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Listen to Sia's Haunting Cover of "California Dreamin'"

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siacaliforniadreamin.png50 years later, the Mamas and the Papas' 1965 hit "California Dreamin'" is still a stirring, moody piece of pop perfection. In this cover by Sia, off the soundtrack for the upcoming Dwayne Johnson drama San Andreas, the song gets a big, booming, orchestral spin before taking an electro turn. Goddamn, her voice. Listen below.

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Meet An NYC DJ Shaking Things Up

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Spring has sprung, and we're ready to hit the town. We've teamed up with Coach for a night out with our favorite creative women in the city. Read on and get to know DJ and stylist, Alix Brown.

DJ, musician, stylist and merchandiser Alix Brown grew up like all good kids should, listening to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bowie and their ilk. She wisely saved the record collection her mother acquired via her first husband from an uncertain fate at a yard sale, giving her quite the catalog to draw from at a young age.

2_J1A2858untitled shoot.jpgPlaying in various bands and DJing around her hometown of Atlanta was a natural evolution, as was her move to NYC nine years ago. Brown has a vintage aesthetic that evoke another era but her flipped-out golden 'do and Catherine Deneuve vibe are right at home in 2015. Her career as a DJ reads like a cool kid bucket list with regular appearances at The Standard and Kenmare, plus a weekly residence with co-DJ Tennessee Thomas at the Soho Grand.

But that's all about to change. She's joining new husband Lias Saoudi, singer of English rock band The Fat White Family, on tour in England this summer. "I'm dropping everything I've been doing for the last three years. I have a serious job as a merchandiser and stylist I'm putting on hold, [and I'm] quitting all my DJ nights I have. I'm taking the plunge, I'm having a major life change," she says.

And, as the saying goes, change is good.

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Meet The NYC Artist Who Has The Fashion World Falling For Her

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Spring has sprung, and we're ready to hit the town. We've teamed up with Coach for a night out with our favorite creative women in the city. Read on and get to know artist-on-the-rise, Austyn Weiner
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Miami-born and New York-based mixed media artist Austyn Weiner got her introduction to the world of high fashion in a consummately hip way. Coolness collided five years ago when Weiner shot (now ubiquitous) model Cara Delevingne backstage at a show, leading to the visuals for what would become Weiner's first major series, "Le Modèle. " The stunning, large-scale portraits of Delevingne are deconstructed and reconstructed with a vibrant color palette, with her haunting eyes holding your gaze. 

2_J1A2040untitled shoot.jpgFriend and model Gigi Hadid got a similar treatment in "Cover, Girl," a second series inspired by Hadid's Venus-like presence. "I feel these women are a part of something bigger. Something past the hot bodies, Instagram likes, and pretty pouts. Something maybe we can't even recognize in this moment," Weiner says on working with the two.

Presently, Weiner is creating new work that's much more expressive and personal, using appropriated images and a stripped-down aesthetic. "My older works were more about recording what was around me and spitting that information back out, whereas my new works are more about the idea of a woman in her entirety and the rewriting of the past," she explains.
 

A fall show is in the works, and in the meanwhile she'll be chilling out to the sounds of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Tyler the Creator.

As all artists know, it's good to mix it up.

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Meet NYC's Most In Demand Stylist

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Spring has sprung, and we're ready to hit the town. We've teamed up with Coach for a night out with our favorite creative women in the city. Read on and get to know the awesomely chic stylist Solange Franklin.

When someone names a domesticated cat as her spirit animal, you immediately get a good vibe.

Such is the laid-back cool of stylist Solange Franklin, who balances her own freelance work with her longstanding gig as first assistant to fashion editor Giovanna Battaglia and her job as fashion editor-at-large for Paper. Her client list reads like a curated coffee table, working with publications such as Nylon, Vogue Japan and Oyster Magazine.

2_J1A4070untitled shoot.jpgAs for that other Solange? Holler at her. "There are so many moments when people confuse our identities [on my end]. I doubt that's really happened with her," Franklin laughs. "Within the fashion world I find that to be pretty amusing. We have probably one degree of separation at this point, so we could have a major moment on set."

As far as tunes go, "set music is the heartbeat of the shoot," she says. "I've heard models being aggressively upset by the music choice." She sets the tone with a Top 40 vibe, aided with forays into funk, soul and old-school hip hop.


Franklin names her own style as funky-femme, a spot-on assessment. "I'm never afraid of a print," she says. May it always remain that way.

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Albert Hammond Jr. On His New Album and New Domesticity

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Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 11.12.41 AM.png(Photo by Jason McDonald)

Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. is domestic now -- and it suits him. He's cleaned up, gotten hitched, and moved from the city to upstate New York, but hasn't lost the ability to create soaring rock riffs and catchy hooks. Today Hammond's announced the July release of his third studio album, Momentary Masters, whose title was inspired by astronomer Carl Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, which pondered the insignificance of the human race in the universe. Heavy stuff to be sure, but just as compelling and rock-friendly, it turns out, as love, partying and other timeworn music tropes. Ahead of the record's release and in the midst of a string of shows with the Strokes -- who, according to Hammond's bandmate, Julian Casablancas, are working on new music themselves -- we spoke to the guitarist about Momentary Masters, his quieter new life and the cliché of the tortured artist.

What are some of the ideas or messages you hope will come across in this new record?

For a while I really liked the idea that we all exist with a shadow. It's an idea that over the past couple of years has driven me emotionally.I feel like from a young age you put things to the side depending on how people interact with you but you always exist with this other side of you that didn't really get to grow. It usually ends up being seen as a negative side and people will always try to throw it away, but I've felt that as time has gone by, you really need to grab it and bring it closer to you to be complete.

When you were doing press for your last album, the AHJ EP, a lot of the narrative focused on your experiences overcoming drug addiction. Since then you got married, moved upstate -- it sounds like you're pretty settled down. Has that influenced what we're hearing on this album at all?

I've never been in a better place in my life, in terms of feeling happy or good about myself. With the AHJ EP stuff, that was a year or so [after I got clean], which is usually when you talk about it. You don't want to talk about it when you're in the fire or when you just get out [of rehab]. It's just so new, you know what I mean? Don't get me wrong, there's definitely times where I want to quit or don't understand anything I'm doing, but for the most part, I feel very good.
 

"Born Slippy" off of Momentary Masters

What's life like for you these days when you're not making music or on tour?

Well, I really love scuba diving. I try and do that. I've been to Turks and Caicos and Belize and Grand Turks and hopefully when I tour Australia I can go to the Great Barrier Reef. And my wife and I have been wanting to go to Honduras. There's this place that's really awesome called Anthony's Key. I also really love motorcycles. I sometimes go to this school to race. My wife loves them, too. That's kind of what we bonded over in the beginning.She likes riding on the back. She carries the backpack and we travel around to local farms and get fruits and vegetables for the week. I cook a lot.

What do you cook?

A mixture of stuff. We usually have fish at night with vegetables and I usually start the morning with a big breakfast, an omelet or something and then lunch is just some kind of vegetables with meat or chicken.Usually my wife makes really good pancakes or I'll make burgers. But we try to do two veggie days -- she's a vegetarian and eats fish -- so we'll make meals with all these different veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, and mushrooms with quinoa and lentils and a little ricotta on top.

Screen Shot 2015-05-07 at 7.12.46 PM.pngAlbum cover for Momentary Masters

There's the cliché that the tortured artist is able to create better art. Do you find that having found happiness has changed the actual music that you're writing and making in any way?


I think that [the tortured artist] makes for a better story and I think most tortured people back in the day probably had some issue that they were self-medicating themselves for...That was the case for me, for sure. But no, I've never found that [feeling tortured creates better art]. I've found that sometimes it's nice to be able to do something and open a new door and see, but after a while of doing [any kind of drug], you forget that it opened a door and then you're just stuck in a stagnant place and you're no longer learning, which means you're no longer changing.

Momentary Masters is out July 31st via Vagrant Records 

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Organ Music and a Marching Band: Scenes From Creative Time's Annual Spring Gala

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Innovative public art foundation Creative Time held their Spring fundraising gala last night at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, honoring Vik Muniz. An epic dinner in the nave was served to about 700 attendees, amidst the rich sounds of the cathedral's 8500-pipe organ. After a live auction and speeches by Muniz, Calvin Klein's Francisco Costa, and Creative Time Director Anne Pasternak, a live gospel marching band, McCollough Sons of Thunder, closed out the night. Photos from the stunning party, below.



Daniel Boulud and Vik Muniz



Cindy Sherman (far left)







Cecilia Dean



Jenna Lyons







Anne Pasternak






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The Best Show's Tom Scharpling Talks Us Through His New 16-CD Boxed Set

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(L-R: Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster) Photo by Mindy Tucker

Tom Scharpling aims to make you laugh, and he does so with an air of effortlessness. His larger-than-life radio program The Best Show lived for 13 years terrestrially on WFMU and is now enjoying its first year as an independent weekly broadcast on TheBestShow.net and in podcast form. The show is three hours of "mirth, music and mayhem," and that longform time frame allows the humor to feel novel and spontaneous over the course of monologues, listener phone calls and endless toe-dips into absurdity. But don't be fooled: it only truly succeeds because Scharpling is and will never be afraid of trying very, very hard.

Scharpling's adventurous spirit and ironclad work ethic are laid out in a brand-new 16-CD boxed set that features over 20 hours of on-air calls from Jon Wurster (drummer for Superchunk, the Mountain Goats and Bob Mould, among others) to Scharpling throughout the show's history. Wurster began sculpting the calls with Scharpling in the earliest days of the Show, and has phoned in as an impossibly strange variety of characters within the expanding fictional town of Newbridge, New Jersey. The calls are in the eternal tradition of comedic duos (see: Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner's 2000-year-old man) and, like anything crafted in a unique voice, it will take a minute to adjust to the speed of the ride. But soon enough, you'll never want to get off.

Scharpling talked us through the new Best Show, his relationship with Wurster and dreaming up a two-inch tall white supremacist named Timmy von Trimble.


Your role in The Best Show is split between humor and sincerity, and from that post you truly reach a large group of people, especially with the music you play on the show. Do you find excitement in being able to expose people to anything new through what you're doing?

I'm flattered anyone would even see it that way. For me, that was always the way I listened to music. Just going after the stuff to get excited about. I'm just trying not to talk like some authority.

But what's noteworthy is that whenever you are excited about something, you make it audible, loud and clear to the listeners.

That's exactly it. It really doesn't go much further than stuff I'm excited about. When I started off making a fanzine, I would get excited and write about [new music], and now I can play it and maybe have more of a direct impact for the band, where listeners can check it out and get excited since they just heard it. I listen to a lot more stuff that's not as high-energy, but it doesn't always fit the mode of ramping up and getting ready to do three hours of the show. I like quiet stuff too.

You gotta have the full sphere. Because we're well-rounded human beings.

Exactly! I'm not just a goon...

No!

Listening to goon rock...

That could be your biography title.

That might actually be my theme song, or novelty record.
 
Your relation with Jon Wurster is defined to so many listeners by the sound of your voices, the differing cadences and Jon's higher register that he almost never alters when he calls. Do you ever think of your relationship in those terms?

Not really. I can hear the speed of things, but so much of it has to be about what we're saying so it's hard to ever revel in the sound of it. 

It's definitely a secondary notion, but it does give it an additional dimension, especially over the course of time, which this box set really documents. Do the concepts of the calls come easily to you and Jon when you develop them?

Relatively easy. There's a surplus of ideas at this point, and we keep coming up with new concepts. We hit walls sometimes. The challenge is coming up with the next layer so it can sustain the length of a full call, so that there's enough ideas at work.

Can you recall an additional layer that one of you came up with that was a sharp right turn or elevated the concept?

I would say the best example is for Timmy von Trimble, who's the guy calling and he's two inches tall. Then, all of a sudden we made him this white-power guy also. Which is like... definitely getting it to the next level. Because now you're just swinging back and forth. You're not sure if you think it's cute because everything he's doing is little, but then he's the most repellent person going, talking about his horrible, horrible worldview. That to me is a good example of one of us saying, "Hey, what if this guy was two inches tall?" And the other one of us saying, "And then... what if he was a racist?"

Much of the bloodwork of The Best Show is you putting yourself out there and not knowing exactly where it will go. How important is that risk of doing it live?

Taking a break from the show when we moved from WFMU to doing it as a standalone was the first chance to reflect on what had happened before. It became clear that my favorite part of the show is the live part of it. It adds a certain amount of energy. We need the calls because that's what makes the show so exciting -- doing it live. But when you're doing it, it's not the best thing to take a watch apart to see what makes it run, if you also need a watch. Either I need this thing to work and am just gonna trust that it's working, or I'm going to disassemble it and see what's in there. 

With the loyalty of your fan base being so strong, and with you having been doing it for free for so long, how have you dealt with the shift into your new format?

It's pretty simple: I just want people to listen. That's how we'll get this thing on track. If the numbers are strong, then that helps with advertising and then the show makes money. I'm just trying to do it this way [as opposed to the monumental fundraising done while on WFMU] and ask directly of people, all they have to do is just show up and we'll keep growing. 

I think that's the moral of the story: you're continuing to do what you do, and if the people who have been showing up keep showing up, being as excited as you are, then you can survive and be happy and proud.

I hope so too. We're at the start of it, so there's definitely a lot of challenges we're trying to sort through and get things figured out. I feel like everything's going to work; we just have to grow and keep settling in. Just like any other new endeavor, it doesn't start out at 100 percent. Every week it gets better and better, and I feel really good about where it's going.

The Best of the Best Show is out today on Numero Group. Details here.

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Rae Sremmurd Ditch Their Girlfriends and Take a Safari in "This Could Be Us"

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Mississippi duo Rae Sremmurd take us to the motherland in their new video, "This Could Be Us." Directed by Max and Michael Illiams, the video follows the boys as they navigate their way around the beautiful landscape of Johannesburg, South Africa while struggling to balance their long distance relationships back in the U.S. (shoutouts to Jasmine V and Dej Loaf who make cameos as the brothers' stressed out and underappreciated girlfriends). Away from home, shenanigans ensue as the boys meet tons of pretty South African girls, party at the club, hang out with exotic animals, and play a good ole game of spin-the-bottle. After watching all that fun, we may need to take a vacation.

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"People Are Like, 'Why Do You Have to Talk About Sucking Dick So Much?'" A Q With Rapper Big Dipper

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Big Dipper big.jpg"My accent is Midwestern, Chicago born and raised / and I'm out here tryna function, keep these cuties entertained," raps Big Dipper on "FTP" off his new self-titled EP. The four-track effort, produced by NYC-based DJ Byrell the Great, is a more aggressive shift for the NYC transplant, whose earlier release this year, Free Money, played with more clubby, uptempo production and tongue-in-cheek hooks. But for the rapper with bear style and a former album called Thick Life, the project's still got humor -- except this time around, he's more Nicki Minaj and less Weird Al, capable of flinging Queen-y, pop-friendly puns on one track and then growling over thrashing, ballroom beats on the next. We caught up with the musician to talk to him about moving to NYC, getting confused for being straight, and what he thinks about rap's continued ambivalence toward LGBT artists. Read his thoughts, listen to his new EP, and watch his brand new video for album track "Bob N Weave," all below.

You recently moved from Chicago to NYC. What's that been like?

I have an ingrained Midwestern work ethic. I'm happy to wait in line if I need to; I'm nice to people if they come up to me. In New York, there's a harder edge. When people play it correctly, this comes across as fierce confidence, but there are still a lot of cutthroat bitches here. If there's ever a day when the hustle slows down and the coin is really flowing, I might set up homebase elsewhere, but I'm out here for now because the hustle is here. The moment I moved here and was like, 'I'm based in New York,' I started booking nationally, which wasn't happening in Chicago. There's that weird thing about being a 'New York artist.' But I feel like I have Chicago in my blood -- a level of showmanship without entitlement. I came to New York to work and prove myself.

What else has changed for you since starting out as Big Dipper?

I used to be a very confident person, but never outwardly. At this point, I basically strip down to my underwear every show. I can confidently work a room and I've pushed myself out of every comfort zone. I've definitely become more aware of the world, of music, of underground culture. I hadn't gone to a club until I started performing in clubs because I went to theater school and was so focused on making performances. I have this huge love for nightlife as performance now -- that whole circus of go-go boys, drag queens and club characters. That's a performance in itself. Big Dipper has flipped my whole world 180 degrees and I look at things through a different lens now.


Humor plays a major role in your work. Have you always been interested in comedy?

I did improvisation in high school and when I was a theater director, I loved directing comedy.  I played a [rap] gig in D.C. and when I was done, the DJ played my first song, "Drip Drop," and I was cringing the entire time. The first song wasn't meant as a joke, but it was definitely like, "Oh, I've always wanted to make a song -- it's going to be really funny and super sexual" -- that's what the intent was. Because the response was so great, I decided to keep going. Humor comes naturally to me. Just a couple years ago, I was writing and someone called me a "Comedian Rapper." I didn't want people to think I was joking -- that I was Weird Al. I tried to write more seriously, but it didn't feel natural. I'm a funny guy, I like puns and I like making people smile. When I listen to Nicki Minaj's The Pinkprint, it's equally as funny, as raunchy, as honest, as playful -- it's all those things. In "Feeling Myself,'" Nicki says, "Bitches ain't got punch lines or flow. I got punch lines and an empire, also." That's the whole deal right there. You need to have everything. I'm sometimes nasty, sometimes stupid, sometimes smart, sometimes funny -- you can't just be arty because people need a break.

In that same sense, you don't seem to have a pinpointed style for how you convey sexuality on stage. There's some complexity there. 

I can give you sassy effeminate and flip my fake wig -- I just played a show in the middle of drag queens -- but I can also butch it up for the bears and they eat it from the palm of my hands. Sexiness comes in all shapes and sizes. It's about being present and giving people something new. I used to get a kick out of it when people would be surprised that I was gay. They would say, "Oh no, you don't look gay." There was that little pride in the idea that I could pass [as straight]. Now I find it annoying when people assume, like my deli guy the other day was like, "Who are you texting? Your girlfriend?" I'm like, "No, I'm actually looking at this ass picture from someone off the street." Or someone was driving me to a party once and they were like, "Do you believe in Jesus? Are you married to a woman?" That sucks. I want everyone to see me and see faggot. In terms of my music, there's pride when I get on stage and have flow -- that surprises people.

What are your thoughts about hip-hop's continued ambivalence toward the LGBTQ community, especially rapper Erick Sermon's recent claim that trans artists aren't welcome? 

Deep within my back pocket, I've always had this dream of being a rapper. Now, this is what I do to make money, stay alive and stay fed. I go to where I get booked -- where I'm welcome. The only place that I ever run into hate is on the Internet. I'm never at a hip-hop showcase trying to hustle my mixtape and get five minutes on an open mic -- I'm being flown to a party across the country to do 40-minute sets. I've never met that [hate] face-to-face and it's shocking to me because I get booked for queer hip-hop parties with all-queer lineups across the country. I watched Bruce Jenner's interview and was gagged when Diane Sawyer said statistics show only 86% of Americans know a gay person and 8% know a trans person. How is it not 100%? I'm so deeply inside this gay world and this queer identity that to me, the idea of not being welcome is so foreign. I feel like I'm not welcome because I'm an independent artist more so than because I'm gay. I'm not playing Jingle Ball with Drake and Nicki Minaj because I'm an independent artist -- not because I'm a faggot.
 

Big Dipper's "BOB N WEAVE" video

As someone occupying a unique space in hip-hop, what are some of the biggest pressures you're facing?

People talk about authenticity in hip-hop all the time [and it's something I think about] especially being a white person and a queer person. A lot of people making music are very young and I just turned 30. There are all these factors and it's easy to feel like, "Oh shit, these people do it this way or these people do it that way." The constant correct answer is, "How do I do it?" I'm not trying to do anything that anybody else does and that has been the biggest lesson in creating music, videos and a persona. [Big Dipper] is a big fucking art project that reflects my entire life and personality -- it can't be inauthentic.

How important is sex in your work?

Whether it's deep in a metaphor or as blatant as fucking 'Put It In Your Mouth,' so much of my favorite music is all about sexuality. Listen to a Lil Wayne album and count how many times he says pussy -- I'm not doing anything revolutionary as far as content. It's just because I'm gay that everyone latches onto that sexuality. That comes from both sides -- straight people who get uncomfortable by the music are like, "Why do you have to talk about sucking dick so much?" And then gay people who are anxious for a gay rapper to cross over are like, "You'll never cross over until you stop talking about sucking dick." If you look at old school Nicki [Minaj] tapes, she was raunchy -- smart, witty and fierce lyricism, but also really raunchy. And then she got picked up.

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Highlights from the Venice Biennale

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Last week, the VIP preview of the 56th International Art Exhibition -- or the Venice Biennale -- came and went like a breeze with the likes of Cate Blanchett and Maurizio Cattelan spotted out at the Arsenale or at prosecco-drenched invite-only parties. Insanely opulent palazzos and hotels hosted a slew of these events, many of which transported us back to medieval times -- were it not for the endless flashes of light emanating from smartphones as guests took selfies among the lavish surroundings. Where the art was concerned, highlights included Ukranian performance artists occupying the Russian pavilion in a performance art demonstration in camo coats; Los Angeles artist Frances Stark, who took home the Absolut Art Award, seen hamming it up with New Museum director Massimiliano Gioni; Eva & Adele launching their glittery pink-and-gold watch line with Swatch; art rockers Xiu Xiu killing it at the Palazzo Grassi; and Armenia winning the biennale’s Gold Lion for best exhibition. But if anyone took home the best party award, it had to be the Austrian pavilion, which had their gala on the island of San Servolo in a monastery-turned-dancefloor that went on to the wee hours. Some were still partying at the airport. Take a look at photos from the whirlwind couple of days, below.


Russian artist Andrey Bartenev steals the spotlight sashaying through the Giardini


A performance artist from Crimea participates in the #onvacation project, which occupied the Russian pavilion


Australian actress and donor Cate Blanchett with Australian artist Fiona Hall at the opening of her exhibition the new Australian pavilion


Fun fashion in front of the French art pavillion


Maurizio Cattelan in front of the German pavilion


French performance artist Orlan with art critic and historian Raphael Cuir


Venezuelan artist Félix Molina (in mask), who co-represented the Venzuelan pavilion, kissing a fan inside of an anonymous public art piece


German performance artists Eva & Adele approach their exhibition at the Arsenale Nord, where they launched their own watch with Swatch


The monastery-turned-dance floor at the Austrian party on San Servolo island


Balaclava-clad performer and baby in a piece by Argelia Bravo at the Venezuelan pavilion


The High Visibility Burqa performance piece by Marco Biagini on the Giardini pier


Berlin performance artist and rapper Candy Ken with Bonnie Strange at the airport


Xiu Xiu playing live at the Palazzo Grassi

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See The Big Lebowski Retold In Emoji

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The Big Lebowski fans have gone to extreme lengths to cement the cult classic's legacy, from opening up an exclusive merchandise shop in NYC to even creating a new religion called Dudeism. Adding to the madness, a guy named Matt Haughey took to his Twitter to retell the entire plot of the film using emojis. In a series of five tweets, Haughey used each line of every tweet to represent a new scene from the film. To help you decode the characters, here's the official guide: 

Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski =  😎
Walter = 😤
Maude= 💃
Bunny= 🐰

Read Haughley's "Big Lebowskemoji" below and see if you can follow the plot scene-by-scene.


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Vuitton, Dior and "Folly Architecture" in This Year's Resort Shows

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vuittonhooe.jpgThe Louis Vuitton resort show at the Bob Hope estate.

I have always been a fan of what i like to call "folly architecture" -- buildings that are insane and over the top but fabulous. And so It was exciting for me to see the recent fashion extravaganzas put on by big brands to show off their cruise collections at a few of these spots. Louis Vuitton's show used Bob Hope's Palm Springs flying saucer-like space-age home (designed by the legendary John Lautner) and Christian Dior used Pierre Cardin's crazy bubble palace in the South of France (designed in the late eighties by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag) as their surreal backdrops.

Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 7.39.36 PM.pngThe Dior resort show at Pierre Cardin's home.

I just wanted to suggest a few more architectural follies for designers to check out when looking for their next cruise locations.



arcosanti1.pngPaolo Soleri's Arcosanti outside Phoenix, Arizona

Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 7.42.44 PM.pngSantiago Calatravo's opera house in Valencia, Spain

Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 7.43.24 PM.pngA small church in Sea Ranch, California

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A synagogue on White Street in NYC
 
Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 7.44.45 PM.pngA flying saucer house in Joshua Tree, California










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Thirty-Somethings of America, the Jem Trailer Is Here

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The trailer for the live-action Jem and the Holograms reboot came out last night and, really, the only recognizable elements remaining from the '80s Saturday morning staple are a keytar, Rio and some pink face paint. That might be all some people need -- cartoon Rio's Member's Only jacket and feathered purple hairdid make us have feelings -- but twitter's been up in arms about the trailer's missing Misfits (William Shatner is pissed), the axing of hologram computer/life source, Synergy (don't even talk to pro wrestler Xavier Woods about it), and a general lack of outrageousness that is truly, truly, truly. Watch above and check out Jem herself, Aubrey Peeples, in our 2015 Beautiful People feature, on stands now.


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Scenes from the Opening of the New York EDITION Hotel

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Last night the latest outpost of Ian Schrager's EDITION hotel chain opened its doors in NYC with a big, glittery blow-out bash (that was also in conjunction with the launch of W's Art issue) that included a dinner followed by drinks and dancing to music spun by Q-Tip. Among the guests, we spotted Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Rosario Dawson, Hailey Baldwin, David Schwimmer, Mark Ronson, Alexa Chung, Chrissy Teigen, Emily Ratajowski and many, many more of the Big Apple's beautiful people. Scroll through for photos from the night, below.

New York EDITION is located on 24th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan.


Emily Ratajowski and Chrissy Teigen


Hailey Baldwin


Ian and Tania Schrager


Zoe Buckman, David Schwimmer and Ben Pundole


David Barton and Susanne Bartsch


Gemma Ward


Athena Calderone


Iman


Grayson Perry


Rosario Dawson


Giovanna Battaglia and Anais Mali

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Here's Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea's '80s-Alien "Pretty Girls" Video

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Treat your brain to the visual equivalent of Bubblelicious gum by watching Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea's campy new "Pretty Girls" video. In a send-up of Earth Girls Are Easy, Britney plays an '80s-era Valley Girl who's just, like, hanging out and filing her nails when Iggy Azalea-as-an-alien lands in her pool. Brit Brit promptly gives Iggy a makeover that includes de rigueur crimped and teased hair and the two cruise around in a yellow jeep. Iggy shows off her intentionally terrible robot alien-doing-a-Valley Girl-accent and magic powers and the two hit the club. If it makes no sense that's because it makes no sense. Don't think too hard and just enjoy the welcome return of Britney's A+ dance moves.

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Amy Schumer's Parody of Blake Lively On a Talk Show Will Make You Squirm

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Amy Schumer's been on a roll and one of her latest sketches from last night's Inside Amy Schumer episode perfectly captures the faux-quirks and affectations many actresses adopt when giving interviews on late night talk shows. Playing a *very* thinly-veiled Blake Lively parody, Amy Schumer comes on the Cliffley Lately show (hosted by an excellently creepy Bill Hader) as Amy Lake Blively where she charms the pants off the host and all the men in the studio audience. She squirms, she flirts, she giggles and her legs turn gold. Trigger warning at the 3:44 mark-on -- oh boy.

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Watch Vince Staples' Haunting Video for "Señorita"

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Vince Staples has released a video for "Señorita," the firstsingle off his upcoming debut album, Summertime '06. The video, directed by Ian Pons Jewell, finds Staples in a post-apocalyptic landscape, filled with terrified cops, seemingly endless bullets, and a man reciting Future's hook as a prayer to avoid death. When characters begin trying to escape the frame, the video hints at a twist at the end that, in its indictment of casual indifference to the absolutely brutal conditions of most of the characters in its setting (and, by extension, people in only slightly less exaggerated situations) reframes and clarifies the depths of Staples' project to create hyper-realistic rap for 2015. Watch the video below, and look for Summertime '06, out on Def Jam June 30. (And for an older video of Staples' that similarly engages with his voyeurism fascination, try "Screen Door," a track from last year's criminally underrated EP Hell Can Wait.)

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Walking Shapes Head On Tour In "Pool"

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Brooklyn-based indie band Walking Shapes, who recently released the deluxe edition of their debut LP, Taka Come On (which came out last year), sounds a bit like a cross between Arcade Fire and Vacationer, Black Keys and Beach House. If those comparisons sound like contradictions, it's because they are: Walking Shapes manages to straddle the line between the mellow and catchy and the exciting and energetic. Having toured this past year, playing shows like the Isle of Light Festival in the Dominican Republic and SXSW in Austin, the band's five members built up a library of personal iPhone clips, which they have now assembled into a new video for their bonus track, "Pool." The resulting behind-the-scenes look at the music scene makes us wish we were there with them, and leaves us depressed at the lack of surf and sun on the east coast. Sorry New York, the Rockaways are no Dominican Republic.

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Pics from Beats x MCM Collaboration Launch

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Last night, Beats and MCM celebrated the launch of their new collab with a cute party at the MCM store in Soho that brought out a bunch of fun guests like former PAPER Beautiful Person Joey Badass, Fabolous, Chelsea Leyland, Hannah Bronfman, Justine Skye and more. There was a special performance by rising singer/producer PartyNextDoor and a DJ set by Vashtie. Take a peek at photos by Rebecca Smeyne, below.


PartyNextDoor


Joey Badass and Vashtie


Chelsea Leyland, Vashtie and Hannah Bronfman





Justine Skye (left)




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Let's Guess What J. Lo's Las Vegas Residency Will Be Like

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During the season finale of the not long for this world American Idol, Jennifer Lopez announced a Las Vegas residency that, if there is justice in the world, will extend past its original January-June dates and eventually rival Celine Dion's show as a permanent, glorious fixture of the city. In a statement, J-Lo says that the show will be a "multifacted high energy Jenny from the block party," suggesting it will be similar to other Vegas revues. But wouldn't it be more fun if the show were entirely based on one of Jenny's past movie roles? Here are a few possibilities:


The Cell
Everyone always forgets about The Cell, the Tarsem Singh movie in which J. Lo plays a child psychologist who has to literally venture into the twisted mind of a serial killer (Vincent D'Onofrio, naturally) in order to save a kidnapped woman. In this version of the show, the entire audience takes hallucinogens and tries to agree on the weirdest form of torture. Occasionally Vince Vaughn (who plays the FBI agent teamed with Lopez) shows up.


Gigli

Each night, as penance for creating Gigli, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck must enact a Greek tragedy anew, in which thousands of people come to see them be ritually punished, going through the motions of their relationship and breakup, but never quite making it to the point where one of them is stable and successful and the other is Batman. It is very similar to that one episode of Black Mirror.


Monster-in-Law
Jennifer Lopez has a staged supernatural fight with Jane Fonda. Expensive pyrotechnics, antique swords, full-sized mecha suits are involved.


The Boy Next Door

An extended reading of the first edition of the Iliad (but sexy).

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