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Japanese Train Pushers

A friend went to Japan last year and came back with tales of rough treatment on the public transport. ‘Yeah, well you try the London Underground’, was my reply. And I continued to think I was right, until I saw this video. With 80 per cent of the country uninhabited, its 130 million-odd residents are crammed into a handful of major urban centres, making it one of the most densely populated countries in the world. So the lack of tact when encouraging people to fill all empty spaces is hardly surprising.

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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.
Looking for the perfect gift? Check out the goodies in the Lost At E Minor online store or for a curated range, try this selection of cool presents.

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The baby mop

The first publication of the book 101 Unuseless Japenese Inventions, at the end of the 90s, was centered around Chindogu art. Created by author Kenji Kawakami, this art of unusual and useless inventions, displayed different ways of solving the everyday problems. One of the Chindogus is the Baby Mop, a pair of trousers and a sweatshirt for babies with strips that clean the floor while the baby crawls. Read more

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The back scratching t shirt

From the depths of functional creativity comes this invention out of Japan: the back scratching t shirt, the fastest and most illogical solution to fight an itch.

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80kidz remix of Metric’s Help I’m Alive

Japanese DJs, 80kidz, have added their touch to Metric’s hit Help I’m Alive. Having already created remixes for CSS, Simian Mobile Disco, Phenomenal Handclap Band, and Dan Black, 80kidz have taken Metric’s original recording and added catchy synth loops and bouncy drums. We have it available for free download via our Music Download section [psst, it's in the third column of the site]. Read Metric’s Secret Playlist, where they write about their eight favourite songs right now.

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James Mackay’s Even Though I’m Free I Am Not

Award-winning photojournalist James Mackay’s latest project comes at a time when the world’s eyes are fixed on Burma and the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi. By photographing former political prisoners displaying the names of their colleagues and friends who remain behind bars, Even Though I’m Free I Am Not exposes the enduring pain faced by Burma’s opposition movement. Over 2,100 activists, journalists, lawyers and politicians languish in prisons across the country, and on Friday Aung San Suu Kyi will likely join them. Read more

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Secret Supper Clubs

The blind date of the food world has finally arrived, and it’s proving more palatable than the awkwardness of an evening spent in superficial conversation. Secret Supper clubs are springing up in the backstreets of London: what are attics and living rooms by day get converted into makeshift restaurants catering for an evening of surprise tastes and conversations. Read more

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Adam Farlie

Young British designer Adam Farlie takes a leftfield approach to how people experience interaction with objects, often taking everyday items and toying with their potential to harbour deeper meaning and greater usage than first perceived. He transforms a bed into a ‘vessel that captures and contains the audio-memories of past occupiers through sound’, allowing those who lie on the bed to recall past intimcaties or conversations from years ago, while his take on a chest of drawers’ purpose of holding records of people is similarly intriguing.

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Estelle Hanania’s photographs transpose a shamanistic, pagan sense of horror, mischief, and magic onto the modern world. Read more


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The young architect Junya Ishigami is pushing the boundaries of the weightless aesthetic stream of architecture. Here, for the Kanagawa Institute of Technology, he has designed a glass and steel pavilion with a roof that floats on a sparse forest of thin steel columns or ‘flats’. Read more

What a wonderfully grown up ethos of punk is to be found in the latest effort by New Zealand’s Stolen Girlfriends Club. I saw sequin, lace, leather, denim, tulle, rhinestone and what appeared to be heshen, breaking all the rules of taste but nevertheless making me very, very happy. Read more


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Preferring to focus on the content of her pictures rather than the style is a refreshingly honest approach to design. It’s worked out brilliantly for Swedish illustrator Alexandra Falagaras, whose works are easy to spot with their sharp graphic style. My favourite piece of hers is a contribution to The Book of Dreams, a project where kids’ dreams are collected then illustrated by artists.

George Lois is the god of good ideas, or at least one of them. When I am stuck on ideas, I pray to George the God, or look through his works in hope of doing something one hundredth as good as his work. Read more

Oh man, what I wouldn’t give to be able to sing like Neil Finn. His voice rasps with all the sincerity and integrity of a thousand heartfelt melodies. Heck, I’d probably trade my prized collection of Archie comics for just the chorus on this song. Driving Me Mad? You betcha(dupa). This man is a treasure. Bow low indeed.

The Presets are a Sydney-based electronic duo, consisting of Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes. In September 2005 they released their debut album, Beams, to positive critical response. That same year Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes also toured with The Dissociatives, which is co-fronted by Daniel Johns of Silverchair and Australian dance producer Paul Mac. Johns also played guitar on Presets single Cookie. Hamilton and Moyes are also members of Sydney instrumental group Prop.

Listen to The Presets song, My People.

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WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

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T-post: the world’s first wearable magazine

So here’s the scoop. Every six weeks, T-post subscribers get a new t shirt issue in the mail, with a news story on the inside and an artist interpretation of that story on the front. Yes, we agree. It’s clever, clever. Read more

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Celebrity PunchOut

Our celebrity-saturated culture makes many of us irrationally hateful of the faces we see on our TV screens and magazine pages. Good thing there’s Celebrity PunchOut to let off some of that steam.

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Magic Dots

Wheeeeee! This game is so freaking fun! You move your cursor over each dot to make them split into four smaller dots ad infinitum.

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Creative cupcake design

Yum, yum, cupcakes are fun. These creations are so clever, so arty, so damn bizarre that it would almost be a shame to eat them. Almost! Read more

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The Swimmers

I live the upbeat, feel good tempo of the new single — A Hundred Hearts — from Philly group, The Swimmers. Off their latest album, People Are Soft, this song is a strangely fitting anthem for the blustery day outside.


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Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more

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Created by graphic t shirt label, the-affair, and printed on beautifully soft American Apparel. Limited edition of 200.

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