Correct Culture: Hairy Eyeballs, Aetherphone Blues

Shop Till You Drop - One day as I was wandering around Williamsburg looking for random street art to photograph I literally stumbled upon the most insane jewel box of a store filled with most eye-catching hairy eyeball graphics imaginable. Everything that makes a super skate geek happy can be found at Mishka, from signature print jeans to rare collectible toys to the aforementioned hairy eyeball pillows and caps. Plus, when you need to take a shopping break, you can chill and challenge your buds to a round on the in-store video arcade or just kick back and ogle the Adam Wallacavage squid chandelier that hangs almost menacingly in the center of the store. The clientele is as captivating as the merch, and the sales staff are so laid back you might not even realize they’re there. In other words, the perfect shopping experience.

Blog or Die - My absolute everyday must-read-or-die blog is Eitel Thoughts by Reavis Eitel. Always visually arresting and bitingly ironic, Eitel takes you into his world and serves up his personal take on everything from his health to Sundaze at Vandam with tongue planted firmly in chic. Here’s a brief Q & A I recently conducted with him.

What is the purpose/inspiration for your blog?
It’s characteristically without purpose! I started it because I wasn’t feeling well. I had no idea that anyone would ever read it. If I had any idea, I wouldn’t have made it so confessional and personal, but I just continue to go with it.

What are your favorite things about living in NYC?
At this point, just convenience and anonymity. You’re also still pretty protected from how banal and slow the rest of the world is when living here. If you don’t think so, then try going an hour or so outside of Manhattan. Whenever I cross over the bridge to return, I can breathe again.

You have made an incredible personal transformation—what inspired you and what are you aiming for?
Thanks. I switched to whole grain. Just looking to further my all-natural healthy agenda in personal maintenance and fitness pursuits.

Is there an underground scene still in NYC and what/who are your favorite parts of it?
No.

Give me a brief bio—the usual, where you’re from, what you’ve done, what’s in your future?
I was born and raised in Manhattan where I went to school through college. I intend to retire in the future.

Style Exiles - Twenty-eight-year-old Nicholas Gorham is a Vancouver transplant specializing in cabaret-based performance art, but that’s putting it lightly. Filled with the kind of sassy bravado that few can actually pull off, his performances have become known not only for his side-splitting humor, but the way-over-the-top visuals he serves. A regular at the Inbred/Hybrid book club burlesque reading series, his recent reinterpretation of the classic Tin Tin was a hodgepodge of larger-than-life hair, major make-up and theatrics taken to terrific extremes. In his spare time, he designs one-of-a-kind hats that run the gamut from leopard-print mini-saucers perched on the tip of your head to more involved and abstract black mesh numbers that are architectural and stylishly accurate, although I chose to photograph him in a cap by Kangol cause I’m confusing like that. But you can check out Nick modeling his headgear here.

Street Treat - I caught up with performer extraordinaire Armen Ra () sneaking a ciggy after his breathtaking performance at the Participant gallery on Houston Street. Besides possessing an unending capacity for fiercely personal style statements, Ra is one of the few souls on this planet truly gifted enough to master the theremin, an early electronic musical instrument controlled without actual physical contact from the player. The controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas which sense the position of the player’s hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand and amplitude with the other. The electric signals from the theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker. To watch Ra perform is like a love making session as he sensuously maneuvers and strokes the air around the instrument, creating arresting musical interludes that are as seductive and spellbinding as an opium-induced trance. If you’ve never witnessed this live and in person, you truly do not know what you’re missing. Ra always serves up a super correct visual, melding masculine and feminine overtones like no other.

Style Child - Denise Azira has a penchant for urban-oriented style staples given a fashionable twist. Her knuckle rings are lady-, not thug-like, but still leave a tough impression—almost like chic self defense jewelry. But her silver millipede necklace really hits the mark, wrapping itself around the neck as if it were actually alive.

Tag You’re It - I’ve noticed that a lot of my favorite random street art sightings as of late are almost like abstract paintings, eclipsing their graffiti origins and taking things up a notch to an almost painterly level. It seems as if the days of just bombing your name are truly a thing of the past as a new posse of urban artists prefers to leave their mark with visuals that could just as well hang in a gallery when not being uncovered on the side of a wall or in a dark, skanky alley.

Photographs (except for Reavis Eitel and Denise Azira) by Walt Cessna. See more from Walt Cessna on Facebook.