Yen

Laneway Festival gets Arty

Anne Fullerton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:29:33 +0000

For the last three years, Sydney College of the Arts has been kind enough to provide Laneway Festival with a home. But this time, they’ll be more than just the venue. 2012 marks the first year that emerging artists from the school will be exhibiting on-site, with an array of installations, sculpture, video and performance works to check out. Why should ears get all the good stuff?

Where: Laneway Festival, Sydney College of the Arts, Balmain Road Rozelle
When: 11.30am to 10pm, Sunday 5 February 2012
For more info head here.

New Feist vid

Anne Fullerton — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:59:59 +0000

As she prepares to touch down in Australia for a string of Laneway performances and solo shows, Feist releases her latest video from Metals- “The Bad In Each Other”.

Feist’s soulful vocals and bluesy guitar riffs work well with Martin De Thurah’s sorrowful video. It opens with a man burying his dog in the desert and follows a series of awkward moments and poignant characters. Let us know what you think.

junk mail art

Anne Fullerton — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:29:44 +0000

40,000 takeaway menus and political flyers turned into art.

Gone are the days when waiting for the mailman to arrive with your bundle of news and handwritten letters from loved ones was a daily treat. Now, in between a few exciting online shopping arrivals, the only things to appear in your letterbox are bills and the never-ending supply of junk mail.

Fed up with this wasteful influx of paper, U.S artist Amanda Nelsen decided to do something with her snail mail credit card offers, coupon booklets and pizza menus. She bundled them up into 2inch cubes to create colourful pixels, which after five months formed a beautiful 8×5ft wall hanging.

“The arrangement of square paper bundles depicts an idealised scene of human’s relationship to nature (based on a painting by Thomas Kinkade)”, says Amanda. “The minute collection of junk mail used to create “pixels” of the image suggests that the earth’s resources are not being used as bucolically as we might like to think”. Very true!

More photos here.

Sofia Coppola on Film

Anne Fullerton — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:16:19 +0000

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image presents a quartet of films written and directed by Sofia Coppola. It’s like a movie marathon, but over five nights instead of one, so you won’t get fidgety and have your eyes go square.

The season opens with The Virgin Suicides (1999), followed by Marie Antoinette (2006), the semi-autobiographical Somewhere (2010) and finally Lost in Translation (2003).

Sofia Coppola on Film shows how Sofia managed to find her own voice in a three-generation Oscar winning family and an extended family of actors, writers, and directors.

There are so many ways to describe her: writer, director, some-time actress, designer, mother, daughter, sister, wife… the list goes on. But the easiest way to describe her is: The Best. Her films are the ones to watch when you’re feeling that being a girl pretty much sucks. Her heroines are suspended somewhere between self-doubt and a strange, naïve-knowingness while remaining enchanting and mysterious. You’ll sleep better knowing that uncertainty is a universal feeling.

Another lesson we can learn from Sofia is to always get up and try again. And if that doesn’t work, approach it from a different angle. She tried her hand at acting, and after a few failed attempts she moved behind the camera to become one of the most influential screenwriters and directors of our time. Not to mention she always chooses awesome soundtracks.

As a side note we’d also like to add that she’s involved with canned wine. Which sounds – uhh – interesting.

Sofia on Film will screen at ACMI from Thursday 23 to Monday 27 February 2012. For more information, visit www.acmi.net.au.

December

Anne Fullerton — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:22:42 +0000

Friends on the steps in front of my house.

Design Smart Student Essentials

Catherine Milne — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:10:24 +0000

Kick start 2012 with creative essentials at student prices from Jasco. Check out the latest Jasco catalogue featuring a stack of special offers or visit the Jasco website for more information. Click on the e-catalogue below to view in full-screen.

Iris Apfel for MAC

Anne Fullerton — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:48:50 +0000

Iris Apfel and M.A.C are a match made in beauty heaven. The icon and former interior designer is known for her saucer glasses and bright lips (and the fact that she’s 90 going on 25). So it makes sense that she has teamed up with MAC to create a 20-piece colour collection of lipsticks, lip pencils, eye shadows, mascara and nail lacquers featuring shades like Toco Toucan, Pink Pigeon, Party Parrot and Scarlet Ibis. The colour palette is not one we can imagine our grandmother’s donning so we’ll take the test run upon ourselves. Because sometimes less is more, but sometimes less is boring.

www.maccosmetics.com

Julia

Anne Fullerton — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:56:38 +0000

Jules is a friend of mine and we went down to the beach one rainy afternoon and had hots chips and drank Coca Cola.

Playground Weekender Pass

Anne Fullerton — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:16:13 +0000

Playground Weekender is back for 2012, and we’ve got a double pass to give away to one of our Facebook friends. The “Boutique Music Festival” falls towards the more relaxed end of the festival spectrum, making it the perfect way to farewell summer. The line-up is great so far, and as always there’s plenty of other stuff to do too.

To go in the draw to win a 3-day camping pass for you and a friend (including car pass), all you need do is ‘like’ us on Facebook and fill out the form below. Entrants must be 18 or older.

Playground Weekender 2012 is taking place March 2, 3 and 4 at Del Rio Riverside Resort, Wiseman’s Ferry.

For more info head to www.playgroundweekender.com.au.

2012 ARTIST LINE-UP
Chic Feat Nile Rogers
Fat Freddys Drop
Boy and Bear
Roots Manuva
Unkle Sounds
Modeselektor Live
Manchester Orchestra
Black Lips
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
Bonobo Live
Neon Indian
Lanie Lane
The Orb
Bomb The Bass
Seekae
Greg Wilson
Damian Lazarus
Cuban Brothers
Canyons
Hudson Mohawke
Lee Burridge
Art Department
Rustie
Danny Daze
Kirk Degorgio
Northeast Party House
Toucan
Millions
Nantes
Elizabeth Rose plus more to be announced…

Can't see the form? Click here.

Competition open to Australian residents only. Starts 30/1/12 ends 6/1/12. The best and most creative answers to the question “what’s your favourite playground memory?”, as judged by the Yen team, will win a double pass to Playground Weekender. Entries will be judged on 7/1/12 at nextmedia, Level 6, 207 Pacific Hwy, St Leonards, NSW 2065. Judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The winners will be notified by mail.

* Please note that by entering this competition you give us permission to send you the Yen weekly e-newsletter. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Jurassic Lounge

Anne Fullerton — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:30:24 +0000

Jurassic Lounge is like a lot of things: a school excursion gone wild, or a break-and-enter party thrown by a rebellious museum employee. But mostly it’s a place to learn, drink, dance, and spice up your Tuesday nights.

This year Jurassic Lounge is launching it’s third season in the spirit of the Chinese New Year. Among the dinosaurs and live reptiles, there will be lanterns, rickshaws and kung fu films, along with stand-up comedy and live music. The somewhat traditional silent disco will be back to make people dance, and there will be snake handlers wandering around to freak people out.

There’s also access to temporary exhibitions: The Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and Yiwarra Kuju: the Canning Stock Route exhibition. Oh, and did we mention there’s a wine, beer and cider bar?

Being in a museum after hours evokes an eerie feeling that is a little creepier than walking through a closed shopping centre, but not quite as creepy as being in a cemetery after dark. Of course it helps that you get a free drink with your entry, because it takes a while to get used to walking amongst looming skeletons (of dinosaurs, that are real, and humans that hopefully aren’t).

Everyone’s invited to the Jurassic Lounge After-Party at FBi Social with happy hour priced drinks and free entry for Jurassic Lounge ticket holders, Time to party like its 65 million AD.

DATES: Tuesday 31st January (season continues weekly until April 3)
TIME: 5:30pm – 9:30pm
TICKETS: $15 at the door with a free drink on arrival (includes free entry to the FBi Social Jurassic Lounge After Party)
LOCATION: The Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney

For more info head to www.jurassiclounge.com.