Launch into the summer heat with classic cuts of soul and funk courtesy of Waxpoetics. The new issue features tracks from the Cinematic Orchestra, Lee Fields (my personal fave), Spoonie Gee, Pete Rock and more delicious do-right beats.  Indulge in one-minute samples before you get your soundtrack to summer.

Yes, we had an earthquake in Southern California yesterday.  Yes, buildings shook.  Yes, there were several aftershocks.  Yes, this quake registered a 5.4 on the Richter scale.  And yes, the thousands who felt the need to tweet before running to safety scored a big fat 10 on the “I’m a retard” scale.  Did I mention you can follow me on twitter?

In honor of their one-year anniversary, Design By Humans is offering up sweet new shirts for as little as twelve hammers. The sale ends Aug 1 so get your e-commerce fired up.

Having a rough day? I don’t think so. Somalian born and raised K’Naan shows us just how easy our lives are  with his debut record The Dusty Foot Philosopher. Straight from the slums of Somalia, K’Naan escaped the violence that took many of his family members and close friends to Canada, recorded today’s equivalence to Wyclef’s “Carnivale”, shed some light, toured with Damien Marley  and the rest is history. With appearances at Outside Lands and Lollapalooza, insane lyrics, and stories to drop you to your feet this guy will soon be on everybody’s radar.

For anyone even remotely interested in design, marketing or development, the Web Design Dashboard is your bible.

I’m kind of a big deal around here. This rings true of Toronto’s hipster music collective, Broken Social Scene. Today, the band announced a fall tour and San Diego (aka whale’s vagina) is on the map. I’ve been in love with BSS ever since their groundbreaking debut, “You Forgot It In People” and to see them live is how you wanna do it. Good times, eh!

mp3:
“Major Label Debut” by Broken Social Scene

Remember how you felt the first time you saw that shopping bag flying around in American Beauty?  Well, Brooklyn-based artist William Lamson pushes those same buttons with strikingly beautiful and at times humorous photographs and moving images. Lay off the double mocha for a hot minute and enjoy the finer things in life, like blowing up balloons.

Here we discover twenty record covers recreated with Legos.  Morrissey’s “you are the Quarry” is pretty slick but “Abbey Road” takes the cake. Long live album art!

UK artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey are smoking some serious grass with their organic manipulation of light sensitivity, which debuted at this year’s Wimbledon. The process: black and white negatives are projected onto the grass, twelve hours per day, for over a week as the grass grows in a dark room. Different blades get different exposure and the results are mind-blowing photographs like the ones below.

Even Melnyk admits his favorite movies are your favorite movies. The part-time carbonated drink drinker and full-time graphic designer has morphed into an extraordinary artist. Things are looking up for the now London-based awake dreamer. Have a portfolio look here.