New M.I.A. Video: Born Free

I thought that the first few months of motherhood were meant to be a halcyon time? Filled with croche and baking?



Deep M.I.A, very very deep.

Film night

Last Friday a friend invited me to a little film soiree hosted by the 'Assembly Film Society'. The event was held in a small hall resembling a primary school gym in Pimlico (where I never go apart from to go to the Tate Britain, this got me thinking about how much of a ‘Londoner’ I really am). Vintage educational short films based on the topic 'The Not So Lonely Planet: An Assembly Introduction To Anthropology' were projected onto a screen. However, the unique thing about this film event was that the music was live – short silent films brought to life and given new meaning by someone in the corner playing an oboe, guitar, or violin.

Most of the documentaries were created by filmmaker and animal rights activist Christian Zuber and husband and wife adventure duo Armand and Michaela Denis.

THE FILMS

Penguin Island
Le Temps Des Amours
On Safari
Les Sternes Des Seychelles
De L'Iguane A L'Ours Panda
Le Combat Des Oiseaux
Cormorant Fishing
La Capture Du Rhinoceros
Pygmies Of The Congo
Tigres: Princes De La Jungle
Monkey Nuts
Le Massacre Des Bebes Tortes

My personal favourite were 'Penguin Island' and 'Le massacre Des Bebes Tortes'. Oh and 'Cormorant Fishing': did you know that....

In olden day China, Japan and Macedonia fish loving Cormorant birds were exploited for their fishing skills. A snare was tied near the base of the bird's throat, which restricted the birds’ ability to swallow big fish. The bird was then lowered into the water where its innate behaviour drove it to catch the fish, but alas, the fish would get caught in its throat where a fishamen wearing an obligatory peculiar hat could conveniently collect the goods. So dark.

Having started my bank holiday with the joy of film i decided to end it with the joy film: I was the box office girl for my friends ‘Killing Me Softly Film club’ which organises a monthly film event in a room above The Green Man Pub (note: The Green Man sells the most potent cider i have ever had, it’s called 'Spesh' and is sold at the reasonable price of £3.40 – one = wasted, everything is hilarious). The theme this month was 'CODE OF THE STREETS', the films: 'A Prophet' and 'La Haine'. I am probably the only person in the entire world who was not that impressed with ‘A Prophet’, I won’t go into it now but the plot, although a clever one, needed to move at a much faster pace.... maybe the point of this glacial pace was to give the audience a sense of the protagonist’s lengthy 6 years in prison. I’m not saying it isn’t a good film though so don’t jump on me. 'La Haine' on the other hand - big fan. Anyway. If you haven’t attended a 'Killing Me Softly' film viewing, you must! It’s a pleasant family affair with a great ‘end to the weekend’ atmosphere – random old English furniture and good central heating makes it very cosy and the chips from the pub kitchen are really tasty.

LINK TO FACEBOOK PAGE:

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages&tid=1114004586101#!/group.php?gid=100196950063

Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce - Telephone

I've always thought Lady Gaga was far to deliberate to be charming and far too conceited to be likable but this video has changed my mind... slightly.

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Theo Parrish/Plastic People

Theo Parrish, Theo Parrish, come to Theo Parrish.... these are the repeated words of a friend of mine which until last Saturday I failed to act upon. I see now that there was always a T H E O shaped void in my life. His music swam through the neurons of my brain like ice cold milkshake through a straw, sending uncontrollable signals to the muscles of my body: wiggle, bop, glide, tap, click, shake.

Theo Parish’s monthly residency, along with other progressive nights like Nonsense and FWD>> at the much loved Plastic People may soon come to an end if the police get their way. On the 11th of February 2010 an application requesting a review of Plastic People’s premises licence was put forward by the Police to Hackney Council citing a failure on the part of the management to prevent public nuisance and crime and disorder. Before March 11^th, ‘interested parties’ such as local businesses and residents are entitled to submit representations against the licence review or its possible outcomes: revoking the licence, suspending the licence for at most three months or to modify the conditions of the licence. After this, Hackney Council will hold a sub-committee hearing with all ‘interested parties’ to review the licence during which the submitted representations will be considered.

Personally, I’ve never heard such claptrap in all my life, especially when down the road the beer bellies of clubs like 333 regurgitate far worse onto the streets of Shoreditch. There are a lot of good things to say about Plastic People.... there’s the feeling of fellowship, the intimate size, the darkness that allows you to appreciate the music (which never fails to educate, delight and surprise) and forget about who’s watching. Then there is the sound system. You’ll hear this a lot: “Plastic People has one of the best sound systems in Britain”. I regularly attend nights at Plastic and I can honestly say that I have never witness or personally experienced any 'trouble' out of the ordinary. Just pure good times fuelled by great music and a like-minded crowd. Hopefully, the incredible resistance, spearheaded by the “Friends of Plastic People committee” and the rapidly growing campaign group “Keep Plastic People Alive” will help to prevent this from happening. One of the aims of the committee, which met with Plastic People management on the 25^th February to encourage them to work together with the police and council to find a 'mutually satisfactory resolution to the problem', is to generate support. If you love Plastic People too, please join the group and sign the petition:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=312688015977

If you haven’t been to Plastic People, still join and sign so you can in the future.

Plastic People has been an important vessel for several genres of music, most notably Dubstep, and is definitely one of the best things about Shoreditch. I’m not going to pretend to be a music expert so read this by my Theo Parrish loving friend and this from a blog I found for a bit more on the role of Plastic in driving underground dance music forward and the heavy-weights that have occupied the red light lit Dj booth:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/voices-of-plastic-people-are-raised-in-protest-as-iconic-club-faces-closure-1913790.html

http://www.orsii.com/help-us-keep-plastic-people-ali

All I can say is that attending nights at Plastic over the past year has been like fertilizer for my love of dance music – it has grown so much and I thank Plastic People for that.

Here are some of my 'rush to the middle of the dance floor' tracks from one of my favourite nights at Plastic:

Progress Report

I will stop loosing things = BROKEN x 1 (2 days)

I will stop breaking things = BROKEN x 3 (1 hour, 34 minutes)

I will stop being late = BROKEN x 7(2.5 days)

I will stop saying "Yes" = NOT YET BROKEN (12 days and counting)

Laughter Class

THIS is why New Year Resolution #4 is "STOP SAYING YES"

Mystro Investigates: Laughter Classes for SpineTV





Thank you Nicholas for this enlightening experience.