MOOSE ON LOOSE

The Street Aesthetic of New York City from Christian Andersen on Vimeo.

Artist, Chris Anderson has produced one of the most visually and emotionally stunning videos of New York City, a vulnerable yet tough street aesthetic. Anderson captures the rawness of New York, its culture, and its people. Using The XX-Intro fits so beautifully with the essence of New York City.

Compared to other (also very well done) Vimeo videos, I appreciate his detachment from the standard “speed-up” short films. Whereas the latter use a different stlye to highlight the characteristic that NY is the “city that never sleeps”, Andersen’s use of choppier visuals is how a TRUE NYC native sees their city (at least, how I do). His transitions from blurry to focused and unstable, moving shots really take you into the EYES of a New Yorker.The color tones and how he captured light peeping as the sun sets behind buildings to the shining beams over Central Park to the blue hues of the night were visually so captivating.

Absolutley raw.

Absolutley New York.

 Umm…YES YES YES…HELL YES.

NEW JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE! 

SEE JT, THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO GET BACK IN THE MUSIC GAME. WE NEED MORE! 

$$$ Role Model, Justin Timberlake and FreeSol

T’s that is. Remember when graphic shirts were cool, and then Ed Hardy killed it (and not in a good way)? Then Wildfox Couture came along and may have brought back the cool factor, but you had to shell out over $150 for a white T-shirt with a cross on it?

Well, the Young Lovers Label has brought the graphic T-shirt back for a reasonable price with a super cool factor.

The company has been featured in Nylon Magazine, The Satorialist, frankie, and Cool Hunting and doesn’t give into hipster bullshit (you know EXACTLY what I’m talkin bout…).

Here’s my fav from the collection (mainly because its totally dedicated to my city, NYC!): 

The sun came up with no conclusions. Flowers sleeping in their beds. The city’s cemetery’s humming. I’m wide awake, it’s morning.

- Bright Eyes

Check the site out here: YoungLoversLabel.Com

Sunglasses: Ray Ban Aviators, Tank: Forever21, Leather Jacket: From Italy, Leggings: American Apparel, Gladiator Sandals: Steve by Steve Madden, Necklace: Milk And Honey, Ring: Forever21. Beauty-Nailpolish: Essie “Turquoise and Caicos” and NYC “Lincoln Center”.

Kristian Laliberte, Senior Editor at Refinery29. This outfit looks SO familiar…wonder who wore something very similar….well from the waist down.

No this is not “Entourage”. This is an entirely different program. It is not set in the spacious, pristine, natural ambiance of Los Angeles revolving around the lavish lifestyle of celebrity. Rather, it is nestled in the heart of compact, gritty, tough streets of New York City telling the story of two friends, trying to hustle to get to the status quo of Vinny Chase and his crew. It is the reality that Entourage at times neglected. As much I love the recently ended series, at the end of the day, I love How to Make It because its set in my hometown of no bullshit, no drama. The show does a really great job on showing the hidden treasures of the Brooklyn to the hipster vibe of the LES. It truly is the modern-fresh-New York-take on the classic American Dream story.

With that said…. Season one left off with Cam (Victor Rasuk) and Ben (Bryan Greenberg) finally launching their line of T-shirts to a Japanese investor. Despite the trials and tribulations of scouring Brooklyn in search of vintage tees to having the Rasta Monsta truck stolen while basking in their short-lived glow of success, the boys left us on a happy note: they found the shirts and locked down the business deal they coveted for the entire season.

HBO began its sophomore season of ‘How to Make It” was a bang, literally. The episode entitled, “I’m Good”, opened with Cam and Ben is frolicking in Japan, probably the furthest either has ever been. They conspire to host a launch of the CRISP collection using weird Japanese sex-fetish ploys to create a buzz. Lulu (Nicole LaLiberte), is a red-haired boutique owner who promised CRISP a window display, only later disappoint them she’ll be using a grunge, punk-inspired collection by a group of druggies,  “The Neanderthals” instead. Even Cam couldn’t use his NYC smooth talking charm to convince his love-interest of the season (or perhaps moment) to sell his hoodies.

Rene (Luis Guzman) is back with his crew, but with a twist: he’s in love. He is a gangster simply trying to sell Rasta Monsta, but using his love-interests “ass-sets” to sell the energy drink. Rene spends the entire episode promising to use her facial beauty next time rather than her “booty”, a bit too dry of a story line for his character, but it allowed the audience to see his softer side. Gangsters need love too.

Mid-way through the episode, in a highly uncharacteristic fashion, Ben not only looses his cool while trying to promote the CRISP launch at radio show, he takes a hit of a blunt, offered by their rival clothing designers, The Neanderthals, in a cute yet foolish attempt to be cool. Not a good time to change your boy-next-door image, Ben! Weirdly enough, Cam is weary and declines the offer, only to spend the next couple of hours stuck on a train with his extremely high best friend on the night of their debut, on a stuck subway. The boys jump out the subway and onto the platform, in dramatic New York City fashion to attempt to make it to a portion of their pop-up shop event. After running the streets of the LES (Lower East Side, a bit of NY lingo for you), they stop at a fountain, where Ben jumps in and pulls Cam in with him to shake off the drugs he took. This moment set the tone for the season and reminded us why viewers love the show: friendship. Cam reverts back to his normal, overly-optimistic, and slightly oblivious self and reminds Ben of why they are going to ‘make it’ by yelling, “You think Brooks Brothers had each others backs like this?!”

Ben’s new girlfriend (who think he should stay with) and ex-girlfriend (she seems like the wrong fit for him) meet at the event and pretend like either of them is cool about the other. One of Rene’s bodyguards (of sorts) shoots himself in the leg, causing everyone to scamper out of the event just as Ben and Cam finally get to their big night. The episode ends with a sales representative offering them a card to help market their clothing. Happy ending.

I’m not crazy about the season opening and closing on a positive note. I can see that happening in Entourage and not minding too much, but on this show I like to see the emotional roller coaster the characters ride.  Perhaps I am being a bit pessimistic and should be thrilled that things worked out well. As much as we love to see Cam and Ben struggle, we love to see them smile too. The show may be a bit too optimistic and working out a bit too splendidly for our main characters for my personal taste for the first episode of the season, but isn’t that the point? Don’t we want to Ben and Cam prospers? In general, I really liked the first episode because I refused to make this a comparison to its similar counter-part, Entourage. I hope to see Ben and Cam in trouble with Rene again and see more of Domingo (Kid Cudi).

I am positive that there will be a fair share of problems in the horizon for the boys to face. Simply put: America loves a great “make it” story. America loves a great friendship story. There is nowhere better in the world to show both, than in the gritty streets of New York where the hustle never stops.

 Song of the episode: M83, Midnight City.

Article by: Fatima Rizwan

Please click the ASK button on the right to contact/leave comments or feedback.