Lost AT E Minor

Diana Brennan

This photo from Rhode Island photographer Diana Brennan has made my day. The delicate beauty she captures, which is so tender and still, is a nice thing to pontificate over a rich coffee and a sense of quiet introspection. ‘Brennan shoots mainly with a digital SLR camera, but also enjoys using vintage film cameras and experimenting with different techniques. She believes that the essence of a scene is often captured best by photographing the details. Her work evokes her love of natural New England, her awareness of the environment, and her passion to create’.

Matt Duffin

Matt Duffin’s sparse illustrations of symbolically loaded objects, anthropomorphic donkeys, and children’s toys, are full of dark and blank spaces that make their subjects seem isolated and alone to the point of dread. Extreme sources of light up the drama of Duffin’s images, and despite the storybook-ish quality of his wax drawings, they convey a sense of impending doom. Read more

Planet Earth’s Lyrebird

The BBC’s Planet Earth series kept the mandatory blues that kick in on a Sunday night at bay for a long time. Going into work the next day suddenly didn’t seem so bad when you knew the hot topics of conversation would revolve around last night’s viewing, and not today’s admin prospects. There’s one bit in the series that really stood out; something so exceptional it can be watched over and over again and still draw gasps. There’s a segment at the end of one episode where David Attenborough tiptoes up to a Lyrebird - the greatest mimic of them all - the cameras start rolling, and the result is pretty staggering. That’s all I’ll give away, but note the sheer poignancy of the final few shots.

Urs Fischer’s installations

New York and Zurich-based artist Urs Fischer’s entropic sculptures and installations blows apart people’s expectations of what to expect at a gallery. Last year’s installation, You, at Gavin Brown was a 38-foot-by-30-foot crater dug into the gallery floor. His huge, ambitious works seem frantic and impulsive despite the immense planning and meticulous execution they often require. His mockery of physics, and the enormous scale and shock-and-awe quality of his work suggest the god-like potency of an artist, at least within a gallery space. Read more

Paper Water Bottle

Design company BrandImage has just come out with their line of paper water bottles made out of renewable resources. The bottles themselves are recyclable, and while not as reusable as a plastic bottle, can still be reused a few times. These are cool designs, even if they still pander to our on-the-go, single-serving, throw-away culture. Their environmental friendliness is also dubious, considering most people will still choose to throw these things in the trash rather than taking the time to find a recycling bin.

Faith No More reunion

Very few band reunions get me excited, but I’ve consistently loved Faith No More since I was 13. I loved their pre-Mike Patton era, I loved King for a Day, and I even loved their track with Boo Yah Tribe on the Judgment Night soundtrack. Kerrang recently hinted that a FNM reformation is in the works for ‘09, and though bassist Billy Gould has emphatically denied the rumors, the general consensus is that the reunion is on.