Lost AT E Minor

WE'RE SUPPORTING

I nearly interviewed Antony for an Australian magazine. That’s right, nearly. But not quite. His publicist gave me his number and a time to call him at. So I did. Only, every time I tried it, over a period of several days, I kept getting his answering machine. Quite a robust voice he had on there too. Suprisingly gruff given the … ummm … rather demure nature of his vocals.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Driven by a wide spectrum of influences, the music of Brass Bed moves easily through an eclectic mix of genres: from alt-country ballads and progressive rock hooks, to sticky-sweet, heart-felt lyrics, and dissonant experimental freak-outs. As some wise folk have noted, it’s kinda like a cross between The Beach Boys and The Flaming Lips. Now, how could that be a bad thing? We have two of their songs — Olivia [listen below] and Polar Bird — available for free download in the Music Download section in the third column of Lost At E Minor.

WE'RE THINKING

I love the work of Joao Machado. It’s vibrant, distinctive, and compelling — broken bits of storylines immersed in drippings of bold shape and colour. Read more

WE'RE WEARING

Love it or loathe it, you’ve got to admit that the ruffled blouses and strict pencil skirts on television series Gossip Girl give you a guilt-free reason to watch. 25-year-old former model Abigail Lorick was approached to ghost design the Eleanor Waldorf Collection by using her budding real life label Loricklady. The press surrounding the show has boosted her profile and her new collection featuring all the Upper East Side trimmings is greatly anticipated.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Jean-Julien Pous’ Seeking You is an animated love letter to the city of Hong Kong. It presses all the same buttons as Blade Runner and In the Mood for Love, with a touch of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s gothic style, and though it’s really amazing eye candy, it also smacks of creepy, orientalist expat. Here, an entire Asian city is exoticized, fetishized, and finally anthropomorphized in a rather unsubtle way. Why are so many creepy old European dudes so lecherous when it comes to Asia?

In Japan, when one makes squeezing gestures with both hands at chest level, one is gesturing that one wants candy — soft, round, bouncy candy. At least, that’s what this commercial would have us believe.

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.