BANT ASKS THOMAS KIMMERLIN

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What is your occupation/position?

Daylight: Business manager for the Economic development agency of Lille (3rd main French city after Paris and Lyon. Sitting on the French-Belgium border).

Moonlight: Digital mighty Tom, photographer (www.kimmerlin.com), heavy reader, spiritual wannabe, jungle.ist

Where is your neighborhood? What’s the best thing to do on a Sunday afternoon there?

Old city part of Lille. The only hood with access to water. Old docks of my city. Considering some other cities, my neighborhood would be “Le Marais” in Paris (for the trendy bars and shops) or Cihangir x Ortakoy in Istanbul!

Sunday afternoon? Lying on the grass in front of the water, with a spl*ff, a bottle of wine, a book or friends. Or play basketball on the local playground, the best in the city center, nearby the hookers territory…

Do you read the local paper everyday?

Yes, but only if my boss hasn’t read it in the toilet yet

What is your guilty pleasure in music?

BASSLINE!!!

BANT ASKS WILLISTON HAYES

What is your occupation?
Hardware Developer

What is charming about your neighborhood, where you live?
The nicest thing about my neighborhood, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is that there is a building inhabited by many artists and designers which is also used as a cultural center.  There are often concerts, dj nights, and design and art exhibitions, all of which are free of charge.  There’s even an organic vegetarian restaurant in the building to boot. http://tac.nu

Are there websites-blogs you visit everyday?
Being a hardware junkie I typically read engadget.com and arstechnica.com
For my culture and randomness fix I head to kuro5hin.org

What is the best album to hear on a lazy sunday afternoon?
Guided By Voices - Alien Lanes definitely does it for me, a bit mellow and detached.

What is your guilty pleasure in music?
I’d have to say my biggest guilty pleasure is Outkast - Hey Ya! Whenever I hear this song I get super happy.
BANT ASKS NIELS KRISTIAN ERIKSEN

What is your occupation?
I’m a musician, composer, producer, janitor, handling art. . .(wrapping very expensive art in bubble plast and various other materials while important international people are looking over your shoulder making sure nothing happens to the art)

What is the best thing to do in your neighborhood, where you live on a sunday afternoon?
I’m in Copenhagen and I like to take a walk with a good friend, if we come by some water or a bridge it is fine, maybe eat some good food, or just sit on a bench looking at everything and nothing.

Are there websites-blogs you visit everyday?
I check my email every day if im near my computer. Otherwise i sometimes check www.dba.dk (a second hand site for almost everything you can imagen, but only stuff from danes, and its in danish), www.dmi.dk (the danish national weather forecast site. . . just to see if they are wrong or if there is something unusually), various news sites to be updated on what goes on with disasters around the world, www.myspace.com (to find new music, or music i know and dont have, and to see if anyone listens to my bands music)

What is your guilty pleasure in music ?
Im almost 30 now, and i really dont have any issues about music anymore. Some i like, some i dont. When i was younger, i could think really bad things about other musicians or their music, if i did not like their work. Now a days i just dont care about the bad stuff. I try to focus on what makes my own better. I think i realized at some point, that it did not give me anything but a waste of energy.

BANT ASKS TOMMI LAITIO

What is your occupation?
Researcher, Concept Designer (www.argumentti.com)

What are the websites/blogs you visit everyday?
http://www.hs.fi
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.good.is
http://www.zephoria.org
http://demos.fi
http://makenubs.wordpress.com
http://kiplekker.blogspot.com (my own…)
http://deceptivecadence.wordpress.com

Do you read the local paper everyday?
Yes, mostly during breakfast or if I need to be somewhere by 9.30, I
glance it through in the tram. Skip the sports pages every day.

What’s the best thing to do around your neighborhood on a sunday afternoon?
Picnic up at Torkkelinmäki park, brunch at Villipuutarha (http://www.villipuutarha.fi/) or Siltanen (http://www.siltanen.org), go for a bike ride following the coastline of Helsinki.

BANT ASKS FRANCES MORGAN

What is your occupation/position?
I am the publisher of Plan B magazine, which is a monthly magazine based in London. I also work as a freelance writer for The Quietus, Frieze and New Statesman.

Are there websites/blogs you visit everyday?
I help run the Plan B site, so I have to visit that! www.planbmag.com I also look on facebook, but am trying not to spend too much time on there…There are some music and culture blogs and sites I check most days, here’s a short list:
Just heard about this new blog, which is fantastic: erudite music writing and a great dancehall mix! http://musik-line.blogspot.com/
The Quietus is a pretty good new webzine - I write for it so I have to say that, but there’s a lot of dark humour and knowledgable writing to be found there: thequietus.com
Jessica Hopper - one of Plan B’s writers - writes about music and feminist issues here: tiny.abstractdynamics.org
Stewart Voetglin runs this metal blog that I love, I think he’s funny and knowledgeable and just probably my favourite metal journalist: www.thelefthandpath.com
Strange Attractor is essential for keeping up to date with countercultural stuff - weird music, weird science, unpopular culture in general! www.strangeattractor.co.uk/further
I like listening to mixes on Allez-Allez’s site, which is run by the DJ team Allez-Allez, Sam Willis and Steve Nolan http://www.allez-allez.co.uk/
Also DJ/Rupture is inspiring: http://www.negrophonic.com/

Do you read the local paper everyday?
I read the Guardian every day, which isn’t local as much as national. Local press in London is odd, but I am interested in it, because otherwise it’s very easy to forget you’re living in a specific area of London and that area has issues and events going on that you don’t necessarily know about if you work in central London, as I do.

What’s charming in where you live, your neighborhood?
I recently moved up to south Tottenham, north London, which a lot of people think is a rough area - but they should come and visit! It is a deprived part of London but there is a lot of green space, amazing food and - like most parts of London - a constantly changing environment of sights and sounds. I live in an industrial building that at the moment is infested with mice, but there’s a lot of space to play music, and I am hoping more people will move to the area and set up similar buildings. It’s one of the few cheap places in London right now!

Just down the road is Stoke Newington and Dalston, which are good places for seeing bands at Bardens, Ryan’s Bar, Cafe Oto and the Vortex - but just as importantly, for eating Turkish food! There are fantastic supermarkets and restaurants there. I wish that there were more venues that played Turkish music, or that had more crossovers between English and Turkish music - it seems a shame when there is a such a big Turkish community there that there isn’t more integration.

I think every part of London develops its own scene, which is why London is such an interesting place to live - it’s fascinating watching it change so much, and especially in north/east London it’s changing super-fast.

BANT ASKS KRISTA SCHMIDT

What is your occupation/position?
International Director  at Touch and Go Records

Where is your neighborhood? What is charming about it?
My neighborhood is called Lincoln Square. It’s on the north side of Chicago. Lincoln Square is actually quite charming. It used to be an old German neighborhood, so there are still many old German pubs and stores that still exist. It’s a very quaint neighborhood filled with people from all walks of life. It is almost like a town within the city. We have our own local movie theatre, fantastic restaurants, a music school called Old Town Folk Music, local record store, a public  library, parks and great shops.

Do you read the local paper everyday?
I have to admit I do not. I’m not a big fan of our local papers. I tend to be a Huffington Post junkie. I also am a big fan of our local public radio station NPR.

What’s the best vacation spot for you?
The best vacation spot would be somewhere I’ve never been before. I love to travel and discover new places. Be it a big city or a small village on the sea. I love to learn about different cultures and meet new people.

If you were to prepare a gift mix for your friend now, which song would this mix start with?
I would have to say either “In My Favour” -  Katie Stelmanis. Although it’s a bit dramatic. But I love her music so much, sort of has a Kate Bush vibe. If I wanted to be less dramatic maybe and it was for a love interest maybe “Undecided” by the Australian 60s group The Masters Apprentices, “I Can’t Control Myself” by The Troggs. This is a tough question! I suppose it would depend on the person.