Crimea X is the coming together of two offbeat, disparate characters, DJ Rocca (Ajello, Super Sonic Lovers, Maffia Sound System) and Jukka Reverberi from 90s Italian glam cult rockers, Giardini di Mirò, who have often have been compared with the sound of Mogwai, Arab Strap, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. We asked them about their favourite music and they started with The Smiths song, Ask [listen below] ‘I saw them playing live on Italian TV. It was during the 80s when I was extremely young, and I’ve never stopped listening to this song’. Read the rest of Crimea X’s Secret Playlist.

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My roommate is on a big Star Trek kick, re-watching the entire original series. I forgot how amazing and progressive and ahead-of-its-time it was. Actually, Star Trek: the Next Generation is also just as good. Hopefully Luke Butler will paint images from that series next or superimpose Captain Picard’s head on a nude body of Adonis.

I love the curated selection of abandoned swimming pool photos on Feature Shoot today, featuring work by Carlo Van de Roer and Albert Jodar, amongst others.

This video for Nova Scotian gypsy folk-punk ensemble Tom Fun Orchestra is so effectively simple, matching the imagery to the song perfectly.

What happens when you put your favorite recipe to song? Well, Brooklyn-based band One Ring Zero set on a mission to find out. The result? One Ring Zero’s Recipe Project: a compilation of recipes by the band’s favorite chefs sung out verbatim and set to the chef’s musical styling of choice.

Lamb shanks roasted in paper, octopus with black eyed peas, and spaghetti with sweet 100 tomatoes are among the titles. From heavy metal to folkier styles, each song follows the recipe literally, even listing ingredients (like ‘1 ½ cups distilled white vinegar’) and methods (’Remove from the marinade. Pat dry’). Surprisingly, the songs are better than you’d think and the pure creativity and spirit behind it is definitely charming. And that’s not all One Ring Zero has to offer by way of food — they also have a food blog; then again, who doesn’t?

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California-based artist Cheeming Boey makes super-wowza drawings on styrofoam coffee cups. He also keeps a web comic documenting his daily life that is at times hilarious at others rather touching. He reminds me of my friend Jon from high school.

Imagine seeing one of these in the place of a normal tap and basin. You’d question how on earth it worked, right? Well, it’s quite simple really: you take the small river stone off and the light pressure of the water is left to flow. A brilliant and remarkably aesthetically pleasing design that gets rid of the mechanical components of a tap. Just hope you don’t lose that stone.

UK-based one-man-band Sieben has a new album out: As They Should Sound. Frontman Matt Howden builds songs with a loop pedal and a violin, which he uses for rhythm and melody. His sound is wonderfully sophisticated and cabalistic, with a particularly British sense of lyricism.

Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply leave a message under this post with the city you live in and three words you’d use to describe these Sony products.

POWER OF SOUND
With a profound heritage in delivering industry leading sound quality, Sony Australia is uniting all its audio products under a banner entitled the ‘Power of Sound’, which will focus on the importance of sound quality and demonstrate Sony’s leadership in this area.

A number of interesting ‘laboratory experiments’ have been conducted by Sony to test the capabilities of some of their latest audio products including headphones, Walkman, home theatre systems, Hi-Fi and in-car audio equipment. The films demonstrate the products’ ability to deliver the true power of sound and we’ve been provided with the headphone experiment to show just what Sony means by ‘The Power of Sound’.

Further information on Sony’s ‘Power of Sound’ campaign can be found here.

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I don’t know about you, but when I make my first billion dollars, I’m going to have George Lucas design me a spaceship and take my closest eight friends for a joy flight to Dantooine. Errr, any takers? C’mon!

Anyone following my progress lately will notice that I am increasingly obsessed with masks, faces, textures, patterns, and repetition. Ryan Bubnis inspires some new ideas in me with his charming, richly-textured images.

Extreme Ironing started in 1997 when a group of friends decided to iron in some rocks near their houses in the city of Leicester, Great Britain. The activity was risky because they were in danger of falling, which is why they thought to turn it into an extreme sport.

This anecdote gave birth to the activity of Extreme Ironing. Its official website recommends that the clothes to be ironed must not be the best garment you have in your closet because a calculation mistake can cause the loosening of the garment itself. World and regional tournaments are organized and often Extreme Ironing is combined with other extreme sports so that the followers can practice both sports for the price of one.

Treasure Chests is a book by Mel Norman and Arthur Benwood which was published by Alexion Corp in 1967. The book compiles retouched pictures of female breasts, so it’s full of beautiful ladies with three or four breasts, breasts that pop up from the lower part of the abdomen, or even from the back.

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Boasting members of Serena Maneesh, Harry’s Gym and Danielson, revolving around frontman and songwriter Frode Stromstad — with the album’s supporting cast including Sufjan Stephens and Gary Olsen of Lady Bug Transistor — I Was A King are a misty eyed pop-gaze of West Coast harmonies and ringing Rickenbacker. They have just released a new single — Norman Bleik — through Sonic Cathedral and we checked in with Stromstad to get the inside word on the music that inspired it all. He started with the Flaming Lips song, Slow Nerve Action [listen below]: ‘The last song out on one of my favorite Flaming Lips albums, Transmissions From The Satellite Heart. I think Flaming Lips are responsible for creating the coolest drum sound ever’. Read the rest of I Was A King’s Secret Playlist.

Inspired by the already fabulous Jonathan Adler designs, these irresistible salt and pepper shakers add the perfect dash of style to any kitchen. The recently released chic shakers come in well-executed, creative shapes like whales, penguins, and Adler’s iconic fish. All are lovingly packaged in bright, inspired boxes, making them an overall sophisticated yet playful addition to your table.

Spending a huge amount of money is easy when you’re without a mortgage, kids or a full time job. To ease my financial guilt, I recently put together this list of fifty fun, bizarre and slightly mad ways in which I managed to blow $50K over the years — buying myself nothing but amazing memories and the odd persistent stomach bug.

Joe Becker cites Baroque and Rococo painting as primary influences on his work, but the specters of more recent artists — Francis Bacon and Ivan Albright most prominently — also peer out from his grotesque images. Becker levels less-than-subtle indictments of man’s gluttony, violence, cruelty, and selfishness through his paintings, and while rarely using contemporary imagery, his commentary applies particularly to the current state of our civilization and the persistent human sense of entitlement. The wrath behind the snarling mouths and beneath the rot, decay, blood, and viscera of Becker’s pieces is almost tangible.

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As abstract as Paul Metzger’s hypnotic, thrumming improvisations are, they have recognizable influences from Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Japanese folk traditions with the Minneapolis-based musician seeming to summon an entire orchestra of ancient sounds and extinct instruments from his cymbal-rigged guitar and 24-string banjo, which he plucks, strums, bows, and taps.

Showcasing works by leading Australasian artists, the Super Human exhibition re-frames the Cartesian body within contemporary culture. Focusing on Cognition and Neurology (Mind), Augmentation and Biological Manipulation (Body) and Nanoscale Interventions (the Soul, the ‘not visible’), the exhibition exposes aspirations and fears about our bodies and their extraordinary functions. The exhibition runs at the RMIT Gallery until December 5.

Too sweet for words, these beautiful hoop earrings by Sydney-based designer Carmel Taylor are a real touch of origami for your ears.