The brilliant and talented Frank Ocean releases a video for Pyramids. Amazing, as always (and NSFW.)

A third of my Holy Trinity of favourite contemporary authors (rounded out by Lethem and Eggers,) the mighty Michael Chabon has not only just released Telegraph Avenue, arguably the most anticipated book of the year, but he’ll be making a ridiculously-rare Vancouver appearance on September 26th (tickets here.) Winning the Pulitzer for The Amazing Adventures [...]

A fantastic piece just published by the New York Times features two of the most notable brilliant minds of our generation; Zadie Smith (whose new novel NW just came out)  goes for dinner with Jay-Z, writing about the experience and his career. Cool stuff!

Always a classic. I was born in a very funky year.

On September 17th, we’ll see the forth studio album from Brooklyn indie rock band Grizzly Bear. I’ve been listening to the single ‘Yet Again’ on repeat and can’t get it out of my head. It’s a more upbeat of a sound than I’m used to from these guys and I’m excited to hear the rest [...]

While I do feel bad for the poor guy just trying to get back to his seat, I love this spontaneous choreography to Kanye’s Runaway by his dancers that was posted on Stereogum last week.

I’m totally looking forward to picking up this newest collection of Adrian Tomine work, and glad that Drawn & Quarterly opted to use his best New Yorker cover illustration for the cover. In fact, a couple prints of earlier sketches that eventually became that cover currently hang on our living room wall: He has such [...]

At long last, the New Yorker has an iPhone app! Better yet, there’s this sweet video launching the thing starring Jon Hamm from Mad Men and Lena Dunham from HBO’s Girls (which, incidentally, I’ve just started watching and totally think it’s worth the hype!) Navigating takes a little bit of getting used to, but after [...]

A perennial favourite that I find myself watching every so often over the years, Kid Koala‘s brilliant, moody, lovely version of Moon River. I’ve witnessed this performed live with 1000 others in a sold-out Commodore Ballroom, everyone transfixed, and other than the music swelling throughout the room, you could totally hear a pin drop. Love [...]

What a treat to be able to read a fresh-released short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 2012! The VERY short story is available free for your reading pleasure on the New Yorker’s website here. A little background on how this came about is on The Atlantic’s Wire, along with some other book news, including [...]

I don’t think I’ve ever been so confident in mid-July about what my album of the year is going to be. Not only is Frank Ocean’s ‘Channel Orange’ an incredible, inspired spin on contemporary R & B, but extra props gotta go to the guy for coming out with such dignity (no needless over-the-top spectacle), only to [...]

Tonight, at the Rio Theatre on Commercial Drive premieres Hicks on Sticks, a documentary about a skateboard tour in the 90s and and ode to the spirit and ambition of small town youth. It’s made by a couple fellow West Kootenay boys (Soren Johnstone, who rode along on the original tour, and Mike Babiarz) and [...]

Ho-lee shit this looks good.

From Designboom, Star Wars recreations of famous photographs that TOTALLY. KICK. ASS.

(Chef Anthony) Bourdain put up his pencils, pulled out his knives, and blazed his own trail. “In the end, things worked out really well. I’ve been telling stories for a long time.” But with Get Jiro!, Bourdain is able to merge his childhood passion with his adult vocation. The novel depicts a turf war between battling factions [...]

Gotta agree with Fast Company in this article, IKEA’s new food packaging even makes tinned fish look pretty sharp!

NPR’s always-excellent All Songs Considered podcast crosses over to the second half of the year by having a round-table discussion of 2012′s best music to date. I love listening to this show while doing dishes or other in-house puttering, and am glad that I’ve now been introduced to Kishi Bashi, Hurray For The Riff Raff and [...]

Our friends at Victory Gardens are gonna be doing some awesome demos on Main Street as part of Car Free Vancouver Day this Sunday. First off, you should go to their website to learn about all of the cool things they do, but then make sure you pop by this weekend to get all learned-up [...]

Nice one! ShortList does a great job of assembling the 50 Coolest Book Covers…

What a pleasure it was the other day when I popped over to The Rumpus, to learn that Dave Eggers is coming out with a new novel, his first ‘from-the-ground-up’ fiction in many years. For the scoop on A Hologram For The King and ordering info, it’s all on his McSweeney’s site, while his interview [...]

I’ve had a few bucks just burning a hole in my pocket to spring/summer-up the ol’ wardrobe, but the rain’s sure keeping me at bay. I just can’t bring myself to do it when I’m wearing three layers and it’s pouring.  I am looking forward to a couple straight sunny days though, and throwin’ on [...]

Co-directed by the cinematographer of The Tree Of Life, a stunning video from Explosions In The Sky. Epic.

Been having such a crazy work week, the pace of this track seems a good fit.

Quite liking this Words + Music series on the CBC Music website, where they pair up a Canadian novelist or poet with a songwriter to discuss the writing process. The most recent one has Toronto scribe Pasha Malla chatting with London’s hip-hop artist Shad, whose wit and self-deprecating lyrics (quite rare in rap) contain a [...]