From the Nest | Urban Rustic

Like we mentioned when we first announced that we would be sponsoring At Last I Am Born—the celebration of all things Morrissey at the Bell House next week—we're helping to make the event as animal-friendly as possible, both to reflect Morrissey's outspoken stance on animal rights and because, hey, we like animals. We've been talking your ear off about vegan giveaways for the past few weeks (you've still got time to enter this week's, by the by) but clearly we've also got to have stellar vegan food at such an event.


Which is why we're excited to announce that local food purveyors Urban Rustic will be offering up two in-house vegan specials the night of the event—a southern vegan BBQ seitan sandwich with a vegan cole slaw + pickles and an Asian-inspired vegan 'meatball' dish (both pictured below).

For anyone who doesn't already know Urban Rustic, they have a lovely Adirondack-esque, lodge-like space in Williamsburg out of which they serve—among other things—creatively put together sandwiches on house-made breads with farm-fresh ingredients. They also act as the regular food vendors at shows for the Bell House and have graciously agreed to go veg for the night in honor of the great + powerful Moz.

So, as you're tapping your foot or full-on rocking out to the sublime tunes of The Sons & Heirs next Wednesday night, don't forget to venture out to Urban Rustic's booth to enjoy the night's featured edibles. While you're there, be sure to stop by and say hi to our friends from MooShoes, who will be set up right next door with choice animal-friendly wares of their own for sale.

The Find | Found My Animal

You may remember back at the beginning of the year when we announced we had a new hire of the four-legged variety. Owen's certainly earned his keep since, proving his couch-sleeping skills unmatched in the office + warding off telemarketers with a sigh of aloofness when he answers the phone, but, we must be honest with you—the decision to bring Owen on-board was an uncharacteristically hasty one for us. 

Anyone who knows Katie or myself knows that we're both very deliberate in most decisions + very picky, which can often result in exactly zero decisions ever being made. We're working on that, but, to the point, we had talked about bringing a dog into our lives for years. When Katie saw a photo + description of Owen on Facebook ("good with cats"—key) and then we met the fine fellow on the night of New Year's Eve, 2012, we decided to be very un-us and just go for it. Though, to be honest, there was an adjustment period for us—"What does that look mean? Does that mean you have to pee? Are you currently peeing? Do you need four walks a day? Seventy-two?"—we're happy every second of the day that we took the plunge and, as a result, have this wonderful, kind-hearted dog in our lives.

But back to us being über-picky—though the shelter was kind enough to give us a leash when we picked up Owen (seriously—no pet supply stores are open on the morning of New Year's Day)—we quickly became aware that such a dapper fellow needed some equally dapper duds. Plus, you know, he's a dog, so he's basically got one or two things he wears his whole life; may as well make them nice.

But no matter how hard we tried, we just couldn't seem to find a collar or leash to suit our...or more accurately, his fine tastes. I know—overt personification of and public projection onto one's animal companion is not an attractive quality. It's like baby talk; we'll stop. But, suffice to say, he's a handsome fellow + we like to support finely made pretty things.

Which is why we're thankful to have come across Found My Animal, a Brooklyn-based company that creates durable, timeless-looking products for the canine in your life. We absolutely fell in love with their canvas collars + super-strong, marine-grade rope leashes, adorned with solid brass fixtures + versatile clips (pictured above + below). We were impressed with Found's aesthetic and, even more so, its raison d'être, so we thought we'd take a moment to catch up with one of the company's co-founders, Bethany Obrecht (right), to learn more about the idea behind the company + its products.

What inspired you to start Found My Animal?

Co-founder Anna Conway and I are both artists that wanted to help encourage people to adopt animals. Anna was first inspired by a family member working as a fisherman, and she made her rescue pup the very first 3-strand, hand-spliced and whipped rope leash back in 2006. Nothing like it existed in the market, so by 2007, Found My Animal got started making the same unique nautical leads for our customers.

Why was making adopted animals a focus important to you? Clearly you could have left that part out of the branding/mission and opened the products up to a lot more customers.

Anna and I are both die hard animal lovers. That love for animals was the foundation that started our lasting friendship and partnership. We both have fostered countless animals in need. We basically thought that if we created a brand around the idea of making animal adoption the right thing to do, and cool, people would follow.

That is truly excellent. Your leash and collars are so beautifully designed, we honestly feel like we're strutting Owen (our dog) around in the equivalent of doggie bling, in a really awesome way. Was playing up the company name—and thus adoption mission—with the tags and bright brass intentional in the design?

The brass tags represent our following. They were an integral part of the design of the leash, to keep count of the animals that were being FOUND and saved.

Very nice idea behind the brand. How are the stamped numbers on the tags significant?

The individually-numbered, stamped tags on each FOUND leash serve as a reminder of the uniqueness of your animal and allow us to keep track of the number of animals you have helped so far.

And how did the new hand-dyed ombre line come about?

We thought that dye would react beautifully with 100% US cotton rope. We did a few tests and came up with the Ombre—it's so natural and chic.

Agreed. Finally, any chance you'd do a solid black canvas collar in the future? We think it'd look STUNNING on our fellow….

Sure we can make you one!

Suhweeeeeeet!

Visit Found My Animal's site to learn more about their mission, see more images of their work, and check out their full range of expanding products for your favorite dog-breathed friend.

Pictured below, their adjustable black leash + Owen posing in his black watch plaid collar in the studio. Photo of Bethany with Claude and Henri at Found My Animal’s studio in Bed Stuy by Tre Cassetta.

The Song | Kisses

It's no secret that, of late, many indie bands have been looking back to 80's popular new wave for inspiration. Call it dream pop or chillwave or whatever you like—the similarities in sound + style are pretty undeniable. The trick if you're going to do this, of course, is throwing in a new twist so you're not just regurgitating what some of us are old enough to have heard the first go 'round.

Lately, we're hearing a few good takes on this sound coming out of LA. There's Sky Ferreira, who we wrote up a few weeks back (and, yes, now lives in NYC, but whatevs), then there's Los Angeles' Kisses, made up of duo Jesse Kivel (right) + Zinzi Edmundson (left). And yeah, right? Zinzi's an awesome name. Well-played, Zinzi's parents!

We enjoyed the band's 2010 debut, The Heart of The Nightlife, but we couldn't quite get past the overly 80's pop facade. Maybe we've changed, maybe they have, or maybe we've been LA-brain-washed, but we're feeling the band's follow-up, Kids in LA (out tomorrow).

Where Nightlife hooked us every now + then with some solid song-writing, the end sound was just a little too hollow + uncertain as to what it wanted to be, especially in the percussion department. And, whereas Kids is no less 80's-sinpired—it may be even more so—it seems to have fully embraced its own sound and, overall, feels more full in sound + fully developed in song-writing. From the album bio:

"Kids In LA is a departure from the luminosity of their first album, focusing instead on the starker wintertime in Southern California. While The Heart of the Nightlife took listeners on a neon-hued journey through Palm Springs at peak vacation season, Kids in LA inverts that thematic motif, opting to explore the empty and slightly-haunted off-season of the vacation world. The glimmering parties and easy social experiences of the first album make way for the disquieting stillness and vacuous silences of abandoned beach chairs, covered pools, and peeling wallpaper."

Fair enough, but their wintertime is like our early summer. I bet there's not a frost warning there tonight.

Listen to "Hardest Part" from Kids in LA (below) + see if it leaves you feeling cold. If not, check it out on iTunes or pre-order the vinyl + (yes) band-sanctioned Hawaiian shirts from Kisses' label, Cascine. The band is on tour now, playing San Francisco tomorrow night followed by a few more western destinations before jaunting over to Japan + then coming full-circle—I assume? I don't know how planes work—to play Brooklyn's very own Cameo Gallery during the Northside Festival next month. You can see their full show listing on the band's Facebook page.

Top photo by David Kitz; photo below by David Studarus.

At Last I Am Born | Moz Birthday Gift Set no. 3

Alright, Reader, this is our third + final giveaway leading up to At Last I Am Born—the show at we're sponsoring at Brooklyn's Bell House next Wednesday.

Last week's Moz Birthday Gift Set went to Ms. Kim Seventeen, who won a whole wealth of animal-friendly, Morrisey-approved goods, from cookbooks to gourmet spreads to a spa treatment. Congrats, Kim! Enjoy!

This week, we're finishing things off in in style with some more help from our very kind friends.

Again, all you need to do to be entered is buy a ticket to the show before this Friday. If you've already ordered tickets to the show, you've automatically been entered in this drawing, so no worries! We'll randomly chose a winner from all the pre-sale ticket buyers (minus the two who've already won) this Friday at, say, noon or so.

This week's giveaway includes:

• A beautiful waxed canvas motorcycle jacket from Vaute Couture, NYC's independent fashion house devoted to developing apparel + fabrics that are better than wearing animals ever could be (NOTE: the winner will contacted via email + asked to chose men's or women's jacket (each pictured above) + jacket sizing);

•Two more cookbooks from authors Terry Hope Romero + Isa Chandra Moskowitz—co-authors of vegan cooking bible, Veganomicon—the oh-so-sweet Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World + Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar;

• Another $25 gift certificate from award-winning Boerum Hill medi-spa, Tres Belle, who offers environmentally + animal-friendly skincare treatments;

• A final copy of the premiere issue of Laika Magazine—the new vegan lifestyle magazine;

• And a final gift certificate for a dinner box from Monk's Meats—New York's seitan specialists—that's good for one ready-to-eat dinner like the one pictured below, including truffled house-made seitan, mashed potatoes with wild ramps, + sautéed local greens.

Buy your tickets now + get those fingers crossed. And if you haven't yet checked them out, watch The Sons & Heirs—who will be performing at the show—play their spot-on version of "This Charming Man" below.

The Find | The Shout Out Louds Speed Date in LA

I know—we can't stop talking about LA, can we?

But check out this cute video of speed-dating dance parties for a track from Sweden's Shout Out Louds new one, Optica. From the band's frontman, Adam Olenius:

“In Sweden, to get 25 people to dance and act or even show up for a video shoot or anything in that area you have to buy them copious amounts of booze and lure them with money. In LA, the city of dreams, they show up for nothing and shimmer!”

Oh, LA.

You can stream Optica in its entirety over on the site of the band's label, Merge.

The Find | MoMA's Rain Room

This Sunday, New York's Museum of Modern Art premieres Rain Room, a large-scale interactive field of falling water that pauses whenever a human body is detected, allowing you to—yes—control the rain. Like a shaman in Midtown.

Rain Room was created by London's rAndom International, a studio that designs artworks and installations to explore behavior + interaction, often using light + movement, as with Fly—which used eight cables to move the abstract representation of a fly with "a unique and autonomous algorithm, accurately simultating the observed behaviour of real flies"—and their various temporary printing + graffiti techniques.

Rain Room is part of MoMA's EXPO 1: New York, a group of exhibits + events meant to explore the ecological challenges we face as a civilization today in the context of the existing economic + socio-political issues. EXPO 1 will take over the whole of MoMA's PS1 this summer as well as space at MoMA, even making an appearance out in Rockaway Beach. Stay tuned to the EXPO 1 site for more details.

Rain Room made it's world premiere at England's Barbican Centre last year, but this will be it's first appearance stateside as MoMA hosts the exhibit from Sunday, May 12 to July 28 this year in the west lot of the museum.

So anticipate many shouts of "I'M GONNA MAKE IT RAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIN UP IN HERE" echoing through Midtown this summer. Er, maybe "...MAKE IT NOT RAIN EXACTLY WHERE I'M STANDING"?

You can see a video of Rain Room at Barbican Centre below. Video + photos courtesy of the artist.

At Last I Am Born | Moz Birthday Gift Set no. 2

Like we announced last week, leading up to At Last I Am Born—the show at Brooklyn's Bell House that we're sponsoring in honor of Morrissey's birthday with The Sons & Heirs—we're celebrating three weeks of giveaways from some of our favorite animal-friendly establishments. 

Last week's Moz Birthday Gift Set went to one Mr. John Gazley, who, in addition to experiencing a rollicking good time in a couple weeks, will now also be receiving a bevy of vegan + veg-friendly products just for buying a ticket to the show.

We have two more drawings coming up—our final one, next week which we'll announce next Monday, and this week's, which features a couple awesome cookbooks from one of our favorite cookbook authors, some animal-friendly pampering products + services, + some delectable vegan eats (see below).

Again, all you need to do to be entered is buy a ticket to the show before we're done with the drawings at the end of next week. If you're planning on attending, it's what one would call a "no-brainer"—order tickets now + you'll be entered into this week's + next week's drawings.

This week's giveaway includes:
• Not one but TWO cookbooks—Viva Vegan! +  the recent collection of international recipes, Vegan Eats World—from author Terry Hope Romero, co-author of vegan cooking bible, Veganomicon (we interviewed Terry on the occasion of her publishing of Viva Vegan! back in 2010 if you care to read it);
• A $25 gift certificate from award-winning Boerum Hill medi-spa, Tres Belle, who offers environmentally + animal-friendly skincare treatments;
• The Beard + Body Brick—a natural black pepper + geranium soap from 100% vegan NYC clothier + groomer Brave Gentleman;
• Gourmet spreads from Brooklyn-based Regal Vegan + a Regal Vegan tee shirt;

• Another copy of the premiere issue of Laika Magazine—the brand new vegan lifestyle magazine;

• And a gift certificate for a dinner box from Monk's Meats—New York's seitan specialists—that's good for one ready-to-eat dinner like the one pictured below, including truffled house-made seitan, mashed potatoes with wild ramps, + sautéed local greens.

Buy your tickets now and see you at the show!

The Song | Lewis Watson

Listening to twenty-year-old self-taught British singer/songwriter, Lewis Watson, many musicians (your writer included) may initially have a reaction akin to that of Doogie Howser's older counterparts. Something along the lines of 'How the hell is this kid so good/what have I done with my life?'

Poor other doctors.

Watson's endearing, beautifully delicate music makes it pretty easy to come to terms with one's own antiquated feelings of inadequacy though. His soulful vocals and stripped-down, rootsy, guitar-based songs strike an affecting balance between subtle R+B and your traditional emotive new folk that easily pulls you in as a listener.

Though Watson's now on the British imprint of a major label, he rose to prominence through what's now become a fairly familiar method—posting videos of himself covering other people's music on YouTube, gaining particular recognition for his cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car".

Listen to the almost-title lead track from his new EP, The Wild, "Into the Wild" below and then download another wonderful cover he's recorded—"Hold On" originally by London-based electronic artist, SBTRKT.

You can also check out his video for "Into the WIld" below and purchase his new EP digitally on iTunes or head to Watson's site to order signed CDs + vinyl.

Listen to more music on Watson's SoundCloud page.

Top photo by Josh Shinner; live photo below by Sarah Louise Bennett.

Journal of the Movement of the World

We just posted some new work to our site, including ads for Park Slope, Brooklyn's Garfield Realty, new shopping totes for MooShoes, and the newly designed quarterly newsletters for Pittsburgh's Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens (above). Check them out when you get a chance.

At Last I Am Born | Moz Birthday Gift Set no. 1

As we announced last month, we're sponsoring a celebration of Morrissey's birthday May 22 with At Last I Am Born, a show at Brooklyn's Bell House with New York's premiere tribute to The Smiths + Morrissey, The Sons & Heirs.

In honor of Morrissey's outspoken vegetarianism + stances on animal rights issues, we at raven + crow studio are helping to make the whole affair as animal-friendly as possible. And we're getting some help from our friends on that front.

We'll talk more about the food options for the night in the coming weeks, but, first, we want to announce Moz's Birthday Gifts—three weeks of animal-friendly giveaways from event sponsors. Starting this week and following suit in the next two weeks before the show, we'll announce a collection of gifts from vegan and/or animal-friendly establishments each Monday. A winner will then be randomly chosen from the list of pre-sale ticket buyers and announced on the following Friday, starting this Friday, May 3.

All you need to do is buy a ticket to the show. Thinking of going? May as well buy your ticket now and have the chance to win some awesome stuff. This week's giveaway includes:
• A $50 gift card to NYC's very own MooShoes—who offers the largest variety of animal-friendly shoes and accessories in the world—and one of their hot-off-the-presses new shopping totes (designed by *ahem* us);
• Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar—the stellar cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz + Terry Hope Romero that includes 100 dairy-free cookie recipes and is signed by Isa;
• The premiere issue of Laika Magazine—the brand new vegan lifestyle magazine;
• And a gift certificate for a dinner box from Monk's Meats—New York's seitan specialists—that'll include a delectable main dish + sides (we'll have pics soon).

The earlier you buy your ticket, the better—everyone who already has a ticket is automatically included in the drawing and, if you don't win this week, you might next week or the week after. So why wait? WHY‽

Buy your tickets now. And we'll see you there.

Stay tuned to this space Friday to find out who this week's winner is and we'll let you know what we're giving away next week on Monday. Best of luck, Reader!