WE'RE SUPPORTING

Leanne Ellis’s work washes over me with warm waves of reflection. As if frozen in time, her strange girls peer out at you from somewhere else. Beautifully painted and drawn with an amazing portrayal of emotion and exquisite attention to detail, these works will have you under her spell.

WE'RE THINKING

Here are some pretty clever shirts designed by Bas van de Poel and Daan van Dam for the Dutch team in anticipation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I still don’t get why this isn’t a more popular sport in the US.

The Australian film collective behind the sci-fi spoof, The Time That Time Forgot, perfectly capture the look and feel of awkward, low-budget rip-offs from the ’70s — the psychedelic lighting, bad dubbing, and amazing hair. One almost wishes Italian Spiderman was for real. [more about Italian Spiderman]

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, or ‘Le Corbusier’ is considered by many to be the most influential architect of the twentieth century. His designs are responsible for urban structures around the world, from the grid-city of Chandigarh in India to London’s Barbican Centre, which is currently hosting an exhibition of his work. But to peg him as an architect overlooks an awe-inspiring body of work that also takes in art, literature and even a new system of measurement. With this display, the first serious UK solo exhibition of his work for twenty years, we can finally appreciate the scale of his contributions.

WE'RE READING

DJ Spooky — That Subliminal Kid — is just about the deepest crate digger around, trawling the barrels of long-lost record stores for choice vinyl to spin in his wickedly dubby sets. He gave us the inside word last week on his eight favourite songs right now via our sister website, My Secret Playlist. This is what he had to say about Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Panic in Babylon: ‘If there’s anything that the twenty-first century has told us, it’s that dub is the real original hip-hop. Lee Scratch even had to make it clear in 1965 by adding “Scratch” to his middle name. Take that, Grandmaster Flash!’ Read the rest of DJ Spooky’s Secret Playlist.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Major Stars are another throwback ’70s rock band, playing Sabbath-flavored, guitar-driven psych tunes. But what sets them apart from the horde of Zeppelin-worshipping clones is vocalist Sandra Clarkson, whose voice is clean and feminine, but loud and aggressive — she doesn’t try to affect a Janis Joplin rasp. The band’s music also skews heavily towards the Acid Mothers Temple end of the ’70s revival thing rather than the Wolfmother side, another plus. Nope, rock still isn’t dead.

WE'RE WEARING

Luxury goods have been getting a bad rap lately, and for good reason. Now I don’t know how you roll, but we don’t know many people who enjoy covering themselves head-to-toe in someone else’s initials. Yet for some reason designers think that diamante logos and monogrammed tapestries are the best mediums to communicate their brand. So it’s just as well LA based eyewear label Barton Perreira doesn’t play by the rules. Starting out less than a year ago, you won’t find their designs getting over-excited by insignia. Instead, these guys hand make their frames in Japan to rely on precision, fit and design. And that’s the way it should be.