By Jim Drewes - August 3, 2005
Block Party Press Release
Marc Ecko and Activision will be hosting the first of its kind "block
party" in New York city to promote the upcoming graffiti title, Marc
Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. The party, taking place on
August 24th on 22nd street between 10th and 11th avenue, will feature
graffiti demonstrations as well as live music from popular DJs and
Hip-Hop groups. A large emphasis is placed on graffiti art, with one
of the demonstrators being know for graffiti dating back to the mid 70s.
The full press release is as follows:
Designer Marc Ecko To 'Get Up' With Urban Legends And Hip-Hop Heavyweights At 1st Ever Graffiti Block Party
August 24th Street Festival to Merge Old and New Schools of Urban Culture(New York, NY), July 29, 2005
– Marc Ecko, designer and "Navigator of Youth Culture," is set to
recruit the legends of Hip-Hop culture for the upcoming Marc Ecko's
Getting Up Block Party. The first-of-it-kind street festival, free to
the public and held August 24th on 22nd Street between 10th and 11th
Avenues from 12:00PM – 8:00PM, will feature graffiti demonstrations,
live DJs and surprise musical performances in celebration of the golden
age of Hip-Hop. The event coincides with the anticipated release of
Atari's graffiti-based videogame, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents
Under Pressure.As a throwback to graffiti's glory days, "Marc
Ecko's Getting Up Block Party" will feature ten 48-foot-long by
8-foot-high replicas of the legendary NYC transit blue-bird subway cars
Ed Walker, Jr., which will be transformed into contemporary urban works
of art by renowned graffiti writers. A lineup of legendary artists,
from the notorious 'Bronx bomber and destroyer' COPE2 to T-KID
(Terrible Kid), who first started writing on trains as early as 1974,
will spend the day doing full color murals on the vintage trains.Other
participating graf writers include DASH, WEST, CES, SONIC, IZ THE WIZ,
MIN, DURO, WANE, WEN, DERO, CYCLE, SMITH, PINK, DOC, KEL 1st, MARE139,
CRASH, DAZE, SUB, GHOST, and the famous TATS CREW.Blue-birds, a
high point of nostalgia for historians and artists alike, were often
used as an urban canvas by graffiti writers throughout the 1980s before
blasting machines and buffers were used to strip them clean,
effectively putting an end to the era of graffiti artwork on the sides
of trains."Graffiti is without question the most powerful art
movement in recent history and has been a driving inspiration
throughout my career," said Marc Ecko, Executive Creative Director for
Getting Up. "I'm honored to be bringing its pioneering creative forces
together to look back on its tradition and to celebrate its future."In
addition to reviving an old school graffiti tradition, the block party
will offer guests the opportunity to participate in live demos of Marc
Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure and experience the first
truly authentic video game based on urban culture and graffiti. The
videogame, which is being published by Atari and developed by The
Collective for a Fall 2005 release, brings together over 65 legendary
graffiti writers, six of whom will serve as in-game mentors to its
protagonist, Trane.Event sponsors include GameStop Corp., Truth (www.thetruth.com), Toy Tokyo (www.toytokyo.com), Montana paint and Mass Appeal magazine.About Marc Ecko EnterprisesThe
youngest member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America's board
of directors, Marc Ecko is founder of *ecko unltd., the world famous
rhino brand. In eleven years since its creation in 1993, the group of
companies that comprise Marc Ecko Enterprises has grown to include:
*ecko unltd.® men's and Eckored®
women's apparel, as well as outerwear, footwear, watches, eyewear,
underwear, belts, bags, hats, small leather goods, formalwear and more.
Marc Ecko Enterprises also includes Marc Ecko "Cut & Sew" (a
contemporary menswear line launched Fall 2004); G-Unit® clothing and accessories (a joint venture with multi-platinum musician, 50 Cent); Zoo York® (a line of action sports-inspired clothing and accessories); Avirex® Sportswear Collection (a licensed mid-tier brand debuting Spring 2005); and Fetish
TM (a women's accessories collection developed in conjunction with multimedia icon Eve). The Company also publishes Complex®
magazine, a men's consumer magazine with a rate base of 315,000, and is
developing Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under PressureTM,
the first truly authentic video game based on urban culture and
graffiti art debuting in the second half of 2005. *ecko unltd. products
are available in over 5,000 stores domestically and in over 45
countries internationally, as well as through 31 of its own retail
stores across the country. For additional information, please visit www.marceckoenterprises.com.About The CollectivePart
of Foundation 9 Entertainment, the largest independent game developer
in North America, The Collective is a leading independent developer of
console video games. The Collective has created groundbreaking
third-person action adventure games, including the critically acclaimed
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's TombTM, Buffy the Vampire SlayerTM and the soon-to-be-released, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the SithTM. The studio has also developed the world-class SlayerTM game engine and SlayEd
TM
tool suite. The Collective, along with Backbone Entertainment, Digital
Eclipse, Pipeworks, and ImaginEngine make up Foundation 9
Entertainment. The company's labels have developed more than 250
titles, including more than 50 in 2004 alone. The company employs more
than 325 employees, and has offices in Los Angeles, Newport Beach,
Emeryville, Vancouver, Boston, Eugene and Honolulu. The Collective is
based in Newport Beach, California, and can be found on the Internet at
www.collectivestudios.com.About AtariNew
York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for
all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of
interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company's 1,000+
titles include hard-core, genre-defining franchises such as DRIVERTM, The MatrixTM, StuntmanTM and Test Drive®; and mass-market and children's franchises such as Backyard SportsTM, Nickelodeon's Blue's CluesTM and Dora the ExplorerTM, and Dragon Ball Z®.
Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames
Entertainment SA (Euronext – ISIN: FR-0000052573), the largest
interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.atari.com.©
2005, Atari, Inc. All rights reserved. ATARI, the ATARI logo, and
classic Atari game titles and logos are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Atari Interactive, Inc. or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.CONTACT: Clint Cantwell | 917-262-1110 | clintc@ecko.com