I’ve been listening to some songs from the Diesel International Music Contest, and I’m enjoying what I’m hearing: a wide array of tracks from unsigned artists, ranging from hip hop, to electronica, to indie. Looks like there’s still time for you musicians out there to enter the judging pool as well. You have until May 13th to join the ‘Cult’ and upload your tracks to be considered. From the perspective of someone who can’t play a lick of music on any instrument, this is at the very least a great place to go to discover some new bands that you may have not heard of yet– for instance, I’m loving Northern Ireland-come-U.K. indie folk band The Sleeping Years.

Humus, an online art magazine created by Mirko Filippi and Luca Masini, takes an arms open approach when collecting materials for each new issue. Instead of recruiting submissions from well-known artists, humus asks for absolutely anyone to send in work to be considered for publication, thereby granting artists in both remote and urban locations all over the world equal opportunity for exposure. Of course, Humus reserves the right to use only what they like, but it does seem like they do a great job of equally representing a wide variety of mediums and artistic styles in each issue. The creators of Humus like to say that it is a territory where images, creativity, thoughts and expressions have no border line or demarcation line, and that is reflected in the sometimes uncomfortable images and words that can be found in the pages of the magazine. Ultimately, though, the dark is well balanced with the light, and the resulting publications are genuine and beautiful. I love this image is from one of Humus’s older issues, but you can see the latest (as well as the previous eight issues) on the Humus site.

We’re JB Classics lovers over here, that’s no secret. We’re impressed with how the each designer handles the entire scope of the production process– from concept, to development, to the marketplace. They’ve been up to some mad science over in the Lab lately, especially Miss Mdot, with her insane contribution to the upcoming female / cross gender line you see here: the JB Peddler- Chromeos. Mdot is making a strong statement with these puppies, a refreshing thing to see amongst an industry traditionally dominated by her male counterparts. To get into her head to see exactly what she was thinking when she dreamt up these sneakers, read the recent interview Nitrolicious did with her .

Not to be outdone by my AB Fits post yesterday, my Austin peeps have chimed in with their favorite denim bar. Austin’s Hem Jeans is truly “A Denim Bar for Jeanaholics.” I would love to list all of the brands of denim they carry, but I think my fingers would melt. At Hem, you are going to get one-on-one customer service, free wine and/or beer while you shop, flat screens (so you can watch that UT football game that you skipped to go buy jeans), and in-house alterations for you short people out there. Loree and Aimee Lindgren, Seattle natives who know the importance of denim (see, e.g. Grunge Era), pooled their talents in 2005 to open Hem– the first denim bar to grace the laid back yet hip Texas alcove that is Austin. They get an A+ in the website category (even nailed the music), but it looks like Loree needs to brush up on the ‘cuts of meat’ category– click the “as see on TV” link on their site to see what I mean– she had a funny little run-in with David Letterman.