Lost AT E Minor

Anke Weckmann was born in Hannover and moved to London in 2001. Apart from drawing, her favourite things in the world are ‘black ink, Harriet the Spy, small birds, stripey socks, sketchbooks, elderflower cordial, spring and potatoes’.

Dear Miss Helena, one time host of children’s show Romper Room, you have a lot to answer for. Yes, squeaky clean Miss Helena of wholesome blouse and values, I have not forgotten those childhood years spent patiently glued to the television waiting for you to call out my name through the magic ‘looking glass’ — that portal to ‘good’ children everywhere. Read more

I spent the formative first six years of my life in Wellington, New Zealand, a beautiful windswept city framed by a magnificent harbour in one direction and a stunning collection of green, rolling hills in the other. It was here, on a return visit many years later and deep amongst the clipped accents and ruddy faces of the weather-beaten locals, that I stumbled upon the vast catalogue of the then Dunedin based record label Flying Nun. And what a roster of acts they housed — The Chills, The Bats, The Clean, Tall Dwarfs, The Verlaines, and my favourite guitar-pop band, Straitjacket Fits. Read more

I’m not a watch wearer, but if I was, then I’d be rocking the wickedly cool new range of Diesel timepieces. The Basel 2008 collection is a sparkling, futuristic, retrotastic anagram of style, character and precision — of the digital variety. My favorite? The 1980s-themed watch above, with its ’silver metallic leather cuff’ and ‘reflective shine’. Read more

The latest band to make LA proud is tropical-nu wave act Abe Vigoda. These guys are so new and so exciting that even your grandparents don’t know who they are. Yet! They describe themselves as tropical punk, but I like to think of them as nihilistic rockers — no form, no shape, just chaos. If LA’s new breed of punk popstars such as Health, Meiko Meiko and Pocohauntas make you tremble, then this band are sure to get you very worked up.

[audio:http://www.mp3hugger.net/Abe%20Vigoda%20-%20Dead%20City%20Waste%20Wilderness.mp3]

Italian architect Antonio Cardillo is of the opinion that architecture is only still in pictures, as in its real life it is in a state of transition with man and light moving through it. Read more

DJ Spooky — That Subliminal Kid — is just about the deepest crate digger around, trawling the barrels of long-lost record stores for choice vinyl to spin in his wickedly dubby sets. He gave us the inside word last week on his eight favourite songs right now via our sister website, My Secret Playlist. This is what he had to say about Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Panic in Babylon: ‘If there’s anything that the twenty-first century has told us, it’s that dub is the real original hip-hop. Lee Scratch even had to make it clear in 1965 by adding “Scratch” to his middle name. Take that, Grandmaster Flash!’ Read the rest of DJ Spooky’s Secret Playlist.