The Thousands

Do you know what immigration brings? It brings Pappa Roti buns and Miss Chu. We rest our case. As for the non-edible aspects of the issue: a new ARI launches in Hibernian, Daniel Clowes has a book for anyone who's not a misanthrope, This American Life is Live! and you'll die for Tomah, Bappi Lahiri is here soon and Karen O has an opera. Which we have tickets to.

Cover shot by Jamie Shaw. Send your sweet snaps to alex@rightanglestudio.com.au.

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.

The lyrics may be questionable, however his musical arrangements are sublime; the self-proclaimed ‘Disco King’ of Bollywood, Bappi Lahiri, will be playing in Sydney on June 9. In honour of this man's colourful, dense, and nauseatingly fun compositions it's time to take a brief trip back through the ages and review one of Lahiri’s many, many, many Bollywood scores.

Calcutta born and bred Lahiri moved to Bombay (see Mumbai) at the age of 19. His first score was featured in the movie Nanha Shakiri in 1973 but his first big hit came with the music he composed for Zakhmee. Alongside R.D. Burman Lahiri is credited with incorporating rock, funk, disco, and electro into traditional Indian song and rhythm structures, often with devastating results. For evidence of this check his (illegal!) adaptation of Herbie Hancock’s ‘Rockit’ for the 1985 film Baadal.

Aaj Kaa M.L.A. is an early 80’s action film Bollywood style. I can’t speak for the movie but Lahiri’s music is a kaleidoscope of Hindi love songs, four to the floor disco, and sweeping orchestral/brass compositions that delight the ears. Heralded by the sound of an insanely loud trumpet  ‘Tirupati Balaji’ is an intense mix of tablas, brass, and operatic singing. ‘Chalo Calcutta’ features a chugging drum machine, Suicidesque bassline, and a strings section that buzzes in and out like a pesky mosquito. ‘Main To Hoon Shree Ram Avtar’ starts off as a rather benign love song, which quickly morphs into cheesy but highly listenable disco sandwich.

As rich, spicy, and intense as Indian cuisine Lahiri’s music is an inspiration for the ear buds. Go and stuff it in!

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.

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.

I went straight home with my copy of The Art Of Daniel Clowes : Modern Cartoonist climbed into bed and said, "Hold all my calls". Turning the giant pages slowly in silence, I occasionally let out an unintentional gasp or "sick!".

Dan Clowes makes comic books that are perfectly suited to pet obsession and bedroom consumption. He pores over his drawings with a perfectionism that rivals modern master Chris Ware. And his characters exhibit those most stinging moments of doubt, angst, neurosis, lust, passion, compassion, anger, inflexibility and hopeless romanticism - the thoughts you used to think were only indulged by your inner monologue.

'Ghost World' and the comic where that story came from (Eightball) are Clowes's most famous works, and probably his most provocative (want to know what the '90s were really like? Check out 'I Hate You Deeply'). Original Eightball art is beautifully reprinted herein, but it's only a fraction of the incredible cross section of awesome images included, from album cover and movie poster art, to OK Cola and anything else Clowes has worked on, alongside personal stuff such as childhood photos, drawings, and his annual Christmas card designs (amazing!).

Attached essays range from a new interview with Clowes, to gushing enthusiasms from comic book buffs, to a somewhat dry (though totally valid) academic analysis from Ken Parille (who co-edited an entire book of Clowes's interviews that I highly recommend).

If you are a Clowes fan you will absolutely love this book and if you are a newbie keen on a crash course, this'll do ya. In fact, I can't imagine what kind of life-hating misanthropic freak wouldn't enjoy this book, but if you can find a person that mad at the world I'm sure Clowes would love to meet them, or at least draw them.

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.

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 superior 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.

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. read more

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.

Obviously we were all on our best behaviour at Jurassic Lounge because now we are allowed to drink in the MCA. Last Friday of every month is going to be a party in the new wing. It's a mini Vivid in itself, with music and performance curated by a monthly guest artist, and sneakily, the best view of the Opera sails illumined.

Blood Orange aka Dev Hynes has been touring all over the place with Florence and The Machine, playing venues like Radio City Hall (and quietly reeling at the thought of playing his "weird bedroom love songs" there). He is playing one side show while he's here in Australia, at FBi Social, which means it is your only chance to come into his neon-buzzing bedroom. Support from Wax Witches (another bedside project, from Alex Wall of Bleeding Knees Club).

Two indie-hip-hop saviours are rescuing the genre from sterile commodification: MED, a smooth-like-butter, Los Angeles-based jazz-rap revivalist with a timeless urban poet-laureate aesthetic; and Detroit’s skinny-jeaned Danny Brown, crazed from Adderall-induced insomnia and barking hostile, paranoid satire at the homogeneity of modern rap labels. The old and new school ally against no-school radio hip-hop. Come join the fight.

Tom Vek we have missed your sassy indifference. Now you are back and we still can't tell if you think we look silly or you think we look aroused. Either way, we're dancing. Meanwhile, Kindness. New guy has sweet tunes - Arthur Russell does Bootsy Collins, perhaps - but is distractingly good looking. And the ever-euphoric drum circle party that is Jonathan Boulet. Don't go just because Tom Vek's new album is amazing. Modular also organised Van She Tech and Purple Sneakers DJs to support. So go because how is all that even possible in one night?

If Lapalux feels a little unfamiliar, go here and listen. Ok, now that we've got you back, and you're sitting nicely in the experimental screw groove, we can let you know that Astral People are presenting another grand sonic voyage, with no other than Lapalux as the headliner. The second headliner, yes second, is oOoOO. Confusing name, but a solid sound that you're well aware of by now. And for support they've thrown in big boss Albatross and Garland (ex Bon Chat, Bon Rat).

This breaking news came in on the emails last night, but if there were presses involved they would be HOT. Brian Chase from Yeah Yeah Yeahs is infiltrating the Flinders on Tuesday night, for a one night only improv colab with some of his local mates including Kirin J Callinan, Sophia Brous and Shags Chamberlain. There'll also be sets by Circle Pit and Teenage Mothers, along with "surprise guests" - so let the rumours begin.

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.