1. Checkout She Was Born To Be My Unicorn, a group show curated by Amy Kellner that opened last night at Smith-Stewart gallery (53 Stanton Street/212.477.2821). The show was inspired by a show entitled my people were fair and had cum in their hair (but now they're content to spray stars from your boughs) curated by Bob Nickas a few years ago at Team Gallery. Check the press release for more scoop on that and the show. Artists included: Ryan McGinley, assume vivid astro focus, Rob Pruitt, Marlene McCarty, Dana Carlson, among others. It runs now through 07.28.07. While we're on the topic of unicorns, have a listen to I Was Born To Be A Unicorn by one of my favorite nobodys-ever-heard-of-them bands The Unicorns.

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1. I just got word from the folks at Going.com (the place to RSVP for this summer's Pool Parties at McCarren Pool in Brooklyn) that the link to RSVP for the TV On The Radio Show will be going up shortly. Exact date/time? They wouldn't say, so keep checking back. You can, though, currently RSVP for all shows up until 07.22.07. Better hurry: it's FCFS.

2. If you're lucky enough to have a house in the country or even a rooftop deck, checkout this super portable, use-anywhere outdoor lighting piece: Tobias Wong's SunJar (2006). "Inside this traditional Mason jar hides a highly efficient solar cell, rechargeable battery, and low energy LED lamps. Place the jar in the sunlight and the solar cell creates an electrical current that charges the battery, powering the three LED lamps and providing diffused and warm light from the frosted jar during the night. Completely water tight, the SunJar can be left outside in any weather condition and is the perfect garden light or night-light." And while you're at it, checkout the other "indoor/outdoor" design pieces offered in the MoMA store.

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1. We love Banks Violette and so should you. Checkout his latest self-titled show--a collaboration between Team Gallery and Barbara Gladstone Gallery--that opens tomorrow 06.28.07. You're not going to want to miss this one. His work is HOT. "Banks Violette, whose interests both in minimalist form and in the transmissions of subcultural communities, have determined the course of his artistic practice since 2000, has been increasingly drawn to collaboration as the conceptual support for his installations. Violette is currently included in the The Shapes of Space exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Bastard Creature exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris." Make sure to checkout the page of info on Team's site, Gladstone's homepage, and his Wikipedia entry.

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1. You couldn't get Cheap Mondays and A.P.C. in Fort Greene when I lived there. Now you can: at Stuart & Wright (85 Lafayette Avenue). They're having a sample sale that begins Thursday 06.28 and runs through Sunday, July 01. What you'll find: Cheap Monday, A.P.C., Steven Alan, Earnest Sewn, Engineered Garments, and much more at 30-75% off.

2. The Editors latest EP An End Has A Start has just dropped in Europe and the UK. It will be out in the US on 07.17.07. In the meantime, you can listen to it in its entirety for a short time only on MySpace. Have a listen and let me know what you think: are they hot or not?! I'm still on the fence with these guys, but that may change with this latest record.

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1. I'll be wirelessly updating the site from now until 07.29.07 from just outside McCarren Pool. I want to make sure to be the first in line to see TV On The Radio!! Checkout the lineup for this year's Pool Parties and TVOTR's MySpace. They're all free, but you have to RSVP. I had one of the best days ever last summer when The Secret Machines and Bloc Party played this venue. I must say, though, the lineup this year is a bit strange. Unless I'm really out of touch with the music scene, the only two (2) other bands I want to see are Superchunk (06.24.07) and Blonde Redhead (08.05.07). And I just hope it's at least two more years before the crowd turns lame and we have another PS1 Warmup scenario on our hands.

2. This is hot. Taken from the NYTimes: "Michael Angelo, the owner of the Wonderland Beauty Parlor, remembers that when he first heard about Flavor Paper, a New Orleans wallcovering company, he thought the name cried out for a scratch-and-sniff wallpaper. Mr. Angelo’s hair salon in the meatpacking district is now Flavor Paper’s New York showroom, and he recently got the chance to design that wallpaper. The Fruit Cocktail Collection is a series of Mylar wallcoverings with scratch-and-sniff images and names like Cherry Forever and B-A-N-A-N-A-S. (The scent is applied using slurries, the microcapsules of fragrance used in perfume strips.) Available for $375 to $525 per roll at the Wonderland Beauty Parlor, 418 West 13th Street (Ninth Avenue), (212) 524-2800 or flavorleague.com."

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Super cool Miami store BASE has hooked up this.hearts.on.fire. once again with their Album Club Picks. The picks are a very well-curated set of some of the sexiest, coolest music anywhere. I love it because it's so different from my usual taste and always introduces me to new artists that I might not hear about otherwise. You can listen to samples and buy each album by clicking on the links below.

10. Deepchild (Lifetime) / Sydney based DJ Rick Bull, aka Deepchild, is set for summer with an album full of chilled out house grooves and a mix of minimal, dub, electro, funk, jazz and a little bit of reggae thrown in.

9. Laid Back (Happy Dreamer) / Best known for their funky single, "White Horse", Laid Back return with some of the best funky lounge music around, including the nearly ubiquitous tracks, "Beautiful Day" and "People".

8. De Phazz (Days Of Twang) / German downtempo nu-Jazz ensemble De-Phazz have always been unique, and they prove it yet again by releasing an album of "Twangtronica", or rock and country mixed up with soul and jazz in an electronic mix.

7. The Bamboos (Rawville) / "Rawville", by Australian funk sextet The Bamboos, is split almost evenly between instrumental and vocal-filled tracks(with guest like Alice Russell & Ohmega Watts), but one thing is for sure, this is some serious feet-stompin' melodious funk

6. Louie Vega (Lust) / NYC Based Louie Vega is nothing less than a house music icon and on his new collection, Lust, he aims to share his musical influences and inspirations, and by pairing his signature sexy beats with photographer Jonas Larsson's erotic images, fusing art and soul in one project.

5. Keran Ann Israeli-French chanteuse Keran Ann's ethereal and beautifully emotive voice has been paired with more gritty and personal lyrics to produce a perfect blend of jazz, folk and pop on her eponymous new CD.

4. Robert Fonseca (Zamazu) / With his mixture of soul, jazz and classical music, and influences as wide and varied as American gospel, Middle Eastern, Brazilian and even a little bit of drum n bass, Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca has been called nothing less than the future of Cuban music and the "next generation Buena Vista Social Club".

3. Travis (The Boy With No Name) / Before there was Coldplay there was Travis and the Scottish foursome return after a long layoff from the spotlight with more sparkling Brit-pop anthems on "The Boy with No Name."

2. The Cinematic Orchestra (Ma Fleur) / The Cinematic Orchestra has returned with more of their gorgeous and complex scores, this time aiming to reflect the laid back, electro tinged and film noir-ish quality of Paris' famous café culture in the moodily brilliant "Ma Fleur."

1. Link Pins (Balanced) / Down tempo, dub, broken beat and house, quite an eclectic mix and pulled off beautifully by Balanced Records on their innovative new compilation, Link Pins.

1. The East River Music Project has just announced its first show of the summer, which takes place this Saturday, June 23. Curated by Secret Project Robot and The Social Registry, the show will feature Ex-Models, S-S-S-Spectres, Hundred Eyes, Mikey Bones, + a few surprises. The show starts at 2pm, is FREE, and is located at the East River Amphitheater. Check ERMP's site for more info on the project, directions to the venue, and more detailed info on the artists. Make sure to checkout the S-S-S-Spectres MySpace to listen to a few of their tracks. Ghost Family is hot.

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1. The ICA (Institute Of Contemporary Arts) in London is hosting "the first ever iTunes Festival. Every night during July we will have a different world-class band or artist playing an intimate live show. More than 60 acts - from young upstarts to international legends and long awaited comebacks - will perform in our theatre. Musicians as varied as Amy Winehouse, The Pigeon Detectives, Mika, Editors, Beverley Knight and Crowded House will play to audiences of no more 350 people. Uniquely, every single gig will be professionally recorded and made available to buy on iTunes." Checkout their site for more info on dates + times and how to get your hands on some tickets! And checkout this before and after pic of Amy Winehouse. Ouch!

2. Checkout Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole, by political theorist Benjamin R. Barber. In the book, Barber "argues that where free-market capitalism once bolstered our democracy, it is now in danger of destroying it. Now the businesses with the biggest profits are those that manufacture a relatively useless cornucopia of games, gadgets, and myriad consumer goods for which there is no discernable need market other than the one created by capitalism’s own frantic need to sell." For more details, checkout Barber's site (where you can see a killer interview with the author on The Colbert Report), the plug on MySpace Books, this this review on NYTimes, and, of course, this link to Amazon.com where you can buy it. This one's definitely going in my beach bag.

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1. Don't miss the Y-3 sample sale: Wednesday June 27 through Sunday July 01, 2007. Men's + women's apparel, footwear, and accessories. The hours are Wed-Friday 10am - 7pm and Sat-Sunday 10am - 6pm. The sale is being held at the Adidas New York Showroom, 559 Broadway 2nd Floor @ Houston. Cash and all major credit cards accepted.

2. Checkout UK music documentary The Punk Years, a ten part series, all of which are available on YouTube. The Punk Years "celebrates punk as a valid musical genre in its own right, like jazz or blues or soul. Not only Play UK's most watched series ever, it is also widely acknowledged by long term fans of the genre as the best-ever series about the music. Appreciative comment focused on the great cross-section of interviewees and the programme's honesty and integrity in dealing with a highly contentious, and for many people emotional and exciting, art form." Interviewed and discussed: The Velvets, Bowie, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, The Clash, Siouxsie, Xray Spex, Nirvana, The White Stripes, Green Day, and many others. Click here for a full description of each installment, the first of which Wham Bam Thank You Glam can be found in 3 parts: 1A, 1B, and 1C. For the rest, checkout this site. They've got links to every part of every installment.

3. And if you haven't yet seen American Hardcore yet, now's the time.

1. Make sure to checkout rising star British photographer Ellis Scott. Scott has a monthly spread of 6 pages in super hot Dazed And Confused (the London-based fashion/lifestyle mag) and currently has a piece Untitled (Nude), 2007 (shown right) in The Black Market @ the Anna Kustera gallery in Chelsea. He's shot London fashion darling Gareth Pugh's runway shows and has a portfolio of photos on Flicker.com, including photos from the after party for The Black Market, which was held at Rififi in the East Village and featured Warboy on the turntables with performances by The Black Peter Group and K-tron and Exploding Triangles.

2. Live Nation presents the White Stripes Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at Fillmore East aka Irving Plaza. I tried to get tix this morning at 10am when they went on sale, but was unable! The message on the Live Nation show page now says that tickets will go on sale Tuesday at 5pm. Hmmmmmmm?!

1. Stop by LES hot spot Bblessing for their summer sale, which begins today. 25-40% off. A selection of what you'll find: Earnest Sewn, Raf Simons, Rag and Bone, Surface2Air, Obedient Sons, and Yoko Devereaux.

2. If you haven't heard of Wolfmother, then you have definitely never heard of Vancouver's Black Mountain, headed by Stephen McBean, who "also heads another similarly-named band, Pink Mountaintops, who are the more experimental side of McBean's musical abilities. Black Mountain is the front line band for Black Mountain Army, a collective of musicians, artists and friends in Vancouver." Checkout this insane extended version of their hit song Druganaut on MySpace. Don't forget to have a look at Pink Mountaintops MySpace while you're at it.

3. If you're not a huge fan of Wolfmother yet, now's the time. I heard Love Train out the other night and was reminded how fucking amazing these guys are, and I don't even really like heavy metal. For those of you who think of their music as a watered down derivative of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, get over it. Just sit back and enjoy the music. Checkout their site, their MySpace (to listen to some tracks, get info on shows and to checkout new release Pleased To Meet You), this live version of Woman on Letterman, and this fansite.

1. Checkout "Kids + Money" a NY Times short film by photographer Lauren Greenfield. "In the Spring of 2007, Lauren Greenfield conducted interviews with Los Angeles teenagers on the subject of money and how it affects their lives." From rich to middle class to poor, the kids give us insight into the world of teenagers, money, and status in a city known for its superficiality. It's at the same time fascinating and disturbing. Greenfield is "an American documentary photographer, photojournalist, and documentary filmmaker. She has published three books of her work, and has been featured in a variety of magazines. Her photographs generally deal with issues relating to youth culture, gender identity, body image, eating disorder, and the influence of popular culture on how we live." Don't forget Greenfield's website, info on another of her films THIN (addresssing the issue of teen anorexia), and more images from the Greenfield and others on her agency's site, VII Photo.

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1. You've got to checkout Toy Watch's line: it's really hot. I should point out that I've never been much of a watch fan and haven't owned one since the Casio G-Shock craze 10 or so years ago. The one before that was a Freestyle Shark Classic, popular in the late 80's with surfers and divers. Lately, though, my taste has begun to change and I've grown fond of certain styles of higher end watches by Rolex, Breitling, and Cartier. I'm not sure about you, but I can't afford to shell out 5-10K, though. That's where Toy Watch comes in: they offer styles that fuse elements of the sports watches (like clear arcylic bracelets) with the look and feel of the higher end watches at affordable prices. Check here for complete list of retailers of the line or here to shop online.

2. Checkout the re-released 1989 Bruce Weber film Let's Get Lost playing now at Film Forum through 06.28.07. “He was bad, he was trouble and he was beautiful. A James Dean lookalike pretty boy whose jazz trumpeting and melancholy crooning epitomized 50s cool, Chet Baker had become, when famed photographer Bruce Weber finally caught up with him after three decades of fandom, an alcoholic and a junkie..." This movie looks amazing. Checkout Film Forum's site for more info and showtimes, watch the trailer, listen to this interview with the filmmakers on NPR, read this review in the NYTimes, and of course, checkout the Wikipedia entry for Chet Baker to get an idea of what the guy was all about.

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1. Checkout super hot Me Magazine, "an independent quarterly magazine devoted to creative individuals. Each issue explores the life of a guest editor and their circle of friends." Current cover boy: fashion designer Thakoon, who's brought together his friends for the issue. Past issues have featured: Miho Aoki (United Bamboo); Hisham Bharoocha (Soft Circle/artist/photographer); Joshua Abelow (artist); and Mirabelle Marden & Melissa Bent (Rivington Arms gallery). You can subscribe to the magazine online or purchase it at various retailers in the US, Canada, and Japan.

2. Checkout this hot show currently on at the ICA (Institute Of Contemporary Arts) in London called Memorial To The Iraq War. "Twenty-six artists from around the world present proposals for a memorial to the Iraq War, addressing the invasion and occupation of the country, its slide into civil war and the conflict's relation to global jihadism and the War on Terror. These memorials address topics such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the country's slide into civil war, the deaths of soldiers and civilians, and the conflict's relation to global jihadism and the War on Terror." Included are: Sam Durant, Chris Evans, Liam Gillick, Nate Lowman, and Collier Schorr. Checkout the ICA site for more info.

1. Checkout this exclusive pic of the latest piece in Ju$t Another Rich Kid's Indulgences series--Indulgences No. 5/Nike Dunk Hightops. It's a brand new pair of Nikes dipped in 24k gold. As with the previous pieces in the series, this work comments on the luxury market and consumerism. Why buy a limited edition pair of Nikes only to hide them away in their box in a closet with 200 other pairs where nobody can see them?! The work is currently on view exclusively at the Anna Kustera gallery @ 520 West 21st Street in Chelsea. Don't forget to checkout the original Indulgences, which was covered by V Man, Surface, Zoo, and Flaunt, and was shown in the galleries at Colette, Loveless, and Celux. Indulgences No. 5 is fittingly available in an edition of 5. Contact the gallery for pricing and availability.

2. It's summer in the city and one of my favorite summer things is the cold noodles at Rairaiken, available May through September only. There are two kinds: Haiyashi Chu-ka & Zha Jian Men. The former, which is the one I'm into, has chilled noodles & vinegar flavored soy sauce broth topped with chicken, cucumber, egg, sun dried tomato, seaweed, red ginger, lettuce, sesame seeds, scallion, and this amazing spicy mustard to mix in for flavor. Rairaiken (214 E 10 btwn 1st and 2nd) is by far one of the best noodle shops in the city and has that authentic Japanese feel. Checkout this profile on Gothamist for pics and more info.

3. Unless you were lucky enough to see it at Cannes, Michael Moore's new Sicko, a hard hitting look at the state of health care in America, won't hit theaters until 06.29.07. In the meantime, checkout the official site and watch the trailer. As someone who doesn't have health insurance, you can bet that I won't miss this one.

1. My favorite new thing: the new Netflix "Watch Now" feature. Whenever I'm between DVDs or in the mood for something other than what I have at home, it works like a charm. Keep in mind, though, not every movie available through Netflix is available via this feature, and, of course, you have to be a Netflix member. It is "on demand", though, and at no additional charge, which rules. Checkout these two documentaries on Jackson Pollock, both available via "Watch Now": Jackson Pollock Love And Death On Long Island and Who The #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? The former, a great history of the artist. The latter, an amazing tale that you shouldn't miss whether you give a #$&% about Pollock or not. "When brash trailer park resident Teri Horton bought a secondhand painting for five bucks, little did she know it could be a genuine Jackson Pollock worth millions. This film documents Horton's volatile 15-year journey into the heart of the art world's elitist establishment to have the painting authenticated." Check it out.

2. Checkout Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks. "Get the definitive story behind one of the classic albums from the British punk era, and see surviving band members of the Sex Pistols talk about how it all came together. Features classic tracks such as God Save the Queen (She Ain't No Human Bein') and Anarchy in the UK." The film recounts the plight of the band to get their first and only studio album recorded, how Sid Vicious couldn't play to save his life, and what a sleazeball Malcolm McLaren is. Don't forget to watch the Filth And The Fury, another Sex Pistols documentary, and download Spunk, the Sex Pistols' de facto alternative debut album, which is much more raw than Never Mind The Bollocks. If you feel like OD'ing on the band, checkout The Great Rock N Roll Swindle, yet another Sex Pistols documentary by Julien Temple, this time told from McLaren's point of view. Julien Temple also produced the just-released Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, which is still not playing anywhere in the US.

1. Checkout Moroccan-born artist Mounir Fatmi's work. "Mounir Fatmi constructs visual space and linguistic games that aim to free the viewer from their preconceptions of politics and religion, and allow them to contemplate these and other subjects in new ways. His videos, installations, drawings, paintings, and sculptures bring to light out doubts, fears, and desires." Checkout this sick piece--Save Manhattan--that he's showing in the Venice Biennale. It's a New York skyline constructed entirely out of speakers. It's one of the hottest works of art I've seen in a long time. Don't forget more pics of his work on Shoshana Wayne Gallery's site.

1. I'm not really big on the original content videos or weblog videos on YouTube. I've watched some and, while a few are funny or interesting, they mostly just suck. What I like YouTube for is interviews, music videos, and commericials. We now have this online source to watch almost anything we want at anytime, including two of my favorite commercials: Wendy's Where's The Beef and Soviet Fashion Show. And of course, I can't forget the little Geico newt. Who needs cable??

2. Checkout the first US solo exhibit "of works by British artist Linder, an active figure in the punk and post punk music scenes. Known for her collaged work—which includes the cover design of the Buzzcocks’s 1977 single Orgasm Addict—Linder has been creating photomontages for the past thirty years that combine imagery from pornography, car enthusiast publications, and other magazines associated with male interests and the objectification of women." Click here for the full story on PS1's site. Don't forget to checkout Linder's bio on Wikipedia, some of the artist's work at Paul Stopler Gallery, and this interview with Linder in the Guardian.

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1. Bigger is (sometimes) better. Case in point: controversial, large-scale, minimal artist Richard Serra, whose show Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years is on at MOMA now through 09.03.07. "This exhibition presents the artist's forty-year career, from his early experiments with materials such as rubber, neon, and lead to monumental late-career pieces, including Intersection II (1992) and Torqued Ellipse IV (1999), along with three new works that have never been exhibited before." Checkout this page for more info on the show, which includes a video of the installation of one of the pieces and a listing of events running throughout the summer related to the show. And don't forget this article in the NYTimes about the installation and the online exhibition, in case you can't make it to MOMA.

2. Beat up sneakers? Comme Des Garcons and Rei Kawakubo have done it again. "The prevailing mentality among sneaker enthusiasts, which doesn’t seem like a lot of fun, is never to wear the most coveted shoes for fear of a smudge. So a new collection of Nikes that look intentionally distressed could be seen as a reaction against the cult of the pristine." Checkout the article in the NYTimes, which has a pic of some styles from the collection. The line is available now at the CDG store in Chelsea. Get 'em while they're hot. I have a feeling these will sell out fast.

1. I know, I know I can't stop talking about Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. I was at one of my favorite bars last night and a Nirvana song came on that I vaguely recognized, but wasn't sure what it was. As everyone knows, there aren't that many Nirvana songs and everyone knows almost all of them. Or so I thought. The song: Sliver from EP Incesticide, a compilation album of rare songs, b-sides and studio outtakes. The track was also released as a single. Amazing how someone can make lyrics like "Grandma take me home" repeated eight (8) times hot. Checkout the video on YouTube, the lyrics for the song, and this Nirvana discography on SubPop's site.

2. One of my favorite artists ever is Dan Flavin. Some people get it, some people don't. LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum Of Art) is currently showing the "first comprehensive exhibition devoted to minimalist artist Dan Flavin's full career. The exhibition features more than forty of Flavin's seminal fluorescent light works. Also presented is a special reconstruction of the corridors made for the E.F. Hauserman Co. showroom, formerly located at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. This will be the final destination of a multi-venue tour." The show is on view from now until 08.12.07. Checkout LACMA's site for more info, this vintage video interview with the artist on CultureTV (one of my favorite websites), DIA's site with additional info on the show, and Flavin's Wikipedia entry. This is one of the very few times that I wish I were in LA.

1. Chances are you've never seen it. Chances are if you don't catch Warhol's Chelsea Girls this week (June 02 - 09) at MOMA, you won't get the chance to see it again any time soon. "The Chelsea Girls is introduced on June 4 by Warhol Film Project curator Callie Angell and on June 8 by art critic and curator Douglas Crimp. Warhol peeps into the sad-glam lives of New York's demimonde, as a fat lesbian junkie, a dominatrix, a striptease Adonis, a dope dealer, the flamboyant 'Pope of Greenwich Village', and other beautiful Factory boys and girls act in, and act out, a macabre split-screen burlesque in eight different rooms of the Chelsea Hotel and elsewhere around town." Checkout MOMA's site for additional info and showtimes. Don't forget the Warhol Stars site, the Wikipedia entry for the film, and this current blog kept by the Chelsea Hotel.

2. The video for Icky Thump, the first single from the forthcoming White Stripes EP of the same name, has been released. Immigration would appear to be a theme of both the song's lyrics and video, as seen in the excerpt "White Americans, what? / Nothing better to do? / Why don't you kick yourself out / You're an immigrant too?" and at the end of the video where Jack stumbles past the construction site of the fictitious "Great Wall of Mexico." Check out the video here. As expected, the track is amazing. Jack White is a genius and he's not disappointed this time around. What's up with Meg, though? They don't show much of her, but something is off. She actually looks kinda hot?! On the band's official website, you can find the lyrics to the song and watch more videos of past songs.