August 20, 2009 | New Eco | by Jessie Cheung |
When we feel bad about buying Made in China, we buy it anyway. When the kids at Peppermint Mag feel the guilt, they buy American Apparel. These cats have shown that it’s easy to be cute and stylish while being environmentally conscious. Enviro-friendly is no longer the domain of long-haired hippies and tie-dyed shirts. Welcome to the era of reuse, recycle and the revision of our tomorrow, one little pom pom hat at a time.
July 22, 2009 | New Products | by Jessie Cheung |
Oscar Diaz’s Ink Calendar has taken the month by storm — one ink blot at a time. After its initial display at the Diseño con alma de agua (Design of Water with a Soul) exhibition at Madrid’s Círculo de Bellas Artes, the Ink Calendar’s unusual technique of using capillary action to ‘stain’ each day of the month has reignited the design world’s senses. That humidity may render the ‘calendar’ inaccurate, but this should be ignored since it’s brilliant and utterly beautiful.
July 7, 2009 | Cool Travel | by Jessie Cheung |
The allusions are endless. Sydney’s Pocket Bar is tiny, bursting at the seams with people wanting to get at the never-ending supply of stuff (namely the tasty nibbles and a raft of fine vino) and we’re pretty sure that they would have an offering of rubber bands and string if you asked politely. While these are indeed defining attributes in any establishment, we feel that what really makes this inner city Sydney café bar more than just another inner city Sydney café bar is the fact that it offers savoury crepes after 6, wine by the half bottle and National Geographic magazines. Now that’s my idea of heaven. [photo via Anik In The Pacific]
June 18, 2009 | New Design | by Jessie Cheung |
Crochet, lamps and crockery. The Finders Keepers Independent Design and Art Markets sounds like a party for the geriatrics, but, in reality, it’s a place where all the cool cats of Sydney (and everywhere else) are this weekend. This little indie mish-mash of fresh young things is one of Sydney’s biggest design markets. Perspex lamps bespoke by lanky geeks sit on one stand, while corrugated cardboard bowls grace the stall of the next. Read more
February 20, 2009 | Cool Travel | by Jessie Cheung 
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As a non-coffee drinker, I’m not going to rant about the coffee. I’ve heard, though, that the coffee is damn good. But I am going to talk about something else: food. Oh. My. God. Sydney’s Single Origin cafe have this awesome meatloaf sandwich and a raft of sourdoughs and prosciutto and roast lamb and chevre and chunky steak pies and yogurt with compote and four-cheese toasties and baked beans and … oh! Don’t forget Karlie’s special homemade lemonade! Karlie is always in the house so you know that it doesn’t come from a can and arrives at your table with that sour tang that reminds you of the annual Royal Easter Show. Everything they serve is created ethically and organically. Add the constant grinding aroma of coffee beans wafting through the air and, well, is there any other place to be? [photo by Daniel Boud]
January 13, 2009 | New & Cool Architecture | by Jessie Cheung |
Schmidt, Hammer and Lassen’s design for the Copenhagen national library is a celebrated structure in the already glittering design portfolio of northern Europe. The marble and glass façade of The Black Diamond (yes, that is what their national library is called) is an example of architectural brilliance, with even the angled walls designed to best mirror the city’s beautiful canals.
January 12, 2009 | Cool Travel | by Jessie Cheung |
A young female once said, ‘if I were into hot bikie guys, I would always hang out at Deus’. Translation: Guys on bikes like to hang out at Deus Ex Machina because they love the quality custom bike and all the quality trimmings. And, seriously, even the most Toyota Corolla driving of women will be entranced by the beauty of the custom work done by this place. Men and women alike fill the humid, tin-roofed showroom, running their fingers from the rough leather seat thing to the glossy front cover thing to the shiny metal handlebar things. Of course, if you really don’t care, or don’t know how to appreciate a thing of beauty, then, surely, you will love the Deus café. Truffle oil drizzled field mushrooms appear on the breakfast menu. If that doesn’t make you bow at the Altar of Deus, then you can go to hell.
November 24, 2008 | New Products | by Jessie Cheung |
You know that man on the stairs of the local town hall? The one bellowing Mr Tambourine Man at the top of his lungs with rag doll in hand and wearing a lilac jumper, pungent with the aroma of week-old sandwich? Most of us would call him a beggar, a tramp, a hobo; Bob Dylan would say that he had just stepped out of a folk ballad. He would tell us that he knew that this man had a story, a history and possessed bravery. And we all know that bravery is what makes a folk hero. In Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan guides us through the rumble tumble world that is his New York. It is a place that is teetering on the brink of reinvention, only to be held back by the dark confusing days of the 1950s. Read more
October 24, 2008 | Cool Travel | by Jessie Cheung |
I almost had a heart attack the first time I entered Published Art. And I’m not even an architecture and design nut. This place is the shiz. As the name of the store suggests, Published Art is art published in book form. Their spectacular array of art, design and architecture books will bring a tear to the eye of any admirer of beauty. For Published Art, less is more. They make sure that they only keep the latest titles in stock so that every single one of their gorgeous hardcover books can be viewed from any part of the store. Read more
September 11, 2008 | New Film | 
by Jessie Cheung |
There are two types of adorable: Pre-Wall-e, and Post-Wall-e. Pre-Wall-e adorable is the type of adorable that Suri Cruise and palm-sized furry creatures inspire. Wall-E takes this definition of adorable to a-whole-nother new level. So sweet is Pixar’s new offering that my eyes started to secrete this saline substance that is commonly referred to as tears. I had to bow my head and start pretending that the child next to me had set off my hayfever. Again. Read more
September 4, 2008 | New Products | by Jessie Cheung |
I first met Postsecret lying in a Mexican hammock hung approximately a hundred metres away from a smelly dank dodgy hallway. ‘I wish I had lung cancer so my mom would quit smoking’, it told me. I was surprised. You don’t ever really expect to hear (or read) such a deep dark and tabooed secret, even from your nearest and dearest. But I guess if your nearest and dearest is the one who is the cause of that pain, you aren’t exactly going to share that with them. Right? Read more
August 21, 2008 | Cool Travel | by Jessie Cheung |
Fresh fruit? Yes please! Never mind that I had just finished a cottage pie as big as my face. I was going to have a punnet of those raspberries. I couldn’t help myself. Really. They were just sitting so pretty alongside the luscious apples and pears lining the rickety stalls of London’s Soho Fruit Markets, I just couldn’t restrain myself. And it seemed that I wasn’t the only one. Read more
July 9, 2008 | Cool Travel | by Jessie Cheung |
Calvi epitomises the reason why the expensive people of France like to escape to Corse for a short break away from the stressful life of long weekends and days spent with a lover in one hand and vanilla-scented cigarette in the other. That being said, I personally vouch for this little port town as the perfect getaway for anyone. And I’m not French. See, never have I had my breath taken away in such a manner as when I was standing on the top of the town’s citadel, looking down onto the sweeping beaches and the crashing waves with the rushing wind from the rugged mountains above billowing around me. Ignoring the poetic waxing of the lyrical: it was just damn spectacular. Read more
July 1, 2008 | Cool Travel | by Jessie Cheung |
A Melbourne native once said to me: to find the good bars, you have to look for the bins in alleyways. Section 8 totally fits that quota. It is a bar that is a. in an alleyway, and b. filled with trash. As enticing as that sounds, I must make it clear that the alleyway is actually an old carpark in Chinatown and the trash is not exactly trash. But don’t let that stop you. Section 8 is pumping. Filled with forklift pallets for your seating pleasure, this little bar-that-could (also known as the Container Bar) makes a refreshing beverage and plays super cool beats all night. Read more
June 19, 2008 | New Products | by Jessie Cheung |
Hot damn. Canvas Magazine makes the Brisbane design community look seriously sexy. Read more
Japanese illustrator Tatsuya Nottsuo has some pretty sweet H.P. Lovecraft fan art, much of it blending the Cthulhu Mythos with Japanese kaiju imagery and anime-ish stylization. Read more
As I sit here trying to figure out what exactly to make of the work from New York City-based artist John Hodany, I come across many elements which I’m sure resonate with the day-to-day life of all us city folk. Sushi, yup, had that for dinner last night. Alarm clock, a few hours ago (hit snooze three times). Locks, always. On everything. Pigeons, oh my. It’s all so familiar but ultimately pieced together in a way as to make it feel rather disorientating. That about sums up a typical day in the city, no?
‘Lost’ is the most recent film production in the urban art series produced by Tokyo-based art crew Rinpa Eshidan. Read more
Disregard the buzz that surrounds those other cupcake shops in New York City. Cheeks Bakery in Williamsburg houses the best cupcakes that I’ve eaten. The clean and understated decor extends to the menu, where being fancy doesn’t rule on the cupcake shelves. Cheeks offers, simply, vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with either vanilla or chocolate cream. But if you do want more, Cheeks has that as well, a limited selection of pies and cakes.
Illustrator and artist John Malloy has been working on a graphic novel called Channel One and, without wanting to sound too much like Paris Hilton, it’s looking pretty damn hot. Update! As of July 2009, John Malloy has aborted the graphic novel Channel One to focus more on other projects, including his autobiographical graphic novel, Queasy. Stay tuned for details. Read more
Milwaukee’s Neon Hunk make spastic, synth-and-drum madness that is likely to trigger seizures in the uninitiated. Their psychotic, candy-colored aesthetic — complete with terrifying masks and stuffed animals — gives no quarter to the faint of heart, but for those whose retinas and ear canals are sufficiently fortified with scar tissue, the duo’s glitched-out dance attack should provide ample cause to bounce around. Read more
There’s a fun range of prints up on the Boo Ware site, a Sydney based t-shirt label that began selling at the legendary Paddington Markets in 2003. You can still find them there every Saturday morning. Their tees are ‘soft and comfortable with original, quirky prints’.
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.
How ’bout this Jose Manuel Hortelano-Pi guy, huh? Quite the illustrator, yessiree Bob. From Spain, too. Spain is great! Read more
Communication prosthesis by Sascha Nordmeyer
This ‘communication prosthesis’ by designer Sascha Nordmeyer is hilarious and awesome. I want to wear one to a job interview.
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
Matthew Dear’s Black City album totem
Our friends at Ghostly International are releasing Matthew Dear’s Black City album as a limited edition ‘totem’. A what? A totem – a limited edition metal bar used to access a private music chamber. Cool! Read more
Illustrator, sculptor, and mixed media artist Joseph Franz creates stunning and unexpected pieces centered on personal nostalgia and animals. His work is ever-changing, but the wildlife and reminiscent narrative seem to be ever-present. Read more
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