Amy Richardson

Mini plastic food
I know I should've stopped buying toys a loooooong time ago, but how could I resist the Re-Ment Disney 1950s Cafe Set? Re-Ment makes collectable mini plastic food sets in blind boxed containers in hundreds of themes, from Family Diner to Airline Meals to Panda Kindergarten. In the Disney 1950s Cafe Set, options included the Mickey Mouse shaped fried eggs set, Mickey's Cafe club sandwich set, Mickey's Cafe donuts set, and so on, but I must admit I was holding out for the Mickey Mouse burger, fries and onion rings set, so how excited was I when I opened the box! I'm now religiously checking the Re-Ment website (www.re-ment.us) and Flickr Re-Ment Addicts photo pool for more mini plastic collectable cuteness.

Women-only train carriages
I jump on board one of these (often pink) subway carriages when I travel in the rush hour. There are pink signs on the platform to indicate where to board. They were introduced in Tokyo and Osaka in 2000 after a high level of complaints from women about being groped by chikan (male perverts) on crowded trains. Even though they're designated women-only at certain hours of the day, guys tend to avoid them the rest of the day anyway, and they're often less crowded than other carriages.

Macro mode on my camera
I will be eternally in debt to my always-in-the-technology-know friend Stef for recommending the Canon Powershot G9 when I was shopping for a new digi-cam. The macro mode is perfect for taking pictures of food and cute mini things, ideal for living in Japan. My BF and I have just discovered the stop-motion mode which allows you to make cool stop-motion videos easily. The G9 rocks!



Botchan by Soseki Natsume
I am trying to branch out into Japanese authors other than Haruki Murakami while I am living here. Since I am working in Japanese high schools teaching English, I found this book, about a college graduate who moves to the island of Shikoku to teach Maths to unruly high school boys, hilarious. It was written in 1904, so it's also an interesting way to learn about Japanese life during the Meiji period (1868-1912).

Perfume - Love the World
If this isn't the catchiest J-Pop since Perfume's last hit, Chocolate Disco, then I didn't just buy a Hello Kitty tap decorator for my bathroom sink. (I totally did, and she waves her arms when the water runs. Did I mention how much I love Japan?)

Amy Richardson is always discovering bright and beautiful things. A former staffer on magazines such as Home Beautiful and Girlfriend, she's since landed in Japan to do everything from make umeshu plum wine, teach English, master capoeira and document every hyper-coloured piece of pop culture and eye-stunning bite of food there is. She took those awesome pics above and you can check out her other cool shots here.

Tracey Grimson

Rimbaud
Pronounced like Sylvester Stallone's famous character (sorta), this French poet had a life that was heaps meatier than any boxer's, as I'm discovering via a biography of his life by Graham Robb. It's poetry and I'm lovin' it. (For more excellent poetry including audio, like Ginsberg reading Howl, I also love www.poets.org)

Rosé
Rimbaud wrote a famous poem called The Drunken Boat. Ironically, I've been a drunken *goat* a fair few times recently (it rhymes, see) thanks to my current favourite tipple, chilled pink wine (aka rosé). It's like a white wine made with red grapes - so I'm told - and it's deeply unfashionable. I care not.

Bodega
Yes, friends, I'll shut up about this joint on Commonwealth St in Surry Hills eventually, but only when it stops being so damn good. Where else are the wait staff so cute ... or cool ... or cute AND cool? And where else do you get a soundtrack of classic Cure whilst inhaling your South American-styled tapas (bell peppers stuffed with blue swimmer crab, tomato and labna salad, spiced calamari, the best olives in town). If you can't find me on a Friday afternoon, check at the bar. I'll be drinkin' rosé.

Running
Post-Bodega booze and food fest, young(ish) ladies must attend to their daily constitutional. It's a yin/yang thing you see. Lucky for me I've somehow decided recently that I enjoy running. Or make that jogging. It's efficient, it gets you out in the perfect Sydney winter sunshine... and by the time you read this I'll probably be well and truly over it.

F--k and Run by Liz Phair
Liz Phair's classic indie rock album Exile In Guyville just got reissued, and I can't stop playing the "hit", F--k And Run. Hadn't listened to it for about ten years until recently. Thankfully, it's still good. Which is more than can be said for Liz Phair.

I remember first coming across Tracey Grimson's name when I mooched off the music magazines in the local library in the '90s. You probably have seen her byline on pages aplenty too. She was also general manager and presenter extraordinaire at FBI radio. A self-described "grudging yoga enthusiast", she runs a semi-updated food blog Soup Me So and is keen to hear from anyone up for an Addams Family pinball challenge (she's looking to relive her "misspent youth").

Carlie Oates

Cheese and wine
The three of us (cheese, wine and I) by far have the best relationship I’ve ever had with anyone or anything, it’s a simple understanding we share. All we need to make each other happy is a wood block, a cheese knife and a bottle opener. I’ve always thought of cheese as romantic, so add a splash (or bottle) of wine as it’s an experience to be had.

Net-a-Porter
I love a little shop here and there, and I don’t think there is any place better than Net-a-Porter. I feel I should explain more, but I’d rather you gain the experience yourself. Enjoy and god bless your credit card.

Angus and Julia Stone
There’s a little something special about this music duo, they are clever, talented and damn fine to listen to. I first bought their EP a few years back and feel in love immediately. Their soothing sounds and cryptic lyrics are original and thought provoking. I recently went to their concert at the Enmore Theatre and it was by far the most rewarding experience.

Buddhism
I can’t call myself a Buddhist, but after travelling to many countries where Buddhism is their love/culture/religion I have always felt at peace, a sense of calm when there. I recently travelled to the Buddhist temple in Wollongong, the four hours I spent with my boyfriend exploring and learning their way of life transported my soul to a place that's hard to forget.

Jeffrey Deaver
If you have ever read a book by Jeffrey Deaver you would completely understand where im heading here. I am by no means a words person; I’d never consider retiring and writing a novel – or maybe I would if there was any chance I could write like Jeffrey Deaver. His plot lines and descriptive paragraphs has seen me with tooth picks holding my eyes open at 3am begging to know what the next chapter holds.


Carlie Oates is a stylist whose fine work can be seen in the pages of Sunday and Emporium magazines. She has an impressive lunch-making repertoire and once commando-rolled out of a speeding taxi.

Dave Regos

The Wire
Set in gritty Baltimore, this HBO series is one of those shows where the greater the investment, the greater the reward. The complexity of the characters unfolds slowly and the plot is revealed seductively like a striptease. Like the crack addicts it portrays, it leaves you wanting more at the end of every episode.

Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea by the Silver Jews
You know how you get excited when you hear that one of your favourite bands is releasing an album and then the album comes out and you listen to the album and the album is no good or it's just a cheap rehash of their other albums and it's disappointing? Sigh.

But then other times one of your favourite bands releases an album and you listen to it and you think it's pretty good but you need to listen to it again. And then you listen to it again and you remember all the reasons you love that band and then you listen to that new album almost every day henceforth and become a little bit obsessed with that album and want everyone else around you to be obssessed with that album too. Because deep down you know how great the album is and not just because the album has samples of seagulls and foghorns and songs about jails made out of lollies and has a cover version of a song by an obscure Japanese artist you thought hardly anyone has ever heard of, but that it also contains monumental truths and is funny and musically varied and you realised that this is probably going to be the best album of the year.

That's what happened here.

Texas Hold'Em Poker
All in on pocket 7s. Twice that has led to my undoing. On Wednesday it was a heart on the river. She had two overs with my suited Ace and Three in the hole. Flush beat my Ace high. Loss permeated around me as I left the RSL. Still, I wait once more for the day when I go heads up, re-raise before the flop, and on the turn hit my full house boat to take out the tournament. My day in the sun will come. Then we'll see who's the short stack, won't we?! WON'T WE???!!!!

If you have a gambling problem, please call 1800 633 635.

Sharp knives and a Scanpan
I never knew how much a good frying pan could affect one's cooking. From the country that brought us the building blocks of society, Lego, comes the titanium pan that turns frying into a joyful experience. Mushrooms sauteed to perfection. Omelettes golden brown all over. Butter glides across gracefully like an oiled up synchronised swimmer down a bowling alley. This baby distributes the heat evenly across the full nonstick surface. Metal or plastic stirrer. Doesn't matter - it's titanium. Somehow everything looks and tastes way better then it ever did before.

Good knives make cutting the things you put in the pan easier. And they make everything look and taste better too.

Pistachios
A great anytime snack. To open one with a shell that is mostly closed, take a half discarded shell from the shrapnel of the eaten pistachios, wedge it in the small gap of the shell of the stubborn sheltered nut, twist and voila. Behold your green, and hopefully salted, prize.

Dave Regos has many cards up his sleeve - even when his poker habit is shaken. He hosts the reliably awesome radio show, In The Pines, which sits high on my list of must-listen shows on FBI 94.5FM. He's filmed M.I.A. on the road and has made a retro-cute clip for Cloud Control. He also writes, makes a mean breakfast burrito and is working on a magical documentary (literally).

Tom Doig

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John le Carré
This is the first "spy thriller" I have ever read. I am half-way through, and for an English Lit grad and highbrow nerdy book snob, GEE WHIZZ it's a guilty pleasure. (Like pornographic magazines, except nerdier). What on earth's going to happen to my "defected" British agent, being interrogated in an East German hunting lodge? I am learning to love stupid characters, and exceptionally clever plots.

Jogging
Just got back from a week in northern New South Wales, where on three separate occasions I went for runs along the beach. This is also new for me. First it was a token get-warm-enough-to-jump-in-the-ocean trot, then an I'm-imitating-David-Hasselhoff-on-a-romantic-afternoon jog, and finally a proper, watch-the-sun-set-and-the-moon-rise, keep-going-till-I'm-panting run. I now have soft-focus visions of getting up in the pre-dawn light and gliding along the Merri Creek, sucking that cold air into my chest. It hasn't happened yet ... but it might.

North Korea's 'Mass Games'
A video performance artist friend put me onto this - North Korea puts on these INSANE displays of patriotism every year, for "the General". Twelve thousand schoolchildren make "the world's biggest screen", by turning the pages of these huge colour-coded books in perfect synchronicity ... it has to be seen to be believed.

The Guardian
Although this newspaper does make me feel like the world is about to end, any second now, the journalism is so damn good. All the stories are a decent length, and the bias is left- not right-wing. Makes Aussie newspapers seem like the kitty-tray lining they really are.

My house
I love it! Going to sleep last night, I realised how happy I am to be there ... even tho I had to tape plastic bags over my chimney and buy a door snake to reduce the draft, I love my little crowded messy room. And I love my housemates - this morning there was a bowl of rice congee porridge with squid bits waiting just for me. Thanks Liv!

Tom Doig is currently working on a show about David Hasselhoff and Hitler (awesome). I'm not sure if his Baywatch-style jogging is part of the research. Tom has also done a lot of noteworthy things in his time, such as co-direct the National Young Writers Festival, edit Voiceworks magazine and steer part of the This is Not Art ship. He also has a knack for doing unforgettable things - I once saw him strip onstage and rub pet food on himself while singing (I think) a song from Cats, the musical.

Elly Goodman

Sydney rain storms
I’m English, so I’m pretty used to rain, you don’t get a green and pleasant land without it, but nothing prepared me for the kind of rain that you get here. English rain is very, well, English. It’s subtle, gentle, wet in a way that you don’t even realise it’s wet until you happen to touch your sleeve and then you are soaked through. Australian rain is BIG, it’s undeniably WET, it’s heavy, and it’s totally and utterly awe-inspiring. I love it! It’s like punctuation, dripping commas breaking up the long, sunny sentence making it understandable.

Coffee, Tea or Me
This little (and I mean little) coffee shop on the corner of Crown and Davies Street in Surry Hills is just perfect. The décor is shabby-chic, in the right way, they serve tea in china cups (essential) and the staff are friendly in an English way. That is, they smile (a little), they are polite, friendly and attentive, but they don’t need to know your name. They do, however, remember your favourite drink and they serve it with care and attention. The wait is often long, but unimportant, English people don’t mind waiting, we feel at our most comfortable in a queue (besides, it gives us something to whinge about later). If you are not so keen on waiting, they supply newspapers and magazines in a basket in front of the coffee machine or there are the numerous Polaroids of their four-legged customers gracing the walls to keep you occupied. It feels like a little slice of Europe smack bang in the middle of Surry Hills and for that I am eternally grateful.

Marmite and Challah
Challah is a Jewish bread eaten on the Sabbath. It has a doughy, eggy texture with a thin, glazed crust, usually sprinkled with poppy seeds. It has a slightly sweet taste, which the poppy seeds offset nicely. When combined with butter and a layer of Marmite it becomes manna from heaven! The salty layer of Marmite (the English variety, which is infinitely different to both Aussie marmite and vegemite) and the sweet bread is a combination to set the taste buds leaping for joy. It’s even better if eaten whilst watching trashy Saturday night telly before a night out on the tiles and is offset with a glass of icy cold milk (which also acts a stomach liner for the night ahead).

Kapka Kassabova’s poetry
I don’t get much time to read for pleasure at the moment, so to my delight I had to work on an Australian or New Zealand poem at school. Wandering around a second hand bookstore in Newtown on the search for new world poets I opened up Kapka Kassabova’s book Dismemberment on page 8 and read 'Striving for Lightness'. It pulled me in word by delicious word and I had just been having a conversation about that very topic not moments before, by synchronicity or serendipity I had found myself a New Zealand (via Bulgaria and Scotland) poet for school. I now read her poems in any spare moments I have, usually just before bed and find myself lost with words that could have been written just for me.

Shakespeare
Being an actress, words are my livelihood; other people’s well-chosen, finely crafted words, I say them and bring them to life through me. Shakespeare’s words are the best! They are pre-packed with power and raw energy, sex, breath and heartbeats, shape and texture, taste, smell and colour, all the magic ingredients there on the page, ready for you to just add life. His work is always relevant, always up-to-date and to quote Doctor Who, ‘He is the most human human to have ever lived’.

Elly Goodman is an English actress currently living in Sydney who kindly sent me a list via email. Perhaps you might see her on a stage sometime (or if not, skirting through rainstorms or remembering Elizabethan-era monologues while preparing Marmite on Challah).

Will Bond

Bruschetta
I made it twice this week – once because we had company and again because I made it so well the first time. It’s not anything new, but it’s one of those magical concoctions that tastes amazing, takes about five minutes to prepare and impresses guests because it looks kinda fancy. Don’t cheap out - use good parmesan and it becomes a revelation.

Diet Coke
From the lower end of the culinary scale, there’s times where approximately 20% of my body weight is this mysterious black drink. Usually on Saturdays.

Ghostface Killah
“Catch the blast of a hype verse, my glock burst, leave in a hearse, I did worse” – the first lines of the opening track from Wu Tang’s classic 1993 album 36 Chambers came from Ghostface and since then he hasn’t stopped. There’s always at least one album of his on my iPod, usually a couple. 15 years on and he’s prolific – three albums in the last 18 months. Who does that?

Vans
I had a brief flirtation with fancy sneakers but then came to my senses. Vans Half Cabs and Chukkas are doing it for me now - they’re simple and comfortable.

Japan
I don't think I'm the first list-contributor to nominate this country. I’m going back to Japan with my girl in October. After my first visit last year I just dream of being there. The people, the food (especially the food), the shopping, the all-you-can-drink karaoke – it’s amazing.

Will Bond has a heatseeking ability to find the most judicious beats for your dancefloor. You can check out his bullseye musical precision when he runs Favela Rock. You can also get all mouseclicky with the Opulent magazine blog where Will tracks his thoughts on everything from R Kelly to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Menu-wise, he's also managed to conquer gozleme, tapas and vegan cheesecake, which is pretty impressive.

Beth Taylor

Bread tags
They restore my faith in humanity on a daily basis: they're equal parts beauty and functionality. In an attempt to pay homage to them, I've made jewellery, cards, CD covers, magnets and wedding invitations with them. My latest project was to see if I could gather together a calendar year's worth of the suckers, but sadly I've got six missing dates. Grrrr! If they ever stop making them at least I will have my collection to comfort me.

This American Life
My partner Jeff had been telling me how much I'd like the weekly radio show This American Life for years and a few months ago I finally discovered what he was on about. Their funny, touching, fascinating stories on varied themes make me feel in touch with the world in a way I'd never expected. My favourite stories include the tale of the truth-challenged man behind cryonics, Jerry Springer's surprising life before TV and the unbelievable goings-on in the Rubber Room of the New York City Board of Education building (purgatory for teachers who are suspected of having done wrong). You can download podcasts of their episodes free for the week after they broadcast.



Blurb
We just made a book from photos we took while we were travelling last year and now I'm seriously hooked! This site allows you to make 'profesh' looking books of photos, blog posts, recipes etc.



Drying washing on the line
Hanging out the washing is the closest I get to a meditative state. I find it's the best mind de-clutterer. We've just come back from living in Vancouver, Canada, where they don't even bother having outdoor washing lines because rain is such a permanent fixture. I can't get over how good it is to be able to dry washing on the line back here, even in the middle of winter!

Sydney
It's funny how I had reduced Sydney down to its stereotypes while we were away: the Harbour Bridge, shiny buildings, traffic congestion... Now that we're back I'm seeing the city with a fresh appreciation: ABC 702 AM radio, winter sunshine, Sydney Biennale, Underbelly Arts Festival, seeing people you know walking down the street, public transport that's not as bad as I remembered it, reformed licensing laws for live music and my favourite chow-down haunts: Sea Bay, Bodhi yum cha and Alfalfa House.

Beth Taylor is someone who could give you a real long answer if you innocently asked her at a party, "what do you do?"

She's an award-winning filmmaker who has made documentaries on everything from playground swings to the everyday impact of terrorism to missing out on motherhood. She is also a crucial instrument-juggling member of The Desks when they play live. She makes jewellery out of bread tags and makes wry, original and warming comments about ordinary things no one has ever noticed before. In front of her camera, she turns things that normally disappear into background wallpaper of everyday life and makes them stand out in a beautiful way (as you can see from her photos above).

Jessica Sutton

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Dare I call this my favourite book? Regardless, it’s one of very few I have re-read and happens to be the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner. The story is set in 1930s New York, following the lives of two young Jewish cousins as they create a comic book empire. A beautiful plot, at times heartbreaking, a must read for comic book fans, artists and lovers of contemporary American fiction.

Print Gocco
‘Gocco (プリントゴッコ, Purinto Gokko, "Print Gocco") is a self-contained compact color printing system invented in 1977 by Noboru Hayama. Gocco became immensely popular in Japan and it is estimated that one-third of Japanese households own a Print Gocco system.’ - www.wikipedia.org.
I use mine to print business cards, postcards, and tags for my business, but you can use it for pretty much anything. It’s my own personal screenprinting lab in a box and I love it and you can’t have it.

Copic Markers
Another Japanese favourite of mine. They are my alternative to the now defunct Pantone colour system and come in 322 colours. They’ll cost you though, I can only afford one a week. Really great for design work, comics or just colouring in. The reason they are awesome is they don’t go all streaky and gross on paper, rather making a nice area of flat colour.

Pipsqueak Cider by Little Creatures Brewery
I really just love cider, it’s like a grown up apple juice. Pipsqueak is made from locally sourced apples, and I first noticed it because of the name. Very light and not too sweet. Best of all, no one will know you’re not drinking beer.

Papercraft
I am really excited about trend in design towards a more cut paper aesthetic. Design is moving away from being all done on computer and now incorporates paper, 3D collage and sculpture. I have been coveting a book called TACTILE – High Touch Visuals, which is all about this change. I’ve started designing without using Photoshop at all!

Jessica Sutton came up with Crafternoon one cold Canadian winter (are there any other kind?) in 2005, when the Sydneysider was whiling away in Northern Alberta. First off there were sock puppets, vinyl pencil cases and wallets, now Crafternoon’s ever-growing menagerie includes a large range of none-too-rowdy creatures and colourful things. Like those Canadian snowflakes, no two items are the same. Most are made of recycled fabric and pre-loved clothing.

Jessica has also teamed up with Sydney fashion retailer Incu, the Red Door Gallery in Edinburgh, UK, and is currently working on an exciting exhibition for a new gallery opening in Brooklyn, NY, later this year. I hope it involves cool markers and paper art.

James d'Apice (Peach)

My fiancée
I’m engaged. Yeah, being engaged is great. You’re single? Ooooh, sucks for you. You’ve probably got lots of other fulfilling interests though, right? Really, deeply fulfilling ones? Interests that tuck you in at night and tell you everything’s going to be alright? Interests that bake you cookies just to say, “I’m thinking of you”? Being engaged is great.*

* = most engaged people are smug caricatures. I’m one of them. Sorry.

Tripe and spicy beef wonton soup noodles from Happy Chef in Sussex St, Chinatown
It’s true: tripe is land seafood. Seafood on land! It has a subtle (slightly poo-ey) flavour combined with a challenging, mouth-filling chew. Seriously, tripe is basically octopus; just cheaper. And what better way to enjoy it than in a soup this perfect? I once went to a Happy Chef that was not the one in the Sussex Street food court and the soup was not as good. Nor were the portions as generous.

I have mine with egg noodles. It’s called “number eighteen, with egg noodles (please)”.

Saggy Greens
I play cricket for the Saggy Greens. Last season – for the whole season – I scored no runs, took no wickets, bowled no overs, effected no run outs, and took no catches. I still got to go to the end of season dinner, though. In our team we have (awesome) photographers, (awesome) IT people (whose job I don’t fully understand), (awesome) artists, rappers (one awesome and one OK), people who work for Macquarie Bank (doing something), music teachers, and more. We’re like the United Colours of Bennetton, career-wise. Sometimes we win games. Then, we drink. Sometimes we lose. We don’t always drink then; we tend to just go home. When we draw, we also drink.

My longneck stubby holder
I’ve always wanted one. I now have one. I bought it from Liquorland in Erina Fair on the Central Coast of New South Wales for two dollars and ninety-five cents (Australian). Drinking longnecks at a party out of a stubby holder makes you feel pretty staunch. I would know, for I have a longneck stubby holder. People sometimes say, “hey that’s pretty cool.” I nod in reply. It is pretty cool.

Large, dark, skim hot chocolates from the Lindt Café
Although they recently changed their loyalty ‘stamp card’ reward, I still regularly get a hot chocolate from the Lindt Cafe. The old reward was two small chocolates (cost: one dollar each). The new reward is one ‘Delice’ macaroon (cost: one dollar and ninety-five cents each). Despite the comparable monetary value, I preferred getting two small chocolates.

I accumulate loyalty ‘stamp card’ points fairly quickly as I work nearby. My job is kind of like a ‘hyper junior’ solicitor (I’m not a real solicitor until I finish this totally pissweak course and am admitted) so – because there’s nothing on the line – I can just wander off sometimes. Also: I get ‘orders’ from my colleagues for coffees and hot chocolates. This helps me accumulate loyalty ‘stamp card’ points even faster.

I drink skim milk because I’m 19% body fat. I drink dark chocolate because it tastes better.

James/Peach is a battle-winning MC who also happens to have a law degree and a love of food and manly drinks like port. I love that he drops rhymes about his grill pan and the killer combination that is popcorn and cola. He used to co-host Arvos with Shag and now the airwaves feel less sharp, funny and memorable without him. He's collaborated with Mailer Daemon and Catcall and has a cloud-rumbling baritone that is kinda serious, kind and bad-ass at the same time.

Jonathan Vandenberg

Lie Down in the Light, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Another grower from the king of alt.alt.country. See him live if you get the chance.

Campos Coffee
I recommend going to A Little on the Side to get it, the barista is great and the wait is non-existent.

Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins
Bourke Street Bakery's perfect end to an early morning bike ride.
633 Bourke St, Surry Hills 2010 NSW (02) 9699 1011

Bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com
The snob rips apart cycle culture every weekday morning. Bitterness served with a side of goose cheese.

Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History, Lucien X. Polstron.
The author's name borders on the ludicrous, but he knows his stuff about the great information depositories of yore.

Jonathan Vandenberg is mega-savvy when it books, food and the very blokey film Glengarry Glen Ross. He's the sort of guy who can convince you that a book that you think you hate is actually worth reconsidering (and then turns out to be totally right! Cf. And Then We Came To The End.) He also makes a mean midnight crepe and wants David Bazan to come to Australia.

David Nichols

Old newspapers from the Yorke Peninsula
Yorke Peninsula is one of South Australia’s tendrils, a couple of hours from Adelaide before you’re in the heart of it, if it has a heart. Don’t confuse it with Cape York Peninsula. Known a hundred years ago as the Cornwall of the south or similar (because, like Cornwall, it was a mining hub and, also like Cornwall, it had a lot of Cornish people in it, drawn by the mining). I have only been there the once and it was golden, sturdy, sparse and clear, Edithburgh a tiny former port town, Port Victoria tinier and also a former port town.

Old newspapers – I’ve been reading them from the early 1920s and the mid-1940s – from Yorke Peninsula reveal hidden ethnic tensions (it has/had SA’s biggest German population after the Barossa, and this is clearly a subject of interest in the area given various European conflicts), secret scandals, beauty contests, ugly man contests (no joke), wheat and rye prices, civic pride debates, lavatory installation plans, news about new ceilings in reading rooms, and it altogether helps unlock my fascination with self-contained rural pasts in a nation forging its own defined character in the modern world.

Lapsang Souchon
Something about this tea is addictive, probably not the caffeine. I did not drink it for about thirty years after consuming some (with milk, ugh) at the age of roughly 12. Then a compulsion came upon me and I can’t resist. It is far greater than ordinary tea. It is also the one boxed tea bag in the commercially available supermarket range that is often missing, presumably because it is a minority interest (i.e. not because there’s a huge demand). I can’t say this adds to its appeal – in fact it encourages me to try and find another type of tea I like as much, but there doesn’t seem to be one.

The work of artist Mia Schoen
If I ever make it into the history books it will be as a kind of Alice B. Toklas figure to the artist Mia Schoen, whose landscapes – usually in oils – are often intricate, direct and stunning. The artist Mia Schoen works all night on these pictures and, at time of writing, her most recent is a large scale portrait of a half-complete office (?) building at Melbourne’s Docklands. It’s both beautiful and terrifying, like a raging storm.

Kung Fu Panda
I immediately added this to my list of favourite films in between It Happened One Night and some Mike Leigh or other. Mainly because it looks so unbelievably vivid and positively writhes on the big screen. This is Hollywood’s grumpy answer to the concept of content delivery on mobile phone screens: there is so much going on here that it’s a whole world in itself. A world called ‘China’, which I admit is slightly problematic – would I be as accepting of a comparable film set in Australia and filled with the roof with stereotypes, probably not, but that aside, what an epic.

Ginger
So versatile, and it stops you getting nauseous when you travel = magic.

There's that line in The Catcher in The Rye about how good books make you want to ring up the author to talk about it. If you can't get through to the writer, David Nichols is who you want - he can strike up an amazing, surprising conversation with about a good bundle of pages. He also is very spot on with finding books you might like (which, of course, are so quickly adopted as your own favourites that they feel like they were your own self-discoveries). He has written a biography of The Go-Betweens, lots of zines and articles for many magazines. I used to buy The Big Issue just for his column, which sadly ain't in the mag anymore. One day, I hope he resurrects his memoir about writing for 1980s teen mags like Smash Hits, because what I read was so funny and please-can-I-have-some-more-ish. He has also been in lots of Melbourne bands and is an academic too.

Jon Dale

Solo Soli IIIII, Scratch Pet Land
Fantastic set of toy-tronics from the Badoux brothers (who later split into DJ Elephant Power and Sun OK Papi K.O.). As with most Sonig music, it stays within the boundaries of childlike/pleasure-some, as opposed to childish/irritating. Attention to recording materials and process actually reminds me quite a bit of musique concrete, too.

Beyond The Dream Syndicate: Tony Conrad And The Arts After Cage, Branden Wayne Joseph
Excellently written exposition of Conrad's 'position' on the arts. Particularly good sections on the politics of Henry Flynt, etc. and the use of Foucault (genealogy) and Deleuze & Guattari (minor literature) feels relevant, not over-egged. A nice reminder of Conrad's drive to put the cad back into academic. Now I have to read Joseph's book on Anthony McCall.

Optical Sound Films 1971-2007 DVD, Guy Sherwin
I very much appreciate the internal fortitude and singlemindedness of Sherwin's approach to film, his obsession with 'light and time', the fundamentals of the filmic. Works like 'Cycles' are so brutally mainlined.

An Optimist Notes The Dusk, David Grubbs
Due out in September, I've been lucky enough to score a sneak preview, it's his best since The Thicket, I think. David's voice in full bloom and the compositions beautifully spare; there's a new surety to his songwriting. Very good.

Art & Language: various publications
Flicking through these for my research, I'm constantly astounded and impressed by the rigour of the approach, and the great, wily sense of humour behind a lot of the writing. How can you not find Terry Atkinson, Mel Ramsden, Ian Burn etc hilarious? And, typical of the best humour, the work's as serious as your life.

The first time I ever read anything by Jon Dale, it was a review of a ZZ Top concert for a music zine. It was funny, smart and captured that musical crime scene in hyper-vivid detail. All those qualities still fire up his writing - a rarity in the bloated world of music press. He's written for lots of mags, such as The Wire and Uncut and currently is keeping the academic world on its toes.

Paul Youdell (Cannonball Bob)

The saxophone-playing busker in The Rocks
At Circular Quay near the MCA, there is this awesome bald, black sax player with gold headphones and backing tape. I got misty eyed when he played Careless Whisper on Wednesday. To date his crowning glory, hands down, has been his stirring rendition of Love, Thy Will Be Done. Yo.

Microcastle, Deerhunter
New Deerhunter album got leaked on the internet. It's actually out in September. It's "OK Computer good" and the best thing I have heard since My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. If you don't agree, we can't be friends. I like MBV a lot. See you in New York!

Tuff Turf
As in, the 80s film with James Spader and the drumstick-spinning Robert Downey Jr. Unintentionally hilarious is the standout scene: Spader and Co. crash a poncy preppy country club for a free lunch. What better way to seduce the rival gang leader's GF? Serenade her with some piano magic. He gets the girl. She had waist-long crimped hair. Entirely Justified. Word.

Goldfish
Just bought two. Their names change daily for my personal amusement. I enjoy changing their water and feeding them in a Betty Ford 12-step plan kinda way. They are my children. They are my friends. Currently titled Hall & Oates. Previous names have included Smith & Wesson/Riggs & Murtaugh.

Shane Skillz
He swears. He swears a lot. He's a rapper from Broadmeadows. I don't know if it's "for real" but it sure is funny. Remember when you'd go to the type of birthday parties where you'd watch Police Academy and laugh so hard Fanta would come out your nose? Shane Skillz is that good.

Paul Youdell (aka Cannonball Bob) plays groundshaking and window-rattling bass in Sydney trio Skullsquadron. If your feet aren't fuzzed out from floorboard pins-and-needles at their concerts, then he's not playing loud enough. They have an album coming out "sometime late 2008".

Mark Drew

Cafe Ish
Excellent coffee and menu, excellent people. Plus I have two paintings hanging in there right now.
Shop 2, 102 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW (02) 9281 1688.

Japan
36° north of the equator. Love it. Miss the convenience.

Print Gocco: Toy screenprinting kit
Analogue technology and painless process makes me the happiest. Perfect addition to any zine workshop.

Old 'Peanuts' books
Man's inhumanity to man - Charlie Brown tells it like it is.

Twin Peaks
I wasn't interested in the TV show the first time round, but just
getting stuck into the DVDs. Finally I get Homer Simpson's reference!

Mark Drew is a zine magnate, whose stapled projects include Long Story Short (with Beccy Joe Stuart), My Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades (with Tristan Serps) and several miniature zines of screen shots from 80s films that slug you with a huge bout of nostalgia. He also runs China Heights gallery, which got so popular it had to move to a new address: 257 Crown Street, Darlinghurst NSW.

Natasha Ley

Adriano Zumbo Patissier
I was a bit slow in discovering this place, it opened last November, but since I have I can’t stay away. I was in there on the weekend buying little pistachio macaroons to take to a dinner party and a girl walked in with a group of friends just to food perv. Each delicious morsel in there is a little work of art!
296 Darling St, Balmain NSW (02) 9810 7318,
adrianozumbo.com

City Walks: Paris, 50 Adventures on Foot by Christina Henry de Tessan
I’m planning a trip to France and a friend gave me this cute little set of 50 cards, with detailed maps of Paris on one side and a list of restaurants, shops and sites to visit on the other. Much more chic than trying to look at a big folded map and looking like a tourist… Etes-vous d'accord?

Ben Quilty
I absolutely love Ben Quilty’s textured artworks. There is an amazing fashion shoot photographed in his art studio in the current issue of Vogue. I think his artworks (in the background behind the models), steal the show (sorry Vogue!) It’s a beautiful shoot and reminded me of how much I love Ben’s paintings. Apparently he has an exhibition coming up at the Grant Pirrie Gallery in Redfern on the 6th August.

Basement Books
Last week I bought Neil Perry’s The Food I Love for $36.95 rather than RRP$85. This book shop has lots of bargains.
Shop 1, Henry Deane Plaza, 2 Lee Street, Haymarket NSW (02) 9211 7726, www.basementbooks.com.au

Neil Perry’s Cinnamon-Scented Middle Eastern Lamb (see above)
Delicious. For me this winter, it’s all about Middle Eastern food.

Burt’s Bees 'Almond Milk Beeswax' Hand Creme
This creme is beautiful, thick and smells amazing.

Natasha Ley is Deputy Art Director of Sunday magazine and previously worked on Inside Out and Australian Gourmet Traveller. She is a generous foodie who has the combined knowledge of every volume on your cookbook shelf and is able to convey it without Gordon Ramsay's swear record (in fact, her delivery is much warmer and gentler). She once swam out to sea - under a sky of pounding rain - to rescue some antique buoys that had blown away in the wind and had to returned after a very wet and gale-like photo shoot.

Matthew Levinson

I've been in a bit of a USA bubble the past month or so. So you'll have to take my apologies in advance for a very States-centric list. I love the idea of lists by the way. I grew up with music magazine Top 10s, Nick Hornby; god, even The Commitments. And I was just reading about Amazon's Listmania, which is weirdly terrific.

Grace Paley
I'm a short story fanatic. I guess I love how Raymond Carver, Chekhov and the rest pack so much into so few pages. Fire your imagination, leave you guessing. Grace Paley is much more personal than those guys. Less bleak, still very real. She described herself as a "cooperative anarchist", which I like. Art was too long, and life was too short, she said. She wrote only four slim books in 50 years.

Eduardo Sarabia
I saw Sarabia's work at Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement, a show at the Hammer museum in LA. I'd never seen his paintings before. 'Painted Memories', 'Tainted Memories', and 'Tetris King and Queen of the Monarch Butterflies' - the paintings I saw - are beautifully rendered landscapes or portraits that he's daubed with big smudges, splashes of colour that obscure or completely deface the subjects. You'd expect that to be a kind of Sex Pistols-esque nullification, but instead it charges the canvas with life. Truly fantastic.

The New Yorker magazine
I'm in love with NYC. There, I said it. And being able to get The New Yorker from the newstand for a decent price, the week it's published, and peruse its listings with the possibility of getting to the gigs, book readings, performances - so great. I like The Monthly - Australia's answer to The New Yorker - and I've especially been enjoying Alice Pung's sketches, but it's not quite the same. Maybe because Robert Manne's pieces get on my nerves.

Kings Lane Sandwiches
Best chicken sandwiches in Sydney. Not much else to say. Kings Lane Sandwiches, 28 Kings Lane, Darlinghurst NSW (02) 9360 8007.

City of Sound
Dan Hill blogs on his two fascinations: music and urban design, though it's weighted to the latter. He was design boss at Monocle, and before that the BBC; he's now with urban developers/consultants Arup. For someone with that kind of CV, he devotes a lot of time to blogging. His posts are well-researched, informative and extremely informed, packed with ideas, and fascinating to read. Recent favourites include long pieces on 'seamfulness' in train ticketing, music scenes unlocking the dynamics of broader creative shifts and the Sydney record shop Title.

Matt Levinson is a blogger, writer, radio presenter, DJ, perfect dinner guest and all-round thoughtful person. He hosts Canvas on FBI 94.5FM in Sydney and has a very funny story about scaling mountains in Japan.

Alana Adye

1. Failure baking.
You know when everything just seems to be a bit wrong? And then you can't sleep and that makes things that little bit worse? Baking challenging new things at odd hours - 'failure baking' - has curative properties for me.

2. Eating apples.
They're in season and, really, could there ever be anything better than a crisp apple at some inappropriate hour of the morning when you've had a beverage or two, but are still far from bed? Carry an apple in your bag and you're sorted.

3. Downloading MoMA audio
New York is far away, but MoMA hosts great guest speakers. The lovely internet brings some of this arty excitement to my waiting ears at the click of a mouse.

4. Browsing Craigslist (New York)
I've been told that it's one of the better ways to find a place to live in NYC, but really I just love reading the often hilarious descriptions ("I have ten cats. Don't bother if you don't like cats. Seriously." etc) that accompany the vacancy posts.

5. Listening to Shag's playlists
My friend works in radio and has cultivated the wonderful habit of compiling playlists of songs he's currently enamoured with. Listening 'Shag's picks' never fails to have a positive effect on my emotional wellbeing (thanks Shag!).

Alana Adye can bake her way out of a bad situation and has enough cinema-savvy to shame the most screen-glued critic. In fact, she's off to New York later this year to buff up her film knowledge even more. (Another smartie lost from Sydney, sadly.)

Beccy Joe Stuart

1. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
The best book I have read in recent memory. Written in the first person about a country girl's experience in a posh boarding school, her awkwardness and self-consciousness from that age I can completely relate to. The realness of it kills me.

2. John Henry - the van I live in
It's a 1984 Chevy camper van in various tones of brown. Featuring stove, fridge, sink and seats that convert to bed. Cramped but comfortable. Very loveable. Only fits what you need. Takes you anywhere you wanna go. Here's to mobile homes and life on the road.

3. Kentucky - the state
I love Kentucky for the bluegrass music and the horses and the friendly southern hospitality. And the fireflies at night. And the Appalachian mountains. It's dreamy.

4. BJ, my husband.
Can I say that? Sigh. I love him so much!
He's so good at directions and so easy to get along with. I'm so happy to be married to him.

ALTERNATIVELY

4. American micro-brew beers
All over the U.S. and Canada, you can get locally made "micro-brew" beers. They're local and cheap and seem to transcend the ugly beer culture created by big corporate beer brands etc. I was never a beer drinker until I discovered these. They have all kinds of flavours, my favourite so far is a Honey Lager from St Louis. I find them very drinkable and they often have beautiful labels.

5. The Dry Branch Fire Squad
This is the band we saw at the bluegrass festival we went to on the weekend. The lead guy sings beautifully and tells long rambling funny stories between songs about growing up poor and the horses he's loved. They've been around for over 30 years... We've been listening to the CD in the car.

Beccy Joe Stuart is currently in Kentucky, driving around in a van that shares a name with an American folk hero. She owns seven versions of the traditional folk song, In The Pines, and recently put out a zine called Note To Husband. She even has a blog, currently only available in one version (although lots of singers might release their own cover of it one day).

James Gulliver Hancock

No One Belongs Here More Than You: stories by Miranda July
Miranda July is so great, I think I'm in love with her. I saw her at an opening in LA and almost died with shock. And these little stories of hers change your life - incredible!

Bottino NYC
Amazingly relaxed and relatively inexpensive, Bottino does everything just how I would, but better. Great for after the gallery openings in Chelsea.

It's Nice That blog
This blog has a great collection of stuff all the time, I was featured on here too!

Charles and Ray Eames
Famous for their chairs, Charles and Ray Eames are a creative duo who made everything from films to houses to mobiles. They had an awesomely varied career.

The recent New Yorker letter written by Haruki Murakami
This article was about how the Japanese author got into writing, changing from running a small jazz club in Japan. He describes his personality and its growth so well.

James Gulliver Hancock has created countless images that will blitz your visual cortex - from the beautifully whimsical cover for Darren Hanlon's last album to publications for Herman Miller to eye-stunning animation clips for Josh Pyke. An Australian artist currently based in LA, his latest work can be seen here.