James Hopkins, an artist from the UK, is going after the big skull. Who ever would have thought it possible to make teeth out of beer bottles and champagne glasses? In his Vanitas series Hopkins takes on the idea of the classic still life paintings of the same name from the 16th/17th centuries in northern Europe, which […]

When you’re offered five minutes with one of your heroes, you jump on it with vigor like Kool Aid-geeked grade schoolers on a trampoline. Or at least, you should. Such is the case with one Mike Diamond, aka Mike D, the high-pitched smooth talker in the archetypal Beastie Boys. In this humble man’s opinion, if […]

Belgium-born artist Geert Goiris captures the emptiness and indelible essence of the natural world in his truly breathtaking Resonance series. The quietly beautiful still life and nature photographs that comprise the series are mostly devoid of humans — but not of life. The photographs contain nothing exciting: empty landscapes, a circle of green chairs, architectural […]

LIAS once-and-future feature subject Toro Y Moi (read our Q&A HERE) is prepping for the release of the followup to his breakthrough debut Causers of This. On the highly anticipated second effort, Underneath the Pine (Car Park Records), the Columbia, South Carolina native otherwise known as Chaz Bundick has dropped the samples in favor of […]

A crazy anecdote by famed director Werner Herzog and his chance encounter with Joaquin Phoenix…who he saves from an upside down car crash. Maybe all that stuff about Joaquin being loose canon rapper, as portrayed in the I’m Still Here film, isn’t all just an act — maybe homeboy totally does have a very large […]

I can’t explain exactly why the art of Horacio Salinas strikes me, but I like it. Maybe it’s the fact that sometimes he can take everyday, mundane objects, assemble them abstractly and create some really stunning art. And other times, like above, he takes very un-mundane objects and de-mystifies them, debases them into the mundane. […]

Without question, our favorite “affordable” single malt Scotch at LIAS is Balvenie 15-year, absolute gold at Costco for about $40 a bottle. We would’ve loved to try that Balvenie Madeira, of course, but haven’t had the opportunity (Balvenie, if you’re out there sweet Lord of Scotch, feel free to send us a sample!). To give […]