We Feel Fine

WE'RE SUPPORTING

Stephen Doitschinoff, aka Calma (a Lost At E Minor banner artist), recently opened a solo exhibit entitled Novo Mundo at New York’s Jonathan Levine Gallery. The Brazilian street artist’s work is somewhat unusual and exudes an appealing spiritual vibe as he embraces the fantastical and dark imagery of churches painted in female wombs. Calma has developed his own unique language and style through imagery that creatively blends Afro-Brazilian folklore with Baroque religious iconography. ‘I personally see the church as an archaic institution that always aimed to control the masses. I think it is an appropriate symbol for corrupt modern institutions like big corporations, media channels and governments,’ he Calma. Novo Mundo is on show through until December 22.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

After getting lost in the quagmire that is the internet, M83’s Digital Shades, first released digitally in 2007, has just been given a space on the shelf in your nearest music shop. Before shooting to acclaim with Saturday=Youth, Anthony Gonzalez looked closer to Krautrock and Eno and produced this ambient sometimes beautiful record. There’s much less of a disco feel than both Saturdays and his first album, Before the Dawn Heals Us. Some might say it’s a bit self-indulgent, not easily accessible, and more of a soundscape than a pop attempt. Yet, like Eno, Gonzalez is slowly becoming a master of the perfect chord sequence, and the result is an interesting, often heart-wrenching, set of compositions. Read about M83’s favourite songs right now.

WE'RE THINKING

I checked out the Armory Show in Manhattan a couple of weeks back and amongst the aisles of impressive contemporary art I was particularly taken by the work of Japanese artist, Mahomi Kunikata, whose vibrant and colorful paintings are full of mischievous characters and ‘joy joy’ sentimentality.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

This café, cookie shop, ice cream place in Cobble Hill Brooklyn is all about flavor, aroma and family. Their cookies and ice cream are absolutely to-die-for, and the place is so well-designed, painted in vintage colors with old family pictures printed on the walls, that you’ll want to indulge yourself for more than just a few minutes. Try their Whoopies and Lucia cookies. They’re my favourite.

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

WE'RE WEARING

The 2009 Spring Summer collection from Visible Elephant 47 features some pretty nifty looking polo shirts, Leftarm shirts, and V-Neck shirts. Read more

WE'RE READING

FFFFOUND! is a fun website that allows you to bookmark your favorite images from the Internet and share them with fellow users, sort of like a del.icio.us specifically for pictures. The site is still in private beta and not currently supported on Mac, but as its collection of images expands, it’s likely to become much more widely available.