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Marcus Adams
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issue 4
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 1
11/01/2011 14:02
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Trisickle is an exclusive urban culture lifestyle publication. We are inspired by art, photography, music, action sports, filming, fashion and street culture. As a brand we represent the national urban community and our publication is the perfect medium for unique and creative members of this community to communicate their talent. Discovering and featuring new talent is one of the central motivational factors behind our publication.
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 3
Real culture lives and thrives through that of inclusion, constantly mutating and evolving in the hands of new generations.
11/01/2011 14:02
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11/01/2011 14:02
Editorial
How does one imbricate what they publicate? I imagine it might be akin to a Blue Peter episode. Take one toilet roll, some PVA and a Lily Allen review then conflate to make art. Tri it at home and see what happens. Do you remember your first tricycle? I don’t, I had a red car. I do remember driving a three-wheeled bicycle into a wall; my two-wheeled life was rather ephemeral slash non-existent. Literally. I think I burst a tyre. I did it to my car not long ago. But then why drive in a straight line when you fontasize a little differently. Times for a New Romance are calling fast but ours are far from bad, if you catch my drift. I guess what I’m trying to say is: hello my name is Steph and welcome to Trisickle where fontasies become reality.
Lead
Harry Wareham Claire Thomson
And Looking for more! so if interested
contact us!
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COPYRIGHT: Content of this magazine may not be reproduced in whole or part without permission of the publisher, Deelaney Ltd under the copywrite designs and patent act of 1988. Trisickle Magazine tries to maintain that all information contained is correct. All views expressed are opinions of the writers, interviewees or illustrators, and not the editorial staff or publishers views. Dee laney Ltd cannot be held responsible for views shared by third parties.
C
o
n
t
e
n
t
trisic kle
s
Visual Arts
54the
M
impossible project
u
s
i
Photography Picks of this month
c p5 Harry Wareham
p14 p32 “songs to hoover to” p42 by Spring Offensive. p51 34 Top bands of 2011 p60 Admiral Fallow, p64 15
Top
5
Lydia Beardmore Daina Renton Kirsty Whyte James G a r n e r Claire Thomson Foov
Mitchell Museum, 16
Scary Canary
33
22
julija matulyte
30
Haruki Marakami
Aeriels Up. Some of the The hidden shop with bands to look out for. the heart
top 5
Songs to Hoover to
15
"The thing about hoovering is that no one likes it."
Spotify
Will the future of music be streamlined? 43 Flintlock
The author who invites criticism
36 Remi
The motion designer who enjoys bright color and a bit of fluff
54 The Impossible project
marcus adams
Top skater talks about life and surviving a knife attack
62 Pop Up
Art
p8
It can appear anyway
65
“I
julija matulyte don’t do anything flashy, sparkling and fun”
p22 C o v e r
Motion Arts p8 Marcus Adams 48 Hollywood Remakes The American obsession with destroying legends 52 Mondo Films Dark, controversial filmmaking at its best
Star
Spoken Word
Recurring Features: 19 Bulletin in the Brain 20 Tri - fool
“Your life is a blank sketchbook and it’s waiting for you to draw experiences in every page.”
24 R
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Forum Skims Agony Aunts Tri - scopes
56 Reviews Vagabonds, the yarns, Epic 26 and more
a i na e n t on 11/01/2011 14:02
Marcus Adams
p h o t o s by Feron Haynes words
Pig
Bay66,
I first met Marcus at
Ladbroke Grove, London, some six years back, he and his best mucker gee, Aaron Sweeney, were r i p p i n g it up
– shock!
I invited them to come stay with me on the Isle of Wight, where I was living at the time, in an effort to introduce them to some of the local r i p p e r s there. I also wanted them to experience life outside inner city living - a slower pace and no threats of being mugged, stabbed or shot. They gelled with the locals and their friendships still stand strong today, that’s what I love about the skate community, it’s tight. There after I dragged Marcus, amongst others, up and down the country skating various sites and locations, this happened over a two year period; I have to say that they were two of the best years of my life, dossing on floors, in cars, under the moonlight and even in tree houses–
pre-
8
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Gyppo
Army,
what a life. A couple of years ago I received a telephone call out of the blue, informing me that Marcus had been stabbed while waiting with some friends in a completely unprovoked attack. I managed to get a hold of him while he was in hospital and was pleased to hear that his sense of humour was still intact as he played down the whole incident.
Marcus is one of the nicest guys I have ever had the good fortune to meet.
I have to say,
11/01/2011 14:02
illustration Paul Adam
Mar cus
ams
Ad Marcus Adams,
how the hell are you
Hey man, very well
?
I’m
cheers. Well… I’m a live at least. Trisickle Issue 4.indd 9
9
11/01/2011 14:02
I had, pretty much, the best time of my life…
Wh a t you been up to, you working these days?
dope music, Spanish chicks and
I’m doing bits and bobs’ for cash, mainly floating around in my own little world really. Lately I’ve been doing the whole festival season with a friends’ band, “The Ruskins,” I even have a song with them now
**laughs.**
Cool what’s the song about? It’s a verse in a song called Macho Me, it’s about trying to look hard in front of a girl you’re into…
free Heineken!
So you still skating?
Yeah dude all the time, well when it’s not raining or my arm isn’t in a sling. My shoulder is so weak these days it can literally just fall out of its socket at any given moment.
Damn, sounds sore mate.
It is!
Who you skating with these days? I spend most my time lurking in Kingston with Sweeney, Alex Lally aka Bam Noberg, Doug Parmiter and all the other K’town lurkers.
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11/01/2011 14:02
s?
You b e e n t r a v e l l i n g much??????? Yeah quite a bit but not as much as I would like, went to Amsterdam with Sweeney, Bam, Meanwhile Kev and a few others and bumped into Daryl Dominguez who is also cool to hang out with.I also recently went to the Benicassim, a festival in Spain; I had, pretty much, the best time of my life… dope music, Spanish chicks and free Heineken! The word that constantly springs to mind when referring to you is “SHIT KICKERS,” are you still in touch with the island lads? I love all the Isle of Wight boys but don’t really get to see or chat to them so much these days…
Big up Darren Tate!
What happened with Gyppo Army? Can’t you revive it, with a little help?
Dude the Gyppo Army days were too good; travelling with friends, skating and camping at any Skate park we happened to find. It would be cool to revive it but at the same time it will never be as raggo and off the cuff as it was. Plus, all of the people involved are still very tight but doing their own projects. Kevin ‘the boss’ Mckeon is now running THE STAND UP SKATE SHOP at Bay 66, Sweeney is filming for the new ANTIZ video while getting his Phd on and I’m still trying to take over the world!
What’s the maddest shit that went down from the gyppo army days? Hmm that’s a difficult question to answer, loads of really gnarly stuff went down from me being homeless in Bilbao and getting taken in by Arto Sari to Sweeney dropping a good 10ft onto his head shooting a photo. If I had to single out one super gnarly ordeal it would be when Sweeney snapped his arm in half and dislocated the same wrist in the opposite direction in Prague, we had no insurance and the ambulance wouldn’t event take him to hospital until we paid up. I had to ring the British embassy and they sorted out the cash flow situation. I was now alone in Prague with no cash so when the person in the bed next to Sweeney went for surgery, I got in his bed and refused to move.
My
shoulder is so weak t h e s e days it can literally just fall out of its s oat c kany et given moment. at given
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 11
any
moment. m om o m nt. m e ne t.
11/01/2011 14:02
S o
S w e e n y ’ s
do e s
the
Pikey
g o n e
still
I guess it depends on what you want to do mate; what do you fancy doing – it doesn’t have to be a career? Well I’ve always written lyrics/poems and I think it would be cool to write a book someday as well. Yeah that’s it I think I might write a book about my life so far and throw some poems in there too… Would you read it? Scrap that, would you buy it? **Laughs**
wear
b a c k
t o
s c h o o l ;
s p e c s ? ? ? ? ? ? Na he’s rocking contacts these days but yeah he is at college, if he passes he’ll start Medical School. I’m glad he’s going through with it as I can’t see myself getting a “career” and we share everything so I’m stoked, a lot of people were giving him shit about it so I hope he proves them all wrong!
Same!
I’d
publish it and sell it for you mate!
Does Sweeney want to be a doctor? Yeah he has for years then he started watching house… now there’s no stopping him!
Wish him well for me mate…
Will do! We were both saying just the other day how we miss you and occasionally end up calling you when we’re pissed **laughs** Yeh I know, it does makes me smile!
What’s this Music group I hear you’re hanging with?
T H E R U S K I N S , such a cool crew of people. I started filming gigs for them and we got on really well. Now I spend a lot of time chilling with the boys. I like how they run things, turn up and play whether people like it or not, they have been labelled the “B a n d J a c k e r s ,” we recently hijacked big brother which made several papers
12
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What do you do for them? I started off just filming local gigs and tuning guitars etc, now I have a verse in a tune. We do a garage remix as well, which I love, as I get to bounce around on stage for a bit. I also give my opinion while recording songs in the studio, I’m not sure if I make any sense most the time. Are they signed yet? No they’re unsigned by choice I think?...... May cover them in a future issue if they are up for it? Yeah they will be up for it fo sho! You should check out their You Tube account… most of the videos I filmed including the Benicassim tour video and the Soccer AM band jacking is on there. Yeh I saw your blog spot on Sky’s Soccer AM, nuts…
I heard you were into tattooing?
Yeah I’m well into my tats! I have loads and am half way through a sleeve. I decided a while ago it was too expensive so I bought a tattoo machine online and got too work. Bad choice really as I like to a have beer or 10
Can you share some
artwork?
Hmm artwork would imply that I’m good at drawing… I just get silly ideas and go through with it without thinking. I now have my mum’s phone number tattooed upon my person. Let’s hope she never changes it!
11/01/2011 14:02
I’ over
m my
sho
always uld
t h e s e
l
er d a y s
o o
king
…
Tell me about when you got stabbed, what was that all about? Ah the old knife in the chest incident. I was walking home with a crew of friends when I got super greedy, I remembered that I had a Rizla filled with some sticky icky so decided to go on a one-man mission with it. Two guys started with the normal mugging routine “what’s the time, let’s see your phone” type of stuff, by this time I had already hyped myself up and it ended in a two against one situation in which I did surprisingly well – (remembering some of our sparring sessions.) I thought it ended there but it turns out one of the guys followed me home and jumped out with some Rambo steez knife; he got my liver and pierced my lung.
M a n t h a t s u c k s , I’m glad our boxing sessions paid off mate…
Yeah they paid off big time, but you forgot to include knife combat training! How long were you out of it? I was on a morphine drip and in hospital for nearly 2 weeks; I had quite an interesting time. I was back on my board in a few months; but I’m always looking over my shoulder these days…
Lastly, Marry, Fuck, Kill and why: Jordan, Cheryl Cole & Paris Hilton
Did they get the wanker that did it?
Yeah the guy that did it is in jail, what pissed me off was the fact that he was out on bail for a sex offence when the attack took place straight up peado c#nt. He was in Felltham for a while, which is where I’m from, so he met a few of my unhappy associates there!
What’s next for you mate?
If only I knew! I will probably just carry on in my little bubble oh and I really want to learn to play the banjo! Mate, I’m sure you’ll do well in whatever you decide to do, the key thing to do however is first decide on what it is you want to do… Playing the banjo seems like a good start!
Well killing Paris Hilton is a no brainer; that bitch is always getting arrested and never goes to jail. If I had her crime sheet I’d be riding a lifer, plus she’s fucking annoying. I would fuck Jordon as long as she was silent (groans not included) if she said one word it would spoil the moment. I would marry Cheryl Cole as she is hella fine, but I would have to look her straight in the eye and say look I will marry you but please don’t ever sing and try to stop talking in that funny accent.
B i g up s!
Id like to big up TINPOT skateboards, my mummy, THE RUSKINS, Steve who runs Kingston skatepark. Aaron Sweeney, Kev Mckeon for not breaking my legs over debts, ‘ask your girl’ for the fresh garms And all my homies that lurk at Kingston skatepark.
Blueslims.blogspot.com
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 13
.holla.
13
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‘Its 5 O’Clock SomeMy honest choice would be and Jimmy Buffet. It’s where’ by Alan Jacksonpop song and it gets you a great catchy country reassu ring you that no through anything by ring is, at the end of matter how pants hoovecold drink it, you can have a nice
Joe
The thing about hoovering is that no one likes it. It’s a noisy, unwieldy and complicated exercise, and generally speaking people will leave it until it is something they absolutely have to do, until leaving it would represent a genuine health risk. Consequently, the music you hoover to simply has to be the sort that will make even the most miserable task feel somehow triumphant and life-affirming. So here are our fail-safe dustbusting choices. Wait until there’s no one around, turn the volume right up, and throw on these hoover-tunes. It’s almost enough to make you go all Jeremy Clarkson over the latest developments in Dyson technology. The house is going to be spotless.
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 15
By
5 Songs To...
‘I Want to B reak Free’ Queen. As a child, Dav id Mallet’s b ri ll ia nt video, in which Fred die Mercury and Brian M do household ay chores while dressed in Coronation S treet drag, h ad a profou effect on me. nd Today, I can ’t hoover without singi ng this song. I don’t even need to put it on. It is the only true hoovering an them. Lucas
Spring Offensive
cetle sli ls t i l e c This ni uo sleigh bel Bells. h g se d an i e l ork noi ell as being ars-S Y t i w u e G N y y w t d i n s e n e A h fi r t n I n. m t is henry o ude fro out it nky. o-attit lps me get my best thing ab mm, cru m m m m m m e m h e m h Mm roo ,t always oughout g at the end. o do my whole r h t e n . ace tu landin or me t peat function ut epic ittle short f e b r f e e h i t r b l nvented it’s a hy we i w At 2:31 s t a h ut t with, b Theo
c by Michael Ja Billie Jean’ bec can you e kson. Mainly inaus video, pretend youre ntthe car / and the pavemestep on pet it lights up as you and r hai suck up dust andof paper that those tiny bits off seem to shear the world everything in whether its regardless of er. made out of pap Or something. Pelham 11/01/2011 14:03
16
SCARYCANARY l
C
JACK
T h e
t
o
i
h
g
n
BROWN
f i r s t
o n e
d o w n
Sitting next to the wood fire in The Duke William Pub, be tween a few pints of local beer, I am told the story of how a partnership between a fine art student and a record store owner in Portsmouth became a burgeoning indepen dent vintage clothes shop aiming to make its mark on a town that has twelve charity shops, and no men’s casual clothes stores. At first, it certainly sound ed like a Herculean tale. In the high street of Stour -
t h e
m i n e .
bridge, it does seem like charity shops are the pro verbial retail monarchy. Well known names such as Oxfam and lesser known ones such as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Rescue adorn the high street at regu lar intervals. To choose Stourbridge as a place to forge an identity as vintage and alternative while aim ing to become a cultural hub for this ethos against all those charity shops certain ly sounded like a daunting
SCARYCANARY SCARYCANARYSCARYCANARYSCARYCANARY SCARYCANARYSCARYCANAR CARYCANARYSCARYCANAARSCARYCANARYSCA CANARYSCARYCANARYSCARYCANARYSCAR task; “When we were decorating the store-front in March, an old woman walked past the store and read the sign in the window. She said
Ill: Laura Tully Photo: Craig Bush
“Vintage
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 16
clothes
store
coming
soon...
that
won’t
last
long!”
I would love to meet that woman again to prove her wrong!” They certainly have proved any doubters wrong. For Steve Pilcher and Stacey Smith, the journey which they embarked upon to create Scary Canary Clothing is one with many loca tions, many car-boot and eBay sales and many cups of tea; all in the name of creating one truly unique store. From the initial meetings in Steve’s record store in Ports mouth the pair moved to the Midlands, as Stacey is from the area and gained arts qualifications from the Longlands Cen tre of Stourbridge College. They first lived in Longbridge, Birmingham and operated the store on eBay, buying mystery job-lots, taking pictures of items against a green blanket in a room befitting that of any Graham Linehan comedy and re-selling the choice pieces of clothing, artwork and re cords; “I remember lots of kettles and fridges...we didn’t even have any proper lighting equipment”. The spark for the concept of vintage being a commodity for the pair came at a car boot sale. The picture was a litho graph print by David Hockney of ‘Mr and Mrs Clarke and Per cy’. The picture depicts Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, both incredibly respected in the culture of vintage fashion, shortly after their marriage.
11/01/2011 14:03
movement. fashion current a to
validity its than rather item, an
of look the and print the at look
they say Stacey and Steve even but
reasons right the out stand
for
to wishing those by shunned cally
stereotypibeen has past the in
that clothing of item an to down
success their cite could that nies
compamany aren’t certainly There
jumper!” one that of sales the
from shop the open to managed we
start... the was jumper Christmas
“That indeed; pair the by move
inspired An work. artists and ers
designlocal stocking started duo
the basement, the out operating
of
and Centre Longlands the opposite
house a to Stourbridge to back ing
movAfter Canary. the for point
turning real a was 2009 Christmas
began. items
vintage particular for search
the then and vintage in terest
inthe pushed further this ture,
picthe in were pair the
wearing
what into undertaken was research
print, the purchasing after Soon
...
...
The company hand picks their stock from designers, not only local but nationwide. They hand pick their models for displaying their stock on the website that launched in the summer of 2010; they are often from the local colleges and even acquaintances. They have run design competitions for local artists, and have had some acoustic music nights. “We want to have Scary Canary as a creative hub, more than just selling clothes and accessories
...it
April 17th, 2010, was the official opening day for Scary Canary Clothing. Since that first spring day, the company has grown in so many ways and down so many financial avenues. The old ways of buying job-lots have gone, the selling through eBay has gone and even the old green blanket kicked the bucket.
is
not
really
about
us
Scary Canary almost didn’t make it into Stourbridge. Several places in the Midlands were looked at; Kings Heath and Worcester to name a few, but thankfully, Stourbridge always seemed destined to be the area to settle; “There isn’t a menswear shop in Stourbridge... and we’re in between two art colleges. There are quite a lot of people doing quite a lot of things because they love to, not for some weird ego boost.” This spirit of local pride, enthusiasm and a craving for such a store to exist certainly shone through during construction and renovation. Friends, relatives and like-minded people turned up to help; that is indeed how Ryan, one of the staff members, got his job at Scary Canary Clothing – by having the desire for such a place to exist (and all the other necessary qualities of course)
”
NARYSCARYCANAARSCARYCANARYSCARYCAN ANARY SCARYCANARYSCARYCANARYSCARYCAN YSCARYCANARYSCARYCANARYSCARYCANAR YSCARYCANARYSCARYCANARYSCARYCANARY
...
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11/01/2011 14:03
Not only have the local people taken notice, but the wider national and international world. Vogue magazine called the store directly because of the niche market that Scary Canary Clothing caters to; consequently, sales of Scary Canary items in the areas of Vogue magazines larger circulation went up from the advertisement. Despite the call from a large, glossy magazine, the company still kept Stourbridge and its locale at the roots of its opportunity, “We took the pictures in the Stourbridge subway... the Stourbridge subway has been in Vogue magazine!” Scary Canary clothing is also one of the few stockists in the United Kingdom of the Threadless brand; a huge t-shirt company and designer’s forum. To not only be welcomed by a local audience with open and enthused arms, but to be recognised on a national scale, Steve, Stacey and the staff must be doing sionately deentrepreneurtheir ial charactersomething right. fending istics; it’s a The only worry brand; “I think universal sentinow is the fu- some people use recession ment, for anyone ture. In this the an excuse; aiming in these u n p r e d i c t a b l e as finanuncertain times, financial world within restricto do what they climate, is lon- cial love as their gevity a re- tions, there are life’s work. alistic goal more opportuniI left the pub for Scary Ca- ties to be crewith a huge sense nary Clothing? ative” comments quickof optimism. An Is there possi- Stacey, optimism for bility for the ly followed by Scary Canary, shop to become a Steve’s exclamaan optimism for mainstay in the tion; “Up to and SepStourbridge as Stourbridge High including a shopping area Street against tember 2011, we that has seen the shops that have our summer many indepenseem to be play- label planned”. dent shops rise ing endless games High Street tenand fall in its of pass the par- ure is certainly history and an cel with clocks a goal they crave and clothes at and certainly are ready to build towards because of optimism for the insane prices? the love for what they do, “When it clicks that you West Midlands as Stacey and Steve can do it for yourself, you don’t really want to a creative area responded, as I go back to anything else”; a sentiment that cer- striving to gain expected, vehe- tainly resonates not only through Steve and Stacey’s an ethos of being alternative mently and pas- fashion-minded aspects, but certainly through their an choice to what is on offer in numerous parts of the country.
JU UM MP PE ER RS S.........W WI IT TH H J J U M P E R S W I T H
RO OB BO OT TS S R R O B O T S
ON N O O N
Scary Canary Clothing certainly has all the credentials to becoming a large part of what makes Stourbridge a place worth visiting. Their fantastic range of clothing, the creative network that
they
are
working
so
hard
to
create
for
themselves
passionate people running the shop says more than when the owner of a shop can turn to you, holding tanic ers
Mild
with
in
a
robots
handle on
them
glass
and
arriving.
say
“Tomorrow
I a we
Jumpers...with
and
ever pint
the
could; of Ti-
have robots
jumpon!”
YOU KNOW THAT THEY ARE DOING SOMETHING THAT THEY LOVE DOING.
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 18
11/01/2011 14:04
Due to a recent grey squirrel scare, the British Government has decided to take steps to eradicate the main threat to the endangered red squirrel. Red squirrels can currently be found in small pockets around the British Isles, but are most commonly to be found on the Isle of Wight. The initial proposal to combat the problem is to paint the grey squirrels on the Isle of Wight red, as this is where the squirrels are better contained. If successful, the plan will be introduced in other areas around the country. A representative for the Isle of Wight Council also said “If the plan works, there’s nothing stopping us from introducing purple or even blue squirrels into the environment.” However, if all else fails the likely result will involve moving forward with ‘Operation Big Sting’ - beginning to exterminate all grey squirrels - it’s a win-win situation.
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 19
I’ve had a
Squ i r r el ed
revelation!
‘We must extract our teeth and lead by example. Once we’ve shown our constituents our commitment, we will call on the general public for their continued support. We will need to invest £25 million in building Give Teeth Stations, and site them in all B&Q car parks across the UK. We will then invest a further £60 million in creating a giant satin pillows, 50ft by 50ft, under which to place the teeth.’ David Cameron’s number one priority is to pull Britain out of financial crisis; his second is to be able to speak French. An inside source has revealed, exclusively to Trisickle, the events which took place soon after the new coalition government was announced. It is alleged that the new PM called an emergency meeting in an immediate attempt to draw the UK out of financial ruin. The meeting, lasting throughout the night and well into the early hours, saw the heads of the top UK banks as well as Government ministers quickly convened at No 10; some so disorientated they even arrived in their pyjamas. Our source had heard Cameron shouting, ‘I’ve had a revelation!’ The PM gathered the leaders while the idea was still fresh in his head. The aim was to create an emergency plan without resorting to a £50 billion bailout from the hardworking taxpayer.
The Shadow Cabinet have thus far only responded with sneers, ‘The man’s clearly insane, this proves it. How can we hope to roll-out this ‘plan’ with a serious lack of NHS dentists? Tosser!’ The King and Queen of Fairyland, Charles and John, added, ‘It will be a tough task collecting all those teeth, but we’ll ramp up staff levels and give our fairies big bonuses as incentives. This will certainly drive productivity: after all, it isn’t as if fairyland’s in the shit now is it Prime Minister?’ The proposal never made it to planning, as Nick Clegg overruled the PM. Instead it was decided that taxes would be raised and spending on public services was to be cut. Source: Mary Cameron Catering, Teas & Coffees (Peckham North)
The idea came to David when his nephew lost his first tooth. Thrilled at the Tooth Fairy’s current pay-out of £1 for each tooth placed under the pillow, he saw an opportunity to exploit the fairyland inflation rate. The Prime Minster, finding it hard to contain his excitement, stressed that it would be a small price to pay in order to ‘pull’ Britain out of recession. He went on to explain his plan:
19
11/01/2011 14:04
TriFool Contact
Michael Park and Adam Clery
problems@trisickle.co.uk
I recently saw Kanye West has replaced his teeth with diamonds. I want to do something similar on a budget. What can I replace my teeth with? Also I'm terrified of the dentist, how will I overcome this? (Kanye's No1 Fan) Let me see if I understand this correctly. Kanye West, the notoriously excessive ballbag/ producer swapped all his teeth for diamonds, and you, a dedicated follower are looking for an equivalent more in line with the wage you're paid working at Halfords? Well, I have the simplest of solutions my good chum. Just replace all your diamonds... WITH TEETH! Yes, that's right. In a fitting homage to our Kanye, you can simply invert his banter by taking your rings, necklaces and even your girlfriend's belly-bar and swapping them with some slightly yellow, yet still bling as fuck, gnashers. A supply of which can be made readily available by smashing your face off a bannister or asking a Wetherspoon's bouncer if he “fancies a blowie”.
Address the issue with him, explain in a calm and dignified manner that by emasculating you, it will alter the delicate balance of your relationship. If that doesn’t work then simply find his best-looking buddy and, as soon as the opportunity arises, nail him right in front of your boyfriend. Your job is to then gauge the reaction, if he looks angry you’re fine, but if he looks jealous, you’re not.
21 Jan - 19 Feb Today the Moon passes Saturn, Uranus ascends through Chirons equilibrium and Earth lines with the vertex whilst clashing with your radical chart. You know what this means. Divorce.
Pisces
20 Feb - 20 Mar Your sat-nav’s gone all ‘George Michael’ this month. Don’t worry! The tiredness, fatigue and sleepless nights will all soon go. Death awaits you.
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 20
Well, Simon. The first thing to do is convince yourself that you’ll look better carrying a few extra pounds. You will put on a little bit of weight after you stop smoking as you desperately seek long, thin foodstuffs to stuff in your face to replace the heady rush of nicotine that cigarettes provide. To start with, you’ll be able to pass it off as just being Christmas weight but eventually you’ll have blown up to the size of a zeppelin and will be able to operate as such.
That all depends on your definition of ‘worried’ Anon. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys Glee and being fisted up the back passage then I dare say you’ve nothing to fret over. But if you’re awfully attached to your femininity then yes, you may have some warranted concerns.
Aquarius
20
My new years resolution is to quit smoking. How do I do it? (Simon)
My boyfriend has recently started buying me checked shirts and airing his love of hairy legs. Should I be worried? (Anon)
Triscopes
Just remember, as you crash into a mooring mast, killing all of your passengers that you can have the moral highground. You’re not killing yourself slowly with cigarettes any more. You fat bastard.
Aries
21 Mar - 20 Apr The celestial map takes a right turn unexpectedly this month! A conversation looms and brings hidden views and matters into your life. A conversation between you and Nick Griffin.
Taurus
21 Apr - 21 May Mars, planet of energy, shall drive you to success at work. Your reputation and social standing are set to go through the roof! Of course, when we say “Mars, planet of energy” we really mean: Boob-job.
I have stress fractures in both feet. I like to eat christmas goodies. How do I keep from gaining 20 pounds this season? (Rachel) Rachel, you might be surprised to learn that there’s a very simple solution to the stress fractures in your feet. Make sure that, over the Christmas period, you don’t stand up. There’s a myriad of different ways to make sure that you stay off your feet but my advice is to make sure that you’re near the fridge and a television and then remain sitting on your arse for as long as possible. It’s either that or trying to develop bulimia but that’s not cool.
Gemini
22 May - 20 June Listen mate, guys aren’t suppose to read horoscopes. Perhaps its time to tell your parents something? We predict they already know.
Cancer
21 Jun - 22 Jul The Crab, animal of the Cancer sign. Ironically, Blood tests and STD Creams shall frequent the start of your new year as two friends move in with you: Phthirus Pubis and Colorectal cancer
with Mike Lebowski 11/01/2011 14:04
iol f
o
r
u
m s
k
i
“port Of course I supGay marriage;
m
s
if they want to be miserable like everyone else let them!
“ legal
”
“Got up this morning and went downstairs and found the wife lying face down on the floor not breathing, I panicked and freaked out ,I didn’t know what to do, then I suddenly remembered............McDonald’s serves breakfast till 1030..”
WTF,
these
“
You want dreams, take a nap”
“I dream of better tomorrow.
“if you die on facebook do you die in real life?”
a Where chickens can cross roads and not have their motives questioned”
“I just purchased my car insurance using comparethemarket.com. As
I was about to log off, a banner came up saying, “Would you also like a quote to insure your pet?” I thought to myself, “No, thanks.
My dog can’t drive
ILLUSTRATIONS SPAM - francesca Macdonald Agony Uncles - Adam Smith, Joni langdale Itunes - Kevin Allen Tri-scopes - amy Hoddinott
Leo23 Jul - 22 Aug This being your Astrologers star sign, we predict: riches, babes, property and more riches! This will be the month that makes you. Everyone will bow down to your greatness. And yes, five inches is bigger than average. Infact, its better. Virgo23
Aug - 22 Sep Do you have some making up to do, Virgo? Looks like you and a certain someone could lock swords this morning. Our advice is; don’t use the same urinal, at the same time, as your father.
”
Libra
23 Sep - 22 Oct Family pressures strangulate you this month. Pluto shines through your spectrum this month. Its guiding light will see you through. This month should see your finances get worse than usual. A triple murder/suicide looks promising.
Scorpio
23 Oct - 22 Nov Katy Perry shares your star sign. Unlucky.
downloads
killing
are
”
piracy!
“Can someone mail me a DVD or CD with the internet downloaded to it?
I am sick of paying.
”
“if you get sent an email from me with a link in it directing you to a page about tinned meat don’t open it.... It’s SPAM”
Sagittarius
23 Nov - 21 Dec Your love life will blossom this month. Someone with an: A, E, I, O or U- in their name identifies as a potential love prospect.
Capricorn
22 Dec - 20 Jan Something important will happen this month, on someday, at sometime. You will feel indifferent when it happens. It will definitely maybe affect someone else.
21
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11/01/2011 14:04
Julija Showcase d o a n y t h i n g
What I do is rather white and minimal. And quite often it is boxes – big and small, ones you can enter and ones you can lift up with your hands. Talking about boxes, they always conceal sound. Human sound. These are works about communication, or rather, false communication, as in fact, I emit sound, I do not receive any input from the audience, listening to it. I speak to the viewer from the inside of the box. Or into the box - depending on how big the box is.
n o
o n e
w i l l
f
l
a
s
h
y
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u s
n o w
No punctuation. white cyclamen skull sea perdition muteness love
death night blossom 22
22 22
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o
n
’
t
,
Why cubes? These are one of the simplest figures to comprehend. If the box is big enough, it can become a place one can enter. On entrance one will discover whether it is a safe shelter, or maybe, a trap. For a modern person, a square enterable structure is instantaneously associated with a room. What kind of a room? Is it a big one? What color is it painted in? does it have any other items in it? And then, according to that – what does that room become – is it a 6 by 8 feet jail cell, is it a lab room, or maybe a boudoir? Or maybe it is a room from ones childhood, as French philosopher Gaston Bachelard would probably refer to; a safe place with a corner where one can hide.
s a v e
d
s
I don’t think Bachelard would refer to these rooms as to childhood rooms. These rooms ARE boxes that can be entered. There’s nothing inviting in them. Apart from one’s curiosity and moth-like attractiveness towards light and sound there’s nothing appealing in my rooms. I am talking here about sound light installation white cy-
clamen.mute perdition, where very strong yellow light seems to be inviting the audience to enter a 6 by 8 feet walk through room filled with light. On the entrance to the room one experiences heat sensation, created by a number of high voltage lamps, installed in the ceiling. Apart from the light, the space is filled with sound – a voice over of me, reciting a poem. The room, containing the sound and light becomes a loudspeaker, emitting the frustration and despair into the rest of exposition. Though the work is about communication, no or very little of the words are to be understood. The poem is recited in Lithuanian language, in a manner of whisper. However, though the whisper is in general understood as an intimate expression, in this work the message is reversed by literally screaming out the whisper. The recording of the voice was a performative action in itself – in a duration of seven minutes I was repeating the poem over and over again without any pauses. The repetitive nature of the text and manner of recitation causes an extensive salivation. I continued to recite the text until the moment I could not breathe in due to the amount of the saliva in my mouth. These are the words that keep on repeating in the poem in a language known only to a few, in manner that makes words difficult to comprehend even to those few.
11/01/2011 14:04
Julija Showcase s
p
a
r
k
l
i
n
g
a
n
d
Another walk-in piece crypt 2 is a similar, claustrophobic space, completely empty apart from the humming of white noise. There are several choices, the viewer has to explore the space to find something.
Only one person at a time may enter the room. A brightly lit room, shielded with a white curtain, implying certain sacral connotations, is very inviting and draws curiosity of the audience, as apart from the light there is a hum humming noise coming through the veil. On the entrance to the room, the viewer might be surprised by the complete emptiness of the room. There is nothing special about it – ordinary white walls and ceiling, grey floor, as in the whole outer exposition space. However, constant buzzing and ooze of a quiet voice might draw the viewer to one of the corners of the room. If this does not happen, and the person, that entered the room leaves it in seconds or after a while but yet without any discovery (and answer to a possible question what is in there?), experience of the piece is not lessened. However, if one’s curiosity leads to a discovery of the single 2mm diameter point hidden in the room, viewer becomes a part of a circuit, and triggers clear sound phonogram, a recording of a personal confession. The notion of objectification of an invisible, immaterial point in the space might lead to an implication of some very important message in the voice-over; however the text is rather a thread of thoughts intervened with personal experiences and feelings, than a didactic speech. This personal ‘confession’ is more of a medium for a viewer to think about oneself, rather than a satisfaction of curiosity (hearing someone’s deepest secrets). And in return, the participator becomes a crucial component of the piece, as without an object, breaking an invisible beam of a sensor, no confession is possible. A viewer becomes though physical, but still medium for the immaterial voice.
“So I was and I am. In front of myself, first of all. And I believe it is my strength. And I confess it to you. Because you are listening to me. So yes, I told my sins only once. But probably a confession is not just about telling sins. I think now, it is probably telling something you hide. Something you hide from others and yourself”
Julija Matulyte http://julijamatulyte.blogspot.com
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 23
f
u
n
.
I have been always interested in questions of perception – viewer’s perception of art, or human perception of environment in general. I am very interested in how much one understands, perceives through the language of signs, no matter, whether they be visual, or verbal (i.e. language). And as an opposition to that, how the audience does perceive something that is more abstract, how this activates further interpretation of the given material. What do you do, if you have two minutes to stand in front on a white board, with only several lines been drawn on it? If there is someone who describes the invisible landscapes and sceneries, won’t you image them? Draw images from your memory, ones of fields and forests, seaside and beaches, images of legends and tales, your own reminiscences. Do they change in the combination of this proposed outline of a landscape and a suggestive narrative? Aesthetics is very important to me, and I am very much interested in the idea that something pleasing and visually attractive would put the viewer in an unconsciously disturbing situation. My desire to hold audience’s attention for a longer period of time lead me to time-based media, and considerations on this idea resulted in experiments with more abstract media – sound, light. And so, as a result, in some of my works elements, that are usually pleasant – light, landscape, murmurs, become somehow dark and disturbing. You think you are listening to a sleeping person, breathing slowly whilst dreaming. In fact, your ear is leaning on lips of a dead body. What happens once the viewer understands that, if he does..?
23
11/01/2011 14:04
expressing themselves. different ways of expressing themselves.
Renton
Da
Some use
music, some
“ Di f f e r e n t
people
have
daina
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 24
use
use
i
N �
phot0g r a p h y.
11/01/2011 14:04
int
A
”
r
o
D
B e l i e v e
i t o r n o t , I first came across ai nA ’s artwork while surfing Facebook. I have to admit I was taken aback by her work, but why? Granted it’s a little rough around the edges, but isn’t it these small imperfections that make the perfect shot and great art? She isn’t using an expensive 200 shots per second SLR or tripods, lighting and screens to capture her work, there is no expensive, software enhancing product that bleeds the color and light - indeed, I was bowled over to learn that most of her work was captured on
a m o b i l e phone.
No, it’s all the basics, conception through imagination and creativity, and delivery via basic equipment. It’s this thatmakes Dania’s work extremely artistic and a pleasure to look at and admire.
I love
the grittiness and creativity, it’s truly inspirational and I will certainly continue to follow her progress, as I’m sure she will become a well-established photographer and artist. to o k s o m e time to speak to her; really is welcoming
she
r Who
e nt
a
I
and inspiring young woman.
are you and w h a t d o y o u d o
o
N
?
My name is Daina Hailey Renton and I am an amateur photographer/model. I’m fifteen and still at High School, in the fourth year. Exams soon, and it’s pretty terrifying, **laughs**. I revise religiously five nights a week.
W h a t i s y o u r o u t l o o k o n l i f e ? Your life is a blank sketchbook and it’s waiting for you to draw experiences in every page.
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11/01/2011 14:04
Why
photography?
Different people have different ways of expressing themselves. Some use music, some use dance, I use photography.
Do
you paint and draw too?
Oh yes! I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember! I still do. I have a sketchbook I take with me most places. A picture can paint a thousand words. Some times a thousand words I’m not very good at saying.
Why do you do what you do? I think it’s the best way to display what goes on in my mind, or my general creativity. I usually work alone, unless I have something more complicated to manage, then a friend will help me. Personally, sometimes I feel out casted, when some people sometimes don’t understand what you do, but without an artist there’s definitely something missing.
Where does this creativity come from? The strangest thing is, I have no idea. This whole thing just seemed to come out of nowhere. Now I can’t live without it. I think it just comes from whatever influences me. Whether it be music, horror movies, idols, whatever. I’m at a very impressionable age, so I think now is the time I will be most influenced. But I’ll always have my experiences to look forward to as I grow older, as those will be even more things to fuel the creativity. I t h i n k I s o m e t i m e s go o v e r b o a r d . But other times I wonder if there should ever be a limit - It’s hard to be original. The best of my work comes from my mind. And that’s something that only I can create.
W
o
w
,
you mind must be an explosion of thoughts;
do you scribble down ideas as they come to you?
Well I’m definitely always thinking. I do some times, if the thoughts are easily forgettable. Other times, I draw them on whatever’s in front of me. And I can recall at least two times I’ve been a caught ‘vandalising’ desk in school in the past.
**Laughs**
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11/01/2011 14:04
A
NED?
It’s the same as a CHAV; stands for Non Educated Delinquent
Do you think you’ll continue your studies?
What’s your favourite art work, which piece are you currently most
proud
of?
Hmmm. I’m very proud of the ‘Hard Candy’ album, as it’s definitely one people remember. I like my nature inspired ones most.
How does your school deal with you image?
Oh, I’m not even going to get into that rant. I get dress code badges for ‘not’ being in dress code, even when I am in dress code. They often find small things like the safety pins on my trousers, or my ripped tights and tell me I’m not in dress code or I’m a safety hazard or something. It’s annoying, considering anyone else could do it and they’d get away with it and also the fact it says nothing about those things on the actual dress code regulations – I know them very well. To be honest, I’m convinced they do it because it’s just me that dresses that way, thus they will not have to deal with the masses, but just one person. I mean, I know for a fact the tracksuit clad NEDS don’t get half the crap I do. When they turn up to school that is.
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 27
Definitely going to Uni. I’d like to study anything in forensics. I’ve always had a thing for forensics, ever since I can remember. Anything to do with crime scenes and investigations, I’m there. My family are from Glasgow, but I was born in the Law Hospital near Carluke, then my mother moved to a small village called Dolphinton; a very grim place, no shops, just a graveyard!
Is
your mum supportive, she must freak at some of the imagines and ideas you portray, no?
What has been an influencing experience?
Well I recently took some pictures of the ladies at a local hair and beauty salon in Biggar – and just the whole atmosphere was pretty influencing. It made me realise how much I’d love to do this as a profession. You see your models enjoying themselves and having their picture taken, and the best part is when they tell you they can’t wait to see the finished product. It makes you want to work even harder.
Yes she’s very supportive. Although like any parent, some of my photos/ideas are too much for her to tolerate, somewhat. Photos where I’ve been using weird props, or fake blood or I’m not wearing enough clothing or anything like that, she doesn’t approve of at all. But generally, she’s supportive, and I think she knows I love what I do.
11/01/2011 14:04
Try and explain what you do?
Well I do two things really, but I sometimes combine them. I can never permanently decide whether or not to be in front, or behind the camera. There’s the pride of being a picture, then there’s the triumph of having created that picture. However, I usually work with themes. Or I will take one thought that crossed my mind, and amplify it into something mental. Sometimes I will take any other idea, but I’ll twist it and make it my own. I design the general look, I take the photos myself and I edit them myself also.
3
Lady Gaga;
To work with
to
work with her would be a dream
come true.
artists
Name you’d like to be compared to? Ellen Von Unwerth - she’s amazing.
David La Chappelle, & Steven Klein. Has your practice change over time?
Well I guess it has changed quite a lot. I went from doing mirror shots of me with my old phone, to taking organised, themed photographs with a decent camera, and getting to know software like Photoshop etc.
Describe a situation that’s inspired you?
Bullying or very constructive criticism; the more you hear that you’re a freak, the more determined you are to keep being who you are and doing what you do. Who calls you a freak and how do you deal with it? A lot of people; mostly just kids at school or yobs on the street. I got abuse off of these two old ladies once! **Laughs** But erm, I’m not sure. Sometimes you feel like you can handle it. Sometimes you don’t. But either way, the piercings and the massive hair are your armour, and protection. Or, just a human being repellent **laughs**. I was once sat on a bus full of people. About five people were standing, and there was only one seat left on the bus. And that was the one beside me. I wasn’t quite sure how I dealt with that.
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Any really embarrassing moment?
I have had so many embarrassing moments it’s unbelievable. **Laughs**. Although I thought it was a good idea in theory, I turned up to my third year Christmas dance in a wedding dress that I’d made. And it ended up being very embarrassing, especially when all the other girls were wearing small tight dresses and not looking like a crazy haired meringue. I have no shame though.
What reactions have you had while getting your shots?
I once had an old woman call the police on me because I was posing in a telephone box dressed up as Lady Gaga from the Telephone video. She was just convinced that I was naked in there. I’ve also, many a time, wore a ridiculous outfit and travelled to crowded places to then regret doing so when I get so many weird looks from passers by. But I guess there’s something satisfying about that. However, there is nothing satisfying about standing in your garden during the kneehigh snow during winter in a wedding dress while your neighbour’s children laugh at you. **Laughs**.
Who are you into music wise, other than
Lady Gaga?
Plenty of heavy metal and rock. Artists like Acid Bath, Cannibal Corpse, Slipknot, Rammstein and many others. I really love Emilie Autumn too. She’s worth a listen. Her lyrics are deeply inspiring and her poetry really makes me think. Her main genre is ‘Victoriandustrial’, a mixture of harpsichords and violins, but also some industrial beats. She’s great.
enced.
Any strong memories? I have the worst memory ever. But I remember the fields my grandparents’ house was situated. (Although the motorway was right beside them) It was by the Clyde, and the scenery was amazing. There was always something to do - for some reason I used to collect pinecones in buckets for hours or look at the black slugs in the grass. There were stables and this old courtyard, and I remember looking into the darkness of the chicken shed used to terrify me. I was always scared in case someone was watching me.
the time I will be most influ-
I’m at a very impression-
I have actually just used my phone for some of my albums. I’m obviously looking for a new, professional camera to take my pictures with now, because I think that if I managed to produce those pictures with that mobile, just think what I can achieve with a decent camera.
able age, so I think now is
What camera do you use?
Do songs inspires you?
I could list so many inspiring songs that I listen to. One of the most is ‘Fashion’ By Lady Gaga. I listen to that when I’m making a dress or something - ‘The Fame’ also. I have a playlist that I listen to when I’m in a creative mood. ‘New Perspective’ By Panic @ the Disco is also a very inspiring song to me.
11/01/2011 14:04
p
r
e
t
t
y
Is the artistic life lonely?
I wouldn’t say it’s lonely. I would say I was alone, but not lonely. Sometimes you need to be alone with your work, but if I do ever feel lonely in my work, I will look at pictures that others have produced like I do, which will remind me I am never alone in my art.
How do you fund it currently, it can be expensive?
Well, personally, I make a lot of my props etc that I use in photos, or I borrow things from people. Because I’m only going to use them once for photos, so I’m hardly going to spend too much on something that will just take up space in my room until I decide to stuff it in a drawer somewhere.
What couldn’t you do without?
I wouldn’t do without my music. It’s strange how the sound and words of a song can paint such pictures in your mind.
What makes you angry?
Too many things **laughs** Ignorance, and small minded people mostly. Society really pisses me off. Underage drinking really grinds my gears too. I know everyone does it, and I won’t lie that I’ve been in with people that have done it, but there’s just something about people my age drinking themselves into oblivion then waking up in the morning having no idea what happened the night before that really gets to me. I get angry really easily. All it takes is one tiny thing and I’ll be a very unapproachable person for the rest of the day.
o
d
d
Do you use any inspirational places?
This will sound extremely creepy but I’d have to say a graveyard. Not because I’m a pure-mad-Satanworshipping-Goth or anything, just because where I live, I live directly across from one, and when you’re in one, it’s strange that although the greenery and the colours and the life you see around you in the plants is just so contrasting to the death six feet below you. It’s peaceful, and it’s beautiful.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
I’m not sure if quotes count as advice, but it’s
stuck with me;
Why Lady Gaga?????
Dream projects, you have any?
do
To work with Lady Gaga; to work with her would be a dream come true. I guess it’s just because she’s my idol, and has inspired so much of my work, that to take her picture with my camera, and then have the experience of having done so, is just an amazing thought in itself.
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 29
I want to bring something totally new into
Parting words
I love Lady Gaga. I’m really inspired by her. She’s individual, and is more than just an artist. She’s committed and genuinely talented, unlike most ‘manufactured’ artists nowadays. However, her outlook on life, and determination to change the art of music as a whole, encourages me to do the same with photography. Call me a wannabe if you want, but she’s definitely an idol.
the photography
legend.”
world, and get
my work noticed by more than just Facebook users - the
best is yet to come.
11/01/2011 14:04
Haruki
Murakami
A Look at Kafka the author that Haruki
Murakami
anese aut numerous thirty ye tive Japa has been best sell pan alone recipient H a r a s t h s f h a t u t t r a i w c S c i t r a
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Trisickle Issue 4.indd 30
11/01/2011 14:04
His 2002 novel 海辺の カフカ,Umibe no Kafuka, translated for the English market in 2005 as Kafka on the Shore is a perfect example of his bold, uncompromising style. This novel is a unique blend of the real and the surreal. Stripped of anything fantastical Kafka on the Shore is the story of two people, Kafka the teenager runaway and Mr Nakata the simple pensioner, and their journeys across Japan. However, in Murakami’s world, the surreal is never far away: leeches fall from the sky, cats converse with humans and the ghosts of living characters haunt the steps of their childhood. Murakami does not need to justify these bizarre happenings, or dampen the magic with explanations, they are simply part of his world.
This lack of explanation or justification on Murakami’s part both enthrals and frustrates readers as the book lacks a sense of closure. At the end of the novel no-one gathers the characters together in the drawing room to tie up the loose ends and order the previous five hundred pages into a logical sequence. Instead questions are left deliberately unanswered: is Miss Saeki Kafka’s mother? who is the boy named Crow? was it a UFO or an America plane that gassed Mr Nakata? and who is impersonating Colonel Sanders? The list could run for pages. The book was seen as so ambiguous that Murakami’s Japanese publisher set up a website to help readers understand the novels meaning. In just three months over eight thousand questions had been posted about Kafka on the Shore, with Murakami himself personally answering over a thousand of them. Unfortunately, it is a Japanese website and so these inklings of understanding are left inaccessible to the English reader. However, Murakami has attempted to rectify this in his rare interviews. He describes Kafka on the Shore as full of riddles but not solutions. Only through the interaction of these separate riddles is a solution possible. Murakami goes on to say that this solution will be different things to different readers. The books ambiguous nature should, however, not be seen as a deterrent. A book of riddles with no obvious solution might sound frustrating but the reading of it is ultimately rewarding. You do not just accept the neat conclusion and discard Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore to the shelf, never to be thought of again. Instead it continues to play on your mind long after you have finished it, begging another reading, another chance to fathom out a solution to the riddle. Murakami’s divided readership can also be attributed to the treatment of sex in his novels. Aside from Nakata, whose traumatic childhood experience during the war has left him incapable of certain feelings: “Just as I don’t have memories, I don’t have any desire” (p422) we are graphically informed of all the other characters sexual preferences and exploits. In true Murakami style these liaisons are far from conventional. Kafka forces himself upon his maybe sister in a dream and the truck driver Hoshino has a prostitute recite Hegel to prolong his performance. Murakami’s characters are aware of their sexuality and the fact that it effects their decisions and commands their thoughts, even Otsuka the cat: “Sex can be a real pain that way. ‘cause when you’re in the mood all you can think about is what’s right under your nose-that‘s sex” (p51) His repeated references to sex are viewed as sensationalist and vulgar in the conservative literary scene of Japan. Kafka on the Shore portrays rape, incest, prostitution, under-age sex and Murakami neither condones or condemns these practises. He is the story teller, not the teacher. Kafka having sex with his maybe mother is depicted in intricate detail and yet the correctness of a fifty year old woman seducing a fifteen year old boy who may be her blood relative is not questioned. He simply describes the scene and moves on. Much of what splits opinion concerning Murakami’s work is his preference for western as opposed to Japanese culture. He is seen as a spokesperson for the post-war generation that shuns traditional Japan in favour of American popular culture. Murakami argues that the conventional Japanese home was lost after both modernisation and the war and that he, unlike other native authors, is not attempting to reassemble it. Instead he is embracing the future. His adoption of American music and western food may have turned the older Japanese generation against him but it has ultimately made his novels more accessible, more universal and allowed him to communicate with a worldwide readership. Just as Kafka on the Shore is a book of riddles, Haruki Murakami is a riddle himself: is he a sensationalist writer, too inept to write Or a satisfactory conclusion to a novel, who panders to the west?
is he a literary genius, deserved of the noble prize for literature, who has created a genre that
speaks both to and for the Japanese post war generation? The only solution, to read
his
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 31
riddles first hand.
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11/01/2011 14:05
c?
si l mu a i c r
e ify: comm Spot f o re futu The
e l p p a
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 33
The m to sto ajors pf ans stru d o ggle wn d l o lik ad e i n fat g m li usi ttl ci e p lle galligs y
Ne Spo ab w mu tif ingout gsic, y: e e re th tt h? The andplaceroug ing We h y a fut is blo d b ra our ll ure y c s l s g k ? i The til s. th s k T e of bla re a l n And e bo of r he d to com ck re o d as oti eco ays hea mer met man efin th ng rds of r i t, al, y o iti is up cia t g o o Eve l m cla ptiove m is a of a get ing but r e hav si usi ssi ns th re la th int how cal ava od lat pto e s o r ex c? wer e re nce -ne ila of ive p a kin eco act on e cl ali the e l n n r l o b jaz le txplo y ne d br y on d sh y do beg a Sa uel sed arr z o o m rin w w ows ne ops yo Th in, tur ess that ival r t usi g t ay ing w b an u g beee Mac and day, abou the of o uva c f he of t an d Nap n fi hin sp he t. i n t ans int doi hrou ds h brow n ne e’s end ari I s ter ste hro , w ern ng gh as se t w wit en ing ng til net r i b at het t h e e Th h i tir th the l r is n t sin her for ings bsit en t, e c e d ee eme a he gin th mu , t es muse maj a r m m e s h p a y i b e a g i e o i e o iT c . y a c. re rs wer talo in e c er diu rly re er unes ille str to gue my rack gett m th nou int the wit und lin ing at ght and for has gall uggl o erp g o u th ie y e h t b , d p p a e r s, offe Wik he ee e n a f a l o o n n ple pr ts th t e m and ring ile cro ma nd p ike c u a w d and oble dow e di 9 in ord sic app ind unl ks, n: S e tout thfat l all ms (nloa al-u the comp fans rox epe imi aft pot lo eir itt n t e i o l ima tha hey,ding p co mor anie den ed r f k b e y e ou t p tel t). th Ra nne nin s t s al . y 1 lab trea l) t Crea tdats on igs t ey ge A cti g 0 , els min he ted ed App o s wou gai on 00 , w g o pr and le’ to ld nst i o n 0 p i f gra Sw g s hav f t r th s a i a e u T n e ac i el m k s ts a ecte is den (dy byunes.s dow n p e lre d m a m hom a But loa ady usi us e r h i o ot a di da y . hug c fr c st f Th new lrea ng e c om re e d ata a r ami Pir cont y, log ang ng ate end ue e o ser Ba gro f m vic y win ajo e g b r y
Use the rs c sup r fo an r or port r fr egis t tio for ed b ee a er e y c ing ns w pai sma coun id ext and ithou su ll a ts bet ra f with t ad bscri ds flin ter eatu a r verti pr alr e a stre es ange ssuc a of wil eady cces ms and h as s the dly pro . o I App are suc ven t h fas ces as to ing le has in Eu sful be US. its bee rope But lau of , in n blo but it’ nch tif time i s y r n ckeal acr ha a mat the gra oss s bee ly, t fan bbin cou n ma as Sp er its s a g inn ntrie raudi ogra aud nd m ocen s a ng Las tion io sl akin t mus nd jus t.fm wit aves g th ic h . nan t co Fac Int em nfi and ce ebo eof rms o But the th Twitt k, e pro dom er and it’ gra s i tifi ki no m. cri zzy, ttens t al l aim tici for cak as e zy ed t sms Sp s n u o rec Sca ward have mero ou ndi s cor ent be s th n ing d la time avia e cr en n s b a rei the els . T s It tho mbur y ar are he r in e s e u as rema c e s the not lai and d ham to w ins be ming ir s s of enou gre per hethe to b str gh, ing wit for ongs Spo r t e s onl eam a dou ss. a par h i h e t y c s o s ang bt t Many ify’ is wi en oun f lit ticu ndie few s he l le p l d t t m o a et lab pr l od und ban le r o ‘ s, cru el, f the free racto ocer g. A buck seein els i r a c r b mus s pro ial nd for g v in bum tain lso, i e soo blem to e it w usine c’ the ry den s ha son as o s n s i n f v g s s l e er. are ur l r Spo go e al s a lat ir n tif But rathe dea e the be as tify e m l of nd a e, lt se y r i ’ j l t s a s us th w he Tak the i ser sing sud hea s c t no an l ith A Eve e Th boy vice u a w f c d r t ren , S teg lean of , s rom lot n th at’s pom u net rati int the tly tha of ough new an-ba ch m o e a w a n r t lar ork Rob t a user I’m albu nd wit face rket. , bra ge a ing Oth bie, s a s wo sure m. insit h s nd r u y e o c l a es ci ur d few r G Gar o e s y bles an al But rent f mus clec bei fan uys and sin ee ly ic tic d a h s g n w t a , , g i o Tho thi ve m t l a v US, make hout unbe akes ithe s o ery nd t a fa se h tiv the inr bei atabl it by y be versi voca ey a ir l com oads ng a e. cor ely abo re Chr Pol liev ght, p b ut ist ydo e i hes d an poor any’ to t le w h s d s r mas r h ita ich p t r a ro he el e ec n pl sal to pro ord cy o inc fit r aes. boo oy f r e v st lab th easi its e e maj ng sup lon probl els g p o cou or ter emat wai se ic ld m t a w nd e wi futu f re. or see ll h . ave I to 11/01/2011 14:05
Epic
26
Pha n tom band In 2011, the year of the
12
Trisickle,
musical entities
have been tainted with the potential brushing of
the
robot
superstardom. These
heart
bands and artists are the most tri-licious beings
Up
to tickle your ear
Aerials
lobes, oozing amazing from their very core. Ladies and Gentlemen prepare to choose your colour.
Spring Offensive
e b o n y
Trisickle Issue 4.indd 34
b o n e s
11/01/2011 14:05
ILL:
Scott Johnston
mit che ll mus eum
Lykke
Li
Puro Instinct
Allo
Darlin Trisickle Issue 4.indd 35
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Bla Bla Bla
An Interview with
Tetsouille I’ve known Tetsouille for a while now
By SugarPop
as we’ve been studying graphic design together at Jean Monnet (in Montpellier, France) for two years. We’ve worked on a few projects together, and at the time he was already really
36 Trisickle Issue 4.indd 36
gifted and by far the most talented student on the course.
11/01/2011 14:05
pushing
m e
forwar d .
H e
a n d m e
w a s e v e n
s o m e
l i k e n o w
a d v i c e s
a
b i g
b r o t h e r,
h e
i s
a n d
pushing me forward.
After 4 years in Montpellier,
a l w a y s
g i v i n g
Tetsouille moved to Annecy where he’s been studying multimedia conception and realisation at the very prestigious «Gobelins» school. Then he moved to Montreal in Canada.
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37
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hat are you w e m
w No
up to in Ca na da
l In 2008 tel , e l l i my girlfriend and I took the decision to go and live abroad. ou s We had planned to stay there for a year but we liked it so much that we t are actually living and working here since then. Canada is a very welTe coming country, encouraging immigrants to settle down and we thought
?
that a cosmopolitan city like Montreal would be a great place to get our inspiration from. There is a lot of tallented people, I’m thinking about the people I mix with: «123KLAN», «Le MATOS», my Djs friends and producers « Les Enfants Terribles » (which I’m part of) and more... It did open up some new perspectives, by spending so much time with some Djs I’ve eventually started to spin some discs!
Where do you work? And what kind of project are you working Tell me more about on? In Montreal there is a lot of business in relation to video games (more particulary since Ubisoft arrived). I’ve first started to work in the field of video games as a motion designer and UI designer (User Interface). I currently work for the company: Moment Factory as a graphic designer and motion designer. Moment Factory created some multimedia environments combining some videos, lights, architecture and some performances, it’s really cool. Alternatively, I work freelance but when I happen to have some remaining time I try to undertake more artistic projects such as graphic experimentations, illustrations and exhibitions.
the collective
Br i lle Brille? Brille Brille
(a Quebec expression which means Bling Bling) is a live visual collective of artists.
Who is involved? And what do you do? With Onekon7 and Woumpah, two friends whom I’ve met at « Les Gobelins », we are three graphic designers and motion designers. We specialized in live visuals, also known as Vjs. We create visual content (videos, animations, images) that we modify and mix to broadcast live during concerts, DJ-sets, events, etc... We share the same passion and we enjoy working together althought we live in different cities (Annecy, Montreal, Paris). To sum up Vjing is a great way to conciliate my passion for music
Tell us a bit more about motion
design?
The motion design is an artisitc discipline that is growing significantly thanks to all the technological advances that have occured field those last 15 years. We used to need a very powerful and expensive computer to create aminations, now anybody can do it with a standard computer and some desire to create. The word « motion design » is now very fashionable, to describe specifically an animation that will mix some 2D and 3D images, videos, etc... MTV’s bumpers are a good exemple.
and images, we feel connected to the music played by the DJ.
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27
graphic designer
&
years old
motion designer
Moment Factory,
working at
MontrĂŠal.
graphic
He is a designer, but he is also an artist and uses different techniques and different supports. He is also part of the Collective:
Brille
Brille,
and works as a VJ.
Tetsouille Poscas,
likes:
Bright colours, Illustrator,
Spaghettis , Simple shapes and Long fluffy harms.
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Do you still do a lot of
customisation? T o y s?
C l othi ng?
I’ve been taking part in the collective exhibitions (« Munny shows », toaster’s custom). Unfortunately this year I haven’t been able to design a lot of customizations but it is somethings that I want to focus on again as I enjoy applying my creativity on ordinary objects: toys, shoes, toaster, caps... And more if it will be worn, I will be extremely satisfied if my art could be universally accesible.
exhibitions?
Any No t
yet
ti on
i n
bi t
but
I ’ve
M ontr eal,
earl y
t o
talk
got
t he
light s about
it
proj e ct on , bu t
t o
ligh t s I
orga n ize off!
h ope
t o
I
a
colle ct ive
won ’ t
sh a re
say
som e
e x h i b i-
more , n e ws
i t ’s
a
s o o n .
So you do different things: some pure graphic design, some fashion design, some motion design, you’re a very busy guy! How do you feel about being a graphic designer and an artist? It’s still very hard for me to describe myself as an artist. Concidering my background, I see myself more like a graphic designer, meaning creating some visuals to answer a comission. Whereas an artist will express his own vision of the world.It’s true that the line between being a graphic designer and an artist is often very blurry. At first I started by expressing on different supports in order to get away from the
40
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computer. I have to admit, I dream about being a fulltime artist!
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What are your plans for the future? You told me that you wanted to start working freelance? When are you planning to become freelance? And how do you see yourself as a freelance? I do learn a lot at the moment in my current job, but yeah actually I’m planning to
You said that you wanted to move to
3D?
Are you going back to France then?
True. I do feel the need to add some 3D skills to my list of competencies. Being a graphic designer is also about improving oneself and Well, my heart is being in line with the present requirement, it’s really exciting. still there, my artistic touch and my
become a freelance graphic designer soon, it
thoughts too, I will go
seems only logical. I need more freedom in
back when I’ll have
my work, to be able to organise my schedule
enjoyed Montreal suf-
to work on some more artisic projects and
ficiently.
continue to train and develop...
Find out More About Tetsouille : - On his New Portfolio: www.tetsouille.fr/ - His Blog: www.tetsouille.fr/blog/ - And Shop online: shop.tetsouille.fr
Thank you Tetsouille!
Find out More About Brille-Brille : - On: www.brillebrille.net/ Loved it then you might also like : Onekon7: onekon7.fr/, Woumpah: woumpah.com/, Kora lie: kogaylou.free.fr, Supa kitch: supakitch.com
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flintlock
Words
PIG
So… what’s the name of your Band and who’s who at the zoo? We are called Flintlock and we have: Vocals - Ian Jafrato, Lead/ backing vocals – Steven Jones, Rhythm/ backing vocals – Ed (Pretty Boy) Robinson, Bass – Steve Coates AKA Dave & Drums – Roy James Jafrato
Are you guys affiliated with a performance rights organization? No not so far but we have been advised by JAR music to register with PRS
What’s the PRS? PRS stands for the Performing Rights Society; basically you sign to them and they sort out all the royalty fees and make sure people don’t get ripped off, a good thing for any serious artist to join.
Tell me about JAR Music, who are they and how are they helping? Jar Music is a talent finding competition, but they do say they’re not a battle of the bands. They scouted us to join and that’s how we got to play at the O2 academy2 in Islington
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What is your music background, what’s your story?,How did you all meet? Well it all started when Steve turned up to my house with his guitar and amp and asked if I wanted to join his band called “Permissible Gambit” which consisted of three of his friends (Sam, Lew and Dan). I’ve seem them play before at a practice because my girlfriend Jade grew up with most of them, but they where looking for a new singer. I told Steve that I’m a guitarist. So we both decided to give singing a go. Then we sat down and wrote a tune called “Devil Woman” which we then took to the band and we created a new sound. At practice I had a little trouble singing and playing so Steve told me to put down the guitar and concentrate on my vocals because he said I had a great voice which was defiantly better than his, **laughs**. Things were going great, we got a new guitarist in called Ed Robinson to help as I wasn’t playing, then we were booked to play at Dirty South in Lewisham on new year’s eve of 2008/09 but a month before the gig we lost our drummer, bass player and keyboard player which was not good – we needed replacements and fast. So I contacted my little brother Roy who was playing drums in a band called Impromptu and asked him if he wanted to play at the gig for us. He knew we also needed a bass player so asked Steve Coates who also played in Impromptu. We decided to call him Dave on the 1st practice as we already had a Steve, and two Steve’s in a band didn’t work. So now we had the band and decided to change the name to FLINTLOCK.
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Y o u
hat
e it h e r or
l
e u
hate u s .
When we did the 1st gig the crowd was huge and the response we got when we finished was over whelming. Since then we have gone from strength to strength playing at a festival in Scotland, which was brilliant fun!
Do you have a written ‘band agreement?
What’s your best road trip?
**Laughs**Yes we have a band agreement (they do as they’re told!)
Man, well that would be when we had to play in Scotland at the Schloh fest mega! Eleven of us plus all the gear all crammed into a seventeen seated mini bus. It was a long old drive but they managed to drink all their booze for the weekend on the way up. **Laughs** We arrived there 7am and did our set at 14.30; we were knackered but still up for it so we stayed the night and enjoyed the rest of the festival, then we had to leave first thing in the morning to get back for another gig the next night at Dirty South, what a crazy weekend lucky it was on a bank holiday. **Laughs**
So who’s the hardest in the band, I’m guessing Ian being ex Para Reg! I would rather not answer that **laughs** we’re all good friends at the end of the day
Being ex Reg myself, did you ever hear of a band called Fat Albert - in the 90’s? Yeah I’ve heard of them and been in a few. **Laughs**
Who’s got the biggest ego and why? Me of course being the front man of the band goes with the territory
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l ove us
Who are your musical influences?
What are your songs about? Funnily enough most of our songs are about the usual - women, loss, drinking, happiness and hard times Why do you want to record and release your own music? My own personal view is I’ve always loved music and wanted to perform. I feel that by going by the state of what’s out there in the music world today things are just the same. Same sound. Same style. No one wants to experiment any more, and I think we bring some thing new to the table. It’s high energy and great fun, and we carry our sign unlike most bands of today, If anything it would be nice to inspire a new generation to pick up a instrument and not sit in front of a computer.
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us
Do you write your own material?
The band has a lot of the same influences such as ACDC, The Stones, Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. Roy the drummer is a big fan of Travis Barker from Blink 182 and it shows with in style of playing, he also likes Taylor Hawkin sand Foo Fighters and Rancid - he likes his punk. Ed the rhythm player is in to Dylan, Rancid and Sublime. He really likes his ska and blue beat. As for Steve Jones, he’s into a lot of different genres being a fan of dance music plus he’s also into such bands as Metallica, Kinks, Kings of Leon, Chemical Brothers and many more. Dave the bass player likes Incubus, Pearl Jam, Paul Simon and Mike Dirnt from Green Day, he’s also into Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. As for me; I’ve always been a big fan of Guns’n’Rosees. Slash has to be one of my biggest idols, he influences me to play the guitar as well as the old skool blues.
Top: Bulland gate Below :o2
Yes we write our own material; it mostly starts with my self and the guitarist Steven Jones. One of us will have some sort of riff or chord pattern and a couple of verses. Then we’ll work out the story whether it be personal or not and create a tune, this will then be taken to the studio and submitted to the rest of the band.
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How do you describe your music to people? Describing our music to people is quite hard some times, as we’re not like anybody else at this present time. It’s hard to categorise us in a sense we are a high-energy band with the music to back it. Some say we’re punk some say we’re rock and blues and we have even been told we sound indie. But to be honest I’d say we are all the above with a twist of magic to make it our own.
What image do you think your music conveys? We don’t really have an image we are pretty much jeans and t-shirt kind of guys we don’t have that 80s rock image or the 90 s indie pop image. So you could say we are between the rock and a hard place. You either love us or hate us.
What are your immediate music aspirations? Well being signed would be great but the music industry is ruthless, getting a record deal isn’t as easy as it used to be 10 or even 20 years a go. To be honest just to put out our album or selection of our own songs would be great. We love to gig, we love the live crowds and big stages, so one of the major festivals would nice in the UK. I guess trying to get some sort of management would also help push us in the right direction and keep us focused. But we intend to carry on regardless and be around for a very long time, and enjoy ourselves and please our fan base, for which is ever growing. We even have an all female contingent within the fans called the Lockettes.
Tell me more about the Lockettes, how did they come about who do they consist off?
Who have you met on your journey, any one to note?
Well you tell me, the female fans created it themselves - they didn’t like being called groupies, so basically all the female fans put it together and they said they wanted t-shirts. Steve Jones put together a logo to match the Flintlock logo and they loved it, now it’s growing and they organise to come to gigs together which is great as single females feel safer together
We’ve played with some great unsigned acts such as Kitty Lipps, The Separation, The Luv Spuds, The 1004’s and Liquid Limousine to name a few.
How would you define the word “success”? “Success” well every band wants to be successful earn loads of money and go on tours but to be honest just making great music and taking it to our fans, playing live and watching the fans having a great time to our music. In our eyes is successful! Don’t get us wrong we all want the rock star life style being a successful band isn’t always about the money, it’s more about the hard work writing great songs and the reaction we get from the crowd when you play a 3 and half minute song that you put your soul into and the room comes alive.
Do you have a demo or press kit or any other promotional materials? We don’t have any press kits or demos all our information can be found on the usual sites such as My Space, Facebook and many others that can be found at our web site www.flintlock-uk.com .
Do you have any personal contacts in the music business? As a band we don’t have many contacts only the ones we’ve made on our journey to success. One person who’s given us a few gigs is Hamish Jolly who does a lot of promoting for the Watershed in Wimbledon. He’s given us opportunities to open up for Hayseed Dixie and The Towers of London, which we got to meet all the members of the band as well, unfortunately we didn’t get to play for Hayseed Dixie as they brought their own support, but we got a free night out and got to meet the band who where really cool. Steve knows a few people from when he was a professional DJ but doesn’t have much contact with them these days.
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Like most struggling bands out there we are all doing it on a shoestring; the band pulls together when we can, Tshirt sales and the such produce a little revenue to keeps us rolling, but it’s mostly done on a minimal budget
How are you guys funding it, it can’t be cheap?
Minimal currently; we have had a review done of our gig in the railway Bromley, but that’s it.
Have you had any previous print broadcast media exposure?
Well basically we needed somewhere to practice with the old band “Permissible Gambit” so Steve Jones phoned round all the local music shops to try and find somewhere and he got Pete’s number. After using his studio for about five years we have become great trusting friends and he’s always been a great help with equipment and advice.
Pete Miller, tell me about him
Have you managed to sell any of your singles yet? We haven’t sold any of our material as of yet, we are currently saving to record our 1st EP in the studio we use for rehearsals @ lodgestudio. co.uk, (Pete Miller)
The only thing we could say to any bands or solo artist about to embark on this crazy journey, is to be sure about what you want; work hard because good is never good enough in the music industry, always strive to do better, we’d wish them good luck and maybe we’d see them on the circuit.
What advice would you give to those thinking about starting this journey?
Most of the bookings; promoting ticket sales and merchandising are done by Steve Jones and myself. The rest of the guys do what they can around work and commitments at home.
Who handles your daily business activities?
Well I’m unemployed, Steve’s a builder, Ed’s an electrician, Roy’s a painter and decorator and Dave’s unemployed. They all seem to hold down their jobs fine, we try to work things around everybody’s commitments
So do you guy’s hold down jobs, who does what?
FLINTLOCK ROCK`n`ROLL
We have had a couple of live recordings done for us at various venues we have posted our studio sessions on to our YouTube page, we also have live recordings of one of our gigs at the purple turtle which can be found on our MySpace page.
So you rate your live performance ability then?
We’ve done a lot of live performances, we got through the semi finals of Emergenza where we played at the famous Dingwalls in Camden, we also played at the Bull and Gate and the Purple Turtle where the gig was recorded live. We’ve done a few charity gigs for cancer research and snap children’s disability. Currently we got scouted by JAR music for the Break Out festival comp to play in the Maldives, our 1st show with them was at the O2 academy, Islington, where we came 1st. For the next stage we are playing the same venue for the industry showcase. We‘ve also opened for known acts such as the Towers of London, plus we played at Wimbledon calling where The View were headlining.
Tell me about your live performances and have you had any showcases?
we’re not like anybody else at this present time. It’s hard to categorise us in a sense we are a h i g h - e n e r g y b a n d wit h t h e m u s i c to b a ck it .
11/01/2011 14:06
ill: David Howie
remakes remakes
Remakes, remakes everywhere: and not a decent one in sight I don’t know about you but it seems like ever since the box office success of “The Ring” in 2002, Hollywood has been working overtime to produce a steady stream of foreign-language horror remakes, one after the other. After the success of “Martyrs” and “Haut Tension”, it was not long before old school horror movie fans began to turn their attention to France for new and exciting horror movie experiences, closely followed by the American film industry. The release of “Rec” in 2007 proved that the French weren’t the only ones who could provide an alternative to the tired mainstream slasher film. It was not long before the American film industry jumped on Rec’s bandwagon and an English version called “Quarantine” was created in 2008. A year later Sweden produced “Let the Right One In”, which centres on the growing relationship between an overlooked and bullied young boy named Oskar and a centuries old vampire child by the name of Eli. This film was met by critics and audiences alike with nothing but admiration and respect as well as recognition among art lovers worldwide. What was Hollywood’s response? Sweden’s unique vampiric tale, barely two years old, is now gracing our cinema screens recently, in English, under the title “Let Me In”.
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remakes
11/01/2011 14:06
remakes remakes “Rec”
I stumbled across a few years ago while trawling through the fairly empty shelves of the horror section in my local rental store. I was getting bored and picked it up without much consideration or expectation at all. Far from what I expected, I was blown away by this seemingly low budget horror flick I had never heard of. After all you know you’re in for a scary ride when the DVD menu screen scares the crap out of you before you even begin. The film uses Point of View (POV) filming perfectly, and of course it is going to be compared to similar movies, like the Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, but for me Rec has more edge than either of these. For instance, there is no need for any awkward explanations as to why the person is still filming. Simple answer: he is a cameraman and it’s his job. Again, perhaps due to budget difficulties or a desire to create tension, neither Cloverfield nor the Blair Witch Project, allows the audience a good view of the monster until the very end of the film, if at all. Where as in Rec, there are multiple shock moments, in which “zombies” are leaping out at the camera. One of my favourite scenes is where the camera is face to face with a blood soaked and zombified granny in a nightie running at the screen with a hammer, something I never thought I’d see or say, in fact. Yet by far the best part of Rec for me was the revelation at the end of the movie as to where this mysterious virus was coming from. The final scenes surrounding creepy Vatican research and subsequent demonic possession as the cause of the virus for me placed the film above and beyond the category of just another zombie movie. And this perhaps explains my main beef with the American remake, “Quarantine”, as this ending is completely edited out. The religious element gave the original some distinctiveness and added shock factor, without this Quarantine is simply a remake of Rec, only not as good. I mean don’t get me wrong it’s not a terrible movie; it just has a perfected Hollywood vibe to it and a desire to value appearance over substance, and to be perfectly honest it is just lacks that something special.
Again if I am being honest, I am hardly thrilled by Hollywood’s restyling of Let the Right One In either. Tomas Alfredson, the director of the original, surprisingly was very unfamiliar with the horror and vampire genre. As a result he decided to tone down many of the violent elements of the book and focus mostly on the relationship between the two protagonists, and it worked. The film is not short of subtle sequences, while not particularly violent, have a very eerie and profound effect on me. The scenes with Oskar and the bullies do not contain a huge of violence and bloodshed, in terms of your run of the mill scary movie, but they are filmed with such malice, it is the atmosphere and performances from the young actors that leave the audience unsettled. The relationship between the two young protagonists is also hugely inviting. Despite all the death and destruction around them, mostly as a result of Eli, their scenes together are soft and tender, which is a huge tribute to ability of the young cast. I can’t help but get the feeling that Matt Reeves, director of Let Me In, saw his chance to appease a growing audience who enjoy the reinvented vampire scene of the moment but turn their noses up at cheesy creations like Twilight. The original was set in 1980s suburban Stockholm, which worked amazingly well for the film, especially during the scenes where the thick snow contrasted with blood. The remake however, takes place during Ronald Reagan’s America, which for me does not quite emit the same level of despair and loneliness, which I always believed in the original represented Oskar’s solitude. The remake also bizarrely misses out the scene where Oskar takes revenge on the bully’s on the frozen lake, which is ultimately central to the plot. Overall if you haven’t seen the original then Let Me In, ticks all the right boxes but as a fan of the original, I just can’t understand why anyone would want to mess with perfection.
I just can’t understand why anyone would want to mess with perfection
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P er ha p s t his o b s e s s i o n w it h t h e foreign market is simply a natur a l p r o g r ess i o n , a f ter a ll , A m er i ca n c l ass i c s l i k e “ T h e T e x as C ha i ns a w M ass a c r e ” , “ D a w n of t h e D e ad ” a n d “ H a ll o w ee n ” ha v e a l r e ad y b ee n t a r n i s h e d w it h the remake brush, why should foreign horror be s p a r ed ? I g u ess I can understand t h e des i r e , as a d i r e c to r , to wa n t to e m u l ate a c ertain treasured c hi l d hoo d m o v i e o r make your mark on a f i l m t hat has r ea ll y had a n e ffe c t o n yo u . B u t w hat I don’t understand is the why take a m o v i e w it h s o p h i s ti cati o n , e lega n c e a n d r a r it y a n d , i n te n ti o n a ll y o r u n i n te n ti o n a ll y , s t r i p it d o w n a n d le a v e o n l y c l i chés and special e ffe c t s to f i ll g a p s . P e r h a p s it is the film’s foreign nature which att r a c ts s o m a n y f i l m m a k er s , a ll as p i r i n g to g r as p j u s t a b it of t h a t foreign flair, w it h o u t t h o s e i r r it a t i n g s u b t i t l e s , o f c o u r s e . I s t hat t h e u n derl y i n g ass u m p ti o n p e r h a p s ?
T hat m a i n s t r e a m E n g l ish s pe a k i n g a ud i e n c es l a ck t h e m oti v ati o n o r des i r e t o w a t c h a f i l m i n a n o t h e r l a n g u a g e ? O r m ay b e f i l m m a k er s a r r o ga n tl y p r es u m e t h ey ca n i m p r o v e a f o r e i g n f i l m b y m a k i n g it m o r e a u d i e n c e f r i e n d l y a n d w it h o u t s u b t it l e s ? I f t h i s i n d e e d w a s t h e c a s e t h e a u d i e n c e c o u l d q u it e e a s i l y g i v e t h e m s e l v e s a f e w l a u g h s a n d s t i c k o n t h e E n g l ish d u b . S u r e l y O s k a r s pe a k i n g i n a b ad c o ckn ey a cc e n t is e n o ug h to m a k e a n yo n e c r a ck a s m i le . H o w e ver t h e c y n i c ca n f i n d o n l y o n e r e as o n f o r t his m ass i n f l u x of f o r e i g n r e m a k e s a n d it a l l b o i l s d o w n t o m o n e y . T h e US f i l m i n d u s t r y i s s i m p l y d e s p e r a t e t o r e g a i n it s c r e d i b i l it y a n d v a l i d it y w it h c r it i c s a n d a u d i e n c e s a l i k e a n d t h ey s ee t h e b es t way to d o t h is is to r e m a k e a s ucc ess f u l f o r e i g n h o r r o r f l i c k . O n e t h i n g I a m s u r e of i s , t h ey w i ll k ee p t r y i n g .
Laura Walker
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Photography James Garner
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Controversy has always had a major impact on the reception of a film, whether it has been branded a unique brilliance attracting a cult following or simply ripped to shreds for its disgustingly offensive content. For directors, it’s a huge risk, a risk of their reputation and even freedom to make a film that is bound to cause uproar, often resulting in such a director trying to escape the critical and horrified eyes of the public, their reputation in tatters and their future prospects of being a credible film maker destroyed. So where is that thin line? That thin line between the controversially fantastic films, the films that make history, the films that attract generation after generation of an adoring cult following and the controversially horrific films where the director just went that step too far and plummeted off the edge of daringly provocative and into the dark depths of blind controversy – controversy with no real message or reason. Of course, it is all a matter of opinion. What one person might find disturbing and unnecessary another might find hauntingly thought-provoking. It’s fair to say that the majority of film makers strive to please the majority of viewers and so making a film that is destined to be crucified is simply suicide for any film maker hoping to have a reputation in the film world whether that’s in the Hollywood playground or Underground circuit. One genre of film which never seems to fail in provoking or shocking its audiences is the Mondo film. This genre, better known today as a ‘shockumentary’ or exploitation film, usually involves taboo subjects such as extreme violence, death and sex. The way in which these films portray these subjects is unique; they usually consist of sequences of both real and staged footage put together in a documentary style format. Today, many films using this style of genre have proved to be successful from the lower budget films such as The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity (2007) to the blockbuster productions with the likes of Cloverfield (2008). Whilst borrowing the technique of how the film is put together, they lack the taboo or controversial content Mondo films are famous for. 1962 saw the birth of this genre, with Mondo Cane (a dog’s world) by Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi; this is arguably the godmother of the Mondo genre being the first Mondo film made. The film focused on cultural practices around the world – a mild controversy compared to some of today’s Mondo films! Since the 60s, where Mondo films centered around culture differences, the genre has taken a very sinister turn as many directors have tried to ‘out shock’ previous films; this has resulted in many Mondo films dealing with taboo subjects which film makers in the past had never dared to delve into. This new transformed breed of Mondo film boasts the use of real footage (or so they say) and it seems directors have taken the approach of “the gorier the better”.
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Faces of
Deat
Faces of De One film that screams for the attention of all Mondo lovers is Faces of Death.
The director, John Alan Schwartz, has truly made his mark on the Mondo film spectrum with this one. He pushed boundaries thought to be concrete, destroyed the rules of censorship and simply broke away from the routine constraints found within the film industry. Why is his film so different to any other film before? Because it tells no story. It has no plot, no characters, no script. It’s simply 100 minutes of pure death footage. Whilst the thought may turn your stomach, it’s a film which begs to be watched and however horrific the footage is, you’re bound to keep on watching. It’s like a car wreck – you don’t like what you see yet you can’t look away....
11/01/2011 14:07
Ill:kevin Allen
no plot, no characters, no scrip t. It’s simp ly 100 minu tes of pure death
es
Death.
f Death.
except it’s worse than a car wreck, it’s a slaughterhouse, an execution, a beheading or a screaming monkey having it’s brains scooped out by hungry diners. With Faces of Death it’s of all those things and more. Watching this film can be unbearable at times as unlike almost every other horror film to date, you can’t hide behind the cushion at the gory parts - the whole film is the ‘gory part’. What’s more disturbing is trying to figure out what footage is fake and what’s real, as despite you being sure that the disgusting clip with the bleeding eyes or the eerie footage of a human sacrifice is staged, that small bit of doubt in the back of your mind ticks away, growing and growing until you reluctantly tell yourself that what you’re watching is real. And that is what makes the footage so much more horrific. The idea of making – or watching – a film made entirely of death footage seems absurd at first, but Schwartz managed to give it meaning. Of course, Faces of Death can simply be one of those sleepover classics to ensure that there is no sleeping, but it can also be a thought provoking piece of art. Death is a topic which has confused, terrified or enlightened everybody at one point in their lives and this film manages to condense all of those feelings into one. The footage ranges from the smallest, most natural forms of death such as a praying mantis killing a cricket, to the most feared and socially constructed deaths, seen in the war clips, execution footage and extreme animal cruelty scenes. This film is guaranteed to leave you thinking hard; thinking about the meaning of life, the impact humans have on other’s lives, the treatment of animals and the difference between natural death and murder.
This film will beg the questions:
Who are the savages in this world?
What does it mean to be civilised?
And you might just come away from it knowing the faces of death.
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11/01/2011 14:07
T h e
impossible
P r o j e c t presents
LUKE BERTE
The
Good Grey
exhibition took place at Northern
Tea power over winter in the northern quarter and is the first of its kind in the UK.
The Impossible Project,
the
team behind the exhibition, have honed their years of experience working for Polaroid, and now craft film for analogue cameras that the multi-national company have long since forgotten. Having all worked for Polaroid in the past, they have single handedly saved instant analogue photography from the abyss. Last year, they released their first edition of new and unique analogue films. In turn, they claim to have preserved some 300 million analogue cameras in the process.
Ben Grainger
a Manchester based artist and recent
graduate has kindly offered his analogue photos for the exhibition. Although his art is concerned primarily with sculpture, he uses instant photos to record his work and capture his daily endeavors.
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impossible project
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LB: What was your first experience or memory of using or seeing polaroid film and cameras? BG: I used to work for the shoe shop Clarks. We had this little gimmick where kids who were just about walking could come for their “first shoes” and get a memento to mark the occasion, which came in the form of a Polaroid photograph - which I usually took, often a jaunty angle, just before the kid fell over. LB: Analogue film - how does it stand up alongside the constant digitalised nature of photography? does it still hold its place? BG: Digital photography quite often remains ephemeral, and lacks the physicality of analogue. I’m with my Gran on this, I like to hold photos and have grown up looking at them in weighty leather albums bursting with the smell of old paper and cellophane. LB: Does the fact Polaroid have stopped making the film add weight and romance to instant film as a cultural artifact? BG:I think it’s always carried a lot of weight and romance, and the old photos will continue to. Sony pulled the Cassette walk-man from manufacture last year, and plans to do the same with the floppy disk early 2011. After 30 years things have to change, but there’re other ways to play cassettes. Just in that there’s other instant analogue film such as Impossible, that you can put into the old polaroids. LB: How did you come to get involved with the impossible project? BG:Through Iwan, he took part in the project too. LB:Its a very instant process with regards to experiencing photos – have you found the film temperamental because of this? Do you have to work fast to insure quality or is this part of the enjoyment? BG:There are differences in the chemical processes that take place between Polaroid and Impossible. With the film we used for the show, it was really important to get the developing photo into darkness for a few minutes. By the end of it, I’m sure we’d all got our own quirky methods for doing this. I took a few photographs back in my home town, I’d shot two in quick succession, stooped into shade, tucked the camera in between my legs and rapidly thrust the photos to my chest with both hands. I stood there for a few minutes while they developed, with passers-by generally looking concerned...
e
LB: It’s great that you can let the photo organically occur freeze the results. ‘Freezing’ the caption by peeling the photo and applying different storage methods all effect the outcome. Are the possibilities endless? BG:Probably, I haven’t ventured into that yet with this new film, or left photos for long enough to show any signs of a fading. I have some really old Polaroids and they still look pretty fresh. LB: How do you incorporate your analogue photo’s into your craft/ other projects/ daily life? BG:I use my medium format fairly regularly, the lens is terribly scratched, but the results are great. Nostalgia trips aside, photographs exist as the main visual record of my sculptural installations, which by their nature are shortlived. LB:What other projects do you have lined up in the future that we should keep an eye out for? BG:I’m currently building furniture, but more specifically - a chair. I’m also collaborating with a musician in Norway on a sound project. Information on future projects gets posted at, www.artofficialspace.co.uk The curator of the event, Evelyn Hetzinger, also gave some insight into the exhibition. “I wanted an eclectic mix of styles and backgrounds, using some professional photographers and challenging them all with the medium. I’m very interested in how different artists respond to working with “Impossible” film as at the moment, it’s in it’s developmental phase. I also wanted a more personal approach and not the usual “urban Manchester” scene which has been over exposed in the last 5 years”. The Good Grey’ at Northern Tea Power, Tib street runs from 3 rd December - 6th January, free
Further information http://www.the-impossible-project.com/
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music reviews
Optional Wallace – Optional Wallace
The Vagabonds
Another Victory for Hysteria
What do you expect of Irish punk? Leprechauns in chains and lip rings? Perhaps the return of Bono’s mullet? It’s doubtful that the Vagabonds will fulfil either of these fantasies, rather they provide rather wondrous funky punky riffs and fleeing lyrics. The debut three-track EP from the Dubliners is a rather surprising little number, especially middle track ‘I Don’t Want to Go to Limerick Junction’. Unlike most middle children, this song stands tall as what one might call a ‘very good song’. And his brothers ain’t too shabby either.
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The Yarns – Breached The Yarns are what one might call a miserable Format. Wait... stop. That’s a very beautiful thing to be. The Format were a clever little pop phenomenon. The Yarns are the somewhat younger apathetic British cousin to the alternative pop kings. Sleepy pop, ‘Opening Song’ has just the right lick of funk to make it the live ‘token sway’ track. Second song ‘Rend’ is an old-fashioned affair. How many songs do you know that both you and granny can like. All acoustic guitar and looming lyrics this is Frank Sinatra for the 21st century. Just, y’know, a little hipper.
Do you think it’s true that a band is only as good as its vocalist? Probably not, no, but if it were, Optional Wallace would be playing in an expensive venue near you. Think slightly upbeat Interpol mixed with just the right dollop of the Departure – all accented lyrics and grungy music. ‘What Goes Around’ speaks indie guitar with a hint of rock drums. A strange little mix-up which complements the slightly odder Editors vibe Optional Wallace exudes. ‘Generation’ is a chorus-heavy masterpiece while fellow songs ‘Courting Paranoia’ and ‘Can’t Explain’ airs a slightly more 80’s pop vibe to their music. Perhaps not the most sensible agenda at the times.
11/01/2011 14:07
singles Ensemble – Excerpts
A waltz of languages, this intriguing record swings between English and French as Ensemble’s Montreal genius Olivier Alary guides the listener across the metaphorical dance floor. At times classically soft while accented with violins, this album also skids into pop territory with its melodic appeal. A collection of theatrical sounds ‘Valse des Objets Trouves’ gives the impression of a twirl through the streets of Paris while tracks like ‘Things I Forgot’ and ‘Experts’ whisper to your ears in a terribly teasing manner. Bilingual? Yes. Buy it? Yes.
MK4T – All Your Base
There are zero words to describe MK4T. There are zero words in MK4T. Actually MK4T is not even a word unless you say it real quick like Emkayfourtee. Regardless, MK4T is pretty funkey. And the key to having fun is in the discaring. Indulgent computer electronic, unpolishedly channelling Daft Punk yet still interestingly toe-twitching enough to spark your interest. With a little lyrics and a little time M4FT could be rather fabulous.
Epic 26 – Epic 26 EP
A common myth amongst the general population states that the greatest things in life are free. Which makes little sense as vodka filled Louboutins do not grow on trees. Epic 26 do grow on trees, or at least they hang from the branches exuding little chips of barky brilliance. Their free self-titled EP is electric pop-soup for the soul. Like a taser to the brain this little preview of future brilliance starts with a magical Alarm and ends with the funk-trot Sorry I Hurt You. Add to that a couple of very pretty remixes and you know you’re being spoiled.
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Bright Eyes – Shell Games
The Seventeenth Century – The Seventeenth Century
(Part One)
To anyone who dares describe The Seventeenth Century vocalist Mark Farmer as pulsating the dreary tones of Paulo Nutini not only needs a good squish of Earex but a hefty slap round the noggin. What a terrible thing to say to such a pretty voice even if it does sound slightly Nutiniful. The Seventeenth Century (Part One) is an EP of four dimensions, that is, four points of a rather nice square. Four by four if you will... Not this is a band full of rogue Slayers. Just talented little musicians making the world happier with their fine and dandy array of folky music.
With Bright Eyes you will never be disappointed, for you get exactly what you expect: intriguingly depressing indiepop. And, boy, has depressingly never looked so good. Think of Bright Eyes as a magpie – sure it’s kind of a crow and SURE lots of people believe them to be unlucky... but with that shiny blue/black coat laced with white you can’t help but think God that’s one pretty wee birdie. Although not liable to bring you shiny diamond rings you frisbee the CD out the window, ‘Shell Games’ will spark a rather substantial warm fuzzy feeling that is impossible to resist.
AlteredSky – Apple Tree
Whateveryoudodon’tme ntionParamore. But, gosh, it would be easy to do so. I am a sucker for a girlie singer and AlteredSky have found a gem in Ana Nowosielska – a girl who lists cute fluffy animals alongside RPGs in her favourite things. And this gun wielding bunny has a most firing voice. ‘Apple Tree’ is a very well executed pop-punk killer, the kind of song that will have you hopping around the kitchen screaming: “if love was what you wanted then you didn’t even have to ask!” Flirty, edgy pop, you would have to be a numpty to disapprove.
The Mouse that Ate the Cat - Knife Lover What would you say if you saw a mouse swallowing a cat? Y’know snakestyle; all unhinged jaws and cat-shaped bulges. I’d imagine it might be along the likes of “bloody hell!” Now imagine said mouse, catbulges and all, boogieing on down to the best electronic pop you will hear this year. Okay, forget the mouse – it was a terrible cling to a band name. ‘Knife Lover’ is a melodic bout of toasted marshmallow pop. All crispy and edgy on the outside with a gooey pop centre. Or bloody good, if you will.
Emma’s Imagination – Faerie Lights It doesn’t seem too farfetched that an artist called Emma’s Imagination would release a single about faerie lights and people looking like stars. This single isn’t all fantastical dreams though, it’s fantastical ideas encased in a cement balloon of easy-listening folk-fun. Not that cement is bad. It just keeps the more imaginative of us on the ground. May it be ‘Fireworks’ or ‘Faerie Lights’. Pop is always a must for any iPod and Emma is no exception
11/01/2011 14:07
BEN X ENTER THE VOID
THE AMERICAN Anton Corbijn’s story of ageing assassin Jack (played by George Clooney), lying low in a small Italian town after a failed attempt on his life by other hit-men. The town, its nosy priest and a sweet prostitute for whom Jack falls, make him want to return to humanity from which he’d been withdrawn for a long time. If you’re into things blowing up and heart-pounding car chases this film is not for you. But, if you’re into a slightly more humane story (albeit with a few corpses and some good oldfashioned European full frontal nudity) that will make you think a little and feel something other than sheer excitement, then you should definitely see it.
Let yourself go on a deeply intense cinematic ride. While watching this film YOU will pay hallucinogenic visits to sleazy city nightclubs. YOU will be blinded by the bright and colourful neon lights of Tokyo. YOU will die. And once you die YOU will begin a long journey crossing vibrating walls, flying through tempestuous clouds and contemplating life from hereafter. It will be a journey interrupted by sweet and bitter memories from the past that will remind you some of the promises YOU made and YOU broke. Your heart will burn in flames of brotherly love and incestuous desires. The film-makers aren’t gods any more. The viewer is the god and the god just an observer. Gaspar Noe demonstrates that the art of cinema has barely been explored yet and he manages to transfer the spectator to another dimension without any kind of glasses. This really is an ovelooked masterpiece. An astonishing visual achievement and also an experience that will impregnate your cinephile soul with euphoric feelings, unbearable emotions and blinking heartbeats that will stay with you for days, weeks, months... Noe does not push boundaries, he breaks them to pieces. In his world everything is possible and everything will be seen and felt. YOU are not an spectator any more, YOU are the film. Sergio Calvo
Based on true events, the Dutch film Ben X focuses on Ben (Greg Timmermans), as he escapes bullying by delving in to the online fantasy game ‘ArchLord’. It is a very moving and powerful film. Showing the lengths young people will go to when they feel completely alone, Timmermanns’ performance is, at times, cringeworthy. However, it is also highly believable and very poignant. With the clever switching between reality and fantasy, and almost documentary style, Ben X is able to maintain its emotional tone throughout. Overall, Ben X really questions if we do enough for those that suffer bullying. As many characters say, “If we had done more, perhaps...”. Perhaps things would have turned out differently. Jessy Williams
Suzanna Marchant 58
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E
e
ts:
The weirdest game ever??? H u n g e r
.
review
It’s emotional. Apparently. Whack! Kabloom! Bang! That’s the sound of one hundred million different colours slamming into your eyes and destroying your tiny mind in a whirlwind of shapes, noises and sounds. Become surrounded by swirls and curls and trails and some more swirls. This is Eets. This is a new kind of puzzle game. This is possibly the weirdest game ever. First things first; Eets is not normal. Other reviews and critics have described it in various, very colourful and strange ways. Favourite so far? GrrlGamer.com called it: ‘Lemmings on crack.’ I’d sum it up in just one word: ‘nuts’. The characters are nuts. The puzzles are nuts. Even the levels are nuts. The game is about a little weird white dude, with no arms, a huge head and a predetermined mind of his own. We call him Eets. Basically, the game revolves around getting said little white dude from point A to point B. Easier said than done. It takes a little while to get used to, but your famished creature has his own will, so you can’t control him directly like a normal game. Along the way from point A to point B he’ll eat (a lot) get thrown around, scared and generally mistreated.
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Instead of the normal direct player control setup, the player must manipulate the creature using the environment around him; with whales to gobble him up whole and shoot him across the map, explosives to rearrange the terrain and psychological critters that can cajole the white one into doing just about anything. Not to mention the eating. Eating serves a central role in the game, as Eets is also controlled by what he eats. Some food makes him happy, which makes him jump gaps. Some food makes him scared, which stops him from running off the edge of a cliff. And some food makes him super angry, which makes him jump really, really far. So what’s Eets like then? Well, very fun, involving and actually quite tricky to play. Several attempts and the much needed ‘hint’ button are usually called for to pass each level. Everything about the game is set at a strange, almost hypnotic angle – from the plodding music, wacky visuals and cartoon violence. Puzzle wise, things move along at a fair difficulty level rising steadily, with some problems proving to be positively fiendish. The only one niggle worth mentioning is that with so many noises, explosions and flashes, Eets can get very busy at some points, leaving a print on the inside of your eyelids through the repetition (or is that just me?)
The one thing that stands out more than anything else for Eets has to be the visual presentation. It’s just so cool – very neat in places, a bit childish but entirely unique. It’s hard to describe, but something about the entire setup draws the player in and rewards them with a job well done. If you can beat the puzzle, that is! Talk about addictive. The user interface is simple, intuitive and colourful. It makes spending hours cruising through the hundred odd puzzles very tempting. That’s not to mention the user made content that is continually added on. This all adds up for a game that can entertain, keep your brain guessing and generally provide some much needed laughs. So should you give it a go? For sure. I’m not one to normally be so glowing in a review, especially towards a so called casual puzzle game, which are definitely not my normal selection. But Eets is so involving, different and downright crazy that gamers old and new should be able to have an ace time playing it. Plus, the game costs a pittance, can run on just about anything and takes minutes to set up and get playing. Eets is out now and is available from Steam, Xbox live and will be arriving on Mac in the near future. David Robinson
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O
(up)
R
DANIJELA VUNDUKNOW A PART OF MICHAEL BOND’S ARTWORK
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Picture the scene, an empty street, windows boarded up, unlit, a stack of old newspapers and post stuffed in the letterbox. You would be forgiven for thinking you have just been transported to an alternate universe or post apocalyptic Planet Earth. No need to watch out for those zombies or killer virus just yet. It’s 2010 and this is the sorry state of many high streets in the UK, with the slow death of familiar chains leaving empty spaces behind, unpopulated. Fortunately, a group of five MA students from Birmingham City University have found a silver lining to our cloudy economy. Along with Curator5 and Birmingham City Council’s ‘Inhabit’ programme, these students and six artists have temporarily taken over a retail unit within Birmingham’s Pavilions shopping centre. Coinciding with ‘buy nothing day’, ‘b-ART-er’ ran from 25th to 28th November and showcased the work of artists; Michael Bold, Chris Clinton, Lisa Roffey, Adam Radley, Alexandra Lockett and Tim Stock. ‘B-ART-er’s’ main aim as a contemporary art exhibition in an empty shop was to invite visitors to exchange ideas, with no purchase necessary. Walking into the gallery space, after having just been round the shops myself, is a totally refreshing experience. Unlike most retail set-ups you are not given the hard sell with advertising, tempting price reductions or over-eager salespeople breathing down your neck, ‘b-ART-er’ is a different species, an evolution. Transactions have been simplified into an almost playground inspired ‘swap’ system, where for example the artist Michael Bold gives away see through plastic boxes in exchange for a photograph of the customer, to display on the shop wall. I must admit, I felt guilty, and had to ask again if it was all right to take my box of nothing home after having my photograph taken. I guess it is because we are so used to giving everything a monetary value, even nothing sometimes has a price! A lucky dip springs to mind when thinking about Tim Stock’s images of empty shop fronts from across the UK. The customer is welcome to take a photograph home, but is encouraged to take one of the folded up images at random. Moving to the back wall is a canvas by Adam Radley, a graffiti artist, painter and musician. As well as designing the ‘b-ART-er’ shop logo and signage, his art work created with graffiti techniques depicts being literally trapped in consumerism, or in this case a shopping trolley. In the centre of the room is Alexandra Lockett’s ‘seed bombs’ created for the visitors to take away and get involved in some guerrilla gardening. Inspired by the relationship between culture and cultivation her work is designed to help individuals give back to their communities and beautify local waste areas. Chris Clinton’s floating paper sculpture and folded foil structure plainly suggest his minimalist influences. His work explores how common materials such as foil and paper can be taken out of their everyday context and transformed into art. Anyone can relate to these materials, you have probably wrapped your sandwiches up in foil this morning; there is not the snobbery that comes with other media. The accessibility of the artwork on show is what makes it so suitably placed in a shopping centre, ‘b-ART-er’ relies on passing trade; it does not claim exclusivity to the art crowd.
the continuously looping film showing clothes being discarded; a comment on the never-ending cycle of recycling and giving away to charity. Not only is this a perfect platform for some of the UK’s young creative talent to showcase their work but also ‘b-ART-er’ brings art to a different kind of audience. Clair Walton, one of the curators, remarked how this ‘pop up gallery’ is about. CHRIS CLINTON, SCULPTURE
“ BRINGING CONTEMPORARY ART TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC AND BRINGING LIFE TO AN EMPTY SHOP SPACE.” It’s an interesting fact brought up by the empty shops network (www. artistsandmakers.co.uk) that an estimation of “13% of the UK’s shops are empty and 1 in 5 may never be used again”. If this is the case, I hope that ‘pop up’ galleries are going to become a permanent fixture in our high streets and city centres. Personally, it is much more satisfying to come away from a shopping trip, not totally broke and with a bit of creative inspiration instead. Those empty, dusty and decaying spaces would look so much better full of art and more importantly people. It’s a much better use of space, and who needs another ‘cash my gold/ life/ granny’ anyway?
ADAM RADLEY , CANVAS
On my way past the foil sculpture, in a small cupboard space at the back of the shop Lisa Roffey’s ‘No Minimum Purchase’ film is projected onto a pile of plastic charity bags. I watch
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Polarbear Who is Polarbear?
He’s one of tonight’s special guests… he’s a poet or something
Speak Up!
“A
But he hasn’t turned up yet… nor have any of the other special guests… it’s not looking good, Jodi and Matt are getting steadily more desperate, they’ve resorted to performing poorly rehearsed comedy routines in an attempt to keep the audience diverted from the slowly unfolding catastrophe that is tonight, Tuesday 7th December 2010, The Hare and Hounds public house, Kings Heath, Birmingham.
need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens – second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence…” Reynolds Price
Who is Reynolds Price? I’ve no idea… anyway there are far more pressing matters to attend to; Jodi Ann Bickley and Matt Windle are having a party and it’s not going very well… in fact it’s not going very well at all, only two people have turned up, one of these people has passed out on the sofa and the other is reading quietly. None of the special guests have shown up and Jodi and Matt have rather foolishly invited 250 spectators along, not as guests but as witnesses to what was promised to be a “truly memorable and wicked night” Hmmm… I wonder if there are many people in the world with such delusions of grandeur that they feel their house parties are deserving of a paying audience?… what next? £7.50 for a front row seat to see Jodi do the washing up? £5 advanced booking for a one off performance of Matt taking a shit? (accompanied by the Philharmonic Orchestra?) “I come from a place of talkers, storytellers, people who can pull you in and take you with them: my cousin’s explicit descriptions of going down on girls before I’d even kissed one; Uncle Lenny talking about walking into a National Front pub over in Northfield with a machete, laying it on the bar and calmly ordering a white rum; Granddad telling us about getting broom handle beatings with nine younger brothers just for stealing pumpkin seeds; my Nan making breakfast, reminiscing over her shoulder about some German priest offering to renounce the church and proposing to her on the boat over. Surrounded by all these characters, every day I swam in a soup of stories, soaking up every detail, logging every image, saving them to speak… But I never knew a writer…
They
didn’t exist”
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Here is a list of the other s p e c i a l guests who have failed to arrive: Ed Sheeran – singer/songwriter/ guitarist/poet/ginger
Eva
Alex Gwyther –
poet
L a z a r u s – frontlady of something called “Dub Mafia” And some other poet with a
“fuck off terrorist beard” called Scrippy Poo
or something.
There once was a time when writers didn’t exist… this was because writing didn’t exist… in these ancient times stories were kept alive through the oral tradition, stories were passed from generation to generation using a process known as “speaking”, these stories were composed of things called “words”. A good storyteller was highly revered within the community, and these “spoken words” were the primary form of entertainment for centuries. Not only were stories used for entertainment, they were also used for teaching morals and for the passing on of wisdom and cultural heritage. Throughout the entire history of humanity stories have been so integral to our development that they have helped shape civilisations and have had (and continue to have) a huge influence on the way we perceive reality.
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But in this day and age the storyteller and the spoken word have been usurped by Hollywood, television, the tabloid press, glossy magazines and the pop charts… we want celebrities and scandal, car chases and explosions, CGI and muzak, if we aren’t having our brains pummelled into submission by garish flashing colours and our ears raped by deafening sounds and incessant jingles then we are bored…
No one wants to listen to some guy (or girl) saying words… … d o
Actually
t h e y ?
some
of
us
do
That is why we are here at The Hare and Hounds on this bitter winter’s night, hoping against hope that the special guests will arrive.
There is in fact a thriving spoken word scene in the UK, Anyway, back to planet earth… it’s just that at the moment it operates “under the radar”… is there any danger of it breaking into the This is how Alex Gwyther feels about bemainstream? Scrappy Poop Pubey Scrips Scroobius Pip ing a poet: has this to say on “For me it doesn’t really matter either way, as the matter: this the life that I’ve chosen? Hoping long as the quality’s getting better. It’s becoming more and more exposed which in my opinion is bringing so much more talent into it which is wicked but if it doesn’t blow up and become a pop thing then that’s fine, but if it does that’s fine as well… if your saying something that you think has worth, or that you’ve bothered to write down, you should want as many people to hear it as possible, so if that then means you become a pop star, as long as you’re not changing what you’re doing then that’s kind of alright.”
Matt Windle
concurred and went on to say:
“I
think if you’re good enough at what you do and you get that little bit of luck, you can make a lifestyle and a living out of it, it doesn’t have to “blow up” for it to be your job… it doesn’t really affect the artist whether it blows up or stays
underground.
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Ed
art.”
Sheeran
contributed this to the discussion:
“I
can’t, no I won’t hush, I say the words that make you blush, I’m gonna sing this now. See I’m true, my songs are where my heart is, I’m like glue, I stick to other artists, I’m not you, no that would be disastrous, let me sing and do my thing and move to greener pastures.
”
He then went on to elaborate with this statement:
”
It may not affect the artist, but what about the general public? Who’s going to save the general public? A society in which the Black Eyed Peas top the charts is not a healthy society… a popular culture that is dominated by the X Factor is a popular culture that has gone horribly, horribly wrong… so who’s going to put it right? Surely if we can get Rage Against the Machine to top the charts then we can get spoken word into the public consciousness… let us reverse this downward spiral that our culture is taking, let us have intelligent, thought provoking art and entertainment, let us have a mainstream that nurtures the soul rather than erodes it, let us march boldly into a new era, an era of honesty and integrity, a cultural renaissance, let us crusade against banality and mediocrity, let us move forward as a species, let us evolve, both spiritually and intellectually, let us emancipate humanity from the shackles of…
“Is
the world stays open-minded to a young poet’s passion and the pen that he writes with. My mind’s like a light switch, and at night time bright lights beam through my eyelids, rhyme schemes gleam from depressed breaths that I sigh with. And as I lay there in silence, a tight fist grips different biros and bics, depicting the way that a writer lives… This is a passion from the heart, not something I’m following because it’s a fashionable
My eyes are red, I’ve been burning, “ I’ve been burning, I’ve been burning on spliff of your high grade.
”
a
And concluded with the observation:
“
They say I’m up-and-coming, like I’m fucking in an elevator.
So
”
basically, all of the special guests turned up eventually and it was a wicked and memorable party after all and the 250 witnesses stood mesmerised, rooted to the spot for three and a half hours while the storytellers did their thing. Props to Jodi Ann Bickley for masterminding the whole thing, and to Matt Windle for emotional support. Anyone who has taken the time to read this needs to google all of the names mentioned in this article (apart from Reynold Price… he’s irrelevant) and go along to any spoken word events happening in your area… you won’t regret it.
Safe
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