Ahead of his upcoming Nifty Gateway drop, I had the pleasure of sitting down to record a very chill chat with the digital artist Alimo.

Alimo has a lovely post-pop nature-themed drawing style that makes his work instantly recognizable. If you ever shopped at Patagonia, Apple, Nike, Volcom, among other places, chances are high that you've seen Alimo's work before.

Over the course of our chat, we talk about Alimo's artistic journey that emerged early on alongside a passion for outdoor sports, most notably skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing, that took a gnarly detour at university where he initially majored in business(!) before switching to digital arts.

After graduation, Alimo traveled the world before finding his way into agency life during a spontaneous trip to Saigon which ultimately took him to San Diego and San Francisco where his Alimo artist persona really grew roots.

We dive into how Alimo found crypto & NFTs, how he met Bryan Brinkman, and of course dive into all the details around his upcoming drop on Nifty Gateway titled "Summer Time."

"Summer Time" by Alimo will go live on Nifty Gateway Thursday, May 25th at 6:30 pm ET. You can preview the collection and set a drop alert HERE.

Links for Alimo:

It sure seems like a lot of folks are on vacation. Like, not just from crypto and NFT lands, but in real life.

Historically, in the period from May to the end of August, sales tend to slow down when it comes to the art-side of things. Couple that with an overall sluggish market and it makes sense that a lot of folks are starting longer vacations earlier. There is no need to be on 24/7 every single day.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing going on. On the contrary, from mega corporations like Nike and Starbucks or Red Bull launching NFT-powered projects to artists like Trevor Jones & The Evening Standard on-boarding new blood or crypto games like Axie Infinity getting their game listed on the Apple app store, there is probably more meaningful work happening now than at any period during the bull in terms of things that are growing the pie for everyone.

There are also hugely notable events that are aimed at existing participants, like Alpha Centauri Kids' epic 48 individual 1/1 auctions that grossed over a million dollars last week, amongst other events.

So, before, during or after your holiday from NFT land, make sure you take note of all the work that's being put out.

Shout-outs & Shots-fired:

@AvaStarsNFT @nike @AxieInfinity @Starbucks @AppStore @Jihoz_Axie @lphaCentauriKid @jackbutcher @ChristiesInc @dotSWOOSH @Steam @minecraft @apple @McDonalds @chejazi @cent @garyvee @veefriends @nameless_nft @veecon @Fractilians7 @BayBackner @decentraland @fabianospeziari @patriziabarnato @MemeExplorers @monaverse @redbull @AndrewSteinwold @TiffanyAndCo

Matthew & Rizzle do a little shitting on parades and stirring of pots on this week's episode of MARS.

A non-trivial number of projects continue to innovate and push the envelope on what's possible in NFT Land amidst the current storm of $hitcoins and $memecoins, like Async.Art and their latest innovation: dynamic blueprints. That's great. That is exciting. For folks who've been in the space, we need this continued innovation. But most innovation is on-chain, and in times like these when gas prices are soaring, doing anything on-chain is prohibitively expensive for anyone new or looking to enter the space. That's not great. That sucks, straight up.

Cue The Oath, a collaboration between Trevor Jones x Apollo Entertainment x Evening Standard that went live last week on Nifty Gateway that was claimed, for free, by 20,200 collectors and saw 12k+ new NG account sign ups, including many, many first time NFT collectors, some of whom have already engaged in collecting paid NFT releases. The space needs more friction-less on-boarding ports for new participants to enter.

On top of on-boarding, it's also essential to keep crypto writ large a place that's as welcoming and hospitable to the subversive, fringe and weird elements of society as it is to the mega-consumer corporate players. The latter are important for mass-adoption, but the former are essential to keep this place a desirable destination for subsequent generations that create that new-new that excites culture.

Shout-outs & Shots-fired:

@asyncart @conlan @n0shot1 @dragonateyt @MattKaneArtist @Ripple @trevorjonesart @niftygateway @fabianospeziari @JisuArtist @jaendotart @minecraft @PlayStation @Roblox @JonathanWWolfe @EveningStandard @ApolloNft @W1curates @StrawberrySith @flyfrogsnft @wsavas @sergitosergito @cent @CausalityOfLife

Ahead of her upcoming genesis Nifty Gateway drop, I had the great fortune to grab some time and chat with the powerhouse young artist who goes by the artist name JisuArtist.

Jisu has been blazing an exciting path for her art that marries the anime aesthetic with fine art flourishes. While still incredibly young, Jisu has already lived an amazingly unique and exciting career at the intersection of gaming and content creation prior to her entrance into the sphere of fine digital art and NFTs.

We unpack A LOT over the course of our conversation beginning with her genesis story of finding the passion to create art as a child and the influence anime and manga, particular in print form, had on her as well as the impact that DeviantArt and the digital artists there had on her creative journey.

Her experience as an influencer in competitive gaming and streaming gave us a lot to talk about. Jisu recounts myriad lessons learned and best practices from those non-art sectors as they relate to cryptoart and NFTs and she also talks about how NFTs have helped give her the freedom to focus exclusively on her art far away from the pressure to become a "commodified artist" that existed in the social influencer gaming space.

Finally, we dive deep into the concept behind "The Fates," her upcoming collection on Nifty Gateway. It's at once both a deeply personal collection that represents her own lived struggles and triumphs as well as universal, since it both incorporates and also speaks to the double-edged promises and threats tied into new tech like AI.

"The Fates" by Jisu will go live on Nifty Gateway Monday, May 5th at 6:30 pm ET. You can preview the collection and set a drop alert by going HERE.

Links for JisuArtist:

It's officially $hitcoin szn (again) in crypto land.

Matthew and Rizzle kick the show off talking about all the buzz around $PEPE before veering into far more interesting pastures talking about the ai-assisted twitter performance art that the Australia-based artist Rhett aka Mankind is engaging in with his $TURBO experiment.

Also, folks looking for something fun and free, make sure you go claim your free edition of 'The Oath' by Trevor Jones on Nifty Gateway.

Shout-outs & Shots-fired:

@blur_io @pepecoineth @dogecoin @bitcoincoreorg @litecoin @j1mmyeth @Its_Charlie_Day @rhett @bryanbrinkman @MuseumofCrypto @Pokemon @JisuArtist @polygonalmind @cryptoavatarsio @fabianospeziari @patriziabarnato @dankvr @iamckbubbles @webaverse @niftygateway @trevorjonesart @ElephantNFTS @miladymaker @cryptopunksnfts @cryptovoxels @hyperfy_io @ballisticb

The crew (and BIG shout-out to "the crew") is back from camp in Nashville, TN for the first ever Rizzlefest. And what an experience it was.

Rizzle and Matthew recount some of their most memorable moments from the trip and run their mouths on some other interesting bits (as they always do). Whether you were at Rizzlefest and want to travel back to last week and relive some of the highlights from your experience or you couldn't make the trek out and just want to get a tldr of what went on, check out this episode.

If you enjoyed it please re-share on Twitter.

Shout-Outs & Shots-Fired:

@memeexplorers @JoshAtVoxels @JAX_Hideaway @numomoart @metabrook @elrapierwit @skybravoshow @Ezincr @jonathan_fihnn @Tyrberg @supahmarbler @MetaFinzTD @FlyFrogsNFT @sandyme0ws @CryptoH76807902 @aavegotchi @0xSteady @trislit @SHAQ @cryptovoxels @ConnieDigital @DLROWiAM @lwsnbaker @FortniteGame @ConsenSys @ScrillaVentura @co1born @bnolan @oncyber @ROBNESSOFFICIAL @OthersideMeta @BoredApeYC @dragonateyt @itsreallysho @monaverse @dankvr @iamckbubbles @justinmmelillo @webaverse

This week Matthew & Rizzle recap NFT.NYC which was overall quite enjoyable. As many others have noted, the vibes were more akin to NFT.NYC circa 2020 than 2021 or 2022 in the sense that events dialed down the glitz and gaudiness (to near zero in many cases) which allowed for the people - artists, creators, builders and collectors - to really be the stars of the show.

The best part of NFT.NYC week was definitely the pilgrimage to the MOCA Church organized by Colborn and the exceptional team he assembled at MOCA along with the Avalanche project. Matthew was lucky enough to be able to attend and shares a little bit of the magic of the weekend event held in Kingston, NY.

Although completely unrelated, the MOCA Church pilgrimage shares a lot of similarities with RIZZLEFEST - Colborn even mentioned that hidden kinship on a recent MOCA Livestream - namely, the intentional gathering of a small group of special souls outside of an urban area deep in nature which rounds out the remainder of the podcast with Rizzle talking about the low-key itinerary he has planned for everyone lucky enough to attend.

Shout-outs & Shots-fired:

@ForcesHidden @metabrook @ezincr @numomoart @polygonalmind @cryptoavatarsio @scuube @NFT_NYC @niftygateway @yugalabs @ScrillaVentura @co1born @museumofcrypto @aaronhuey @NatGeo @ROBNESSOFFICIAL @Avax @GalleryofCrypto @outofjoint_ @mlodotart @toxsam @madebyoona @thr33som3s @trislit @skybravoshow @MemeExplorers @MetaFinzTD @sandyme0ws @Binx3ps @AsyncArt

Since it's the week before NFT NYC Rizzle and I kick off this week's episode talking about the virtues of NOT going to the main conference, but instead hitting up smaller satellite meetups and gathering [side note: while Rizzle won't be in NYC next week I (niftytime) will be, so shoot me a DM on twitter if you'd like to trya and link up].

After that we dive into the latest kerfuffle with artists (and other folks) announcing their departures or breaks from the crypto ecosystem. There is a lot to unpack and a lot of nuance here, but the bottomline is too many folks jump into the space and go from 0-100 mph too quickly instead of finding the cadence of activity that works for them. Crypto is amazing in the sense there are no rules or "correct" ways to do anything - each and everyone of us makes the rules. The quicker folks grasp the power of that openness, the better their experiences will be in this space.

We wrap up talking about the need for more projects and focus on the non-speculative side of crypto (i.e. normal folks). Until we hit critical mass of normal folks jumping into crypto doing things and utilizing crypto in a way that becomes a part of their lives, politicians and anti-crypto haters will continue to lob lazy ad hominem attacks against crypto as a "tech that only scammers and speculators benefit from" at the expense of normal folks.

Shout-outs & Shots-fired:

@ConnieDigital @NFT_NYC @EthereumDenver @niftygateway @osf_rekt @JisuArtist @MuseumofCrypto @twobadour @co1born @dklineii @NonNftSummit @opensea @cent @superrare @dankvr @AndrewSteinwold @josiebellini @marble_cards @_dotpigeon @MetaBrook @elonmusk @Grimezsz @punk6529 @itsreallysho @uber @lyft @FrankyNeedles @Forum3_ @BunchuBets @trystealcam @TikTokSupport @Starbucks

For my latest Spotlight Interview, I had the opportunity to connect with the Portland-based artist WoodenCyclops aka Wesley James.

Early on in life Wooden caught the artistic bug inspired in part by the comic art featured in Mad Magazine, Cracked Magazine, and Garbage Pail Kids, as well as by artists like Ralph Steadman and other low-brow 1970's vintage aesthetic art. He's been creating art professionally for over 20 years and started minting his digital art in 2021.

We talk about the genesis of his "Tank Dog" and "Dobberman Stabbers" series before deep diving into the Stabbers which started out as a repeated meditation on confronting the question of life & death.

The Stabbers themselves represent Wooden's focus on pushing forward on a specific path, testing himself and revealing new layers of himself. Stylistically each Stabber is cut from the same cloth, so to speak: dogs, sometimes Tank Dogs, are portrayed in varying phases of stabbing, that are then combined and molded into various shapes and figures. In his own words, the creation of each new Stabber, representative of Wooden himself, "Is like killing the previous version of myself off to make room for the next."

Over the past five years, Stabbers have evolved into a broader canvas that allowed Wooden to re-interpret popular figures and icons in the crypto space such as pepe and Elon Musk as seen in as seen in "⁠Feels Stabbed Man⁠" and "Chief Dogerman Tweeter" respectively. This evolution helped unlocked the concept behind his upcoming collection "Stabber Legends" featuring re-interpretations of works by Pop Wonder (Shelter), Matt Kane (CRYPTOART MONETIZATION GENERATION), Coldie (Proof of Stake - Genesis), XCOPY (Right-click And Save As guy), and Fewocious (Moment I Fell In Love) set to drop on Nifty Gateway tomorrow April 5th at 6:30 pm ET [Link to collection page].

I hope you enjoy this Spotlight Interview, and if you vibe with Wooden and his art please check out the rest of his body of work.

Links for WoodenCyclops:

The title this week says it all.

Rizzle and I kick off our weekly chat talking about the recent tweet from Cryptovoxels founder Ben Nolan where he announced he will be stepping down from his position as CEO into a "normal" dev role while he opens up the CEO position to be filled by a rotating list of potential CEOs whom, after a period of time, Ben will ultimately pick the next permanent CEO from. Well, we're inserting Rizzle into that rotation, or to be more accurate, Rizzle is tweeting himself into the rotation. Lfg!!

We round out the second half of our conversation talking about the new crypto social project Stealcam and the interest quickly growing around the 2-week old project that allows content creators to obfuscate their content (which is minted as a NFT) with an oddly attractive pixel mosaic until/unless someone "steals" it by paying a fixed price that then depixelates the NFT upon transfer to the stealing party revealing the content. The kicker is that the NFT is then automatically on sale for 10% more than previously paid + 0.001 ETH. Kind of interesting.

Shout-outs & Shots-fired:

@cryptovoxels @LensProtocol @HUDDLN_ @cent @beeple @bnolan @monaverse @farcaster_xyz @trystealcam @aribrtum @AlexMasmej @songadaymann @Clubhouse @fredwilson @SHL0MS @optimismFND @0xPolygonLabs @WalletRainbow @MemeExplorers @maxosiriscrypto @natealexnft@ KaneMayfield @WizardX_0x @fabianospeziari @patriziabarnato @supahmarbler @Showtime_xyz @AsyncArt @aavegotchi