The Thousands

We like to keep it real. Bread and Butter, visors and American Life can do that. But how about we Freshen things up a bit? Yeah throw in some Zola Jesus and boogie down we go.

This week's covershot comes courtesy of Aela Labbé. Be killer like Aela and send us your covershots. We'll love you long time.

Nika Danilova is as unstoppable as her music sounds. Zola Jesus, the band she conceived in rural Arizona (where her father hunted) is a constructed shamble of industrial and electronic sounds coupled with Nika's operatic voice. With influences ranging from Ian Curtis to Michael Gira and Throbbing Gristle, her eclectic tastes are echoed in all of her releases. No biggie, but she's had a song remixed by David Lynch and has collaborated with the likes of M83 and Orbital. She's touring her album, Conatus, around Australia this month, and will be playing at Alhambra with Blank Realm and Palindromes. Sarah skyped with Nika who talked about a lack of Christian hate-mail, philosophy, David Lynch and her eagerness to travel across the Nullarbor.

Sarah Werkmeister: I heard on the grapevine that you have some interesting pre-show rituals - can you tell us about them?
Nika Danilova: I don't really know? Why, what did you hear?

SW: That you request Vitamin C tablets before each show.
ND: Oh, doesn't everyone? They're just good when you're touring. I chew ginger and honey and hot water…

SW: Do you ever get any weird fan/hate mail from Christians?
ND: Not as much as I was expecting. I'm kinda disappointed. Not any actually. I think we're definitely in a more secular society, which is really good.

SW: This one's from a reader, Matthew Gray wants to know "is there any chance of a Nick Cave / Zola Jesus supergroup called 'The Devils Boner'?"
ND: (laughs) Yes. There is. I'm working on it right now, day and night (laughs more). read more

As preposterous as it may seem to name a radio show This American Life, it's a fitting title for a program whose creative, personality driven broadcasts regularly grapple with the contradictions of a nation both trailblazing and conservative, individualistic and conformist, funny and solemn, arrogant and humble.

Started in 1995 in Chicago, This American Life is one of the most popular public radio broadcasts in the country. Hosted by the lovingly dweeby Ira Glass, over the years it has featured everyone from Nick Hornby to Michael Chabon to Spalding Gray and Dave Eggers.

Weird as it may seem to put a radio show on the big screen, this works. It was staged live at a theatre in New York City, and Glass says they endeavored to incorporate stories onstage that would never play on radio (like dance, for instance). The idiosyncratic programming of NPR is easy to poke fun at (like on Parks and Recreation) and there's a bit of self-reflexive humor herein (courtesy of a short film by Mike Birbiglia).

Like the best of National Public Radio, what makes This American Life - Live! so special are the rich personalities and real-life stories presented. There's a great reading by much beloved humorist David Sedaris, a terrific story on an anonymous found photo archive, and a heart tugging yet in no way naff humorous story by a blind father. Amongst many other things (I don't want to spoil anything). This is a perfect way to spend a weekend matinee.

Visors are the headwear of choice for pre-teen netball players and bowling-green grannies. They’re nerdy (ironic) yet somehow continually crop up as sartorially acceptable item of fashion forward sun protection that covers 70% of your face from the harsh glare of the sun, while leaving your scalp, neck and ears to burn.

With absolutely no ball-sports in mind, Brisbane milliner Felicity Boevink creates her visors in black, nude and a futurist holographic silver leather. Recently named "The Ultimate Luxury Accessory" at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia, these visors give closer to 100% more face coverage than their surf shop counterparts (and probably 1000% more cool). Her hats/fascinators/things that sit on your head incorporate one-off vintage materials and are a collision of art, sculpture and fashion for lunch ladies who like to wear hats. And all ladies should have lunch!

Felicity studied fashion in Melbourne and Millinery in Brisbane and while her designs are stocked at some of our city’s swankiest locations, these visors are so hot at the moment you'll need to e-mail Felicity directly to order one.

There are a couple of things I like being hit in the face with. One of those things is the smell when I walked into Bread and Butter, the new general store on Riding Road in Bulimba: a mix of freshly lacquered wood, crusty bread and hessian bags. Another thing? Crowbars. Kidding! I can’t actually think of anything else.

Bread and Butter is an interesting new addition for Brother Espresso. Instead of adding another standard coffee shop, the kind that has been springing up in different locations around Brisbane on a near-daily basis recently, Brother have opted for something new. This delightful, old-school, locally-sourced general store is right next to Brother Espresso's Bulimba café – a combination that makes for a delicious Sunday morning.

Products include Collective Dairy gourmet yoghurts, Conscious vegan chocolate, Murchison-Hume cleaning products, and honey on tap from Stradbroke Island. Bread and Butter’s focus on the Sunday essentials (food, drink and something to read), with a couple of lovely organic non-essentials thrown in (hair product and vegan dog food) gives the store that satisfying, hand-picked quality 7-11 makes us yearn for.

If you’re scared you’ll miss Bread and Butter as you drive past the Oxford Street buzz, just look for the enviably charming trademark bicycle in the front window.

Apparently there’s a great deal of pleasure in looking (thank you, Ms. Mulvey), but it probably depends on what you’re looking at. Obviously World Press Photo is going to pip your cousin-in-law’s endless Instagrams of their bratty kids at the post in the endorphin-rush stakes. After having a quick flick through the images on their website, I can happily report back to you that the show should more than satisfy the most substantial appetite for the spectacle (cheers, Mr. Debord).

Besides the obligatory serious documentation of war/politics/natural disasters, there’s some worthwhile weird stuff too. Like the kitschy Sochi Singers entertaining restaurant patrons in Russia. Or happy snaps of a cleansing ritual in Kazakhstan, where a shaman pours blood from a lamb over a half-naked family crouching in a hole.

Even though there’s something a bit perverse about the voyeuristic implications here, somehow looking at the photos made me feel like a better human for understanding more about mankind and provoked satisfying feelings of empathy. Head along and you might even learn something - “broaden your horizons” or whatever. Case in point: did you know that Dakar, in Senegal, has a fashion week? Now we know.

Writing fiction about rock music is a very risky business indeed, for every A Visit from The Goon Squad, there’s at least ten books like The Ground Beneath Her Feet that just get it all wrong. Stone Arabia is one of the good ones, throwing up a new slant on the rock star myth.

The book concerns Nik Worth, a musician who once had a shot, y’know, makin it back in the 70s, but has since fallen into obscurity. Despite not having an audience beyond his sister Denise and a few friends, Nik continues to make music obsessively. He creates an elaborate fantasy life for himself through series self-penned fake reviews he calls The Chronicles.  Though Nik has almost no audience, he pretends that each record he makes is pored over by an adoring rock press. Denise is Nik’s most devoted listener and the novel is told mostly through her voice. Denise frets over Nik, while trying to deal with her own life. At various points in the novel she finds herself paralysed by some story or other on the evening news.

I’ll level with you, Stone Arabia is a pretty humourless read with no jokes at all in these pages, well maybe there was one, but it wasn’t funny. It is, however, a pretty powerful meditation on what it means to create art, and the lust for an audience.

The government’s going to need to start running another anti-ice campaign because the pictured monstrosity can cause serious danger. After flooring Taiwan with more than 100 stores there, now it’s Brisbane’s turn to feel the brain freeze wrath of Meet Fresh.

Dessert is what Meet Fresh is about. Dessert for brunch, lunch, dinner... and supper. There are endless options to choose from so you definitely can linger all day over some A-Pop and pearls, seeds, beans... Adding all of this to staples like ice-cream may sound scary and if you heard about this much hyped place and its forty minute queue on opening weekend there have probably been mixed reports. IMO the desserts here are more subjective, rather than hit and miss, or plain old weird as the person accompanying me suggested. Sweet potato and barley in your dessert may take a little getting used to for some round eyes, but tofu pudding and their famous homemade taro pudding definitely shouldn't.

Avoiding a brain freeze is possible as you do get to choose from both cold and hot desserts but all in all, just remember what your parents warned you, kiddies. 'Everything in moderation' and you should get out of here just fine.

Attending a gathering for the promise of inspiration from like-minded individuals might sound a little cult-like, but this event is an alien god-free zone. Brisbane Indesign is a festival for designers to network, swap ideas, share projects and generally love up on each other.

The opening ceremony of sorts is Thursday’s Up Late In Design, a street party for designers and design-lovers. There’ll be architect-designed pop-up bars and cafes, public art installations and displays of local designer wares that will get you both inspired and jealous.

Even though Friday is full of VIP fine-I-didn’t-want-to-go-anyway invitation-only events, Saturday’s where it’s at. Hop on one of the shuttle buses doing loops of the city’s fanciest studios and galleries and act like an undercover agent gathering intelligence. As you drive around like oldies on a coach tour, there’ll be plenty of ways to stay entertained. Check out the installations, talks and festival-specific collaborations or start some bus games with your new designer friends, like ‘Spot the PC User’.

You can join the shuttle tour from any location, so get your eyes on the event handbook for lists of participating showrooms and bus loop maps. You’ll look like a tourist in your own city, but you’ll be in the company of Brisbane’s most creative. This is a design circle-jerk.

Remember that time your co-worker signed you up for a dating service? Thanks Danny. The Blind Date Project isn't very much like your boss signing you up for J-Date/RSVP, it's rather more open and experimental, less creepy, more hilarious foible. Inviting people on stage to participate in a 'blind' date, the three theater rouses Bojana Novakovic, Mark Winter and Thomas Henning have conceived a hell awkward and hilarious performance. Get up on stage to fake date one of the actors - who knows, your blind date might turn into your life long dream of being Woody Allen.

Fresh off playing the closest thing to heaven this world has to offer, Austin Psych Fest, Brian Jonestown Massacre are back on our shores playing a run of shows in support of their new album Aufhebin. Achieving early notoriety for their constantly changing lineups and erratic on and off-stage behaviour, the BJM of 2012 is a completely different beast. Whilst leader, Anton Newcombe may not have the sideburns he used to, he has probably the best incarnation of the band to date with a roster made up of a mixture of faces new and old from their storied career (Fun Fact: Their bassist scored this.) Although you’re unlikely to see any guitarists get stabbed this Thursday, you’re sure to witness a night of unequalled kaleidoscopic drone, psychedelia and plenty of tambourines.

Vintage shopping is like panning for gold. Most of the stuff you see is pretty gross and you should most definitely wash your hands before lunching. Box Vintage do the scummy panning and all you have to do is choose your favourite nuggets. To kick-off the new pop-up shop collaboration with stylist Sarah Birchley, Box Vintage is throwing a party. Get your mouth on a drink, your eyes on the short film by Ms Birchley and filmmaker Marcus Round and your hands on vintage fashion for both sexes.

On the eve of this incarnation of Brisbane Indesign, a crafty group of architects, engineers and interior decorators will come together for a very design-er street party. These three profession groups share a love of laneways and will be taking their skills to the rough side streets of the Valley. In this (hopefully not) urine soaked back alley, the party features a student based design competition. What will they make? No-one knows, but it's sure to be cool. This is a party in a laneway after all.

Look there's a lot of crud coming from stereos in the Valley, well all the time, so you shouldn't need much convincing to to sit and drink cocktails and boutique beers from 9pm-2am this Friday night and support a venue that, for the entire night, will be playing nothing but vinyl Soul, New Wave, Punk, and hey I'm not sure what I think about Ska, but nothing's perfect.

You know what sucks about nuts-on-strings earphones – everything. The way that little rock-hard, macadamia-sized plug starts to hurt your ear after no time at all. Especially if you are laying down like this.

The situation is not all nuts n knots though. When I was on the google I found this video from Urbanears to curb my well-founded headphone tentativity. The smooth voice promised my stressed-out ear cavities some pillow-soft headgear to cradle my drums and lobes. A nice fabric cord that refuses to tangle even in the most treacherous of bag interiors. The ‘closed’ headphone technology of the Plattan style also allows for absolutely no noise to filter in, and means that even the person sitting next to you won’t know you’re listening to 'Big Hard Sun' by Eddie Vedder. Hey you’re getting geared up for a big day! But if they did, say, want to listen to it with you, they could because Urbanears have a thing called the Zoundplug, which lets the person sitting next to you plug into your headphones. No more pressing temples and hairlines together for the old one-ear-each jobbie.

Get a pair at Myer or browse the wish-they-was edible colours (grape!) and buy online for $80 USD. Or, indeed, attempt to win a pair of the Plattan in grape from this very newsletter. To enter, just answer the following question.