EDIT: July 1, 2009

Hip Hop journalist Davey D has reprinted an article I originally published back in 2002 at one of his websites, http://hiphopandpolitics.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/how-michael-got-gansta-with-sony-music-over-black-music/

I was there!

Photo Credit: ©Kai Muller

Goldeneyes Entertainment Releases Remix Sessions As A Digital Album Via iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody & Napster

 
A woman thoroughly steeped in hip hop, reggae & soul music, New York City based Ayana Soyini has returned with her brand new digital album Remix Sessions, now available at iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody & Napster. This is her second album on her own Goldeneyes Entertainment label since her self produced indie debut The Khamouflage Project EP of 2001, which sold just over 5,000 units. The songs on Remix Sessions focus on re-imagining the music and words of the songs previously on The Khamouflage Project EP, which were personal topics and reflections about life written over a number of years. The final result is a musical growth and progression solidifying what Ayana Soyini is perhaps best known for, her prowess as a respected emcee who came up in the 1990’s New York City underground hip hop scene. What many do not know is that she is also a growing producer and this becomes even more evident on Remix Sessions. A combination of live instruments and programming create rythmic grooves which adds heavily to the sonic soundscape of this album.  In her own way, Ayana Soyini’s production advances beyond boom bap hip hop into reggae and soul inspired basslines, adventurous production and melodic songwriting. 

Key Tracks

2. Vibin’ (4:00)

3. Raw Elegance (Remix) (3:06)

5. Nighttime (Remix) (2:48)

6. Nighttime (Dub) (2:47)

 
Ayana Soyini was instrumental in the wave of independent New York City hip hop that jumped off in the 1990’s. She was a member of Bronx based hip hop collective, Natural Elements  who were produced by Charlemagne. She also worked with DJ Spinna, Apani B. Fly, Jean Grae, Kool Kim from UMC’s and many other important acts that helped shape the NYC indie movement. Remix Sessions is her most important and refined self produced effort to date.

Ayana Soyini is currently setting up tour dates for the Summer and Fall in major cities in the US and abroad and she is also currently rehearsing with her band, The Khamouflage Band.

 “Abraham Obama” is a humorous and provocative look at an unprecedented political art movement. A campaign to change the visual landscape of America yields a new President, and ushers in a new collective consciousness for America’s people.

Famous street artist Ron English gathers a crew of professional pranksters and hits the road on a grass-roots campaign to make public art and promote Obama’s campaign for the Presidency. “Abraham Obama” takes us on an unforgettable ride as the stories of Ron English unfold alongside musicians and artists such as Shepard Fairey, Jack Medicine, David Choe, Sam Flores, The Date Farmers, Will.I.Am, Morgan Spurlock, DJ Z-Trip and several others.

Directed by Kevin Chapados, and Produced by Daniel Lahoda and Ron English.

COLORADO – LOS ANGELES – NEW YORK – WASHINGTON, D.C.

April 26 – INDIE SPIRIT FILM FESTIVAL 2009 – MID-WEST PREMIERE
http://indiespiritfilmfestival.bside.com/2009/films

May 4 – LA UNITED FILM FESTIVAL – LOS ANGELES PREMIERE
http://www.theunitedfest.com/losangeles/tickets.htm

MAY 7-10 – POLITICS ON FILM – WASHINGTON, DC PREMIERE
http://www.politicsonfilm.com/

MAY 14 – NYC 92Y TRIBECA – NYC PREMIERE
http://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?productid=T%2DMM5FM33

Ron English is a contemporary pop artist who explores popular brand imagery and advertising. Over the last twenty years he has pirated over one thousand billboards replacing existing advertisements with his own hand-painted “subvertisements.”

His pirated billboards, replace existing campaigns with his own art that very often uses the tactics of advertising to attack the products themselves in order to encourage free thought.

Ron English has also painted several album covers including The Dandy Warhols album cover “Welcome to the Monkey House”. Some of his paintings were also used in Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Super Size Me.

You can also see his work in Absolut’s charity campaigns, in prominent museums and galleries such as Museum of Contemporary Art in Paris and the Whitney Museum in New York or in Luciano Pavarotti’s home.

Photo Credit: ©Stefan Kloo

Stephen Wiltshire is an artist who draws and paints detailed cityscapes. He has a particular talent for drawing lifelike, accurate representations of cities, sometimes after having only observed them briefly. He was awarded an MBE for services to the art world in 2006. He studied Fine Art at City & Guilds Art College. His work is popular all over the world, and is held in a number of important collections.

Stephen was born in London to West Indian parents on 24th April, 1974. As a child, he was mute and did not relate to other human beings. Aged three, he was diagnosed as autistic. He had no language and lived entirely in his own world.

At the age of five, Stephen was sent to Queensmill School in London where it was noticed that the only pastime he enjoyed was drawing. It soon became apparent he communicated with the world through the language of drawing; first animals, then London buses, and finally buildings. These drawings show a masterful perspective, a whimsical line and reveal a natural innate artistry.

Aged eight, Stephen started drawing cityscapes after the effects of an earthquake (all imaginary) as a result of being shown photographs of earthquakes in a book at school. He also became obsessed with illustrations of classic american cars at this time (his knowledge of them is encyclopaedic) and he drew most of the major London landmarks.

The teachers at Queensmill School encouraged him to speak by temporarily taking away his art supplies so that he would be forced to ask for them. Stephen responded by making sounds and eventually uttered his first word – “paper.” He learned to speak fully at the age of nine.

In 1987, the BBC QED programme, ‘The Foolish Wise Ones’, featured Stephen’s astounding talent. Stephen was introduced by Sir Hugh Casson (past president of the Royal Academy), who described him as “the best child artist in Britain”. Stephen’s work has since been the subject of numerous television programmes around the world. He has been featured in many books, and his own third book Floating Cities (1991) was number one in the Sunday Times Bestseller List.

Meanwhile, Stephen’s artworks were being exhibited frequently in venues all over the world. In 2001 he appeared in another BBC documentary, Fragments of Genius, for which he was filmed flying over London aboard a helicopter and subsequently completing a detailed and perfectly scaled aerial illustration of a four-square-mile area within three hours; his drawing included 12 historic landmarks and 200 other structures.

In October and November 2003, thousands flocked to the Orleans House gallery in Twickenham near London, England, to see the first major retrospective of Stephen’s work. The exhibition covered the 20-year period, from 1983 to 2003, and comprised 150 examples of Stephen’s drawings, paintings and prints.

In May 2005 following a short helicopter ride over Tokyo he drew a stunningly detailed panoramic view of the city on a 10-meter-long canvas from memory. Since then he has drawn Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dubai, Jerusalem and London on giant canvasses.

In January 2006 it was announced that Stephen was being named by Queen Elizabeth II as a Member of the British Empire, in recognition of his services to the art world. Later that year he opened his permanent gallery in London. Work from Stephen’s entire career is permanently on display, alongside new originals and prints available for sale at the Stephen Wiltshire Gallery in the Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London

For more information about Stephen Wiltshire please visit www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk

Photo Credit: ©Antonio Lobo Mena

Photo Credit: ©SemperNovus

The following are some suggestions and solutions to guide you through a time of crisis. Please take note…this is not meant to be a definitive guide for what you should do as you should tailor it to your own individual circumstance and location. My goal here is to spark thought which will hopefully lead to action. The government will not help you. Rich people will not help you. You will have no choice but to DO FOR SELF!

GET BACK TO BASICS

1. Food – During a time of crisis and/or disaster you will not be able to just stroll into a grocery store and buy food whenever you need it. Besides, everyone else in your immediate neighborhoods will have the same idea. Thus, it will be imperative to be able to grow your own food. A small plot of land can grow enough fruit and vegetables to feed any family. If you live in an urban environment then you can use a small indoor greenhouse or your terrace to grow food. The importance of this is you want to be self-sustaining when it comes to one of the basic things we need to survive…which is food. Learn the basics of farming, buy seeds, plant and grow!

Alternatively, you can also buy some MRE’s (meals ready to eat) to hold you over if you are unable to grow your own food. You can buy dehydrated food, canned goods etc… The drawback to this is that once you run out of stored food you are left with the dilemma of acquiring more. So ideally the prepared person will have a combination of being able to grow their own food as well as have some MRE’s available. The more food sources you have the better.

Here are some links to useful items regarding food:

http://www.efoodsdirect.com/
http://www.crisiscooker.com/

2. Water – This may be even more important than food because dehydration can and will kill you. The body MUST have water to sustain itself. Ideally, you can purchase a unit that allows you to create water from the atmosphere. An example of such a unit is this:

http://www.ecoloblue.com/en/home-office?location=feature_link

If the price of this particular unit is too high for you then an alternative would be to stockpile bottled water but once again you run the risk of running out and not being able to replenish your supply. If this happens, you can use rain water and/or creek water but remember to purify any drinking source before you consume it. There are purification systems, purification tabs you can drop into water and if all else fails you can just boil most of the impurities out of any drinking source.

3. Clothing – Clean dry clothing is a must but more importantly, you will also need clothing for any and all types of weather conditions including… rain, snow, extreme heat etc… Rainwear (a poncho for example), sturdy boots/sneakers, headwear, inexpensive tees/sweats etc…are things you can acquire cheaply, especially if you buy in bulk. It’s up to you the individual to decide for yourself what you think you will need.

4. Shelter – Aside from your general residence, which will need to be fortified against outside and unwanted intruders (will touch on this in the “Weapons” section) if there is a nuclear or chemical attack, you will want to have access to some kind of underground or fortified aboveground shelter. Some suggestions are to build one if you own land and property already…you can do this for relatively cheap. if you are in an urban environment, staking out somewhere you and your family can hide out in is to your benefit. If you live in a high rise the basement levels of your building may suffice. This is NOT ideal, neither is using the subway tunnels but I am putting it out there to spark further thought about what you may or may not want to do.

Here is a link to an example of a fortified shelter:

http://www.hardenedstructures.com/barton.asp

5. First Aid – I can’t stress this enough…you must have a first aid kit that is tailored specifically to the needs of your family. Some things you may want to include in this kit are:

- prescription medication
- sanitary pads (for women)
- extra pair of glasses (if applicable)
- band aids
- hydrogen peroxide
- gauze and/or bandages
- latex gloves
- waterproof matches and/or lighters
- water purifying tablets
- toothbrush/toothpaste
- blankets
- toilet paper
- flashlight
- utility knife
- wrench/pliers/screwdriver

…and whatever else you can think of that you may need

6. Communication – it is imperative to be able to communicate and you may not be able to use cell phones or landlines to do it. Forget about the television or even the internet if the power goes out. Purchase a small crank radio that doesn’t run on battery power.

Examples of this are:

http://www.nextag.com/emergency-radio/products-html?nxtg=b4850a1c051d-0A99941EFE374FA8

I would also suggest buying a small portable generator to power whatever you need to power. You want to be as self sustaining and as efficient as possible.

And last but not least…

7. Weapons – You WILL need to protect yourself and defend your family. Stockpile weapons but most importantly, learn how to properly use them and clean them. Each state has their own laws regarding guns (for example) so check within your jurisdiction to see what you can and cannot legally do. At the very least, learn how to properly shoot and clean a shotgun. In New York State you do not need a license to purchase a rifle or shotgun (except in New York City).

http://www.nysrpa.org/nygunlaws.htm

FREE BOOK DOWNLOAD
Military Survival Manual FM21-76
http://www.equipped.org/multiservice_ser_manual_1999.pdf

I encourage you all to add on to this thread with your own suggestions and tips. I personally believe that if and when disaster strikes it will pretty much be every person for themselves for the most part. Fortify your immediate family first and if you can trust your neighbors, team up with them to come up with a plan where you all can help each other if necessary. There is strength in numbers.

Remember, forewarned is forearmed!!!

Photo Credit: ©David Balzen

Well after a much needed hiatus, Khamouflage.com is back online! I’ve gone through various incarnations since launching my first website almost 10 years ago, www.goldeneyesonline.com. Alot has certainly changed since those early days! The internet has grown beyond belief and is now an everyday part of the majority of the global community that we all live in. I can’t say that I’m surprised!

My goals for www.khamouflage.com are many. This will be the online home for the majority of my musical and artistic expressions. You will be able to admire beautiful artwork and imagery, buy music and merchandise, watch videos, read interesting articles about persons, places & things, post comments and stay up to date with the latest from Khamouflage!

I invite you to join the mailing list and to help me promote by telling all your friends, family & co-workers. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave comments!

Thank you for your continued support!

Photo Credit: ©2009 Wally Gobetz

Wally Gobetz is a professional photographer based in Jersey City, NJ. The artist of the mural is Antonio Garcia aka Chico.