Lost AT E Minor

These are the talented peeps who are scouring the interweb, their own backyards, and their iTunes libraries each week to bring you new cultural discoveries to inspire.

Julia Hennock — Art and Design Editor

Julia Hennock is an aspiring geek, who spends long and luscious hours toying with her laptop, Pomme. Web designer by day, web scourer by night, Julia somehow manages to find time to tend to her partnerless lovebird, her partner in love, and her many and varied friends, family members, and plants. Right now she lives in Montreal, where she enjoys more creamy soy milk and indie music than necessary. One day, after boobing around the world, she hopes to create her nest back in Australia. 2 kids, cat, classy cutlery, the whole bundle. The girl’s got vision.

Kate Barnett — Illustration Editor
Kate Barnett studied graphic design but has been working as a freelance textile designer and part time illustrator for five years. She creates artwork for swimwear, apparel and trend forecasting companies, and spends her hours between Hong Kong and Australia, loitering between the racks in clothing stores and bookshops, and searching out the perfect steamed dumplings.

Carolyn Dempsey — Fashion Editor
Residing in Melbourne, on the under side of the earth, Carolyn spends most days waiting for the rest of the world to wake up. A Communications student, marketing assistant and raging dilettante she enjoys writing angry letters to obscure International companies, buying, filling, burying Moleskins and living frugally. A lover of language, winter and layers Carolyn hopes to bridge the gap between art and fashion through rigorous mathematical graphing and stringent data analysis.

Ari Stein — Music Editor
Originally from the shores of Sydney, Ari Stein now resides in Berlin, the European vacuum of culture. Spending his earlier days gazing at the stars and dreaming of playing alongside Michael Jordan, he eventually realized that the NBA were never going to call him, so he turned to music instead and never looked back. Spending the last five years working in record labels, distribution companies, and booking agencies, and also as a freelance music journalist, he currently work as booking agent for Headquarter Entertainment while also writing on the side for Electronic Beats. He’s very proud of his brother and sister who play in the band Howling Bells.

Monique Rothstein

Red stockings wearing, online backgammon addict and Swedish-pop fetishist, Monique is happiest when she is listening to or writing about music. Her passion for waxing lyrical about melodies has resulted in many years filled with music retail, music editorial, freelance music journalism and now, music publicity. Her creative muse came in the form of a one-year stint backpacking the lands of Europe where she spent some time working on an organic farm in Italy with a family of Hare Krishna’s. Enjoying the finer things in life, such as fat pigeons, taking photographs of old people and sinking back copious amounts of pinot, Monique wanted to be a marine biologist until she realised she hated fish.

Xavier Toby — Film Editor

In the above picture Xavier is in Ephesus, Turkey. It was a great trip, however he did meet some really annoying people. The girl pictured to his left was American and not that irksome, but she did have very irritating friends. Along with travelling, Xavier also loves films and believes people be able to list their five favourite films at any given moment. His are: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Dark City, The Departed, The Proposition and In The Bedroom. This list, as with any decent top five list, changes depending on his mood, how much he has drunk and which films he can remember at the time. Sometimes it even includes The Matrix and Transformers, which unfortunately don’t have anywhere near the cultural credibility of the aforementioned films.

Kate Suters — Marketing Assistant
When she’s not traveling to far away places or around her magical homeland of Australia, Kate Suters enjoys spending her time reading, writing and playing chaseys with her three legged dog, Fatjessie. Having spent the last two years writing for Australian magazines Hotpress and Riot, she is now moving into the caffeine driven world of advertising, as a copywriter. To keep her sane she works on her zine The Pursuit of Beauty whilst dreaming of a life where Fatjessie has four legs.

Derrick Stembridge

Derrick is the guiding consciousness behind well-known post-ambient music phenomenon Drifting In Silence. With three releases to its credit, Drifting In Silence continually pushes the boundaries of experiential audio imagery. In spite of his work as multi-instrumentalist and composer, Derrick somehow finds time for other creative outlets, including (but not limited to) photography and illustration. Derrick is the founder of the Labile record label, and co-founder of Catch & Release Media. And if you want a handle on what’s new and exciting, keep a weather eye on Derrick’s highly bookmarkable cultural digest, Lintcoat.com. Derrick keeps his eyes and ears on the world from his current vantage point in Chicago, USA.

David Mikula — Vinyl Toy editor

David Mikula has an obscene nerdy passion for all things Japanese, mopeds, Goonies and the Pacific Northwest. Living in Portland, Oregon he plays pinball, drinks the most delicious coffee, and creates eclectic visual styles and user experiences for brands online. He grows gnarly beards, enjoys talking about the future, and can’t wait for the next level of pop culture to emerge. Oh! And he smiles more than anyone I’ve ever met but it’s probably because his thoughts play out like movies. You should seriously see his notebooks.

Gerry Mak

Gerry Mak tries to floss regularly, but sometimes, when wandering in the deep recesses of the Drúadan Forest, he forgets. He asks that you overlook this flaw. Though he slays shelobs and fell beasts with equal ease, he longs for nothing more than a quiet life raising emus. Oh, what he wouldn’t give for a peaceful evening by the fire, reading from his collection of tales by P.G. Wodehouse as the soft braying of giant, flightless birds lulls him gently to sleep. Alas, this world is too full of evil, and Mr. Mak must continue to battle for justice, even at the cost of his dental hygiene.

Yuko Shimizu
Yuko Shimizu is an illustrator who lives and works in New York City, USA. Her clients include Microsoft, Pepsi, MTV, Nike, Warner Music, Time, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, to name just a few. Yuko is passionate about art, good design and yummy food. Her hobby is to travel to the places she has never been so she gets inspired to create more drawings.

Francis Andrews
Francis Andrews resides in Brixton, south London, and works as a freelance journalist. His contributions are born out of nothing other than a clinical obsession with digging up good, yet often sidelined, music. Outside of this, he writes for a number of other publications which largely focus on international politics with a humanitarian edge. He is involved in human rights campaign work and has spent time in Central and South America doing just that. Unwinding from the seriousness of the world, Francis will take his guitar in one hand, a glass of red in the other, and weigh up which option suits the moment better.

Jenn Porreca

Jenn Porreca is a roamer, dreamer, artist, and scavenger girl. Born in England to a tombstone mason mother, and now based in San Francisco, she spends her time painting, being infinitely curious, and roaming the streets of the Richmond District out to Ocean Beach seeking out new sources of inspiration. She also sites major creative influences in scratch music and turntablism, Pennsylvania-dutch folk art, street art, and all things old and worn. Shiny need not apply. Using myriad sources from which to draw from, she paints the life of those around her, and writes about artists she admires.

Andres Colmenares

Currently working in online marketing and design, Andres Colmenares has been collaborating with several websites around the globe (trendguide.com, senseworldwide.com, theuncoolhunter.com, amongst others) from his hometown of Bogota, Colombia — the so-called South American Athenas’. He enjoys taking photos, travelling and music. In the near future he will launch an idea lab — Proyecto 1982 — which will sponsor projects from young designers, artists and entrepreneurs.

Stuart McPhee

Stuart McPhee’s career was set in stone at the tender age of three when he recognized Elton John’s ‘Crystal’ playing on the radio. Thankfully for all concerned he decided not to pick up an instrument or a microphone. Instead, he takes great delight in discussing music: whether that has been behind the counter of an indie record store; as a contributor for Hotpress Australia; as the Editor for music review site Ear Medicine, or to anyone who will bother to listen. Stuart currently lives in Melbourne and is the proud owner of the ‘Too Low For Zero’ album.

Jessie Cheung

Jessie Cheung loves reading books from behind her pretentiously large sunglasses. In fact, said sunglasses are almost always present as she partakes in all her nerdly pursuits — reading, writing, painting, counting buttons and shiny bits of foil. Many say that the glasses are there to protect her Asian eyes from the ever glowing Australian sun, but it really is just a way to hide the fact that the eyes have turned square from all the time she spends in front of a monitor, tap tap tapping away at reviews on books that she picked up at the second hand book store down the road.

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