
Hot lava
The Most Serene Republic not only have an awesome name, they really are a red-hot band out of Canada. Yup, another one! There must be something in the water there, or the air, or the drugs … whatever. Anyway, the indie pop collective are releasing their debut album on June 24 and I got a sneak preview of it this week. It is simply one of the must have releases of the year – very diverse and eminently hummable. The band name is based on a term that refers to Venice during the Renaissance, when the city was highly focused on the arts and creativity. And the album is just as adventurous. Thanks to the good folk at Shiny Records, we have five copies of the Most Serene Republic album and five mixed Arts and Crafts titles (which encompasses acts such as Stars, Broken Social Scene, and Apostle of Hustle) to give away to random emailers with their address and a piece of bizarre Canadian trivia in the message. Heck, we’ll even throw an Arts and Crafts sampler in as well. Deal?
Also by ZOLTON

Maths explains the origin of superhero characters
I love the colours and simple reasoning in this clever series by Scottish illustrator Matt Cowen, which uses basic maths equations to explain how certain pop culture icons came to be. Read more
Star Wars Uncut: a fully crowdsourced version of Episode IV
The project of creative technologist, Casey Pugh, this full length version of the George Lucas masterpiece was created from multiple 15 second segments recreated from the original movie and submitted by thousands of Star Wars fans, which were then spliced together by editor Aaron Valdez to form the final product. Genius, as both a commentary on contemporary pop culture trends (there are references to LEGO, stop motion, memes and the like) and on the power of tapping your audience for quality material.
Filmmaker creates LEGO stop motion to propose to girlfriend
Now, this is one for the ages: back in 2010, Atlanta film-maker Walter Thompson created a jaw-dropping LEGO stop motion to propose to Nealey Dozier, his girlfriend of four years. The video took 22 hours of shooting and some 2,600 pictures to splice together, a small sacrifice to pay for years of happiness together. Right? Right! Oh, and she said yes. Bonus.
YOU'RE SAYING (0)
No comments yet.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Thankfully illustrator Jerome Prieur didn’t develop too far beyond his high school obsession with cyborgs and quasi-medieval imagery — his notebooks for biology class must have been works of art unto themselves. Read more
The people on Unhappy Hipsters sure do look lonely in their beautifully designed habitats, but I’m even more confused by what people mean when they use the term ‘hipster’ — do hipsters wear sandals and khaki shorts? I’m not sure hipsters can even afford Dwell-worthy homes, let alone maintain their minimalist decor. Read more
Animator Mathieu Labaye created this short film in tribute to his late father, who had been in a wheelchair for the last 15 years of his life. Read more
Yes it may be cliched to acknowledge it, but having lived for some time now down the barrel of the loaded gun that is New York, it really is difficult to be cynical — as the folk laureate Rufus Wainwright is — about this city. Read more
I stumbled upon this cool street style blog that shows original and edgy people on the streets of Helsinki. Punk, Goth, Harajuku, Pin-up or retro, the people featured here have a unique sense of style. Many of the clothes are modified or created by the owners to fit their personalities and each photo has its own description written by the person in the picture.
They’re touring with Kimya Dawson; have Karen O and Nick Zinner from Yeah Yeah Yeahs playing on their record and have already been remixed by Brazilian powerhouse, CSS. And that’s not all. They are a two piece, and one of them is 11 and the other 13! They’re called Tiny Masters of Today. The Ramones would approve.
Alkemie Jewelry, the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Ashley Lowengrub and Dara Gerson, is a Los-Angeles based company who make socially responsible pieces of jewelry. Their entire collection is made from 100 percent recast metal in the USA. When leather is used, Alkemie obtains the leather from cattle ranches that uses all of the animal, and are dyed with eco-friendly dyes. The current collection for Alkemie is named The Maiden Voyage, inspired by the Art Noveau Movement.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

A little infectious lollipop rock anyone? Feel free to embarrass yourself singing along at the stoplight. If the other drivers give you that look, roll down the windows and spread the love.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Baltimore Mural by Josh Van Horne
My friend Josh Van Horne, a local Baltimore artist, did this amazing mural in our neighborhood that depicts the history of this warehouse-laden area.

How ’bout this Jose Manuel Hortelano-Pi guy, huh? Quite the illustrator, yessiree Bob. From Spain, too. Spain is great! Read more

The return of the Brionvega rr226
Italian brand Brionvega has resurrected the classy Radiofonografio piece first created in 1965. The updated version is just like the original turntable/radio unit, but also has a CD/DVD player.

Christoph Niemann illustrates a nightmare flight
New York Times illustrator Christoph Niemann has created a brilliant visual diary outlining the peril and pitfalls that beset the everyday passenger based on his recent experience flying from New York to his home town of Berlin. Read more
Illustrating the playful side of sexy, Donna Wilson uses burlesque and 60s pop art as inspiration for her original art cards. Read more
If you have a Twitter feed that focuses on cool pop cultural things and you’d like to swap Tweets with Lost At E Minor and other like-minded Twitterers, drop us a note (with Tweet Swap in the title). We have a system in place and we’d like to have you in on it! [illustration by Brad Fitzpatrick]
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it's not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.



