WE'RE SUPPORTING

Chinese artist Liu Jianhua has built a model of the Shanghai skyline using just poker chips and dice. Widely known for his quirky ceramic sculptures, his exhibition Dream in Conflict has just been opened at the Galleria Continua in Italy and features Unreal Scene amongst other works bordering on the surreal.

WE'RE THINKING

Simple, colorful and somewhat esoteric, I really dig the work of New York illustrator, Rich Tu, a new SVA graduate student. It was something else to see his finely textured images blown up to poster size and beautifully displayed at the recent SVA student show. Read more

Rarely is a film politically poignant as well as wonderfully written, acted and shot. The second feature from director Kimberly Peirce of Boys Don’t Cry was inspired by her brother, who joined the army, and was only possible after months of meticulous research. Read more

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Last night, I caught Pagan Fest at B.B. Kings in NYC. I missed the band that I was the most excited to see, T˘r, but Turisas and Ensiferum more than made up for it. Americans have been pretty late to warm up to folk and Viking metal, and bands of this sort almost never tour the States, so it was gratifying to see that the show was sold out, and that the crowd was so exuberant. Read more

WE'RE READING

Our celebrity-saturated culture makes many of us irrationally hateful of the faces we see on our TV screens and magazine pages. Good thing there’s Celebrity PunchOut to let off some of that steam.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

There’s a world-weariness about Two Gallants frontman Adam Stephens. It reveals itself in the Tom Waits-like raspiness that permeates his gin house drawl and in the talkin’ blues narratives that he weaves around his simple acoustic fingerpicking. They are the new superstars of the West Coast scene, majestic showmen in homespun rags.

Listen to the Two Gallants track, The hand that held you down.

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WE'RE WEARING

Designed by Patrick Jouffret of French design studion agency 360, this unisex bicycle helmet folds up into a compact shape small enough to fit in your purse or backpack, so you’re not left wondering what to do with it after you’ve locked up your bike.