Denime 66xx World Tour

[chicote]

@bosco, I'm sure you are partially right, though I've never personally run into anybody shooting up w anything in a public washroom. Most Vancouver businesses have needle disposals in their washrooms, and Vancouver has a relatively strong safety net for people experiencing iv drug addiction. that said, it still exists here, but I'm not convinced that iv drug use is a huge risk in public washrooms.

what's more likely, I think, are that homeless folks are forced to shit in the street, and are unable to bathe, wash their hands, etc. due to a lack of public restrooms in the city, so the few that are available become swamped cause it's one of the only means of sanitation for those outside the shelter system. but like you said, the risk for iv drug use is still there in cities that have not implemented these sorts of precautions, which makes me wonder about whether cities need to provide space for those folks before they can focus on public sanitation more broadly. who knows!

 

anyway, sorry for the tangent. here are a couple shots of the fabric from this morning--really the only two shots that weren't blown out for some reason:

 

Edited March 11, 2017 by chicote

[louisbosco]

if there's no takers for the next leg, i've proposed that i'll swap the roy world tour with chicote for this 66xx pair. i'm really keen to see how's it developed since i've had the first leg of it..

[chicote]

Hi y'all!

Last week with the jeans... so far, nothing too exciting planned. Over the last few days I've been doing a lot of sewing and stick-n-poke tattoos (mostly on fruit, barring one horrible attempt on my thigh) as distraction while working through what's becoming a very lengthy research proposal for my thesis. I've also just started a photography class, so perhaps during the Roy tour y'all will see my skills as a documentarian dramatically increase! My grandfather was a photographer for a Venezuelan paper during WWII and left me his old Leica III when he died—that was four years ago and I've never really gotten the chance to get to know how to use it. So now i'll try!

For the time being, however, I'm confined to my phone, at least for these early assignments. Here are some photos from a series I was asked to do yesterday; the prompt was to take a rock (or rock formation) and illustrate some sort of narrative through six pictures. Bear with me, as these aren't edited and I still don't have much of a clue of what I'm doing as far as framing goes...

These are photos of a rock face on the side of a shale quarry a few minutes from my apartment. Although this part of the quarry isn't actively mined anymore, there's still a lot of oily-looking and iron-tinted water running down the face. It was terribly quiet the whole time I was taking pictures, except for the occasional blast from the active mining site further down the valley. I wanted to create a sense of sudden, violent movement in photos 2-5, capped on either end by what struck me as a sort of resolution or quiet. Anyway:

 

This is the sort of day it was... foggy and muddy. I followed this little river to get to the spot where I took the photos — the denimes got properly muddy along the way.

And here's the spot overlooking the part of the quarry I settled up in—that red rock face on the left is where I took all the above images.

 

Anyway, not terribly interesting but it's all I've got to show for the moment!

My final project is going to be a series of portraits of adults re-enacting moments of innocent sexuality from earlier times in their lives ... that, meaning times when they performed or were engaged in sexual acts without necessarily perceiving what those actions meant. I'll probably have more to say on it during the Roy tour. Hoping to shoot it on a cool medium-format camera that my professor brought in ... exciting stuff!

That's all for now. I'm planning to go down to Vancouver one more time this weekend, develop some film, stop into The Shop for an event they're having, and then have the jeans washed and out to @louisbosco (the original denime tour participant!) on Monday. So, hopefully time for another update before then. Thanks for looking!

Edited March 16, 2017 by chicote

[Collin]

Hello, folks! Following World tours without really participating and seeing that there are no more legs for the Denime gave me envy to be part of it. I'm living in Switzerland in the town called Lausanne by the lake Geneva. I'll be happy to lend my legs ! 

Let me know what you guys think !

[louisbosco]

oooh geneva. then there better be some brilliant photos of the rolex HQ or the holy trinity of AP, PP and VC. hahaha. 

 

@chicote is it easier for you to send it to switzerland?

[chicote]

Hey Colin @Collin nice to hear from you buddy! I hope med school hasn't been kicking your ass too much this year. I'd be totally happy to send you the Denimes, only thing is that the thighs are very restrictive (even for my small legs), and I worry about them being really uncomfortable while bike riding, or even not fitting you at all. Check the thigh measurements and see if they might work and I'd be happy to send them your way; or perhaps Louis can send them up to you after his leg, since presumably they've got to return at some point to Flash in the UK!

[Hendsch]

I'll second the thigh issue again. I feel like those pants shrank significantly between my first leg and second...

[Maynard Friedman]

^Eh? They shrank between your legs? I can't quite conceptualise that but sounds potentially painful  

[louisbosco]

14 hours ago, Maynard Friedman said:

^Eh? They shrank between your legs? I can't quite conceptualise that but sounds potentially painful  

it's cold outside y'know. it's winter now.. 

[Collin]

Hey Chicote ! Yeah med school has definitely been kicking my ass lately. But hopefully I have really nice patients than brighten my days

I checked on my slimmest pair and anything below 29 centimeters in the thighs taken BiG is going to be to tight to even move. I checked some pages ago and it seems it's going to be too slim for my biking thighs.. Bummer !

[louisbosco]

did someone do a measurement update??

[chicote]

I can take some measurements before & after I wash them tonight. In vancouver now and they're the only pants i brought w me so probably can't do it here...

[chicote]

Ok hi everyone!

Somewhat-overdue update from my trip to Vancouver over the weekend. spent the last few days getting the magazine i edit to production, working on my (now-defunct) photo project and rehearsing with my band, all of which took away most of my denim forum posting time... but here we are now!

 

well, this is going to be a bit of a gross way to start out, but this is what greeted me as soon as I got out of the car on west hastings in vancouver on sunday morning. although it seemed quite ominous at the time it didn't seem to have any effect on my day, which was pretty great!

 

i came down early to get in on my friend's tattoo flash day—it's their last time tattooing in vancouver before they move and i wanted to get something! but once i got in and set up my time i had a good amount of time to kill. so i wandered around gastown/chinatown/dtes for a while, took some photos of things on the street as there weren't many people out:

cool mural next to a portable medical clinic on hastings, which has one of the highest concentrations of homeless folks in one area in all of north america. very complicated place that i feel uncomfortable speaking too much about, as i haven't spent enough time down here to really get a sense of what it's like.

soon afterwards i felt like a cigarette, didn't have any tobacco on me, so ended up going on an adventure to find a convenience store that's open on sunday morning (in case you were wondering, it's freakin' hard! i wandered around for nearly an hour before finding one.)

turning into gastown now, a block or so before finding the convenience store i was looking for.

funnily enough, less than a block after buying a pack of belmonts, i ran into a houseless dude on the street who was selling loose cigarettes. i only really wanted a few for the day, so i traded him my unopened pack for a couple of the ones he was selling. we ended up sitting and talking for nearly an hour—he told me a bunch of stories, including some about crossing the Mexican-US border (sounded terribly difficult) and then, a decade later, the US-Canadian border (sounded incredibly easy); some funny stories about a group of houseless folks in the neighborhood who started a community exercise class, and a bit about his young adulthood in Chiapas, where he said he's very proud of the work the Zapatistas are doing. I wanted to take his photo at the end of our conversation but am still a bit uncomfortable with doing that, so hopefully this description will be a little useful. his name is willie.

i ended up retracing my steps back to granville to drop off some film, and then went all the way back to chinatown to stop in at The Shop! TJ and KC were in the store, as well as another customer with a cool french bulldog (i think? not very well-versed in dog breeds) that TJ, despite his best efforts, couldn't seem to get along with. came in and hung out for a while and took some photos before i left:

 

 

 

then back up hastings to my friend's tattoo studio. funny, this picture is taken about 10 feet from the picture of that big mural a few scrolls up, facing the other direction!

 

to be continued...

[chicote]

okay, next I went back to my friend's tattoo studio and got a bat from their flash, right next to another bat on my upper right arm, representing the two important experiences i've had with bats in my life... yeah whatever.

okay more photos!

back on granville to pick up my film, my last stop before heading back up to squamish. i didn't get a good photo of this but the woman on that bench was sitting with a big white duck wearing a tiara and pearl necklace, next to a shopping cart advertising $1 fortune tellings. when i walked by the woman standing up was clearly very emotional over the contents of her fortune. i wanted to take a closer picture from a better angle but again felt sort of weird, so instead you get this blurry and farway snapshot that doesn't really capture anything of interest.

 

the next day i went up to whistler to visit the audain art museum — amazing stuff. audain is, as far as i know, some extremely wealthy art collector who built this museum to show a small portion of his collection. the museum is freaking huge, so who knows where all the rest of his collection is??? probably in a million storage containers somewhere.

walking down the main hallway:

at the end of a wonderful exhibit on Fred Herzog, a Vancouver street photographer. the 18 photos on exhibit here were chosen all because of their clever use of shadow. really amazing work, many of the photos from the exhibit are at the link in the previous sentence if y'all are interested.

 

then, just below, was a massive room full of henri matisse drawings — incredible!!!!

what really blew me away about these drawings is how much meaning you can get out of a single line. the drawing to the right of this had one line that was simultaneously the contour of the subject's face, their entire forearm and the side of their hand, and the focal point for the movement of the entire drawing — all in one small curve no better defined than any other line. i spent probably two hours in here trying to deconstruct various sketches in my notebook ... probably sound a bit pretentious but, hey, this is *art* we're talking about here!

the main exhibit contained a lot of enormous pieces. this one must have been nearly six meters tall, all painted on ledger paper..

some cool, also huge, photos mounted on light boxes. this one is of a drywall mounter:

and to remind us all that all this *culture* is in *whistler*, we return to the parking lot outside the museum, where an artistic van driver mounted this to their grill:

ahh, much better.

finally, a shot from the film i developed — god this lens is horrible — of the magazine's masthead during copy-editing. all very hard at work!

that's all for now, thanks for looking!

a final note: louis sent me the roys today. i'm going to hang onto the denimes until the roys arrive so i can photograph them alongside one another. it'll be cool, we swear!

Edited March 23, 2017 by chicote

[cottonskinblues]

Is it still possible to be added to the list?! Was browsing through the thread, would love to participate. Located in Ottawa, Canada. 

[chicote]

Hi, we could arrange something perhaps, but we've also had to pass up a number of spots on this tour because the cut is so restrictive. Right now, two weeks of wear post-wash, these jeans measure 28cm in the thigh, which shrinks down to just over 27cm after a wash. Let me know if you can make that work and we can try to figure something out.

edit: contingent on flash's approval also, as he is the owner of the jeans. just trying to follow rules here!

Edited March 24, 2017 by chicote

[chicote]

hey y'all! going to post over in the roys thread soon. i picked up the roys today so time to say goodbye to the denimes for the time being. here are some goodbye shots with the two together:

 

 

 

 

thanks everyone, it's been a fun month! i'll have the denimes out to louis tomorrow.

[louisbosco]

cheers. let me know the tracking!

[louisbosco]

so the denimes are back where they started. in perth! received these from chicote last thursday but have been a little busy with work in recent weeks. i haven't had much time to shoot the jeans or do much though i managed to go down to my favourite coffee place to wind down on a friday after work. i'll post more photos in the coming days..

 

Gesha filter. Usually, the have a card lying around that explains in details about the farmers and roaster. but for this one, sadly they didn't have any left..

[louisbosco]

i've yet to take a proper arrival photo so here's 1. thanks chicote for the double face embroidery. spent my off day on monday in the city. coffee, lunch and just a walk around the WA state library and arts museum. they've got a sneaker exhibition on which i'll go with a mate this coming monday off. so there should be more photos following next week...

pretty gloomy at the moment, with rain and winter just around the corner...

 

[louisbosco]

last monday, i went to a sneaker exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) while i was off. it's nice that something like this gets covered. to think maybe 5-6 years ago, sneaker or anything else wouldn't have any coverage like this. pretty nice to see a few old sneakers there on display, didn't really get much photos which i realised after i left. they covered everything from old pf flyers and converses to new balace and asics collabs to jordans and many other different types. here's some photos from it..

 

Nice to see some FBTs. for those who might not know, i'm a huge fan of visvim.

and Michael Johnson. This is is gold spikes which he wore at Atlanta 96.

I'm not one to do a mirror selfie, but here's a really poor quality one. my room lighting does not help show off the color of the denim unfortunately..

Edited May 28, 2017 by louisbosco

[greathoudini]

That's some cool stuff. 

I miss my homegrowns :'( the upper on mine seperated from the sole

[louisbosco]

damn that's a bummer. my mate has been trying to get me on air maxs for years to no avail. they're nice, but everytime i slip them on, i find they don't really suit me..

[louisbosco]

last weekend, headed out to this place called short order burger co for dinner. it has what i reckon is probably the best burgers in town. holed up in an old warehouse along with other restaurants, this place near the port of fremantle is a pretty artsy scene. it's a gives off a nice communal vibe rather than just an independent lonely restaurant.

 

the photo of the burger may not look the best but it's because i only remembered to snap a photo after taking a couple of bites. the place was packed on a friday night and i was really hungry after waiting quite long.. now, i don't eat vegetables, but i can assure you the taste is better than the photo suggests. double wagyu patty with bacon with their special sauce and cheese..

 

[Hendsch]

You don't eat vegetables? 

[louisbosco]

nah man i don't, well at least for the majority of them. with the exception of brocolli, carrots and potatoes or mushroom if you count those as vegetables, i don't eat the rest.. when people ask, it's usually a long story giving the exceptions..

[louisbosco]

natural light..

went out testing the BMW G310R, didn't really like it. it's still a great bike for zipping around town, but it didn't really get any of my attention while test riding. took it on freeways, small streets and the like. the single cylinder sounds alright but i think for now i'm happy to stick with my ninja till october when i'll just get the S1000RR.. it's not the riding position either as when i rode the ducati monster, i absolutely love that beast..

in saying all that, i'm honoured to be able to take this jeans a second time. i'd love to hear from you guys if anyone else should go next or if they should go back to flash...

[louisbosco]

gave this a wash before it's ready to be sent out anywhere, probably back to flash.

Before

 

After

 

[chicote]

wow, i feel like this denim is really starting to come alive. great leg louis thank you!!

[louisbosco]

thanks. wished i could do much more this leg but couldn't as i had just started full time..