Chicken Poop Bingo at Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon

The Kimber Modern Hotel, Austin, Texas

Whilst in Austin the other weekend, I spent a couple of nights at a beautifully designed hotel called the Kimber Modern, which is located in the happening SOCO area, just a short hop, skip and sideways roll to the bustling hive of restaurants and cafes along South Congress. The Kimber Modern is a hotel with a twist. First up, the architecture is stunning, this elegant and contemporary building with subtle splashes of color to break up the overall white-walled minimalism. And then there are the clever design touches, such as communal hammocks made from car belts, and a giant tank churning liters of water in a calming, almost Zen-like manner. [photos by Alison Zavos] Read more

Austin Motel’s phallic signange?

I was in Austin last week and spent a night at the Austin Motel, where the rooms are all themed and the signage is a little … err … suggestive. As far as I can tell, it’s either telling me to bugger off or to come prepared. I mentioned it to the receptionist as I was checking out, asking her about the story behind its rather provocative nature, but she clearly didn’t find any humor in it and dryly responded that it was erected in 1938. Erected? Hmmm.

The dust art of Scott Wade

Through watching cowboy movies, among other things, we’ve learned that Texas is full of dust. Fortunately, there are people such as Scott Wade who knows how to embellish something that is disgusting. Wade started to produce simple hearts or phrases such as ‘Wash me, you dirty fellow’ on the windshields and windows of cars. Later on, he improved his skills and now he can make a Mona Lisa or a Rembrandt by using the ‘dust extraction’ technique. He does not own a gallery because it should be really expensive but he has a huge permanent exhibition touring the city. The art of Wade reached the advertising world and brands such as Mitsubishi have used it in their graphic campaigns. Read more

Efterklang’s Secret Playlist

Otherworldly pop songs, both ambitious and engagingly intimate. Breathtaking panoramas of sound with few clear antecedents. Efterklang make music for the inspired. They recently began work on their third full-length album, with a release expected in the spring of 2010. So we checked in with them to get the inside word on the muisc that will be driving their new sound. They started with the Heather Broderick song, Cottonwood Bay [listen below]: ‘Heather is the sister to Peter Broderick, and like Peter did two years ago, Heather will be moving to Europe to join the Efterklang live band starting early next year. We have already played with her several times and we love her and we love her music. This song is from her debut album, From The Ground’.

Storm Thorgerson’s Powderfinger album design

Designer Storm Thorgerson was behind the iconic album artwork for Led Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy, Pink Floyd’s Animals, and Black Sabbath’s Technical Ecstasy, amongst many others. More recently, he designed the artwork for Australian band Powderfinger’s new album, Golden Rule. We checked in with Thorgerson and asked him where the inspiration for the illustration came from: ‘The design for Golden Rule comes not from a single song, not just from the overall mood, but more from the general way in which band works. In effect, how they create songs, how they approach the task of making music. Our design attempts visually to represent how Powderfinger’s creative process works. We call it “controlled random”‘. [Read a Secret Playlist by Powderfinger]

Guest writers on Lost At E Minor

We’ve been featuring some interesting guest contributors on Lost At E Minor over the past year, including Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Tristan Eaton, Ben Lee, Brendan Canning from Broken Social Scene, designer Deanne Cheuk, artist Sam Weber, singer-songwriter Laura Veirs, and Tegan from Tegan and Sara.