Natsumi Hayashi's "levitating" self-portraits breathe fresh air into the blogosphere.

She calls her blog Yowa Yowa Camera Woman Diary– which literally translates to ” a feeble woman’s camera diary”. The online journal features Natsumi Hayashi’s self-portraits as she looks serenely trapped in a moment, “levitating” across city streets, an open field, a train station, a telephone booth, among many other quirky locations. I think the impact she has made through this series of photos would be anything but weak.

It's all a matter of jumping at the right time to create that perfect shot, according to her blog

While her photos make it seem as if she’s always floating mid-air, she cites the concept of being “down-to-earth” as inspiration for these images. She feels that she is constantly under great stress due to a conventional society, and this led to the idea of breaking away from the gravity which held her back. “I feel as though I am not tied to many things and able to be my true self,” she says.

When she’s not busy “hovering” through Japanese streets, Natsumi works as an assistant for artist Hisaji Hara whom, according to her, has also been a big source of inspiration. “His pictures look like drawings, and this fuels my intuition.”

In Natsumi's case, choosing the right background is a big factor in coming up with truly amazing photos!

Now, how does she take all these amazing photos? Natsumi dishes out some tips on her blog on creating your own “levitation” photos, but she adds that she has been also been asking her friends to press the shutter for her in various situations, although shooting is also possible with a self-timer as well. She had invested all her savings in purchasing a camera and other equipment so she could start with this project last year.

Her goal, apart from continuing to post these self-portraits, would be to showcase them via exhibits and photobooks.  She has found the response to her blog rather overwhelming, as different people from various cultural backgrounds continue to be mesmerized by her images. She thinks this may be a sign that most many people today might feel the same way as she does, and that they yearn to break free from certain conventions of their own societies.

The way she expresses her insights, as well as her way of taking her own photos, are as exquisite as the effortlessly pure expression on her face as she glides through cityscapes. I cannot wait to see her photos on a bigger stage.

All images courtesy of Yowa Yowa Camera Woman Diary

Just when you think you’ve finally outgrown ‘internet humor’ in all its many forms, they find a way to pull you back in again. I give you what might be the perfect single-serving site: animalsbeingdicks.com.

I’d never really understood the appeal of GIFs, their novelty always seemed rely on the fact that they look like digital relics which somehow pre-date the internet itself (Wikipedia! They were introduced in 1987!). However, they serve these animals well – something about the grainy, slow-motion of the action, and the never-ending, Sisyphean loops in which these dogs, cats, horses and monkeys perform their singular acts of dick-ishness elevates these physical gags into something far funnier than the Youtube source-material from whence they came.

Also, there’s one where a bird kicks a turtle into a garbage can. Come on.

Just like all-american heritage brands, traditional French products have been subject to a greater interest lately with more and more brands claiming patrimonial influences and even requiring to the savoir-faire of older French workshops. We have the pleasure to introduce La Belle Échoppe, a newly launched online shop resulting from the partnership between two fashion enthusiasts.

The (physical) shop French Trotters and the blog Redingote have teamed up to offer 100 % made in France products ranging from Opinel knifes, Mauléon espadrilles, Papier d’Arménie and the legendary savon de Marseille and obviously some shirts, dresses and bags from the new generation of French labels. The very basic template makes it a smooth browsing experience which, you have to reckon, you are not always given on online fashion shops. Here quality prevails over quantity – at least for now – and La Belle Échoppe signs a manifesto for quality French products… this will not improve our reputation of chauvinists.

Chicago’s DJ Duo The Hood Internet is back at it again with the fifth volume of their mixtape series, and it does not disappoint. This time around they do everything from mashing up Sleigh Bells and Usher to Cee-Lo Green and Sir Mix-a-Lot, and even throw in a little Flock of Seagulls. It’s always interesting to see how these work, but they always do.It’s been more than a year since their last mixtape, which I also wrote about, but it was well worth the wait. And, true to my word of them exploding soon, when they’re not busy coming up with some of the most interesting mashups of artists you’d never imagine together, they are busy throwing tacos into album art with their blog, Album Tacos, which recently won editor’s choice for Best New Single-Topic Blog from Urlesque.

Speaking of music meme-making, the latest craze to pop up in the last few days is Who is Arcade Fire??!!?? The blog was made after the Arcade Fire beat out Eminem, Lady GaGa and others for a Grammy. People went nuts on Twitter, and the rest is beautifully screen-capped history. It’s just a shame Arcade Fire won for The Suburbs, which IMO was the weakest album they’ve put out.

One of the best recent ideas to discover some new music comes from the Dutch Shuffler.fm website.

They gather and select a large number of musical blogs picked with care for the quality of their posts and graphic universe, in order to create a new kind of radio. After selecting a favourite style or theme (indie, electronic, remix, soul, shoegazer, hip hop, etc) from the thumbnails in the homepage, the site will continuously browse from blog to blog while displaying each played title.

Great concept perfectly developed.

Escape Into Life is great. It’s a super-brainy art curation blog which accompanies each visual arts post with an appropriate poem or prose piece.For example, the post in the image above includes the full version of Alane Rollings’ “When Single Rooms Can Spring to Life So Easily,” as well as a few of her other pieces:

Have you noticed how when you see two people talking
anywhere in the world, one is almost always smiling?
         Half of us are alive now; it's hard to say
what we have least of. Children come into the world
by themselves. My family began with me.
         Under my own good auspices, I took a room in the city,
gave a dollar for a smile in the street,
ten for the pressure of a hand.
I liked your stare, your air of an emporium owner.
Drinking whiskey with you in the kitchen,
I never felt a shiver of wishing to be elsewhere.

Chris Al-Aswad, the site’s founder, died in July. A few of his friends and family keep the site going as a tribute to his work.

Modest and genuinely interested in fashion, Areta Szpura, hasn’t put a lot of work to make her blog look great.

It’s just effortlessly fresh and intriguing. She’s also a photographer and stylist.

Styled by Areta (very nice!)

Stadtkind, founded back in 2001 by Liza and Dominic who remain the anonymous figures behind the blog and online city handbook, is heavily influenced by the electronic music scene. It’s a fresh and new approach to music pop culture and style reaching from Berlin to the ever undiscovered corners of the republic.

The blog is now considered as one of the hippest and coolest sites originating out of the capital with its many, many tips and overwhelmingly detailed knowledge of the underground scene.

For those who like bikes, especially fixed-gear, here it is the first really cool blog in Polish for them. Cykloza is primarly a bike shop/service spot/coffeeshop in Widok St, Warsaw. But in this blog you can find really good information about cycling in Poland.

cykloza.blogspot.com

The Blog is now one of the most influencial in Germany with over 7000 visiters everyday, 13 authors and many awards, like the Grimme Online award it won for textquality and creative solutions. Alongside all that, the blog also jumped into old-fashioned print media when Johnny founded the first publishing house for blog texts ever, as well as his own weekly radio-channel called „Trackback, die Show mit Spreeblick“ on radio Fritz.