New Art / Emily Noelle Lambert

November 18, 2009 | New Art | by Gerry Mak |

Acrylic paints are made of plastic, but Emily Noelle Lambert achieves a fluid, organic, timeless feel with her large-scale paintings. The New York-based artist draws from her own psychic narratives to guide her brush, resulting in repeated imagery and shapes that take on weight with each iteration. Read more

New Design / KAWS creme de corps

November 10, 2009 | New Design | by Michelle Wilding |

Random collaborations always come as a pleasant surprise. This time New York-based graffiti artist KAWS (aka Brian Donnelly) has joined forces with lavish beauty product manufacturer, Kiehl’s, in a bid to raise money for non-profit art initiative RxArt. KAWS’ design adorns an exclusive line of Kiehl’s skin moisturizers, with all proceeds benefiting RxArt’s mission to install art pieces in US hospitals.

Cool Travel / Cook. Eat. Drink. Live in New York City

November 5, 2009 | Cool Travel | by Zolton |

Hmmm, hmmm. I’m heading along to Cook Eat Drink Live in New York this weekend to indulge in a three-day modern food and wine event at The Tunnel and La Venue, at which there will be a sampling of ‘ultra-premium gourmet foods and spirits, plus appearances from some of the city’s premier chefs’. It’s going to be an event of gastronomical indulgence, so I’ll be fasting for at least, errr, three hours in anticipation.

New Events / Typographic month in NYC

November 3, 2009 | New Events | by Deanne Cheuk |

November is shaping up to be Typographic month in New York. On November 5 there’s the official opening of Lubalin Now — the inaugural exhibition at the newly re-located Herb Lubalin Study Center at the Cooper Art Union, featuring beautiful typography from the likes of Alex Trochut, Huntergatherer and Non-Format [featured above]. Read more

New Music / Cage’s Secret Playlist

November 2, 2009 | New Music | by Zolton |

Depart From Me is the latest full-length album from underground/indie-rap legend Cage, aka Chris Palko. Cage is helped along in this task with production by El-P, F. Sean (Hatebreed), the late Camu Tao and Aesop Rock. We checked in with him to get the word on the music that inspired his latest recording, and he started with Deftones song, My Own Summer [listen below]: ‘This song reminds me of what it feels like to be on all my favorite drugs that I quit doing and the sadness that comes from failed romances that will never be again. I’m referring to the drugs, not the women’.

Cool Travel / New York’s Stuffed Artisan Cannolis

November 2, 2009 | Cool Travel | by Caitlin Zaino |

Having been raised a proper Italian-American girl in New York, I was taught from a young age how to spot a good cannoli: those tasty desserts made of hollowed fried dough stuffed lovingly with creamy, sweet ricotta and topped with a marvelous dash of powder sugar. Yum. These tiny Southern Italian treats are not the stuff of nouvelle cuisine. Or are they? Enter Stuffed Artisan Cannolis. Read more

November 2, 2009 | New Film | by Zolton |

Take my word for it, there’s really no better place to see the new Chris Rock documentary Good Hair than in a midtown Manhattan cinema at 7.45pm on a Friday night. Why? Because the atmosphere in the theatre was just about as entertaining as what was taking place on the giant screen in front of us. Read more

New Illustration / Children’s Book workshop in New York

October 24, 2009 | New Illustration | by Fernanda Cohen |

I’m producing a children’s book workshop led by Selina Alko and Sean Qualls [above] at the Society of Illustrators of New York on Wednesday, October 28. Their clients include Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt, Scholastic, Lee and Low Books and Knopf. It’s perfect for illustrators who want to break into the picture book industry and need that extra push and solid pointers.

October 23, 2009 | New Events | by Melissa Banigan |

If you haven’t yet witnessed the genius that is The Mimi & Flo Show, catch them Thursday, November 10 at Comix Comedy Club. Joining them will be The Hazzards (New York’s most best ever ukulele band), as well as guest stars Becky Yamamoto and Michael Cyril Creighton.

New Photography / Jiri Makovec’s Tales From The Island

October 22, 2009 | New Photography | by Alison Zavos |

Of his photo series — Tales From The island — New York photographer Jiri Makovec says: ‘Within the city’s rigid grid, moments of mystery and terror unveil, and are captured as a series of encounters and events. Whether the viewer is facing truth or fiction, this body of work shows the photographers’ relationship to the city’. Read more

New Events / Krewe de Soul Masquerade Ball charity event

October 22, 2009 | New Events | by Melissa Banigan |

Do you live in the New York area and wonder what you’ll be doing Thursday, October 29th? How about you get your Halloween-prepped-dancing-ass to the Bell House for the Krewe de Soul Masquerade Ball to check out musical acts such as The High and Mighty Brass Band, Mighty Fine, and Tunde Adebimpe, from TV on the Radio [picture above]. Seven bands and three DJs are lined up to make you move your rump, which will be necessary to work off all of the free food you’ve consumed (get there early for the gastronomical delights). Oh, and feel good, too, knowing that proceeds from the event will benefit the Abeola House of New Orleans; a non-profit formed by parents whose children attended one of 200 schools and daycare centers that didn’t reopen after Hurricane Katrina.

New Events / Food glorious food, unless you can’t eat it!

October 21, 2009 | New Events | by Zolton |

Question: what’s the definition of torture? Answer: Being on a self-inflicted raw food diet during the New York Food and Wine Festival. Yup, this was hard. Walking through the cavernous surrounds of the Grand Tasting room, eying off the special offerings from some of New York’s finest chefs, and not being able to taste a morsel of it. Well, maybe a morsel. We did, afterall, come upon a tasty Tomato and Watermelon Salad with Goat Cheese, Arugula and Juniper by chef Todd Mark Miller. But the rest? Well, you can look but you can’t gobble down. And this was a food lovers’ hedonism: table after table of delicious treats, washed down by an endless selection of wines and spirits. There were cupcakes from Kyotofu, steaks from The River Cafe, and an Iron Chef station featuring a real time challenge. Still, the diet won. No treats for me that day, but instead a glimpse at how the other half live. Even if it was for just a few hours. [photos by Alison Zavos] Read more

Cool Travel / Ghost stories at the Merchant’s House Museum

October 20, 2009 | Cool Travel | by Ilana Kohn |

Next time I find myself on my fifteen minute walk to the C train, I plan on cramming a little Halloween in. New York’s Merchant’s House Museum has a new hotline where you can call up and simply listen to the cell phone audio tour, Tales Of The Strange and Inexplicable, featuring some of the Museum’s most notorious ghost stories. Should that whet you appetite for something more tactile, the Museum is currently holding candlelight ghost tours and will even be hosting an authentic 19th Century funeral — antique coffin to be physically borne down the Bowery and all. The hotline is 1-877-646-1832.

New Music / The Dodos live in New York

October 19, 2009 | New Music | by Eliza Czander |

The other night The Dodos performed the first of two shows in New York. Though it wasn’t sold out, the music hall of Williamsburg was packed to the rafters with hipsters, thirty-somethings, and teenagers who crawled over the bridge from NYU and the Metro North. The crowd was pretty rowdy for New York City and the boys certainly made it worth the 17 bucks to get in. It was my first time seeing The Dodos live, and I was expecting a fairly calm show considering their last album Visitor is on the more mellow side. I couldn’t have been more surprised as the first few songs flew through the walls at the music hall thumping and shaking the place to the core. Read more

New Events / Meatpacking Uncorked at NY Food and Wine Festival

October 15, 2009 | New Events | by Ilana Kohn |

When I found out I was going to have the opportunity to cover the Food & Wine Festival’s Meatpacking Uncorked event I was beside myself. Not really sure what to expect, I skipped lunch. I wanted to leave every square inch of gut vacant and ready to accommodate delicious food. Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised by the street fair slant of the event. I had expected to be corralled into a tight area, pressed shoulder to shoulder with other enthusiastic foodies, gasping for air between gulps of wine. Not at all. Read more