Pet Shop Boys’ video for Love Etc

WE'RE SUPPORTING

We’ve all seen those iconic Jesus Christ, Osama Bin Laden, Queen Elizabeth II and the suicide bomber CUPCO dolls floating around the world. Now Western Australia’s ingenious artist Luke Temby, aka CUPCO, has invited 100 international artists to showcase their own creative interpretation of CUPCO dolls here in Australia. The doll exhibition will open at the Damien Minton Gallery in Redfern, Sydney on December 16 and carry on until December 22. All 100 dolls will be on sale and the proceeds will help out our Congolese sisters and children affected by war. If you can’t hold out until the party launch, check out the dolls on Temby’s FlickR page.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

71 is the kind of place which is small enough to miss, but once you see it, you realize everyone somehow knows about it. It’s set three steps down from the sidewalk level, and it’s always packed, except for week late nights and mid-mornings. Even though their service is not the friendliest — like any other spot in New York that’s too cool for school — 71 has a noticeably loyal clientele. Lots of writers hang out with their computers, while photographers check out the scene, and artists meet up with their reps. Besides hot and cold drinks, including their own coffee, they also offer a great selection of pastries, sandwiches and my friend Nicolas’ favorite chicken soup ever.

WE'RE WEARING

Scott Sternberg created the great Los Angeles label, Band of Outsiders, and it’s one of the few labels that fit a little guy like me perfectly. I live in BOO shirts. They are my second skin.

WE'RE THINKING

Jen Hseih’s illustrations are a wonderfully exciting explosion of colour and subtle innuendo, finely detailed windows into a world that I’ll never know. Read more

WE'RE READING

We invited Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, who aside from being the DJ of the moment is also the remix whiz behind tracks from Beck, Tokyo Police Club, and Grizzly Bear, to give us a rundown on the songs he’s wearing out right now for our sister site, My Secret Playlist. He started off by propping Beyonce’s anthemic single, Single Ladies [listen below]. Go figure! ‘This is one of my favorite Beyonce tracks ever. It has so much energy, and the chorus gets dark in a great way. The clapping never stops. The video is a flawless execution of a performance style clip. It’s perfect’. Read the rest of Girl Talk’s Secret Playlist.

Comedy troupe Summer of Tears edited itself into the classic ’80s movie Teen Wolf, starring Michael J. Fox, providing a new and gut-bustingly hilarious side-plot.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Three piece, cLOUDDEAD, who formed in Cincinnati at the tail-end of the last millenium, fuse traditional hip hop beats with indie, electronica and psy-rock overtones. Doesone and Why?’s layered, poetic vocals cover the personal, political and social elements of their lives; and, above all, their flatout rejection of traditional musical boundaries makes them a quirky and unique act.