WE'RE SUPPORTING

Australian illustrator Alice Carroll produces quirky and whimsical works. Each piece is a response to a word selected every week in order to keep up the creative tempo – quite an effective method as the results are intriguing. I warmed to her interpretation of ’sour’, in particular, as it captures the word right down to the knee bone, but in a strangely friendly way. Read more

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

This is the mob scene that was outside the Ugg Boot store on Mercer Street, Soho, yesterday as I made my way through the harping hustle and flow of the downtown post-Christmas shopping crowds. And it’s a pretty familiar sight during winter in New York, with long queues invariably gathered along this stretch of road, waiting impatiently for their own little piece of Down Under warmth. Having never worn Ugg boots, I can’t attest for their ability to keep out the icy chill of a 3pm breeze. But surely the well worn feet of a stampede of New Yorkers can’t be wrong? Read more

WE'RE WEARING

No, Dorothy would have never come across these shoes in Oz, but she would have at Odin, a smallish men’s store in New York’s East Village. Read more

WE'RE THINKING

I managed to swing by the SVA Graduate Illustration show the other night and couldn’t believe how much amazing work there was. One particular illustrator I couldn’t tear myself from was Youngsun Liu. His work is pure texture and color, just the way I like it.

WE'RE READING

Woohoo! Another flash game that actually tests your cognitive abilities. LightBot is a difficult, but satisfying game in which you direct a little robot using a system of simple commands in order to light up various squares on a grid. The first few levels guide you through the seemingly easy process, but when there are multiple sets of directions requiring you to write what are essentially codes, it can get pretty hairy.

Improv Everywhere strikes again with a spontaneous musical in a Los Angeles mall. Wireless microphones hooked up to the mall’s PA system ensured the feeding masses didn’t slip into Cinnabon-induced comas until after the show was over. Note especially the angry dude in sunglasses at about 2:51 — apparently he thinks nothing can ever top Rent.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Listening to Mum’s fourth album — Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy — for the first time, I was awash with sentimentalism. Amidst carnival trumpets and burlesque beats, there’s a sense of this being a bohemian rhapsody. Perhaps it’s the mix of cello and brass with experimental electronica. Or maybe it’s just the soft vocals that cascade over playful, imaginative sounds. Whatever it is, it’s totally brilliant. [see also Sigur Ros' Heima]

Listen to Mum’s track, The Amateur Show.