November 22, 2008 | Trends | by Fernanda Cohen |
I met Caroline Thaw at Brooklyn’s Third Ward in one of the courses I taught. The first time I saw samples of her work, I was happily overwhelmed by her diversity of styles, her cute yet twisted characters, the radiant and infinite beauty in every piece she made, her delicate line, and her strong sense of style and scenographic space. Part of her work’s charm comes from her experience in theater design designing sets and custumes for productions that traveled around the world (she is from England, originally), and her tremendous love for kids.
November 22, 2008 | Events | by Xavier Toby |
Now occurring in seventeen venues around the world, the Bicycle Film Festival certainly has its wheels turning and is well placed to ride into the future. Apologies for the terrible cliché. Anyway, the festival runs in Melbourne from Friday, Nov 21 until Sunday, Nov 23. There are seven programs of mixed films from around the world and bicycles are the only common theme. Read more
November 22, 2008 | Fashion | by Carolyn Dempsey 
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For an industry that spends so much time fratenising with musicians, few designers ever admit to being primarily influenced by the music industry itself. Electronic Poet are an exception. Made up of fashion industry extraordinaire Asim Khan (Excuse My French and Kounterfeit) and legendary music promoter Steve Banks (Asylum and Technique). Electronic Poet is a label that rips all the culture out of the gritty Leeds late night, electronic ethic and stitches it into your brand new clothes. Read more
November 22, 2008 | Illustration | by Ilana Kohn |
Wow, here’s some work that just made my Friday all the sweeter. Finnish artist Ville Savimaa creates the most clean, beautiful, and bizarre images, filled with chunky, abstract characters and creatures, as if viewed through an old fashioned grainy, black and white lens. It feels a lot like the trippiest noir film you never saw. Even when colour occasionally comes into the mix, Savimaa manages to gracefully maintain that sculptural sensibility, leaving the viewer feeling as suspended as the characters themselves. Read more
November 22, 2008 | Places | by Kira Heuer |
If words like twentieth century, architecture, salvage, furniture and hodgepodge turn you on, then Retrouvius will enter into The Hall of Fame when it comes to showing off your new digs. I am quite partial to the Central Line Tube Table, being that I take the line everyday. ’Dining on’ instead of ’schlepping in’ could expand relations with the city. You also might enjoy poking through their project page for home inspirations.
November 22, 2008 | Video | 
by Casper Johansson |
Question: What do you get if you combine a drumming gorilla (Cadbury), Sony Bravia spots (balls, rabbits, dominos), some slow mo explosions, lots of dancing, and a little piece of the late, great James Brown? Answer: two minutes and twenty-seven seconds of editing magic. This video from Roni Brunn is what we call FUN.
November 22, 2008 | Design | by Gerry Mak |
Jaime Pitarch’s sculptures and installations made from found objects and discarded junk — furniture, clothes pins, kitchen knives, electric guitars, cocktail umbrellas — as well as video elements, are sort of 21st-century Dada pieces that defy gravity and rattle our conception of the physical universe. Driven by an incessant need to question reality after a traumatic attempt to save a drowning woman in 1996, Pitarch minimalist aesthetic belies the nearly tantric approach he has to his work. Read more
November 21, 2008 | Art | by Francis Andrews |
Legend has it that Tasso’s career started with some scrawlings on his grandmother’s kitchen table. Every year he would sign and date the underside of the table and over the years would watch as the style and flow changed. Growing up in divided Berlin he was forced to compete with the hordes of other artists painting political messages on the Wall, but his photo-realist style led him to become one of the most photographed graffiti artists in the world. Read more
November 21, 2008 | Music | by Ari Stein |
Paul Steel has slipped into my top twenty artists for 2008, right at the bottom of the final innings. I heard one of his songs, In a Coma, via BBC radio, and I am still in paralytic shock. With all the absolute sludge being released over the last twelve months, it’s so refreshing to hear music that is colourful, melodic and challenging to listen to. Forget Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes, this album has come from a 20 year-old Brighton native, who has taken the best elements of Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello and XTC, and transformed his album into a world of delightful tunes and animated wonders. This is what one of Brian Wilson’s band members said when he heard In a coma: ‘It just @$%^&* freaked me out! Holy @$%^&* bananas!’ What’s so upsetting is that Steel was subsequently dropped from his major label after releasing this album, but that’s ok. He’s now a truly independent genius in music.
November 20, 2008 | Products | by Zac |
I’ve always been a fan of functional minimalism, especially with personal items you use every day like wallets. So kudos to the guys at Dosh who’ve created a beautiful, paired back but stylish billfold wallet. It’s perfect for nights out when only a few credit cards, some ID and cash are needed. Read more
November 20, 2008 | Websites | 
by Zolton |
Is it that wrong for a man to have more than one wife? How about a woman with more than one husband then? Enter Francine Fleiss — the woman with five husbands! Sultry Francine has been flitting around the continent over the past decade, and has collected five husbands from five of Europe’s coolest cities! If you’re an aspiring husband collector then you can check out her tips to get your collection going. Cool Capitals is a fresh new alternative to the usual travel agents and sites. It specializes in travel to the less trodden European cities of Vienna, Valencia, Amsterdam, Antwerp and Zurich. They all possess a cool mixture of old and new culture that is a breath of fresh air against the typical touristy European destinations. Check out the site.
November 20, 2008 | Film | by Zolton |
The idea is simple: ‘The One80Project is a national competition inviting anyone with a good idea for an hour long drama to submit a 180 second pilot and an accompanying treatment. This is then judged by an expert panel of industry specialists to ultimately be produced and aired on MTV in Australia, online and on mobile’. Entries are now closed and they’ve narrowed the field to ten finalists. Our choice is Staying, a funny drama about people dealing with life after the death of a loved one, in which an unusual support group is formed by an odd assortment of people. A Breakfast Club for our time? Voting closes in 71 days and fifteen hours, though who’s counting. So show your support for these young aspiring Australian filmmakers.
November 20, 2008 | Architecture | by Snell |
Dutch uber-firm OMA, headed by Rem Koolhaas, has created this concept in Mexico City to symbolize the coming two hundred years of Mexico’s independence. There are many layers of symbolism in this building, from Mayan pyramids to which part of the building controls the park and which part controls the city, to the fact that the bulge of the building is below the centre height, and that it all happens on a relatively small footprint. Most of all, in this building there is a barely contained energy that seems near to release and it may be that this is what Torre Bicentenario represents.
November 20, 2008 | Eco | by Julia Hennock |
Fancy a fern in the face? The Sky Planter will fulfill your greenest fantasies. It is designed to conserve water, save floor space and puzzle visitors. An internal reservoir system to feeds water directly to the roots, so no water evaporates or drips. And somehow the soil is ‘locked in’. Woo!
November 19, 2008 | Photography | by Gerry Mak |
Marton Schoeller’s new book of portraits aims to highlight the contrast between the extreme physiques of female bodybuilders and the vulnerability expressed through their eyes and nuanced facial expressions. Read more
Laura Veirs is one of my favorite songwriters. I can’t think of a single song of her’s that I haven’t loved instantly, and continue to wear out on my inner-ear iPod. I interviewed her recently, a few nights after I saw her awesome set at New York’s Gramercy Theatre. Read more
Firekites, from small town Australia (Newcastle to be exact), are my new musical obsession, and have been since early yesterday when their song Autumn Story randomly burst into my headphones and latched itself deep into my inner ear iPod. I wish they’d been around when I last lived in Sydney; it would have been well worth the two hour drive north to see them play. The whole album (The Bowery) is beautiful, but this song especially rings out with poignancy. I love the subtle sound of the fingers sliding across the guitar frets, the gently whispered vocals, which hint at secrets and cheeky serenades, and the sense of soulful introspection that tangles itself elegantly amongst its minor chord tapestry.
[audio:AutumnStory.mp3]
This interview with James Lavelle gives a fascinating window into the making of the latest UNKLE opus, End Titles, Stories for Film.
No, Dorothy would have never come across these shoes in Oz, but she would have at Odin, a smallish men’s store in New York’s East Village. Read more
We love the incessant rumble and roll of London’s The Duke Spirit. So we caught up with the group for a chat. Read more
Monet and The Impressionists is on display at Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales until January 26, 2009. Alive with bold brushstrokes and dappled colours, the exhibit features 58 masterpieces by Cezanne, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Pissarro and Monet himself, among many others that have never been shown in Australia. It was amazing to view some of the finest quality works that revolutionised modern painting and the way natural light is portrayed on canvas. Go Monetise yourself and see Rough Weather, and all those serial haystack paintings.
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.
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Freelance designer Alex Trochut uses typography, illustration and a solid idea to create works that communicate to each brief. He states that he doesn’t want to choose a particular style but instead enjoys ‘expressing himself and communicating though the needs of every project’. And his formula has worked: his clients include The Guardian G2, Nike Football, and my pencil-case favourite, Faber and Faber.
Florida-based artist, Andy Espinoza, studies at the Ringling College of Art and Design, majoring in Illustration. His paintings are beautifully conceptualised, rich in narrative and technically impressive. Of his work, he says: ‘I see each human figure as a unique challenge. I am coaxed to find the unique relationship between the shapes and tones that give the particular subject its subtle appeal and unrepeatable vitality. My paintings are not photographic representations of my subjects, but rather are my elaboration of what I find to be of value in them’. Read more
The Japanese sure know how to think outside the box. The country that brought us Takeshi’s Castle has come with this equally genius take on modern sport, and it’s absolutely hilarious.
Christine Callahan’s colourful photography
There is magic in these photographs by New York photographer, Christine Callahan. The vibrant colors and the beauty in the everyday give me the feeling that everything is going to be just fine. Read more
There are two Americas: one which strives to create its own culture, music, and art with a strong sense of ethics in mind, and another that drinks 32-ounce energy drinks before waiting on line to get into a club packed with women trying to get back at their overbearing fathers, and homophobic men with a fondness for Axe body spray. How do we bridge the divide?
Golden Half is one of the world’s most popular toy cameras. It’s compact in size and each click of the shutter uses half of the standard 135mm frame. This means a 36-exposure roll of film will return around 72 images. It’s available for US$100. Read more
Woohoo! We have five copies of the new Faint album, Fascination [Inertia], to give away to randomly selected Australian-based Lost At E Minor subscribers who leave a message under this post telling us about the last time they, ummm, Fainted.
Recently
- Bicycle Film Festival Xavier Toby
- Another smokin’ hot New York illustrator Fernanda Cohen
- Electronic Poet Carolyn Dempsey
- Ville Savimaa Ilana Kohn
- Retrouvius Kira Heuer
- 41 commercials mashed up into a music video Casper Johansson
- Jaime Pitarch Gerry Mak
- Ta55o Francis Andrews
- Paul Steel makes our top twenty musicians of 2008 Ari Stein
- Extras Francis Andrews
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