WE'RE SUPPORTING

He may have played Kipland Ronald Dynamite (Kip) in Napoleon Dynamite, but Californian photographer Aaron Ruell is much more comfortable behind the camera. We interviewed him recently: You’re an actor, filmmaker, and photographer. Is there a continuous theme or tone in your work across these mediums? ‘I think there is a connection between my photography and what I do in film as a director. I notice a similar tone between the two. I’m not sure that I set out for consistency between the two, it just happens. I still have issues with calling myself an “actor”. I’ve only done two films, and it’s not something that I’m out there actively pursuing. Those projects just happen to find me, so I can’t say that there’s a connection there’.

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WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

With rising fuel prices dominating the news and affecting every level of the global economy, some solutions to fuel-efficient transport aren’t necessarily hi-tech ones. Read more

WE'RE WEARING

Diva Pittala is the designer of edgy and glamorous fashion label, Pleasure Principle. Silk tied in knots on the back of baggy dresses might be their trademark, but this spring’s collection goes much further. Read more

WE'RE THINKING

California-based artist Andrew Brandou draws from the children’s books, as well as the tripped-out, cult obsessed, disillusioned zeitgeist of the 70s when his early consciousness took shape. The storybook-ish quality of his works creates a sort of narrative of the tectonic shifts that have taken place in the psyche of an entire generation — anthropomorphic animals frolic in subtly Japanese-lacquer-inspired landscapes as gas-mask-wearing cops creep, grinning skulls loom, elevated freeways overwhelm the rising sun, and bloody murder scenes remain hidden just beyond the view of the paintings’ innocent subjects. Read more

WE'RE READING

DJ Spooky — That Subliminal Kid — is just about the deepest crate digger around, trawling the barrels of long-lost record stores for choice vinyl to spin in his wickedly dubby sets. He gave us the inside word last week on his eight favourite songs right now via our sister website, My Secret Playlist. This is what he had to say about Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Panic in Babylon: ‘If there’s anything that the twenty-first century has told us, it’s that dub is the real original hip-hop. Lee Scratch even had to make it clear in 1965 by adding “Scratch” to his middle name. Take that, Grandmaster Flash!’ Read the rest of DJ Spooky’s Secret Playlist.

This interview with James Lavelle gives a fascinating window into the making of the latest UNKLE opus, End Titles, Stories for Film.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Athens, Georgia art rockers Circulatory System have delivered an extraordinary 46-minute album sculpted from five years worth of accumulated sonic experimentation. Signal Morning ricochets across every raw nerve from the poppiest of impulses to the edge of ostensible sanity, without revealing a single cut corner or uninspired change.