Hasta La Ideas

Written and directed by filmmaking team Corey Adams and Alex Craig, the new adventure comedy “Machotaildrop” tells a story positioning skateboarding not just as merely a trivial pastime of the young, but rather as a noble pursuit worthy of the highest cultural recognition.

Winners of Fuel TV‘s two-year competition “The Fuel Experiment” for their short film “Harvey Spannos,” the duo used the one million in prize money to produce the feature-length farce in Budapest.

The film follows lead character and amateur skateboarder Walter Rhum on his journey to go pro for the world’s greatest skateboard company. Beginning with an invite to Machotaildrop’s headquarters, the tale unfolds as he uncovers the dark underbelly of what initially seems a benign operation.

Walter’s fantasy life dissolves into a dizzying nightmare as he uncovers the company’s owner The Baron’s exploitative schemes and delusional antics, forcing him to ultimately face the reality of the company’s downfall—all with plenty of skating.

Now playing in selected cities across North America, Machotaildrop premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and will screen at Tribeca Cinemas on 21 May 2010. Pick up tickets from the Tribeca site for the screening.

Chalk it up to the Germans’ noted reputation for being efficient. The fourth annual Gallery Weekend is Berlin’s version of a power punch for denizens of the art world: 40 galleries and 40 openings over the course of three days. But beyond the obvious marquee names such as Damien Hirst at Haunch of Venison and Olafur Eliasson at Martin Gropius Bau, knowing where to go can be the paradox of choice. Here’s a shortlist of artists that stand out from the bunch.

Andreas Gursky is a visual artist of Goliath proportions. Taking Google Earth-esque images and rendering them into huge, powerful photographs, his new series “Ocean I-VI” is a jaw-dropping panoramic interpretation of water, land and the mysterious subaquatic depths that ripple in between. “Ocean I-IV,” Sprüth Magers Gallery, Oranienburgerstr. 18, Berlin. Opening: 30 April 2010, 4-9 pm; exhibition until 9 June 2010.

New work from the Jerusalem-born artist Ariel Schlesinger—a talented arsonist whose sly tricks with fire spit up in the least likely of places—promises to make you look twice. “Reverse Engineering,” Galerija Gregor Podnar, Lindenstr. 35, Berlin. Opening: 30 April 2010, 10 am-3 pm; exhibition until 5 June 2010.

American painter Elizabeth Peyton‘s bold, highly stylized portraits of cultural icons such as Kurt Cobain, Jarvis Cocker and Matthew Barney have always commanded a loyal following and demonstrated her relevance, beginning with her first solo exhibition at New York’s hip Chelsea Hotel. “New Paintings and Drawings,” Neugerriemschneider, Wallstr. 85, Berlin. Opening: 30 April 2010, 10 am-3 pm; exhibition until 2 July 2010.

“The Eskimos have two hundred ways to say snow. I have three million ways to say no,” Norwegian artist and writer Matias Faldbakken has publicly opined, and this stubborn streak surges through his work of prints, installations and moving images that crackle with political overtones. “Matias Faldbakken,” Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Kurfürstenstr. 12, Berlin. Opening: 30 April 2010, 10 am-3 pm; exhibition until 4 June 2010.

Who better than German photographer Tobias Zielony—known for his stark, stripped-down photographs of teenage delinquents—to tackle the story of “Le Vele di Scampia,” a ’70s urban housing project in Naples that proved to be one of the biggest failures in recent history? His 2009 film splices together over 2,000 photographs shot at dark at the complex, producing a nine-minute animation that starts, stutters and suspends erratically through time to jarring effect. “Film and Photographic Series,” Koch Oberhuber Wolff, Brunnenstr. 9, Berlin. Opening: 30 April 2010, 10 am-3 pm; exhibition until 3 June 2010.

Picking the brains of Gestalten‘s book editors and designers, Youyoung Lee reports to Cool Hunting on what inspires them.

Better known as Ramblin Worker, San Francisco-based artist Steve MacDonald combines sewing and embroidery with tech-savvy techniques to come up with his colorful illustrations, currently showing at NYC’s Fuse Gallery.

“The Last Dragon” skews towards MacDonald’s interest in pop culture, layering colors and images to play off CMYK printing processes. The graphics, comprised of cut-outs and thread, show off how MacDonald uses a sewing machine as others might wield a spray can or a paint brush.

MacDonald explains, the show “is a little of everything, from simple clean sewn lines to crazy cityscapes.” But, skateboarding makes a strong thematic statement, taking up a wall in the exhibit with pieces like the artist’s skate-ramp alphabet, as well as several other works featuring the curving form of a ramp.

Previously featured on CH for his Modest Mouse concert tees, his involvement with the annual Bike Film Festival, and his embroidered cuckoo clocks, who knows what MacDonald will come up with next.

“The Last Dragon” runs through 15 May 2010.

Showcasing over 70 international designers, the current exhibit “Post Fossil: Excavating 21st Century Creation” at Tokyo museum 21_21 Design Sight is the upshot of esteemed Dutch trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort‘s examination of the future of design in all of its constituent parts. The content spans techniques, shapes, materials, colors and themes with 140 pieces demonstrating a new way of thinking—using the past to reinvent the future.

The exhibition includes an array of resourcefully creative works, many fusing nature with design like Atelier NL’s “Drawn From Clay” pottery, Joris Laarman’s “Bone Chair” and Peter Marigold‘s man-made chess board. Each artist answers serious questions about meaningful consumption, how to break free of old paradigms and whether less really is more.

Edelkoort selected designers who defy the trend of designing for design’s sake and instead create with “unfettered freedom” as they search for new methods and, arguably more importantly, new tools to design with.

Referencing the Arte Povera movement of the ’60s, Edelkoort predicts the ideas will see a resurgence due to shifts in economics and thinking about sustainability. Tokyo’s 21_21 Design Sight makes the perfect venue to showcase these works as a museum focused on generating design that “sees clearly what is ahead.”

“Post Fossil: Excavating 21st Century Creation” runs through 27 June 2010, check out Tokyo Art Beat for full details.

A ten year retrospective on skateboarding in Miami, “The MIA Program” looks at the city’s stirring subculture through the lenses of photographers Ian O’Connor and Frankie Galland, as well as with skate-inspired paintings by artist Taylor Kienholz.

The MIA Program returns for a month-long showcase at local hangout Kill Your Idol after debuting to a packed house in a 24-hour-long exhibition of the same name at the beginning of 2010. The exhibit aptly portrays its host city with images spanning all neighborhoods—from the gutters in seedy Liberty City to half pipes inside the clubs of South Beach, The MIA Program is as much about the culture and backdrop surrounding the Miami skate scene as it is about the medium or the sport itself.

Miami natives, O’Connor and England-born Galland are clearly acquainted with the local lifestyle. O’Connor has shot for Sports Illustrated and Skateboarder magazines as well as an array of skateboard brands and Galland worked as photo editor at Strength Magazine as well as shooting for various publications. The two are joined by Santa Cruz-born, Miami transplant Taylor Kienholz and Floridian filmmaker Rob Hoovis, who will show his skate-fueled film “Paradise.”

The MIA Program opens tomorrow, 23 April 2010 and runs through 24 May 2010.