It doesn’t get much geekier than hotel rooms organized by the Dewey Decimal System. Yet this is exactly what you’ll find at The Library Hotel in New York City, a swank, yet cozy boutique hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
Lots of metal and hip-hop this week…Unearth, Draconian, Vakill and lloyd among them…The Chemical Brothers finally release the Hanna soundtrack, though I’m not really sure why it took this long…English indie prodigy Benjamin Francis Leftwich releases Pictures…
Draconian - A Rose for the Apocalypse
Lloyd - King of Hearts
Unearth - Darkness in the Light
Whitehorse - Progression
The Old 97′s - The Grand Theater Vol. 2
Jackie O – Motherf*cker
I Love You Dude – Digitalism
The Chemical Brothers - Hanna soundtrack
Vakill – Armor of God
Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Pictures
On July 10th, teams of inventors, makers, and hackers will head to Brooklyn, New York where they will embark on a 72-hour anything goes build-a-thon. The event, known as Red Bull Creation, will challenge teams to push their imaginative limits and “create the future.” Upon arriving in New York, contestants will be given a theme, taken to a creative build space, and unleashed on the streets of New York city as they scramble to acquire materials and seek inspiration for creating a potentially winning masterpiece. After being judged in front of a live audience, the winners will go home with a load of cash and tools to support future projects.
16 teams are officially in the running, with six deemed as wild cards. Among the wild cards is the all female team of Zorah and Tirzah Rodgers, Laura Leva, and Sarah Kihls who call themselves “Effin Ladies.” The ladies bring a twist to the contest, as unlike many of the contenders, they are scattered around the United States and until July 10th, have never collaborated on a project as a unit. They haven’t quite lined all their ducks in a row but come contest day, the Effin Ladies plan on bringing the heat.
ChinaShop tracked these ladies down to pick their brains on their backgrounds as artists and to nab some insider secrets on how they are preparing for the big day.
It was love at first sight for me and Purl (so much so that I went there twice in one night – drinks before dinner than again after); it’s easily one of the coolest bars I’ve ever been to. You walk inside and it feels as though you’ve stepped into this hidden, underground cave with all these small nooks and secret alleyways one can’t help but want to explore. A piano adorned with candles and old photographs sits in one room; there’s a fire place with a Chesterfield sofa, antique table and two gorgeous leather arm chairs sat around it; semi-private booths lit up by antique chandeliers and lamps give the illusion of mini caves within the cavernous room; small tables are situated in various corners with old, leather bound books sprawled about as jazz floats quietly through the air. It really is, as I’m fond of saying, magical.
ChinaShop wishes you a happy Independence Day and in the words of Katy, please feel free to “Ignite the light and let it shine just own the night like the Forth of July.”
Party on,
ChinaShop
You know the feeling. You’re sitting there at your computer—or walking around with it—immersed in the magic of the internet. YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, MySpace, etc., etc., etc. Everything, seemingly, awaits at your fingertips. Entire worlds upon worlds of sound, images and talktalktalk, history, trends in art, fashion, design, architecture, dog grooming and floor polishing equipment. Everything. Funny thing is, after hour two or so you find you’ve forgotten what you were looking for. Meanwhile you’ve grown two hours older and are lost in the universe.
Now what was it exactly that you were looking for? New bands? Good movies to see? Who won the big game? Maybe you were looking for a kind of meaning, new ways to identify. Fair enough. Though perhaps you were merely looking to kill some time. Fair enough again. But why this numbness, this…nausea? Feeling dizzy and wasted you grow aware of something creeping up. The knowledge that you’re being smothered.
Ugh.
It’s been a slow news week for movies, aside from a couple Dark Knight Rises developments — which I’ll spare you, just because I’ve done enough reporting on that and there’s really nothing that big. Apart from the fact that Nolan and co. want to land a big-ass cargo plane called a Hercules on some residential street in Scotland (which has some of the yokels up in arms about it understandably) and Anne Hathway’s Catwoman costume will more closely resemble the one of recent comics as opposed to the Eartha Kitt/Julie Newmar/Michelle Pfeiffer digs.
(Conceptual Artwork courtesy of fanboiii). Whaddya think? Too realistic, not sexy enough? Cause according to official sources, this may be the pretty much the next closest thing.
Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox is not a shy man. Standing 6′ 4″ tall and almost too skinny for words, he is a perfect rock and roll skeleton… And it’s not from drugs or anorexia. Bradford suffers from a rare genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome, a disease characterized by abnormally long limbs that makes carriers susceptible to cardiovascular disease. Bradford’s early life was plagued by ridicule and shame for his “strange” look. Pain I’m sure that feeds his art to this day, and he is the person (and performer) he is today because of it. And his presence is the perfect match for Deerhunter’s aberrant sound.
Way to start the weekend Vanessa! After watching this video I’m both jealous and thirsty. Join Cole and Vanessa as they head to downtown Los Angeles to a hidden gem of a bar called La Descarga. They stop and visit with Janet Varney and Samm Levine along the way.
