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Two Americas

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?

From the decaying European streets of Buenos Aires to the smoky punk clubs of Beijing, rad stuff is happening everywhere. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to keep up.
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Also by GERRY MAK

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Shannon Freshwater

Shannon Freshwater makes a lot of design-y, abstract images and illustrations, but her more involved figure drawings and portraits, as well as her sculptures and photography, reveal a bit of a darker, gothic side. Read more

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Daniel Higgs

Daniel Higgs came to prominence as frontman for Baltimore hardcore band Reptile House and later Lungfish, the first non-DC band to sign to Dischord. Now primarily playing solo, improvised, experimental sets with a banjo and a jaw harp, Higgs has become a bit of a Baltimore icon and counterculture prophet, spouting mystical, Eastern-influenced philosophy and spirituality through his lyrics, spoken word, and amazing art work. He is also a renowned tattoo artist, as evidenced by his own extensive ink.

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Rye Rye featuring MIA off the NEET label

M.I.A., quick to recognize talent in her own ranks, signed the first act to her N.E.E.T. label — backup dancer and rapper Rye Rye. Ryeisha Berrain made a name for herself in her hometown of Baltimore working with DJ-producer Blaqstarr. Now, with the video for the single Bang, featuring M.I.A., making the Internet rounds, Berrain is set to release an already overdue debut album.

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I’ve long been a fan of Brooklyn artist Katy Horan. With a folksy old west, native american aesthetic, Horan creates paintings rich with narrative, like old campfire stories, come to life. Having recently opened her first solo show at the Anno Domini Gallery in San Jose, Horan has created a haunting new body of work filled with abstract lacy patterns and narratives that will most definitely hit your storytime sweet spot.


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There’s no shortage of bands channeling the surf rock and psych of the 1960s, but the Super Vacations’ sloppy vocals, drunken guitar riffs, and blown out production give them a knowing swagger that has as much in common with Beat Happening and Thee Headcoats as with the Pyramids. They seem to take pride in how bad they are live, but their debut record shows a lot of potential.

This is at last the artist the 1960s was desperately trying to produce. Mark Dean Veca’s installations electrify galleries and museums with an ethereal pop ecstasy the previous generation only dreamed of. This is the drug we have all been waiting for. Read more


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Breathing Earth is a morbid reference website that’s simply a flash map that tells you a country’s population, birth and death rates, and how much CO2 it emits. Read more

This entertaining documentary follows a group of seemingly clichéd American teenagers in their last year of high school. Through a comprehensive recording of their lives it reminds us that, when examining anything in detail, there is no such thing as a cliché. The naivety and hope of each student shines through, providing a memorable and accurate portrait of a middle-American high school. Read more

Jean-Julien Pous’ Seeking You is an animated love letter to the city of Hong Kong. It presses all the same buttons as Blade Runner and In the Mood for Love, with a touch of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s gothic style, and though it’s really amazing eye candy, it also smacks of creepy, orientalist expat. Here, an entire Asian city is exoticized, fetishized, and finally anthropomorphized in a rather unsubtle way. Why are so many creepy old European dudes so lecherous when it comes to Asia?

Heavily influenced by music and film, the design team at Conquer Gear showcases their tees not as clothes, but indubitably as limited edition art pieces. That said, I wonder what film or music piece inspired Mr. Owl picture t shirt [below]? Led Zeppelin came to mind, but then so did Joni Mitchell!. As for film inspirations, Clockwork Orange, Lord of the Rings and Out of Africa. Hmmm, maybe I’m not so good at this afterall. Read more

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Nigel Evan Dennis

The work of Chicago artist Nigel Evan Dennis is emphatically modern and sparse, with textures and clean geometric shapes dominating the frame. I get the feeling I could really relax and breathe deeply with one of these beautiful images hanging on the wall. Read more

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Camilla Engman

While I am as impressed as anyone with an artist’s ability to render accurate and lifelike human figures, I’m more often compelled aesthetically by looser and more stylized images such as Camilla Engman’s. The wide-set eyes, bulbous bodies, and skewed proportions of the people and animals in Engman’s paintings lend them a certain expressiveness and melancholy. Read more

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Japan’s Everlasting Sprout

Japanese designers Keiichi Muramatsu and Noriko Seki founded the Tokyo-based fashion label, Everlasting Sprout, in 2005, based on their mutual interest in knit design. Each intricate creation in their Spring/Summer 2009 range took up to a week for them to construct. Read more

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Sweden’s Ice Hotel

This remarkable construction is located in the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi and is built entirely from scratch every year. It features 10,000 tonnes of ice from the nearby Torne River, and 30,000 tonnes of snow, covering more than 30,000 square feet in total. Oh, it even has its own ice chapel. But be sure to bring your winter woollens. It could get a little, errr, chilly at night. Read more

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Muraida, Radioactive Green Edition

This wicked new villain, Muraida, from the OSK line is a 10 inch vinyl with six points of articulation. It comes in a combination of solid and clear vinyl, and is packed with more punch than a thousand GI Joe’s.

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Legendary pop culture artist and Agit Pop founder Ron English will be a guest compiler of an upcoming issue of our email newsletter, writing about his favorite cultural discoveries. To read Ron’s edition of Lost At E Minor, simply sign up to our weekly newsletter. It’s free, you win!

nate frizzell nest

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Using both highly rendered images and softer graphic design elements, Nate Frizzell weaves stories into his paintings that we all can see ourselves being a part of. Giclee print on Sommerset velvet archival paper 12”x20” in a limited edition of 25.


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