Lost AT E Minor

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 LISTENING TO

A culmination of nearly four years of writing and recording, Omaha quintet, The Faint are preparing to release their fifth album, Fasciinatiion, on August 5 on the band’s own newly-formed label, blank.wav. Working without any time constraints, the songs went through many recorded incarnations before finding their final forms. The result is the best album in the band’s career, a record that is the purest culmination of The Faint’s brilliant musical instincts, ideas and aesthetic, with each member contributing equally to its creation.

WE'RE THINKING

Jen Hseih’s illustrations are a wonderfully exciting explosion of colour and subtle innuendo, finely detailed windows into a world that I’ll never know. Read more

WE'RE WEARING

Seriously, all jokes aside, we really need to tear ourselves away from our computers every once in a while. These shirts, on sale at Threadless, may be intended as a light-hearted jab at modern culture, but who will be laughing when our hands become gnarled claws from decades of ceaseless typing and our spinal columns have fused solid from lack of movement? Evil monkeys, that’s who.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Summertime at McCarren Park in Williamsburg is picturesque. It’s often filled with a mix of people, old and young, picnicking or sitting in the shade, running along the track or playing soccer (or football, depending on where you’re from). It’s also connected to a now defunct McCarren (swimming) pool which transforms into an outdoor concert space on Sundays during the summer. In the past, performers such as Leslie Feist, M.I.A., The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Broken Social Scene have performed. Read more

The latest addition to the Zune Arts podcast is Behind the Scenes: Piece of Me, Piece of You, which features the production madness and creative legwork that goes into the making of a Zune Arts film. 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.