theblogpaper by theblogpaper

crowdsourced news

the most valuable blogs combined (according to you)

Cover: Shanti Chang winner of the “I shoot the cover” competition in association with lomography

theblogpaper has been produced by users of theblogpaper.co.uk - this is the “best of” voted for by our community /12 / 03 / 10 - Beta_no4

Index: POLITICS Artilce by JaneWatkinson:

Women and politics -Women and Europe page 4 Photos by Keith Rufﬂes:

Irish uniﬁcation: self-determination in action? page 4

Photos by northbriton45:

What is bullying? page 5

ART Photos by Marc Da Cunha Lopes:

HPL

page 6

Article by CdL Creative

Irving Penn Portraits page 6

Photos by Maiko Gubler:

Still Life with Marble page 7

BUSINESS Article by blakecl:

Getting a First Job in Marketing

page 10

Article by Christy Emma Thatcher:

Graduation Blues page 10 - 11

12th of March 2010 theblogpaper has been produced by users of theblogpaper.co.uk posting their articles and photos on the website. The highest rated and most discussed content has been collected and published in this paper. In this edition the following users have been published: JosephStash - http://ptbdisorder.wordpress.com ; JaneWatkinson - http://myliberaldemocratpoliticalramblings.wordpress.com ; Keith Rufﬂes - http:// www.keithrufﬂes.com ; Blakecl - http://blakecl.blogspot.com ; Christy Emma Thatcher - http://www.bluegrapevine.blogspot.com ; KrystalSim ; Tess Morris - http://tessmorris.blogspot.com ; Vice Uk - http:// www.viceland.com/uk ; kitty moore - http://www. kittymoore.blogspot.com ; hawks777 ; CdL Creative - http://www.cdlcreative.me ; Dan - http://brody-ninjafunk.blogspot.com ; bangsandabun - http://bangsandabun.com ; CoCreateLondon - http://www. cocreatelondon.com ; will challis ; RitziCortez - http://climbingritzisladder.blog.co.uk ; Marie Eaton ; toaster ; JessicaMC - http://www.sanazshirazi.com ; northbriton45 - http://northbriton45.blogspot.com

CULTURE Article by kitty moore:

A Turkish Wedding page 12

Photos by Sleeveface.com:

Sleeveface page 13

Photos by Dan:

Whatever You Do, Don’t OpenThe Box.....

page 14

FASHION Article by bangsandabun:

Fashion Week Attendee Trends page 16

Note posted by marie eaton:

The world’s ﬁrst wearable 3d printed footwear page 17

Article by RitziCortez:

Witch- Craft -Wo -Man Ship: Maaike Mekking page 17

- Thanks to all of you! Published by: The Blog Paper LDT. 88-94 Wentworth Street London E1 7SA www.theblogpaper.co.uk We welcome any comments / suggestions: Drop us a line at: feedback@theblogpaper.co.uk

FILM Review by KrystalSim:

Alice in Wonderland page 18 -19

Review by Tess Morris:

Good french movie Alert

page 19

Article by Vice UK:

Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: A Lot of Work, Very LittleActual Movie page 19 - 20

environment Article by JosephStash / London Average Rating: 4,0

www.ptbdisorder.wordpress.com

Climate Change: More than just hot air “Thank God men cannot ﬂy, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth” Turns out we proved David Thoreau wrong, and didn’t need wings to ruin the planet. The divisive topic of climate change was once again on the agenda at the start of the month, with new evidence coming to light of hacked emails at the University of East Anglia. Commentators have all thrown their hat into the ring; the main sticking points are whether the new evidence has been taken out of context, and if there is any truth in the ranting of climate sceptics. The main ﬂaw in the debate is the notion of absolutism. Climate change is perceived to either be real, or a fallacy. You either believe in it, or you don’t. Such a debate (if it can be called that) is not only strongly irrational, but fundamentally damaging to the notion of progressing to a better understanding of climate change. To the uninitiated, the climate change community seems a hotbed of exclusivity and reactionary tendencies. Any notion of criticism directed towards

environmentalists is inevitably met with a call to arms, lest you even think about criticising the movement. Such a refusal to allow analysis and self criticism means that they keep the stigma of being something only of relevance to the chattering classes. It’s unfortunate that public figures who champion the green movement are almost without exception seen to be elitist (Messrs Goldsmith, Monbiot and Prince Charles). The combination of a ubiquitous green lobby and the topic being adopted as de rigeur by Westminster means that any dialogue sounds like white noise. That it’s been trumpeted in the liberal media as a catastrophe waiting to happen also does little to help the situation. Bombarding the public with yet more studies and statistics only has the effect of disenchantment, further stalling any progression to universal understanding. This universal understanding is key to the development of environmental policy of the future. Polls show that in the UK we have a fairly good understanding of climate change issues- we are aware that it exists and are definitely more concerned about it than many other countries. Contrast this with the United States (still emerging from the Bush administration of denial) and the blank refusal of China to co-operate at the Copenhagen summit to see that we still have a long way to go to achieve a global plan. Scientists have been given the benefit of the doubt for too long. If you read the hacked emails that caused this latest farrago in the UK, they are mostly taken out of context and of little real significance to question the effects of global

warming. But that doesn’t excuse politicians for raising scientists onto an unaccountable plinth. Climate change is a problem. We know this. But what can’t happen is to let urgency cloud judgement. Facts need to be checked, studies carried out and cross referenced, and scientists know this better than anyone. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts a rise in sea levels between 90mm and almost a metre. Hardly a paradigm of accuracy and diligence. There is much written about misinformation, bias and skulduggery in the media. But what about the green movement? Surely they, like everyone else, are equally fallible? I’m no climate sceptic, but am tired of the halo bestowed on the green movement. Where can students ﬁt in with all this? Do your research. Most people take in information passively, letting other people make decisions for them. Individual empowerment is something that is scarce within the student population. I’ve lost count of the amount of hoops I’ve had to jump through, despite “independent learning” being a university’s main ultimate selling point. A culture of being patted on the head, bombarded with “yoof” television and demonisation means that it’s a lot better to go and get the information yourselves. Read the literature for and against, and make your own minds up. Then, and only then, can we start to properly compare, contrast and analyse the theories, and maybe it won’t seem quite so dull after all.

Note by Anne M / London Since the late 1980s Raphael Domjan dreamed of a round a world tour in a boat that would use no more than the energy provided by light. After years of studies in February 2008 the financing of the PlanetSolar boat was finally secured and the project was about to become reality. The PlanetSolar is a catamaran that runs solely on energy gained by sunlight through the use of 500 m2 of photovoltaic surface (solar panels). If for some reason the solar panels could not produce energy, the reserves of the batteries would be used until they would be exhausted and then the boat would no longer move forward. It is thus also a message directed to society to not squander the resources that we have at our disposal. Between 2050 and 2070, in the case of an exclusive use of the renewable energies, we could totally cancel the non-natural carbon dioxide emissions, says the PlanetSolar team. It was constructed by Knierim Yacht Club, in Kiel, Germany. At the current design stage, it is a boat of impressive proportions, and yet both silent and clean. The goal is to navigate around the world at 8 knots, an average speed of 15 km/h. The maximum speed will be 14 knots, or 25 km/h. The PlanetSolar boat will be home to two sailors during the roundthe-world attempt, but can actually accommodate up to fifty people. In 2011, the first round-the-world trip powered by solar energy will be realized, with stopovers, along the equator, where the maximum amount of sunlight is available. Until then there will still be a lot of in-depth research and development to finalise the project.

PlanetSolar www.theblogpaper.co.uk

politics photo credits: demotix.com

Women and politics Women and Europe

Article by JaneWatkinson / Leeds Average Rating: 3,5 www.myliberaldemocratpoliticalramblings.wordpress.com/

It is pleasing to see the EU taking women’s representation more seriously, especially when considering: “in the 2009 European elections women made up 35% of candidates, 34% in the top 3rd of party lists (Greece and Denmark being the exception), 34% of MEPs elected, but got 19% of media coverage, falling to single figures in some countries” (figures provided by University of Exeter). I think it is important to consider different countries’ attitudes towards women and politics when looking at what evidence the EU have cited in support of their view that women’s under representation results in women becoming less interested in politics and thus in turn reinforces their under representation. Due to this, they naturally support the need for quota systems, which I have argued before are based on paternalistic and passive notions of providing women ’special’ care. Instead, there is a need for structural and cultural changes so that women’s rights and opportunities improve and consequently their participation in politics. For example, you can have as many quota systems as you like, however, without structural changes such as improving childcare policies then you are only going to get the same types of women applying. Improvements to women’s representation requires a consideration of different countries’ social, economic and political conditions. Redistribution is key to improving women’s rights, as well as men’s. More redistributive polices would help reduce the high levels of poverty women often suffer from, and through this provide them greater financial stability to pursue a career in politics.

The need to consider the varying position of women within different European countries to help provide a more speciﬁc strategy to improve women’s representation within the EU is highlighted when considering the position of women within Italian politics. An article only last year, reports that the Council of Europe found: “The most worrying ﬁgure was the level of female representation in local municipal councils, where women made up just 2.2% of councillors compared to a European average of 24.5%. The only country with a worse record in this sector was Azerbaijan. Italy fared better at a regional government level, where female representation climbed to 17.2%, although still below Europe’s average of 21.4% and less than half of Spain’s 39.7%.” Therefore different countries have more problems around women’s representation in politics, and instead of just saying, as the EU seem to be suggesting, this under representation is due to women’s lack of visibility in politics, there needs to be a closer systematic consideration of why women are differently represented in different countries. For example, the article referred to how: “Italy has also has a dismal record in terms of female employment, ranking second to bottom of all European Union countries, according to a report by EU statistics bureau Eurostat.” This highlights how there are wider systematic issues within the country and these will help us account for the varying levels of under representation of women within European politics and politics more generally. It is simple for EU to attribute the lack of representation in Europe as a problem of visibility, but with more careful analysis it is clear the problem requires a more in-depth solution.

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

Article by Keith Rufﬂes / Northern Ireland Average Rating: 3,6

www.keithrufﬂes.com

Irish uniﬁcation: self-determination in action?

On occasion I like to challenge Irish Republicans who argue that Northern Ireland has no right to exist and that a British administration in the ‘Six Counties’ is a denial of the ‘Irish right to self-determination’. I’m currently embroiled in such a dispute over on the blog of Ógra Shinn Féin, Sinn Féin’s youth wing. West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty has made this same argument at a Sinn Féin conference in London with the question of Irish uniﬁcation at its heart. He has claimed that the “denial of the Irish people’s right to self determination” remains a core outstanding issue of the peace process and that “for Irish republicans, the cause still persists - the British government’s claim of jurisdiction over part of our country”. Whilst this sort of language is clearly meant to appeal to old guard Irish Republicans disillusioned with the Shinners’ involvement in the Peace Process and participation in UK government institutions, it also reveals that any acceptance of the people of Northern Ireland’s right to decide their own constitutional status without interference - article 3.1 of the Good Friday Agreement declares that “a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island” - is regarded by Sinn Féin as mere political expediency than as any real commitment to democratic ideals. For even if the prospect of Northern Ireland’s political allegiance being dictated by the political wishes of another nation state was somehow made palatable - and behind the rhetoric and the slogans Irish Republicans have not made a convincing argument that it should - such a move has been rendered impossible by the democratic approval given to the GFA via referendums carried out and passed in both Irish states. This is my main gripe with the radical Irish Republican movement and in particular Sinn Féin’s interpretation of it. There is nothing wrong with seeking to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic via conventional democratic means, even as someone opposed to nationalism as a political concept I ﬁnd the ambition distinctly unsavoury. But by arguing that Northern Ireland has no right of self-determination and that the will of a majority in what is effectively an arbitrary geographic area should ride roughshod over a minority who have declared via the democratic process for the continued union of Northern Ireland with the rest of the United Kingdom - and have done so for the entirety of their almost 90-year existence as a distinct political unit - betrays their very real contempt for democracy. It’s time the movement demonstrated that its supposed support of democracy adequately translates into the rousing rhetoric which it is so adept at creating.

politics photo credits: demotix.com

What is bullying? Article by northbriton45 / London Average Rating: 3,7

www.northbriton45.blogspot.com North Briton’s first instinct when the Observer was published on Sunday was to express surprise at the sheer amount of pages Andrew Rawnsley’s latest book was afforded. The new Observer news section had 60 pages, including adverts, and ten of those covered the book. I know Rawnsley is good but does he really deserve more than a sixth of a whole newspaper? Or is filling pages with unedited chunks from a book a cheaper way of filling a paper than actually employing any reporters? As for the allegations, I was a bit non-plussed. They had all been heard before, they are all unsubstantiated, not a single source is named and every allegation has been completely denied. This is all par for the course. Sir Gus O’Donnell is hardly likely to admit he admonished Gordon over losing his temper. And it is perfectly reasonably for someone in a job such as Prime Minister to lose their temper. Apart from anything else, if somebody lost something as important as a disc containing the details of the 25million people who receive child benefit, not only would I get angry, the guilty party should probably be trussed up and tossed into the Thames. For what it’s worth, I don’t believe their is a culture of bullying in Downing Street. Bullying, to my mind, means sustained attacks against an individual, using their apparent weaknesses against them, chastising them for their inadequacies, trying to humiliate and shame them. In a highly pressurised workplace, such as Downing Street or a news room, one expects tempers to be short, anger to be on display. Things will get thrown, computers bashed about. People might be hauled out of chairs, lapels might be grabbed. This is not bullying. This is a busy, high-pressure workplace.

It’s worth pointing out that many of the people who work alongside Gordon Brown have been their for years, not just since he was Prime Minister, but for years. What has worked in the government’s favour, though, has been the emergence of Christine Pratt, the chief executive of the National Bullying Helpline, who claimed individuals from Downing Street and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister had contacted them. Her comments on the BBC on Sunday inflamed a row that would otherwise have blown away. It would be easy for me to now list the huge flaws her charity has: the late accounts; the admitted touting for business; the charity’s appalling website; the resignation of all of her trustees in protest at the breaking of confidentiality; the large irregularities in her claims. But would this be fair? As I write, her charity is teetering on the verge of collapse after all the charity’s patrons resigned on mass. This is her career and her livelihood, and perhaps her husband too. The Labour Party has been pretty ferocious in attacking Ms Pratt and her comments. The left in general has gleefully highlighted the inadequacies of her public statements. But isn’t this becoming bullying? There is no doubt Ms Pratt has made a terrible mistake, speaking out publicly could do no end of harm to her charity. Public figures who wanted to be associated with have fled with horror, but will the charity, which undoubtedly is doing something worthwhile, survive? Ganging up on her, using her flaws against her, is bullying. She made a mistake, a big misjudgement, but the pressure needs to ease off. And Peter Mandelson himself gave a master class in bullying today. The dark master of spin has appeared to soften in recent years but in his brief press conference today much of the subtly he has recently deployed was gone. Instead, he was quiet, menacing and insistent. ‘Bullying will not be tolerated by this administration’ he told the assorted gathering, who were left in no doubt that if they questioned him he would intimidate and scare them into submission. East End gangsters would be jealous of such a display. I have a great deal of time for Peter Mandelson and his political talents, but this was not particularly edifying. So no one comes out of this row well. The Tories and Lib Dems can basically be ignored for their asinine requests for an investigation. Ironically, the only person whose reputation hasn’t really changed at all is Gordon Brown. www.theblogpaper.co.uk

Note by riggsy / London Los Angeles, CA, -- In his first full-length book, The Late Fauna of Early North America, Seattle artist Scott Musgrove illuminates hitherto undiscovered (and now extinct) animals, plants, and bio-wonders in this 172-page volume, published by Billy Shire Fine Arts Press in partnership with Last Gasp. Late Fauna features lush, highly detailed landscapes and up-close encounters with all manner of strange and beautiful creatures. Full colour reproductions of his oil paintings abound, including unique antique frames, custom gold engraved nameplates, carved wooden sculptures, watercolors, ink drawings, and pencil renderings from the field. Scott paints the Canis Profundus and the Dwarf Basket Horse back into their pristine environments through an unusual (and scientifically discredited) practice of zoological impressionism. A lone star in the field, he ventures where the gray-maned, khakiclad anthropologists have not - tunnelling beneath freeways and combing along the rough borders of American mini-malls in search of extinct animals. His unorthodox research methods combined with his unmatched facility with paint and colour result in a fascinating survey of what might have been in modern North America. Wired Magazine named Late Fauna one of the finest pop culture moments of 2009

art

Note by hawks444 / London

www.marcdacunhalopes.com Created by Marc Da Cunha Lopes “HPL” is an ode to Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book is a compilation of ideas, wherein the reader encounters nameless abominations, giant underwater cities, ancient artefacts awakening forbidden memories, dreams fading into reality, new dimensions appearing at the corner of the eye, and creatures from another time hidden in human guise. These and other fragmentary concepts are listed in a notebook that Lovecraft planned to revisit when developing later works of ﬁction. One hundred artists have used this journal to explore the abysmal depths evoked by this singular author, transforming the museum in a place ﬁlled with things better left unspoken...

Article by CdL Creative / London Average Rating: 3,9

www.cdlcreative.me

Irving Penn Portraits “We don’t call them shoots here. We don’t shoot people, it’s really a love affair” – Irving Penn Irving Penn’s approach was a million miles removed from that of the machine-gun approach of the modern-day paparazzi. But, as a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery shows, he was undoubtedly a master craftsman who loved photographing his subjects rather than a chaser after Z-list “celebrities”. Penn started work

Penn started work chaser after Z-list “celebrities”. Penn started work at American Vogue in 1943 and when he rose to prominence soon after the Second World War, the Hollywood studio system was only just coming to an end. But rather than kow-tow to the people he photographed he was determined to take pictures his way. Eschewing the styles favoured by the other leading photographers of the period, he wedged his subjects in a corner or placed them on a grimy old rug. Their reaction to this novel approach is often visible in their poses and expressions. One sitter had the temerity to object and refuse to pose until the studio was cleaned. Penn had no hesitation in sending them packing. His publishers sent him to Europe and, with the benefit of natural light in his studio in Paris, this was the point from which Penn really flourished. By the end of the 1950s, he had been named one of world’s 10 greatest photographers in an international survey carried out by Popular Photography. It wasn’t only the great and the good that passed before his camera. While a list of the people he photographed reads like a Who’s Who of the 20th century, Penn was also an astute observer of street workers in his “Small Trades” series. Before turning to photography because he didn’t think he was good enough as an artist, Penn had studied drawing, painting and design. Possibly as a result, his sense of composition was impeccable. Both in group shots and in photos of individuals everything seems perfectly placed without being forced. Perhaps this was because Penn was also skilled at still life (his first ever Vogue cover) and so understood how all the elements should be arranged to make the whole. Or perhaps it was because he had an

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

instinctive eye and empathy with his subjects. The result is images that are simple and stripped down without ever quite feeling stark, even though the detail of every pore or wrinkle is often crystal clear. Magdalene Keaney, the NPG’s associate curator of photographs, spent more than two years selecting and assembling the prints, some of which have never been exhibited before. The two things that stood out for her during her research were that Penn understood and could read a face like the words on a page, and that he often seemed to be exploring what was the least that could constitute a portrait. Some critics have suggested that Penn wasn’t quite sure what to make of the Swinging Sixties, as another generation of photographers emerged. But as you study the work he produced over more than half a century there is a sense of a constant development and reﬁnement rather than any huge leaps of style. The Grateful Dead and Nicole Kidman were photographed with just as much aplomb as Igor Stravinsky and the Duchess of Windsor. And while other people were out partying Penn, ever the perfectionist, was hard at work in the darkroom, reviving and reﬁning an old platinum and palladium process that would allow him to print his work with even greater depth of detail. Interviewed by American Photo, Penn said: “I have always stood in the awe of the camera. I recognize it for the instrument it is, part Stradivarius, part scalpel.” This exhibition is both lyrical and an incisive depiction of Penn and his work, and should be a must-see not only for photographers and lovers of portraiture but also as an insight into recent social history.

art

Still Life with Marble Berlin based Swiss-Japanese Maiko Gubler is an art director/illustrator specialised in staging images. The synthesis of diverse backgrounds is reﬂected in her personal as well as in her commercial work: she develops concepts beyond rigid disciplines, combining design, sculpture and scenography. Her latest work titled ‘Still Life with Marble’ investigates matter and the physics of materials by juxtaposing digitally sculpted objects and surfaces. The series not only explores current image-making techniques versus traditional crafting methods, but also questions photorealism and the value of ‘real’ objects. It’s a play with simulacra - realness guaranteed.

Melting Table

The ‘Melting Table’ was created by self taught UK artist Rob Smith. It was entirely hand carved out of recycled oak & took approximately 4weeks to complete. He has a great love for surrealism, & while cleaning some melted wax off a table realised how wonderfully organic the forms were. So after a little experimenting, the table was born. His other works consist of unique boxes, furniture & wooden USB peripherals. More of his work can be viewed at www.artypedesign.co.uk & on his Artype Design Facebook group.

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

design

The Aspiral Clock

www.aspiralclocks.com

A bedroom turned into a clock factory when Will Aspinall and Neil Lambeth had the idea of The Aspiral Clock. They started with a prototype in 2006, made out of bear cans and gaffer tape. They needed another two years to ﬁnalise it. The Aspiral Clock has a spiral face that turns slowly over twelve hours. A red ball indicates the time, as it travels along the ledge to the middle, as the spiral turns. At the 12th hour it drops through the hole in the middle and it starts all over again. Half and quarter markings help to determine the exact time. The Aspiral Clock is available in all colours and individual designs for £ 350. Neil and Will already have a lot of ideas for the future like the Trispiral Clock that would consist out of three Aspiral Clocks, a big one indicating the hours, a medium one for the minutes and a small one for the seconds. “Possibly rotating around each other like planets” says Will. Another idea is to make a huge Aspiral Clock for a public space as well as a smaller budget one.

This design represents Dzmitry Samals vision on a future collection for Louis Vuitton, inspired by technical constructions and architecture of Paris. Dzmitry Samal is a Contemporary Designer with 7 years of international experience. He took his Master degree in Milan at the Scuola Polithecnica di Design, initiated an artistic design approach and gave birth to collaboration with Italian, French and American design companies and fashion designers. He participated in European and World design conferences in Paris, Minsk and Helsinki.

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

��

business / graduates Article by Christy Emma Thatcher / London Average Rating: 3,8

www.blue-grapevine.blogspot.com

Graduation Blues

Article by blakecl / London Average Rating: 3,7

www.blakecl.blogspot.com

Getting a First Job in Marketing This week I was browsing the discussions on ‘Linked In’ when I came across a cry for help from a recent graduate who is struggling to find a marketing job in the current economic conditions. This is something that I have recently experienced myself and therefore decided to share some advice with her, that she said was very insightful, and as a result I thought it might come in handy elsewhere... Last year I studied for my MSc in marketing, and prior to completing my exams I started applying for a number of jobs, in a hope that when the summer arrived I could start my career. However, come May I still had no offers, not even for an interview. Every job that I applied for said that I did not have enough experience and that other candidates better fitted the profile that they were looking for. I felt that I was dealing with a double edged sword; I had no experience and nobody would offer a job in order to gain any experience. In an attempt to make my studies for the past year worthwhile, I wrote a letter and sent it to every marketing company within a 10 mile radius of my house (little over 40 companies altogether). This letter offered my services, in a voluntary capacity, as a marketing intern for the summer. In response to the letters, I received 10 replies, and of those 10 I met with 4 to decide which company would be best for my personal development. I decided to work for the most promising opportunity for 2 days per week, and I came to an agreement to work for another company for 1 day per week at a rate of £50 per a day. I spent the other 2 days searching for jobs, and applying for approximately 30 - 40 each week. After 5 months of volunteering I was offered an opportunity to work on a new project for Northcliffe Media, but it was as a paid intern for only 2 months and based in London (120 miles away from home), which put me in a bit of a dilemma, and gave me a huge decision to

make. I decided that after 8 months of an unrequited job search, I should give it a go. I moved to London in a hope that by the time I ﬁnished my 2 month internship I would ﬁnd a permanent post to start my career. Working at Northcliffe was great, but it was only two months, and in that time I worked hard in a desperate attempt to secure a full-time position elsewhere. I even decided to look at more innovative ways to gain relevant experience and earn money. For example, I noticed a job advertisement for a marketing assistant at a sole trading beauty franchise. This got me thinking that in the current economic climate many companies cannot afford the services of advertising agencies, so I wrote to the company proposing that my university colleague and I work as freelancers and assist with his marketing as if we were an economy agent. He liked the idea and now we provide him with a fortnightly newsletter, as well as maintaining a blog and his facebook page. This has proven to be invaluable experience and could well turn into something more, as he has recommended us to business partners. As innovative as this was, and as exciting as this may sound, it was really just a drop in the ocean, and for me, never a long term plan. I continued to hunt for my big break and then 2 opportunities came along at once. I weighed up my options and went for the position that offered me the most responsibility, biggest exposure to what I wanted to do, and essentially surrounded me by, what I believe, is the best people. What I am trying to say is, do not give up, I applied for over 1000 jobs before I got something, but at the same time, do not expect opportunities to just drop on your lap, there is a lot of competition out there and you will need to work extremely hard to get your break. Be innovative and stay positive! Does anyone else have any advice/experiences when trying to break in to the Marketing industry?? PS. If it is a job in advertising that you are after I would highly recommend reading Ogilvy on Advertising, great book, even if it is a little outdated, but chapter 3 focuses on getting a job in advertising and the different avenues you could go down to get there. 1, Work for an advertising agency, 2, sell advertising space for a media comapny, 3, work for a manufacturer (i.e. P&G), 4, work within a marketing department of another type of business. www.theblogpaper.co.uk

Sat outside Canary Wharf station at seven thirty on a Wednesday morning, I am in my element; people-watching. Observing the floods of commuters emerge from the station I feel as if I am in an episode of ‘Bernard’s Watch’, that kids TV show from the ‘90s where a boy can stop time using a magical watch. Although here it is the other way round; I am the only person standing still amongst the madness. For the next three hours people will pour out of that station exit like ants scattering out of their colony. This forces me to enter the mindset of the person who decorated a stretch of the A40 in graffiti, with the question on everyone’s minds as they drove to work; “Why do I do this every day?” Having graduated from Nottingham this Summer I believe I have a different take on life to the ants on the Wharf. I am yet to be worn down by the daily grind, the commute to work in the sweaty sardinecan that the Tube resembles, and yet to forget to stop and look at the bigger picture. Sat here, I can’t help but get the sense that I am alone in this feeling. However, I am not, as the vast majority of my peers from Uni are, postponing their entry into the rat race lifestyle, doing MAs and having second gap years. In an ideal world I would take on the ‘I’m 22, I’m off to see the world’ mentality, as after all I’ll be working for the next fifty odd years, so what is another year? This dream has to remain in its ideal world, as financially, I find myself disabled. Having worked in several ‘internship’ positions over the summer for free, it’s been four months since the last Ocean and I’m still dodging the overdraft limit. The biggest annoyance is the fact that I don’t qualify for Job Seekers’ Allowance if I am in an unpaid internship, but you have to do such placements in order to get a job that will actually pay. Whilst celebrating my final two weeks of University in a haze of all-day drinking and mad ones at ‘The Big O’, I was completely unaware of what lay ahead. Due to the recession I knew getting a job would be tough, but nothing prepared me for this. I now have learnt the vast difference between work experience and internships. Some placements I have embarked upon have merely been labelled internships, when they are very much not. If I could give the class of 2010 some invaluable advice, it would be to get the ‘work experience’ on your CV whilst you’re still at Uni. Without it, gaining an internship in a big company is a struggle. I found myself working within small companies for no pay, learning nothing about the industry and merely undertaking the mundane tasks they did not want to do themselves. I was being used for my free labour! Not what you want to be doing after three years of essay writing and revision sessions in Hallward. The moment of realisation came when in one company I finished my daily administration duties, asked what else I could do and heard the words; “Umm…the fridge could do with a clean, would you mind?”

business / graduates I’m currently on a three week placement in a company that permanently has a ‘work experience girl’, so trying to get myself noticed is proving difﬁcult. It seems I am more of an annoyance than anything else, merely there to dispense the post and get the photocopying done. I am, quite literally, a slave to the C.V. In the summer of 2006, between A Levels and Uni, I complained about being a slave to the wage, which is ridiculous as now I am with degree, not even earning a wage. Last week I had an assessment day for a two month unpaid internship position with a large company. Prior to this stage I had to apply, with covering letter, C.V., and online maths and verbal reasoning tests. I then had to take a further maths test upon arrival at the company, before spending nine hours being interviewed, preparing and presenting presentations, etc. I’m surprised I didn’t have to give blood. Saying this, I was over the moon when I was told I’d been successful. The eight week placement acts as a constant assessment process to see if I am suitable for their grad scheme. I assumed I’d graduate, apply to a couple of hundred jobs, have an interview and hopefully have a steady income, I was very much mistaken. Job interviews can now consist of eight weeks, a day, and several hours on the application to secure the interview alone. The hardest part of graduated life, by far, is living at home with the parents again. I have a roof over my head which (for now) I don’t pay for, and have ﬁnally kicked my little brother out of my old room, but after living 120 miles

away for three years, it is a nightmare. The biggest problem is they don’t understand how hard it is. “What’s wrong with you? Cheer up”, is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. The fact that my mother still waits up (naturally, maternally she says) for me to get in from a night out is infuriating, followed by the comments on how straight a line I am walking in. Not to sound ungrateful, I do appreciate all they do, but hiding my frustration at the fact I may have to live here for several more years due to ﬁnances is verging on impossible. Whilst going through all this (social life limited to meeting friends for tap water after work due to lack of funds), I cannot even ﬁnd escapism through Facebook. I sign in and see ten status updates; “James is off to pre-lash for OCEAN”, “Laura can’t wait for tonight”… and so on. ‘Extreme poverty’ has been an eye-opener to me, and prevented me from clinging on to the Uni dream for too long. Although September rolled around and I pined for my next instalment of £1,125, I now realise this was not the free money it felt like; it’s there, waiting to be paid back like a big black cloud over my life. £18,000. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed my time at Nottingham. Perhaps a little too much. Sometimes I sit on the train and try and calculate how much money I’d have saved had I not drank while at Uni… Obscene amounts.I read a previous article in Impact, which said all graduates dislike students as soon as they’ve worn their mortar board, resenting them for their lifestyle. This I have to disagree with.

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

I don’t regret one minute of my three years at Nottingham (bar a few drunken encounters…). Yes, my student years made me disillusioned, made me resent having to live at home, but I loved it all. My advice to all you undergrads? Go out as much as you can, spend all day (every) Saturday festering, but if you pay for everything like I did, with no handouts from the ‘rents, consider a part-time job. I worked for two weeks at Whetherspoons in Market Square – it was horrendous, and I couldn’t deal with it on an Ocean hangover, but the extra £60 a week would have left me in a much better situation now. Not to sound like a ranting mother of 27,000 students, but do apply for internships in second year, and apply for grad schemes early on in third year. It will prevent the post-Uni financial slump when you find your employment status as an ‘applier’; day-in day-out applying for the big J. So, really, I have no choice. I must join the rat race now; become one of the hundreds of thousands who journey across London to the business metropolis that is Canary Wharf (or similar), day after day. In a sense, I am excited, as if I have been released from the fantasy world that University creates. Eight more weeks of free labour, then fingers crossed I can earn a wage, save a couple of pounds a week, and eventually move out into a box in Elephant and Castle (or somewhere equally compromising) that I can call my own. A voice somewhere from inside of me feels like screaming, “HELLO WORLD”.

culture photo credits: demotix.com

Article by kitty moore / London Average Rating: 4,1

www.kittymoore.blogspot.com

A Turkish Wedding I have to make myself look as unattractive as possible. I tie my hair back. Leave my face make-up free. Then pull on a shift dress that I last wore when I was six months pregnant. I put my glasses on. And I’m ready. Mia is an absolute vision in a floaty pink dress and matching shoes; she is safe; they are not looking for a husband for her. Yet, We’re going to my cousin’s wedding (under duress). She forced me into it by making Mia a bridesmaid. The last Turkish wedding I went to was mine. And that didn’t turn out too well. Mark and I had wanted a small wedding. And my father had agreed “Yes, a small wedding....just four hundred people”. It was the first mixed marriage in our community. And it showed. We had tried to brief the small number of English guests on etiquette. But it was all forgotten after a few drinks. One man approached a Turkish girl and asked for her number. He was silently lifted off his feet by her father and carried back to the English corner of the hall. There were no further requests for numbers after that. We tried to incorporate English tradition as much as we could. This (to the bemusement of the Turks) included speeches and a toast. Mark’s best man wimped out so my brother stepped in to deliver an impromptu speech. He started by saying “I will speak in English for the benefit of the ethnic minority here tonight”. That provided a rare moment where the guests were united (in laughter). My brother is very aware of the stereotypes attributed to Turks. And enjoys playing on them; he continued with “Normally we run kebab shops or cafes or dry cleaners but really, my sister had no choice but to become a lawyer because we needed someone to look after the family interests and by family I mean” he paused and looked slowly around the room. Then smiled wickedly as he said, “I

tled and hollered. The English guests were (visibly) very nervous. Mark whispered “They really are mafia, aren’t they?” I followed his eyes across to my father. People were lining up to kiss his hand (a sign of respect for your elders). Then I realised. The Godfather. It looked (to the English) like they were kissing his ring. I suppressed a giggle. But didn’t enlighten Mark until later. Much later. Years later in fact. My brother concluded his speech with the words “Mark, thank you for making my little sister very happy, but if you ever make her unhappy....” He made a gun gesture with his hand and put it to Mark’s temple “Bang!” The hall virtually erupted with (over four hundred) Turks clapping and cheering. At least this is a straightforward Turkish wedding without any poor English people to torment. My parents arrive to pick us up. My mother takes one look at me and says “Hurry up and get ready”. I tell her that I am ready. She purses her lips and takes me by the arm. I am led into my bedroom. She starts going through the wardrobe “Most of these people haven’t seen you since your wedding. The least you can do is look pretty”. She pulls out a clingy Karen Millen dress . My immaculately dressed father walks in (he wears a shirt and tie just to go to the supermarket). “Please wear something nice. You look pregnant in that”. I find it much more difficult to say no to him. So I put the dress on. My mother puts her hand down my bra and hoists my breasts up so that they are practically spilling out “There. That’s better” I stuff a wad of dollars (money is a big theme) into my bag and we leave. It takes a while to get to our table. We are stopped every few feet by people paying their respects to my father. He comes from a long line of village leaders. And he may no longer be in Cyprus but neither is the village; it is now in North London. I always forget that we are supposed to be Muslims. And so does everybody else if the amount of alcohol being consumed is anything to go by. Not to mention the skimpy clothes. They are clearly not aware of the golden rule; breasts out, legs away or legs out, breasts away. You can’t get both out without looking like a tart. I would never let Mia dress like that. Shit. I’m starting to sound like my mother. And the live band is too loud. I am definitely getting old. Then I get cornered by a lecherous (distant) relative. Thankfully my phone starts to vibrate. I excuse myself and walk outside. It’s Joanna. She is calling to ask if it is ok to give Jake www.theblogpaper.co.uk

my number. Apparently he has been asking her for it since New Year’s Eve. And it took her two weeks to call me? I thought I had scared him off with my verbal diarrhoea. I walk back in just as they start calling out names for the testih dance. I hear my name. And turn and start walking back out. But it’s too late. I am grabbed by my (pimp) mother. She drags me to the side of the dance floor.The testih dance is open only to single girls available for marriage. Each girl takes it in turn to dance like Shakira whilst holding a clay pot (which is decorated in red silk). I tell my mother that I can’t possibly dance with the testih because traditionally, you have to be a virgin to take part. She holds me firmly in place and hisses in my ear “Pah! You think any of them are virgins? There are no virgins left!” I have no choice. I throw dollars at the other girls while they dance. Then it’s my turn. I am the last one which means I have to smash the pot. I decide to cut the dancing short and just smash it. I am surrounded by children waiting to scramble for the money and sweets inside the pot. I keep shouting at them to move back; flying bits of broken clay can be lethal. But they won’t move. So I throw it down as close to me as possible. It smashes. A sharp piece of clay bounces off the floor. And into my leg. It starts to bleed. I step carefully over the children and hobble to the bathroom. Then my phone vibrates again. It’s Jake. And I’m caught off guard. I wasn’t expecting him to call so soon. It’s too late to hang up. He asks me how I am “Well-I’ve-just-done-the-dance-of-the-virgins-notthat-I’m-a-virgin-obviously-but-I’m-not-a-s l a p per-either-I-was-married-for-a-long-time-so-I-haven’tslept-with-lots-of-men-or-anything-anyway-I-smashedthe-testih-and-I-didn’t-want-to-hurt-the-kids-so-Iended-up-cutting-my-leg-and-now-I’m-in-the-bathroomcleaning-my-leg-that-is-not-on-the-toilet-I-wouldn’tanswer-the-phone-on-the-toilet-that-would-be-rude”. I manage to stop talking. But I fear the damage is already done. I sound unhinged.There is a brief pause before he laughs and says “Ok, I think that probably needs a little more explanation before it makes any sense to me”. Then he asks me out. And I say yes. I walk back to my seat grinning inanely with a piece of toilet paper stuck over the bloody gash on my leg. Suddenly, this wedding seems fabulous!

culture Photocredits:

Christophe Gowans

Photocredits:

Huw Evans and John Rostron

Ewan Jones-Morris, Carl Morris, Iain Peebles

Sleeveface

www.sleeveface.com

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

Sleeveface the book was compiled by Carl Morris and John Rostron with the help of friends – and talented contributors from around the world. The Sleeveface photograph on the book cover was done by Gunnar Bangsmoen. It’s a record by the band Bob Hund who are signed to Silence records. Original design of the sleeve is by Martin Kann. “Be the vinyl” is taken from a rather enthusiastic quote by Andy Bell of Erasure when he heard about Sleeveface. Let’s recap. It started with a Paul McCartney sleeve, then swiftly led to one or more persons in Cardiff, Wales having TOO MUCH fun ransacking their record shelves – from Rolling Stones to Nugent to Bowie to Cymande to Streisand. And people brandishing cameras yelling “up a bit, down a bit”.

culture

Whatever You Do, Don’t Open The Box..... Article by Dan / London Average Rating: 3,9

www.brody-ninjafunk.blogspot.com I stupidly made the mistake of looking in the spam inbox of my email yesterday. It was like opening the door to Pandora’s Box, but if Pandora’s Box contained a load of mental people with an almost pathological obsession with the length, shape, and general girth of my penis. Now I can assure you, at no point have I ever wished for it to be enlarged, lengthened, or generally mucked around with. I will admit to wishing that I had a tiny pair of comedy glasses and fake moustache that I could pop on the end of it, just to really freak out the guy standing in the urinal next to me, but as far as penis alteration goes, that’s as far as I am generally willing to take it. And yet there seems to be people out there who are generally unhappy with the state of my friendly chap at the moment and are literally begging me to do something about it. Here are some examples: These emails are as sent. None have been altered. Remember, never click on any link that is sent to you in crap like this. MORE LENGTH, HARDNESS AND STRENGTH. I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch: FIRE ANDCE - Now as happy as anyone would like to be with more length, hardness and strength, if it made me lose my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch, then to be honest, having a super penis will mean nothing to me, as I won’t be able to use it. Or perhaps the person at the receiving end of this giant monstrosity was so shocked, they were rendered with all of the above? Either way, I am sensing a fatal flaw in their advertising here. Strains in relationship? Make your queen wet Your rocket needs fuel? Most effective desire boosters - Huston, we may have a problem here.” I am definitely getting an Apollo 13 vibe from this one. Desire boosters? Rocket fuel? Does that mean I have to strap two little tanks of monomethyl hydrazine to my undercarriage? If so, then I’m out, I’m afraid. And imagine if there was an accident? The Kings of Leon would then be confirmed correct: This sex definitely is on fire. Along with the bed, and most of my apartment Satisfy Me, 1ncrease your LittlePenis 2-4 Inches now! 90 Days Guaranteeed. Medically Approved 100% by FDA - I’m quite hurt by this one. This complete stranger has seen fit to mock my love package. That only normally happens with people that have actually met me, not total strangers on the internet. They have totally ruined any chance of me satisfying them now with this slanderous insult. Rude bastard. I’m taking me and my penis away. NO SATISFACTION FOR YOU SUNNY JIM!

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

Become her brutal banger Feel the deep pleasure Impulse for long love. Your woman wishes to be boned - Brutal banger? I’m British. We just normally close our eyes all the way through and hope for the best, and then take a shower afterwards as all that intimacy makes us feel dirty. And I have just sent a text to my other half asking her if she wanted to be “boned”. Her reply? “Not right now, I have a headache darling” . SCREW YOU MYSTERY PENIS ENHANCER PERSON! YOU WERE WRONG!!!!! It is your time to make love with hellish heat and heaven delight! Heal your manhood with our cures, so it could please ladies as before! Want to be a man with lots of stamina for nights? Take this solution! She will moan as loud in alarm beneath you! Try male goods for affordable prices! No needed arousal power? Return it today with our goods! - A few things wrong with this one. Hellish heat and heaven delight I suppose I could handle. If it were comfortable heat and angel delight, then that would be better (I am particularly fond of the toffee ﬂavour). The main thing that concerns me is my lady moaning in alarm beneath me. Now that doesn’t sound sexy, that sounds like assault. Either that or you have gone in the wrong entrance by mistake. 1) Are you really HAPPY with your Penis Size? 2) Permanent Penis En1argement - En1arge up to 3-4 inches in length in just weeks! 3) Thicken your Penis - 1ncrease the girth (width) of your Penis 4) Create a Bigger Penis Head - Create a more muscular mushroomed looking Penis Head! 5) Get More PowerfulErections - Develop ‘RockHard’ Elrection, each and every time no matter your age! Let me address all the issues here one by one 1) Yes I am happy with my penis size, thank you for asking. 2) And how are you going to do this? By using a system of weights and pulleys to stretch it across the room? I don’t think so sunshine. 3) See 2. 4) At no point have I ever wanted my penis head to look like a mushroom. That would just look stupid. Do you have any other vegetable shapes? How about a turnip? Can you do that? If you can get it to look like a turnip, we might have a deal. 5) How powerful are we talking here? If I take my trousers off, will I be catapulted out the window? That doesn’t sound like fun. And a rock hard erection? True, it would make a handy thing to hang my keys on at night. But what about the worry that it could take someone’s eye out with it? Or knock over lamps and stuff when I walk around my bedroom. I’m pretty sure you haven’t thought this through? All joking aside, I have ordered all of them. What? You never know?

fashion Article by bangsandabun / London Average Rating: 3,6

www.bangsandabun.com

Fashion Week Attendee Trends

Oh you thought people attended fashion shows to actually look at the clothes? You poor, misguided little lamb. No, no darling, it’s all about people watching, seeing and being seen, judging the jumped up attire of the jumped up attendees. I went to a fashion week show and made a few notes on the key trends I saw among the attendees. Looking Normal is the New Avante Garde - Two streets away is the real world, but get to where a fashion show is being held and you feel like you just entered a parallel universe. Everyone is trying way too damn hard. Enough already - you look ridiculous. Anytime I saw someone that had just put some effort into their appearance and didn’t look too outlandish, I thought they were the most stylish people there. I saw one girl wearing a bright blue, knee length jacket made of feathers. She was trying to look ‘edgy’ but just ended up looking like a cracked out version of Big Bird. When you try too hard to be noticed or look ‘different’, it just means you haven’t found your personal style yet and you look ridiculous. Hence, looking normal and well put together makes you the person to watch. Outlandish Footwear - A big trend I saw was ‘heels it’s impossible to walk in.’ I’m all-heels-allthe-time, but don’t be a douchebag. If you can’t walk in them, admit defeat and go for something lower. There are high heels and then there are stilts. Also, if you’re going to go through all the trouble of strapping yourself into some ridiculous clodhoppers, at least take the stickers off the bottom ﬁrst (spotted three girls who hadn’t). Be a Walking, Talking Stereotype - After waiting in the queue for an age, the person who had invited me, says to the short, stocky, bald man who was the keeper of the gateway to heaven (otherwise known as the door to the fashion show of one of the lesser designers of the week) ‘This is for me, plus these three’ [points at me and two others behind me]. [cue look of absolute shock and dismay on the face of short, stocky, bald man] Him: What?! I can’t let all four of you in! I mean, I can let one of you in and if there’s room, then the others, but no. Her: But I spoke to Joy and she said... Him: [waving hand in her face] Honey, honey, Joy’s just an intern, I own [insert random PR agency here], so if I say only one person’s going in, only one person’s going in. All four of us got in anyway. Way to live up to the stereotype, asshole. Take Your Kids to the Show I guess I missed the memo on when this became acceptable, but I saw quite a number of ankle biters at this show. At one point, a little girl (couldn’t have been more than six years old), stood on her chair to take pics of the models as they sashayed down the catwalk. Don’t kids have better things to do like, I don’t know, read a book/take a nap/projectile vomit on a parent/play with toys? Please don’t tell me these brats are little Tavi-wannabes in the making. Surely one of those is enough.

The Sanaz Shirazi Collection Photos by JessicaMc / LA Average Rating: 4,1

www.sanazshirazi.com A collection by Sanaz and Tanaz Shirazi inspired by their mothers beautiful fur coats from 70s India. The philosophy is to make wearable, timeless clothing, worn by Hollywood starlets such as Sienna Miller or Lindsay Lohan.

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

fashion

The world’s first wearable 3d printed footwear Note by marie eaton / London

The shoes are the ﬁrst 3D-printed Haute Couture shoes in the world and come from the concept of no waste. They are products for an industrial ecology. Due to the homogeneous material they are easier to recycle and create a closed loop. A vision for shoe production was to be able to go to a shop where you can scan your foot, and print your shoe. These could after usage be reprinted into a new pair. The Melonia Shoe is a collaboration between Naim Joseﬁ and Souzan Youssouf, a becoming Industrial Designer at Konstfack.

Article by RitziCortez / London Average Rating: 3,5

www.climbingritzisladder.blog.co.uk

Witch- Craft -Wo -Man Ship: Maaike Mekking AW 2010

First of all I have to admit that I’m pretty old fashioned when it comes to fashion shows. Call me crazy, but if I’m being presented with an entire collection, the thing I want to see first and foremost are the clothes. I’d like them to be on a model if possible, so I can see how they’d look on me (if I didn’t eat for a year), and if the model could walk up and down a bit so I can see how the clothes move that’d be just grand. Very few of my boxes were ticked at the Maaike Mekking presentation. That said, it was a very intriguing performance. I use this word because it was more akin to a piece of performance art than an actual fashion show. Allow me to set the scene: A Soho warehouse. Sirens blaring in the background. An eerie soundtrack courtesy of Anastasia Freygang and Joseph Xorto. A model, clad in a nude/black hand-stencilled bodysuit, lingers in front of a mirror, deciding which item of crumpled clothing she would like to wear. Clothes are everywhere; some on hangers, some littering the floor. The model (Mokik Gabriela Dorniak), lost in her own world, tries on the clothes one at a time, all the while contemplating her own identity. Transition, duality and nostalgia are the key words Maaike Mekking uses to describe the collection. The clothing does have an inescapable vintage feel about it; a lot of the fabrics are course in texture, and it’s almost as if you are viewing the whole scene through a sepia lens. A sand coloured skirt was one of the first pieces to really stand out, as the model tried it on again and again, eventually turning it inside out. A sheer, floor-length dress created an ethereal silhouette, the dramatic stencilprinted pattern of her body suit only slightly muted underneath.

A fantastic pair of parachute pants with a matching jacket made a welcome appearance, their heavy, masculine quality juxtaposed when the model jumped into the air a few times, landing lightly and watching the fabric billow around her. This playful, almost childlike theme of innocence continued throughout, so it was sort of endearing when the poor girl got stuck inside her trousers and had to wriggle out of them later on, losing only a tiny bit of decorum. The collection is made up of natural shades; greys, browns and nudes, with the odd piece of faded denim and black detailing in zips and prints. It’s very wearable, as the model proves, but the real gems of the collection are the simplest pieces. A really beautiful cream chiffon blouse drew my attention, even when it merely hung there, gently catching in the breeze whenever the door opened. A pale, structured shift dress made an appearance toward the end, and I found myself musing about the perfect shoes to pair with it. A sense of higher purpose and deep meaning is clearly something that Mekking communicates through her designs. Tania Leshkina’s direction is inspired, and very obviously reflects the theme of the collection on display, but the sense of performance ran the risk at times of becoming more important than the clothing itself. Influences of the iconic designers Mekking has worked for, such as Alexander McQueen and Alberta Ferretti, are evident, and her designs eye catching and unique enough to merit their own spotlight. Her ‘palatable edginess’ is just that - it’s quirky and kooky at times, but not so much so that it becomes unwearable. This is definitely a designer to keep on your radar.

ﬁlm

Alice in Wonderland Article by KrystalSim / London Average Rating: 3.6

www.thefourohfive.com Burton does Carroll. It’s almost too perfect a pairing. The absurdist Victorian novel realised by a director famous for creating dark, twisted worlds populated with outsiders and madmen. Will Burton’s take on Wonderland offer anything new or simply be quirky for quirky’s sake? Thankfully Alice in Wonderland is a lush and dreamy retelling of the much-beloved story which manages to be its own animal. And beautifully rendered in 3D no less. The 19 year old Alice Kingsleigh has been dreaming of Wonderland since childhood. An imaginative young woman, Alice feels stifled by the conventions of her social circle and sex. She and her mother head to a garden party held by one of her now deceased father’s business associates. Unbeknownst to Alice, it is also her engagement party. Boring but rich Hamish and his mother have the party, answer and Alice’s future entirely figured out. All she need do is say yes. Conflicted and faced with Hamish on one knee in front of a gaggle of socialites, Alice spots the White Rabbit, gives chase and follows him down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. Once there she’s denounced by some familiar faces as “the wrong Alice,” while she believes it’s all just a dream. However all is not well in Underland (as a child she mistook it for ‘Wonderland’). The Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) has usurped her little sister, the serene White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and seized the crown by force. The bulbous-headed despot learns of Alice’s return and orders that she be hunted down. Alice must help the White Queen regain the throne by slaying the Jabberwock, reacquainting herself with old friends such as the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) and twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum (both played by Matt Lucas) along the way. The story takes elements and characters from both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. However Burton has made this more of a sequel than a straight retelling, amalgamating characters, giving others more prominence.

He uses familiar set pieces and dialogue but tries to veer Alice into new ground. Updating her from a child to a young woman wrestling with her role in life pushes the story into more three dimensional territory better than say bored upper class child wanders off after rabbit. The story is less event driven than the novel and more of a character journey, as Alice rediscovers a long-buried part of herself. There’s even a smattering of female empowerment to scriptwriter Linda Woolverton’s screenplay, which is worthy but slightly laboured by the end. Most importantly, the ﬁlm is a visual delight. Prior to Alice falling down the rabbit hole the 3D barely registers. It is her descent into Underland which makes the visuals come alive and in typical Burton style. Dark threatening locations, contorted backgrounds, and larger-than-life character designs abound, from the bloated head of the Red Queen, the goggle-eyed strangeness of the Mad Hatter, and the rolly polly twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum. In each case the actor’s features are recognisable but grossly exaggerated. The ﬁlm boasts a cornucopia of

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

odd creatures and twists on established characters. Even the Red Queen’s army of cards make an impression. A far cry from the 1951 Disney animated feature, they appear more like vicious brutes in knights’ armour than friendly rose-painting buffoons. The colourful backgrounds of toadstool strewn fields, flower beds and palaces dripping with livery are consistently impressive, taking full advantage of the 3D technology. But the film is not entirely a visual experience. Alice has not lost her childish curiosity, but she faces tough expectations on all sides. She’s the wrong Alice for an upper class twit in the real world and the wrong Alice for an Underland that needs her as its champion. There’s a lot of pressure on her to be this “right Alice” and newcomer Mia Wasikowska plays her as the calm yet headstrong centre around which the action radiates. Like her, we see this world as familiar, yet also new and dangerous. Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Barbara Windsor, Timothy Spall and Paul Whitehouse are among those who lend their voices as well as a few Burton regulars.

film Helena Bonham Carter makes an excellent autocrat, playing the Red Queen as a demanding child who shrieks and stamps her feet at the mere hint of insubordination. The grotesque coquette has something of Blackadder’s Queenie to her and Bonham Carter bellows the murderous queen’s “off with his head” mantra with relish. Depp’s cock-eyed Mad Hatter manically turns on a sixpence, shifting accents from English twittery to mad Scotsman (essential for those particularly insane moments) adding comedy and pathos in equal measure. His pale skin, yellow eyes and orange hair make him grotesque to look at, much as the Red Queen, but moments of lucid melancholy stand out above all. Anne Hathaway’s White Queen has all the poise and delicacy of a Hollywood cliché, arms held aloft in a permanently elegant and simpering fashion. Her sister makes scathing reference to her habit of fluttering her eyes for their parents when they were younger. At once the Red Queen’s coup seems a little more understandable and although Hathaway is a likeable actress, her White Queen comes across as somewhat of a drip.Wasikowska has a hard job playing the straight character amidst all this madness. Carroll’s Alice is in many ways a foot stomping brat. Burton’s Alice, while easily distracted from the real world by flights of fancy and the appearance of white rabbits, is more composed. She might come off as a little passive for some but she pins the rest of these performances together without getting lost, no easy feat. The second half suffers under the weight of its good intentions. The pace lags as the film stops to catch its breath, and takes a leap too far in how a more confident Alice fares when she returns to the real world. Her donning armour as Underland’s Joan of Arc is one thing, but somehow I doubt even her father’s best friend would take business tips from a blonde teenager. Not in Victorian England at least. Two blaring mistakes are the inclusion of a cringe-worthy yet mercifully brief dance sequence and credits accompanied by an Avril Lavigne song. Neither sits well with the rest of the film, perhaps the younger viewer will enjoy it but brace yourselves for a spot of toe-curling. Try to ignore it and enjoy Danny Elfman’s score. There is a worry that a director with Burton’s reputation may stop challenging himself, sticking with familiar scenarios and actors. The actors may return, and yes this is another avant garde story with outsiders to root for and a dark, distorted land as a backdrop. However Alice in Wonderland is simply too colourful for you to be angry with it for long. It may not be a career best, but Burton shows plenty of flair reworking a familiar story with enough magic to warm even the hardest of hearts.

Good French Movie Alert

Article by Tess Morris / London Average Rating: 3.5

www.tessmorris.blogspot.com When choosing a Friday night movie, one of the big statements that I accidentally often deliberately say out loud is, ‘but it’s got subtitles, hasn’t it? I’m not in the mood for subtitles’. I always regret this statement, as invariably when I finally get round to watching a foreign film that everyone says I will love, guess what, I love it. Which I’m happy to say was the case with Mia Hansen-Love’s The Father Of My Children, which I saw as part of the Birds Eye Film Festival on Friday night, and enjoyed very much, subtitles and all. As is the way with lots of French movies, if they were British, they would probably be terrible. Pitch the premise of The Father of My Children - a maverick but flawed film producer’s life falls apart at the seams, forcing

Article by Vice Uk / London Average Rating: 3.8

www.viceland.com/uk by ALEX GODFREY

his family to pick up the pieces - to a British film producer, you’d probably be told the following. ‘Pah! But what happens?’.Well, nothing happens, of course, but everything happens, as is the French way. I don’t want to spoil the plot for you, so I can’t really tell you too much of those happenings, but I can tell you it’s about lost dreams, and false hopes, and that anyone who works in the film industry will love it. As will anyone who doesn’t, as its themes are universal, which is what makes a really good movie, n’est-ce pas? If I were to be super honest, I’d have to say don’t go and see The Father Of My Children if your attention span is short, and you’ve had a busy day. You may well nod off. But if you’re up for the challenge of watching a beautifully acted, well crafted film, that will probably bring a few tears to your eyes, then this is the French film for you. Go on, risk those subtitles! Make like Piaf, you won’t regret it.

Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: A Lot of Work, Very Little Actual Movie One night during the pre-production phase on A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell asked Stanley Kubrick why he was eating ice cream at the same time as his main course steak. “What’s the difference?” said Kubrick. “It’s all food. This is how Napoleon used to eat.” There are lots of near-mythical stories about Kubrick’s comprehensive research. That he was probably the most meticulous of film directors known to man is not open to debate, and Napoleon, the film he tried and failed to make for decades, is the best example of his attention to detail. Kubrick believed nobody had ever made a great historical film, and planned to change this with a three-hour epic, telling the story of the French emperor’s entire life. Kubrick thought Napoleon was the most interesting man to have ever walked the Earth. He called his

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

film life “an epic poem of action”, thought his relationship with Josephine was “one of the great obsessional passions of all time”, and said, “He was one of those rare men who move history and mold the destiny of their own times and of generations to come.” Getting to work on the film in the mid-60s, after 2001 was released, he sent an assistant around the world to literally follow in Napoleon’s footsteps (”Wherever Napoleon went, I want you to go,” he told him), even getting him to bring back samples of earth from Waterloo so he could match them for the screen. He read hundreds of books on the man and broke the information down into categories “on everything from his food tastes to the weather on the day of a specific battle”. He gathered together 15,000 location scouting photos and 17,000 slides of Napoleonic imagery.He would shoot the film in France and Italy, for their grand locations, and Yugoslavia, for their cheap armies. These were pre-CG days, and he arranged to borrow 40,000 Romanian infantry and 10,000 cavalry for the battles. “I wouldn’t want to fake it with fewer troops,” he said to an interviewer at the time, “because Napoleonic battles were out in the open, a vast tableau where the formations moved in an almost choreographic fashion. I want to capture this reality on film, and to do so it’s necessary to recreate all the conditions of the battle with painstaking accuracy.” He wanted David Hemmings and Audrey Hepburn for the leads, with Alec Guinness and Laurence Olivier as supporting characters, but it all came crashing down when, partly as a result of another Napoleon film, Waterloo, being released in 1970, studios decided Kubrick’s dream was too financially risky. In the early 1980s, he still talked of wanting to make the film, but it wasn’t to be. Although he died in 1999, there’s a chance his vision may see the light of day; it’s been offered to the likes of Ridley Scott and Ang Lee. You could make it yourself if you want, as every single bit of information pertaining to the project has recently been published in the form of a book called Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made(by Taschen). It’s ten books in one, limited to 1,000 copies, and costs £450. All the location scouting photos, all the research pictures, costume tests, correspondence with historical experts, Kubrick’s script – everything’s in there. It’s amazing. Tony Frewin was Kubrick’s assistant from 1965 until the director died (and beyond). I called him up for a first-hand account of what it was like to be in Kubrick’s Napoleonic vortex. Vice: So tell me how your life with Stanley began. You were an office boy for him, right? Tony Frewin: Well, a runner. Office boy I think rather glorifies it. How did you come across him in the first place? I grew up in Borehamwood and he’d just moved in to MGM Studios down the road on the pre-production of 2001. My father had just quit the management at MGM but he’d gone to work for Stanley, and he just kept on at me, saying, “Come down, we need a runner on this.” In those days, in the mid-60s, we only ever went to see foreign language films, French films: Antonioni, Fellini, Bergman, Bunuel. Terribly snobbish. And I think I said something crass like, “Well if it was Jean-Luc Godard I might be interested.” Ah God. What a prick.Anyway, I went down one Sunday afternoon

and my dad showed me into this office, which was absolutely full of books on fantastic art, surrealism, Dadaism, cosmology, flying saucers, and I thought, “Fuck, I wouldn’t mind working here just to have access to these books.” And then Stanley came in, who I thought was an office cleaner, with a baggy pair of trousers and a sports jacket with ink stains all over it. And we got chatting, for about two hours, and he said, “When can you start?” and I said, “When do you want me to?” and he said, “Seven o’clock tomorrow morning.” I said, “You’ve got a deal.” That was a week after my 17th birthday. When do you remember him first talking about Napoleon? I remember when we were working on 2001, he had a sort of fascination with military figures, he was always very interested in Julius Caesar, particularly the invasion of Britain, but this ability to be a man of action, an intellectual, a strategist, with political objectives, and how you balanced all this and did what was right, I guess Napoleon grew out of that. Did he relate to these types of people? I don’t think he related to them, but he found them tremendously fascinating. How, ultimately, flaws in their character, particularly Napoleon, would bring them down. The research and planning he did for Napoleon is near legendary. Yeah. He did a lot on all his films, not least of which was on the abandoned project, Wartime Lies, about the Holocaust. We spent nearly two years, day in day out, researching that. And in that same period Spielberg got the idea for Schindler’s List, did the pre-production, made the film, released it, and we were still shuffling index cards. So Schindler’s List just killed it for him? Well, he’d always wanted to do a film about the Holocaust, but it presented certain problems. As Stanley said, if you really want to make an accurate film about the Holocaust, it’s got to be unwatchable. But he thought Schindler’s List was a hard act to follow, and it wasn’t the right time to do Wartime Lies. You know what [historian] Raul Hilberg said about Schindler’s List? He wrote this massive www.theblogpaper.co.uk

three-volume study of the destruction of the European Jews, quite witty and funny too, but he said Schindler’s List was a success story. A feelgood picture. That’s one way of looking at it. In terms of Stanley’s fascination with Napoleon, what do you know of Malcolm McDowell’s story about him eating dessert and steak at the same time, because that’s how Napoleon used to eat? I’d take that with a pinch of Bolivian marching powder. Do you think the levels of research he carried out and his attention to the smallest detail was all part of the fun? Well, it was a means to an end. He said, “God is in the detail.” But he knew when to cut his research, when to stop it. Barry Lyndon is a wonderful example of a historical film correctly done, right down to the lighting. Unlike all this crap you see on the BBC now. What he aimed for was for that it actually looked like at the time. It’s a wonderful film. Do you think if he was making films today he would have utilised CGI? - Oh absolutely. Was he enthusiastic about new technology in that area? Oh absolutely, from the word go. He used to say anything that saved time was worth its weight in gold. In 1980 he bought us all IBM green screens. These were the first PCs that were generally available, little 12″ screens. Stanley said, “This is the future, this is what we’ll be using.” And I told him, “No, I like to type something and take out the piece of paper and see what’s on it,” and he said, “No, listen, you’ve got to get rid of that, this is the future, it’s arrived now.” He wasn’t at all conservative in that way; we had fax machines before anybody else did. People would say, “What the fuck do you want a fax machine for?” But he’d grab anything that saved time and made things look better. How would you feel about Ridley Scott making the film? Well, he’s a very competent director, but it would be a very different film from Stanley’s. There’s only one Stanley who could make a Stanley Kubrick film.

lomography Winner of the lomography - theblogpaper “I shoot the cover “ contest : Shanti Chang - “Near the Sea” - www.ﬂickr.com/people/shanti929

2nd in the competition Max Colson : “Street Photography from London & Buenos Aires” - www.maxcolson.carbonmade.com

3rd in the competition Melissa Ford : “REFLECTION” www.mkfphotography.com

www.theblogpaper.co.uk

lomography Urban Touch by nikkibear www.theblogpaper.co.uk/nikkibear

I Shoot the Cover Both theblogpaper and Lomography share the idea that everybody has something interesting to share and both try to give people the possibility to get their work and talent out to a broad audience. So we, theblogpaper, and Lomography decided to collaborate in terms of a photography competition. “I SHOOT THE COVER” was the idea that every person that has a camera could possibly produce something worthy of being on the cover of a magazine and this cover would be chosen by the same people, so basically a democratic cover. The winner would get his/her picture on the cover of the March issues of theblogpaper and win a Lomo LC Camera. The winner chosen by the community of theblogpaper is Shanti Chang. The pictures were taken while she was travelling through the south of Taiwan in 2005. At the beach she met a bunch of diving instructors who wondered about the cameras she was holding in her hands, a Holga and Lca, and they couldn’t believe that they actually could make good pictures. She proved them wrong and made some pictures for them. “I always believed Lomo can bring people together” says Shanti.

Winter Odysseys by elede www.lomography.com/homes/elede

The random,the unexpected,the every day and the mundane distorted into such beauty by Cherry_red_Balloon www.lomography.com/homes/ cherry_red_balloon

The second price goes to Max Colson who is a freelance photographer from London. The pictures were taken on the streets of London and Buenos Aires. “I love shooting on the street, its where I learned how to make pictures. The pace is fast, completely unpredictable, and you have to persist in order to ﬁnd the people and places that turn the everyday into something memorable.”

FANFARE by Theodormm www.theblogpaper.co.uk/Theodormm

The third price goes to Melissa Ford. “I decided to leave my full-time job, travel and work on my photography, while supporting myself through my freelance design business. For the past 4 months I have been living in Santa Marta, Colombia. These photographs were taken on a journey west to the city of Monteria and south to Medellin.” On this page you can see some of the runner ups...

LOMO CELEBRATION by DFUNKDAMAGER http://clikilik.tumblr.com/

Green Green Green by mephisto19 www.lomography.com/homes/mephisto19 www.theblogpaper.co.uk

Facebook...

Note posted by will challis / Berlin

www.walee.com www.marcdacunhalopes.com This Project was created by Waldo Lee and Marc Da Cunha Lopes... Waldo Lee Self taught digital artist, he has always been interested in art, thanks to his mother who is herself a painter/sculptor. His interest in all the digital media, goes back to his ﬁrst Amiga. No wonder he worked in the Video Game industry before becoming the freelance artist he is today. He is now doing a lot of 3D illustration for the advertisement industry. Marc DA CUNHA LOPES Since he was kid, he wanted to be a comic book illustrator. He ﬁrst started in the “business” creating Fantasy, SF, and Horror illustration for book covers. They were a mix of photography and illustration in the Dave McKean style. And then he got accepted in the prestigious Gobelins school in Paris, France were he studied photography. And now he’s mainly working the in the advertisement industry creating photography that really has his touch and his own universe. We were contacted by an Ad Agency to create the cover of a magazine that could make a difference and strike visually the people who were going to see it. The Art Directors Stephane Santana and Edward Capell contacted us because they knew that the blend of our style would be a perfect match for this project as we work a lot together and our different techniques really mix well to make believable and realistic result.

What Would You Do To Make London A Better Place? Article by CoCreateLondon / London Average Rating: 3,8

www.cocreatelondon.com The hope is that Bojo will listen to Co-Create London and the ideas taken from the website will become a reality, making London a better place to visit and live. Here are a selection of the best ideas we’ve had so far on the Co-Create London site. All the ideas are responses to the question: What Would You Do To Make London A Better Place? - Open library-style book kiosks/ book swap system in Tube stations so Londoners are never without reading material on the underground! - Tube Tunnels as giant immersive ﬂip books. We all travel miles and miles underground everyday through black tunnels. The Tube carriages have all got amazing windows to look outside of the train at... well, nothing. Wouldn’t it be nice if the walls of the tunnels were covered in series of pictures that vary gradually from one to the next, so that when the trains goes through the tunnel they get animated?

- Annual Open Labs Day...Similar to Open House Weekend, but celebrates our city’s vast and underappreciated science culture. - Turn Empty Shops in to spaces for performance, places to learn a new skill and minimarkets for creative local residents to sell their wares. - Instead of the Oyster machines making the same beeping noise when you go through, each one has a different musical note, such as a piano key. Establish rent-a -dog stations near London parks and green spaces and offer ‘well being walks’ with man’s best friend. - Give young people (11-21) stigma free places/establishments to attend after school hours and on weekends where their creative talents could be nurtured into professions. - Support independent shops in London like in Paris where if a butcher closes a another butcher has to go in. We don’t need more mobile phone shops. London is one of the biggest cities in the world; it is a massive player in the worlds ﬁnance, fashion, business, party, retail and social media industries. It’s a place where dreams can be made and literally anything can happen! But even though London has an

unlistable amount of good points and amazing opportunities, it’s not perfect. Co-Create London is a new website aiming to address London’s main issues and annoyances by listening to the people who know the city best – the general public. Whether you have lived in London for your whole life or just passed through Co-Create London would like you to answer a very simple question ‘What Would You Do To Make London a Better Place?’ By gathering ideas, solutions and fresh thinking about the city the site hopes to address issues that are important to people of London and give citizens the platform to make positive changes. Over the next few weeks the site will be collecting ideas and encouraging users to vote on their favourites. The ideas that receive the most votes will be taken forward into a co-creation workshop. The workshop will see Londoners who contributed to the cocreatelondon.com website come together with London experts to turn the ideas into positive and real solutions. These solutions will then be marched to Town Hall and presented in front of London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Join us on theblogpaper,

post, rate, discuss content and get published in print...

theblogpaper 12th of March 2010 - If you would like to see your articles / blogs / work in print, just log on and start posting at theblogpaper.co.uk...take it easy...