A snippet from Lauren Gallaspy’s statement: ‘I want to make work through which desire, pathos, and obsession are encouraged, and the translation of event into imagination is made physical — form follows fetish’. Gallaspy’s work, in both the two and three dimensional formats, manages to unite opposition, an act which both exposes and captures the sublime.

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Featuring a selection of awesome graffiti from the black books of super-powered artists, the recently released Piecebook Reloaded: Rare Graffiti Drawings 1985–2005 — compiled by Sacha Jenkins and David Villorente — shows the work of more than fifty graffiti icons and is an eye-popping throwback to the days before everything offline was online and art was a statement rather than a dollar grabbing business.

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.

Beijing’s thriving music scene has no shortage of good bands, but few are as unabashedly innocent and giddy as Carsick Cars. Inspired by the blazing post-punk of Swell Maps, the aloof experimentalism of 90s shoegaze bands, and occasionally the discordance of Glenn Branca, Carsick Cars are equally influenced by the bands around them — PK-14, Joyside, Gar – singing in Mandarin and transcending the derivative unoriginality that marked the Chinese rock scene just a few years ago. Catch them this month on their US tour with PK-14 and Xiao He.

From the depths of functional creativity comes this invention out of Japan: the back scratching t shirt, the fastest and most illogical solution to fight an itch.

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The renowned brand of pianos, Baldwin, launched a new line of Exoticos Products, inspired by the eccentric artistic viewpoint of pianos that were used by the master Liberace in the 70s and 80s. This collection has customizations for everybody: fluorescent reminiscences, African Savanna inspirations, a little bit of the casinos of Las Vegas, and the spirit of the American Way of Life.

I can’t quite explain it, but when I see really amazing photography, I hear a low rumbling in the back of my head sort of like a lot of the atmospheric sounds in Blue Velvet or sometimes a white noise like a distant ocean. The images of Croatian photographer Snjezana Josipovic certainly make me hear those sounds.

Larry David plays a slight variation on his Curb Your Enthusiasm incarnation, spouting some of the most articulate rants on humanity in Woody Allen’s new comedy. I enjoyed last year’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but this is definitely better. It’s a spectacularly executed comedy farce, with the action constantly escalating along the way, adhering to the old comedy formula of putting the characters through hell for big laughs. Boris Yellnikoff, played by David, attempts and fails to kill himself. This leads to him marrying a young girl, and while the plot spirals into absurdity, it’s so much fun, there’s no point caring. The sweet ending wraps everything into a nice, neat and sweat package. While I’m usually a fan of gritty reality, sometimes it’s refreshing to experience a ‘happily ever after’.

A perfect blend of chaos and order, Tokyo-based Italian designer Roberto Calbucci’s drawings stem from esoteric and abstract trains of thought he has. They look rather like schematics for imaginary machines of the distant future.

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Working the farmers markets in the Baltimore-DC area the past few months, I have encountered a lot of great local food producers. One of my favorites is Firefly Farms in Garrett County, Maryland. Founded by partners Mike Koch and Pablo Solanet, the farm specializes in artisan goat cheese produced from milk sourced from local Amish farmers. I’ve often joked that Firefly is the Dogfish Head of goat cheese as they are all about experimentation and big, bold flavors (their incredible Black & Blue cheese, for instance, which has extra blue cheese culture for an extra kick). They produce milder cheese such as their Allegheny Chevre, as well as deep, ripe, sophisticated ones such as the Buche Noir. You can judge the quality of their product just by how enthusiastic the sellers at their stalls are, as well as the crowds gathered around for samples. Their Bela Vita, an Italian-style, semi-hard cheese, is one of the best cheeses I have ever tasted. I never return home from the market without something from them.

We have a new series of prints in our online store from twelve year-old Australian artist Moofus which are printed on heavyweight archival matt paper with archival inks.

Anna Ternheim is a singer-songwriter from Stockholm who has just released the album, Leaving On A Mayday. Her music has a dark touch about it which hints at influences from Nick Cave and PJ Harvey. We checked in with her and asked her about the music that inspired the recording. She started with the El Perro del Mar song, L-is for Love [listen below]: ‘I heard the song Dog a couple of years ago and was quite impressed. I love the production, the way it builds up and how the beat intensifies throughout the piece. At the same time, the song shows a great deal of restraint. It’s cold, hard, dark, and very beautiful’.

Gizmodo ran this story recently that they suggest is proof that birds are secretly composers: ‘A normal person sees these birds perched on electrical wires and worries about getting crapped on. Jarbas Agnelli looks at them and sees musical notes. Maybe he’s smarter than the rest of us because the melody is utterly oh-so-sweet-that-I-could-doze-off-right-now’.

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Ok, so I’m wearing this t-shirt right now. It’s by Singapore-based fashion label Hooked Clothing, and it’s just about my favorite tee at the moment. Why? Why not. Tees are fun and Hooked has me hooked.

Following on from the People of Walmart website, comes People Of Public Transit: ‘The public bus and subway systems are littered with amazing photo opportunities. Many of us have been sitting alone witnessing something amazing and only wishing we could share the experience with our friends. Well now you can!’

I was thinking the other day that it would be so practical to have a folding motorcycle that fits in the trunk of my Honda City. Just then, I stumbled upon the Motocompo, a folding motorcycle that fits in the trunk of a Honda City. It’s fate. This little single-speed machine came out in 1981 and Honda sold 53,369 of them in Japan. It features an AB12E 49 cc air-cooled two-stroke engine with 2.5 hp at 5,000 rpm. I was a bit disappointed to see that it only has 0.38 kg-m of torque at 4,500rpm, but you know, you can’t have everything! It’s also worth noting that it weighs 42 kg dry and 45 kg wet. It’s a bench. It’s a fruit holder. It’s man’s best friend.

The owner of the Bone Room had worked in a store that sold reptiles, cobras, and spiders since 1987. Now he’s running his own business where he sells bones of all kinds: from human skulls written with the corresponding natural record to different kinds of animal bones, skulls and even embalmed laboratory rats and dissected insects.

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Ravensblight, an old-school-looking website featuring tons of free internet knick-knacks, has a bunch of cool spapercraft models, including the skull above. Hopefully no one tries to put candles in them.

I wish people gave presents on Halloween rather than Christmas — then I’d have asked someone to get me these awesome posters by Alamo Drafthouse available through Mandotees.

California-based drums-bass-piano trio Topaz Rags may or may not have tumbled out of a desert roadhouse, but their sound evokes the kind of gleefully sinister goings-on you might imagine beneath thrumming bug zappers and a flickering neon glow after the bartender has locked the front door and Bubba has donned his purple cloak.