free* the Gentlemen of Bakongo page 3
ORA page 12
Lamborghini Ankonian
page 22
Cover: Nicolas Lesaffre
theblogpaper has been produced by users of theblogpaper.co.uk - this is the “best of� according to our community / 18 / 12 / 09 - Beta_no2
Index: MediaActivist published this article:
War is Peace
page 6
toaster posted these photos:
Manga Ormolu by Brendan Tang page 11
18. December 2009 theblogpaper has been produced by users of theblogpaper.co.uk posting their articles and photos on the website. The highest rated and most discussed content has been collected and published in this paper. In this edition the following users have been published: Sarah-Clare Conlon - www.wordsandfixtures.blogspot.com / hannas 4 - www.immanuel.deviantart. com- Juha Arvid Helminen / thejoegriffin - www. joegriffinwrites.blogspot.com / Rick Swift - www. iratefilms.com / Brendan Tang – toaster - www. brendantang.com / www.derringercycles.commona f / www.bastardlife.com- bastardlife / StoneJam - www.stonejam.lt / www.drolgerg.wordpress.com- Drolgerg / beth francis - www.coarsetoys.com / marie eaton- www.ale.gr- Alexandros Stasinopoulos / www.exergian.com – jamesknight / www.northbriton45.blogspot.com - northbriton45 / www.toryardvaark.wordpress.com - Tory Aardvark / Cam Phillip - www.photodantam.com / MediaActivist - www.mediaactivist.com / www.askcherlock. com – askcherlock / www.lisashahno.com – Anne M / www.northlondonhippy.com – northlondonhippy / www.matthewmoggridge.blogspot.com – Matthew Moggridge / www.lindipendente.splinder. com –dejudicibus / - Thanks to all of you! Published by: The Blog Paper LDT. 88-94 Wentworth Street London E1 7SA www.theblogpaper.co.uk We welcome any comments / suggestions: Drop us a line at: feedback@theblogpaper.co.uk
mona f posted these photos:
Derringer Cycles page 15
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How to annoy people on twitter page 17
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Squaring the Square
page 19
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Review: Me and Orson Welles page 20
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politics Photos by Cam Phillip / London Average Rating: 3,5
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Article by Tory Aardvark / UK Average Rating: 4,0
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The Scandal of Homeless Ex-Service people One of the advantages of running a blog site, is that from time to time you can let rip about something you are not happy about; so today Aardvark is taking a break from political blogging to climb on his anthill to talk about the scandal of homeless ex-service people This country has failed it’s service and women consistently, and without exception, in the aftermath of every war since we became a so called modern nation. A war comes along, we call on our people to fight, and when it’s over we turn our backs on them. The blame can be attached to every government, be they Conservative, Labour or Liberal, they have all failed monumentally. More people who saw combat in the Falklands War have committed suicide since the war ended, than were killed in the fighting. Think about it for a moment, it’s not only a scandal, it’s far worse than that as hundred’s of human tragedies are acted out alone and in the pit of despair. On the Veterans Aid screen under Donate there is the text “Help give a homeless veteran a bed for the night”; this makes Aardvark feel very ashamed to live in a country where this has happened for decades. “You think after serving your time in the Army society will accept you,” he says, “but they don’t and no one helps.” Ray was on the streets. Aimlessly, he would jump barriers at stations and ride trains around the country. Eventually he ended up in West London. He could get through £400 worth of crack in two or three days. He no longer cared about sleep or food. On the streets the tough “wolf pack” mentality meant that he was vulnerable to sexual assault and violence. In the end he smashed a car window outside a police station and turned himself in. When he was searched, the only things found on him were his medals. more in The Times If that last statement does not move you to tears than I have failed, if it does then click the link and visit the Veterans Aid web site. Aardvark is in regular correspondence with his MP regarding this tragedy and asks everyone, who reads this blog, to email or write to their MP, and demand an end to betrayal and failure of our brave service people and really give them “The land fit for heroes” they were promised nearly 100 years ago
The Sapeurs
The Sapeurs today belong to ‘Le SAPE’ (Societe des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elegantes) - one of the world’s most exclusive clubs. Members have their own code of honour, codes of professional conduct and strict notions of morality. It is a world within a world within a city. Designer brands of suits and accessories are of the utmost importance to Sapeurs Unlike some US hip-hop gangs who are dressed in similar fine threads, there is no bloodshed here - here your clothes do all the fighting for you, otherwise you are not fit to be called a Sapeur. The result is a unique and inspiring style, that has captured the imagination of people all over the world - the sapeurs are now truly the kings of elegance.
“Gentlemen of Bakongo” photos by Daniele Tamagni Abi Gold PRESS Michael Hoppen Gallery +44 (0) 207 352 3649 www.michaelhoppengallery.com available to buy...
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politics
Article by northbriton45 / London Average Rating: 4,0
www.northbriton45.blogspot.com
What would the Tories do? I’ve no idea Tomorrow’s newspapers will have acres of coverage, pull out sections and comment pieces on Alistair Darling’s final Pre-Budget Report (PBR). Much of it will be critical, crumbs of comfort will be found in The Guardian, Mirror, Independent, Times, while the others will be almost universally hostile. At the same time right-wing bloggers will indulge in maniacal frothing at the mouth at the policies outlined by Darling, his one-off levy on bankers’ bonuses, National Insurance increases – though the average worker will actually be better off – and the silence over the huge spending cuts that must surely come in a few years. For what’s it worth, my reading of the PBR is that Darling did the best of a bad job. Treading a fine line, tax increases were quite cleverly shifted on to the wealthiest and what people want to hear – that spending on frontline services in the NHS and education are being ‘ringfenced’ (a bloody awful phrase). He was conspicuously silent on what cuts other departments are going to have to make, something that he will have to face in the unlikely event Labour win the next election. This, while understandable, leaves him open to criticism that this was an ‘electioneering’ PBR. The really bad news is yet to come But one thing that the right will not do is have a proper look at the reaction from shadow chancellor George Osborne and others in the Tory Party who appear delighted to attack but actually fail to say anything of substance at all. The focus is rightly on Darling and his policies, but so close to an election some beams of light need to be aimed upon Osborne,
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the apparent alternative chancellor. But, in his response Osborne failed to outline a single policy which would go towards tackling the budget deficit. He criticised plenty but produced nothing of any worth. It was a vacuous political, point-scoring attack which leaves voters in the dark as to what they would actually do. All of Osborne’s usual lines were there. He remarked how Brown said Labour would be ‘prudent’ adding that the ‘figures produced just now show Labour quadrupling the national debt in office’. ‘Abolishing boom and bust’ was wheeled out as Osborne accuses Brown of inflicting ‘the longest and deepest recession in our modern history’. It is worth noting, however, from his responses during the height of the economic collapse Britain would have slumped into an even greater economic hole wanting, as he did greater deregulation which would have lead to an even greater bubble. Osborne was also against bailing out Northern Rock and has been consistently critical of other banking bailouts – an utter failure of political responsibility on George Osborne’s part. Osborne proved he could add up, which is always useful for a prospective chancellor, by adding all the projected borrowing together over the next five years to come up with £789bn, admittedly a genuinely terrifying figure. But it surely wouldn’t be any different under Osborne? Of course we don’t know because he doesn’t actually tell us. Osborne reports that even the deputy leader of the Labour Party said the ‘markets are getting more nervous than they were about government borrowing’. Well it would appear both are wrong as the market’s reaction to the PBR today is one of supreme indifference. The FTSE ended just 0.37 per cent down today, hardly worth reporting. Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG Index, said the London market reacted with ‘little more than mild indifference’ to the report. Osborne has a go at Darling’s plans to tax bankers’ bonuses, claiming he came up with such an idea in two months ago and bankers shouldn’t get this money in the first place.
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Can I just get this right? Banks shouldn’t be paying out these bonuses, though Osborne wouldn’t be in a position to have stopped them anyway, and it’s my idea. It is less a U-turn by Osborne, more Escher’s staircase. Incidentally, Boris Johnson falls into the same logically flawed trap. His reaction to the PBR is below: ‘I have been crystal clear that unless bankers show vivid self-restraint and social responsibility, they have nobody to blame but themselves if punitive measures are proposed in the current economic climate and in response to taxpayers’ fury. ‘Whilst I understand the motives behind proposals to curb this unreasonable behaviour I am opposed in principle to random, unilateral, and ill thought out measures that could drive financial services overseas.’ I’m sorry Boris, but you can’t have it both ways. Boris is trying to side with the London voter in one sentence and then frantically remembers he is Tory and wants to be the banker’s friend in the second sentence. Back to Osborne he even hauls out that geriatric, tedious and hollow line about not fixing the roof which the sun was shining while attacking Darling’s admittedly laughable Fiscal Responsibility Bill. His speech is completely empty of any actual Tory policy. I know it is the responsibility of the opposition to hold the government to account – something the Conservatives singularly failed to do during Labour’s grip on power until Cameron came along – but with an election looming it is no longer good enough. The Tories cannot repeatedly wail ‘but we’re in opposition’. The public have a right to know what the Conservatives would do if and when they are elected to a position of responsibility. This failure to actually spell out any policies is surely a major reason why their opinion poll lead is so flaky – no one has the slightest idea how they would get us out of this mess. please recyle this newspaper, or give it to a friend
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War is Peace Article by MediaActivist / Afghanistan Average Rating: 4,0
www.mediaactivist.com During his 1992 Republican Convention speech, George H.W. Bush, Sr. said that Americans should be “more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons.” But The Simpsons represent the United States effectively in that they are culturally influential yet also ridiculed for their reactionary stupidity by the rest of us – thanks to Bush Sr. and Jr. and their actions. George W. Bush Jr.’s approval ratings soon sank so low that they were second only to those of Harry Truman in the annals of American history. With the Republicans facing another election, without Bush, they were hoping that their next candidate – and their attack on voters from poor, Hispanic, African-American backgrounds – would be enough to hold on. It wasn’t – not least because one of those African-Americans was now the Democratic candidate in opposition to them. His name was Barack Obama. The ‘progressive’ Obama seemingly came from nowhere to beat the second Clinton to run – Hillary – to break the elite’s promise of a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton royal line by offering ‘Hope’ and ‘Change,’ adding ‘Yes, We Can.’
The subsequent wave of popular support he was able to ride to the White House as a black man meant that the lost votes in the flawed voting system weren’t even enough to stop him. But behind his carefully conceived marketing, what was he really about? Obama’s background was seemingly grassroots, but his first job after college was for the CIA front company Business Corporation International (which even sounds evil). The truth, it could be argued, lies there, with the rest of Obama’s inoffensive history built up around it to conceal it. But you don’t have to take my word for it: just look at all Obama did (or didn’t do) as soon as he was elected. We avoided a Bush/Clinton American monarchy, but again, how much is really different? The singer Morrissey obviously learned nothing from the Thatcher years; when he complained about the United States in his song America Is Not The World, noting, “The president is never black, female or gay,” he failed to realize that this doesn’t really matter. The night of Obama’s election win, I was in Spain with my parents watching the 24-hour BBC coverage which seemed to focus on the African-Americans crying with elation and the President-to-be’s skin colour far more than the reasons why so many Americans mobilised to put him in power. This reducing of Obama’s success to something about a ‘victory’ for minorities (while most still lived in near-poverty)
rather than his opposition to Bush/Clinton businessas-usual and promise of real hope and change was insulting. A person’s political colours, as we’ve seen with Thatcher, matter more than anything else – including their skin colour. Obama himself provided no benefit whatsoever to African-Americans themselves any more than, say, Thatcher benefited women. John Pilger put it perfectly: “This is the twenty-first century, and race, together with gender and even class, can be very seductive tools of propaganda, for what is so often overlooked, and what matters – I believe, above all – is the class one serves.” Back in Britain, the working classes were still not being served well. Tony Blair was gone, finally succeeded by his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, who in accordance with their ‘deal,’ was supposed to have taken Blair’s place long before. One of Brown’s first acts as Prime Minister was to speak alongside George W. Bush, Jr., wear a suit and tie, remain on formal terms, and even have his podium moved away from Bush’s at Camp David, signaling a more statesmanlike approach while distancing Britain from the Bush administration, and announcing plans for withdrawals of troops from Iraq. However, by now the damage was done; the occupation of Iraq, the damage to the economy, the erosion of civil liberties and everything else Blair presided over were consequences that Brown – not Blair – would have to reap. While universal health care was a hot topic in the United States – one of the few industrialised countries with no such plan – the economic crisis was again prompting people to look at other ways of doing things, and towards other countries themselves. Many Scandinavian nations, for example, were enjoying more progressive policies, and reaping the rewards as the ‘Happiest People on the Planet.’ Of course, some of these countries also have the highest suicide rates in the world, which, my dear friend Mel suggests, shows that the unhappy people are simply all dead – so the remaining content folk are the only ones left to be polled. With reluctance to join the rest of Europe, the U.K. was no longer favored by a U.S. government led by a President seeking a more multilateral approach to international affairs than his predecessor. The U.K. was passé, and Gordon Brown was a ‘lame duck.’ With the Tories revitalised under blue-blood Eton boy David Cameron, and Rupert Murdoch seeking less ‘interventionist’ politicians, The Sun reverted back to its Tory loyalties as New Labour reached crisis point. As Peter Wilby stated on October 5th, 2009, “The Sun, particularly in the past 18 months,
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worldnews has been a Labour paper only in the sense that China’s current leaders are Marxist-Leninists.” He went on to point out that “Academics find, to quote one professor, ‘zero evidence’ of any paper influencing voting habits. But that just shows academics don’t get out much. Politicians take a different view.” Rupert Murdoch is a boost for the Tories as he hopes he will, in return, have government stop sticking their noses in big business – his, especially. As the former U.S. Army General who led invasions of Panama and Iraq (the first time round) before being rewarded for his efforts by being made Secretary of State under George W. Bush, Jr., Colin Powell shocked the world when he betrayed the GOP and endorsed Barack Obama. But it’s no surprise, and something that says more about Obama’s fiber than Powell’s allegiances. Powell’s son Michael, after all, is the man who – as chief of the Federal Communications Committee – tried to trash thirty year old rules while loosening regulation on how much media could be controlled by a single corporation: as much as 45%. Can you imagine Murdoch’s News Corporation controlling almost half of all media consumed by Americans? A nightmare for the people, but a monopolist’s dream come true. And while much of the media calls Obama a ‘socialist,’ it fails to cover the actual substance of his time in office, or his true shortcomings – while his opponents on the far right enjoy the name-calling, and Obama’s own right-wing camp make the most of it, too, because it appeases the Left who actually believe he might be socialist. There’s no real constructive criticism of him as President, at all. In his first few months in power, Obama failed to close Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, and promptly appeased the military industrial complex that had so resented JFK, by making sure that – even if troops were exiting Iraq – more would be entering Afghanistan. The war went on, but the anti-war movement did not; rendered impotent by an illusion that, because Obama was in power, suddenly everything was OK. It was ‘Hope’ with false hopes, ‘Change’ without change. They were merely marketing words used by Obama’s campaign to get him into power. While he does represent a shift in the United States – a real desire for a different way of doing things – and he is surely not as bad as Bush, his hands are tied almost as firmly as the African-Americans enslaved and put to work by those rich white men all those years ago – a history even Obama’s own ancestry remains relatively free from when under scrutiny. He does not really represent African-Americans; he represents the system and its rigged, rigid structure of mass militarisation while preventing an advance of any alternative to capitalism. Hope™ and Change™ were – yep – just brand slogans. The American journalist Chris Hedges summed it up beautifully: “President Obama does one thing and Brand Obama gets you to believe another. This is the essence of successful advertising. You buy or do what the advertiser wants because of how they can make you feel.” In George Orwell’s frightening vision of the future, 1984, the book’s totalitarian state stated “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” Interestingly enough, mere days after controversially sending more troops into Afghanistan, Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.
pressure from her family so they may avoid penalties for murdering her. The New York Times reported that some suicides appeared in Kurdishinhabited regions of Turkey. A special envoy for the United Nations was sent to Turkey to investigate suspicious suicides among Kurdish girls. The Times stated that these suicides were “honor killings disguised as suicide or accident.” The true numbers of these occurrences may never be known. In yet another country, over 80 women in the Iraqi province of Diyala committed suicide to escape the shame of being raped. What is even more horrific is that a 51 year old Iraqi woman named Samira Jassim confessed to Iraqi police that she had organized these rapes. She then persuaded each of the women that to become a suicide bomber was the only way to escape their shame.While global terror is on the international stage for consideration, we must raise awareness that terror, unfortunately, often begins in the home and it is women who suffer dire consequences with no stage, no shelter and too little attention. Women are not objects. Women are human beings who deserve rights accorded to them through international human rights laws and within the courts of our global conscience.
Article by askcherlock / Pittsburgh Average Rating: 4,0
www.askcherlock.com
Domestic Violence: A Global Terror in the Home In the United States, every 9 seconds a woman is battered. This most often happens at the hands of her husband or boyfriend. There are many contributing factors, not the least of which is a lagging economy in which a wife or girlfriend becomes the target of the abuser’s frustration. Another factor is kindred to Pavlov’s dog theory of classical conditioning. If a person was abused as a child, they are more likely to become abusive as adults. As sons watch fathers commit these heinous acts, it becomes a learned behavior, a cultural phenomenon which must be addressed. Perhaps it is worthy to note that there are nearly three times as many animal shelters here as there are shelters for battered women. This violence, however, is not limited to the United States. The United Nations Population Fund reports that so-called “honor killings” take the lives of thousands of young women every year, mainly in North Africa, Western Asia and parts of South Asia. Often it happens within Islamic families, though “honor-killings” are not a tenant of that faith. The woman may have committed adultery, may have been raped or dressed inappropriately, thereby bringing shame to her family. The result is her murder at the hands of her husband or family. From this, a yet another phenomenon has evolved.A startling number of “honor suicides” has emerged in Turkey. This is a process whereby a woman who ostensibly shamed her family, chooses to commit suicide under
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comment by el_bing
Good piece ...but; “Often it happens within Islamic families, though “honor-killings” are not a tenant of that faith...” Why mention Islam at all then...?
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reply by askcherlock
It is a fair question. I wrote this piece as a participant in the group Bloggers Unite. It was timed for International Day For The Elimination of Violence Against Women event. I mentioned that this is not a tenant of the Islamic faith so as not to paint Islam with a broad brush. I have also done pieces on my own Catholic faith.
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sports Article by Matthew Moggridge / London Average Rating: 4,0
www.matthewmoggridge.blogspot.com
Stop counting chickens
“Nothing is worth more than this day,” said Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and let’s hope that England supporters and players will be uttering these very words on July 11th if England powers through to its first global victory in well over 40 years. The last time England tasted World Cup success was back in the days before colour television was invented when the Austin 1100 was considered cool and when Myra Hindley was only three months into a life sentence for her part in the infamous Moors Murders. It’s been a long time and already the media is getting complacent over the draw earlier this month. I was sitting in the King’s Heath Cricket & Sports Club in Birmingham when it was announced that England would be playing the USA in what was being called ‘an easy group’, the other teams being Algeria and Slovenia. The Times, in a 20-page special supplement, called it the ‘most favourable draw in England’s history and claimed that it was simply irresistible not to look ahead, being so bold as to suggest that the result should lead to a place in the last four. Writer Oliver Kay then admitted that ‘the trouble in second guessing
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a World Cup is that it rarely goes to plan’. Tempting fate just a little bit more, however, Kay went on, “Who is to say that a durable Germany might not underperform and finish second in their group, leaving England to face their age-old rivals in the last 16?” Well, personally, I’d put that down as a dead cert and might even nip down to the bookies and put some money on the Germans taking England out early; that way England is bound to win, not lose, as Sod’s Law will dictate that I must forfeit my stake. But the bookies are worried, according to Kay, slashing the odds of England winning from 6-1 to 5-1. It seems as if England is now second favourite to win the tournament, behind Spain but ahead of Brazil.England lost 1-0 to the USA back in the monochrome dishwater year of 1950, so expect the media to start making comparisons with that ill-fated match. The USA is not a team to be sniffed at; they are seeded 14 in the Fifa rankings. So, as Kay advises, the immediate priority for England is to avoid complacency and make sure they win the group.Making a drama out of a draw. I like the way that journalists try and turn something relatively dull like the draw into something found in the pages of a best selling thriller novel. The Guardian’s Paul Hayward, reporting from Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, sounded more like war correspondent Robert Fisk for his piece in the Saturday Guardian on December 5th. “When they had pulled their faces off the wire fences and returned to their corrugated iron shacks, the people of this township must have thought it had all been a pleasant dream,” he wrote before explaining how Beckham, wearing a lumberjack shirt, ‘floated through their lives like a spirit’. What was he on?
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Likewise The Times’ Oliver Kay couldn’t resist the temptation to begin his piece of the same day like this: “As evening drew over Cape Town, the sun still shone brightly on the England delegation. It might be different come June, when winter descends…” Perhaps coverage of the tournament on television next summer should begin cryptically, like the Exorcist did in Northern Iraq; perhaps the words ‘Siberia 1901’ should appear just ahead of a storm sequence before we flash forward to the words ‘Cape Town 2010’ and then a jumbo jet touching down at Cape Town International airport. Let’s not make a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to our confidence or otherwise for England. As Oliver Kay quite rightly pointed out, one of the biggest problems the England squad faces is the burden of expectation.The draw ceremony was blown out of all proportion with personal messages from Nelson Mandela and a glamorous presenter such as Charlize Theron. It was a weird cross between the National Lottery Live and the Eurovision Song Contest – although we were spared the dulcet tones of Wogan. The problem with punditry is that it’s all a shot in the dark. Will the USA be easy meat? Who knows? Can we win the group? Possibly, but who knows what’s going to happen on the day? Speculation is one thing, but if it leads to complacency the best thing is not to listen; it’s miles too early to form a judgement. Johann Goethe’s seven words at the beginning of this article are heartening, but there are seven words that England supporters know only too well: “England is out of the World Cup”. Cue penalty shoot-out with Germany and angry fans on the rampage in Cape Town. Ends.
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art
And the Beat goes on Article by Sarah-Clare Conlon / Manchester Average Rating: 4,3
www.wordsandfixtures.blogspot.com Just over 30 of us push open the discrete double swing doors and dot ourselves around the lecture theatre - complete with raked seating and sound booth - that is hidden in the north wing of Manchester’s Whitworth Art Gallery. We are a diverse bunch, covering all ages from freshers to pensioners, gathered together for the penultimate talk in The American Scene series. The events have been designed to complement the exhibition of the same name (well, The American Scene: Prints From Hopper To Pollock, to give it its full title), which is on tour from the British Museum until Sunday. David Morris, Head of Collections for the Whitworth, introduces RJ Ellis, Professor of American & Canadian Studies at the University of Birmingham, and explains the connection between tonight’s discussion, Six Myths Of On The Road, And Where These Might Lead Us, and the prints hanging in the gallery next door. He describes the post-war part of the show as “perhaps the most striking” and paints a picture for us of the cultural context of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Artists like Louise Bourgeois and Jackson Pollock and Article by hannas 4 / London
Average Rating: 4,5
other Abstract Expressionists were in full flow; the jazz movement was in full swing: not surprisingly writers were also going full steam ahead. Improvisation was the name of the game, and experimentation (drugs, sexuality, joblessness, travel) provided inspiration to the poets and authors looking for new ways to express the confusion (social, economic, political, emotional...) of post-war America. And so the Beats were born, so-called because of the similarities of their free form writing to the free form artworks and music concurrently being produced. The Beat Generation was quite a crowd, but the most famous and fecund were William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and, of course, crowned King Of The Beats Jack Kerouac. The moniker Beatniks was later applied by ‘the establishment’ in an attempt to undermine the group by associating them with Communism (the Sputnik programme was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957;the year Kerouac’s seminal novel On The Road was published), just one example of how the group’s image was purposefully and systematically tarnished. Professor Ellis (hereafter known as Dick) flicks up a photograph of Jack Kerouac, showing him wearing a crumpled checked shirt with tousled hair and a slight five o’clock shadow. The shot was taken (and cropped, losing Kerouac’s crucifix in the process) for Mademoiselle magazine and managed to successfully give the impression of a rebellious tearaway, whereas in reality he was unusually scruffy having just come down from his firewatch stint on Desolation Peak (as documented in Lonesome Traveller, The Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels). The slighting of his character in such ways helped effect Kerouac’s decline, and
the invisible empire
www.immanuel.deviantart.com
“In my art I search for some feeling, something that goes deep into ours psyche. The base of my photography is narrative but often in reversed form. By this I mean that first comes the picture and then thousand words lay on top of it. The mind and its weaknesses intrigue me. In “the Invisible Empire” series I have stripped off so many of the elements that make us individual. I have replaced the face with symbols of authority. I am contemplating the relationship between the character and the audience when the elements given are so scarce. Can we get a contact with a surface? I wanted to create a family album of aristocrats. A family stained with decadence and disgrace, living in the past without being able to renew it self. My themes are universal so “race” has no meaning. The series is all about the misuse of power in religion and politics.”
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just over a decade later he died at the age of 47 from cirrhosis caused by alcoholism. This inaccurate picture is the first of six myths Dick presents, others being: that On The Road is the result of a drug-fuelled writing frenzy (in reality, the fact that the book was completed in 20 days was down to Kerouac’s 100wpm typing prowess, and the novel is obviously well thought through and structured with obvious nods to literary influences such as Proust, Dostoevsky and Joyce); that the work was typed onto a continuous roll of tracing paper so the author didn’t have to stop and feed sheets into his Underwood (the “scroll”, as the original manuscript is called, is actually a number of rolls stuck together with Sellotape); that Kerouac refused to make revisions (there are deletions, additions and corrections throughout the original scroll) or accept editors’ changes (in fact, there is obvious collaboration between the author and his Viking Press editor Malcolm Cowley and copyeditor Helen Weaver)... I won’t reveal them all here; that might just amount to plagiarism and you might also like to catch Dick in action yourself some time. Suffice it to say, On The Road is still a legend, despite the deconstruction of some of the myths around it. It is still an example of spontaneity, authenticity and automatic storytelling, but it was carefully edited, modified and honed to make it the great, readable and, ultimately, publishable, work that first came out. It might have taken 50 years for the 1951 uncut “original scroll” to be released (Penguin do a paperback version), but (to quote the Beat-inspired Bob) the times they are a-changin’, and aren’t we lucky to have two texts to enjoy, not just one?
art
Manga Ormolu by Brendan Tang
Photos by Toaster / London Average Rating: 4,3
www.brendantang.com Peoples throughout history have bought, adopted or pillaged technologies from one another, often through the mechanisms of war, trade and espionage. ‘Nations’ and ‘cultures’ are not discrete entities, but are rather continually evolving expressions of social history, economic imperialism and geopolitics. Viewed in this way, globalization is a historic trend, but one that is accelerating. The rate and extent of globalization has increased exponentially through increasingly complex technological revolutions – agricultural, industrial, and now, digital. Yet, simultaneous to this technological convergence, the cleavages between populations defined by race, religion and nation are being redrawn, redefined and reinforced. Clearly, “we” (patriots, developed, democratic) are not like “them” (insurgents, underdeveloped, oppressed). Globalization, as translated through capitalism and nationalism, has not yielded cultural uniformity. Manga Ormolu enters the dialogue on contemporary culture, technology, and globalization through a fabricated relationship between ceramic tradition (using the form of Chinese Ming dynasty vessels) and techno-Pop Art. The futuristic update of the Ming vessels in this series recalls 18th century French gilded ormolu, where historic Chinese vessels were transformed into curiosity pieces for aristocrats. But here, robotic prosthetics inspired by anime (Japanese animation) and manga (the beloved comics and picture novels of Japan) subvert elitism with the accessibility of popular culture.
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design
false friends Note by beth francis / London Coarsetoys have just released their latest toy called „false friends“… here is the story behind it: The noop lies sprawled across the warm ground in a sticky mess. His eyes, still blurred, catch sight of the bright blue sky behind the vast tree leaves. Not too long ago the elastomer was a dark and hostile place. Now it sparkles again in the boldest of colors, fresh and juicy. Giant fruits hang from the branches of the trees. In one, well protected and nourished, the noop had time to grow. But now he is ripe, and he has hatched from his fleshy fruit shell. He knows he can’t stay out here in the open. Without the protection of cover he would be at their mercy. His shaky legs have never carried his body weight before. After a few attempts, he finally gets up. Standing, half stunned and dizzy, he gazes around and after a few seconds he slowly sets himself into an awkward walking motion. Wandering the lowlands, the night has fallen. That which started almost inaudible, he is increasingly drawn to. The sound that would accompany him his entire life. The thundering of waves. Guided by this call in the darkness the noop finally reaches the beach. Jaded, he lies down. As soon as his face hits the cold sand, the noop is asleep. false friends - www.coarsetoys.com
ORA by Alexandros Stasinopoulos
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Photos by marie eaton / Greece Average Rating: 4,7
www.ale.gr ORA concept is a study on the field of haute horlogerie. It focuses on the display of time via an unconventional mode, by replacing the expected dial arrangement found in the vast majority of the mechanical watches with a set of three interwoven tapes – one to indicate the hour(s), one to indicate the minute(s), and one to indicate the day.
design
Photos posted by jamesknight / London
Average Rating: 4,7
www.exergian.com
Albert Exergian illustration
Created out of a love for posters, modernism and television, there wasn’t a client out there to commission such a job so Austrian designer Albert Exergian wrote his own brief and created this self initiated series of posters throwing all of the above inspirations into the creative melting pot. Due to a huge amount of inquiries for these print to be made available, they are now brought to you as a series of a1 Epson Giclee prints by Blanka. ----- http://blanka.co.uk/Art/Exergian/Iconic_TV ---- Exergian portfolio: http://www.exergian.com www.theblogpaper.co.uk 13
culture
Article by cricketwithballs / London Average Rating: 3,5
www.cricketwithballs.com I must admit I have never really gotten Pornography. I am perverted, and sexually obsessive, but I prefer an erotic story to the image of a coked up woman with a bleached a hole looking uncomfortable at having a python inserted in her. When I have watched it, it often confuses me. 1. What happens when a woman, or man, go on to live a clean and conservative life and their work catches up to them? We all do fucked up things, but imagine being some soccer mum whose son’s classmates stumble across you in some hard core interracial gang bang action. Try explaining that. There are so many amateur video sites out there; surely this happens twice a day. At least. 2. Why do guys want to watch guys with larger dicks than them, surely it should be the opposite? This one has always got to me. Are they living vicariously though these men? Because to me, it would make more sense to watch a guy with a small dick pleasure a woman, and then as the guy you’d sit there saying, “if his dick could do that to her, imagine what mine could do”. 3. When all these chicks have these big long pointy heels, why don’t they ever accidently poke out some ones eyes? Every one of us has had a sex injury in our life, with all those ho heels in this films pointing up, surely some guy has come in to fast and lost an eye. Or there could be a fatal stabbing.
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The Ten Things that confuse me about Pornography guy has come in to fast and lost an eye. Or there could be a fatal stabbing. I wonder if/when these accidents are caught on film if this becomes a fetish item of its own. 4. Why is it that straight chicks will watch lesbian porn, and straight dudes don’t watch gay porn? This has always confused me. Many a man has got excited that his lady likes girl on girl flicks, only to suggest a threesome and to get abused. I am yet to find a straight man that admits to watching dude on dude films. Many girls say to me, I like it because girls know how to eat out other girls, and I like watching that. But surely the same goes for dude on dude films, just with the odd moustache. 5. Do porn production houses have optometrists on stand by, so many girls get hit in the eye, surely it can do damage? I’m going to fess up and say that I have never had semen hit me in the eye. I can only imagine that after repeat efforts, this must cause problems, especially with people who have sensitive eyes. And also the force it get squirted with some force at them. Plus semen is not sterile, so you could get infected, you’d be better off to have someone piss in your eye, as piss is sterile. 6. Why have I never found a genre of porn that involves a woman complaining drearily about how the guy fucks her? There would be a huge market for this. Sort of like sadomasochism, but more domestic and monotonous, “You’re not doing it right, hurry up X factor is on soon, we need milk, no I haven’t cum, I’m thinking of your brother…” It www.theblogpaper.co.uk
would also give the actresses a chance to really branch out and create a real character. 7. Why aren’t dick types classified? Surely part of pornography should be classifying dick types, I would think that men really just want to see a dick that looks like theirs. There should be a grading system circ or un-circ, skin tone, hairiness, ball sack shape and size etc. Otherwise it is just lucky dip. 8. Milf porn, where is the proof, what is the point? I get the whole thing about suspension of disbelief. Just because those two girls look alike doesn’t mean they are twins, but milf porn as a category just seems beyond belief. There is no way we are ever going to know they are mothers, and who cares, if a woman is 32 and hot, does it make it hotter if a child has been squeezed out of her, surely not. 9. Who decides what is Amateur and what is Professional? I understand the distinction between blogging and journalism, but surely the distinction between pro and am porn is much more blurred. Even in Amateur porn someone is making money. And if production values are the difference, quite often in Professional porn there is no cameraman. 10. Can a kid sue his mum if she was in a preggo porn film if they are the kid? I checked with a lawyer about this, and no they can’t. But they should be able to. Preggo porn, and I think pregnant woman are as hot as curry, is pretty wrong, not least because one day the kid could accidently grow up and search youporn. There is no way to apologise to a kid once you have used your pregnancy with them to make fetish porn.
culture Photos by mona f / London Average Rating: 4,4
www.derringercycles.com Have a look at these beautiful bikes from US company called derringer. These bikes cost about 3500 pounds, but are rather environmentally friendly, because of their hybrid option... Derringers can be human propelled, propelled via engine power, or human propelled with the assistance of engine power. While under power, the pedals can also remain stationary, allowing you to operate in the style of a traditional motorcycle.
Article by bastardlife / New York Average Rating: 3,7
www.bastardlife.com
The Love Drill
Derringer Cycles
The Love drill. “I hate you, but I want to fuck you, and oh by the way—I love you more than anything.” Ok this may not be exactly how it played out, but in a nutshell, this is how love, where vulnerability exists, can play out. The deeply in love know it: You know you’ll never leave, but you say, “Fuck it,” slam a door, grab your keys and your jacket and leave (for a couple of hours); You yell out angrily, “I wish we’d never met,” then rip her clothes off or push her to the bed and proceed to have angry amazing sex that she thanks you for later; He screams, “I hate you, I really fucking hate you. And if you ever leave me, I’ll really hate you,” crying, accepting your tissue, then later your embrace. What the deeply in love don’t always know is how to fight fair; but those of you who did, helped us out.—N.B. Curfew It: Becky from Quebec advises, “Don’t let anger stay out past eight or nine O’clock. Being tired, and cranky, makes for cranky arguing that can turn mean unintentionally.” Bombshelter it: Tim from Miami writes, “OK, once you’re in argument autopilot mode, at the very least, don’t drop any bombshell announcements, pronouncements, or hurtful confessions. Save those for calmer happier times. Too much truth can be a nasty weapon.” Breathalize It. Vikki from Leeds says, “Reschedule the fight. Really. Stop it by saying, ‘I am happy to have this fight with you, but I’ll have to reschedule it for another time when you haven’t been drinking.’ Because, as we all know, a belly full of pints makes Johnny an angrier arguer.” Terminate It. Jason from LA wraps it up quite nicely with, “The more vulnerable and in love I am, the more intense I fight. But I make it a rule to get out the hard stuff about how I feel, rather than the easier finger pointing stuff that seems like it will lessen my embarrassment or fear due to being so vulnerable. When I force myself to talk about how my feelings were hurt, or how I felt stupid, or how vulnerable I feel, sure I feel like a pussy, but I don’t wake up angry the next morning.”
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culture Article by StoneJam / Lithuania, Vilnius Average Rating: 4,4
www.stonejam.lt
Home of the Homeless I knew they were living there. Some time ago I’ve peeped at their house, if it can be called like this... It‘s rather a well-built and established tent. So, I bought a bottle, for I thought it would be kind of indecent to visit someone without some sort of gift. Besides, I‘m not just going to visit. I‘m planning to take pictures of their everyday life and learn about their living. Pavilniai Regional Park. A “house“ standing aloof on the hill, surrounded by trees. Young mothers pacing close by. Wheeling their children across the park, they can‘t even suspect that someone may be living here. I climb the hill. THEY notice me at once. A tall man is sitting on a chair and the other, exceptionally short, standing near him. Both, as one would expect, are staring at me. I look rather funny, but perhaps, threatening too. I go quite a solid pace. I say hello and tell immediately that I want to take pictures of their home. In return, I offer them a bottle. I stupidly ask, whether they‘ll agree... The little man (whose name I anyhow didn‘t find out) sniffs to such a question. I give the bottle to the big guy (whose, as it turned out later, name is Romas) and repeat once more, that I want to take pictures of their home. I get a grant at a dash. By the way, they ask me who I am. I introduce myself as a photographer. I notice straight away, that there is one more person sleeping in the bower. I start taking pictures. The smell is wretched. There is a lot of garbage around here, but could it be otherwise, while living such a life? I try to question. Although it‘s only 1 p.m., both, the big guy Romas and his little friend are drunk. The tent (or the bower) is on the hill, on a smoothened plot. The angles are secured with firm stakes. The walls are rigged up from planks, plywood panels, pieces of tins; the wholes are draught-proofed with rags, the roof is covered with planks and plastic carpet. The entry is uncovered. Although the “building” doesn‘t look firm, as it happens, it‘s standing here more than a year. Incidentally, I failed to find out the author of this art work. At the entrance there is a little site, where there is a mini kitchen (if only it can be called like this). There is a fireplace, a table assembled of planks, a chair, in which Romas was settled at the moment. A wealth of vegetables was lying on the table. Some of them – rotten, other – as were just from the shop. The site is firmed with planks, which are professionally underpinned with stakes that are dug into ground. A bit further I notice a pit, in which all the trash is being bulked. I am explained, that this is how they „eliminate all sort of trash“. Romas says that they are like foresters. They clean all the rests, which are left in the park, after youngsters’ “parties” in the evenings. They gather all the bottles, cigarette butts and back-fill everything. That exactly THIS is happening here, I am assured not once. Although the view around indicates something else... There is trash all around us, but I catch a sight of a spade and Romas nods to me. I peer at the details at home. There is a leash for a small dog, hanging on a rope. The dog’s name is Baksis. On another rope – sun glasses. There is a small dolphin sculpture on the table. Someone didn‘t need it anymore, so it is now here. I notice a book and ask them if they read. “Oh yes, we do. We have a lot of old books“, - they say. I ask them to show it to me. Both plunge into searching, however they
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find only several. I ask: “Maybe, you’re burning them?“ Both, as if agreed, contest: „No, these are books! We sell the older ones.“Suddenly, Romas shows me a Nokia phone. I‘m surprised. Romas pulls a wry face and pulls out a second phone. This is where I lose it and burst into laughter. I ask: “Romas, why do you need two mobile phones?“ He answers, that he‘s a busy person. I can hardly
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keep my countenance. However, he is right – he has a lot of issues to cope with in this world. Moreover, his world is not as safe as ours. Romas poses happy with his phones. Suddenly, their third friend awakens. Mumbling under the blanket some minutes later, and perhaps afraid to show himself, he sticks his head out. By the looks and his utterance, I decide he is not totally drunkard, whereas the
culture other two are drinking something of pink color, during the whole conversation. This is where I thought, that the bottle of vodka, which I brought with me, is just a joke comparing to what they drink everyday... I ask whether anyone knows that they live here. They answer – no. The guys live here for some time. People don‘t often change, but it happens. Romas moved in when he was invited by a friend. All three of them live in the tent. It will be too cold in winter, therefore they will all go to „a place deeper“. Romas indicates the ground with a finger. I ask to tell me where. They smile mischievously, but no one of them babbles it out. It‘s a secret. It will be warm in there. In the middle of the chit-chat I hear the name „Grinka“. As it happens, when the dump Karijotiskes, which was near Vilnius, was closed, a lot of vagabonds don‘t anymore have a chance to go to the other dump, which is too far away, that is why they have settled in town. Every neighborhood of the city has its own vagabond gangs. To intrude without permission – is the same as shoplifting or even more dangerous. Romas started telling his adventures, when he felt a 30 cm. knife under his neck, which was held by another vagabond. The worst neighborhoods, where you can be „beaten up“ - Virsuliskes, Kalvarijos, Zirmunai. The most peaceful one - Antakalnis, because Grinka is in charge here. He is the leader of vagabonds. He deals with matters, because he is very strong and aggressive. There is no other such as Grinka in Vilnius. There are a lot of people „working“ in the containers by the river, in Antakalnis. They are, perhaps, the biggest group of people comparing to other neighborhoods of the city. For example, in Žirmūnai, vagabonds are beaten up by youngsters, it‘s a dangerous place. Therefore, there are fewer vagabonds. Antakalnis – an old neighborhood, there are a lot of pensioners, who can‘t do anything. Vagabondage is some sort of a business. One plastic bottle costs 3 cents in the recycling shop. One person gathers approximately 200 bottles per day. Vagabonds have even bought a mini bus to group more people together, who could do such job. Romas speaks most obstinately. He says that our president, Dalia Grybauskaite (whose surname is hard for him to pronounce, it sounds something like „gzauskaite“), has once said in Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, that such people as him, have the right to collect and back-fill the garbage. I smile upon him and ask if he reads newspapers and knows what‘s happening around the world? Are they affected by the crisis? Romas pulls out his Nokia mobile phone once more and shows that he listens to radio news by the radio set integrated in the mobile phone. Romas pulls a wry face. I am stunned by the might of the Nokia phone. It‘s absolutely fantastic. There is going to be no conclusions. Make your own conclusions. With this „project“ I mostly wanted to draw attention to the fact, that these people‘s way of life still remains human. Slightly... For example, when we come home, we take off our shoes. They also don‘t get to their beds with shoes on. Or certain details, which are very significant in our everyday life, like the desire to preserve humanity, home warmth or, at least, the merest wish to have your own corner, where you can sit down and read a newspaper or a book. I found two places for my „project“. There are more than two people living in both of them. There are several such permanent in Vilnius. Other places vary depending on weather conditions and circumstances, which, for these people, can change over one day. By the way, I didn‘t find any people in one place, so I took pictures without permission.. please recyle this newspaper, or give it to a friend
20 ways to annoy people on Twitter Article by Drolgerg / London Average Rating: 3,8
www.drolgerg.wordpress.com 1. Eat continuously then tweet continuously about what you’re eating. “Eating Walkers Salt & Vinegar Crisps. They’re very nice. Crunchy & tasty. I dropped one but picked it up again”. The more detail the better. Photograph your food from multiple angles & in different lighting then tweet via twitpic 2. Tweet endlessly about your shoes. Twitpic photo’s are essential. “I like my shoes. Here they are” 3. Always point out to your followers how great you are. It’s the only way they’ll know. Especially good to boast about your humility. 4. Claim to be an expert on a subject many people don’t know a lot about but would like to. Invite questions, then in your answers make it very clear you have no clue about it at all. Then disappear for a while. 5. Complain about your tax return as much as possible.”Doing my tax return. Why do I have to do a tax return? It’s not fair.” Reveal that you pay higher-rate tax, or that you have to pay tax on your other homes / swimming pool / yacht / luxury villa in Bermuda / collection of vintage cars, & then complain about it. 6. Shout “WOLVERINES!” at least once a day. 7. DM or tweet as many people as you can about a brilliant way you’ve found to get a trillion followers in 3 hours / get a free laptop / make millions of dollars just by visiting your website. Link to a website advertising collectable bottle tops. 8. Make the world’s most unfunny video then continuously post it in DMs or tweets to as many people as possible several times a day, telling them it’s the greatest thing since Citizen Kane. 9. Set up your bio to proclaim yourself as an SEO expert who can show everyone how to make money quickly & easily online. Then just tweet about your dinner, your shoes & your tax return. 10. Use a picture of a sexy young girl in a bikini for your bio picture & background. Call yourself SexySue. Give *hugs* & xxxx’s to all your followers. Then let slip that you are actually a fat sweaty old bloke from Scunthorpe.
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11. Get very drunk then dig out your favourite Tangerine Dream album from the 70’s & be so impressed with it that you tweet every single word as you’re sure that everyone else is dying to hear it too. For extra affect also tweet guitar breaks & drum solos as fast as you can type. “Wafting through madrigal fields dah dah of eldritch minds doof doof dah we weave & dream doo doo our minstrel selves dee dee pip pip ping” 12. Retweet everything you see in your general tweetstream without giving any credit. 13. Continuously badger celebrities to retweet your latest campaign to save the Uzbeckistanian yurt-vogle from being mildly shunned by the local smurf-herders. 14. Follow every online news service or tweet feed for major stories. Wait 3 hours then tweet the stories as if they’ve just happened. Then tweet continuously about them as if they’re the most exciting thing you’ve ever heard in your life. 15. TYPE ALL YOUR TWEETS IN UPPERCASE. 16. Include at least 10 exclamation marks in every tweet to give the impression you’re actually tweeting about something exciting. “I’m eating a whole bag of jellybeans!!!!!!!! Look at my shoes!!!!!” 17. Use very little of what could recognisably be called English in your tweets. “omg I lmao! got this awsm bg jlybns eat yum lol!!! ;-K ; ;P >3″ 18. Write an extremely long epic poem about your deep love of Bavarian mountain shrubbery then tweet its verses regularly & continuously over a period of several weeks. 19. Provide a running commentary for your life. “Got up. Ugh. Found underpants. Put them on. Went to the toilet. Had to take underpants off. Then put them back on. Went to kitchen for coffee. Went back to bathroom as forgot to wash hands. Went back to kitchen. Put kettle on”, etc. Repeat daily 20. Write a blog post about 20 ways to annoy people on twitter then pester everyone on twitter about it until they’ve either read it or stopped following you
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Advertisement
fashion
SQUARING THE SQUARE Photos by Anne M / London Average Rating: 4,5
www.lisashahno.com
“Collection is called Squaring the Square because each of the six models is based on a similar division principle – as in the title problem. The whole collection is based on rectangular pieces of various length and width ranging from rectangles to squares sewn together and bonded in different order (there are only two models where several curved lines have been used).The scanning of shoes construction also represents a rectangle cut out from PVC, overturned in a certain order and fixed in accordance with the foot shape.” COLLECTION: LISA SHAHNO PHOTO: LENA VAZHENINA MODELS: NASTYA PILEPCHUK & JULIA RUBAKOVA
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film
Article by thejoegriffin / Dublin Average Rating: 3.7
www.joegriffinwrites.blogspot.com The trouble with coming-of-age movies is that it’s hard for them to break beyond formula. You know the drill: teenager has life-changing experience (usually over a set time, such as a summer or a semester for example) in which he or she experiences romance, adventure and a little unfairness, all of which will gently push them into the exciting world of grown-ups. It’s been a strong year at the movies if you like that sort of thing, and I do. An Education (though overrated) and Adventureland (underrated!) were both good, and now we have the most imaginative of the unofficial triptych; Richard Linklater’s playful Me and Orson Welles. Teen icon Zac Efron (High School Musical, ask your niece) stars as Richard, a New York high school student with aspirations to the theatre, dahling. Fate comes crashing into his life one afternoon when he’s passing by a new
Review: Me and Orson Welles theatre, The Mercury, and meets a rising young actor and director by the name of Orson Welles. Savvy enough to lie about his ukulele-playing prowess, young Richard is promptly cast in a small role in Welles’s forthcoming play. In the run-up to the chaotic production’s opening night, the young thesp learns about acting, theatre, and of course, life. While this is a fun premise, the portrayal of a larger-than-life figure like Orson is a tricky one. If the performance is too small, it won’t feel like Welles, if it’s too big, it might veer into caricature. Christian McKay, who looks just like Orson, gets it right. A whirlwind of ideas, talent, ego, anger and charisma, McKay’s Welles is believable as a pied piper to actors and investors. At this time the 22-year-old was a radio star and, as he did later in life, Welles ploughed much of his wages into his real passion. In this case, it was his theatre troupe and his now legendary, modern-dress version of Julius Caesar. Efron as Richard is appropriately wide-eyed and charming. His musical background appears in small glimpses and he moves with the showy flourish of a dancer and actor – a sidestep
here, a juggle there…It’s easy to see why Welles would want him around. Though it might be premature to adorn Efron with comparisons to other former pin-ups Depp or DiCaprio, he has potential and Me and Orson Welles is a step in the right direction. He’s wise to get involved with a director like Richard Linklater at this stage of his career. You don’t have to know much about Welles and his friends to enjoy this film, but it helps enormously. It’s fun to see a young Joseph Cotton chasing tail, and to see Welles at the cusp of legend, when his future was blindingly bright and his name was synonymous with promise, fame and true greatness. Now, while he’s still considered a genius, he’s almost become as well-known for his adversities and stillborn projects as he is for his completed work.Me and Orson Welles is an optimistic film, though. Even though it takes place in 1937 when (as one character puts it) “the whole world seems to be falling apart” and it doesn’t shy away from the occasional cruelty of showbiz, it’s about the power of art, the romance of theatre and the promise of at least one burgeoning career.
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film
The Problem with Paranormal Activity Article by movieoverdose / London Average Rating: 3,7
www.movieoverdose.wordpress.com WARNING: SPOILERS FOR PARANORMAL ACTIVITY FOLLOW Welcomed as a returning hero this year by the horror genre, Paranormal Activity heralded the commercial arrival, or re-arrival, of the ‘found footage’ genre (we’ve already got James Marsh entering the fray). The Blair Witch Project, a film still entirely underrated, popularised the sub-genre in the late-90s, though without it ever fully becoming a horror movement in the way that so-called ‘torture porn’ has managed The success of Paranormal Activity (slightly over $100m off a $15,000 budget), has been spectacular for its backers, and provides a similar chance for studios to that presented by torture porn. You have small budgets (always a development winner), no stars (again less money and less ego) and the opportunity to market a film with a degree of faux-authenticity. From the view of horror fans, you also get a host of new filmmakers having a stab at the genre, many of whom will be forced into actually considering methods for scaring an audience beyond slicing the face of attractive young things. It can be nothing but a good thing to push filmmakers into having to show initiative and adopt classic styles rather than diving behind shields of gore and nudity.Paranormal Activity’s first half is all the best things about this model of filmmaking. Director Oren Peli
(who has already deserted low budgets to attempt a Roswell-y alien movie) crafts a creepy atmosphere, primarily through focusing the jumps and scares on the primal fear held by many of being in a new place (the leads have just moved into a new house). They hear creaks and odd sounds, allowing their minds to wander to believing this to be apparitional or demonic in nature. Whilst they are only positing the possibility of spirits and paranormal goings-on, the film is very interesting and effective. The moment this film makes clear that this is absolutely a demonic entity, the train derails.Peli, after so expertly tapping into those aforementioned fears during the first half, succumbs to temptation and, in the process, rips the imagination of the viewer out of the equation. Once that happens, Peli is forced to attempt different ways to scare the audience. Unfortunately, the ‘reveal’ of the demon in the house just pushes the film well out of reality and, subsequently, makes it more an exercise for young filmmakers to think about how certain shots and tricks were achieved on such a small budget. Great horror films should tap into the primal fears of the audience. Or they should be expertly made by a director able to manipulate the audience into fearing the supernatural monsters put in front of them. You can’t really have it both ways and Paranormal Activity, for all the promise shown, loses inspiration in the second half and drops its ambiguity in favour of embracing standardised horror tropes. www.theblogpaper.co.uk
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technology
Lamborghini Ankonian by Slavche Tanevski
Photos by the_past2 / London Average Rating: 4,5
www.slavche.deviantart.com
Designers Statement: Following the Lamborghini tradition I named the car “Ankonian” after the bull type which is famous for his black hair (that’s why I chose black). The concept is a mid-engined supercar that is not “green”, but yet shows environmental responsibility, and therefore is downsized. I didn’t choose the today’s midengine supercar clichés (extreme width, cab forward, aggressive graphical elements), but a rather narrow body, cab backward classical GT silhouette, and complexity/ combination of soft and angular surfaces.
the kickboxer motorcycle
by Ian McElroy
Note by nickpullen / London This Sabaru WRX powered “KickBoxer” concept bike is brought to us by Ian McElroy who designed this amazingly cool “street shredder” without any prior understanding of SolidWorks, the computer software needed to put it all together. It boasts a single-sided front and rear suspension setup, the Mitsubishi AWD car “right angle gearbox” and Baker Torquebox Transmission.
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extras Article by northlondonhippy / London
www.nicolaslesaffre.com
Average Rating: 4,0
creator of visuals on cover
www.northlondonhippy.com
Doing your part to slow down climate change The Climate Change Summit opens up in Copenhagen on Monday, where a bunch of world leaders will add to the problem by producing a lot of hot air, but probably no viable solution to this very real problem. Yep, I believe the climate is changing. I can see it and feel it and have done for a while now. Here in the UK, the winters seem milder and though last summer wasn’t one of the hottest on record, it was hot enough. I’ve seen what’s happening to the polar ice caps, not first hand, but computer graphics aren’t that good, so the footage has to be real. Is it just a normal cycle? Maybe. Is human activity contributing or accelerating the process? How could it not? We live in a closed ecosystem, our atmosphere is sealed tight against the vacuum of space. The more greenhouse gasses we pump into this sealed bubble, the hotter it will get. I don’t want to be a hypocrite, I want to do my part to help prevent climate change. I use low energy light bulbs, which aren’t as bright as the old incandescent style. I recycle as much as I can, which is messy and time consuming. And I don’t take unnecessary car journeys, which means riding the bus and tube with unwashed strangers. I know its not much, but its something. I’d like to do more. That got me thinking, what more could I do to help slow down climate change? Then it hit me, there’s something we all could do that would have an instant, immediate and measurable effect on the amount of greenhouse gasses released into the environment. All living things exhale carbon dioxide, or CO2 as its known. Humans are the only living creatures to understand this and to be able to adjust their own output. I’m proposing that every human being who is physically able, should hold their breath for at least one minute per day. You could do it all in one go, or you can do two 30 second periods. You could even go longer if you like, but I can’t be held liable if you pass out, fall down and hit your head. I only suggested a minute a day. If everyone held their breath for one minute daily, that would have a huge impact on the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere annually. These things add up quickly and if I were a scientist I could estimate how much CO2 would be saved, but I’m not, so I can’t. So we’ll stick to “a lot.” Look man, if we don’t do something and pretty goddamn soon, breathing won’t be an issue that most of us will need to worry about any more. So I’ll be holding my breath, and not just for one minute every day. I’ll be holding it while our leaders meet this month to work out whether they can save the human race. If they do come up with a solution, I’ll certainly be surprised, but I’ll also finally be able to exhale. You don’t want me to turn blue, do you?
Niko Lesaffre an animation director, graduated from Supinfocom in France, has worked with many brands as director and/or 3D artist. He is now freelanceing in Lille France, after having lived both in London and in LA. His Octopus design, featured on the front cover, was designed for self-promotion in 2007 and has been used on many 3D magazines all over the world.
Photos posted by gumpert444 / London Average Rating: 4,3
www.markgmehling.weebly.com Mark Gmehling and the “drinsch character series” was originally for a solo exhibition in his hometown of Dortmund in Germany. As an illustrator, he always tried to create entertaining artwork that really grabs the viewers’ attention. The main idea in this series is to make his characters relate a story only through posing rather than through facial expressions. So by omitting anything that visualized mimic, Mark instead creates an international language through poses. He ‘ll be part of an exhibition in London/ Bricklane Gallery Art in Mind-Show from April 13th to april 26th 2010
www.theblogpaper.co.uk
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Free Fighters
Photography by Helena Petersen
Photos posted by will challis / Berlin Average Rating: 4,4
www.helenapetersenphotography.com http://helena.berlinartportal.de
“Free Fighting’s roots go back to the ancient Greeks and the first Olympic games. In recent years the archaic form of battle amongst men has resurfaced, initially in the US and more recently in Europe. My pictures are taken from a clinical, distant, non participatory and non judging perspective. The statics of my photography, coupled with the pre and post fight portraits ought to emphasize the action that took” place in-between.” - Helena is currently studying photography at UdK Berlin, worked for David LaChapelle and just won PHOTOVISION Contest 2009 ( see photos above)...
theblogpaper 18th of December 2009 - If you would like to see your work in print, just log on and start posting at theblogpaper.co.uk...take it easy...