First up, Kottke.org. This is one of the rare internet publications that I religiously read and actually read every entry. It’s billed as “liberal arts 2.0” and it is exactly that, an extremely artfully curated collection of bits of historical curious, the most unusual of the arts, weird bits of science, and stories from the news you may just have missed. I particularly like this one because Jason Kottke keeps his posts to just the essentials, just a couple a day. However, sometime I hunger greedily for more!

I think everyone and their brother (especially their nerdy little brother) reads Boing Boing, but it’s worth a mention. This is nerd stuff made totally accessible for the rest of us. They have several contributors with posts on cool inventions, natural phenomenon, and even relevant political politics. And I secretly really love their posts on Steam Punk junk.

This one is for art nerds. Art Fag City is an awesome, down to earth collection of brief reviews and art news from Paddy Johnson. It centers mostly on New York, but if you’re elsewhere it is a great way to keep in touch with what is happening in the art world there.

Their “All Eyes on You” installation has a group of floating eyes that follow the viewer as they walk down the street in front of the shop. It sounds creepy, but their innocent blinking is otherworldly and delightful. Britzpetermann used OpenFrameworks and Kinect technology to power this simple yet effective installation. I am always thrilled at the inventiveness of small firms like this one.

Her hit, Gucci Gucci, is a hilarious indictment of hyper brand conscious hip-hop culture. Sometimes she sounds so much like a foul mouthed child it is startling. But her bravado is admirable for a little white girl from Oakland. “I got the swag and it’s pumpin out my ovaries.”

Her mixtape Kittys x Choppas was rad and I’m anxiously awaiting her studio album due out this year. She was nominated for Best New Artist on the MTV Awards, so I’m expecting that her shows are gonna be mobbed at SXSW this year, but I’m looking forward to seeing this wunder girl in person.

I may already be predisposed to like lengthy BBC adaptations of Jane Austen novels, but Downton Abbey has an even broader appeal. It’s a sexier version of the classic Upstairs Downstairs.

It explores the complicated and regimented interactions of a aristocratic family and the staff that maintains their estate and keeps their lives in order. Set at the dawn of WWI, the social caste system of Britain is changing and everybody is planning for their lives after this ancient system changes. The costumes are gorgeous and the dialogue is brilliant. I was taken off guard, but I’ve completely fallen for all the inhabitants of old Downton Abbey.

I myself scour thrift stores for classic or unusual pieces that are made with care. I’m a firm believer in recycling, but once in a while I it’s necessary (or just a treat) to buy something new. Brands like Urban Outfitters and American Apparel have their thumb on the pulse of whats new and exciting, but because they are mostly selling to teens and young people who won’t make a fuss if something is poorly made they can get away with the most atrocious workmanship.

After a dress from one of these brands ripped apart at the seams after just a couple wears I decided that was the last straw. I will no longer purchase clothes from these brands, I will only support quality manufacturers that use sweat-shop free labor.

This is why I love people like the folks over at Archival Clothing, I’ve loved their blog for quite a while. They dig deep into the archives of clothing brands and come up with the best, and surprisingly contemporary feeling, items of clothing and do their best to show you where you might find these items now days. They opened up an online shop not that long ago and they sell their own wares as well as other pieces created by brands they can vouch for. Often on their blog they’ll go into great detail about how something is made or how they settled on specific design details. I for one will no longer give my money over to shoddy workmanship and abusive labor. Slow Fashion, it’s the future!

Everynoneis a three man filmmaking collective based in New York city that makes strikingly simple yet visually rich short films that explore human experience not through head on inquiry, but through the collection of all the details that make up a day, a life, a person. I first stumbled upon their work through the short videos they’ve made to accompany several RadioLab podcasts.

Their video “Words” explores word homonyms visually. It is a beautiful and lyrical video, perfectly curated with exacting execution. They’ve done work for companies and produced a truly moving PSA on bullying. They have a clean aesthetic with a wide ranging appeal. I’m excited to see what they do next. I hear they’ve got a movie in the works.

Queen Marie from the style blog Kingdom of Style combines punk and goth elements with a thoroughly individual and elegant sense of style to the best effect. She can pull off studs and chains and make them look as delicate as lace and feathers.

Some of the Rodarte for Opening Ceremony pieces look as if they’ve leapt from the pages of Edgar Allan Poe scribblings, and even prim and girly label Tocca has some perfectly macabre details to go along with their most recent collection. When December rolls around and the world is singing carols, I must confess a slight impulse to don a cape and turn to the dark side.

I recently came across the moody and surreal videos of Norwegian director, Kristoffer Borgli, and was quite mesmerized. He has a distinct style that captures surface blandness of a suburban life that is just barely covering a deeper and more unsettling reality.

His films remind me stylistically of last year’s Dogtooth from Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos, but Brogli takes his short videos diving into the psyche of children and adolescents.

His newest video for Casiokids is a hysterical and unsettling portrait of a cultish group of teens and their stuffed animals. It combines humor and the slight horror of stuffed toy mutilation to the best effect. His short film and music video with electro-duo The Golden Filter uses the same veneer of bourgeois domestic comfort for the setting of a story about an adolescent girl who doesn’t seem to fit in and possibly isn’t long for this world. I expect to see more from Borgli and a whole host of imitators sometime soon.

I can’t really imagine a more appropriate medium for Bjork’s music than an iPad. It’s as if Bjork’s two decade career and the evolution of the Apple brand have come together in perfect symmetry in 2011 to bare this app album into existence. Biophilia is an interactive galaxy of app songs to be played with and listened to on the iPhone or iPad, but let me tell you it’s way better on the iPad.

The apps vary in how engaging they are. Most of them don’t just play a song, but allow users to rearrange notes, change pacing and pitch, as well as watch and interact with animations. The Moon app is a song that begins to play, but which the user can stop, slow down, and change the tune of according to the phases of the moon. The beautiful graphic and animation pulls it together into what is actually a lovely and transfixing experience. Crystalline is a game app that has you tilting your iPod/Pad to navigate through a geometric crystal tunnel, hitting crystals as the song plays along. These are certainly some of the most visually interesting and engaging apps I’ve seen so far. They take advantage of the device like nothing else has before. But as a way to hear music? It works for Bjork, but it may not work for many others though I’m sure there will be a rash of “app albums” coming our way soon.

My autumn soundtrack has been an unsettling rotation of two new albums by veteran wizards of the bizarre and unusual: Tom Waits and David Lynch.

Waits is a veteran musician, with one of those miraculous decade spanning careers that still marches on with integrity and inventiveness. Lynch, master of the surreal and terrifying, released his debut solo record, though he’s been heavily involved in music for his film for years.

I’m a lifelong fan of Tom Waits, the older and weirder he gets, the more I love him. As the years pass his voice gets more gravely and the imagery in his songs veers even more towards the darker and ecstatically bizarre side of life. In short, he seems to be settling more and more into himself; whatever odd impulse he has, he puts it on a record. This doesn’t always mean I love every minute of every album he’s put out in the last few years, but I admire him for his irreverent attitude.

Bad As Me is raucaus at times (like on the title track), sweet at others (as in the lovely Put Me Back in the Crowd) and has it’s fair share of the weird-as-all-get-out pandemonium you expect in a Waits record.

David Lynch uses music in his films in the most arresting, unforgettable way. Like Isabella Rossellini singing “Blue Velvet” in the film of the same name, songs in Lynch films are an indelible part of the films themselves. I must admit, I was wary about a Lynch album, with Paris night clubs, coffee roasting, and all brands of other endeavors, I think we were all hoping he’d just go back to making movies. But he proved me wrong. Crazy Clown Time is vastly varied in tone sometimes dark and rhythmic, sometimes beautifully melodic. I love the first track with Karen O. on vocals, and it is charming and strange to hear Lynch himself sing, albeit through thick reverb and effects. The album is a pretty perfect companion to the quickly darkening days of winter.