There’s no specific theme to this year’s festival, just a requirement that everything simply be “funny,” according to Ms. Briggs. “We have such a broad range of acts that pretty much every single subject, genre, experience, commodity, activity, emotion, thought and need is covered. We wouldn’t ever dare ask an act ‘Oooh, would you mind leaving out that bit’ or ‘please don’t talk about that again…’ “
The full blog post, on the Greenwich Comedy Festival, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.
The small theatre inside London’s Institute for Contemporary Arts on this particular night felt like the place to be. The crowd’s collective level of interest in jazz, dubstep, electronica, hip hop or IDM was irrelevant. Similar to the way ageing punks proudly claim they “were there” to see the Ramones at one of their first CBGBs shows, many of us will be glad we witnessed Flying Lotus and Infinity when it was happening, in the moment, in the flesh.
The full blog post, on the August 18 Flying Lotus and Infinity show at London’s ICA, is at INTELLIGENT LIFE
Tagged Music, london, flying lotus, electronica, dubstep
“The majority of music is easy to follow, but we give people something to think about,” says Milo Smee, who created the band ten years ago with his brother Leo Smee, originally as a bass-drum duo. “We have no rulebook. And I don’t really care what people think about it.”
The full blog post, on the London-based band Chrome Hoof, is at MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE.
Tobias Slater works for White Mischief, a London-based group that now regularly curates steampunk parties and events for die-hard fans of rocket packs, wooden rayguns and compasses. “Every day I check my Facebook profile and find another two or three friend requests from neo-Victorian, brass-goggle-wearing folk, some sporting the most incredible moustaches (and that’s just the women!),” Slater wrote in an e-mail. Still, he predicts the aesthetic will remain niche.
The full story, on Steampunk, is at INTELLIGENT LIFE.
Posted in My articles, arts
Tagged arts, culture, london, steampunk, jules verne, oxford, white mischief
“It’s about helping people to read their environment so that they can enjoy it more and, in this era of consultation and debate about environmental issues, be better informed,” Festival chairman Peter Murray said. “A city is an ongoing holistic design problem.”
Previous festivals have drawn as many as 15,000 people, according to Murray. Herds of cows and sheep have also made appearances.
The full blog post, on London’s Festival of Architecture, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.
Camden Crawl bears some similarities to the music portion of Austin’s South by Southwest festival, in that dozens of up-and-coming bands perform at multiple sites, all day long, in one concentrated area. And at the Crawl, as at SXSW, expect long lines for the bathroom, and lots of noise and beer. But also expect to see a lot of bands up close in small settings: NME, the British music magazine, called the festival “Camden’s annual chance to be even drunker and indier than normal.”
The full blog post, on the 2010 Camden Crawl music festival, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.
“These films produce knowledge and they form opinions often about the weakest and most vulnerable people in society,” said Patrick Hazard, festival director. “They comment on places and situations that their audience may never come across directly. So we like to unpick these messages, develop them and also critique them.”
The full story, on London’s International Documentary Film festival, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.
Thet Sambath nurses hopes that the film will one day be shown in Cambodia. He could make the case that “Enemies of the People” could offer steps towards reconciliation. After a screening before Cambodian refugees in Utah recently, several women told Sambath that they had arrived filled with resentment, but that the film inspired them to want to meet the men who confessed to the killings and hug them for finally telling the truth.
The full interview with Thet Sambath, on the documentary film “Enemies of the People,” is at MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE.
Posted in arts, film, politics
Tagged cambodia, film, killing fields, london, thet sambath
London retro-soul music fans may remember the Dap-Kings as the American band that recorded and toured with Amy Winehouse. But the band’s Wednesday night performance at Koko with their original front woman, Sharon Jones, was an entirely different affair.
The full review, on the recent Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings performance at Koko in London, is at the DAILY TELEGRAPH.
Photo by perole
A recent live performance by Vampire Weekend at the Garage in North London as part of their current UK tour was a reminder that not all bands embrace the element of surprise.
Vampire Weekend played through a set that included songs from their 2008 eponymous first release, a massive hit released on the UK-based independent label XL Recordings that sold 28,000 copies in its opening week but has since sold 498,000. Time Magazine named it the fifth best album of 2008 and Rolling Stone included them in their top 100 best albums of the decade (two slots above Danger Mouse’s the Grey Album).
The full blog post, on Vampire Weekend’s tour stops through London, is at the DAILY TELEGRAPH.
Posted in Music, My articles
Tagged culture, london, Music, soweto, vampire weekend
