"Background" Scenery from London
In keeping with being true to whatever strikes our fancy, we fancied some urban "backgrounds" in London, that had a cool design sensibility about them, and snapped their pictures. Otherwise mundane objects look downright artistic. Click on the thumbnails below to see bigger pics.

Linkage
Some of our absolute favorite people and things. Check them out now:

Mark Staff Brandl, fine artist
markstaffbrandl.com
A fantastic visual pop artist who has been compared to Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein and Jacopo Tintoretto, among others, and whose eye-popping and extraordinary paintings have been shown at galleries all over the world. Originally from central Illinois, Mark has lived primarily in Switzerland for the past 19 years.

Marty Wombacher, paperback writer
firetruckbook.blogspot.com
This New Yorker (also transplanted from the midwest) is one of our favorite writers and humorists (think David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell). His now "retired" alterna-zine Fishwrap was the talk of the town in the publishing world and earned him hordes of fans (and maybe a few foes) from the mainstream press. His first published book, 99 Bottles of Beer Off the Wall - part travel log, part smart sociological observations, part drunken ramblings - is funny as f**k. His newest book of creative essays, The Boy Who Would Be A Fire Truck, should be published any week now.

William Claxton, photographer
williamclaxton.com
One of the most acclaimed jazz and fashion photographers in the world, Los Angeles based "Clax" has also shot tons of rockers, movie stars and politicians. He's had a handful of gorgeous coffee table books of his photographs published and continues to shoot for numerous publications (we've seen his recent work regularly in Interview). Oh yeah, he shot the vintage photos of iconic fashion model Peggy Moffitt, who is also his wife, that appear on the cover and inner booklet of our debut CD (and, of course, gave us permission to use the photos for our disc's artwork, for which we are eternally grateful).

Medusa's Make-up, rock and roll face and body paint
medusasmakeup.com
Manufactured right here in our hometown of Chicago, Medusa's Make-up is awesome hi-tech, vibrant eye shadows, glitter powders, body shimmers, professional brushes and eyeliners. Aside from having the coolest color names on the planet (like "purple rain" and "wasabi") it's cruelty free, which means it's not tested on animals! We like THAT!