Usain Bolt Adopts Baby Cheetah

Now that the New York City Marathon has ended we can all go back to doing what we do normally: obsess over Usain Bolt. The Lightning has been taking a break from JA to hang out in Kenya for a few days, where he has “already impressed local children with his football skills, and become an honorary Maasai warrior,” according to the BBC, further proving he is our second most admired jedi knight/sensai/dream date slightly after Barack Obama. But Bolt’s moved up like 18 notches on our list after his recent adoption of A. Baby. Cheetah… as part of a conservation effort focusing on sustaining the environment in Africa via the Long Run, a new campaign he is launching. Appropriately, he christened the cheetah “Lightning Bolt,” and we immediately began singing the Vybz Kartel verse “BOLT / LIGHTNING BOLT,” weirding out our coworkers for the 49th time today. Watch a dubiously edited YouTube of Bolt “beating” a less adorable cheetah in a race after the jump.

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Contest: Win Limited-Edition Shepherd Fairey Poster Art From His New Collection for Levi’s

Shepherd Fairey is doing a live art installation in Times Square at 7PM Thursday night to kick off the launch of his new collection for Levi’s. The eight pieces in the line are inspired by Fairey’s personal stash of Levi’s with silhouettes, finishes and the smallest distressed details taken from his favorite true blues, including this hooded denim jacket. We have 10 limited-edition posters of artwork featured in the collection—all doubled sided—to give away. We’ll have images of the posters up for grabs after the jump tomorrow—hit us in the comments with your actual email address to win.

The FADER Double Vision Photo Special

For this year’s Photo Special issue, The FADER showcased the work of Victoria Sambunaris and Peter van Agtmael, two photographers who have traveled the country extensively to document its people and places with exceptional eyes for the details that reveal the spirit of America. Sambunaris’ epic landscapes subtly focus on humans’ necessary struggle to balance preservation of the land with our need for its resources, while van Agtmael’s photos strive to bring us a transparent record of the mostly unseen people and places he’s encountered on his many travels. Although formally very different, both artists’ work is connected by a deep curiosity about this country and its people. In the Double Vision section of our site, listen to van Agtmael discuss his view on America in a randomly ordered slideshow of his photos, including outtakes from the magazine. And take an up-close look at the eagle-eye perspective of Sambunaris’ photos with Zoomify, a digital pair of art binoculars. After the jump, read a conversation between Sambunaris and van Agtmael about their approaches and the current state of documentary photography. We got them some beers before they talked, so you know it’s how they really feel.

The FADER Double Vision Photo Special

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Form & Function: Invoice for Day-Ruining

As the recession begins to ease slightly and we all begin to look forward to a little more prosperity, it is hoped that some of the lessons learned over the last couple of years will stick, namely the idea that the most creative designers in the world can use their artistry, vision and humor to create things that are both nice to look at and incredibly useful. In this irregular new Arts + Culture section, Form & Function, we’ll highlight some of the things we think meet that criteria.

First up is something so simple (and free) that it kind of sets the tone for every post hereafter. Jessica Hische spent valuable time creating this Invoice for Services Rendered Day-Ruining, an obvious result of dealing with lunatic bosses and employers who took the downturn as an excuse to be total dicks. Hopefully, she’ll get a chance to use it, but in the meantime it’s enough for us to keep a stack tucked in the desk drawer.

Download a hi-res copy here.

(via Selectism)

In Matthew Chambers We See Ourselves, and Cats and Beer

Someone once asked each FADER editor to paint a self-portrait and, unsurprisingly, each one of the finished works looked like the same smeary pile of acrylic crap. Okay that never happened but if it did they would. Point being, it is not easy being a painter, so when someone is willing to paint a self-portrait that looks as awesome as Matthew Chambers’ does and names it “Self Portrait With More Difficult Shirt to Paint,” we applaud it. We won’t buy it because we are poor, but someone should. And someone else should buy the other paintings in Chambers’ new show at Rental Gallery in New York, which will only be up for a few more days before Brendan Fowler aka BARR’s show which opens on October 24th. None of us have art history degrees here, but it doesn’t take years of study to know a good painting of two dogs in an ice cream cone from a bad one. We’ve spent a lot of time looking through the varied works of the exhibit, titled An Activity So Pure, and feel comfortable saying without qualification that there is not another artist alive today who can paint a bottle and glass of Stella Artois and have it make us think of anything other than getting drunk. Specifically, it makes us think about why we chose music writing instead of the glamorous life of an artist, but what can you do. An Activity So Pure runs through this Saturday. (via SG&T)

Dallas Boogie: Mr. Hit Dat Hoe

My first introdcution to Treal Lee and Prince Rick and probably more importantly, Kedrick “Mr. Hit Dat Hoe” Wilson, was the above promo video for “Get Off Me Now.” Sometime this past spring, the video was making its way around gossip blogs, posted to responses of glee toward Wilson’s country swagger, but also contempt that a “rapper” would name himself “Mr. Hit That Hoe.” In actuality, Wilson isn’t a rapper, but a fearless dancer who inspired a hit song, and a deeper look into Dallas rap culture offers insight into his otherwise off-putting namesake.

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Ewen Spencer: Wag Lad

UK-based photographer Ewen Spencer has contributed many memorable photos to The FADER over the last several years—from the prime of grime pirate sessions to Dungen’s pastoral home base—so it’s no surprise that his new solo exhibit at the KK Outlet in London, which opened tonight, looks pretty memorable as well. For those not familiar, Spencer is particularly gifted at capturing the peculiarities of young male behavior, and for Wag Lad, he turns his camera towards vainglorious dandies, with their meticulous dress and borderline insane attention to grooming. Like poodles if they had thumbs and a credit line. The exhibit runs until the 29th of October, and as Spencer himself writes on his blog, “Our Spotify playlist alone will be worth a visit.” Check the flyer on the click thru.

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Henrik Vibskov & Andreas Emenius Launch The Fringe Projects Book in NYC

Danish designer and subject of a feature in FADER #63, Henrik Vibskov, and artist Andreas Emenius started out The Fringe Projects with just 20 euros, plastering themselves in black and white photocopies for their first installation. Several art exhibits and lots of shredded fabric later and the madcap duo have published a book on their antics one through 10, with everything from fringe-covered racing cars to beer bottles to crazy Cousin It outfits. The official NY book launch kicks off tonight at the LaViolabank Gallery on the LES between 6pm and 9pm. According to the flier posted on Diane Pernet’s site, new pancakes and techno will be served.

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The Wild Things Are on Cahuenga Blvd

The last time we wrote about Urban Outfitters it ignited a firestorm of controversy over bicycles, so this time we’re going to keep it nice and simple. Spike Jonze just posted some behind-the-scenes photos of the new Where The Wild Things Are pop-up gallery/shop/fanfest at the Urban store on Cahuenga in Hollywood. Wild Things DP Lance Acord is handpicking stills to display in the store’s window and some other folks are building a crazy forest cave thing inside. Jonze also writes there will be some special items for sale in the store, possibly including Christian Joy’s specially made Wild Things outfits, at the opening this Saturday night, and that all proceeds will go to benefit the Wild Things co-screenwriter Dave Eggers’ 826LA writing program. Music will be provided by Jonze’s brother Squeak E. Clean. (via We Love You So)

In the Shadow of Things with Photographer Leonie Purchas

As one of our favorite and oft-used photographers, Leonie Purchas has graced the FADER with her probing, visceral portraits of Bat For Lashes, Little Boots and Tough Alliance, among others, and we’ve admired her personal work documenting families across the world and the ties that bind them. For her latest gallery show, though, she’s taken on a more intimate subject: her own family. For In the Shadow of Things, she documented her mother’s struggle with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, as she unpacked moving boxes that had been shelved and unopened for 12 years. In what must have been a difficult process for Purchas, she ended up truncating the distance between photographer and subject, in the process turning the camera into a sort of magic vessel for coping. It won her the KLM Paul Huf Award out of 81 nominees, and will exhibit through October 25 at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam as a result. After the jump, check out a few more images and read her artist’s statement.

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