February 26, 2009 | New Products | by Ben Lee 
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There’s a fascinating sub-culture springing up all over the world full of earnest psychic adventurers, working with this powerful medicine called Ayahuasca from the Amazon. It’s a plant that’s brewed into a syrupy liquid that takes its users on an eight hour journey into the depths of their insecurities, shadows and secret glory. Read more
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January 20, 2009 | New Music | 
by Ben Lee |
Muscles is doing a remix of my single I Love Pop Music and I’m really excited to hear what he comes up with. He’s a new electronic artist from Australia and he’s full of piss and vinegar. He’s got that youthful Manchester-esque arrogance that makes rock n’ roll sound life-changing, all set to a surprisingly retro style. Check out his album Guns Babes Lemonade. It’s sort of like thug pop techno made for big teddy bears.
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January 16, 2009 | New Music | by Ben Lee |
The Los Angeles musician, Ariana Delawari — aka Lion of Panjshir — is half Afghan and half Sicilian and makes wonderfully enlightened weirdo folk rock. I hope she takes that as a compliment! Her music is delicate and powerful and she is a pure artist. Everything she does has that magic light in it. She made her new album partially in Afghanistan, and many of the lyrics deal with the continued oppression of people’s liberties by the Taliban.
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November 19, 2008 | Video | 
by Ben Lee |
This is Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks backstage in the early 1980s sharing the demo of her new song with her backup singers and make up artist. The final argument for why demos should not be messed with.
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September 14, 2007 | New Products | by Ben Lee |
I recently bought a 1960 Oyster Perpetual Datejust and I love it. Read more
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September 13, 2007 | New Fashion | by Ben Lee |
Scott Sternberg created the great Los Angeles label, Band of Outsiders, and it’s one of the few labels that fit a little guy like me perfectly. I live in BOO shirts. They are my second skin.
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September 12, 2007 | New Trends | by Ben Lee |
I downloaded the second season of Weeds and watched it on a long plane ride recently. The show is very provocative. It pushes a lot of moral boundaries but does so with an absurd sense of humor. They used my song ‘Gamble Everything for Love’ in a scene where a 16-year-old boy is making a pin hole in his condom to try and get his 16-year-old deaf girlfriend pregnant so she won’t go away to college. Funny, that’s the exact scenario I pictured when I wrote it!
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September 11, 2007 | New Music | by Ben Lee |
Rickie Lee Jones put out an album recently called The Sermon on Exposition Blvd. It’s a concept album — the story of Jesus told from his perspective. But it’s not Christian Rock, it’s sleazy, and real, and full of confusion. I hear she improvised a lot of it. It’s really spiritual. And her voice has never sounded better.
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September 10, 2007 | New Music | by Ben Lee |
Against Me! put out an awesome album called New Wave last year. It was produced by Butch Vig, who did Nirvana’s Nevermind, and is just brilliant. I fell in love with it when it came out, and covered the whole album, beginning to end, putting it up for free on my website and Myspace page. It was a tribute. It’s so important for me to stay connected to the part of me that is just a music fan.
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September 10, 2007 | New Art | by Ben Lee |
I got turned on to the artist Elizabeth Peyton last year. She does classic portraiture, but in a very pop way — often painting rock stars and capturing this great mix of the sacred and the profane. We emailed a little bit earlier this year. I was in awe. Every time I saw ‘Elizabeth Peyton’ appear in my inbox I would have a minor panic attack. Read more
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Artist James Benjamin Franklin has been brightening up every Saturday for me over the past month or so, accompanying an ongoing story by Laura Lippman in the New York Times Magazine. I really dig his simple, slightly surreal, minimal style, emphasizing folksy figures with clean spare detail and beautiful Milton Avery-esque palettes. Read more
Haunts is one twisted, skewered, pulsating, gyrating disco tune. Seriously. Jacob Safari, aka Bark, Bark, Bark, sure knows how to take a dirgey chord progression and dress it up in layers of disjointed, unsettling noise.
The work of Estonian artist Liisa Kruusmägi blows my mind. It hits me like the first blast of sunshine after a long and chilly winter. Read more
In the wake of America’s historic presidential election, nearly two years of divisive campaigning, and eight years of a controversial administration, the nation is in desperate need of healing. Beloved Internet personality Ze Frank started From 58 to 42 with Love where contributors use their webcams to post messages reaching out to the side of the country that didn’t vote for their guy. It’s saccharine at times, and there are one or two borderline nasty posts from people that don’t seem completely onboard with the project’s objective. But overall, it’s pretty effective and moving. I’ll admit I needed a couple tissues while reading it.
Films involving characters faced with an impossible choice never make easy viewing, an example being the Nick Cave Australian gem, The Proposition. A nightclub manager, played with understated power by Joaquin Phoenix, is the victim here, and you actually feel truly uncomfortable as his predicament unfolds. Set in the 1980s, We Own The Night shows a real nostalgia for that period — particularly in the costumes. Read more
On my recent visit to Barcelona, my love for Animal Farm led me to the Plaça de Geroge Orwell. There I discovered Oviso. The tiny café features hand painted walls and low wooden benches, where inhabitants enjoy great coffee for €1 and discuss music, beer, photography and the hordes of tourists that bustle just beyond the quiet square.
The new Melbourne-based football themed t-shirt collection — GFUNK&BATZ — is a lot of fun. Driven by the designers’ passion for the game, the shirts will have you leaping around like Kewell or Beckham (if that’s what you want) in no time. Read more
WE'RE RESPECTING
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
When I was living in China, a friend of mine had an idea to publish a guidebook about the country’s bathrooms because many expats spend the first few months living abroad going through unfortunate, awkward, and nightmarish experiences coping with sanitation issues, squat toilets, and curious locals trying to catch a glimpse of Western junk. WorldToilet.info is a hilarious but very useful resource for travelers wondering what to expect and how to behave in various exotic locals when nature calls.
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.
Muraida, Radioactive Green Edition
This wicked new villain, Muraida, from the OSK line is a 10 inch vinyl with six points of articulation. It comes in a combination of solid and clear vinyl, and is packed with more punch than a thousand GI Joe’s.
The work of Chicago artist Nigel Evan Dennis is emphatically modern and sparse, with textures and clean geometric shapes dominating the frame. I get the feeling I could really relax and breathe deeply with one of these beautiful images hanging on the wall. Read more
Legendary pop culture artist and Agit Pop founder Ron English will be a guest compiler of an upcoming issue of our email newsletter, writing about his favorite cultural discoveries. To read Ron’s edition of Lost At E Minor, simply sign up to our weekly newsletter. It’s free, you win!
Perfect for the shed or the good room, this 1970s Australian icon is back! This Aussie Map Wall Clock is a generous slice of Down Under kitsch. Read more
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- Stomp on "Gutter Twins Announce Sideshows"
- JamieD on "Melbourne Bride Wedding Expo"
- shoebuy on "art in shoes"
- lucebaz on "Freelance Graphic Designer in London"
- lucebaz on "Freelance Graphic Designer in London"
- JaneAbma on "The Grafik Museum"
- teacut on "Illustration vs fine art"
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