The Brokers with Hands on Their Faces Blog

WE'RE SUPPORTING

We featured Bruce Osborn’s fascinating photo series, Oyako, a little while back on Lost At E Minor. Osborn lives in both Los Angeles and Tokyo, where he works as a commercial photographer and directs TV commercials and music videos. This shot is one of my favourites from this series that looks at the relationships between Japanese parents and their children, running the gamete of society ‘including Kabuki actors, punk musicians, policemen, Buddhist monks, and porno actresses’.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Monarch are an incredibly grim, lumbering doom metal band from Basque country in France. Frontwoman Emilie Bresson is one of those rare female singers in metal that’s at once fierce and raspy, yet identifiably female, creating a haunting, menacing sound that can stand up against the most ragingly macho bands out there.

WE'RE THINKING

Hello, my name is Zolton and I’m a text addict. That’s right, an instinctive, compulsive plier of the trade, straight from the Michael Douglas school of confessional proclamation. Yup, I don’t care if it’s quick or protracted; if it’s a group message or one just for me. I’ll take that text any damn way you can give it. And if that’s a crime in these repressed, conservative times, then so be it. Just don’t strip me of my pride. Or my mobile phone. [illustration by Nathan Jurevicius]

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

There’s no place in the world like Cuba’s colourful and crumbling capital. Riddled with contradictions, it’s a foodie’s worst nightmare and a photographer’s paradise. People really do dance in the streets, drive 1950s Chevvies, and smoke big, fat cigars. However, it’s all set to change. In December last year, while Cuba celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its revolution, President Obama said he’d soften America’s trade embargo, and Raul Castro said that he’s ‘ready for talks’ with the new American government. While this could mean long-overdue relief for Cubans, it could also leave one less truly fascinating place on the globe to visit. So go. Now.

If animated wall drawings of severed heads and insect men ejecting their brains from their craniums is what people produce when they have too much time on their hands, then we should do their laundry for them and cook them dinner so they’ll have even more time on their hands.

WE'RE WEARING

When my uber-creative and slightly eccentric twin brother announced one day that chainmail would be making a return, it only confirmed that he’d missed out on the fashion genes. But after checking out the fingerless chainmail glove in Toby Jones’ new collection — My hands are tied — it now appears he had a legitimate vision. Working a look straight out of a Mad Max scene, Jones’ designs will have us accessorizing in true post-apocalyptic style, using everyday objects as adornment. But you don’t need to be cruising around town in a black Interceptor to appreciate them. Be your own character with chain swinging padlocks and multi-purpose shoelaces. It’s about time you got your hands into something different.

WE'RE READING

The Occasional Diaries Of Werner Herzog is a spoof online diary for German film director, Werner Herzog. Although they’re all fiction, I enjoy reading them as much as if they were genuine. Read more