You may have seen this dark looking guy in front of Propagandas door on Fridays, when they had the famous New Rave parties last year. You may have seen him hanging out at one of our Labelfucker parties and you may have experienced his charm (I’m being sarcastic) at our last LF Party, where he did the face control and guest-list check. Who is this guy with the American accent. East Coast Baby! East Cost! Straight outta New York, ya know na mean?
It has been a while since I first met Zak and Ja’bagh two New Yorkers from Caucasian decent, who live in Moscow as long as I am here. Zak and Ja’bagh run a photostudio and a production company. They mainly do work for advertising nowadays, but like me they ventured out and started some alternatives to posh Moscow nightlife. We have a lot in common and so we became friends over the past year.
Ja’bagh worked on a photo book showing the young and alternative people who are the “new” other side of Moscow’s nightlife. They are crazy, they are creative, they have tattoos and they are anything else than mainstream, which they often consider an offense. Ja’baghs book is a must see for everyone who is interested on the other side of Moscow. Wherever there is a mainstream there is an underground movement and the stronger the mainstream, the stronger the underground. Ja’bagh has portrait that underground. This once again makes him someone who sticks out of the normal and it shows his creativity and his ability to work off the beaten cliques of Russia and Moscow. Moreover it makes him someone with a feeling for what’s going on in this ever changing metropolis and its sub-cultures.
Ja’bagh started out with art and fashion photography shooting editorials for Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan and many others. Then he started shooting commercials and major ad campaigns. His book is going back to the roots of it all, ART. The book is dedicated to Moscow, the city that gave him to grow and develop with her. Its also dedicated to the people who like to think outside the box and who are out of the mainstream.
You can get Ja’baghs book in most Moscow bookstores from next week on. ass on the word. This may be interesting for other people as well.
Last Thursday night. Chris Lowe, one of the Petshop Boys is celebrating his birthday at Skylounge. After extensive partying Anton Antonov, the manager of the elite club Krisha Mir, invites the bands assistant/manager Dainton Connell to have a look at his club Krisha Mir. Both ride along the Moskva River embankment with Antonovs 525 BMW with high speed (app.180 km/h). Then the driver (Antonov) loses control on the wet street. The car hits a tree with full force, bounces of and skids into the Moskva River, where it sinks. Nearby road workers witness the crash and call the police, but they can only retrieve the dead bodies of both.
The crash site and the tree which was cut by the BMW (Photo: Basil)
Krisha was closed last weekend, but it will probably open soon again. A few other clubs have troubles as well. Gazgolder is said to be temporarily closed. Apparently they didn’t pay any taxes for the past 3 years and the government closed Gazgolder, Moscow’s best club, for that reason. Gazgolder is open for private parties. The famous Expat bar 30/7, owned by Victor Konokov’s (the owner of Krisha) wife is also closed. Apparently for the same tax reasons (seems like the so called “technical companies” only work, if you pay at least some taxes). Nearby TUNDRA Bar is also closed. Some older women upstairs complained about the noise. Tundra is trying to find a solution or an agreement with that resident.
So where to go in the meantime? Try Solyanka. Its probably (anyway) the best address in town these days. Zak and Jab’ agh from Brainstorm Management are also putting a new weekly gig together. I’ll let you know when I have the details. BTW: For all of you Garage fans. Its still open. The club was supposed to close and its owners are tyring to start a new club, but as of now you can still enjoy yourself past 3 AM in some wild environment.
For all of your New York fans, here is a new project we just completed and handed over to our client. Its a portal called Travelgoat
. The site offers audio stories and information about location of the beaten tourist tracks. You can not only download all stories as MP3’s to your IPOD, along with a map and a playlist, but you can also record your own stories online. By the way, this online recording through a web-browser is a technology, which not many people got to work yet. Also converting these flash files to MP3 ain’t an easy task. If you need help or advice with this, contact our company CYGEN at www.cygen.de. Anyway, enjoy the Travelgoat and all of these fantastic stories about the REAL New York…
I just found this on the AntiAdvertisingAgency website and I think its a pretty cool way of protesting against too much advertising. Could work in Moscow as well :-) Are you not inspired, yet?
Between October 2006 and December 2006, the City of New York has removed or obscured 59 illegal banners on sidewalk sheds. In that same period, Citibank Chase was forced to remove all illegal sidewalk projections at branches around Manhattan. And now, years into NYC’s crackdown on graffiti writers and protesters, after we’ve watched our friends be detained, arrested, beat, fined, tried, and given real jail sentences, not a single corporate toy from any ad firm has had to do any time.
This could mean only one thing. They’ve called off the law. Open City. Let’s all get to work.
This is the first collaboration between the Anti-Advertising Agency and Graffiti Research Lab. Modified from Ji Lee’s Abstractor TV. We used black foam core ($10/sheet) cut with a laser cutter - however, this project can be done with an x-acto blade, black construction paper, and duct tape for next to nothing. It can be repeated using any backlit display - bus shelters, display ads, television store windows… dream big, act now. more…
Yuliya, who is an old friend from New York just sent this invite. She is actually Russian and I think from Moscow. Met her once again, by accident at Propaganda on a Thursday night, when she was here for a visit. Anyway, if you are around (in New York), visit the show and see her work.
Patrick Heide Art Projects, London presents works of Yuliya Lanina
DiVA NY07 Digital & Video Art Fair
New York
Embassy Suites Hotel, room 511
102 North End Avenue
In Battery Park at Vesey Street
February 23rd to 25th 2007
2pm to 10pm
April 2nd, 2008 by 
Two-Zero 
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