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If you are in Brisbane this weekend you should chck out this Amazing Show.
'Run With Us' is a collection of new works by Murdoch Stafford, Elana Mullaly, Sofles,
Joel Birch, Luke Dyms and Mikel.
The show encompasses a broad range of artistic styles including pen and ink illustration, watercolours, graffiti, photography and hand drawn typography.
Coming from the dingy underworld of hip-hop and punk rock, the artists
revel in their influences creating lowbrow artwork for the masses.
Opening night: Saturday 12th January @ 7pm.
Exhibition continues 13th January.
S&M Studios, West End (Cnr Beattie and Skinner)

Whenever the term peer-to-peer is mentioned we think of file sharing our music, movies and software online while occasionally the debate about the moral implications of the free online markets that have been created is raised again. While the debates about the legality and morality of sharing our entertainment raged on the team at Kiva.org realised that a P2P platform was the perfect way to channel loans from the rich to the poor across the globe without the overheads that leave those in need receiving a fraction of the original donation.
Benefactors are able to give loans to struggling businesses that in turn gradually repay their loan, a system that guarantees the working poor are able to gain economic independence. An independence that has enabled those such as Roselyne Namala Makendo (pictured) to expand her grocery store in Kenya to continue supporting her nine children and an invaluable commodity if the gap between the North and the South is ever to be bridged.

Remember the sweet and naïve Cindy Campbell from the Scary Movie franchise? Or Kelly; the vapid actress (and thinly veiled Cameron Diaz dig) in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation? Both characters were played by Anna Faris who, following those roles, had quite the cloud of next-big-thing conjecture hanging over her head. The rain of magazine covers and movie credits never really eventuated though which - considering she is a comic gold and cute as a button also -  still confounds me. Hopefully all that will all change with the release of Smiley Face; a new film from cult "queer cinema" director Gregg Araki in which Faris sports a cloud of a different nature -  a perpetual ring of skunk smoke. As part-time actress/ fulltime waster Jane.F, Faris plays the bong-coddling protagonist in what critics from the NY Times to Time Out Magazine are hailing as a stoner film for a new generation. Faris has other films out this year including Mama's Boy with Diane Keaton and Kids in America, from It's all Gone Pete Tong director Michael Dowse. Maybe 2008 will be her year?

"Dagger" is the new single from  Emily Jane White; a San Francisco-based solo artist who's music is often compared to that of Chan Marshall, AKA, Cat Power. The similarities are obviously present, but hell - if it doubles your chances of being privy to songs so inwardly large and supernal that you get kind of heart-sick listening to them, then I don't see a problem. The video was directed by Cameron Archer (who's 2007 coming-of-age film Wild Tigers I Have Known inspired White to pen a song of the same name) and is so scopic and dreamy that it really does slow down your breathing. So perfect.

From the default half-naked photo ops to his first bad runway review and subsequent shark-jump announcement of Victoria Beckham as the new face of his label: Marc Jacobs appeared to be most awkwardly trading in his hipster apathy for something a little more, err, "midlife" in 2007. It came as a relief to many then, to hear that cross-over queen and fashion face-melter; M.I.A, would be appearing in the latest Marc by Marc Jacobs campaign.
But then the photos came out.
As per tradition, famed snapper Jeurgen Teller shot the Ads; however, the result is not as spectacular as fans hoped. Some are blaming the choice of outfit but most are blaming photographer himself (with one observer even going as far to claim that Teller has "gone and made one of the most stylish and sexiest woman in today's music scene look drab and lifeless"). This sort of criticism is not new for Jeurgan; his rather unflattering images of Meg White in the 2006 Jacobs campaign felt the wrath of bloggers worldwide. Although this isn't the best I've seen Miss Arulpragasam, Teller- philes will tell you that this point-and-shoot imperfection is what he - and Jacobs' campaigns- have come to be known for. What do you think?

Tonight, his slight frame surrounded by the twinkling backdrop of the Famous Spiegel Tent, Andrew Bird was jet lagged. So there was some flailing and floundering, especially during the chorus of his catchy crowd pleaser Nervous Tic To The Left…but his wobblyness did not hinder his charm. A charismatic performer, with the silky smooth voice of a rat pack crooner, he creates a collage of sounds, looping violin, guitar and that other-wordly whistle. Like a canary in a cage he trills effortlessly, sweetly, and long. But while the thread of Birds’ undulating soundscape swoops and layers, it does occasionally dwindle and stutter, tying itself in knots like his tired brain seemed to be when attempting to remember his own lyrics. Enchanting stories of chickens kept us going, and even as he looked more dishevelled towards the end the crowd whooped for an unrequited encore.

Three individuals make up the group known as 'The Bogside Artists'. The group is famous for their murals in the area of Derry, Northern Ireland, known as Free Derry Corner. These murals depict key events of 'the Troubles' in the city since 1968. The artists have lived in the Bogside most of their lives and have experienced the worst of the conflict. This exhibition of their work is a chronicle of those events that they consider to have been the most significant during the last thirty years. In telling this story they have served a pressing need for their community and Derry people in general to acknowledge with dignity if not pride the price paid by those who became victims of the struggle for democratic rights. Their work therefore is essentially a homage. 
Visiting this site referred to as 'The Peoples Gallery 'was a sound reminder that not all is always peaceful in civilised society.
You can read more on these artists and the conflict in Northern Ireland.