quint magazine | issue 3 by quint

quint magazine | issue 3 | November - December 2010

ILLUSTRATION BY BALAZS MAGYAR

CONTENTS MASTHEAD EDITOR’S NOTE CONTRIBUTOR HIGHLIGHTS NEWS DESIGN NOT A GRPAHIC TECHNICIAN FEATURED DESIGNER - TAYLOR WHETERBEE FEATURED DESIGNER - BALAZS MAGYAR PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER - ANDERS WIDLUND FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER - SHEHARA FILM SLEEPING BETTER IN SEATTLE HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM A RAGING FILM.... FASHION FASHION DESIGNER- NORA DEAK MUSIC DJ BIG O THE MUSICAL EVOLUTION IN DEFENCE OF THE AVANT-GARDE MANIC SHINE INTERVIEW ALBUM REVIEW - PROPAGHANDI-SUPPORTING CASTE ALBUM REVIEW - HASCHUKA-ROOM TO EXPAND ALBUM REVIEW - FORGET–TWIN SHADOW PLAYLIST LITERATURE READING LIST LAYERS OF OTHERS OVERTURE OF OVERTURES OF NARRATIVES AND THE ESTABLISHMENT EVENTS FRESHLY LACED INTRODUCTION TO AROMA THERAPY LAST CALL KABUL

4 6 8 10 12 14 28 48 60 72 74 80 96 98 100 104 108 110 111 112 113 114 116 118 120 122 124

quint magazine | 3rd issue | November-December 2010 Editor in Chief Zaina Shreidi zaina@quintdubai.com Design | Illustration | Art Directon Gyula Deรกk gyula@quintdubai.com Designers Ritu Arya, Dana Jamal, Gordon Lesage-Brown Photographers Anders Widlund, Shehara, Fitri Wahab, Rebecca Rendell Richard Henderson Contributors Prank Moody, Tom Paye, Trevor Bundus, Mohamed El Amin, Balazs Magyar, Taylor Whetherbee, Fares BouNassif, Simon Allen, Conor Purcell, Maysan Marouf, Simone Sebastian This production and its entire contents are protected by copyright. No use or reprint (including disclosure) may be made of all or any part of this publication in any manner or form whatsoever without the prior written consent Quint. Views expressed in Quint do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors or parent company. Quint is a trademark of Spirit Consulting FZE. Contact hi@quintdubai.com

EDITOR’S NOTE AS WE PROGRESS EVER MORE ON OUR LITTLE CREATIVE JOURNEY, I AM REALISING DAY BY DAY JUST HOW MUCH TALENT THERE IS OUT THERE. ALTERNATIVELY, I MUST ADMIT, THERE IS QUITE A LOT OF SUB-PAR WORK BEING TOUTED AS ART, BUT THIS ONLY SERVES TO ENHANCE THE EXCITEMENT I AND THE REST OF THE QUINT TEAM FEEL WHEN WE COME ACROSS PEOPLE WHO TRULY UNDERSTAND HOW TO SIPHON OUT ALL THE DEPRESSING ASPECTS OF THE MODERN WORLD, OR EVEN MANIPULATE IT, TO CREATE AND CAPTURE BEAUTY, IN ALL ITS MANY SHAPES AND FORMS. THIS ISSUE WE PRESENT ARTISTS AND WORK FROM FAR AND WIDE, FROM ALL DIFFERENT AGES, BACKGROUNDS, AND CULTURES, WITH WORK THAT TRULY SHOWS JUST HOW DIVERSE AND INTERESTING THE HUMAN RACE CAN BE WHEN GIVEN THE CHANCE. OUR WRITERS AND CONTRIBUTORS CERTAINLY FEEL THE SAME AS THEY EMBARK UPON THE WEALTH OF ART AND CREATIVITY OUT THERE, READY TO INGEST ALL THE INSPIRATION THE WORLD HAS TO OFFER AND REGURGITATE IT TO YOU, OUR READERS, IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY. THE ART THEY DISSECT, CRITIQUE, AND EXALT IS ALL IMPORTANT IN ITS OWN RIGHT, BUT THE ART THAT RESULTS FROM OUR WRITERS AS THEY EXPLORE IS IN ITSELF WORTHY OF PRAISE. THIS ISSUE IS FILLED AS USUAL WITH RAVING, RANTING, INSIGHT AND REFLECTION, OF THE ENGAGING, WITTY, DARK, AND HUMOROUS SORT. ENJOY, AND GRACE US WITH YOUR THOUGHTS, WORK, ART, AND CREATIVITY – FUEL OUR INSPIRATION, AND WE’LL FUEL YOURS RIGHT BACK. ZAINA SHREIDI 6

BOB MARLEY EATING A QUINT STICKER IN LONDON”S WAX MUSEUM - PHOTO BY RITU ARYA

RITUARYA A new addition to the quint team, Ritu Arya draws inspiration from film, television, fashion, music, colours and people for her illustration and design work. Due to her hatred of the outdoors and sports, Ritu drew and danced since she was a wee child, and the former has brought her into the world of design and branding. Graduating with a degree in Visual Communications from the American University of Sharjah, Ritu drifted for a few months until landing a position at quint where her work and enthusiasm has been very well received. Her obsession with television shows and music will certainly cement her presence here. Keep an eye out for her work in quint magazine, and beyond.

MAYSANMAROUF Maysan Marouf is an aromatherapist practicing in Lebanon and Syria, with a background in Environmental Science. She is also certified in a wide range of energy healing modalities such as Reiki, Quantum Touch and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), and is committed to her yoga practice. These techniques can all be combined for a powerful effect. Her mission is to spread awareness on wellness topics and give you the courage to shine your inner star!

SIMONESEBASTIAN discoballbreaker (www.discoballbreaker.com) is the musical alter-ego of Simone Sebastian. Simone is a Dubai-based promoter, writer and culture vulture. If she isn’t thinking about music or art, she’s most probably thinking about wine. Follow her on Twitter (www.twitter.com/discobb)

SIMONALLEN

DJ, producer, music critic and professional Hedonist, Simon Allen (aka. Just Some Kid) is resident DJ at the forward thinking night - See You Next Friday, playing a connoisseurs cocktail of electro, disco and house. Simon is also one half of electro/disco outfit - ‘Lapelle’, who have an anticipated release on the label Civil Music in December. There’s nothing he loves more than the hunt for that perfect track so he feverishly searches the ether for those hidden gems of days gone by or that brand new sound and this is what gets injected into his performances and productions. Some of his mixtures are available at ww.soundcloud.com/justsomekid and you can catch him bouncing around behind the decks on the Trilogy Rooftop every Friday in Dubai.

CONORPURCELL

Conor has been travelling since he was 18 when he ended up working in a water park by the Syrian border after a trip to the Greek islands went awry. Since then he has been bombed by Hezbollah, kicked out of Israel and Jordan, had a gun put to his head in Beirut, been attacked by baboons in Djibouti, threatened with a stabbing in the Philippines and chased by wild dogs in Ethiopia. Most recklessly of all, he has spent four years working in Dubai’s media. These days when he is not travelling he enjoys talking to strange women in Starbucks, buying books in Kinokuniya and staring into space.

news! Halfanese

www.halfanese.com/

LA based motion designer Francis Kmiecik, also known as Halfanese, has a Benettonesqe mixed up background (Vietnamese, Lakota, Polish, and Irish) which is the main influence in his work. As a kid, he made ninja movies in his backyard, enjoyed Saturday morning cartoons, comic books and graffiti, which clearly laid the foundation for his future as an artist. Later on Kmiecik studied scientific illustration, traditional animation and film at The Art Institute of Chicago and from there began his career in illustration, painting, and motion design. The mashup of cultures, races, and education has extended to his artwork as he combines various mediums, themes, to express his perspectives of life, culture and art.

Twenty Something The first show of its kind in the UAE, Twenty Something explores issues that concern the young(ish) around the country. Presenters Lubna Habib, Marwan Parham, Annah Jacob and Ashwariya Ajit discuss culturally relevant issues related to lifestyle, music, education, and art as well as conduct interviews with young people who are pursuing and achieving their goals around the UAE and the region. Twenty Something also showcases both famous and underground musical acts, thus serving as an entertaining and educational show for their growing audience. Catch Twenty Something on Dubai One on Mondays at 19:30 UAE time or catch reruns on Tuesday at noon or Saturday at 16:00.

http://www.dmi.ae/dubaione/microsite/

Zhineh Dubai born and based Zhineh Cobra Askarpour’s passion for photography began with her realisation of the power of the medium. Within the myriad of spoken languages, misinterpretation and lost translations in this world, photography is a universal expression. “I’ve always had a creative mind and an imagination I like to explore and fortunately for me I’m lucky enough to do so through the art of photography.” The main things that drew Zhineh to photography were the never ending possibilities and continuous advances that one can achieve and share with one image. Studying photography has taught her the importance of individuality, compositions, and vibrant images. Seeing this put into practice has given her a strong interest in many aspects of magazine, urban, street and personal photography works.

www.zhinehcobraphotography.com

“Throw ‘Em Up” sculpture series Dana Park Weiser Dana Park Weiser’s entertaining and interestingly controversial Throw ‘Em Up sculpture series portrays notorious LA gang signs in plaster, steel and paint, rendering them art, and presenting them to an entirely different crowd than these hand signs are usually flashed at. This interesting link between the art world and feared gangs of areas where naught a hipster has dared venture is what makes this series so interesting. Bringing these signs into an art gallery or the living room of someone with a discerning eye for modern art definitely lessens the fear and stigma around such symbols of violence and danger. However it begs the question, as the artist surely considered, how do the gang members feel about their signs, of which they are violently loyal and defensive of, being portrayed for the enjoyment and entertainment of the cultured elite? Enjoy more of Dana Weiser’s work at her website:

www.danaweiser.com/

NOT A GRAPHIC TECHNICIAN

Fares Bounassif 12

THIS PIECE WAS SUPPOSED TO START WITH A SCREENSHOT OF AN EMAIL THAT I RECEIVED A WHILE BACK REQUESTING A LOGO DESIGN. THE EMAIL WAS VERY SPECIFIC. THEY WANTED TO HIRE A GRAPHIC DESIGNER TO CREATE THEIR LOGO, AND THEY HAD DECIDED ON THE ILLUSTRATION, THE COLOURS, THE FONTS EVEN, THEY JUST NEEDED SOMEONE TO IMPLEMENT IT; FIGURING THAT, SINCE THEY HAD ALREADY MADE THE DESIGNER’S LIFE EASIER BY SELECTING EVERYTHING FOR HIM, THEY WOULDN’T NEED TO PAY HIM MUCH. OF COURSE, STILL THINKING THAT IS WAS THE DESIGNER’S JOB TO MAKE SURE THE LOGO LOOKED GREAT SO THAT IT WOULD STAND OUT IN THE MARKET, THEY PERMIT HIM TO ‘GET CREATIVE’ WITH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DESIGN, WHILE FOLLOWING THROUGH WITH THE PRESCRIBED GUIDELINES. THAT WAS ALL ACTUALLY IN THE EMAIL. MAYBE NOT WORD FOR WORD, BUT THAT WAS THE BULK OF IT.

Brilliant, isn’t it? These people, like many others, assume that the design process is simply taking the company’s idea and representing it visually, a task that they would even do (to save even more money) had they been taught to use Photoshop and Illustrator (then again, they usually don’t know Illustrator exists). They tend to not realise that we hire the graphic designer to create the best possible means to represent a message; to create an idea himself. So they expect the designer to simply apply her methods, through the appropriate media and channels, to generate a wonderful little thing that they can say was all their idea in the first place. A wonderful little thing that often times isn’t very effective at producing positive results. So they lose money. But they are convinced that they had saved money, and they don’t even realise what went wrong. That’s when I, as a graphic designer, laugh on the inside in ecstatic, vengeful pleasure. Not really. But I bet some of you do. The problem here is one of perception and miscommunication. Let’s throw around some generalisations, definitions: The artist creates an idea, and then implements it. Some artists procrastinate before they manage to actu-

ally apply themselves to the task at hand, others tend to just throw themselves at it and keep failing until something good springs up. Occasionally, they just know what they’ll be doing and it works early on. Then they obsess over it and perfect it perpetually, eventually becoming too distracted by its imperfections to ever consider it complete. All artists need to research their subject and understand it thoroughly before they can create art around it. The applied visual arts are no different, and designers tend to become the undervalued artists of our age, simply because they do not create self-initiated projects: they create work for others based on the needs of others, and maybe because a lot of their work isn’t actually seen as artistic (such as business cards and fonts). Visual communicators par excellence (if they’re good at what they do), they tend to wait for an outside party to give them a task (except for the rare instances of self-initiated explorations) to communicate a particular message to a particular audience. And there are those that design fonts and lay out text. Those are considered by most artists, including numerous designers, to be technicians and craftsmen at best, not artists. Maybe, in a sense, like some writers see their art as a craft to be practiced.

A graphic technician is one that does not create ideas, only implements them. He is the opposite of a creative director, present only to implement other peoples’ work. The designer creates both the idea and the final visual product, and works the research that comes before it too. The designer embodies a compilation of all the elements and aspects of creative creations, from conception to delivery and deployment. What parts of the work the designer does not do, she knows how to do and hence supervises and observes to ensure perfection. The designer is the control freak of creative development. It is with that in mind that designers, today, should learn to know about everything. They should be taught to desire that knowledge, to further their explorations into design by exploring the world around them as a whole: from the political arts to the sciences and all that happens around them. For the designer to truly distinguish himself from being just another technician, a thorough and deep understanding of essential elements of criticism, of history, of psychology, of business and of industry is to become ingrained in him. My problem is that I’m not sure how to do that. How to teach that.

FEATURED ARTIST

UK BORN 22 YEAR OLD ARTIST TAYLOR WETHERBEE GREW UP IN TEXAS WHERE SHE EXPLORED AND FOSTERED HER CREATIVITY AS A VOCALIST, DANCE PERFORMER AND CHOREOGRAPHER, ALL THE WHILE WITH A SKETCHBOOK AT HER SIDE. IT WASN’T UNTIL 2004, AT THE AGE OF 16, DID TAYLOR REALISE HER PASSION FOR VISUAL ART. IMMEDIATELY, SHE BEGAN ATTENDING ART CLASSES AND GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL WITH A SCHOLARSHIP FOR OVERALL ART ACHIEVEMENT. AN INTEREST IN MYSTERIOUS, BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS AND IMAGES WAS THE DRIVING FORCE FOR HER ART AT MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN. CURRENTLY RESIDING IN BOSTON AND WORKING AS A FREELANCE ARTIST AND ILLUSTRATOR, TAYLOR SPECIALISES IN TEXTURED ART USING MIXED-MEDIA COLLAGE, OBJECTS AND SCULPTURE. CHECK OUT HTTP://ARTBYTAY.COM FOR MORE OF TAY’S WORK.

TAYLOR WETHERBEE

HTTP://BALYDESIGN.WORDPRESS.COM/

BALAZS MAGYAR

KOOP

BJÖRK

BOMFUNK MC's RÖYKSOPP

MICHAEL BUBLÉ

CARLOS SANTANA

DE-PHAZZ

LE-MAP

BRETT DENNEN BLUETECH

ANALOGIK

SINÉAD O'CONNOR MR. SCRUFF

MARIZA

ORISHAS BOB MARLEY

NASTIA BEAUTY O-ZONE

Gabin

MANU CHAO

CHELO RIHANNA

JURGA OSZIBARACK

TARKAN

DOUSK

SALIF KEITA

CESARIA EVORA

BEZOU

FELA KUTI KING MENSHA

SHAKIRA

N WN

YMA SUMAC

ÑUCA LLACTA

WERRASON SOMI

SÉRGIO MENDES

ROSE MUHAN

LOUIS MHLANGA

DIE ANTWOORD QUILAPAYUN

FEDERICO AUBELE

SINÉAD O'CONNOR

MR. SCRUFF

KRAAK & SMAAK ZAP MAMA

LE-MAP

DIS

KOOP

ANALOGIK

JURGA

DE-PHAZZ

OSZIBARACK DANOO

DEW

NASTIA BEA

PAROV STELAR QUIMBY PODFIGO ILLECTRICITY

GABIN

O-ZONE

GLIGOR KONDOVSKI MARIZA MANU CHAO

DOUSK

TAR

MY WORLD MUSIC MAP LY

DISKOTEKA AVARIYA STEPHY TANG BALLY SAGOO

JAMES ATKINSON WONDER GIRLS

KYOTO JAZZ MASSIVE

AMBER KUO

NDO

SKOTEKA AVARIYA

AUTY

RKAN

EMPIRE OF THE SUN

NU - JAZZ

LATIN

POP

AFRO-BEAT

8/58

4/58

5/58

6/58

GENRES URBAN NOTION

Alternative

Pop

Fado

Swing

Rock

Electronic

Afro-Beat

Techno

Nu-Jazz

R&B

Minimalist

Soul

Drum & Bass

Experimental

Acoustic

Down-tempo

Latin

Folk

Breakbeat

Ska

Funk

Progressive House

Reggae

Jazz

Hip Hop

Blues

Rap

ESPRESSO 1/2

LONG ESPRESSO 9/16

ESPRESSO MACCHIATO

ESPRESSO CON PANNA

2/6 3/6

1/3

CAPPUCCINO

CAFFÉ LATTE

DOPPIO

6/16

RISTRETTO

2/16 8/16

5/8

5/16 5/16

5/16

CAFFÉ BREVE

AMERICANO

3/16 8/16

ICE CREAM COFFEE

ICE COFFEE

6/16

3/16

5/16

2/16

1/8 1/8 1/8

11/16

5/16

FLAT WHITE

5/8

CAFFÉ MOCHA

4/5

2/15 4/15 5/15

1/5

MELANGE

2/15

IRISH COFFEE

CAFFÉ CORRETTO 1/4

4/15

1/4

7/15

3/17

2/17

10/17

12/17

3/15

2/17

COFFEE CUPS

IKONS HOT COLD FAVORITE CHOCOLATE

Espresso cup Cappuccino cup Flat White cup Irish Coffee mug Ice Coffee glass Latte glass

LATTE MACCHIATO

CINNAMON

INGREDIENTS Espresso

Milk Foam

Honey

Long Espresso

Steamed Milk 50/50

Grappa

Ristretto

Steamed Milk

Irish Whisky

Chocolate

Cold MilK

Water

Whipped Cream

Ice Cream

FLAT WHITE TYPE BA

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

BALAZS MAGYAR

NAKED GUN

GHOST BUSTERS

BALAZS MAGYAR

JURASSIC PARK

JUMANJI

BALAZS MAGYAR

MATRIX

MEN IN BLACK

ANDERS WIDLUND

SWEDISH PHOTOGRAPHER ANDERS WIDLUND MANAGES TO CAPTURE EMOTION AND MOODS IN HIS ENTHRALLING PHOTOGRAPHS. HIS WORK AND SUBJECTS ARE BEGUILING, THE INTENSITY AND DEPTH EVIDENT FROM THE FIRST GLANCE. BOTH NOSTALGIC AND STARK, ANDERS ENGAGES HIS SUBJECT AND ENTICES EMOTION WITH EACH AND EVERY PIECE.

HOW MANY YEARS HAVE YOU BEEN A PHOTOGRAPHER? I started my own business nine years ago. Some time around high-school was when I started thinking about becoming a photographer, and then I just carried on all the way from black and white home developing to Photoshop editing. WHAT ARE THE MAIN SUBJECTS OF YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS? People and moods. WHAT KIND OF CAMERA(S) DO YOU USE? I still have lots of analog cameras, like a Mamiya Universal that take awesome 6 X 9 frames. But mostly I use my Canon 5D and do all the magic in Photoshop. HOW HAS YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY DEVELOPED OVER TIME? ANY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES? Huge changes. When I started, everything was still analog, we shot on film and printed on paper. Then after a couple of years it was all digital. This obviously had an impact of how I work; analog photography means creative limitations, whereas digital gives you endless opportunities that sometimes are too much to handle. I think I appreciate having control over my pictures more and more. In the beginning of my career I was more laissez-faire, trusting in faith to give me good pictures, now I make sure I get it the way I want in advance. I NOTICED YOU TAKE LOTS OF PORTRAITS...HOW DO YOU RELAX YOUR SUBJECT? DO YOU ASK THEM TO PORTRAY ANY EMOTIONS, ETC WHEN YOU ARE PHOTOGRAPHING THEM? I always wait as long as possible with the actual photo, taking up my camera very late in the session and instead chat for a while with the subject. To take a close portrait, for example, you have to have your subject’s confidence, which makes them relax and show their true self. I very seldom give directions, if so, it’s more of “sit there” or “look down”. WHAT INSPIRES YOU? WHAT MAKES YOU TAKE OUT YOUR CAMERA RIGHT AWAY? It is almost always a strong feeling of something, of being very present in some way. I take pictures of things and people I can relate to, and my aim is to share this relation with the viewer. VISIT WWW.ANDERSWIDLUND.SE FOR MORE OF ANDERS PHOTOGRAPHY.

ANDERS WIDLUND

Photography is something I’ve done on and off for the past 5 or 6 years. I paint as well and I realised I was having fun just taking the reference pictures for pieces, so I started taking macro shots of everyday things at home and then pictures of my friends and eventually photographing local shows. I mainly photograph people but I’ve become a cat lady of sorts lately, so now I just sit at home and take photos of them. Basically living things are my main subjects, rather than landscapes or still life. I switch around equipment all the time. I’m not really big on the technical aspects of things (translation: I don’t understand it at all) but back home in Dubai I use my dad’s Canon 20D. Here in Toronto I use either the Canon G7 or my iPhone, which is surprisingly good. My subjects, as I mentioned earlier, are what really have changed and hopefully will keep changing. I started out with macro shots of things because at first it was a solitary hobby and a lot of people don›t like their photograph taken. But once I got confident enough, I started taking photos of my friends and then a lot of self-portraits. When I started getting more involved in the local music scene I started taking photos there. It›s still one of my favourite things to do because often I don’t know what›s actually going to be in the photo, whereas before I›d set everything up with a specific idea in mind. A lot of the time my photos are laid out before me on their own and I think, hey, I want to see this again, pictures last longer, and so I whip out my camera. Photos are still principally a way to record something for me, before anything else. I have a terrible memory so I depend on them. People also inspire me, I love trying to capture an expression (or lack thereof), with a particular focus on their eyes. Music factors in a lot, I love taking photos at shows, the energy is great and hopefully comes through in the photos. A lot of my other work has a very solitary, melancholic tone to it. Not a lot of them even have more than one person in the shot. (As told to quint) For more of Shehara’s work check out www.flickr.com/photos/sheharadoe and taintedx.deviantart.com

SHEHARA

FILM

Jennifer Lopez

Prank Moody

IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A FASCINATING IDEA TO TRY AND IMAGINE AN ALTERNATIVE REALITY. SOME EXAMPLES (THOUGH LEANING TOWARDS A MORE MORBID DISPOSITION) WOULD BE IF THE NAZIS HAD WON THE WAR, IF KENNEDY HAD NOT BEEN SHOT, IF THEY HAD NOT STOPPED PRODUCTION OF THE ‘MAGIC BULLET’, IF HENDRIX, DAVIS, COBAIN, JOPLIN, AND MORRISON WERE ALL STILL ALIVE, IF GEORGE BUSH SR. WAS INFERTILE, IF VANILLA ICE NEVER STOPPED MAKING MUSIC, IF MARK ZUCKERBERG HAD BEEN POPULAR IN HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE AND IF KEITH RICHARDS HAD CONSIDERED ALTERNATIVE CAREER OPTIONS.

My personal favourite however is imagining a world without Nora Ephron. That might sound harsh so let me modify that statement to: a world where Nora Ephron was never seduced by the allure of filmmaking. One thing is guaranteed; everyone would be sleeping a lot better in Seattle. More importantly, countless generations would have been spared the trauma induced by Meg Ryan, Jennifer Anniston, Jennifer Lopez, and Katherine Heigl as the ‘Chick Flick’ would never have been conceived (insert ‘condom destined for toilet’ joke here). I would like you all to take a minute and actually imagine a world where the ‘Chick Flick’ is not defined by its torpor depiction of women as needy, helpless and defined through their relationships and identification through men. Simultaneously we would be rid of the aforementioned offenders who thrived as they pillaged numerous hours with inane, nonsensical and sentimental tripe that essentially defines both sexes as complete (insert expletive of choice) morons. If one was to deconstruct the ‘Chick Flick’ by examining the actual term itself then the ‘Chick Flick’ should be a canon of work that engages and deals with complex themes and ideas pertaining to the offspring of poultry. Instead, we are subjected to a canon of work that is defined by conventions that perpetuate: myths regarding love and sex, fear of loneliness, men being pigs, women being victims of men’s swine-like behaviour, marriage being the key to life fulfilment, grand gestures as the only true way to demonstrate understanding of your partner and (the most despicable issue in my humble opinion) endowing Jennifer Lopez with a career. I feel it pertinent to point out that if the ‘Chick Flick’ had not been so kind to J-Lo in gifting her the necessary misguided confidence in her “ability” then she would not have strayed away from a “career” in music and continued inflicting cerebral and bodily harm

(I physically hurt myself) by being allowed to participate in movies. Furthermore, she would have stayed on that block, not have caught the eye of Ben Affleck, spared us from “Bennifer”, and most importantly Gigli. As you can see “ The Chick Flick” should be tried in a tribunal for crimes against humanity. The ‘Chick Flick’ has grown and, as I write this, has developed into an industry, spawning various mutations and infiltrating all types of cultural production. Why has this genre grown exponentially while the Western, Film Noir and, my personal favourite, the 80s Action Film, have died such innocuous deaths? The last classic Western was Clint Eastwood’s 1992 classic The Unforgiven. Noir was cleverly repackaged by Rian Johnson in Brick and unfortunately the resuscitation of the 80s Action Film was left in the incapable hands of Sly “Those are some strong horse steroids” Stallone with The Expendables (There should be a law that prohibits Stallone from even contemplating the writing of story and dialogue). An even bigger question is why and how has the ‘Chick Flick’ attached itself to these particular conventions? I mean, simplistically any womancentric film should be integrated to this canon of work, right? Or is there and anatomical difference between a chick and a woman (not making a literal comparison here, because that would be silly). Julie Delpy, star of such beautiful films such as Before Sunrise and Before Sunset (which wouldn’t gain entry into the VIP room of ‘Club Chick Flick’) wrote and directed a funny and good film called 2 Days in Paris which does not qualify as a ‘Chick Flick’, even though the driving force of this particular cultural production is overtly ovarian in nature (however, a full frontal picture of Adam Goldberg might have disqualified this film because let’s face it.... nobody wants to see that). If romance is the key criterion that dominates the ‘Chick Flick’ then Wong Kar Wai’s absolutely gorgeous

masterpiece In the Mood for Love should elegantly float to the top of Mount Mediocre Romance Portrayal. So in this alternative reality (Star Trek fans must be salivating at this point), if we were to redefine the ‘Chick Flick’ where would we begin? Essentially a reconfiguration of the definition would involve readjusting the conventions and characteristics associated with the genre. For example: the ‘Chick Flick’ is a testament to an inner strength and resolve in adversity that is fundamental to their essence (that statement should automatically elevate my status on the brownie points recipient list). Then according to this definition films like Osama, Mother (both Russian and South Korean), Sophie’s Choice, Elizabeth and Orlando would all gain automatic entry into this reincarnated genre. If we were to define it as: “A portrayal of women who find Michael Douglas attractive”, then we would not need to look further than Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct and Disclosure. However here is where it gets tricky because the question that then needs to be answered is, does one include all Catherine Zeta Jones films because she finds him attractive in real life? As demonstrated above, it really comes down to the definition, so why not redefine a frankly insulting genre? I find the idea of the ‘Chick Flick’ insulting and I have no resemblance or affinity towards poultry except that it is delicious. Therefore my solution is: create your own definition of ‘Chick Flick’ and then employ your discretion on what films are privileged enough to gain entry to this particular canon of work as defined by you. However, I do implore that you make sure that your criteria of evaluation doesn’t leave you Sleepless in Seattle because your Wedding Planner made you choose between 27 Dresses because she was trying to mask the possibility that He’s Just Not That Into You.

FILM

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM A RAGING FILM STUDENT AND THE MUSINGS OF AN IRISHMAN AND A JOURNEYMAN. BY PRANK MOODY People’s excitement subsides upon learning that my film degree is but a lowly Film Studies degree and not the exponentially more exciting Technical Film Making degree. I can see the awe and interest slowly fade from their eyes as they realise that I don’t possess the academic qualification to be at the helm of the next Twilight movie (my heart breaks as well). As they muster up the strength and courage to feign any kind of interest, they resign themselves to ask the only logical question that they can conceive of without any real effort “What is your favourite movie?” It is seemingly an innocuous enough question that should be relatively easy to answer right? I mean it affords me the pleasant opportunity to really nerd out by providing them an insightful and educated response on why ____ is my favourite film, but alas it is a frustrating and inane question that is impossible to answer. I would prefer if you asked me the meaning to life instead because that is infinitely easier to answer. Trying to single out one film from the tens of thousands of films that I have seen over the years could essentially be a very good premise for Mission Impossible 4. Don’t get me wrong I am sure that there are millions of people who will be able to site with consummate ease what film makes them weak at the knees, changed their life and defines them as a human being. Unfortunately I cannot, and neither can a majority of my film theory contemporaries because of an important factor, context. Context sets the scene for why one film is favoured over the other. For example my favourite 80s film is Die Hard, followed closely by Predator. However one of my favourite romantic dramas is In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai (if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it because it is utterly poetic). Therefore, with the help of my esteemed fellow film nerds Patrick McNamara and the always-eloquent Journey Myers, we have contextualised a few of our favourite top ten films.

TOP 10 FILMS to make a grown man cry

TOP 10 FILMS to watch hungover

1. The Elephant Man

1. Death Race

2. Up

2. Top Gun

3. Finding Neverland

3. Ghostbusters

4. Dead Poets Society

4. Die Hard With Vengeance

5. The Shawshank Redemption

5. Iron Man

6. Wall-E

6. Brother

7. Field of Dreams

7. Leon

8. E.T

8. The Rock

9. Les Invasions Barbares

9. Smokinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Aces

10. Three Colours Blue

10. Major league

FILM

TOP 10 “Mary Jane” date movies

TOP 10 B movies

1. Cheech and chong, up in smoke

1. Deathrace 2000

2. Super troopers

2. The Warriors

3. The man who knew too little

3. Escape from New York

4. Dazed and Confused

4. Bad taste

5. The Big Lebowski

5. Heathers

6. Fast times at Ridgemont High

6. Black Dynamite

7. Grandma’s Boy

7. Earth versus the flying saucers

8. Outside Providence

8. Brain dead

9. Clerks

9. Flash Gordon

10. Superbad

10. Roller Ball 1975

TOP 10 MOVIES that mentally fornicated us up as kids

TOP 10 FILMS So Bad...... Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Good

1. Audition

1. Troll 2

2. Alien

2. Jaws the revenge

3. The Shinning

3. Swamp Thing

4. Event horizon

4. The Room

5. Freaks

5. Battlefield Earth

6. Misery

6. Star Wars Holiday Special

7. Arachnophobia

7. Planet 9 from Outer space

8. It

8. Conan the Barbarian

9. The Blair Witch Project

9. Simon Sez 10. The Barbaric Beast of Boggy Creek 2 (In truth I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen it but just name itself deserves honourable mention)

10. Ringu

FILM

TOP 10 MOVIES before you tie the noose

TOP 10 assassination movies

1. Requiem for a Dream

1. Leon

2. Three Colours Blue

2. Le Samourai

3. The Deer Hunter

3. Desparado

4. The Quiet Earth

4. The Day of the Jackal

5. Sophieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Choice

5. The Killer

6. Waltz With Bashir

6. In The Line of Fire

7. Hotel Rwanda

7. Grosse Pointe Blank

8. Once we were Warriors

8. Bourne Trilogy

9. Irreversible

9. JFK

10. Tetsuo : The Iron Man

10. The Terminator

TOP 10 comic book movies 1. Batman-The Dark Knight (This is a personal preference) 2. Superman 3. Flash Gordon 4. Dick Tracy 5. Sin City 6. Batman Begins

TOP 10 MOVIES that make it hard 1. Basic Instinct 2. The Story of O 3. Mulholland Drive 4. Bound 5. Cruel Intentions 6. Eyes Wide Shut 7. Sex, Lies, and Videotape 8. The Dreamers 9. Songs 10. Caligula

7. The Watchmen 8. Kick Ass 9. V for Vendetta 10. The Rocketeer

As you can see context is key and therefore trying to pick out one film above all is impossible for us. More importantly I have provided a public service in helping you protect yourself from being assaulted by one of us. Send in some of your lists to quint because it would be interesting to read or laugh at, that is entirely up to you.

FASHION

NORA DEAK

HUNGARIAN FASHION DESIGNER NORA DEAK BEAUTIFUL WORK EXPLORES VARIOUS SHAPES, SILHOUETTES, FABRICS, TEXTURES, AND TECHNIQUES AS SHE COMBINES, REDEFINES AND MANIPULATES HER INSPIRATIONS TO FORGE AN ORIGINAL PIECE OF ART. FOR THAT IS HOW SHE SEES FASHION. Nora does not merely design clothes to be worn, she sees the potential of each garment to express, and for each person who wears her designs to truly feel the character in each piece. Surprisingly, Nora has not always known she would end up in this field. She has always had an interest in illustration and design, yet she never expected it to shape her future until only six years ago. After high school she attended a business college from where she graduated and immediately started work in a corporate business environment. She quickly realised that this was not the career she wanted to pursue, however, it took her quite a long time to realise what in fact she did want. It seems that for some people it is easy to pick a career because they’ve known and have worked towards that goal. However, for Nora it was not an obvious choice to pursue a career in fashion design. “It is kind of funny when you grow up and you only know what you do not want to do...” As she toiled in a corporate environment, Nora was drawing constantly but she wrote it off as merely a hobby and pastime she enjoyed, and did not think to pursue it further. As she was working, this “hobby” soon began to take over all of her free time as she took every chance and opportunity to go to museums and exhibitions. Her focus was mainly on people, “I was always interested in the human body, the shape, the silhouette and the details such as wrinkles and muscles.” Fed up with her corporate job, Nora finally approached her boss with a stoic determination to finally follow her dream. “I said, ‘I want to quit so I can be a fashion designer!’ – my boss burst out laughing, and I will never forget that. In an awkward way, this moment really built my belief and determination, and then I knew exactly what I wanted.” Since then, Nora completed a two year evening course in fashion design in Hungary and then continued her journey in London, where she recently graduated from London College of Fashion. Currently she works for John Lewis as a design assistant for womenswear.

So far this year, Nora designed an AW 2010 collection as well as taken on independent projects as she has just completed her degree. Her focus for the past year has been on her final collection in college. With half a year to develop her ideas, Nora tried to experiment as much as possible with fabric, technique and pattern. Her aim was to recognise what she is good at and to define her style, as well as figure out what she wanted to communicate through the collection. This time and effort was essential in order to understand who she is as a designer. Following countless hours of research and analysis, she realised her attention was mostly drawn to haute couture techniques and tailoring. “I like unusual silhouettes and deconstruction as a technique, playing with the proportion and volume. These features were in my mind throughout the design process.” The name of her final college collection is “Romantic Toys” which was inspired by modern, square-shaped Transformer toys mixed with the draping softness of the Romantic era. Throughout the “toy” idea she chose transformation as her main concept, which she approached in a sophisticated manner by pairing the effect of soft, romantic draping with the development of a refined deconstruction technique on tailored garments. In her next collection, Nora plans to continue using these techniques as she wants these features to define her style.

What do you draw inspiration from for your designs? Do these change from season to season? My inspiration is always different as it really depends on my mood; it could be an object, an exhibition, a person, an era or anything else that catches my attention.

How do you envision the women that wear your clothes? The woman who I envision wearing my designs is someone who is confident and enjoys being different and original. She is also very brave, loves challenges, yet also is playful and has deep feelings and emotions.

What was your most notable challenge? Have you overcome this challenge and if so, how has it influenced you as a designer? The most noticeable challenge I have faced when designing is to insist on what I have envisioned. When you are designing you never know what is going to come out. It is like a blank page at the beginning and I try to be as open to everything as possible. Thus, when I set my mind on a design feature it is hard to stick to it because there is always

something better coming up and if I am not focused this draws me away.

Do you believe the clothes make the woman or the woman makes the clothes? In other words, do you believe the way a woman dresses can influence how she is perceived? If so, how do you believe the women who wear your clothes are perceived? I believe the character within the clothes is very important and any clothes would be interesting if someone knows how to wear them. However, I also believe that the clothes you wear can give you confidence and thus out of any person or mood, the right clothes can bring out the best.

So far you have designed for women only, do you have any plans to expand your collections to include men, children, etc? No, in the future I will continue to design for women because I love the curves and silhouettes of the female form.

Are there any designers that have influenced you or that you have looked up to? I admire designers who really push boundaries and want to create something extraordinary and very original or personal. I do believe that the process of developing a new garment is art. I highly admire Maison Martin Margiela, who has never given up on the experimentation with pattern, fabric, and print. For the same reason I also respect Aitor Throup, a new up and coming menswear designer. They are not only creating something pretty. The design process is really thoughtful. They really understand the link between art and design.

How do you maintain originality in your work? Are you influenced by trends? If so, what trends have influenced your latest collection? “When designing I try not to look at trends, I always aim to create something original, however as an artist it is hard not to be influenced by anything. I do open my eyes on the streets, but when I go back to my sketches I go into my own world of imagination.”

NORA DEAK

MUSIC

WITH A PASSION FOR PROGRESSIVE AND ELECTRONIC HOUSE MUSIC,UNDENIABLETALENTAND SKILL HONED FOR OVER A DECADE, DJ OMAR, OR BIG O, WANTS TO TAKE DUBAI MUSIC LOVERS UNDERGROUND. Big O’s obsession with making music began in the mid 90’s when he bought his first “boom-box”. Armed with cassette tapes, Big O immediately dove head first into every genre – from alternative to rock, metal, rap, hip-hop, and dance until he first heard “Meet Her at the Love Parade” which immediately sparked and triggered his love for electronic music. His exploration of these various genres and his discovery of electro inspired him to make his own music. Using very basic software and CDJ’s, Big O began to develop his own skills through the tried and true method of trial and error. His passion and drive helped him overcome the difficulties and challenges he experienced as he taught himself to mix and DJ, and soon he began to make the music he loves. At college, Big O started his own weekly live show using the college radio station to further explore and experiment as well as a medium of self-expression. He progressed to playing private parties for friends and family. By 2003 Big O was already rocking the beats from his dorm room through weekly house sessions for radio stations around the world. He knew he had a passion that is growing and a talent to match as he searched for the perfect

opportunity to flourish and add his own touch to the house music scene. Big O’s specialty is progressive and electro house. He treats his listeners to uplifting tracks that take them on a trip of rhythm and beats, building up progressively and coming down to a perfect landing. Now Big O plays in private parties and hosts a weekly session called the PME session. His sessions are broadcasted on reputed online radio stations all over the world like danceradio.ca and Safari FM 104.7 in Greece. They are available for download on iTunes stores in Canada and the US. Early 2010 he started Underground Transmitted, a show purely for lovers of underground progressive, electro and minimal music. He also created Remedy – an underground house night which serves as an escape from the mainstream music regurgitated in far too many clubs around town. Big O won third place in DJ Mag UK’s mixing competition in September 2009 and has plans to release his self-produced album by 2012. Watch this space!

Big O’s music is available for download on iTunes (Omar Big O). For more information and access to all of Big O’s sets check out: www.facebook.com/omar.kuwatly To get a taste of Big O’s musical stylings you can download an exclusive set here: http://www.mediafire.com/?b6h7bue5xf426z7

MUSIC

MUSIC IS NOT THIS WRITER’S PARTICULAR FIELD OF INTEREST, OF SPECIALISATION, OR OF FOCUS. HE JUST LIKES TO LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC AND HAS BEEN CRITIQUING IT, ALBEIT WITHOUT AN AUDIENCE THAT EXTENDED FURTHER THAN HIS PERSONAL SURROUNDINGS. SO KEEP IN MIND THAT HE KNOWS NOTHING OF WHAT HE’S ABOUT TO VENTURE TO DOWNSIZE, EXCEPT WHAT IT MEANS TO HIM AND HIS ASSOCIATES. It would seem that modern (he doesn’t really like the term ‘21st century’ and, although modern could be anything after, at least, World War II, he’s decided that he’ll redefine it for the scope of this article) music is more of a consumer product than a work of art, and he finds that this bothers him, saddens others, and upsets some. When the American audio industry regularly pumps out a certain quota of ‘artists’ (or products, whichever fits) per annum so as to keep selling new albums and new names, dropping failed ones every year because they have a chance to try new ones; when this same industry actually acknowledges shows like American Idol as healthy, real recruitment centres for true and tried artists; when most of the music played on the radio has no real inspiration embedded in it, no passion in its essence, nothing to make it pop: this is when you realise that music today sucks. It’s funny that the only time this writer actually notices these little things are when he sees an old band perform, or watches a music video from way back when it was about the music, about the words in the song, not about the show and the production and the profits. When people toured the US even if they couldn’t afford it, some went solo because he needed to do something really his own, others got beaten just because she couldn’t let herself not sing, and bands as varied and impressive as Pink Floyd, Supertramp, and Queen to Blink 182, U2, and Nirvana did music because it meant something to them. Something more than fame and fortune, although that was maybe part of the fun even back then — who wouldn’t want to be a rock star!? But the article is digressing. The focus is not old music. It is new music. In the past, they used to enjoy their work. That’s all that we need to know. Today? It’s just not sane anymore. Or maybe it’s too sane, not insane at all. The recklessness, the playfulness, of musicians in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and even the 90s was essential to the fluidity and volatility of the medium. Performers used to carry themselves with a certain attitude that was creative in and of itself.

The last such freedom of self was in the personages of the indie rocker, the grunge artist, the singersongwriter, the punk activist. The last of meaning in music existed in the nineties and faded away with the development of technology. It disappeared when communication became impersonal and the newer generations became people lacking a human dimension, when societies became fabrications and virtualities. Since then, songs have degenerated into melodic money machines. Indie rock and its sub-genres are, fortunately and somewhat, making a comeback, but music is not just about one genre or the other. It’s about the whole, and when the whole loses its concreteness, its originality, its message and ability to communicate significance, it becomes mundane, useless, unimpressive: it becomes uncultured, thus denying the essence of music, the fact that it, by definition, is a cultural instrument of growth. When music is de-cultured it becomes noise. When mellowness is emphasised, sex glorified, and meaninglessness implemented in music, the best reflection of culture, it represents a downturn in the cultural output of its societies. The voice behind this text finds it harder and harder to find truly passionate musicians, or at least music that really inspires creation, culture, action. It has, instead, become a theatrical creation and absolution that leaves little to the imagination, breeds even less evolution, and takes longer steps away from the advancements achieved by the predecessors of today’s children. If only they could learn about musical history before they enter the industry to simply destroy a world of blinding vibrations and adventures, they might actually realise the damage they have imprinted on it. The youngsters of today rarely have a passion beyond the glamorousness of the industry, beyond the basic materialism of their consumerist world. They strive for fame, and then complain and suffer from it, instead of playing and enjoying themselves. Bands and artists used to have fun on stage; they used to carry a vibe

with them that said they know how to party. Their music videos were less centred on the voidness and plasticity of image, since their image was not void and plastic. They were intellectuals, philosophers, and dramatists inciting change in the world around them. At worst, musicians were rebels with a cause. Now, they are no more than actors and divas. That does seem to be changing, though, with a few of the newer acts. Some have, finally. Naturally (when music is an industry, not a community, and the whole point of it is to please shareholders), it probably doesn’t help that music sales (the tracks themselves) are down over the last decade and these days the primary profits come from live acts and the promotions from fancy, visually appealing music videos: the theatrical creations of the musician becoming her source of income, she no longer focuses on the quality and beauty of her song, since her producer couldn’t care less and she’s a lazy child. The producer only wants the video that will stand out when posted on YouTube and Vevo so that it can promote his product, the voice with a body that can set trends and lead people towards merchandise that costs a truckload and is sold as high fashion.

I’ll put a cork in it now. Just give us good, good, push-me-to-the-edgeand-love-me, talented, chaotic (or calm), inspired, created music! The sort that makes you hold your head and scream!

The Musical Evolution And De-progression of the 21st Century by fares bounassif

MUSIC

In Defence of the Avant-Garde by Mohammed El Amin

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Just a few days ago a friend dropped a bombshell on us all collectively but claiming The Beatles are the most overrated band in the world. Nothing short of heresy was used to describe her statement. I personally disagree with her, for The Beatles are merely the 2nd most overrated band in the known universe. The claim for #1 is held via monopoly by Eric Clapton and Cream. Ah yes, there marches along Eric Clapton, the greatest thief of American blues music. Every time the man touches his guitar, Robert Johnson and Son House’s wails reverberate across the halls of the Silver City. It haunts my sleep. I kid you not. But the statement and the response got me thinking, what is fundamentally wrong with people’s claims that The Beatles are the greatest band ever? I mean for all intents and purpose, they are a great band. Lennon is a beacon of light, McCartney is a super songwriter, and George Harrison is the closest God has come to perfection. Their roots may have been in simple (but impeccably crafted) pop tunes during a time where everyone was doing the same darn thing, but the way they evolved in sound is akin to Radiohead switching gears from Pablo Honey to OK Computer. Their styles and music redefined how music is perceived in pop culture, from art to fashion. But that’s it. Therein lays the problem. Pop Culture. The Beatles are a great band that made great records. But greatest? I beg to differ. It’s not through a fault of their own; it’s mostly the fault of everyone to holds on to that claim.

Let me tackle this in another way, to explain my point more clearly. Ever watched/read a show/article from VH1, Rolling Stones, NME, Mojo, or other music publications trying to tackle the topic of greatest band/ record of all time? (I use the term “music publications” in the loosest fashion. These guys are what Frank Zappa referred to when he said “Rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, in order to provide articles for people who can't read.” Too true.) You will always find that the list is chock filled of rock/ pop bands, with twangy guitars, ballads and music videos. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But the perception that only rock/pop has a monopoly on music creativity is nothing short of inanity. Just recently I was watching VH1’s “Most Influential Musicians”, and not a mention of a jazz performer was made. No Coltrane, no Mingus, no Charlie Parker, no Duke Ellington. And I’m only touching the most major names someone might recall. I mean, Sun Ra should be in the top ten; the man redefined progressive rock. Just go and listen to Atlantis. The problem lies in two major issues: 1) Personal preference or comfort zone 2) Perception of music Let’s take The Beatles example of what makes them most certainly not the greatest band of all time. There were other incredibly talented bands (from the same genre, no less) at the same time that created some of the most seminal and influential recording (The Kinks’ trilogy of releases from The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation

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Society, Arthur Or the Decline & Fall of The British Empire and Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround are nothing short of genius). More importantly, they are not the first to incorporate sampling and/or experimentation into music as it's so wildly believed. One could easily argue that Pierre Henry and Philip Glass were doing the same thing several years earlier to an even grander and more complex form. The only reason they aren't mentioned as feverishly by people is that they never fell into the scope of "mainstream" music, what with Pierre nestling comfortably in the avant-garde and Glass existing in neo-classical. You can go back to the mid-30s to find works by John Cage (or his forefathers, Carl Ruggles and Ruth Seggers) where eastern influences and hybrid sound were distinctly present. Or even back to the early 1900s with the works of Luigi Russolo and his experimentation in the nature of sound and noise. These composers created the basis of everything we know in music, from tampering with wavelength, incorporating objects/creating new instruments, and redefining how sound as an entity is perceived. These men are the greatest musicians of all time. But you will never hear them mentioned, because their works aren’t easy on the ears (personal preference/comfort zone) and they don’t fill in the gap required by a music video or a 3 to 4 minute ballad that you can sing/dance to (perception of music).

The problem I reckon is that people are unwilling to acknowledge experimental and avant-garde musicians work as critical to music. “If it ain’t melodic, then fuck that shit” seems to be the prevalent mythos. People would look at works by William Basinski, Philip Glass, John Cage, Fennesz, Merzbow, Sunn O))), GSY!BE and say it’s just a bunch of prolonged nonsensical noise, and utterly miss the most compelling aspect of music. Melody does not define music. Melody is merely the manner in which music resonates pleasantly in your ears. That’s the literal definition. If all you want is melody, go listen to the Backstreet Boys or Mariah Carey. What these guys are attempting to do is breakdown the framework and nature of music as a resonating creature, where within its realms they can explore ideas and characteristics and the foundation of harmony and notes. Sunn O))) may play single, incredibly slowed-down chords, but the whole point is how these notes, played separately but layered, compounded, with distortion, natural ambience and noise can create a fully realised conceptual arrangement. Completely ignoring more than 100 years of musical evolution simply because it makes you uncomfortable and/or is not melodic is as stupid as people who hold on to the claim “Rap is crap”, which happens to the most resoundingly moronic line a person who claims to enjoy music can ever make, for a variety of reasons I’ll address in a future article, but the main one being: music, in all

its forms, is the single greatest achievement by human kind, one that absolves us from all the horror we can inflict upon ourselves and each other. All music is good, provided it has heart. And that is the basis of what makes music great. I’m perfectly fine with people saying that this isn’t the sort of music they are into. It would be insane to think everyone will enjoy grindcore or ambient/drone, for example. But at the very least, acknowledge the insane amount of talent these people have. It might not be your cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean it is trash. So go out there, and challenge yourself. We live in the golden age of humanity, for Pete’s sake. Everything is available at your fingertips. Explore new soundscapes. Tamper with new time signatures. Leap into distortion!

MUSIC

interview by

TOM PAYE

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LONDON’S THE MANIC SHINE IS FRONTED BY ONE OF THE MOST ENTHUSIASTIC MEN IT IS POSSIBLE TO MEET, A QUALITY THAT FILTERS THROUGH TO THE MUSIC. A rock band hailing from the university scene of London, The Manic Shine has come a long way despite the their relatively new arrival upon the music scene. Headed by former Dubai resident Ozzie Rodgers, the band has gone through several line-up changes over the past two years, with a group finally sticking in January 2011. And as things stand, they’ve played countless gigs across the United Kingdom, released a three-track EP, and enjoyed more radio time than most unsigned bands could ever dream of. It could be argued that much of the band’s success coincided with the taking on of second guitarist Orren Karp, who replaced keyboardist Andreas Milns. With two guitars behind the music that has been mainly composed by Rodgers, the band’s sound changed completely, providing the kind of seventies-inspired arrangements that have, so far, gone down a storm with the fans. “We get in Orren on guitar, and it works out perfectly. The band gets tighter, sounds better, sounds more full, there’s more energy, everyone

university course, he went to a guitar institute in London, which gave him enormous insight into how things work in the music business. He’s since been putting that knowledge into practice, trying to creating as much hype for his band as possible. And it’s been an uphill battle to have even got the band to where it is now. “I won’t bullshit you here, for anybody looking to break a band in the UK, beware, because you’d better fucking love it. You’d better love music beyond your wildest dreams,” Rodgers iterates. “In the last two weeks, I’ve sent over three hundred emails.” Sending hundreds of emails? This doesn’t sound like the underground rock n’ roll lifestyle that most would dream of.

loves it. It was a much better deal,” Rodgers says in his characteristically excitable tone. He speaks about his band like a child showing off his new toys on Christmas Day. He’s completely unstoppable. “Two guitarists versus a guitarist and keyboardist is just a different thing. There’s a bit more energy, a bit more balls.” Indeed, the extra “balls” may have been what the band needed. In June 2010, The Manic Shine played a gig at which an EMI record label representative was present. He was excited about the music, and praised the band for their refreshing guitar work and song writing. And almost more importantly, the band secured several slots on various local radio stations, including BBC Introducing. They were also recommended to BBC Cambridgeshire, and were surprised to find themselves on the show soon after being contacted about it. Believe it or not, this got them into a spot of trouble. “Turns out that we weren’t actually allowed to be on BBC Cambridgeshire, because we’re not a Cambridgeshire band,” Rodgers says. “But the girl liked our stuff so much that she played it anyway. On top of that, we got told off by BBC Introducing for having too many fans phone and email in.” This defying of the establishment by way of popular demand is exactly the kind of image that suits The Manic Shine. Despite shooting for the big-time, all four are rock artists at heart, who were raised on the no-compromise rock bands of the sixties and seventies that blanketed their parents’ record collections. “I really like Hendrix, I really like Derek Trucks, I like Robin Ford, I like Clapton’s early stuff with Cream, Paul Kossoff from Free, all these classic rock guitarists and blues guitarists. I

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absolutely love that stuff, and Orren is on exactly the same page. Orren tends to like stuff like Duane Allman and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmore too. But basically we all had a similar musical upbringing. Our parents had massive record collections, and we’d just listen to everything.” And from that musical upbringing, all four members, Rodgers, Karp, drummer Tamir Karp (Orren’s brother) and bassist James Hutchinson realised that they wanted to make the same kind of music. Rodgers explains, “We like big sounds. We’re fans of epic-sounding music, and that’s what we aim to write. I think all of us in the band are in love with really huge-sounding bands. And I think that’s really shown in the songs we write.” However, that big sound can’t always work for a simple studio band, which is great news for The Manic Shine, because if they sound good on CD, that’s nothing compared to the way they sound live. This makes sense, considering Rodgers was the main guitarist behind Dubaibased teenage nu-metal band Mannikind, and was locally famed for his erratic performances. Now, with a little more maturity, he’s perfected the art of exchanging energy with the crowd, and the band is right there with him. “Everybody who’s come to see The Manic Shine says the same thing. They say they love the tunes on record, but they’re so much better live. Everyone seems to enjoy the live performance to a bit more of an extent than the record, which is great for us, because ultimately, the music industry is heading towards the eventuality that basically the only money available to bands will be through live gigging. I think we’re definitely a live band.” Rodgers has done his research on the music industry. Before embarking on his

“A lot of it is about selling yourself. You have to be a very good salesman. In other words, you have to come across as someone who’s humble, but someone who really believes in what they do. You have to have an understanding about how the scene works, and you have to go about it with a plan.” And this is what Rodgers has done. Aside from being the frontman for the band, he’s also been its manager, securing gigs and shows wherever he can get them. His, and the rest of the band’s, ultimate goal is to secure a record deal, as is the goal of most up-and-coming bands. However, because they’ve done their research, the group won’t blindly sign on the dotted line at the first given opportunity. They’re now in negotiations with a label that syncs their music to video games and

adverts, creating the potential for some big royalties, but it won’t happen unless the band is happy with the deal. “I’ve always said that the main difference between myself and a label is the advertising budget. My ultimate goal is to be successfully signed to a label that is motivated and interested in our music, and wants to promote it, at any cost, to everybody. I think you would be unwise to go into something where the copyright was not owned by you. And that’s not something that The Manic Shine wants to be a part of, and if that was to become the case, we would try to break away from it.” So far, the band has good reason to keep the rights to its own songs. With many contracts, recording and marketing of the

songs is paid for by the label in exchange for all the creative rights. But The Manic Shine’s self-titled EP was completely self-funded, and the three songs on it will always belong to the band. Perhaps Rodgers is right about the advertising budget. He certainly seems to have the dedication of the best in the industry. And perhaps that’s what it takes. Aside from having one of the tightest bands in London behind him, Rodgers has acumen of business skill and boundless energy at his disposal. If he can’t break the UK’s music scene, then there’s little hope for anyone.

MUSIC

Album Review by Trevor Bundus

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It was 1994 and I was a pimpled pubescent teen full of angst and frustration at my constantly cracking voice and fumbling circus act directed toward the opposite sex. After a long love affair with an album that clearly put swearing into my vernacular, Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, I had the pure pleasure of listening to a compilation that was picked up due to its catchy title, Survival of the Fattest. Needless to say, I was also quite rotund during my formative years so the title of the compilation really spoke to me in a weird sort of way, but little did I realise it would change my music and political outlook for the rest of my life. The Propaghandi contribution certainly helped shape my mindset right to this day. Listening to their hard driving punk rock tunes matched with very political lyrics immediately left me with the realisation that this is the real thing. After all these years, Propaghandi still remain one of my favourite bands and they continue to remain one of the best bands to grace this scorched earth. Their epic journey, from teenage punk rockers to owners of G7 Welcoming Committee Record Label, has been nothing short of an enjoyable ride for their fans. I could write a Wikipedia essay on the history of this legendary band, but if you don’t know them, then you do yourself a serious favour and get right into their überintelligent, politically infused rock and/or roll. I honestly challenge you to find more politically intuitive lyrics tuned to such a melodic display of musicianship. The latest album from Propaghandi, Supporting Caste, takes the base stock of political punk rock, and garnishes it with the technicality of metal, then serves the dish with a side order of satirical wit just as good as the title of the album. The latest incarnation of the band is a four piece ensemble with members from two other notable punk rock bands, adding a thrash element along with a progressive metal flare. In the words of Ricky Bobby, this album “Pisses excellence!” Propaghandi are not exactly subtle in expressing their views, political and otherwise, through their lyrics. The lyrics are very clever and always drive home the point they are trying to make. Songs like “Dear Coach’s Corner” and “This is Your Life” decry political conformity of the ignorant masses, while “Human(e) Meat, the Flensing of Sandor Katz” the evils of killing animals and suggests quite clearly that one day humans’ lust for flesh will turn us into cannibals. As the band is purely vegan, you can see the satire in a song about skinning a food fermentation expert like a whale. Other songs tackle issues like the growing problem of homelessness and substance abuse, and the heart-wrenching thought of a child growing up in these conditions. They also discuss the scar that casualties and deaths of war leave on the culture of the nations partaking in the conflict, and how we must see death as a constant reminder to not waste our time on this earth, plodding along aimlessly, because after all, the world is nothing more than what we make of it. “Night Letters” particularly spoke to me, as I can’t help but feel the obvious lonely struggle described in the lyrics of this song. It’s almost as if the lyrics were written about an expatriate fleeing to the UAE in some kind of escapist escapade. But in all seriousness, this song is relatable to the struggle of the Palestinians against oppression and refugees stuck in strange countries sacrificing their lives as 7/11 clerks just to keep their families alive in war-torn parts of the world. While, by birth, many of us are lucky not to have to live the disaster faced by immigrants in our home countries. Instead, we sit at home comfortably numb to the misfortunates on the streets continually imported in to do the dirty jobs we’re too civilised to do. Shame.

You are being crushed by the world. I have got lucky so far. And we sit at the end of this night dialling, An answer finally reached through a long-distance line. News of threatening night letters. Stones tossed over the fence, Your loved ones taunted by murderers. Tell them it’s three years that they’ll have to wait... As their whole world implodes. In “Supporting Caste”, the band expresses how oppression might just be the nose candy for those with more political and economic aims, addicted to the extracted gain at the expense of others. It’s a common disease throughout the world, and we as the voices of modern man, just sit back and watch as if it were a play devised for our viewing pleasure. Dissent can be a powerful tool and a force for betterment of the human race together united; instead we’d rather watch E! Channel to see who has the latest collagen implants:

‘Cause history exalts Only the pornography of force, That of murderers and psychopaths. The rest of us, of course, stricken from the narrative wholesale..... Do what you feel you must, But as for me I was not Put upon this earth To subjugate or serve. In “Last Will and Testament”, Propaghandi discuss how we as human beings only reflect upon what we should have done when we’re about to leave the world. We listen to the way things ought to be, but we do little to change toward those ideals. Peace, kindness, unity and the like are just nice words thrown around to rouse the spirits within man, only to be forgotten the first step out the door. A world of hypocrites we indeed are, and yes I realise the irony. Or is it just better to lay down and die, clasp our hands and pray that someone else will make it better next time?

So just lay back upon your death bed and gaze idiotically back up the chain of command from which we receive our directives. I guess it’s just common sense to preach what ought to be but ensure it never is in the present tense If anything can be taken from this album it’s that there is no band quite like Propaghandi. The will to stand up since 1986 and speak their mind is what their music is all about. This is not preaching, this is art as a motivator and a function of change. What more beautiful medium to change the world than music: music that engages your mind to question, to ask, and most importantly to think. Put Supporting Caste on the headset and have a good long think about the world around you and your place in it.

MUSIC

Just how can anyone manage to accurately describe Hauschka? If you’ve got to make comparisons, then he›s the beautiful musical child birthed by the mating of Max Richter and Eluvium. But even that fails to give Hauschka (aka Volker Bertelmann) any justice. See, what Volker does is rather unique: he chugs in a variety of items (ranging from leather belts, iron bolts, aluminium and such) between the piano strings and beneath the hammers. The result converts the piano into an orchestral instrument, with the sounds booming from it ranging from trumpets to drums to even harps at times. But the point is that this isn›t merely an attempt to experiment just for experimentation’s sake; this is about emotional and thought provoking compositions that are enhanced by the experimentation. The music here is nothing more than a piano played in an empty room, but the emotional landscapes that reverberate from every minimal note Volker caresses and hums flourish into a lush and captivating sonic painting. This is music that transcends comprehension and borderlines; it›s that of a child dabbling away at a toy piano. The notes are bizarre, plucked, rattling to the point that it’s hard to focus and sustain at points. But that is the beauty of it; it’s human, it’s serene, and it›s aching. Like a gigantic heart beating loudly, crying for some form of touch to soothe something that it can’t even comprehend. Room To Expand is like walking through a crackled old house whose wallpaper has turned yellow with age. You inhale the still air, and as you glance at every corner of the domain and tread into every room you sense faint ghosts touching your soul and running away with bits and pieces of it. You vividly recall every memory you have experienced with every time they dart through you; children staring at the ceiling at night dreaming of stars, old men on their older armchairs puffing away at their pipes pondering their own existence and how they will eventually travel to the vanishing points, and beautiful girls with hearts bombarded with love, hopes and dreams. If music is a mirror of our human consciousness, then this is certainly what it will sound like.

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ALBUM REVIEW FORGET – TWIN SHADOW BY SIMON ALLEN This debut album by Twin Shadow is a fresh and exciting view of familiar sounds from the last 30 years. Infused with some slivers of new electronica and topped off with clean and artistic production, this album harks back to 80s UK new wave. Upbeat tracks and downbeat moments keep this compelling album flowing from start to finish tirelessly on repeat listens. Using a sparse palate of instruments, George Lewis Jr. has created an exciting and compelling album. Charming yet uncompromising in the arrangements, his agile use of piano and synth over the vista of reverbsoaked guitar from times gone by still seems fresh and enticing, and while his Morrisey-esque vocal phrasing may seem strange coming out of a Dominican-Floridian, this doesn’t detract from its allure. The use of these humble constituents with a near-perfect pop sensibility makes Forget an addictive album. Next up is a remix I’ve been working on for a band called Starlings. “Weight in Gold (Lapelle’s ‘Double Vented’ remix)” is due to be released in December, on Civil Music. Big French-sounding electro belter. The last track on here is my personal favourite from this year. Huge in the European festivals – “Baby I’m Yours” by Breakbot is an absolute sensation. Keeping the indie/electro roots their label (Ed Banger) is known for, this remix by Siriusmo just screams summer. Since it’s time for us over here to venture outside again, bring it on.

listen to it here

Something old. Something new.

soundcloud.com/justsomekid/quint-playlist

Something old. Something new. That’s usually the approach I take for writing any playlist. For this one, I reached back all the way back to 1985 for Joubert Singers – “Stand on the Word (Larry Levan mix)” and for Loose Ends – “Hanging on a String (Frankie Knuckles remix)”. As for the rest, they’re all babies in comparison, but no less important. First up - Larry Levan - a trailblazer of house music as a movement, used to be a resident at Paradise Garage in NYC and released this remix of Celestial Choir’s track long, long ago. The remix of Loose Ends – “Hanging on a String” by Frankie Knuckles is a classic that should remind us of what house music really sounds like. From here, I jump straight to the now. A couple of tracks on we’ve got Deux – “Diskout (Discolores Edit)” - released earlier this year, a lovely little groover, keeping that disco/house crossover sound with vocals reminiscent of the great Grace Jones, this track keeps building and building.

by SIMON ALLEN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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We’ve got Yeasayer, they’ve been a sensation over the last couple of years and this Munk Remix is a belter. With haunting vocals and a punchy baseline that doesn’t give in - Turn. It. Up. The remix of “Bang Bang Bang” by Mark Ronson is courtesy of U-Tern. This disco tinged edit of the chart monster has huge appeal to the disco resurgence that’s still going on - big synths, electro elements, while still keeping that organic vibe. Next up is a remix I’ve been working on for a band called Starlings. “Weight in Gold (Lapelle’s ‘Double Vented’ remix)” is due to be released in December, on Civil Music. Big French-sounding electro belter. The last track on here is my personal favourite from this year. Huge in the European festivals – “Baby I’m Yours” by Breakbot is an absolute sensation. Keeping the indie/electro roots their label (Ed Banger) is known for, this remix by Siriusmo just screams summer. Since it’s time for us over here to venture outside again, bring it on.

READING LIST A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole Comedy

Ignatius J. Reilly is quite possibly the most loathsome, disgusting, disgruntled, nauseating and annoying literary lead ever, but darn it if he wasn’t also the most inanely hilarious one as well. His utter disdain for pop culture is refreshing and blatantly sincere in ways incalculable to the mind. Disgruntled and off-putting as he may be, his lack of charisma makes him even more enchanting as he wages a one man war against modern culture as a whole, all the while attempting to find love, maintain a job, and take part in some incredibly bizarre masturbation fantasies. A comedic literary endeavour of the highest calibre.

Tales of Ordinary Madness Charles Bukowski Dark Comedy, Beat Literature

Read this because poets like him, when asked to write prose, do so with an unpredictable grammar and an impressive, surprising attitude. Tales of Ordinary Madness includes such short stories as ‘Great Poets Die in Steaming Pots of Shit’ and ‘The Stupid Christs’ among others like ‘No Stockings’. The collections centre on his life as scum, on women, on drinking, and merge along Kant, war, and everything beautiful and ugly in the world of the Beat generation writer/philosopher with an artful disdain that transcends any of his contemporaries. Kerouac might be the face of the community, but in Bukowski’s words you discover the truth behind a baffling culture of rebellion.

Glamorama

Bret Easton Ellis Thriller, Dark Comedy, Postmodern Sex, Comme des Garçon, and Prada – with twists and slaughter. That should aptly summarise the American Psycho writer’s most ambitious book. The story revolves around Victor Ward, an up-and-coming model in 1990s Manhattan who’s trying to start up a nightclub, when Ellis decides its time for his life to change. Probably one of the few books that you really don’t want to put down (I mean that), Bret Easton Ellis manages to spring at you more and more of his debauched celebrity world while numbing your mind with undeniably the most perverted, outrageous, and extreme visions of ‘death and cigarettes’. Definitely a book to read for a dark vision of media’s discord from reality.

The Game Neil Strauss Comedy, Non-fiction

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” For those of you who have ever wondered what that truly meant, that have ever wanted to ‘get’ the Game, or that are curious to find out what all of this is about, this is the book to read. A lively, honest, proud retelling of one man’s involvement in a subculture known as the seduction community, this book might not be a journey of intellectualism, but it is definitely revealing and exciting in its build-up, in its content, and in its uniqueness. And, maybe, Strauss can teach you a thing or two about women and getting them, even if you think don’t need it.

The Fall Albert Camus Comedy

The Fall, is one of the funnier books I’ve read, merging serious intellectualism with hysterical situations and an existential attitude that had Jean-Paul Sartre proclaim this Camus’s best work. A surprisingly light and enjoyable read, the story centres on the confessions of Clamence, an overly polite, verbose, terribly confused libertine, and former Parisian lawyer at a sketchy bar in Amsterdam. With many layers to dig through, the novel starts with a poignant excerpt from Lermontov’s forward to A Hero of Our Time, describing it as “a portrait, but not of an individual; it is the aggregate of the vices of our whole generation in their fullest expression”.

Fares Bounassif Mohammed El Amin

LITERATURE

MOST PEOPLE WRITE ABOUT CHARACTERS THAT SMILE. BUT THE BEST THING ABOUT THOSE SMILING SENTENCES IS THAT THEY’RE EXCLUSIVELY SPONTANEOUS. LIKE THE ONES I WROTE TEN MINUTES AGO, BEFORE MY PHONE CRASHED. NOW I’VE LOST THEM.

SPIT. CRACKLE. SHIT. DICK. TICK. TIT. LICK. STICK.

They went on about how some characters, the ones I like writing about the most, are those that smile to themselves. It’s funny when they do, and fun to write. Except, character creation is not about the way they smile. Character creation is a complex entity of being, demeanour, emotion, appearance, and dynamism. The writer usually has to find a way to quickly and subtly introduce minor characters that fade away after a few pages and rarely come back. The writer sometimes has to create characters that are completely meaningless and useless past the fact that they exist. When you do that, you need to do it quickly, lightly, giving almost no importance to the introduction of the entity in question: making it seem like it was always there. To do that, you adopt comparison and personas. When you’re about to introduce a major character, that’s not always the case, since there are layers to be included and sometimes all you need is a name to start with. “Ted walked in, but I couldn’t be bothered with him right then.” That alone introduces a character that the main voice of the reader is familiar with, without actually giving that character any shape form or context. He walked in. Who he is can come later on, when interaction begins. Still, there are times when you just need to describe someone your character saw across the street that sparked something within him. Naturally, what that person across the street looked like or did to create that catalyst for your story is of importance — maybe not enough for it to take pages or a paragraph, but definitely enough to warrant a sentence or two on the creature. Regardless. There are different personalities you can give your main characters, the ones you choose to carry your story for you. A story can contain one of these characters, or two dozen: what matters is the unique humanity of the creation, the sense of belonging and relation the reader can feel towards your character. Then again, some more fantastical (or postmodern) fiction prefers characters that one cannot imagine. Paul Auster and Terry Brooks do that in some of their writings, as do a few other writers, people that write other types of work, what I like to call ‘cartoon fiction’. But what is it that defines which characters are acceptable for a particular story? My automatic irrefutable opinion on that is that there is no acceptable. There never is. In anything. I can have a good-looking scientist charming the pants off a person he thinks is a girl that looks much like Demi Moore, if Demi was a little like Courtney Cox, when in fact he’s actually doing a bird (you know, the ones that

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fly? Maybe a giant bird). That could be because of magic (Shallow Hal, anyone?), drugs, insanity, or fantastical and or virtual realms that are governed by rules that the human mind cannot lightly adapt to. I tend to choose single-character-based fiction. One person as the front-man (or woman, but, so far, it’s been mostly men), occasionally in the first person, other times in the third or even second person. I rarely write fantasy or anything exaggerated like that, although I love reading them (maybe that’s why I can’t write them). My characters (and stories) tend to be serious, although their comical sides do shine through in certain instances, like when they’re drugged and making some very foolish mistakes. I enjoy the psychological depth you can give a character, the amount of messiness you can create within a mind while allowing your reader to visualise what someone with a mind like that would look like. In short, my attempts at literature are dark ones, and usually solitary, that rely on imagination. It is the flip side that makes that possible, that I could have Bozo the Clown entertaining children at a party when mommy and daddy are having a calm and collected, suburbanite fight indoors and the parents will be coming to pick their kids up from the party, when all of a sudden things get goofy and each of the kids, along with a few pets, spirals out of control, slowly, separately, until all hell’s broken loose. But that would be too easy and too direct. It is a realisation of what your character could be. Most writers model their creations on people they’ve met, eventually reaching three or four characters that randomly (but intentionally) combine different elements of the essence and traits of several people they know or have at least seen. Even Tolkien’s dwarves, elves, and hobbits were based on his own human interactions. That is the process that best simplifies that act of creating realistic, believable people for your stories. It is with these aspects of other people’s behaviours and patterns that you can develop your own person, gradually building that person into a true creation that the reader gradually, easily, becomes acquainted with. It can get very funny sometimes, when you remove a layer to replace it and miss the spot. Spit. Crackle. Flick. Prick! Then you turn back and make for another joyful playful game of nothingness that leads to whole beings. When you write, you’re God. Just like all the people we know we have come to know in layers, and just like they’re all built on elements of another (their parents, the books they’ve read, the culture they’ve been exposed to, the friends they’ve had), so would your characters be layers of others.

LITERATURE

Overture of Overtures Trevor Bundus

do i know what i am doing? TO HEAR THE SCREAMS PAINT THE WALL. TO COMPLETE DIFFERENT MEANING, LIKE THE PAIN IS THE SAME. I GUESS ONLY TOMORROW BRINGS A BETTER DAY. TO LISTEN TO ANGLES AND GEOMETRY SPEAK TRUTHS TO WARP EARS IN DISTORTING THE EMOTIONAL BRAIN I GUESS THE WALL BETWEEN SOULS CAN PUSH OCEANS APART TO RUN HANDS OVER SKIN LIKE DARKNESS UNTO EARTH OUR EYES HIDE OUR DESIRES A HEARTS MEMORY WILL RETURN.

is it too late?

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LITERATURE

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He bowed his head, cried Bukowski, and bled the soul of his words onto a screen that blinked violently at his unintentional intent to break away from the canon and centre. He wrote to breathe, to cry, to laugh, and to bastardise. Sex was like literature, literature a passion, and everything else revolved around it. Then, one day, he decided to write a book. He wanted to tell of the excitement in the seemingly depressing job of label-writing for perishable consumer products. He tried to do the narrative thing, a day-by-day interpretation, but that wasn’t so hot. It did seem boring, even when he tried to give its words some sense of jubilation. He wrote it in the first, third, and second person, but nothing changed. It was still the same dull story. He gave it a surreal effect, but it still felt shallow. He re-wrote it again (he was very persistent, obviously), avoiding traditional chronological techniques. And then once more, when he was very drunk. I keep thinking of ways to express myself that would better represent the topics I write about. Whenever I mull over my novel(s), it strikes me that they have little originality in technique, even if their content was somewhat distinctive. This probably goes for all forms of writing. Like this little article. First, you write for fun, then you write to practice, to improve. A girl I know once wrote a list of phrases on a plane that she insisted were useless. After reading them through, I tried to explain to her that they were the most brilliant, unorthodox, inspired, emotional bit of prose I’d read in a very long time. Anyway, the text she wrote was incomplete and largely fragmented, and neither of us denied that. She decided to hide it away. Maybe threw it. If I still had it, I’d have forced her not to. My professors always sought to educate me on how to “write like the greats” while my inclination was always to act like the greats: to write very unlike those that came before me. The problem with that, these days, is that everyone’s tried to do things differently. When I read the established authors, I see one

thing in common: they carry, in their words and phrasings, most of the recognisable forms of literature today. Read Paul Auster, and you find something slightly different, but still much akin to the average pulp novel format, with a twist of content. Read Neal Stephenson, or J. R. R. Tolkien, and you find masters of the narrative form and the adventure story merging so much more into their works that the simplicity and mundanity of their texts dissolves and evolves into a complex web of intricate beautifications. So I play with my phrases. I trick words into existing outside of their element. I redefine and re-evaluate Surrealism in its literary form; I call on Dada to find a different way to push words onto my screen. And Raymond Chandler screams in the back of my head. C. S. Lewis beckons me. So I fade back into the ‘Traditionalist’ model, the typical novel, and my story loses the beauty that I once gave it. That freeness of form that comes from Wolfe and Joyce’s streams of consciousness and is filtered through Bukowski’s eternally disturbed voice. Instead, I cling to old ways and cannot break away. So I read other forms. I’ve spent the last year reading snippets of novels to find other forms. And, sometimes, it works. But the persistence of the human mind to generate known structures, to read a book like it knows to best, always overcomes whatever I learn. Still, while the book carries on being one of structured narrative, the form of the narrative changes from within: the language transfixes itself in a new shape: the shape of a rhizome, of freedom from the established, from the Establishment. This centre is fading in the postmodern, but the postmodern is not removing it; the neo-writer replaces it. What was once a position of abolishment and freedom has now become one of conforming to this rebellion. Today, instead of writing and thinking out of the box, people look for a box that carries other boxes in it, so to speak.

It frustrates me. But there is little one can do within the framework of language to revoke this standard and supersede it. The word narrative is defined as the form of story telling, aside from the dialogue (sometimes including the dialogue). Even when new forms of story telling are developed and utilised, the definition of the term expands to encompass them. Thus, it seems futile to resist the narrative form. Still, at least one can try to make the scope of the medium grow perpetually into a generality that allows the writer to burst through creatively. Then again, maybe Wilde was right: literature is not read. And innovative narratives are the epitome of literature.

discoballbreaker EVENTS

PHOTOGRPAHY FITRI WAHAB REBECCA RENDELL RICHARD HENDERSON

21:45

It’s Thursday night and you can’t think of anything better than loud music and a cold drink served to you in a dark room. So you head to a small bar at the back of a hotel in Barsha. It’s early, but the dance floor is already full of bboys twisting their bodies to music by DJ Lobito. You go over to kiss him hello then head to the corner booth. The waiter brings you a beer.

NOW PLAYING: OHMEGA WATTS – PLATYPUS STRUT http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTg2NjYwODA=.html

22:20

Your friends have arrived. You kiss your hellos as they start to tell you about their week. To your right, someone is recounting a fantasy that involves their teenage self and Bjork. To your left, two people are animatedly discussing the art scene in Berlin. In front of you, empty bottles of beer and glasses of Caipirinha are piled high on the table. Someone comes up to your group and asks if they can take a picture. You do your best Blue Steel.

00:10

NOW PLAYING: ALOE BLACC - I NEED A DOLLAR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6oYX1D-0w

The place is starting to get packed. You head across the dance floor to say hello to various friends. Someone asks you about the film that’s playing on the screen above the DJs. “It’s called Devil Doll”, you yell over the music. “It looks insane!” they shout back in response. You nod in agreement as someone pulls you to the bar for a shot of Sambuca.

NOW PLAYING: MARLENA SHAW - CALIFORNIA SOUL

http://www.indieshuffle.com/marlena-shaw-california-soul-diplos-mad-decent-remix/#!

00:45

A couple are having an emotional argument by the restrooms. You awkwardly squeeze through them to get to the ladies room and try not to eavesdrop as they fight just outside the door. On your way out you take the girl some tissue for her runny makeup, while a stranger from the bar brings over a drink with a helpful smile. The couple continues to fight.

NOW PLAYING: DEE EDWARDS - WHY CAN’T THERE BE LOVE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTgHO7W1III

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01:05

A small crowd has formed in front of the DJ booth as DJ Solo mixes Turkish disco with Armenian funk with northern soul. You hang by the edge of the dance floor and watch the screen as the opening credits of Barbarella come on. Someone from the back of the bar yells “Yes! It’s Jane Fonda!”

NOW PLAYING: MARTHA REEVES - NOWHERE TO RUN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQRIOKvR2WM

01:22

You make your way back to the table with a tray of shots. Your friends halfheartedly protest, then give in and throw back the Sambuca. You all pile onto the dance floor, dishevelled and happy.

01:37

NOW PLAYING: BULLION - GOD ONLY KNOWS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQCy6pIGV3w

You head outside to give someone directions and walk by the fighting couple. They’re now smiling and laughing with the friendly stranger who bought them a drink.

NOW PLAYING: HUDSON MOHAWKE - JOY FANTASTIC http://vimeo.com/11106714

01:45

You see your friend’s car in the distance as he drives across the sand towards the back entrance of the bar. You can hear the opening strains of one of your favourite songs playing inside so you yell at him to hurry up, then the both of you rush into the bar to hit the dance floor.

02:10

NOW PLAYING: CHROMEO - DON’T TURN THE LIGHTS ON http://vimeo.com/12808912

Two girls are loudly discussing their sexual past, unaware that their conversation can be heard by everyone at the surrounding tables. Just as they reach the climax of their conversation, Mr Yeti lets the beat drop. The dance floor cheers and you jump back to your favourite spot in front of the left speaker.

NOW PLAYING: FOUR TET - LOVE CRY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No98yKnjDaw

02:50

As the lights come on, you look around to see bright eyes and wide smiles. Nursing your forgotten drink, you retreat back to the table, waving hello to people you haven’t noticed all night. Someone is making their way from group to group letting people know about an after party in The Meadows. Someone else is checking the dance floor for a lost phone. The DJs are at the bar, swapping stories with the staff, and you and your friends are in the midst of another fit of laughter. This is Freshly Laced.

NOW PLAYING: MAX ROMEO - I CHASE THE DEVIL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N505JczoEGI

02:34

You look up to see Mr Yeti, DJ Solo and DJ Lobito sharing a laugh behind the DJ booth. Above them, Barbarella runs across the screen in thigh high boots and silver lamé. The dance floor is a tangled mess of sweaty bodies.

NOW PLAYING: 16 BIT - CHAINSAW CALLIGRAPHY http://vimeo.com/5191992

discoballbreaker can be found at the Freshly Laced parties most Thursday nights. If you haven’t been yet, you’re missing out. With thanks to DJ Solo, DJ Lobito and Mr Yeti of Freshly Laced. Stalk them at freshlylaced.ae

EVENTS

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Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils extracted from plants for physical, mental, and emotional well-being. The highly concentrated aromatic oils may be derived from bark, roots, leaves, seeds, resins, and flowers, depending on the oil, using different extraction methods. Although the term “aromatherapy” has only been used since the 20th century, essential oils have been used for thousands of years to promote health, beauty and for spiritual purposes. Historically, oils such as frankincense and sandalwood were and remain an important part of rituals and ceremonies. With the exception of a few oils such as lavender, chamomile and tea tree, most oils need to be diluted using a carrier substance such as oil or cream, prior to skin application. They are so concentrated and potent that only a few drops are needed. Aromatherapy is a holistic treatment, meaning the whole person is treated rather than just the symptoms. After a consultation with an aromatherapist, up to three essential oils are usually blended together in a carrier oil. The most common treatment is massage. Clients

may also be given a blend to take home. Oils have a synergistic effect, meaning they enhance each other’s effects. Blending is an art since it requires not only knowledge of the properties of these oils but also knowledge of which oils smell good together. It is like putting together a nice perfume with therapeutic effects. It is important to note that aromatherapy has become a buzzword, and there are a number of products on the market that use the word “aromatherapy” while in fact they are made using synthetic chemicals and not pure essential oils (PEO).

So how does aromatherapy work? Aromatherapy is not just about nice smelling oils or a relaxing massage after a busy or stressful period. While the scents are an attractive aspect of this kind of therapy, the oils may also help treat different physical and emotional conditions. There are two main pathways for essential oils to enter the body. The first is inhalation. This may be achieved through direct inhalation, diffusion using oil burners and candles, room sprays, perfumes, and shower gels. The sense of smell is the only one of the five senses directly linked to the limbic lobe of the brain, which impacts the mind and emotions. Have you ever noticed how certain smells are able to take you back to your childhood? This is because the limbic lobe is also responsible for our memories, and directly links

it to our emotions. We can instantly relax, feel more alert or refreshed, or joyful. The second main pathway for essential oils entering the body is through absorption. Essential oils easily penetrate tissues because of their small molecular size; they are thus carried in the body through the blood stream. Massage, body lotions, baths, or facial creams are some of the absorption methods. The oils are usually diluted in a carrier oil and may be applied to the entire body, or just to pulse and reflex points, and even to the chakras (energy centres in the body). The essential oils can carry nutrients and oxygen, and amplify the effects of the massage. Hormones are balanced and the immune system is strengthened. Effects of massage are cumulative, and a course of 4 to 6 weekly sessions is recommended. Other ways of using essential oils is in environmental fragrancing (room sprays, candles and oil burners are popular) and as eco-friendly household cleaners. In future issues we will discuss the use of aromatherapy to enhance yoga and meditation practices as well as present more detailed profiles of essential oils. For more information email Maysan at: maysan. marouf@gmail.com

A CITY OF A THOUSAND FACES, A THOUSAND KITES, A THOUSAND BATTLES, KABUL IS UNLIKE ANYWHERE ELSE ON EARTH. A CROSSROADS OF CIVILISATIONS, THE CITY’S MANY CONQUERORS HAVE LEFT THEIR TRACE ON THE FACES OF ITS RESIDENTS. REDHAIRED TAJIKS WITH TRANSLUCENT GREEN EYES WALK PAST HAZARI TRADERS THAT WOULDN’T LOOK OUT OF PLACE IN BEIJING. THE CITY – MORE THAN 3,500 YEARS OLD – HAS BEEN THE CENTRE OF HINDUISM, BUDDHISM AND ZOROASTRIANISM, AND THE GREEKS, THE TURKS, THE PERSIANS, THE MONGOLS AND THE AYRANS HAVE ALL SPILT BLOOD OVER THIS CITY IN THE VALLEY.

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More recent times have seen Kabul pushed and pulled by the regional powers: Pakistan, India and Iran have all interfered, as have, of course, the Soviet Union and the United States. This has left the city devastated – a ragged mess spreading out across the valley floor, intersected by mud-coloured mountains. The destroyed buildings have a strange magnetism, such as the eerie former Presidential Palace, now occupied by refugees. Glimpses of magnificent mosaic work can be glimpsed through holes in the walls, clothes hanging off what used to be Presidential balconies. The Palace is located at the edge of the city, overlooked by the imposing Hindu Kush (‘Hindu Killer’ after the slaughter of Indian forces by the Persians centuries ago). More recently the mountains have bookmarked western travellers as they criss-crossed the old Silk Route, looking for enlightenment, adventure or an exotic place to get high. It is hard to imagine those wide-eyed men and women, dreadlocked and tie-dyed, wandering hazily around Kabul in the Sixties. Chicken Street is the old hippy hangout when Kabul was just one stop on the trail from London to Kathmandu. The hippies have long since gone; some of the more bizarre shops remain, including one, down a dusty side street, that sells Russian military medals, wolves’ heads, looted Roman-era coins and grotesque wood carvings from the wilds of Nuristan. There is no tourist trail in Kabul because no tourists come; well 2,000 came last year, most of them exiting the capital in convoys of 4x4s, heading northwest to Bamiyan with its Buddha niches and otherworldly blue lakes. The rest of the ‘internationals’ as the expatriate community are called, live cloistered lives in heavily guarded lodgings in the embassy district. The ISAF base is here too, hidden behind blast walls, checkpoints and Macedonian soldiers. I watched two Americans waiting outside the blast walls for their lift. An armoured

SUV pulled up and a bald, bearded man (almost certainly ex-Special Forces) got out and handed each a bullet-proof vest. The men – both in their fifties – struggled to put them on and when they had, clambered into the vehicle which sped off. Four Afghan children stared at this scene, and – once the SUV had disappeared from sight – burst into laughter. Kabul for this community is a bubble, a weird half world of cookouts and drinking games, of tag rugby and security alerts. A place isolated from Kabul, from Afghans, and from reality. An American development worker complained about this disconnection, and to prove her point, showed me pictures from a Hash House Harriers event in the garden of a foreign worker guesthouse. The ‘Hash’, as it’s known, is a running club where the focus is more on the post-run drinking. A colonial invention from Malaysia (when the British ran the place), the pictures said a lot about the western community in Kabul. Red-eyed forty-some-things played drinking games and rolled around on the grass as a wideeyed Afghan boy looked on from a nearby rooftop. The ‘internationals’ say they need to let loose; the Afghans wonder why they have to drink out in the open. Other Afghans express dismay at the way the hundreds of millions of dollars of aid that flows into Afghanistan each year seem to stay within the international community. An armoured car and bodyguard cost upwards of $3000 a week. Drive around Kabul and you see them stuck in traffic with the thousands of battered Toyotas that cram the city’s roads – although ‘road’ is a loose term given the half-finished, rock strewn arteries that seem to be constantly gridlocked. But each SUV represents money that could have gone into de-mining programs, clean water projects or education. It can get claustrophobic in the choking traffic; lanes blocked five cars across, signs for Kabul’s ‘Ring of Steel’ warning off would-be suicide bombers. That

– most people tell you – is the main threat; well that and kidnappings. The chance of being blown up or kidnapped is miniscule, but logic shrivels when you are being stared at on a busy Kabul street, the only westerner in sight. Yet despite the threats and the chaos, there are moments that make you realise why the city and its people exert such a hold over visitors. The kites for one, hovering over Kabul at sundown, silently held up by hundreds of hands. The warmth of the Afghans is not a cliché, they really do bring you into their homes, offer you tea, or simply smile – the city’s thousand faces may be worn, but they are still smiling, and that in itself is something of a miracle.

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