For those of us who will never own a beach house, there is the music of Beach House.

Boasting beautiful melodies over boat moorage, the Baltimore band with a vixen voiced, French-born female lead recently released its third album, Teen Dream, and since then we haven’t stopped playing it. We suggest snatching up tickets now to see the duo at the Rickshaw Theatre next month before they graduate to bigger venues.

You’ll find us front and centre singing along to “Zebra” with a summery Corona in hand.

Tickets $16 at Ticketmaster. Beach House, April 11, 2010, Rickshaw Theatre, 254 E. Hastings, Vancouver, www.rickshawtheatre.com

You don’t need a DeLorean to return to 1969 and rub shoulders with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.  Just travel the pages of Patti Smith’s Just Kids.

In the autobiographical book, the poet and “Godmother of Punk” speaks of her life as lover, muse and friend to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. As a struggling artist in New York City during the Chelsea Hotel’s heyday, Smith recounts her meetings with the rising stars of rock, writing and film now rooted in our cultural lexicon.

From Allen Ginsberg mistaking her for a boy to her affair with a young Sam Shepard, it’s like vintage Page Six made into beautiful prose.

$25.60 at Book Warehouse, www.bookwarehouse.ca

For athletes, losing a race by a tenth of a second isn’t pretty. But for art collectors, a split-second finish is pretty in paint.

Drawing inspiration from Olympic competition, Toronto artist Anda Kubis has turned the canvas into a kind of TV screen that captures the swift blur of bodies striving to beat the clock. Like a Monet for the digital age, she uses bright streaks of oil paint to freeze frame an abstract moment in time. So it’s apropos that she should show her work here in Vancouver during the Games.

If only the agony of defeat looked this beautiful.

On now until March 13, 2010 at Elissa Cristall Gallery, 2245 Granville St., Vancouver, 604-730-9611, www.cristallgallery.com

All those years watching Footloose, Flashdance and Fame shouldn’t go to waste. But before you sign-up for So You Think You Can Dance, give your blue suede shoes a dry run at Dance Marathon.

Part performance and part participation, the event concocted by an East Coast theatre collective tips it fedora to the 1930s by transforming The Roundhouse Community Centre into a Great Depression-era dance hall. A live band plays, while audience members in numbered pinnies compete to be the last dancers standing.

Unfortunately, you won’t get a scream from Mary Murphy when you’ve won, but it’s probably better that way.

Dance Marathon, February 9-13, 2010 at the Roundhouse Community Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, tickets $30 at www.brownpapertickets.com

If your idea of making a playlist is selecting “shuffle,” we can do you one better.

Providing maximum music with minimal effort is Slacker Personal Radio. Now available in Canada, the subscription-based site offers a slew of stations for whatever genre tickles your eardrum. Choose from the likes of indie hits, hip-hop, '60s rock, or create a custom station based on your favourite bands. And unlike average radio, you can skip to the next song, hear songs you’d like played more often, or ban songs you never want to hear again. With Blackberry and iPhone apps available too, you can take your tunes to go.

If only that slacker boyfriend catered to your every whim this way.

From $3.99 per month at www.slacker.com

Our favourite avant-garde performing arts festival is back to bring us wackiness and wonder before the Winter Games descend. Herewith, our pick of the PuSh Festival plays:

The Show Must Go On
In the new SFU Woodward’s building, 20 Vancouver locals bring to life Parisian choreographer Jérôme Bel’s signature work, which The New York Times called “sly, witty, joyous fun.”

Nevermore
Like the sell-out production of Frankenstein Edmonton’s Catalyst Theatre staged two years ago, their magical and macabre portrait of Edgar Allan Poe promises to be an awe-inspiring spectacle.

Best Before
The theatre transforms into a virtual world where audience members with game controllers have avatars that affect the action in this premiere piece from provocative Berlin company Rimini Protokoll.

The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival runs January 20 to February 6, 2010, for more information visit www.pushfestival.ca

Our fashion resolution is to embolden our closet of basics with uncommon accoutrements and we’ve found the funkiest little web shop to get us started.

It’s called Bona Drag, after a Polari phrase popularized by Morrissey that means “nice outfit,” and it’s stocked with cool curios. We gravitated towards goods like printed wool cloaks by Lindsay Thornburg ($900), patterned knit stirrups by Mara Hoffman ($110) and unconventional chain jewellery by Bliss Lau (from $158).

There’s also an adorable pair of studded Capezio ballet slippers ($48, pictured) on the site that’s begging to be a DIY project.

www.bonadrag.com

Historically, the first month of the year marks a low note for new music releases, which means our boom box plays like a broken record. But that was the Noughties and we’re in a new decade where good discs rush right out of the starting gate.

The first is Vampire Weekend’s Contra. Out today, the shiny, happy album is the auditory equivalent to an amphetamine. Lead singer Ezra Koenig’s Paul Simon-like tenor combined with afro-beats and peppy percussion banished our winter blues on the spot.

Contra ($9.99) at iTunes.

We’ve never been terribly fond of math, but culture math is another story. For instance: New Year + cold weather = cool new music.

And the recent record we’ve got on repeat is our girl crush Charlotte Gainsbourg’s latest, IRM. Written and produced by Beck, the album is decidedly more alt than her last, and here Beck’s electronic eclecticism and quirky percussion lends itself well to Charlotte’s breathy vocals. Case in point, the title track, short for "Imagerie par résonance magnétique," which we know as MRI in English, incorporates Charlotte’s crooning over the pulsating sounds of a medical machine and drumbeats. It sounds weird, but it works.

The rest of the rhythms that fuse French and English, including a cover of the French Canadian Jean-Pierre Ferland’s song “Le chat du café des artistes,” are par excellence.

$16.99 at HMV, www.hmv.ca

Grab a glass of wine and a spot by the fireplace—these are winter reads worth staying in for.

Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelseaby Chelsea Handler
Comedian Chelsea Handler’s star has risen this year, and her hilarious and outrageous collection of personal essays has her deadpan delivery of intelligence, wit and bawdiness—it’s a perfect dose of Chelsea for those who can’t stay up late enough to watch her talk show. At Amazon.ca.
Maria Tallarico, managing editor

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
It sounds like the ultimate Slacker’s Handbook, but it’s a great, practical guide for the self-employed (or would-be self-employed) on how to run a more efficient and profitable business while you work hard-on your tan! At Chapters.ca
Sarah Bancroft, editor-in-chief

Foam on the Daze by Boris Vian
A moving tale of unrequited love—simply sublime! Published in 1947, one of the Parisian author's only translated books. At Amazon.ca. Elsa Vecchi, Montreal editor, French edition

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Set aside a weekend for this book. From celebrated Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson, it is so gripping you won’t be able to put it down. At Chapters.ca
Athena Tsaviliris, Toronto editor

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Niffenegger’s spooky sophomore novel is a meaty ghost story about sisters, twinship, love and loss. Perfect for tucking up under the duvet on a cold winter’s night. At Amazon.ca.
Marianne Wisenthal, Montreal editor

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
In this literary mash-up, Austen’s beloved cast of characters is faced with an outbreak of undead (politely referred to as “unmentionables”) in addition to the usual courtship and classism. Natalie Portman just signed on to produce and star in the film adaption. At Chapters.ca.
Joy Pecknold, Vancouver editor

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
by Rebecca Miller
Stuck between her former self and the woman she created, the protagonist is forced to examine her life and decide how to move forward. Miller, the daughter of the famed playwright and wife of our favourite butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis) adapted the novel into a star-studded movie this year but it’s a case of read-the-book-before-you-see-the-movie. At Amazon.ca.
Malwina Gudowska, Calgary editor