Rebecca Solow

WE'RE SUPPORTING

Illustrator Jashar Awan now has a new website devoted solely to his butt kicking superhero comics and moody graphic novels. This is the kind of stuff that will appeal immensely to the childhood superhero fanatic in all of us. Read more

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

A colonial-style fishing village on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, San Juan Del Sur is becoming a popular tourist location but has remained largely unspoiled by the tourist dollar. Read more

WE'RE WEARING

The current economic crisis has got us missing our frivolous spending past. But we need to be strong and resist fashionable purchases, right? Wrong. We’ve just got to get a little more creative with our rationalisation. And that’s why we don’t just want a hand-made one of a kind silk scarf from label Trust Fun. We actually need it. Started by Sydney-based graphic designer, Jonathan Zawada, this label’s signature scarves support our justify-it-to-buy-it philosophy with their multi-purpose versatility. Soft sheer silk in amazing one-off colour combinations just don’t go out of style, and with more uses than we can list, they’re one piece you can validate. It’s the rescue purchase we’ve been waiting for.

WE'RE THINKING

Ah, the joys of spending a seven-hour flight three rows up from a chronic snorer with a bad case of indigestion. It was like an episode of Grange Hill was unfolding before my very ears as the upper tier of a shiny new Qantas 747 was subjected to a series of unfavourably boisterous noises emanating from his general direction. Read more

WE'RE READING

DJ Spooky — That Subliminal Kid — is just about the deepest crate digger around, trawling the barrels of long-lost record stores for choice vinyl to spin in his wickedly dubby sets. He gave us the inside word last week on his eight favourite songs right now via our sister website, My Secret Playlist. This is what he had to say about Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Panic in Babylon: ‘If there’s anything that the twenty-first century has told us, it’s that dub is the real original hip-hop. Lee Scratch even had to make it clear in 1965 by adding “Scratch” to his middle name. Take that, Grandmaster Flash!’ Read the rest of DJ Spooky’s Secret Playlist.

Oh, ok, so now I’ve seen it all. Or perhaps, in this case, I’m not seeing enough. Japanese game shows are so much fun. Seriously.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Fate is the record, Dr. Dog were destined to make a timeless yet contemporary distillation of the band’s open-armed, big-hearted sound. Inventive, magnificently realized, and absolutely irresistible, the Park The Van Records release sees the Philadelphia-based quintet filtering the gamut of American popular music into its own idiosyncratic brand of blue-eyed, dilated-pupil soul. As ever, Dr. Dog makes magic from an enduring pop palette of intricate harmonies, shape-shifting melodies, and ramshackle audio ingenuity all presented through their slightly skewed and utterly individualistic outlook.