Japanese big rig art

80kidz remix of Metric’s Help I’m Alive

Japanese DJs, 80kidz, have added their touch to Metric’s hit Help I’m Alive. Having already created remixes for CSS, Simian Mobile Disco, Phenomenal Handclap Band, and Dan Black, 80kidz have taken Metric’s original recording and added catchy synth loops and bouncy drums. We have it available for free download via our Music Download section [psst, it's in the third column of the site]. Read Metric’s Secret Playlist, where they write about their eight favourite songs right now.

Face Food Bento Boxes

While perusing Kinokuniya Bookstore on my lunch break, I came across the book, Face Food by Christopher D Salyers. Face Food documents very elaborate Bento boxes called Charaben in which food is made to look like anime characters, animals, plants and flowers. Everyone from Piglet to Pikachu is portrayed, with foods such as broccoli, ham, carrot, cheese, egg, imitation crab meat, and more. I’m blown away by the creativity and time (anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours) that mothers — and father, sometimes — dedicate to making these works of art for their children to take to school. Read more

Panic Face King, a tortuous Japanese game show

From the same TV world that brought us Human Tetris comes this terrifying reality prank show where unsuspecting people are filmed while they think a real-life shooting is going on around them. In this particular installment, a man is ‘tricked into thinking that he’s filming a documentary about telephone scammers’, during which a fierce sniper attack is launched on the room. Funny? Kinda. But cruelly so.

The proof that birds compose tunes

Gizmodo ran this story recently that they suggest is proof that birds are secretly composers: ‘A normal person sees these birds perched on electrical wires and worries about getting crapped on. Jarbas Agnelli looks at them and sees musical notes. Maybe he’s smarter than the rest of us because the melody is utterly oh-so-sweet-that-I-could-doze-off-right-now’.

Moustache cufflinks

This November the hottest fashion accessory will be the moustache cufflinks designed by Arbitrage exclusively for Movember. Movember Founder, Adam Garone, worked with Arbitrage designer, Alan Chan, to create the capsule collection of four links, which are rhodium finished. The cufflinks retail for US$65, and for every pair sold, Arbitrage will donate $20 to the Movember charity. We have them for sale in the Lost At E Minor online store.

Hanoch Piven at New York’s Society of Illustrators

Hanoch Piven, multiple award-winning illustrator, will lead a hands-on collage workshop for professional illustrators who want to free their inner child. Piven’s workshop will focus on the idea of playing intuitively with objects, maximizing trial-and-error and taking advantage of serendipity, which are all very useful tools to explore any creative medium. Piven is known for using ordinary objects to create striking celebrity portraits for such clients as Time, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The New York Times and Random House. The workshop takes place on Tuesday, November 10, between 6:30 – 8:30pm, and will be produced by Fernanda Cohen.