The Toronto Chapter

This series of posts will chronicle my first and second visits to Downtown Toronto this summer. I wanted to use this "Toronto Chapter" to share a variety of interesting places Toronto has to offer. Everything from fashion retail spaces to art galleries to vintage record shops. Think of these posts as a poorly executed yet personally heart-felt shopping and lifestyle guide to Toronto's busy streets. I hope they can enhance your enjoyment of this beautiful city. Thanks for stopping by.

TABLE OF CONTENTS / Livestock & Adrift / The United Front Building / Queen Street West (East Side) Part One / Queen Street West (East Side) Part Two / Yonge Street / NXNE Yonge & Dundas Concert / Holt Renfrew & Yorkville / upc Boutique / Hazelton Lanes (TNT) / Jonathan+Olivia / Queen Street West (West Side) Art Galleries / Magic Pony / Queen Street West (West Side) Music & Book Shops / Queen Street West (West Side) Part One / Queen Street West (West Side) Part Two / Queen Street West (West Side) Part Three

Welcome to the Summer 2010 Blog Run

Over the course the past few months, I've began using this web space as a medium to post my own original content. Photos, personally taken by me and later edited by me again. Words, though rather shallow and meaningless, written by me as well. All this to say that I've wanted to turn this blog into a project which enables me to develop my own "editorial media" skills if you will. Product shots, documentary photos of creative culture and retail store fronts, words presented in minimalistic prose, and my own personal take on the fragments of creative culture I am privileged to experience first hand. I've had the chance to collect a decent amount of experiences and photographs that I would really love to share with anyone through a medium such as this blog. So for the months of July and August, I will do my best to update this space numerous times a week with my own personal content.

Once again, I do really appreciate you guys stopping by and taking an interest in the banal things I personally enjoy doing. Have a great summer!

Love you all,
Johannes

Inqmnd's Exploration of L.A.

The Inqmnd Crew are finally back in Toronto from their visit to Lost City of Angels. Inqmnd is Canada's finest online streetwear magazine, and I would go to lengths to say its execution is the best in the entire world. L.A. brought them numerous oppurtunities to shed some light on The Apex Initiative, Primitive and the new P-Rod's, Sa-Ra, and many other of the culture's finest peoples and happenings. You should definitely check out their blogpost summarizing their entire trip. I know I read the whole thing, because it is nothing short of fascinating. Not only does it reveal some content we might stumble on in the future, but it has some incredible photography shots along the way.

Breakfast Of Champions

As The Hundreds site goes down to update it's whole user interface into a mesmerizing work of art, I am forced to fill this temporary yet substantial void in my blogroll. I could of course take Bobby's recommendations, but this guy is on some next level intellect game and I find the stuff he's into sometimes dry and boring even though it is intellectual and interesting. I needa dumb it down for myself. Reading blogs is a form of relaxation for me. That's why I'm so happy Neek has released an interesting side project simply entitled "Breakfast of Champions." Neek has always been one of my favourite figures in streetculture. He has that certain x-factor that draws and intrigues you. I always find him entertaining and inspiring. Check out what's going down.

Summer Blogrun

As summer has just come around the corner, there is just so many things happening within the creative community of streetwear. So many things that have got me excited that I can no longer simply sit as a bystander here. This period of time that I've spent away from contributing to the streetwear blogosphere has also been a period of growth for me as I have discovered so many different perspectives and angles to this intriguing culture, a culture of art which draws its inspiration from its entire surroundings, developing new concepts in the form of clothing, art, music, architecture, aesthetic, and words. Over the time, I have gathered an immense amount of incredible sources that recreate their different takes on street culture, and I would like to bring all these diverse perspectives and angles on street culture to the table with each blogpost, yet deliver them with a twist of my personal take on the topic at hand. Despite the recession at hand, I believe this summer is going to be huge, and will bring forth an era flourishing in the arts.

keep your mind open.

keep your mind hungry.

the lifestyle project is about to serve you.

the summer(2009)blogrun.

Suspended Operations. We’ll Be Back Summer 2010. Be Ready.

Due to unforeseen circumstances and personal issues that will not be disclosed at this time, The Word Unblunt and all of its blog operations (The Lifestyle Project, Hype Bytes, and All The Plaid Memories) will suspend operations until the summer of 2010. Chillan Space will be the only blog that will continue to be updated, for those who know who I am. I want to thank all of you for the love and support you’ve sent over to me for the past couple months. I’ve honestly had an amazing time. I want to first of all thank all of my friends for helping me, supporting me, and just showing me love and giving me advice when I needed it. I want to thank the Canadian streetwear scene for the feedback, love, and advice that you’ve sent my way as well. Much respects to the people in the industry that I’ve had a chance to communicate with. I want to send love over to the music acts Homebased and F.E.L.N. for all the support and love. I also want to shout out to Tthomas of Tragic Glory, Mr. Taylor Swan of Vice & Virtue, and Shun Kinoshita of Gold And A Pager for the love you’ve shown me too. It all means a lot. I still owe some blogposts to some of you including the boys down at Concrete Guerilla, Tragic Glory and some of the music acts I mentioned earlier. Stay true to what you do until 2010, and I’ll pick you guys up then. I’m sincerely sorry about that. It has been a tough decision, but believe me, when summer 2010 comes around I’m gonna pick this thing back up and deliver. I sincerely ask you guys continue the support by staying in the facebook groups for The Lifestyle Project and The Word Unblunt, and get ready for something special for summer 2010.

The Main Mind Behind It All Anonymous No Longer,

Johannes

Republican Streetwear

After the Canadian Election done now, all our attention is going to the American Presidential race. And it tune with that, the guys down at Complex Mag decided to have some fun. They've noticed streetwear brands like Undrcrwn and Obey boosting the Democrats. In fact, this is what I found on Dustin Canalin's facebook. What a joker.

But, putting that aside, check the streetwear campaign Complex came up with for McCain.

Once Upon A Time x McCain/Palin ’08

Lemar And Dauley x McCain/Palin ’08

Experimental Jetset x McCain/Palin ’08

Supreme x McCain/Palin ’08

BBC x McCain/Palin ’08

Slam X Hype Brings New Stuff to the Table

So if any of you readers are streetwear enthusiasts, I'm sure you're all aware of all the streetwear webazines like High Snobiety, Hypebeast, and the infamous Canadian crew Inquiring Mind.











Well another well known site, Slam X Hype, is getting a makeover this upcoming Sunday by releasing three new components to their site. They will now be housing a full monthly magazine, a new "Blogs" section, and a "Streets" page.





















Their new online monthly magazine is called "The New Order".











Be sure to check it out tomorrow.

Blog Logo?

So, i was thinking about logo ideas and such for this blog. This is what I came up with:












I decided to keep it simple, with just a rail and Nike Dunks.
Yet, since I'm not incredible with technology, I'm not quite sure how to put this up permanently. That's not such a bad thing, because the logo could use some work.

It's A Start

So I just got this blog up and running. I've looked around the streetwear community a bunch and loved what I've seen, from infamous bloggers such as Bobby Hundreds, MR44, and Neek. So, I thought I'd give this thing a try.

As for the name of the blog, i didn't really have any name that came to mind. I guess i've been reading up on some Singapore streetwear websites, since I'll be going there in December. And the word "lifestyle" was used a lot. Here, we tend to call it "culture". THE LIFESTYLE PROJECT, to me, sounded better than THE CULTURE PROJECT. So, "THE LIFESTYLE PROJECT" it is.

Anyways, so THE HUNDREDS just celebrated their 5th birthday and is celebrating with a little display at the Foreign Family gallery.














Bobby hard at work on those jags. Looks exciting.


















Anyways, so here's the event poster/flyer. It sounds sick.