A new collaboration from Penguin, the world’s biggest publisher of English language books, and Bill Amberg, the British leathergoods accessories brand, hits stores in the UK, Australia and Canada in a holiday rollout stretching from November - January. The perfect Holiday travel companion, the collection of six Penguin classics—The Big Sleep, The Great Gatsby, Brideshead Revisited, A Room With a View, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s—is lovingly bound in leather in an easy, portable size. The folks over at Bill Amberg even included a great leather bookmark, avoiding any excuse for unsightliness like dogeared pages or my favorite, ATM receipts as bookmarks. Pick one up for yourself or for your favorite bibliophile...a book is a gift that keeps on giving.

TAGS: Reviews, Book Reviews, Things We Like

Detroit, Michigan is the first stop for Scion’s Installation Tour. Starting October 4th, C Pop Gallery will house close to 25 established and emerging artists that are local and international. Two picks from the show would be : Yoskay Yamamoto and Tessar Lo. Yamamoto’s art blends inspiration from the west coast; which he calls home and Japanese design elements. Lo’s illustrations feature everyday things blended with fantasy. The rooster is not set for the show; as it moves from city to city, more artists will be added to the collection. The last stop will be at Scion’s own LA gallery space. At the last show, all of the artwork will be auctioned to the public and 100% of the proceeds will go to charity.

Check out their website for tour dates near your city!

TAGS: Events, Things We Like

Laurel Nakadate, New Orleans (after Belloq)

Laurel Nakadate is one of our favorite artists. So it was very cool to hear she’s donating one of her amazing photographs to artforobama.net. If you’re interested head over there and bid on this piece, or pieces by some other amazing folks including Phillip Lorca DiCorcia, Wolfgang Tillmans and Peter Sutherland. Auction begins October 1, 2008 at 5PM EST.

TAGS: Things We Like

The Joy of Sake was held last thursday at Webster Hall. It was a joy to be a guest at this event. The Joy of Sake featured 327 selections that were entries in the 2008 U.S. National Sake Appraisal in Honolulu, August 26-27. The judging that took place in Honolulu was based on balance, taste, aroma, finish and overall impression based on a scale of one to five.

The event was divided up in floors based on the grade of production of the sake; the top floor was designated for “Daiginjo” classification and the second and first floor was designated for “Ginjo” and “Junmai” classification.  Not only were the best sakes produced in the world on display; there were also were highly notable restaurants that prepared appetizers to go along with the sake tasting. If that wasn’t enough; a large part of the 327 sakes present are not available for distribution in the United States. Here are some of my favorite picks from the event: wd-50’s Chestnut-Horseradish Soup with Smoked Mackerel & Verjus; plated in plastic cups, watching it was mesmerizing, Bond Street’s King Salmon Sashimi with Wasabi Zuke (served in a pipette to be squeezed after the first bite of the sashimi!) and Sushi Samba had Yellowtail Taquitos which was a fresh divergence from the classic forms of Asian cuisine. Now we move on to the sake tasting! Nagai Shuzo had a great “Ginjo” named Mizubasho, the flavors in this gold medal winner were distinctly fruity with a subtle tangy finish. Shindo Shuzoten’s “Daiginjo” named Gasanryu Kisaragi had a beautiful fragrence with a sharp finish. I know there were hundreds more than I stated but these were by far my favorites. 

TAGS: Reviews, Food Review, Things We Like

Work by JR. Photo by Marc Schiller, Wooster Collective

The Lazarides circus comes to New York for a two week hit and run show in Manhattan showcasing the very best new work from our artists in a group show called ‘The Outsiders’. Representing the best of our artists across a range of styles, the show will feature works from Faile, Paul Insect, JR, Antony Micallef, Jonathan Yeo, Miranda Donovan, Invader, David Choe, Mark Jenkins, Todd James, Vhils, Polly Morgan, Mode 2, BAST, Conor Harrington, Zevs, Blu, Borf and Ian Francis.

Antony Micallef will show his huge Times Square piece and Faile, JR and Blu, whose huge graphic murals adorned Tate Modern, will show alongside Jonathan Yeo’s porno portrait of the US President. Zevs will perform using his unique liquidated logo on a very different kind of naked canvas. Invader, famous for leaving cubic aliens around the planet, will be revealing his most ambitious psychogeography to date, and another secret work will provide a certain famous lady with some much needed funding for her forthcoming presidential campaign.

TAGS: Events, Things We Like

Photo by Gabrielle Piedmont

The ladies over at WorshipWorthy have had a busy summer! This fashion and lifestyle blog for the downtown NYC set has been making waves since they first started publishing in 2006. Now, they’ve stepped it up with their re-launched site and a new Worship Worthy apparel collection for the Fall. The line continues with the religious theme of the lifestyle blog and explores a bondage them for the lookbook shot by Gabrielle Piedmonte. Premiering a tight collection of Tees (love the Viva Westwood! Tee), Hoodies and Leggings, the collection is available online and at select retailers in New York City and HK.

TAGS: Things We Like

The folks over at American Photo Magazine named Theme’s Issue 8 Fashion Story, Tropic of Imaginary Romance shot by Dietmar Busse, as one of their Top 10 Fashion Stories of the year. Dietmar also shot our Issue 13 cover with Terrence Koh. In this special issue, we’re in good company with publications like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, V, and Elle magazines, and photographers Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, Thierry Le Goues, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadini, Mario Testino, and Patrick Demarchelier.

Says American Photo
Why We Love It: These pictures present themselves as paintings first, and only with a double take reveal themselves as the beautifully lit, intricately planned fashion photographs that they are. With these careful black-and-white tableaux, Dietmar Busse dialogues with artists such as Henri Rousseau and Paul Gaugin, simultaneoulsy highlighting and subverting the colonial overtones of their images.

TAGS: Things We Like

Still from Many Birthdays

Falling cliffs, dancing skyscrapers, and a hunter who receives hole-punched enlightenment from Shiva; Eric Power’s stop-motion animation isn’t the primitive Gumby clay-jerks of earlier times. Austin-based Power, who runs his own production company called Clear Production, constructs painstakingly detailed, vivid, and bustling animation with a mesmerizing blend of stop-motion, claymation, digital art, painted newspaper, origami, and ink drawings. Two lovers made out of yarn tangle each other up and roll into a yarn ball; a black and white city is spontaneously transformed into a vividly-colored world by two flying bicycles. Power’s weird-crazy-awesome animation is bound to leave you asking two questions: “How’d he do that?” and “How long did it take?”

TAGS: Things We Like

You’ve probably heard of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by now, with enough news media predicting the end of the world and what not. The scientists at CERN get the last laugh though - and they’ve released a youtube rap video to celebrate the start of the experiments. Yo! Raps, CERN!

TAGS: Things We Like

Everyone needs something to look forward to by the middle of the work week. Phonte, the North Carolina MC of Little Brother fame, and Brooklyn’s own DJ Brainchild have given us a great excuse to be excited about sitting inside at our computers on a beautiful Wednesday aka Hump Day!

Gordon Gartrell Radio (do you remember that Cosby Show episode where Theo tries to get that $95 Gordon Gartrell shirt?) is a hilarious mix of Phonte dishing on everything from current events to relationship advice and Brainchild’s soulful mix of hip-hop and ‘80s classics. The duo also drops random tracks from Phonte’s other projects including the newest jerri-curled ‘80s tribute from Detroit producer Zo and Phonte’s alter-ego Tigallo and selects from the next Foreign Exchange album (Nicolay producing and Phonte laying down the verses). Thanks to J for the link!

TAGS: Things We Like