Issue 21’s Earth By was contributed by MIKE PERRY, a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Brooklyn. A true creative dynamo, Mike makes books, magazines, newspapers, clothing, drawings, paintings, illustrations, and teaches whenever possible. His first book, titled Hand Job, which explores and celebrates hand-drawn type, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2006. His second book, Over & Over, hits shelves this fall, and he is currently working on two new books. In 2007 he started a magazine called Untitled that explores his current interests. The second issue is out now. He has worked with clients from The New York Times Magazine, Dwell, and Microsoft Zune, to name a few. Doodling away night and day, Perry creates new typefaces and sundry graphics that inevitably evolve into his new work, exercising the great belief that generating piles is the sincerest form of creative process. His work has been seen around the world including a recent solo show in London titled The Place between Time and Space.

thelincoln.com

“Give me the luxuries of life, and I will gladly do without the necessities,” said Frank Lloyd Wright. These words aptly sum up the Lincoln, a den of luxury and comfort housed in a former strip club. The neighborhood of King’s Cross, traditionally Sydney’s red light district, has gone upscale, and the Lincoln, which was re-done last year, can take a lion’s share of the credit. The joint is three levels of decadence, from the basement’s NYC-style club — Prince’s former DJ Ricky Albert is a resident — to the deck bar which has the feel of a 1930s ocean liner. Don’t forget the restaurant, manned by ex-Bibendum chef Richard Duff, with its exclusive Krug room. The Art Deco décor works to create a special environ with the octagon-shaped dining room, the black and gold color scheme, the Calcutta marble bar, and the black timber floors. The joint is spacious, inviting, and diverse. True, you can’t get a lap dance anymore, but if you’re lucky you can get much more.

36 Bayswater Road     +02 9331 2311

What's Your Rapture?

Sweden’s Love Is All made indie-philes quiver with their 2006 debut Nine Times the Same Song, a frenetic party-crasher that delivered perfect punky breakup anthems in three minutes flat. With cymbals that clatter and fall, bristling synthesizers, and the crazed vocals of Josephine Olausson (who sounds like The Concretes’ Victoria Bergsman covering new-wave chanteuse Cristina), A Hundred Things buzzes with a broken heart stomped out all over the dance floor. But when a saxophone teases out nursery-rhyme melodies on the slowburner “Giants Fall”, it could be Jesus and Mary Chain headlining a high school battle of the bands.

lasuperior.com/

Inspired by traditional cantinas serving comida corrida, or “fast food”, Mexican street food eatery La Superior in Williamsburg delivers Mexican standards like tacos and chicken enchiladas, and lesser known delicacies like salpicon shredded beef salad from the Yucatan, and cameron pibil, marinated shrimp over plantains and wrapped in a banana leaf. The food lives up to its boastful name but it’s the down-home neighborhood appeal and low prices that keep it lively. Regulars include Mexico City transplants, Williamsburg artists, and downtown Manhattanites looking for a true Mexican fix. Co-owners behind this festive space like to keep their recipes rich, their décor minimal, and their clientele coming back for more. That’s not to say that designer details go remiss. Check out the hand-blown light fixtures, the custom screened wallpaper, the kitschy plastic table wear — all imported from Mexico, just like the chef. A liquor license for beer, tequila, and margaritas is forthcoming.

295 Berry St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn     718 388 5988

Astralwerks

The youthful vigor of Late Of The Pier bursts from the British quartet’s debut full-length, Fantasy Black Channel. This is witnessed in the amalgamation of high-energy styles topped with ska bounces and punk sneers. Mainly, however, it’s their electro-rock/synth-pop sensibility fused with inventive and contagious dance hooks that makes Channel effective. The carousel swing of “Random Firl” is balanced by the rapid rolls of “Heartbeat”, while the bleeps of “The Enemy are the Future” temper the grinding crunch of “Whitesnake”. There isn’t a genre Pier hasn’t plundered, but with their unfailing exuberance, it all works.

Photogrpahy by Alexander Wagner

Sally Hawkins isn’t used to air conditioning yet. During an interview in a midtown hotel room, the automated A/C unit kicks in with a not-so-discreet roar. “It sounds like we’re taking off,” she laughs. “I imagine you very quickly get used to this sort of thing.” She’ll probably have to. Before this year, Hawkins was a well-kept secret, best known in the UK for turns on miniseries like Fingersmith and elsewhere for supporting roles in Mike Leigh’s last two films, All or Nothing and Vera Drake. Now that she’s taken the lead in Happy-Go-Lucky, a higher profile is almost certainly in the offing; her recent Silver Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival is already generating a fair share of Oscar buzz. In the film, Hawkins plays the maniacally cheerful Poppy, whose perpetual perkiness evolves from grating to endearing in the course of two hours. It’s an intense collaboration between Hawkins and Leigh, and I started by asking about their mutual bonding over art.

Photography by Jon Bergman

Los Campesinos! are fighting a war. And given that the Spanish word los campesinos translates loosely to “the peasants”, images of Franco and the Spanish Civil War can’t be far behind. But while this Welsh outfit is indeed in the midst of a revolution, the war is being waged between digital technologies and archaic modes of production. This is not to say Los Campesinos are Marxists, or even Luddites, but they do aspire to preserve something more precious: the materiality of musical culture.
     In just the last year, their song “You! Me! Dancing!” quickly turned from breakout single to an imperative mandate at hipster dance parties in lofts across the globe. Yet, less than eight months after releasing their debut Hold on Now, Youngster…, the band has already put out an ambitious second full-length, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, whose parameters extend far beyond mere music. Only 5,000 hard copies will be released, and there will be no singles. But the limited-edition boxes come with a DVD documentary and a fanzine featuring contributions from Xiu Xiu, Grandaddy, and Menomena.
     “With MP3s now so easy to obtain, there has to be an incentive to want the physical product,” laments frontman Gareth (who refuses to share his actual surname). “As a fan, that should be part of the excitement, and something that’s now missing with a lot of music.

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Islands

After conquering the charts with the electro-pop of Hot Fuss and polarizing critics with the epic Americana of Sam’s Town, the Las Vegas rockers return with a third album that adeptly synthesizes the disco bombast and rustic sweep of its respective predecessors. It may be hard to take Brandon Flowers seriously on “Joy Ride”, when he so desperately labors to mimic Bruce Springsteen, crooning about “rattlesnakes of romance” that frolic in the rain. Yet on standouts “Losing Touch” and “Spaceman”, the futuristic synths and guitars and funky bass and brass lines fuse to ignite an unforgettable fire.