The New Era by Ribbed Magazine

The New Era

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M A S T H E A D . Editor-In -chief Matilda Finn matilda.finn@ribbedmagazine.com Editorial Assistant Ashley Bailey ashvbailey@ribbedmagazine.com Creative Director Laurence Matthew Blake Laurencemathew@ribbedmagazine.com Music Editor Tim Hilton timhilton@ribbedmagazine.com Public Relations Evelyn Subi evelynsubi@ribbedmagazine.com Editorial and Contributor Assistant Lee Whittaker leewhittaker@ribbedmagazine.com Special thanks to: Anna Cope, Mario Mendez, Emma Gibney, The Book Club, Andre Lang, Ken Kamara, Mark Lebon, The Social, Dollop Blow PR, Michael Perkins, Spin Agency, The Lord our Saviour Jesus Christ (Azari and iii) and to all the contributors from the start till the very end.

For all press enquiries please visit : press.ribbedmagazine.com

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EDITORS LETTER.

dexterity,imaginationandaptitude

In a time thriving with those of , we are lacking in a promotional environment to aid and support creatives towards success in their chosen industries. Ribbed Magazine is a platform for creatives to show case their work at a publication level. Diverse from the plethora of forums available, it gives initiative to those involved by challenging themselves to ultimately bespoke a new found readership -

the eager generation, anticipating change.

fashion,music,film,lifestyle,art & literature

Covering the worlds of through live sessions, exclusive artwork, editorials and interviews Ribbed Magazine merges both new talent and existing masters of their crafts onto a unified, innovative and refreshing platform. The first issue features new work by the iconic fashion photographer MarkLebon (veteran of the Face and i-D) to lesser-known but stylistically advanced (Creator of 'The Never Ending Story Blog' & photographers such as continuing contributor to Dazed Digital) Exclusive interviews and illustrations from musicians such as . Art comes in the form of mini documentaries covering the work of artists and . such as

Saga Sig Late of The Pier, Azari & III and A Grave With No Name Lenni Lee Zeesy Powers

The Milenium was a while back now & even though throughout this primary decade we have progression, dialemas & setbacks; it is now time for change. Introducing issue one: The New Era.

contents.

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8 - 13 MEN OF MEASURE 14-19 KAP BABINO 20-23 DEATH OF PRINT 24-45 LAYERETTE 48-55 KATIE EARY 56-59 AZARI & III 62-69 THE RISE & FALL.. 70-73 K 76-77 ORYX & CRAKE 78-85 SQUAT LIFE 88-103 BLACK KIDS 104-117 MARK LEBON 118-131 BEING POWERFUL... 134-137 KRAUTROCK 138-147 DRESSED FOR AN APOCOLYPSE 148-159 VIKTOR G책rds채ter 160-165 ALICE 166-171 STUART SANDFORD 172-193 NOUVELLE NOIR 194-197 AUTEUR EXISTENCE 198-207 USELESS IDEA 208-211 LATE OF THE PIER 212-217 END OF THE INTERLUDE 218-231 PREMIER:NEW FACES 232-235 DESMOND MORRIS 238-243 2010 244-249 P IS FOR PENCIL 250-253 EIGHT 1/2 VS NINE 254-257 MAN UP 258-259 ONE MONTH RELATIONSHIP 262-271 FLUIDITY 274-277 LAST TANGO IN PARIS 278-279 CRACKS 280-299 SHADOW CHILDREN 300-307 MONOCHROME 308-311 ARCHITECTURAL SYMPATHY 312-315 GLASS DIAMOND 316-329 MILO BELGROVE 330-339 THEM. 342-345 MY MODERN 346-357 DELANEY ALLEN 358-365 LENNIE LEE 366-369 LAUNCH PARTY 370-377 CONTRIBUTORS.

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MME EN OF ASURE words alvaro melera pictures kevin

morosky

I WAS at work and bone cold as a co-worker is passing by; I stop her and ask her to come to me. I ask if I could borrow her cardigan because it looks quite warm. She undoes the top button of her cardigan and takes it off. Lovingly hands it to me. For about an hour and a half I am kept warm and through out I am getting complimented on ‘my’ cardigan. Where is it from? Did you get it at the sample sale? Of course I tell everyone no and that it’s hers. Everyone replied well you make it work; it looks really good. One particular person complemented me on it and questioned me about it. I replied the same answer I had given previously. He asked why would you want to where a girls cardigans? This meeting of people’s vision of the cardigan clarified the difference between men who buy clothes and men who own them. Some are so uncomfortable with clothing that they have to give it a gender even when it is made for them. Then there are men of measure who judge clothing with a personal discretion.

“Being attributed as a man of this understanding and standards is not a mistake and it does not come easy. Taking from heritage and modernity and adding something indescribable, but recognizable.”

Men of measure visit what they have owned in the past and own it again developing a more discriminate view of that initial passion that they attributed to a particular piece and their own wardrobe. With each visit that is paid to an aging piece these men learn more of what they expect from themselves and their dress. The criterion to develop their personal look doesn’t begin by considering pieces on their own and how stunning they look. The way that a piece makes it into their wardrobe is by the criteria of…what a great personal wardrobe consists of. From writing those standards MM attribute that to judgement of selection, it is a reversal process that must start with an empty wardrobe. Being attributed as a man of this understanding and standards is not a mistake and it does not come easy. Taking from heritage and modernity and adding something indescribable, but recognizable. This approach of developing a wardrobe that includes everything possible to reach catharsis, speaking in the sense of personal style, requires a long breathless time. Developing a persistent attitude that can deny anything at hand no matter how minimal the reason.

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tune process that forms only after ten years of building to a judgement that can only come respectably from taking it from conscious to unconscious thought. The standards of what great personal style are on the male body or in his mind are inconceivable to the man who measures by his own. He doesn’t adhere to practicality, length or cut. These judgments are a given. Men of Measure’s judgement of physical selection come from the unconscious that is practiced through their hands. They develop a understanding of touch that restricts the sense of feel. More than that they negate weight to their hands to truly rely on instincts comparable to tales of porridge. Many men educate themselves on the facts and fallacies of construction and quality, including MM. This is the universal that MM must attain in spite of an intrinsic sense of dressing. The purpose served is the insight gained that only so much can be obtained within a year. The value gained for items obtained over time are set by the unconscious that validates the notion that more was received than what was given. Value is according to the standards of each MM own wardrobe. The relationship of hands and mind is a peculiar one to the conditions of these measures.

“At some point in the many years that men take to understand their own way in the measure they crash into the thought that getting dressed in the dark is not an issue for them. Darkness ceased to be a boundary ergo making getting dressed much easier. Believe that it does get much easier.” Words are faint when describing with which intensity Men of Measure put themselves together. They don’t loose sleep or plan their daily dress nights before. From the unconscious comes a sensibility that makes their judgement easy but not rash or harsh. The process of putting a personal look together is very fine tuned to the measure that it is architecture to the men who put it together. It has become a habit as important as hygiene and performed like clockwork. Fundamentally that is how men should be getting dressed, not having to think far beyond a moments second. This approach of looking at clothing as pieces to a wardrobe puzzle is physically and mentally exhausting. MM are devoting times outside of the responsibilities that define them so that they can reshape those responsibilities with a bit more ease, an ease that comes from having a sense of being collected. The ultimate catharsis and ease arrives when looking at the wardrobe and realizing that it is a jigsaw and all the pieces are the same colour. This effect can only be viewed individually but the product of that creation is exhaustion and all the same for all MM. Imagine being handed a puzzle box and for twenty years the same colour pieces have been continuously placed inside. Now complete that…it is a compliment to any man that understands this. At some point in the many years that men take to understand their own way in the measure they crash into the thought that getting dressed in the dark is not an issue for them. Darkness ceased to be a boundary ergo making getting dressed much easier. Believe that it does get much easier. From the beginning mistakes are made and that’s okay because rectifications are too. This process over the many years gains the virtue of romance. At first it seems that when everything is just right something else comes missing. It appears that everything never begins to be complete. Almost regretful that so much passion is given to a wardrobe and in return The Naked Lunch is the compliment. 12 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 13

Everything takes time and more time. The pleasant moment comes, to each his own but the romance is there. On an odd day MM will find the right coat. Consider that the beginning, it is that moment that all begins to piece together. Time may seem quick because the conclusion of a pieced wardrobe is reached. Everything that has a beginning has an end. Believe that a certainty is obtained and it is pleasant in every way. That certainty delivers a comfort so strong to brace all the elements over time. Men of Measure are adhering to more than clothing; hair cut, body, knowledge, collected books and music all play to his wardrobe in equal measure. They are growing up and in their pursuits wanting to look calmly collected. Definitive times beg to be challenged and beg to drastically be noticed. The present is a time like any other before us and ahead of us. Currently we are in a haze despite the notion that everything is growing again. The climate is not growing it is changing. It is essential to understand that we have no prediction of the future, no certain prediction possible. Looking at the sate of the world only clarifies that we are nervous. This state that we currently inhabit is going to shape the way in which we define style and to what standards. The present is not exempt from the effects of events. History has always shown to mirror in style, that is how we define the eras. In this era Men of Measure are trying to create that. No word exist yet to describe what this style is, only MM.

“The reversal is part of the shaping that gives more than aesthetics. We are mere man creatures wanting to be gentlemen.”

Over time Men of Measure will build a wardrobe that garners the impression of the new men of style to come, that is the inevitable. Currently we all admire the standards of the impressers of personal style. They are noticed for the measure that shows a self-respect that MM are aware exist but only can strive to obtain. Words will come to define these men. Respect will be the element sourced to define them and once achieved the standards of MM will cease to solely progress. Like the impressers now and MM that look back at previous decades so will they become decades gone. For now the attention needs to be focused on the class of MM. They are setting the new standards for our times. Quite quickly the time will pass to make an impression that later others will revisit to progress their undefined criteria. Becoming a class of the past is the recognition of influential men. No matter how important and defining that class will be relevance is its weakness. I am trying to impress that we are constructing something intelligent never intimidating and always remaining beyond minimum. Contentment is the one definition that a true MM will never respect in himself. MM are more than inoffensive standards. They are men who refuse to write with another’s pen. Refuse to understand the uncomfortable. The reversal is part of the shaping that gives more than aesthetics. We are mere man creatures wanting to be gentlemen.

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kap bam bino photostory by iameverything

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MUS IC LI KE FIRE

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DEATHOF PRINT.

words holly woodcock illustration ashley bailey

With today’s uncertain economic forecast paired with the Internets total world domination since the new millennium; the printing industry is now facing its toughest time to date. Gone are the days of saving up for each month’s issue of The Face or Blitz magazine and introduced is instead, the online world of webzines, blogs and interactivity amidst a fast-paced world of online technology. So does this signal the end of print, as we know it? The early eighties brought us a new generation of youth tribes, dress, clubs, drugs and music, and along with it a new genre of publishing the British style press. This new genre of style magazine played an important role in popularising the latest popular and postmodern fashions of the time and marked the heyday of the British style press industry. It began with the launch of The Face in 1980, followed six months later by i-D and the now-defunct Blitz; all of which youthorientated, documenting fashion, music and style trends, and often referred to as the ultimate 80s style Bibles. Today’s pop culture grew from the late 70s, early 80s youth aesthetic of wanting their own freedom away from their parents, and this volatile and anarchic method (haphazardly stapled and thrown together) of doing so within these magazines provided the perfect platform for young creatives to showcase their talents. The 80s style bibles became a physical and material means of establishing and maintaining, not only one’s, but a generations, status in a rapidly changing landscape. These days such objects are increasingly endangered and Blitz folded in 1991, followed by The Face in May 2004 with i-D since going from 12 to six issues per year. Has the age-old format of print gone stale? The Face was established during the post-punk era of the 1980s, ‘It was a symbiotic thing - the ‘scene’ was very vibrant, new, exciting, challenging, doing really interesting things etc, and the magazine reflected that. During those early years there was someone flamboyant and exciting to put on the cover every month’, exeditor of The Face Johnny Davis tells. Its success was down to there being ‘nothing else like it’ out there says Johnny and ‘Like all 22 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 23

the best magazines - Smash Hits, Vogue, Vice, Grand Royal, Private Eye - it created it’s own world.’ Similarly, i-D magazine changed the face of style photography in the 1980s, pioneering the ‘straightup’ (a head-to-toe documentary style shot). The straight up encompassed everything that the magazine stood for; a raw, innocent method of communication. However, the magazine has since needed to evolve its traditional method of communication and in a tactical move, has penetrated new mediums including books, exhibitions and its website, in an attempt to maintain its popularity against most recent Internet rivals such as DazedDigital, Fashion156 and SHOWstudio.com. With websites and webzines like these popping up on a daily basis, the Internet has become the newest platform for photographers, stylists, journalists, illustrators and more to strut their stuff 21st-Century style. SHOWstudio.com was launched in 2000 in answer to this desperate thirst for instant global communication within society today. “We are living through one of the most profound moments of change in how we communicate since the invention of writing”, tells regular contributor to i-D and Director of SHOWstudio.com, Nick Knight. These days bands such as Florence + the Machine are now just as likely to be on the cover of The Guardian Guide as they are i-D, somewhat defeating the meaning of everything that style magazines stood for in the place. However, Johnny tells us ‘I once asked the writer Malcolm Gladwell if he thought journalism was doomed and he looked at me as if I was mad -- with the internet, blogging, etc he said, more people are reading more than ever before. It’s a great time to be a journalist, he said. How that will eventually manifest itself, we’ll have to find out.’ Conclusively, I ask what’s one without the other? The Internet provides us with up-to-date, of-themoment information at the click of a mouse. It creates an immediate platform at a fraction of the cost. We can download, upload, interact and communicate without even getting out of bed. We would lose the ability to function without the World Wide Web today. However, the magazine brings a sense of nostalgia and provides an archaic documentation of society and culture in physical print format, allowing the creativity of yesteryear to live on.

does t h i s spell t h e end?

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1: Coat by Jasper Chadprajong Skirt from Shock and Soul Jumper (tied around waist) from Rokit Socks by American Apparel All jewellery models own throughout 2 and 3: Coat by Charlotte La Roche T-dress by Happy Harriet Skirt vintage Mulberry Stockings by H&M Shoes (customised by stylist) by Dr Martens. 4: Jacket by Levis T-shirt from Beyond Retro Dress by Vibe Lundemark 5: Jumper by Vibe Lundemark T-dress by Charlotte La Roche Boots and Leggings from Shock and Soul Badges from Beyond Retro 6: Cape by Jasper Chadprajong Shorts by Levis 7: Cape by Jasper Chadprajong Jumper by Happy Harriet Skirt from Beyond Retro 8: Coat by Jasper Chadprajong 9: T-shirt by H&M Dress customised by stylist Trousers by Johanne Kappel Andersen Boots by Dr Martens Glove from Camden Market Headband by American Apparel 10: Jacket and playsuit from Shock and Soul Leggings by Vibe Lundemark Hat by Jasper Chadprajong Shoes (customised by stylist) by Dr Martens

:11 Dress by Charlotte La Roche Top (worn underneath) by American Apparel Skirt (worn underneath) from Rokit Cardigan by Filipa K :12 Coat and playsuit (just seen) by Vibe Lundemark T-shirt (customised by stylist) and Jeans by H&M

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katy

eary words harry mckinley photography saga sig model pelayo diaz styling alexander wilson

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recent graduate, Eary displays the provocative talents of a well garnered pro with her prodigious talent belying her age. It is her youth however that has allowed her to give menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attire its edge back. Whilst evocative and refined her work is informed by a searing street mentality, bestowing an aggression that hits you squarely between the eyes yet leaves you hungry for more. A seemingly unstoppable force Eary demonstrates every inch the robust mentality it takes to grapple with the unforgiving world of fashion but more importantly the hype is only pushing her to work harder. Her latest collection is in the pipeline but remains a closely guarded secret as every glossy holds its breath to see what eye candy lies in store. Equally as exciting is the news sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll soon be exploring into womenswear as she broadens her vision and takes the Eary name to new heights. This thirst to break new ground and remould the form oozes from every inch of her designs and imbues every piece of fabric, brass and rope with an air of unabated excitement.

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or so long men’s fashion was stuck in a bland wilderness of uninspiring suits and humdrum tailoring. How many variations of a pin stripe does one need? This changed however when Katie Eary broke through this deafening silence of tedium like a foghorn of inspiration. Seizing the world of menswear like a bulldog Eary‘s dramatic designs put innovation back on the catwalk and secured her place as the new enfant terrible of British fashion. Eary’s work is challenging and breathtaking in equal measure. Her anatomical approach sees human organs reinterpreted as a daring print and rib cages created from Brass, all spliced with a touch of street and a dollop of military. It’s this eclecticism that has seen Eary succeed where so many fashion graduates have failed and enter the hallowed realms of fashion fame. Her new found recognition has seen just about everyone clambering for a piece of the action and enough words written in her honour to rival War and Peace. It’s no surprise therefore that this has meant Eary working with the all-time greats, dressing the likes of Lady Gaga and Kate Moss and having her work shot by photographic legend Mario Testino. Eary’s work is so successful because it takes ingenuity and wry humour and combines it with quality craftsmanship, providing a product which is as elegant as it is inventive. Amalgamating luxe furs with plush wools each bold piece flaunts both style and substance as creative vision meets high-end artistry. Eary’s integrity as a designer is unmistakable and her couture angle is recreating the way we think about menswear, pumping new life into an area of the industry which was in danger of stagnating and trailing men’s fashion into the future by the boot strings.

Having entered the world of fashion with such a momentous bang it would seem Katie Eary is destined to ascend to iconic greatness. A true pioneer and a landmark talent she proves that Blighty is still more than capable of producing world class talent. May she continue to stimulate us, challenge us and inspire us as she takes fashion to thrilling new territory.

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“it seems North America supports and glorifies violence, yet treats nudity and sexuality like a dirty thing. Wouldn’t most people given the option choose an orgy over a mass execution, as participant or spectator? How about both

RM: ASL? A&III: Infiniti Herma Torontus RM: What was it like growing up in your neck o the woods? A&III: A cross between Blue Velvet and Larry Clark’s movies. RM: The vocalists on the two most recent singles, how did you come to collaborate with them? A&III: Other projects in the past & random altercations on the dance floor. RM: Where were you before Azari and III came about? A&III: The back alleys of our mind, waiting patiently for destiny to arrive and keeping the kettle warm. RM: So we were trying to find your video ‘Hungary for the power’ on you tube what happened? A&III: Did you watch the video? But seriously, it seems North America supports and glorifies violence, yet treats nudity and sexuality like a dirty thing. Wouldn’t most people given the option choose an orgy over a mass execution, as participant or spectator? How about both simultaneous?! RM: According to some you’re music can be described as Chicago house, is that something you’d agree with? A&III: No, we’re from Toronto, Montreal, Africa and Jamaica. RM: Who’s behind the H4TP video? A&III: Alixander III came up with that sick twisted shit... with a lot of help from friends & the likes of legendary video director George Vale. RM: The Canadian music scene seems to be brimming with talent, is there a strong sense of community present, Collaborations? A&III: There are divisions and solidarity, those who believe that music should free you, who work with the open hand not the fist, and those who proliferate a rather nihilistic and forceful worship of ego and depravity.

simultaneous?!”

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RM: The Canadian music scene seems to be brimming with talent, is there a strong sense of community present, Collaborations? A&III: There are divisions and solidarity, those who believe that music should free you, who work with the open hand not the fist, and those who proliferate a rather nihilistic and forceful worship of ego and depravity. RM: How are you putting yourself out there what with the music industry being the way it is and obvious problems you’ve had like that with your music video? A&III: We just keep the tape rollin.... RM: This issue’s about the new era how do you foresee the music industry evolving and where do Azari and III fit? A&III: It’s exciting because it’s looking like something terrible or fantastical is brimming on the world horizon, and we enjoy bringing Azari & III to different and unexpected places. To incorporate a diverse melange of the great essences floating around out there. RM: What other influences do you have? A&III: Hockey Night in Canada! The warm heroin banter of Don Cherry and Ron MacLean. RM: So, how did you guys meet? A&III: eHarmony or craigslist was it? RM: Hounds of Hate they are personal friends of ours, a band we are equally enamoured with whats the connection there? A&III: We met them through Parallels, mutual friends.

RM: So we were cyber stalking you on MySpace and came across some of your respectively linked projects and were astounded by how many there are out there. Do Azari and II have a severe case of ADD...? A&III: Actually it’s quite the opposite, we are hyper focused, and spend every working day composing or performing. There is no such joy as unbridled creation, especially when you feel you are offering a moment of transcendental freedom to someone’s life.

“There are divisions and solidarity, those who believe that music should free you, who work with the open hand not the fist, and those who proliferate a rather nihilistic and forceful worship of ego and depravity”. words ribbed magazine

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ไปฃ

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the rise and fall of menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trousers. words by robert mcnicholl photography stefani ania styling by daniel sinisterra model goksun ergur

words bob mcnicoll photography alex wilson styling holly woodcock

The trouser, like almost the entirety of Western Civilisation, can be blamed squarely on the shoulders – or, more accurately in this case, the hips – of Mr Beau Brummell. His dandyish wearing of the trouser, as opposed to foppish breeches, was a complex challenge to the socio-sartorial niceties of the time; a theme we shall see reappearing in this brief discussion. Brummell was at once the best- and worstdressed man of his age. If you were a rich young man whose steadily increasing waistline necessitated regular visits by the tailor, whose dad was presumed to be going mad and who would one day be King, then you would have considered Beau to be the most astonishingly attired and beautiful of men. If you were that young man’s father, you would have pinned on Brummell the imminent ruin of society. Despite the connotations that the word has acquired today, the late Eighteenth Century dandy was not over-dressed or feminine. Inherent in Dandyism was a tendency toward a fine, simple, almost utilitarian way of dressing. It is true that the dandy would take great pains over his wardrobe, that hours spent dressing was a symbol of great pride for the dandy, but – compared to the wigs and powder and rouge and stockings and buckles and brocade and jewellery of the fop – the dandy was a refined and sleek gentleman. And, in challenging the Baroque opulence of his forbears, Brummell was setting himself very deliberately apart from this prevailing cornucopia of blazing riches, whilst enjoying the hallowed attentions of the Prince of Wales and garnering Byron’s praise. Of course the French took to the trouser as part of their revolutionary zeal; but Brummell, this pretentious teenager, wore such working-class attire so he might be stared at. His trousers were a scandal; and an astonishing success.

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The trouser, like almost the entirety of Western Civilisation, was democratised through the ingenuity of the French and the massproduction of the Americans. Everyone owns and wears jeans; their palette is limited; their cut is standard, dictated by their utilitarian formfitting roots. Unlike the dress or the skirt, the hat or the coat, jeans come in one basic shape and one basic colour; thus the fetishisation of jeans, unique in clothing history. The Holy Grail is to find that minute distinction of style or fit permissible within the production of jeans which encapsulates one’s personality; and as usual the businesses that produce jeans are always two steps behind. It is the man or boy in the street who personalises their jeans through rips or paint, stitches or dirt, or who simply undermines the work of the producer through paying scant regard for the prescribed fit of his trouser. Rampant individualism powered by massproduction.

“The Holy Grail is to find that minute distinction of style or fit permissible within the production of jeans which encapsulates one’s personality”

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The trouser, like almost the entirety of Western Civilisation, was brutalised and degraded by an inhumane and unjust penal system. In the United States, something like one out of every forty five white adults is behind bars. Something like one out of every eleven black adults is behind bars. 9.2% of the adult AfricanAmerican population. Belts are anathema in prisons, making – as they do – excellent devices for self-annihilation, not to mention fine offensive weapons. Trousers, then, are worn loose, come in a limited range of sizes and, where worn baggy, are useful for concealing whatever your average inmate may have reason to conceal. This enforced fashion then mutates back into free society; those who have been inside wish to make it known – as a threat; as a badge of pride; as a way of retaining a belonging to a not terribly select few. Trousers are worn loose, low and baggy as a challenge to the establishment and as a way of fitting in.

“Purple boxered buttocks exposed, fleshy or barelythere but there nonetheless; held up not by belt but by cockshaft alone. Parents unite in disapproval, the elderly are sickened, the righteous ban it, media scorn it.” And so we come to the trouser of today: worn low to the point of glorified indecency; painted on skinny boys, loose and metallic on Asians and tight on Blacks, or the other way around. Stolen off girlfriends with maybe two meagre inches of fly; torn at the knee or the thigh or the crotch; tucked deep into work boots or rolled above plimsolls, with a white flash of ankle or well-tended sock. Washed by the rain, soaked by the sweat of dancing and drugs; crunched into rhomboid tesserae, clattering down the back of the shin. Purple boxered buttocks exposed, fleshy or barely-there but there nonetheless; held up not by belt but by cockshaft alone. Parents unite in disapproval, the elderly are sickened, the righteous ban it, media scorn it. Young men, as always, delight in the brazen wonder of sartorial self-expression. This is trousers as weapons on the front line of

cultural warfare – pick the height of your

waistband and prepare for war.

w o r d s s te v e f i nn i l l us t r a t i o n i am e v e r y t h i n g

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Is a New Era i Cinema really an Old Era Reimagined?

in y ?

We all dream of a New Era, but sometimes we forget that Old Eras contain truths and lessons that we should understand, lest the New should contain more of the Old than we are comfortable with. The philospher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. He also said, “A country without a memory is a country of madmen”. Whilst pondering these statements, I remembered the critical slaughter that met “Barry Lyndon” , directed by Stanley Kubrick, when it was released in 1975. Now widely seen as a masterpiece, it was then slated for its static, painterly, contrived atmosphere, its unseemly length (at that time) and for the very fact that the maker of “2001:A Space Odyssey” and “A Clockwork Orange” had drifted off into the past like an unmoored ship. This was seen as a betrayal of the modernity Kubrick had been so identified with. Some of the criticism was vituperative in the extreme—“Time Out” ran for years with such an insulting short review of the film But Kubrick understood what Santayana was talking about. “Barry Lyndon” is as outrageous a piece of “Science Fiction” as “2001”: it just happens to be set in the past. In “2001”, Kubrick envisioned a world that might happen: in “Barry Lyndon” he set himself the even harder task of envisioning a world that had existed, albeit that Barry is the fictional creation of William Makepeace Thackeray. But fictional or not, Kubrick wanted the world he showed to be as true to the past as possible. Why?

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There are oodles of historical movies made, all the time, all over the world. Bollywood is full of them, Chinese cinema too. Hollywood loves a good Jane Austen as much as ITV or BBC (poor misunderstood Jane). Dickens is always fit for a revival. The French love their Victor Hugo. What makes “Barry Lyndon” different? Take the opening pre-credit sequence: it is a single wideshot of a duel, over which the narrator tells us that it is the duel that killed Barry’s father, and thereby propelled the orphan Barry into the wider world, and to his fate. The figures are tiny in a huge landscape: there are no close-ups and we have no idea of the what Barry’s father looked like, no more than he. But it is the fact of the duel that Kubrick chooses to open his film, and it is a fake duel that tears Barry from his first love, and another more vicious duel which ends his career. The duel is the scaffold around which Kubrick builds his film, and for a good reason. Right from the first frame, he is saying to us that this is a world, our own past, in which men often had to put their lives at risk to satisfy their honour, whatever the cost. Barry goes into battle with the British army not as soldiers would do now, in uniforms designed to hide and with tactics designed to use ground to hide themselves, but in a red coat to draw attention and in a line to draw fire: which side broke first lost. Women had to accept that their husbands, or their children, might be dead by night.

“Right from the first frame, he is saying to us that this is a world, our own past, in which men often had to put their lives at risk to satisfy their honour, whatever the cost.”

This is no anodyne Hollywood (or Borehamwood) attempt to find contemporary relevance in the past, the fate of countless Austen or Dickens or Tolstoy adaptations (poor “Anna Karenina” on Channel 4, reduced to a feminist harridan instead of a tragic heroine), but a genuine attempt to get under the skin of an earlier era, to reimagine what it must have felt like, looked like— hence the extraordinary cinematography, using a Zeiss lens crafted to Kubrick’s exacting specifications that could shoot by candlelight, the only light available at night in any era that predated gas or electricity. The language is strange to us, almost obsessively polite and recondite (even the Irish highwayman is extraordinarily polite while he relieves Barry of his mother’s inheritance); the formalities of daily life are explored in all their numbing complexity ; emotions are suppressed even when death and disaster are everyday occurences (the English nobleman declares “Maintenant, Je suis FA-ti-gué” as he loses a fortune at the gaming table). Does any of this sound familiar? Strange language, numbing formality, suppressed emotions? “2001” perhaps, or “A Clockwork Orange”. Hence my point that “Barry Lyndon” is as much a Sci-Fi film as these more familiar movies. A Sci-Fi film set in the past, which takes the past seriously and is concerned that the audience looks beyond facile similarities to the present to the profound enigma of yesterday. As L.P.Hartley wrote, “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.” What better goal for the New Era is there than to seek to genuinely understand the Old.

“The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.”

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It’s difficult to lose a bookmark these days without it turning up halfway through a novel of some terrifying dystopic future, so why is Oryx and Crake such a necessary piece of literature? Well, Atwood’s imagined reality is genuinely unsettling, the world she describes is so close to our own that it will embed itself imperceptibly in your consciousness. Oryx and Crake is a speculative fiction, not a science fiction proper. It contains no intergalactic space travel, no teleportation, no Martians. Atwood takes familiar objects and weaves them into the new surroundings, thus even the most mundane tasks become tainted by a troubling proximity to the events in the novel. Science has fully usurped religion as the unquestionable moral arbiter, not in a dramatic way but insidiously guided by a kind of utilitarianism. Atwood What sets the book apart is the dazzlingly claims to present a beautiful complexity of Atwood’s language and balanced view of science, Science is a way the painful familiarity of her protagonist. Snowof knowing, a tool, it can man is the last voice of humanity, weak, needy be turned to bad uses, and damaged through his mother’s betrayal at a it can be brought and young age. His disillusionment manifests sold, but it is not in itself itself in the pursuit of violent and perverse bad. Like electricity, it’s neutral. So Atwood is websites and later prostitutes. Through Jimmy not so much prophesisand his best friend Crake, Atwood shows how ing against the dangers the irresponsible games of arrogant, emotionally of science but rather, stunted youth are the future institution and how against science in the dangerous hands of man. dangerous this can be. Crake sees humanity as

fatally flawed and seeks to correct these errors in our nature by replacing homo-sapiens with a genetically engineered alternative. The Crakers are largely similar to humans except Crake has breed out sexual competition and religion, as he felt these things led to unhappiness and conflict. However Crake hadn’t been able to eliminate dreams. We’re hard-wired for dreams, he’d said. He couldn’t get rid of the singing either… singing and dreams were intertwined. Ultimately the Crakers begin to worship idols and even pray, the implication being that these things emerge as a natural consequence of sentience. Despite Atwood’s protests Oryx and Crake is science fiction but that shouldn’t be seen as a derisory comment, the genre has produced some wonderful works and this deserves to be included amongst them.

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Oryx and Crake â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Margaret Atwood On the eastern horizon thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a greyish haze, lit now with a rosy, deadly glow. Strange how that colour still seems tender.

words anna cope

words

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quat life

s evelyn subi photography lee whittaker

Growing up in suburbia close to life of middle American christian girl, the idea of squatting was an unfamiliar one. Even when having moved into what my mother thought was the dark streets of hackney i still had not crossed paths with squats or squatters. Not until a friend of mine decided to squat was it that i found about it all in more detail. The connotations behind it and the wonderful people you end up meeting and some the buildings you can end up setting foot in. My bliss ignorance was changed by my friends fellow squatters who were all so knowledgeable, have seen much more of the world and had so many more life experiences. They were all so easy to get on with and all so readily sharing and giving not only with ideas but their homes.Which brings me to my next surprise the few squats i have been in have felt like homes just with a few nick nacks and maybe cracks( the wall kind not drug addict kind). So upon this revelation I have to say I felt like throwing down the shackles of man and protesting yes no more rent i want to join in this exciting life. Then the realisation of having uni and maybe being thrown out of a place and having to move my stuff along with the court cases snapped the shackles of reality back on quicker then i could say truculent. Oh, the man had found a way to trick me back into its corrupt bosom.

bollocks .

However there are a million abandoned buildings in London not including the buildings that are unused and left lying dormant for years. So why not squat, if people want to use them and will look after them i don’t see why they can’t peacefully do this. Especially if they are used in a creative way for events like film and art showcasing, which many central London squat groups do. With rental prices in London getting more ridiculous than Nick Griffins plea for being a non racist character. Squatting doesn’t only help the loosen the purse strings but brings use to a building that isn’t being used for anything productive. I think there is a sense of freedom and unity that is gained from squatting. Easily able to do what most of us fear pick up and start again, start new. Which is less fearful when you have your own friend family unit.

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Some squats have collaborated with different artistic groups such as off modern and goldsmiths art students. The spaces occupied by squatters can be used with others in mind as well just a living space. This platform given to other artists, to come and display or have their work watched is another reason to only admire these type of squatter groups. How they are able to not only to organise themselves but spaces for other people to get noticed. The Short film nights that i have been to at one particular squat is a really good night. Organised in an amazing way to promote and help find out about new talent. These are people who are using their own sources to fund their films.I found seeing work outside of the zone of my own friends or peers was enlightening. Giving you a chance to mix with people you might never have met and having discussions about topics i certainly hadn’t thought of during the day. The perspectives that you sometimes just get taught in the classroom while generally having a lot of fun.

The court cases and legal action are something that went over my head. Squatters rights was the term that was passing everyone’s lips. Under section 6 squatters have the right to occupy the place if it is empty and can’t be moved unless served with a court order in which an appeal to remain is dismissed. Usually if granted the appeal to stay this then the time frame can depend on the judge as to when your next court case to increase the length of stay. However if the owners of the property do not appear then your in no trouble at all, if the don’t appear for ten years then you can even claim the property as your own!

Yet Section 6 doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always protect it only distinguishes you as a non criminal. There are a lot of illegal/dodgy evictions that happen through cutting off electricity or water etc. With little or no help when this happens most squatters are forced to move on ad to the police this is a civil matter. The government attitude of squatting has since changed from the days of the 70s when whole parts of towns could be squatted. However England is still one of the only countries in Europe where squatting is legal, most European countries except for Holland have made squatting completely illegal and in Germany instead of checking the buildings they just gas the building to make sure it is clear. As anything most countries deal with this matter differently and France takes a lenient approach when it comes to winter where they leave squatters alone but as soon spring comes they are all thrown out. 82 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 83

In Holland there will also be new laws being put in place that will make it difficult to squat. So it may soon come to the point where England is the only country where it is legal to squat. What sad times we live in with societies distorted view.

I think at some point i would love to squat but i think finding a good group of people is half the job. As a girl squatting by myself i guess i would live in perpetual fear of being eaten or something like that, something bad. Squatting to me would be interesting and economical beneficial on my part(that sweet student loan will be long gone soon). Although, being able to skateboard on the roof ( ...sweet!) of the empty buildings that others just walk past everyday and being able to get to know different buildings are changing experiences that most people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;two thumbs up to the squatters and two fingers up to the man.â&#x20AC;?

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black kids photography by karolina krupa styling peder collin-bagewitz make up michelle silva

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LOOK 1 DimitriBlack transparent top by ACNE Vintage black leather studded vest by Federation Black ripped tights by Alexander Wang ChloëBlack headband by Monki Black dress by HM Shoes stylist own LOOK 2 DimitriHeadpiece by stylist Earing by POUR LOOK 3 DimitriBlack string vest by ACNE Top by HM Vintage bolo tie stylist own ChloëMetallic string vest by Rodebjer Vintage black leather studded vest by Federation LOOK 4 ChloëVintage Yves Saint Laurent scarf Patent leather bra by Ida Sjöstedt LOOK 5 DimitriAccessories all made by stylist Sweater by HM Shorts by Raf Simons Tights by Alexander Wang LOOK 6 ChloëVintage velvet corset by WEEKDAY Velvet leggings by Moschino Shoes stylist own Headband Monki LOOK 7 DimitriTransparent shirt by ACNE Slashed leggings by Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair Hair neckles made by stylist ChloëTransparent dress by Whyred Underwear by Wolford Hair neckles made by stylist

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.L.

M R

.A.

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North west london, when you get further out its obvious where you are. There are surburban houses and the shops are sparse, reminds me of my home town in Kent. But Mark Lebon has marked his t e r r i t o r y . it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hard to find his house amoungst all the grey faced homes. His home/studio/lavish land of inumerable treasures (the music editors had a field day discovering his record collection) truly reflects his p e r s o n a l i t y . A place he had recently finished b u i l d i n g h i m s e l f . Fashion photographer (veteran of the likes of i-D, The Face, Vogue, Arena). Key contributor to the Buffalo a s e t h e t i c . F i l m m a k e r . c o m p a n y o w n e r . T e a c h e r . F a t h e r . . .

The Renaissaince man//Mark Lebon,

exclusively talks to Ribbed Magazine.

RM: You came into prominence in the early 80s – how did it this come about? Did you always want to be a photographer? M.L: I was a photographer when I first picked up a camera and started taking pictures - that’s what photographers are, people who take pictures. As for becoming a fashion photographer, that came about because I was kind of disillusioned at college about sort of wanting to change the world. People had been asking me to assistant them because I knew people in the business and eventually

I realised I wasn’t going to be able to change the world, so I might as well take pictures of beautiful women instead.

I mean there have been so many special moments of progression and underneath it has been the power to be able to communicate to more than one person. R.M: Would you say progressions a good thing, or do you wish we could remain doing it the old fashioned way? M.L: All the new stuff does is make the old stuff more valuable, it only enhances it, it doesn’t dismiss it – it makes the old stuff even better R.M: You are a tutor at London College Of Fashion and your pretty known for giving people assisting opportunities. Is this something that is important to you? Because it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of big photographers that do that…

R.M: So you’ve been in the photography business for the last 25 years…

M.L: One day I might give someone a chance and one day I might not, I don’t think I’m particularly special in giving people a chance. I don’t know... Maybe I am... (laughs)

M.L: I’m 50 so yeah…fuck… nearly 30 years really…

As for other photographers, well, the thing is there probably are.

R.M: You’ve seen and been part of a lot of change, what would you say is the biggest progress you’ve seen? M.L: Well just off the top of my head there’s the digital world, but proceeding that there was video - y’know VHS and that. Then really – obviously - the computer side of things, which in terms of production means its very much in our hands – much more in the terms of the film work I’ve been involved with. There’s that recent and strange intimacy you get from instant messaging where instead of talking your typing something down – that is phenomenally exciting. 108 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 109

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Thing is before I started assisting, my dad vaguely knew Terrance Donavan and even though he didn’t know him particularly well he still had the balls to call him up and ask him to help me buy a camera. So this really important photographer took this 17/18 year old boy to buy his camera… Then I went to art college and a couple of years went by, and I asked my dad, y’know would it be possible to get some jobs assisting for him (Donavan). So I ended up working on a building site for him, sweeping up after builders. I didn’t see a camera, I didn’t see a studio, I didn’t see anything...just sweeping up on a building site and at the time I sort of didn’t know what use this was to me… And I didn’t realise the importance until I eventually started assisting in the industry: When I was talking to other people it was a great way to identify with them – a great story to tell them. Terrance Donavan, although I don’t really like his work, he is known for giving people a chance. And now, if some ones not getting a chance with a photographer they’re not properly offering their help in the right way. You have to be prepared to do whatever – clean up the loos - just anything, there’s always room for someone to make a cup of tea.

“I don’t give people a chance unless people actually step up, I think if anybody actually gets out and gives it a try the universe will respond to them, one doesn’t know just how it will respond to them but the only reason you don’t get a chance is because your sitting and home and not taking any risks. If you end up getting out there and taking risks I think you’ll get a chance.”

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R.M: For those aspiring to be in the fashion industry would you say its important not to restrict oneself, to go into many fields? M.L: Well there’s always room for the specialist and there’s room for the Renaissance man ... for someone who does more than one type of thing… Hang on what is Renaissance man…? Lets Google Renaissance man…

RENAISSANCEMAN I don’t even know how to spell Renaissance man but I don’t know how to spell much… Wikipedia here we go… A person who excels in multiple fields, there you go, polymath … Yeah so there’s still room for the specialist and for the Renaissance man Yippee!

R.M: So What does 2010 bring for mark? You’ve re-launched your film night ‘Reely’ that was created in the late eighties, what was behind bringing this back? M.L: Well it’s been re-launched many times. When my son was in university in Edinburgh he started a film night, and we talked about doing one together – and he’s finished and now we are. It was always on the cards, so its great.

M.L: So the renaissance is more common?

2010..Exhibitions…Reely and Truly…nothing in particular I guess. Id really like to be given a second chance to qualify as a teacher, that’s my immediate future, to do my best to get that qualification, to try and improve my teaching. There’s a possibility that I might go back into a more public profile…

R.M: Yeah, don’t you think?

R.M: Is that something that you want?

M.L: No I wouldn’t say so, I think there’s still room for the specialist, variety is the spice of life is what I say.

M.L: Not really. What I want is to know what I want (laughs). I need to want something that I haven’t got, because otherwise you don’t really want it do you?

R.M: But is there really still room for the specialist, people seem to be finding it harder to just do one career…

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R.M: What is

new era to you?

M.L: I think it would be Keats message

‘negative

capability’,

in actually enjoying the dark side, which we’re created for ourselves. I think that’s what I will be celebrating this decade (laughs)…

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. photography by Matilde Matilde Travassos styling by Kumiko watari

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Youmay have to fightabattle more thanonce to win it.

People think that at the top there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top. 122 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 123

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Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m extraordinarily patient... provided I get my own way in the end.

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Nothing is more obstinate than aconsensus. fashionable - margaret thatcher

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1: Arm armor by Manuel Albarran 2: Hat by J.W.Anderson, Dress by Lako Bukia, Cuff by Alexandra Groover, Socks by Calvin Klein, Shoes by Olanic 3: Jumpsuit by Delia Covezzi, Satin top with bracelet, necklace and shoes by Maria Francesca Pepe 4: Helmet by Manuel Albarran 5: Cape by Reem, Bracelet by J.W.Anderson 6: Hat by Alexandra Groover, Bodysuit by Lascivious, Trousers by Louise Amstrup, Bracelet by J.W.Anderson

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k u

words anna cope illustrat

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kra utro ck

tion sophy hollington

Krautrock was a somewhat derogatory term coined by the British media to classify a new genre of electronic music, which began to emerge from Germany in the late 1960’s. Germany was reduced to rubble in the Second World War and financially castrated by the Treaty of Versace, it regained economic stability but, ‘it wasn’t just towns that were bombed, culture was bombed too, and you can’t just rebuild culture.’ While British and American music was primarily driven by guilt free indulgence, the kids of Krautrock were fuelled by an iconoclastic drive to obliterate the pervasive shame of their history. Nazism didn’t disappear on D-Day and it couldn’t simply be removed like a tumour, so Nazis remained in positions of power throughout the country. Germany was gripped by a kind of political silence defined by the popular music of the time, the comically inoffensive Shlage pop. Krautrock emerged as an, ‘acid drenched apocalyptic’ antidote to this aesthetic vacuum, going beyond the psychedelic rock eccentricities of their British and American counterparts and developing electronic treatments, sound manipulation and minimal hypnotic motifs. As Peter Leopold of Amon Duul wrote, ‘we didn’t want to be Anglophonic, American or German so space was our solution.’

rautrock was a highly experimental form and the output of its musicians is so vast and nebulous that it’s almost indefinable. The early years saw bands like Amon Duul producing highly experimental, space rock soundscapes. Track titles like, Halluzination Guillotine and Restless Sky Transistor Child highlight the dark political unrest that was the driving force of their music and of course, the gratuitous amounts of LSD they were gobbling. However, the creative commune that surrounded Amon Duul produced more than just vaguely unlistenable psych rock. Werner Herzog was creating films that grappled with the troubling German heritage, portraying bleak and dangerous landscapes in an attempt to come terms with the human condition. Herzog was known for his wild style and frequently risked not only his own life in his directorial role, but had been known to threaten his actors at gunpoint. The political extremity that emerged from Munich’s Amon Duul commune is best demonstrated by the killing spree orchestrated by two members of the extreme left wing, Red Army Faction, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. However, for most this was a tad too heavy and when Amon Duuls lead singer found Meinhof hiding out in her attic, she ordered him to leave immediately. Meanwhile in West Berlin, Hans Joachim Roedlius had formed Kluster, later to become Cluster, who were creating, free form discordant music that can now be viewed as the seedling of ambient electronica. They were an example of music made by non musicians and while progressive British music was heavily concerned with emulating classical music, they were obsessed with the subtle effects of sound. They differed from the retrospective and melancholic aesthetic of Amon Duul because they ‘had a vision of creating a sonic utopia a different world with different sounds that promise a way out of the surrounding society.’ The gradually forward looking perspective of Krautrock caused its popularity to spread throughout Europe. The mixture of art, noise and strange beauty held a fascination for British music fans as it stood in contrast to the formal ramblings of bands like, Yes and Genesis. There was also a kind of bizarre humour in Krautrock that was lacking in the intense musical seriousness of their British counterparts. Neu! had the audacity to release the same track twice at different speeds on their second album. They then wrote, Im Gluck which sounds like seagulls squawking over a singularly repeated guitar note while, a man washes his genitals in the bath.

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Later Krautrock was to influence major figures such as David Bowie and Brian Eno who were compelled to move to Berlin and subsequently produced pop masterpieces, Heroes and Low under the Germanic influence. Bowie was enamoured with the sound,

“I was a big fan of Kraftwerk, Harmonia, and I thought the first Neu! album, in particular, was just gigantically wonderful… looking at that against punk, I had absolutely no doubts where the future of music was going.” Bowie was right

for as vast and frequently nonsensical as the music became it was the beginnings of innumerable musical genres that exist today. Faust laid the foundations for modern sampling with intricate cuts and splices whilst deconstructing rock music with the ceaseless monotony of tracks like, it’s a Rainy Day Sunshine Girl.’ Kraftwerk produced delicate melodies and mechanically precise rhythms that were the origins of not only modern minimal techno but more broadly all electro infused popular music. In between were the punk grooves of Neu!, the Eastern Mysticism of Popol Vuh and the trancey psychedelica of Tangerine Dream. Artists such as, Stereolab, Laika, Mouse on Mars, Tortoise and DJ Shadow have all cited Krautrock as being a pervasive influence on their music. However as a new era of producers emerges the influence of Krautrock is so deeply ingrained in the music of subsequent generations that the origins are often forgotten. Perhaps this is the way it should be, it is important to draw on a rich musical heritage but it’s boring to dwell too long in the distant past.

dressed for an apoco lypse jewellry by jacey withers photography kristen blow

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styling david johnson. hair & make-up kenny leung. models amanda perera, jeff haun, kate shurikhina, nikoo hamzavi

VIKTOR Gårdsäter

The images of Viktor Gårdsäter are haunting. Telling a story of loneliness within a metropolis. A good photographer uses there mechanical device to detach it from just bolts and rivets and creates a personal experience to connect to. With a strong sense of negative space within his cropping Gårdsäter’s message of isolation is felt.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are so many people, still so hard to connect.â&#x20AC;?

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Alice

A SHORT STORY BY CHRISTINA FRANKS.

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They’d been lovers, the two of them, at University. Jack

had listened, fascinated by her colourful tales of that disparate, dissolute group, thrown together in their first year. Of drugs and affairs and parties they’d gone to in nothing but knickers and gold paint, of how they’d held court from a bathtub, admirers and critics alike bringing drinks and cigarettes to them as the milling student crowd pushed past to use the toilet. They had titillated him, these louche stories told in her prim little voice, tucking her legs up under her, and rounding her thin shoulders to keep warm as the sweat dried on her skin.

I’ve lived such a dull life, he thought. He was like an innocent then, as innocent as a 32-year-old investment banker could be. She’d rolled her eyes when he told her what he did. The arrogance of youth. God, how dull, she’d smiled sweetly though her yawn. But he was a nice one, he had told her. Whatever, she thought. To be honest, she could barely remember him from the previous week when he had paid her a fortune for an hour of her time, just like all those other fools. He looked older than he said, too. Corduroy trousers pulled too high on the waist. Clean-shaven, beer-plumped cheeks. Married of course, but it was over, he’d said. She was a workaholic. They slept in separate bedrooms. She had nodded, keeping him talking, and the clock ticking, itching to check her phone to see if her boyfriend had texted. He hadn’t. So back he came, again and again until she knew exactly who he was. He earned more than a doctor. That had made her think. She’d wheedled it out of him, embarrassed, eventually, at the amount he was spending. Christ, he didn’t even have a degree. She’d got a first, for what it was worth. She was lucky, she said, to work for nothing at the fashion mags she subbed for. She found comfort in his soppy brown eyes in that hard glossy place, knowing her bills would be paid again that week. She told him she thought her boyfriend was Asperger’s. He confessed her had once shagged a hooker on a stag night. Jesus, she thought. How predictable. She told him he was a prat. He scribbled his number onto a tenner, which she scrumpled into a careless fist with the rest of her wad.

Then, one crappy night, she called him – his wife was, for some reason, away - and took a taxi to the suburbs, where he’d come out into the street to pay for it, rubbing his eyes and ruffling his hair wearing nothing but knee length sleeping shorts. She felt embarrassed then, seeing his body for the first time: his muscular arms gave her a little thrill, but he had large nipples, like a girl and seeing them made her feel a bit sick. It felt strange walking into their home, with their coffee machine and top-end rubbish bins, their expensive, hostile cats and Ikea bookshelves filled with chick lit. She made wry comments about his bland tastes. You’d be perfect for my sister, she had said, laughing. I’m just average, he had said, disarmingly, palms up. The most average man, he told her, as she undressed, she would ever meet. She had raised her eyebrows at that. She took a bath, and he watched her, starstruck, as her make up washed away, streaking the bath with glitter. She stayed in his house the next day, feeling alien but when he came home from work they ordered takeaway.

She made wry comments about his bland tastes. You’d be perfect for my sister, she had said, laughing. Anyway, they’d married in the end, when his divorce finally came through. She’d been named on the papers – his wife had insisted upon it, and it was quicker that way, he assured her. She had a baby, and they threw all their love at the child. She carried it on her hip down the aisle when her father didn’t come, and it was only by luck that the tantrum had stopped moments before the music started. But the other mothers, all of them older, crushed her a little: their sniffiness in the playground, and the tortuous night wakings wore her away. She discovered her first grey seconds after the line on the test went blue, steeling herself in the bright lights of the shopping centre toilet. But she changed him, everyone agreed he looked well. Cheeks, bearded now, hollowed by her ideas about porridge for breakfast and cycling to work. Everyone said how handsome he was, how he looked so young - he wore jeans everyday since he’d lost his job at the bank and they fell off his narrow hips, the Calvin boxers she’d bought him exposed at the top. Even the grey in his hair, now curling round his ears, looked distinguished, although she said it scared her. “You knew you were onto a good thing when you met him,” his mother told her once, pointedly. That pissed her off, but in a way - not how she meant - it was true.

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The first time he’d met her – Alice of the gold paint, was at the wedding of mutual friends. She was nearly ready to pop then, but looked good on it, and sober as a judge, but fun-starved and temporarily child-free, she’d insisted on bringing this girl home, blotto in the back of a cab. An opportunity to show off the duplex loft apartment she spent her life cleaning. Gamely, he had pulled her, melodramatically comatose, up three flights of stairs, while she hastily rushed ahead, straightening up. A dead weight on the landing, she had wrested her out of too tight jeans, and lovingly replaced them with a pair of her own pyjamas, haunches squat around her enormous bump. Alice came to, then, dazedly smiling, and then, teetering to the marital bed, she had pulled her tee shirt over her glorious tits, writhing on the White Company sheets while he, rather the worse for wear, stood blinking and grinning like a schoolboy. Shaking her head, she had guided Alice into their son’s empty bunk-bed, and then spent the night snuggling into her husband’s solid flesh, his arm wrapped round her giant tummy. In the morning, at her suggestion, he made blueberry pancakes, all morning hair and glasses, Calvin pyjamas and a bare chest, personifying domestic bliss for the benefit of their guest but, pouting prettily through her hangover, Alice only toyed with it, expressing astonishment at waking up surrounded by teddies. This time, his mother is babysitting at the loft . They’re going to a party on the other side of London - the same uni friends that were married that night, and it was to be the first proper night out they’d had since the birth of their daughter. She had been surprised, delighted when Alice agreed to come down from Cambridge – there had not been so much as a text to explain her absence at their own wedding, and communication since uni had been sporadic and awkward. But when she meets her off the tube, Alice is bearing soft toys for the children, and it is with some relief, she notes, that eight months down the line, she is at least the slimmer. Alice sits through tea time with the bemused, breezy impatience of the childless, while he serves homemade fish fingers edgy that one of the kids won’t perform.

It’s the first time in months she’s touched spirits, and perking up after the tube across town, she observes with vodka clarity Alice’s progress from to plummy to posh, from friendly to flirty, as she gustily knocks back Gin Fizz; on bottled beer, he becomes doe-eyed and puppyishly enthusiastic. In the taxi back, the Indian driver shifts uncomfortably as Alice recounts explicit anecdotes at indiscreet volumes. She throws him a look, but he only smiles goofily back at her.

She enjoys the spectacle of her old nemesis pouting at her, seducing them both, and to make a point, she entangles herself in her husband. Experience tells her that when push comes to shove, Alice is as straight as a dart. Once home, they go into the bedroom, conversing as they use the loo in a fit of girlish conviviality. Sliding glances at each another’s hasty nudity, they put on their pyjamas, silently noting the changes wraught by seven or eight years. “Let’s do this more often.”Alice’s eyes by now, are a little lopsided. “It’s been too long.” “Yes, let’s ” she replies, caught up in the moment. Alice kisses her lightly on the lips. Giggling, they bound into the lounge, arm in arm. The air bed is already blown up, drinks are poured, he offers to make them cheese on toast. In her frilled threequarter lengths and strappy top, Alice gives the impression of a Victorian bathing wench and they all laugh as she poses, diving for comic effect, before tipping over, and spawling luxuriantly on the floor, braless breasts akimbo under thin fabric. They lounge for a while, under the duvet, vying with each other, female point scoring. She enjoys the spectacle of her old nemesis pouting at her, seducing them both, and to make a point, she entangles herself in her husband. Experience tells her that when push comes to shove, Alice is as straight as a dart.

Disciplined by years of early starts, morning suddenly looming, she refuses another drink, getting up, suddenly tired, prudish, irritated with them. “I’m going to bed. They’ll be up soon.” She gives him a look, and turns on her heel. On instinct, she pauses in the hall. Heart pumping wildly, daring him to do it, she peers back through the half closed door. Glancing blindly after her, he straddles Alice, snogging her briefly, like a teenager, and then, tweaking her tits, stands up, readjusting his cock in his knee length sleeping shorts. Gifted with a rod with which to beat him and light headed with venom, she pushes the door wider, arms folded like a fishwife. At the movement, he is unmanned and as Alice, all huffy innocence, collapses on the mattress, he walks awkwardly towards his wife, where she slams the door and slaps him stingingly around the face. There is nothing for it but to share a bed. His mum is in the spare room. But, scorched, she unleashes her fury in melodramatic hisses: “I’m gonna fucking kill you.

You fucking bastard.”

“I’m sorry.” It comes out a lisp, inciting her wrath. “I thought… God I’m an idiot...I thought you wanted to have a threesome. I thought you were coming back.” “I was going to bed you stupid fucking prat.

Don’t be fucking absurd. The kids are in

the house for a start. As if I would want a threesome with her. She’s a fucking nightmare. She’s always been a fucking nightmare. I’m gonna fucking kill you.” And she thumps him, hard as she dares, again and again, feeling as though she is acting a role. She has been up with the children for an hour or more, playing extravagantly, while her grandchildren thump about, clattering, ignoring the heap of sleeping girl with the duvet over her head. When Janey emerges, puffy-eyed and shifty, in her dressing gown to make tea, she looks up over her glasses. Good night? she asks, too brightly: passive aggressive. Hmm, Janey replies, for once unfazed. “I think you’d better take the kids to the park this morning. I have something I’ve got to do.”

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“Poor is the “Poor is the man whose man whose pleas u res p l e as u r e s on depend depend on the the permissi o n p e r m ission of another.” of another.”

words georgia lewis anderson photography stuart sandford

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80’s pin ups, fake porn and Sperm Mugs: meet Stuart Sandford

Stuart Sandford sits at his tidy desk in the rather un-rock

and roll area of the capital, south Kensington. Oh yes darlings, my high tops are off and have dusted off a pair of pricey looking but easy on the wallet vintage boots, chosen to provide the essential foot covering element to treading the gold lined pavements of the west in search of sexy new art star Stuart Sandford. Well ok, sharing the pavement with people who have more gold than me. Alas I couldn’t let go of my 3 pairs for a fiver ear bling though, which hindered me slightly as I found myself having to engaging in the smiley eye dance of trust with the security guard following me around Harrods. In the basement of a rather fine pillared town house sits the young man in question. Prescription Raybans provide trendy face furniture for the freckly faced young artist, most famous for his ‘Cumfaces’ project; intimate snaps of good looking guys in the height of climax commissioned by Gay Times in 2007. “Its kinda annoying in a sense, I did it 2 years ago and its not something I want to continue doing more of. People liked it, it was published in 2 magazines just last month but you’ll never see another project like it again from me.” Knowing similar works were easy to come by, Sandford utilized his Myspace following and reached out to the developing internet generation intent on projecting themselves to the masses, who, like we all were, were busy cultivating a new self obsession through the social networking and profile creating frenzy. Enquiring as to if they might be willing to expose themselves on a new level- by capturing themselves intimately on the brink of orgasm- mandatory rules only stated pictures must be landscape, of head and shoulders, and on a bed, the rest was history. Since first featuring in Gay Times the project has been commended globally by publications like Attitude, Butt and Blend and Sandford has featured in countless profiles on blogs and internet magazines waxing lyrical about growing up and his discovery of cocks and asses.

He’s exhibited an installation in LA, shown in extremist right-wing Poland where his work was dubbed ‘Sperm Mugs,’ a title he said he wish he thought of, and collated the sexual shots in a sell-out a5 book. Success was found around the world, and plans even laid for a follow up ‘Cumfaces: part 2’, but today calls his most famed work an “aberration,” an eccentric state of abnormality and is keen instead to focus on current projects, stating that he “probably wouldn’t have done Cumfaces it if it wasn’t commissioned.” A true Ribber, brushing off the old and looking forward to the new era...but what exactly has Stewie Stu got under his belt right now? It would seem teen 80’s pin up’s are the name of the game. Re-photographed images featuring studs of the shoulder padded era like Chad Allen and Noel Hathaway make up the ‘Teen Dreams’ series. Taken from magazines like Tiger Beat, 16 and Bravo “it was the kinda stuff I was looking at when I was a teenager...I would say young boys innocence is a theme. Malibu was a hell of a long way away from Sheffield where I grew up, I was coming out, I was plump I grew up with these guys. I thought there’s already a glutinous amount of photos out there, why shouldn’t I take the pictures that already exist and appropriate them into my own work.” So far, so sexy. Sandford further plays with our take on the male chastity of a bygone decade with his ‘Blow Job’ video piece that sees a head and shoulder shot of Mark Paul Gosselaar, Zac in Saved by the Bell, dreaming about Kelly, where Sandford has looped some proactive eye closing footage to suggest something all together more satisfying than mere fantasy! A parody of Warhol’s video piece of the same title: “I love what blow job suggests. With this series, its more about taking the boys out of their context- if we look at that fashion now, its a bit too sexual and a bit too suggestive, but back in the 80’s it was ordinary.”

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Sandford’s latest offering comes in the form of pretend porn and reveals a cheeky humour. Granting Ribbed an exclusive preview of his new work inspired by the Momas lyric “Every lie creates a parallel world, the world in which it is true.” He stays true to the frizzy haired era of the 80s, but this time presents manipulated images depicting stars in compromising sexual activities, his first of Lost Boys star Corey Heim. Sure to lead audiences into manifesting overwhelming needs to process the image twice and question the its authenticity, they’re tongue in cheek double truths. I can see Corey’s fake bum and everything, ooh matron! So are we dealing with products from a horny artiste that sets youporn as his home page? “I want to be playful rather than in your face sexual. I’m heavily influenced by my sexual experiences, but wouldn’t say my influences are found in porn, I think that’s quite a thick line.” Indeed having mentally prepared for a no-holds-barred talk offabout the depths and possibilities of willies, bums, intercourse and fondling, I find Stuart the man substantially shyer than his work would suggest. This instead is a guy who adorns his work space with alien ornaments and enforces a strict shoes-off policy before entering: “my interest is more how peoples perceptions of my work change depending on surrounding circumstances.” And what circumstances might the world manifest for the sock-wearer-around-the-house in a new era? “Open source culture and a re-writing of copyright laws are essential. Ones that mean we can get the best out of modern services but people get paid properly.” I’m privately hoping for some more well executed cheeky photo manipulations... Currently lending his hand to music videos, Stuart adds: “I get annoyed when people label my work gay, I happen to be gay and I’m influenced by my experiences. I just happen to find sexual suggestions in a lot of places!”

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Photographer - Thomas Knights Stylist - Callum Vincent Grooming - Michelle Webb Model - Maximilian @ SELECT Clothes - Kim Choong-Wilkins through out Gloves - Dominic Jones

auteur existence words by constance malyran illustrations by laetitia bocquet

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he Auteur, French for ‘Author’, exists under a number of traits, most imperatively being the continuous marking of their ‘personality’ to one film to the next. Conversely, many are mistakenly given this title but are instead metteurs-en-scene. These are technically competent directors who merely execute the processes of film but do not have the extensive creative control. There are modern day directors, such as Tim Burton that have a definite visual style present throughout their work. However, in this case, his first piece with complete creative control was Edward Scissorhands. Numerous works to follow, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland were cinematic re-makes; this quite evidently reduces creative control as it has already been visually represented. These also had such large Hollywood backing, again questioning his limitations of creative control. It is dubious how a director such as Quentin Tarentino can be given the Auteur label, when his work is notoriously imitated from other outstanding works. Take Pulp Fiction, Tarentino’s most renowned piece to date. A piece that he himself admitted taking from influential works. with his use of the Macguffin, a Hitchcock invention, stylisticpieces such as Mia’s reference to LouiseBrooks, to the endless name drops and ‘inside’ jokes referring to abundant outstanding films. Additionally in the DVD release there are two versions, the ‘letterboxed’ version which stays true to Tarentinos initial wide screen compositions and the non-letterboxed version which has altered scenes of medium close-ups. This evolution of distribution has changed the fundamentals of Auteurism; the way the piece is showcased can either take or add to the authorship.

The introduction of DVDs has brought special features: such as interviews and bios of the creative’s and the ‘directors cut’. This adds to the evolvement of the Auteur becoming a star itself and how Hollywood has changed the outlook of what the Auteur stands for to compromise with the commerce of film making. The Auteur now sells themselves with equal vigour as the movie star. Thus the aspect of being the ‘soul creative’ looses its strength and the mastering of public relations and winning the audience overrules. Yet whether or not a film has efficient backing will delegate whether or not the Auteur will be able to achieve their idea, and if so, with or without the constraint of artistic or commercial compromise. Take the Matrix series: Written, directed and produced by the Wachowski brothers. Seemingly they bare all the Auteurist characteristics. Conversely take the work of The Coen Brothers and their continuous collaboration with executive producers Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and composer Carter Burwell. Their collaborations do not veer away from the fact that their works are quite evidently the director’s creation. These directors are financially backed with no sense of compromise. They state their idea and they are let to execute it. The Auteur is equal, or if not more to that of a movie star. Audiences will always pursue their works. In Hollywood, anyone that can create a box set collective is worth backing. This is evident when asked, who are the current Auteurs? If we are looking at the true term of the word and its traits, originated in the film journal Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s, there is a minuscule amount.

Woody Allen can truly be considered as an auteur, as not only does he direct and screen write he in addition stars in his work too. He is notorious for having an extremely tight and detailed layout for each of his films, working consecutively with the same team and actors- along with overseeing the casting, shooting, editing and more. Like a true Auteur, he is entrusted with his creations unlike many current directors he does not pursue the current cinematic regulations of publicising oneself much like a star (although being present within his own films may bring argument to this case). However, unlike the work of Stanley Kubrick and Wim Wenders, Woody Allen is lesser known for his visual constructions but more so for the storylines. Opting for more dialogue heavy scripts, he is famous for concentrating on serious and in-depth life conventions such as desire, oppression, apprehension and sexuality - and yet his works are comical. Similarly, The Coen Brothers are known for their affection of life’s irrationalities and satires and play on them with black comedy. They are responsible for writing, directing and producing their work (famously under pseudonyms). This is reputable evidence once again of true Auteurism, against the contemporary marketing changes. They are also untouched by studio interference and continue to do so today. Both Woody Allen and The Coen Brothers films are unlike the expected commercial, quick fill entertainment expected from most within the industry, and this perhaps adds to their upkeep as established Auteurs. There is a yearning for the Auteur, as there are not many and as they give a different aspect to the present day film scene - bringing art house type films in a larger budget proportion.

This assures followers, from both cinephiles and supporters. Some are adamant on the upkeep of traditional Auteurs and others, the more unaware cinema goers, are intrigued by diverse films by a respected film maker. Like a new film by Tim Burton or Terry Gillingham, a new film by The Coen Brothers will get equal publicity, but their publicity will be obtained by different means. However, with this is the ever evolving production of new and more technically advanced software. For an affordable price, even for the most low key film maker, it is possible to be a soul creative at an individual Expense. Further more, with the new re-vitalisation of independent filmmakers and supportive backing from film makers alike, it has become a common place for people to have their own creative control and not be overruled by the compromise of large financial backing. This could be a new turning point for cinema and perhaps the rebirth of the Auteur. Take the recent film of Mark Price, ‘Colin’, a £45 budget horror film that wooed those at Cannes and showed in Leister Square. Although becoming a largely backed Auteur like Stanley Kubrick seems less viable, this makes the aspiring film maker increasingly more determined, thus switching the power to those behind the camera instead of backers as cinema once was and should still be. Since the only true Auteurs still remaining commenced their career during a more acceptable time for creative control, it is questionable whether an Auteur can make it with the same vigilance in today’s cinema. However, the industry is ever evolving and it would be erroneous to assume that it is the end of the Auteur.

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Useless Idea

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Ostile is a project of the not conventional design, anatomical engravings inspired by the 700, seen through Death Metal with the addition of a component romantic contrast Fashion. The project was exposed as a preview at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa Start 2009, an event of art contemporantea. Works you are seeing are part of the first series called Doom, published in the catalog of the exhibition Useless by the curator Elena Saccardi.

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Late Of The Pier

Late of the Pier interview takes place in a warehouse on the set of their new video. There is a buzz in the air as we walk past the half dressed girls and free bar in the venue. We take Faley from Late of the Pier aside to be interviewed by Evelyn Subi, one of the Ribbed team and this is what we managed to find out about Late of the Piers plans for the New year.

Do you know what’s going on? F: You know what I’d love to answer that question but I don’t know.

What are you guys going to do in 2010?

Ah Faley, a disappointment.

F: 2010? Ahh

F: No, We err, we just decided, like, we’d been sat on these two songs so long and Erol I think we just finally got fed up of it and said release ‘em. So we’re going to, but coz we’re doing it with Erol there’s absolutely no budget. So were just roping in favours from all of our friends. Me and Fred did a quick viral video for ‘Blueberry’ which never worked out how we intended but it sort of worked, but in the end it just supposed to be a visual accompaniment to the music. Yeah, we saw that F: So, we did that and then we went, yeah, best of the class Potter can take care of that. And the rest of us have gone yeah he’s gonna take care of that. He asked for some black sheets so I came down to give some black sheets which he didn’t need and now I’ve been stuck in the basement of a warehouse with loads of vodka and girls for the past eight hours. Which could be worse, which could be worse. (Laughs) (Laughs) It’s alright. F: Yeah E: Yeah, about Blueberry, because I saw that a month ago I think. No, heard it about a month ago. I saw the video you just talked about. But yeah the single, it sounds pretty different to most of you’re singles. Was that what you intended? Or...? F: Err E: ‘Cause from most songs you put out... I don’t know I just think it sounds a bit, a bit acoustic..If that’s even a word F: Yea, It’s actually a really, really old song. Like the rest of it, proper dates back. I mean, even stuff like ‘Focker’ was a really old song. All of them started off as basically guitar, drums, bass tunes at one point or another. I think Blueberry if just touching a bit of ground that we wanted to that we never really managed to with the album. ‘Blueberry’ and ‘Best of the class’ were both sort of around the time of the album, we just never really finished them, they just never really fitted in with the rest of it so we decided to leave it for a while. I think we do what we intend at any given moment. E: Ok. 210 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 211

Is there a defining Late Of The Pier goal? F: There is, but I wouldn’t say its 2010. We’re definitely looking at doing something next...and... yeah, we’ve got ideas, but they’re well above our station. I think we want to try doing something that’s just going to push and force other people in everything, not just music but all the arts just to do something new or at least try doing something harder. But yeah, it’s just going to take a lot of time. So I think 2010 is going to be a lot of...a bit more self exploration. We spent the last two years on tour running around, kinda doing things for other people and now were going back and doing things for ourselves. It’s really refreshing and new. (Laughs)

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e nd of the interlude. words. constance malyran photos. matilda finn

Throughout

history ones appearance has often been associated with ones place in society and class definition; the more money you had the better the quality of materials that would eventually make up your outfit.

This differs from our modern society with its advantages, seemingly fuelled by mass consumerism. Those with less money are able to buy cheap replicas of catwalk fashions for less than a fraction of their retail price, diminishing the value of class. Take Topshop for instance– titled queen of ‘copy catwalk’. No longer are we endlessly saving for that immaculate Balenciaga blazer or those Chloe sunglasses. Retailers are taking extreme measures to copy the catwalk trends and mould them to fit their brand to avoid the copyright law suits. However these advantages are a direct effect of advertisement endorsements, influencing the public to better themselves and further promoting the idea of ‘the aspirational buyer’. As the great John Berger once wrote.

‘The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life. It offers him an improved alternative to what he is’. mainly used within fashion advertising

The medium that is most influential and mainly used within fashion advertising is the photograph. A medium entrusted to capture evidence- to reveal what the product is capable of doing without having to buy the product itself. We as a buying populace have become desensitised to the power of imagery. Its presence in our everyday life has become so dominant that ironically it has become mundane. ‘The most exciting way to see a photo is flicking past it in a magazine, that’s how it delivers its power, It becomes the vernacular of everyday life’. To be influenced, becomes a natural occurrence and therefore creates a mass market for mass consumerism. New products are continuously being created and publicised in such a manner to which the person portrayed within the advertisement becomes exceedingly desirable. However, the ever evolving post productive values have now made the figure increasingly unobtainable. Yet they still remain sought-after. To aspire to be as beautiful as a model or as successful as a celebrity is extremely unlikely to most but still a product of desire. To compare oneself to a non-existent beauty is a difficult marketing scheme to back. Fashion advertisement schemes are much like those in the music industry. Take Madonna, who continually recreates herself, experimenting in pretty much every genre of music. Arguably one of the best ways to sustain a following is to expand upon it. The delectable Beyonce Knowles has taken to the aforementioned approach within the sphere of the notorious L’Oreal advertisements, where her ethnicity is - to say the least – confusing. By broadening her potential fanbase through the L’Oreal brand’s existing customers Knowles adopts a ‘L’Oreal Girl’ persona and aesthetic that appears to differ significantly from her onstage alter ego, Sasha Fierce, in the process completely abandoning her integrity.

Find yourself being sucked in by that new toothpaste? Questioning yourself, are my teeth really the right white? Or as I’ve personally experienced: the wrath of those oh so satisfied faces from the countless weight loss supplement advertisements. Maybe it does work. Look at her. I find myself relating to her story of eating lots and weighing too much. She says she didn’t change her diet. She says she didn’t work out. She took these tablets. And now she’s thin...although it doesn’t look like her head fits on her body anymore...

This product must be the answer.

After reviewing our statements, realising we’re a couple of hundred pounds under and a couple of pounds over in all the wrong areas, we can admit mums old fable probably was right and get over the faddy extremities of advertisement endorsements. But imagine being the youth of this generation, for them advertisements of this calibre have been constant if not increasingly outrageous. The media has channelled its influential powers into the younger and older markets. What better targets then the aspirations of what to become and what one could... maybe?...still be. From celebrity endorsement, unnecessary postproduction, scientific jargon to seamless catwalk copies; the unobtainable appears outwardly obtainable. We are now within an age where fashion does not renew but repeat. Ultimately this questions whether or not the power of fashions truly depicts individual identities as they once did. Recently, in relation to identities, people are being influenced differently and therefore responding differently. As a result a social rift has been caused by advertisements and mass marketing.

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As style is now diffused so liberally into all genres of preference, it is not the clothing or product that effects the construction of social identities but the subject of consumerism and its persuasion. Fashion within the 20th century has been an outlet for expression and a means in which to express ones opinion, preferences or culture through appearance and dress. So far fashion within the 21st century is essentially mass produced and consumers arguably use mass produced garments to construct who they.

whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next?

Â Its 2010, A New Era. So The past decade has seen little change in trends. Consistently have we been forced to be enlightened by the same looks and themes with minor adjustments. Hounds tooth, lace, animal print, studs... The only difference being the outreach and expansion to lower markets via the trickle down effect. We are now profoundly aware of this, in result there is an outsized market eagerly anticipating real change. The media distortions on advertisements are equally obvious to the public, creating inverse effects for promoters. Seemingly, the millennium to now has been a preparation ground for the times ahead. Now the industry has had its time to overload on the experiments of technical advantages, the populace is now heavily questioning what they see more so than what they read. The industry has no choice but to make authentic alterations instead of facades. I know Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m excited to see and be part of them.

Ribbed Magazine presents The New Faces from Premier Model Mana

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agement.

new faces

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ekillieng.

Stats: Height. 5’11”

Bust. 32 Waist. 24 Hips. 34 Women Shoe. 7 Hair. Brown Eyes. Brown

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aCunha. lexandre

Stats: Height. 6’1.5”

Chest. 38.5 Waist. 32 Men Shoe. 9.5 Hair. Lt Brown Eyes. Green

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jazzi Craddock.

Stats: Height. 5’9”

Bust. 32 Waist. 24 Hips. 35 Women Shoe. 7 Hair. Blonde Eyes. Brown

DESMOND MORRIS and the words. Anna Cope illustrations. Laetitia Bocquet

human ape.

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Thirty years ago evolutionary biologist,

Desmond Morris began applying his study of animal behaviour to humans. His ideas about the ‘naked ape’ were highly controversial, particularly in Religious circles where a firm distinction was drawn between Homo sapiens and the rest of the animal kingdom. In his highly acclaimed book, Man Watching, Morris compiled a catalogue of human behaviour which he then related to its evolutionary purpose. This can be understood by analogy to the extinct sabre tooth tiger which evolved to have larger and larger incisors in order to pierce the tough hides of prey such as mammoths. An unfortunate by product of these large teeth was that when it turned its’ head sharply round it would pierce its’ own shoulder. Similarly Homo sapiens evolved to have increasingly large brains to facilitate problem solving for survival. As with the tiger this had a consequence that didn’t have a specific purpose for survival, as can be perceived in the various emotional anxieties present in ourselves and others. It would have been necessary for prehistoric man to be wary and alert when hunting as there would have been an ever present danger of death. However while an alert aggression would have been a benefit for Neolithic man it is often a hindrance for modern man.

This remains a controversial idea, as to some extent it dispossess us of the supposed autonomy of our actions. An obvious example can be seen in courtship behaviour and the selection of a mate. You would like to think that your sexual selection process occurs through meeting a boy who initially you find aesthetically attractive, on further interaction makes you laugh and finally who you have something in common with. However, when you analyse your behaviour more clinically you find you are drawn to the male with the most available resources. This isn’t just cynical callousness, in evolutionary terms the human female has evolved to seek out a mate who is capable of providing for potential offspring in order to survive. So when you are drawn to a boy who is tall and strong it is because somewhere in your genetic memory is the knowledge that this male will be able to protect and provide for you and your offspring. If we begin to see our actions as simply motivated by an animalistic drive for survival our view of humanity can seem somewhat debased. People might argue that this removes our free will and undermines love and romance but in reality courtship wasn’t conceived until the medieval period explained through pretty language a concept that was beyond science. 234 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 235

“ I’ve sometimes been accused of degrading mankind, of insulting human dignity, of making man beastly. This surprised me because I like animals, and I feel proud to call myself one. I’ve never looked down upon them, so to call human beings animals is not, to me, degrading. It’s simply being honest:

putting us in our place as part of the scheme of nature on the planet Earth.“

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ightlife, the collective term for any entertainment that is available and more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes bars, nightclubs, live music venues and my favourite place, the discothèque. There is a distinct difference between the nightclub and the discothèque, but that’s a whole different area. Nightlife encompasses entertainment that can be termed as fairly tame to the more risqué and then, the seedy. These forms of afterhours partying are inherently edgier than most day time amusements, and aim straight for the heart, mind and wallet of the world’s young adults. One area I forget to mention there, and I’m more than sure most of you will have picked me up on that, was red light districts, strip clubs and underground bars.... Rest assured they’re always at the top of my priorities list, and my bank manager has thus far been extremely compensating.

As 2010 gets itself well underway, it’s vitally important that diary’s, calendars, note pads and hands become covered with THE places to attend, party’s not to be missed, previews that can’t fail to serve you more of the liquor we all love so much and dates that if you miss....well, you’ll get stripped and dissed, branded a chump and have a blacker than black mark against your name. So, here, in my eyes, are the places and people to be seen at and with over the coming months. It’s all so hip, hop and fucking happening. Labelled as “The New Dancibility”, Manchester’s Contort Yourself has continually raised the bar higher than most since its inception some 5 years ago. Started in the wake of a declining scene, which many saw as the dark days of nightlife in the City, Contort Yourself headed straight for the throat and they’ve been severing heads ever since. Taking place on the first and third Saturday of the month in the basement of Manchester’s legendary Roadhouse venue, the boys behind the party, Benjamin Perry and Gez Magus have brought some of music’s most exciting performs to the stage: namely, Gossip, New Young Pony Club, Dolby Anol, Hostage and We Have Band to name but a few. The coming months are looking more than rosey too, with Egyprtixx, Surkin and A1 Bassline all set to take the club by storm. As Ben himself states, “we’re pushing out a bit more and getting some bigger names as well as still digging deep to unearth the fresh talent.” What you have to understand about Contort Yourself is that it’s all about the party; this is straight up fun time. If you’re not on the floor then you ought to be at home, alone with nobody around you. Without doubt this is one of the most exciting and unique club nights currently operating within the UK. 240 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 241

don’t like staying in one place for too long, so I won’t stick around the UK any longer. With a simple plane journey we’re in Germany, arguably my favourite country and let it be known that every show I’ve played there has been so sick it’s untrue. Its capital Berlin, as a city, needs no introduction - a melting pot of creativity like nowhere else on earth. It’s running up on Amsterdam crazy fast in its title bid for the most liberal place on the planet, with some of the most diverse and exciting nightlife and people on offer. Some of the biggest and most notorious clubs in the world are located in this city, Watergate, Tresor, Weekend and Berghain, reputably the BEST nightclub in the world, regardless of what people say in relation to its door policy (Richie Hawtin anybody?). There’s also the newly opened Dice, located right in the heart of the City on Voltairestraße which made its home inside a disused power station. And of course, there’s Club de Visionaire which kills it every time. Expect to see the likes of Kiki, Modeselektor, Seth Troxler, Ben Klock, Shed and Channel X playing out the best in house, minimal techno and techno at any hour they see fit.

The city’s only like 20 years old if you think about it. How would you expect a 20 year old to act who had everything they ever wanted but knew how to keep it real as fuck? Think about that and head to Berlin. Head across Germany towards the Rhein-Ruhr area and you’ll arrive in Düsseldorf, a city renowned for its fashion and trade fairs, industrial roots and its ability to raise the bar when it comes to partying. The latter is mainly thanks to the promoter and DJ Riot School, who over the past 12 months has built up a reputation stronger than many performers can boast after a life time in the business. His Digital Petting events which take place at Düsseldorf’s Rotkompot generally play host to a selection of the best upcoming DJ’s and producers whilst his residency at the city’s huge 3001 club has seen him supporting the cream of dance music’s elite, most recently that came in the shape of Boys Noize.... Ouch. Not one to ride a one trick pony for too long, Riot School real name (Heiner Lesaar) also ferries his talents further afield, most notably to Dortmund and Köln, where regular parties at clubs like Le Grand and the aircraft hanger that is the Bootshaus are known for putting the wild into the term “wild as fuck”. Upcoming events feature the likes of Erol Alkan, Boy 8-Bit and yours truly, EatDisco.

was in Geneva recently where I was invited by The Zoo to come down and check out their weekend knees up, it was especially pukka as the night I headed down to, was their minimal techno event and that evening Marcel Dettmann was headlining. Situated within a converted gold treatment factory at place des Volontaires, Zoo is part of the lager L’Usine building, which comprises of an art space, cinema and live band venue. If you’re wondering what makes it so special, just re-read that last part. Spot anything of interest? Yes; Gold. Any club built from the ruins of an old gold treatment factory is clearly blessed with success. There’s a really mad bar attached to this space too, and I bumped into the ugliest toothless punk I’ve ever come across while having a drink there. Funniest thing about him was that he was smoking what looked to be really expensive cigars. Weetamix is also another of Geneva’s prize music establishments, with everyone who’s anyone dropping by to play. Lee Van Dowski, Matthew Johnson, Jeff Mills and Troy Pierce are just a few of those who’ve paid the club a visit in recent times. The venue has been at the centre of the city’s electronic music scene since it opened, 16 years ago, helping not only to showcase international names but also nurturing plenty of Switzerland’s home grown talent. Make sure shopping is also top of the priorities list if you make the journey to this place; it’s overflowing with so much bling you can hardly breathe. I left my Louis Vuitton varsity jacket there. Shit. Now here’s one to watch. Slicing genres up like nobody’s business, New York’s Cassette Club have been hosting some unbelievably hot parties for a few years now, but recently they’ve turned up the heat and started touring the show. Held regularly at Brooklyn’s Public Assembly, an old factory turned club, which incidentally is one of the best venues I have ever seen, Cassette, have brought a Stella selection of artists to the stage so far. Daedelus, Yo Majesty, Curses! Vs. Passions, The Flashbulb, Machine Drum and Jimmy Edgar have all cast their magic spell over those in attendance. And now they’re asking fellow promoters and party people to get involved, whether it’s hosting a Cassette event or suggesting a new way of doing things, those in charge are branching out in a completely unique way.

This is all about club, sex, punk, rap, films, booty, art, soul, electro, sweat, indie, heat, hip hop, fetish, experimental, ass, techno, funk, new wave, erotic, bass, live, grinding, retro, party, dark, performance, rock, cash and the future. If you’re heading out to NYC, head to Cassette. It might be the last thing you ever do, but it’ll be worth it. So we’ve been all Trans Atlantic right there. Of course there is more, way much more than I could fit into one article, but for now it’s all about the above and the below....you’ll smell this guy’s party a mile off.... 242 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 243

“wants The

roach promoter, you to pay your own travel Does not even have SHIT together, no transportation Runner, a small cheap venue, usually holes in the wall Don’t have a liquor license Wants to book you, with 20 acts for five hundred bucks Still uses flyers in Motel 6’s, and Travelodges When you see a guy with a tiny Volkswagen goin’ back and forth pickin’ up a known artist up, from the airport Most of the time a rejected whack rapper don’t fuck with ‘em!

”

ppencil is for n o t per v ersi o n The illustrations of mr.gary moore putting pen to paper exclusively for Ribbed Magazine.

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“you cannot blame p o r n , when i was young; i used to masturbate to gilligan’s island...”

EIGHT AND A HALF VS NINE words by emma gibney

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It is a common occurrence for Hollywood to take from European cinemas, the most recent film to come under attack from Hollywood is Federico Fellini’s 8½ (1963). Cleverly disguised by being called Nine (2009), the Weinstein Company’s new endeavour, directed by Rob Marshall, is a modern day Hollywood remake of the Fellini classic. Technically it is a second hand remake- 8½ was originally turned into a Broadway show, also called Nine, in 1982. Following the success of the Broadway show, the Weinstein Company has hauled in an all-star cast to create its own Chicago-esque version of the original film. The cast includes Hollywood favourites from around the world, Daniel Day Lewis, Judi Dench, and Nicole Kidman to name a few. Unfortunately, Rob Marshall’s version of the story of director Guido Anselmi (changed to Guido Contini in Nine) will pale in comparison to the original in many film critics’ and fans eyes. Fellini’s autobiographic original was created out of his own struggles to match the success of his previous hit La Dolce Vita. It is the true story of an auteur’s struggles, created by one of the most original auteurs in film history. It is this autobiographical nature of the film which brings it it’s passion, something of which Marshall’s Nine seems to critically lack, Instead replacing it with a different kind of passion, an Americanised version. Marshall parades his female actors across the screen, noteably Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard. Cruz’s first introduction shows her writhing across the stage scantily clad, a similar scene showcasing Cotillard later. Visually, Nine has some stunning shots; a grand Broadway style stage acts as an amazing backdrop to various choreographed dance routines-both stage and choreography are overly reminiscent of Marshall’s Chicago. Fellini, though primarily establishing himself through neo-realist filmmaking, moved away from its documentary aesthetic and into a more surreal and experimental style, in which he was free to explore the innermost workings of his character’s subconscious minds. He is at his best when exploring both the sleeping and waking dreams of 8½’s protagonist Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) as he scrutinises his actions and self-perceived inabilities, both past and present. The non-linear narrative of 8 ½ reinforces the confusion between what is real and, essentially, what the struggling director imagines and recalls from his past. Nine suggests this confusion by introducing Guido as a child throughout the film, either replacing Daniel Day Lewis (the adult Guido) or alongside himself. This touches on aspects of Guido’s state of mind, without confusing a mainstream audience, keeping Nine a more easily accessible by removing any complications of a non-linear narrative. Many aspects of the plot have been simplified- Guido’s struggling silence and hallucinogenic visions are replaced by over-explanatory monologues in which every facet of his personality is unwound. Instead of being given freedom of interpretation we are supplied with considerable detail of every character’s emotions through their own solo musical number. It is slightly disorienting for an avid Fellini fan to be suddenly offered a scene straight out of his hit film La Dolce Vita in a film intending to reference 8½,. The scene in question is homage to the famous Trevi Fountain scene from La Dolce Vita, in which Anita Ekberg’s bathes in the waters of the fountain with Guido, our protagonist. In Nine however, Ekberg is replaced by Nicole Kidman, wearing a blonde wig reminiscent of the former’s iconic look. Whether this cross-referencing is

intentional or not, it seems a little uncomfortable and almost a bid to reference as many recognisable aspects of Fellini’s films as possible. Taking this into consideration, Nine certainly lacked a lot of the important aspects attributed to the Italian Director, there seemed to be no passion, no particular visual referencing, just merely a duplicate of the Broadway show. 8½ comes to a close with press conference in which Fellini is unable to reply to a barrage of questions from reporters, his unease builds and builds until he finally crawls under the conference table and shoots himself, an outcome that the audience is left to interpret as reality or the director’s subconscious as they wish. Following this, the final scene is where Fellini’s obsession with the circus is at its most apparent- a theme that frequents the majority of Fellini’s films, both pre and post 8 ½. The depiction of Guido’s life as a circus is very fitting, reinforcing the increasingly frenzied occurrences in the director’s life, something that is entirely left out of Marshall’s interpretation. Within this strange finale of 8½, all of the characters from Guido’s life parade across the screen on the set of his film, which ultimately remained unmade. Nine by contrast ends, very Hollywood- two years post Guido’s breakdown where, after an uplifting soul searching conversation with Judi Dench’s Lilli, he decides to return to Rome and create a new film, ultimately winning back his estranged wife. A finale which leaves the audience comfortable and content, rather than provoked.......................................................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................................................................................. ......................................................................................................................................................................... ..................................................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................................ .......................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................. ..................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................ .................................................................................................................. ...................................................................................................... ....................................................................................... ..................................................................... ..............

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â&#x20AC;&#x153; censorship

is advertisement paid for by the governmentâ&#x20AC;? -Federico Fellini

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F ear is the spawn of the unknown; comes out of you screaming, wet and

vulnerable. For that single moment you hold your breath, your palms become sticky and you’re all alone with nothing but your thoughts. I believe this is the feeling a man has when he realizes a woman is more sexually elite then he. He feels out of his depth and striped of his manhood and doubts his dominance as the big strong man he thought himself to be. To be honest most men’s ego or should I say machismo over power this fear, but there are a surprising amount of men out there who still live burden with the fear of sex. I myself encountered such a rare species of male while on a lengthy summer trip to New Zealand. He was manly in stature, strong with words but as limp as a fly in the wind when sex arose. We dated for 2 months, and yes for 2 months there was nothing. Well of course there were kisses and ok we did get up to a lot of pre sex antics, but when sex arose everything died. By everything I mean his manhood, his kisses and his mood. At times I felt he took his anger out on me, as if it was my fault, he would stop talking me, turn over and go to sleep. This happened about half a dozen times until I gave up and just settled for foreplay. I just didn’t understand it. This was doing nothing for my ego, it picked me apart piece by piece until I started to think, was it me? Am I so repulsive to extent of killing a hard on? The title of ‘hard on killer’ is one I do not want to be burdened with. So I thought ‘Once a quitter, always a quitter’ so I set out on a mission of seduction. First came beer, then came naughty underwear, then of course the inevitable blowjobs, copious amounts of blowjobs but nothing would make it stay.

MAN UP. words by anonymous photography by iameverything

Unfortunately, my title still remains. I really do sympathize with these men. Fear and sex are just two words that shouldn’t be associated with one another, but unfortunately it is too often. I feel People like him, people of inexperience build sex up in their mind, so much so that it causes anxiety. This I have noticed is more common in older men. When I say ‘old’ I am not talking balding, dusty looking old, I am more preferring to men in their late twenties, early thirties. When at this age men should be in there sexual ripe ness, they should of past the back seat fumbling and female exploration in early adulthood and eventually know where ‘everything is’ and more importantly what they’re doing.

I have recently discovered there is one type of man that does not suffer from any sexual anxiety these men are small men. As a lady of great height it is not often I play with small men, but recently I had a naughty run in with one of my tutors. Tutors are a major weakness of mine, the authority, I really get a kick out of it, it’s just naughty and of course it is that typical lust we all have for excitement and doing something a little bit wrong. This happens to be the second tutor I have played with and before you start imagining a 50-year-old man, balding and impotent, think again. Because of my work surroundings my tutors are of similar age, well dressed and very sexy. Jealous? From this ‘little’ experience I believe that small men are ironically twice as dirty as tall men. I feel this may be an attempt to make up for their lack of length, but as strange as it sounds, Small men turn me on. Oh and of course I am always so intrigued to how they measure up, but unfortunately I will use this word small again. To conclude, apart from obvious reason, I believe, sex was created to de-stress you; it’s meant to be fun, adventurous, exciting and of course a little sweaty. To certain men out there; don’t think into it too much; find your inner machismo and most of all man up. To further conclude, all these issues men have is why I stick to women…

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What is this thing we call love? Is it a practical arrangement, a chemical reaction, the meaning of life? Why do we put some of our love into a compartment and call it a relationship? The act of relating is the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected. How does this translate into True Love Forever? What about True Love For Now?

“

Human beings love despite their compulsions to limit it and exploit it, chaotically. Their love persuades them to make vows, build houses and turn their passion ultimately to duty. -Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch p. 139

”

The meaning in life is found in that which is unproductive. The idea that love can be reduced to an application is both absurd and deeply reflective of the origins and purpose of romance in the western world. The applications themselves, received textually or in person, become reduced to a question, a sentence, a “tweet”, a status update. “So, are you still accepting applications?” “Can I still apply?”

“

”

I showed your website to my friend...

As we post our most intimate, personal moments online, not merely broadcast, but archived for later perusal by people and algorithms, how are these personal moments changing? You are now single. You are now in a relationship. You are now in a complicated relationship. You have 1,045 friends. Here are the photos of your newborn baby. Here is the livestream of your life. Who are you?

Where are you? “I have developed a sub-routine specifically for you, a program-within-a-program.” -Lt. Cmdr. Data

“If this is l o v e , then clearly it comes without either emotion or reason, only a sub-routine, programmed specifically for you. Terrified of the autism-for-two we see promoted as the ideal relationship, the suggestion that our relationships are already in a temporary state opens the window of possibility for real intimacy to form. There is no One Month Relationship. It is the condition of every relationship: accepting you do not have it is what allows it to live.”

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ph o t o graph y b y s o hrab

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FLU ID ITY

hrab vahdat

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ery rarely does it occur that a film gains a reputation that precedes it. Only so often does a piece of cinema create such a critical uproar that it is remembered over thirty years on. Once in a blue moon does a scene involving a simple stick of butter lead the director to a 4 month prison sentence. However, Bernardo Bertolucci’s infamous 1972 movie, ‘Last Tango in Paris’ is one of the finest examples in the last century, of pushing art to its limits and bringing it to the attention of mainstream society. The film, based around the relationship between Paul (Marlon Brando) and Jeanne (Maria Schneider) is admittedly, a reflection of Bertolucci’s own fantasies in which he meets and embarks on a sexual relationship with a woman whose name he never learns. Paul, A recently widowed American meets young Jeanne in Paris after relocating in order overcome his grief and, after meeting in an empty apartment, the two begin a psycho-sexual affair, unbeknownst to Jeanne’s enthusiastic film making fiancé, Tom (Jean Pierre Léaud). Since its release, critics have been arguing about whether the film should be classified as cinema, art, pornography or all three, and, after being given X ratings in the U.K and U.S yet receiving fantastic audience response in France, the film seems to have spectators split in two. Bertolucci was on the receiving end of the Italian Supreme Court’s fury with what it described as ‘obscenity’ in 1975 as he was given a 4 month prison sentence and has his civil rights removed. Throughout the film, the audience is witness to several acts of violence and sexual control over Jeanne which went against the grain of Western ‘second wave’ feminism in the 1970’s. The film tried to express a different form of sexuality and anonymity between two people which shocked audiences and critics alike. However, artistically, the film speaks for itself. The two disparate characters are reflected in the combination of the cinematographic styles of both 1950’s Hollywood and early 60’s French New Wave Cinema. After previously working on ‘Apocalypse Now’, Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro conveys both the grit and romance of 1970’s Paris through a combination of golds and greys, giving the film its classic style. The film is frequently laced with discreet split screens which express the pair’s contrasting emotional and mental states throughout their short lived ‘romance’.

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It is however, the characters of Paul and Jeanne that have been pulled to the foreground of the piece’s reputation with Brando’s onscreen presence dominating much of the film. The character of Paul holds few likable traits throughout the narrative, despite the audience being aware of the recent loss of his wife. The viewer is puzzled as to why Jeanne and eventually they, themselves become so attracted to such an exaggerated and chauvinistic character. Perhaps it could be the placing of Brando’s ‘macho’ style of acting that was so successful for him in the 1950’s and the way it seems so unbalanced amongst the bourgeois themes of the piece. Differing Paul and almost sidelined in the film is Jeanne who has provided feminist fodder for over thirty years with her seemingly unexplained behaviors and motives of contrasting passivity and action leading up to the film’s climax. Taken as a whole, ‘Last Tango In Paris’ is a film that unintentionally outdid itself, with content that even in today’s society would cause a critical storm. However, if an audience can look beyond the hype of a few short scenes, they will understand the deeper social and sexual commentary that Bertolucci intended to make.

“...critics have been arguing about whether should be classified as cinema, art, pornography or all three, and, after being given X ratings in the U.K and U.S...”

CR x AC KS words emily winifred finch

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As we live out our hectic lives it is all too easy to forget that we are changing, picking up traits and moulding ourselves into completely different people. Indeed, it can be argued that at every different stage of our lives we succumb to a new era where we step out of a past shell due to the experiences we have gained. No-one depicts this transition and human evolution in a more aesthetically pleasing manner than film-makers who are seemingly transfixed by the notion of innocence and the transient nature of childhood. A sense of nostalgia is often incorporated into the films of such directors Sofia Coppola, Rob Reiner and Bernardo Bertolucci. Some elements of Jordan Scott’s 2009 film “Cracks” and Rob Reiner’s coming of age saga “Stand by Me” adhere to the idea of an idealised childhood. The rose-tinted settings, romantic delusions and the sense of companionship is often overbearing, arguably, even saccharine. Take for instance the four boy’s unwavering devotion to each other in “Stand by Me” which seems unrealistic considering the often fickle nature of children. Furthermore, the midnight feasts, floaty dresses and a penchant for ribbons almost seems like a cliched and distorted vision of childhood in “Cracks”. However, it soon becomes obvious that things are not quite what they seem due to an undercurrent of gloom which is prevalent in both films. Indeed, both Jordan Scott and Rob Reiner encourage a facade of innocence which is constructed solely to be destroyed as the film progresses. While jealously twists the girls into grotesque caricatures of themselves in “Cracks”, curiosity and the perils it brings leads to stark realisation for the boys in “Stand by Me”. A film which differs greatly from the aforementioned but still manages to convey similar messages of progression during childhood is Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s 2004 film “ Innocence”. Instead of relying solely on dialogue the whole film can be seen as an allegory for growing up.

A plethora of metaphors are used to convey lost innocence and purity; references to water are rife throughout while a train journey the protagonists undertake may have been used to symbolise their transition from pre-teen nymphs to adolescents. The plot focuses on six year old Iris’s metamorphosis while at an isolated and regimental boarding school and the quandaries she faces while she comes to understand her surroundings. Set in ethereal woodland a sense of claustrophobia, magical realism and melancholia is maintained throughout the film channeling the audience’s own feelings of confusion. What these directors have in common is the auspicious endings to their films. Di played by Juno Temple in “Cracks” is finally able to push aside desire and rule with her head. Similarly, Gordie in “Stand by Me” gains the courage to pursue his own dreams instead of following in his dead brother’s footsteps. Thus, it can be argued that these film makers ultimately try to convey the positive message that as we reach a new era in our lives we become stronger and emotionally resilient.

sha dow children photography by mario mendez stylist holly woodcock

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MODELS: Ian Murphy and Alice cornish @ M&P , Danielle Foster @ D1 5- gray knitted crop-top , unconditional / cross necklace, camden market/ tights , stylists own, lace up boots , stylists own. 1&3- faux fur coat, vintage / sheer top , zara / necklace by Henriette Lofstrom 6&10- cream and black leather waistcoats , unconditional / black minidresses , stylists own / necklace and bracelet by henriette Lofstrom, cream and black thigh high boots, vintage. 7- all jeans , Trousers London / chain and buckle black leather sandals, Carvela / gray knit jumper, unconditional. 8- Nail studded leather top by Callum Vincent / black skinny jeans, Top shop 2- “ Ninja” leather jacket by Vexed Generation / charcoal scarf , H&M 4- beige knit jumper, unconditional. 9- “Liberation wrap” and cream zip up jacket by Vexed Generation / necklace by henriette Lofstrom / jeans , Trousers London / stockings, stylists own / shoe-boots , office.

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mono chrome photography photography amandine hair & model

make roxanne

rokas

joana @

rach assistant paulandre bernado storm

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o ascribe sympathy to a building is, of course, a pathetic fallacy. A building cannot have sympathy in the same way that a building cannot have grace, or flair. The sympathy is projected by us, the onlookers. When we ascribe sympathy to a building it is shorthand for something; it is a way for us to discuss our opinion of and feelings about the building and its situation. And yet we insist on doing it. Our newspapers obsess about how new buildings compare to the old, our local councillors fight to preserve the apparent purity of their terraces and mews, our Lords of architecture squabble with the heir to the throne on matters of proximity and proportion. So much human effort is expended in deciding which buildings ought to sit next to other ones; and so it is this strange notion of architectural sympathy that I want to unravel.

It is a moot point to suggest that, if John Nash were alive today, he probably wouldn’t build in a classical style. Nash was a seriously fashionable architect, at a time when royal patronage was not something to be embarrassed about and pediments were all the rage. But that doesn’t really matter; maybe classicism was somehow in his being, maybe Nash would have found a way to make it fashionable again. Regardless, the buildings that line Regent’s Street remain some of my favourites in all London. On the right day they can stop my very heart. However, our society has changed. If you are employed today by the Crown Estate you sure as hell had better build some deeply unfashionable buildings. And so we come to Quinlan Terry. Terry is easy to poke fun at; his entrenched conservative classicism is anathema to our attention-deficit culture. And his first name is Quinlan. But at least the half-dozen villas that he has built around Regent’s Park are in a sympathetic vein to Nash’s work. Indeed, the sympathy is tantamount to sycophancy, so exacting is its execution. It’s not that these are badly built houses or inferior examples of classicism; no, it’s the unadulterated arse-licking of the whole exercise that makes these buildings seem so weird. I remember the first time I saw them (from the back, along the canal), I couldn’t understand how they had got there. Who would want one of those built? Now? In that place? Architectural sympathy here is deployed as a cover for those who would not wish to associate with the culture of their time; those who would rather build alien homes for the wealthy and boorish.

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avid Adjaye, on the other hand, is seriously cool, and The Dirty House is one of his cooler buildings. Like all the coolest things, it’s a deliberate mystery. Its windows are mirrored, its two storeys of brick covered in textured midnight brown anti-graffiti paint. It fills its square corner plot, the street turning along two symmetrical facades, no way to see in or behind, the side entrance fenced off. Then above this rises the roof, floating miraculously above the walls, untainted by the dirt of the street, light streaming out from beneath it in sharp contrast to the blackened cube beneath. The house is of course a conversion; the lower floors were a furniture factory and remain the studios of the artists in residence. Under that roof is the living quarter, its existence intimated only by the dashiest corner of glass and the plush foliage poking above the edge of the wall. The building is undeniably of its surroundings; it existed here long before Adjaye intervened. It sits in this small-scale industrial area, the back streets of a near-forgotten Shoreditch where stuff once was made rather than created. And it reflects its history in those mirrored windows, literally – of course – but also figuratively, in their industrial practicality, their value-range flushness with the wall. But in its mystery and fierce façade, in its stark juxtaposition of light and dark, with its arch Modernist hat-tip of a roof, this house demands our attention and stands apart from its surroundings. The nearby Blue House, by FAT, is hugely playful. Well, maybe not hugely. In its diminutive ratios and jaunty structure, it hollers out its funtime credentials like a kids’ TV presenter. Or possibly it’s more troubling than that – the permanent grin of the Joker, or the gawping surprise of a blow-up doll. In its cardboard cut-out façades, its cheap’n’cheerful references to cosy domesticity and corporate élan and cityscape wonder, this building wears its architectural irreverence very heavily. But for one thing it would be a juvenile gag, an architectural parlour game; in front of the recessed doorway can be seen three rising treads of staircase, picked out in the same duck-egg blue as the rest of the weather-boarded façade. Yes, this is also part of the joke, the staircase as a representation of The Ideal Home, but it also is an expression of the work of the building. It tells us that it can be used by real people; it elevates the building from ironic cartoon sculpture to functioning, purposeful architecture.

Neither of these houses are what one would call sympathetic. Yes, both have references to or representation of other buildings, they are both of a similar enough scale to the structures around them, they are both predominately rectilinear. But they both present comprehensive challenges to their respective streetscapes. They are unsympathetic because they are of their culture and the street around them is of the past. But they are still great little buildings in perfect locations. The Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building and a monument to bankruptcy. Called the Burj Dubai throughout its five years of construction, it was renamed after the President of the United Arab Emirates, following a ten billion US dollar loan from his sheikdom to see Dubai World – the company transforming this astonishing city – through a decidedly rough patch. One can imagine the conversation: But of course you may have the money! Consider it a friendly loan. Now name your towering edifice after me. Then again, who wouldn’t? The world’s tallest building. The Robert Timothy McNicol Tower. Sounds impressive, (Scale models available at three foot two in red Lego; helipad optional.) Sadly, though, I haven’t got ten billion anything to spare right now. Neither have the people who built this gargantuan spire. A Human Rights Watch report from November 2006 describes how immigrant workers in Dubai faced low wages, had their pay withheld for months, had their passports confiscated and were denied the right to collective bargaining or forming unions – whilst working on extremely hazardous sites. But who cares? It’s the world’s tallest building!

One way that you might think to sidestep around the question of sympathy is to bury your building deep in the ground. Westminster Tube station was reopened to the fanfare of hooting tube trains in 1999. The problem was this: Hopkins Architects had to transport passengers forty metres down to the Jubilee line extension, whilst retaining the operation of the shallow-running Circle line and building the foundations for Portcullis House above. The result is a vast oblong cavern, filled with never-ending escalators and steel tubes and concrete columns, a subterranean world in the style of Piranesi or, if at the cruel mercy of a hangover, M. C. Escher. The station is High Tech architecture at its most convincing, solutionism to the fore, all structure and movement, undeniable in its sheer scale. How else could this have been done, it seems to say. But for all this space, for all this clarity, every time I get off a train there is a moment, half way up the void, between two pristine escalators, that I panic, bewildered by the inevitability of the route I have to take, bereft of choice or the possibility of exploration, herded ever upwards toward a seemingly impenetrable roof.

This is a finely-raked Karesansui garden of a structure, a place where the timeless, grey perfection of the place, the low rumbling of the escalators, the occasional rush of breeze from the trains below, imbue a sense of meditation and calm; descending as pseudo-transcendence. The enlightened traveller enters her tube carriage through safe, clean sliding doors, holds onto a rail, then travels in unthinking serenity, a briefcase gouging a chunk of flesh from her thigh, a rank, sweaty armpit inches from her nostrils. Once the journey is over, she may return to her cut-andthrust life of rhinoplasty or motor racing or industrial refrigerator maintenance, but until then this curious cavern will magick her to a place where she will conform and What an accomplishment. At 828 metres tall it’s over twice behave and travel in the way that is right and best. This the height of the Empire State building. There’s something building cannot be seen from the street, yet it is deeply in the region of 330,000 cubic metres of concrete in there unsympathetic in a most fantastic way. It impinges on your consciousness as much as the Seagram Building or and 55,000 tonnes of steel to reinforce it with. Hawksmoor’s six sublime churches. The architect is Adrian Smith (who has never, I understand, played guitar in a heavy metal band). His company, like all good architecture firms, has taken it upon And it shows that architectural sympathy is about what itself to construct a philosophy. None of that dreary old happens to the person who experiences the building, not stuff from Schopenhauer about the inner nature of the will about how it compares to its neighbours. Indeed, if we try revealing itself in discord, thankfully. Rather we get the too hard to build our buildings as if they had always been claim that they strive to create designs that aid society and there, they can end up feeling a little creepy. Buildings can be fun and creative, they can reflect our current culture or sustain the environment. Strive harder, fellas. spirit us to depths of wonderment. Or they can be travesties of the highest order, follies to our inhumanity The building is, at least, very shiny. And, yes, for a and astonishing lack of sympathy. skyscraper it’s rather slender. This is good. But to me it resembles nothing more than a stack of super-size double-A batteries. Or Thunderbirds 1, I’m not sure which. Of course, it utterly dwarfs all of the neighbouring buildings, but so what – it’s the world’s tallest building! Did I mention the bankruptcy? This is an astonishingly unsympathetic building; in its size, its construction, its city-within-a-city hubris. Here, humanity loathes itself.

n’est pas?

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;this curious cavern will magick her to a place where she will conform and behave and travel in the way that is right and best.â&#x20AC;?

Glass Diam ond photography lee whittaker words tim hilton

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First of all, who are you? Vincent Dignan + Hisn Yi Chang + C.D.R Hsin is answering your question. How do you guys know each other and how did you come about to form Glass Diamond? Through myspace , I live in a very small town , wanted to form a electro band, but couldn’t find anyone live near me, then I saw Vince and C.D.R’s page, we start talking . Glass diamond is not real diamond , its like a colorful pretty world I create for my dream. As well as obvious elements of punk and experimental electro, your music lands somewhere in between lo-fi electronica (see: Portishead) and chaotic synth pop (see: Crystal Castle), what has been your influences and when you write music do you strive for a specific sound? many influences ie Radiohead , Air , Goldfrapp , Lykee Li , I do love Portishead and Bjork the most, and Madonna(in a very strange way.) I do try to strive for a specific sound,but in the end they just sounded very different, it’s not in my own control. Your live shows are pretty eclectic, how important is the music to you in a live performance environment? We can actually play everything in live, but I don’t like to play keyboard while I’m performing , I love to dance and jump into crowd,and not too worry and stress out about the sound ,or carry instruments across the country. I do shows to please myself first. We’ve been very interested in musicians and bands attitude and ideas on how to get their music out there. Is the internet the best and easiest way for Glass Diamond to get recognition and followers or are physical releases still as important to you? Internet / degital is very convenient and eco,but I also love physical touch .... you know what I mean. Lastly, what does 2010 hold for Glass Diamond? Lots of love and amazing thing is happening in 2010,Glass Diamond can’t see evil in this world.

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Could you describe what the phrase ‘New Era’ means to you in three words?

Revoltion. Transform. Classic.

P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y

lo Bel gr ov

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TH EM x

ith the increase of gun crime, knife crime and violent crime in the UK this series of portraits focuses on the mothers & fathers who have lost their children as a result. The Aim is to generate awareness in the hopes of preventing this epidemic from spinning completely out of control.

This series documents nine parents of different backgrounds and ethnicities within the London area who know they have a common bond: their loss of a child through these violent crimes. 330 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 331

This series seeks not to highlight the graphic nature of the violence itself but arguably the more poignant message of the impact on those affected.

With this in mind the portraits have been photographed in the same manner using exactly the same lighting to highlight the sadness yet determination in each parent.

- â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Themâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; by Ken Kamara

M Name:tommie harley Date:27 october 2004

Name:Kian Prince Date:27 october 2006

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Name:kayin Hopwood Date:2nd april 2003

Name:robert levy Date:16th september 2004

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Name:bakari juda davis Date:31st march 2008

Name:Sahina rizyi Date:20th march 2003

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Name:terry booker Date:14th november 2003

Name:mohammed ali Date:21st april 2006

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Name:mohammed ali Date:21st april 2006

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ERN MY M MOD ERNMYE ERNERN MO MY MOD WORDS. EVELYN SUBI

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MO NMYERN MOD ERN OD MY N MOD ERN

MY MOD ERN YOD N I

n literature to define a new era i believe, one must create a new genre, writing style or way of writing that is able to capture the essence of a period. We have had the Romantics, Moderns and Post-Modern, only a few depictions of not only a writing style but a portrayal of the period at the time in history. Each genre ladles with it the historic connotations of the period. I have to admit quite early on in this piece that I am no fan of the literature of the current time and even as a child would rather pick up a Dickens novel instead of succumbing to what i thought and still think is the fad of Harry Potter. There are some good writers that belong to this era and our period of time. Though I’m readily able to admit my ignorance when it comes to singing praises of Faulkner and (Irish the poet) as they are actually talented writers. My idea of great writing stems from reading classics and older philosophical texts (get your hands on Plutarchs Moralia). I like to dissect the text as much as the story therefore most current literature has absolutely no appeal to me. To myself modern literature is about creating something new within writing itself, T.S. Eliot and Virgina Woolf are great examples of writers who were able to get their pens on the page and allow us as a reader to discover something new that we could get lost in and try to solve. The intertexuality, the sentence structure all components that I find make a good read. Woolf’s To The Lighthouse is my idea of new literature a template for other novels, that created something new, something modern. The novel is clever and gripping, once you get into it that is. The idea that through her novel Woolf managed to come up with the notion of multiple consciousness, within literature that is. Of course this idea had been a recent discovery at the time within the field of psychology.

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To myself modern literature is about creating something new within writing itself Yet maybe this is whats wrong! Have we discovered all we can so that embedding aspects of anything new in a novel has become a such difficult task. So much so that inspiration goes back to the primitive idea of witches and broomsticks (sorry i really hate Harry Potter....muggle this four eyes).

To The Light house encompassed the stream of multiple conscious’ that elates the novel and it is one component that allows the reader to diligently give way to the differentiating chapters that are presented. The multiplicity of consciousness allows the range of subjectivity and the showcasing of the narrative voices and elements of time. The achievement through this is the allowance to experiment with all preceding fragments of the novel. This presents a range of psychological aspects of the novel and the characterisation that occurs within the three parts of Woolf’s masterpiece.

The book is divided into three sections, the alteration between ‘Time passes’ and the second part of the novel is one that elucidates Woolf’s brilliance in the handling of these subjects and the way they equivocally flow into her writing. They also however could allow the disadvantage of confusion for some readers. If one hasn’t studied Woolf or knows little of Woolf’s own life then they may be unable to comprehend very readily her transitions from the psychological narrative to sequential correlations of her characters in each part of her novel. Yet this seems to be the only disadvantage one may find with this style of narration her novel.

most best sellers are telling a story mainly about their own lives or the lives of others taken from certain situations. Yet it is a novel that is personal, as Virginia Woolf could be viewed as one of the narrators therefore part of the multiple conscious. Woolf’s own life can be perceived as a ‘stream of multiple consciousness’, knowing that she suffered herself from a bi-polar disorder. This has lead to some critics mirroring the life of Woolf to the nature of the narration of this novel, which some critics believe culminates to a biography. The perverse nature of Mrs. Ramsey’s narratives (main character in the book), flickering fromchild-like to over bearing nurturing mother seem to hold a strong association to the mental illness of Ms Woolf. Woolf writes in her essay Moments of Being 142; “we are sealed vessels afloat upon what it is convenient to call reality at some moments, the sealing matter the cracks; in floods reality”. It is possible that some readers may view Woolf’s novel in this manner allowing the relationship to her own reality of her life correspond deeply to that of the novel. These connections between author and reader are ones that have filtered down into mainstream literature and most best sellers are telling a story mainly about their own lives or the lives of others taken from certain situations. Yet i think in an era when these novels only exist as that singular aspect of the writing they make the enjoyment of the read very boring and in light of this notion we can also look upon Woolf’s very own summary of this idea. Woolf wrote that “light of personality must shine through facts manipulated....the life which is increasingly real to us is the fictitious life”. Woolf is stating that her novel is not purely biographical therefore we should not view it as such. We should link the style of narration to Woolf’s art more so then her life. To the Light-House narrative strategies allow an ‘objective narrative truth’ which results in the confrontation of two conflicting views and various subjective points within the narrative.

The multiple consciousnesses in the narrative are the result of the experimentation of Woolf and other writers such as James Joyce and Henry James. This play on narration is used to achieve the outcome of a narrative that is more fitting to literature that is dealing with the psychology of its characters or expressing their inner thoughts. The narrative of the story turns into interior narrative rather than exterior narrative; concentrating on the characters and allowing their conscious’s to interact while also allowing dependence. The narrator and the author become an exterior role within the narrative. This allowed a modern outtake on the structure of narratives and contributed in some aspects to the modern novel. These aspects are still copied today with movies such as The Others (feat Nicole Kidman ..quite like her) being clinched from Henry Jame’s The Turning of the Screw. I realise there is probably a few, well maybe a lot of people who are thinking ‘oh you ignorant bastard, you haven’t read a good book of this period and here is one’. Well I’ve read a fair few and i don’t want your version of modern literature. I’ll sit and hold on to my classics that surpass time and they sure are more likely to get me an extra glass of wine at a poncy literature party (not that I’m attending one of those anytime soon). Anyway to end Virgina Woolf is rad J.K.Rowling, well enough said and to the new era of literature, i hope it improves so some classics are captured with in this century.

Oregon based snapper, Dalaney Allen, is currently studying at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Yet the MFA student is already causing a stir with his images, that trick the viewer: With an interest in “whats between point A and point B” rather than the destination itself - Allen takes us on a trip, exploring the “zone between phenomenon and manipulation”.

DELANEY ALLEN.

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the ambiguous zone between phenomenon and manipulation.

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“I was excited about the potential of the wandering image, how it can reappear in various forms.” – wolfgang tillmans

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interview by ashle y b ai le y photography by ia me ver yt hi ng.

LEN NIE LEE

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R.M

Your currently recovering from a recent heart operation, could you tell us a bit about it?

L.L

The operation consisted of them cutting me from the top of my ribs to the base of my sternum, pulling apart my ribs, pouring liquid nitrogen onto my heart, stopping my heart, and connecting me to a heart lung machine, so the blood would pump through this machine into my neck so that my brain could function. R.M I was under anaesthetic for five hours and when Do you think performance art has progressed much I woke up I found myself in this room and there from when you started doing it? was a guy in there and he just wouldn’t wake up. L.L Then I was moved into the intensive care unit In England a lot of the people who were working in where there was someone dyeing in front of me that way weren’t working in the art world they were and It was like watching an episode of ER on people like Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Genesis morphine. P-orrige. The art world was quite slow to pick up performance art, nowadays there are plenty of people R.M teaching at St Martin’s who make interactive It must have been a quite life altering experience performance art where they, I don’t know, get everyone to say the least. to blow up a balloon or something.

L.L

You can’t get closer to death than having your R.M heart stopped except dying. There’s a great feel- Have you ever had much trouble with galleries due to ing to come out of being alive after that. the subject matter of some of your work?

L.L R.M As an outsider artist there were no galleries that would

You’ve made work in quite an array of media but dream of showing me. It wasn’t really until 1990 that I you’ve been known for your quite raw style of had any shows in galleries and actually quite often I’ve performance was that always your main area? shown in spaces that weren’t mainstream. L.L Occasionally someone’s organised an event in a Although I’ve been doing performances for many mainstream gallery but they’ve usually been going years I’ve never seen myself as a performance against the system, ‘Late at the Tate’ for example. I was artist. I’ve seen myself as someone who is mak- banned from a show at the Tate for showing the British ing an art out of their life style and that lifestyle flag pained on an arse with a cross going in the arse is in a way like a modern primitive’s. hole.

R.M R.M Could you tell me a bit about the Cabaret Voltare and

A modern primitive’s? the project you worked on there?

L.L L.L

I was fascinated to be on the margins of society, The leader of the ‘Cabaret Voltare’, my project, was to pick up the rubbish that was left in an empty a guy called Marc Divo. Mark Divo, I met him when building, the entrails of society that were left he was a young guy, living in a squat with a burnt out from 30 years before. roof, stealing cheese from shops and swapping beer So a lot of the rituals that I deal with are bottles for beers. rituals that I deal with are rituals to do with I organised a role play party, it was a fancy dress party things that are very powerful and important to were I wrote 3000 roles for everybody, which would me and they’re very emotive. I also try to make describe who you were. You might be a blow up doll or those topics universal topics. an alien coming to collect specimens. I was brought up by a generation that thought These parties were great fun and they usually had a they knew what was good or bad, one should kind of political theme. One was called “Riots in hell” wear suits and have short hair and live very another other one was called “the ministry of silly boring lives with coasters. weddings” because everyone was getting married for a The things that I was doing, that most people passport at the time, we made these parties as a way of found disgusting, or horrific, or revolting, or making jokes about politics. ridiculous, or absurd have now passed into the parties that you organise. Everybody wants to do quite rude things these days and that’s how it should be, society’s become more tolerant. 360 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 361

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R.M When i saw you before your opperation you talked about some plans you had been making, could you talk about them some more? L.L When I was making my will I realized that there was a big problem, what would I do my own work R.M with what would I You have a huge art collection, over 10,000 pieces, and do with the work of where did it all come from? other people L.L what would I and I’m not really interested in collecting things only with any moneydoI because they’re regarded as being valuable or had. important now. I’m interested in collecting art from artists who want to contribute to a massive, interactive and generous archive of the time. I left money for I have things that are signed by people and then example for have “this is shit” written in the back of them. to take place I have all kinds of things in my collection, from parties in Spain, reclaim the streets posters in the 90s, I’ve got some Prague and Berlin, photos one artist had given me of him eating a London. I also foetus. I have things that are valuable mixed with specified that these things that are considered rubbish by society. I should be very don’t judge its all art. irreverent of death, disrespectful of death, because there’s nothing to respect in death only life is worth respecting and so I wanted it to be fun. I think one of them might have involved had a woman called dirty princess who has a little band that’s e l e c t ro - c l a s h , I don’t know what else would have happened, I wouldn’t have been in control.

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“When I was a young man Iwhich gate crashed a party at Andy Warhol was signing books and we had aemotionally, big row. HeIaffected me cannot tell you how much, just infuriated me. I looked at his work further and I realised I absolutely loved his subject matter. In 1966, I was a kid, I went to New York and I would drink coca cola from bottles those glass bottles that looked like a female body and I would eat nothing but Campbell’s soup. I was at the age of eight the culture that he was taking and putting into museums.”

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CONTRIBUTORS.

Overleaf is a list of individuals that have contributed to this; the first issue of Ribbed Magazine. Without their talents this issue would not have been possible.

DAN SIN new york based and new york obsessed dan sin makes a statement with his carefully crafted styling in his expressive editorials. having worked as an art director, hence getting the exposure to editorial shoots. dan took up the craft. he says “i feel like ive always done this, just dint know i was doing it until now. im that eager to get more ideas out.” “I see an opportunity, everything is cyclical, things peak and they fade, just as we do as day and night -- its a new morning and how we live out that dream.” http://cargocollective.com/dansin Robert McNicol is a writer and blogger. He believes wholeheartedly in the power of dense sentences and the semicolon. When not appropriating sweets from small children, McNicol mainly writes on architecture and matters of popular culture. He is keen on pediments. He blogs, as Robert Cinnamon, at http://splitpediment. wordpress.com He will accept finely turned emails at robert.mcnicol@yahoo.com

HOLLY WOODCOCK My name’s Holly Woodcock and I’m both a Fashion Stylist and Journalist. To see more of my work go to www.hollywoodcock.com or mail me at mail@hollywoodcock.com The new era is what we make it...

Herman Lee is a 24-year-old graphic designer based in Hong Kong after living most of his life in Toronto, Canada. He’s a pretty easy-going guy and would have a drink with anyone who enjoys random chats on anything from UFOs to the proper timing and technique of cooking a ramen. The New Era: Gandhi pretty much up sums up it for me with his famous quote: “Be the change you want too in the world.” www.freshfauxx.com herman@freshfauxx.com 372 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 373

Christina Franks is an East London based ex-stripper turned writer with two kids and a chip on her shoulder. christinafranks@yahoo.com

David Wilson; London-based Music Video Director and Artist. Has created videos for the likes of Little Boots and We Have Band, and was recently crowned Best New Director at the 2009 UK Music Video Awards. www.davidwilsoncreative.com www.colonelblimp.com/music

Adrian Wilson is a London The New Era... based photographer and a co‘Don’tofsay “outBleu with magazine. the old”, but instead just kinda put it editor Sang

somewhere’

Mario Mendez is a spanish fashion photographer originally from Tenerife. He has been living in London for four years and currently studies at London College of Fashion. “To me new era means future, after all it is there where we are going to spend most of our time.”

Sophy Hollington blog address is http://hammond-time.blogspot.com

ANNA COPE Born sometime in 18th Century Britain, Anna was witness to the Industrial Revolution, both World Wars and the career of Jason Donovan. Having travelled the length and breadth of the globe she is now based in East London pouring here wealth of experience into the noble art of journalism. annacope@hotmail.com

Delaney Allen delaneyallen@yahoo.com http://www.flickr.com/delaneyallen Delaney Allen is a photographer residing in Portland, Oregon. As a second year MFA student at Pacific Northwest College of Art, his work has been shown nationally throughout the United States and internationally through web and print publications. His work occupies the ambiguous zone between phenomenon and manipulation. The New Era? Referencing what I believe the new era in photography to be – new forms of distribution and outlets available for artists. Joao Mognon is a self-made semiotician and entrepreneur, co-founder of the consumption behavioural laboratory BOX1824 and two other brazilian innovation companies.

Lee Whittaker My life is all about Shanique Diamond, my beautiful love child. The New Era: To acknowledge evolution & bring a well overdue breathe of fresh air for the radical thinkers. www.leewhittaker.co.uk info@leewhittaker.co.uk

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KATIE EARY I find it extremely hard to talk about myself, This is becoming more and more evident when i have to fill out questionnaires such as this... I am very honest, very happy, and very busy all the time. I eat a lot for a small person. I get very self conscious when i write anything that will be published. Im always hoping my design speaks for itself. I can assure you i will explain myself far better if i got a chance to sit down and chat with you face to face :)

NICOLE MARIA WINKLER www.nicolemariawinkler.com nicole was born in austria in 1987. she is now studying and working as a freelance photographer in london. her favourite three subjects to photograph are cats, horses and girls with long hair. when retiring from photography she is planning to move into a little cottage in the austrian alps. “the new era is all about more love. more love. more love. peace”.

Useless Idea Born in Genoa on 28/05/1981 - His interest in the “art” expression was born in 1993: when he was thirteen years old in fact he was dismissed from the scene of Graffiti, because of its expressive aesthetics distant from Hip Hop Culture. Today this process continues in a spontaneous way, different from each classification. In the Useless Idea emerges in a unique and complicated formal aesthetic research that is based on the continuous and relentless renewal of itself. In its work, the figurative and the abstract are melted into one thing, which was able to shape a style of impact, strong and unique. “I don’t think to be an artist, but a creative who often comes into conflict with the official world of art.”

SOHRAB VAHDAT 28 year old Iranian photographer. taking photographs for a year now . always been in love with fashion and beauty . “what i wish is that my eyes were the lense of the camera so i could capture the 100% and pure honesty of a persons look as when they see the camera its all gone wether your a super model or a normal person”.

Sarra O’Donnell sarra200@hotmail.com A 19 year old student from Stafford with a huge passion for anything cinematic.A digital film convert who loves photography, cooking and yoga. Dreams of being a film theorist or director of photography. New Era to me is all about finding new styles of media, new ways of presenting ideas to people and new ways of sharing what you love with the world. For me, in cinema, new era means creating something unique, pushing the boundaries of what has already been done to create a piece of film that will impress your audience. Viktor Gårdsäter, freelance photographer who mostly works in stockholm,Sweden, where I live. But I do like to travel! “I find my photography often deals with topics such as loneliness in the big city and the search to find meaning and happiness. There are so manypeople, still so hard to connect. NEW ERA: It makes me happy that there are people like you, who wants to spread art. That is really beautiful. Website: www.gardsater.com flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/gardis84/ email: Viktor@gardsater.se AMANDA ramasawmy Amanda’s influences include the musical episode of Buffy, stylish old ladies, S-named weather (sunshine, snow, sleet) and still and moving images that derive from cameras. Her pocket money comes from writing freelance for various magazines and working in a little box in a little theatre. New Era: ‘You should leave your era; it should never leave you.’ Leontyne Price . amandaram@hotmail.co.uk HARRY MCKINLEY ‘Someone once said ‘We can all fly as high as the dreams we dare to live, unless we are a chicken.” Well sir, I am no chicken but instead a soon-to-be-graduate fashion journalism student from London College of Fashion and clacking at a keyboard is what I know best. From fashion to arts and culture I’ve contributed to numerous publications taking on board every worthwhile opportunity and demonstrating as long as there’s a double shot cappuccino and a Blackberry at hand I’m far from afraid of a bit of hard work. This industry is a tough one but with a healthy slab of tenacity and chutzpah it’s there to be cracked, here’s to jobs we love...’ www.ifwisheswereclotheshorses.blogspot.com h.mckinley@hotmail.co.uk 376 RIBBED|MAGAZINE 377

JIMMY ASQUITH Born into the wealthy Spanish aristocracy, Asquith’s youth was a million miles away from that of the Tenerife frequenting, pasty-munchers of Brighouse that became his local citizens. Following a scandal involving ex-members of Third Reich, a paddling pool and Lisa Scott Lee, Asquith took time off from spearing rats in the royal grounds to gain academic credits at the great red brick institutions of the UK. After recently being coronated as the one-andonly King Of Spain, a love of tech-house and Erdinger led him to the dark squats of London-town, where a new chapter in the history of the Spanish royal family is about to unfold. sam stratford Currently studying Literature at Westminster University. I love the creative process and critical discussion about both the finished piece and the journey it has taken. Read, paint, skate, do what you like. New Era- No pressure creativity. Sams work is used within this issue in 3parts (pages 2-3/98-99/130-131)

Zeesy Powers is a multi-disciplinary artist who works primarily with performance, animation, the internet and people. In 2007 she was a 3 minute girlfriend to anyone who would show up at a specific date and time, and in 2008 distributed micro-grants for any project that appealed to her. Her newest performance, The Ghost, which was produced in Southern Japan, will be touring California in March 2010. She continues to mess with your head through projects like Total Honesty. ‘New Era means a shift in perception, rather than a shift in reality.’

Steve Finn is a Director of popular Television Drama who also wastes his time as a poet, writer of fiction and originator of unmade Film and TV projects. Otherwise, he tries to enjoy life....and music.” “If we are not looking for a New Era, we are looking in the wrong place.”

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