I'm moving soon so I've been looking for some new stuff to adorn my walls.  The craft/art community Etsy is always a good place to start for reasonably priced and unique art. While I was browsing there I found a designer, Adam Rabalais, whose posters would not only spruce up a sparse wall but satisfy my inner movie nerd as well.  Many of the re-imagined movie posters have a minimalist or Art Deco style and include a number of classic and independent films as well as bigger budget movies like Harry Potter and Inception.  Check out Adam's offerings at his shop page here.  

For a different sort of imagery, check out this recent instalment of the the Big Picture showcasing the winners of this year's National Geographic Traveler Magazine Photo Contest.  As always with National Geographic, there are stunning photos here, ranging from Chinese children playing in a street to Northern Lights in Norway.  See the entire set of winning photos here and more photos info about the contest here. 

Surprisingly none of the winning photos in the National Geographic contest were taken with Instagram… While the breakout photo sharing/filtering app has its proponents and detractors, I think we can be fairly sure which side developer Joe Macirowski is on.  He created the Normalize app after apparently getting tired of encountering "picture[s] in the 'real world' [outside of Instagram] where someone [has decided] it's a good idea to use it when trying to take a picture of something they're legitimately trying to show." His program attempts to reverse the wackiness that Instagram filters apply to the levels and colour channels in a photo, resulting in a more balanced exposure and colour representation.  I'm not entirely sure what the use case is for this app but if you've ever needed to de-filter a photo for some reason this could certainly come in handy.  You can download it from the App Store here, and see his explanation of how the app works on his blog.  

Switching gears to some new music.  I'm a huge fan of L.A. alt hip hop/experimental producer Flying Lotus. He has a new album scheduled for an October release and just recently posted a track from it featuring Erykah Badu. It's certainly an evolution for Mr. Lotus and if you're new to him I highly recommend listening to some of his previous stuff first, like his debut album on Warp Records, Los Angeles.  The new track, See Thru To U lacks some of the driving bass of his earlier work but retains the complexity and ethereal nature of his music and I can't wait to hear it woven into the rest of the album. 

Flying Lotus - See Thru To U feat. Erykah Badu

For a lot more bass and decidedly less nuance, watch this video from Icelandic rapper and ultra-white guy Gísli Pálmi.  After the brief over the top wanksta rap session at the beginning, the (hopefully) tongue in cheek video sees Pálmi working in a fish processing plant. The absurdity combined with the sick beat and idiosyncratic Icelandic rapping result in a fun diversion and an intriguing foray into world of Nordic hip hop.