i’ve been a mite distracted for the past few weeks, too busy and preoccupied to unleash my rambling monologues on the latitudes and slightly bereft of thrilling new music to send your way, but its the freaking weekend (as i believe r. kelly once put it) and though the weather seems set to take a turn for the wetter here in the megalopolis, this bank holiday has a birthday party per day ratio which is making my liver wince.

so a word about the fantastic picture of chinese new year above.

as part of our limited and new editions, a very good, though very distant friend of the latitudes, oak (yep, that’s really his name, kids) will be posting occasional shots from his stomping ground, beijing. a much missed friend of mine, he’s a supertalented photographer and london/norfolk native who relocated to china and is enjoying the life of a creative ex-pat amongst the hysterical expansion and terrific velocity of China’s most happening city.

wallpaper* magazine recently commissioned him to capture the city’s must-see sites for their terrific city guides series and his beautiful prints are in demand amongst the best arti-stocracy, which is why we’re awful pleased that the great firewall of china’ll grant him leave to send some of his stunning images our way every once in a while. keep watching our skies for regular posts of great beauty.

and for the rest of your weekend, here’s a song which i’m posting for no other reason than that i’ve had it on repeat all day, just the ticket for any kind of weather (or hemisphere) it’s got the catchiest choruses and makes me dance in my swivel chair. oddly becoming one of our most blogged bands, and once more displaying david byrne’s genius (see below for the jezzy endorsement and here for jaksoul’s kudos) its talking heads - and she was.