Last night in Brooklyn, Heineken held this years first Heineken Red Star Access event with a presentation of G.O.O.D Music by Kanye West. The night began with a DJ Mano set around 9pm and by 10:15pm Q-Tip was on deck providing the beats and Heineken providing the drinks as most enjoyed the music and game 5 of the NBA Finals. Kanye West brought his G.O.O.D Music team on stage around midnight with a 2 hour performance featuring Kanye, Pusha T, CyHi Da Prynce, Big Sean, Mr. Hudson and Kid Cudi. There were a number of other notable attendees including R&B singer Estelle, mogul Russell Simmons, Jay Z, Gossip Girl’s actress Tika Sumpter, model Tahiry, model Tyson Beckford, celebrity chef Bobby Flay, comedian Aziz Ansari, actress Gina Gershon, model Jessica White, and MTV host Sway Calloway. Over all a great night from the good people at Heineken! Make sure to stick with Freshness for upcoming Heineken Red Star Access G.O.O.D Music Events.

Earlier this week Samsung Electronics America, Inc. hired me to stop by the Samsung Hope For Children Gala to photograph the red carpet as well as help spread the word on the great cause. Over the past ten years, Samsung along with their retail, business, celebrity and athlete friends have helped raise more than $25 million for over 300 schools, community-based foundations, and charities throughout the U.S. The focus of the program is supporting children’s education and health related issues but additionally through Samsung, tools and technology are provided to help empower young people in their communities. At this year’s Gala, Samsung once again brought together retail and business partners but also their A-List friends for this important cause. Some of the notable attendees included President Bill Clinton who was honored with the 2011 Samsung Hope For Children Ambassador Award, Harry Connick Jr., John Legend, Jason Mraz, Branford Marsalis, Jennifer Lopez, Joe Torre, Bommer Esiason, Dan Marino, and Jimmy Johnson. Through out the night, guests and friends of Samsung tweeted with the hash tag #Hope4Children for an additional $.25 donated per tweet and the hash tag was trending within two hours of the event. It was a fantastic night for a good cause, for more info please visit samsung.com/hope.

Last Friday, 20th Century Fox invited me to Los Angeles to the 20th Century Fox studios for The Rise 50 Summit which was a one day event dedicated to the upcoming Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes film. The day was filled with a number of speakers involved with the film including current Fox Filmed Entertainment CEO Tim Rothman, director Rupert Wyatt, and producer and former CEO of Fox Entertainment Group Peter Chernins. The day started with an introduction to Planet Of The Apes from Tim Rothman, from the original to the 2001 and finally the 2011 production. The director of the upcoming Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes Rupert Wyatt followed with an introduction to the film and some behind the scenes look at some of his directorial choices. After Rupert was a break for lunch and a quick tour of the Fox Studio but unfortunately due to time constraints, we only toured a few notable exteriors and one large set. Peter Chernins, the producer and former CEO of Fox Entertainment Group was up after lunch to talk about his involvement with the film as well as  dish some of his expertise on being a media mogul. Next up was the Academy award winning visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri from WETA who finally confirmed that Caesar the ape protagonist is in fact all digital. While there were some important speakers at the summit, most geeked out when Joe Letteri got on stage. Joe was the visual effects supervisor behind such films as, Avatar, The Lord of the Rings franchise, Mission: Impossible, and a large number of other ground breaking and visually stunning sci-fi films. And last up was Oren Aviv, Fox’s Chief Marketing Officer and Mekanism’s Jason Harris who spoke to the marketing of the film. Most of the summit was off limits to cameras so I was only able to capture a few photos before, after and during the tour of the Fox Studio.

After spending a day being educated about some of the processes, production, behind the scenes and marketing of The Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, I was very much intrigued by this new take on the classic. The film is more of a new take on a prequel to the original Planet Of The Apes film and takes place in a ‘what happens if…’ present day setting. The story takes place in San Francisco and follows experiments with genetic engineering on apes, leading to the development of intelligence in apes and the making of an ape general. If you are as interested as we, there are two trailers out (below), a WETA making of featurette (below), Facebook fan page and also the apeswillrise.com site.

Full disclosure: In accordance to the FTC Guidelines, I am disclosing that my time, travel and accommodations have been compensated by 20th Century Fox for my participation in the “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” campaign. Although I have a material connection to 20th Century Fox, any publicly stated opinions of 20th Century Fox and the film remain my own.

New York office of advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy is holding a unique, temporary retail event between Thursday, June 16th and Monday, June 20th called SHOP. The event will feature upwards of 40 of New York City’s most inventive, locally-based fashion brands selling products at sample sale pricing, full retail, selective discounts and as individualized orders. Eddie Huang of Baohaus fame will be cooking throughout the week, and daily DJ sets will be curated by Fool’s Gold Records. Some of the brands featured at SHOP include: Nicholas K, Isaora, Burkman Bros., Highland US, Steven Alan, Siki Im, Rogan, Loomstate, Anna Sheffield, Saturdays NYC, and more. All inquiries about SHOP can be sent to @heyphilchang on Twitter.

Jonas with Diddy during Magic, 2007

When I heard the news earlier this morning, I didn’t want to believe it. But as twitter filled with words of remembrance for the founder of LRG Jonas Bevacqua, the shock finally hit. Our prayers and thoughts go out to  friends and family of Jonas Bevacqua and LRG.

I’ve been actively using the BlackBerry PlayBook since receiving an early unit after the Blackberry Playbook NY Launch Party last week. The unit along with the software are both currently in Beta, but all should be finalized once the new tablet enters the market tomorrow (there’s a pretty intelligent updater built in). And so, this isn’t much of a hands-on or review but just a few first impressions after a weekend with the unit. Just as a note, I’ve only had hands on experience with the first generation iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. In comparison, each of the mentioned units have their pros and cons.  But for now with PlayBook as the new player to the market, there will definitely be a few extra cons. Most obvious is the new App World with just over 3000 apps but there are a few good pre-installed ones: YouTube, Kobo Books, Bing Maps, Word To Go, Sheet To Go, and Slideshow To Go. BlackBerry Bridge is an app for both the Playbook and Blackberry Phones with OS 5 and OS 6, this app would sync your BlackBerry Phone’s Mail, Calendar, Contacts and Notes with the PlayBook. Unfortunately, there are no native apps currently for mail, calendar, or contacts until later this Summer. In addition, Bridge will tether Blackberry Playbook to Phone, thus using the Phone’s data connection to the Internet. This is an app I have not yet tried since it’s not yet available, I have been told it will be available Tuesday morning.

The main app I’ve been using thus far is the web browser and it is the best tablet-based browser I’ve used up to date. The BlackBerry PlayBook browser gives you the full web experience with Flash, Java and other intricate web technologies that make up a good portion of the current World Wide Web. It even does a decent job of handling HTML5, like browsing the new Nike Better World website. For those who think the iPad 1 or 2 are too big, the BlackBerry PlayBook is ‘near’ pocket size and just a tad bigger then the Samsung Galaxy Tab, it fits into a jacket pocket but not your back pocket. It also packs a mean punch in the small package with a 8 hour battery life and quite a bit of processing power allow most apps I’ve tried to run fairly smoothly. Check out a few photos of the unpacking below and a few size comparison photos and look out for the BlackBerry Bridge hands on tomorrow.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has become one of the most important annual music festivals in the world with major sponsors, flocks of music fans, celebrities and major acts. The festival ended last night and one of the worlds biggest act, Kanye West close the show with a spectacular set. We are not here to discuss his music or his set but it seems what was on his feet has been the most buzzed, tweeted and talked about since his performance ended a little under 12 hours ago. In one of his two stage costume changes he was decked out in a red suit and on his feet, the Nike Air Yeezy 2. We first saw a glimpse of the Yeezy 2 back in February during the premiere of the Nike/Kobe Bryant The Black Mamba commercial/short film. We are sure a lot more details are on the way regarding Kanye’s latest signature sneaker with Nike but for now check out the photos below and stick with Freshness for updates.

A short while ago we received a box at the office during a fairly busy time of the year, the box got lost under a new pile of product samples that’s come along since. Since it’s a slow Friday here at the Freshness office we did a little Spring cleaning and finally dug out the box and opened it. To our surprised, it turns out to be a great looking wooden box with lasered art on the box and on the inside is the Edzerza Eagle Shell Jacket. We were intrigued and decided to read up on the brand which happens to be the latest medium from Vancouver based Tahltan artist Alano Edzerza. In case you are wondering, Tahltan refers to the Northern Athabaskan people who live in northern British Columbia around Telegraph Creek, Dease Lake, and Iskut. The Edzerza Sports Eagle Shell Jacket features features cutting edge technical details along with the art of Alano Edzerza on the sleeves. In terms of technical features, the jacket is built with a Durable Water Repellency (DWR) fabric and features great breathability, rip-stop in the shoulders and heavy wear zones and 100% seam seal for additional waterproofness. For more details on the jacket and more from the brand check out Edzerza Sports.

I can say I’m almost a T-Mobile Sidekick OG, I did not own the original black and white or color Sidekick 1st generation but I fell in love with Sidekick II once I discovered it. It was the first affordable semi-smart phone with an affordable data plan. At the time, Microsoft, Plam, RIM and a few others put out their smartphone devices but for the most part, they were expensive, had buggy software or were too business minded for the generation growing up on AOL, AIM, and the beginnings of social media and the blogosphere. The Sidekick II and its simple operating system gave a whole generation an easy to use device with an always-on data connection making it a popular choice for those who preferred text messaging or chatting on AIM over talking on the phone. When Apple unveiled the iPhone in 2007, that same generation now had a shiny new popular option and over the past four years, Google introduced their Android OS, Microsoft introduced Windows 7 while a good chuck who preferred messaging moved onto the Blackberry platform. Earlier in the year when I learned that the original cloud services to the DangerOS Sidekicks will end on May 31st, 2011 I thought the Sidekick will be laid to rest.

But T-Mobile had a surprise up it’s sleeves, they’ve redeveloped the Sidekick brand with a new hardware partner, Samsung, and a new operating system partner, Android. Keeping to the original form-factor, pop-tilt to open screen and a QWERTY keyboard, the reinvented T-Mobile Sidekick 4G is packing a few punches as it enters the smartphone market on April 20th, 2011. Take a look below for my hands on with the Sidekick 4G.

During Fall previews this past week, The North Face announced a new series of packs scheduled for this coming Fall 2011 called the Campus Collection. In designing this new collection, the North Face drew from its heritage and collaborated with a design firm deeply rooted in youth culture to create a collection mixing retro and contemporary aesthetics. While taking note of its past, the bags will feature all current pack design standards including laptop compartments, modern shoulder straps, ergonomic back design and other technology from the company’s long history of innovation.  Take a look below at male and female colorways and stick with Freshness for release updates.

Last night in Chelsea, Blackberry held a media launch party with some of the the biggest journalists in the tech, social and lifestyle worlds. I was lucky enough to get an invite to attend the festivities leading up to the North America launch of the Blackberry Playbook on April 19th, 2011. Once inside most quickly gathered by one of the few stations with live open Playbooks for testing and playing; up until last night, the public and even most of the media has yet to get a full taste of the closely guarded tablet from Blackberry. But tonight, the Playbook was for all to see and finally test! With a brand new operating system and functionality there are of course a few bugs but I was happy overall with the device. My tests included checking out a few websites, played the Blackberry optimized Need For Speed and the Playbooks operating functionality. Taking a walk around the room I spotted the newly named co-anchor of Entertainment Tonight, Nancy O’Dell and even Orlando Magic’s ‘superman’ Dwight Howard stopped by to check out the new tablet and gave his approval “Takin off. Had a blast RIM and blackberry y’all did an excellent Job the playbook is great. I love it. Now I need a busload of them for my teammates lol so we can all be connected. Hook a brother up lol.hint hint NYC I love y’all but I gotta get home. Yuuuuuuuaaaaaa”. At the end of the night, invited guests left the event with a single item gift bag but to many’s surprise, it just happens to be a 16GB Blackberry Playbook. Check out my photos from the launch party and look out for a review soon.

With the launch of their brand new e-commerce website only a few weeks away, Twelve Bar have announced that they will also start releasing a series of music-based online features called the Twelve Bar Sessions. Starring some of today’s top musical talent including the emcee Blu, jazz musician Mark de Clive-Lowe and DJs Rhettmatic from the World Famous Beat Junkies and Paserock to name but a few, the Twelve Bar Sessions will showcase the brand’s love for music which has always been at its core and which is a huge inspiration and influence. Expect to see many of your favorite artists making an appearance where the emphasis is on live performance, soul and just good music. For more visit: twelvebar.com