I had the chance to see Odd Future at a free concert at Amsterdam’s famous Paradiso on Queen’s Day this Saturday. About 2 minutes into the set a single thought ran through my mind:
Holy.
Fucking.
Shit.
I would call the show a mixture between a Punk Rock gig and a Southern Baptist revival. The floor was filled with rabid fans whose energy never wavered, and the OFWGKTA members present gave them everything they could.
I’m not a huge fan of the music, but after watching these kids create an international grassroots movement with a wordpress blog, I’m incredibly impressed by the movement.

Some great photos here:

Papa Ghana – I Am An African by PapaGhana

First single by the homie Papa Ghana produced by Ricky Rick. 1/6th of Amsterdam’s Daily Paper Crew, I really respect these kids’ movement.

Available on iTunes

This Friday, ASICS will be celebrating the release of a collaborative project with Amsterdam-based DJ Agency Robin Banks. The Can’t Run Like This EP features 14 tracks on two “sides” one side contains 7 tracks that sample Biggie’s “Gimme Da Loot” while the other 7 tracks sample Kris Kross’ “Jump.”

Sound Mind, Sound Body:
Stimulate The Brain With Music You Love,
To Make The Body Achieve Greater Things.
Mind and Body In Sync, At Their Best – Music As Stimulation.
Love, Music and Running. Get It…

Info on the event below:

Robin Banks 1 Year Anniversary & EP Release Party
Jimmy Woo
Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 18
1017 JW Amsterdam
Friday, the 10th of December 2010
23.00 – 04.00 CET

I’m no stranger to the feeling of culture shock. As the son of a diplomat I moved across the world at a young age and I often found myself having to deal with norms, mores and attitudes that I found at times strange, unusual and sometimes offensive. Those seminal days taught me that cultural relativity wasn’t just a useful skill during intercultural exchanges, but sometimes also a survival mechanism.

While the ability to accept cultural differences and judge other people’s cultures for their own merit is a valuable social skill, sometimes interacting with a new cultural group can lead to moral dilemmas when you consider certain facets of that culture offensive. The idea of absolute moral truths can be very dangerous, especially when dealing with people from another culture, but sometimes relativity can’t be used to gloss over actions and traditions that can make an entire people feel like they are being ridiculed and dehumanised.
During the early part of December, the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas, a festival in which Saint Nicholas and his “helper” return from his home in Spain to bring gifts to children across the nation. Saint Nicholas’ “helper” is a Black Moor known as Zwarte Piet, who assists the Saint by giving candy to obedient children, and taking disobedient children to Spain in a burlap sack.
Zwarte Piet, or Black Peter, as he exists today first appeared in the 19th Century, previously, Saint Nicholas was actually accompanied by a demon helper that he had tamed and converted into a Christian, (that “helper still exists in Austria as Krampus.) The fact that the current Black Peter is the symbolic descendant of little devil, says a lot about the context of racial perceptions in which the character was conceived. To me, it solidifies the idea that for a long period of European history, people of African descent were viewed and associated with all things heathen, wild and savage, and were percieved as something much less than human. Lulu Njemileh Helder of Ferris State University’s Jim Crow Museum sums up Black Peter’s role as a foil to the white European in his article on the subject:

“Saint Nicholas and Black Peter stands in a long tradition of dichotomised representation in which Europeans portrayed themselves and Africans as essentially different: Europeans as rational responsible, civilised, mature and as masters. Africans as irrational, wild, childish and as slave’. Saint Nicholas is being portrayed as everything Black Peter is not. The Saint is an old white, wise, and articulated man. Peter is a young, black, simple, [and] cheeky… boy.”

While Black Peter’s subservient relationship with Saint Nicholas can be seen as offensive in and of itself, the most systemically violent part of the tradition is how he is portrayed when the holiday is celebrated and by whom. Black Peter is almost exclusively portrayed by white people who darken their faces with black or brown greasepaint, then complete their costumes with bright red lipstick, curly-haired, black wigs and gaudy jewelry. Once properly transformed, the Black Peters act buffoonishly and often affect Surinamese accents to complete their racial transition. The act of boiling an entire race down to a handful of stereotypes can only be described as violent and distasteful. This takes an additional sting when a powerful majority mocks and imitates what in Holland could still be considered a weak and in some senses voiceless minority.

Since moving to Holland, I’ve asked several Dutch people about the tradition of Sinterklaas, here are some of the things I’ve heard from Black Dutch people:

• “I hate that time of year”
• “To me it’s the celebration of the birthday of a slave driver.”
• “I don’t participate, even if I had kids I wouldn’t.”

You would think that all of these strong sentiments would cause white Dutch people to pause and really inspect the tradition, but these are some of the responses I’ve gotten from white Dutch people:

• “It’s not about race at all”
• “Everyone agrees that it’s fine”
• “It is our tradition”
• “He’s not supposed to be a Black person it’s just soot”

Even though there are also people of multiple races on both sides of the debate–several white Dutch friends of mine have expressed embarrassment at the tradition, and the holiday is celebrated by Black people in the former Dutch colonies of Suriname, Kuracao, Aruba and Antigua—there is obviously a divide and disconnect that exists between the powerful and the powerless in this debate Kevin Lowe from Expactica attributed it to the divide between “tolerance” and “acceptance” of so-called foreigners in Dutch society:

To understand the endurance of an icon like Zwarte Piet is to know the gaping divide between tolerance and acceptance, between a multi-cultural society and one which is Dutch with buitenlanders on the begrudging periphery. It is one of the subtle paradoxes of Dutch culture, but one I believe illustrates perfectly the hypocrisy and passive aggressiveness of the Dutch character.

I would rather not paint Dutch people with such broad strokes, but I think there is a certain sense that the people of colour that are offended by Zwarte Piet are not legitimately Dutch, and are just agitating the wider society when they should be fitting in. I find that a shameful sign that multiculturalism hasn’t really hit Holland, despite its diversity. The idea that Black people should just “suck it up,” and take the ridicule and embarrassment that comes with the holiday in stride shows a complete lack of recognition of Black people as citizens of this country, with legitimacy as a citizen defined by skin colour and origin, not trifling things like birth certificates or passports.

While I do respect Dutch culture, and I appreciate the warm reception I’ve received since I came to Holland, I just can’t shake the feeling that this tradition has no place in a modern society. I honestly believe that any tradition that equates a race of people with devils, any tradition that allows the majority an opportunity to lampoon the minority, any tradition in defense of which the majority attempts to create bastards out of anyone that disagrees with them has no place in a multicultural society. That is why I’ve asked my company to keep any and all racist imagery out of our building during this time. While I might not be able to change the country, I’m sure I can change the attitudes in this office. I’m already facing some resistance, hopefully I’ll be writing a follow up to this in a week or so letting you know that my company sees itself as a truly international organisation that wouldn’t sacrifice the dignity of its employees for the sake of tradition.

Hopefully.

German Blog Art School Vets chose to feature our Sr. Manager of Product Marketing for Lifestyle in their Faces and Spaces feature series. Think MTV Cribs for cool people, with really dope photography instead of sped-up hallway sequences.
For those of you that don’t know who Kwon is, he’s one of the most important pieces in the ASICS/Onitsuka Tiger puzzle and has been behind some of the craziest sneakers of the last 10 years from the Adidas A-Z series and the recent drops we did with Slam Jam and Sneaker Freaker to the upcoming pieces we have with H**, P**** and H****.
See the whole thing here

Onitsuka Tiger x SEVENTYFIVE Lay-Up ’72 from Onitsuka Tiger on Vimeo.

Hattrick for the interviews, thanks to all three of these guys. You get a sense that this was a real collaborative effort, and I’m sure they had as much creating the sneaker as I had doing the interview. One thing I can’t forget is a special thank you to Ken-Tonio and Deniz for putting in overtime to make all of these pieces happen, there are many more to come.
Sneakers are available at SNS

A couple of weeks back, I talked about an event Onitsuka Tiger was having to celbrate the release of our collaboration with SEVENTYFIVE at their store on Haarlemerdijk. The event was great, I think everyone that attended got all of the mileage possible out of the Bacardi sponsorship so shout out to them for keeping everyone very social. Of course after the show is the after party and Bitterzoet played host to some of Amsterdam’s dopest DJ’s including the hometown hero, Flexican. Special thanks to Chris Noorda of SEVENTYFIVE who not only let me walk away with a pair, but also bought me a drink at the afterparty, pretty much the definition of a Stand Up Guy. More photos below

Friday evening and on into the night, Onitsuka Tiger and SEVENTYFIVE will be celebrating the release of our collaboration with SEVENTYFIVE, Amsterdam’s first real sneaker boutique. The shoe is a collaboration between Amsterdam-based MC/Designer Sef, SEVENTYFIVE founder Chris Noorda and our own Remko Nouws.
Keeping to the classic look of the Vulcanized shoe, they came up with a clean, off-white make up with blue piping and gold accented hardware. I think they came up with an incredibly clean and subtle piece that looks premium but could still be extremely wearable. A definite cop for me and I haven’t worn this type of silhouette since my college days.
The release event, which is sponsored by Bacardi, opens at 19.00 at the SEVENTYFIVE on Haarlemerdijk 55C in Amsterdam, followed by an after party at Bitterzoet. More photos of the shoe after the jump.

Flyer for the Afterparty at Bitterzoet:

Photos from yesterday’s Basket Ball tournament. It was a great time, met some great people including the legendary Bobbito Garcia/Cool Bob Love, who clowned the hell out of some players while on the mic. Congratulations to the two winners, Berlin’s Candy Girls for the Women and France’s Pigalle Germany’s K1X for the Men. More pictures below.

This weekend Amsterdam will host the PXA Collective’s latest tournament. Event will be all day tomorrow featuring a 16 team basketball tournament as well as artists, dance crews and barbeque. Your boy will definitely be in attendance.