Pumped up after taking a 2003 course called “Drawing the City” at the Prince’s Drawing School in London, a few members of the class decided to branch out on their own. Dubbing themselves the Drawing London Group, they started exploring all facets of London life — alleyways, cathedrals, cafes, pubs, markets — depicting the capital through sketches and watercolors.
The full blog post, on London’s “Drawing London” group, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.
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For about six years, the New York-based three-piece band has won over audiences–and driven some away–with an ample supply of volume. The New York Times credited them with “reviving the ominous, feedback-drenched drones of the 1980s”, while the Washington Post described them as “the most awesome, ear-shatteringly loud garage/shoegaze band you’ll ever hear.”
At the 2008 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, the band ended its set with a ten-minute-plus sonic meltdown that surely inflicted some hearing loss.
The full Q&A, with A Place To Bury Strangers, is at INTELLIGENT LIFE.
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Tagged: culture, Music, SXSW
Either I have a knack for finding protests, or London has a lot of protests. Came across a dozen or so members of the group Youth Fight For Jobs this week standing outside the Royal Bank of Scotland offices in East London blaming Prime Minister Gordon Brown for allowing “fat cat” bankers to continue paying themselves bonuses.
The energy level of the group was pretty low, but I wonder if RBS was expecting a bigger turnout; cops were all over the place, and there was a barricade outside the main entrance.
Here’s some audio from the protest:
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Tagged: bankers, gordon brown, london, protest
At the London screening I went to, there were plenty of gasps in response to Harris’s more outlandish comments and broadcast moments. Timoner is clearly trying to illustrate the problems inherent in our increasingly personal relationship with the internet. “We Live In Public” left me with an incredibly strong urge to remove myself from Twitter, delete my MySpace page, dump my LinkedIn profile and go completely offline. Unfortunately, the urge didn’t last long. Perhaps an hour later, I felt compelled (think Death Star tractor beam) to check my email and update my Facebook page status.
The full blog post, on the “We Live in Public” documentary film, is at INTELLIGENT LIFE.
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Tagged: culture, film, internet, technology
“Visual theater” is a succinct explanation of what’s included in the festival’s lineup: the world premiere of “The Mill,” a show performed in a wheel of wood and steel suspended in the air; the bearded lady Jeanne Mordoj, who will juggle egg yolks and bamboo and perform with badgers and a mountain goat; and Circus Klezmer putting on a real-life wedding.
The full blog post, on London’s annual mime festival, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.
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Tagged: arts, culture, london, mime, mime festival
In keeping with the theme that viewers of art should decide for themselves what art means, the exhibit goes to great lengths to avoid clarity and specificity (there are few explanatory placards). Works of various media (audio, photographs, diagrams) defy simple, quick definition and, depending on your artistic leanings, the result can feel maddening or enlightening. During a recent visit, three young boys sat quietly and watched a strange film depicting people in animal costumes collecting flowers and roaming around in the woods.
The full blog post, on the “For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there” exhibit at London’s ICA, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.
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Tagged: art, culture, london, turkish coffee
Though not the sexiest of exhibits, little details throughout are often the most insightful: islands were often named for explorers’ wives; a 20,000-pound prize was offered in 1775 for discovery of a northwest passage; Arctic exploration was apparently assigned to the Royal Navy, who had time to kill after the Napoleonic War.
The full blog post, on London’s Maritime Museum’s Arctic exhibit, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.
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Tagged: arctic, art, culture, london, northwest passage
Introducing is a talented, Oxford-based nine-piece band with a very specific goal. Every show they perform is essentially the same. With the exception of slight variations in their encores, the set never changes. Their mission? To perform DJ Shadow’s first LP, “Endtroducing”, in its entirety, from start to finish.
The full blog post is at INTELLIGENT LIFE.
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Tagged: arts, culture, dj shadow, hip hop, london, Music
In the final room of the exhibition are several large journals full of hand-written dedications to Jackson. Most entries are addressed directly to “Michael” and written much like high school yearbook entries. “You are the meaning of life,” wrote one fan. Most thank Jackson for helping them in some way. “You were a childhood hero and inspired a million things in me,” wrote another.
The full blog post, on London’s official Michael Jackson exhibit, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.
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Tagged: culture, london, michael jackson, Music, pop, this is it
On my way home from visiting the Raymond Pettibon exhibit at a gallery near Green Park in London tonight, I came across 100 or more protesters outside London’s Intercontinental Hotel.
In pouring rain, a hundred or so members of a Save Pakistan from America group were demonstrating against current Pakistani leadership and current American policy in Pakistan, during a scheduled dinner at the hotel at which Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani was allegedly supposed to attend.
More on Gilani’s London visit is here.
Some audio from the protest:
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Tagged: america, gilani, london, pakistan, protest
