How far does your lesbigay folk memory stretch back?
Direct out of Amsterdam since 2005, the founding editors of Girls Like Us have created a wonderful contemporary--er--rag that doesn't assume the existence of a single and complete lesbian community, but unites women who love women through distinct and sophisticated design and editorially impartial content.

With crossover audiences from all walks of life, GLU is a playful antidote to vanilla representations of lesbian ‘culture' and magazines like the UK's Diva. This issue features local lifeguard/footballer Bron Richardson as photographed by our very own Mia Mala McDonald, filmmaker Maria Beatty and musician Pauline Boudry among other interesting subjects (even Julia Gillard* has contributed to Issue 7!). GLU, like many brilliant things in life, is run by the small team of Kathrin Hero and Jessica Gysel and is a million times more engaging than this review.

*not actually the deputy Prime Minister, but rather, someone with the same name.

By Kirsten Law

Format: Magazine

Motivation: Pimp your coffee table

Keywords: Magazine, Gay/Lesbian

M83's Anthony Gonzalez pulls back the blinds a little on his new album, Saturdays=Youth by lightening his characteristic, night-drenched synthesizer peals with a new summer-death-pop sensibility. Veering weirdly between Beverley Hills 90210 type bathos - complete with masochistic school-girl diary readings - and heavier, 12"-length instrumental moody bits. It's a precocious record executed in inimitable French style and every bit as smoothly futurist as fellow countrymen Jackson and Colder. Completely gothic in its excessive styling, the record goes for ultimate teenage mindwreck delights of anxiety, guilt and despair.

Singles 'Kim & Jessie' and 'Graveyard Girl' sound like extras from the 'Lost in Translation' soundtrack - doing that timely, synthesizer shoegaze thing making it perfect for TV. They're almost repelling, but just right - and significantly tempered by better companion tracks, 'Skin of the Night', 'We Own The Sky' and 'Dark Moves of Love'. These moments are killing hybrids of Depeche Mode, Kate Bush and newer club darkwave from The Hague, or something. New bandmate Morgan Kibby's voice is everywhere - keeling through Gonzalez's own mordant delivery, Cure-y guitar sobs and Tears for Fears synth bombast with lines like, 'She digs her nails into her naked chest' and the direct Bush-rip, 'But the hounds of love they bite our heels'.

By Mark Gomes

Release: Album

To Cure: A broken heart

Keywords: Anthony Gonzales

There seems to be an unspoken law that says every film festival must feature a new Takashi Miike film. Luckily, he churns out multiple features a year without a care for genre, taste, or traditional three-act structure. This unpredictable output ensures he has his share of misses, but when he hits, he hits hard.

Highlights include 1999’s Audition, which starts as a bland romantic comedy and then, half way through, transforms into something, uh, not for the faint-hearted. (Again, and in bold: not for the faint-hearted.) And 2000’s Dead or Alive is an uber-Yakuza flick – with a must-see first ten minutes – that pushes the envelope of excess to until the logic of the genre falls apart.

Now 2003’s Gozu has finally arrived on DVD, and it’s synopsis-proof. It starts as a quirky gangster film, but quickly shifts into a Lynch-like dream. Conceptual slapstick sits next to body-horror birth sequences. There’s a drooling minotaur, too, and…

You should probably just watch it for yourself. Miike admits it’s only normal things that bother him: “They disturb me more than the violence.”

By Martyn Pedler

Format: DVD

Mood: Make a therapy appointment now

Keywords: Siren Visual, Takashi Miike

Buying a T-shirt is kind of like choosing a pizza base. Stay with me now. Imagine yourself walking up to the local pizza store. You're hungry, damn hungry and you want something basic, but something that can (if necessary) also handle the toppings you crave such as peppers, aubergine and the perfect jeans, ahem, sorry sauce. Far away from the Pizza Hut end of the spectrum is Bassike, a label started by two girls (with a history in sartorial splendour: Ksubi, Seven, Paper Denim & Cloth) specialising in t-shirts and catering to a market lacking in great simple basics.

Bassike offers tees to make your mouth water, made from organic cottons and wearable blends of cotton, jersey and wool. These are the pieces that will support the Hawaiian toppings (chain store finds and slightly iffy vintage pieces), and are subtle yet delicious when you have a super supremeo (Ann Demeulemeester pants). And why stop there? With their latest offerings including denim and an underwear range you'd better put their number up next to your Crust menu.

By Kylie Boyd

Product: Fashion

Theft: Theft is likely

Keywords: Ann Demeulemeester

Did you ever find out you’ve got a word completely wrong? Like saying “malapropism” when you mean “melanoma”-this would be an embarrassing malapropism. Anyway, I thought “peripatetic” was a fancy way of saying “all over the shop” and if an artist was “peripatetic” they had wide ranging interests and used a broad range of materials. Like I thought Picasso was peripatetic because he sculpted and painted and wrote poems and what have you. But it turns out that peripatetic actually means someone who likes to walk around! And it comes from Aristotle, who liked to walk as he talked. What a f*%ken idiot I am!

I was thinking of this word (and it’s a cool word; say it slowly and it sounds kind of dirty) because I was sure it described Brendan Huntley, because his work is sculptural and two-dimensional and deals with a huge range of things including hair gel and claustrophobia. When Brendan’s not making art he fronts Eddie Current Suppression Ring all over the shop, right? I was convinced this word was perfect and I was going to look oh, so clever when I used it in this preview. What a f*^ken idiot.

By Dylan Rainforth

Medium: Sculpture

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

Keywords: Brendan Huntley

If only you'll only let a white labcoat-clad pseudo-pharmacist-cum-beauty-technician tell you what your skin needs, we have some ointment-related news: the cult New York beauty brand known for its pharmaceutical approach to skincare is gracing our fair Melbourne town. And despite planting their flag on the heaving hub of Chapel Street, the light-filled apothecary makes up for that.

Avocado and vitamin C lotions are bottled up in fuss-free, non-descript packages without the graphics, daring colour or fiddly font. Most impressively, their much-heralded anti-advertising policy remains with not a single promotion in 150 years. And you needn't feel a moment's guilt for picking up your Crème de Corps. This is a company with lofty ideals and plans to invest profits back into the local community. Not exactly sure how much mission work the good folk of South Yarra require, but nonetheless a worthy operation.

By Sophie Gaston

Product: Objects

Anatomy: Whole body

Keywords: Skincare, Chapel Street

Mistletone Records planted its flag by releasing a little album by Ariel Pink. For some time, House Arrest was that one album people put away entire nights for, despite critical review. Now, the powerhouse pair of the Melbourne-based record label have a cherry-picked catalogue worth throwing a party for.

This Friday The Tote and Mistletone will be hosting a vegan barbeque and a throng of bands to beef up the evening. (NB: bands will appear on stage and the lentil patties will appear on the barbeque. Everyone will ensure the two aren’t mixed up: no one likes a lentil patty that just wants to be in rock band.) Expect to see Witch Hats, Kes Band, Beaches, Embers, The Ancients and The Sun Blindness DJs Switchblade Sisters ad Shags all for a measly $15. Thank Mistletone for bringing just as much sizzle, as there is steak – both tofu fake steak and moo chew - to the table.

By Isabel Dunstan

Ambience: Indoor

Difficulty: Won't hurt a bit

Keywords: Mistletone Records, The Tote

Communal tables are fun in theory; banquets of towering cakes, stuffed pigs and candelabras have appeared in almost every given Shakespearean setting and the Hogwarts Dining Room sounds like the best place to eat Yorkshire pudding. But for most, group dining is a reminder of bitchy school camp trough-scoffing. Minlokal however, has slyly eased two massive tables into Fitzroy’s back streets. It’d take several forklifts to remove them - so play nice and try not to stare at other peoples’ eggs.

The George Street café has turned a living room-sized space into a continental playground with a European-based menu to toy with. Claypots range from a Shaksuka of eggs, tomatoes, coriander, caper paste and Labna to beans with pepperonata, coriander, pomegranate molasses and dukka. If this potential all-Flamenco, all-singing party-in-your-mouth sounds overwhelming, they do a devastatingly good bircher muesli, too.

If you’re intrigued by this Fitzroy newcomer and feel like sniffing them out, embrace the communal table action because breakfast will be worth playing nice. Who knows, there might even be some unexpected neighbourly Saludes!

By Isabel Dunstan

Venue: Café

Meal: Where everybody knows your name

Keywords: Breakfast, Fitzroy

Description:
If you’ve been watching tumbleweed roll by and hearing nothing but your own footsteps and a faraway panpipes similar to The Good, the bad and the ugly, quit feeling so maudlin. After some time away to manicure their recordings and recharge for on-stage antics, Spider Vomit grace the not-so-high-off-the-floor stage at Pony. They will thrash out their heavy blasts and roll out drum rhythms so fast even your hearing won’t keep up. And to line the stomach, True Radical Miracle, after months in hiding, emerge with the Lost Animal for their first show of 2008. Whether they were smoked out of their dens, or berated by the band police, it’s nice to have them back.

By Isabel Dunstan

Event: Bands

Stimulus: A

Description:
Having graced the full spectrum of Australian festivals this Summer with their good-time wholesome values, it's finally time to welcome Little Red's debut single 'Witchdoctor' to the airwaves. A mix of swaggering old-time rhythm and blues and hook-laden melodic rock, Little Red are unique little gem of band that deserve all the recognition that comes their way. Their music isn't afraid to be catchy, to have soul, or put four-piece harmonies back on the agenda. To celebrate the launch, Little Red are rocking out at the Corner Hotel this Thursday night, backed by Young Lovers and Oh Mercy. This is a musical-kind of chicken soup for the weary soul.

By Sophie Gaston

Event: Bands

Stimulus: sound the horns!

Keywords: Oh Mercy, Young Lovers, The Corner

Description: We can be very protective of the childhood storybooks and fantasy movies that captivated our younger days as the jaded adults that we've become. These are often held in memory with a sacred reverence, guarded fiercely against anybody who dares to question the innocence of Alice in Wonderland. Until now. In the Once Upon a Time exhibition, to mark Off the Kerb Gallery's first birthday, 16 artists have broken rank and ascribed all their adult cynicism to a reinterpretation of these childhood classics. Through mediums ranging from cardboard dioramas to photographic re-enactments, moralistic fairytales are deconstructed through a contemporary viewpoint, with wands replaced by knives, and enough sexual innuendo to leave the Mad Hatter blushing. Perhaps not for the most violently nostalgic amongst us, but for anybody who has ever suspected something more in A. A. Milne then this could prove your vindication.

By Sophie Gaston

Event: Launch

Stimulus: A

Keywords: Off the Kerb Gallery, Once Upon a Time

Description:
This baggy-panted Georgian has been touted as the “the illest DJ on the cut”, “air-tight” and bound to make you “rock with finesse.” He’s remixed Cool Kids, Blaqstarr and Steed Lord and will be presenting his show-and-tell this Saturday at Favela. And you’ll probably walk away rolling cryptic praise, too. Turning their caps simultaneously will be Gameboy/Gamegirl and by strapping on rocket packs they’ll launch their explosive EP with a title that is just way too hard to resist: Golden Ghetto Sex. To prevent the risk of awkward silences, The Apollo Kids, Ooh Ee, Mafia and Hans DC will be there, too.

By Isabel Dunstan

Event: DJs

Stimulus: E

Keywords: DJ Klever, Favela Rock, Gameboy/Gamegirl

Description: SHORT is a very special kind of colouring book, which appeals to kids and adults alike. The little tykes get to scribble to their heart's content over wonderful drawings of owls, brains with smiley-faces and other eclectic colouring templates, while their parents can stand back and remember their kids are given educational tools much cooler than they had. Their kids aren't exposed to the handy work of some of the world's most celebrated graphic artists, French illustrators and fashion designers. To celebrate this playground one-upmanship, SHORT is holding a launch party for the young and young at heart at Utopian Slumps this Sunday afternoon. Come down armed with your best crayons and watch the kiddies trump you at staying in the lines.

By Sophie Gaston

Event: Launch

Stimulus: A