Why does the word eclectic get bandied around so much? Does everything that’s even slightly diverse have to be considered eclectic? In light of this we can’t use that word to describe Tropical Hot Dog Night. But then THDN is more than just one word, it’s actually quite a few words strung together which makes a welcome change from your average music blog. One of the more welcomed changes is the seriously wide range of music dutifully recorded from vinyl so dusty you can almost smell it. God knows whose parents’ record collections these guys have been tapping into.

With posts ranging from 50s swing to acid house with any manner of post-punk, italo, krautrock, Detroit techno and left-field disco in between THDN is as ahead of the game as it is behind it.

By Gabriel Knowels

Format: Online

Motivation: Improve your dinner conversation

Keywords: Online, Music

Noise music can be one of the most divisive little buggers out there and there can be an extremely fine line self between exploration and outright self indulgence. And so it is with great joy to announce that the F*ck Buttons have produced an album that explores beauty and aggression equally, minus the boring bits. Brits, Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power, have combined the use of gentle melody and rhythm to contradict oscillating static and distortion to mesmerising effect.

Simple yet engaging note progressions, sometimes delivered by organ, are repeated allowing for body and structure to become apparent through the static fizz. The compositions are long but never tedious; sporadic changes of melody shift the albums tension and allows the listener to be kept guessing. It makes for an invigorating approach

* We feel pretty lame having to include the asterisk in this band's title. We know we look like twatty prudes. We're just protecting ourselves from getting busted by the spam police. We swear heaps when we're offline, promise.

By Keiran O'Shea

Release: Album

To Cure: Hypertension

Keywords: Noise, ATP Recordings

There are only a handful of cities around the world that popular culture won’t stop mythologising. Yes, this is yet another film about Paris – but after an opening that looks like a slick travel infotainment show, a TV host asks “Who is Paris?” and immediately flubs his lines.

In Paris, a charming French bakery is a site of casual, everyday racism. A secret admirer comes across as a creepy obsessive. The film enjoys gently toying with the expected ooh la la clichés epitomised by the recent example of postcard-porn, Paris Je T’aime.

It has a large cast of characters and while their stories interconnect, they do so painlessly, without the groan-inducing “Hey, the girl from that scene is now in this scene!” that’s plagued indie-films for far too long. Juliette Binoche gets to subvert a typical striptease sequence, and Fabrice Luchini stands out as a history professor who’s caught in suitably Parisian midlife crisis.

If your bottom lip is quivering at the possibility of Paris shattering your romantic illusions, don’t worry. It ends up celebrating just as many clichés as it’s taken apart.

By Martyn Pedler

Format: Cinema

Mood: Whimsical

Keywords: Cedric Klapisch, France

The creator of dani m designs, unsurprisingly a designer called Dani M (see what she did with the lowercase letters!), has created a niche in the so-delicate-you-could-eat-them jewellery market. Simple pieces in triangles and squares, in the softest gelato colours, are likely to be mistaken for marshmallows or some other confectionary goodness. A health warning: these pretty pieces of perfection are not edible, but do out-class any other ‘food-themed’ jewellery you might have lying around. Cherry earrings anyone? Froot Loop necklaces? Cheetos rings? You know you’ve been there.

By Rude Law

Product: Accessories

Theft: Theft is a risk

Keywords: Jewellery

The mid-fifties were great for drive-in cinemas, beat poets and swing dancing. But the victims of the Cold War and Soviet Union vs America space-race weren’t so lucky to revel in the PEZ-fuelled, post-World War frivolity of the fifties. Soviet Union scientists were hooked on the idea that living organisms could survive in space. So, to prove this hypothesis right, they shot out a K-9 into orbit with fingers crossed it would survive. It didn’t. But that didn’t stop them from trying again.

Orbit Oblique is a typography exhibition dedicated to the monkeys, dogs, cats, rats, frogs, worms, fish, spiders and fruit flies launched into space to test future conditions for mankind. Expect illuminated billboards of belly-rattling statistics and the launch of new typeface, Bisque. It’s nice that even though most of those unwilling participants for space research were left up there, some of us haven’t forgotten about them down here.

By Isabel Dunstan

Medium: Design

Drink: Anything, as long as you look good holding it

Keywords: Typography, Craft Victoria

The perfect gift for your loved one this winter can be found at Toddy's new online store. Our pick: their one-piece tartan long johns. Don't pull a muscle figuring out since when long johns were attractive. They can. Read on.

Receiving international support from the disturbingly frumpy Teletubbies, Toddy's non-threatening unisex nightwear adds a new dimension to your winter wardrobe. With various designs featuring butt-flaps (a la Stimpy's nightwear), hoods and long sleeves, these garments are not only practical, they're comfortable without making you actually look like Po.

Other products stocked by the Toddy online store include: singlets, boxer shorts, dresses, leggings and cardigans. So, get your tartan on, suit up and pop some corn - this winter it's all about wanting to emulate the good looking kids pictured here.

By Robbie Coleman

Product: Fashion

Anatomy: Whole body

Keywords: Pyjamas

If you've ever taken a clichéd photo of, say, yourself on a camel in front of the Giza Pyramids or clouds out the window of an aeroplane, you might want to have a look at Many Same - because there's a good chance your photo could be reuniting with its lost brethren.

An archive of universal sameness, Many Same's creator Tim Anderson has probed the far corners of the Internet to find pieces of the same puzzle and has presented it in one mass collection of images, isolated from their original context. It’s through this form of representation that a photograph of your sister jumping on the bed, which symbolised some pivotal moment in your adolescence, loses all inherent significance in place of a broader thematic emphasis.

An online art project such as this has only become possible through the brave dissemination of personal images by Internet users around the globe, so if you want a piece of your life to become part of a larger microcosm of cultural meaning, then get involved and contribute. The photo of your cat in a cardboard box could soon find scores of other feline friends to play with.

By Sophie Gaston

Ambience: Indoor

Difficulty: Won't hurt a bit

Keywords: Online, Photography

Previous occupant The Hideout was a funky, over-priced café that went out of fashion years ago, like nachos, wedges and the word funky. This gave way to Bungalow 8, a café you've never heard of because no one ever went there. Once, when nature called at an inconvenient moment, I went into the empty establishment, asked to use their facilities and was told it was for customers only. "Which customers?" I thought to myself while walking out, wishing of course that I had have said it out loud. "How do places like this stay in business?" I complained to a friend. Thankfully, the answer is, they don't.

Enter St Jude's Cellars, a big n' beautiful establishment that has instantly raised the bar. No longer will Fitzroy foodies have to venture into the city for culinary gratification now that four weeks dry aged grain fed boneless ribeye is just around the corner. Alternatively, if you prefer to spend $30 on two cocktails rather than venison with orange & ginger compote, the white tiled bar is as fine a spot as any for a drink.

It's just what Brunswick Street needed, and it's certainly long overdue... Now, when the hell is Ministry of Style going to close??

By Matt Hurst

Venue: Restaurant

Meal: Dinner

Keywords: Fitzroy, Bar

Description:
It's time to get out your Horse and Hound magazines because it's Open Season at Milly Sleeping, with a stockroom sale so massive you'll need all the tartan equestrian jackets you can muster to brave this one. For the first time, the back half of this Carlton favourite is opening its doors to reveal its veritable treasures, with clothes and accessories from a select array of local established and experimental designers. Temporarily moving offsite from the Elgin Street store to a nomadic home in Fitzroy, there are easy pickings to be had here, with tees starting at only $25. While the Brits may enjoy watching a psyched-up fox maul a protesting pheasant, we're much more partial to a spot of bargain hunting instead.

By Sophie Gaston

Event: Sales

Stimulus: sound the horns!

Keywords: Milly Sleeping

Description:
Curvy is up to her fifth issue now and the all-lady publication dedicated to female illustrators worldwide launches at Don’t Come this Thursday. The YEN clan curated, designed and published this baby and the attention to detail and focus on genuine talent proves that. Sorry, people, but this launch is invitation only. But we have a double pass to give away. Remember, though, that heading out to purchase Curvy 5 requires no invitation whatsoever.

By Isabel Dunstan

Event: Launch

Stimulus: sound the horns!

Keywords: Don't Come, Illustration, YEN

Description:
You’d think after four months trapped in the bowels of a studio the boys of Temper Trap have emerged with knuckles dragging along the ground, bulbous sores, knotted beards, and a dialect of unintelligible utterances. Lo and behold, they’re walking upright and performing at The Tote this week. And if you’ve had that single of theirs, ‘My Sun’, on such a high rotation that even your iTunes is groaning, they’ll be performing songs fresh out of the music-making oven.

By Isabel Dunstan

Event: Bands

Stimulus: C

Keywords: Temper Trap, The Tote

Description:
If you were making a cake from the line-up at Roxanne this Saturday, it would probably come out tasting less Jamie Oliver and more Year 10 Home Ec, with that peculiar taste of things that aren't really supposed to go together. The Rise and Demise and Dead South are two very different bands, with very different flavours, so putting them both together in one baking tin is a bit of a risk. But it always somehow works when you add in another three cups of sugar, and this is where Downtown and their toe-tapping surfey feel comes into play. In a happy twist of fate, the Gods of baking are smiling down on Roxanne, and this cake will rise to perfection from 9pm. Oven mitts optional.

By Sophie Gaston

Event: Bands

Stimulus: S

Keywords: The Rise and Demise, The Dead South, Downtown

Description:
We don't know why they're going, but we're finally past the anger and denial stage and have moved into 'acceptance'. TROUGH Faggot Party are packing their bags and moving on, and buying a wig so that even if they came back to us, we surely wouldn't recognise them. While nights at TROUGH have certainly been messy, or sticky, or both, it's time to leave with a bit of style, holding a casual soiree to bid farewell. Of course when TROUGH say 'casual soiree', they mean there will be dancing, there will be singing, and there will be dancing and singing from people who can neither dance nor sing. There are DJs Adam Askew and Kapitolina to bookend the night, drinks flowing from the bar, and an open mic for you to debut your best 'Rhythm of the Night' interpretation to the world. Get some inspiration here, because they expect complex dance moves and shoulder pads.

By Sophie Gaston

Event: Party

Stimulus: C

Keywords: Utopian Slumps, Trough

Description:
This one sounds like it’s just for ‘those budding scribes out there’. And, well, if you were planning to brand your name in the credits of a feature one day, you’d be a fruitcake to miss this. And while this sounds like theatre, it kind of is. Hell, Script Alive! has a very loud exclamation mark or a reason because it really should be etched into your diaries. The live reading of the screenplay One Hundred Bloody Acres by Colin and Cameron Cairnes (Thank God You’re Here) will be followed by a Q&A where you can fling praise, abuse or, if you have it, money to make the film.

By Isabel Dunstan

Event: Film

Stimulus: W

Keywords: Cinema Nova, Script Alive!