In perhaps the ultimate sign that indie music has officially gone mainstream, Montreal husband and wife synthsters the Handsome Furs have teamed up with CNN to make Indie Asia, a shortdocumentary of their recent tour in China. The four part series (and counting…) is a revealing look at a couple very much in love with music, with travel and with each other. We remember when Dan Boeckner and his wife Alexei Perry emerged from the rubble of Wolf Parade’s (Boeckner’s other band) explosive debut, and were fighting to be known as more than just a WP side project. We have a feeling this might do the trick. Watch the first part of the series below, and the rest right here.
Although summer is just around the corner, the fashion world is already into fall. Always one step ahead. The world fashion weeks have passed and videos, photos and media have communicated what we have to look forward to for the upcoming fall season. I know we should always live in the present, but when a collection comes out that is as good as Elise Øverland’s, it is hard to keep from longing for the future. The New York-based Øverland uses raw materials such as leather and silk in rich colours to produce structured, sophisticated and feminine designs. Inspired by rock and roll and performance art, the pieces are edgy and passionate and in a word, stunning.
The clothes inspire some imagination and creativity too. I would love to hang out with a wolf under the moonlight wearing pieces from Øverland’s new collection. Dramatic? Perhaps. But the pieces just seems to call for that sort of dramatic storyline. Check out a clip of Elise Øverland’s fall/winter 2010 runway show below:
Design darlings Rodarte and visual artist/photographer Todd Cole have teamed up for “Aanteni” — a high-fashion technofilm highlighting Rodarte’s spring/summer 2010 collection. “Aanteni,” which means “nowness,” stars model Guinevere van Seenus as she runs around the deserted grounds of a space lab in Hawthorne, California. The Rodarte sisters say the film was inspired by the pioneering spirit of the space race, which also inspired their latest collection of futuristic crochet knits, leather bandage dresses and distressed plaid.
The film is scored with an eerie soundtrack courtesy of LA-based experimental noisemakers, No Age. And even though the “plot” had has scratching our heads at times, the sheer scale and finale of this beautifully-shot clip will have you not only believing in Rodarte’s vision, but also in the wondrous possibilities of fashion, film and the future.
It feels like decades ago since the likes of Tony Soprano, Carrie Bradshaw, and James McNulty roamed the cable television landscape, hiding bodies, sipping martinis, and taking down drug lords in an attempt to win over our collective hearts and minds. Let’s face it; today Don Draper is king. But with a slate of new shows both large in scope and budget, HBO is on the verge of a renaissance. But before Scorsese moves from the big screen to the small with Boardwalk Empire, and the team behind The Wire takes us behind New Orleans’ post-Katrina shutters in Treme, HBO is ushering in the new guard with notably lighter fare.
How To Make it In Americais the cherry on top of HBO’s brand new sundae, a rolicking romp through the streets of New York’s voguish downtown scene . Created by Mark Wahlberg and the rest of the team that brought us Entourage, and chock-full of that same youthful energy, this show is still markedly different. Whereas Vince an the gang are reaping the spoils of success, HTMIIA’s heroes spend their days looking for it in the deathly gallows of the city’s seemingly inpenetrable fashion world. Ben (Bryan Greenberg) and Cam (Victor Rusak) are the quintessential New York underachievers; young, handsome, charming, talented and living in a city where less is never more. They have direction, they have ambition, all they need is a plan. We watch as they beg and borrow their way towards the top of the denim food chain (there must be a better name for their line than Crisp), and if they ever get there, we may just have to tune out. You see HTMIIA is all about the struggle, about negotiating one’s way through the new American economic minefield. In a day and age where television grasps at the tailcoat of high art, HTMIIA does just the opposite. It takes a bunch of handsome people, places them in the epicentre of cool, and just lets the wheels turn. It may not reveal any sacred truths on the human condition, but it’s a helluva lot of fun to watch. How To Make It In America airs Sundays at 10 on HBO.
Like most of the Western world, we woke up this morning eager to see the much balleyhooed Oscar nominations, announced earlier today. As everyone predicted, Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead the field with nine nods a piece while sleeper hits The Blind Side and District 9 crept in to earn surprising Best Picture nods. Everything else seems to be just where the three million prediction lists we saw this week said they’d be, though we can’t say we weren’t a little disappointed that our friend Ben Foster didn’t get nominated for his gripping performance in The Messenger. Though his co-star Woody Harrelson earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination, Foster’s performance as a casualty notification officer was the film’s emotional core, and should have been recognized by the Academy. We spoke with Foster last fall and he was obviously excited about his work in the film, but after reading the piece in our upcoming issue, you’ll see that the last thing Ben Foster does this for is awards. Here’s a little sneak peek from our photoshoot with the actor. And make sure to pick up our spring issue of Corduroy to see all the photos and to read our brand new interview with Ben Foster.
