It wasn't enough that Courtney Love flashed her breasts on the Late Night with David Letterman show Wednesday or at a Wendy's restaurant in New York's Union Square (where she allowed a restaurant patron to suckle her right teat--and posed for a photo doing so) or that she allegedly used a microphone stand to assault a fan and got arrested for it. Noooooooooo!

Courtney Love had to get physcial yet again during a concert performance, this time at her Bowery Ballroom show late Thursday night. The gig was her second in New York in as many nights and part of her club tour to promote the release of her new solo album, "America's Sweetheart" (pictured above, right).

According to a Fox News report by Roger Friedman that appeared online Friday with an Associated Press photo of Love in concert at the Bowery Ballroom (see above, left), Love allegedly hurt a New York Daily News photographer while attempting to crowd surf the audience at Thursday's sold-out show. According to Friedman...

"That's when the trouble started. Somewhere in her cross-room body surf, Love fell onto New York Daily News photographer Dara Kushner, and fell hard. Kushner, a petite brunette, got kneed in the neck so badly she had to be taken from the club by paramedics to a local hospital. Before she left, Kushner was questioned by police to see if a crime had been committed, if Love had hit her intentionally."

Air Massive is naturally a bit suspicious when the alleged victim is a member of the ravenous media (uh, unlike ourselves, obviously), and especially the photo press. In part because, well, accidents happen and people get bumped and elbowed and unintentionally bashed at standing-room-only hardcore rock shows all the time, especially when there's crowd-surfing involved.

However passé the grunge-era indie rock ritual is, people still crowd-surf, and when they do so it's not always comfortable for those being surfed upon. It would be easy to conclude that what happened to Kushner is what happens to lots of concert-goers at these type of gigs and that what happened was accidental.

On the other hand, we're talking about Courtney Love--We mean, HELLO, PEOPLE! Can you say "lighting rod"?

As Fox News suggested, the incident may have been intentional, an effort on Love's part to lash out angrily at a member of the media who was in the rock star's face taking pictures, and as such, an easy target. Or maybe this was just Love getting some more publicity. In which case, flashing her breasts on TV seems more effective (you know.... TV... REACH... the masses... that sort of thing).

But if it was just anger, why attack the messenger, the conduit to such publicity? And what was wrong with Kushner taking a photo of Love in the first place?

After all, Kushner was covering a live public concert by (1) a celebrity who had (2) just taunted the U.S. Federal Communications Commision on national television by baring her breasts and (3) had a brush with the law that resulted in arrest and an overnight stay in jail, which was certainly a newsworthy event in and of itself, in turn making Love an even more timely news subject.

It wasn't like Kushner was a rabid papparazzo invading Love's privacy and surreptitiously trying to snap photos for a trashy Euro-tabloid.

Whatever the real motives or actual circumstances, accidental or not, as Friedman pointed out, Kushner's injuries required medical attention to the extent that paramedics were called to the scene and she was taken to a hospital.

But just think about the frenzied follow-up media-coverage-supernova that would explode had she bared her breasts AND allowed them to be suckled WHILE simultaneously crowd-surfing AND assaulting a photographer.

Now imagine if it was televised live! And imagine it was during the intermission to one of the world's most watched annual sporting events! Hey, that sounds familiar.

Well, OK, OK, so we all know that's not going to happen again now that the 10-second broadcast delay is par for the course. Yes, the media certainly has its priorities straight. (Reassuring, isn't it?)

Courtney Love had the world wanting to catch a glimpse of her breasts. Now she's got the world waiting for her next moment of Courtney-just-being-Courtney wackiness.

The America's Sweetheart tour has only just begun. Imagine what Courtney Love's state of mind will be like after months on the road under the oppressive grind of day-in-day-out touring. That's right... stay tuned because the best fireworks may be yet to come.

--Da Smitho + Grand Central Playstation

RELATED LINKS

+ Photo: Courtney Love & Breast Suckled at NY Wendy's [Fleshbot]
+ Courtney in Trouble With the Law Again? [Fox News]
+ Showoff Courtney Bares Up for Dave [NY Post]
+ NY Police Arrest Courtney Love on Assault Charge [Reuters]
+ Courtney Love Official Website
+ Hole / Courtney Love Bio [MTV]
+ Courtney Love Filmography [iMDB]

The Air Massive knew Courtney Love was was making a tour stop in New York this week and that it would be special.

We kept seeing the posters for her March 18 show at the Bowery Ballroom every time we walked past the club, which is around the corner from the Massive HQ in downtown Manhattan, and had even thought about popping around the night of the show.

We just never anticipated that her week would be this special...

As the New York Post, NY1 and every other news outlet rushed to report, during an appearance on the popular Late Night with David Letterman television show Wednesday afternoon, Love lifted her shirt and bared her breasts as she walked over to Letterman's guest couch. She was obviously not wearing a bra underneath her shirt.

She then climbed up on Letterman's desk and towering above Dave raised her shirt and let her breasts out (see above photo, left). Love was facing Letterman during the stunt, so the studio audience at the Ed Sullivan Theater in Midtown didn't see her bare chest.

But wait... there's more!

As Reuters reported Thursday evening, following her Letterman appearance, during her secret concert that same night at another downtown club, Plaid, in the East Village, Love threw her microphone stand which struck a member of the audience. The police were called and she was arrested on assault charges. Love spent Wednesday night in jail and was released at 7:30 AM Thursday morning.

So, we thought, we DEFINITELY have to go tonight's Bowery Ballroom show. But get this, the show, as of 8:00 PM New York time was SOLD OUT! And, as the Bowery Ballroom notes, the show is an appropriately 18-and-older-only event. (Sniff sniff, little ones!)

Love, who keeps an apartment in New York's SoHo neghborhood not far from the Bowery Ballroom, not only pulled a Janet Jackson on national TV Wednesday and got arrested, but also locked herself out of her SoHo digs on her way home from the Letterman show taping.

So, yep, it's just another wacky day in the life of a Courtney Love already troubled by presciption drugs and beset by legal woes.

Maybe the video (see above picture, right) from her recently released solo album, "America's Sweetheart," in which Love runs rampant through a supermarket in a wedding gown as small girls keeps popping out from under her dress, is communicating a much truer, possibly bipolar Courtney Love. Perhaps it's an artistic cry for help.

There may be much more at play here. Let's review the facts: Female celebrity--Check! Roughly 40 years of age--Yes! Career on downswing in recent years--Affirmative! Increasing pop-culture irrelevancy--Uh huh! Member of by-gone-era pop/rock-music royalty--Right.

OK, then, everything does seem to be in order, which could only mean one thing--it's time to bare breast(s) on American television.

It all makes sense now, doesn't it?

But, all kidding aside, let's be fair. Courtney is an entertainer, a "creative type." She's an actress AND a rocker. And in her salad days she briefly worked as a professional stripper in Japan.

Love is also a widow and single mother whose late husband, heroin-addled Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, shot himself to death after unwittingly being crowned the single most influential music-youth-culture-global-MTV-icon of a generation. So, let's give the the lady a break. At least until the next wacky stunt-cum-meltdown.

--Da Smitho + Grand Central Playstation

RELATED LINKS

+ Showoff Courtney Bares Up for Dave [NY Post]
+ NY Police Arrest Courtney Love on Assault Charge [Reuters]
+ Courtney Love Official Website
+ Hole / Courtney Love Bio [MTV]
+ Courtney Love Filmography [iMDB]

Air Massive just got a peak at the perfect gift for the turntablist who has everything. German label Compost Records has just put word out that it's offering for sale a stylish new DJ-records bag called the Skull-DJ-Bag (pictured right).

What really makes this gear so cool was that it was a collabo design with Stussy and the Italian street-wear designer Slam Jam.

What also makes this DJ bag so special is that it's a limited edition item--they've made only 200 of these. Yes, ONLY 200! So how much is this merch going to kill your wallet? Try 80 euros. (Yeah, that stings a bit, doesn't it?)

And we know what you're thinking already: within a year, most of these bags will have been scooped up Japanese kidz who, by then, will probably be able to fetch 17 times the original purchase price on eBay.

But there's no denying the bag is cool. The detailing are pretty neat too. The double-"C" Compost logo is on there as is the Stussy skull and Slam Jam motif. The bag has lots of extra pouches, pockets and slots to put all kinds of things such as pens, magazines and the spare iPod or two. Plus it can store up to 35 records, which is--give or take a few records--about enough to put together a really slammin' one-hour DJ mix set.

For now the only way to get your hands on one of the Skull-DJ-Bag is either by sending an email to Compost Records to reserve one or by hunting it down on the label's website. Here's the email address: mailorder@compost-rec.com. Good luck... and did we mention that Air Massive needs a DJ bag for our birthday? Seeeeeeee yaaaaaaa!

--Shibuya Kid

RELATED LINKS

Compost Records
Stussy Official Website
Slam Jam Official Website

When the elusive J. Man dropped us an email earlier in the week suggesting we attack the Turntables on the Hudson party at The Frying Pan on Pier 63 Friday night, we knew we had to go check it out. Not only because the event's producers and resident DJs, Mariano Franzese and Nickodemus, are said to throw a great party but because Fauna Flash and Will Holland (a.k.a. Quantic) would be in the house spinning. The party was dubbed the Funky Beat Festival, and we sooooooo had to be there.

Fauna Flash is the German DJ-producer duo of Roland Appel and Christian Prommer, who when collaborating with DJ-producer Rainer Truby go by the name Truby Trio.

If you haven't heard Fauna Flash, then know this: Appel and Prommer have been making some of the most innovative and exciting dance music in Europe for several years now. Their sound is a nu jazz mix of drum-and-bass, jazz, soul, house and Latin music.

Like many of the artists on Michael Reinboth's Munich-based Compost Records, Fauna Flash have spent years experimenting with beats and samples while producing and remixing other people's music.

When Appel and Prommer finally went into the studio to create their own tracks, the result was 2001's "Fusion," a stellar collection of energetic, jazzy drum-and-bass rythms and sexy downtempo tracks. Last year, as part of Truby Trio, they released "Elevator Music."

Last night's Turntables on the Hudson also celebrated the publication of Re:Up Magazine's third issue, an excellent new downtempo-beats mag published in laidback San Diego. Re:Up has some of the freshest graphic design we've seen in a long time. In issue No. 003 you'll find an interview with Nickodemus and Mariano.

What makes Turntables so special--aside from the ever-reliable A-list of guest DJs--is the venue. The Frying Pan is a salvaged ship moored to Pier 63 in Chelsea, on Manhattan's far west side. Turntables on the Hudson, literally.

The ship, which is now a historic landmark, takes it names from the Frying Pan Shoals off North Carolina's coast, where it had been stationed for years. Later the vessel sank in the waters of a Virgina harbor. Some enterprising minds rescued the boat from the sea and brought it to New York City.

The 133-foot long ship is structurally sound and has been given an exterior makeover. The ship's interior, however, is like the Titanic's after it sank. It's still rusty from years of exposure to the sea, but in a ragged, aged way it's oddly beautiful, tinged with a haunted mansion-like ambiance throughout the corridors, lounge and many small bunk rooms sailors called home during the Frying Pan's months at sea.

It's in the Frying Pan's hull, in the main hold below deck, that Fauna Flash and the Hudson guys took turns on the turntables. They were aided by Quanteye, who served up visuals, and live percussion by Nappy G. Globesonic's Derek Beres and Eddy Plenty spun in the spooky, incense-filled lounge at the back of the vessel. Meanwhile in the main tent on the pier itself, Quantic (of Quantic Soul Orchestra fame) manned the ones and twos.

--Supercore

RELATED LINKS

Fauna Flash Official Compost Records Web Site
Fauna Flash Bio [MSN]
Turntables on the Hudson
The Frying Pan
Quantic Web Site (Will Holland / Quantic Soul Orchestra)
Compost Records
Reup Magazine

Cargo magazine has arrived! Yay! What's not to love about a shopping and lifestyle magazine just for men? Now your inner metrosexual can find all those answers that have proved so elusive despite having watched every single episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy for the past eight months. We've been waiting for the Queer Eye/Metrosexual backlash to begin any minute now. The much-hyped debut of Cargo might just be the tipping point.

There were some false starts to the backlash earlier. When South Park dedicated an episode to skewering the phenomenon, it looked pretty certain the trend would collapse in on itself leaving only a trail of barely worn Size-38-waist Diesel jeans, but alas Matt and Trey were too early.

Maybe this is because the metrosexual thing was a naturally occuring trend long before Queer Eye embedded itself on the nation's television sets and its conciousness. In other words, the metrosexual thing pointed to something real, not an invented fad. The straight men who really are hyper-vigilant when it comes to personal grooming and clothes-sense are not the product of hype but of good timing.

What is new is that such men are not considered freaks anymore. Now it's the metrosexuals who had got it all along and were way ahead of the curve, which the rest of the male populace is only now discovering.

This is indeed due to the mainstreaming and popularity of Bravo!'s cable show and the lifestyle coverage of metrosexual poster children like David Beckham, the international soccer star who plays for the Real Madrid football club and changes "edgy" hairstyles more often than you and me change pairs of socks.

So what can we expect from Cargo? How about "House Rules: Pieces to upgrade your living room with Thom Filicia." Hmmm ... name sounds ... familiar ... Thom ... FI-LI-CI-A ... ooooooh, of course, THAT Thom Filicia, the Interior Design guy from Queer Eye (Duh!). (Filicia, by the way, has just inked a deal to appear in commercials for Pier 1 Imports, replacing Kirstie Alley as official pitchperson.)

Here's what else is in store for readers: a feature called "Lube Job: Shaving Oils That Save Face." Here's an excerpt...

"Until recently, shaving oils were considered the 98-pound weaklings of the grooming world. A few puny drops might work as a pre-shave treatment, perhaps, but who would pair them with a razor when you could have a thick, creamy palmful of foam instead? The newest crop of oils, however, has bulked up with richer and more advanced formulas designed to increase lubricity."

Well, that's just great. No, seriously, that is great--really and truly, no snark-asm here. Honest! This is really useful stuff. In fact, after flipping through Cargo a few times, we think they're definitely onto something here. It's actually good. So maybe this backlash talk is in vain.

What's more to love? How about a Cargo messenger bag? We're not convinced that you're going to start seeing real bike messengers racing through cross-town Manhattan traffic with one of these. The bag is nice in a basically stylish and inoffensive way, but like all schwag it's likely to end up as a hand-me down to younger brothers and distant family members who probably need Cargo like Antartica needs ice.

What Cargo is attempting to do is something that no other "men's" magazine has successfully done in America, and that is provide men with practical information about how to look better, dress well and put it all together for life in the real world. Until now, the only thing that came close was GQ, which was fine as long as your wardrobe consists mostly of $1200 Zegna suits and you spend your weekends lounging with supermodels on St. Maarten.

Cargo reminds us of men's magazines in Japan, where titles such as Men's Non-Non and Smart can be found in abundance on the news racks. The Japanese have about a dozen such monthly men's shopping mags and they're way cool and have lots of photos of real people wearing stylish, well-designed and fashionable new clothes that don't cost a month's paycheck.

Whether Cargo succeeds or fails is anyone's guess. We're hoping they don't drop the ball, metrosexual backlash or not.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go exfoliate my skin... did anyone see where I put my Clinique Scruffing Lotion?

--Da Smitho

RELATED LINKS

Cargo Magazine Web Site
House Rules: Upgrade Your Living Room [Cargo]
Lube Job Shaving Oils That Save Face [Cargo]
Metrosexual, Definition of [The Word Spy]
Essay: Meet the Metrosexual [Salon]
Manchester United's David Beckham Bio
Official Queer Eye for the Straight Guy Web Site [Bravo]
Thom Filicia Bio
Thom Filicia's Official Personal Web Site
Official South Park Web Site

In a report that will give readers and hip hop fans added meaning to the rap music call-out "Everybody say Hooooo! Ho! Ho!," the New York Times has a story by Martin Edlund in today's paper explaining what may be a growing trend in which the worlds of hip hop music and adult video are converging.

Alert readers may remember that back in 2001 Snoop Dogg was involved in an adult video called "Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle" (Hustler Video), though not as porn "talent," but rather as a master of ceremonies. What you may not have known is that Snoop's foray into porn translated into one of the biggest selling adult videos ever, with sales "in the hundreds of thousands," according to Hustler's Larry Flynt, who is quoted in the Times' article.

Snoop's follow-up, titled "Snoop Dogg's Hustlaz: Diary of a Pimp," sold more copies than any other adult video release of 2003. In Snoop's case, the convergence argument is pretty compelling. "Doggystyle," the adult video, included Snoop performing nearly an album's worth of previously unreleased rap tunes. Talk about synergy!

Snoop is not the only hip hop star to realize this synergy and, ahem, penetrate this new market for hip hop porn. Rap star Lil John (picture above) has made a video and other rappers, including stars 50 Cent and Outkast, have been involved in porn to varying degrees of participation, either as financial partners or talent. Apparently, it's mostly about the money. Edlund writes:

"The economics of porn make it a lucrative prospect for rappers. A video like Lil Jon's can be done 'on a very meager production budget of maybe $50,000,' Mr. Mann said. Marquee rappers tend to undertake these projects as partners, rather than hired help, so if the video does well they get paid twice: once as talent (about $1 for every copy sold in the case of Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz), and then again as investors."

The other side to the hip hop-porn trend is that in much the same way that a criminal conviction for a rapper might have boosted his notoriety and resulted in a spike in the artist's CD sales, being associated with porn might give hip hop stars that "crunky" street cred that no amount of PR could buy.

Instead of the gangsta thug-life image parlayed for years by rappers of old such Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac (which some argue led to their deaths), you have the hip hop star as porn star pimp. What better way to boost that cred than appearing in a skin flick? Lil' Kim, where are you?

--Da Smitho

RELATED LINKS

Hip Hop's Crossover to the Adult Aisle [NY Times]
Essay: Woof! There it is! [Salon]
Official Lil John Web Site
Snoop Dogg Bio [MTV]

We had heard rumors. There was speculation. Then we second guessed ourselves, "Nah! Can't be true." Then we thought, "Or could it?" Now we know it is true. The world's giant, monstrous, green reptile-like menace from Japan and all-round ace movie kaiju, Godzilla, is going on vacation and it looks like it may be permanent.

The Associated Press reported the news Friday in a syndicated story that ran in Friday's Hartford Courant and appeared in yesterday's the (San Jose) Mercury News. The news was officially announced in Japan Thursday by Toho Pictures, Inc. that production of Godzilla movies is going on at least a ten-year hiatus following the release of the 28th Godzilla film later this year.

"Toho studios' executive producer, Shogo Tomiyama, said Thursday that the latest movie - marking 28 releases and 50 years of 'Godzilla' films - would probably be the last one for at least a decade."

Diehard fans worldwide may look closely at Tomiyama's statement and find some wiggle room in his wording ("would probably") and deduce that Godzilla WILL be back and sooner than anyone thinks.

But given the movie series' poor box office track record over the past decade and the coffin nail of Thursday's announcement, the future looks grim for "Gojira," as he is known in Japan.

Even though Godzilla is a global movie franchise, during the past 50 years audiences outside Japan rarely got a look at the entire output of Godzilla films. In America, only a handful of Godzilla films reached the public in wide theatrical release.

In the late 1990s, Godzilla took a big star turn in Hollywood, which gave the green kaiju an updated look enhanced by computer animation technology and sent the monster on a romping rampage through New York City in an American film production.

In Japan, Godzilla's look was always a lttle bit more tame. The special effects until recently had remained fairly hokey, even downright "cute."

But apparently Toho studio executives finally figured out what audiences had understood much earlier. The premise and storyline were long past their sell-by dates.

It's sad to lose Godzilla, but it's even sadder to see a series continue when it hasn't anything left to say and must struggle under its own outdated weight. Godzilla's menace has lost its relevance, particularly in a post-9/11 world, where our greatest fears have been realized not by giant monsters but by human beings.

--Shibuya Kid + The Kid from Kyoto

RELATED LINKS

After 50 Years, Godzilla Is Taking A Break [Hartford Courant]
Godzilla to Take Break After "Special" Film [Mercury News]
Official Toho Pictures Web Site for "Godzilla Final Wars"
Official Web Site for "Godzilla X Mothra X MegaGodzilla"
Fan Site: Barry's Temple of Godzilla

Today's New York Times brings dance music front and center with an interesting "pop review," a post-concert report by Kelefa Sanneh, who (in the Massive's humble opinion) is one of the Gray Lady's better music critics.

This isn't the first time that a major dance music event has been covered by a major paper, but it's odd enough nonetheless--and refreshing--to read set reviews of DJs and their play lists in a well-reported story in the Times, let alone in a daily broadsheet of the Times' stature. (Despite all the critical dung always being flung at the Times and however much people might be loath to admit it, it's still the greatest paper ever.)

And of course it's great to see a picture of Jane's Addiction frontman and all-around creative firebrand Perry Farrell (pictured above), who--as anyone in the know knows-- naturally goes by the name DJ Peretz when manning the ones and twos.

That Farrell is at Ultra Music this year as a DJ demonstrates part of the problem with dance music's profile or lack thereof in the United States. Dance music in America, as Sanneh notes, is simultaneously everywhere and relatively hidden on the mainstream radar because of its many sub-genres: House, drum-and-bass, electro, IDM--take your pick, they're all trapped in niches.

And it's because the crossover appeal dance music has for many different kinds of music artists, who either work within the form (DJs, electronic musicians) and mix in influences from many other music styles or work outside the form (R&B singers, rock bands) but borrow from it.

In either case, any definition of "dance music" is only further diluted. Maybe dance music is like obscenity: one knows it when one sees it, or, in this case, when one hears it.

Farrell wasn't the only artist who may have surprised audiences at this year's Ultra Music. New York indie label DFA Records had two artists putting in appearances Sunday, rockers The Rapture and label head James Murphy's group LCD Soundsystem.

Sanneh explains how the Ultra Music Festival itself is a merger of two dance/electronic music events, one being the annual Winter Music Festival, which has been held in Miami for the several years. The combination of the two music fests has resulted in there being many music stages and a disparate roster of artists and events sharing the spotlight.

Sanneh writes...

"Most of the stages attracted concertgoers who wanted sound, not spectacle: the park was mainly filled with anonymous-looking guys at turntables, entertaining crowds of dancers that gathered and dissipated, responding to minute changes in the playlists. (One not-so-anonymous D.J. was there, too: DJ Peretz, better known as Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction.) But some stages offered freak shows: the drummer Tommy Lee, formerly of Motley Crue, made a dismal attempt at crossing over to the dance world, drumming along with a D.J. And Galaxy Girl, a self-styled diva right out of some science-fiction novel, drew fans less for her crude, cheerful trance tracks than for the fire dancers she brought with her."

Also putting in an appearance, which Sanneh said "ruined the flow," was the king of bling bling himeself, P. Diddy (a.k.a., Puff Daddy, Puffy, Sean Combs or, our personal fave, His Royal Bling Blingedness), who was there to promote his new dance single.

Apparently, one of the highlights, Sanneh points out, was the Paul Oakenfold DJ set that included his remixed version of the 2000 U2 hit "Beautiful Day." Wish we were there for that one.

If there's really a trend here, could we expect to see, in addition to the regular cast of DJ Fatboy Slims and Paul van Dyks of the club world, a techno-R&B-punk DJ set collabo by, for instance, Ken Ishii, American Idol winner Ruben Studdard, Metal Urbain (trading French vocals and guitars for Technics SL1200s) and a trio of Chinese Circus jugglers on unicycles? Wish we can be there for that one too.

--Shibuya Kid + The Kid from Kyoto

RELATED LINKS

Miami Park Throbs With One Big Party [New York Times]
Ultra Music festival 2004 Web Site
Official Perry Farrell Web Site
Festival Info from DJ Mixed.com

So we were running some errands and walking over to Orchard 88, our usual morning java joint on New York's Lower East Side, when we were approaching the corner of Rivington and Allen streets and something caught our eye: the crossing signal was red AND green. The red hand was lit up telling us, "Don't Walk." But the green-walking-man-figure was lit up, too, saying "Walk." Which was was it?

Then we realized, "Hey that green is a little too green--where are those lightning-white L.E.D. lights we've become accustomed to... huh? HUH?"

On closer inspection, the reason for the initial confusion became clear. An anonymous artist had pasted up a new green-walking-man on the signal plate, covering the original L.E.D. version. The artist's version was of a tracksuit-and-backwards-Kangol-hat-wearing hip hop dude carrying an old skool boombox. (Click here to see close-up of detail of above image.)

Clever... No, wait... VERY clever!

What's more, the artist had cut out holes in his paper substitute so that the "Walk" L.E.D. lights underneath could shine through. Genius!

One of the great things about Lower Manhattan, especially around the Lower East Side, Nolita, SoHo, the East Village and Chinatown, is that there's so much cool street art on the walls and pavement that the urban landscape is a virtual museum in and of itself.

Okay, for the record, by "street art" here we don't mean graffiti ( though some of it is art and there are plenty of graffiti tags and throw-ups in Downtown New York ), but non-commercial posters, stencils, attached objet d'art , board-graphics, stickers and murals.

We'd love to know who the artist behind what we're calling "Hip Hop Walk Man" is. We think it could be the New York street artist Swoon, but while similar in cheekiness the style and medium here are of a slightly different flavor than his usual works, so we're not sure. If anyone knows, drop us a line at the Massive.

It would be cool if green walkman stays up up for a while, but given the safety risks due to the sign's potential to confuse pedestrians, the authorities will probably have to remove Hip Hop Walk Man. Sniff sniff.
--Typhoon + Ivan Corsa / Photo: Typhoon

RELATED LINKS

Wooster Collective Street Art Project -- Interview [Session.edu]

Swoon bio -- Jen Bekman Gallery