Scratching the Surface

Few things bring such happiness in life as freshly-cooked dumplings. The little tubby parcels are the culinary equivalent of a cheek breaking grin. So...

Only two things could drive TwoThousand into a Westfield-style shopping complex: a Dawn of the Dead-style legion of zombies chasing us for our juicy brains...

Pssst! Amigo! Want to tell a good Spanish restaurant from a crappy one? Look up. Now count the hunks of cured meat hanging from the ceiling. Sure, a few...

How great is it to discover amazing work by an artist that you have never heard of before?

Showing as part of the CROSS CURRENTS show at the MCA are...

Nestled amongst a bakery, newsagent and several boarded-up shop fronts is arguably Australia's best anthology of out-of-print and collectible books. Co-owner...

Welcome Powershovel, the Japanese camera brand that has created, fact, the first 110mm fish-eye lens camera. ‘Demekin', is small enough to fit...

Everyone loves a party shop. EVERYONE. It's a depot of smiles, paper plates, foam cups, costumes that smell like a petting zoo and royal icing. If you...

When I was little, I'd draw things in the sawdust on the floor of the local butcher. It was one of the highlights of going, along with getting lollypops...

Lets get one thing straight. Matt Thompson has big cojones. Not because he travelled solo to Colombia and did everything the guidebook says you shouldn't...

A one-legged woman lies in bed, kept awake by anxious visions of lost opportunites and failed attempts at gaining happiness. Sounds like fun huh? Even...

The bookshelf is a prized pantry of carefully selected manuscripts, fine films, musical specimens, exotic publications and zine-like hooha. Keeping all...

Although Napoleon Bonaparte’s Frenchmen didn’t survive the winter, Melbourne’s Dead Frenchmen are taking it by the balls of the brass...

For years now, from an unassuming building on Elizabeth Street opposite the Waterloo skatepark and a lolly factory, Darren Knight has been repping great...

Some so called ‘Japanese' eating establishments would have you believe that a typical Tokyo salary man sits down at a long, sleek, communal wooden...

I'm not a melodramatic person. Really. But something about Silver City Highway's debut album EVERYTHING IS BREAKING makes me wanna don a poncho and...

Emerging from the bargain bin of parachute tracksuits and happy pants, this week TwoThousand embraces the Coogi jumper.

No, we don't need glasses...

From the rubber floor to the fanciful graphic prints to the plastic static menagerie, every one of the 29 square metres of Alfie's Friend Rolfe is chocked...

The art of photography lost some of its romance when the age of digital dawned. Now it's all fun, point, shoot and delete if you're the one who looks...

If a transition from mass-ear interest in New Wave guitar groups towards the synth and lo-fi undergrounds of yore has long been in the offing, only now...

People often say to me: "Hey Tyson, how are you - whoa! You smell good! What is it?" To which I return with a coy but knowing grin, reluctant...