The Thousands

That’s all you ever were. That’s what Bean, Holloway Eyewear, Democratique and Atomic Martini never will be. See there's no Shame in being single this Valentine’s day.

Covershot by Kelley Smith. Try and top her and hit us with your best shot.

Looking like a lost, Antipodean cousin to the late great Royal Art Lodge, Ghostpatrol creates quiet figures that move in slow motion. Gauzy, faded drawings of kids in the woods and at play; his imagery is both sci-fi and nostalgia-laden.

Future Notes Volume II compiles drawings out of Ghostpatrol's sketchbooks from June to November of last year. The Hobart transplant now resides in Melbourne, where he often collaborates with Miso (their work was profiled a few years back in a TV documentary).

Navigating the spectrum of street art - both in its natural habitat, and gallery or print form - it's always reassuring to encounter artists who counteract the hyper-masculine norms of that aesthetic with work that's vulnerable, sensitive, or apolitical. Ghostpatrol's images embody all that, alongside surreal storytelling and a delicate craftsmanship where the artist's hand is always present.

Future Notes is a nice keepsake, and a great cross-section of ideas at various stages of germination. Released by Dawn Press in a limited edition of 200, each book is hand numbered and since Volume I sold out, if you're keen, best get clicking...

'Eco' and 'fashion' are a strange couple. Fundamentally they're so often at odds. One says, "keep it real", while the other whispers, "strike a pose". Holloway Eyewear don't care to maintain such pretense.

Turning recycled products into sunglasses that wouldn't look out of place on either runways or laneways, Holloway prove you don't have to choose between hip and hippie. Furniture, skateboards and car parts are just some of the things they're turned into shades, and there's still more to come. Raffaele and Martin tell me that if you really can't stand your boyfriend's guitar playing, you can bring in his axe and voila, custom sunnies!

You can tell straight up when chatting to them that they give more than two shits about what's going on, and Holloway sunglasses aren't just a way to make a conscious free buck. All glasses are crafted locally at their West End warehouse, which doubles as a factory for Black Star's ice-coffee range and will soon triple as a recording studio for local bands.

Already these guys are racking up the design awards but of course cred counts for nothing if the product looks like it was picked up at a truck-stop. No sales pitch from me, go check out their designs here. Stock is limited so get in quick because these dudes don't seem like the sort to swap a skate for staying back at work to make more glasses.

Democracy is a slippery thing. Add this to contemporary art, and you've got a veritable minefield of interpretation. Take it out of contemporary art and you've got something akin to a Malevich painting. Karl Shoobridge, Ben Havenaar and Erin Dunne have breezed on past that Malevich painting, and are interpreting their own versions of democracy in their exhibition, Democratique.

The three artists' common interest lies in the conceptual, the technological and our consumption of it, essentially screwing with the formula, back and forth until it tells you what it wants to tell you. Dunne, for example, reconfigures facebook as though it's attempting to humanise it's subject. Shoobridge examines the implied 'democracy' of language. They say men made the English language? Well now the internet is creating its own.

Karl's work explores the flux between labour (using house paint), urges and this language. Havenaar's deconstructed / reconstructed perspex sculptures are an architectural fuck you to formalism - sleek but somewhat disconcerting. Head along and vote for your favourite work. Democratically.

Folktronica is well and truly something. Probably starting off with someone handing some hippies a Mac as a joke, who could've predicted that glitches and drum machines would make their way into good ol' heartfelt music?

The debut EP from Marcy Projects is another one of those surprises. For what is essentially electronic music, These Pale Skies has a lush, homely feel to it that takes you away from the confusing, confronting world of synthesizers and soundscapes, and wraps you in a warm, fuzzy blanket. Annie Drake's delicate, understated vocal style is delivered with a huge slab of honesty.  She brings you into her world, and makes you believe that every word means something special.

Producer Jake Smith's taste for crunchy drum sounds and cute plonky bits really glues the songs together – to the point where this EP would sit proudly as an instrumental work and his sound meshes neatly with Annie's voice, making it a blissful listen, oozing with class and sincerity.

Steve McQueen’s beautifully crafted drama recalls Drive, and not just for transforming Manhattan into the same gritty, jaded demimonde as Refn’s Los Angeles. There should be an APB going out to intense, blue-eyed loners across America: “STAY AWAY FROM CAREY MULLIGAN SHE WILL PIERCE YOUR STYLISH SHELL OF URBAN ALIENATION AND FLOOD YOUR METICULOUSLY EMPTY LIFE.”

Here, Mulligan is cabaret singer Sissy, who shares with her brother Brandon (Michael Fassbender) a troubled past that’s disturbing for only ever being hinted at. In a key scene, dense with meaning, she turns ‘New York, New York’ into a haunting torch song as Brandon watches, eyes aglisten, with his cocky boss David (James Badge Dale).

The production and costume design underline that whatever “bad place” these siblings have escaped has forged them as opposites. She’s brittle, warm, hungry for intimacy and bleeding vulnerability; he’s smooth, cool, chasing isolation through his compulsion for anonymous orgasms, and shying from a coworker, Marianne (Nicole Beharie), whom he might actually like.

Sure, Fassbender’s wang appears in the first five minutes, but for me the siblings’ interdependent antagonism was more poignant and intriguing than Brandon’s overdetermined ‘depravity’. I found the film’s ending subtly hopeful.

With a name like Atomic Martini, you know this new vintage store is going to be more of a blast than the sex shop across the road. Yes, Brisbane has it's fair share of suburban vintage haunts, and sure you'll find all the usual grandma/dad outfits here, but Atomic Martini do the fifties and sixties better than most. Think one-stop-tiki-shirt kind of a shop. A space where prom dresses run rampant and hats range from panama to pill box.

Though the mens selection will impress, it won't go anywhere near the extensive collection of party frocks from the fifties. The pastels that they have on offer are considered 'new old stock' meaning that despite their fun aesthetic and mature age, they have never been worn and many still have the original tags attached. Vintage without the wear and tear!

Simplicity counts for everything if all you're after is a no-jargon coffee in a no bullshit atmosphere. Sharing a space with Bunker Boutique, a couple of the peeps from Disco have started up a little (rubs fingers together as if conspiring) side project. Set in a quiet alleyway off George St, Bean is the kind of place you can go to read a book, do some work, or just relax.

They're yet to offer a full cafe menu, but they do serve small goodies like muffins and cookies, some Emma And Toms juices, and in the future the standard avo on toasts (and we're guessing some creative frittatas and friands). The beans come from Campos (which the city needs more of since the strange disappearance of Mad Espresso), and they're - well, a good drop.

The best thing about the space? It's pared back, they've got a record player and books, and it's a good place to go if you want to escape being a hustler in the city. Bean, like their name, are keeping it simple, and that's the way we like it.

Valley rats and Asian restaurants mate for life - once you pick a favourite pre-drink, coat-the-old-stomach restaurant, you're forevermore monogamous. If that's true, I just became a Mormon, because I found the last frontier of authentic Asian eating and it's got me acting all unfaithful-like to my regular eateries.

Off the beaten China Town track and back towards the city a little, Pho Huang Gia offers more than those others ever could. You’ll soon learn that it takes no promise of impending intoxication to enjoy a meal here. The decor is minimal and clean, a sort of Asian/American diner fusion with lots of bright lights, mirrors and shiny white surfaces that look clean enough to eat off. Sweet little condiment trays on every table come complete with a box of Kleenex instead of serviettes (a tradition I am not familiar with).

A huge menu of Vietnamese delicacies and that authentic order-by-number system are on offer. Sugar cane prawns, vermicelli salads and mango bubble tea are unmatched for freshness and flavour. Corkage is a mere $1.50 per person and portions are so large, you’d have a tough time eating more than $20 worth of food. I recommend anything that is AIY (assemble it yourself) or comes with a side salad. The massive garlands of herbs, greenery and bean sprouts that dress these plates are worth your dollars just in themselves. Apart from pho, rice paper rolls and pork omlette are definitely trending.

Brisbane's collegiate of light and sounds' relationship to alchemical analogue materials has concocted some magic of his own. Ross Manning's new exhibition, Spectra, explores the functions of soon to be obsolete objects like overhead projectors, and how they can create a sad kind of magic. The sentimentality of those OHTs, mixed with some primitive motion is sure to tug at your heartstrings.

What better chanteuse to have serenading a parlour full of Matisse nudes than Brous (pronounced 'bruce')? Her band features Melbourne's Pikelet and Lost Animal, and she really masters the whole Euro disco meets Scott Walker approach. Expect sounds of the exotica kind.

4 x dudes + 2 x guitars + bass + drums + vocals = rawk. It's a tried and tested formula yet still in 2012 Witch Hats are managing to squeeze every last morsel out of the classic sound and do something deadly with it. Feathers, 100 Bad Guys With Swords and Crass Creatures support.

Burroughs was the antidote to apathy - "In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen". Plus, he allegedly coined the term 'Heavy Metal' - take that, Slayer! Those willing to testify to the man's lust for life include Iggy Pop (yes I did), Sonic Youth, David Cronenberg, John Waters, Gus Van Sant and the many more artists and musicians he went on to influence. If nothing else A Man Within, the documentary of Burroughs' life will inspire you to make things happen.

Only this morning I read that Pepsi will be launching a vegetable flavoured soda. Yes, you drink it. No, it's not made of Gwyneth Paltrow's macrobiotic tears. It's basically carbonated minestrone and everyone wants a sip (regurgitating afterwards is optional) because it's PEPSI. Now shove that liquid diarrhea into a 'homebrand' bottle and it will only last a week in Woolies, before being sent to a N.Q.R and spending eternity next to expired Wholegrain Hoops.

Creating a product is easy, but designing a product that sells is difficult. Portable presents Product Design
will show you the ropes. This open forum will take you through product design from conception to development, with expert panelists Leni Mayo (founding investor of 99designs) and Shainiel Deo (CEO of the game design house Halfbrick).