January 22, 2010 | New Products | by Matthew Specktor |
People contort all kinds of ways to describe a really original writer, but Big Machine is an amazing piece of work. A true American Gothic ‘horror’ in the vein of Poe, or Melville or James — this book is authentically scary, compulsively strange, and hugely exciting on the sentence level. It’s also funny as hell. A riff about the Washerwoman cult, who rewrite the Bible in bizarre contemporary idiom, is worth the price of admission by itself. Read more
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October 23, 2009 | New Trends | by Matthew Specktor |
Sometimes pessimism is more encouraging than optimism, because more is true. I’m a huge fan of Straw Dogs, but the English counter-Humanist philosopher’s Heresies is just as bracing: ‘Belief in progress is the Prozac of the thinking classes’. Living in Los Angeles, where a brittle, self-obsessed ‘hopefulness’ is everywhere, I might need this writer (who certainly shouldn’t be confused with the Men Are From Mars guy) even more than you do. But you do, you do.
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September 30, 2009 | New Film | 
by Matthew Specktor |
More timeless than current’. But I recently finished a long and complicated novel about Hollywood in the 60s, 70s and 80s, and am just now buckling down to write a short nonfiction book about this film, part of a series for Soft Skull Press. A little peremptorily written off as a mere ‘entertainment’, and also overshadowed by the in-fact-not-quite-as-good Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, this is a pretty dazzling effort: a coded Watergate-conspiracy narrative, a comment on the perils and pleasures of being fooled that’s also twice as much fun to watch as you remember. Which was pretty fun to begin with.
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September 30, 2009 | Cool Websites | by Matthew Specktor |
Whether or not you give a damn about baseball cards, you should read Josh Wilker’s captivating blog, Cardboard Gods. Using vintage Topps imagery — the stagey, shaggy and strange captures of forgotten ballplayers in the 70s — as a launching pad, Wilker takes off on flights about everything from memory to athleticism to middle-aged failure. The guy’s such a great writer it hardly matters. Post after post after post is a winner. Read more
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August 24, 2009 | New Photography | by Matthew Specktor |
Lisa Jane Persky takes beautiful, beautiful, photographs. To be fair, she also took my book jacket photo, but that doesn’t make her work less amazing. She covers a ton of ground: visit her site to look at vintage, CBGB’s era Debbie Harry, but stay for everything else.
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August 21, 2009 | New Music | 
by Matthew Specktor |
The Disintegration Loops, a series of melty, mutated tape transfers, are pretty staggering [listen to Dip 1.3 below]. But William Basinski’s recent 92982, which seems to compress the murmur of all of Brooklyn, could even be better. ‘Ambient’ doesn’t nearly cover it: there’s a grandness, but never a grandiosity, of scale. It’s meditative without being lulling, mysterious without being merely vague. Amazing stuff.
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August 18, 2009 | New Products | by Matthew Specktor |
The Thing. Not the John Carpenter movie, of course, but the subscription-only art object, curated by a different person each time. Jonathan Lethem’s Chaldron Optical System is the current one, an item of enigmatic and satisfying beauty. Who knows what will be next? Read more
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Monsters in Real Places is a cute blog where artists superimpose imaginary monsters onto photographs of real scenes. Read more
Australian designer Ruby Smallbone takes us into the chill of Winter with clockwork pieces and sharp cuts. This Sydney-based label is fast becoming an international hit with its distinct mix of European tailoring and street-inspired style. Ruby Smallbone’s Winter 09 collection proves there is a fine line between art and fashion, creating the perfect fusion of luxury fabrics within a creative and unexpected aesthetic.
Photoshop Disasters posts some of the most atrocious acts of Photoshop ever committed. It’s amazing how many horrible shop jobs make it to print. Read more
Remember in fourth grade, how proud you were when you cut a snowflake out of construction paper that actually looked like a snowflake, and all the other kids ooed and aahed over your achievement? Sorry, but Kako Uedo kicks your nine-year-old ass. Read more
Oh, ok, so now I’ve seen it all. Or perhaps, in this case, I’m not seeing enough. Japanese game shows are so much fun. Seriously.
I went to a Isol/Zypce concert in Buenos Aires last week and fell in love with their sound. This experimental singer-songwriter brother and sister duo proves that Argentinean music is not just about Tango. Though, of course, I love Tango, too!
We featured White Williams on Lost At E Minor recently, so we thought it was time to pin him down for a chat. Metaphorically speaking of course. Read more
WE'RE RESPECTING
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Greek/Italian artist Angelo Plassas creates flash- based websites that are each interactive pieces of art unto themselves. Read more
German painter Armin Rohr’s works look like stills from Stan Brakhage films, all acid-washed, scratched out, and ethereal like a sudden flood of memories. Read more
Amazing cake designs by Charm City Cakes
Baltimore company Charm City Cakes produces the most innovative wedding and party cakes on the market. Inspiration for these creative bakers comes from everywhere: art, fabric, furniture, architecture, landscapes, science, and music, and each cake is individually designed to match your personality, and the theme of the occasion you are celebrating. Don’t miss these cakey engineering masterpieces. Read more
Damn hipster dogs coming in here with their parents’ money, acting like they own the place, not respecting us real dogs who know what real culture and art are. We were here first and we knew about all those bands before they did. Read more
Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more
The new Runaways movie looks at the formation of the seminal girls’ group which spawned Joan Jett’s career. We have a Runaways prize pack to give away, including Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway, the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Greatest Hits CD, the film’s soundtrack, and Joan Jett’s photobook with Todd Oldham. To enter, just leave the name of the city you live in! Read more
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As a special offer to our readers, the very cool Illiterate tee — designed by WeMe Creative, a group based in Hong Kong and Sydney — is now available just $30 through the Lost At E Minor online store.
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