Places / Union Hall, a band room with a bocce twist
One of my favourite venues in New York is Brooklyn’s Union Hall, right around the corner from Tamari, a super sushi joint. Upstairs they have two massive fireplaces burning and a bocce ball court. Yup, bocce. Downstairs you feel like you’ve walked into the museum of natural history where you can see live bands on a stage reminiscent of grandma’s living room.
Tagged: Brooklyn bars, New York, New York band venues
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Full-time writer, part-time maker of dioramas, New Yorker Sloane Crosley has released a collection of her witty essays entitled I Was Told There’d Be Cake. Recounting tales of plastic pony collections, wanting to raise her unborn kids in Belgium, and locking herself out of her apartment twice in one day, Crosley’s stories will make you think of Larry David if he was a cute thirty year-old woman. No wonder HBO snapped up the rights to the book.
Another smokin’ hot New York illustrator
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.
Edina Tokodi is a Hungarian artist strutting her stuff on the streets of Brooklyn, using a few licks of moss to create largely nature-focused imagery. The works adorn both the exterior and interior of buildings – she’s done a number of installations – but it’s her new take on street art that is raising eyebrows. A little quirk: the moss continues to grow after she’s fixed the piece. That’ll bring the streets alive if anything does.
Also by ILANA KOHN
Miss Miza is a fine example of that breed of illustrator who lives as fully immersed in the world of graphic design as she does in illustration proper. It’s nice to see her taking her own approach to this camp, an exceedingly fresh way of utilizing the same familiar digital illustration tricks that, more often than not, leads to a heck of a lot of redundant illustration. Read more
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
As I was admiring the lovely painting of Dutch artist Helen Verhoeven, I began to notice some strange things popping up. As I continued to look, the bizarre overall nature of her work really began to dawn on me. Looking at these early in the morning while waiting for that first pot of coffee to brew, Verhoeven’s paintings leave me wondering if I’ve really woken up from my dreams yet. They are like stepping into some uncanny dream world with all their loose, colorful brushstrokes and vague figures standing about. Read more
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When this scruffy fellow opens his gob, something high and mighty emanates. His music is great for long drives, in cold places and long nights in warm places. We speak of Bon Iver, who we interviewed recently. Read more
We featured red hot Brooklyn band Yeasayer on Lost At E Minor a few months back, so we thought it was time we checked in with keyboardist-sampler, Chris Keating. Read more
Legend has it that Paul McCartney hated the line from Hey Jude - ‘the movement you need is on your shoulder’ - so much that he was going to scrap it until his partner in grime John Lennon told him it was the best part of the song. So it stuck. Read more
Despite years of experience in the creative arts fields, Erica Weiner is a self-taught craftswoman. Read more
This water theatre by the British architect, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw of Grimshaw Architects, takes the form of a vertical seawater greenhouse, with the evaporators and condensers stacked vertically to maximise yield. The structure is not only a visible engine of sustainability but is also a large theatre auditorium. Read more
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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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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.
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National Geographic Best Wild Animal Photos of 2008
National Geographic just announced the Best Wild Animal Photos of 2008. They’re all stunning, but I’m particularly fond of the one of a frog refusing to become lunch for a snake. It looks like they’re eating each other. My number two is the black-crested macaque hanging out on a beach. Read more
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.
Download the new Michna album, Magic Monday
The media world is firmly embedded in the twenty-first century digital revolution, so we thought we better keep up with the times. Read more
We have a stack of CDs and DVDs to give away to a lucky new subscriber who signs up to receive our free weekly email publication between now and New Year’s Day. There’s 50 new CDs in the pile, along with a handful of DVDs. So sign up now and leave a message here telling us what album you hope will be in the pile!
The Pasta and I print belongs to New York illustrator Fernanda Cohen’s personal series, Food Affair, which focuses on her passion for food and love. The archival pigment print is available for $75 through the Lost At E Minor store. Read more
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