Aline Smithson

WE'RE SUPPORTING

New York photographer Sarah Wilmer creates dark, nightmare-inducing photographs that have a strange sense of innocence about them. They’re like movie stills, a cross between Lost Highway and Pan’s Labyrinth. We interviewed her recently to get the inside word on the inspirations behind her work. Read more

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

When I first moved to London and didn’t know a soul, I joined up with the British Film Institute [BFI] and started going to the talks they put on. When I went to see Gene Wilder speak, all the know-alls in the audience kept asking questions, not to find out anything, but just to show off to the room how much they knew about film making. He got annoyed. Genius boy genius.

WE'RE WEARING

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

WE'RE THINKING

Silence. In this world of near constant noise and motion, it really has become a sadly neglected and undervalued commodity. Yet, as I sit, looking down on a bustling metropolis of speeding cars, people, and minds, I can’t help but wonder what impact this sensory overload will have on not just our generation, but on all those to follow. Read more

WE'RE READING

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.

This clip had such an impact on me when it first came out, back in the day. There’s just something so poignant about the idea that some people you pass on the street everyday have a little bit more insight into their world — our world — than we could ever imagine. It’s beautiful and confronting, and it’s all set to the most wonderfully evocative music.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

How can you not love a band called ¡Apeshit!? Their name says it all. I got to catch these guys tour at a warehouse in Bed-Stuy the other night as they were capping off their most recent tour, and even though there were only 20 or so people in the audience by the time they went on, their set was absolutely epic, culminating in frontman Pat Berran being hoisted up and subsequently dropped by the drunken, sweaty, and heavily tattooed crowd. If you love fast, spastic, intensely brutal punk, this band will make you crap your pants.