Chester French

The Hi-Rise Bread Company

Once the stomping ground of Julia Child, Cambridge, Massachusetts just outside of Boston, is replete with gastronomic delights. Innovative, modern cooking served in bank-vaults-turned-restaurants sit beside down-home cafes serving New England comfort food. Hi-Rise Bread Company in North Cambridge falls nicely into the latter category, dishing out absolutely addictive breads, cakes, sweets, and sandwiches. Here, diners sit at long, wooden communal tables — often elbow to elbow — while bakers scurry around the half open kitchen, pulling steaming breads and muffins out massive steel ovens. Whether you go for the hearty oatmeal with cranberries and walnuts or the infamous egg salad sandwiches or vanilla loaf, you’re these scrumptious New England treats are sure to satisfy. [photo via tinyurbankitchen]

French band, Cocoon

We’re big fans of French duo Cocoon, so we spoke to frontman Marc Daumail to prove it. Ahead of their upcoming tour of Australia in November, we asked him how vibrant the French music scene is right now: ‘It’s such a relief to be considered like a real band singing in English in a country like France, which is very conservative about its music traditions. We know Moriarty and The Do. They are nice. We all worked a lot to make this scene exist’. Which folk acts have most excited you recently? ‘My albums of the year are not very folky: Grizzly Bear, Lee Fields, The XX. But The Tallest Man On Earth just made one of the best folk albums of all time’. Read Cocoon’s Secret Playlist.

Arctic Monkeys Humbug giveaway

We like monkeys. But we like Arctic Monkeys more. To celebrate the release of their new album, Humbug, we have a very cool prize-pack featuring a Humbug LP, poster, badges and a 7″ and 10″ for Crying Lightning. Just leave a message under this post saying why you really, really want one. Read more

Jürgen Teller for Marc Jacobs

Ten years of German photographer Jürgen Teller’s candid, glamorous photo campaigns for Marc Jacobs’ men’s and women’s collections have been collated into one cohesive 576-page fashion bible. This book does an excellent job of detailing just how significant this collaboration has been for fashion, featuring appearances from the likes of Sofia Coppola, Charlotte Rampling, Meg White, Thurston Moore, Rufus Wainwright, William Eggleston, and Winona Ryder. Read more

Yonlu’s hidden recordings

One of the most intriguing stories I’ve come across this year is about a young artist called Yonlu, born Vinicius Gageiro Marques in the town of Porto Alegre, in Brazil. His story is short but fascinating. As it goes, this sixteen year old songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and virtual artist locked himself in his bathroom, signed on to one of the various suicide forums he belonged to on the Internet, and took his own life, remaining online until the very end. After his death, his father went through his computer and found numerous musical creations, including the songs that make up his debut album through Luaka Bop. It’s an amazing listen and very ahead of its time.

Edgar Muller’s three-dimensional street art

Some people are talented, others are just truly remarkable. German artist Edgar Muller makes these three-dimensional apocalyptic fantasy street art in cities across the world. His work is reminiscent of that of English artist, Julian Beever. Read more