At this unique privately owned museum in Los Angeles, one has to walk through a maze of corridors within the softly lit exhibits where you are introduced to an alternative history that you would not read in history books.

Hundreds of stories are told through some equally strange artefacts, including some of my favourites such as the folk art paintings of the first canines that were rocketed into space before humans, the microscopic sculptures of Napoleon and Pope John Paul II, which would each fit in the eye of a needle, or the collection of wise tales, such as the ant eggs, thought in the Middle Ages to cure love-sickness, and the duck’s breath captured in a test tube, once believed to cure thrush.

SPONSOR

Daniella White is the designer of Plumed Serpent, extravagant headdresses that she hand makes herself in Los Angeles. Each headdress is a magical blend of feathers, recycled furs, vintage jewels and gems, fine fabrics and chains. You truly become a goddess, a queen or whatever your heart desires when you wear her pieces. Where do you wear them? I like to walk around the house in my bathrobe with my fancy Plumed Serpent pieces. Yes, I collect them and I feel fabulous.

With over 60 artists participating this year, The Ellen Art Show is a charity event featuring portraits of popular talkshow host and activist, Ellen DeGeneres. The profits for the show are donated to the Trevor Project, which is ‘determined to end suicide among LGBTQ youth by providing life-saving and life-affirming resources and advocacy/educational programs that create a safe, supportive and positive environment for everyone’. The Ellen Art Show, the brainchild of spoken word artist Renda Writerr, will take place at The Terrell Moore Gallery in Los Angeles on January 28 (DeGeneres’s birthday).

‘It’s Sarah Silverman meets the Shaggs’, writes the LA Times. Past performers on Comedy Central, The Apple Sisters have won a mess of awards for best musical comedy act.

Rebekka Johnson, Kimmy Gatewood and Sarah Lowe (Candy, Cora and Seedy Apple) pack a comedic, slapstick punch as they sing, dance and endorse a tasty treat called Corndy (the Corn-Flavored Candy). Filled with double entendres, The Apple Sisters still manage to be cute as all heck. Catch this amazing 1940s-era variety act on July 25 at Largo in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, California, home of one the darkest, yet bright, musical minds I’ve heard. Chelsea Wolfe’s voice and rough riffs can turn suns and blue skies into the most enjoyable rainy days.

SPONSOR

I came across We Were Promised Jetpacks a couple years ago on satellite radio when I was driving from New York to Los Angeles with a friend. I grabbed the album (These Four Walls) when I got home and I’ve been hooked ever since. I can listen to their song, Keeping Warm [listen below], on a loop all day.

A year ago you could happily find me here, writing for Lost At E Minor, and cooking away in Los Angeles restaurant kitchens. A year later, I’ve launched Sqirl (for the old saying ‘Squirreling Things Away’), a preservation company dedicated to jams, jellies, and marmalades made from certified organic seasonal fruit no more than 200 miles from Sqirl’s commercial kitchen.

Curious about unusual produce like Mandarinquats (a Mandarin and Kumquat hybrid), Pakistani Mulberries, or Seascape Strawberries? Well, I am too, and it turns out that they make extraordinary jam. Finished off with minimal amounts of fair trade organic cane sugar and cooked in a copper jam pan made for me by a local, ‘knarled grizzly old coot’ (that’s what the copper artist calls himself), it’s really The Jam.

While preservation invades my consciousness, I turned to Scott Barry (Print Magazine Top 20 Designer for 2011) for the package design and branding. He’s brilliant and really considered form, function and aesthetic and how they would coexist. Artist James Gulliver Hancock lent his stop-motion moxie, and the world of Sqirl’s been born.

So now it’s a published fact – very few hands are responsible for what I believe to be beautiful work, both inside the jar and outside of it. And I can only hope that you dig it, too.

This new series of alternative sculptures by Brendan Lott uses the wall as part of the ‘canvas’, so if you were to buy one of his pieces, he would have to recreate it on the actual wall in your home.

Lott is always pushing the boundaries of medium: his previous series being photographs he found on file sharing networks of seemingly pedestrian actions that reveal the human condition, which he would mail to a small Chinese village known for mass commercial reproductions to have them make into paintings. His show runs at Walter MacIel Gallery in Los Angeles between May 21 and July 9.

Kitchen 24 is one of the neatest places to dine in the Los Angeles district. Not only is the food unbelievably tasty, but it’s open 24/7, making it the perfect place to eat that Mediterranean tofu omelette you’re craving at 4pm when you wake up from a long night out. I strongly recommend the chamomile tea with an adorable freshly baked cupcake. They’re so cute. It’s no wonder why rap icons like Ice T and 50 Cent choose to chill here, I’m told.

SPONSOR

Directed by Matt Wells and shot in Los Angeles, this video for the Rafter song No Fucking Around is awesome. Why? Err, well, start with the rather unorthodox casting and go from there.

Polluted, overrun, and over-trafficked. And that’s just the back streets of Los Angeles. Our friends over at Wild Ammo have published a collection of photos that anwer the inpenetrable question: ‘what if everyone suddenly disappeared from the city? It would look quite deserted, and even eerie’. Indeed.

Beginning with only a few ribbons of fabric, these outfits were sewn by Bosnian designer Naida Begeta, as she was unable to find anything that suited her personal style.

Do you know the feeling when you come across a painting or a photo and it really gets to you somehow in a very straightforward kind of way? That’s how I feel when I look at Brooke Shaden’s work.

She’s a fine art photographer living and working near Los Angeles, who enjoys creating her own enchanted universe. On her website it says: ‘Her vision extends beyond the realm of the camera, creating images that resemble paintings and speak of an era that is not our own’. And I totally agree. With her photography she invites us to strange new world where gravity obeys different rules.

SPONSOR

Wild little bees in Los Angeles are buzzing around their local turf gathering from what happens to be in bloom making each batch of Feral Honey to have its own unique flavor. Russell Bates and Amy Seidenwurm sided with Mother Nature and natural selection allowing the bees to do their own thing, resulting in resillient, strong and happy bees. And happy bees equals delicious honey.

It may be because I am currently hanging out in the bedlam known as Los Angeles, but I find this video by El Guincho for his song Bombay to be rather titillating beyond the fact that there are no small number of, er, tits shown in it.

Test Kitchen is just the place for those who dream about being the personal guinea pigs for famous chefs. This new LA hotspot offers a quasi-permanent pop-up experience with gastronomic genius circulating through on a regular basis.

Menus are constantly in flux as guest chefs take the helm, letting you savour their latest culinary projects in the making. Among those who have strolled into Test Kitchen’s space include chefs from The French Laundry to El Bulli. And no contemporary kitchen is complete without a resident mixologist, so you can naturally expect expert concoctions to be showcased just as much as the food.

So how do you get in on this creative whirlwind? Twitter, of course. Follow the Test Kitchen’s tweets and feeds for the latest projects, like Micheal Voltaggio’s review of history’s greatest hits, and see if last-minute reservations are available. Plug in and get ready to be one lucky guinea pig.

Jesus Lizard was one of my favorite bands in the ’90s. David Yow’s art is strangely much cleaner and more nuanced than his singing and stage demeanor, despite the crass humor and cartoon dicks. His first solo art show at the DIY Gallery in LA has been generating quite a buzz lately.

SPONSOR

Particularly fixated on rocks and geology, Los Angeles-based artist Marissa Textor specializes in photorealistic graphite drawings of landscapes, mountains, and other natural scenes that are often imbued with a sense of dread.

Los Angeles-based illustrator Melissa Kojima has recently completed a new series of artwork perfectly described in its title, Lost In LA LA Land. Kojima’s creations are fantastical, as she blends acrylic paint, India ink and collage to create a dreamy, wild and wonderful world.

Admit it. Occasionally images of Yo-hos, Pop Tarts, and Snowballs creep into your mind, sparking an irresistible craving for those over-processed sugary childhood sweets. Well, breathe a sigh of relief: all your nostalgic food fantasies can now come true, thanks to the clever folks at Cake Monkey.

Based in LA, this spot-on bakery whips up their own, pimped up version of your favorite classic delights, giving them a scrumptious, all-natural — and significantly tastier — spin. Here, chocolate cake is rolled with vanilla cream then coated with bittersweet chocolate, while vanilla cake is filled with homemade caramel and lovingly topped off with marshmallow frosting and toasted coconut. And then there is my personal favorite: ‘Nuff Said. This over-the-top treat sublimely mashes-up a chocolate crumble cookie with homemade marshmallow, dark chocolate, pecans, caramel — and the pièce de résistance — Fleur de Sel.

Cakewiches, Inside Out S’Mores, and heaps of other tantalizing sweet treats abound, many of which are adorned with a simple, understated silver wrapping giving it that perfect retro feel. All products are baked to order and delivered, so be sure to have your chilled glasses of milk on hand.