Lin Tianmiao

WE'RE SUPPORTING

Just in case you’re planning a camping trip, here’s a website that has a list of things that bears love, so you can avoid them or attract them, depending on your mood. Read more

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

With the streets of New York already covered in a thin layer of ice after a heavy snowstorm yesterday, it’s interesting to see how other cold winter cities deal with this ubiquitous companion. At the annual Ice and Snow Festival, in Haban, China, they get kinda creative with it: building an entire city out of ice and then lighting it up like an extra frosty, colourful Christmas tree. Read more

WE'RE WEARING

Japanese designers Keiichi Muramatsu and Noriko Seki founded the Tokyo-based fashion label, Everlasting Sprout, in 2005, based on their mutual interest in knit design. Each intricate creation in their Spring/Summer 2009 range took up to a week for them to construct. Read more

WE'RE THINKING

Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more

WE'RE READING

We asked Ham and Pete, from New York band The Walkmen, to give us the rundown on the music that is inspiring them right now and they started off with a track from that elder statesmen of indie folk, Bonnie Prince Billy, Goin’ to Acapulco: ‘He did a remarkable job of putting a unique spin on a classic. It’s no small feat, and it’s a really impressive version’. Read more of The Walkmen’s Secret Playlist.

History is the story of the winners, and western dominated culture recounts few triumphs from the east. Mongol is an effort to correct this balance, and the eastern influence is evident in much more than just the storyline. It is more like a fairy tale or legend handed down through generations, than based on fact, with mythical elements playing a major part, and the character’s motivations remaining simple. Read more

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Silver Summit make the sort of hazy psych-folk that would suit a long, night-time drive through the badlands. Incorporating an array of acoustic instruments, strings, slide guitar, and haunting female vocals into gossamer melodies, the collective sound like they hail from a dusty town on the Great Plains rather than their native Brooklyn.