If  you’re wondering what we’ve been listening to int he studio lately, it’s this:

Brooklyn’s LEGS bills itself as “a band that makes music for the body”. So you can drop that primary care physician that isn’t working out for you.

Their white boy soul does keep the body moving though, so maybe there’s something to be said for that. They elaborate though:

“LEGS is 100% Guaranteed to make you feel Athletic, Kinetic, Sexy, Benevolent, Cosmopolitan, Declamatory, Exotic, Extroverted, Hungry, Naive, Nocturnal, and Possibly Wry. LEGS is Considered Highly Absorbent, Effervescent, Warm And Slightly Funky. LEGS Comes on Strong And Always Leaves you Satisfied.”

Hm. Those guys like title case.

Formed just last year by two brothers and a childhood friend and rounded out with a pair of Ecuadorian brothers for good measure, the band’s just getting started, it seems, and we’re excited by what we’re hearing so far. Their lead single, “High Time”, starts of with a smoothly building organ line that (spoiler alert) pops into tightly grooving pop gem that we’re literally ending every work day with of late. Maybe it’s the Pavlovian dogs in us, but we’ve started to crave salty snacks and festive libations as soon as we hear those first opening notes.

See if you can set up as positive a psychological pairing as we have: Give their American-Apparel-looking EP a listen above and, if you like it, download it for free via the band’s site (upper right) or on their SoundCloud page. Follow the band via Facebook to catch them live. You can also check out their video for “High Time”—directed by Javier Andrade—below.

Photo – Catalina Kulczar-Marin.

Local favorite Golden Road Brewing has been slowly rolling out new packaging for their canned retail beers, focusing first on their flagship beers, the Point the Way IPA + their Hefeweizen. Formerly sold in boxes of traditional corrugated cardboard with designs printed directly on the surface, the new material’s a slicker, white stock that allows the designs to show through in more detail. The move’s an effort to both show off the photo-based layouts more effectively and let buyers know what they’re getting.

Co-owner, Meg Gill told Brewbound: ““Our original idea was to have a wrap-around image and show off the photography. But in a dark bar, nobody could see the name on our cans. It’s why we’ve decided to put it all up front and just tell consumers where the brand comes from.”

We like the original, raw feel of the old boxes (you can see one in the write-up we did of their excellent seasonal 2020 IPA), but we totally get where she’s coming from—we only realized after the switch to the new boxes that the Hefeweizen features the nearby + beloved Shakespeare Bridge (built in 1926).

And for anyone who hasn’t already tried it, the brewery’s Hefeweizen really is exceptional. I’m not usually much of a fan of that style of beer, but I was lucky enough to sample it right out of the vat on a brewed tour and loved its crisp, lemony taste. Definitely a winner to hold me over this summer as I wait for the Burning Bush to return.

That sounded dirty, didn’t it?

Happy weekend, all!

It can be a tough world out their for the discerning womenswear shopper, be you buying for yourself, or, say, buying a gift for another. I’m in the latter category more often than not, for the record.

But, for us, the whole vegan thing has roots in a larger effort to do less harm to others, be them animal or human. So we’ve done our best over the years to seek out and support designers and stores with similar goals in mind; ones that abide by some set of ethics with regards to sustainable production and fair pay. One such designer we’ve long been fans of is San-Francisco-based, Curator, an independent womenswear design company started in 2001 by long-time best friends, Stacy Rodgers + Deirdre Nagayama. The line focuses on simple, elegant-yet-durable clothing that’s made in environmentally sustainable ways, employing organic fabrics whenever possible. That’s Katie down below and to the right, modeling their excellent Mabel dress and enjoying some wine in Sonoma.

We took some time to catch up with Deirdre (below, right, laughing) to get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to start up a a company like Curator, what it’s like working with your best friend, and how the industry’s changed over the years.

raven + crow: Alright, first off, how did Curator start? You + Stacy are long-time friends, right?

Deirdre Nagayama: Stacy and i have been friends since age 16. We met in high school and became really close when we went to College in San Diego together. We were huge vintage shoppers at the time (sometimes scheduling our classes around the sales at our favorite thrift store tag sales). We started silkscreening in our apartment in 2000, selling tshirts outside of concerts, to stores and our friends.

Nice. Did you all have backgrounds in fashion or were you coming from elsewhere?

Stacy is a graphic designer—we could not do this without these skills—and a Jane of all trades. My degree is in English and I have a masters in counseling psychology. I usually deal with the business relationships and she deals with the specs. Fashion degrees definitely would have helped but maybe it was good we went in not knowing all of the ways its supposed to be.

I hear you—we try to look at my Geology degree as an advantage rather than a hindrance in running a design company. Is it tough working with your best friend? Are you ever like ‘I love you, but you DO NOT know how to keep to a realistic buying budget!’?

Stacy and I never fight, and we never put money in front of each other. We sometimes freak each other out with how much we’re on the same page about things. Our friendship comes first, after all these are just clothes.

I think many would call you lucky to have ended up together. What’s the idea behind Curator—what’s its spirit animal?

Picking a name is SOOO hard, we thought so very long and hard. Right now I feel like the label means the person wearing the clothes is the curator. There you are out there in life with so many amazing choices of things to purchase, you have access to so much more than before and therefore we’re all curators. Dressing like a curator means you want to look good but you may need to climb up on a ladder and adjust that picture yourself. Or climb up on the cutting table.

Workwear for the working mind. I like it. I think we were introduced to you all through Kate at Kaight in NYC way back when. Knowing your clothes and watching you over the years, it does seem like two important aspects of the work and common threads through the designs are environmental sustainability + durability. Why are those things important to you two?

Kaight has been a solid supporter of our line and for this we’re grateful. I for one am very hard on my things and I need things that i don’t have to be delicate with. Especially after becoming a mom, I’m basically in warrior mode all day long and I need clothes that can stand up to this challenge. We hope our clothes will become vintage someday. Since we’re a small company we can make decisions to buy organic cotton. We convinced one of our biggest mills to feature an organic fleece option back in ’05 and it’s now a best seller for them.

Creatively, what kind of things inspire your designs?

We’re inspired by simplicity, and we’ve learned the hard way that simple designs are not simple to create. Since we have this long relationship, we’ve discussed so many different styles; when one comes back into our brains—like a kaftan—it becomes something we have to make to get it out of our system.

Right. So, I feel like the big question—HOW do you not only stay afloat but succeed as an independent designer these days? Having lived in New York for the past ten plus years, we just saw so many of our designer friends struggling after the economic downturn. The playing field seems so much more…uneven than it used to be; it all seems so fucking difficult.

It is really fucking difficult, it is not an easy line of work. One of the hardest things is that twice a year it feels like we have to make a new company , with new designs and a new set of risks and we put ourselves out there . The recession brings to mind the “neccesity is the mother of invention” quote. We really battened down the hatches, we quit our sales rep and paired down wholesale. We opened a small retail location and focused on online sales. It put us at risk to depend on the stores too heavily in case they closed down. And many many stores did close down which would have left us holding the bag. Our biggest challenge now is not to try to do to much; creatively we want to use all these different fabrics and take risks but the smart thing is to tweak the successful items we have into new beasts. Becoming really “big” is not always the answer in this business—you want to be small enough so that you can feel the changes and adjust accordingly.

Well-put and all so true. Any predictions for the future of fashion commerce or independent designs? And don’t tell me we’re all going to be wearing those weird-collared shirts from Her.

I try not to make predictions…because I think fashion is about finding your own style and things that make you comfortable. But I do think simplicity with reign for a while….

Normcore! You + I first started talking right before Fashion Week in NYC—how was that? Insane?

We did not do Fashion Week and honestly it’s not really even on my radar. We did a show in NY called Designers and Agents where we were selling our Fall 2014 line six months ahead. In January we signed up with a showroom called True Collaborative Fashion who handled the whole thing for us. We cut our teeth on the trade shows from 2005-2010 and, as a small company, it’s not efficient for us to physically go to the shows. We’re excited to partner with them and expand the wholesale business now that the economy seems to be a whole lot better—fingers, toes, and everything else crossed. We picked up 80 new stores and will start shipping in July.

Aw, congrats. That’s awesome. Alright, hit me—why is SF awesome?

We both grew up in San Francisco and, while it’s not really known as a place to raise kids, it was the backdrop for a fantastic childhood for both of us. We rode public transportation, experienced all kinds of people—the city I knew had a deep range of income levels. You could go over to someones house that was in the projects, apartment, house, basement-in-law apt, and whatever it was you were like let’s play. One of my best friends lived on Haight Street. I would just wade past the people and ring her doorbell. The range of income levels…things definitely seem to be changing. It feels like everything is for sale now and I don’t think that supports the soul of the city. Right now, if you lose your apartment in the city you cannot get back in if you’re not seriously balling. That’s a scary climate for art and interesting people whose sole motivation is not money (like us). Of course it’s always been a fight to live in SF. In all my memories when we had to rent a new place as a kid we were panicked. This somehow does feel different now.

That’s interesting. I seriously love your city, but all we hear about it recently is how expensive it’s gotten to live there. I mean, rent’s higher than in New York. That’s just CRAZY. A friend recently told me ‘not to bother’ going to the Mission any more, that it was essentially a Disneyland of shopping for the nouveau rich…but that can’t be totally true, can it?

The Mission will always have things to see and experience but maybe drift more down to Mission street rather than Valencia? It’s def. changed a ton, but it’s still sunny and people are doing interesting things in the food fields down there.

That’s good to hear, at least. You all opened up a storefront in the Upper Noe in 2009—congrats! How is it transitioning from ethereal, space-time Interweb existence to having a real world location too?

Having a store has been a fantastic adventure for us. We’ve been learning on the fly, like we both like to do. We both learn by doing. The store is tiny—320 square feet—but it has been rad to meet our customers; to watch them try on clothes, to talk to them about what they can’t find and to have real life fits happen in the store.

Yeah, cool to have the excuse, kind of, to open things up in terms of what you offer your customers too. What are some of the non-Curator products that you all sell that you like a lot?

We carry a few other clothing pieces in the store depending on the season—UZI, Modaspia, Micaela Greg. We love apothecary products and manage to balance some food stuff in the store too, like fancy salt and Dick Taylor chocolate bars. Basically, if we like it we will try to sell it to you.

Sign me up! I don’t think I know that neighborhood at all—it’s cool?

We love our neighborhood—they have been so supportive of us. We have an old school butcher, drycleaner (where we offers free alterations on our styles), Michelin star restaurants…and most of all, a supportive community who pops in. There is a dog park around the corner from us and we put a water dog bowl out for the pooches.

Nice, we’ll have to swing by our next time through. Any spots—besides your store, of course—that we should hit up next time we are in town?

I love Flora Grubb—it’s a whole world. Henry Hunan or Thai Regent in our neighborhood. Needles and Pens on 16th.

What are some of your favorite independent shopping spots in LA?

You tell me!!!

Ahhhh, the tables have turned. We’re still finding our shopping legs, as it were, after moving from New York. I just keep ending up at NYC outposts in LA. I’ve got to do some groundwork, especially on the men’s clothing front.

Well, I really like Taylor Stitch. I don’t know a ton about menswear, but I’ve bought my husband a few pieces here and I know he’ll have them forever. They are super sweet in store as well, no attitude. We sew at many of the same factories. The other company that is sewn in the same factory as us is GUSTIN—it’s cutting out wholesale which is genius.

Oh, awesome. Thanks for the recommendations—I’ll look into them. So, I’m sure it’s like choosing a favorite child, but, what are some of your favorite Curator pieces right now?

I am constantly rotating the Shana Cardigan, Izzy Top, Larkin Pants, Ezra Top, and Camilla Tank.

Excellent. Take that, other kids. So, what’s to come in the near future for Curator? What’s got you excited?

For our fall line, we added some space dye knits and vertically integrated stripe. We’re working on Spring 2015. We really expanded distribution so these four hands are full.

Awesome. Thanks much, Deirdre.

You can shop Curator’s current line on their Web site, where you can also find a list of stores who stock their clothing. San Franciscans—be sure to stop by the store Sunday, noon to 3PM for Lip + Sip, an in-store party featuring bubbly and lipsticks + glosses from Elizabeth Street Cosmetics. Details here.

Below, shots of the Church Street store, courtesy of Curator. PS—I spy the talented Wild Unknown in one of those shots.

Thinking of the late, great Maya Angelou this afternoon at the studio, an author whose writing was formative to us both, as it was—thankfully—for so many people in the world she touched with her words.

From her 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings:

“Caged Bird”

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

Below, an excerpt from NPR’s “The Takeaway” with fellow revolutionary author, Nikki Giovanni, on the death of her friend.

Superb NYC-based duo MS MR has been doing their part to promote fellow independent musicians ever since their success with last year’s debut full-length, Secondhand Rapture.

Since 2013, singer Lizzy Plapinger + producer Max Hershenow have been regularly releasing digital mix tapes that feature bands they’ve played with on tour and songs that keep them going during their seemingly non-stop touring around the world. Obviously, being in an active touring band is a great way to be exposed to music you might otherwise never hear, but it helps too that Plapinger co-founded Neon Gold Records, a boutique label with a history of tapping future pop geniuses like Passion Pit, Gotye, Magic Man, Ellie Goulding, and Mr. Little Jeans, to name a few.

Indeed, there are many a band that this writer’d previously never heard of before that I now count among some of my favorite independent musicians.

So what better way to start off your summer than with MS MR’s most recent mix tape, Track Addict Vol. IV. Stream the whole thing below; head to the band’s site for free download. You can find previous Track Addict editions there too.

Original art by Cornwall-based artist, Laurie McCall.

Given the tragic, terrifying, infuriating spate of gun violence in the past days, we’re borrowing a suggestion directly from friend + collaborator Paul Singh at Pel—for those of us who feel helpless in times like this, we’re not. We can support the good work of people and organizations dedicated to ending gun violence in America. One such organization, Everytown. From their site:

“Everytown is a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities. Gun violence touches every town in America. For too long, change has been thwarted by the Washington gun lobby and by leaders who refuse to take common-sense steps that will save lives.

But something is changing. More than 1.5 million mayors, moms, cops, teachers, survivors, gun owners, and everyday Americans have come together to make their own communities safer. Together, we are fighting for the changes that we know will save lives.

Everytown starts with you, and it starts in your town.”

This is not some bleeding heart liberal issue, this is about stopping senseless violence.

Visit Everytown’s beautifully done site to learn more about who they are, what they do, and how they do it, read up on their track record to date, and donate today.

Bon week-end to you all.

Enjoy the holiday, spend some quality time with nature, tell someone you love them, and take a little time to remember the veterans in your lives, those with us still + those not.

There are a few New York bands that I feel lived parallel lives to our own, musically growing in fits and starts as we did in that same city at that same time. It’s adding cliché to cliché, but they wrote a kind of interactive soundtrack to our mid-twenties to thirties that gave us great music to listen to as we figured all our shit out and quit terrible jobs for slightly less terrible jobs and stayed out far too late and tried desperately in vain to figure out that magical, unattainable ratio of food-to-alcohol. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is definitely one of those bands.

The band grew into their own distinct sound from solid roots in the 80s + 90s and, with their most recent full-length, Days of Abandon, are sounding more polished, confident, and—most importantly—beautifully and unabashedly poppy than ever.  We got a chance to catch up with band frontman, Kip Berman (second from the left, above), just before embarking on a European tour to talk over their days on the road, how he went into writing the songs for Abandon, and his thoughts on the chaining New York scene.

raven + crow: So, first off, Kip, thanks for taking some time to talk. I know you all are in the midst of an almost three-month tour. How’s it going so far?

Kip Berman: Fantastic, thanks! We’ve had a wonderful tour with Fear of Men and Ablebody, who are both awesome groups and a lot of fun to be around. All three bands are sharing a van and gear, so it’s been a pretty great way to tour. Fear of Men are from the UK, so it’s been a particular thrill to show off America to them. We’ve done a lot of tourist kind of stuff together. You can see lots of pics on our band instagrams: thepainsofbeingpureatheart + fearofmen + able body.

My snap assessment after a quick perusal of your respective Instagram feeds—Jess likes giant bottles of Champagne and Katy Perry picture disks. You all are clearly having too much fun. So, after so much playing together at this point, are you all trying anything new with the live show…besides the new material, obviously?

We play a mix of old songs and new songs, but we’re really excited to be sharing a lot of Days of Abandon. Tracks like “Kelly,” “Simple and Sure,” “Eurydice” and “Life After Life” seem to be going over really well.

All stellar stand-alone songs. We really do love the new album. I’ve seen quotes from you talking about it as a stepping back of sorts in terms of returning to what was important you initially in song-writing. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Maybe that was the wrong choice of words. It’s more “song” focussed than “sound” focussed, if that makes sense. We just wanted to stay focussed on making 10 great songs, rather than getting pre-occupied on the studio side of things.

Did you go into writing it with anything in mind or any particular goals?

Not really. I’m sort of an accidental person. The best songs happen on their own, intellectual posturing or “struggling” over a song rarely makes for great pop music. I know bands like to say how tortured they are, or flaunt their self-destructive tendencies, but everyone has problems, you know? It’s conceited to think that “artists” somehow are any different than people that don’t get to ride around in a van and play music every night. I can play the G chord and then the D chord without killing myself…hopefully.

Extremely awesomely put. Where does the album title—Days of Abandon—come from? …from where does the…eh, never mind. You get the drift.

The title of the album is partially inspired by Elena Ferrante’s novel, The Days of Abandonment. But “Abandon” seemed to capture a fuller range of semantic possibility—both being left behind, as well as freedom and exhilaration. Besides, Days of Thunder was already taken.

Okay, I have to push back a bit there—if you guys put out an album called Days of Thunder, I think it may well implode the universe. Please do this. The non-Tom-Cruise-y album artwork, though—we love it. We’d never heard of Lee Jinju before but the work seems oddly familiar. Are you all long-time fans?

I’ve been familiar with her work since about 2011 or so. I was deeply grateful that she allowed us to use one of her paintings as the art for our record as I think it compliments the music in the right way. I don’t know if we would have even released the record had we been unable to use her work as the cover.

Wow. Strong, artistically appreciative words. No, it is weirdly, fittingly beautiful though, I totally agree. Back to names—I’ve long admired you all for choosing an undisputedly unwieldy and hard-to-remember name but sticking with it. Were you all ever encouraged to change or shorten the name early on?

No. But we usually just say “Pains.” I don’t like it when it’s spelled POBPAH.

No, yeah, that’s awful. Where does it come from though, the name? Seems like a line from Dead Poets Society or some such thing.

It’s the title of an unpublished short story written by someone I knew in Portland, OR.

Oh. Man. That’s kind of the most succinct, best answer to that question I’ve ever gotten. So, I feel like you all hit the scene pretty hard straight out of the gate so many years back, at least from the persecutive of someone who lived in New York at the time. As soon as we heard of you, you were ‘the next big thing’ and there was just tons of buzz about the Pains. That seems like the best and worst of possible starts for a band. Has it been difficult to keep up the momentum and not constantly second guess yourselves in terms of direction?

We were around for a couple years before our first record came out in 2009. We self-released an EP and did two or three 7″ singles for Atomic Beat and Slumberland Records. Maybe someday we actually will become “the big thing”, but until then, I’m just going to keep trying to write the best songs I can.

I like it. Where do you look for inspiration in your song-writing, either musically or…otherwise?

It’s so dull to say, but it’s really just my life—the people I’ve known and the things that I’ve experienced. There seems never to be a shortage of life to write about. I change names where I can, though who knows if that really works. I don’t want to hurt anyone or traffic on someone else’s tragedy in such an explicit way.

I always felt frightened at the prospect of dating Elizabeth Elmore from Sarge, as she wrote the BEST kiss-off songs. You were undoubtedly signing up for having an awesome song written about how not awesome you were. I guess that was a pretty unnatural fear to have when I was a teenager, as she was an adult. I think there’s been one song written about me—it makes me sad to hear it, so it must be a good song.

I’d ask the song, but I somehow feel like that’d be prying. So, we moved from Brooklyn to LA just last December and were slightly remiss to leave such a great music scene. Don’t get me wrong—LA’s is great. But what have we been missing in NYC? What do you see changing for the better overall or what bands are getting you (re-)excited about music?

I love living in New York. There are some great bands like So So Glos (who are subletting our practice space while we’re on tour—hey guys, pick up your empties, ok?), Beverly, The Hairs, Kurt’s new band The Ice Choir, Weekend, Autre Ne Veut, Wild Nothing, Beach Fossils, Hooray for Earth and a bunch more that I’d go see play anytime they had a show.

But a lot of the bands I really love I only found out about because of the internet or getting to play shows together. Bands like Makthaverskan, Fear of Men, Literature, Flowers, Joanna Gruesome, and Evans the Death. There’s great things happening in music everywhere.

Okay, so, first off, that’s a ton of awesome bands you just mentioned. Second, LOVE Joanna Gruesome—just wrote them up last week. Third, we’re friends with Kevin from The Hairs from way back in early aughts DC—love that guy. Though I’ve had a personal gripe with that band name from day one. Back to NYC though, have you been tracking all this kind of hating on the new rich New York lately? David Byrne’s piece on how the 1%’s killing creativity and the like? Any take on it all?

I admire David Byrne a lot, and I’m sure his arguments are valid and very well thought out. He’s an amazing guy and one of the few artists that has continued to push himself creatively and intellectually as they moved beyond the age of being a pop star. He seems so comfortable being himself—it’s very heartening. I got to see him play on the recent David Byrne + St. Vincent tour, and on top of being an incredible performer, he came out and hung out with fans after the show and seemed just really secure, happy and the kind of person most kids in bands would be lucky to get to be someday, not in terms of success, but in terms of seeming happy with his place in the world.

I can only say that I played music for a long time in a city much more “conducive to artists” (low rent, basements where you could rehearse, etc)—Portland(ia), OR. And yet it wasn’t until I moved to New York where everything seemed a lot harder (the “local bands” were internationally known, you had to rent a rehearsal space, rent was high, you had to work all the time just to get by) that things really started to happen.

So while my personal experience is much the opposite, I can only chalk it up to luck. Obviously, I wish my rent was half of what it was, there were cheap rehearsal rooms, and lots of DIY venues for less commercially minded bands to play.

Again, well-said. Favorite thing about New York?

My friends live there. Also Bagels.

Literally the two things we miss most. And LA? Favorite thing?

I think LA is perfectly great too. I don’t understand the need for a rivalry. The Hochheims (Anton + Christoph) live there now, as well as a bunch of our friends. We always have a great time when we’re there—we have no beef.

We’ll take it—rivalry, OVER. Thanks for talking with us, Kip.

Thank you!

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart play a sold out show tonight at the Bowery Ballroom in New York before heading over for a three-month European tour. You can purchase their new album, Days of Abandon, on vinyl or CD via Amazon + digitally through iTunes. Watch the video for “Simple and Sure” below. It features the most rhythmically awesome dinner party of all time.

We certainly would never want to think of ourselves as those who’d promote or applaud violence to others.

That said, we have to give a hearty pat on the bloodied backs of the bulls who gored three matadors this week in Madrid’s famous bullfighting ring, Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas, putting a halt to the bullfighting at the famed San Isidro festival for the first time in 35 years.

Two of the matadors walked away with minor injuries; one, David Mora, was severely injured by a bull at the opening of the festival. One should be calculating compensation in case they are injured in an accident.

From The Telegraph:

“David Mora was gored repeatedly when the first bull of the evening entered Las Ventas bullring during Tuesday’s San Isidro festival.
The 33-year-old torero was tossed on the horns of Deslio, a fighting bull weighing 532 kgs—just over half a tonne—before being pummeled into the ground by the enraged animal. Horrified spectators watched as fellow bullfighters used their capes to try to separate the bull from the felled matador, who suffered two serious gorings, a foot-long gash in his thigh that severed the femoral vein and a four inch wound to his upper arm.”

Yes this is terrible; yes this is tragic. But beside the point that this man chose to put himself in front of the bull as part of the “sport” when then animal had no such choice whatsoever is the fact that the tradition itself has been far more systematically cruel and tragic to the animals for nearly 300 years.

End it.

From PETA:

“In a typical Spanish bullfight, the bull enters the arena and is approached by picadors—men on horses who drive lances into the bull’s back and neck muscles. This attack impairs the bull’s ability to lift his head and defend himself. They twist and gouge the lances to ensure significant blood loss.

Then banderilleros enter on foot, distract the bull, and dart around him while plunging banderillas—brightly colored sticks with harpoon points on their ends—into his back. When the bull has become weakened from blood loss, the banderilleros run the bull in circles until he becomes dizzy and stops chasing them.

Finally, the matador appears and, after provoking a few exhausted charges from the dying animal, tries to kill the bull with his sword. If he misses, succeeding only in further mutilating the animal, an executioner is called in to stab the exhausted and submissive bull to death. The dagger is supposed to cut the animal’s spinal cord, but even this stroke can be blundered, leaving the bull conscious but paralyzed as he is chained by his horns and dragged out of the arena.”

I mean, fucking Ernest Hemingway, of all people, was against the practice and he was scientifically proven to be 99.9% testosterone. You can be tough and not dramatically slaughter bulls in a ring whilst wearing tights, Spain. Grow a pair, why don’t you.

We’ll abstain from posting any photos of the gorings, you can see those and read more, if you like, here. And you can find out more about what goes on exactly at these bullfights on PETA’s page on the subject. You can also read Hemingway’s 1923 letter in the Toronto Star Weekly on bullfighting.

We’re not huge app users when it comes to games. Sure, we dabbled in sudoku back in the day and inevitably dipped our toe in the world of those Angry Birds initially, but most of them just don’t hold our attention. Oh. Except for Words with Friends. I’m playing that as I type, actually.

Every now and then though, a game comes along that seems to buck the system, proving that elegant, innovative design can exist in the app world. Case in point—last year’s spookily brilliant Year Walk from Simogo games. We wrote that up when it came on the scene and it absolutely blew us away with its eerily inventive design.

Now another game’s come along in the same vein, marrying beautifully rendered artwork with refreshingly original ideas. Monument Valley is created by digital user interface design studio, ustwo, based in New York, London, and Malmö. The game has you guiding your avatar, Ida, through a geometrically impossible world reminiscent of MC Escher’s work and filled with strange crow-like figures that are oddly reminiscent of goth kids hanging out by the Orange Julius at the mall. From ustwo:

“In Monument Valley you will manipulate impossible architecture and guide a silent princess through a stunningly beautiful world. Monument Valley is a surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry. Guide the silent princess Ida through mysterious monuments, uncovering hidden paths, unfolding optical illusions and outsmarting the enigmatic Crow People.”

The game is truly stunning in its look and the controls are to it are intuitively sophisticated, pretty much covering all the bases with a tutorial at the onset of the game that lasts all of five seconds. The oddly placed stairwells and impossible geometry of the game is clearly the most notable aspect of it and central to the user’s navigation, but one of the most enjoyable aspects to the game for me was the overall aesthetic. Bright colors, well-thought-out patterns and geometric shapes, beautifully done titles, and chime-like, soothing music in the background paired with in-game sound effects all pull you in and provide a relaxingly fun experience for players.

Overall, I really loved this game and highly recommend it. It’s not the deepest—I probably got through the entire thing in a total of a couple hours—but the quality of the experience makes it well worth the $3.99 price. Monument valley is available for iOS users via iTunes and, as of last week, can be bought for Android via Google Play.

You can see a game trailer from ustwo along with some of our in-game screenshots below.