Never again will I stand in line for 8.5 hours just for a new Apple™ piece of technology…. We went to the mall yesterday around 11:30-Noon, thinking, there might be a large line, but average around 3 hours to get the new phone. Little did I know, I was off by 5 and a half hours. Granted, the new phone is super slick, and quite fun to play with, but worth that wait… still debating. Over all tho, I am happy I scored the new phone. I actually dropped my old phone a while back and the volume was stuck, started to freeze up, etc, so this one was much needed. The G3 makes a nice difference in internet speed and the fact you can quickly download new apps on the fly via the phone is a nice as well. I decided to get the white one. Wasn’t sure at first, but after I got inside, I said white, even if i wasn’t sure if i wanted the white one. But screw it, I was hungry, tired, and annoyed with this girl in-front of me. So i guess I am a fanboy, but at least I did beat Yasly to getting one. He went to the AT&T store seeing if he could score one just to show me I didn’t have to wait in line. He failed I spent a lot of time writing emails and texting Rina & Yasly. Still. 8 freaking hours…. Never again, unless it’s for Sigur Ros tickets or something.

Just got samples in on the Bear Sketchbook that I am doing. Over the past year or two I’ve gotten many requests for prints on this bear, but never did anything with it. So I would bring him out for a small run of Laser engraved Sketchbooks and a possible Moleskin. If you are interested in scoring one of these when they come in, let me know!

The next poster print is in progress. I’m super stoked on this one. This piece is a hint at something major that is coming up in the next few months. Once things are official, I’ll throw down what is going on.

 I was sent this image from Aaron with Paris, I mean Nicole.. (Thanks Ralph @ Treebark for the correction) & Benji (or Joel, .. i really don’t keep up with celeb stuff) with a little Hydro being represented. Six Degree’s baby!! I am just stoked to hear that the piece is doing well for DCMA. If you want to score one, I believe they are over at Tilly’s.

Just in, the Asian Demon Print. This is going to be part of a set of various asian influenced pieces. Probably do one each month or bi-monthly till I get this Asian Themed stuff out of my system!! They are $17 bones.. and if you are outside of the United States, it’s super cheap since our Dollar isn’t strong (haha..umm…kinda true)

Check them out here: Legacy of Defeat

This was just sent over to me. It’s a write up on the House of Hoops event from Freshness Magazine. Pretty exciting to see this.

“The striking backdrop is essentially a mural. An epic tale of strength and perseverance, the black & white, high contrast image by Hydro74 (Joshua Smith) incorporated all the assets of the players, from the Black Mamba (Kobe Bryant), the Lion (LeBron James), to the soldier reference of Camelio Anthony. Each graphics will be detach from the overall mural and imprinted on a limited edition t-shirt collection available only through House of Hoops and Nike Town on a later date.”

Check out the whole event at Freshness Mag.

This past week I took a small vacation up to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and spent a week without internet nor a decent cell connection. Even tho it was nice being in a log cabin up in the sticks, but when you are trying to wrap up loose ends, it gets a little stressful.Well, I’m back in the office and getting things planned out for July. A lot has happened over the last couple weeks that is exciting, as well as great news. 1. Got word from Hasbro that a piece I developed for My Little Pony is going to be selected by Kid Robot. Once I have details, I will pass them out. 2. Nike produced a big event in NYC for the House of Hoops which turned out solid and my art became one of the main centerpieces to celebrate the Olympic Basketball Team. Check out 12ozProphet for some shots of the event. One crazy shot is the one where LeBron is looking at the shirt I did for him… Hope he digs it. 3. Got word in from the printer that my new posters are on the way (photo above). 4. Got a few nice snowboard projects cooking with Roxy and Endeavor. and 5, sent over some files to a client for this event that might (fingers crossed) be laser etched on a PS3. That, is pretty damn rad! With all that said, lot of really exciting things going on, and very flattered to be involved in the projects I’m involved with.

 Well, I got all the moleskins in this weekend. And from sales, they should be gone pretty quickly. That is pretty rad. So if you ordered one, they all went out today and should be getting them this week in the mail.Also, here is a image of the Mighty Muggs logo that I did. I saw it before, but spotted this toy at Target (I freaking love that store..) and wanted to make it official. If you’re interested, I posted some of other concepts for both PowerTour & Mighty Muggs up on my site in the product & type sections.As far as this weeks news: Starting this Friday evening, I will be away on a vacation for about 10 days roughly. I went out this weekend and got a new laptop because my other one is on it’s last legs thus need something trust worthy. This is not a ‘legit’ vacation, but rather a family thing up in Tennessee. However, I will be around, doing so remote work, etc. As far as client stuff. Just wrapping up projects for Nike, American Eagle, Roxy & K2 this week. Looks like the Burton board is finalized, still waiting on details. Super stoked about that board this season. Got some interesting projects on deck as well as some illustrations planned for some skateboards coming up. It’s always nutty, but I love being able to do it. Lastly, as far as personal news, my mom’s Husband (and again, long story) seems to be in stable condition. However today on the news, another thing to get depressed about is all the flooding in the MidWest.  Just amazing seeing mother nature do her thing this year.  A brother in law has some flood damage up in Bloomington. I am rather interested in seeing what will happen to Florida this year. Maybe Al Gore is right (ha.. actually, i fully agree with him..). Lastly, as always, I apologize for the typos and bad grammer. I know it’s all over my site.

One of the projects I forgot about, but recently found over at Target was the faceplate and strap designs I did for Hasbro’s Power Tour Guitar. I’ve always been excited to see the Power Tour Guitar just because I developed the logo for it. But this weekend, I found more… Included in the package are some various sticker sheets that include various extra pieces I supplied to the project, as well as some logos that didn’t make the packaging, but ended up on the sticker sheet. Over all, very exciting. Wayne & his team did a great job with the product.

One the creative side of this project, I included Troy White, who developed the layout & design for the black and white ‘Riot’ one. Out of the several comps, I am glad this one stuck. Thank you for your help on this project as well as the many others we’ve done together.

Today was a nutty day. I got a call this evening from my Mom telling me that her Husband (technically Step Father, but long story) had a massive heart attack today. I guess shortly after he got home he started to have chest pains, then it was followed by his arm getting pretty numb thus getting more painful as the afternoon came to a close. She asked him if he wanted to go to the Hospital, which normally they avoid, but he agreed. Right at the moment they got there, he had a massive heart attack and had to be flown to do a different Hospital, where as of now, he is in stable condition. The Doctors told my mom if they got to the Hospital any later, he would of passed away. I guess he had 1 major clot, and couple minor blood clots. With all that said, it was one of those ‘human’ moments where you realize how quick something can happen. So yeah. I just wanted to share since there are quite a few you who visit often and I respect. Lastly, on a side note. I was also depressed today due to Tim Russert’s passing. I really enjoyed him on MSNBC & Meet the Press.