Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

WE'RE SUPPORTING

Just like myself, Courtney Reagor counts becoming a professional cupcake maker as one of her interests. She had me at ‘cupcake’, but easily held my interest with the predominantly hand-drawn illustrations on her site. She uses pen ink and humour to create illustrations for Time Out Chicago and CMYK, among other publications.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

When you first see The Gershwin Hotel, you might think it’s an art gallery or a public art installation. The white, bird-like shapes sticking out of its red facade is certainly unique, without being too loud. The rooms are rather small but the location and accessible price range makes it all worth it.

WE'RE WEARING

Instead of spending another Saturday afternoon looking though an already plumaged St Vinnies or Beacon’s Closet before buying something you’ll never wear for $5, check out Mooka Kinney. Read more

WE'RE THINKING

I’m so excited to have stumbled across the work of Berkeley, California artist Weston Teruya. On first glance, his work feels purely abstract, like black and white grids with dots of colour here and there, undulating across clean backgrounds. On closer inspection, however, perfectly rendered chairs, life savers, netting, plants and various ephemera come to light. I’m always excited when I come across an artist who can so successfully merge the realistic and abstract, and Teruya does it with aplomb. Read more

WE'RE READING

Our friends over at the street art and design site, Feed Me Cool Shit have a revealing interview up with UK artist Sickboy, who talks about his earliest days on the streets. Read more

Having originally sprung from the Shaky Isles (otherwise known as New Zealand), I can appreciate the humour in the New Zealand cartoon series, Bro Town, the first homegrown animated series to screen during local prime time. It’s simply brilliant, a real play on the ‘thuck’ accent and small town ways of our Kiwi brethren.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Casio Keyboard Brooklyn trio Au Revoir Simone are about to release a collection of remixes and covers their musical friends have recorded of songs found on their second album, The Bird Of Music. Titled Reverse Migration, the record features re-workings by Best Fwends, Teenagers, Darkel, and more. We caught up with them recently. Why and when did you decide to release a remix album? Annie: ‘Our friends were making so many wonderful versions of our songs we wanted to share them with the world’. How did you select the artists? Annie: ‘Mostly they were friends who told us they wanted to do remixes! Very fun and easy’. Reverse Migration is out November 11 through the band’s own label, Our Secret Record Company. Listen to Ruff & Jam by Au Revoir Simone.