Hiro Kurata

WE'RE SUPPORTING

Redwood artist Ken Keirns has a thing for monkeys. That much is obvious enough. His site is crawling with them, in his toys, illustrations, and paintings. By his own admission, he ‘likes painting women and monkeys, with a sense of humor’. And so he does. Very, very well.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Originally hailing from Kendal, Cumbria and now based in Leeds, the Wild Beasts foursome are the next hopefuls for Domino Records, who sent the group out to Sweden to record their first album, Limbo, Panto, released on June the 16th. The new single — The Devil’s Crayon — shimmers in wide-screen around a sense of location, melody and wonder at the scale of things. Indeed, it sounds like the theme song to a new kind of very English road movie.

WE'RE THINKING

Ok, so this is actually an artwork by Will Cotton, but it fits every criteria for my dream house, aged 6. Smartie wall coatings? Check. Biscuit entryway? Check. A smiling lollipop garden, sitting over luscious dollops of magnificent cream? You betcha. Ah, please, take me there. Now. And give me a decent sized spoon for my troubles.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

While I’m definitely not into the whole Lord of the Rings thing, I’m convinced Tolkien stole his inspiration from Göreme, in Turkey’s central Cappadocia region. After a mammoth volcanic eruption around 2,000 years ago, the landscape eroded to form a series of valleys, filled with peculiar, phallic-shaped tufts that the locals call ‘fairy chimneys’. Early Christians hollowed out the tufts and turned them into houses, churches and monasteries. These days, most of them are still in use and a few have been converted into cute hotels and hostels. If you’re not too claustrophobic, I’d highly recommend doing the hobbit thing and spending a night in one.

Ten Masked Men are a British parody band that does death metal covers of famous pop songs by Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, and many others. One of my favorites is their cover of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Cry Me a River’. It’s epic.

WE'RE WEARING

These Stephanie Simek designed rabbit’s foot-like charms made from pussy willow buds dangle from the ears by strands of thin chains like silent wind chimes. The earrings are approximately 3 inches long plus ear wire and available for US$125.

WE'RE READING

In the wake of America’s historic presidential election, nearly two years of divisive campaigning, and eight years of a controversial administration, the nation is in desperate need of healing. Beloved Internet personality Ze Frank started From 58 to 42 with Love where contributors use their webcams to post messages reaching out to the side of the country that didn’t vote for their guy. It’s saccharine at times, and there are one or two borderline nasty posts from people that don’t seem completely onboard with the project’s objective. But overall, it’s pretty effective and moving. I’ll admit I needed a couple tissues while reading it.