Pharoahe Monch; now there’s a name I hadn’t heard in a long time..until a month or so ago that is, when I found out I had completely missed the release of his new album, called Desire. It had been several years since his first solo album, and I thought he had flipped out or something and would never record again, which would have been a shame because he’s a super talented guy. Now I get wind of the 2007 New York-Tokyo Music Festival, where Monch will be performing along with (he of many aliases and collaborators) MF Doom. Appearing aside the two New York legends will be Tokyo-based group Teriyaki Boyz, and an inter-city collaboration in the form of Tokyo’s DJ Uppercut and New York’s Rosco P. Coldchain. For you skeptics out there, know that the Teriyaki Boys are affiliated with A Bathing Ape somehow/someway, and Mr. Coldchain is signed to the Neptune’s Star Trak label. I could talk for a while here about how Monch and Doom’s progressive approaches make them perfect choices to headline this event, because Tokyo is known for it’s progressive cultural scene, but I think eventually it would sound silly. Instead, you are hereby advised to head over to Rumsey Playfield — that’s in Central Park, kids — on September 22 at 2pm.

Ever find something that makes you regret not knowing about it sooner because in some esoteric, inexplicable way it makes your life better? I’m feeling exactly that way upon the discovery of artist Brian Dettmer’s amazing, amazing work. With surgical tools, tweezers and steady hands, Dettmer approaches old books like an experimental surgeon, meticulously slicing and cutting around illustrations and words inside the book’s body, removing parts of thin paper skin until what’s left looks like the book’s skeleton — either that or a super diorama built by the class overacheiver. Working exclusively with old tomes like dictionaries, encylopedias and medical textbooks, Dettmer’s doing a 21st-century mash-up by deriving new meanings from the outdated images and words he’s left exposed, and that are now linked together visually or ideally so as a whole they’re relevant to today. Pretty brilliant, huh?

Trot on over to the sites of the galleries he’s represented by — Toomey Tourell, Aron Packer and Haydee Rovirosa — for more photos from this talented book technician.

It looks like Alex and Chloe have posted a little bit of new product since the last time I checked their site, and while it’s certainly not an entire collection, I’ve still got to send you guys over to take a look — especially if you missed out on our first mention of the hard-rocking line of men’s and women’s jewelry. I already wanted this tooth necklace when it was oxidized silver, but now that they’re making it in solid 14k gold, I’m about ready to rip out a molar, hang it on a chain, spray paint it, then wear it until I can justifiably spend the $460 I’ll need to spend to get the real thing. Don’t be scared off by that price tag, though; Alex and Chloe makes their jewelry in a wide range of awesome metals/materials, making them as good a good stop for impulse shopping as a more carefully planned jewelry purchase. Be sure to check out the entire Coco is Dead line — it’s an oldie but a goody, and I’ve gotten more compliments on my “bullet holes” necklace than anything else I own…yet, anyway. The tooth’s gonna take over.

Cut&Paste Digital Design Tournament kicked off this week in Boston, the first of 11 cities in the International competition’s search for “Originality, Technique, and Overall Dopeness.” Each event, which will be broadcast online and incorporates text-message voting (of course it does), will pair eight emerging designers in single-elimination timed design tournaments, with the ulitmate goal of winning a bunch of designer-coveted prizes (like Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collections and helpful tools from Wacom). While last year’s Cut&Paste stopped in only four cities (San Francisco, L.A., Chicago, and New York City), this year’s live-audience event will make it all the way to places like London, Sydney and Hong Kong, adding intensity, and probably some killer video footage, to the site-broadcasted competitions. If you’d like to get in on the action, you can cruise the Cut&Paste web page for dates and locations, where you can also check out last year’s action (and results). If anyone goes to this, we’d really, really, like to hear about it, so keep us posted.

No, I’m not trying to get you to join the next Hale-Bopp cult. Stupid Devil is an art label that sells t-shirts, art prints, and vinyl toys featuring some crazy characters drawn by the artist Bard. Nothing too serious though; Stupid Devil has set a goal, nay a mission, of bringing art back to the “stupid” people instead of the “authoritarian, pseudo-intellectuals”. Basically, they’re bringing art back to the masses. And while they don’t expect everyone to love their stuff, they do expect a reaction.

They have a full-page manifesto that qualifies as nothing short of a good-humored rant about art and creativity. My personal favorite is this: “your requests for conceptual meaning with be met with a kung-fu fist of fury.” Gotta love a sense of humor like that!

If it’s anyone who knows how to whack cute upside the head with an arrestingly honest flair — or at least put the literal meaning to “disgustingly cute” — it’s artist and JoshSpear.com fave Luke Chueh. Chueh’s paintings depict adorable, chubby cartoon animals in the midst of all sorts of cynical situations and self-revelations, which oftentimes fall to the side of morbid. A chicken mulls over his breakfast of eggs. A bear paints a target on his chest in front of a bullet-riddled backdrop. Whether they’re sad, disturbed, pitiful or even amused, his befuddled characters somehow are able to maintain some semblance of naivete even while they’re basically losing it. That’s why you moan a big “Aw!” when you see his paintings.

Chueh’s back with new works in his first — and well deserved — solo show at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles called Paintings of Hope and Hopelessness, split into two parts. Tonight’s kickoff is the “Hope Opening” with paintings of hopeless characters in hopeful situations, while the following show, on Sept. 25, flips the script to become the “Hopeless Opening” with work featuring hopeful animals in hopeless situations. All familiar dispositions we’ve experienced before, I’m sure.