Artists I Like: Andrew Dosunmu

If you bump into this guy on the streets and he doesn’t have his panama hat on, assume that his signature look is incomplete. An unassuming man, Andrew Dosunmu is a creative with a thirst for creativity and travelling. Although he currently resides in New York, Andrew was born and raised in Nigeria. He started his career as a design assistant at Yves Saint Laurent (we see you going green with envy!), and moved onto other projects in the creative field- but what he’s really well known and respected for is his photography. His images have been featured in magazines across the world (Fader, Clam), and he’s also directed an award winning documentary titled Hot Irons, which featured hairstylists as they prepared for a hair competition. If you’re South African, the controversial TV show must be really familiar to you; he directed several episodes of Yizo Yizo. He’s been art director for album covers for various artists (Erykah Badu, Public Enemy) and has also directed music videos for Isaac Hayes (yes!), Angie Stone, Common, Wyclef, Kelis, Aaron Neville, Maxwell and Tracy Chapman.



Andrew is a streetstalker of note; he clearly has a love for the streets across the world. The style of a lot of his images is simply based around creating or putting glamour on the streets of the “developing world”. The photographer will put an attractive and well styled subject against this backdrop, and the results are amazing. I would venture to say that his style preference is a clue to Andrew’s character; he has deep affection for the continent and other “developing” countries and nations, and believes that beauty can be found everywhere.

Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

With soccer fever bursting around the world and locally in anticipation of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, we thought that only South Africa was building monster stadia! Well, the Australian city of Melbourne will be opening the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium in 2010- pffff talk about shining on S.A’s shine! Anyway- hate aside, the Australians are huge sports fans and we have no doubt that it’ll be put to great use. The $200-million rugby and soccer stadium was designed by Australian outfit COX Architects, and has a capacity of 31,000.


A short walk from the Melbourne city center, the stadium is expected to add to the wonderment of the city’s Olympic Spots Park and Entertainment Precinct. The roof will be covered with thousands of LED lights that can shine in many colors. They will be programmed to follow patterns that mimic the crowd’s energy during a match- soccer with Victory or rugby with Storm- or any other game or event.

Check for more pics at designboom

Santi on Norah Jones' The Fall

Soooooo…I love Santogold. Santigold. Ok, Santigold. Just in case you haven’t received the memo, she had to change her name to Santigold because an 80’s throwback named Santo Gold called and wanted his name back. Really, he wanted to sue. It’s not so bad though, because her real name is Santi anyway. Whatever you want to call her, I was really happy to hear that she’s remixed a track for Norah Jones’ upcoming album fourth album The Fall.

While I’m on the topic of Norah Jones, I cannot wait to get her album because she’s worked with some prolific artists for this project; keyboardist James Poyser (Erykah Badu, Al Green), guitarist Marc Ribot (Tom Waits) and quite a few more. There also remixes that will be done by Beck and The Beastie Boys. Can’t wait!

Artists I Like: Takashi Miike

In the cinema world and amongst film fundis, the name Takashi Miike needs no introduction. He rose to international fame in ’00 when two of his films (Dead or Alive and Audition) blew up on an international platform, thanks to film festivals. He is a director with well over 60 films under his belt, and is often called out for not sticking to what is considered “normal” and he has a penchant for the OTT. This is a man that doesn’t limit himself to the horror genre of ‘the unknown’ but more towards the horror of what people are capable of. Though he prefers not to classify himself under any genre- the horror genre you may find him under is what he’s been classified as, but he doesn’t see himself that way.

"I'm happy that my films were discovered by chance by foreign film festivals. That makes me realise more that there is a world outside Japan too. For me, it's an occasion to meet many people and to experience directly the response of international audiences to my films. But for me as a director, my attitude towards making films hasn't changed with the fame. I feel it's not good to change as a person anyway" - Takashi Miike

In a 2001 interview, he explained that his directing style often includes collaboration with the actors and actresses in which he is more of an “arranger” than a director. In other words, he puts scenes and situations together, makes suggestions to the actors/actresses and they would interpret it for themselves- I think this style allows for his movies to be a little more organic in their nature than a lot of other films. Takashi Miike is also very well known for including (or portraying) people from nationalities other than Japan in his characterisation or in his film crews- as opposed to sticking to a traditional Japanese crew and mix of characters. This is a really important element of his work, as it becomes more inclusive of people from other walks of life, making him more international in his appeal.

Above: The different faces of Takashi Miike

Takashi is not short of emotion or imagination for his work; he is well known for the sometimes gory scenes in his works, as he is always trying to push the envelope regarding societal norms in the cinematically conservative Japanese landscape. If you’re a horror buff and can’t place where you’ve seen Takashi’s face before, you probably spotted him in his cameo scene in Hostel (as Miike Takashi), which he did as a favour for his buddy Quinton Tarantino.

So next time you're craving a good horror movie, go to your nearest good video store and pick up some Tashaki Miike dvd's, you won't regret it!

Polyvore Sets: High End Shit

I love this set, the nike glad's are funk, Married to the Mob always has cool ladies tees and these shorts are just begging to be found by me. I'm on a search, and if all else fails, I'm making a call to a certain lady to sew them for me. Peep the flask.

High End Shit by yummytumz featuring Nike shoes