If, for some reason, you find yourself watching Sunday's premiere of the show's second season—and frankly, we advise against it—here's who to watch for: Joe Van Moyland, who plays composer Thomas Tallis. Smart casting: In real life, he's the singer for Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, whose first album is due later this year. Imagine a British Vampire Weekend—in look and in sound—and you've got the idea. Don't believe us? Check out the video for their single "Lucio Starts Fires," below:

The City by the Lake has its share of detractors, but its supporters (30 Rock's Floyd, Drew Carey) insist in the loudest terms that "Cleveland rocks." Tomorrow night, Cleveland Institute of Art students take this sentiment literally when they band together with the "Audio Janitor" (a.k.a. London-based DJ Olive) to turn the Institute into a one-night-only nightclub, complete with a pulsing soundtrack of "urban sounds." What exactly those are we'll leave to your imagination, but it's gotta be livelier than DJ Olive's contribution to the 2008 Whitney Biennial, Sleeping Pill.
Saturday, March 29, at 9 p.m., Cleveland Institute of Art, 11610 Euclid Ave., (216) 421-7000, cia.edu

Sweden's Dunderdon might not have the name recognition of a Carhartt or Dickies, but with a new, larger NYC store, the brand is primed to give Americans a taste of what they've been missing. Its unpretentious, wearable pieces in muted tones, made from twill, corduroy, and raw selvage denim, are hardy enough to earn its "workwear" label but presentable enough that you won't look like your plumber. The shop is twice the size of the label's former home on Lafayette, and is down the street from Opening Ceremony and Ted Muehling. This spring, the trio will be joined by a very unworkmanlike neighbor: Jil Sander.
Dunderdon, 25 Howard St., NYC, dunderdon.com

This week, shoppers at Theory's Meatpacking District store will find something beside the usual sweaters and trousers: a replica of an airplane hangar, inside which David Ellis will be creating Flyway, a conceptual performance-painting-cum-video. The artist will paint eight hours a day for eight straight days, recorded all the while by an overhead digital camera; the digital stills will later be edited into a "motion painting" (in Ellis' words) to hang alongside the finished canvas. The completed project will be unveiled at an invite-only party, but anyone can stop by the store until April 3 to watch the work in progress.

British magazine The Bookseller just announced the winner of its annual Diagram Prize: If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs, by someone called Big Boom. (Probably a pseudonym.) Note the award is for oddest title, not the worst—as the mag's deputy editor puts it, "So effective is the title that you don't even need to read the book itself." Good point. The five runners-up are below:

[GQ UK]

The latest gizmo from those crazy Danes at Bang & Olufsen: a so-called "touchless" remote control. It responds to "finger gestures" (presumably not of the obscene variety), and even shifts shapes to reflect the volume of whatever device you're using. It's still in the concept stage, so for now just enjoy the curious video demonstration below:

[Engadget]

When Swedish brand Acne announced it was taking over Cloak's old space on NYC's Greene Street, everyone wondered the same thing: Would the Swedes keep the secret door to the fitting rooms, hidden behind the mammoth bookcase? Well, good news from last night's store opening: They did. They also gave it a white paint job—verdict's still out on that.

With the advent of digital cameras and YouTube (along with its more adult-themed rivals), every bedroom is now a potential porn set. But in the days of the Cold War, an army barracks in Biesdorf functioned as East Germany's Silicone Valley. Established secretly by the Stasi in 1982, it had a staff of 160 who churned out a variety of blau films for—and starring—East German soldiers. With titles like Private Werner's Big Surprise and Fucking for the Fatherland, the films showed there's more than one way to serve your country.

[Telegraph via Gizmodo]

The L.A. art scene essentially came into existence when the Ferus Gallery opened in 1957. It hosted early shows by the scene's key figures, including Ed Ruscha and Frank Gehry, and yet its story remains largely untold. That changes with today's release of the documentary The Cool School. "The names are known," says director Morgan Neville. "But there were no books, no films, no nothing. And the seeds of the modern L.A. scene were all planted there." He interviewed several remaining members of the Ferus boys' club, including Dennis Hopper and curator Irving Blum (who was, back in the day, something like the platonic ideal of mid-century masculine chic). But Neville found his film's hero in Ferus cofounder Walter Hopps. "He was this self-educated med-school dropout who became the architect of the scene," Neville says. "The art world will never see another like him."

Richard Chai's debut men's collection is just as detail-driven as his fawned-over women's offering. The line, which we got a hands-on look at today, includes boiled-wool outerwear, jacquard suiting and trenches with cashmere accents, and a host of intricate knits—"I drove my sample knitters crazy," Chai says. Shapes range from ultra-skinny pants to extended length cardigans, while colors are mostly subdued—rust, navy, and gray dominate—and nicely offset by a variety of plaids and stripes. The designer's already moved on to his next project: Putting on a full runway show for Spring '09.

Click here for highlights from the collection >

When Rudy Giuliani famously set about cleaning up Times Square in the nineties, photographer Lisa Kereszi found herself in the right place at the right time. She focused her camera on old-school strip clubs like the notorious Show World, which adapted to the new era by helping launch the neo-vintage New Burlesque movement. The lenswoman then traveled across the country to document the trend as it gained momentum over the past few years, and now her work has finally been collected in the sexy, gritty new monograph Fantasies. The subjects include everything from the now-abandoned theaters to unused costumes to (most importantly) the girls themselves. And while the influence of her old boss, Nan Goldin, is obvious, Kereszi clearly calls her own shots.

That's the shocking news from his weird and morose interview with German weekly Die Zeit. (He also calls his field a "dreadful form of expression," and says he's "ashamed" of his past work.) Given the guy's been on a tear lately—his upcoming SLS Beverly Hills hotel has us particularly psyched—we hope somebody gets him back on his meds, stat.

Talk about bad timing: Just as a recession looms, Pininfarina has unveiled its first-ever chopper. The Agusta AW139 Executive isn't exactly restrained, either—the tricked-out cabin includes two 15-inch monitors equipped with touchscreens, eight speakers, and a booming woofer (presumably for blasting "Flight of the Valkyries," Apocalypse Now-style.) Price is TBD.

Maybe all those rock-oriented video games are paying off: Check out this video of Yuto Miyazawa, an eight-year-old Japanese kid who can really shred—on an actual guitar. And let's face it, you better wail if you're playing a polka-dotted Flying V.

First, there's Daft Punk, and now there's The Future Library, a pair of robot-shaped shelving units premiering today at the Armory Show. They're designed by Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak of M/M Paris, which has also done ad campaigns for Yohji Yamamoto, Calvin Klein, and Givenchy (among others). The shelves are based on their own silhouettes and house what may be the fair's safest purchase: books from Hans Ulrich Obrist's ongoing collection of interviews with artists, architects, and designers, The Conversation Series. "The idea is to create an archive that's not related to any specific space or time," Augustyniak says. "It's a self-portrait of the way we are working, traveling from one area of creation to the next. It's a trailer for a bigger project to come." Beware the rise of the machines.

The Future Library at the Armory Show, today through March 30, Pier 94, 12th Ave. at 55th St., NYC; then at USM Modular Furniture, 28-30 Greene St., NYC, through May 5

Well, no one's ever accused the Austrians of taking things lightly, but this still seems extreme: Political party BZÖ is calling for an investigation into how Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer got his iPhone a full day before it was released there. (Apparently, Austria gets gadgets nine months after we do.) We always said early adoption comes at a price, but this is ridiculous.

[Engadget]

If you were lucky, your dad taught you the right way to shake a man's hand: firmly, yes, but quickly and conclusively. And if you were even luckier, the sultry French divorcee who lived next door took you aside one day and exposed you to the intricacies of the air kiss. (Regrettably, I'm 0 for two in this instance.) In any case, global travelers confounded by the ever-evolving etiquette of the greeting should enjoy Christina Binkley's piece in today's Journal (if more for commiseration than actual advice). A warning: The bonus slideshow, in particular a 1989 smooch between Gorby and former East German autocrat Erich Honecker, might turn you into a handshake-only man for good.

"There's nothing transgressive about these kinds of photos, not anymore," gallerist Aaron Rose says of his latest show, Being True. "The sell-by date on that has absolutely passed." Allow us to disagree: The exhibition—which features two decades of work from photographers like Terry Richardson, Angela Boatwright, Poppy de Villeneuve, and Patrick O'Dell—feels pretty damn vital to us. But maybe Rose has just moved on—his documentary Beautiful Losers had its NYC debut last night. The film (which will be released to the public later this spring), like his book and traveling exhibition of the same name, charts street art's rise from niche oddity to corporate phenomenon, and includes interviews with friends of Rose like Mike Mills, Barry McGee (pictured), and Shepard Fairey. "All these artists I came up with, their aesthetics are the mainstream now," Rose says. "Pretty soon, some new generation of kids is going to come along and shake it all up again. Might put me out of business, but hey—that's how it should be."
Being True, opening tonight, The Journal Gallery, 168 North First St., Brooklyn, NY, thejrnl.com; Beautiful Losers is scheduled for release in late spring/early summer, beautifullosers.com

Having already opened a trio of sceney hotels in New York and Bangkok, Vikram Chatwal has turned his attention to the high seas with the 135-foot Fathom. Designed by Mark Zeff, who's also responsible for Chatwal's New York hotels as well as the city's Dos Caminos restaurants, the sleek white vessel is based on the French Riviera—probably a good thing, given the skittish mood felt by your average Wall Street moneybags these days. If, however, $250,000 a week is within your budget for Cannes this year, you'll get a Bond-worthy boat with underwater cameras, water-ski and Jet Ski gear, an eight-person Jacuzzi, a nightclub-worthy sound system, and a crew of nine, including a chef, captain, and bevy of stewardesses.

The city's annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion is a novel concept: Let an architect build a crazy structure in Hyde Park, and if people don't like it, no big deal—it comes down at the end of the summer anyway. The idea seems tailor-made for this year's choice, Frank Gehry, whose wood-and-glass design, pictured, will be his first building in London. Like much of his recent work, it already seems to be inspiring equal amounts of enthusiasm and detraction—even in the same review. For more on the project, check out The Guardian's excellent slideshow of past pavilions by Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind, and more.

For his first English-language film, My Blueberry Nights, Wong Kar-Wai hit the road, shooting stars Norah Jones and Jude Law in locations throughout the U.S. To promote next week's premiere, the Hong Kong director is trying something just as American: the T-shirt tie-in. Of course, it's an art-house flick, so the shirts are limited-edition numbers sold at NYC boutique Opening Ceremony. They come in five options, one for each of the film's five locales. Looking for something that won't shrink in the wash? Postcards and posters will be on sale too.
My Blueberry Nights T-shirts, $95, postcards, $25, and posters, $50, available at Opening Ceremony, 35 Howard St., NYC, and 451 North La Cienega Blvd., L.A., openingceremony.us

Attention, space tourists with cash-flow issues: Xcor Aerospace says that its new Lynx shuttle will exit the earth's atmosphere for half the price of a seat on Virgin Galactic (tickets are $100,000 per, but still). Both lines are scheduled to debut in 2010.

And, in not quite related news, Walgreens has apparently decided to start selling clothes.

LG just introduced one whose silicon-covered keypad is designed to feel like human skin. The brand thinks it'll make the SH240 more warm and personal, but the creepy concept makes us long for the cold, lifeless feel of a touchscreen.

[Engadget]

Inevitable, but awesome: Bear Stearns-branded knickknacks are hitting eBay. Shirts, original stock certificates, and even cafeteria cards are going for prices well above the company's 11-dollar stock price. (Current bid for this vinyl bear: 21 bucks.)

[Dealbreaker]

Austrian design studio Buchegger, Denoth, Feichtner might sound like an accounting firm, but it creates products as pure and shapely as math—and, yes, that's a good thing, as you can see in the designers' latest work: the thronelike wooden chair called Honey, pictured, and the backless Public armchair, which is basically the granulated-foam-plastic bikini of seating. Like last year's Axiome chair and Cutt cutlery—sleeper hits at Milan's 2007 Salone de Mobile—they take advantage of the designers' penchant for creasing, folding, and faceting their materials on a large scale, giving fresh shapes to worn-out types. They'll be introduced at next month's edition of Salone, where you can see if they're as easy on your behind as they are on your eyes.

We still find it a bit disconcerting to see Jack White wearing regular colors. Thank goodness the new video for "Salute Your Solution," from the band's Consolers of the Lonely (out today), is in black and white. Check out the riff-tastic tune below:

Also of note: Brit rock mag NME just announced plans to hold its annual awards in the U.S. for the first time. Chances are the acceptance speeches will remain just as unintelligible.

XM and Sirius may be getting today's biggest headlines, but even their merger won't give them the reach of a little Paris-based Web outfit that dropped a passkey into our inbox this a.m. Awdio.com offers live streaming broadcasts from clubs and venues across the world, from San Francisco to Bangkok, Munich to Melbourne. Already today we've sampled the house soundtrack blaring in Paris fashion boutique Colette and a little laid-back Latin groove from a London bossa nova lounge. The site is in well-deserved beta phase (i.e., it don't work 100 percent right) and the English it eez a little bit comique, but hearing concerts and parties in São Paulo (and in real time) is just too damn cool. Now if only you could get it in your car.

Customized Guitar Hero and Rock Band controllers aren't exactly an original concept, but these new models from ArtGuitar certainly turn it up to 11. They sport thrasher-friendly hand-painted designs—featured bands include Pantera, Skynyrd, and Megadeth—and they're built from actual Peaveys. They also cost 400 bucks, which means they're either a top-of-the-line video game accessory or a waste of a decent guitar.

[Technabob]

Sometimes, Hotmail (or Facebook, or any other outage-prone site) just won't load. For those occasions, there's the new Downforeveryoneorjustme.com, which is devoted to answering its titular question. One obvious question: What do you do if it goes down? Well, they thought of that, too.

In the new documentary Garbage Warrior, Taos-based architect Michael Reynolds—who'd been stripped of his license in the U.S. for building off-the-grid Earthship communities out of recycled tires, bottles, and beer cans—asks the New Mexico state legislature to donate a bit of land for testing sustainable housing methods. Their response: Much filibustering, and even a little sleeping, all of which is deftly juxtaposed with Reynolds taking his team to India's Andaman and Nicobar islands to teach tsunami victims how to build eco-friendly (and storm-resistant) homes of their own. Provocative stuff, and New Yorkers can check it out tonight at Lincoln Center. Everyone else will have to be patient: The film kicks off the second season of the Sundance Channel's The Green series April 1.
Garbage Warrior premieres March 25, 6:30 p.m., at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, filmlinc.com, and April 1 on the Sundance Channel, 9:35 p.m., garbagewarrior.com.

Chuck Close usually works on a grand scale, but his latest project required a canvas exponentially smaller: a wine label, to be exact. The artist produced the label for Musée, a new limited-edition bottling by Bedell Cellars, the Long Island winery owned by New Line Cinema cofounder Michael Lynne. (Oh, and if you actually care about the contents, the vintage is a heady blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot, all harvested from Bedell's estate-grown vineyards on the North Fork.) For the label, Close made an old-fashioned daguerreotype of a grape cluster. If it seems a little beneath an artist of his stature, consider that he's in good company—Eric Fischl, Barbara Kruger, and Ross Bleckner have all designed labels for the brand. He also lives (ahem) close by in Bridgehampton.
Bedell Cellars Musée, $65, bedellcellars.com

And not just on the calendar. The first MLB game of the year airs tomorrow on ESPN2 at 6 a.m. Eastern. The reason? It takes place in Tokyo, with Red Sox pitcher (and Japan native) Daisuke Matsuzaka, pictured, taking the mound against the Oakland A's. The homecoming should be one of those times when you feel the transcendent power of sports and all that good stuff—and we'll probably need it, given we also plan to tune into the Frontline special, "Bush's War," airing tonight on PBS.

Well, probably not, but it looks so good on the Web site of Objects With Light that we'd understand if they did. Run by London artist Georgiosi Ignatiou, the outfit sells lamps made from everyday objects like saw blades, rubber balls, and, of course, Slinkys (pictured), all of which create bizarre shadows worthy of film noir. Consider it a less complicated way of adding intrigue to your home life.

[Josh Spear]

Accelerate officially comes out next Tuesday, but you can hear it today thanks to iLike. Good news: The rumors of a comeback are well-founded—the trio actually sounds like a band again, complete with noisy guitars, soaring backup harmonies, and Michael Stipe's most engaged and pissed-off lyrics since the eighties. It's not a classic, but at least it's not Around the Sun.

It's comforting to know that certain products actually sell better during an economic downturn—for instance, books about economic downturns. For an excellent (and timely) primer, check out Slate Moneybox columnist Daniel Gross' list of reading material for these troubled times, including Dan Ariely's exhaustive Predictably Irrational (pictured) and a few blogs—though if you want to keep your job, you might want to skip the latter in favor of doing some work.

Five months ago, our friends at GQ could legitimately call L.L. Bean's hand-sewn Blucher Moccasin "untrendy." But since then, I've noticed more and more guys wearing the 72-year-old classics on the streets. Not only that, LLBean.com is sold out of them until mid-April. Of course, by that time they might be untrendy again.
Hand-sewn moccasin, $69, available (soon) at Llbean.com

The stylish French actor has made some great movies in his time—Le Samouraï, The Leopard, and L'Eclisse, to name a few—but sadly, none is included in the new five-DVD set that bears his name. But it's still worth buying. Sure, the plot of, say, Diabolically Yours is ludicrous—something about an amnesiac who suspects he's being conned—but each movie has more than its fair share of great-looking chicks (Jane Birkin, the curvy Senta Berger), cool cars, and of course, the ever-dapper star (pictured here in 1969's La Piscine). In short, it's the perfect thing to put on mute the next time your Francophile friends come over.

Anton Corbijn's tragically cool biopic of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, Control, is due out on DVD tomorrow. But the true beauty of Corbijn's imagery is perhaps best appreciated in stills—he is, after all, a world-famous photographer. His new book, Anton Corbijn: In Control, is a rich visual diary of the self-financed flick, with handwritten notations, drawings, and the odd bit of Curtis ephemera. The Holland-born Corbijn's connection to Curtis and the band runs deep; he moved to England after hearing their "life-changing" 1979 album Unknown Pleasures, and took some of their earliest and most iconic photos. No, there's not much "Hollywood magic" in these pages, just an awful lot of intimate, behind-the-scenes authenticity.