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I acquired a new camera for Christmas, and with it a renewed appreciation of the skill — and difficulty — of good photography. This unnamed experimenter blew soap bubbles into the air on a freezing night and caught the beautiful patterns with a deft click of the shutter.
The new Antony and the Johnsons album, The Crying Light, is the band’s follow up to the Mercury prize winning I Am a Bird Now. The album is available for instant digital download — along with a bonus track, My Lord, My Love — if you pre-order it from the band’s website as of today. This gives you a chance to hear the album in full before the official release date on January 19th. We have their track, Another World [listen below], available for free download in the Music Downloads section in the third column of the Lost At E Minor site.
My little heart just about stopped when I stumbled across the intensely colorful work of Copenhagen illustration duo, Sofie Hannibal and Nan Na Hvass. I’m already a predisposed sucker for busy, vibrant work but Hannibal and Hvass’ illustrations just send me into an overexcited tizzy. There are just so many fantastic shapes and layers to soak up! I’ve yet to come across a piece on their website (and there’s a whole lot there) that doesn’t make me want to get up and dance around the room in circles.
Over the past twenty years, Woody Allen has churned out mediocre efforts, especially compared to his early work. Vicky Cristina Barcelona, though, is a standout riddled with social satire and excellent comic timing. It follows Vicky and Cristina, two young American friends who share similar interests but opposite morals. They spend the summer in Barcelona, and the cast, including an in-form Penelope Cruz, Javier Bordem and Scarlett Johansson, all revel in a script that boasts some of Allen’s best lines. For years Allen doggedly stuck to his beloved New York, a city he shot with care and consideration, and that same touch has been brought to Barcelona. He takes us to the villas, islands and other standout tourist locations, the setting for each scene a different postcard. Most the major landmarks are represented, along with picturesque villas, restaurants and streets, although none of it is overdone and provides the ideal background to this meditation on love that is insightful, but still manages to keep the light, playful tone of a holiday romance.
This brilliant video was made by US comedian Sarah Silverman as a nice little present for her boyfriend, US chat show host Jimmy Kimmel. It was aired when she appeared as a guest on his show and, like any good boyfriend would, he got his very sweet revenge.
Crop to Cup is a great coffee company that buys directly from farmers in Uganda at twenty percent above market price with ten percent of company profits and five percent of every purchase going directly into their communities. Though not certified organic or fair trade yet (the company is still too small to afford those distinctions), they’re still doing something admirable. Full disclosure: I’m friends with Taylor Mork, one of the two main guys behind C2C, but I know how much of a coffee geek he is, and I dig their product and what they stand for.
Since coffee was the original black gold, spurring a lot of global commerce first in the Middle East, and then throughout Europe in the seventeenth century — the Dutch grew it in their colony of Java in Indonesia, probably at the cost of many a life, and it was so popular that the Pope banned it as ‘the Muslim drink’ — it’s rad that small-scale and responsible production of such a finicky crop is possible (it’s pretty much impossible to grow within the continental United States), and that a genuinely good and sustainable cup of joe is available on the market.
Hindu, Greek, and Buddhist mythology informs the work of Brooklynite Chitra Ganesh, who makes cryptic, surreal sculptures, murals, installations, multimedia drawings, and photography that draw from Indian comic books, Bollywood posters, and other ephemera of South Asian culture, as well as 19th century portraiture, anime, and the standard touch stones of a globalized psyche. The absurdity and sexuality of her work present the war between modernity, tradition, and nationality over the idea of femininity – her figures are almost entirely female, and watchful, menacing eyes are a common motif in her work. A lot of her stuff is reminiscent of Raymond Pettibon, in a good way.
My ex-roommate, better known as the young genius art star James Jean, has his first big solo show opening at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Manhattan this weekend. The opening may get crazy packed with all the fans, but I’m sure it will worth a visit.
Tallest Man on Earth, the rasping Swedish folk singer-songwriter and one of the unsung heroes of 2008, recently recorded the beautiful song A Field of Birds, a nice adjunct to his summer album release, Shallow Grave. His sound is so loose and unmanicured, and carries a poignancy reminiscent of the rusty, early Bob Dylan.
Los Feliz artist Vanessa Prager has been exhibited at the Robert Berman Gallery, Gallery 1988, and the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Her series, Hunting and Gaming, explores the ‘nature of sinister play’. Prager paints ’starkly-lit scenes of surrealistic moments in daily life; untangling holiday decorations, playing with old toys, driving or chatting. But her odd theatrical arrangements suggest something creepy going on behind the innocent façade’.
Tiana Markova’s fascinating fly-on-the-wall account of a day in the life of a high class prostitute, Jenna, is tastefully done yet provocatively revealing. Jenna’s captions provide the detail to accompany each shot. Of the photo above, she says: ‘Unpacking at the hotel in Miami. I couldn’t wait to take off my clothes and walk around naked! I hate winter almost more than anything’.
When my uber-creative and slightly eccentric twin brother announced one day that chainmail would be making a return, it only confirmed that he’d missed out on the fashion genes. But after checking out the fingerless chainmail glove in Toby Jones’ new collection — My hands are tied — it now appears he had a legitimate vision. Working a look straight out of a Mad Max scene, Jones’ designs will have us accessorizing in true post-apocalyptic style, using everyday objects as adornment. But you don’t need to be cruising around town in a black Interceptor to appreciate them. Be your own character with chain swinging padlocks and multi-purpose shoelaces. It’s about time you got your hands into something different.
The Merriam Webster defines ‘aphorism’ as being ‘a concise statement of a principle’ or a ‘terse formulation of a truth or sentiment’. Whatever. The Daily Aphorism email just happens to be a hell of a way to start the morning: a simple truth with which to navigate the endless hustle of the New York subway system.
When I first stumbled upon local label, MUSE by Good Mixer, in Bangkok, I knew I’d found something special. In an industry plagued by copycat designers struggling to find their own identity, you’ve got to admire the ones who have carved an original signature style. By taking unlikely inspiration from American football and mixing it with Eastern influences, the latest collection by designer Chaichon Savantrat plays masculine sportswear against exotic evening wear. Teaming structured shoulder silhouettes with free flowing fabrics, Savantrat uses a palette of black, white and red to showcase intricate embroidery. And with pieces for both men and women, he’s got both teams covered.
This show from Korea features celebrities smooching each other all in the pretense that they’re passing on a slip of sticky paper. Yup, who said the Japanese had a mortgage on crazy game shows?
Anyone who has ever been a fan of those old school cut and paste zines, band fliers, and the like, will really dig the work of Brooklyn illustrator, Ted McGrath, who creates the most fabulously rough and raw, spontaneous collages and ink drawings. Be sure to keep an eye out for the latest edition of American Illustration as McGrath has had the honour of creating this year’s cover.
Graffiti artist Maximillian Wiedemann’s work explores the dependent relationship between pop culture, media and consumerism, positioning it neatly under the street meets luxury umbrella. Giving reverence to Andy Warhol with regards to his salute to the world of the aesthetically divine, he plays with the game of hype, having a little fun with sensationalism, yet keeping a respect for its necessity due to the outlandish world we live in today. His sense of humor is perfect for our ambiguous times, with quotes such as ‘The better you look, the more you see’, and my favourite, ‘Closer to God in Heels’, paralleling it all by bringing the up-and-coming models of our time to his canvas. He takes something iconic and flip-flops it.
Max has recently teamed up with Timo Weber, creating a pop-up gallery by the name of Wanted. Baking up a ‘culture of desire’ with hints of affordability and accessibility, these two gents roam the earth in search of artists, granting them a platform for success. Stirring up a recipe for triumph and delight, it will be very interesting to see who they pick and choose next to bring to the limelight. Be on the look out.
No, this is not a still from a Dr Who episode. It is, instead, the facade of the Wotruba Church, built between 1974 and 1976 and located in the beautiful Austrian suburb of Mauer, the 23rd district of Vienna. Now, if only all religious buildings were so damn adventurous. It would kinda make Christmas mass more enjoyable.
When I was a kid, I collected Archie comics. Yup, those cheery, wondrous excursions into surburban, middle-America. For someone growing up around the somewhat tame beaches of Sydney, Australia, this window into the girl vs boy fixation of American teenagers — as reflected in the bright eyed adventures of Archie and his crew — bordered on the obsessive. I had garbage bags of them, comic book after comic book piled up and dog eared from repeated reading. Oh, and I had a crush on Betty. But that’s another story altogether. This documentary, Confessions of a Superhero, which chronicles the day to day existence of four faux superheroes panhandling on Hollywood Boulevard, makes me feel a whole lot better about that traumatic day at age sixteen when, convinced I had finally outgrown them, I packed up my entire collection of Archie comics and sold it to a kid down the street. Sigh. I still recall the sense of loss that enveloped me as I handed the bags over in exchange for $50 and a thick wad of football cards. But now I’m grateful for that moment of belated epiphany. Afterall, I could’ve easily ended up sporting a red wig, op shop clothes and flogging fake smiles and hugs on LA’s tackiest strip.
I’ve been admiring the works of Scott Barry for years without ever knowing much about him. The San Francisco-based artist, designer and founder of the Birdstand website has had gallery showings worldwide. He also works with the brilliant production studio, Mekanism, and has directed the 50 mini-shorts for their new website.
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