Photography courtesy of Jonathan Leder

The great American pin-up is back, in a freshly minted magazine straight out of Brooklyn. Jacques, a quarterly art and “nudie” mag (in the classic retro sense of that term), is composed at least as much of nostalgia as it is of paper and ink. Founded by editor Danielle Luft, Jacques does a good job of blending mostly ’60s and ’70s aesthetics with a bygone nudie innocence that feels quaint and even incongruous to our times — in a good way. In an era when porn proliferates and has been embraced by every cultural medium from art to filmmaking to music and so on, when you can download double and triple penetrations right into the privacy of your home — or work cubicle — there’s something unexpectedly wholesome, even downright respectable about a naked girl dallying in an open field. Jacques hits on a longing, both among women and men, for sweet, charming, debonair smut. And Jacques delivers.

Frenchkiss Records

Peter Silberman possesses a voice that is all at once haunting, weary, and undeniably beautiful. At times, his singing evokes the fraught croon of Win Butler while at others he soars to the angelic heights of Antony Hegarty. Given the title of Silberman and company’s debut, Hospice indeed casts a shadow of death and doom over its ghostly refrains. But this is not to say the album is wholly bleak and hopeless; rather the effect manifests itself more organically. Through ten songs, we progress from twinkling lullabies of innocent youth to the aching grace of life’s final days. The album’s closer, “Epilogue”, fittingly strips away the dreamy instrumentals of an earlier track, “Bear”, to reveal a singular balladeer with a starkness that might just herald this year’s Bon Iver and Arcade Fire — all rolled into one.

The Antlers will celebrate the release of Hospice with an August 21 show at New York’s Mercury Lounge featuring fellow Brooklyn upstarts Murder Mystery in support.

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The Antlers – Bear

Photography by Dustin Thompson

Coming a long way since the days of the taco truck, the LA mobile food movement has evolved to encompass everything from Vietnamese and veggie hot dogs to Korean BBQ and architecturally influenced ice cream sandwiches. And now, sushi. Fishlips Sushi — LA’s first fresh sushi truck — may just be the culinary zenith of the food truck world. Operated by three seasoned sushi chefs, the truck offers top quality, highly affordable, made-to-order sushi inspired by the sushi carts of ancient Japan. The surprisingly vast menu features temari — little balls of rice topped with fish. All rolls emanate from one of four bases — California, spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, vegetable — to produce innovative selections like the Long Beach and signature Fish Lips roll. With fish coming straight from distributors and everything made from scratch, the truck delivers sushi on par with that of top-notch competitors at a street food price. To top it all off, orders are nicely garnished, neatly packaged, and graciously served, making for the perfect “fast-food” alternative for health-conscious and convenience-oriented Los Angelenos.

If in Los Angeles, you can track Fishlips’ location via their website and Twitter to find when it’s coming to a location near you: http://www.fishlips-sushi.com

As we reported previously, a number of companies and consortiums are exploring the idea of urban, “vertical” farms – entire ecosystems of agricultural production contained in modern buildings right in the middle of the world’s busiest cities. Besides looking really cool, these agricultural factories have ingenious production cycles, capturing sunlight, rain, and wind as well as having floor-to-floor crop plans that increase efficiency and crop yield, and maximize resources.
     Many argue, and certainly the companies behind these “farms” do, that the world’s increasing population needs new solutions for future agriculture. With 80 percent of the world’s arable land already in use, the idea is to build up instead of out — and keep the distribution of food local — an approach that has led a growing number of vertical farm projects to surface. The verdict is still out as to whether these projects are truly as viable and environmentally sound as they claim. Much research and analysis will still need to be done, especially by qualified third parties. But for now we marvel at the inventiveness of the various plans we see springing up.

<a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/photocontest/"><div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><img border="0" src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/photocontest-ad1.jpg" alt="photocontest-ad1" width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-4024" /><div class="imagecaption"></div></div></div></a>

Excerpts from The Incredible Machine, 2.1. Images courtesy of Leah Raintree

We first came across the art of Leah Raintree last year, when we were preparing a feature article on the artist Ernesto Caivano. At the time, Leah was working as Caivano’s studio manager – handling calls and requests, and delivering images – all the while working on her own oeuvre in the evenings and on weekends. Interestingly, in a way that seems fitting for the two of them to have crossed paths, there are a lot of aesthetic similarities between their work, something the two artists talked about openly before Caivano hired her. They both work in ink on paper and they both build elaborate constructs around their creations. But there are also distinct differences, apparently enough for the two artists to feel comfortable working together. For starters, Leah’s work doesn’t explore narratives the way Caivano’s famously does. And it’s abstract instead of figurative, rooted in deep thought around corporeal, technological, philosophical, literary, and artistic historical themes that are then explored in a process that is part deliberate, part accident and revelation. In the end, though, the work is still very much about Raintree simultaneously mapping out and discovering her own cosmology.

<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/andrei_cover_1.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics4164]" title="Boulevard Malecon in Havana Centro Havana, Cuba – February 2006"><img border="0"src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/andrei_cover_1.jpg" alt="Boulevard Malecon in Havana Centro Havana, Cuba – February 2006" width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-4450" /></a><div class="imagecaption"><em>Malecón in Havana Centro</em> Havana, Cuba – February 2006.</div></div></div>
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<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page_5.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics4164]" title="Mifis, Morocco – October 2007."><img border="0" src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page_5.jpg" alt="Mifis, Morocco – October 2007" width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-4171" /></a><div class="imagecaption">Mifis, Morocco – October 2007.</div></div></div>
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<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page_21.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics4164]" title="Left: Havana Centro Havana, Cuba – 2007. Right: Interior of House in Havana Centro Havana, Cuba – 2007. "><img border="0" src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page_21.jpg" alt="Left: Havana Centro Havana, Cuba – 2007. Right: Interior of House in Havana Centro Havana, Cuba – 2007. " width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-4174" /></a><div class="imagecaption"><strong>Left</strong>: <em>Havana Centro</em>. Havana, Cuba – 2007. <strong>Right</strong>: <em>Interior of House in Havana Centro</em> Havana, Cuba- 2007. </div></div></div>
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<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page_3.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics4164]" title="Paraportani Church Myconos, Greece, May 2007. "><img border="0" src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page_3.jpg" alt="Paraportani Church Myconos, Greece, May 2007. " width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-4167" /></a><div class="imagecaption"><em>Paraportani Church</em> Myconos, Greece, May 2007. </div></div></div>
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<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page5.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics4164]" title="Kathmandu, Nepal – October 2008."><img border="0" src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page5.jpg" alt="Nepal. Kathmandu, October 2008" width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-4460" /></a><div class="imagecaption">Kathmandu, Nepal – October 2008.</div></div></div>
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<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page_2.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics4164]" title="Ganga River Varanasi, India – October 2008."><img border="0" src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page_2.jpg" alt="Ganga River Varanasi, India – October 2008." width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-4165" /></a><div class="imagecaption"><em>Ganga River</em> Varanasi, India – October 2008., Varanasi, India – October 2008</div></div></div>
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<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page7.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics4164]" title="Morocco, October 2007"><img border="0" src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/page7.jpg" alt="page7" width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-4456" /></a><div class="imagecaption">Morocco, October 2007</div></div></div>

Photography by Matthew Scott

The following images are taken from an ongoing project, titled Observing: Venice, by photographer Matthew Scott. Venice Beach is, of course, one of a handful of mythic places in America – Haight Street, Coney Island, Times Square, Las Vegas, Hollywood – where the American experience has historically played out in larger-than-life and non-traditional ways. These have always been the magnets of America’s misfits, marginals, and “freaks”, places  of transience where anything could happen and something always does. Since moving to Venice, Scott has been observing his new, if temporary, home and its inhabitants. Or, as he puts it, “I’m trying to figure out my life and theirs.” What is revealed is an aspect of Venice’s eccentric myth, but only around the edges. More central is a peaceful quietness, a comforting, if banal, normalcy. Instead of training his lens on the boardwalk, he focuses on ordinary people living ordinary lives.

Park the Van

There is something almost overwhelming about Generationals’ debut record. A rush of pure energy wallops you with unabashed ecstasy that can barely be contained. From the sun-soaked vocal lines, static-tinged guitars, and warbling organs on “Angry Charlie” to the blasting horns and doo-wop harmonies on “When They Fight They Fight,” Con Law turns the ’60s and Motown revival (often ascribed to Mark Ronson’s productions) on its head with intricate whirls of synths that inject a New Wave nuance into the songs. Genre-bending and time-traveling aside, this New Orleans duo suffuses every chord of every song with a contagious ebullience — a summery glow even the most jaded would find hard not succumb to.

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Generationals – Angry Charlie