A Good Winter

Speaking of side projects...

...Bon Iver's Justin Vernon has been perfectly described as a prolific writer of 'lonely folk songs', and it seems his musical overspill has been put to good use with the final release of new album Unmap, a collaboration with other local Wisconsinites Collections of Colonies of Bees. That is sweet sweet music to my ears.

untitled

Half day at "work" led to watching a mostly undefinable, possible second half of the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There. I think I agree with a reviewer who says "I fear that this will be a film that will really interest people who already know about Bob Dylan, and that it will sort of fly over the heads of everyone else", and another who believes "the more you do know about what's out there about Bob the more you'll be able to make the connections with the scenes". I was mainly watching it for Heath Ledger and Cate Blanchett. But a specific scene of Richard Gere's made the biggest impression: the funeral scene with My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James joining Calexico for a distinctly Bon Iver-esque rendition of Goin' To Acapulco.







Which led me to spotify My Morning Jacket after disregarding some musical freebies of theirs I have, half buried in my music library somewhere but didn't have cause to listen to.

The 2008 Evil Urges album is unexpectedly ecclectic, and although James (or, Yim Yames) still has very little on The Mr Justin 'Bon Iver' Vernon he slinks in nicely next to recent discovery Dead Mans Bones, a Ryan Gosling "side-project", of similarly haunting folk-type persausion, that will see me happily through Halloween and beyond.

Crack den or no it was exciting to be there at his humble beginnings

London, as grotty and grubby as it is, is redeemingly full of hidden gems, some of which, if you're lucky, are also free.

This week I was invited to a friend's first public exhibition. I met Matthieu Leger at university, him doing his fine art degree, me doing journalism. Me writing ramblings, him chiselling a farmyard cow from wood and expanding foam amoung other things (she was quite beautiful). He is already a very accomplished artist, having recently returned from Madrid after being chosen for a months scholarship after graduating with a 1st Honours Degree. This though, I am a little ashamed to admit, was the first time I've actually seen some of his finished work.

The Face It venue was in the basement of Hoxton's 'The Foundry', which, apart from the imperial leather soap in the heavily, and yes very wittily graffitied wc's and the guy in the white gimp suit at the top of the stairs who courteously let me leave, I can't say that I managed to take that much in of the place itself. Helpfully however, I have found this review a la fancyapint.com that does a good job of it.

In this case, the basement was host to a collective of portraiture, both painted and photographed. I was particularly taken with a painting of a man sitting, smoking, by Fatime Szaszi (below), which I suppose puts me in the category of more traditional art lover considering the other offerings of surreal, conceptual, and abstract. Fundamentally, I appreciate that which it is clear time and an amount of passion has been invested in it. And that was the case with this exhibition.

Before entering the crack den however, we took a detour to Old Bond Street and another free exhibition Matt had stumbled upon earlier in the week. Jonas Burgert's Hitting Every Head at the Haunch Of Venison is massively involving; his pieces are formed of narratives and I was happily sucked in. We marvelled at the scale of his paintings and envisaged the kind of studio the German artist works in.

jonas burgert at haunch of venison on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

There are so many influences within his work that it is impossible to say whose taste it wouldn't on some level appeal. The collection is on show until the 7th of November so if you get the chance, I would urge you to witness this gem. Unfortunately the Face It show was only on until 24th Oct but I, personally, will be keeping a look out for any more cultural freebies and keeping an eye on where Matthieu Leger, Fine Artist, goes from these "humble beginnings". More to come...

Pretty in Pieces

During some research I was doing recently on natural beauty products from New Zealand either in the market already or about to be launched in the UK and Europe, I came across artist Rob Ryan.


A massively beneficial substance used in most of the product ranges is Manuka Honey and obviously none of the products contained preservatives or parabens. The simplicity of these products is echoed in their packaging, but only Snowberry products caught my eye. The primary colours and jagged edges of the sentimental patterns which bedeck the recycled boxes are peppered with words so striking and poignant that you wonder if Snowberry's founder Soraya Hendesi perhaps asked her emotionally over-developed 6 year old to decorate her creations.

However, a traditionally trained artist, Rob Ryan was born in Cyprus in 1962 and studied fine art at Nottingham Trent Polytechnic before going on to an MA in printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London. Features of printmaking remain visible in his work in the patterns and repetitions, but it is clear a lifetime of experience and emotion goes into each painstakingly and passionately hand-cut design.

Ryan's work with Snowberry has not been his only foray into the beauty world. He has previously collaborated with Paul Smith, which led to this comment on the paulsmith.co.uk - "This is a body of work, which, beneath their overtly visual romance, is almost visceral in it's melancholy. "

Although some of Ryan's work reminded me of similar designs by Zakee Shariff, especially a comissioned book sleeve illustration, because of its production it is undeniably original and his work would look as equally impressive and at home on the walls of an art gallery or my grandparents kitchen.

"They were old, nasty, cruel and unforgiving, but most of all...they were twits!"

Right. That's it. It's done. I. Am. On. TWITTER.

I have succumbed. I have become what I had grown to loathe. And, I don't precisely believe that anyone has more right to do anything than anyone else, but when perfectly anonymous people decide that their stream of consciousness, in a similar vein to one "facebook status" after another, is worth more than a half-chewed peanut to anybody, I wonder if social media has not bred a society of self-indulgent, self-important narcissists.

But, I digress. I am now one of the above. I am disappointed that Nobel Prize winner Barack himself has abandoned his social media trial blazing, albeit for world peace. The people who place themselves within the public sphere at least have the autonomy to encourage or discourage the dissection of their lives and thoughts by tweeting or not tweeting. I could understand why the public would be interested in the activities and whereabouts of the "famous", but who cares about joe blogs?

My bandwagon jumping took place directly as a consequence of a media conference at The National Media Museum in Bradford; Mediafest09. The theme of this years conference centered around Women In The Media, the subject of which I based my dissertation on. During the day there was a vague air of feminist anger, which a couple of the otherwise inspiringly successful speakers verbally acknowledged in order to keep in check.

Generally it was a celebration of the successes of women in the fastest growing industry worldwide and a fantastic exposure to role models and advice from these women. But what struck me most was that these 30-74 year old women were miles ahead of me; on paper a ready to go, 'finger on the pulse', 21 year old Media Graduate. "You'll find me on Twitter" - the resounding sign off after each presentation.

How do I find you on Twitter if i'm not on there myself? So, onto Twitter I went, adding them all one after the other; Guardian Directors of Digital Content (Emily Bell), Film Company Birds Eye View's Creative Director's (Rachel Millward), etc, etc. I hope that by having that tenuous link with these women I will better learn the ways of the professional media world and how, not just to keep up with social media, but how it is best utilised.

My main question right now though is whether Twitter is geared towards the professional or the personal? Because if the wonderful answer is both, then where the hell has the line gone?

Out of this World

I have vowed to dedicate more time to the radio. In a similar vein, this is why I don't begrudge Spotify their adverts. Recently, a tune popped into my head that I couldn't place until I realised it had percolated my brain in the midst of an otherwise lovingly arranged playlist. After a haphazard quest for the origins of the music I unearthed The Asteroids Galaxy Tour.

And, in a bid to encourage more percolation and a generally faster pace of information sharing I will attempt a whistle stop tour of my new world...

'Fruit' is The Asteroids' debut album and although their title begs a science fiction quality their sound is more of a regression to 60's and 70's funkiness. I can gather the Danish Mette Lindberg and Lars Iversen first gained widespread recognition after their second single "Around The Bend" was used in a Apple Ipod Touch advert and they were officially blogged by Katy Perry.

Now the rinkety tinkety personal favourite "The Golden Age" is the song that lured me into their universe used in the advert on Spotify. On repeated listen the opening piano is reminiscent of Lily Allen's "Knock 'Em Out", which I remember hearing for the first time on Allen's Myspace which was bedecked with multi-coloured polka dots. The Asteroids' evoke that similar frolicking, fresh attitude that excited me about the possibilities of Miss Allen.

In other news, second party information reached me recently of another Radio (One in this instance) performance worth talking about. Australian, but now London based, comic Tim Minchin's session with Chris Moyles earlier this week prompted my Dad to share with the family some of his wildly innapropriate - for my 14 year old brother - all singing, all playing, all dicing with the intricacies of the English language in a way that is both intellectually impressive and childishly hilarious musical skits via Youtube:

Throughout that video my emotional gauge went haywire but I have to admit that upon its culmination I could quite happily have gone home with that talented, oddly charming, and wholly disreputable man.