Amelia’s Magazine | Desperate Journalist at Power Lunches: Live Review

Desperate Journalist by Matilde Sazio

Desperate Journalist by Matilde Sazio

In amongst a cluster of kebab shops on Kingsland Road, just before it gives way to the disparate delights of Dalston Junction, sits Power Lunches. A modest frontage conceals a small upstairs cafe (cans of Red Stripe the house speciality), whilst down below in the basement is the venue area, which also doubles as a rehearsal space. In the couple of years that it’s been in existence, Power Lunches has put on an eclectic array of events, and the tiny basement usually finds itself packed to the rafters.

Desperate Journalist by Julie J Seo

Desperate Journalist by Julie J Seo

Desperate Journalist have only been going for a short while, but they’ve already racked up a sizeable amount of column inches in the independent music press, as well as a couple of radio spots to go with their two singles and an EP. Named after an old Cure song (inspired by Robert Smith taking particular umbrage at one review), they follow a similar post-punk path to the likes of PINS and, most notably, Savages. Whilst not as intense as Savages, Desperate Journalist do share that echoey Siouxsie & The Banshees inspired guitar sound, and singer Jo Bevan’s voice is not entirely dissimilar to the majestic tones of Siouxsie Sioux (interestingly, Bevan also moonlights as “Simone Le Bon” in all-female Duran Duran concept band Joanne Joanne – about as unlikely a pair of references as you could expect!).

Desperate Journalist by Helen Beeston

Desperate Journalist by Helen Beeston

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The basement was already pretty warm from the two support bands before Desperate Journalist took to the tiny stage, the room in absolute darkness and only illuminated by the lights situated above Jo Bevan’s head. There were a few familiar faces in the crowd and some jokey requests to “play some Fleetwood Mac!”, to which bassist Simon Drowner gallantly responded with a snippet of The Chain (otherwise known as That BBC Grand Prix Theme). They powered through a tight set, covering old favourites such as Cristina, Mistakes and the new single Happening. With Caz Hellbent pounding away on drums and guitarist Rob Hardy chipping away at chords, Bevan was a captivating presence centre stage, one minute swooping low and the next staring transfixed into the distance.

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The set closed with a rousing version of Organ before the band jumped off stage and headed to the bar, leaving their instruments to carry on in feedback. With a debut album pencilled in for later in the year and a spot on the upcoming Camden Crawl, it looks like Desperate Journalist can expect a lot more glowing reviews, unlike the one that inspired their name!

Categories ,Camden Crawl, ,Caz Hellbent, ,Desperate Journalist, ,Duran Duran, ,fleetwood mac, ,Helen Beeston, ,Jo Bevan, ,Joanne Joanne, ,Julie J Seo, ,Matilde Sazio, ,PINS, ,Power Lunches, ,Rob Hardy, ,Robert Smith, ,Savages, ,Simon Drowner, ,Siouxsie & The Banshees, ,Siouxsie Sioux, ,the cure

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Amelia’s Magazine | Teenagersintokyo : Isabella / Long Walk Home : A single review

asymetric amy blush

The best thing about attending an MA final fashion show is that you can well and truly leave your preconceptions at the door. That’s not to say that there hasn’t been a lot of interest in Rachel Lamb, viagra who is showing the culmination of her Fashion Scout has a reputation for showcasing up and coming designers tipped for the big time. Rachel was selected for the MRHC Nobellini competition and has spent this past year collaborating with a leading PhD student. She was also chosen to assist fashion artist Di Mainstone during her residency at Eye Beam, information pills a leading Arts and Technology centre in New York

cascade claudia

It’s clear a lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into the event, rather literally in fact. The theme of the night is ‘Bodylab.’ Projections of anatomical diagrams, mixed with design illustrations flicker on the walls and the music pulsates a fuzzy beat reminiscent of a broken heart monitor. Assistants are handing out promotional packs in white doctor’s coats. The designer has laid out articles presenting the inspiration behind the collection.

rachel lamb illustration

The lights dim and the music switches to various female covers of tracks such as Animal Collective’s ‘My Girls’ (or rather ‘My Boys’) . The scientific spell is broken and we are presented with what is clearly a very personal and feminine collection. Each piece seems to exhibit the ironic mix of female confidence and it’s frailties. The models strike provocative poses, elbows jutting out and spines curved backwards. This is not your typical runway show, it’s a performance piece.

flowing florence ii

The model’s movements serve to highlight the asymmetric silhouettes the pieces create. Sculpted hips are softened with silky drapes cascading down the neckline and thigh. It is easy to draw comparisons as a quirky mix of Donna Karan draping and Balenciaga construction.

rachellambvfs2009

Cascade Claudia, one of the collection’s most eye catching pieces, shows a rigid halter neck with chutes of draped silk jersey flowing down the back. The luxurious curves down the body develop into voluminous harem pants which cut off dramatically mid calf. The neutral tones almost merge with the model’s skin, meaning it is difficult to tell where the garment ends and her skin begins.

bruised bella

Accessories are kept to a minimum, with the real impact of the collection coming from the prints and shapes. Shoes follow the theme of subtle nudes, and seem to blend into the neutral shaded body suits. However to contrast with the soft nature of the colour palette, Bruised Bella wears a dentist’s mirror as a pendant. Rachel explains, ‘Accessories are metaphors for the human urge to transform. Clinical chrome dentistry and doctor’s apparatuses tweak, pluck and reinvent human form.’

rachellamb

The delicate creamy beige tones are mixed with flashes of blotchy pinks and peaches. Using her own Celtic complexion as a muse, the colour palette explores how a woman’s skin can act as what Rachel describes as an ‘emotional barometer.’ The fabrics move from silky, to matt textures and then to moulded leather. The collection appears like a journey through the skin and indeed through femininity; from youth to maturity, from cool composure to blushes of emotion, encompassing each woman’s preoccupations with the feminine self. “I am etched into this collection, as it is everything I am.”

controlled cass

The concept behind this collection is certainly thought provoking and if I’m honest, incredibly moving. The fashion world strives for perfection, and this collection champions the beauty of imperfection, the ever-changing shape of the female body. However, even without prior knowledge one can appreciate the complex technology employed in the use of contrasting fabrics, structure and draping. The pieces are visually stunning, yet from someone who has clearly had to battle against time and budget. It is refreshing to encounter a designer who can display her own consciousness so candidly into her collections. It seems that Rachel has a bright future ahead of her; with a talent to create pieces which are both aesthetically and conceptually striking.

rachelamb@hotmail.co.uk
asymetric amy blush

The best thing about attending an MA final fashion show is that you can well and truly leave your preconceptions at the door. That’s not to say that there hasn’t been a lot of interest in Rachel Lamb, click who is showing the culmination of her Fashion Scout has a reputation for showcasing up and coming designers tipped for the big time. Rachel was selected for the MRHC Nobellini competition and has spent this past year collaborating with a leading PhD student. She was also chosen to assist fashion artist Di Mainstone during her residency at Eye Beam, sildenafil a leading Arts and Technology centre in New York

cascade claudia

It’s clear a lot of blood, viagra 100mg sweat and tears have gone into the event, rather literally in fact. The theme of the night is ‘Bodylab.’ Projections of anatomical diagrams, mixed with design illustrations flicker on the walls and the music pulsates a fuzzy beat reminiscent of a broken heart monitor. Assistants are handing out promotional packs in white doctor’s coats. The designer has laid out articles presenting the inspiration behind the collection.

rachel lamb illustration

The lights dim and the music switches to various female covers of tracks such as Animal Collective’s ‘My Girls’ (or rather ‘My Boys’) . The scientific spell is broken and we are presented with what is clearly a very personal and feminine collection. Each piece seems to exhibit the ironic mix of female confidence and it’s frailties. The models strike provocative poses, elbows jutting out and spines curved backwards. This is not your typical runway show, it’s a performance piece.

flowing florence ii

The model’s movements serve to highlight the asymmetric silhouettes the pieces create. Sculpted hips are softened with silky drapes cascading down the neckline and thigh. It is easy to draw comparisons as a quirky mix of Donna Karan draping and Balenciaga construction.

rachellambvfs2009

Cascade Claudia, one of the collection’s most eye catching pieces, shows a rigid halter neck with chutes of draped silk jersey flowing down the back. The luxurious curves down the body develop into voluminous harem pants which cut off dramatically mid calf. The neutral tones almost merge with the model’s skin, meaning it is difficult to tell where the garment ends and her skin begins.

bruised bella

Accessories are kept to a minimum, with the real impact of the collection coming from the prints and shapes. Shoes follow the theme of subtle nudes, and seem to blend into the neutral shaded body suits. However to contrast with the soft nature of the colour palette, Bruised Bella wears a dentist’s mirror as a pendant. Rachel explains, ‘Accessories are metaphors for the human urge to transform. Clinical chrome dentistry and doctor’s apparatuses tweak, pluck and reinvent human form.’

rachellamb

The delicate creamy beige tones are mixed with flashes of blotchy pinks and peaches. Using her own Celtic complexion as a muse, the colour palette explores how a woman’s skin can act as what Rachel describes as an ‘emotional barometer.’ The fabrics move from silky, to matt textures and then to moulded leather. The collection appears like a journey through the skin and indeed through femininity; from youth to maturity, from cool composure to blushes of emotion, encompassing each woman’s preoccupations with the feminine self. “I am etched into this collection, as it is everything I am.”

controlled cass

The concept behind this collection is certainly thought provoking and if I’m honest, incredibly moving. The fashion world strives for perfection, and this collection champions the beauty of imperfection, the ever-changing shape of the female body. However, even without prior knowledge one can appreciate the complex technology employed in the use of contrasting fabrics, structure and draping. The pieces are visually stunning, yet from someone who has clearly had to battle against time and budget. It is refreshing to encounter a designer who can display her own consciousness so candidly into her collections. It seems that Rachel has a bright future ahead of her; with a talent to create pieces which are both aesthetically and conceptually striking.

Photographs by: Paul Marr
rachelamb@hotmail.co.uk
teenagers-in-tokyo12

I have a friend who trend spots for a jean company and she’s always mentioning that if you want to find out what the kids are going to be wearing next season walk around Tokyo with a camera. Recently she was unnerved to find a trend in early nineties Dreamcatcher chic. Is this good? Do we need the youth of next spring looking like refugees from the cover of Simply Red’s ‘Stars‘?

teenagers in tokyo

The band Teenagersintokyo, site who are actually from Sydney but spending time in London, pharmacy pull less surprises in future fashion, setting up stall in a combination of sounds we’ve had back in public domain for pretty much this entire decade now. It’s the eighties again, moving onto 1989, even 1990. Swilling the wine of sound around my gullet I can hear traces of ‘Disintegration’ era Cure, a little early shoegaze, a backwash of Stereolab.

teenagers in tokyo2

But OK, lets be clear. Familiarity of influence aside, this double A-side is, like The Horrors‘ recent opus, a mesmerically successful collation where the transparency of influences matter little when combined in such a haunting, atmospheric way. Isabella is lovely and distraught, an all decaying romance lilting for one final surge of hope like a drunken Isabelle Adjani tearfully carousing the memory of her dead lover in a Parisian graveyard. Long Walk Home builds on the wintery artificial synth pads much beloved of Sir Bob, and like The Cure‘s namesake song, it’s lullaby girl vocals understand misery can be sweet – heartbreak not without its beauty.

Forget the over familiarity with this well mined era, Teenagersintokyo build on tangible atmosphere and sorrow rather than Dalston Superstore posturing.

This double A-side single is released on 5th October on Back Yard Recordings.

Categories ,goth, ,grunge, ,isabelle adjani, ,london, ,pop, ,punk, ,sir bob geldof, ,stereolab, ,sydney, ,teenagersintokyo, ,the cure, ,the horrors

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Amelia’s Magazine | Worried about Satan have arrived

When you think of the humble pom-pom you think of children’s clothes, order buy of gigantic sombreros for tourists, generic unsightly snow boots and poodles with dodgy haircuts. Experimenting with pom-poms always seemed to be a bit like tequila shots – one was fun, two was adventurous, any more was way overboard and enough to make you gag.
NOT ANY MORE! Somebody somewhere decided it was time to wrench those pom-poms from the cheerleader’s sweaty grasp and boom! Stick them in the right places and we’re in love – and it turns out you can have hundreds of them!

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They might have come to our attention bobbling out all over the catwalks in fashion week and with the high street following suit, but this is a look that could be even cheaper for the creative recessionistas amongst you. Make your own! Check it.
If you ever find yourself sat staring into space on the tube, you could be churning out a whole lot of pom-poms instead. Worn the right way I think it’s a really easy and fun accessory to jazz up an outfit– this cute Peter Jensen ring as a prime example:

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We’ve seen some girls wearing them in their hair, which make a nice woolly alternative to bows, and of course the contentious scrunchie.

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BIGGER:

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BIGGEST:

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THE KITCHEN SINK:

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Don’t be wearing those in the cinema mind you.

It’s amazing that something so simple has been culturally reinterpreted so often over the course of history. That might sound grand but something that’s gone from dangling off the edges of sun hats in Central America, to being mass marketed to children all over the world to making on the Paris catwalks is pretty unique. Yikes, Pom Pom international even reckons they can promote world peace. Maybe that’s one tequila too many. Sporting them could almost seem a throwback to childhood, a fashion revival harking back to the days of hats and mittens (I’d like to say ‘and snow and toboggans’ but let’s face it, it doesn’t snow THAT often).
The last thing we can learn about pom-poms is from cheerleaders everywhere, who if nothing else, seem mind-bogglingly happy. Why? POM-POMS!
“At a T-cross-section go to the left. On your left hand you will see a hill. At the end of the hill, tadalafil on the top, this you will see a green cottage. That is where you can find me. If I am not there I might be outside doing some experiments.”
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Holland’s answer to a modern day Darwin, Theo Jansen has spent the last 19 years playing god and taking evolution into his own hands. An arrogant way to spend the best part of two decades you might say, but not when you see what incredible results this passing of time has produced. Jansen’s kinetic creature creations exist in a carefully crafted overlap of art and engineering.
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From a physics background to a study of painting via an interest in aeronautics and robotics Jansen arrived at 1990 with a thirst for breathing autonomous life into mechanical sculpture. What started as a highly technical computer animation program is now only reliant on the power of the wind with no machine assistance and only minimal human input required, and even that Jansen hopes to eventually phase out.
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My personal attraction to what Jansen does comes from my deep seated loathing of plastic waste, which he cleverly conquers by incorporating discarded plastic bottles as part of a complicated wind energy storage system and he sources metres and metres and metres of yellow plastic tubing- 375 tubes per animal to be exact- to create the skeletons for his beautiful monsters.
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He claims he started to use the plastic tubing because it was unbelievably cheap and readily available although he quickly discovered that a more perfect material for the project would be hard to find as they are both flexible and multifunctional. He draws comparisons between the plastic required in his art and the protein required for life forms. “in nature, everything is almost made of protein and you have various uses of protein; you can make nails, hair, skin and bones. There’s a lot of variety in what you can do with just one material and this is what I try to do as well.”
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The heads of his giant beings act as sails, directing the intricate frames to glide gracefully across the nearby beaches to Jansen’s home and laboratory. The insect-like wings catch gusts of wind and propel the body forward. When there is no wind not even for ready money, the stored energy in the belly of the beasts can be utilized.
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Jansen’s vision is of a landscape populated by herds of these sculptures taking on entire lives of their own. The versions of models that made it into existence have raced and won survival of the fittest contests through his computer program and having studied these ‘winners’ Jansen designed creatures so developed they are even capable of self preservation, burrowing themselves in the sand when the gusts are too powerful for them to use constructively.
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His imagination like his Strandbeests (literally translated as ‘Beach Animal) is an ever evolving self perfecting organ. He envisions a point at which he will release his creations ‘into the wild’, which he speaks about in the same loving tone you would expect from a parent preparing their nest to be flown by their offspring. “I imagine that two animals will meet each other and compare their qualities in some way; have a demonstration somewhere on how they run and how fast they can run and also do some quality comparison on how they survive the winds. And the one with the better quality kills the other one and gives the other its own genetic code. There could be 30 animals on the beach, running around all the time, copying genetic codes. And then it would go on without me.” It’s not so far fetched after all to consider what Jansen does as god-like. He plainly and rather humbly philosophizes, “I try to remake nature with the idea that while doing this you will uncover the secrets of life and that you will meet the same problems as the real creator,” he added. Theo Jansen is simply a genius though his genius is far from simple. Amen.

It has been a while since I have found a political party that I feel that I can get behind. Politics seem to have descended into a misguided mess. Anytime I read about a Tory or Labour MP, more about it is usually because of a scandal. What is going on environmentally and economically seems to play second fiddle to infighting and lies. Meanwhile, living in East London, I have become friends with a couple of people who are involved in the Hackney Green Party. They don’t seem to lie, or cheat, or claim expenses – this is a party that I can support! I wanted to find out more about them, so I sat down for a cup of tea with Matt Hanley, who is the Green candidate for Stoke Newington Central.

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Illustration by Jessica Pemberton

I really liked the political broadcast; I thought it was very astute. The message is not that we have to step outside of our comfortable lives, but that the Green Party are the only political group who can deal with the contemporary and current issues that the world is facing; both politically and environmentally.

We have changed in almost a 180-degree way, twenty years ago the stereotype was beards, sandals, pipes, hemp clothes, it was almost like lecturing the public – it was unsophisticated. Twenty years ago was what, 1989? Scientists for the first time had come to an agreement that climate change was happening, and that it appeared to be man made. I guess when that news was first out there; people were like ‘look, its GOT to change’. Now we are a bit savvier. We have to present policies which are palatable to the voting public; there is no point in standing on the side lines and finger wagging, if we present a policy which will save money but drive down carbon emissions – that is what we are all about. I see the environment agenda of the Green Party very much subset of our core goal, which is social justice. Everything we do, we put the welfare of the human being at the very core. If they are not benefiting from our policies then… I don’t want to know…. that is what the Green Party stands for. So we work for human rights, LGBT rights, promoting the local economy, promoting local business, right though to reducing carbon emissions, they are all under this umbrella of social justice. We are providing a very electable platform, which will improve people’s lives. We are a very well run political party with extremely good innovative ideas to get ourselves out of this economic mess and we are also challenging climate change and enabling our communities to do the same and preparing ourselves for peak oil.

There have been a many protests organised recently, a lot of people who have never protested before are taking to the streets. What is the Green Party’s stance on direct action?

We are the political wing of the New Social Movement; we are the only party who advocate non-violent direct action. The Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, is probably the only leader with a criminal record, she has been arrested at a nuclear base up in Scotland. We support legitimate protest. There is a place for the protesting, and a place for the parliamentary process. So we are the elected wing of the protest movement.

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Illustration by Aarron Taylor

Other parties don’t like their protesters do they?

Absolutely not, they just want you to nod along. Like good citizens, nod along like The Churchill Dog! (Laughs)

For people who have only heard of Hackney and have not been here, the first words that would come to mind would not be “sustainability”, “communities” or “grow your own”, but plenty of people are living by these ideals here and there is actually quite a healthy sized green movement in Hackney….

There is a massive opportunity for a green movement here, and massive support for us. It is unbelievable. In the last elections, the Greens reached second or third in every single ward in Hackney.

And you have a good relationship with Transition Town Hackney as well?

Yes, but they are completely different organisations. The Transition Town movement doesn’t want to be in the thrall of the political party. We definitely support the parties and their principles. We are all about a localised economy, we should be able to feed ourselves, produce our own energy, and I should be able to send my kid to the local school. The Transition Town model is about preparing for the onslaught of climate change and equipping communities for that transition, and that is also what the Greens are all about.

Can you see Hackney functioning well under a Green Party council?

Absolutely! They are doing it in Lewisham at the moment, which is a similar demography. They are doing all these fantastic things, for example, they have set a system up where you can go to the library and hire energy reading meters which you can take home and fix into your energy meter and this allows you to do an audit of your energy usage. I definitely want to see this launched in Hackney. It’s an innovative, creative way of thinking. It’s about putting sustainability at the core of everything, which also saves lots and lots of money!

I see The Green Party as being very accessible to young people as well.

The average age of people joining is mid to late 20′s. They are not wedded to 20th century politics, a lot of older labour supporters can’t bring themselves to leave. We have the same agenda that Labour did, back when they were good Labour. Only we can add the environmental agenda. We stand up for peace. We stand up for nuclear disarmament, no other party does that. We want public services to stay public. We want to renationalise the railways – the cost of rail tickets hits young people very, very hard. Younger people can see that we are standing up to big businesses, supporting local shops, and standing up for individuals. We have a whole plethora of progressive policies……..

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Illustration by Aarron Taylor

And also The Green Party a very media savvy bunch – you are on Facebook, you organise lots of activities….

Absolutely! In fact next week we are going paintballing – ‘Paintballing for Peace’

(Laughs) What other way is there to find peace?

(Laughs), and we are going on a Hackney Greens bike ride down to Brighton, we are organising a summer solstice away down to the coast. And we go on alternative pub-crawls. (Laughs)

Speaking of young people, Matt, you are 30 years old and you are standing for Stoke Newington Council for next May. What prompted this move?

I don’t like politicians – they are all the same, especially with what is going on with news about their expenses at the moment.
Working for the Green Party, and seeing the good that they are doing, I thought, you have to step up. I know that I can do a good job. Labour are failing miserably both in Hackney and in the country. The Conservatives are the same, the Liberal Democrats are no different, and so as a Green, you just have to step up.

What will you do if you won and had the power to implement any idea? What’s the first thing that you would do?

Free insulation! It’s a scheme that stems from European legislation, which states that energy companies are obliged to give a certain percentage to energy efficiency schemes. But the councils have to apply for that. The Green Party in Kirklees is on the local council, so every single person in Kirklees gets free insulation. It drives down energy costs, and drives down the carbon emissions and creates local jobs, so it’s a win win situation. Why every single council on the country is getting on this I don’t know. It saves everyone money, make peoples homes warmer, make them healthier – it stops people going to NHS with colds and flu and also reinvigorates the local economy by producing jobs. It creates a programme of very sustainable jobs. We tried to implement it before, but the Labour Councellors called it ‘daft’, dismissed it out of hand and didn’t give a reason beyond that!

That doesn’t make any sense!

The Labour and Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats are on the wrong side of history, but there is a new movement, and it takes into account the Green Party, Transition Town and Friends Of The Earth…. Amnesty International, trade unions, CND etc and all these community grass routes organisations. This is a wonderful new social movement that can be called green with a small g and is a new paradigm of social and political engagement…. this is what the 21st Century is coming to now, but the three big parties are still clinging onto the coat tails of 20th Century ideology. This whole new multifaceted social movement (of which the Green Party are the political wing) is the new politics of the 21st century.

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Illustration by Faye Katirai

Can you tell us the best changes that we can make to our lives to make our world more sustainable?

Number one is vote Green! Although I don’t want to lecture people about being ” eco trendy”. Eco trendiness and eco consumption is not going to sort this mess out. We need strong government action to allow this country to change to a sustainable economy. But back to things that you can do as an individual: don’t use your car as much. Don’t eat as much meat. Cut down, you don’t have to stop eating meat completely, just don’t buy from supermarkets. Stop shopping at supermarkets altogether, because that is killing the environment, and your local towns. Support your local shops instead.

Wise words! Thanks Matt.
While the rest of us spent the winter windblown and wet-toed, viagra knitwear designer Craig Lawrence was dreaming of a resort escape, prostate with all the bells and whistles. And what hard earned sunburn doesn’t deserve to be soothed by an embarrassingly oversized tropical drink with all the tacky accoutrements. And ‘splash’ inspiration is born! Those fanciful toxic colored fishbowls of liquor with their cascading garnishes were all the visual inspiration Craig needed to create his first collection since graduating from St.Martins last July. Knitted up with satin ribbons and swirling metal yarn, the knitwear newcomer’s sugar sweet confections made it to Vauxhall Fashion Scout’s runways and onto the lips of the fashion heavies.

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I understand sweets and cocktails were the inspirations for your recent collection. What are some of your favorites?
After my degree collection for St.Martins I needed a bit of time to catch my breath so when I started designing again it was winter…cold and grey. I was eating sweets in my studio and daydreaming of beaches and tropical drinks. Some of my favorite things are peach daiquiris, parma violets. My favorite sweet is probably chewy toffee and favorite drink is that fizzy orange drink irn-bru.
What do you recall as the first piece of knitwear you ever made?
A wooly, salmon colored scarf that I actually lost on the train. That and an awful grey ruched square-shaped polyester thing I had to make for my A levels.
If given the chance to collaborate with anyone who would you have in mind?
I’ve always thought of doing pieces for a more theatrical environment. I would love to work with Slava Snowshow.

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You recently worked with stylist Katie Shillingford on a shoot for your recent collection. There’s so much movement in those images which really brings your knits to life, how did you manage to capture that?
I’d wanted dancing and movement but the studios’ ceilings were too low and they were all too expensive. So we brought a 9 ft family size trampoline to a rooftop overlooking the city and had the girls bouncing up and down on it. A bit risky actually as there was really not much there to stop them from going over if we weren’t careful. We did the hair and make up at home with the help of my boyfriend and flatmates, one of which is a model, which definitely helps when you need someone for fittings.
Did you start out interested in knit or did you find your way to it while studying fashion?
Actually, I wanted to do menswear while I was at London College of Fashion, by the time I got to St.Martins they encouraged me to do knit because they saw that all my stuff to that point had been designed in jersey. And I loved the chunky quality of knit.

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I hear you managed to do the impossible and actually design 6 seasons of knitwear for Gareth Pugh, while doing your BA, AND working a retail job once a week. How were you able to do that and how many of yourself did you have to clone?
I was in school at the time and had knitted a scarf for a friend who’s flatmate wore it on a date with Gareth, who mentioned he was looking for a knitwear designer. He got in touch and said he needed to have pieces made up in a week. So it was all quite fast. All that while doing my BA degree and working in the stock room at John Lewis on Saturday mornings, sometimes having to be there at 6 am. You get used to not sleeping.
And a year after graduating you were showing at Vauxhall Fashion Scout?
My PR agency BLOW called me up a week before the show and said they had an opening for me, so I made up some accessories and a few pieces to fill out the collection I’d been working on. I was given a team of hair and make up artists and we were off.

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Which comes first for you, the yarn or the garment?
Usually the textiles come first for me. I’ve learned alot about them along the way, like for example needing to use a flat knit for tight fitting garments.
Are there any textiles, practical or not that you’re really keen to use?
I’d like to do something with little leather strips or pvc something shiny and bright. Maybe even strips of diamante.
What is one of the more random things you’ve used to knit with?
You know those yellow rubber gloves used for washing up/ i found a guy in Dalston Market selling a gaint roll of it and bought it. I cut it up into tiny little strips and started knitting it up but as a garment it was incredibly heavy and totally unweareble.
Could you give us a peek into the inspirations for your next collection?
At the moment I’m interested in accessories, chenille, and fireworks!
Look out! That is some recipe. Craig Lawrence wants to expand our minds and preconceptions, to push knitwear into places we’d least expect it. Can’t wait to see what Molotov cocktail awaits us next season!

Prepare yourself for copious amounts of black eye liner as this week sees us take an awe-inspiring look at one of London’s fashion firmament Hannah Marshall. A rapidly establishing icon Marshall has been injecting a healthy dose of rock and roll back onto our catwalks since her break through debut in 2007.

I tracked down Hannah to find out more about this talented lady

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How are you doing? It’s a lovely sunny day in London; hope your enjoying the sunshine?

I have escaped from London to work from home today in the beautiful Essex countryside; the weather is beautiful here too.

Take me through life since you’re A/W 09 collection showcased at London Fashion Week?

The Autumn/Winter 2009 collection ‘Armour’ was shown at London Fashion Week as part of the New Generation exhibition sponsored by Top Shop. In addition, store I did my first presentation at the On|Off space with Ipso Facto in the Science Museum. The collection was also shown in Paris and New York and there has been a very positive reaction with UK and International press and buyers alike. Since fashion week, ed I have started working on more music collaborations, approved which is really exciting.

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Your one of the few designers I have come across that you really get the sense that your personal style plays prominence in your designs, would you agree?

I think it’s important to practice what you preach, and at the end of the day I am designing what I want to wear, that I believe isn’t out there already. I am obsessed with black, shoulder pads and eyebrows. My brand is an extension of me and my aesthetic and vision, which is about empowering women through clothing.

Every girl needs her staple black dress, for me anyway there is a sort of salvation and self-assurance in black clothing, would you agree?

When I design, I design in black. It’s the strongest and most powerful colour there is. Black is the perfect tone to create bold and interesting silhouettes with. For me, the iconic Little Black dress is the epitome of timeless clothing and is the wardrobe staple that is exudes a powerful elegance, authority and quiet confidence. When I launched my label in 2007, I just showed 12 black dresses – for me, a black dress is all you need.

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What would you say stimulates you to create your collections?

This season the Hannah Marshall woman wears her own suit of armour. Her body is encased in steel line panels, protected with angular breastplates, concealed with pronounced contours and shielded with moulded hips. This body armour concept allows pieces to offer the illusion of strength and lend the wearer a sense of security.

My design philosophy stems from my continuing obsession with the human form and bodily contours, resulting in carefully orchestrated designs that fit to perfection, inspired insect exoskeletons references such as the beetle’s armoured shell, mimicked through protective interconnecting segments. Black takes the main stage once again, in contrasting and tactile fabrics to create a second skin concealing what lies beneath. The introduction of caviar- look stingray, luxurious stretch velvet and taught elastic is added to my ritual butter soft leathers and lustrous stretch silks

I know it’s a generic question, but which designers out their would you
pinpoint as inspirations?

I am obsessed by Thierry Mugler and the super tailored, sexy designs from the 80′s period. I love the minimalism of Jill Sander in the 90′s and appreciate the sculptural shapes from Japanese designers like Yohji Yamamoto.

You utilise black very heavily within your work, would you say “black is
the new black?’

Always – black is irreplaceable and will always be around throughout each season.

I know you’re enthused by music, you recently used Ipso Facto as muses for you’re A/W 09 collection, which other bands blast out of your headphones?

Ipso Facto of course, as well as The Kills, Iggy Pop, Skunk Anansie, The Black Keys, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Florence & The Machine, Prince, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Nirvana, Siouxie & The Banshees, and more…

If you could work with any iconic figure from the past, who would you choose any why?

Cristobal Balenciaga – pure genius.

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Do you have any advice for budding designers eager to break into the fashion sphere?

Believe in yourself, otherwise how can you expect others too. Also, I would advise any young designers to get a mentor and do their ground work.

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The more that I delve into the world of Hannah Marshall the further in awe I become. Marshall creates collections that are not merely appreciated as catwalk objects, she creates pieces that tap into every woman’s subconscious. Her Designs follow a distinctive aesthetic, beautifully crafted with architectural precision but with a sensibility that just screams wearability.

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I think on a subconscious level we are all black aficionados, when your endlessly trawling the deepest realms of the wardrobe on those bleary eyed mornings, what brings us the utmost in self-assurance and feistiness? Without a doubt it is the quintessential little black dress that consoles all dilemmas. Its been engrained into our sub conscious, think avante garde, think Audrey Hepburn. The back dress prevails time, it still retains the same stylish potency now as ever. Regardless of occasion Its my one true ally admist the abysses of print and colour that can often just make the head spin. Blacks connotates effortless dominance, sexiness and style.

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So watch out world we have a new queen of darkness on our hands!

(images supplied by Victor De Mello)

It’s such a beautifully simple idea that you can’t believe you didn’t think of it first.

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A is for ‘Alternative Accomodation’ by Zoe Campagna

Take 26 photographers all with first names beginning with unique letters of the alphabet running from a to z. Get them to each to submit a brief with key words running from, site yep you guessed it, sildenafil a to z, corresponding with the letter their name begins with. Make it both ongoing and international running over one year and several continents and voila! You have the most interesting collaborative project since Miranda July’s learning to love you more.

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R is for ‘Reverse’ by Yong Hun Kim

That gives you a whopping 676 photographs and a whole lot of talent. With the project only just completed from ‘Alternative Accommodation’ to ‘Zigzag’, the project is hoping to exhibit here in London and bag themselves a book deal. I took some time out with project curator, photographer representing ‘S’ and artist responsible for the project brief ‘Stop a Stranger’ Stuart Pilkington and had a bit of Q and A.

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C is for ‘Chaos’ by Ed Maynard

Hello Stuart, how are you doing?

Not too bad thanks Alice.

How long was it between dreaming up the Alphabet Project and its actualization?

Do you know I can’t really recall now. It’s only since late 2007 that I’ve started to get off my backside and actualize anything at all. I think the idea may have been brewing for quite some time – maybe even a couple of years.
Eventually I sat down and created a basic site for the project and then posted the concept on a few sites like craigslist and Facebook to see if it connected with anybody. This was in late 2007. I didn’t really hear anything from anybody until January 2008 when an Australian photographer called Paula Bollers e-mailed me and said she was interested. She also sent the idea to some people she knew who then started to contact me. Until then I was about to abandon the idea but this was the catalyst I needed and I haven’t looked back since.

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F is for ‘Funny’ by Frank Gross

How was the project put together? Did you find photographers or did they find you? Was there a criteria for choosing artists, such as previously unpublished?

I used a variety of methods to track down the remaining photographers. Some of the people I knew namely John Wilson and Emli Bendixen. I asked if they wanted to be involved and they both said ‘yes’. Emli suggested some other photographers like Rachel Bevis and Burak Cingi and I’m very glad they all came on board – some great British talent.
I also started to contact photographers who had joined some groups I had set up on Facebook to celebrate the work of Alec Soth and Joel Sternfeld. I started to look for photographers who use a variety of disciplines like Lomo, art photography, fashion photography, large format, polaroid etc. I also consciously started to look for people from all over the world.

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M is for ‘Memory’ by Rachel Bevis

Was it your intention to be a multinational project or was that pure chance from who got involved?

Not originally but when I started to enrol people from various corners of the world the more this idea excited me. Part of the concept is to do with interpretation, with people’s individual responses, and I realised that if I had photographers from different countries and different disciplines then the variety of images would be all the more exciting.

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V is for ‘Voracious’ by Stuart Pilkington

Do you have photography on your walls at home? Is it your own, people you know or that of renowned photographers?

Funnily enough I am painting my rooms white at the moment and I don’t have any pictures on my wall at all but I hope to have a couple of large William Eggleston prints soon and some prints from 20×200. I also would like to rotate images from a number of the photographers I have been working with.

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I is for ‘Idiocy’ by Andrew Ward

How do the response photographers work? Do they respond to all 26 projects or individual briefs that they are interested in?

Okay so originally the Alphabet Project was going to involve just 26 photographers, all with a first name beginning with an unique letter of the alphabet. However, I soon realised that a year is a long time for 26 people to remain committed so I needed to have another set of 26 photographers, similarly with first names beginning with an unique letter of the alphabet, in case anyone needed to pull out. I called this group of 26 photographers ‘responding’ purely because the only difference between them and the original 26 was that they didn’t set a task, they purely responded to each task set. The only requirement for all photographers involved was that they completed all 26 tasks by the end of the year.

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J is for ‘Just by Radiohead’ by Emli Bendixen

Which brief took you the longest to come up with an idea for? Which did you know straight away?

To be honest I am the least imaginative when it comes to photography. This is probably one of the reasons I am moving away from creating images to being an art photography curator. An assignment was set like ‘broken’ and ‘thrill’ and I could only think of the most obvious responses whereas the other photographers came up with the most ingenious and leftfield images. Some of them were surreal, some of them incredibly clever and funny. I really enjoyed seeing what they came up with each fortnight.

Who or where or what would be your dream subject to photograph?

I want to get out into the great landscapes of the US with my Wista 5×4 – to photograph places described in books such as ‘Moon Palace’ by Paul Auster and ‘Walden’ by Henry David Thoreau. There’s something that really appeals to me about epic spaces.

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Z is for ‘Zigzag’ by Hind Mezaina

After the book what are your plans for the Alphabet Project? What personal projects are you working on?

I am currently exploring avenues and looking for venues/galleries in London. Currently I am curating a couple of other projects by the name of 12 Faces, and the 50 States Project, (50statesproject.net). These are both ideas that evolved out of the Alphabet Project. I also have a number of other projects in mind and one I’m very excited about which will take place in 2010.

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N is for ‘Nightscape’ by Geoff Ward

Finally, who would play you in a film of your life?

I think either Richard Kiel, (the chap who played Jaws in ‘Moonraker’), or Hervé Villechaize, (the midget who played Tattoo in ‘Fantasy Island’).

Nice! Thanks for your time Stuart, and best of luck.

Viva le Collaboration I say.

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P is for ‘Phenomenon’ by Dirk Such

(Thumbnail: K is for ‘Kitchen’ by Kristal Armendariz)
Paris- based Nelson (JB Devay, cialis 40mg Gregory Kowalski, cialis 40mg David Nichols and Thomas Pirot) are four dashing purveyors of technical trick-clickery, information pills instrument swingers and moody wordsmiths all finished off with a dash French cool. Their new wave vibe skitters from a Factory Records vibe to the spooky storminess of the early Animal Collective records. They are refreshingly unique for a band that emerged from a Paris scene awash with mini Pierre Dohertys and wannabe Carl Berets. Nelson are never afraid to experiment with genre and technique creating an intelligent type of music, songs that are both danceable and deep; like bopping around a copy of Sartre.
I ate their tortilla chips and spoke to them about making the channel crossing to the notorious London gig circuit, cultural perceptions of French music and having Berlusconi over for dinner, we laughed a lot. From this I can whole-heartedly conclude that you should embrace a new entente cordiale because they’re ferrying over to start a revolution…

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JB Devay: Hello, nice to meet you, we are Nelson from Paris…How did you manage to be here?
My parents made love 23 years ago…
(laughter)
JB: That’s disgusting…I don’t talk to girls who speak like this.
(laughter)
I apologise, so you guys have been playing a lot of gigs in London this week (93 Feet East, Old Blue Last, Buffalo Bar), I was wondering if you could tell me about how you view the differences between the Paris music scene and the London one?
Gregory Kowalski: The thing is we are playing in clubs in London, and from what we see in clubs for 3 or 4 years is that London bands are not really original, in Paris they’re used to be this rock scene that started 4 years ago but now it’s kind of quiet.
Thomas Pirot: I would say that London has lots of bands, so there are a lot of bad bands.
I guess what I always noticed was that the Paris scene is smaller…
David Nichols: Yeah, definitely, but it’s more diverse than the London scene, we haven’t seen too much of the rest of England yet. In Paris there was this thing that bubbled up 4 years ago, with new bands and bands that hadn’t otherwise had a chance to play, now that’s quietened down; there are the bands that stopped and bands that have moved onto a more professional career.

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Ok, you were saying that when you come here you play clubs; do you all think that it’s hard for continental bands to make it here? or maybe that there’s a stigma attatched to being a French band? I think people have really specific preconceptions of “French Music”
Thomas: I think so maybe 3 or 4 years ago, but now because of the Parisian scene; that’s kind of changing, there seems to be some more open-minded feeling.
Gregory: Many people we meet after gigs say “oh a French rock band there is something sexy about that”.
(laughter)
David: We’ve reaped a lot of benefit from the electro scene; like Justice and Ed Banger, I mean we’re not at all part of that scene, but for the first time in January we weren’t just another French band, people were asking if we knew Justice also the French Revolution nights at 93 Feet East have done a lot for (hammy French accent) ze freeench cauuzzze!
Gregory: Are you German?
David: Ja.
(laughter)
JB: The change will definitely happen when we have one big French rock band breaking through….

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I think Ed Banger is important, even if you’re not affiliated with it because it encourages a two-way cultural export, where as before it was uniquely British bands being exported to France, now French music is cool again in the British public eye…
I was going to ask you why you sing with an English accent?

David: JB doesn’t…he created his own brand of accent.
Gregory: It’s just the music we grew up listening to.
JB: Yeah like Ed Banger, Daft Punk, Phoenix
(laughter)
David: It’s really just the accents each of us naturally have when we sing.
Thomas: Plus we have our very own English teacher. (points to David)
You mean David, who learnt English when he was at school with Justice and Air, right?
(laughter)

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So I was reading about your influences, a lot of them are cinematic or literary; how do you think that affects your music?
David: Well it’s all things that have touched us personally, things that we’ve connected with in all sorts of art…
JB: I think at the end we’re all trying to say the same thing…I don’t see such a big difference between music, art or literature; it’s all a different way to express emotions. I can talk to James Salter or a guy making movies like I would to another musician.
Gregory: It’s all the same artistic world.

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Hmmm, with regards to your literary influences and as well as English being your second language- do you think that affects how you approach song-writing? When I write in French my writing voice totally changes…
Thomas: I think it’s easier to express yourself in another language, there’s a distance.
Gregory: You can play with something when you don’t really know the rules; it’s a nice game, you have weird images going together even if its not really proper; I think it works.
I guess it’s the Nabokovian thing of collecting words by their shapes and sounds and not by their meaning, it’s interesting in terms of abstraction but also creates a new intimacy with language; I can see that in your lyrics…
Gregory: Definitely, our first album (Revolving Doors) was definitely about collecting words this way, but now, with the second we are trying more to tell stories.
David: Now we know how to collect words by shapes and sounds; it’s naturally part of our writing process to do it and now we know how to do that, we can now focus on writing stories…but we still have the sense of “I like that word there and how it sounds, so I’ll put it there and the story will fit round it”
Thomas: It’s because naturally our lyrics come from yaourt…
Yoghurt?!
(laughter)
Gregory: It’s Franglais!
David: Yaourt is French for when you don’t know the words but sing something anyway…
Like Goobledigook?
David: Yeah! Once you find the rhythm of sounds and structure, then you find the words to fit.
Thomas: Words always come with the music and sound, never before.

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Cool, there’s a sense of fluidity about how you work, not only with lyrics and working in the studio but also with not really having assigned positions within the band, you all swap instruments- is this fluidity important to you?
Gregory: Yes, definitely.

So what’s coming up for you guys in the future?
JB Devay: A gig in two hours.
(laughter)
Gregory: Then back to Paris for drinks with Daft Punk and Justice!
(laughter)
David: I have a dinner with Air!
Nelson’s Manager Nico: Well, you won’t have much to eat then will you?
(laughter)
That’s a good one- I’ll put that in!

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Finally, if you had to have 5 people over for dinner who would you choose?

JB: Clint Eastwood for me.
Thomas: Matt Berninger. (singer of The National)
Gregory: (something that sounds like Evita)
Evita?!
Gregory: No, Avey Tare.
Oh Avey Tare! (singer of Animal Collective) nice choice!
Gregory: Berlusconi as well actually, he’d be an interesting guy…
He could do a pasta!
(laughter)
Nelson’s Manager Nico: Scarlett Johansson
(sounds of masculine approval)
David: I’d say Woody Allen.
Who’d do the washing up?
David: Probably me.
Gregory: I’d do it with Scarlett Johansson…
I bet you would!

Nelson’s debut album Revolving Doors is available now on Ctrl Alt Del Records (UK) and Diamondtraxx (France).
They play The Luminaire on 30th May.
Photos of Nelson playing at the Centre Pompidou appear courtesy of Julien Courmont
Awesome backdrops (in photos) by Ahonen & Lamberg

We normally post our listings on a Monday, viagra but there are quite a few events going on this Bank Holiday Weekend that we wanted to share with you.

First of all, sale who has not seen a screening of “The Age of Stupid” yet? If you haven’t, then there are plenty of opportunities on Friday night, thanks to the numerous places which will be taking part in the genius ‘Indie Screenings’.

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If you need more of an incentive, anyone who comes along to the 7.30pm screenings across the country will get to watch an additional webcast as well. The Age Of Stupid have teamed up with the Royal Society of the Arts to bring you an exclusive live webcast. Directly after screenings finish across the width and breadth of the UK at 9PM, they will go live from London with an interactive web panel beaming directly to anyone holding an event. On the panel they’ll be joined by:
 Franny Armstrong (Director of The Age of Stupid, McLibel and Drowned Out) ?- George Monbiot (Prolific climate change journalist and author of HEAT)?- Sir Nicholas Stern (Author of the Stern review and economist)?- Dr Richard Betts (Head of climate impacts at the MET office)?- Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan, Vice-President of the Maldives  

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Have a look at the Age Of Stupid website to see where these screenings are place. One particular screening which has piqued our interest is going to be held at the fabulously named Stoke Newington International Airport (needless to say, not a real airport), but “a performance and rehearsal venue where extremely interesting people get up to brilliant things.”The film will be shown in order to raise money for the Nottingham thought criminals, so come along and bring all your mates. It’s a great little venue, and all money taken on the door will be split between them and those naughty people what thought about possibly maybe conspiring to do nothing.

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Illustration by Bryony Lloyd

Those who follow this blog will hopefully know a little about the wonderful work that Transition Towns are doing. This weekend they are holding a conference which will last from May 22 -May 24. If you want one of these places please call Kristin on 07950542351. Places cost £85 which gives you access to the full smogasbord including workshops, open spaces, evening events, entertainment & lunch. It promises to be a wonderful weekend. Take a look at the programme for the full picture
 
The conference programme has been announced. It’s a packed schedule, with workshops happening throughout the weekend covering every aspect of Transition. Here is a list of what to expect. 
Here’s the full list:
 
Saturday Morning
Energy Descent Planning
Growing Communities
Oil, Climate & Money
Learning >From Coin Street Community Builders
Constellations: a Practical Experience
Creative Environmental Education
The Transition Guide to Working With Your Local Council
Ensuring & Maximising Diversity in Transition
Transition Training & Consulting: who we are and what we do
Can Britain Feed Itself? Bringing GIS Mapping to the Question
Crowdfunding & Fundraising
 
Saturday Afternoon
Local Currencies
The Transition Guide to Food
Wha’s Like Us? The Scottish Experience
Climate Change Goes Critical
The Work That Reconnects
Harmony Singing
Wild Food & Wildlife Walk
Turning The Corner
Transition Training & Consulting: working with businesses & organisations
Animate Earth
Economics Crash Course
 
Sunday Morning
Food EDAPs
Weaving Magic
Making The Most of The Media
Transition Web Project Bringing Transition Together
Conflict Resolution & Communication
The Heart & Soul of Transition
Energy Descent Planning for Transport: The Oxford Example
Personal Resilience
Asking the Elders
Transition Timeline
Wild Economics: Wolves, Resilience & Spirit

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Illustration by Fay Katirai

The Transition website also lists places to stay if you are coming from out of town, so you will not be stuck for a place to stay.

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Elsewhere, Rootstock and Radical Routes are holding a free one day conference and workshop which includes a talk by the key note speaker, Marsh Farm’s Glenn Jenkins, who will be asking “How can we protect our remaining social and economic resources from the convulsions of capitalism?” The event will be on Saturday at the Conway Hall in Holburn, London. Radical Routes is a network of radical co-ops whose members are committed to working for positive social change. The network is made up mainly of housing co-ops of various sizes (none with more than 16 members), a few workers co-ops and a couple of social centres.
Four times a year, the member co-ops get together at “gatherings”. These weekend events have a social function, but are also the places at which all important decisions are taken. They are open meetings and anyone is welcome to attend.
The event will run from 10 am – 6pm. But it doesn’t finish then! Afterwards, Radical Routes will be throwing a party to celebrate their 21st birthday. Music and entertainment will be provided by Attila the Stockbroker, a performance and punk rock poet, as well as David Rovics, Babar Luck, Clayton Blizzard and Smokey Bastard. Food will be provided by The Anarchist Teapot Kitchen Collective from Brighton and Veggies Catering Campaign from Nottingham.
Tickets for the evening’s party are £8.00/£4.00 concs or if you include food, £11.00/£6.00 concs. Tickets can be booked by calling 0113 262 4408 or emailing bookings@radicalroutes.org.uk
Who are Worried about Satan? Worried about Satan are a duo based in Leeds comprising of Gavin Miller and Thomas Ragsdale who produce atmospheric soundscaping far in advanced of their relatively young age.

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Their live shows are an incredible, prescription blistering assault on the senses that leave you whimpering in the corner like a kid who’s lost his blankie. On receiving their new album ‘Arrivals’, I have to admit I was more than a little concerned. I couldn’t really imagine how they’d be able to match this on stage furore on record. Yet, no sooner had the disc started spinning when my worries disappeared in the fug of a post rock, techno wrestling match. The despair, the fear and the power  is as prevalent here as it ever has been on the stage. Nothing compromised, nothing lost.

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Each track builds up to an almost unbearable hiatus. One part electronic, another part rock with some mind melting jungle beats on the side. It shares a little with Dub step hero Burial, if I had to name anyone, who they have shared a studio with. The mixture is balanced out perfectly with an accompaniment from some rather unusual spoken word samples from Patricia Hearst amongst others; altogether creating a sound that is both ethereal and heart wrenching. It was like being hit over the head with twenty chairs and then pile driven into a concrete canvas. But I’d do it again I tell you, again.

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The album is now due to be released at the end of May on Gizeh Records.

Categories ,album review, ,dub step, ,electro, ,indie, ,jungle, ,North, ,post-rock

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Amelia’s Magazine | The Drums: “I Felt Stupid” : Single Review

“To last you need to be real” – Edward G Robinson
“This is quite a departure for us as we usually do not exhibit commercial art, website like this but fine arts”. With those words Martin Tickner let me know what the Maurice Einhardt Neu Gallery is all about. Nestled in the heart of Bohemia land and Gallery street as Redchurch street and Old street/ Brick lane could each be called, ailment this exhibition space is more known for showcasing interesting alternative performance art and installations such as “Seen” by Sean McLusky and Martin J Tickner. Those collaborations where an artist curates a group for a one-off show have in the past seen the high priest of gothic art, Matthew Stone – famous for his tableaux of shamanic rites of passage in the style of Caravaggio – join electro arrivistes S.C.U.M (named after Valerie Solanis’ 1968 manifesto Society For Cutting Up Men) who make music for the emotionally crippled, deficient and diseased.
Bare Bones however still fits in the gallery’s motto. Published in the paper format but looking a lot like a fanzine with its black and white series of independent-minded designs, the second edition embraces the abused tabloid format and has many more contributors. Funded entirely by its creators, Bare Bones features no advertising and revels in not being associated with corporate shilldom. Featuring artists, photographers, writers, musicians and other beautifully wayward human flotsam, Bare Bones aims to provide an insight into the unexplored creative avenues being beaten out by its protagonists. Positioning itself as an alternative to the morass of mind numbing free press littering the brains and streets of London Bare Bones shoots to provoke thought and conversation. Whilst not always aiming to offend just for the sake of it, people who quickly jump to back-footed offence and ill conceived moral judgment only encourage ignorance and deserve to be appalled at least four times a year. Bare Bones seems to be on a quest for a stronger constitution.
The gallery space is small and two walls are covered with limited edition prints costing between 50 and 200. One featured artist is aptly named Heretic Printmakers with gem quotes such as “ Themes that run through our work are ancient symbolism, (…) the inner beast, sex bats, naked witches, demented cats, trees, paranoid owls (…) the freakily parallel cosmos of Mutinopia…”
BARE BONES was Neal Fox, Frank Laws, Hannah Bays, Billy Bragg, Amelia Johnstone, and has since added Hanna Hanra, Sam Kerr, Richard Gilligan and Jamie Putnam to its list. Russell Weekes from lie-in and tigers is a previous Amelia’s magazine contributor- his stricking and witty drawings are part of the work created by the motley crew of proud to be baiting misfits. See it all at your enjoyable peril!
Bare Bones cblonehead“To last you need to be real” – Edward G Robinson

barebones2-3
“This is quite a departure for us as we usually do not exhibit commercial art, buy more about but fine arts”. With those words Martin Tickner let me know what the Maurice Einhardt Neu Gallery is all about. Nestled in the heart of Bohemia land and Gallery street as Redchurch street and Old street/ Brick lane could each be called, clinic this exhibition space is more known for showcasing interesting alternative performance art and installations such as “Seen” by Sean McLusky and Martin J Tickner. Those collaborations where an artist curates a group for a one-off show have in the past seen the high priest of gothic art, seek Matthew Stone – famous for his tableaux of shamanic rites of passage in the style of Caravaggio – join electro arrivistes S.C.U.M (named after Valerie Solanis’ 1968 manifesto Society For Cutting Up Men) who make music for the emotionally crippled, deficient and diseased.
Bare bones pornomaggie Bare Bones however still fits in the gallery’s motto. Published in the paper format but looking a lot like a fanzine with its black and white series of independent-minded designs, the second edition embraces the abused tabloid format and has many more contributors. Funded entirely by its creators, Bare Bones features no advertising and revels in not being associated with corporate shilldom. Featuring artists, photographers, writers, musicians and other beautifully wayward human flotsam, Bare Bones aims to provide an insight into the unexplored creative avenues being beaten out by its protagonists. Positioning itself as an alternative to the morass of mind numbing free press littering the brains and streets of London Bare Bones shoots to provoke thought and conversation. Whilst not always aiming to offend just for the sake of it, people who quickly jump to back-footed offence and ill conceived moral judgment only encourage ignorance and deserve to be appalled at least four times a year. Bare Bones seems to be on a quest for a stronger constitution.
Bare bones sisters The gallery space is small and two walls are covered with limited edition prints costing between 50 and 200. One featured artist is aptly named Heretic Printmakers with gem quotes such as “ Themes that run through our work are ancient symbolism, (…) the inner beast, sex bats, naked witches, demented cats, trees, paranoid owls (…) the freakily parallel cosmos of Mutinopia…”
BARE BONES was Neal Fox, Frank Laws, Hannah Bays, Billy Bragg, Amelia Johnstone, and has since added Hanna Hanra, Sam Kerr, Richard Gilligan and Jamie Putnam to its list. Russell Weekes from lie-in and tigers is a previous Amelia’s magazine contributor- his stricking and witty drawings are part of the work created by the motley crew of proud to be baiting misfits. See it all at your enjoyable peril!

Russellelephants
drums2

Brooklyn quartet The Drums have hit everyone’s playlists hard (bit of a drum pun there for you), visit this site their infectious summer style is sustaining us through what looks set to be a typically wet and dark winter. ‘I Felt Stupid’ is emblematic of the 50’s/60’s surf-pop style sound that characterises their critically acclaimed EP ‘Summertime’, and much of the music from the summer just gone.

The difference with this band, evident in ‘I Felt Stupid’, is their unashamed love for bouncing, shiny melodies framed within bright, jangly pop music. With elements of synth- pop and new wave, on tracks like ‘Submarine’ I actually thought I was listening to The Cure, added to the milieu their sound is varied and not without texture. This original and emotive sound is even more impressive when you consider they have only been together for just over a year, starting in Florida and then moving to Brooklyn.

drums1

The lamentable lyrics of this song add another dimension to the music, if you were under the impression this was just another vacant beach boys-esque sounding band, it isn’t, there is real depth in the words. With crooned refrains like ‘have I lived my life too selfishly baby?’ and ‘your arms around me seem to be the only good thing that ever happened to me’ it juxtaposes the upbeat tone of the song with imagery of a summer love lost. For this reason this song, and this band, don’t get old, each listen reveals another layer. Lets hope the next offering from this band lives up to the high expectations set by this record.

drums

The Drums return to the UK to tour in February as part of the Shockwaves NME tour with The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club and The Big Pink.
Single “I Felt Stupid” available now.

Categories ,Bombay Bicycle Club, ,music, ,NME, ,single, ,The Beach Boys, ,the big pink, ,the cure, ,the drums, ,The Maccabees, ,tour

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Amelia’s Magazine | New Young Pony Club – Lost A Girl – Single Review

cameralovinproperdesatredOn Saturday 23rd January at 12pm over 2000 photographers gathered in Trafalgar Square in protest at Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, dosage which allows police greater powers to stop and search photographers.  The demonstration was organized by the group I’m a Photographer, recipe Not A Terrorist via facebook and twitter.  Armed with a borrowed compact piece of shite and hardly able to call myself a photographer, I went to investigate.  My subsequent two hours of extreme camera-envy were, thankfully, balanced out by a humorous and lively demo with a huge turn-out, friendly crowd and serious civil liberties message.
crowd1placardscroppedcrowd
“We must work together now to stop this before photography becomes a part of history rather than a way of recording it” states PHNAT’s website.  The arrests of high-profile photographers arrested under section 44 have contributed to the immediacy of the message. But while the Met’s website gives a very measured description of police powers to intervene in media-related activity, many photographers complain that these powers are frequently abused, and the law and photographers’ rights are very unclear. 2suspectreport

Winding its way through the centre of the crowd, a ‘Vigilance Committee’, closely protected by a man on stilts in a helmet/balaclava/CCTV strapped-to-head ensemble (we should definitely all take a leaf out of his fashion bible and don portable CCTV cameras, for our own security), arrested random, unsuspecting photographers in a stop and search parody. 
marrtile2
arresttile copy
As soon as the stop-and-search ‘guilt certificate’ they used (below) was completed, they proclaimed their suspects guilty and gave them two penalty options: six years forced labour or life-time contributor to the Vigilance Committee.  Most chose six years’ forced labour.
guiltcertificate

One professional told me at the end of the demo ‘ our hope is that by organizing this demonstrations we’ll make the police re-think their strategies.  The freedom to record and document history is a really important one, and a lot of press photographers are experiencing increasing difficulty with the police’.  Magda, a photography student from Poland told me: ‘I’m just here because I want to make the point that just because you have a camera, it doesn’t make you a terrorist or a criminal.  I heard about this on facebook but I didn’t expect to find so many people!  I’m tired of being treated suspiciously when I take photos at demonstrations for example, at times and places where it’s really important to accurately record what’s going on, and my boyfriend, who works for a magazine here, has been stopped by the police quite a few times.  I’m not against anti-terrorism measures, but it seems like almost everyone is a suspect now.  There are…. CCTV cameras per person in the UK…if we are being observed, can’t we do some observing ourselves?”

cameralovinproperdesatredOn Saturday 23rd January at 12pm over 2000 photographers gathered in Trafalgar Square to challenge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, buy which allows police increasing powers to stop and search photographers.  The demonstration was organized by the group I’m a Photographer, Not A Terrorist via facebook and twitter.  Armed with a borrowed compact piece of shite and hardly able to call myself a photographer, I went to investigate.  My subsequent two hours of extreme camera-envy were balanced out by a lively demo with a huge turn-out and serious civil liberties message.
crowd1placardscroppedcrowd
“We must work together now to stop this before photography becomes a part of history rather than a way of recording it” states PHNAT’s website.  The arrests of high-profile photographers arrested under section 44 have contributed to the immediacy of the message. But while the Met’s website gives a very measured description of police powers to intervene in media-related activity, many photographers complain that these powers are frequently abused, and the law and photographers’ rights are very unclear. 2suspectreport

Winding its way through the centre of the crowd, a ‘Vigilance Committee’, closely protected by a man on stilts in a helmet/balaclava/CCTV strapped-to-head ensemble (we should surely all take a leaf out of his fashion bible), arrested random, unsuspecting photographers in a stop and search parody. 
marrtile2
arresttile copy
As soon as the stop-and-search ‘guilt certificate’ they used (below) was complete, they declared their suspects guilty and provided them with two penalty options: six years forced labour or life-time contributor to the Vigilance Committee.  Most chose six years’ forced labour.
guiltcertificate

One photographer told me at the end of the demo ‘ our hope is that by organizing this demonstration we’ll make the police re-think their strategies.  The freedom to record and document history is a really important one, and a lot of press photographers are experiencing increasing difficulty with the police’. 

interview3

Magda, a photography student from Poland told me: ‘I’m just here because I want to make the point that just because you have a camera, it doesn’t make you a terrorist or a criminal.  I heard about this on facebook but I didn’t expect to find so many people!  I’m tired of being treated suspiciously when I take photos at demonstrations for example, at times and places where it’s really important to accurately record what’s going on, and my boyfriend, who works for a magazine here, has been stopped by the police quite a few times.  I’m not against anti-terrorism measures, but it seems like almost everyone is a suspect now.  There are…. CCTV cameras per person in the UK…if we are being observed, can’t we do some observing ourselves?”
notacrime

cameralovinproperdesatredOn Saturday 23rd January at 12pm over 2000 photographers gathered in Trafalgar Square to challenge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, generic which allows police increasing powers to stop and search photographers.  The demonstration was organized by the group I’m a Photographer, Not A Terrorist via facebook and twitter.  Armed with a borrowed compact piece of shite and hardly able to call myself a photographer, I went to investigate.  My subsequent two hours of extreme camera-envy were balanced out by a lively demo with a huge turn-out and serious civil liberties message.
crowd1placardscroppedcrowd
“We must work together now to stop this before photography becomes a part of history rather than a way of recording it” states PHNAT’s website.  The arrests of high-profile photographers arrested under section 44 have contributed to the immediacy of the message. But while the Met’s website gives a very measured description of police powers to intervene in media-related activity, many photographers complain that these powers are frequently abused, and the law and photographers’ rights are very unclear. 2suspectreport

Winding its way through the centre of the crowd, a ‘Vigilance Committee’, closely protected by a man on stilts in a helmet/balaclava/CCTV strapped-to-head ensemble (we should surely all take a leaf out of his fashion bible), arrested random, unsuspecting photographers in a stop and search parody. 
marrtile2
arresttile copy
As soon as the stop-and-search ‘guilt certificate’ they used (below) was complete, they declared their suspects guilty and provided them with two penalty options: six years forced labour or life-time contributor to the Vigilance Committee.  Most chose six years’ forced labour.
guiltcertificate

One photographer told me at the end of the demo ‘ our hope is that by organizing this demonstration we’ll make the police re-think their strategies.  The freedom to record and document history is a really important one, and a lot of press photographers are experiencing increasing difficulty with the police’. 

interview3

Magda, a photography student from Poland told me: ‘I’m just here because I want to make the point that just because you have a camera, it doesn’t make you a terrorist or a criminal.  I heard about this on facebook but I didn’t expect to find so many people!  I’m tired of being treated suspiciously when I take photos at demonstrations for example, at times and places where it’s really important to accurately record what’s going on, and my boyfriend, who works for a magazine here, has been stopped by the police quite a few times.  I’m not against anti-terrorism measures, but it seems like almost everyone is a suspect now.  There are…. CCTV cameras per person in the UK…if we are being observed, can’t we do some observing ourselves?”
notacrime

cameralovinproperdesatredOn Saturday 23rd January at 12pm over 2000 photographers gathered in Trafalgar Square to challenge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, price which allows police increasing powers to stop and search photographers.  The demonstration was organized by the group I’m a Photographer, click Not A Terrorist via facebook and twitter.  Armed with a borrowed compact piece of shite and hardly able to call myself a photographer, I went to investigate.  My subsequent two hours of extreme camera-envy were balanced out by a lively demo with a huge turn-out and serious civil liberties message.
crowd1placardscroppedcrowd
“We must work together now to stop this before photography becomes a part of history rather than a way of recording it” states PHNAT’s website.  The arrests of high-profile photographers arrested under section 44 have contributed to the immediacy of the message. But while the Met’s website gives a very measured description of police powers to intervene in media-related activity, many photographers complain that these powers are frequently abused, and the law and photographers’ rights are very unclear. 2suspectreport

Winding its way through the centre of the crowd, a ‘Vigilance Committee’, closely protected by a man on stilts in a helmet/balaclava/CCTV strapped-to-head ensemble (we should surely all take a leaf out of his fashion bible), arrested random, unsuspecting photographers in a stop and search parody. 
marrtile2
arresttile copy
As soon as the stop-and-search ‘guilt certificate’ they used (below) was complete, they declared their suspects guilty and provided them with two penalty options: six years forced labour or life-time contributor to the Vigilance Committee.  Most chose six years’ forced labour.

Class: None, Sexual Orientation: Rarely
guiltcertificate

One photographer told me at the end of the demo ‘ our hope is that by organizing this demonstration we’ll make the police re-think their strategies.  The freedom to record and document history is a really important one, and a lot of press photographers are experiencing increasing difficulty with the police’. 

interview3Photographer David Hoffman is interviewed after the demo

Magda, a photography student from Poland told me: ‘I’m just here because I want to make the point that just because you have a camera, it doesn’t make you a terrorist or a criminal.  I heard about this on facebook but I didn’t expect to find so many people!  I’m tired of being treated suspiciously when I take photos at demonstrations for example, at times and places where it’s really important to accurately record what’s going on, and my boyfriend, who works for a magazine here, has been stopped by the police quite a few times.  I’m not against anti-terrorism measures, but it seems like almost everyone is a suspect now.  There are…. CCTV cameras per person in the UK…if we are being observed, can’t we do some observing ourselves?”
notacrime
Little Glass Clementine cottongold                 
Images throughout courtesy of Little Glass clementine.

The jewellery designer Little Glass Clementine is enough to melt the heart of any eco-conscious fashionista, check the innocence in its name alone summarising the beauty of the designs– jewellery with soul. The ethos for these designs is simple; naturally sourced materials used to maximum effect to create intricate necklaces and exquisite hair pieces. The brainchild behind this brand that can regress even the most mature person to ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ in child-like wonder, adiposity is Clementine James, more about or Clemmie. Many Amelia’s readers will recognise Clementine from the earth section of our magazine as she was interviewed last year about her time spent in the remote location of Tuvalu in the South Pacific. A self taught jeweller Clementine has been skilfully making and selling her creations since the tender age of 16. Her aim is to tell a story with recycled materials stumbled upon to create something new by transforming the old so memories can live on.

Little Glass Clementine

Clemmie describes her sourced materials through a set of findings: “A ring from a love affair, a pebble from a Scottish shore, a button from a grandmother’s box, gems from India, a single earring, jewels from a charity shop, junk from a boot fair, lace from an antique market, fabric from an old coat, and pearls from the sea.” These individual items work together to create the ultimate in reclaimed possessions, and comprise the perfect accessories to make even the most ordinary outfit look both unique and interesting.

Little Glass Clementine golden park

Clementine has exhibited in galleries and boutiques in both London and Edinburgh and has sold in a plethora of shops, markets and even Brighton beach! For me the best thing about the designs in the brands back catalogue is the inspiration they can ignite for others. Whether it’s the urge to buy a Little Glass Clementine necklace, to revisit old memories or to get crafty with the pliers, there’s something about Clementine James that can make anyone feel inclined to be creative and eco-friendly.
NYPC

Back in 2007, purchase the five piece New Young Pony Club (or NYPC), website spearheaded by the captivating Tahita Bulmer, were causing quite the ruckus. Their style of post punk, new wave, indie-electro pop, heard in their debut album Fantastic Playroom, quickly became the go- to sound for all the cool kids around town. With acts like CSS, LadyHawke, and The Ting Tings picking up where NYPC left off, it’s obvious that they need to return with a couple of hard hitters to assure us of their place in the market. If the first release off their new album The Optimist is anything to go by, then they don’t have to worry about being M.I.A for the past few years.

nypc_press_shot_2_dean_chalkley

Lost A Girl is a strong, self assured anthem that shows that NYPC don’t miss a trick. Over an early 80′s electro beat, Taihita sings like she’s the love child of Souxsie Soux and The Cure’s Robert Smith. Wearing her heart on her sleeve, but with a head turning defiance, she picks apart a relationship that seems like it’s dead in the water and doing nothing for her. “I’m making you smile, why am I doing that?” she asks. As the chorus breaks into “la la la la,looks like you’ve lost a girl”, the statement sounds more of a taunt than a lament, directed to who ever was not good enough to keep her attention.

NYPC are smart enough to revisit the music scene with a track full of catchy hooks and hard edged melodies. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it reminds us of their much valued place in the British music scene. Welcome back!

Categories ,css, ,Fantastic Playroom, ,LadyHawke, ,Lost A Girl, ,New Young Pony Club, ,Robert Smith, ,Souxsie Soux, ,the cure, ,The Optimist, ,The Ting Tings

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Amelia’s Magazine | The story of LOVE. Shown through music.

Valentines Georgia Coote
Illustration by Georgia Coote

I’m not going to lie to you. Valentine’s Day didn’t start as well as some people’s obviously did. The flaunting has been hard to avoid. I don’t know how I feel about these hearty couples. Jealous/sick/admiring/touched. For me, information pills all I can say was that there were certainly no freshly squeezed orange juice glasses on the side table, sildenafil and croissant crumbs left in the bed. For one; it was 6.30am, for two; we ‘don’t do’ Valentine’s Day, and for three; we have smashed all our glasses (not through venom). Thus I give you 6.30am – 6.32am: Me: “Meh, I’m sick, knives have fallen into my throat and got stuck.” Him: “Huh, oh no.” Me: “Feel my forehead, there’s fire I tell you, fire.” He puts palm on my forehead: “Yeh you’re a bit warm. You look a bit sick. Have a lie in.” Me: “Ummm so Valen..” Him: “No, Hels *chuckle*, there’s no Valentine’s here. Now, see you later. Be productive!” Me: “Oh yeh.” He puts his forefinger out for the double forefinger touch (because he blatantly thinks I am horrid and contagious), and he’s gone.

Mine and Charlie’s own seriously overplayed song: Van Morrison, Sweet Thing

It’s not that I care. But I care. 30% of me was hoping for a card on the kitchen table. 70% of me knew there wasn’t. This morning I have moaned about it on twitter (low points) in between work and cups of tea. And now I am listening to my love songs. Because I wanted to write this post on the mighty songs of love. Darn it! And I still hold hope that old Charlie comes back with some garage flowers. Not that I care. I have Francois, my cat, always ready for hugging action. His card is sitting here on my desk. Charlie’s, not the cat’s. Sorry, I can’t stop the cheese today.

Loved up! Woo, YEH! :D EMOTICON USE time. 4Hero, Les Fleur

As much as I may not admit it. I just can’t get enough of love, feelings and emotions. If I had a bath, I’d sit in it. Musing for a lifetime on everything from the beautiful bliss to the horrifically heartbreaking. Alliteration accepted in such instances, it’s Valentine’s Day after all. It’s just the best thing ever. As are sweeping generalisations. I speak the truth! This is a post about love in its many stages. Unpredictable blighter it is. Respect the ticker. Your heart is YOURS.

1. So, let’s start with the date. Oh and it is magical. Hearts are drumming and the colour’s are bright. Everything looks beautiful. Even twigs. The blood’s rushing so much you can hear it. And. You. Can. Feeeeel, your heart beats pulsating in your lips when you kiss. Four Tet, Angel Echoes.

2. Oh and we’re fully on the merry-go-round now aren’t we? Are you falling in love? Yep, I think you might be. Lykke Li, Little Bit.
LykkeLibyRusstyBrazil
Lykke Li Illustration by Russty Brazil

3. And it feels like nothing else huh? Like you’ve been born again and now it all, as in life; the world; your purpose – makes sense. So do days in bed, massive breakfasts, log fires, roll top baths and footsie in the pub. You didn’t? Yeh, you did. Bon Iver, Stacks.

4. Kisses etc. Bit almost anti-feminist with Bob taking the dominant position here, but you can’t deny this is a special song. And I’d like a big, brass bed. Bob Dylan, Lay Lady Lay.
Bob Dylan Avril Kelly
Bob Dylan Illustration by Avril Kelly

5. …Days together…. Incredible man, Nick Drake, Place To Be.

6. It’s just intense huh? Does anyone else even exist? Who cares, let’s dance, run around mazes and have loads of baths together. Nat King Cole, Love.

7. YES, no, I mean – I definitely do love you. I love you. Decoder Ring, Somersault.

8. WOW. Percy Sledge, When A Man Loves A Woman.
percysledge by daria h
Percy Sledge Illustration by Daria Hlazatova

9. Everything just feels so great, doesn’t it? I mean… JOY. Devendra Banhart, Santa Maria De Feira.

10) Post six months of so. Ah love, aint it grand, yet also very scary? Real love will have you going up, down and around. It will always be changing, sometimes thrilling your socks off, other times leaving you in despair. But it’s super. Just super. Grizzly Bear, Alligator.
grizzlybear by daria h
Grizzly Bear Illustration by Daria Hlaztaova

For those that have recently split. I’m sorry. This man is a superstar and this song is fantastic. Roy Harper, Me and My Woman

For myself and Francois, The Cure, Lovecats. I’ve basically forgiven Charlie now. I’ve listened to so many love songs and gone through a harangue of emotions doing so. Love to you all. Love, love, love, LOVE!

Categories ,4Hero, ,Avril Kelly, ,baths, ,Bob Dylan, ,Bon Iver, ,cats, ,Daria Hlazatova, ,Devendra Banhart, ,Emotions, ,Four Tet, ,Georgia Coote, ,grizzly bear, ,Helen Martin, ,Love, ,Lykke Li, ,Nat King Cole, ,Nick Drake, ,Roy Harper, ,Russty Brazil, ,the cure, ,twitter, ,Valentine’s Day, ,Van Morrison

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Amelia’s Magazine | The story of LOVE. Shown through music.

Valentines Georgia Coote
Illustration by Georgia Coote

I’m not going to lie to you. Valentine’s Day didn’t start as well as some people’s obviously did. The flaunting has been hard to avoid. I don’t know how I feel about these hearty couples. Jealous/sick/admiring/touched. For me, information pills all I can say was that there were certainly no freshly squeezed orange juice glasses on the side table, sildenafil and croissant crumbs left in the bed. For one; it was 6.30am, for two; we ‘don’t do’ Valentine’s Day, and for three; we have smashed all our glasses (not through venom). Thus I give you 6.30am – 6.32am: Me: “Meh, I’m sick, knives have fallen into my throat and got stuck.” Him: “Huh, oh no.” Me: “Feel my forehead, there’s fire I tell you, fire.” He puts palm on my forehead: “Yeh you’re a bit warm. You look a bit sick. Have a lie in.” Me: “Ummm so Valen..” Him: “No, Hels *chuckle*, there’s no Valentine’s here. Now, see you later. Be productive!” Me: “Oh yeh.” He puts his forefinger out for the double forefinger touch (because he blatantly thinks I am horrid and contagious), and he’s gone.

Mine and Charlie’s own seriously overplayed song: Van Morrison, Sweet Thing

It’s not that I care. But I care. 30% of me was hoping for a card on the kitchen table. 70% of me knew there wasn’t. This morning I have moaned about it on twitter (low points) in between work and cups of tea. And now I am listening to my love songs. Because I wanted to write this post on the mighty songs of love. Darn it! And I still hold hope that old Charlie comes back with some garage flowers. Not that I care. I have Francois, my cat, always ready for hugging action. His card is sitting here on my desk. Charlie’s, not the cat’s. Sorry, I can’t stop the cheese today.

Loved up! Woo, YEH! :D EMOTICON USE time. 4Hero, Les Fleur

As much as I may not admit it. I just can’t get enough of love, feelings and emotions. If I had a bath, I’d sit in it. Musing for a lifetime on everything from the beautiful bliss to the horrifically heartbreaking. Alliteration accepted in such instances, it’s Valentine’s Day after all. It’s just the best thing ever. As are sweeping generalisations. I speak the truth! This is a post about love in its many stages. Unpredictable blighter it is. Respect the ticker. Your heart is YOURS.

1. So, let’s start with the date. Oh and it is magical. Hearts are drumming and the colour’s are bright. Everything looks beautiful. Even twigs. The blood’s rushing so much you can hear it. And. You. Can. Feeeeel, your heart beats pulsating in your lips when you kiss. Four Tet, Angel Echoes.

2. Oh and we’re fully on the merry-go-round now aren’t we? Are you falling in love? Yep, I think you might be. Lykke Li, Little Bit.
LykkeLibyRusstyBrazil
Lykke Li Illustration by Russty Brazil

3. And it feels like nothing else huh? Like you’ve been born again and now it all, as in life; the world; your purpose – makes sense. So do days in bed, massive breakfasts, log fires, roll top baths and footsie in the pub. You didn’t? Yeh, you did. Bon Iver, Stacks.

4. Kisses etc. Bit almost anti-feminist with Bob taking the dominant position here, but you can’t deny this is a special song. And I’d like a big, brass bed. Bob Dylan, Lay Lady Lay.
Bob Dylan Avril Kelly
Bob Dylan Illustration by Avril Kelly

5. …Days together…. Incredible man, Nick Drake, Place To Be.

6. It’s just intense huh? Does anyone else even exist? Who cares, let’s dance, run around mazes and have loads of baths together. Nat King Cole, Love.

7. YES, no, I mean – I definitely do love you. I love you. Decoder Ring, Somersault.

8. WOW. Percy Sledge, When A Man Loves A Woman.
percysledge by daria h
Percy Sledge Illustration by Daria Hlazatova

9. Everything just feels so great, doesn’t it? I mean… JOY. Devendra Banhart, Santa Maria De Feira.

10) Post six months of so. Ah love, aint it grand, yet also very scary? Real love will have you going up, down and around. It will always be changing, sometimes thrilling your socks off, other times leaving you in despair. But it’s super. Just super. Grizzly Bear, Alligator.
grizzlybear by daria h
Grizzly Bear Illustration by Daria Hlaztaova

For those that have recently split. I’m sorry. This man is a superstar and this song is fantastic. Roy Harper, Me and My Woman

For myself and Francois, The Cure, Lovecats. I’ve basically forgiven Charlie now. I’ve listened to so many love songs and gone through a harangue of emotions doing so. Love to you all. Love, love, love, LOVE!

Categories ,4Hero, ,Avril Kelly, ,baths, ,Bob Dylan, ,Bon Iver, ,cats, ,Daria Hlazatova, ,Devendra Banhart, ,Emotions, ,Four Tet, ,Georgia Coote, ,grizzly bear, ,Helen Martin, ,Love, ,Lykke Li, ,Nat King Cole, ,Nick Drake, ,Roy Harper, ,Russty Brazil, ,the cure, ,twitter, ,Valentine’s Day, ,Van Morrison

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Amelia’s Magazine | Petter & the Pix – Good As Gold – Album Review

Hello mother nature, nurse rx H&M calling…. 

Answering to the needs of so many already environmentally conscious shoppers, website like this and those of mother nature, H&M are making their attempt to join the eco-friendly race and making sure we all know about it. A multitude of high street brands have approached the environmentally-friendly route but some with little success. What the average High Street consumer normally gets are increased prices, due to the new fabrics the brand has to source, and the design lacking in quality and variety compared with it’s non eco-friendly competitors. Sometimes the obstacle of incorporating unharmful dyeing techniques isn’t always cost effective enough.  

Luckily none of this is evident in H&M’s new The Garden Collection available from the 25th March 2010. Exhilarating Summer brights boost the collection with everything you could want from a high street Spring/Summer collection. This is an exciting step for one of the most predominate and successful brands on our High Streets, and those around the world. For H&M the beginning of eco-friendly clothing didn’t start here – they’ve been using organic cotton in some of their clothing since 2004 and have invested much time and money into finding and developing fabrics which are sustainable. It’s only now that they’re shouting about it, and for good reason.

The amount of attention inputted in style, texture and colour seems to be delicately balanced between every piece in the collection. There’s also a good varied range of clothing styles, making it accessible to a variety of ages and body shapes. It’s safe to say the collection has a very floral, feminine theme, running from bright and extravagant, to subtle and elegant; draping, flowing and layering create a variety of textures and shapes on the body, complimenting the female form. Best of all – the price points for this collection are no different to those of the rest of H&M – cost effective and guilt free, exactly how fashion should be!

One of the most noticeable pieces in the collection has to be a red strapless dress, sold out in most stores already, beautifully adorned with recycled polyester chiffon roses, with a fitted elegant bodice, romantic and playful in design. 

Excitingly to see is the use of the new fabric Tencel, hyped up by the press to be the next best thing in the development of mother nature friendly fabrics. It is beautiful to the touch and I predict it will be a favourite addition to many wardrobes from now on; it blends the gaps nicely between the recycled polyester, organic cotton, and linen in the collection. 

It’s always great to hear of a brand continuing to mould themselves into the eco-friendly world of fashion, and hopefully this is the start of something continuous and an idea which will be planted in the minds of the suits of the fashion world. So lets start showing these brands that what we want is fashion with a conscience, all of the time, and that if they want our hard-earned pennies then they need to earn them by working hard to make our home a better place to live.

I’ve just opened my window, sick for the first time since the autumn. I had to deal with some cobwebs, this some stiffness in the joints, but the fresh air has been a welcome change from the stuffiness of the past few months. It was beginning to feel like Das Boot in here. It was somewhere around the third track of Petter & the Pix’s second album, Good As Gold, that the urge to open the window for some spring relief kicked in – ‘Sit Down With Me’, the song in question, is a woozy daydream finger-pickin’ song, exactly what I needed to cause me to pause, to look up from my computer to the brilliant blue sky that’s currently hugging the ground around where I live.

The band is mostly Swedish, although the ‘Petter’ of Petter & the Pix used to be a member of Iceland’s first (and presumably still the only) reggae band, Hjálmar. His brother, Pontus, is half of the songwriting duo known as Bloodshy & Avant, most infamous for writing the Britney Spears hit ‘Toxic’ (I almost wrote ‘comeback single’ here – at the time it felt like something of one, but in retrospect it seems to have been a slight pause before the steep fall…). This album is neither pop nor reggae – it’s a varied and eclectic bunch of musical styles thrown together by an extremely talented bunch of people (‘the Pix’ are six fellow musicians, some of whom are members of other Scandinavian groups such as Lykke Li and Múm) that nevertheless manages to stake out its own distinct sound. Petter’s vocals are the archetype Nordic drawl, that affectation and elongation that, to a native English speaker, sounds like someone who’s given up. It gives Swedish pop that weirdly moving, pleading tone that makes groups like Peter, Bjorn & John and The Concretes so intriguing to those of us not used to the accent.

It’s no surprise, then, from my perspective, that this album is lyrically quite downbeat. Lots of songs about being alone, a bunch of stuff about Petter resigning himself to defeat, a whole lot of nostalgia for, “the first time you came over.” The real interest to be had here is in the musical ambition on display, though – sometimes the lyrics match the tune’s mood, sometimes they don’t. There will be something here, one song at the very least, that you will love (that’s second track ‘In The End Of The Day’ for me, a post-punk ballad that rests on a 4/4 drum thump and a melancholic descending guitar riff that’s simple, and sweetly effective).

Opener ‘Never Never’, also lead single, is perhaps the poorest song on the whole album. There’s a weird guitar line (or is it just a chanting vocal line that’s been put through some distortion pedal?) that’s straight out of an Aliens track, alternating with a slow-hum chorus with Petter wondering, “I think I was deep in love…/I think I was deep in love…,” over and over again. That vocal/guitar line, whatever it is, is more annoying than catchy by about the third play of the LP, so I’ve started skipping straight to the aforementioned ‘In The End Of The Day’.

This establishes, quite early on, the division between the more straightforward indie tracks on here and the slightly more interesting folk numbers – the title track, an example of the former, but then there’s examples of the latter in the Beirut-alike accordion folk of ‘Before I Do’, and the stripped-back Shins vibe on ‘Momentarily Lost’. Surf rock creeps into ‘Stuck In Between’, and there are definite nods towards The Cure on ‘Four Walls’. It’s all over the place, this, but the somewhat-ethereal production ties everything together. There’s not a lot in common between Paul Simon and electro-rock, but here, somehow, there is. I suppose that’s a credit to the talent of the musicians involved and their overarching vision for their music.

An album like this, then, which at first glance feels perhaps a little bit throwaway, a little bit all over the place, turns out to be nothing of the sort. It’s a grower, and it flowers when given the correct nurturing. Let it unravel, let it flow across your ears on a warm day like today – it’s got a good something at its heart, and bodes well for this semi-supergroup’s work to come.

Categories ,album review, ,beirut, ,britney spears, ,Das Boot, ,folk, ,Good As Gold, ,ian steadman, ,Indie, ,Lykke Li, ,Múm, ,Never Never, ,Paul Simon, ,Peter Bjorn & John, ,Petter & the Pix, ,Petter and the Pix, ,Surf-Rock, ,sweden, ,The Aliens, ,The Concretes, ,the cure, ,the shins

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