Michael C. Hsiung

WE'RE SUPPORTING

Abounding with references to the natural world and its corresponding rhythms, Australian artist Eleanor Yap creates the most incredible tapestry-like drawings. Yap’s rorschach-styled images, through their soothing symmetry and allegiances to nature, really seem to put the mind at ease somehow, despite their intense density and lively colors. I must say I was truly disappointed in discovering that her online shop is at this time closed! Sigh.

WE'RE THINKING

Simple, colorful and somewhat esoteric, I really dig the work of New York illustrator, Rich Tu, a new SVA graduate student. It was something else to see his finely textured images blown up to poster size and beautifully displayed at the recent SVA student show. Read more

WE'RE READING

When I did the Master Cleanse diet a few years ago — the one where you consume nothing but lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper for ten days — I sat at work looking at pictures of food as if they were porn. Scanwiches would have gotten me hot and bothered like nothing else.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

No Age are doing something different to the mass of noise-laden, guitar-drum duos canvasing the lo-fi airwaves at the moment. I’m just not sure quite what. Their album, Nouns, is receiving top-rate reviews after sell-out crowds after screaming, obsessive fans. The music is simply massive: a vast landscape of heat haze, somehow both tranquil and manic, punctuated by singer Dean Sprouts backdrop of barely intelligible vocals and Randall’s distorted, archaic sounding drums.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

We asked some of New York’s more creative residents where they like to hang out in the city, and got a mixed bag of responses back. We’ll be running their insider tips over the next few weeks. This is illustrator Marcos Chin on his favorite arcade bar, aptly named … wait for it … Barcade: ‘Barcade is a time-warp into the 1980s when going to the arcade was the major past time for many of my friends and I. Lined throughout the space are a series of classic 25 cent video arcade games, like Q-bert, Donkey Kong, Arkanoid and Tetris. There’s also a pool table near the back of the space, and a terrific selection of beers to choose from. And yes, you can drink-and-play. It’s located near the Lorimer stop on the L train, at 388 Union Avenue, in Williamsburg’. Read more

Australian group Pivot have recently signed with the mighty Warp label and — even better (well, for us anyway) — have written a fun Secret Playlist for us. You can see where the many disparate influences have seeped into their latest recording, the beautiful and colourful, O Soundtrack My Heart.

WE'RE WEARING

New York-based illustrator and sometime Lost At E Minor contributor, Fernanda Cohen, has just finished a line of four tees for The Gap as part of the (RED) campaign. The t shirts will be coming out this fall. Read more