Images around Shoreditch and Soho, London, courtesy of Vic Frankowski.

WHAT
ACNE PAPER

WHERE
ONLINE HERE

HOW MUCH
AROUND $48 FOR A TWO YEAR SUBSCRIPTION (4 ISSUES)

Direct from the Swedish creative super-group, issue 5 of ACNE PAPER chews the lean sinew of elegance. It’s hard to argue with a publication so generous. It sizes an ample 40x30 cm and 122 pages worth of features that don’t cut corners. In between the satisfying word count, the photography is so devastatingly beautiful you’ll forget you’re reading a magazine that cost you as much as your lunch.

Hubert De Billy and Edouard Cossy will show you the way to contentment via a flute of Pol Roger Champagne. Brian Greene lures your eye up to the simple economy of our galaxy. And Camille Bidault-Waddington teases Jarvis Cocker for wearing similar colours to her.

ACNE PAPER issue 5 can be summed up in Paulo Melim Andersson’s words: “Elegance is hybrid. It’s an orchid that looks different every time. An undefined nimbus. It’s like the stars. You dream of them, but you will never get there.” – p.72

No doubt ACNE PAPER will give you plenty to dream about.

By Isabel Dunstan

WHAT
PLUG-IN CITY EP

WHO
PLUG-IN CITY

ON
MODULAR

MYSPACE
HERE

WIN
ONE OF FIVE EPS, JUST EMAIL WIN@TWOTHOUSAND.COM.AU WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS AND THE SUBJECT 'GOODBYE STRAP-ON-COUNTY'

Pixelated palm trees blur into the background as your cherry red Lambo speeds into the sunset. That’s the scene set in the video game world of PLUG-IN CITY, the latest foot soldiers from Modular Records' ‘80s dance dance revolution.

This heaving, seething Melbourne five-piece wield slinky bass lines, squelching synths and urgent flock-of vocals. Casey Rice’s production is spot-on as always, with shimmering guitars, warm thick bass, and moody atmosphere. And while they’ve got some catchy pop hooks, the best bits on the PLUG-IN CITY EP are the occasional atonal chord change, or the off-kilter rhythm – the bits that make this more moody than MIAMI VICE.

Grab your Ray-Bans, it’s gonna be a hot summer in PLUG-IN CITY. Which kicks ass over a cold winter in Strap-on County.

By Wilfred Brandt

WHAT
THE PR

WHERE
236A RILEY ST, SURRY HILLS

WHEN
MON-WED 11AM-7PM, THUR-FRI 11AM-8PM, SAT 11AM-6PM, SUN 11AM-5PM

CONTACT
02 9211 4436

Some moments in life, however superficial, stick in your mind. One of these was in a second floor boutique in Melbourne called Marais. On the counter in this boutique there was a book, and in this book was a label called Preen. It was the start of a deconstructed love affair, an affair that lingered from silk blouse to sharp blazer, through payday to credit card debt.

Greer Warnken and Melissa Thompson understand the joy and pain of a material love. They opened the The Private Rich on Riley Street last month and filled it with rare labels such as Burfit from France, England’s Eley Kishimoto, Future Classics and Preen. Let the credit debauchery begin.

By Nadia Saccardo

WHAT
VR MORRISON: THE BLOOD AND THE BOURGEOISIE

WHERE
SULLIVAN + STRUMPF FINE ART, 44 GURNER STREET, PADDINGTON

WHEN
UNTIL NOV 11, TUES-FRI 10AM-6PM, SAT 11AM-5PM, SUN 2PM-5PM

HOW MUCH
FREE

CONTACT
SULLIVAN + STRUMPF FINE ART, 02 9331 8344

In life, there are a few things that simply go together. Peanut butter and honey. Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough. Kevin Rudd and 2007. But, as any devotee of CSI will tell you, one combination is sweeter than all the others: sex and violence.

Like beautiful road kill, it’s impossible not to drop a gear, roll down the window and gawk at broken beauty. And as an artist with a background in fashion design and stage make-up, VR Morrison understands how to bring the exquisite fascination of glamour and gore to life on canvas.

In this exhibition Morrison teams pretty perfume bottles with bird carcasses, delicate white peep-toes with wicked-looking rope and ruby-lipped babes with headless ecstasy. It’s like flicking through the pages of VOGUE and marveling at heinous secrets revealed behind the seductive smiles and long lashes. Hot.

By Jade Warne

WHAT
30 DAYS OF NIGHT

WHERE
SELECTED CINEMAS

WHEN
OPENS NOV 8

WATCH THE TRAILER
HERE

WIN
ONE OF FIVE DOUBLE PASSES, JUST EMAIL WIN@TWOTHOUSAND.COM.AU WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS AND THE SUBJECT

30 DAYS OF NIGHT is a vampire lore twisting suspense gorefest, set in the Arctic Circle in the town of Borrow during a month of darkness - with a bunch of anonymous and very hungry blood suckers.

Directed by HARD CANDY'S David Slade uses editing and teasing tight shots to create a genuinely suspenseful film. The visual style is graphic and unique, utilising a desaturated colour palette and styling that is lifted from Ben Templesmith’s original comic book drawings.

The strengths of the film are its vampires and the town. The weakness are the heroes. But in typical horror film lore you know that most of them are gonna die anyway.

Produced by Sam Raimi's film company Ghost House Pictures. Raimi claims 30 DAYS is a throw back to making films like EVIL DEAD and that is probably the best way to approach this film. It’s suspense horror with a strong dose of gore, including juicy flesh eating, bodies in sewerage grinders and g axe wielding decapitations.

Good family fun.

By Gabriel Clark

WHAT
WILLIAM GRIFFITHS

WHERE
ZAMBESI, 5 GLENMORE ROAD, PADDINGTON

HOW MUCH
FROM $55

CONTACT
03 9419 2547

Westwood and McQueen. Both are fashion visionaries, and both are mildly annoying due to their frequent reference by fashion students who think they know something we don’t.

William Griffiths however, can reference them till the kids cark it. The jewellery designer has worked with both maestros, on top of crafting a skull staff for Billy Idol, pieces for Angelina Jolie and Marilyn Manson, and films such as THE CROW and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT.

You’d expect someone with an A-list following to be swanning it in a London penthouse. But William is perfectly happy operating out of his Gertrude Street store in Melbourne. If you haven’t picked it already, his stuff is dark. It mixes the medieval, religious iconography and tattoos into highly crafted rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings. This isn’t the kind of thing you’d buy your mum. It’s powerful and a little twisted.

By Nadia Saccardo