Be Amazing!

WE'RE SUPPORTING

Wayne Pate — aka Good Shape Design — is pretty inspirational. He worked his way up from a freelance designer, to having his own label, and starting Good Shape Design, to selling both his own work and the work of others; the most notable being Cody Hudson. He sells prints, homewares and artwork which are beautifully framed and presented.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut is an award-winning designer with varied projects. This one, entitled The Lilypad, is nothing short of amazing. It’s an eco-city, floating on water, with the ability to accommodate upwards of 50,000 people. If built as designed, this structure (which uses most, if not all, available environmental technologies) would sustainably produce more power than it would consume.

WE'RE WEARING

The 2009 Spring Summer collection from Visible Elephant 47 features some pretty nifty looking polo shirts, Leftarm shirts, and V-Neck shirts. Read more

WE'RE THINKING

I always loved the powerful drawings of Benjamin Guedel, but didn’t enjoy browsing his website. Now he has a new easy to navigate site, so I can share his work with those unlucky ones who haven’t seen his drawing skills yet. Read more

WE'RE READING

DM Stith recently signed to Asthmatic Kitty, the same label as Sufjan Stevens, and has a new EP out this week titled Curtain Speech, featuring contributions from Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), Rafter, Sebastian Krueger and the string quartet Osso. Think Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear meets Arthur Russell. We got the rundown from him on his eight favourite songs right now and he kicked off with The Shangri-Las’ Out In The Streets [listen below]: ‘1:22 – 1:43 is a miracle. I’ve never been so obsessed with twenty seconds of high-hat and high school girl shrieks: it’s a raging teenage fantasy that all the composition notebooks in all the lockers of 1965 couldn’t write better. That the singers have managed to preserve their naivety perfectly in this three minute song may be the reason I feel recording pop music is worthwhile’. Read the rest of DM Stith’s Secret Playlist.

Artist David Shrigley’s animated music video for Blur is so simple, so sweet, so perfect. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched it, yet it still makes me cry every time.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

There are two kinds of metalheads: those that are drawn by the hyper masculine, angry, aggressive aspect of metal, and those that are drawn by its Wagnerian drama, themes of pagan nature worship, and disdain towards modern civilization. The line between the latter and hippies is quite thin. I am one of these sorts of metal fans, which is why I also really love bands like The Lickets, an empyrean, luminously beautiful, experimental folk collective. They make music that makes you feel like a tiny speck floating in the vast oceans of existence, perfect for a night of star gazing, just like Burzum’s fourth album, Filosifem.