They’re new but you’d never know it.

No Sinner hasn’t even release their EP yet (it’ll drop in March) and already they seem poised for great things. Led by a husky-voiced powerhouse of a lead singer, their sound is big, blues-y, and Janis Joplin-esque. In fact, you’d never guess No Sinner was from Vancouver, until you watched the video for “Boo Hoo Hoo” which features one of the city’s most famous landmarks: the Waldorf Hotel. And speaking ofVancouver’s iconic landmarks, No Sinner is playing the Biltmore on Friday.

Can’t say no to that. —Kelsey Dundon

No Sinner, Friday, February 3rd at the Biltmore, tickets ($10) at www.ticketweb.ca

Buh-bye rabbit! It's the start of Chinese New Year and 2012 is the year of the Dragon.

We’ll harness its power and wear not one, but two of these fire-breathing creatures around our wrist. Made of woven leather and sterling silver, this Thomas Sabo bracelet is weighty enough to wear on its own, and rock ‘n’ roll enough to pair with a few of our favourite bangles and friendship-style bracelets.

Looks like it’s going to be a good year. —Kelsey Dundon

Sterling silver and leather bracelet $489 at Thomas Sabo, Oakridge Centre, 650 W. 41 Ave., Vancouver, 604-263-722, www.thomassabo.com

Sometimes it is good to be bad, especially as interpreted through the artistic eye of Mandy Stobo.

The Calgary-based painter’s Bad Portrait Project has her busting out her watercolours to whip up a rendering of anyone who is interested. Send a photo of your face to Stobo and she’ll interpret it into a bright and blurry portrait that looks a little like you and a lot like art. She posts the pics on Twitter and Facebook and you can buy your original for $100.

Bad can be beautiful. —Jaelyn Molyneux

www.badportraitproject.com

The only thing we love more than creeping through open houses? Creeping through open studios. During the Eastside Culture Crawl 337 artists open their spaces to peeping toms like us. These aren’t glossy galleries (though we love those too). These are real, rough-around-the-edges working studios. Our picks:

Katherine Neil
The loose lines and pastel colours of Katherine Neil’s works would look as good in our living room as they do in her live/work space. The ARC, 1701 Powell Street, Suite 708

David J. Robinson
We’ll work our way up to the fourth floor studio of sculptor David J. Robinson, whose insanely detailed worksare eerily beautiful. In fact, you might recognize one of them from Yaletown’s Mainland Street. 1000 Parker St., Suite 440

Union Wood Co.
We can’t wait to get a peek at the birthplace of Union Wood Co.’s rugged, industrial pieces. Although it might be tough to continue the crawl with a gigantic solid wood headboard in tow. 503 Railway Street —Kelsey Dundon

Eastside Culture Crawl, November 18-20, www.eastsideculturecrawl.com

Hold on to your black turtlenecks and horn-rimmed glasses, friends. It’s about to get all artsy-fartsy up in here.

If you’ve seen District 9 or the Chronicles of Narnia, you’re already familiar with his work. Now Vancouver-based sculptor James Stewart, whose pieces are so realistic they veer towards the grotesque, will be exhibiting his latest works Sept. 8th - Oct. 2nd at 5 W. Pender St., Vancouver. —Kelsey Dundon

The Contemporary Art Gallery is celebrating 40 years with an exhibition featuring the work of three artists rarely exhibited in Canada. Corita Kent’s '60s pop art silkscreen prints (pictured) and Thomas Bewick’s wood engraved vignettes will fill the downtown space, while Federico Herrero’s Vibrantes is an outside commission featuring sheets of coloured adhesive vinyl on the front of the building.  Contemporary Art Gallery, 555 Nelson St., Vancouver, www.contemporaryartgallery.ca. Sept. 9th - Oct. 30th. —Alexandra Suhner Isenberg

Dougal Graham’s solo show Only at Night at the Trench Gallery will please the eyes of art and fashion lovers alike. His work, which includes paintings and jewelry, are an investigation into society’s never ending obsession with fashion, the body and the transient material world. Check out our editor’s blog for more images of his paintings and jewelry. Trench Gallery, 102-148 Alexander St., Vancouver, www.trenchgallery.com, Sept 16th - Oct 15th. —Alexandra Suhner Isenberg

We may not be heading to Paris anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean we can immerse ourselves in "La Ville-Lumière," without even leaving the comfort of our couch.

As far as we’re concerned, Midnight in Paris is the movie must-see of the summer. Follow along with Owen Wilson as he meanders through time, partying with F. Scott Fitzgerald and his irrepressible wife, Zelda, pounding back drinks with Ernest Hemmingway, discussing his own literary merit with Gertrude Stein, and savouring the artistic temperament of Salvador Dali, Picasso and Toulouse Lautrec in Woody Allen’s magical tale of self-exploration and discovery.

Having had a taste of Paris in the '20s, turn the pages of The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. Told from the point of view of Ernest Hemmingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson, this beautiful book takes the reader from the initial spark of meeting, to the eventual ashes of their ruined relationship. $18.77 at Amazon.ca

A sojourn in Paris may be no further than the Internet. We get outfit inspiration from Easy Fashion in Paris, filled with eye-catching photos of fashion fresh from the streets of Paris, turn to Meg Zimbeck’s Eating Paris blog for a feast for the eyes, and soak in the life of La Coquette to imagine our parallel life as an expat in Paris. And sometimes we take a peek into the life of our very own Parisienne à Montréal, editor of Vitamine du Jour, Elsa Vecchi.

—Jennifer Nachshen

It seems that Woody Allen had to move away from New York City to get his mojo back. Following his flings in London and Barcelona, Allen set his eyes on Paris in what is essentially a love letter to the city.

Midnight in Paris’ Woody Allen-esque protagonist Gill (Owen Wilson) is a Hollywood writer who longs for the Parisian jazz era. Sans the Delorean but in true Marty McFly style, Gill ends up jumping back and forth between the present and the past, rubbing elbows with Paris’ most colourful citizens like Hemingway, Stein, Picasso and Dalí.

Lit and art history weren’t this entertaining in school. —AG

At Fifth Avenue Cinemas, 2110 Burrard St., Vancouver, www.festivalcinemas.ca and International Village, 88 W. Pender St., Vancouver, www.cineplex.com

Other than style blogs, music blogs may be some of our favourite procrastination enablers. We’d thought we share our top five with you.

Named after a heartbreaker in The Wonder Years, Vancouver darlings Winnie Cooper stay on top of the hippest and freshest things happening in music. Put on your dancing shoes for their DJ nights across town.

If you are searching for your next playlist, look no further than famed Vancouver DJ U-Tern. He posts his original mixtapes and remixes on his blog, One Day Later. They are true gems.

The granddaddy of all music blogs, Pitchfork has a comprehensive online library of record reviews and top 50 lists of the past ten years. Check out their Forkcast for exclusive interviews.

Every hipster’s favourite blog, Gorilla vs. Bear, reports on the latest in indie music. Whatever is new, they get it first. And they’ll even let you have a listen!

The Rub is a renowned DJ crew that have been ruling the NYC party scene for years. Their blog, It's the Rub, shows that they’re not just your regular party machine, but true hip-hop aficionados. They’ve put together a series of “History of Hip-Hop” mixes for each year in the genre’s past, since its birth in 1979. That’s a lot of music.

If you don’t know, now you know. —AG

Some say the best way to cure a Saturday night hangover is to drink more on Sunday. We say sure, with a side of movie matinee.

The Waldorf Hotel’s new admission-by-donation Sunday film series, “Day for Night”, plays a range of eccentric indies, cult classics and art films, with a few NFB shorts to warm-up, in their laid-back lower-level clubhouse. There’s cocktails too. When we went to watch Johnny Depp in Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, Caesars were the popular order.

This weekend, it’s a Valentine’s Day double bill of the Quentin Tarentino-scripted flick True Romance and Terrance Malick’s Badlands. Not your regular romance fare and we like it.

“Day for Night,” Sundays, starting at 3 p.m., The Waldorf Hotel, 1489 E. Hastings St., Vancouver, 604-253-7141, www.waldorfhotel.com

You’ve gleaned all the inspiration you can from the sound of silence. Now tap into the “Sound of Conversation.” 

Wednesday night at the new Satellite Gallery, a 3-in-1 space shared by the Belkin Art Gallery, Museum of Anthropology at UBC and Presentation House Gallery, artists, curators and even a Feng Shui practitioner gather to share seven minute stories from their careers.

The event is in conjunction with their latest exhibit No Windows, which challenged graduate students with achieving the Trading Spaces of art shows—they had two months and a small budget to open an exhibition.

And if that isn’t inspiring, we don’t know what is.

“Sound of Conversation”, 7 p.m.-9 p.m. (view exhibition 6 p.m.-7 p.m.), Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at Satellite Gallery, 560 Seymour St. (2nd floor), Vancouver, 604-681-8425, www.satellitegallery.ca