Z-Trip: Victory Lap The Obama Mix Part 2

Z-Trip has released a followup to the much hyped Obama Mix that was released around the DNC with "The Victory Lap" Obama Mix Part 2. Z-Trip blends his signature style here cutting and scratching soul and hip hop gems with Obama speeches as well as news clips from election night. It is a smooth and mellow mix that is uplifting and really echos the vibe that many people are feeling right now.

Well worth the download!

And while I'm at it StickerRobot has also released a limited number of metallic gold Shepard Fairey Obama stickers with the HISTORY tagline which were made specifically for the Manifest Hope show in DC. They are selling a small amount of stickers thru their website. I picked up a pack of 10 earlier today.


Victory Lap Obama Mix Part 2
Sticker Robot History Sticker

Obama TIME Person of The Year- Cover by Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey lands a TIME Magazine cover with a new image of Barack Obama for the TIME Person of The Year cover. The fact that Time chose Shepard to do a new Obama piece for their cover is a pretty cool way to wrap up all the Obama street art hysteria leading up to the inauguration.

Glad that Time gave the nod to Shepard and acknowledging how iconic his Obama images became during the campaign.


TIME Person of The Year

Z-Trip Obama Mix In Full

I've served up an election day special for you! The polls are set to open in less than 6 hours as I sit here a shade past 1am on November 4th, and i am serving up the full Obama Mix by DJ Z-Trip on youtube.

It is almost as if I am too excited to go to bed tonight as today should go down as one of the most monumental days is US history. I have been sitting here soaking up the ambiance of this beautiful set thru my headphones for the last 45 minutes. If you have never heard DJ Z-Trip and the words "dj set" scare you, fear not dear reader.... Give this set a listen, prepare to be inspired, and most of all get out and vote!!!

Rally for Obama @ Crescent Cafe in Worcester

Thanks to the mybarackobama website I became aware of a rally for Obama that was taking place earlier tonight at The Crescent Cafe located at 69 Canterbury St in Worcester. The Crescent Cafe is located a few short blocks away from our place and I had witnessed the building reopen within the past year, without ever stopping in to check it out.

The fact that they were holding an Obama rally was the perfect opportunity for Crystal and I to walk down there this weekend and partake in the festivities and check out the lounge for the first time. The Crescent Cafe is a hop skip and a jump away from our building and sits on Canterbury street pretty much sandwiched by a defunct and dilapidated Crompton and Knowles mill to one side and a defunct and dilapidated Standard Foundry building on the other. This is certainly the heart of Main South. As Crystal and I walked up to the cafe there was good crowd of 40 or so people on the corners of Canterbury and Gardner street holding signs and chanting to passing vehicles. Right away I was happy that me made our way down the block to show our support.

We made our way inside and ordered a couple beers. We then made our way over to the information table and signed in with email addresses and contact info. Overall they were organizing for everything from bus trips to New Hampshire to phone banking to rallies, recruitment and voter registration right in Worcester. Before I knew it the crowd had moved inside so we could get down to the business of the night. Gladys Rodriguez-Parker who organized the event spoke about what everyone can do to help effect the change that we want to see by getting Obama elected thru phone banks, door knocking, NH trips etc. Next up was Stacey Luster who owns the Crescent Cafe with her husband, she proclaimed how very proud she was of the turnout and every one in the room and made a very thought provoking point of how she does not think the corner of Gardner and Canterbury streets has ever been the site of such a big sign holding event as it was this evening.

Stacey then introduced Congressman Jim McGovern who was fresh off a plane from Washington after voting yes to the bailout package. I give Congressman McGovern all the kudos in the world for coming deep into the District 4 hood on what has probably been one of the most hectic weeks of his political career in order to motivate folks to get out the vote for Obama. McGovern stood on top of a barstool, and addressed the 80 or so folks who were in attendance. McGovern did not hold back, calling George Bush "terrible" and "the worst President this country has ever seen". McGovern echoed how each one of us can make a difference even if we can change just one voter's mind, whether it is here in Mass or the battleground state of New Hampshire.

One Love Cafe was providing food for the event, so Crystal ordered up a plate which we shared while spending some time talking with McGovern with a small circle of folks. Yes he did vote for the bailout, he seemed to state that something needed to be done asap and it was certainly more about restoring credit lines to individuals and small businesses than bailing out Wall St. He hoped for an environment where the bailout happens, Obama is elected and a economic stimulus package is put forth as one of the first orders of business in January. I was able to bend his ear for a couple minutes regarding foreclosure and the individual homeowner and was able to describe our plight here at University Park Lofts.

All in all it was a great first chance to walk to a lounge just a couple blocks away and feel a groundswell of energy and community spirit around the campaign as well as finding out that the Crescent Cafe is a nice little hidden gem that I will swing into again in the near future.

Manifest Hope Gallery Show @ Denver DNC

It seems every heavy hitter in the US street art scene is getting up and getting down in Denver this week for the DNC. The folks at the Andenken Gallery have been hosting a mind blowing collaborative effort of works titled Manifest Hope at their space in Denver. Many of the heavyweights of the scene have been hitting the streets as well.

It seems that Shepard Fairey was arrested last night while putting up some less than legal work and was detained for 16 hours before his release. Ron English who created a stir with his Abraham Obama image is at it again in Denver as is the one and only David Choe and a host of others.

The enthusiasm that all the artists have for this campaign is plain to see and some of the images that are part of this exhibit speak louder than words. The way that street artists who usually would be living and working and holding their ideals on the fringes of society have rallied around the Obama campaign is truly inspiring.

I was able to see the effect that political street art has on the masses way back on Super Tuesday when I received some Shepard Fairey Progress prints in hand thru the mail less than 2 hours before Hillary Clinton was to speak at Clark University. I took a few of the pasters up to Clark and proudly stood silently (for the most part) outside of the Hillary rally. I was yelled at by middle aged folks, and there were plenty of high school and college aged kids who flocked to the image and would start talking to me. After a while people were coming up and wanting to have there picture taken next to the paster. That is when I began to understand the power of street art and this image. The Shepard Fairey image has become THE definitive image of the campaign and I am happy to say that I had these pasters in my hand on Super Tuesday which was basically the first big drop of this now iconic image on the US consciousness.

The fact that the first Shepard Fairey image mushroomed into something much larger, with tens of high profile artists producing limited edition prints with the proceeds going to the Obama campaign and generating buzz and awareness to a whole new group of people is astonishing.

Obama Flyers For McCain and the RNC

I voted in the Democratic Primary, which here in Massachusetts would mean I am registered as a Democrat. For whatever reason arriving in the mail on Saturday was some sort of "Republican Census" document from the Republican National Committee and an emergency funding appeal from the John McCain campaign.

I have been known to send credit card companies random slips of paper and coupons from the newspaper back to them in their postage paid envelopes. I of course saw that the RNC and McCain envelopes were postage paid, and I knew that I had some printouts of the ObeyGiant Obama Progress pasters hanging around, so I grabbed some of the Obama prints and stuffed them into the RNC and McCain envelopes.

I'm sure they will be pleased to open the postage paid envelopes looking for checks and have Barack staring back at them.

Obey Inspired McCain NOPE Posters

Here's the best Obey Giant Obama HOPE poster knockoff that I have come across in the past month! These would make some great street pasters to go right alongside the Obama HOPE prints!

Love it!

Ron English Obama Lincoln Print

Is it Barack Lincoln or Abe Obama?

I see a touch of Alfred E. Newman in the smile.

This brand new Obama print by Ron English just dropped today. A 200 edition screenprint signed and numbered by the artist.

This is the 8th in a series of prints put out by Upper Playground in support of the Obama campaign. All editions have sold out and this one will be no different.

Crystal and I both dig English's style and take on corporations and pop culture icons. We saw him hanging out when we went to Electric Windows in Beacon NY but I wimped out when it came to interrupting him for a picture. Now I wish I would have, as I was lucky enough to score one of these prints today! I would expect them to sell out by tomorrow.


Upper Playground Obama Prints
Ron English
Boing Boing Post

Obey Giant Obama Progress Posters @ Clark Clinton Rally

Talk about timing!

An Express Mail package from ObeyGiant arrived at my door at 11:30am today and Hillary Clinton was due to speak at Clark University just 4 or so blocks away at 12:30.

When I took the day off today a couple weeks back the idea behind it was the fact that I would be nursing a Super Sized hangover after a Patriots victory, but instead I had crow for breakfast and did what I could to make something positive out of the day. Heck, I moved to Worcester for reasons such as this... If a presidential candidate is going to be stumping just a brisk walk away from my doorway I would be ignorant not to go and show my face.

The liveblogging by the Worcester Magazine crew let me know that Hillary was running late and I had plenty of time when I headed out the door at noon. Upon arrival the line for admittance went from Kneller Aud. all the way down Downing St. to Main St. and the down Main St. to the main gates to Clark Campus. Since the line was so long at this point I took up a post at the Church on the corner of Gates St. and Main. Once they herded most of the people inside I went down Downing St. right in front of Kneller Auditorium and met up with the folks you see holding the signs. At this point a couple other Obama supporters came over our way as well as a reporter from the Fitchburg Sentinel who we chatted with for a while.

All of the crowd was inside by this point and I headed home as I had some errands to run. A trip to the Post Office later and the Daily Worcesteria blog tells me that Hillary is still running late and that she is on 290. i figured I would be doing more good going back to Clark and holding a sign outside the venue than sitting at home. So I marched back to Clark and arrived at the front doors just before Hillary began speaking.

I took up a nice spot on the top of a berm near a tree right at the main entrance to the auditorium. In my time holding the sign there I can certainly say that the under 25 vote was very vocal for their support for Obama and the sign was getting all kinds of shout outs from the crowd. A group of local school kids came over and started mugging for the camera while there friends took camera phone pics, a boyfriend and girlfriend couple came over and asked if they could take their picture with the poster. This went on for quite some time, the sign generating "whoops" from the crowd as well as some "Obama" chants. The college aged kids in the crowd were quite vocal in their support.

But I will also say there was a small but sizable contingent of older status quo Dem's, stately looking men in ties and sportcoats, who would give me a wry smile or a hidden thumbs up as they walked past me. It seems they felt that they had to be subdued in their support, but it makes me think that when they get behind the curtain tomorrow and are ready to make their vote that the can certainly be voting Obama as well.

Only two people really "yelled" at me. One older gentleman yelled, "You had your day, it's time for you to go home...." Another lady repeatedly yelled, "All hat, no cattle." Upon a bit of googling I have come to find out that the phrase applies to pretend cowboys that dress and talk the part, pretending to be what they are not.

I thought that is what we were dealing with in the White House now. Oh but that's right, he does like to clear brush.

All in all this was a very cool way for me to spend a scheduled day off. Much more interesting than being at work and really made me excited for tomorrow's election results in Mass and beyond.


Daily Worcesteria

Shepard Fairey Obama Print

Last week Obey Giant released the VOTE screenprint you see here. I was lucky enough to have some great timing and picked up a copy of the print with little trouble within 15 minutes of it appearing on the Obey Giant site earlier this week.

Today Shepard Fairey announced that the Obama print that is above will be available via obeygiant on Wednesday January 30th. The print is limited to 350 and will be sold out in the blink of an eye. The accompanying note from Shepard states that "Proceeds from this print go to produce prints for a large statewide poster campaign."

So it looks like Shepard will be hitting the streets with some pro Obama posters. Keep your eyes peeled!!


ObeyGiant Obama