With the shiny new Edinburgh skate park finally being opened in sunny Saughton I’m sure it will help to nurture a whole new generation of skaters and bmx riders in our fair city, however in Afghanistan they are only beginning to develop their first generation of skaters with their very own indoor skate park in Kabul. American photographer Noah Abrams went to Afghanistan to document this emerging scene with pro skaters Cairo Foster, Kenny Reed, Louisa Menke and Maysam Faraj to skate with the locals and an Afghan project called Skateistan, the worlds first co-educational skateboarding school.
For more images of this project and other work by Noah Abrams check out his site here and there is an interview with Abrams over at HUH. Also check out the Skateistan project and see photos of their park and more information about what they do.
I previously posted about Puma’s advert for the world cup which I thought was giving Nike a run for their money, ohhh what a fool I was to make such a sweeping statement. While Puma focus around the African nations and their football teams Nike’s advert entitled Write the Future looks at the pressure of how one move could make a player a national hero or loser. The advert was directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the man behind movies such as Babel, Amores Perros and 21 Grams. Write the Future stars a number or players; Cristiano Ronaldo, who gets transformed into a hideous big statue and has a movie made about him, the ugliest man in football Franck Ribery destroys Wazza’s future when he defends a pass to Theo Walcott and he ends up living in a caravan. I have to say, I was half expecting to see an over weight Coleen and Cai Rooney hanging about in the caravan scene, but even Nike’s budget wouldn’t stretch THAT far!! Another player who stars although not making the Brazilian squad for the 2010 World Cup is Ronaldinho who becomes an online phenomena for his fancy footwork and having a fan in basketball player Kobe Bryant using it as his celebratory dance. There are also appearances from Didier Drogba, Fabio Cannavaro, Cesc Fabregas, Roger Federer, Homer Simpson and actor Gael Garcia Bernal who plays Cristiano in his movie! I’m sure the budget and production of this advert was as big and shiny as the stars in it. Good effort Nike for poking fun at the Beautiful Game and the players in it!!
A spin-off from the ad
One thing’s for sure I think Drogba and Ronaldo should stick to doing promotional ads for Nike and stay out of the likes of Vanity Fair and Annie Leibovitz and her lenses as far as possible. WARNING! If you boak easily you may need a bucket when viewing the following image!!
I have written about illustrator Nate Williams in the past, last year he developed a site called letterPLAYGROUND where people with a love of typography can go and play with the design and makeup of lettering.
I went to see Iron Man 2 this weekend, having not seen the first one I didn’t really have the same love for Iron Man as I do Spider Man, but hey, give him a chance. Shouldn’t have bothered. Apart from my trip to the toilet this was the only other thing that left an impression on me… Thankyou Puma for making those wasted hours not completely pointless.
I think Puma have given Nike a run for their money in this ad.
