Hear ye, hear ye! Oh Ye Denver Birds are our Time Off Magazine‘s Live local band shoot of the week! Get your copies here!
Check them out in this week’s issue #1549.
We also popped out to the Tivoli for some mid week fun with exploding Sydney band, The Jezabels. Check out the review and pic in this issue as well!
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read it online @ Time Off magazine – Brisbane
We’re back into it this week with Greenthief for our Time Off Magazine‘s Live local band shoots.
Read about them and their tour dates in this week’s issue #1548.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read it online @ Time Off magazine – Brisbane
The Valley Feista gang went all out this year with a bunch of new additions to the festivities, one being the Redbull Roller Disco! The morning was savoury to say the least but had cleared up nicely when it was time to lace up the “loller” skates for some fun and laughs!
Redbull Roller Disco photos here
Haight
Haight is one of those suburbs that has a young creative vibe and a slew of quirky shops to match. Sure, you cant swing a stick without knocking the fake glasses or beanie off the -back- of some hipster kid’s head but in general it has the eats of West End and the boutique shopping of the Valley/New Farm in Brisbane. If you’re heading out early (re: before midday) pop into one of the many cafes on Haight St. Most seemed pretty busy so you may be in for a short wait if you’re after a table.
The People’s Café was right near the bus stop so it was an easy choice 😉 Food was quite good, reasonably fast turn around even if the service was a bit average, free WiFi more than likely makes up for it for most people. Judging from recent Yelp reviews this place has since closed, possibly rebirthed under a different guise?
Bellies full it was time to burn some Greenbacks, starting at the Masonic Ave end of Haight st…
Stussy – one of the larger stores we’ve come across but nothing out of the ordinary for the range. They did have a clearance rack with some old school Stussy designs though. Seeing their Stussy “Peace Dollar” vinyl figures on display in all forms of disrepair and missing pieces gave me the warm and fuzzies knowing I had a mint one waiting for me from my LA haul 😉
Super 7
Super 7 – local designers obsessed with Star Wars and Anime, they have a good range of their own shirt designs and a small range of toys and books. Shirts are overpriced but there are some fun original designs like the “Weapons of mass destruction” that has a bunch of space ships and vehicles from movies like Star Wars, Tron, Battlestar Galactica etc. Toys and collectibles also fetch a premium, a few odd pieces may have deserved the extra tax but Kidrobot items not so much since the KR store is just across the road.
Super 7
True Sole
True (Sole) – set up like a clearance store, they had some of the cheapest new release sneakers we saw in California with a good $10-20 less than regular retail prices. They also had older models on clearance, just cross your fingers they have your size. There’s also a small selection of clothing and accessories.
California Surplus
California Surplus – Listed as the sister store to the one in LA, this one was mostly focused on the surplus side of things rather than the work wear. They still had a small selection and thanks to a misjudgment on clothing for the day, a pair of overpriced Dickies pants were a life saver.
Shoe Biz II
Shoebiz II – This second store leans more towards the sneaker niche market. A few rarities along with clearance items on footwear and clothing. This was the only place at the time that I saw the Nike Air Vengeance‘s in “maize”, didn’t have to tell me twice 😉
Shoebiz 1 – Caters more towards women’s shoes and boots, plenty of stock but you will have to battle a thousand other women as it didn’t seem like there was a time it wasn’t packed.
Adidas Originals – up the Willy Wonker glass elevator from Shoebiz 1 is a small selection of Originals gear leaning towards the more outlandish designs and colours. The clearance bin is always a welcoming sign and this one had an out of production Adicolor jacket for $40USD *yoink* along with some sneakers and a few other bits and pieces. If you’re looking for range you’re better off heading to the Adidas store in the Westfield in the city.
Kidrobot – pretty much the same as the LA store apart from a couple older Michael Lau figures. More fuzzies when I notice they were selling for $150-200, 10 times what I paid for mine 😉
Loyal Army
Loyal Army – and then there was one. This is their only retail store left now, not in short due to a decline in their designs from cute and kitschy to trying too hard to be “now”. In saying that there was plenty of multi-buys and clearance items to be had.
FTC skate – renowned for knowledgeable and friendly staff, this is a good sized store with decent range of all things skate related.
Amoeba Music
Amoeba Music – Not having time to make it to the one in LA I was really looking forward to popping in here, and it didn’t disappoint. Wall to wall, floor to ceiling of music. Its what iTunes would look like if it was a real store, just with less thieves and a more user friendly environment 😉 It took well over an hour just to paw through the electronic music and hiphop (with a quick detour through punk) for a yield of about 35 cds, so make sure you put aside the right amount of time proportioned to your musical appetite.
Since these cds were going to be shipped back with the bulk of our haul, I stripped the cases to save some weight. The guys were only too happy to take the empty cases back (:
Downtown
The two major stops for the downtown area were the Westfield and Nike Flagship store. The Westfield was unfortunately a fruitless experience even with Champs, Footlocker, Vans and Lids on the directory save a store exclusive track jacket from the multi-level Adidas store. A couple doors down at Shiekh’s had a much better result with a large range of clearance items and new range footwear and clothing, easily one of their bigger stores too. Jordan Rare Airs were a steal at $60USD.
The Nike Flagship store, while in all intent and purposes was very similar to just about every other one in other cities fell short because of this. If you’ve been to one you’ve been to them all as the stock was almost identical to that in LA.
Next up we head to the two (little)lands of the orient, Japantown and Chinatown.
Milpitas 2011 – Great Mall
Yosemite 2011 part #1 – LA to Oakhurst via Bakersfield
Yosemite 2011 part #2 – Yosemite National Park
San Francisco 2011 part #1 – Arrival
San Francisco 2011 part #2 – Shopping – Haight, Downtown SF
San Francisco 2011 part #3 – Chinatown
San Francisco 2011 part #4 – Japantown
San Francisco 2011 part #5 – Alcatraz
San Francisco 2011 part #6 – Fisherman’s wharf, Golden Gate Bridge
Complete Yosemite 2011 photo gallery here
Complete San Francisco 2011 photo gallery here
This week we take a break from our regular Time Off Magazine Live local feature shoots for some festival action at Parklife 2011!
Check out the full review and a couple photos in this week’s issue #1547.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read it online @ Time Off magazine – Brisbane
Complete Parklife 2011 photo gallery here
The Gossip - Parklife 2011
The start of the festival season is official here! Numbers were pleasantly down on previous years which led to a much more controlled, accessible and incident free event.
Parklife 2011 Brisbane photos here
Example - Parklife 2011
San Fran - Little boxes on the hill side
As we rolled into San Fran with the weekend traffic it was as much excitement to be in a new city as it was relief to ditch the car. As much as a benefit the car was we were keen to get away from having to battle traffic and that damn GPS voice over bitch! There’s only so many times you can hear “recalculating route” before you lose it completely and it was not a moment too soon!
Neon Monster
On the freeway in it was nice to catch glimpses of the stereotypical San Fran hills and period buildings. We had a bit of time and fuel (car had to be returned back as empty as possible – insane, I know!) on our side so we decided to head out to Neon Monster. Its just out of the way enough to make it a bit of a hassle to get to and being a lone store it warrants a dedicated trip, but its definitely worth it. Bout the size of your regular boutique shop, the space is divided in half between collectible vinyl toys and books. There’s a good range of both but what makes this store a cut above the rest is the prices. Most full priced items were less than most places we had come across and there were plenty of items on sale or marked as clearance, most notable was the “twofa” deal on Kidrobot plushes. Sadly, about a month or two ago they closed their doors for good, however they have kept the online store running. Other art commitments were cited by some of the staff as their new focus so we will be sure to keep our eyes open for their work.
Heading to the CBD it was nothing short of a 70s cops and robbers movie with the steep rise and falls of the San Francisco landscape. If by chance you have hired any kind of “sports” car, take extra care as even with the 4wd riding height of the Ford Focus we were bottoming out on some streets and that was before the “spirited” driving 😉
Arriving in the downtown area, went from bad to worse thanks to road works and one way streets, the looming deadline for car return wasn’t helping either. This was also the time we gave up on the GPS as it kept redirecting us to the road works and subsequent road closures. Switching to map only view and calling your own shots is definitely the way to go. Once that was sorted it wasn’t long before we found the hotel, unloaded our luggage and returned the car.
For the San Francisco stretch we chose to stay at The Park Hotel on Sutter (full review here) which was central to most amenities and was very reasonably priced.
Initial view of the city had hints of New York City. I was expecting it to be more laid back like LA, just less spread out but thanks to its density it was a lot more hustle and bustle like NYC. The driving and people’s attitudes at times reflected this but it only took about 15 seconds looking at a Google maps print out for someone to ask us if we needed directions, that’s always a good sign (:
Now car-less, our mode of transport was back to the humble public transport system, luckily SF’s Muni and BART systems are very efficient and quite easy to get your head around thanks to the smaller grid-like layout of the city.
Map in hand and a revitalised sense of discovering new frontiers we headed off to San Fran’s boutique shopping hub, Haight.
Milpitas 2011 – Great Mall
Yosemite 2011 part #1 – LA to Oakhurst via Bakersfield
Yosemite 2011 part #2 – Yosemite National Park
San Francisco 2011 part #1 – Arrival
San Francisco 2011 part #2 – Shopping – Haight, Downtown SF
San Francisco 2011 part #3 – Chinatown
San Francisco 2011 part #4 – Japantown
San Francisco 2011 part #5 – Alcatraz
San Francisco 2011 part #6 – Fisherman’s wharf, Golden Gate Bridge
Complete Yosemite 2011 photo gallery here
Complete San Francisco 2011 photo gallery here
Faithless
Well it seems that amongst the chaos of the festival season I never actually made an official post for these photos! They’ve done some of the rounds but here they are in their entirety so you can check out what you missed or relive the moments from Faithless, Nas, Kelis, Ludacris, Sasha and Erykah Badu amongst many others.
Good Vibrations Festival 2011 Gold Coast photos here
Nas
Its all foxy boxing and rainbows this week with all girl rockers The Madisons being our Time Off Magazine‘s Live local band shoot of the week.
Read about them in this week’s issue #1546.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read it online @ Time Off magazine – Brisbane
Nike Air Max 90 2007
The one thing I like about Nike’s, especially models like these that have been around for ages, is that just when you think you’ve seen every colour combination, along comes another. More so, the sometimes seemingly random colour selection that just works. This is one of those times.
These are the second pair I have, tracked down while in the USA earlier this year so there is a connection there, possibly due to my current fondness of orange 😉
