Semi-conspicuous consumption

WE ASSUME, DEAR READER, that you already have taste and personality and that you don't rebuild your identity daily out of fashions worn, bands supported, or art ogled. So accept our tips in the casual spirit in which they are given.

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ON/OFF

A light switch is a light switch, until TOBIAS WONG gets his hands on it. The New York-based design troublemaker has, in the past, dipped a chandelier in white rubber to make a paradoxically indelicate dub version and fashioned a bulletproof corsage with ballistic nylon. Wong's new Light Switch, a limited edition from New York design manufacturer Areaware, is the mother of all switches, plated in 14k gold and displayed in a clear Lucite box. The switch actually operates a remote outlet plug wirelessly from up to 100 feet away. So there is some sort of bigger turn-on than just looking at it. More info at areaware.com--FAN ZHONG

GENERATIONAL

Jesus was 33 when he died, which, as everyone knows, is well over-the-hill in a youth-hungry art-meets-fashion world. Nonetheless, "Younger Than Jesus" is the title of the first incarnation of the NEW MUSEUM's "The Generational" triennial series, on view April 8-June I4. Culled from a worldwide search, 50 artists from 25 countries will test the hypothesis that something meaningful connects people born after 1976--something more than having a Facebook account, that is. More info at newmuseum.org--ALEX GARTENFELD

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MILEAGE

Between New York and Berlin are some 4,000 miles, or, by Pati Hertling's count, 34 artists. The 31-year-old German curator of the "modern modern" show, opening April I7 at the CHELSEA ART MUSEUM in New York, moved from Berlin to New York in 2007, and all but two of the 34 artists in her show live in one--or both--of those cities. "New York gets more done," she says. "Berlin doesn't like responsibility--it prefers the bohemian life." But she admits neither city would, or could, be the same without the other. Hertling's show charts modern modernism through emotional rather than technical currents, which sounds a lot like bringing together one big dysfunctional transatlantic family. More info at chelseaartmuseum.org--FZ

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ALTER EGO

On April 6, BAT FOR LASHES lead singer Natasha Khan will unveil both the band's sophomore full-length album, Two Suns (Astralwerks), and her alter ego, "Pearl"--the "destructive, self-absorbed foil to Khan's more mystical, spiritual self." (Think Sasha Fierce, but dressed in feathers, face paint, and fur). Who knows how involved Pearl was in the conception of Two Suns, but the final product hasn't suffered for it: Khans haunting, Thom Yorke-coined "sexual ghost" voice glides ethereally through heavy layers of drum and autoharp in such a way that you can't help but suspect she wrote the album after fasting in the desert or going on a vision quest. Maybe Pearl didn't make that trip. More info at batforlashes.com--LUCY MADISON

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NEO-GOTHIC

Innate talent is only part of the equation for Australian jewelry maker JORDAN ASKILL. He committed serious time to honing his skills in recent years as a fashion designer for Ksubi and for Dior Homme. This season he presents his first artisanal collection, focusing symbolically on a rose, a boy, and a bird--all made from gold, some studded with hidden gemstones. Each of Askill's trinkets is loaded with gothic metaphor: The bird pendant, for instance, hangs upside down, like a bat. In Paris you can find Askill's work at the Rick Owens boutique--a perfect goth fit. More info at askillprojects .com--AG

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MAKE ME OVER

When DOLCE & GABBANA decide to break into the beauty industry, they don't just make some makeup--they make the makeup. And they get the makeup artist--Pat McGrath--to help them dream it into existence. The resulting collection, The Make Up, includes all manner of liners, shadows, bronzers, and lipsticks, and combines Dolce & Gabbana's sense of luxurious quality with McGrath's batch of innovative know-how. Topping off the Dolce dream team are Solve Sundsbo, who photographed the advertising campaign, and Scarlett Johansson, who was shot wearing the many colors of the collection. More info at dolcegabbana .com--LM

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REDUX

In 1968, JAMES TOBACK's wife of less than a year left him. Distraught, he called up JIM BROWN--the most physically dominant running back of all time--whom he'd met only two days earlier while in L.A. profiling the former football pro for a magazine story. Jim and Jim bonded. Toback moved into J.S.'s Hollywood house and ran fast with J.B.'s circle. The fiercely honest story of this time--Jim: The Author's Self-Centered Memoir on the Great Jim Brown--was originally published in 197I but has been revived by Rat Press. With numerous films under Toback's belt since, including his recent penetrating documentary on Mike Tyson, the 64-year-old filmmaker has clearly spent a lifetime illuminating the psyches of powerful black men--often athletes who moved fast in sport and in life. More info at ratpress .com--FZ