Charles Schulz (of Peanuts) famously bought every single Esterbrook Radio #914 pen nib when they heard they were being discontinued. R Crumb won’t fuck with anything but a Rapidograph technical pen. Pencils though? Voices were in unison praising the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602. Famous users included Vladimir Nabokov, Frank Lloyd Wright, Thomas Wolfe, John Steinbeck, Stephen Sondheim, Igor Stravinsky and Chuck Jones. How many famous people use your favourite pencil? Don’t make me laugh. Even the Blackwing’s motto ‘Half the pressure, twice he speed’ is imposing and sleek in a modernist kind of way.

Then: disaster. Blackwings were discontinued in 1998. I have seen evidence of them selling for upwards of $50 on eBay. An incredibly exhaustive blog sprung up. The streets ran with graphite. People wept. Then: Resurrection. California Cedar Products bought the Blackwing trademark and started manufacturing recreations of the Palomino Blackwing 602 and the Palomino Blackwing. The former for writers, the latter for sketchers – and now available in Australia at NoteMaker. It’s almost impossible to overstate the reverence people have for this pencil. Such fanatical devotion to a writing stick. But, as Ray Eames said, “What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts.” And sometimes what works good can even come back from the dead. It’s the Jesus pencil.

Previously, they’ve done some pretty cray things with paper, and put Ollie Henderson in basically the best two-piece trackie ever. August Street is Ainsley Hansen (ex Socialight and Uscari); it’s also a place in Birdwood, South Australia, and now the label, not the street, has gone done become an e’shop.

The current range is Navajo Dreaming and while you’ll probably cream for the Aztec happy pants and the tuxedo jacket made of totem dreams, this new online postcode is also an exercise in patience and bookmarking. Cos the upcoming Summer 2012 featuring Ollie in some sports-suit wonders and a Nike cap has got it on lock, and Spring featuring Krystal Glynn (styled by some Sydney bloggers and Navajo model Rachel Rutt) ain’t too shabby-looking either. From what we’ve peeped there’s ample velvet and a functional jumpsuit. E’xcellent.

Don’t drive here at night time because you’ll miss the turn off and no one is around to help you. So when you arrive, early afternoon, arms full of wine and fresh roadside produce, prepare to die. Sharply renovated bush hut, and holiday house of two Sydney men, Tomah is that incredible kind of accommodation that you pay for to stay in. The whole time.

After you notice the massive cooks garden, from which you can pluck and use the seasonal ingredients you need (psst, take cuttings from the big guys), you’ll see the cherry tree, berry house and strawberry fields. Yes, you can pick from those, too. There are free-range chickens, who’ll lay eggs that you can eat, and three peacocks: Lola, George, and another one who we didn’t know the name of. Let’s call him Son of George. There’s a courtyard for entertaining when it’s warm, but strictly for chopping wood while it’s cold – for the lounge room fireplace, and the AGA fuel stove (AGA FUEL STOVE!!).

Now that you’ve stopped dying over the AGA fuel stove, you might have a poke around the tidy little library available or the hard drive full of movies. And then you’ll have a little poke around the bathroom where there are Aesop products and a huge bath, deep-set into the concrete floor, surrounded by glass walls with an endless and wild view (better than the AGA fuel stove!). If you ever leave the bath or the kitchen, visit the Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens which are just around the corner. It’s one of the suggestions that the owners will provide for you, along with the cryptic entry instructions and a million pages of directions necessary to navigate the house comfortably. With only one rule – don’t drink their booze.

SOLDIERS Rd started out with Daniel O’Toole taking over an apartment, but then he had the chance to get more space and he wanted the chance to be able to work outside the framework of commercial galleries, and BOOM, here is an exhibition. Well, actually it is more like: after a bunch of organisation and hard labour, O’Toole (who you might also recognise from his work as Ears) and his partner Shari Veitch have put together “a clean warm space that houses eight creative studios, an event space and gallery.”

“Soldiers Rd is a new creative space for Sydney’s children to play in,” says O’Toole, an enclave nestled into the iconic grunge of Hibernian House. It’s been set up as a multi-purpose space, with a couple of exhibitions lined up but also plans to use it for dance and video installations, talks, photoshoots, improvised music and live painting events and, extra-intriguingly, “secret dinners.”

With the talents of the artists in this first group show (Bennett, Chanelle Collier, Conor O’Shea, Ears, Ella Condon, Emily Valentine, James Powditch, Joe Wilson, Tamara Dean and Max Berry), the looks of the pics he gave us of the space so far, and the historic density of vibes in the building and community as a whole, SOLDIERS Rd should be one to highlight on the map.

Pappa Roti started as a small kiosk in Kuala Lumpur. I first tried it in Cabramatta, where I surveyed the menu in confusion as I realised they just sell one bun – no variations, different fillings, nope… an entire bakery for one bun? But it made sense when I tasted it. This one bun brought them from Kuala Lumpur to all over Asia. In 2010 they crossed the sea to Kogarah, and now, finally, they’ve brought their one bun oven to the city.

So what is this bun. Have you ever woken up on a long flight, and everyone is still asleep and the cabin is dark, and you open your window shutter and instantly this golden light floods in – and when your eyes adjust you see the soft cumulus cloudbank below you and realise it’s dawn – and you look out as the plane floats over this vista of golden sunwarmed clouds*. That’s what we’re dealing with here.

Their George Street outpost is camped in the back of a Chatime. Chatime, you may or may not know, is the thinking man’s Easyway/Bubblecup. Unlike the minimal Cabramatta Pappa Roti, the George Street licensees have decided to co-feature an immense dessert menu – waffles, pancakes, crepes, sundaes, milkshakes, thickshakes, yoghurt drinks, gelato – which I’ve not yet not ignored.

They serve coffee, which I’ve also never tried because they also make delicious Malaysian pulled tea – frothy, light, and flavoursome. My favourite of these is teh halia, spicy pulled milk tea made with sweetened condensed milk and ground ginger. Chatime spins the tunes so I would recommend getting a bun and a hot teh halia to go.

*For those of you who shadow it under eyemasks, a crispy outer shell of ‘fragrant coffee cream’, delectably salty in places, crumbles into sweet doughy goodness with occasional pockets of hot butter.

We’ve been pimping Miss Chu’s goods to you guys for a long time. We even asked the rice paper roll queen to reign on our parade when we curated the Laneway Festival market a couple of years back. She’s been expanding her humble empire, opening up tuckshops all over town, in that other town, and even patenting the word ‘tuckshop’.

But with this new locale she’s seen her other stores and she’s RAISED THEM. How? By doing what anyone naturally does when raising something (children*, issues) – adding alcohol. Gidget Chu Bespoke Wines (which aren’t made to order, as the name might suggest) come in colours white (Chardonnay, Savignin and Petit Mansang blend) and red (Tempranillo and Tannat) from King Valley Victoria. Along with beers from Vietnam, Laos and China, it’s a pretty comprehensive drink selection when combined with the frozen young coconut crushies (banana and mint = bloody delicious) that have always been standout.

And holy shit you can plug your iPhone in to recharge while you plug your mouth with two fat rice paper rolls. Or maybe a special of banh mi or a vegan Buddha curry. Or a Wagyu Pho, or some steamed dumplings. All the trimmings you know and love.

Do you lunch** in the city? You do now.

*JOKE
**Also very suitable for a pre-cinema bite.

If you heard Karen O was doing her take on an opera, you wouldn’t be too surprised to find it described as a ‘Psycho Opera‘. When you heard she’d involved her friends, you’d be equally unsurprised some other honchos were involved: Stop The Virgens is conceived in collaboration with KK Barrett, production designer behind Being John Malkovich and Lost In Translation, and director Adam Rapp (Red Light Winter, In Treatment). So you know it has scope.

The 13-piece musical accompaniment is led by Sam Spiegel (aka Squeak E Clean, of N.A.S.A) and YYY‘s Nick Zinner and Brian Chase, with Beastie collaborator Money Mark, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler (of The Greenhornes and The Raconteurs), and NYC’s Bubbles. The whole thing is just immense. Happily, Sam Spiegel gave us five of his fave tunes as a teaser.

Sam’s top five with liner notes:

1. ‘Tighten Up’ – The J.B.’s
Classic James Brown band at its tightest covering the Archie Bell classic ‘Tighten Up’. James Brown is my favorite musician of all time, and some of the bands he put together were the greatest ever. This was the beginning of an era of James having some of the best musicians in the world for about 15 years, from Maceo Parker, to Bootsy Collins, Clyde Stubblefield, Fred Wesley… the list goes on.

2. ‘Wanna Be Your Lover’ - N.A.S.A.
We covered this great Italo Disco song ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover‘ by La Bionda on our remix record The Big Bang. I love that genre. It was created by Giorgio Moroder and Harold Faltermeyer in the late 70′s, and it was the first pop/dance music to use all programmed elements, from the drums to all of the music elements aside from the vocals. Despite the name, almost all of Italo Disco was made in Munich, Germany, and the big break out hit ‘I Feel Love‘ was sung by American Donna Summer. (more…)

We needed an antidote to the disproportionate pride people take in their shitty meals, documented online for the world to see. That is Cook Suck. He writes some pretty scathing reviews on some pretty disgusting home-cooked meals – but, like, where’s your credentials dude? We asked him to step up to Celebrity Non-Chef. And here it is. Over to you, CS.

Introduction

I was going to cook a dish from probably my favourite food blog at the moment, The Bookery Cook, but it was one of those Mondays where the world felt like bullshit and I would probably wind up on my own website if I tried something tricky – so I cooked an easy favourite from Justine Schofield’s site. Haloumi, eggplant mash, goddamn pine nuts (aren’t pine nuts so unreasonably expensive?), crispy as fuck rocket, and market beetroot so fresh and juicy your hands look like you’ve just got home from the abortion factory. It’s a top dish: the tahini/eggplant mash with lemon juice is impossible to fuck up and it’s great on bread for lunch; it’s like baked beans and toast for people who have sexual intercourse.

Ingredients

• Haloumi
• Eggplant
• Beetroot (bunch)
• Tablespoon of tahini (you’ll be forced to probably buy a tub of it)
• Lemon
• Rocket (fresh as you can, supermarket rocket is the pits)
• Pinenuts
• Garlic clove

Steps

1. Oven to 200C – bit of oil and salt on whole beetroot, wrap in alfoil – oven for 40.

2. Eggplant: same deal with oil and salt. Puncture all over with fork (which is very satisfying, get into it, feels good man) – oven for 30.

3. Remove, let cool, peel the beetroots and then chop into circles. Don’t put gloves on, just do it with your hands, release your inner animal.

4. Same deal with eggplant – combine with tahini and lemon juice in a bowl and mash with a fork until you’re feeling it.

5. Now fry the haloumi. This is the hardest part – everyone has their own method. I go hot and quick with a bit of fresh mint in the oil, but whatever.

6. Finally, make the salad. You should be having a side salad with most meals you cook (in my opinion), but a simple olive oil/rocket/pinenut deal will do here. Lay it out however you want, see picture for details. Don’t get too George Calombaris with it but don’t eat it out of the pan either; have some fucking self respect but keep it cool.

7. Eat in front of housemates, don’t share. Don’t even give them any of the leftovers, fuck them, they’ll never learn that way.

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 lovably 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.

Charles and Ray Eames were the duo behind the Eames chair, the design most responsible for keeping post-war arses happy at a low price, but their output wasn’t just limited to stuff you could sit on. Their Californian HQ ‘The Eamery’ was a Renaissance-style studio that rivalled Warhol’s Factory in terms of multimedia productivity, cultural influence and sheer chaos. The Architect & The Painter, therefore, feels like a slightly misleading title for a doc about Charles and Ray’s working relationship. While Ray was indeed the protégé of Hans Hoffman with an unrivalled eye for colour, and Charles the design-minded businessman with the charisma to win clients over, such titles seem way too restrictive.

Still, the film does a good job portraying these two innovators like the right and left side of the same brain, and all the issues that entails. Not least the struggle for a married couple to be viewed as equally brilliant in 1950s America, a time when Don Drapers would automatically be championed above Peggy Olsons. Or the later fight for input, as Ray felt she wasn’t really needed in creating the awesome Powers Of Ten. Mostly, though, it’s a celebration of their successes. After all, they helped soften Russia’s view of America during the Cold War with Glimpses of the USA, and assisted IBM in persuading regular Joes that computers were here to help humans, not rise up and destroy them. See? You read this and your laptop didn’t crush your stupid fingers.