I discovered Trevor Paglen’s book I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World some time ago and picked it up because frankly it was awesome design inspiration. A collection of mysteriouso Black Ops military patches. Patches that looked so ridiculous I just assumed this was a design book that had a slew of artists invent these patches and try to pass them off as real but I didn’t really give it much thought and filed the book away on our office bookcase. Well how wrong I was!

After taking a nasty spill on my bike yesterday afternoon and being forced to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening indoors I comforted myself by flipping through whatever few cable channels I have. And of course at the most unexpected of channels, C-SPAN’s Book TV I found my evening’s entertainment. Trevor Paglen was discussing this very book at a very small reading (even though the book had little to read) at Brooklyn’s Melville House.

I was amazed to find out that all the patches were indeed real and he had been collecting them for quite sometime. Paglen makes his living as a military journalist specializing in reporting on all things that should be classified! So trying to decipher the clues of the symbols and iconography on these patches plays heavily into his reporting! Most of the talk was spent pointing out how certain graphics can easily now be related to recently declassified operations, programs or ships. While others were probably hinting to military programs or organizations still under wraps! It quickly started turning into some real X-Files level shit and was quite eye opening and amazing! If any of this remotely interests you (I know it does most of us at Mishka) then you should check out this book and see if you can catch a repeat of his talk on C-Span’s Book TV. Or better yet just frequent his excellent website for all sorts of details and updates!

Like Mulder… I want to believe!

**UPDATE 4/1/08**

The NY Times has a great article on Trevor Paglen and his patches in today’s Science Section! 

This is just on another level… I… actually I think all of us have been fans of Skullphone and his various projects for quite some time, but my hat’s totally off to him. This is fucking amazing!

He’s gone and hijacked a slew of LA county Clear Channel digital billboards interspersing his own iconic graphic amongst the various ad they had been running!

Head over to the Supertouch Blog for more pictures and much more info!

**Update**
Thanks to some comments pointing me to a Wired Blog entry I guess there’s some debate as to whether these were actually hacked or paid for. Hacked or paid for I still think the concept itself is deserving merit AND this is Clear Channel claiming “oh they were paid for”. The evil empire may simply be trying to save some face or maybe they were paid for… who knows.

For all of our West Coast fans that wished they could take part in our sample sales, here is your chance! Also, great chance to pick up samples and cheap clothes from OBEY, Reason, Goorin Bros., and Akomplice!

Cash Only Show!

April 5th & 6th, 10 am – 5 pm.

Beauty Bar Hollywood

1638 N. Cahuenga

CASH ONLY! No Checks and No Credit Cards!

For more info: info@cashonlyshow.com

Also check out the myspace page!

I never liked Napoleon Dynamite. I just mostly felt it was cheesy, tried too hard and to me was a failed attempt at Wes Anderson does white trash. And I’m not saying this after some colossal let down after months of people quoting it, acting out scenes and hyping it. I actually got to see it at a screening before it saw wide release. My hate is reeeaaalll!!!!

The Sasquatch Gang however is basically everything everyone thought Napoleon Dynamite was… but wasn’t. I just rented this on a whim and I’m only mentioning Napoleon Dynamite because the studio that is distributing this movie slapped a huge “From the people who brought you Napoleon Dynamite” Tag on the box. Tim Skousen, who wrote and directed The Sasquatch Gang was like a second unit production dude on Napoleon Dynamite and John Heder has a 15 second cameo. Way to stretch the truth there!

This is a totally good late-night comedy, especially if you’re into the Mac Guy, I’m Looking at you Drew Barrymore! And more so if you’re into LARPing, I’m looking at you Prolly!

The ultimate collab! Uzi Suicide… Mad Decent, Mishka & Turntable Lab!

These are the perfect jump-off if you’re trying to see some wet t-shirts in the club.

So thanks to the lovely world of the Internet everything and anything now has a blog or forum where you’re either put on a pedestal or burned at the stake at blindingly fast rate! It’s a wonderful modern world we live in! And with Google Alerts everyone can keep tabs on their own Court of Public Opinion with minimal effort and maximum fun!

Here are some things that have brought joy to our hearts this week:
Both of our infamous Tom of Eternia shirts (which were masterfully illustrated by Robin Nishio) seem to now, almost 2 years after their release, gotten some attention on a Masters of the Universe forum! And the results are fucking awesome!!!! However this isn’t anywhere near as great as when the He’s A Whore T-shirt made it onto the forums of Electrical Audio which is Steve Albini’s Studio not once, but twice! Truly classic! And of course today we got to ride the Shark’s nutsack right onto DBTHB/Stachel of Gravel! Fuckin’ Finally! I was starting to think we didn’t matter :(

**Update**
Thanks to some peeps over at Hypebeast we also got a cameo on a Craigslist Austin Missed Connection! Sweet!

Meet Mike Jones, he is one of our full time designers, and a longtime member of the MISHKA family.

He is also about to join the “job stoppers” and “dirt bag” club. Mike Jones is getting “TEAM WORK” tattooed on his knuckles.

Joesph Ari Aloi aka JK5 is the lucky artist making Mike Jones legally disabled (Well, I don’t know if that is actually true, but we did decide you can claim unemployment if you get a tattoo on your face).

And for all the ladies wondering, yes, he is single!

Late start… sorry! Anyway this go around I thought I’d post some videos from bands who helped inspire the current Spring ’08 Collection. Some of the influences are painfully obvious, while others are not so I wanted to shed some light on those and I guess some of the obvious ones as well, enjoy!

Death In June – Giddy Giddy Carousel

Budgie – Breadfan

Dark Angel – Darkness Descends (Live)

Goblin – Theme From Suspiria

Megadeth – Symphony of Destruction

Celtic Frost – Jewel Throne (Live)

PAYBACK March 28th: Mad Decent vs. Turntable Lab Miami, Florida!

Featuring DJs:
Switch, Blaqstarr, Cosmo Baker, Blu Jemz, Sega, Bart B More, Lloydski, Small Change, Induce, South Rakkas Crew, Alex (Holy Ghost), Matt Cash, The Gaslamp Killer, Sabo, Santogold, Spank Rock, Drop the Lime and… *Special Guest*

You know with a line-up that deep and heavy whoever the remaining *Special Guest* may be has to be pretty big for them not to be able to list it in fear of a riot!

Charcoal Studios
2135 NW 1st Ave
Miami Design District
10pm-6am

I wish I was going. :(