Turntable Lab 10th Anniversary x Solitary Arts

A Turntable Lab Exclusive with the Solitary Arts

- For our tenth anniversary, we teamed up with our favorite designer, Geoff McFetridge, and one of your favorite skate companies, Solitary Arts, to create this exclusive shirt. We’ve always loved this particular illustration, as it elegantly captures the pains of the creative process. We think it captures our saga well. This will only be available at turntablelab.com and our stores.

fit: slim fit
construction: 100% ring spun cotton
women and mens shirt available now

Bad Brains... Kenny Brimer

ROIR Records and Bad Brains posted a short story about Kenny Brimer that I wrote.

Mahalo’s to ROIR, Bad Brains, and Kenny!

“… 1, 2, 3”
“… Ready and Fire”

Meals On Wheels: Dec. 18th - SF Benefit

Friday, December 18th.
8PM – 1:45AM at the Mariposa/Hunter’s Point Yacht Club, located between Pac Bell Park and Mission Rock at 405 Terry a Francois Blvd. in San Francisco’s China Basin in support of Meals on Wheels.

A Waterfront Yuletide Musical Spectacular w/ Jason Lytle, Phil Crumar, Gadget, Tommy Guerrero and more.

Shoes From Hawaii...

Our good friends out in Hawaii have released new shoes, either just last week or one coming-up this weekend.

In4mation released their Vans Chukka Low this past Friday, Decemember 12th and Fitted is releasing 50 pairs of their inaugural shoes with Element on December 19th.

Things I Make for My Daughter by Geoff McFetridge for Apartamento Magazine

Things I Make for My Daughter
by Geoff McFetridge for Apartamento Magazine

There is nothing I like better than to build things for my 6 year old daughter Frances. As an artist and designer I spend much of my time making things, or helping other people make things. In making these things for her I feel like I am putting these skills to good use.

Mindlessly swinging a hammer and cutting wood is always fun and, unlike a wobbly homemade bookshelf, with these things it really is the thought that counts. I built her a tree house the cherry tree in her grandparents back yard, but I didn’t want to hammer any nails into the tree. If I had planned it out the measuring and complexity of cuts would have taken a long time…days. Instead, I made it up as I went along. It was improvisation, a tree house, built as the tree grows. It looks like a hobo shanty, which actually makes it look more fun, not less fun. And fun is the goal of all these things.

Frances loves most of the things I have built for her. Which, of course, is the reward; watching your daughter enjoy something that you made. But there is also something deeper that comes out of the experience. The sensation I get when making these things feels the same as when something I am doing in my studio is going RIGHT.

Simple, improvised, handmade, mindless things made in the spirit of fun for someone I love… the things I make for my daughter are maybe just a pure form of the things I try to make in general.

1. Clothes drying rack 2006. With this I had to go to the hardware store to buy the dowels. Ideally the things I build for Frances are made of the many piles of scrap wood I keep in our garage. This was not actually a big hit, It ended up a bit too tall for her, but now it is making a comeback as she gets taller.

2. Recent random drawings 2009. I make something next to her and we take turns coming up with what will happen next. These were little collage drawings. I love to see how she interprets what I do, it is a bit like seeing something through a kids eyes, which is mindblowing. On the right are a couple of snowflakes and a little guy with a black beret she made on her own.

3. EZTP 2007
This was a really fun project we did. Frances was really into making forts and we came up with this design for making a Teepee out of a quilt. You put it together on the bed then throw the quilt over top. Frances would sit inside her teepee and have a snack or look at books.

EZTP 2007
This is Phoebe. She is less than 1 yrs. old here. She is going to be fun to make stuff for, she is a bit young still. I am sure she is going to have some great ideas.

4. Frances art table. My wife bought this table on ebay. It is an old school table from ohio I think. It is sad that they surely replaced all these nice wood tables with plastic crap. You could park a car on this table it is so solid.

5. Reading Chair 2007
Frances and I went to see Barbara Bestors house being built. Frances was really inspired to see it and started to gather up scraps of wood that were lying around. As we looked around she kept asking me “Dad, can we build a house?” I said “yes” and she kept gathering the scraps for the house we were going to build.
When we got home we put all the scraps in the back yard and I told her that with the wood we had the house was going to be small. She was really dissapointed by this bad news. She was no longer interested in the project.
I suggested we build something else. She started aranging pieces and we would nail them together. Soon this reading chair took shape. She came up with the little stopper that holds the book open and in place. That blew my mind. She was 4! Believe it or not she used this chair a lot.

6. Play Kitchen 2004
I made this kitchen out of a piece of our real kitchen that I ripped out. So this mini kitchen exactly matches our real kitchen. I love the grain and color of aged plywood. This plywood is 50 years old. To finish it off I bought a real tap and a real burner, the knobs are just plywood though. I like that some parts are very real and some are very fake. Your imagination is sparked but you have to take it the rest of the way.
The picture in the background is by frances, it is of an old house that is an art center in Chicago. I love it because she had to do it with her left hand because she broke her arm this summer.

7. Step Stool 2004
I think every kid needs their own step stool. They are so short but desperately want to be a part of the action. With a step stool they can be self sufficient. Frances can help make dinner or do projects at the table, or wash her hands. It has gotten a lot of use. This is also made out of the old pieces of our kitchen that I did not use for the mini kitchen, so it also matches as well. It has wobbled a little since day 1, but it does not seem get worse.

Beautiful Losers Shorts, Saturday, Dec. 5th in LA

Films scheduled include the world premiere of Harmony Korine’s new short film (culled from unused footage from his latest feature Trash Humpers!:

Harmony Korine – Mak & Plak
Mike Mills – Deformer
Cheryl Dunn – Mass Destruction
Chris Johanson – Encinitas Realization
Spike Jonze – How They Get There
Clare Rojas – The Manipulators
Geoff McFetridge – There And Back

Click image below to get tickets.

D.I.Y. AMERICA - Skate + Create

Click image below to see D.I.Y. AMERICA, Skate + Create, Ep #1.

The Big Red makes a quick appearance in the video. Extra toes!

Andrew Paynter... Piano Pinner Ollie

Todd Coleman took a polaroid shot of Andrew Paynter’s frontside ollie in Redwood City.

Big Piano Pinner ollie…

Deck The Halls For Kenny Brimer!

Lightsleepers Presents:
DECK THE HALLS

Friday December 11, 2009
@ The Manifest (32 N. Hotel St. Honolulu, HI 96817)
9PM-1:30AM Free

21+ (All Ages welcomed before 8pm)

DECK THE HALLS is a skateboard deck art show to help raise funds for Kenny Brimer as he battles Leukemia. 30 artists will design custom one of a kind skateboards that will be sold at the event. All proceeds to help Kenny pay his medical bills.

For more info call (808)778-7738 or email: lightsleepers@gmail.com

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The art show will feature the following artists:
Angry Woebot, Katch1, Martin Hsu, Daves Action, Soker, CkaweekS, Jessico, KOAK, Justin Park, Newkon, Eukarest, Lucky Olelo, Melon James, Amanda Garcia, Jef Hartsel, Matt Tapia, Ryan Lau, Jeremy Strength, Mako Ozaki, Jason Menor, Pancho Abalos, Philippe Anthony, R-Zone, Janel Natividad, Shaun Castro, Blue Hawaii/Eighty Four Skate,Oasis Skate, Evil Genius, Reak, Chris Kam, & Kenny Brimer.

Creative Growth & Tommy Guerrero, Dec. 4, 2009

WHAT:
Holiday Project: Creative Growth Annual Exhibition and Studio Sale with performance by Tommy Guerrero and friends (at around 6:30pm).

WHEN:
Exhibition and event, Friday, December 4, 2009 from 5:00-8:00pm. Gallery event is free and open to the public (5:30 for non-members). Also open Saturday, December 5, 9th and 12th, 11am-4pm.

On view from December 4, 2009 – January 14, 2010

WHERE:
Creative Growth Art Center Gallery
355 24th St., Oakland, CA 94612, (near 19th St. BART)
Regular Gallery Hours: 11:00 am – 4:30 pm, M-F

CONTACT: jennifer@creativegrowth.org / tom@creativegrowth.org