WE'RE SUPPORTING

I love the work of Sydney graffiti and stencil artist Emily Hasselhoof. Bold, bright and bizarre, her images are like the dreams of a serial tripper. Evil little girls dressed in fluorescent garb commit unspeakable acts while green rabbits are devoured by sharks and odd little ponies masquerade as equine medusas. Hasselhoof regularly exhibits around town. I caught her show at Ruban Rat in Newtown last year where I was blown away by her fantastic use of colour. Read more

WE'RE THINKING

With so many photographers these days making over-stylized digital images, it’s great to see someone like Marlene Marino still working in 35mm. Her use of only natural light, and her languid, straight-forward framing result in intimate, grainy, and candid-feeling pictures that feel like they’ve come out of a forgotten drawer somewhere. Read more

Sufjan Stevens creates autistic music for introverts — soft, shy, naive, full of shadows, windows, and insecurities. Yet it all sounds slightly forced, his enigmatic songwriting as comforting as it is unsettling.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

While the Belizean Islands are some of the most beautiful and tranquil in the world, Belize City is one of those uninspiring places that most people travel in and out of very quickly. However, if you do find yourself stranded there, as I did, the city does have one redeeming attraction. Approximately twenty kilometres west of the centre, you’ll find the Belize Zoo — which the founders call the ‘best little zoo in the world’. It relies on charitable donations and has gained huge respect for housing native Belizean wildlife, such as jaguars, howler monkeys, tapirs, ocelots and toucans, in natural, tropical surroundings. If you’re there on the first Friday in April, you can even join hundreds of visitors in celebrating the birthday of the zoo’s resident tapir, April. The zoo has an awesome rasta-vibe, and the hand-written information posts are guaranteed to make you giggle.

WE'RE READING

This Is My England is both the blog and the pen name of a Londoner who looks at things up close. The photography zooms in on the small details of the decay and strangeness under the surface of the taken-for-granted things all around us. Many of the short poems here do roughly the same job.
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WE'RE LISTENING TO

If you ever happen to find yourself riding across the mid-west on horseback with an iPod jangling about in your holster, be sure to let Calexico soundtrack the experience. They’re cleverly fusing a range of genres, mixing some good old country with US indie, a bit of jazz and even, in 2003’s Feast of Wire, some smatterings of electronica. Lead singer Joey Burns gives a healthy amount of cowboy twang and the soaring orchestral background and sweet country guitar licks add a real atmosphere to the music.

Listen to the Calexico song, Convict Pool.

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WE'RE WEARING

Australian-born creative, Marc Newson, is considered to be one of the most influential designers of the past few decades. Having originally studied jewellery and sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts, ‘he started experimenting with furniture design as a student and, after graduating in 1984, was awarded a grant from the Australian Crafts Council, and staged an exhibition — featuring the Lockheed Lounge — at the Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney’. Read more