Australian flags flew, at Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago, as Silverchair rocked out to
a sea of fans, proving they are in full come-back mode. The Australian/New York skinny-jeaned band MINK, currently touring with Satellite Party throughout the states, impressed with infectious rock riffs, bad-ass drumbeat and Mick-Jagger-limbed lead singer.

Ishmeal Beah’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Child Soldier grippingly portrays Beah’s experience during Sierra Leone’s civil war in the nineties. Beah candidly describes transforming from a music-loving boy into a killing machine brainwashed by Rambo films and potent hits of gun powder and cocaine, called ‘Brown Brown.’ Rest assured $2 of the book’s profit goes to UNICEF.
Check here for more information about child soldiers.

In the summer, NYC converts into a mystical blue-skied Valhalla, overflowing with brown-bagged beer, shirtless men, fluttering females, free concerts and the sexy smell of grass mixing with sweat.  All is blissful except one flaw: the ubiquitous old, rotund chap in a too tight Speedo in the park. After taking this picture, I told him to check out the boxer section of www.freshpair.com to find new, preferably more conservative ones.

Where can Bondi surfer girls go when craving another ride to paradise? North Shore, Hawaii. Pack your gulf clubs and Pucci bikini and splurge on a sunset suite at the Turtle Bay Resort. Or revel in your bohemian side, alongside dozens of tan, toned surfers, in the commune-style Plantation Village, where the Pacific is quite literally your backyard and the famed pipeline is a short jaunt away.