September 24, 2007 | New Music | by Hi Ho Silver |
I haven’t bought a CD in a while but I was strolling down Wellington’s Cuba Street looking for a bit of inspiration the other day when Liam Finn’s music tapped me politely on the shoulder and dragged me into the music store. Liam is New Zealand music royalty, of Neil Finn descent, although — with his wild hair and beard — he’s looking a bit more like a young Jesus these days. The record is made with the help of an analogue loop machine, and you’ll find the kind of stunning instrumental crescendos that I haven’t heard since The Beatles Hey Jude. He engages emotionally and spontaneously, with both skill and showmanship.
July 12, 2007 | New Fashion | by Hi Ho Silver |
A personal favourite, Stolen Girlfriends Club continues to give a welcome fix of delinquency to the New Zealand fashion scene. Their initial following cherished their oversized t-shirts with cheeky slogans, but while they are in no danger of maturing (thankfully), their range of garments develop each season to cover denims, knits and such covertable items as silver hot pants. Their latest release, unashamedly entitled Elegantly Wasted, will allow you to look completely fabulous while behaving badly. Combining black and white with electric metallics and an alcoholic lime, it’s the kind of clothing you were meant to blow all your cash on before committing to your rent.
April 16, 2007 | New Products | by Hi Ho Silver |
New for the world of Retroism is Hackman, a New Zealand based design collective that brings a hearty serving of vintage simplicity to the cluttered table of the modern world. Operating since 2002, their debut product is the Guinea Pig – a speaker for your iPod or MP3 player, Discman, Walkman, portable record player – any product that you can plug headphones into. The Pig requires no power source of it’s own, aiding you on your journey to ‘carbon neutrality’. It also allows you amplification capabilities without the restrictions of a pesky wall plug or battery. As well as being functional and sustainable, The Guinea Pigs are made from some very handsome hardboard and then laser cut with there own pattern. Hand assembled, individually named and numbered where they will be found the Pig Orphanage section of their website. Among those up for adoption include Brenda, Baby, and Scarface.
March 11, 2007 | New Fashion | by Hi Ho Silver |
Paris House is a leatherwear brand emerging out of Wellington with a range of wallets, bags and temporary tattoos. With Sharon Paris at the helm, her latest collection, Belief creates a Victorian medical visual and is being stocked at World, Hailwood and The Good Room. My problem is the inclusion on the C word. Elevation to the status of ‘conceptual’ seems a bit fair fetched to me, because I could have sworn I was looking at a bunch of wallets. ‘Idiosyncratic’ statements merely hide behind a veil of ambiguity. If anyone can figure out the meaning of ‘It would appear that people believe in medicine, but they don’t believe in art without questioning either’, I will personally offer you a prize for doing so. So buy the pseudo-conceptual wallets if you dig the comments but if you are trying to decipher the higher meaning, I would be tempted to say you are looking into it too much. And admittedly, I have bought much sillier things because I was seduced by a strong aesthetic.
March 7, 2007 | Cool Travel | by Hi Ho Silver |
Stu Barr has created a nest for himself by the name of Butterfly Net, tucked away in Ponsonby, Auckland. A self-confessed patriot of New Zealand design, when he came to finding a studio space, it occurred to him that if he combined it with retail capabilities it would allow him a forum not just for his own projects but for other Kiwi designers who couldn’t commit to the large orders of other stores. And a wide net he casts too, with furniture, fashion, knives, sunglasses, pottery and a different artist featured each month. It is not the first multi-disciplinary design venture for Barr. He is of award winning Tio fame, creating furniture with changeable upholstery in collaboration with New Zealand fashion houses such as World and Zambesi. One gets the distinct impression that half of the prize for Barr is getting to talk to customers about all things design and with all stock being limited and with no more ‘out the back’, heading out with his net to catch up on more beautiful examples of New Zealand art and design.
January 20, 2007 | New Illustration | by Hi Ho Silver |
Sometimes when you look at an image you just want to pick it up and eat it with a spoon. And just sometimes this happens over illustrations depicting a pregnant woman murdering her husband with a leg of ham and then feeding it to the investigating officers. A recent graduate working out of Wellington, New Zealand, Sarah Anderson’s illustrations of Roald Dahl’s Lambs To The Slaughter are a bit too beautiful. She also pays clever attention to all that festers under the surface: ‘while the grotesque humour makes it hard to take the story seriously, further examination reveals it to be an insightful examination of the conflict between the face one presents to society and one’s hidden inner nature’. [see also Peter Ferguson]
German photographer Christian Bothner is one of the reasons why wide-angle 16-35mm lenses were invented. It’s his colour, framing and unique angles, which enable him to capture extraordinary locations around the world. Read more
Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama is one of my favourite artists of all-time. He is an exceptionally amazing talent. I have followed his work for almost two decades. Read more
This entertaining documentary follows a group of seemingly clichéd American teenagers in their last year of high school. Through a comprehensive recording of their lives it reminds us that, when examining anything in detail, there is no such thing as a cliché. The naivety and hope of each student shines through, providing a memorable and accurate portrait of a middle-American high school. Read more
The Dutch, the beautiful Dutch, in terms of architecture anyway. Here they have led the way again with this reuse of an old crane dock. A new glass office building, with a climatic façade of double glazing, motorized louvers on the outside and full length windows on the inside, hovers above the old dock. Read more
When I first heard about The Eight Principles of Fun, I thought it sounded frighteningly close to being a self-help service ad. Read more
Caught The Dust Dive the other night at Glasslands. They’re a bunch of hippies, but even I have to admit, they’re atmospheric live show – consisting of violin, gently strummed guitar, a few piano and sampler twinkles here and there, and sound samples from the found footage projected behind the band – is really powerful, like the warm rush of fond memories that hits you an instant before the mushroom cloud annihilates everything. Frontman Bryan Zimmerman even plays the musical saw, and you really can’t argue with that.
Listen to their track, Claws of Light.
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.
From this artist selection of t-shirts comes this Michael Gillette illustrated t-shirt, limited edition and distributed in a vinyl sleeve, with a biography of the artist on the back of the sleeve. Each tee is numbered and signed by the artist, and comes in organic cotton.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Mathematics? Leave me out. Fashematics? Now you’re talking! This gem of a site is a runway equation that adds up to a whole lot of wonderful.
Nerd-attack! Man, this TARDIS zipper robe is so much cooler than any Star Wars crap people are hawking this days. This is for the true gangsta nerd.
Here are a couple awesome pieces by Matt Leines that were recently on display in the Doubting Thomases exhibit at Nudashank gallery in Baltimore. Gives me ideas for Halloween. Read more
The return of the Brionvega rr226
Italian brand Brionvega has resurrected the classy Radiofonografio piece first created in 1965. The updated version is just like the original turntable/radio unit, but also has a CD/DVD player.
Never ever, ever, ever, ever park here
Some friendly advice for the neighbours, who simply don’t get it, or street art? You decide which one it is.
Too sweet for words, these beautiful hoop earrings by Sydney-based designer Carmel Taylor are a real touch of origami for your ears. Read more
If you have a Twitter feed that focuses on cool pop cultural things and you’d like to swap Tweets with Lost At E Minor and other like-minded Twitterers, drop us a note (with Tweet Swap in the title). We have a system in place and we’d like to have you in on it! [illustration by Brad Fitzpatrick]
FOLLOW US
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it's not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.
