If you live in Sydney, the name SPOD will be familiar to you, if you don’t live in Sydney, the name SPOD is imminently closer by the second to being familiar to you. Why, you ask? Well, because he’s just one of those everyday music and video geniuses, that’s all. Have a look at his Vimeo and you will see what I’m on about.

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I heard Amy Sol speak a while back in Sydney and our walls have been filling up with her gorgeous limited edition prints from that time on. Sol paints subtle and beautiful moments. Moments of care and love. Moments of surreal beauty and moments of longing. Her technique brings out the natural wood grain surface she paints on, allowing it to peer through the painterly world she works so hard to create.

I really like the illustrator Tania Willis’ work and now she’s teamed up with Mio Debnam to produce these kid’s guide books. Avoiding the trap of thinking parents know best, they’ve asked kids in the various locations what their favourite days out, experiences, food, and so on are. So far they’ve covered Bali, Sydney, Hong Kong, Phuket, London and New York. My lad gives it 5 stars after a recent trip to Bali.

Ever wondered what would happen if you threw a collection of dark photographic seascapes onto some whitewash plywood boards and added a hand-painted homage to beach and surf culture over the top? What about a bunch of beaten-up wetsuits sewn together to create a giant logo-covered patchwork doona?

Well, with photographer Ryan Heywood and artist Luke Taaffe teaming up for an exclusive show, you don’t have to wonder. Catch their show SURF CITY at the National Grid Gallery in Sydney from October 14 through to December 2.

Inner-city crawling, that unplanned exploration of the unknown, just got all the more high tech with the impending launch of PeepShow AR, a smartphone app which uses cutting-edge augmented reality technology to offer curated tours of Sydney’s Surry Hills and Darlinghurst areas through the eyes of the artists and creatives who live and play within the 2010 postcode.

There are already 270 plus points of interest to discover through the app, which officially launches from Heffron Hall on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 October, including cultural industries, creative retail spaces, art galleries, public art, historical points of interest including Razor and Queer history, unique bars, and even the famous Crown Street Dog. Yes, we agree. Awesome (reality).

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Damian Dillon’s digital and analogue images are characterized by his ‘destructive’ attitude towards the medium of photography.

Jailbreak’s crudely constructed images are taken from field trips to Belfast, Middlesex, Perth and Sydney, where the only human presence appears through Dillon’s satirical graffiti marks, drawn by hand or manufactured in Photoshop, which creates a strange harmony with the final photographs.

Orpheus, She’s Gone is the second single from Melodie Nelson’s debut album, Meditations On The Sun.

The video was directed by Danielle Zorbas, who’s past directing credits include The Panics, Dappled Cities, Bertie Blackman, Abby Dobson, and Red Riders amongst others. Orpheus, She’s Gone was shot in one day at Serial Space, an artist-run gallery space in inner Sydney. Oh, and Tsamoglou’s cat makes a cameo appearance.

Jodee Knowles, who counts pop stars Pink and Bryan Adams as fans, follows her recent back-to-back sell-out Sydney shows with the exhibition Chimera, exclusively showing at Showcase Gallery in October.

The ten pieces in Chimera are heavily fashion based, with use of form and fabric. They feature all the hallmarks of the artist’s work: big, melancholy filled eyes on female forms with a tortured innocence that combine with the elements of fantasy behind the hybrid Chimera animal of Greek mythology.

The curvilinear Marc Newson is kind of a rock star amongst designers. He has been extremely fortunate to design such a diverse selection of ‘things’. He has been enlisted by Sydney City Council to design the displays for New Years Eve in Sydney this year. I trust we’re in for a geometrically curved welcoming to the new year, hopefully devoid of the glitz that is normally thrust upon us.

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Visualising Music: 12 artworks for 12 songs is an art exhibition I’ve put together for the new Space March album, Monumental. Each artwork is a visual response to the corresponding song.

Artworks are displayed as large format, limited edition canvas prints. The exhibition runs for two weeks and starts September 3 at blank_space Gallery in Surry Hills, Sydney.

Showcase Gallery officially opened in Darlinghurst this month, providing one a new avenue in Australia that supports creative professionals wanting to develop their artistic profile.

The Launch Exhibition features personal pieces by internationally regarded photographers Mark Mawson, Chuck Bradley and Nicholas Alan Cope, designers Bianca Chang and Terry Chisholm, and art directors Paul Meates and Jed DePyper. From the illustrations of Three Drunk Monkeys art director Jed DePyper to Chuck Bradley’s preference for beautifully lit photography, visitors will see an interesting departure from what these professionals are commercially recognised for.

We like this blog, Silent Cities. We like seeing images of some of the most noisy and crowded places in the world momentarily bathed in silence. There is something both serene and eerie about these scenes. The images above and below are from London, Sydney and Detroit.

The free event Bizarre Bazaar flaunts talented local designers whilst engulfing Sydney’s burgeoning laneway culture. Combining fashion, music and bar life, Bizarre Bazaar breathes life into the nooks of Sydney’s city, in much the same way that Melbourne has been noted for.

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One of Sydney’s hottest live music venues got a little bit cooler last month with the opening of The Dip, a restaurant that offers a rad new take on the classic American diner. The new food stop is right at home inside the nightclub Goodgod thanks to the influence of one of its co-founders, Sydney DJ Sleater Brockman (aka Andrew Levins), who’s just as skilled at flipping burgers as he is at spinning tunes. [photo via Concrete Playground]

“I like that you can be creative in music and creative in the way you eat as well,” says Levins, who founded The Dip with his partner, Bianca Khalil. “We’re a pretty creative diner I think; there’s lots of fun things that you don’t really see on other menus.”

Stick around after you finish your tasty pulled pork sandwich and dance up an appetite for dessert. ‘I’ll be DJing at Goodgod a lot after my kitchen shifts’, Levins promises. ‘Apron off and headphones on!’

We love Aesop. We love their aesthetic (the stores are literally out of this world), their products, and their name. So we’re buzzed to be able to tell you that they’re seeking applicants to join their retail network. Current vacancy locations include (but are not limited to) Sydney, New York, London and Paris. So if you’re in the market for a new challenge and you have a demonstrated ability to engage and respond to people, a positive attitude, and willingness to understand the world of Aesop, then this could be the new career for you. Oh, and you’ll have clearer skin than all your friends. Bonus!

The Empty magazine exhibit has finally hit Sydney and features some of the finest artists including hairy children painter Erik Mark Sandberg [artwork featured here], Meggs, and Beastman. Catch it at Waterloo’s Ambush Gallery from now and Brookvale’s National Grid from April 29. Nice!

Daniel Shipp graduated from Sydney College of the Arts with a degree in Photomedia. His education continued by assisting fashion photographers, which led him to live in Montreal and then Toronto. Now based in Sydney again, he is drawn to graphic shapes and strong light which he applies to the portrait and object assignments he shoots.

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The film festival that promises a frighteningly good time, A Night of Horror International Film Festival is back for its fifth year from March 31 to April 8. Once again, it will showcase the best and bloodiest independent horror films from Australia and the world to celebrate the genre’s standout filmmakers.

The festival began as a one night event and has since grown to span nine days. It now includes fifteen feature films, more than 70 shorts and music videos, a screenwriting and filmmaking forum, and a screenplay competition.

There’s something very ‘Sydney’ about Seminyak. If it weren’t for the tropical heat, delightful scent of incense, cluttered temples and constant drum of scooters, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were shopping in Paddington, hanging out in Bondi, or dining in Surry Hills. And when it comes to the very Sydney habit of heading out for Sunday brunch, you can’t go past Seminyak’s Grocer and Grind.

Situated alongside a fresh produce deli, this hip cafe serves up a mean breakfast and also offers fantastic lunchtime salads, sandwiches, and Panini. They also blend their own coffee, and claim to have the best on the island. After you’re done with breakfast, you can shop for some organic goodies next door. And with wireless internet available all day long, it’s a very easy and cool place to while away the hours.

If I had a time capsule, I’d programme it to take me to all of Annie Leibovitz’s photo shoots from 1970 to now. Highlights for me would be Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 Rolling Stone cover, the extremely personal last photographs of John Lennon and Yoko Ono (which were shot five hours before Lennon’s death in 1981), and Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A album cover shoot.

The good news is that if you’re lucky enough to be in Sydney during late March and April, you don’t need a time machine. Leibovitz is exhibiting her photography at the Museum of Contemporary Art until April 26. Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005 showcases commercial, documentary and personal photographs from Leibovitz’s legendary career.

At the heart of the exhibition are personal photographs from Leibovitz’s life, thrown in with some pop-culture gems of Mick Jagger, Johnny Cash, and even that scandalous photo of Demi Moore for Vanity Fair.