Reno?

December 14, 2014

Let me start this off by saying I mean no disrespect or any emotional harm, to anyone hailing from Nevada. I'm a California boy and I've only visited three out of all the cities in the entire state: Las Vegas, Carson City, & Reno. My favorite aunt has been living in Reno for upwards of 30 years, so I'd say I visit that place roughly 5-8 times per year. Both of my parents attended UNR (University of Nevada Reno) and my older brother was conceived at St. Mary's Hospital in Reno. So with all that being said, I somewhat have a family history in Nevada, Reno in specific. I've got memories of playing inside Circus Circus at 4 feet tall and being a young fat boy at the casino buffets. Now I don't quite know what exactly it is about the biggest little city in the world (Reno), but honestly the place creeps me the hell out. The streets over there are cold & dry.. the smell of illegal prostitution is lingering in the air, cigarette odor is permanently embedded in the air conditioning systems of all major and non major hotels/casinos. There are billboards advertising breakfast meals for $2.99.. I mean what the fuck.. how can you get pancakes, bacon, and hash browns all for $2.99? The place is just fishy.. it's like when you see something or someone you don't like, but you don't know why, you just don't get a good vibe from it? Anyway, I doubt I'll ever be a resident of Nevada myself, but I spent one night in Reno last weekend and I managed to snap a few random photos of anything in sight. Hope you enjoy.

Individual heat will keep you clean in these cold & dry streets..

There's still a small handful of Inspired by Everything tees left in the shop..

Lieutenant Jim Dangle? Reno 911.. bang bang

Virtual Space

December 09, 2014 in Art

Words and photos provided by: Michael Casatico

The end of the year is right around the corner, and unfortunately for us students out there, so is finals week. Man, just typing that out gives me a little anxiety haha. Finals is always one of the most stressful times of the year for me. No matter how much I think I have all my classes under control, I always end up having to spend about 86% of my time in the library trying to remember stuff I studied three months ago at 1:00AM while I was watching Sports Center and eating cereal. Also formally known as, the beautiful struggle. This past weekend was the last little bit of time I had to take my camera out before I go on lock down for the end of the semester. What better way to spend it than to take a trip up to Los Angeles and witness Virtual Space by Mikolaj Wyszynski.

"Virtual Space" is an art gallery which will be running the rest of the year in DTLA featuring all of Mikolaj Wyszynski's most recent personal paintings. Mikolaj’s paintings are all inspired by his concept of a virtual space. This concept is so interesting to think about and really analyze, because in this day and age it is becoming undeniably evident that a majority of the population does live in a virtual reality. As text messages generate digital feelings, and social profiles build virtual profiles, Mikolaj guides us through his imagination of Virtual Space.

“We are living are lives through a Virtual Space now. Our communications take place in virtual rooms generated in the high tech homes we live in. Our electronic devices connect us with other users at a split second. These experiences bring us to another reality in digital space”

— Mikolaj Wyszynski

Mikolaj’s creative vision comes to life through his paintings, and it was more than a pleasure to be able to be there to document and experience it in person. Being able to walk up to the paintings and analyze every inch of color and detail was nothing short of inspirational and thought provoking.

“I wanted to capture this in my art. The avatars that represent us, the viewing eyes of a video chat, the focus of a camera on our feelings.. this is all happening in Virtual Space”

— Mikolaj Wyszynski

If you're lacking creative imagination, need a break from your final study guides, or just need a little inspiration; make sure you stop by Virtual Space and chop it up with Mikolaj. Tell him Mike sent you and enjoy a glass of wine for me. Oh, and here is some cool music to bump while your flipping through the photos.

My friend Mikolaj, and no, he does not do hits for the mob.

Little homie even came by to check out some art

The creative, the artist.. Mikolaj Wyszynski

FlaskMob's 1st Birthday

November 24, 2014

Words and photos provided by: Michael Casatico

As most of you know Thanksgiving is coming up this Thursday and I am extremely thankful to be able to spend it with my family back home in the Bay Area. It’s funny, ever since I moved down to San Diego for college I feel like I appreciate coming home more than ever. Besides the fact that all my closest family and friends live up here, I love the energy in the Bay and the city (San Francisco). I swear, there's just something about the city that inspires me unlike other places I've been recently. I wouldn't say San Francisco reminds me of Los Angeles, and I definitely wouldn't even begin to compare San Diego to either cities at all. I guess what I’m getting at here is that I just feel some type of way when I get off at a Bart station and step out into the unpredictable concrete jungle known as San Francisco. If you don’t know what I’m trying to say, I apologize. I honestly think it’s just something that's intangible, or maybe it’s just me. OR maybe it's all the people who live here that make the city what it is. The amount of substance and creative power that is curated in the Bay Area is ridiculous and I just can’t get enough of it. We could sit here all day and talk about start up brands, companies, and artists that have manifested their way to excellence; but I wanted to touch on a relatively new movement in the Bay and San Francisco in particular that has grabbed my attention as well as many other creatives. FlaskMob.

Not to be confused with a flash mob, FLASKMOB is something completely different. Once a month in San Francisco, Evan Thompson and Sabina Thompson host this “event" that has turned into more than can be described here on the blog. Just to give you a brief run down, imagine a couple hundred people all strapped with cameras, and flasks, ready to hit the streets at all costs. I wouldn't call it a photo walk anymore, and I definitely wouldn't categorize it as just any Instagram meet up either. Flask Mob is truly its own genre in the world of photo meet ups and gatherings. I attended the 2nd ever FlaskMob, and its beyond inspiring to see the amount of people that come out every month.

This past Sunday night I attended the FlaskMob 1 year birthday party with my close friend Griffin Ormond. We cruised out to the city with our cameras and some party supplies ready to document the night. Upon arrival, right away I knew this was going to be the most epic meet yet. Showing up, you would have thought they were giving stuff away at Nordstrom's for free by the amount of people all gathering around Market and Powell street. As soon as Evan and the rest of the official FlaskMob crew showed up, we were on our way mobbin' through the streets of San Francisco. It felt so good to be out in the city again taking photos and talking with old friends. I think that's the most underrated part about FlaskMob, the networking opportunity and conversation. The amount of people I have met, been inspired by, and stayed in contact with all through FlaskMob is a blessing.

If you haven’t attended a FlaskMob yet, you should hit the store, pick up a disposable camera, the finest liquor, and give it a shot (pun intended). Like I said before, there's just something about San Francisco that is intangible and inspiring to me. There's nothing like coming home to my immediate family, and being able to hit the streets with the creative community that makes this city what it is. Big thank you to Evan Thompson for always being an inspiration and for curating this movement. Here are some photos of the night:

John Kim. This photo has to be my favorite out of any FlaskMob photo I've ever taken.

Evan Thompson himself, showing love to anyone and everyone out there.

The boys had us escorted through out the whole night. Thank you to SFPD for your patience.

SFFD even made an appearance to put out a minor fire.

Shot of the cityscape from one of the stops along the walk. San Francisco.

The Sound of Tomorrow

November 17, 2014

This last Friday, November 14th, was one that will keep me inspired for a long time. I had the pleasure of cruising up to Los Angeles with my good friend Edric Quintong (DJ Reekz) to take some photos at the Soulection show that night at the Echoplex. Soulection, what is Soulection? Is it a band? A label? An event? What is it? All these questions can formally be answered on their website at Soulection.com, but I wanted to share a very brief description and opinion of my own experience regarding Soulection.

Soulection, to me, in the most literal sense is a roster label of extremely creative, and talented music producers and DJs that all come together on one platform as Soulection. Every Saturday morning at 11am, Joe Kay hosts their weekly radio show on RINSE.FM. The radio show consists of three hours of “feel good soulful" music, complimented with organic creative conversation from Joe Kay and the featured artist of the week. The coolest part about the radio show, is that every week Joe brings in a new artist to sit down and explore music with. So every week you're provided with new music, and new reasons why to be inspired just by listening to the show. Did I forget to mention that every radio show becomes downloadable for free on their Soundcloud the following week in case you missed it? That’s just a preview of what Soulection is and what they do, so now I can talk about the Friday night show a little more with y’all .

Friday night was Soulection's monthly show at the Echoplex, where you get to see live sets performed from various different Soulection roster producers and DJ’s. This show featured Andres, Andre Power, Sasha Marie, Eden Hagos, Kronika, SoSuperSam, Joe Kay, and a special guest (Hannah Faith). The energy at the show was amazing, and everyone who performed had the place jumping. I’ve been to the last three shows, and it just seems like every time the vibes get stronger and stronger. It’s a pretty crazy thing to see when you look out into the crowd and everyone is dancing and singing along. Now if you haven’t noticed I haven’t described what genre of music Soulection is classified as, and to be honest they don’t fall into one category. You may hear it be described as “The Sound of Tomorrow”, or a blend of soulful music and beats. Either way, it's something you have to hear for yourself because it's truly unique.

Soulection has inspired me countless times and I listen to this music on a daily basis. Whether I’m at school, studying for a test, driving to work, at the gym, editing photos, or designing future products for Tribe, chances are I’ll be listening to a Soulection roster member or radio show. Music is such a heavy influence on my life, so finding a music based, creative culture like Soulection was beyond beneficial for me. I highly suggest you explore the Soulection roster on their website to learn more about the variety of music they produce as individual artists and as a platform.

Here's one of the songs I had playing when I sat down to edit these photos from the event. LA Watts by J-Louis of Soulection. Are you inspired yet?

Big thank you to Joe Kay for having me.

Shoot With Summer

November 07, 2014

Words & photos provided by: Mitchell Wenger

It's hard to believe that I've only shot with Summer twice. There really is no excuse for it. Between her talent and beauty you would think we would have shot together a million times by now. But with all things great comes patience. The first time we met to shoot was in La Jolla. Many of you may remember the balcony scene that we shot with the sun setting, perfectly vibrant colors, the ocean reflecting in the background and one pretty lady walking on the edge. This time I thought we would go for a completely different feel. But I wanted to also challenge myself to bring something a little different to the table. This shoot in particular was directed around a pool table, a simple style, and natural lighting. But, like I said before, I wanted to challenge myself and break away from the cliché of fully using the pool table. I find beauty in subtleties. They are very complimenting and add great simplistic detail to the photos. With that being said I only wanted to slightly use the pool table to help the viewer use their imagination a little more and to challenge myself with composition. The natural lighting was perfect that day. And the emotion from Summer was unreal. She nailed it. All I had to worry about was editing the photos. You will notice that not every edit is the same in this set and many of my other sets. To me every photo is different even if it's in the same scene. Edits, in many ways, help compliment and create emotion. To feel a photo is a gift and many times indescribable. Most all of my inspiration has been driven from photos that leave me emotionally speechless after viewing them. Photos last a lifetime but emotions fade and that is exactly why capturing the emotion in an image is so important to me. This set is definitely up there with my top favorites. I couldn't have asked anymore from Summer and it shows. Anyways I hope you enjoy the photos below. Be Inspired, Be True. -Mitchell

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