BORN FREE

Photographer Jaime Martinez has just signed as the Visual Artist for M.I.A's label Neet Recordings. Head over to Fuck You Draculas to see more examples of his work in which he transforms haunting photographs into bold .gifs.

Click here to listen to Born Free (feat. Mixhell) from M.I.A's forthcoming album.

The Saam Farahmand clip isn't as repetitive as it initially seems.
Watch closely.

Nishal and Lorena's wedding, 3rd April 2010

nabil x kanye west, wireless festival 2009

source

Don't Sleep is a new independently published photography magazine, straight out of Australia. The biannual magazine, helmed by Chico, focuses on graffiti, tattoos and urban decay.

Issue 1 has just been published. Click here to visit the website to order yourself a copy, or to browse some more of Chico's photography.

great wall of china
july 2009

5 stars for this modern classic

If you have to pay through your teeth to get a ticket to see Mark Rylance in Jerusalem before it closes on April 24th, then pay through your teeth*. It is one of, if not the most exciting pieces of theatre I have seen - funny, energetic and tragic. Rylance's performance will, I believe, be remembered as iconic for years to come.

Rickson's production and Ultz's set deserves every nomination, star, and award which it has received (or not received, in the case of the recent Oliviers - it was robbed).

You must see this

*Alternatively queue for on-the-day tickets from approximately 8.30 a.m. - the box office doesn't open until 10 a.m. but when you're sat on the front row of the stalls for only £10 you will not bemoan your early start.

Directed by Dave Ma and shot in Inverness

I love how unexceptional and innocuous the photographs in Gus Powell's Lunchtime Series seem at first glance, but once titled they appear cleverly constructed compositions

 from top: Our Secret, Spotlight, The Juggler

NY-Z.

Nicely edited.

Can't knock the hustle.

Another show which I have seen recently, and one which I would quite recommend seeing, is Why I Don't Hate White People. The production is currently touring the country, and if you do decide to go, try and attend a performance followed by a q&a session, for Lemn Sissay is fascinating, informed, articulate, and funny - it was by far the most insightful post show talk I have attended to date.

The piece itself is a thoughtful exploration of white British attitudes to racism and features a very engaging and charismatic performance from its writer, Lemn Sissay MBE. It is, I believe, well written, and fairly well constructed, and is delivered from inside an all white set inspired by Sissay's 2008 Cape Farewell expedition to the North Pole. My main criticism would be of the physical enactment of the many poetic metaphors which I felt detracted from their meaning and encouraged only a literal reading - it is however still worth seeing if you get the opportunity.

Promises Promises is an interesting one-woman show which explores issues of multiculturalism and integration within schools. It is, at moments, comic, and others dark, and features a fantastically polished performance from Joanna Tope. Currently touring.

THE XX x PIERRE DEBUSSCHERE

mercury prize winning acoustic, jazz-inspired hip hop

An incredible short film

Click here to watch

ROBOTS ARE FRAGILE TOO

Currently sat writing a paper on Lauryn Hill and the Black feminist struggle within Hip Hop culture. I have a long night ahead of me trying to articulate logically how Hill uses music as a vehicle for social protest and political activism within the context of the Black liberation struggle, but I thought I'd take a minute and briefly blog about the album to encourage anyone who hasn't heard it to ensure that they do. It is an incredible record which cohesively blends together sounds of gospel, blues, R&B, folk and rap and is, without a doubt, my favourite record of all time.

manganiyar seduction.

Thirty six boxes, stacked four storeys high, containing 43 Rajasthani desert musicians. Yes, the Manganiyar Seduction is nothing short of spectacular. Staged by director Roysten Abel, the show brings an incredible theatricality to the performance of traditional Indian Sufi music, and I was fortunate enough to catch it on the first of its three night run at the Barbican Centre as part of the East festival and bite: 10.

Beginning with a solo musician, the production gradually built to an almighty climax as the 42 other musicians unveiled themselves from behind their curtains. Housed within a set which undoubtedly drew influence from Jaipur's Hawa Mahal and Amsterdam's red light district, these musicians were led, with tremendous gusto, by conductor-cum-dancer Daevo Khan. It was he who broke the formal delineation between the audience and the performers and was crucial in providing the energy which engulfed the theatre. He, rather deservedly then, drew his own applause.

After the performance, Abel came on stage to briefly provide context for the production. He explained how the Manganiyars are a caste of Muslim musicians from North India who also worshipped Hindu deities. Their music, he continued, fuses folk and classical genres and was traditionally performed for the kings of Rajasthan. His discussion was brief but insightful and was spliced with personable segments of humour in which acknowledged the difficulties which they faced whilst globally touring the production - getting 43 Muslim's through immigration control was no easy task, he joked.

What I will admit is I couldn't help but feel as though Abel's contextualisation of the work should have come sooner. I say this because of a number of reasons, firstly the staging provided no clues about the music's meaning, secondly there was no emcee nor were there subtitles, and thirdly programmes were only distributed as the audience left the theatre, therefore we, as audience members, were simply listeners in the broadest sense of the term. A more enhanced acknowledgement of the cultural distance between the musicians and the music which they were playing, and the audience to whom they were playing it to could, and should, have occurred from the get-go. Unfortunately as a result, the piece fell slightly short in terms of context or grounding.

Regardless, I remained mesmerised throughout - mesmerised by the colour, by the intensity of the music and by the production's originality - and as the audience unanimously rose to their feet in rapturous applause, I knew I was certainly not alone.

Photography source

bite size

Produced by China Plate, commissioned by mac and Warwick Arts Centre and supported by The Junction, Cambridge, Bite Size is a daylong showcase of West Midlands theatre taking place this coming Saturday, March 6th, at Warwick Arts Centre.

Over the course of the day work from companies such as Stan's Cafe, Pentabus, New Art Club, Kindle and New Macho will be presented, offering audiences a one-off opportunity to sample a fantastically wide range of great work all in one place, all in one day. The day will conclude in the bar with an evening of 1930's dance music played by Untied Artists and the Gramaphone Party.

Day tickets cost £25 (£23), and include entry to all shows. Click here for more information, or to book.

I'm working the festival but I'm hoping to catch as many shows as I possibly can, either in rehearsal or in performance, and will endeavour to blog about them next week.

banksy x sunday times magazine

LAMBETH PALACE

A pop up cinema in an abandoned tunnel in London is where Banksy has chosen to house preview screenings of his film Exit Through the Gift Shop in advance of its nationwide release on March 5th.

Described by Banksy as London's newest darkest, and dirtiest* purpose built cinema (*Cineworld Edmonton not included apparently), Lambeth Palace boasts "stunning" temporary toilets, a lounge bar, a popcorn stall and an usherette, who "sells spray paint instead of cigarettes". Furthermore, audiences are presented with tins of spray paint as they make their way out, and with the tunnel in which the cinema is housed declared an authorised graffiti zone, they are encouraged to "let rip" (to quote The Indy, ha).

Photography source.

I THINK I LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM THROUGH DAILY.
understated.

unassuming.

introvert.

MCQUEEN'S FINAL McQ

8 0 s p u n k

Kevin Bauman captures 100 of the 12,000 abandoned houses in the Detroit region; an area which has seen its population drop from 2 million citizens to under 800,000 in recent years

Click here to see more