Lost AT E Minor

Ben Lee on NYC

Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee recently contributed some posts to Lost At E Minor on some of his favourite cultural things and people. We checked in with him to see what sort of head-space he’s been in the time since the release of his latest album, Ripe. Read more

Long Walk Home

Originally from Australia, Long Walk Home are now residing and making awesome music in Berlin. Their music is modern and alternative with a great guitarist and drummer and a touch of funky electro that makes the melodies soft and catchy.
[audio:http://fakepennycomics.com/blog/LWH_LivingInMySleep.mp3]

Nouvelle Vague go unplugged. Again

We featured Nouvelle Vague frontman, Marc Collin’s Secret Playlist recently, so we thought it would be a good time to check in with him on the eve of the band’s Unplugged Australian tour, which will see them play shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in mid-December. As a child of the 80s, I love your covers from that era. Is there a song that you wouldn’t cover? ‘No, I think that every song can be reinvented. It’s only a matter of having the right idea for arrangements, vocalist, production, and so on’. How did you manage you make the Yazoo song Don’t Go sound so damn sultry? ‘It was fun! I asked Gerald Toto to play the chords and sing the melody,thinking of how Jose Feliciano could have done it in the late 60s, and it happened. It is a magical moment when your ideas suddenly become real’. Do you find audiences singing along loudly to the music you play now wherever you perform? ‘It’s always good when the audience is singing. It brings us energy and shows us that they know the albums. Also, we can see which songs are the favourites’.

Christopher Neal

We asked New York illustrator Christopher Neal about the inspirations behind his work: ‘Each job is different. Sometimes looking through old books and artist monographs will spark something. Other times, its just putting pen to paper until I get an idea. Things like music videos, movies, trips to the museum all seep in and resurface later in my work. For my personal work, a lot of it comes from my sketchbooks’. Read more

Polygamy and Polyandry

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.

The One80Project

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.