1. Remember Repo Man? It's so bad, it's good. And definitely worth watching for the soundtrack alone: Iggy Pop; Black Flag; The Circle Jerks; Fear; Suicidal Tendencies; and one of my favorite songs ever Pablo Picassco, a remake of the Modern Lovers track this time done by Burning Sensations. Emilio Estevez plays "frustrated punk rocker Otto who quits his supermarket job after slugging a co-worker, and is later dumped by his girlfriend at a party. Wandering the streets in frustration, he is recruited in the repossession of a car by a repo agent." Read the full plot summary and watch the trailer on YouTube. Also, checkout the Wikiepedia entry and this fansite. It's 4 A.M., do you know where your car is?

2. Checkout Culture TV!: it "delivers you the best mix of art, short artvideos, events, museum, galleries, artists and artnews." This edition is full of rad stuff: a short piece by Jiacong "Jay" Yan; a look at Art Basel Miami; footage from Creative Time & Deitch's Art Parade; a video by Fischerspooner; and a clip of Banksy's latest piece at Disneyland.

3. Film Forum is showing an amazing Godard film right now called Two Or Three Things I Know About Her, which has been held over due to overwhelming demand. Checkout the synopsis and showtimes here. There are also two series coming up: Fox Before The Code (12.01 - 12.21) and Essentially Woody (12.22 - 01.11). Before The Code features early Hollywood films with "racy" content that were made prior to the puritanical Production Code (aka the Hays Code) crackdown in 1934. Checkout an article explaining the series on the Village Voice's site. The Woody Allen series is self-explanatory, featuring a selection of his best movies of all time. Make a note that most of the shows in both series are two for the price of one.

4. Another update on the Decemberists latest release The Crane Wife. After several weeks of play, I can't stop listening to it. It takes a bit of time to get into if you really like their other albums, as their sound has developed in a new yet familiar direction. Songs of note: The Crane Wife 1 & 2; O Valencia; Sons and Daughters; and my current favorite Shankill Butchers, which you can listen to here.

10. Democustico / Snappy bossa beats are nothing new, but what if you threw in a little bit of an Indian vibe; the result is gorgeous, relaxing and beautiful.
9. Luftkastellet 4 / Kenneth Bager and Music For Dreams have managed to put together another eclectic mix of quality tracks for a truly unique musical experience.
8. Milosh (Meme) / This extraordinary album is the work of Milosh, a Toronto based laptop artist who writes, performs and produces all of his own music with emphasis on beautiful undulating grooves, soft androgynous vocals and pointed lyrics, tinged with elements of jazz, pop and bossa-nova.
7. George V Records (Buddattitude) / "Buddhattitude" from George V records offers up something fresh: a completely tranquil, relaxing and beautiful set of tracks which manages to avoid sounding like everything else.
6. Kaskade (Love Mysterious) / Kaskade returns with a disc filled with grittier, acid-jazz infused synth-pop complimenting his trademark deep house beats, proving that experimentation is always a good thing.
5. Bonobo (Days To Come) / Sample-happy Bonobo is back with his new full-length Day to Come, a collection of what he does best: combining live instrumentation with dubby bass, lively drums and beats, and lush strings into a hypnotic and unique listening experience.
4. Timeless Interpretations / Timeless Interpretations is a reworking of jazz classics to fit a more modern listener as interpreted by Timeless records, a Dutch label with a plethora of jazz classics.
3. Azam Ali (Elysium For The Brave) / Iranian songstress Azam Ali uses a potent mix of traditional instruments, electronic flourishes and emotional vocals to create a bridge between the past and future which should not be missed.
2. Gigi (Gold & Wax) / Ethiopian Goddess Gigi returns with heartfelt, intense vocals over a mix of Eastern textures and Western beats for tasteful, sophisticated and truly "World" music.
1. John Legend (Once And Again) / John Legend's smart thoughtful lyrics over sinuous R & B beats show why he just may be the Stevie Wonder of this century.

1. After watching Kill Your Idols this weekend, I was reminded of Gogol Bordello. Headed by Eugene Hutz (who threw the wild, balls out party at Mehanata back in the day), Gogol Bordello is "a Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of New York City that formed in 1999". The list of bands they call their influences rocks: "Manu Chao, Fugazi, Kalpakov, Rootsman, and The Clash". Checkout their Wikipedia entry. Listen to a few songs on MySpace. Checkout these pics on a fansite and don't forget this interview on NPR. And make sure to scroll down on their homepage for tour dates.

2. There's a private screening with Fly (the super highend DVD fashion magazine I covered last week) this Thursday (11.30.06) at the Tribeca Grand. Checkout this preview trailer of the mag. The shorts featured in this issue and at the screening will include clothes by Hussein Chalayan, Fendi, Karl Lagerfeld, Cloak, and Thom Browne, as well as excerpts of interviews with Lagerfeld, Ryan McGinness, and Liam Gillick. And you won't want to miss the short story by the one and only John Malkovich. Email: events@tribecagrand.com to RSVP.

3. Moss at Art Basel. "During Art Basel Miami Beach, Moss Gallery presents an installation of specially commissioned, monumental pieces from eight key contemporary designers, drawing directly from one-off or limited-edition studio work. In this work, these Studios violate the classical boundaries drawn between 'art' and 'design' and in so doing, expand the definition of both." They will present work from Maarten Baas, Studio Job, Hella Jongerius, Tord Boontje, Constantin Boym, Michele DeLucchi, Massimiliano Adami, and Fernando and Humberto Campana. Checkout this page on their site for more details.

4. Russian-born artist (and part-time porn star) Slava Mogutin is throwing a party for his new book Lost Boys tomorrow (Wednesday, 11.29.06) at The Cock. Checkout his site and his MySpace page. Take a look at the invite for the party. Did I mention open bar from 10 til midnight?

15.. For Today I Am A Boy (Antony And The Johnsons)
14.. Andy Warhol (Bauhaus)
13.. Strawberry Julius (Bikini Kill)
12.. Red Light (Siouxsie And The Banshees)
11.. Only At Christmas Time (Sufjan Stevens)
10.. Love Train (Wolfmother)
9... Gimme Some Salt (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
8... Car Song (Elastica)
7... Wilderness (Joy Division)
6... Long Haired Child (Devendra Banhart)
5... I Am The Sun (The Swans)
4... Hi-Fi (M. Ward)
3... Puke And Cry (Dinosaur Jr.)
2... The Crane Wife 1 And 2 (The Decemberists)
1... The Prayer (Bloc Party)

Listen to The Prayer on Bloc Party's MySpace page.

1. The Brooklyn Museum has a show up until 01.21.07 featuring over 200 photos by Annie Leibovitz. Entitled Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990–2005, the exhibit "encompasses work Leibovitz made on assignment as a professional photographer as well as personal photographs of her family and close friends." Checkout her Wikipedia entry, this MP3 of a 2006 interview with the photographer, and another on NPR's All Things Considered. She's best known for being a staff photographer for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair magazines, as well as for the numerous celebrity photos she's taken throughout her career, including this.hearts.on.fire. favorite Patti Smith (pictured right). Checkout what is probably her most famous photo to date: the unforgetable pic of John and Yoko.

2. Sufjan Stevens has a boxset out: Songs For Christmas. He's collected "five EPs of seasonal music recorded over the last five years" for this one. Checkout the review on PitchFork. You can buy it on AmpCamp or download it from eMusic. Make sure to checkout this review of Avalanche (released this past summer) and an interview with the tireless songster.

3. The Whitney is currently showing Kiki Smith: A Gathering, 1980 - 2005. A somewhat obscure, yet important contemporary artist, Smith "will present a 'gathering' (to use the artist's word) of the broad variety of media she has explored in her career, including sculpture in plaster, bronze, paper, glass, porcelain, and other materials, installations, prints, drawings, photographs, multiples, jewelry, artist's books, and film and video works." More info on the artist here and here. And an interview with her on the PBS series Art:21.

4. Rumor has it that Forest Whitaker's performace as Idi Amin in Last King Of Scotland is one of the best of the year. Checkout the IMDB listing and the official website, which is chock full of reviews, background info, and details on the cast and crew. Don't forget this NY Times review and the trailer. It's showing now at the Quad. Catch it before it's too late.

1. I spent part of my Thanksgiving at a killer restaurant just off Avenue A in the East Village called Pylos. Checkout their site, their menu, and an NY Times review. The interior is hot, the food is amazing, and the service excellent. Definitely not your your typical Greek restaurant.

2. After dinner, it was off to my favorite East Village dive bar: Lucy's. I don't want to promote it too much, as I'd like to keep it as low key as it is now. That having been said, I put some Dinosaur Jr. on the jukebox and quickly remembered why I used to love these guys so much. Checkout their Wikipedia profile. And their new MySpace page. They're on tour right now. You can find their tour dates here. Don't forget to checkout the site of the band's most famous member: J. Mascis.

3. Dinosaur Jr is also performing at All Tomorrow's Parites upcoming (12.08 - 12.10.06) indie music festival, Nightmare Before Christmas, which is being curated by Thurston Moore. The lineup includes Sonic Youth, Iggy and The Stooges, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Gang of Four, and many many more. Make sure to add All Tomorrow's Parties on MySpace for the latest show and festival news.

4. Checkout the 2004 music documentary Kill Your Idols. IMDB bills it "a documentary on thirty years of alternative NYC rock 'n roll." The first part covers New York's No Wave scene from the late 70's/early 80's with music by Suicide, Lydia Lunch, DNA, Theoretical Girls, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Swans, and Sonic Youth. Most of their music is hard to listen to, but the live footage is amazing. The next part is about current New York bands like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gogol Bordello, A.R.E. Weapons, The Liars, and Black Dice, among others. Not even comprable to the originals, it's nonetheless interesting to hear what the new bands have to say. I just wish they'd interviewed them again after the members of the No Wave bands indirectly tore them to shreds for being posers and wannabes.

5. And if you are one of the few remaining people who hasn't seen Borat yet, go see it. I thought I was going to hate it as I wasn't a big fan of Cohen's Ali G character, but ended up really liking it. Not quite as funny as it was hyped to be (in my humble opinion), it's definitely worth $10.50 and an hour and 42 minutes of your time, even if only for the naked wrestling scene.

1. He just won't die. Gagosian currently has two (2) shows up entitled Cast a Cold Eye: The Late Works of Andy Warhol: one at the 21st Street gallery, the other at the new 24th Street space. They're from the same time period, but each gallery has very different looking works. Think Mao, Mona Lisa, Hammer and Sickle, The Last Supper, and multiples of Warhol's face in brash color combos. Checkout the work at 21st Street and that at 24th Street.

2. MOMA currently has a show up: Eye On Europe (1960's To Now). Even better, it's also available for viewing in a hot new online format for those not in the city. Each work not only has a pic, a zoomed pic, and date and title info, but additional information on each artist that you won't get at the museum. Look for works by: Damien Hirst, Sylvie Fleury, The Chapman Brothers, Sigmar Polke, Joseph Beuys, Christo, Lucian Freud, and many more.

3. Checkout index magazine's hot, newly-redesigned site. They've tightened up the layout for easier navigating, added new celebrity photos and a new MP3 section, and uploaded all the archived interviews, including Amy Sedaris, Dana Schutz, Rachel Weisz, Werner Herzog, and Kathleen Hanna.

4. "When a 73-year-old lady truck driver living in a trailer in California was told by a friend that the painting she bought for $5 at a thrift store looked like a Jackson Pollock, she said, "Who the f--k is Jackson Pollock?" It's the topic of a new docu out of the same name. Read a review here. And get IFC showtimes here. The authenticated work was eventually valued at upwards of $50 million dollars. I wonder how this story ends.

5. Bloc Party has just released a new song,The Prayer, from their soon-to-be-released Weekend In The City on MySpace. You can also listen to it here on BBC1, where it was played first. The EP is officially out 02.06.07!!

1. A new store featuring all Scandanavian goods just opened in the West Village: Hus. They stock clothes, jewelry, art, home decor, music, books, food, and children's wear. Labels to lookout for: WeSC, Filippa K, Nudie Jeans, Acne Jeans, Tiger of Sweden, Tretorn, and many more. The store (located at 11 Christopher Street) was designed by super cool New York architects pod design + media. Check it out.

2. The Deitch/PAPER Magazine Art Store at Art Basel Miami (12.06 thru 12.10.06) will feature the Indulgences line by Ju$t Another Rich Kid and Tobias Wong. Designs for sale will be: Cokespoon #1 (Bic Pen Cap and Bic Pen Cap Pendant), Cokespoon #2 (McDonald's Coffee Stirrer), Playboy Swizzle Sticks, Murdered Skull Pendant, Gold Pills, and a highend bong by Tobias, which will be fashioned out of a clear Kaws doll. The Art Store can be found in the Buick Building at 3841 NE 2nd Avenue. It is part of The Design District Projects, which will open Thursday 12.07 from 8pm to 12am as part of the fifth annual Art Loves Design party.

3. Don't forget: Wolfmother's North American tour begins this week. Checkout their MySpace for tour dates. The New York show (this Wednesday 11.22.06 at Hammerstein) hasn't sold out yet. You can still get tickets here.

4. Checkout this new band: Colder. Well, it's only one guy, which makes it even more amazing. Listen to some songs on MySpace. And checkout his discography here. And this hot album cover. And according to his website, there will be more info, in-depth interviews, and reviews of his music here: coming soon!

5. Wolf Parade has just released a video on their MySpace for I Believe In Anything, directed by Matt Moroz, who also did a video for Shine A Light. There's lots of live footage of the band on YouTube here, as well as this video for Modern World.

He reps the coolest artists and throws the hottest parties. Checkout the gallery's official site, a Wikipedia profile, and more info on Jeffrey here.

It all started in 1996 with a Vanessa Beecroft performance. Since, there have been shows by Keith Haring, the now defunct JT LeRoy, Barry McGee, Fischerspooner, Jeremy Scott, Yoko Ono, Basquiat, Ryan McGinness, Terry Richardson, and a legion of other cutting edge artists and scenesters.

The Wooster Street gallery is currently showing Human Structures by Jonathan Borofsky, while the Grand Street gallery has a show up by LA artist Matt Greene Surrender.

Checkout more work from Borofksy here. Also checkout his bio and his site. You can see work from Greene here, his bio, and an interview with him on FANZINE.

Deitch will in in Miami for Art Basel Miami again this year and is teaming up with PAPER Mag for the Deitch PAPER Art Store with art products from 99 cents to $999,999.00.

Make sure to stop by the Deitch booth, where he's showing art by a bevy of artists, including Warhol and famed French film director Michel Gondry, who recently had a show at the gallery.

And don't forget to checkout the show by Deitch special musical guest (and this.hearts.on.fire. favorite) Devendara Banhart. I'm sad I won't be in Miami to check it out myself.

1. I burned out on Bjork in the late 90's but am getting back into her again. Checkout her official site. Her movie with husband Matthew Barney Drawing Restraint 9 is currently being shown at the SF Museum Of Modern Art and the Sugarcubes are reuniting tonight in Reykjavík for their 20th anniversary. Checkout their profile on Wikipedia. And some of their videos here. If you haven't heard (or seen) Birthday or Hit, do yourself a favor and check them out.

2. More music: The Horrors. A hard rocking freaky UK band. Checkout their MySpace profile. And their official website, where you can see the video for their super hot song Sheena Was A Parasite. Yeah Yeah Yeah's guitarist Nick Zinner collaborated with the band on their debut EP. They list the following among their influences: Jack the Ripper, Dorian Gray, Boris The Spider, and Rasputin. Checkout: Death At The Chapel, Jack The Ripper, and Crawdaddy Simone.

3. Checkout this line of bowls by Dutch designer Hella Jongerius entitled Nymphenburg Sketches. Available at Vessel Gallery (London) and at Moss (New York), the line features standard issue bowls with a twist: the designer has placed a figurine (a deer, a hippo, a bird, a snail, or a rabbit) smack dab in the middle. Checkout her site for more info on her work. And an exhibit Animal Magic at Vessel Gallery, featuring other animal related work from the likes of Jonathan Adler, Marcel Wanders, and these tripped out porcelain stuffed animals by Bodil Soderlund.

Send Tokion your own 3-5 minute documentary inspired by the following themes: 1. MISTAKES: some people are always looking for new kinds of mistakes to make 2. CHEAP LOVE: talk is cheap until it gets into love letters 3. INTEGRITY: a man's reputation is that which is not found out about him.

Tokion editors and a panel of judges including Jonathan Caouette, maker of Tarnation, Ondi Timoner, maker of DiG!, and Bruce Sinofsky maker of Metallica: Some Kind of Monster will judge the entries and determine the winners.

The winners will be flown to New York for a screening, a party, and a "Question/Answer" session with an audience of their peers.

Submissions must be postmarked no later than 12.11.06.

Checkout the Tokion page with all of the information and details here. You can also email them for more information and rules.

Good luck.

1. Checkout British band: Blondelle. The groups four youngsters really know how to rock. You can listen to songs from their debut EP on their MySpace profile. Each of the members (Rory, Mike, Sammy, and Will) has his own MySpace profile too. Their official website is "coming soon". Don't miss videos for their songs The English Way and I Wonder on YouTube.

2. Nike and LCD Soundsystem? It's never ending with the big guy/little guy collaborations. Checkout this article on Pitchfork with more details. Nike commissioned LCDS to create a 45 minute mix that "is purportedly based on an arc designed for running". Sounds hot. You can buy the mix here and also get it from iTunes. Checkout LCD Soundsystem's MySpace profile and their Wikipedia entry. Other songs of theirs you should checkout: Losing My Edge, Tribulations, and Daft Punk Is Playing At My House.

3. Super cool online art blog ArtKrush calls French artist Bruno Peinado One To Watch in their latest newsletter. "A pop-culture alchemist, French artist Bruno Peinado appropriates, flattens, and distorts familiar symbols to create wry new icons." Checkout his work at Loevenbruck here and at Galleria Continua here. He's also one of the nine (9) designers chosen to do a custom bag for Louis Vuitton on display until 12.31.06 in the company's recently opened L'Espace Louis Vuitton in Paris.

4. The first person to email using this link (we have a winner! the link has been disabled.) will win a free Ju$t Another Rich Kid tee from the Fall/Winter 2006 collection Pirates & Piracy. Please include your size (S-XL) in the email so I can give you a choice of tees available.

The collection was officially unveiled during the Tokyo Design Week on 10.31.06 and had its US debut last night at a small party in Chelsea.

The pieces in the collection are really cool. Checkout this press release on the collaboration and another one here.

Checkout this article on the designer in Icon and also look around Wanders' site. His portofolio of work is overwhelming.

His rise to design fame apparently started with the Knotted Chair he did for Droog Design in 1996. Since then, he's worked with all the top notch design manufacturers: Cappellini, Bisazza, B&B Italia, Boffi, and Moooi.

Don't forget to take a look at Puma's site. They've also recently done collaborations with famed British designer designer Alexander McQueen and French designer Philippe Starck.

Puma seems very determined and is doing an amazing job at continuing their ascent back onto the Nike & Adidas dominated playing field.

Looks like they're part of the New Rave movement (UK music mag NME coined the term) that's going on in London right now. If you can even belive it: it's glowsticks, whistles, bands like Klaxons, and dj/promoters like Warboy.

Checkout this article in the Times Online for all the details of what's going on across the pond.

These are the bands to be on the lookout for: Shitdisco, The Presets, Treasure Island Dizzy, New Young Pony Club, and Datarock. There are probably others, but I don't know who they are yet.

Checkout Klaxons on Wikipedia. An interview on Music Towers. Their Myspace profile.

Don't miss this video of Shitdisco on NME. And this video and this one of Klaxons on YouTube.

Get it while it's hot.

12.. Dear Prudence (Twice Upon A Time)
11.. Hybrid (Kaleidoscope)
10.. Peek-A-Boo (Peep Show)
9... The Passenger (Through The Looking Glass)
8... Trophy (Kaleidoscope)
7... Arabian Nights (Juju)
6... Kiss Them For Me (Superstition)
5... Happy House (Kaleidoscope)
4... Spellbound (Juju)
3... Skin (Kaleidoscope)
2... Hong Kong Garden (Once Upon A Time)
1... Christine (Kaleidoscope)

Here's a download of the #1 song, Christine, for you to checkout.

Checkout her profile on Wikipedia here. And this fan site. Don't forget the lyrics to her songs. And a complete discography.

2. Checkout this hot UK magazine: Specialten. It's "a bi-monthly publication on DVD featuring short films, music videos and exclusive interviews." It's full of rad stuff. Checkout this interview with red hot New York band TV On The Radio. They've also just launched an online video channel, where you can watch super cool videos and stuff.

3. What ever happened to Elastica? Listening to The Sounds reminded me of them and I just downloaded their self-titled album from 1994. Every song rocks. Checkout their Wikipedia profile to get details on why they disappeared. And this fan site.

4. Another DVD magazine: Fly. It's super highend. Kinda like a DVD version of Visionaire. The current issue has submissions by Hussein Chalayan, Karl Lagerfeld, Cloak, and Ryan McGuinness. To top it off, it's available in a limited edition by one of my favorite artists, Liam Gillick, which you can get signed and costs a mere $500.

15.. Battle Of Evermore (Led Zeppelin)
14.. Sweet '69 (The Pink Mountaintops)
13.. Death Disco (Public Image Limited)
12.. Karma Police (Radiohead)
11.. Regret (New Order)
10.. I've Been Tired (The Pixies)
9... My Lady Story (Antony And The Johnsons)
8... Where Eagles Have Been (Wolfmother)
7... Joker And The Thief (Wolfmother)
6... Candidate (Joy Division)
5... Don't Want To Hurt You (The Sounds)
4... Rhinocerous (The Smashing Pumpkins)
3... See That Animal (Elastica)
2... Sons And Daughters (The Decemberists)
1... Clap Your Hands! (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!)

Here's a download of the #1 song, Clap Your Hands!, for you to checkout.

1. Sniff. Sniff. Cocaine Cowboys is playing in a theater near you. Checkout this interview with the filmmakers on Radar Online. The MySpace profile. And the trailer. Check the site for theaters that are currently showing the film.

2. Another hot documentary out: Jonestown: The Life And Death of The People's Temple. The biggest mass suicide in modern history. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Checkout the trailer. A mini review in the NY Times. And an interview with the filmmaker. And showtimes at the Quad in New York.

3. The English version of Spanish director Isabel Coixet's film The Secret Life Of Words is coming out soon. It stars Tim Robbins and Sarah Polley and features a song by Antony and the Johnsons. Here's the trailer. The official site. And a page full of info on Rotten Tomatoes.

4. Keep an eye out for the 2007 release of Anton Corbijn's Control, the Ian Curtis story starring Sam Riley and Samantha Morton. More info on the Joy Division MySpace page. While you're waiting, checkout some Joy Division videos on YouTube: Atmosphere, Love Will Tear Us Apart and this killer live video of Transmission and She's Lost Control.

1. After two weeks of listening to I Am A Bird, I'm sold on Antony and the Johnsons. It really hit me today as the rain poured outside and the sky was pitch black at 3pm. It's mood music and a VERY acquired taste. Kinda like tasting a food that looks like one thing and tastes like nothing else you've ever tasted, it takes a minute to set in. Two thumbs up!!

2. From start to finish: Brooklyn-based Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah self-titled album is a masterpiece. I can't stop listening. Checkout their site for much more info. Become their friends on MySpace. And get information on their New Year's Eve performace at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. One of the songs on their MySpace is a live performance of Heavy Metal recorded by Radio One, so you can get an idea of what they'll sound like live. My favorites: Clap Your Hands!, Details Of The War, Is This Love, and Upon This Tidal Wave of Young. But again, every song is awesome.

3. I try to avoid writing bad things, but Deerhoof hurts my ears. I've listened to The Runner's Four and Apple O' for nearly three (3) weeks and I hate it more today than I did when I started. I imagine if there was a Jonestown-style loudspeaker playing continuosly in the background of No Exit by Sartre, it would have been all Deerhoof songs. Hell is not other people. Hell is Deerhoof.

4. Wolfmother? How'd I miss this one. The Australian trio, who are probably younger than everyone reading this blog, is hot off an album produced by D. Sardy, who has worked with The Dandy Warhols, Helmut, and Oasis. The sound: Black Sabbath meets The White Stripes with a hint of Led Zeppelin. Checkout their site. Get tix to their 11.22.06 NYC Hammerstein Ballroom show. And become their friends on MySpace. Everything from their self-titled album rocks. Of note: Dimension, Where Eagles Have Been, Joker and The Thief, and Colassal.

5. Plan early for Patti Smith's New Year's Eve shows at Bowery Ballroom. Three this year: 12.29, 12.30, and 12.31. Get your tickets now!

10. S.F.W. - Proof that the favourite films doesn't necessary mean the best films. I saw this at a Midnight Madness screening in 1994 and it was a great way to bookend the first half of the 90s. Actually, in a very Warhol kind of way, it was ahead of it's time.
9. Less Than Zero - Let the shaming continue. If Bret Easton Ellis were my girlfriend, I'd make him forget about books and instead write scripts of films just like this one.
8. A Clockwork Orange - Four days before Christmas on December 19th, it premiered 35 years ago and nothing has been made close to it. Could you just imagine the reaction if anyone even tried to make something like this today? Stanley Kubrick is my favourite director. Cruelly perfect.
7. Bottle Rocket - In 1996, I went blind into this movie not knowing anything about it and neither did anyone else because there were only 4 other people in the theatre. 2 walked out. I've never been so eye-to-eye with a film.
6. 101 - The Depeche Mode documentary that inspired my road trip jerk-off fantasies and the 2 years of pursuit for the 12" vinyl version of the Behind The Wheel/Route 66 Beatmasters remix way before 12" versions were even available on cd.
5. Flesh, Heat, & Trash - I'm cheating here a bit because these are actually three of Paul Morrissey's films but come on, you can't pick one without choosing the other. I bought these on VHS tapes when I was 17. It blew my tiny mind. Nudity, sexuality, perversion and trannies-- count me in!
4. Chop Suey - Directed by Bruce Weber. After being in New York for a week and having the most beautiful time, I flew back to Toronto to catch this film, which premiered on the evening of September 10, 2001. I called Bruce's art director that night to tell him the film had made me feel so in love with the world, because I couldn't wait to do so the next morning. This film will always be a nice reminder to an existence that's gone for me.
3. The Bicycle Thief - I have never ever cried in a film, but this is the closest I've ever come to actually doing so.
2. Diva - For me, THE perfect film. It has everything.
1. 9 1/2 Weeks - I've probably admitted this fact of taste more than I should have, but it really influenced me in more ways than it should have. And I'm not even French!

Following The Wrong Store in Paris @ Galerie Frederic Giroux and The Wrong Office: Loveless Lifemore in Tokyo @ Loveless, item idem introduced his final episode of its wrong triptych last week: The Wrong Motel at UnWrap in Tokyo.

Item idem collaborated on this project with Paris hipster/artist/bon vivant Monsieur Andre of Hotel Amour, the chic new boutique hotel in Paris with the bar that's the place to see and be seen. Read a review of it here. And another here.

**Andre is also co-owner of new New York top secret hipster spot Beatrice Inn, which he owns with A.R.E. Weapons member Paul Sevigny.

As a structural copy of the recently-opened-in-Paris Hotel Amour, The Wrong Motel is a conceptual simulation of a love hotel from Japan, halfway between a red light district hooker's room in Amersterdam & a porn tycoon's fancy penthouse suite.

The installation also contained work from London-based provacateur Peter Ibruegger and New York designers Silvester Ribbon.

Unfortunately, the installation ran from 11.01 through 11.05. Checkout item idem's site for pics and more information on upcoming projects.

H&M is at it again. This time with masters of avant-garde couture Viktor & Rolf.

Their collection of men's and women's wear is to hit stores 11.09.06. Checkout H&M's site. Both collections look amazing, and the women's collection even includes a $350 wedding dress.

Click around on H&M's site. It's surprisingly well-designed and packed with info: from the We Love Berlin guide to art, fashion, food, and bars, the Fall Trends section, and another guide to what's hot in Paris.

Checkout this brief bio, on the UK's National Museum of Photography, Film & Television's site, on the designers. And their slick site with pics of Spring/Summer 07 collections, a link to their perfumes site, and interviews with the designers.

If you do nothing else, make sure to visit the "Boutique" section of the Viktor & Rolf site. It has pics of their upsidedown shop in Milan. Checkout this article and these pics.

It's really unbelievable that this duo will be presenting a collection for H&M.

Brooklyn-based artist Alex McQuilkin burst onto the scene in 2002 fresh out of NYU with a video called Fucked, in which she applies makeup in front of the camera while supposedly being taken from behind.

The video was such a hit that the 9 copies available at the Armory Show that year are reported to have sold out opening night.

In Teenage Daydream: It's Only Rock and Roll, she flails about in front of a poster of Kurt Cobain, blood on her face from cutting or a suicide attempt. She visits the subject of suicide again in her new work Test Run, in which she seemingly attempts to drown herself. She doesn't kid around.

Checkout an article and interview on ArtNet. Lots of stills and photos of her work here. And an extensive bio.

As you'll see on the Artfacts page, she shows with Cindy Sherman, Pipilotti Rist, and Annie Sprinkle, not bad company to be in for someone in her mid twenties.

I predict if she doesnt torture her mind in the process of all this work, we'll be seeing a lot more of her in the near future.

I can't stop listening to Gigantic by the Pixies.

I downloaded a "Best of" bundle of songs from Bit Torrent last week that includes the track. It's Kim Deal at her best.

Deal was an original members of the Boston-based Pixies. She joined the band in 1986 after she answered "an advertisement for a female bassist who was into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul & Mary."

Checkout her profile on Wikipedia and this interview with her on Tweak. Also, there's this amazing site with all the info you ever want to know about The Pixies, including a detailed discography and lyrics to all songs.

After the Pixies break-up, caused by differences between Deal and lead singer Frank Black, Deal went on to join The Breeders and after that The Amps.

Lookout for a new Pixies album in 2007, as well as a new full-length EP from The Breeders.

Coincidentally, Chris is one half of Radke Films. He and his partner, Scott Mackenzie, are the producers of the just-released Everything's Gone Green, the first feature film written by Generation X author Douglas Coupland.

Checkout the story here. And the cast. Coupland's bio here. The trailer on YouTube. Don't forget the poster.

The title of the film is also the title of a 1981 New Order song that was only released in Belgium on a 12" single. According to Answers.com, "It is supposedly the first song by the group to contain computer-generated sounds."

Listen for yourself. I've uploaded the track here for you to checkout.

Enjoy.

The first person to email me using this link (the link has been disabled as the contest is over 10 minutes after it started) will win Cokespoon #2 (McDonald's Coffee Stirrer) from the Indulgences collection.

The stirrers were pulled from McDonald's restaurants and replaced with the current model in the late 70's when "they became common Exhibit A's in drug busts".

Indulgences addresses the creation of and demand for the unnecessary, directly commenting on the ever-expanding market of luxury items in our culture.

In order to hit just the right balance in the collection, we teamed up with a master in the design world, Tobias Wong, who is known for transforming every day objects into objects of desire.

For those who don't win, checkout CITIZEN-Citizen's site and online shop, where the full range of Indulgences is available.

I will post the winner shortly.

The two (2) day presentation will give insight into CITIZEN:Citizen and the designers and work they represent. It will feature the collection of conceptually informed objects available exclusively in Dallas at the Nasher Store.

Open since October 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is dedicated to the display and study of modern and contemporary sculpture. The Center presents rotating exhibitions of works from the Nasher Collection as well as special exhibitions drawn from other museums and private collections.

Checkout their impressive sculpture collection, including pieces from Carl Andre, Willem de Kooning, Giacometti, David Smith, James Turrell, Richard Serra, Jeff Koons, Donald Judd, and many others.

You can read more on the history of Nasher here.

If you're in Dallas and want to attend, RSVP to 214.242.5194 by 11.06.06.

1. Factory People (Austin)
2. Odin (New York)
3. Arrive (Miami)
4. BASE (Miami)
5. Memes (New York)
6. Matthew Izzo (Philadelphia)
7. SURU (LA)
8. Kitson Men (LA)
9. Reborn (Montreal)
10. Richard Kidd (Vancouver)
11. BBlessing (New York)
12. Opening Ceremony (New York)
13. Seven (New York)
14. Behavior (New York)
15. Cloak (New York)
16. Blackbird (Seattle)
17. Local 35 (Portland)
18. Centre (Dallas)
19. In Lieu (SF)
20. Hejfina (Chicago)
21. Fred Segal Finery (LA)
22. Standard Atl (Atlanta)
23. Jake (Chicago)
24. Alpha Man (LA)
25. Oak (Brooklyn)

To be continued...