Culture news

Call me a fanboy if you will, but in 10 days time I’ll be setting my alarm for 3am, making a large cup of tea and tuning into a live Internet broadcast of the annual apple keynote speech at San Francisco's MacWorld expo. In what has become the Mecca of the apple computer loving community; the speech sees Apple Inc CEO and mastermind Steve Jobs takes the stage and - like a prophet - speak to the faithful, unveiling to the world the latest “must have” product/service/way of life. Internet blog sites have been in a flurry this week with the announcement that former Def-Jam CEO and all round hip hop mogul, Jay-Z, is in talks with Apple to head a new music label venture from the company. If these rumours are true, record companies should be shaking in their ostrich skin boots. Jigga has proved beyond all doubt that he is a businessman at heart; grooming then small time players such as Kanye West and Rhianna to become the musical phenomenons we know them as today. One could only imagine the impact on the music industry if Hov teamed up with the people who brought the world the Ipod and Macbooks. Watch this space…

Hope everyone had a lovely and safe Xmas/new years etc. Here is a late yuletide present from Belvedere vodka to me to you: a veritable PSA in “hip”. The new Belvedere "luxury reborn" campaign was shot by Terry Richardson and also features Terry Richardson;  as well as Vincent “crazy eyes” Gallo and New York graffiti crew IRAKNY. Together they are all just, you know, hangin’ out and doing whatever it is they do on like a Monday night or something. The verse that wraps up this enviable scene is from Wu- Tang alumnus RZA, so it really can’t really get much cooler. It’s like a multi-tiered cake of cool - with lower east side frosting and “now” flavoured ganache. All they needed to do was snow the whole thing with little Hedi Slimane sprinkles and it would have been happy birthday to you and me buddy. But seriously, where the hell is my glass of Belvedere?

Today I received an early and special and Christmas present. His name is Cooper (after the beer and Australia’s fifth most popular children’s name – according to today’s Daily Telegraph Stats). Cooper has been made by a very talented friend of mine called Jess Sutton and is the first in the series of “Sydney Bears”. Cooper is the “Surry Hills” bear and is subsequently resplendent in flannelette and skin-tight jeans. Here is a picture of him and one of me dressed up like him whilst feeding him his mother’s milk. Jess has plans to release more bears in the series; including “Newtown Bear” and “Bondi Bear”, Miss Sutton works under the name Crafternoon and you can find her goodies here or get in contact with her directly if you want your own cuddly suburban mascot. I’m seeing Fitzroy???

A 16-year-old boy in Iceland prank called the Whitehouse to arrange a meeting with U.S. president George W. Bush. Vifill Atlason posed as Icelandic president, Olafur Grimsson. Atlason got hold of Bush's secretary and booked a call meeting with the U.S. leader for next Monday before the Icelandic police knocked at his door.

YEN’s Black-hot summer issue hit the stands today. It’s cheeky, cute, smart and more sophisticated than ever before. One of the most talented young actresses graces the cover of YEN this issue, Rose Byrne. The YEN team shot Miss Rose Byrne on the streets of New York City, which has been her home since she started filming the hugely successful American TV show, Damages.

Whether you like to roll around in the sand or just enjoy your holidays with a good book, YEN’s summer playtime list is for you. We rounded up a whole bunch of amazing people to chat to like Beth Ditto of The Gossip, who is touring Australia this December; Julie Delpy, the director of 2 Days in Paris, which will hit cinemas Boxing Day plus the most amazing fashion to wear and books to read. And if that’s not enough we spoke to an amazing bunch of people across the community, design, entertainment, business and fashion industries about what inspires them in life – just in time when we’re all making our new year’s resolutions. Enjoy. xx

Dear Actors. Got that lead in a new flick that requires a Uruguayan inflection? Mayhaps you've landed an antagonistic role playing a Zimbabwean farmer, or a love interest in a Turkish, Ottoman-era epic? Maybe you've an exchange student in town and you're having trouble separating your Swiss from your Swedish....If any of the above make a particularly fitting hat, best you head to The Speech Accent Archive. Canvassing a ridiculous amount of localised voice registers there's hours of fun here comparing and coaching yourself on Humanity's varied takes on some arbitrary English prose. My favourite is the rather gentle NZ one ;)

Teaching a foreigner how to use a Japanese loo is harder than showing a Grandma how to send a text message, with toilet time in Tokyo causing visitors more concern than eating raw fish wrapped in seaweed. Super-high-tech-sit-down-loo’s equipped with deodorising fans and gun shaped bottom brush’s make taking a leak post green tea more complicated than operating a control panel on an aeroplane. With overwhelming choice it’s hard to decide how you’d like your toilet experience. To warm the seat or not to warm the seat, that IS the question. And what about that button on the left that makes a flushing sound to disguise any embarrassing noises? Low or high pitched? Owner of Japanese toilet company ‘Toto’, Yojiro Watanabe has recently defended his countries hedonistic fascination with fancy washrooms claiming that people like himself have no personal space in their lives and that “the toilet is the only space where privacy is guaranteed”.  If you like the idea of ‘doing your business’ in a cubicle resembling a rocket ship I recommend sculling a litre of soy sauce and high tailing it to Japan this Christmas!!!