Best Gig Lineup Ever?

People of Gateshead, rejoice. You are about to be blessed with a superlative bill of punk and post-punk legends. Yes, Gina Birch, Viv Albertine and Helen McCookerybook are packing their gear into the latter's car (road trip!) to play Friday night at The Central Bar, there to be joined by Pauline Murray. Wow!!! Wish I could be there. It's rockin' oop north.

The Buddha of Shoreditch

Where does Shoreditch end and Hoxton begin? That's the question I asked myself as I trudged up and down the L-E-N-G-T-H of Curtain Road looking in vain for the elusive Queen of Hoxton public house. "It must be at the top end, near Hoxton," my logical brain told me. Nope. "Uh, then it must be by the bottom end, close to Liverpool Street," came the reply. Yes, there it was, sort of where I started some 25 minutes earlier, at the end of a rather long day, after a rather long weekend.

The occasion was Cover Wars, a live competition to redesign the cover of The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi's novel, courtesy of YARN, the multidisciplinary festival in its second year. I was curious to see what live cover-designing involved, and as Kureishi was also reading, thought it would be an interesting test of multi-tasking.

So, down the stairs I trooped, emerging into the darkened bar to find a veritable frenzy of activity, with two artists on-stage, beavering away at their easels, while compere/festival producer Gemma Mitchell verbally prodded them along, and Kureishi sat in the front row, occasionally offering a comment. He was put to work, coming on-stage to judge the efforts, reading some passages from the book and also signing in between judging rounds.

Alas, I had to leave before the tension-racked finale, but I must say I disagreed with the judges' choice in the first round. Fix!

Le Cinema des Femmes presents True Homance

This month's LCdF screening, True Homance, celebrates female friendship in its most precious form: the homance. OK, so that's a bit of a trendy-street-slang word, but nonetheless it gets the job done. For a thoughtful consideration that takes in Daphne and Velma AND Oprah and Gayle, see my colleague Annette's post on the subject.

The films are Ghost World and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. Rumours of broken-heart cookies and BFF badges have yet to be confirmed...

Free Duke Spirit gig on Friday

Should you be in London this Friday, the 18th, it may be worth making the journey down Tooting way to check out The Duke Spirit at Remedy.

Here's a LiveBuzz performance they did of "Surrender" last year.

PJ Harvey on BBC 6Music

Today is Queen Polly (!) Day on 6Music. Don't know if she is a royalist, but PJ Harvey is getting some much-earned love from the station, ahead of the release of her new concept (!) album, Let England Shake. Tracks from the record are being played throughout the day, and she is also in conversation with Steve Lamacq after 16:00. Should be cool. I have only heard snippets, but it sounds as if she is pursuing an entirely new sound. Always worth hearing.

Here's the second in a series of videos, accompanying the album.

Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under

What do you do when stuck in the house? Well, review downloads, OBVIOUSLY. Don't know why I didn't think of it before. I downloaded this last week and my first listen of it was punctuated by loud mobile phone conversations from my bathroom occupants. I have now given it my undivided attention and my reaction is much the same as the first, distracted listen: very patchy.

Amanda Palmer is an undeniable force (one blogger referred to her as a phonomancer--had to look up the word, I admit). Her gig last year about this time in Vienna stands out as one of the best I have ever attended. She had such a strong connection with the audience, such mastery of stagecraft and such a great catalogue of songs, it was truly inspirational. And she is not above playing to the gallery, dotting her repertoire with site-specific songs and garnering big love points.

So, to Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under, her love letter to the people of Australia and New Zealand, which has come out..... just as she started a tour of Australia and NZ. Imagine that! Now, an album of songs about either of those countries could be great. As could a live gig recorded there. Or an album of songs written in those countries. What Palmer has opted for is a mish-mash of all three. Hmm.

There's the Nick Cave cover, "The Ship Song", that closes the album. A few songs recorded at a Sydney Opera House gig. And then songs that may or may not have a connection to her surroundings, such as "In My Mind" and the intense piano ballad, "On an Unknown Beach".

My personal favourite is "Vegemite (the Black Death)", which is f___ing hilarious. And topical. And recorded live at the Sydney Opera House, and therefore gets a lot of laughs from its target audience. Win all around. Unfortunately, nothing else on the album (12 songs, including a Vegemite commercial sung by the audience) really matches that, although "Map of Tasmania" is pretty special.

Now that she is free of her hated record deal, Palmer can record and release whatever and whenever she wants. And she certainly seems to be having a whale of a time in Australia, as her blog attests. Maybe she will do another round of recording and release a more cohesive album.

Until then, enjoy "Map of Tasmania" (now with added Peaches!).

Homework

I've not been getting out much, so have little arts news to report (ah, being skint--it's like a permanent staycation). Granted, I have bit of a Brutalist installation going on in my bathroom, complete with AM radio, drilling and Russian accents, an exciting melding of form and function. But, that is only temporary and strictly private view.

I have also reached the midway point of my Shunda K challenge. No sign of any vows or even a Joy of Cooking. But, I have acquired a copy of the Qu'ran, shrink-wrapped, which seemed, eh, contradictory. #thingsI'vebeenhandedinthemarket

Mysteries of the Universe #46

How is it that my scrupulously vegetarian flat smells of corned beef?

My New Look

These fists of fury belong to none other than your humble pacifist scribe. I have never had a tattoo (sensitive skin), but perhaps this will inspire me to reinvent myself as a hard woman. Thanks to Annette for the spiffing ink work.

This Sunday: Revenge Is Sweet

It's the first outing of 2011 for the Cinema des Femmes collective's monthly events, and this time it's all about pinky violence.

It's a genre that's new to me, but one of our number is quite keen and the trailers certainly look entertaining: sword fights, punch-ups and plenty of flesh on show. Ah, yes, it's one of those 1970s sexploitation cult genres that divides opinion. Seeing as we are coming from a feminist POV, we are looking at the upside: powerful women standing up for themselves and not taking any BS. Naturally, there are dissenting opinions on this. I had a look online to find a feminist analysis of PV, but couldn't find anything, alas. (edit: ask and ye shall receive. )

The two films we are showing are Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion + Sex and Fury.

So, prison drama and pick-pocketing!

The CdF gals are going to dress up as a biker gang and are busy coordinating our outfits. Looking forward to it. It's this Sunday at the Horatia in London. Full deets.

Women's Voices from the Muslim World

Here's a collection of 98 films showing online, in which women from predominantly Muslim countries share stories: from a bus driver in Iran to a would-be sunglasses purchaser in Afghanistan. The films are in competition ahead of the Women's Voices Now festival in March in Los Angeles. View and vote.

RIP Trish Keenan

Just heard the horrible news Trish Keenan of Broadcast has died, after a struggle with swine flu. Details are extremely sketchy, and I don't even know how old she was, but certainly she went way too soon.

I first heard Broadcast through John Peel's show on Radio 1 in the 1990s and always found them a wonderfully atmospheric outfit, utterly lacking in the trappings of celebritism required to achieve mainstream success. That their first EP was called The Booklovers said it all.

Sadly, I only had one abortive opportunity to see them live, interrupted by grotesquely lesbophobic venue security, so left without enjoying the show.

Here is Broadcast in action in happier times:

London Short Film Festival

This one always creeps up on me, coming as it does so early in the new year. But, there is a plethora of interesting screenings in store, among them Queer Brit, Salon des Refusés, and Straight 8.

Among the live events are two that pique my interest. Firstly, the unwieldily titled Club des Femmes and Spinster Take New Berlin, which pairs a feature film with some live performance.

Also in the music + film arena is Whirlygig Cinema & The Cabinet of Living Cinema Present: Making Tracks, in which films are presented with live scores. I have participated in Whirlygig events in the past, but not, sadly, this time. Should be exciting, as the filmmakers will not have heard the scores until they are performed on the night.

London Short Film Festival runs 7-16 January in London.

Creative Visualisation

Have just had a marvellously entertaining Skype chat with Shunda K, some of which will go out on my show next week.

What stayed with me (aside from her amusing habit of calling me "Ms. Val"--perhaps I should insist on this honorific in my daily life) was the extraordinary story of how she met her wife. I won't give all of it away, aside from saying that she turned to God and promised to remain celibate for two months. I can't promise this works for everyone.

Indeed, I hadn't given a moment's thought to finding a wife, but, given that it's a new year and I have made no resolutions, I may conduct an experiment, in the interests of science, you understand.

I well remember my older sister being given a copy of The Joy of Cooking on her 21st birthday and exclaiming: "Now I don't have to get married!"

Perhaps I should visualise The Joy of Cooking.

2010 Moments

While I am still not keen on lists, I do have a few memories to share from 2010.

Favourite film: The Arbor. Clio Barnard's experimental documentary may have attracted attention for its miming technique, but what stuck with me was the raw emotion extracted from the audio interviews.

Favourite exhibit: Gender Check at MuMok, Vienna. So huge, so expansive, it was almost draining, but this survey exhibit of gender expression in Eastern European art was awesome to behold.

Favourite song: "Found Love in a Graveyard", by Veronica Falls. It came out at the start of the year, but kept coming back. And it still sounds great.

Favourite album: City Splits #1: Berlin. A slight cheat, as it presents two bands--Jasmina Maschina and Golden Diskó Ship--from one city on one record, but this was one of my favourite spins of the year. A delightful rainy Sunday afternoon record.

Favourite gig: Amanda Palmer at Arena, Vienna. One woman, one keyboard, one ukulele. Mind-blowing.

Favourite random moment: AGF singing "Bau Auf Bau Auf" to me over Skype.

And it only remains for me to wish all eine bessere Zukunft.

Mounting frustration

Was hoping to wrap up the year with some work on my various unfinished film projects, which live on an external hard drive that I carry with me to various public access sites, as I don't own a Mac.

Alas, last week the hard drive disconnected itself from its partner and steadfastly refuses to show its face or mount, as it's known. Cue visits to the shadowy world of the internet forum to check on this phenomenon and discover it is, sadly, quite common for this particular brand of external hard drive. And the company is not actually that helpful, to boot.

I am not giving up on my external hard drive, yet, but as I do not actually own the requisite computer to connect it to, it will have to wait some weeks to make another visit and get, I hope, reacquainted. The tension mounts (or doesn't, yet).

The Yvonne Rainer Project

Hopped on down to the Southbank Centre on Sunday to visit the ongoing Yvonne Rainer exhibit and specifically see some films that were only on show over the weekend. What I thought were her films turned out to be "Yvonne Rainer + artists' films". Hence, over an 80-minute period I only caught about 30 seconds of one of her films and it was one I'd seen before. Doh! Ah, well. Some of them were interesting, one was brilliant and quite a few were way too lo-o-ong. Ah, artists' films. Gotta love 'em. Sadly, can't really review them properly as most had no titles and I could not match up the films viewed to the descriptions in the programme. Ah, artists' films. Gotta love 'em x2.

So, to the ongoing exhibit. Well, there are three installations on view in the Gallery. Of these, I had a whale of a time at the circular work, After Many a Summer DIes the Swan: Hybrid, 2002. In this, a raised projector rotates 360 degrees, and the viewer follows the action by sitting in the centre. But, here's the fun part. The seat is a kind of Space hopper on wheels! Such fun. I was spinning all over the shop. If a group went, it would be like bumper cars. Awesome. The actual projections are quite enjoyable, as Rainer muses on the early 20th century avant-garde in Vienna.

The other two pieces in the Gallery were of less interest to me, being videos of some dance pieces she produced. Quite the multi-skiller is Ms. Rainer: filmmaker, choreographer, et al. I am not intimately familiar with her work, but her name crops up all over discussions of feminist cinema and art, and I found her role as the roller-skating artist in Madame X - an absolute ruler quite amusing.

Some of Rainer's own films, including Journeys from Berlin and The Man Who Envied Women, are on show at the BFI throughout December while an excerpt from Lives of Performers is on show in the Atrium.

The Yvonne Rainer Project continues at the Southbank Centre through 23 January 2011.

This Sunday: Growing Pains

Le Cinema des Femmes presents GROWING PAINS: a celebration of teenage angst, American-style.

Relive those high school memories of heartbreak, hormones, fitting in, and coming out… as we bring you two classic movies featuring implausibly white-toothed teens experiencing the
agony of adolescence:

BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER [1999]
A girl sent to a sexuality re-programming camp gains unexpected insights. Directed by Jamie Babbit.

+

SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL [1987]
An age-old tale of unrequited love, teenage longing and questionable outfits, directed by the late John Hughes.

Bring your steady squeeze and snuggle into the back row for some heavy petting!

Plus:
Popcorn!
Cakes!
Zines!

And a very special DJ set from The Girls Are's Annette Barlow, who'll be spinning teen angst anthems til late.

Dress code: High school archetypes
(Think: freaks vs geeks, jocks vs goths, cheerleaders vs do-gooders)

£4 entry

Sunday 12th December - from 5pm
The Horatia
98-102 Holloway Road
London N7 8JE
(Nearest tubes: Highbury & Islington, Holloway Road)

First Snowfall

How surprised was I to awake this morning to find snow falling! Though I knew Scotland has been deluged since the weekend, I didn't think it would make it this far south. Cue frantic scrabbling for winter boots. Perhaps it is time to put the bulbs out for their ever-so-brief yearly appearance.

Some things never change: while the roads were perfectly clear, the pavements were slippy and slushy. Last winter I took to walking down the middle of the road to avoid ice. Once I was even called upon to rescue an elderly woman. No sign of snow-bound pedestrians yet. But, it's only November.

UnderWire Festival

The inaugural UnderWire festival of women's short film work is in full swing and concludes tomorrow with an awards ceremony.

Visiting the third day of the festival, I caught the Editing and Directing categories, preceded by a lecture by screenwriter Linda Aronson. Speaking in rather non-linear fashion, she offered some anecdotes from her career and then moved on to a suitably convoluted explanation of parallel narrative structure. This was, unfortunately, rushed, owing to time constraints, but she has some books out that would shed some more light on a fascinating topic. Her message: don't be afraid of flashbacks!

Next up was the the Directing category of five films, the standout of which was The Storymaker. An atmospheric and increasingly creepy set-up finds a bedridden woman delivering unintelligible thoughts to a group of Expressionist-looking scribes. At first I thought it was a wry commentary on artistic inspiration. But, then I decided it was a metaphor for Alzheimer's or some other degenerative illness. Visually striking and gripping, it lingered in the memory. Marigolds was also memorable for its cringe-making mother-son relationship. The climactic scene had audience members gasping and laughing in discomfort.

In the Editing category, I was impressed by Skateistan, a doc on a skate park in Kabul and also liked Dear Mummy, a clever mix of live action and animation.

The awards ceremony for the various categories is tomorrow evening .