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Make sure there is space under your tree for your favorite GOST goodies because our Holiday production arrived IN FULL today and Santa is backing up his sled!
All of Santa’s helpers were busy putting the inventory into stock.
I tried some crazy things this season on the V-neck and I wasn’t too sure how it would turn out. Of course it was the very last graphic to get produced, so I had to sweat it out to the very end. Not only did I switch the colors on the graphic to something that I was not sure would look good on the mineral wash tee, but I turned the whole shirt inside-out. I was so relieved when I went to press-check the tee and it not only looked okay, but it looked awesome! It happens that way a lot. Often the things that make you uncomfortable in the beginning are the ones that have the best chance of surprising you in the end and turning out great. No risk, no reward as they say.
Speaking of reward, here is a first look at the new color/wash that we developed for this season called, “Ember.” Unlike the V-neck, I actually expected this shirt with the Psycho Franky graphic (on the Ember tee) to turn out amazing and it did not disappoint.
And that is just a taste of all of the good things coming from GOST this Holiday Season. We’ll have a full post up of the entire line very soon!
Arlo
GOST
Christmas is just around the corner and we are rushing to make sure you will find brand new GOST goodies under your tree this year. Production on the all new GOST Holiday 2010 is almost complete and is on schedule to begin shipping to your favorite shops, er, Santa’s workshop next week.
There are a lot of surprises this season, like our very first pull over hoodie!
And some brand new custom mineral washes that give this line a one-of-a-kind look and feel.
This Holiday Season GOST Brand is coming hot off the presses and straight to a retailer near you!
Make sure GOST is on your list!
Arlo
GOST
OMG! Check out this graphic I made for the new GOST Holiday line that is about to drop! Taking it back to the roots.
Speaking of the roots and the good old days of skating guess who stopped by the GOST offices recently. It was none other than B Love Hardin. If you don’t remember B Love from the Hoax 2 Days (you need to study your history!) then perhaps you might remember him from his insane drunken exploits as documented here on the GOST blog.
B Love stopped by to chop it up and talk about some new business ventures. Let’s just say he wants to become a kind of white trash Bill Gates.
Look for the new GOST Holiday line this December!
Arlo
GOST
Just finished this graphic for my good friends in the ska/pop band Suburban Legends. I met the guys several years ago because their practice space was in the warehouse right next to the old Franco Shade warehouse in Santa Ana. Whenever I would work late, which was often, I would always hear them jamming into the night.
On one fateful night their guitarist Brian Klemm came over and offered me a 40oz in the spirit of being a good neighbor. I don’t know if I ever drank the beer, but we struck up a friendship and have been buddies ever since.
Brian and Vince (the lead singer) approached me recently about creating a shirt graphic to support their new tour. They gave me the concept and the tagline, “Dude Alert!” and I just had to make it happen.
Suburban Legends are playing with the Aqua Bats and Reel Big Fish at the House of Blues in Los Angeles this Thursday. See you there!
Arlo
GOST
Just finished a new poster/flyer for an event coming up October 28th at Lucky Strike Lanes at The Block in Orange. The event is being put on by a couple of friends of GOST, Erik “Rockberry” and Jeren Walker (a Walker&Berry Event). G-MO will be DJing and Fatlip (from the Pharcyde) will be headlining. You can get free entry and free bowling, but you have to go to the facebook page and RSVP (by clicking the “I’m Attending” button). Mark your calendars!
Blood Bowl at Lucky Strike Event
Arlo
GOST
Steven and Kim came by the office for a visit. No new update yet on Kim’s stolen art, but I always love posting when girls customize GOST tees into sexy tops! Check out Kim’s work on the “QNL Gunsmoke” tee.
Arlo
GOST
My girlfriend’s youngest son Ross (we call him Rossi) just celebrated his 6th birthday recently.
I am fond of saying that Christmas and birthdays are two of my favorite occasions. And it is not just because I am so into the spirit of giving. In fact it is just the opposite; I am into the spirit of taking away!
Kids need discipline and one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal, as parents of young children, is the ability to take things away. The more the kids care about the things that they have, the more it hurts when we take it away and the more powerful our position as parents becomes. That is why I love gift giving holidays; it means more awesome stuff for the kids and more leverage for us!
This birthday was a whopper for Rossi. He was first introduced to Mario via his Nintendo DS handheld system and has been an enthusiastic player of the “New Super Mario Bros.” for some time already. Rossi was so obsessed with Mario that instead of watching cartoons or even playing video games like most kids he would instead go onto youtube and watch walkthroughs of Super Mario video games. For those of you unfamiliar with walkthroughs it is where you watch someone else playing a video game and narrating as they “walk you through” it offering tricks and tips along the way.
Rossi’s favorite walkthroughs, by far, were for the Wii game Super Mario Galaxy 2 one of the best reviewed video games of all time. The problem was that not only did we not have the Super Mario Galaxy Game we didn’t even have a Wii console.
All of that changed the morning of Rossi’s birthday when he became the proud owner of both the Wii console and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Rossi got a lot of other awesome gifts like rollerblades and glow-in-the-dark skeleton PJs (which each became even MORE awesome when paired with the other!).
But they all paled in comparison to the mighty Wii.
Between the DS and the iPhone and the old Playstation 2 I knew how much time the kids could spend playing video games. And I knew that once the Wii arrived things would only get worse.
So in anticipation of this I attempted to ratchet up my parenting skills. A couple of weeks before Rossi’s birthday (and the imminent arrival of the Wii) I devised a chart system to help monitor how much time the kids were spending playing video games.
I drew it up in Illustrator and then took it to Kinko’s (FedEx Office) to have it printed out and laminated complete with individualized Super Mario Bros. avatars for each of the kids.
It has been over a month now since we first implemented the system and it has worked great. We can take time away for unacceptable behavior and we can reward extra time for good behavior. Now they put their dishes away and clean their rooms and say “please” and “thank you,” but the best part is that they are learning how to budget their time. The kids start out with a block of video game time each weekend, usually about three-and-a-half hours a day, so it puts the power into their hands as they figure out how to manage their own time.
They are careful not to spend all of their time in one sitting, so they will play video games for thirty minutes or an hour and then figure out something else to do like color or go outside…
Or maybe even go rollerblading!
And that is the true mark of good discipline, not when we have to punish or take things away, but when we can teach the kids how to manage on their own. That is the gift that keeps on giving. Happy Birthday Rossi!
Arlo
GOST
Randy Spizer and I have a lot of history. Our time together at Senate has been pretty well documented in the annals of rollerblading. But in the years since those freewheelin’ days of world tours, fat (phat!) paychecks and Ultra-Wide™ jeans Randy and I have continued to forge memories together.
It was Randy who told me about the opening at Paul Frank (where he was working at the time) and suggested that I apply, thus steering me into my first “real” job post-rollerblading. And so it went a few weeks ago when Randy asked if I would be interested in taking on some freelance work for his current employer, Fuse Interactive.
As fate would have it, the lease on my car expired the very weekend before I was to start the new freelance job at Fuse, so I was without a mode of transportation at the very moment that I was suddenly in need of one. After years of commuting from my bedroom across the hall to my “home-office” (while my Volkswagon GTI sat dejectedly in the driveway), I was suddenly faced with a commute from Santa Ana to Laguna Beach and had no car to get there.
I leaned on my girlfriend for rides (thanks Nikki!) and imposed a lot on Randy. One of the nice perks about having a fledgling clothing company is that I have a garage full of T-shirts that can be used when negotiating small favors. GOST clothing started to become more prominent around the Fuse offices and I found a way to get to and from work everyday.
I am primarily an illustrator I suppose, or at least that is what I have done the most over the past few years between Paul Frank, Franco Shade and GOST. But I consider myself a pretty well rounded designer and I know enough Photoshop to get by. At Fuse I got a crash course in Photoshop and color correction however as my work consisted primarily of transforming mundane shots of Kawasaki motorcycles into high-powered, high-glossed, super-kick-ass photo composites! I learned a lot from the designers there in a short amount of time and owe a huge debt (which I tried to cover with T-shirts, of course!) to Erick and Jake in particular for their guidance.
Needless to say the GOST blog suffered a little in my absence. There is plenty that has happened over the past couple of weeks for sure and I will attempt to catch up over the next few days.
Arlo
GOST
Dan Sena’s new tracks, “Midnight” and “We Won’t Shut the Fuck Up” are now available on iTunes! Check the link:
Arlo
GOST
