
Play Me I’m Yours, A Piano Happening In Sydney
As a child, I took piano exams in over-sized white rooms, on baby grand pianos that felt unfamiliar and echoed strangely as someone across the room observed me in silence. It felt clinical, intimidating and completely devoid of warmth. Last week, I started noticing upright pianos, some painted haphazardly, others respectfully untouched plonked in the most unlikely places throughout Sydney. There was one on the edge of the baby pool at the local swimming pool, with a young girl in a rainbow striped dress tapping out a happy but disjointed melody; another shaded under a tree at the park on the way home.
Even though I was too shy to sit down and play something (most had some kind of written invitation on them: Play Me, I’m Yours), I loved them for their idiosyncrasy and their ability to interrupt the defined uses of a space. It turns out they are part of a Sydney Festival initiative, with 30 street pianos scattered all round the city, from bus shelters to tattoo parlours, ferries and pools.
Even sweeter still, encountering a misplaced instrument is not the end point of the project. The website invites finders and onlookers to decorate the piano however they feel and record their decorations or performances digitally, to be published on the site: a documentation of each piano’s experience in the city.

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The renowned brand of pianos, Baldwin, launched a new line of Exoticos Products, inspired by the eccentric artistic viewpoint of pianos that were used by the master Liberace in the 70s and 80s. This collection has customizations for everybody: fluorescent reminiscences, African Savanna inspirations, a little bit of the casinos of Las Vegas, and the spirit of the American Way of Life.

We have a new series of prints in our online store from twelve year-old Australian artist Moofus which are printed on heavyweight archival matt paper with archival inks.

Sydney’s Laneways: By George! project
The Laneways: By George! project runs in Sydney until January and has seen eight laneways along inner-city George Street transformed with ‘creative, innovative and inspiring high quality temporary artworks, encouraging people to explore these forgotten spaces in the heart of the City. Some of the lanes include a canopy of birdcages and forgotten birdsongs, a prosthetic skin with heartbeat, a pop up kitchen and nightclub, a seven metre bar highlighting climate change and a magical infinite’ forest’ [above]. Sounds like a very clever use of an otherwise indistinct strip of Sydney.
Also by SONYA GEE
Last week, a bunch of young Sydney creatives were asked to describe their vision for the city in the time it usually takes to run to the bus stop, boil an egg, or listen to a decent pop song. Three Minute Sydney launched the two week Creative Sydney festival, the city’s first winter festival to celebrate and promote local creative industries. Sydney’s acclaimed but extremely humble comic artist Matt Huynh stole the show with a three minute time lapse video presentation, a speedy sequence of comics created one frantic Sunday afternoon. From the iconic Eternity message chalked on the city sidewalks to scenes from the city’s late night meat-market bars, indie gigs and packed trains, Huynh explored the places and stories of Sydney in black and white. Read more

Bababa International: curries, manicures, pooch shows
Somewhere in a Sydney park, exact location undisclosed, sits a custom built wooden house fit for one. And if you happen to stumble across it, you simply lift it up, climb into the hole dug underneath it and make yourself at home. The makeshift shelter, which loosely resembles a human-sized kennel, is the latest work of Sydney art collective the Bababa International. The trio, consisting of Stephen Russell, Ivan Ruhle and Tom Melick (fourth member Giles Thackway has temporarily absconded to Mexico and is probably wearing a protective swine flu mask at present), say there are plans to install a radio at some point to make the shelter more homely and install similar constructions in parks across Sydney. And they reluctantly offer some hints of this particular houses’ location, saying it’s located in a park in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs, past a hedge and close to a tennis court. Read more

Sarah-Jane Cook is thoroughly stitched up
Some things are better said in thread, which probably doesn’t make sense unless you’ve seen the extensive stitched work of Sarah-Jane Cook, an Australian visual artist who works primarily with needle, thread and lace trimmed hankerchiefs. Sweet from afar, a brief admiration of Cook’s handiwork gives way to an inspection of the messages embroidered. Ranging from a thank you for the easter eggs note from child to parent, to pro and con lists, scribbled shopping lists, recipes and abusive notes left for housemates, the collection is diverse and reveals much about the unknown characters who probably penned them in haste. Read more
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You see a man pondering life, but on closer inspection, realisation sets in, and what you actually notice is a sculpture covered in photography prints, creating a truer than life image of art. Gwon Osang is a Korean contemporary artist who has exhibited at the Manchester Art Gallery, among other places. He creates life-size sculptures of people, spending ample time researching his subjects and creating an inspiration for his works.
Pickle Hut was designed by architect Dan Hoffman and The Cranbrook Architectural Office. It is a place where the children of Brookside School can play, recite stories and dream. Set up for children to enter into this mysterious U-Shape building, the Pickle Hut offers up a little hub of sanctuary in order to let their imaginations fly. If only I had such a magical edifice to call my own and run to when head nun, Sister Mary, was on one of her many Catholic tirades. Eek! [photo by Paul Hitz]
I’m not much of a jewelry guy, but if bling is in order, it’s ordered from my man Osa at Complete Technique. Originally from Japan, Osa is now based in Dumbo, Brooklyn and makes the finest metal jewelry, on par with any of his ancestor’s samurai swords. From speaker rings to turntable pendants, it’s all fresh and mostly music or hip-hop related. He’s been at it for about ten years and works harder than most people I know. If you need some jewelry, show him some love.
Colorful is certainly the word when talking about the work of UK artist Simon Wild. It’s hard to be in anything but an upbeat mood after staring at all the swirling colors and bright shapes for even a minute or so.
Live Smart Daily is an online magazine for ‘people looking for a smart, simple take on daily life’ set up by Lost At E Minor contributor and LintCoat founder, Derrick Stembridge. Read more
This awesome promo video for the Lost At E Minor site was created by our friends over at New York-based design studio, Lifelongfriendshipsociety. It’s all about looking into a black mirror and seeing the creative energy burst back out at you. We think it’s very cool and the first in what we hope will be a series of short videos exploring what it really means to be lost at e minor. Hit us up if you’d like to have a go at creating one.
No wave is alive and well, if Brooklyn duo Talk Normal are any indication. Drummer Andrya Ambro keeps things cohesive with surprisingly precise percussion, occasionally banging on such things as an electric guitar and an old iron pipe rigged with contact mics, while guitarist Sarah Register coaxes some unnerving and discordant noises from her axe and array of pedals. The two take turns shouting abstract and absurdist lyrics with voices like hi-tech valkyries from a futurist nightmare.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

Scanners’ new single Salvation
I love this track by London based rock group, Scanners, which is off their latest album, Submarine. Having toured with acts such as The Horrors, The Wedding Present, The Charlatans, Electric Six, and Juliette & The Licks, Scanners could well blow up in 2010. Figuratively speaking, not literally. No, that wouldn’t be fun.

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.

Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more

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

Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more
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
Australian illustrator Moofus is just 11 years old. As he says, ‘my mum and dad won’t let me leave school to get a proper job, so I draw lots of pictures’. This limited edition print of Sydney’s Coogee Beach is printed on Epson heavyweight matt paper with archival inks and is just US$20 through the Lost At E Minor store. Read more
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