Sippy Sippy.

Drunkay. from John Bollozos on Vimeo.

The Whisper staff encounters a girl that overindulges herself at a recent open bar event.

FADER TV

The first episode of my new FADER TV series is online.

Enjoy.

Obamarama

Here's something to think about: on our morning commute this morning, we realized that just about a quarter of our Blackberry playlists were somehow Obama-related. This wasn't an intentional thing, as our boy Barack seems to inspire the more creative dudes making music, but it kind of made us wonder what will happen come November 5th. Whether Obama wins or not, would we then need to purge our music collection? Do topical songs like this come with an expiration date and suddenly become irrelevant or can we be free to bump the massive amount of songs of differing quality and the countless unsolicited Obama mixes for the next four years? We don't know the answer to this, but we'd certainly still get hyped if someone dropped House Music United's ode to Obama, "Yes We Can", on Election Day.

88-Keys Album In Stores November 11th!!!

88-Keys
The Death of Adam
Executive Produced by Kanye West!
In Stores November 11th!

DONT SLEEP!

Ted Talks: John Hodgman

We think John Hodgman is the shit. And the urine. So, imagine our delight when we catch him on Ted Talks talking about aliens, the expansiveness of the universe, and about falling in love. It sounds heavy, but it's not. We can't really go into it withour fucking it up, so just check it out.

Guilty Pleasure of the Week: "Cookie Jar"

We're starting to wonder if this column is going to be overly Katy Perry-related. Whatever. We like to keep it in the fam, whether it's ours or not. This week's pick is the pro-promiscuity ditty, "Cookie Jar", penned by Katy's current boyfriend, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes. Actually, we're not sure if it's exactly pro-promiscuity, it may be more of an issue regarding dude's complete and utter failure at being monogamous. That's his bad. With Ms. Perry's boner party credentials, we'd be trying to lock it down.

Tiny Vices in Los Angeles

It's only fitting that Tim Barber's overwhelmingly massive online gallery, Tiny Vices, completely blitzes the city of Los Angeles in support of its newest collection of books. Barber has two events planned for the first week of November: a slideshow and Q&A on the 5th at Family Bookstore on North Fairfax, and a RVCA-sponsored exhibition the following day at Hope Gallery in Echo Park. Both events should take on TIny Vice's free-flowing community-focused aesthetic, which pretty much means you'll be seeing tits (live or photographed) at either event. C'mon, dude was the photo editor over at Vice, what else do you expect?.

Mount Eerie & Julie Doiron at siteLA.

Admittedly, we give our friends over at siteLA alot of ink. Or pixels. But we like to think they deserve it because they always do cool shit (and we're right, as always). This coming Wednesday, October 29th, they will be having a show at their Silver Lake space with performances by Mount Eerie and Julie Doiron in support of their recently released collaborative album. The show starts at 8PM and is technically free, but they recommend giving an $8 donation. Pay the cash and make sure to bring some tissues, this show may very well veer into an iceberg made of melancholy.

'Nuff Said: Underworld 3

In our newest series of sporadic posts, our contributors show screengrabs of IM conversations about random things that they wanted to talk about, but were to lazy to write another 150 words for. These are meant to be (hopefully) clever and succinct. 'Nuff said.

Machines and Souls

Machines and Souls Exhibition, Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid from José Luis de Vicente on Vimeo.

"We live in the world that's imagined for us," a teacher once told me that. He was right. The world around us is designed. Everything from the screen you're looking at to the media within it, it's all been thought out. If you extend the notion even further it becomes apparent that very few things in our world exist without the presence of some design. We are quite lucky to live in such an age.

Exploring those avenues of design, artist, educator and developer, Daniel Rozin is on the cutting edge. A citizen of New York, Rozin was first trained as an industrial designer. Later in his life, he would begin to apply these skills elsewhere to create masterful interactive displays using a wide range of differing, unconventional materials. His work characteristically tends to quite literally mirror the lives of its viewers. Rozin's pieces are great examples of the fusion of art and technology that is occurring in our contemporary world. Recently, Rozin's work has found a home alongside many other contemporary designers at the Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofia, in Madrid. His work is featured in an exhibition entitled "Machines and Souls (above)."

Currently, Daniel Rozin is an associate professor at New York University's cutting-edge Interactive Telecommunications Program, he also owns a small software development company called smoothware design. More info about his life and work
can be found here: http://www.smoothware.com/danny/

Guilty Pleasure of The Week: Rod Stewart.

We didn't have cool parents growing up. Well, they were cool but they weren't listening to cool shit. Everyone has friends whose parents introduced them to Zeppelin and Monk and shit like that. We're not those friends. Our parents introduced us to Phil Collins, Gloria Estefan, and the newest subject of Guilty Pleasure of The Week, Rod Stewart. Sure, the guy was hard as fuck with that "Young Turks" shit, but this catchy ode to self-pity preempts, and pretty much set our ears up for, all the emo we listened to as teens. Oh well, this song still gets to us to this day. Too bad the video made the song even softer. Whoops.

Paul Jasmin + Band of Outsiders

We've been lucky enough to have some great teachers in our respective academic careers. When we meet said teachers, we also tend to go a little overboard with the hero worship. Sometimes this applies to teachers whose classes we didn't even take. This is why we're so excited that Paul Jasmin, the fashion photography professor over at Art Center and the mentor for our close friends, is in the new lookbook for Band of Outsiders. Fuck it, he is the lookbook for Band of Outsiders. You have to give it to him, dude knows what to do in front and behind the lens. We hope that we end up kind of like that guy, drinking cognac out of lowballs while rocking bow ties.

Scary Shit.

7. Dagnaski comments:
October 16, 2008
To Commonsense: I'm not out to prove anything to you or anyone else. I'm also not blind to reality. Obama is going to win handily. There will immediately be outbreaks of violence nationwide. This is the way the afircan american community celebrates. How many dozens of examples would you like me to provide? The only saving grace is that most of the violence will be limited to the urban core. A fair warning to all malcontents. In my suburb we're aware of you, we're realistic about you, and we're prepared to deal with you. Come into my neighboorhood, and you're going to die.

Taken from a Hollywood Reporter story about the World Series being pushed back due to Obama's thirty minute ad buy.

edit: now with somewhat related video.

JCVD

'JCVD' Theatrical Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

Let's face it: for the past decade or so, the Muscles from Brussels has been on the receiving end of a lot of jokes. In the post-YouTube world, it has been really tough to take Van Damme and the lot of his action B-movie colleagues seriously. Which is why this trailer really caught us off guard. Van Damme gets meta? Say it ain't so, Joe! The conceit is an interesting take on the state of action stars, and action movies in general. We hope that the idea stays fresh for more than the first act and plays out more like Dog Day Afternoon (except with Van Damme), rather than ninety minutes of "JCVD is old and broke" jokes.

Guilty Pleasure of the Week: Katy Perry

In all honesty, we should have named this post "Guilty Pleasure of The Year". But since it's sort of a kick-off for something we've wanted to do for a while, we might as well go straight to #1 on our list. Our favorite bi-curious, anti-guyliner, ex-Christian pop songstress of the moment (if there's another one that fits that description out there, let us know) caught our eyes by looking a lot like a trashy Zooey Deschanel. That is usually enough for most people, but after secretly listening to her entire(!) album a couple of times, we thinks she makes catchy shit too. We can't hate on that. Plus she has a cat and a blog named Kitty Purry, which hints at her having a sense of humor and being somewhat clever. Holla. Check out her recent cover of MGMT's "Electric Feel" here.

Distractions and Bluegrass

Last night I caught a great show at Alex's Bar in Long Beach. Tijuana Knife Fight, Johnny Madcap and the Distractions, Mike Watt and the Secondmen, Old Man Markley and everybody's favorite old man punk group: Youth Brigade. All the bands had lots of energy and managed to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Two bands in particular caught my attention: Johnny Madcap and the Distractions and Old Man Markley (above).

Led by former Madcap guitarist Johnny Madcap, the Distractions deliver a great blend of catchy one-liners, harmonized music and a stage presence that's the mark of years of experience. Admittedly biased, I've been a fan of Johnny's work since the early days of Madcap and can definitely hear the influence in the Distractions. Their songs feel like anthems and easily draw the crowd in. While they aren't the next Rolling Stones, they have an endearing quality that's sure to attract many fans as they hit the road and tour. When asked about the new band, Johnny had this to say, "Music's the only thing I know, so I felt like I had to do this." Check 'em out, tap your toes and enjoy.

Similarly to the Distractions, band Old Man Markley proves that harmony is key. Don't let the name fool you, Old Man Markley isn't a solo act, in fact, its far from. This eleven-member punk-induced bluegrass act has enough vivacity to make even the toughest brute jump up and jig. Using unconventional instruments to their advantage, Old Man Markley has a sound uniquely their own and leaves you wondering why more haven't picked up the train whistle. They're like a bigger, fuller, faster version of the Knitters. While I must admit that their singles don't pack nearly the punch as their live show, you should definitely check this group out. Most fun I've ever had watching a grown man strum a washtub, swear.

Both bands will be perfoming on the 17th of this month at the Way Out West Fest in Pioneertown, California.

p.s. Youth Brigade was awesome.

Lykke Li & Bon Iver: "Dance Dance Dance"

The weather in Los Angeles has been a real bitch lately. It was drizzly when we went to Detour, but then it got all maverick-y and turned up the heat for the rest of the week. We guess it's summer's last gasp. There's no real reason to complain, really, as Lykke Li came out with the perfect video to end the summer (shaddup, we know it's technically fall). The video feels too perfectly serendipitous to be completely man made. God probably came down and introduced her to the boys of Bon Iver so that they can be the backing band for her live rendition of "Dance Dance Dance". Sit back and watch her be all goofy and Swedish. It's guaranteed to make you swoon just a little bit.

Let The Right One In.

We've been waiting for this one for a while. Coming to theaters soon is one of the most buzzed movies of the year, Let The Right One In. It's part romance, part coming of age story, and part fantasy. Well, we don't know about the fantasy part, but the idea of asking a vampire to be your girlfriend is, at least to us, bat shit crazy. Dude's trying to get some 'tang, but that chick is out for his sweet neck blood. The movie comes out in Los Angeles and New York on October 24th, but if you're in the City of Angels, you can check out a special screening next Tuesday at The Montalban as part of Flux/Nike Sportswear's Cinema Tuesdays series. The trailer can be seen on purty HD over at Apple.

Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals.

Further proof that Andy Samberg is the only one keeping SNL afloat.