gravitate towards more percussion-heavy music. My favorite Wale track? wow.....I'd have to say there's a tie between the Bird Peterson Freaks remix and Family Affair. Two very different tracks.

I have so many more influences, but I'll keep it short for now. Back to our regularly scheduled program.

Under the Influence

Posted by Ebun | Posted in , | Posted on 1:37 PM

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I made this post to sort of chronicle some of the things that influence my design style, and just "me" in general. I think you will be surprised. Here are some of my influences:



Tommy Hilfiger. While most of my peers are Ralph Lauren aficionados and practically worship everything he does, I've been more drawn to Tommy Hilfiger's designs (that isn't to say I don't wear Polo).



Francoise Nielly artwork. Francoise Nielly's use of color is inspiring. I believe art should evoke emotion and her work does so tremendously. Her pieces are inspired by black and white images, which in themselves are very powerful, but she completely transforms the subject and brings a new light out of their faces.



Thierry Henry. In short, this guy made me fall in love with football. Which made me begin to start painting shirts with football players on them. Hopefully I'll meet him someday to thank him.

I'll be adding more of my influences in the future. Cheers.

Corsica

Posted by Ebun | Posted in | Posted on 1:10 AM

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Wow. it's been a while. I've been gone but I never left....Here's a tee I made for a good friend of mine. Enjoy.
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