Alexandra Newmark

Sovereign Beck Speckle Wool Tie

Drawing upon both the traditional and the classically abstract ideals of tie design, the Sovereign Beck line of neckwear was created in limited quantity: bias cut and hand stitched in New York City. There are just 75 pieces per design.

Full On

The best new music I’ve heard recently is coming out of the East Coast. The band Full On is fronted by Shana Falana, who has been part of the music scene for the past decade, with a voice that is both gorgeous and tough. She’ll grab you and pull you in. Rawk on!

Vote for the twelfth best whistler in the world

Many summers past, when my hair was longer and my waistline slimmer, I became the unofficial trainer for an aspiring whistler, who just happened to be one of my housemates in the spacious Williamsburg loft I was living in. He since went on to place twelfth in the annual World Whistling Convention last year, and will heading across to China to compete again this year. In the interim, Tim Eggert is under consideration to whistle the National Anthem before an Orlando Magic home game and also in the running to whistle the anthem for Collective Soul’s upcoming outdoor concert. The fans vote, so we’ve gotta get the word out and get this guy whistling, as John Lennon would say, all the way to the toppermost of the poppermost. Vote for Tim Eggert now!

Hooded Menace

I had to put up with some seriously obnoxious jocks and drunken highschool kids at a recent show featuring flavor-of-the-moment acts that did the whole ecstatic, 80s electro thing that’s so popular these days. Lots of fluorescent colors. I had to blast some death freaking metal when I got home, and Hooded Menace fit the bill perfectly with their doom-leaning, aural assault. Nothing pisses me off more than tepid, uninspired music, and nothing makes me feel more alive than real, gut-wrenching, skull-pounding, giddily sinister heavy metal.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Anthony Lister

The bad boy persona in the art world is still alive and well in Australian-born painter and installation artist Anthony Lister. Posing for most photos slumped below his work, cigarette dangling from his lips, Lister is the latest in a long line of somewhat deviant figures in the art world. His work, which generally features superheroes — ‘misguided role models,’ as Lister puts it — has a jerky geometry to them, yet simultaneously a gestural quality reminiscent of 80s art deco, fitting with Lister’s ‘impulsive genius’ image and suggesting a bit of a nod to the cocaine-dusted, heroin-soaked downtown New York scene of 30 years ago. Read more

Hipsters on Food Stamps

Heeb magazine founder Jennifer Bleyer recently interviewed me for an article about young creative types on food stamps. The editors at Salon.com decided that I am a hipster. I don’t really know what that means. Judging by the comments that the article generated, I’m some sort of lazy bum who can’t give up my artisinal chevre. I don’t need to go into detail defending my food choices, but all I’d like to say is that I try to buy healthy foods at the lowest prices. I never eat out. I love to cook, and I really need to control what goes into my food, so I cook every meal for myself. I often share with friends. I want to be healthy and I want my friends to be healthy because none of us have health care. Read more