Flush Magazine Issue #2 by Flush Magazine

2 CULTURE

MUSIC

FASHION

TECH

Mike Shine: Mephisto Waltz

Lemolo: Seattle Scene Stealers

Serkan Cura and Malene Oddershede Bach

Two Weeks With Diablo III

WIN! FL Studio & Deckadance Music Software plus Phonak AudĂŠo PFE012 Earphones

06 The Hotlist

30 Serkan Cura The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Sub Pop Art

08 Mike Shine Mephisto Waltzes 14 Hilla Shamia Perfectly Cast

17 BubbleTree Blue Sky Thinking 18 Gregory Crewdson Brief Encounters

Elvira Mistress of the Dark

86 68

20 Robert Deyber In the Surreality of my Surroundings 26 Go Figure Fashion Space Gallery 30 Serkan Cura The Sorcerer’s Apprentice 39 Malene Oddershede Bach Living in a box

Skoda Citigo

42 Shanghai Nights Full of Eastern Promises 47 Sub Pop Art 58 Lemolo

108 HTC One X Competitions

112 FL Studio & Deckadance Music Software

113 Phonak Audéo PFE012 Earphones

110 Keith Apicary The Greatest Dancer

Cover Robert Deyber

>>>

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ISSUE

WELCOME

60 In Music One’s to watch

Welcome to another spine-tingly good edition of Flush Magazine, this month is so jam packed with fruity goodness it’s hard to know exactly where to start.

62 Zia McCabe Stripped Bare

We have interviews with two amazing artists Mike Shine and Robert Deyber, stunning fashion from Serkan Cura and Malene Oddershede Bach, music from Lemolo and The Dandy Warhols, cars, food, video games, and “Fangs that go bump in the night”, PLUS the world’s ﬁrst digital pullout.

Cars 66 Vauxhall Ampera 68 Skoda Citigo 74 Range Rover Evoque

I could go on, but I can see the end of the page is approaching and if I don’t stop soon there is every chance of me being cut off mid-sentence and that would just be...

64 80s Power Ballads

Food 77 Nocti Vagus The Dark Side of the Spoon 78 Sauvage Jurassic Pork 80 Buffet Dining for Beginners 82 No Coffee Chocolate Frappuccino 85 Digital Pullout 86 Elvira - Mistress of the Dark 90 Let The Blood Run Free 92 Maria Olsen 93 The Fearless Vampire Killers

Thanks for stopping by,

Pete Graham, EDITOR

97 App of the month BurgerApp 98 E-Predator Ian Hughes Virtual Worlds 103 Get Glue CEO, Alex Iskold Stuck on You

CONTRIBUTORS Amanda Penlington Dave Whithead Hannah Duncan Luke Lavelle Henry McMunn Natasha Lunn Nicholas Williams Priyam Chovhan Ray Stewart

Vanessa Sue Smith James Martin Edward Jacobs II Eleonora Collini Phil Mottershead Steve Clarke Melissa Heywood Samuel Law Matt Mansfield

Reviews 104 Diablo III 107 THQ Event Highlights 108 HTC One X 110 Keith Apicary The Greatest Dancer 112 Competitions

THE HOTLIST THE STUFF OF LIFE

Chocaholic To take home a piece of movie history in LA on July 20th, when there will be a special auction of movie memorabilia from the classic movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Items under the hammer include Gene Wilder’s original costume (estimate to fetch between $80,000 – $120,000), a Golden Ticket and an original everlasting gobstopper. You can also bid online for more info visit www.profilesinhistory.com

WIN!

Phonak Audeo PFE012 Earphones

Future Proof Available from mid-June the TG1 from Olympus is waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof, and crushproof to a force of 100kg. With HD movies, 3-inch OLED, built in GPS system and even a Pet Detection Mode, it probably has a ‘remove partner’ mode to wipe your girlfriend from photos when she has dumped you for Bear Grylls. Price: £359.99 For more info visit http://bit.ly/tg1olympus

Bathroon S-tile Create a unique made-to-measure ceramic tile frieze at Surface View. Choose from a wide range, or supply your own image. Pictured is plate 10 from the ‘Temple of the Flora’, by R J Thornton http://bit.ly/surfacetiles

Golden Time This retro Casio Unisex Classic Digital Bracelet Watch is fitted with a gold tone steel bracelet and a digital dial. Features include a chronograph, alarm, 24 hour display, back light, calendar and water resistance. Available from the Watch Hut for £37.00 http://bit.ly/casiowatchhut

Hot ‘POP’ Line Designed by French designer David Turpin, the POP Phone is the ultimate in retro chic. They feel great in your hand and once you pop, you just can’t stop! Price: £24.99 http://bit.ly/popphone

WIN!

FL Studio & Deckadance Music Software

MIKE SHINE

MEPHISTO WALTZES Artist Mike Shine lives in an amazing wooden shack overlooking the beach on the coast of California. While it may seem like paradise, the strange and mysterious characters he creates inhabit a very different ‘other’ world. What made you decide to move from New York to the West Coast? A job offer at a San Francisco advertising agency. But I think California was always in the cards for me. My wife and I were ready. We both grew up on the east coast, and Manhattan was starting to close in on us...

Did you ever want to be anything else apart from an artist?

My career is as a founder/creative director at BSSP, an ad agency. Which has been both incredibly rewarding and challenging. There are three of us who started it, and it’s been a team effort. There’s nothing solo about it. You have partners and clients. And you work together to try and make something good. But I’ve always had creative side passions that were more independent- that I could do by myself. I’ve always loved furniture design. While I made tons of it for myself, I’m sure it would

have lost its appeal if I had to do it for others. And I love reading and I love writing, but it’s not a talent for me that will ever result in a big paycheck. Much of the stuff I’ve read and been inspired by was usually written by authors who died broke and misunderstood. So I shouldn’t expect much. And I love ﬁlm and music. The best part about being an artist is you can combine your passions and dreams, if you want to. Flotsam’s Wonder World did that for me. It let me combine painting, storytelling, ﬁlm and music. So in a way I’ll just keep trying out all my passions in my installations.

What is it about working with wood that is so special to you?

Before I began painting, I really enjoyed woodworking, did it for over a decade when we restored our old bungalow. I built cabinets and furniture to fit the house’s era. When it was finally finished, I ran out of projects, and

MIKE SHINE

MEPHISTO WALTZES

put my tools away. Later on, when we got our little cabin on the coast, I started creating artwork for it, and my love for woodworking joined up with painting. I combined the two, really without thinking about it. It just seemed natural. I’m not a trained artist, so I think I just took from what I knew; woodworking, books, comic art, and my record collection are big inﬂuences on my work. And the wood keeps it interesting for me. It’s way more dimensional than just painting on a canvas. You can layer the pieces, and make them movable. Wood, especially driftwood and salvage, isn’t precious. You can beat on it and it only looks better, I think.

Your work looks weathered even when it is new, do you use any techniques to ‘age’ your paintings once they have been painted?

Some of it is actually beat up driftwood, and some of it I abuse to look that way. I use a crackle paint technique I’d learned from making furniture- which I did before venturing into art. It makes the surface look like it has a history, which to me helps give the piece a backstory. The notion that each piece is a fragmented message from somewhere in the past is interesting to me.

Are the people and characters you paint based on real life persons? Most are imaginary characters in a sort of Faustian opera. Some are incidental, some reoccurring. The women all tend to look like my wife, Marianne. It’s hard to explain why, in

a few sentences. We’ve been together over two decades and I think I have her features committed to memory. She’s a model and actress and isn’t shy about posing for me. And to me, she represents a strong iconic beauty - a norse goddess in a classical sense. I ﬁnd I paint goddesses often, to balance out the male carnies and devils. The Old Norse and Teuton tribes worshipped both male and female gods, and I think they were on to something. Today, the notion of a male-centric society seems off balance to me. Thus the goddesses. See, I said it was hard to explain...

There is a slightly macabre / spiritual aspect to all work, are you interested in other kinds of spirituality?

Probably Cynicism. I think humans are ﬂawed and scared, and always have been. We mask it in arrogance and aggression, and we crafted these religions to impart a comforting order to the world. And each believes their religion to be the one. But that’s simply naïve. We have truly no idea how this universe got started, and it’s pure hubris to

claim otherwise. I like Carl Sagan. He was a gentle cynic. He didn’t slam religion, he just politely looked beyond it. He asked really good questions that religion couldn’t answer. And he came up with some really smart answers, or beginnings of answers. So my work, although dark and often sinister, is my attempt at gentle cynicism too. It’s a way of getting people to question and reconsider the roles of good and evil. It’s why the Faustian bargain concept fascinates me so much.

Are you surprised with how popular the whole Flotsam concept has become? also do you think it is related to the contrast if offers between modern day life, consumerism and technology etc? I’m not sure if it’s popular, or just forced upon people as a result of my stubborn fascination. I keep going new places with Flotsam. He’s been around 5 years now and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.

MIKE SHINE

PHOTOGRAPH: FRED ABERCROMBIE

MEPHISTO WALTZES

Mike Shine

He’s my Mephistopheles, and that’s a character that has appeared in and out of plays, poems, novels, and operas and songs throughout history. Humanity is fascinated with the concept of the Devil, and selling our soul to him. The metaphor for technology, consumerism, and progress is pretty obvious. The human race has created an amazingly sophisticated world around itself. And ironically we are probably reaching our end. Maybe we have a century left. Maybe even two. But considering that humans have been around for 5 million years, that’s just a blip away. When we read the news headlines, its hard not to see that we made our deal with Beelzebub, and he’s getting ready to collect.

Do you have any plans to expand the Shack and Flotsam work further? The interesting thing is that most of the installations I’ve done were cool opportunities

just kind of sprang up. The Museum of Craft And Folk Art approached me when they’d seen images of my Bolinas shack. And we built an entire life size replica of the cabin inside the museum - ﬁreplace, 8 track player and all. And after our Flotsam’s Wonder World art opera at SFMOMA and 941 Geary, the people at the San Francisco Outside Lands Festival invited us to do a three day show with performances there. So they each were opportunities that I never would have imagined before they approached me. But about a year ago I began work on something much more planned out. I wrote and illustrated a 10 act novella about Flotsam. And I’ve made a series of large, intricately coded paintings to go with it. The book is essentially a riddle about mankind, and viewers can look into the artwork for clues. And now I’m meeting with publishers, museums and curators to ﬁnd a way to bring it all to life. It’s very different than my previous shows. This feels more like Hollywood, like I have a screenplay and I’m looking to get it produced. Lots of meetings and rejections. It’s a weird new concept, and people don’t know what to make of it. But there’s something sickly fun about all that.

If I pull it off, it will be that much more rewarding.

Who is your fav Surfer / Skateboarder / Artist / Music?

Mickey Dora was a longboard surfer in the 1960s who shunned the glamour and publicity of competition. He was a prick who did exactly as he wanted. He pissed off sponsors, fans and other surfers. Everything he did basically went against the formula for fame and success. And he is still revered for that today. His outsider mentality appeals to me. As for artists, the most inspirational was Carl Larsson, a Swedish painter from the 1800s. He not only had a deft hand, but he often painted his family life, involving them in his work. He even painted on the walls of their house. He truly shared his art with his family, and that appealed to me. I look around at the painted walls of my art shack and wonder if I’d have had the balls to do that if he hadn’t paved the way. Musically, I’m all over the place. I have a big LP collection that includes classic rock, blues, jazz, classical, opera, and other stuff that’s harder to label. Weirdly, I have about a dozen alpine yodelling records that seem to get a lot of play when others come over and pick music. Strange but true.

Are you happy? if so what is the secret?

Yes. I am happy. It’s because I sold my soul to a Russian carny named Flotsam when I was 7 years old. So this is the life I bargained for.

For more info on Mike Shine’s current projects visit the amazing www.shinelounge.com

Hilla Shamia is a young Israeli product designer living and working in Tel Aviv.

Her amazing benches and tables are spectacularly unique, combining a clinical aesthetic with natural ethereal qualities. The pieces are made from an entire tree trunk with molten aluminium poured directly onto the wood. They are then inserted into moulds to deﬁne their shape. I love the way the wood is scorched by the hot metal when the two materials fuse together. According to Hilla they come from a desire to “create perfection from imperfect objects.”

For more info visit www.hillashamia.com

beautiful designs for life www.jizaro.com

IMAGES COPYRIGHT WWW.BUBBLETREE.FR

Blue Sky Thinking

According to Pierre Stephane Dumas, from BubbleTree “Emotional removal from nature is a big problem across the world. The idea with the Bubble is to replug people to nature, and for them to experience the harmony of being a part of it. A night under the stars in a ‘Pod’ is a kind of metaphysical adventure that you have to do at least once in your life. You can see and feel everything... but without the mosquitos.” The ‘pods’ are available to rent in various locations in Europe from 80� per night. For more info visit www.bubbleTree.fr

Brief Encounters

Gregory Crewdson A brilliant new documentary about the work of one of America’s greatest living photographers... Every minute detail of Crewdson’s twilight photos is carefully considered and stage managed and his elaborate recreations of seemingly natural scenes have more in common with a movie set than a regular photoshoot. Working either on a sound stage, or on location around the small US town of Pittsﬁeld, Crewdson will spend up to 11 days with a full crew to capture just one photograph. The results though, are stunning. The documentary directed by Ben Shapiro is currently doing the rounds on the festival circuit and is well worth seeking out. For more info visit www.gregorycrewdsonmovie.com

IN THE SURREALITY OF MY SURROUNDINGS

ROBERT DEYBER

Robert Deyber’s art is based in a land that is part reality, part fantasy. His paintings have a surreal, dream-like quality, full of humour and the unexpected.

In his younger days the American born Deyber lived and worked in Italy, studying great Italian painters like Giotto di Bondone. Later, a job as an airline executive enabled him to scour the globe, exploring galleries, absorbing inspiration from art and life. Today his work is very much in demand, musician Tom Petty is an avid collector, and commissioned the artist to paint the cover of his album, Highway Companion. Now based back in his homestate of Connecticut, I caught up with him inbetween canvases.

Did you always want to be an artist?

Yes, as far back as I can remember making art has been important to me. Even in the early years of grade school I wouldn’t be paying attention in class because I was busy sketching cars, dinosaurs or buildings.

Did you have any formal training?

I have formal training, but only very sketchy. I only would take courses in art related subjects I was interested in such as perspective, ﬁgurative drawing and oil paint.

Right: Cold Call IV

Many times I would get half-way through a course and realise that the instructor was somehow getting the students to paint in his or her style, and at that point I would quit... along with a group of others. This happened more than once. Some of the best training I got was from my mother who was a relatively well known portrait artist in the sixties. She covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

Do you have a ﬁnished idea in your head before you start work on a canvas?

Yes, but many times during the process the image will evolve as I’m putting it together on canvas. I never like anything to be etched in stone. I like ﬂuidity. Some of the best features in a painting can happen while it’s in progress. Sometimes the original concept can completely disappear and something new will take its place.

Do you think your paintings are getting better as you get older?

I think so. The medium I use is the hardest to master I feel. The best compliment I receive from collectors and others is that they always thought I worked in oil. I like the way oil looks but I’m allergic to the odours and chemicals. My work has become more dimensional and the palette has taken on a richer tone as I go. Also, the allegorical nature of my work has become more complex and layered.

Has there been one picture where you have thought... ‘yes! I’m totally happy with this’?

Yes, most of the time I’m happy with the ﬁnished work. Every once in a while a piece will come out better than I imagined. There is no better feeling. Bad Hare Day 1 was one of those paintings which had that special something that makes everyone want it. For that reason it went on the cover of my ﬁrst

book. There are many paintings which have that distinction.

What animal do you ﬁnd the hardest to paint?

Actually, there are certain features on certain animals I hate painting. I love to paint penguins but I hate painting their eyes, they have very small unexpressive eyes. I usually try to brighten them up just a little. I really don’t like painting any animal that is cute. I have turned down lucrative commissions to paint cats or kittens, I don’t do cute. I painted a raccoon just once... never again. They’re too cute.

I hear you are obsessed with painting skies, can you explain why?

Yes, I am obsessed with the sky. Every time I look at the damn thing I get inspired. I have a particular way of painting the sky which

Clockwise from left: Cock Sucker III, Tom Petty album cover, High Heels, Bad Hare Day XV

I know you are a fan of Dali and the Surreal Movement, Do you think art is too highbrow at times?

involves four inch house painting brushes. The way I paint is different from other artists. I have never painted something from start to finish. For instance, right now I have twenty five canvases in my studio which are of just the sky. Then at some point the background and foreground find their way on to the canvas and then the subject matter. It’s an ADHD thing. It works for me.

Have you been reading my mind? There is a statement and a question in your query so I’ll answer both. I wish I had lived during the surreal movement. I like Dali, but I love René Magritte. He was perfect. People will refer to ‘The Art World’, well, there are actually several art worlds. Thomas Kincaide and Jeff Koons do not inhabit the same art world. With that in mind I do think that some segments of the art experience are a bit cerebral and contradictory. Art is just about the most subjective thing there is but there are certain people (I call them the cognocenti) who decide which artists are good and should be collected. The determination is based on many factors. A Yale MFA certainly helps pave the way for certain artists. Actually, I could write a book just on the second part of your question. In a nutshell, the answer is yes.

Have you ever considered doing any sculpture or other kinds of art?

Yes, I currently have a few three dimensional works at Martin Lawrence gallery in Las Vegas. I’m just about to start a very large scale piece made from PVC, the details are a closely guarded secret.

Who is your fav living artist?

There are too many to name just one. Mark Ryden, for his brilliant imagination. Anish Kapoor, for his astonishing sense of scale and aesthetic brilliance. The early works of Julian Schnabel. There are two artists who work as a team named Kahn & Selznick, they always blow my mind... astonishing.

How big a part does humour play in your work?

I’m obsessed with contrast so the humour in my work comes mostly from this. A whimsical image rendered in a very serious style for me is very alluring.

Another form of contrast of course is my use of light and dark areas which has the effect of drawing in a viewer. You can’t not look at something which is starkly dark and light if it’s done the right way. I love to make people laugh and to entertain. There is nothing better than to be at one of my shows and observe the reactions of people viewing the work. It makes the whole thing that much more worthwhile.

Are you a serious person in everyday life?

No, I’m one of these people who, if there is no one to entertain I’ll entertain myself. People will hear me talking to myself or perhaps to the television and think I’ve gone off the deep end. There is a time to be serious, but most of the time is for tom foolery and shenanigans. For more info visit www.robertdeyber.com

GO FIGURE

Go Figure is an exhibition of work by some of the brightest new talents in fashion illustration. The sixty pieces are shown in a variety of media bringing together elements of fashion, graphic design, photography and film. The exhibition runs at the Fashion Space Gallery at the London College of Fashion (behind Oxford Circus) until the 14th July. For more info visit http://fashionspacegallery.com

PICTURES USED BY PERMISSION, ALL COPYRIGHT RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

WHITE IS THE NEW BLACK From their base in Stockholm, Sweden, Unit Portables have taken Scandinavian design ethics we already know and love and come up with these stunningly iconic and practical customisable laptop bags.

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For more info visit www.unitportables.com Available to buy at Urban Outfitters

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice SERKAN CURA’S LATEST COLLECTION INCORPORATES HANDCRAFTED TEXTURES THAT HINT AT HIS EX-MENTOR, JEAN PAUL GAULTIER’S FLAMBOYANCE, WHILE REMAINING STUNNINGLY UNIQUE. Photography: Christian Lartillot

383g washed beige linen Gram is all about making sophisticated sneakers. We create shoes that ďŹ ll the gap between sneakers and traditional shoes. Our roots lie in Scandanavian design aesthetic; design with clean lines and attention to detail. Each model being unique in its own simplicity. The brand is centred around the concept of weight, with each show being named after its weight in grams. At Gram we love shoes, in particular shoes you can wear at the ofďŹ ce as well as on the night out. The brand started in 2005 and is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

www.gramstore.com

LIVING IN A BOX Malene Oddershede Bach

“... dark fuschia, luminous yellow and vivacious turquoise, inspired by organisms normally invisible to the human eye; the intestines of a mouse and the scales (powder) on a butterfly’s wing. “

U N D E R W E A R T O B E SEEN

MAKERS OF LUXURY MEN’S UNDERWEAR www.hamiltonandhare.com

SHANGHAI NIGHTS Visiting Shanghai can be an overwhelming experience, with a population of over 23 million people, there is a lot going on all the time. The city is an exhilarating mixture of the history and the future colliding together in the present day. Your Hotel needs to be a place where you can switch off and relax. Here are three of the best...

JW Marriott

Less than ten years old, the views from the 60th ﬂoor library, (incidentally the highest library in the world) high above People’s Square are stunning, especially at night when darkness hides the imperfections and lights dance from one building to the next. After a long ﬂight, the Mandara Spa is an oasis of calm for those travellers in need of a complete regeneration. The hotels 342 rooms and 77 suites are everything you expect them to be, modern, stylish and very high off the ground. http://bit.ly/marriottshanghai

The Peninsula

No trip would be complete without celebrating Afternoon Tea at the Peninsula Hotel facing the river in the historic Bund area of central Shanghai. Served daily, the change of pace from the bustling streets outside the hotel is dramatic. Violin music can be heard from the Mezzanine area above and the choice of pastries, sandwiches and refreshments is worth the trip alone. Try the Apple Scones or Smoked Salmon and Onion Quiche with Black TrufďŹ&#x201A;e washed down with a cup of Pu Er Chinese Tea. Amazing. Incidentally the rooms arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too shabby either. http://bit.ly/shanghaipen

JIA Shanghai

The JIA is one of those hotels that make you feel instantly at home when you stay there. Many of the rooms have wood panelling and wooden ﬂoors, a pleasant change to the usual marble and mirrors. Issimo, the hotels Italian restaurant is one of the very best in Shanghai. There are also two ‘Rock Star’ Penthouse suites, but don’t throw the TV out of the window, you’ll be charged extra. http://bit.ly/shanghaijia

JIA Shanghai

The JIA is one of those hotels that make you feel instantly at home when you stay there. Many of the rooms have wood panelling and woode ﬂoors, a pleasant change to the usual marble and mirrors. Issimo, the hotels Italian restaurant is one of the very best in Shanghai. There are also two ‘Rock Star’ Penthouse suites, but don’t throw the TV out of the window, you’ll be charged extra. For more info visit http://bit.ly/shanghaijia

SUB POP ART Fresh art from the undergound...

Kodak Moment

Nik and Noby Noby Boy have some lunch

JASON FISCHER Portland based Jason Fischer is a strange mixture of Russell Brand, Stan Lee and Charles Bukowski. He writes and draws several comics including Jaephisch & the Dark Rainbow, Tabouli Bros, Hello Mr Internet and Head in the Bed. He has a huge box of felt pens in his apartment. www.studiojďŹ sh.com

SUB POP ART

Corps et Ame

SUB POP ART

Right: Flying Wood

CÉDRIC DE SMEDT Cédric De Smedt is a talented young writer and artist based in Brussels. According to Cédric “I’m inspired by stereotypes, preconceived ideas, with love, religion, death and madness. My purpose is to twist those ideas so as to surprise the viewer.” www.chutedestrings.com

ALBERTO CORRADI Look out for an interview with ACE Italian artist Alberto Corradi on www.ﬂushthefashion.com In the meantime visit his website: http://ossario.blogspot.co.uk

Right: Drinking Buddies

SUB POP ART

BEI BADGIRL Australian artist Bei Badgirlâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ultra feminine erotic pop princess personality is mirrored beautifully in her semi autobiographical acrylic paintings of er, cute things. wwww.beibadgirl.com

SCOTT CHASSE The Man, the Myth and the Moustache. Brooklyn based artist Scott Chasse has produced a whole series of art in homage to Burt Reynolds. Does he need a reason? www.scottchasse.com

Any Women

SUB POP ART Howâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my driving?

www.flushthefashion.com

Ol’ Rainbow Mouth

ADAM MAYNARD Adam Maynard is an Oxford based artist and writer and the brains behind My Name is Mud, an online and published archive of experimental short ﬁction and poetry. www.mynameismud.co.uk

SUB POP ART

Bitter-sweet Taste of Meagan Grandall (vocals/guitar/keyboards) and Kendra Cox (drums) are Lemolo. Over the past year or so they’ve been building up a big following in their local Seattle area. With an eagerly anticipated debut record, The Kaleidoscope out on July 3rd they’re preparing to spread their wings further afield.

I caught up with Kendra to ﬁnd out more...

How did you get together?

Meagan and I actually share the same hometown, Poulsbo, WA, but didn’t meet until we started working at a kayak dock together slinging boats and teaching summer camps. We became fast friends that summer. When I found out Meagan played music I became a huge super fan and started going to all of her shows. We ended up living together during her final year at Seattle University and began playing together for a battle of the bands with two other friends. After the show we realised we had so much fun and decided to continue playing together.

Was it a deliberate decision to keep Lemolo as a duo?

Once things began to pick up with the band we (Meagan and I) decided we really wanted to go for it and work really hard for the band. Our other two members, who are close friends of ours, loved the band but it was much more of a hobby for them. When we parted ways we felt really excited about embracing the two piece band idea. Being a two piece band has its positives and negatives, but we get along really well and enjoy the simplicity of working together.

Do you think you will ever use other musicians to complement your sound when playing live?

That is definitely something that we have chatted and thought about, but at the moment I don’t see anything like that coming up in the near future. I think we both like the challenge of figuring out how to fill those spaces on our own, plus we’re both also really big fans of the space our songs naturally have since it is just the two of us.

How was the album recorded?

We recorded half of the album at a studio in Fremont called Studio Litho, and the other half was recorded in our engineer ’s home studio and it came with a lot of challenges. This is our first full length album, so it has been a huge learning experience and we feel really lucky to have co-produced the album with Shawn Simmons. He’s a real gem and has been a huge mentor for us throughout the entire process.

Are you happy with the finished album?

Extremely happy! I am at the point where I can listen to the album and not feel weird

Lemolo answer for me. I think that comes from the fact that Meagan and I have so many influences that range anywhere from Björk to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Abbey Simmons, writer for Sound On The Sound, has helped us out and I believe she coined us as “dream-pop” which we really like a lot.

Do you have plans to tour further afield?

At the moment we have two west coast tours planned, one happening now with Hey Marseilles and we’re currently booking dates for July with Bryan John Appleby. We’d love to continue touring around the States and have big dreams to tour outside of the country too. I’d love to go to Japan and play some shows over there!

There seems to be a really vibrant post-grunge scene in Seattle at the moment. Are there any other local bands you like?

about it, which feels really, really awesome. I cannot wait to share this record.

What is your fav track off the album at the moment?

Favorite track, that is a really hard question! At the moment I would have to say the single we are going to release,¬†”On Again, Off Again”,¬†is a big favorite of mine. I’m really looking forward to seeing what tracks other people peg as their favorites.¬†

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard you? This is the hardest interview question to

Apart from Café Nervosa (from Frasier), where is the best coffee shop in Seattle?

I have a lot of favorites but my number one is my go-to neighborhood spot in the Central District called Katy ’s. It’s super small and super cute and all the baristas know my regular drink. I also had the pleasure of inventing the coffee drink of the month there last month and my name was put on a white board. Feeling pretty proud about that one.

www.lemolomusic.com

Photography: Genevieve Pierson

There are some really awesome things going here right now, Deep Sea Diver, Campfire OK (putting out a new record soon that is awesome), Bryan John Appleby, and the new Damien Jurado record is really amazing. I could go on for days, but those are what come to mind right now.

Mary Epworth Black String Theory

Black String Theory is the solo project of Australian born vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Scott van Dort. Debut album ‘Remission’ mixes Depeche Mode type electronic noises with shades of Muse and Editors to make epic stadium rock of the highest order. Scott is currently auditioning band members in Los Angeles to take the album on the road later this year. www.theblackstringtheory.com

The women are seriously doing it for me this year. Add Mary Epworth to the list (along with Lianne Le Havas, Lucy Rose, Julia Holter). Earlier this year Black Doe’s initial sweet tones and twonky banjo gave way to sudden, joyfully unexpected distortion and strings. Latest single Long Gone has been Shaun Keaveny’s record of the week on 6 Music, slightly softer but still a bit sleazy (and I like sleazy, a hell of a lot). Mary Epworth has a sound that is at once old and authentic yet brand new and unheard. From what I’ve heard she’s an upfront and honest character that wouldn’t be afraid of grazing her knees. It somehow bleeds through in her music. Debut album is expected in June and on the strength of these singles I predict a masterpiece in depth and dirtiness. By Hannah Duncan www.maryepworth.com

Alt-J (Δ)

Alt-J (∆) released their debut album ‘An Awesome Wave’ on 28 May. The band combines the distinctive vocal stylings of singer Joe Newman with intricate guitar and synthesiser arrangements, and surprising percussive choices. Their songs ‘Tessellate’, ‘Breezeblocks’ and ‘Matilda’ clocked up tens of thousands of listens on Soundcloud before the album was released. Their distinctive and innovative sound is sure to win them much more attention this year. By Amanda Penlington www.altjband.com

One’s to watch

Peter Marchant School is Cool

Roger Waters was right when he said “we don’t need no education”, and I could spend the next 3 sentences going on about brilliant bands from Belgium, like dEUS, and er, but space here is limited. Look, I’ve already used half of it up and I haven’t even mentioned how brilliant SCHOOL IS COOL are yet. Debut UK single, ‘The World Is Gonna End Tonight’ is out on Label Fandango this month, while their album Entropology could see also an ofﬁcial UK release very soon. It can be tracked down now if you know where to look (here is a clue). www.schooliscool.be

Peter Marchant is so underground he needs a bucket and spade just to get out of bed. The young multi instrumentalist has been building an armory of AWESOME power pop songs, the likes of which have not been seen since the glory days of Jellyﬁsh. All he needs now is Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker to knock on his Northampton based front door and the rest, as they say, will be history. Just remember we told you ﬁrst. http://soundcloud.com/petermarchant

Feed The Rhino

The impassioned hardcore outﬁt Feed the Rhino look set to build on the underground success of hard-hitting debut Mr Red Eye with even harderhitting sophomore release – The Burning Sons. A combination of irresistible force and everswelling indie-cred have seen the Kent band support (and often upstage) numerous high-proﬁle acts in the past 24 months. With the festival season and a killer new record, their time is now. By Samuel Law

ZIA MCCABE

STRIPPED BARE The Dandy Warhols have come a long way from their humble beginnings – a small club in Portland, Oregon, eighteen years ago. They’ve just released their ninth studio album ‘This Machine’, and it’s their most honest sounding album to date. Nick Williams spoke to Dandy’s keyboard player Zia McCabe about the new record and life in the band.

Did you approach this record differently than the others? There was a lot more writing collaboration happening within the band as well as outside writers teaming up with Courtney. We also consciously tried to keep ourselves from building a wall of sound, letting the songs live through simple arrangement and instrumentation. Knowing us, this can be a big challenge at times. We LOVE to layer. That said, I feel we did succeed in keeping the tracking really straight forward on this album. I think we were really good about letting whoever was feeling the most inspired take

the reigns for a bit. It was a fun new approach that I got a lot of pleasure out of. What is your favourite track on the new record to play live? Hmm, it can change daily, but at the moment it’s ‘Well They’re Gone’ . ‘Enjoy Yourself,’ ‘Wow Signal’ and ‘Sad Vacation ‘ are also really fun for me. Has your relationship with other people in the band changed over the years? Well when it first started we were all in. The band was our lives and absolutely everything revolved around it. As we grew up, got married and started families, the band became a part of our lives. We still have celebrations together and get along fine but our work is our bond; making music together is what keeps us together. It’s a fine arrangement, a family of sorts. We’ve been through all kinds of changes over the years; getting on an indie label, getting on a major label, getting off a major label, getting our own studio and label, all of us growing up and having families, but we just keep going, recording, performing, learning, laughing. It’s a good life. Did you ever think you’d still be playing with the Dandy Warhols now when you first joined in 1994? I honestly never looked that far ahead. In a career as unstable as music it can be too scary to look more than a couple years down

PHOTOGRAPH OF ZIA BY JOHN KEEL

Did you have a clear idea of how you wanted the new record to sound before you went into the studio to record it? Oh sure, and of course it came out nothing like what we ﬁrst thought it would.

the road. I sure am grateful though. Been a damn fun trip and I’d like it to continue for another 18 years if possible. How are things different with your other group - Brush Prairie? It couldn’t be more different. If my main band can’t do a gig I put together a different one. We play cute little shows in saloons and outdoor parties. I write and sing and do my best to learn how to lead a band. This is what I love about having a side project though, I’ve only ever played with The Dandy’s, so it’s really neat for me to have added a whole new dimension to my world of music. The only thing that’s the same is that it’s a band and I’m in it. How do you manage being a mother with being in a rock ‘n’ roll band? It’s not that tough really. We rehearse during the day now while she’s in school which can take a little getting used to if you’ve always mostly rocked at night, but it works out nicely. My daughter gets to come to the all-ages shows and stays with a friend or babysitter when it isn’t. The hardest part for me is having to get up in the morning to get her ready and drive her to school. Man that’s tough. What is the best part about being in the Dandy Warhols? I get to make and play music for a living. Cool Music. The Dandy Warhols’ new record This Machine is out now. For more info visit www.dandywarhols.com

Between a Rock and a Soft Place

80s Power Ballads

It wasn’t until the mid-eighties when recording technique advancements, ponytails, and the proliferation of cocaine in the music industry allowed Power Ballads to really take off as a definitive musical genre. For those too young to remember, here are four prime examples of Power Ballads, but first a guide to classification:

★ A Power Ballad must be sung, not screamed ★ ★ The song must be performed by a ‘hairband’ or singer of equal calibre ★ ★ The song must evoke an uncontrollable urge to hold a lighter above your head and wave it from side to side ★

1983

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Bonnie Tyler Bonnie Tyler has a voice described like ‘whiskey dragged over gravel’, and TEOTH is notable for a slightly weird video where Bonnie seems to fantasise over possessed demonic schoolboys (apparently inspired by the movie Futurewold). Key Lyrics “Once upon a time I was falling in love, but now I’m only falling apart. There’s nothing I can do, a total eclipse of the heart”. Interesting fact Six million seller, Total Eclipse of the Heart was written by Jim Steinman, the same man behind The Sisters of Mercy’s “This Corrosion” and Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell”. He’s currently working with Terry Jones of Monty Python fame on a heavy metal version of The Nutcracker.

1987

Reason To Live: Kiss ‘Reason to Live’ came at an important crossroads in Kiss’s career. They’d ditched the make-up and were collaborating with external songwriter, Desmond Child in an attempt to cash in, I mean, move with the times. They are still going so it must have worked out ok for them, although the make-up has now returned. Key Lyrics “Everbody’s got a reason to live, Baaay-Beeeah!” Interesting fact Kiss bass player, Gene Simmons claims to have slept with over 4,600 women but has never used alcohol, drugs, or tobacco once. Some people just don’t know how to have a good time.

1987

1988

It’s hard to think about this song without dry ice and Tawny Kitean pinging directly into your right temporal lobe. The model appeared in a further two Whitesnake videos before marrying lead singer David Coverdale. Sadly the couple divorced in 1991, but for at least 2 years of their lives, yes, it was love.

Like the opposite of fine wine there is something about Poison that just doesn’t age well. However, rip apart the clinical late 80s production and underneath is a Power Ballad so immense men have fallen from their barstools overwhelmed with emotion just from that first chord (G incidentally). The song is also well known to have played a small, but significant role in the birth of grunge.

Is this love? Whitesnake

Key Lyrics “I ﬁnd I spend my time waiting on your call. How can I tell you babe? My backs against the wall. I need you by my side to tell me it’s alright. Cause I don’t think I can take any more” Interesting fact The song was originally written for Tina Turner.

Every Rose Has its Thorn: Poison

Key Lyrics “We both lie silently still in the dead of night. Although we both lie close together we feel miles apart inside”. Interesting fact The inspiration came when lead singer Bret Micheals called his girlfriend from a laundrette and heard a strange man’s voice in the background. Sniff.

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Like many of the current crop of electrically powered vehicles the new Vauxhall Ampera can travel between 25-50 miles on a single charge, and have CO2 exhaust emissions of zero. Also similarly to Hybrid vehicles it has the potential to extend this further by using more traditional methods. However, the new European Car of the Year 2012 does things slightly differently. Once the initial charge has been used up, a small but ultra efficient 1.4litre petrol engine/generator takes over and feeds energy, not to the wheels (like a regular Hybrid), but to the electric motor. The result? Range is extended to up to 360 miles, with a cool 235.4mpg and CO2 emissions of just 27g/km. Compare this to a figure 160-170g/km from an average family car, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greener than Kermitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kneecaps. It will also reach 100mph and go from 0-60 in a fairly rapid 8.7 seconds. Available to order now, there will be a choice of 3 models starting from ÂŁ29,995. Not cheap you might think, but there is a wide range of government grants, tax benefits, congestion charge exemptions and general all round good karma associated with buying one. It looks quite nice too. For more info visit www.vauxhall.co.uk/microsite/ampera

Vauxhall Ampera

GO FOR IT!

Škoda’s all new city car, the Citigo is released in the UK on June 1st. Prices start from just £7,630 on the road...

The Citigo enters a busy marketplace, and the likes of the Toyota Aygo, the Peugeot 107, the Kia Picanto and Hyundai i10 are all battling for the same customers. There is also strong competition from several other new VW Group vehicles, the VW UP, and Seat Mii. The Citigo is in fact mechanically identical to both cars. My first impressions of the car were really good. The Citigo has a fresh look that will appeal to young drivers, and a 5 star NCAP safety rating and low insurance premiums that will certainly appeal to their parents. What it lacks in raw power the Citigo makes up for with an excellent allround driving experience. On the road, the strong chassis copes with quick cornering surprisingly well, and despite the small engine the car will travel smoothly and quietly at speed on the motorway. When you do put your foot down, the engine doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sound in trouble even at the top end of the rev counter. In fact, on the 1.0 MPI GreenTech 75PS Manual it has quite a nice throaty growl.

GO FOR IT! The interior while basic on the cheapest models doesn’t feel ‘budget’ and is tough and hard-wearing. There is space to carry four adults in reasonable comfort, and the boot is bigger than any in its class. To keep with the times it also comes with an easy to use PID (Personal Infotainment Device), with built in Sat Nav, Bluetooth, Media Player, and SD Card slot. It’s green too. The 1.0 MPI 60PS model has CO2 emissions of just 99g/km and a combined figure of 68.9MPG. That means no road tax, and if you are in London, no congestion charge either. A new safety system introduced for the first time (as an optional extra), on the Citigo is City Safe Drive. If you happen to be travelling under 19mph

and the sensors in the front bumper decide you are going to hit something, (as long as you don’t have your foot on the clutch or brake) City Safe Drive will take over and apply the brakes automatically to avoid a collision. I successfully tested City Safe Drive using polystyrene blocks on the road and I think the system could work best in slow moving traffic jams, (especially in the summer) when a driver becomes suddenly ‘distracted’ by

pedestrians. With a range of trim levels, S, SE or Elegance, two or four door, and two 1.0 litre petrol engines (60PS/44 kW and and a modified 75 PS/55 kW) the range offers a good balance between performance, price, practicality and choice. A new hatchback, MPV and a large SUV are on the way from Škoda over the next couple of years, and the Citigo is a confident statement of their future plans. Against the current crop of ‘City Cars’, the Citigo could and should do well. Whether its lack of true individual flair, or its closeness in price to the VW UP (just £400 less) is a stumbling block, only time will tell. Škoda Citigo: SE 1.0 MPI GreenTech 60PS Manual Combined MPG: 69.9 mpg C02 Emissions 96g/km Max Speed: 100 mph 0-62 mph 14.4 seconds £8,890 OTR Available from June 1st. For more info visit http://www.skoda.co.uk/GBR/ newcars/Citigo/Pages/default.aspx

When Victoria Beckham was appointed Creative Design Executive in the development stages of the Range Rover Evoque, it certainly raised a few eyebrows around the motoring world. But with a full order book and growing world-wide demand for the car, the partnership has, so far been a resounding success.

Evoque-ative Now Land Rover have unveiled the Range Rover Evoque Victoria Beckham Edition, a special bespoke version of the car, limited to just 200 vehicles world-wide and including: Ultra-luxurious mohair ﬂoor mats and microsuede headlining ■ Unique 20” gloss black forged alloy wheels with rose-gold accents ■ Soft vintage inspired tan semi-aniline (baseball glove style) leather interior seats ■ Hand-ﬁnished grey matt paint ■ Rose-gold plated grille surround and badging ■ A bespoke four-piece leather luggage set ■ Hand-sewn leather wallet for owner’s manual signed by Victoria Beckham ■

The ﬁrst cars will be delivered in October, with a price tag of around £79,995. https://victoriabeckham.landrover.com

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BERLIN RESTAURANTS

Berlin is full of interesting, and sometimes bizarre places to discover. Here we ﬁnd two places to eat with a difference...

THE DARK SIDE OF THE SPOON There are some things you have to try at least once in your life. Juggling, wearing a bra (men), the other one is visiting a Berlin Restaurant/Theatre called NOCTI VAGUS

nce inside, you eat or ‘see’ the show in total pitch black darkness. While initially it can be a disorientating and slightly strange thing to do, it’s actually a fascinating and insightful way to experience a sensory world your eyesight would usually prevent you from seeing. It could even be a way to understand compassion and humanity slightly more. I’m not sure you get the same feelings after a meal in Nando’s, even if you have the ‘very hot’ sauce.

Simone Glosch came up with the idea after visiting ‘Dialog im Dunkeln’ in Hamburg - a museum in the dark. Simone wanted people to experience more, so she opened the first dark restaurant in Berlin and the first dark theatre, where shows take place in the dark. If you take away one sense it intensifies the others. You only get to know how much more your senses can do, when they have to.

How long has the restaurant been open?

All our staff are blind or visually impaired, so they are used to living without seeing. You can’t see to write in the dark, so they have enormous memories to remember who ordered which dinner or drink. They take our guests by the hand and guide them into the dark. It’s

We’ve been open almost 9 years. In july we will celebrate our 10th anniversary.

Who came up with the idea? The owner of the NOCTI VAGUS,

How do the staff see where they are going?

good because often they are the ones who need some help. Here, they can help others.

What do you recommend from the menu? I recommend our special chocolate menu that you can book in advance, or also the surprise menu. Here you really don’t know what you are going to get.

Has anyone ever sneaked out without paying? Actually this rarely happens. Our guests are welcomed in a lighted lounge and at the end of their evening they go to it again. So they pay in our lounge with light. By the way the Bathrooms are also lit. www.noctivagus.com

BERLIN RESTAURANTS

From the outside Sauvage is a fairly anonymous looking building situated on the site of a former brothel, in the Kreuzköllner Kiez district of Berlin. But go through the doors and into the cave-like surroundings, and you’ll ﬁnd yourself in quite possibly the only Paleolithic or Pre-historic cuisine restaurant in the world.

Opened by Boris Leite and his partner Rodrigo, Sauvage’s menu is based on a diet eaten by Stone Age Man up to 300,000 years ago. While the idea may seem strange initially, the food of our (very) distant ancestors was actually incredibly healthy. Boris explained the concept behind the restaurant...

What gave you the idea to open the restaurant?

The idea came after discovering the diet and trying it out. It gave me a tremendous boost health-wise and transformed my body in a way I could never have imagined. I was so overwhelmed by the beneﬁts that I wanted to make it the centre point of my life. It is also absolutely one of the tastiest cuisines ever, and it gave me back the joy of cooking and eating.

What are the health beneﬁts of a Paleolithic diet?

The beneﬁts are endless, steady energy levels throughout the day, better immune system, effortless weight loss and muscle building, improvement of hair and skin, restoration of your hormonal balance, a general well being and the best of all: guilt free eating while everything tastes ‘forbidden’ delicious.

Are the meals lactose or gluten free? Yes, all our meals are 100% grainfree (so automatically gluten-free), free of vegetable oils and free of additives, colorants etc. We usually don’t use dairy products, but make an exception for full fat or fermented dairy like ghee, old cheeses or full fat cream, since those varieties have little or no lactose. But even then these products are not commonly

used in our kitchen. Our food comes from local farms, but we sometimes use imported goods, Grass-fed meat, for example is not always easy to ﬁnd here.

Is it true the food can be beneﬁcial to your sex life?

Yes! The paleo diet can boost your sex life in two ways – because of the physical changes you undergo while eating paleo your self-esteem really grows, you’ll become more attractive and you’ll feel better about yourself. Secondly, the consumption of good (saturated) fats restores the hormonal balance and will optimise your sex drive.

PHOTOGRAPHY: SIGRID MALMGREN

What is your favourite dish from the menu?

We have a weekly changing menu, so an all-time favourite is not really present. But we do have a kind of signature dish, which is an excellent grass-fed ﬁlet mignon. During winter we served it with a celeriac coconut mash, topped with capers, and (sugar-free) caramelised red onions. For the moment that steak is paired with sautéed beetroot, German turnip and wild garlic leaves. www.sauvageberlin.com Open from Tuesday to Sunday: 6pm - midnight Pﬂügerstrasse 25, 12047 - Berlin Tel: +49 30/53167547

Call it what you like – smorgasbord, carvery, salad bar, all-you-can-eat, or even ‘viking’ in Japan – Buffet Dining is one of those rare occasions when you can indulge yourself on random, mismatched foods without feeling ashamed or guilty. By Morse

Like all high-octane, adrenaline fuelled extreme sports, (BASE Jumping, the January Sales, etc), buffet dining can be a dangerous pastime for the inexperienced. If you don’t want a fork in the back of your hand there are rules to follow and a delicate social etiquette to adhere to. Here’s a list of handy do’s and don’ts:

Arrive as early as you can to avoid delays and to maximise eating time. Smart diners will be into their third or fourth plate well before the queue begins to snake into the lobby. Always have at least two plates of hot food before you even start to look at the cold items. Remember, you don’t make friends with salad.

Experimentation is the key to innovation. So what if you don’t have battered ﬁsh with roast beef, chicken casserole and rice at home? You should always have at least one item on each plate that doesn’t belong with everything else.

As tempting as seafood can be at a buffet, it can be slow going if you’re time limited. If you partake, try not to dump discarded shells on other diners’ dessert plates.

Pacing yourself is vital, and Rome wasn’t built in a day. Take a newspaper, or if they have free wi-ﬁ, write a real-time critique of each food item and post it on the restaurant’s Facebook page, complete with photos and marks out of ten. If you’re at a technology convention you could even attempt a Google Hangout with your fellow diners.

Always leave room for dessert (this is a common beginner’s mistake).

Don’t ﬁll up on bread, stodgy lasagne or rice. These cheap, non premium items simply deprive you of dessert.

Don’t let other people get in your way, be it elderly people or children. You don’t have to get physical, but try and uphold a buffer (or buffet) zone around you and your plate(s).

If you are there for breakfast don’t even think about getting toast for other people on your table. If you have to ask why, you need to stay in more hotels.

Don’t share one ‘unlimited refill’ drink between two people, this might seem clever but it’s incredibly bad karma and fizzy liquid will fill you up. Stick to water.

Buffet dining is an opportunity to over-indulge, but don’t think of it as an challenge to bankrupt the restaurant. Enjoy the experience to it’s fullest, but know your limits, and know when to stop. That way it will still be there to enjoy next time.

BUT, most importantly never forget what happened to Mr Creosote and the wafer thin mint!

ILLUSTRATION BY COLEEN CAHILL

Sit close, but keep a safe distance from the serving area. Hot soup down the back is a dangerously real risk if you’re too near to the action.

No Coffee Chocolate Frappuccino I love a Frappuccino as much as anybody, but this coffee free version is a delicious alternative that is simple to prepare, and even more perfect now the weather is warming up. by Vanessa Sue Smith

Ingredients: (for a big glass) ■

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

1⁄2 glass milk (light or soy milk works fine) 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 2 tablespoons chocolate chips 5 tablespoons milk powder 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract 5 ice cubes

For decoration: ■ ■

Whipped cream Caramel syrup

Method For this recipe you will need a blender. Blend all the ingredients together for around 3 minutes. You should get a creamy texture with a little bit of foam. If you want the frappuccino to be even creamier, add a bit more milk powder. There’s no need to add sugar to this recipe; all the ingredients together make it sweet enough. Decorate with some whipped cream and pour some caramel syrup on top. I’m adding some heart shaped chocolate decorations as a final touch! Enjoy!

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FLUSH MAGAZINE PRESENTS

Fangs that go bump in the night

The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first digital pull-out Featuring: 10 pages of Vampire hunters, fake blood, heaving bosoms, and the hardest working zombie in showbiz

Elvira Mistress of the Dark AN INTERVIEW WITH CASSANDRA PETERSON Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been over 30 years since Cassandra Peterson first put on the shock horror punk make-up, gothic clothing and long black wig to become Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. Her army of fans span the globe, and generations of single teenage boys have grown up admiring her ample talents.

Despite this, the lady behind the razor sharp wit, double entendres and heaving cleavage is still relatively unknown. Nick Williams attempts to take down her particulars.

Did you always want to be in show business – even when you were a kid? From as early as I can remember. I wanted to be a dancer originally and ended up being the youngest showgirl in Las Vegas history as far as I know, at least that’s what it says in the Guinness Book of World Records. Then I went from dancing to singing, I wanted to be a performer, the centre of attention really. It all boils down to “look at me, look at me”, I remember my parents would take me to a restaurant, and even at 3 years old I would get up on tables and dance and people would throw change at me, which I still love today. If you ever see me in real life, you have to throw change at me.

When did you first realise the full potential for Elvira? Or have you been responding to the media buzz and interest as it’s happened? In the beginning, yes, I was just responding. When the show first came on, I wasn’t expecting anything to happen. Also, the name and everything belonged to the television network. As time went on, my managers were smart enough to get the rights to the name. Once we had that, we recognised the potential and began exploiting it for all that it was worth.

How do you think separating your life between Cassandra and Elvira has affected you the most? How close is Elvira to your own personality? You’re making me schizophrenic. It’s funny, I think it’s completely different, but I have too many friends who think it’s not that different (laughs). I feel like two completely different people; I sort of decided, well I’ve kind of figured this out in the last few years, that Elvira is me when I was a teenager – very smart ass, know it all, not afraid to do anything, kind of crazy. I think that my teenage personality came out as Elvira.

What do you think about the media buzz and profitability that surrounds celebrities currently, sex symbols like Kim Kardashian? Do you think it is different than when you were just starting out?

The Internet changed everything. I think it’s easier to find it, to disperse the information. I think you have a wider audience. When I was

on it, everyone just had Pony Express. It had to be taken by horseback all the way across the United States. Now, you have something out there and everyone knows about it in two seconds and your chances of getting it sold are a lot better. Basically, as far as sex symbols selling stuff, it’s the same old story. Sex sells and always has, and I think it always will.

“Elvira is me when I was a teenager – very smart ass, know it all, not afraid to do anything, kind of crazy”

You’ve posed nude before as yourself – but do you ever regret not doing Playboy as Elvira?

For a while I regretted not getting the money they offered, which was insane money – I did regret that, I still do if I think about it like that, but actually no, I don’t regret it at all. I actually let my fans choose, and believe it or not, this is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard, but they didn’t think I should do it. But honestly, I’m glad I kept the mystery and

mystique of Elvira alive. Everybody was waiting for Elvira to pop out of the dress, and if she really did pop out of the dress, there wouldn’t been anything to wait for.

Do you have any new projects in the works?

Actually there is some really cool stuff coming out. One I’m not allowed to talk about, but there is one I can talk about – that is ‘Elvira’s Horror Hunt’. It’s my new kind of horror contest, film festival, and webisode/movie review show. This one will be with my girlfriend Peaches Christ – a kind of celebrity in L.A. – she has a live show called “Midnight Mass” and also directed a movie “All About Evil” which I was in. We are asking amateur directors to submit their films, and we’ll review them and have a panel of industry professionals, anyone from George Romero to Rob Zombie to choose the top three. And the event will be hosted by Elvira and Peaches.

How have your fans been over the years? Do you receive a lot of creepy fan requests? Just recently actually I was in Ottawa, Canada and a guy came up and said his father

“The weirdest one was this girl who asked for me to sign her tattoo – and she pulled her pants down and there’s my face on her ass”

always loved me and I was his favourite celebrity, and his father had passed away, but he had always wanted to see me. So the guy brought his father ’s ashes in a box, and I signed the box. Better late than never. But that was kind of cool. I had a girl who would nail her tongue to a board and wanted to show me, so she did it in front of me. And in the beginning, I had a zillion people tattooing Elvira to their body parts. Now it’s pretty commonplace. From five to twenty people have my signature on them, or have me sign my signature on their already done Elvira tattoo. The weirdest one was this girl who asked for me to sign her tattoo – and she pulled her pants down and there’s my face on her ass – and it was as white as a door. Oh my god, here I am standing over her writing my name on this girl’s ass so that was a pretty weird interaction, don’t you think?

Do you have any showbiz friends?

Jack White has become a good friend, and when he was out here in LA he took a tour of Warner Bros where I did my ‘Mistress of the Dark’ film. The house that I had painted all multicoloured is still at Warner Bros – and Jack White took a picture of himself coming out of the house and sent it to me. He’s great, I’m a huge fan of his music – also, Pee Wee (Paul Ruben) and I go out together a lot.

“I do travel a lot for work - I have a lot of places I love. I used to live in Italy. I speak Italian - I love Italy. I love the food, the people I love everything about it” We’ve worked together since the ‘70s, so we’ve been good friends ever since. We are both characters and have personas that are not ourselves, it’s always really fun when someone comes up to us. They typically recognise him first, and then he’ll say “and look at my date, do you know who she is?”. When they realise, people really lose it.

What do you think about the current popularity of the Horror genre in Television – specifically with shows like The Walking Dead and American Horror Story? Is there room for an Elvira themed show in the future? And that’s exactly what I’m working on now, so I can’t talk too much about that unfortunately, but yeah, I’m gonna jump on that bandwagon. I think it’s always kind of been around, but before there were only three channels. There was the Addams Family, there was The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits – there were horror shows and they were popular. But, now there are nine billion channels, and there’s tons more room for there to be really great horror shows and there are. People always say, “It’s great that horror has come back” and I say come back? It’s always been here. It hasn’t gone anywhere!

Do you have an all time favourite horror movie?

My taste runs towards the really old, cheesy. I love “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” As far as

cheese goes, you can’t beat it. Real horror movies – I just saw “Cabin in the Woods,” and I don’t know. The last one that really blew my socks off was “The Exorcist” and that was a long time ago. It’s still fricken scary.

I know you travel a lot for work – do you have a favorite place to visit?

I do travel a lot for work – I have a lot of places I love. I used to live in Italy. I speak Italian – I love Italy. I love the food, the people – I love everything about it. I think my favorite place is Italy. I love Canada too. If they could do something about the weather up there, I would be there so fast. The winter is the only bummer. I haven’t been to Brazil, but I just got a gig in there, and I’ve heard it’s very fabulous, so I can’t wait for that.

Finally, what has been the best thing over the years about being Elvira?

If you ask any of my celebrity friends, they would vouch for me. I am able to be a really crazy wacky character and celebrity for all of these years, but then I have a completely anonymous private life on the side. I don’t think there is a celebrity out there who wouldn’t cut off their right arm for that. People tell you they really want to be famous and recognised, but after a month it gets really old. I mean, I love being Elvira - but when I want it to stop, it stops. If you’re Brad Pitt, and you want it to stop, you can’t.

People always say, “It’s great that horror has come back” and I say come back? It’s always been here. It hasn’t gone anywhere!

For more Elvira, check out her website: www.elvira.com or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ elviramistressofthedarkofficial

BLOOD AND BONE CHINA

While other writer/directors dream about their own TV show or feature film, Chris Stone just went out and did it. With a tiny cast and crew, and an even smaller budget he made Blood and Bone China, brilliant 12-part Gothic Hammer Horror-style web series available to watch online. to their gothic Victorian roots, which were established by Bram Stoker ’s ‘Dracula’. Episodes of ‘Blood and Bone China’ have been screened at the prestigious Raindance Film Festival in London, and at the Marseilles European WebFest. The highlight so far has been winning 6 accolades at the Indie Intertube Awards, including ‘Best Director ’ and ‘Best Web Series’.

Did you learn a lot from filming the series? Immensely. It was a crash course in every aspect of film-making, from scripting to marketing. Producing something that looks polished on an extremely tiny budget teaches you how to be creative, i.e. recycling costumes and props, fitting the schedule around the locations, asking for help on Twitter and Facebook. I would say that I learned more in one year of intense web series production than in 3 years at film school. I would recommend any budding film-maker to make an online series. You get instant feedback from your viewers; you’re able to interact and engage with your audience in a way that you can’t with traditional distribution methods.

What was the most challenging thing about the project? I asked Chris to share his experiences from making the project.

Were you surprised by the positive reactions to Blood and Bone China? I knew the horror genre was popular, but I’m surprised by how much Blood and Bone China has taken off! It has had a fantastic reaction around the world. Everyone who has seen it has loved it and we’ve built up a loyal fan base. It’s been viewed well over 300,000 times on YouTube. I think part of Blood and Bone China’s appeal is that we’ve taken vampires back

Working on a tiny budget was difficult, but we managed to get through it by being resourceful and willing to adapt. Through hard work and teamwork, we pulled it off (by the skin of our teeth). In a way, I think that all of the difficulties really brought the production team together as a family. On the filming side of things, we had to shoot at the museums when they were open, so we would often get people walking through in the middle of a take and talking, causing problems with sound recording and distracting the actors. The joys of low budget film-making!

Is there anything you would have done differently? A million and one things, but that’s the beauty of a web series... it’s organic and one big learning curve. I think the biggest thing that we learned was how important your first episode is. When we released our first one over a year ago, we were under pressure to get it completed for the film festival it was originally commissioned for. With it being the first web episode any of us had ever made, we weren’t into the flow of it yet. At that point in time, we still didn’t have most of the costumes sorted or even owned a single pair of vampire teeth! As a result, the first episode turned out to be the weakest of the series, which was a fact backed up by our YouTube metadata. Just as we were about to release our final episode, we went back and completely restructured the first, adding in all new scenes with Lady Victoria, the sexy female vampire who was incredibly popular with fans. This created a much stronger opening to draw people into our story and a brand new cliffhanger to leave the audience wanting more. The first episode is key; if people aren’t hooked in the first few minutes, they aren’t going to stay around and watch the rest of your series.

What have you got next in the pipeline? I’m currently just about to start an Indiegogo campaign for my next production. I can’t say too much about it as it ruins the end of ‘Blood and Bone China’. If you watch all 12 episodes, it’s easy enough to guess what I’m up to next.

Who would be your perfect leading man and woman? It sounds like I’m lying but I’ve already found my perfect cast and we are all now the best of friends. We’ve just completed a science fiction short film called ‘The Feeling of Unreality ’ and most of the cast of ‘Blood and Bone China’ star in it. I think I’m going to be a director like Tim Burton who always has Johnny Depp star in every movie; when you’ve found a great cast, stick with them!

To watch the series visit: www.bloodandbonechina.com

Since moving to the US in 2005 Maria Olsen has appeared in no fewer than 40 feature films (including Paranormal Activity 3 and Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief), 70 short movies, 10 web series, 10 music videos and 15 stage plays. She’s worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Christopher Columbus and Pierce Brosnan.

Maria is particularly well known in the horror genre, and is actively involved in helping smaller independent movies go from the story board onto the big screen. I caught up with her inbetween casting calls...

Can you remember when you ﬁrst wanted to be an actor? When I was young, maybe about 10 or a little older. I used to watch a lot of movies that starred my favourite actresses, like Kathleen Turner, Jodie Foster and Jane Fonda. Every time I saw one of them in a movie, I decided I wanted to grow up to be whatever they were in the movie. Then one day I woke up to the epiphany that I didn’t want to do whatever their characters did for a living, I wanted to do what the ACTRESSES did for a living, and the rest is history!

Have you always been a big horror fan, or is it something you fell into? I’ve always been a horror fan. I remember reading Fangoria articles about the special effects used in The Exorcist when I was about 8 years old and thinking “oh is THAT how they got her head to turn around!!!”. I also remember seeing the (now incredibly campy-looking) Haunted House of Horror

when I nine and thinking it was the best horror movie ever! I also grew up on a steady diet of horror ﬁction, and I still treasure the Dark Shadows novels I’ve had in my collection for over 30 years now.

How many times have you died in a movie? Ofﬁcially I’ve died in nine of the projects currently listed on IMDB. These don’t, however, include those projects where I died before the action started and I’ve come back as a ghost - or worse. Or projects where I play supernatural entities like succubi, furies and sirens! So technically the ﬁgure is much higher.

Do you prefer to be in front of the camera? Acting for me is the greatest thing. I do

Maria as Mrs Dodds in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

produce, and love to get involved in every aspect of the movie industry. One thing I’ve yet to do is direct for the screen, but it’s on my list.

How much of your success is down to hard work? A LOT of success is down to hard work. If I had to place a number on it, I would say 70 to 80 percent. I’m constantly working and trying to get my name out there. If I’m not shooting, I’m auditioning or rehearsing or marketing or fundraising or writing or casting or...the list goes on and on and on.

Which director would you like to work with next? I would love to do something with Tim Burton, that would be perfect. Are you listening, universe??? (laughs)

Keep an eye out for Maria in... The Haunting of Whaley House (Jose Prendes & The Asylum) The Levenger Tapes (Mark Edwin Robinson & Castlight Pictures) Bunnyman 2 (Carl Lindbergh & Anoc Productions) The Mudman (Tim and Jamie Curley) The Lords of Salem (Rob Zombie) Live-in Fear (Brandon Scullion, Iodine Sky Productions and MOnsterworks66) Folklore (Justin Calen Chenn, Early Rendition Pictures and MOnsterworks66). Together with Angel Corbin she is also one half of ﬁlm production company, MOnsterworks66. The next project on their agenda is Eric Michael Kochmer’s noir thriller Way Down in Chinatown, where they are both attached as Associate Producers. Shooting begins in Los Angeles this summer.

You can follow Maria on Twitter @mariaolsen66

MY FAVOURITE MOVIE

The Fearless Vampire Killers by Matt Mansfield

oman Polanski’s 1967 movie, The Fearless Vampire Killers, otherwise known as Dance of the Vampires or, most pertinently, Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are In My Neck, is an undeniably gorgeous, hilarious film, yet one that’s seldom seen and mentioned. The story follows an aged professor (played by Jack MacGowran and his assistant, Alfred (Polanski), as they journey to Transylvania to research vampires. When Alfred’s girlfriend (Sharon Tate) is abducted by the mysterious Count von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne), the bumbling duo head to the count’s castle to try and take her back. Horror and comedy are two genres that, on paper, seem like polar opposites, in

reality they are perhaps the closest aligned of all genres – something proven in Polanski’s attempt at juggling the two here. Rather than maximise the tension solely through scares, Polanski punctuates the film with riotous laughter. The image of an old man getting stuck while trying to squeeze through a tiny window is silly, yet, in the vein of the film, diffuses the atmosphere wonderfully. Despite a difficult shoot in Italy and England, visually it has a fairytale-like charm, aided brilliantly by British cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, who went on to do The Italian Job, and the Indiana Jones movies with Steven Speilberg. If you can, seek out the 107 minute original, a recent 88 minute cut version was so brutal Polanski asked for his name to be removed from it. In fact one of the special things about this film is the unhurried Jim Jarmusch-like pace, and it’s over-dwelling in insignificant details. Critically, it’s often swept aside in favour of some of the director ’s more serious work, perhaps because it was made between thriller/drama Cul-de-Sac, and straight horror film, Rosemary ’s Baby respectively, but for me The Fearless Vampire Killers will forever hold a special place in movie history.

Do YOU have a favourite movie? Let us know here: email: mymovie@flushmagazine.co.uk

Sometimes technology blends with real life so seamlessly you wonder how you ever existed without it. Take our App of the month, BurgerApp. Fiendishly simple, but at the same time completely priceless.

Ok ﬁrst the bad news, if you don’t have an iPhone or iPad and don’t live in, or visit London, this App isn’t for you. If, like me you spend a fair amount of time in the capital and love a good burger now and again, this App is worth its weight in onion rings. In a nutshell, (or should that be burger bun?) based on your location, BurgerApp will lead you to the best burger joints around the capital. From Admiral Codrington’s Chilli Cheeseburger to Gordon Ramsay’s Short Rib Burger at the Bread St Kitchen, all are personally reviewed by the mysterious Burgerac himself, complete with star ratings and useful information such as price, vegetarian options and personal recommendations. BurgerApp also features all kinds of Burger related news and info, including the weekly specials in Byron Hamburgers or Meat Liquor, or who is serving chargrilled double stacks and deep fried pickles, plus hints and tips on making your own delicious burgers at home. The App is regularly updated and includes all the restaurants on a scrollable interactive map, complete with addresses, telephone numbers, opening hours and website info etc. Best of all it costs £1.49. That is less than a side order of french fries. To download BurgerApp go here http://bit.ly/burgerac

OF THE MONTH

BURGERAPP

VIRTUAL WORLDS Very real and very now

The original Metaverse Evangelist and Tech Guru, Ian ‘Epredator Hughes’ presents a guide to the next generation of virtual worlds

So what are these virtual worlds? The term Virtual World is often applied to the many ways people interact online. In a modern connected world where people are only just coming to terms with talking to friends and family online on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it’s worth casting an eye towards the richer, and direct experience that visual virtual worlds bring. These days there are more virtual worlds than ever before. The amount of interaction each world can offer differs. Some virtual worlds are aimed mostly at kids. These worlds allow kids to express their style through customising their home and their character. Others allow directed text chat (choosing phrases from a menu), up to full text chat. Safety is an important factor for parents, and these worlds are carefully monitored and strict language ﬁlters are used to prevent the obvious potential dangers of talking to strangers. For the younger audience it is fairly typical for the character they use when signed in to be regarded as a pet.

There are many different activities to do, special missions, mini games and even tending gardens. The activities generate an ‘in world’ currency that can then be spent on even more customisation.

Decorate

Show Me

Many of these virtual worlds do not come from traditional games developers, nor from a traditional media organisation. New ones spring up almost daily, but two UK startup companies that have gained huge popularity recently are Bin Weevils and Moshi Monsters. Bin Weevils In Bin Weevils you play word and number games to gain Mulch to customise your bin and your Weevil. It’s possible to visit a friend’s home and share that space and live with them. It’s also possible to set up a small business, such as a custom photo booth for other Weevils to pop along and have their own in-world photo captured in a scene set by you. Moshi Monsters Moshi Monsters has gone from strength to strength over the past few years and moved from purely online to lots of other media including toys and a recent album. Here you adopt a Moshi Monster, then earn Rox through games and experiences. The initial games were brain challenges, but now include lots more traditional arcade type games themed for Moshi. The virtual world is a social conduit as well as a social subject, and as there is no ﬁnal objective play becomes open ended.

All these environments allow customisation, generally decorative customisation. Your character gets new clothes and toys, your home gets new gadgets and wall paper. There are ways to show off how many games you have played and the level you have reached. The worlds thrive on discoverable secrets and achievements. These achievements create a buzz that encourages communication, talking about them at school or with friends. For kids to get the full immersive experience in these worlds costs around £5 per month. The next generation know what’s what. Our kids are already learning to expect a more dynamic way of connecting online through virtual environments. They are experiencing online worlds that are speciﬁcally built for them. When they grow past those environments where do they go next?

VIRTUAL WORLDS Not Talking Orc?

Online gaming has become a major part of the traditional games industry. Highly crafted environments allow both gaming and social activity to happen. These experiences are generally produced and themed. Word Of Warcraft, Eve Online and Star Wars – The Old Republic are all examples where groups of people can gather, organise and take on the challenges of the environment. Generally they feature character growth. The more you play the stronger you get and the better the items you can use. They are virtual worlds too, but not what we are looking at here. Neither has the cut and thrust of ﬁrst person shooters such as Modern Warfare 3 and Battleﬁeld 3, although these have their place, and create rich communities. The Generation Game Instead, let’s consider USER generated virtual worlds. These worlds are as much about the tools to create the contents of the environment as they are about the interaction of the users. Virtual goods and an economy feature strongly. It is usually at this point people say, “Oh you mean Second Life? is that still going?”. Well for the record, Second Life is still going (look for me, Epredator Potato) , and has a passionate set of residents. Lots has been written and talked about what Second Life is and

does, but it is not the only example of worlds created by their users. For those who want a commercially run virtual environment and place to see what it is all about it is still one of the best places to go and explore. However it has spawned something even more intriguing: an open source project OpenSimulator.org a.k.a. Opensim. Like all open source projects OpenSimulator is a publicly available set of resources and is now starting to spawn other commercial and social activity. As it is ‘open source’, you can grab the server code and run it wherever you want. Local virtual worlds, private servers, stand alone cloud based servers or join with all the other publicly run servers and join the Hypergrid. Or you can access a service like Kitely that aims to provide an on-demand service on top of Opensim. With this sort of virtual world anything can change anywhere at anytime. That sounds chaotic and yes it can be. Alternatively it can be considered a giant immersive 3d wiki. You can see other people’s avatars and they can see you. You can communicate, talk and build together, immersed in the ideas. These worlds provide space to both work and play, and are breeding grounds for knowledge sharing and friendship building.

www.moshimonsters.com www.binweevils.com www.minecraft.net/ www.secondlife.com www.opensimulator.org www.kitely.com

Learning your craft

Opensim may seem a major leap from kids customising their adopted pets and playing mini games. However there is a current hybrid virtual world, spawned out of indie gaming, released as an ongoing beta (also just released for Xbox live) and now a major force in gaming. Minecraft It’s easy to be fooled by the retro 8bit look to the graphics but Minecraft is a game. Enter the world with nothing and try and survive. The key to survival; collect resources from the randomly generated world around you and combine them (craft) into new items. For example, you can chop down a tree and use the wood to make a door. Everything in the world can be picked up or mined, formed and built with. As a single player game it becomes a freeform building and digging experience, digging deep mines to ﬁnd coal and precious ore whilst building defences from the creatures of the night. Minecraft really changes when it

becomes multiplayer. As with Opensim it is possible to download the server code to run anywhere you choose. The server then provides a persistent world that groups of people can connect too. Here they can compete or co-operate, play or just build like a giant lego set. For those not used to working together online, both kids and adults alike, the environment is a sandbox to ﬁgure out how to work together. A ‘creative’ mode removes the pure game element of competing against bad guys and allows people to just build. A Youtube search of Minecraft will show an ever growing set of videos of people showing what they can build, or machines they have crafted and making pop video parodies. The worlds created on the server can also be saved and exported and shared online. So the environment becomes a virtual good itself. You may think building in 3d is tricky and too much to handle. However, if you’ve seen a ﬁve year old move around effortlessly and create a massive structure in minutes you will appreciate the future of communication online really is through virtual worlds like this. Virtual worlds can be thought of an as experience or a game, but when you treat them as an expressive toolset they can become very powerful. Something that is unique to the internet and leads to another exciting future crossing the boundaries of the virtual and physical... Ian is part of the ‘Cool Stuff Collective’ on ITV and on twitter @epredator The future can be found on his website www.feedingedge.co.uk

How much of a priority is money to you? Its important to the extent that it is nice to have. To me the money is the means to having a good life, but not an object in itself. I am not from the ‘must be bigger billionaire than that other guy ’ club. Do you have plans to further develop GetGlue? Absolutely. Two big themes for us in the near term are the next generation TV guide and rich media content on the second screen. We have already integrated with DirecTV on the first screen. They are using our API to enable checkins and show what

STUCK ON YOU Alex Iskold

Who: Alex Iskold, 39. CEO of GetGlue How: Began career as a software engineer for Goldman Sachs, founded and sold Laboratory to IBM in 2003, launched GetGlue in November 2009. What: GetGlue is a social network with 2 million users and rising. Why: Members use the App to ‘check in’, rate and discuss their fav TV shows, music and movies in real-time, earning exclusive stickers and recommendations based on their friends’ tastes into the bargain. The key to GetGlue’s success has been it’s partnerships with over 75 TV Networks and 600+ TV shows. How easy was it to get the necessary financing for Get Glue initially? Financing is never easy, but I’ve been lucky to land an amazing group of investors, all in New York City. The first investor was Union Square Ventures, and it has been a blast working with them. What have you found the most challenging about the incredible growth of GetGlue in recent times? Keeping up, and at the same time leveraging growth to turn more growth. Since we’ve been growing so rapidly, the expectations of growth are now higher. The things you have to do at different stages are not always the same, so picking up the right things and focusing on them really well is a big challenge.

friends are watching. It’s very cool, we’ve also hooked up with Storify.com, and are looking to roll out similar integrations with other providers as we grow. Quickfire questions: What kind of phone do you use? iPhone. What is your fav movie? American Beauty What is your favourite App apart from GetGlue?: The previous version of Twitter Do you ever get recognised in the street? No, only at conferences. What do you want to be doing in 10 years? Running GetGlue or another startup. When did you last have a day off from work? I took a few days off the third week in January after we announced our latest round of financing. I’m not good at time off in general. What is your favourite ever line of code? public static void main( String[] ) { For more info visit www.GetGlue.com

GAMING

DIABLO III Before we begin, you need to know what Diablo is. It’s a Hack ’n’ slash dark-fantasy dungeon crawler, where groups of heroes (that’s you and me by the way) can team up to smash the faces off thousands upon thousands of demons and un-dead. Sound good? Read on. I’ll set the scene. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of Diablo III for YEARS. The last few months have been painful, but finishing my degree has kept me busy enough to avoid me becoming a complete shut-in, sitting at home,

in my pants, watching the days pass until release day. Imagine, if you can, the joy I felt upon discovering that I was getting a copy posted to me to review! I nearly exploded. Finally my copy of Diablo III arrived. I eagerly tore open the jiffy bag, stripped away the cellophane and took a moment to admire the artwork on the box. It’s beautiful. Blizzard have gone to great lengths to show you just what you’re in for with this game, the attention to detail is amazing, from the embossing on the cover, to the image on the disk, this is one

beautifully presented game. I fired-up my P.C. and slipped the DVD into the drive, I was greeted, as expected, with the install window, I clicked the button marked “install” and was presented with a message which read: “The fire from the sky still falls, Diablo III has not yet launched.” The three days before the launch date were like waiting for Christmas as a child. Time slowed down, I used my time to decide which class to play as first. I came to the decision: Barbarian to get familiar with the game and then Witch Doctor.

The time was actually 00:01 (my time) when I first managed to log in. The game is STUNNING. I hastily created my Barbarian and jumped into action, smashing my way up to level 11 before pausing for a moment. As 3am neared, I decided that it was time to try the Witch Doctor out. Whilst the Barbarian was indeed fun, I was craving something more... bizarre. After all, in a game where hordes of demons are attacking you constantly, why not try commanding your own zombies? At this point in time, my Witch Doctor has completed the main story on normal and is slogging his way through Nightmare Difficulty, and I have taken every class into double digits at least once, each being amusing in its own way (I’m still rather taken by rocking around with my own personal army of undead though). Hardcore mode brings a new level of panic to the game, by taking away your ability to revive if killed. I’ve given it a go, but it’s something that I think will add life to the game after I’ve finished smashing through

the story on the increasingly mad difficulties. Now, what the Diablo series really is for me, is a multiplayer, mad-dash through dungeons to grab loads of loot before your friends. Whilst the competitiveness is somewhat lost with the “ your loot is your own” rule, the overall feel has not been lost in Diablo III. It does have a brilliant and engaging storyline, but I found that my second time through the quest allowed me to simply storm ahead at whatever speed my character was capable. Which is great fun! Now, I feel like I need to make sure that I’ve been fair and mentioned the good AND the bad, but honestly, I’m struggling to find any bad. One thing I will say is that the release is not without bugs, I’ve been disconnected a few times and experienced some interesting bugs, but Blizzard aren’t the kind of company to let that stay that way. Give it a week or two and the majority of issues will be patched and all will be good. Overall, I have LOVED my first couple of weeks in Diablo III, and I’ll not be stopping just because the review is written. In fact, I’m going to grab a coffee, log back in, and crack on. By Dave Whitehead

Platform: PC & mac Developer: Blizzard Rated: 15 – Moderate Bloody Violence

10/10

The three days before the launch date were like waiting for Christmas as a child, time slowed down, I used my time to decide which class to play as first. I came to the decision, Barbarian to get familiar with the game and then Witch Doctor.

GAMING THQ Preview Event HIghlights

Darksiders II

Company of Heroes 2 Games writer Henry McMunn gets a sneak peek at a couple of THQ’s forthcoming game titles and finds out, all’s fair in love and war. Preview - Company of Heroes 2 A sequel to the highest rated real-time strategy game of all time, Company of Heroes 2 continues in their quest for creating the ‘benchmark for tactical RTS’. Developer Relic Entertainment are already well on their way through building a masterful World War II strategy title. Although still in development I was able to see a whole half hour of gameplay. Being set on the Eastern Front this time (sorry Americans and Brits, no involvement from good old us

here), it pitches the USSR against Nazi Germany in highly immersive and often shockingly brutal combat amidst the harshest of winters. Relic have aimed to keep everything the game’s ‘highly vocal community ’ have loved, and by the looks of things, they ’ve nothing to fear. Featuring on-location studied environments of Kiev, St. Petersburg and Moscow, and running on the gorgeous new Essence 3.0 engine which shows beautiful and realistic renditions of snow and its effects, this title is a must for PC players. Lock and load in 2013.

Preview - Darksiders II. Succeeding the well-received hack’n’slash Darksiders from 2010, playing a 25-minute demo, it’s easy to see that Vigil Games know what hack’n’slash fans want, and they know how to give it to them. With its bright and almost flamboyant art style setting it apart from the browns and greys of many ‘gritty ’ action/adventure titles (why anyone would want gritty realism in a game with 10-foot long swords I’ll never know), its world draws you in from the onset. Playing as Death, Horseman of the Apocalypse and brother of the original Darksider ’s antihero War, the combat is simple to execute – which may throw off some of the hardcore – yet exhilarating on-screen as Death wildly swings and slashes with giant scythes, hammers and swords. It has brawn than brains on the whole, sure, but its host of RPG elements keep the game from being stale or samey, and Vigil have thrown in plenty of incentive for multiple playthroughs. This is certainly a hack ’n’ slash worth its dollar, look out for it this August.

TECH REVIEW:

HTC One X Quads

I’ve always had a soft spot for HTC, I like their subtle branding and clean design. When the difference between most Android mobile phones is negligible, things like a nice logo can make all the difference. Yes, I can be that fickle. Up until now, the Galaxy S2, has been the Android champ, but HTC’s new challenger has some impressive firepower in its corner. Being the first ever mobile to feature a quad core processor it’s the most powerful phone currently on the market. Considering its heavyweight credentials the One X is very thin and extremely light. There are no ‘real’ buttons, the big LCD 4.7-inch display, has 1280x720 pixels (more than the iPhone 4S), and it’s about as big as you would ever want your mobile phone to get.

Ice Cream Sandwich

HTC’s skinned version of 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is intuitive and easy to get to grips with, especially if you have used an Android phone in the past. If not, don’t worry, you’ll soon pick it up. Some of the UI modifications seem to have been done just to make things a bit different, not better, but it doesn’t take long to get the phone looking and working the way you want it to. I like the openness of the Android store (now renamed Google Play), I copied a MKV movie file over from my computer and tried to open it. It wouldn’t, but 5 minutes later I had a free Media Player App installed and it just worked. Video playback is ultra smooth and they’ve eliminated the flickering issue from some older HTC phones completely. Email and Gmail integration is easy, the layout is clean, and the larger screen is useful when it comes to writing emails and sending text messages. One tip, get SWYPE set up on the phone, it’s much faster than typing. Talking of speed, if you’re like me and have absolutely no patience when waiting for an App to load, the split seconds of difference the quad core processors save will be most welcome. Basically there is no waiting. Twitter, Boom loaded. Facebook, Boom, as quick as flicking a page on a book.

Video / Camera

HD Video Capture is reasonably good, and a nice touch is the ability to grab a still at the same time. The 8MP Camera will take decent snaps, but you’ll still want to use your regular camera when it comes to anything important. At the moment, HTC, Samsung, LG and the rest are still a step behind Nokia’s cameras. If you purchase the additional HTC Media Link HD (about £60), you can rent a movie from the Play Store and stream it wirelessly onto your TV. It mirrors your phones screen, so it’s also useful for boring the pants off relatives with holiday pics or home movies. And it’s much easier to set up than the old super 8 screen and projector. HTC’s Music app is also a step in the right direction, rather than try (and fail) to come up with something of their own, they’ve opened the phone as a gateway to use Apps like Amazon MP3, Google Music, Pandora, and Spotify. The one main issue with the HTC One X is battery life. The power needed to run it means you’ll be charging it up as soon as you get home every night. If you can live with that, the overall the One X is a real title contender. Oh, and I nearly forgot, you can make calls with it too!

Speciﬁcations

Size: 134.36 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm Weight: 130grams with battery Memory: Total storage :32 GB RAM:1 GB 8 megapixel camera with auto focus, smart LED flash, and BSI sensor 1.3 megapixel front camera (720p for video chat) 1080p HD video recording CPU Speed 1.5 GHz, quad-core AndroidTM 4.0 with HTC SenseTM 4

For more info visit bit.ly/htconexphone

Keith Apicary: Oh, what, wow, he’s the greatest dancer. Keith Apicary is a one man hurricane, not only does he run Talking Classics, the coolest retro video game website on the planet, he’s a philosopher and a pretty sweet mover on the dance floor (he claims to have learnt his moves from a Sega Dreamcast Console). Millions watched open mouthed at his audition for a recent Kimberly Cole music video, and in the process he unleashed a new dance craze entitled ‘The Zombie’.

It’s thought hair replacement treatments are down in the US, simply because of Keith’s rising popularity and he’s even hoping to move out of his van and into a real apartment in the near future. I caught up with the man who put the ‘L’ in Bad.

There always seems to be a lot of attractive young women hanging around you.What is the secret of your success with the ladies?

I just tell attractive girls that I can get them free gum. Girls love gum. Its their favorite food. They also like that my bangs are on the back of my head like a backwards hat.

I’ve heard rumours there is a movie about your life in the pipeline? If it gets made who would you like to play you?

Who told you that? That movie is gonna stink! But if it does get made it would probably be most accurate if Brad Pitt played me and the script was based on his life. That would be the most accurate movie about me. Actually someone did talk to me recently about doing a documentary on me. So that might happen.

Do you have any relaxation/warm up techniques before starting a big videogame session? No warm up techniques, but when playing a game I do this thing when I get excited or beat a level, where I rub my hands together really fast. I also tap my forehead really fast. I look like a mental patient when I do it. But it deﬁnitely helps, I bet.

What do you need to be a TOP video game player? It’s not what you need it’s what you don’t need. You don’t need anything besides video games.

How does it feel to have started your own dance phenomenon?

What is the best video game EVER?

I don’t know if I’d call it a phenomenon. More of a few-nomenon. But even if a few people are dancing like me then that’s pretty cool. Unfortunate for them. But cool for me.

That’s tough. It’s between Earthworm Jim on Sega Genesis or TMNT the Arcade Game or Sonic 2 or MUSHA or Streets of Rage 2 or 3 or Mark of The Wolves or Ms Pacman or Snatcher or Metal Slug or... Oh crap, my computer is running out of ink.

How did you come up with the Zombie dance?

What name do you enter when you get a high score on a videogame?

Do you have a professional stylist?

Delve deeper at www.talkingclassics.webs.com

I’m just mimicking the ﬂopping that a zombie does just after it gets shot in the head. Obviously. Yes, my stylist is the Salvation Army.

Either NJB (Nathan J Barnatt) or just three blank spaces.

WIN

Phonak Audéo Earphones Phonak are a Swiss company with a huge reputation across the globe as manufacturers of cutting edge hearing aid technology. Recently they’ve applied that same expertise to manufacturing earphones. Their PFE012s are probably the best you can buy under £200. They’re strong, lightweight and the sound quality, while still retaining plenty of bass, is incredibly detailed.

To enter the competition visit

http://www.flushthefashion.com/win/phonak Alternatively email your name and address to phonak@flushthefashion.com Editor’s decision is final. Closing date is 20th July 2012

Good luck!

For more info on Phonak’s range of headphones visit http://bit.ly/phonak

WIN

FL Studio & Deckadance Music Software

FL Studio is one of the world’s most popular and exciting music production systems on the market. Used by everyone from Mike Oldfield and DeadMau5, to exciting new talents Porter Robinson and Madeon, it’s the ultimate studio in a box. Here is your chance to go ‘legit’ and win an official copy of the amazing Image-Line software. You will also get free updates FOR LIFE. Not only that, in addition to Fl Studio the winner will also get a copy of Deckadance, an AWESOME DJ mixing application.

System Requirements PC Windows 7, Vista, XP (SP2) Intel PIII 1 GHz or Althon XP 1.4 GHz. 512Mb RAM 200MB free hard disc space DirectSound or ASIO compatible soundcard Mac OSX v10.4 (Universal Binary) G4 1.5 GHz or Intel Core Duo family 512Mb RAM 200MB free hard disc space CoreAudio drivers

To enter our competition visit: http://www.flushthefashion.com/win/flstudio Alternatively email your name and address to: flstudio@flushthefashion.com stating either PC or Mac Editors’ decision is final. Closing date is 20th July 2012

Good luck!

Answers To Question I Never Asked – An Exhibition by John Copeland From 25-05-12 to 30-06-12 V1 Gallery, Flæsketorvet 69 - 71, 1711 Copenhagen V, Denmark www.v1gallery.com

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