Here at Lost At E Minor, we love to get involved and help the community whenever we can. That’s why we sponsored this fantastic mural near our Newcastle office by local artist UMPEL. The hypercolour graffiti art was organised by Simone Sheridan, who runs a business focused on beautifying derelict urban spaces whilst reducing graffiti vandalism through creative interventions such as street art.

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Created by Australian label Eleventh Commandment on one hundred percent premium combed cotton, the design on this custom made tee is a hand-sketch by Sydney artist Joshua Oldfield of Kate Moss enjoying some coke. As she does! Apparently.

If you’re a Twitterer, a Tweeter, or a Twit (in the nicest possible way!), then you might like to follow the Lost At E Minor Twitter feed, which is an extension of the things we post about here. We get access to a lot of tips and information that we don’t always post about. But we will Twitter it, ’cause, hey Twitter is so right now. Follow Lost At E Minor on Twitter. [Illustration by Robert Thompson]

This intensely designed promo video for the Lost At E Minor site was created by our friends over at New York-based design studio, Lifelongfriendshipsociety. It’s all about looking into a black mirror and seeing a creative energy bursting back out at you. Now, where are my 3D glasses?

MIXA is an innovative way for people to make, mix and share their music, photos, videos and other digital goodies on an old school cassette tape with a Twitter-generation twist. MIXA in association with Lost At E Minor and My Secret Playlist are giving YOU the chance to win a MIXA.

The 1GB USB tape has the cool aesthetic of the 80s classic cassette tape but meets the needs of the digital-hungry 2009 crowd.

Just like you and I, each MIXA is an individual and likes to standout from the masses.

You can choose from one of the pre-made designs created (with love) by the MIXA team and style it up with the stickers that come with it. Or you can create your own bespoke version by emailing in your designs or images for the MIXA team to play around with on their special digital MIXA maker.

Whatever route you choose, you will end up with a cool, one off MIXA design that has your personality stamped all over it.

Once you have made your MIXA, you become an official member of the gang and get your spot on the MIXA ‘Map of Love’. So get with the programme and undigital your digital.

In order to get your hands on a free MIXA we want to know what song you secretly sing in the shower. Submit your answer below and we’ll pick our favorite. And yes, we happily take bribes. No, really.

Follow the MIXA team on Twitter @MAKEAMIXA for updates.

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Our friends at Australian t shirt label Das Monk recently released a new range of tees, including this one above, Skull Fingers, which features a cool screen print on a one hundred percent cotton t shirt. We have this tee, and a stack of other Das Monk shirts, available for just US$45 through the Lost At E Minor online store.

Dalek’s paintings were originally populated by Space Monkeys, creatures inspired by the artist’s childhood and teenage years in Japan. His most recent paintings have metamorphosed into incredibly complex abstract works, emphasizing his meticulous attention to detail and amazing sense of colour and composition. Dalek’s work has been widely exhibited internationally, and he recently spent a year as an assistant of Takashi Murakami, probably the most famous artist in the contemporary art scene. His latest exhibition Dalek and Delta, runs at the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms from August 28 to September 26. He’ll be contributing guest posts to Lost At E Minor over the next two weeks on the art and music that’s inspiring his own work right now.

We’re pleased to welcome the legendary pop culture artist and father of the Agit Pop Movement Ron English as a contributor to Lost At E Minor, writing about his favorite creative and cultural discoveries of recent times. English has just completed a successful showing of new works called Lazarus Rising at the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, in which he paid homage to Picasso’s 1937 masterpiece, Guernica, transcribing it to reflect our troubled times alongside an extraordinary body of new works. Keep an eye out for English’s posts on Lost At E Minor over the coming weeks as he joins contemporaries such as Shepard Fairey and Tristan Eaton as recent guest writers.

We turned it over to you to shape the look of the new Lost At E Minor logo, one that sums up everything this site stands for and rolled up into a design that’s cool and readable. And we had a stack of very clever and creative submissions come in. So now we’d love to know what you think. Check out the entries that we’ve had, and help us decide the winner by leaving a comment under this post or the original design a logo post telling us which of the new Lost At E Minor logos you think we should run with.

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The very talented Jess Snow, the first video artist to be featured by Female Persuasion — the original site for provocative and political female artists — created this ethereal short video for Lost At E Minor. We feel it. We love it. Just like we dug the video that Lifelongfriendshipsociety created. Aw, shucks!

This awesome promo video for the Lost At E Minor site was created by our friends over at New York-based design studio, Lifelongfriendshipsociety. It’s all about looking into a black mirror and seeing the creative energy bursting back out at you. Damn, this is fun. Now where are my 3D glasses?

You’ve probably noticed the For Weekly Inspiration callout in the top right hand corner of the site, but why should you sign up to receive our weekly email publication? Well, it goes direct into your inbox every Thursday and is a sparkling collection of artwork, photography, music, and other pop culture tidbits that we’ve discovered during the course of the week. It’s easier to digest than a thousand Dunkin’ Doughnuts and more fun than a dinner date with Ricky Gervais. Or Kate Moss. Or both. It’ll add a little cheer to your week. If you sign up to receive it, we think you’ll like what you’ll see.

We have a thumping track by Chicago-based rocker Tom Fuller [above] available for free download in the Music Download section of Lost At E Minor (pssst, it’s in third column of the site), along with new tracks by Five O’Clock Heroes, Fujiya & Miyagi, and Madlib. The tracks are all DRM free and have been cleared and given to us for download by the record labels and band management companies we work with. Sweet! We add new downloads to this section most days, so check in, discover some new music, and build up your iTunes library at the same time.

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There’s an interview with myself and my Lost At E Minor co-founder, Zac, on the latest installment of the always interesting and insightful Not Quite Art television series. In it, we speak about the changing landscape of global popular culture in this increasingly digitial age. Bear in mind when watching it that my interview was conducted via Skype video at around 3.20am. Hence the tired eyes and coffee perky demeanor. This excellent series is produced, written and fronted by Marcus Westbury [above], who has this to say about the inspiration behind his exploration of where our collective creative consciousness is heading: ‘When I was a kid, the cultures I had to choose from were pretty simple. If it wasn’t in a book store, a record store, a local gallery or performance centre, something I could find at a video store or read in a magazine, I didn’t know about it. Kids today have access to virtually all the culture in the world, from comic books to computer games, encyclopaedia and images, to the web as a gallery and reference library, to the history of art. Our culture is shifting from the hierarchical, local and parochial structures, to a global and networked world where Australian artists, musicians, critics and troublemakers have audiences of millions around the world, yet often remain relatively unknown in their local community. Series Two of Not Quite Art shows how the cultures that have great impact on us have less and less to do with where we live anymore or even what country we are in’.

You’ll notice a new addition on the site, a brand spanking new job board, packed to the brim with creative positions in New York City. So if you’re looking for a new challenge, a new city perhaps, and you’re in a creative industry, check in regularly to see the latest jobs going. [Illustration by Steve Wacksman]

A lot of people have asked us where the name Lost At E Minor comes from and what the phrase implies. Well, several years ago I came across a compilation of obscure electro music called Famous When Dead, which is off the commendably experimental German label, Playhouse. One of the tracks on the album was by the production duo, Light Fantastic, and was titled Lost At C Minor. It’s an awesome song which weaves and winds its way through several distinct melodic changes. Anyway, the name kinda stuck in my head. There was something quite beautiful about the symbolism of being lost in a minor key world. C Minor is an interesting chord, but being a musician with an ear for the melancholic, I’ve long thought that E Minor was the most evocative and honest of the keys – haunting, endearing, a little sombre, yet strangely uplifting. So when we were brainstorming a name for this website and newsletter that would showcase all the magnificent cultural things that we love, the name Lost At E Minor leapt out just like the song had done the first time I heard it. It captures the immediacy of the moment but also hints at the depth of those that we feature. But above all, it’s about total immersion in this artistic, creative world we seek to create where anything is truly possible. [illustration by Sam Weber]