Pretty stunning new public art via Street Art News by Australian artist Rone.

According to SAN, the artist returned to his home country after Miami’s Art Basel this year to finish this work in Geelong, an industrial city just outside of Melbourne whose two largest employers have closed down over the years, pushing the locale to re-imagine its identity, “with many huge warehouse spaces and open minded people like Power House Geelong.”

All images via Street Art News, which is a great site to follow for…you guessed it, street art. Their Instagram feed’s equally stellar if that’s your bag.

Music today from New York City’s Niia Bertino, better known by her simplified stage name, Niia.

Niia was chosen as one of ten breakout artists of 2014 by our very own Mr. Jason Bentley, czar of all things musical in Los Angeles and music director at our local public radio station, KCRW. With her smooth, soulful voice and impressive pop hooks, we’d be inclined to agree with Mr. Bentley on his choice. Case in point, her single “Body”, from her Generation Blue EP, released this past October. It’s tamely likable enough to appeal to everyone from edgy seekers of breakout pop to the moms of edgy seekers of breakout pop and its catchy chorus will likely have you humming the tune all day long.

Scrolling through Niia’s soundcloud page, she’s got quite a few songs that are available for free download, including a number of pretty great covers (anyone who knows, much less covers, Jai Paul’s BTSTU is good by me) to some impressive just-released collaborations between Niia and Providence producer, The Range (AKA James Hinton).

As if being a celebrated up-and-coming artist, coming from a long line highly talented musicians, and being a Bond girl (singer) wasn’t enough, Niia’s also given a Ted Talk on how she overcame severe stage fright and connecting with your audience. It’s actually really funny/touching—check it out below too.

Just in case anyone was hazy on the matter, our old band, Speedwell, was officially emo.

This according to the new Web site, Is This Band Emo?, created by our friend Tom Mullen over at Washed Up Emo, a site that celebrates and covers the mid-ninties + early aughts emo scene before it all fell into the popular culture and morphed into the bubblegum chaos that is mall emo.

You can actually listen to an early interview Tom did with me in 2011 on Speedwell and the indie emo scene of the time on Washed Up Emo.

The simple idea behind Tom’s new venture—type in the name of a band and find out if they’re ‘legitimately’ emo or not. Christie Front Drive? Emo. Knapsack? Emo. Panic at the Disco? Not emo.

Some results, like what you get when you ask the site if Journey is emo, even come with a little audio/video back-up to the claim.

We’ll start with: We don’t think this is racist?

For the longest time, I personally pigeon-holed burning incense along with wearing patchouli. It was something dreadlocked, Baja-wearing hippies did. But, be it due to a softening to unnecessary prejudices as I get older or a more general desire to seek out ways to chillax^® as I get older…or just getting older, I am totally into incense now.

Katie got me a smaller incense burner a while back and, more recently, we picked up this adobe teepee burner from the same company, Incienso de Santa Fe. An incense company based in Santa Fe, New Mexico (thank you, Spanish class), Incienso de Santa Fe creates “incense that is unique to the Southwestern United States,” using the native area woods to formulate their fragrances found “nowhere else but in the west.”

Having lived in California “officially” for a year now, I have to back up the company’s claim. The west, like the east, does have geographically specific scents that we’ll suddenly stumble across when we’re out hiking or even just walking through our neighborhood, Beachwood Canyon. Smells of dry brush; hedges of lavender; smokey, dusty hills—all of it’s started to come to smell like home to us and Incienso’s products call up place and time with their scents in a warm, comforting way. As they put it:

“People tell us our incense makes them remember all kinds of wonderful things…the perfume of the Painted Desert, a crackling campfire on a high mountain trail, the morning mist settling in a Northern New Mexican village. If you have not tried our fragrances before, we know you will find them very special.”

We kind of just like how burning their incense snaps us into a more tranquil place at the end of a long day. As the company spells out on their site, they use only dead trees for their incense—no trees are cut down for their products. And, as you can see from their Web site, they offer a wide range of incense scents (from piñon to mesquite to hickory) + themed burners (from chimineas to steam engines to tiny southwestern churches).

So, if you’re looking for a last-minute gift, we’d suggest these guys. They’re reasonably priced, unique, and go a long way to bringing some warmth into your winter.

We call this “Christmas Tree atop Volvo”.

White Wolf, going strong after a year on NYC streets, three trips cross-country, another year in the nation’s most car-filled city, and a little Christmas tree-hauling.

According to this field mouse, the wait is over for the previously announced holiday party we’re throwing at MooShoes Los Angeles with Spork Foods + PETA.

We’ll have complimentary drinks, snacks, deals on holiday shopping, and an awesome DJ, so come on out and party with us tonight 6-9PM, MooShoes LA—3116 Sunset in Silver Lake. See you there!

Working on something new. Stay tuned.

For anyone in New York looking for places to finish up (or start, if you’re like me) any holiday shopping, here’s added incentive to include fashion boutique In God We Trust—these stellar holiday themed tote bags, free with purchase. I’m guessing I’m not too far off base saying that this sums up pretty succinctly quite a few people’s take on the holidays.

If you’re not already familiar with IGWT, it’s one of our long-time favorite clothing stores, specializing in both men’s and women’s styles and headed by designer Shana Tabor, who somehow serendipitously constructs shirts that fit me exactly.

You can read a somewhat dated interview we did with Tabor way back in 2011, year of the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and the 9.0 earthquake that rocked Japan. Crazy year, man.

A fond farewell to New York City and our very generous, gracious hosts there. We miss you all, though we’re happy to travel back to some…kinder weather, we’ll say.

Above, the final scene in this year’s Macy’s windows, which are kinda sci-fi, planetary-themed and totally awesome.

Our final polaroid from the archive—driving down Route 81 in rural Virginia.