Monday 7 December 2009

Reflections of an uncle to his niece

After close to 20 years in the ad business, my uncle John Farr left the 9 to 5 job to pursue what he’s always loved most, movies. With a new multi-media enterprise, Best Movies by Farr, he now promotes outstanding film via a website that already features more than 2,000 movie recommendations. As a result, he was recruited to be a featured weekly film blogger on the Huffington Post, and also provides branded film suggestions on video to WNET’s “Reel 13” program website. He has been interviewed on Westwood One Radio, WCBS Radio, as well as Air America’s “Ron Reagan Show”, and appeared recently on CNN. In an interview for Vicarious, he spills the beans on how to break into film journalism, interviewing Paul Newman and the rise of reality TV. Check out the interview on the Huffington Post.

Vicarious: When did your love affair with movies begin?

John Farr:When I was about six, I fell in love with the Hollywood classics on old TV programs like “The 4:30 Movie” and “The Million Dollar Movie.” After that, I had to know everything about how those films were made, and about the stars…a lifelong love passion and fascination thus began.

Vicarious: Where do you find time to review 15 films a week?

John Farr: I watch two movies each night- it’s easy! Also, I always have my portable DVD player handy when travelling. From a sanity perspective, it’s also easier to watch a lot of movies when you’ve researched them for quality in advance.

Vicarious: Is there an actor or actress that you’ve most enjoyed interviewing?

John Farr: Without question, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. What a couple...and they complemented each other beautifully. She every inch the Southern lady, he the more unpredictable, iconoclastic type- sporting a motorcycle jacket at eighty!

Vicarious: It’s fair to say that you’ve made your name through forms of new media including YouTube, Twitter, blogging and a successful website. Would you recommend that path to budding journalists and film aficionados?

John Farr: I’d put it more emphatically than that: I can’t see how any up and coming person in these fields could succeed without new media…it represents a near revolutionary democratization in communication, which is why so much of traditional media is declining. Today, you can create your own channel to grow and build loyalty with your intended audience. It’s enormously exciting.

Vicarious: You write a regular column for the Huffington Post, how do you decide what to write?

John Farr: It might be a milestone birthday for a great actor or director, or a new film arriving on DVD that features a talent worth examining, or even something film-related I come across in the newspaper that I think warrants commentary or exploration. I think the idea of being topical still holds as a fundamental rule.

Vicarious: Is there a column that you’re most proud of and why?

John Farr: I really can’t name one, but I’m always proud when via feedback on my blog, I hear I’ve persuaded my readers to revisit a talent they haven’t considered for some time, and hopefully watch some great films they may not know or have forgotten about. That’s my ultimate goal- and greatest satisfaction.

Vicarious: You’ve achieved success with your website and columns at a more mature age, would you rather have been doing this at 21?

John Farr: Honestly, no. I would not have had the knowledge nor the confidence to do what I’m doing at 21. This pertains not just to my understanding of film itself but also the application of certain writing, speaking, and marketing techniques I picked up in my first career in advertising. These hard-won skills have contributed a lot to my effectiveness in this current endeavor, which makes me feel I didn’t totally waste my youth!

Vicarious: I've heard through the grapevine that you were on CNN recently. Spill...

John Farr: True. My Huffington Post blog arguing for a measure of leniency for director Roman Polanski drew over 700 comments, and created a firestorm of controversy which resulted in two radio interviews- one on Air America’s Ron Reagan Show, followed by a TV appearance on CNN-HL’s Joy Behar Show, debating two tough feminist lawyers. It was a gas, and I’m still around to tell the tale!

Vicarious: Can you recommend 3 Christmas movies that are worth seeing?

John Farr: “The Bishop’s Wife” (1947), “Scrooge” (1951), and “A Christmas Tale” (2008).

Vicarious: Favourite movie of all time?

John Farr: “Bringing Up Baby” (1938)- as close to a perfect screen comedy as I can think of, and strangely enough, a relative flop when first released.

Vicarious: I remember the epic movie nights at your home in New York. What are the key ingredients to a successful movie night?

John Farr: Easier to state perhaps than execute, but you want a general air of informality and a group of fun, like-minded people who really enjoy and appreciate great film.

Vicarious: If you could interview a movie star dead or alive who would it be?

John Farr: Spencer Tracy, one of the finest screen actors ever, but a complex and contained human being who never gave away his secrets. I’d love to try to penetrate those walls he erected around himself to better understand the pure and distinctive approach that made him so arresting a presence on film.

Vicarious: What do you think of the rise of reality TV, which seems to have eclipsed movie watching in recent years?

John Farr: I think reality shows are a blight on our popular culture, and a major contributor to the “dumbing down” of entertainment. Still with TV viewership declining, I suppose it’s an economic necessity. Or that’s the excuse anyway. I also dislike the voyeuristic, exploitative nature of these programs. I hope fervently they become a rather regrettable fad, passing away like an unpleasant odor. Is that opinionated enough for you?

Vicarious: You have a fondness of old movies. Has the quality of movies gotten worse in the last 20 years?

John Farr: Movies have certainly evolved, both as a business and an entertainment form, and to my mind, not for the better. I’ve always valued subtlety, originality and intelligence in film, and find these qualities too often lacking, particularly in today’s mainstream Hollywood fare.

The reasons for this are varied: increasingly, Hollywood has focused on familiar, tried-and-true formulas aimed at their best audience- young people in their teens- who are less sensitive to reviews and happily go to the multiplexes to plunk down twelve dollars on a film’s opening weekend. The studios have learned how to make money without needing to worry too much about the classic and ever-challenging fundamentals of storytelling, script, and nuanced character development. Ever notice how all the best writers are now working for HBO?

Those incredible visual effects created inside a computer, along with breakneck pacing, help mask the banality of the movie itself and the “Barbie and Ken” blandness of all those buff yet shallow young performers.

My dream- and it may be just that- is that more intelligent consumers increasingly turn away from this dreck. There will always be a certain amount of purely escapist fare in the marketplace, and some of it is fun and well-done, but Hollywood, still the financial epicenter of the movie business, can and should do better overall. I think it owes that to its audience.

CF

To see more of the interview with John Farr on Huffington Post, click here

Tuesday 10 November 2009

24 hours in the life of a David David intern: An exclusive glimpse into the fashion industry




Hannah is a Textile Design student in her 3rd year at Central St.Martin’s, specialising in printed textiles. When she got an insider’s glimpse into the studio of London-based, Grimsby-born fashion designer David David this summer, we asked her to tell us all about the glitz, glamour and perspex handbags of the fashion industry.


10.30am
I arrive at the Conduit Street studio, where David Saunders works with his brother Michael. It is a creative and friendly place to work. I got a good feeling from it right from the beginning, when I applied for an internship there. The majority of fashion design studios want fashion students and so there is a limited places available for those studying textiles. Most studios never got back to my emails or CVs and although I managed to get a few interviews I was starting to lose hope! I saw David David's website and really loved his work so I called him up. He offered to interview me the following day.

11.00am
I meet my colleague Tom (who is super stylish by the way), another intern here. Tom is studying menswear design at Ravensbourne University in Kent. At the beginning of my internship I worked with him a lot, usually helping him trace and cut out garment patterns.

1.00pm
I shop for materials and collect some fabric swatches. I get to do some experimenting with inks and printing methods.I get sent to visit quite a few places including boutiques, markets, PR offices, factories and printing offices. This was great as I found out about lots of companies that would be useful to me in the future. David's designs are really colourful, geometric and quite quirky. Although his most recent Spring/Summer 2010 womenswear collection is really sophisticated, using beautiful colours. The cut of the garment is simple and the idea is to have a blank canvas onto which David can incorporate his colourful designs.

3.00pm
I am busy sewing handbags. David designed a hand bag made from laser cut pieces of perspex. It took a good couple of hours to sew them together, some re-doing as I managed to make some mistakes but the end result was great. The bags look lovely! As it got closer to London Fashion Week it got much busier, getting all the sample's ready for David David's presentation and video shoot. There was a lot of pattern cutting involved. I was nervous as there was no more room for mistakes!

5.00pm
I say bye and head off home. It was nice to work in a small studio as I got to see how David works with Michael who manages the business sides of things. It was a small group of us. I met really nice people and over all it was a great experience to see how the fashion industry works. The best bit about the internship was that it was great to finally see the collection come together at the LFW presentation. I dream about the day I’ll get to have some creative input, maybe design some print pieces for the collection. That would be just great!


David has said that the inspiration behind his Spring/Summer 2010 collection was “Japanese geometrics, vodka and coloured glass.” Based on this we really feel you ought to check it out.

MK & HJ

We want more Anish Kapoor: the Indian sculptor's Royal Academy exhibition under review



REVIEW: Forty fully-grown adults stand in the Large Weston Room of the Royal Academy of Arts staring intently at what art students describe as 'a ritual arena in which a symbollic act of repeated violence is allowed to occur.' What this means in ordinary speak is staring at the wall waiting for a cannon to fire twenty-pound shells of wax into the wall. Every twenty minutes.

We all jump as the red wax hits it at fifty miles an hour and splashes all across the carved ceiling. A member of staff informs me that they've tried to fire the gun less regularly as the already reinforced walls of the Royal Academy are starting to cave under the pressure of Anish Kapoor's Shooting into the Corner. Even larger in scale is Svayambh, an installation occupying five galleries that will make you watch a block of wax move through doorways at snail pace for up to 45 minutes depending on how stupid you are and how long it takes you to work out it isn't going to do anything more interesting anytime soon. It smells of wax and looks so gloopy you want to touch it. In fact some idiot has already left finger prints (in spite of the rules).

More true to his usual work are Yellow and Non-objects which have the clean lines and shiny surfaces that Kapoor is well known for. They too are imposing and visually thrilling. For the most part, however, the clever part isn't the geometry or the philosophical grounding of his work. It's the fact that he's made forty fully grown adults stare at the wall waiting for some wax to fly. And then he's made them realise how absurdly idiotic they've been.

The exhibition is running until 11th December. So go see it for goodness sake.

MK

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Talkin' 'bout my generation: From Generation X to X Factor!

Sarah*, 22, an undergraduate, still feels burning shame when recalling her dad's 60th birthday party. After knocking back her third Vodka Coke, she was about ready to hail a cab and pass out in it. Her dad and his entourage of aging city bankers, were just getting started.



Young people like Sarah* are not alone in their reluctance to party as hard as the freedom pass wielders lurking in the corner of your average Central London nightclub. According to sociologists, cycles of generational change can adequately explain this distressing phenomenon. Repelled by the behaviour of our parents, the theory goes that we’re disinclined to repeat their mistakes. Thus, Generation Y has embraced stability and conventional values just as vehemently as the babyboomers had rebelled against them. According to popular American authors, Strauss and Howe, we’re also locked in a cycle of ‘crisis’; unlike our parents who had a major war behind them, we feel that the episodic disasters since the 90s are part of a build-up to a catastrophe of even greater proportions.

A survey of 100 University of London students suggest that we are simply more traditional and stable than our parents: 72% claimed to be in a relationship and when pressed on their drug taking, 68% only' fessed up to the odd toke of a 'dubie' at a particularly riotous house party. My own experiences corroborate this; while my American mother loves to remind me how she skipped her high school prom in favour of an anti war demonstration, my most rebellious memories revolve around smuggling contraband Smirnoff Ice past an overzealous PE teacher. Contrary to the media hype of today’s troubled youth, the US News World Report released in May 1999, reported that alcohol consumption among 17- 18 year olds had dropped from 20% since 1980 and drug usage, teen pregnancy and homicide rates had also decreased.

The recent Taylor Swift and Kanye West scandal was both an example of MTV's marketing genius, and proof that the public will side with the innocent girl next door over the bad boy, who even the President deigned to call a 'jackass' on national television. Whereas the babyboomers and Generation X had made rock gods out of the Rolling Stones, Kurt Cobain and the Sex Pistols, our pop stars are so PG that a stint on the Disney channel now seems to be a prerequisite to career success. Even the iPhone has jumped on the 'born-again' bandwagon, with a new application available this month where users can download a purity ring for just 59p.



Advances in science have confounded our piteous attempts at rebellion as quite frankly, we know too much. While our parents could legitimately argue that they didn't know that cigarettes were bad for you, a typical pack of Marlboro Lites could confront you with anything from images of decaying, yellowing organs to warnings of 'low sperm counts'. As a result, we're no longer interested in the romanticism of the 'live fast, die young' message and instead we want to remain healthy and wrinkle free for as long as possible. Generation Y are also more fiscally cautious. As demonstrated by the rather uplifting Times ad campaign featuring a graduating class under a giant banner with the words “unemployment is at an all time high”, it's no longer viable for us to believe that a good education will automatically pave the way for a comfortable, middle-class life. Instead of partying through our student years without a care in the world, we're facing a prospect of insurmountable overdraft in a limited graduate job market. Joy.

The sad fact is that sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll have been replaced by puppy love, Pinot Grigio and sentimental Indie music. On the upside, if there’s any truth to the pendulum theory, we owe it to our future children to make the most out of our youth, lest Generation Z become a population of pill poppers. So the next time you're contemplating a night in to watch the X Factor, just say no.

CF

Thursday 29 October 2009

The Great Debate: Ben Kelly tells us what's good, what's bad and who's an idiot

Here at Vicarious we've got some serious pop culture issues so we got our e-hero, Youtube superstar Ben Kelly, to settle them for us. Tell us what you'd choose and why by clicking COMMENTS below!


1.Gaga or Britney? Gaga all the way - she has more talent in her disco stick than Britney has in her whole body.

2. Paris or Perez Hilton? Perez Hilton - he's the lesser of two evils.

3. iPhone or Blackberry?
iPhone - I don't own either, but since I love iPods...

4. London or New York? New York - because if you can make it there you can make it anywhere. Apparently

5. IKEA or Habitat? Habitat - Ikea is mental these days - like the TK Maxx of home furnishings.

6. Girls or boys? Boys.what can I say...I'm biased.

7. Boris or Ken? Boris - because he's a bit of an idiot, but an unashamed one.

8. Staying in or going out? Going out - no one sees you when you're at home.

9. Skinny or baggy? Skinny all the way - I could never be anything else!

10. Girls Aloud or The Saturdays? Girls Aloud - since the Spice Girls weren't an option...

Monday 26 October 2009

TEN STEPS TO YOUTUBE STARDOM

Ben Kelly is an UCL English student from Northern Ireland, who's Youtube renditions of popular music have secured a viewership of over 200,000. In our continued quest to become somebody, we decided to chat to him about how to obtain Youtube stardom and deal with the consequences. It is tough up there after all, just look up SuBo. Actually don’t, she just can’t cope with all the hits.



1. PISS OFF YOUR FAMILY: I've been singing and performing my whole life, much to the annoyance of my family, but I didn't start playing piano until I was 10, which is a bit late compared to all the whizz kids I went to school with. Then I started writing songs when I was 14, and I've just been putting it all together ever since.
2. ...LISTEN TO YOUR LITTLE SISTER: It was my little sister's idea to start the YouTube thing - it was basically just to share with everyone else the kind of stuff I do in my free time at home, and also to gauge a sense of whether people would like my style or not.
3. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE 'POP FACTOR': My musical influences come from all over the place, in almost every genre, but the biggest ones are Michael Jackson and Madonna for the pop factor, Stevie Wonder and Prince for the r'n'b/soul/funk sound, and for their excellent piano playing. I also love David Bowie for his eclectic style/the whole Ziggy Stardust thing.
4. DABBLE IN EVERYTHING. What!? No, put down the drugs and just listen: The music I write, which I hope to get recording and put out there very soon, is very much a fusion of all my influences - essentially it's piano-based pop, but it dabbles in dance music, jazz, soul, all sorts really.
5. BRAIN WAS TALKING SENSE WHEN HE TOLD PINKY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD: The response on YouTube has been phenomenal - I couldn't have wished for better. In 6 months I've had nearly 200,000 views, and especially over the summer that started rocketing up. People's comments have been fantastic, I have a lot of support all over the world now, which really helps for trying to get myself launched out there. The dream is to write, record and perform all over the world, entertaining as many people as I can - that's not too ambitious now is it?
6. DO A DEAR, A FEMALE DEAR, RAAAAAAAAAY A DROP OF GOLDEN SUUUN: I think I'm more influenced by contemporary music, but musicals are a major influence on me - I've been watching and starring in them my whole life - I'm even doing Into The Woods at the Bloomsbury this December. That has been really key to my style, not just from a theatrical perspective, but throughout history some of the greatest music from various eras have been represented through musicals, from music hall to cabaret, rock and roll to disco - they're bursting with imagination, and everyone loves them.
7. HAVE SOME BALLS: I've been on the stage my whole life - although at the beginning, I was terrified of audiences, and there were a few incidents of little Ben fluffing it in competitions or crying at drama class, but when I got to secondary school I did big parts in shows like Singin' in the Rain and Oklahoma and that worked wonders for my confidence. They can't get me off the stage now. That's where I am right now...
8. …ON THE SECOND DATE: I'm quite confident, but I don't think I'd be ballsy enough to serenade on a first date...maybe on a second!
9. GO FORTH AND CONVERT: My friends are late converts to the Ben Kelly fanbase - they didn't take me seriously for quite some time, but I think they're coming round to the idea now that they see other people actually enjoy listening to me.
10. A DIVA IS A FEMALE VERSION OF A HUSTLER, A DIVO IS A MALE VERSION OF DIVA...ERR, THAT MAKES SENSE RIGHT?: I have never been called a Divo backstage - only at home with my family.

And on that note, we’ve come back full circle to Ben pissing off the folks. Now you too can become a YouTube star…or you could just see Ben instead because he’s probably a better singer than you and we always recommend living vicariously.

EXTRA FACTOR: Become a true Ben Kelly fan by watching him perform on stage. He’ll be playing some Monday nights at the ISHbar on Great Portland Street so drop by. And once you’ve been converted you can follow him to Ireland where he will be supporting folk singer Mickey Coleman. For more details join the 'Ben Kelly Fans' group on Facebook.

MK,BK & CF

Sunday 27 September 2009

Fashion Fairy-tale: Vivienne Westwood launches Red Label collection in style and Coco Rocha kisses a frog.

Countless celebrities were in attendance for the launch of Vivienne Westwood's Red Label collection last week. Boy George, Nicola Roberts and Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud, Bonnie Wright, of Harry Potter fame, artist Tracy Emin, Geri Halliwell, Alexa Chung, Peaches Geldolf and PPQ Designer Amy Molyneaux all turned up to see what the ambassador of British fashion would do next.

As the guests found their seats, the music evoked a sense of wandering through the forest with Snow White; a faux wooden arch stood at the place where the models would appear and begin to strut. The lights were red.

Then the beat dropped.

Hard, pumped emo-punk set the pace for the quick-moving fantastical show. The girls, including pictured models Daisy Lowe, Eliza Cummings, Coco Rocha and Pixie Geldolf, appeared dressed in a vast array of fairy-tale inspired costumes.

Characters as diverse as Little Bo Peep, Dorothy (complete with Toto), a dinner lady, a school girl, pajama-wearing Wendy from Peter Pan, a cowgirl, swashbuckling pirates and romantic damsels who like hanging out in meadows stomped down the catwalk.

Headgear came in many forms: ribbons, straw hats, scarfs, hats with frogs on, etc. The most interesting however, was the gold horned hairband which suggested that the girls had been cuckolded.

These tales come from many lands and eras but found a happy coexistence in this show, just like in the imagination of a child.Besides, a central theme did run throughout the show: that of the modern Alice in Wonderland. Whimsical dresses were paired with plaited pigs tails; a checkerboard pattern adorned almost every look. A sense of the surreal was created. Scarfs were worn at once with straw hats and pajamas as with chic 50s style dresses. A model carried not just a plaid handbag but also a Costcutter carrier bag, as if she’d just come from the shops.

Further, the catwalk became a theatre. Eliza Cummings smoked as she walked; the models posed at the end of the catwalk – Coco Rocha kissed the frog which she carried. A match made in fairytale heaven.

This is a collection created with Sundays and the British countryside in mind. The British fabrics (tartan and plaid) complete this aesthetic. Nonetheless this collection wasn’t meant for lazy Sundays, but for the fantastical, the exciting. These tongue-in-cheek clothes are for those who miss the days when they could dress up. These clothes were designed for the girl inside the woman.

Katie Rose, German fashion magazine intern

Follow the fluffy white rabbit/ yellow-brick road/ticking clock to Vivienne Westwood's Conduit Street show room to see the collection for yourself. What? It is next to Sketch after all.

Saturday 26 September 2009

A Fashion Victim's Guide to London Fashion Weekend

The weekend is when the real action happens and collections from the past season go on sale. When we say sale, we mean SALE.ON/OFF at 180 Somerset House has been running independent catwalks, exhibitions and pop-up shops in conjunction with official LFW all week but it didn’t stop there. London Fashion Weekend has seen ON/OFF put on a designer fashion sale that could bankrupt even the most restrained of shoppers (75% off retail prices people). Check out our finds… Halifax Harold will never forgive you.


STEVE J & YONI P JACKETS, £150







KAVIAR GAUCHE FALL COLLECTION We found some light blue silk shorts with gold details at £99. We didn’t fit into them. We just thought we’d get that out there.



TATTY DEVINE ICONIC NECKLACES'S The glasses seen around every Shoreditch neck at some point or another were priced at just a tenner.



ELIZABETH LAU CARDYS, £75



PETER JENSEN JACQUARD BUSTIER DRESS,£90



The last day takes place tomorrow (27th Sept)and is said to be the best time to go as desperate designers drop the prices even lower than usual in a bid to get rid of their last items. Tickets are also cheaper on the Sunday at £12.50. Advance tickets have now sold out but if you get there bright and early there will be some available on the door. We have nothing more to add on the matter, we are too busy shopping.

Bernard Chandran, the fish hat man.



Bernard Chandran presented an eclectic show which referenced the Orient and his roots in Kuala Lumpur. The collection is all the more personal due to the unique printing techniques which he employed, such as spraying and painting directly onto the fabrics. The artistry and workmanship which went into this collection is plain to see.

His palette of gold, amber and brown, stone, charcoal and silver seem to derive from the natural elements of woody earth, cooling wind, still and intoxicating waters and warming fire. For the most part Chandran draws on earth and wind and then accents the collection with a couple of boldly coloured pieces which represent water or fire.

The fabrics of the ‘earth’ dresses represent the varying degree of softness to hardness which is present in earthy materials: from grass to bark to rock. The structured tailoring and the central print of bamboo cane are strong and modern. The draped, softer silhouette of some of the charcoal and grey dresses, ambiguously symbolic of earth or wind or water, straddle the boundaries between a hardened aesthetic and romantic dressing.

The accessories are more than unusual: bamboo cane print facemasks and sculptural fish hats provide a quirky undertone. Footwear was reminiscent of Geisha shoes in that the shoe soles were wooden and elevated. Other shoes were feathered or patent leather.

Ultimately Chandran mixes structured silhouettes and fluid fabrics to experiment with the limits of the human body. The textures, prints and fabrics used in this collection frame and extend the human form into something at once guarded and free. The accessories a defiant leap into exotic waters.

Katie Rose
Lesson in Cool: You know when you think you've lost your glasses and then you find them on your head. Trend-setters are just like that but instead of finding their glasses, they find Nemo.

Thursday 24 September 2009

Good Palmer Karma: Alice Palmer at Vauxhall Fashion Scout. The beautiful Katie Rose reports...



At Vauxhall Fashion Scout during London Fashion Week, Alice Palmer presented us with a simple but majestic collection. Highlighting the softness of the fabrics Palmer adorned the dresses with chainmail jewellery by Fanni Shciavoni. Such juxtaposition plays a central role in this collection.


Palmer’s inspiration comes from the fantastical and flamboyant hotels of Las Vegas. Structurally the dresses are, on the one hand, as strong and sharply-tailored as the American skyscrapers and casinos. The model’s high-piled hair further mirrored this stature.

On the other hand, in this collection there are also free-flowing loose pieces which look as if they’ve been haphazardly draped and hacked at. Enormous slits and layered materials give a romantic impression, which is just as modern as it is futuristic.

It also seems that the palette draws on and juxtaposes the glaring colours of the Vegas lights and the gloomy charcoal hues of Vegas buildings. Light sumptuous blues stand out from the muted greys. The block colours are simple but elegant.

This collection is more about unique tailoring and opulent colours than pattern or accessories. The minimalistic collection treats us to a highly modern portayal of subtle but sophisticated dressing. As such, the clothes are extremely wearable, precisely because these dresses speak for themselves.

Katie Rose

IN SHORT: The Empire State Building is fit.

Sunday 20 September 2009

Fash.ON: London Fashion Week Report

While plebs anticipate the winter weather, fashionistas are in a time zone of their own. On Friday we switched our clocks to 'fashion time' and looked a season ahead. Here is what's in store(s) for Spring/Summer 2010.

Fin-friendly fashion:
The London Fashion Week exhibition has MAJORLY focused on ethical style. As with everything, fashion types like to get creative with the way they help the environment. Our personal favourite was exhibitor Minimarket. Sisters Sofie, Pernilla and Jenifer Elvestedt first hit the fashion scene by storm when Swedish Elle and H&M crowned them ‘Best Designer of the Year’ in 2007. 2010 will see the Minimarket label grow with the launch of their diffusion brand, Mini. It will also see them , erm, saving the sharks . Their more expensive Mini for Many line, inspired by an aquarium (!?) features a printed tee with the image of a shark. The shark shirt, illustrated by Annelie Carlstrom, was designed especially to raise awareness and funds. Mini for Many aims to continue their good work by helping a new cause each season.

And on the eighth day, God made jeans...
Ethical British jeans company Made in Heaven have always been masters of effortless chic. This Spring/Summer, expect some lightweight boyfriend shirts, slimming stripes and rolled-up jeans...on Jessica Alba, Claudia Schiffer and Liv Tyler.


OUR PICKS:
Missoma Coma? No? Okay...
And so the animal theme continues with jewellers Missoma and their ‘Serpent’ collection. Golden snakes curl around colourful gemstones this Spring/Summer…

Indie Cindy-One to Watch
The ethical designer Ada Zanditon is the creative genius behind Patrick Wolf’s tour wardrobe. Last year the former intern of Alexander McQueen, launched her own luxury ethical label. This year, her strange sculptural creations rocked the Vauxhall Fashion Scout catwalk.

Erickson Beamon
Retrospectively, resurrecting the choker in the '90s was a bad idea on the part of New York ‘Studio 54’ socialites Karen Erickson and Vicki Beamon. Luckily, fashion disasters of the last decade well and truly buried, the brand has created some truly TIMELESS pieces for next season.

ROUND UP:
Be fashionable next year by saving some sharks, loving on animals and avoiding chokers.

Monday 10 August 2009

Interview: Antony Beevor Fever!


Few historians can say they served as an officer with the 11th Hussars no matter how many long-dead army officials they have vicariously fulfilled their military fantasies through. But Antony Beevor is no ordinary historian. Educated at Sandhurst, he boldly left the army to pursue a career in writing without any academic training. He speaks to us about the release of his latest battlefield bestseller D-Day: The Battle for Normandy.

Beevor recently caused stir in the press by claiming that D-Day, the celebrated turning point of WWI was ‘close to a war crime’ but he does not stop there. He tells us a shocking statistic that he was “shaken to find” during his research. “More French civilians actually died from British and American bombing and shells than British suffered from the Luftwaffe (German airforce) and V-bombs.”

It is controversial comments like these that popular history is associated with and for this reason journalists love Beevor. He reveals that upon the outbreak of the Iraq War his phone was constantly ringing: “Journalists and politicians were desperately looking for grand comparisons to the past from me,” claims Beevor, “Tony Blair desperately wanted to be the next Churchill. Every politician wants to be the next Churchill, particularly Americans, they love him.”

It seems for the public, Beevor’s writing has been equally compelling. Indeed, he has succeeded where many a grandparent has failed, keeping his audience not only conscious but interested when it comes to the Second World War. Sales of D-Day within its first month have confirmed that this preoccupation with the wartime experience is not on the wane but it wasn’t always like this.

The success of his most famous offering, Stalingrad, was far from obvious. In fact it happened to everyone’s astonishment when history books were failing to sell and historians like David Starkey could kiss their Tudor television dreams goodbye. “We are living in a post-military health-and-safety environment," says Beevor, explaining his surprise success, "People have become intrigued by questions like 'What would I have done? Would I have survived?' It's almost like vicarious suffering I suppose!”

See the full in Seven Magazine

MK

Thursday 30 July 2009

Harry Potter hottie: Does Freddie Stroma put you in a coma?

Freddie Stroma, the latest edition to the 'Hogwarts set' is the perfect fit for the part of Cormac McLaggen. An outspoken, self assured and dreamy Gryffindor, McLaggen, is the breakthrough star of the most current Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. In the film, Stroma plays the Quidditch rival to adorable ginger, Ron Weasley, and simultaneously poses a threat to the budding romance between the show's protagonists. According to Stroma, McLaggen is “a bit arroganct” but thanks to his public school upbringing at the prestigious Radley College, the actor found it “not too difficult” to channel his inner nob as “the accent and energy were really easy to slip into.”

It came as a bit of a shock to avid fans, myself included, that when quizzed on his Potter knowledge, Stroma decidedly came up short. The actor does not claim to be an expert on the infamous series, having impressively won the casting directors after only read three of the books: “When I heard about the audition I bought the book and researched the character so I’ve only read the first two books as a child and more recently, the sixth.”

When asked whether his fellow actors had exhibited any diva behaviour on set, Stroma thoroughly denied any real life rivalry, describing the cast as “incredibly friendly and supportive”. However, Stroma’s memories of filming are bittersweet and marked with tragedy. Shortly after production ended, Rob Knox, who played a minor part in the film, was stabbed to death in London when he attempted to protect his brother from a knifeman. As a result, Stroma has stayed in touch with many of the cast and crew members who attended the memorial and funeral together: “it was really awful and we were all really good mates with him so we’ve kept quite close. We try to make time for each other. “

The female student body at Stroma’s alma mater, University College London, were well aware of his budding fame and impressive abs for a number of years prior to the film’s release. They can rightfully claim to be his first fans, having set up the popular Facebook group, ‘Freddie Stroma puts me in a coma’, which fortunately refers to the actors' chiselled good looks rather than his acting ability. Stroma seemed humbled and flattered by the amount of attention he has already received but has already experienced some of the more worrying drawbacks of fame: “it’s quite weird, I was expecting something like this because of the fame that comes with being part of the Harry Potter films but I really wasn’t expecting to have facebook fan groups or ‘MySpace’ pages claiming to be me."

With the scripts flowing in and hot wizards looking set to trump unfashionably pale vampires as this summer's most eligable British exports, Stroma has good reason to be optimistic for the future. His studies, however, were clearly important to him and he managed to make time for his Neuroscience degree during gaps in filming.
And ladies, he’s not single, so please don't spend a better portion of the year hanging around UCL's neuroscience building. He's graduated.

Our thoughts: Stalking is for losers but there's nothing wrong with a good old fashioned bit of idol worship. We express our sincere regrets for insinuating that Rob Pattinson's current title as 'hottest cinematic mythological creature' looks set to crumble before his gold...but no, brown...but no, gold eyes.

CF

Alex Zane on Student Life: "Gosh! This is going to be terrible. All my stories are going to be about masturbation!"



Some people are too cool for school. Two-time drop out Alex Zane tells us how to befriend Welsh weirdos, give back-chat to lecturers and generally laugh in the face of higher education.


ON UNI HALLS:"Honesty exists on a multitude of levels"

Jethro, Alex’s welsh friend from Max Rayne Hall at UCL back in 1998 created a big bang. “He used to throw things out the window that shouldn’t be thrown out of windows. We had a lovely garden gnome in the kitchen that was thrown out the window. Someone had a beautiful pot plant that they’d been growing for years – Jethro threw that.” His needs to launch gardening accessories out the sixth floor window stemmed from his deep-rooted rage issues following a traumatic freshers experience that would confuse even Freud: “We were all playing a game where you tell stories in which we felt we created a very safe zone in which honesty was the policy . Sadly many of us were aware that dealing in the currency of honesty only leads to trouble so you always deal in a certain kind of lower honesty- a degree of honesty but not honesty in its purest form and Jethro, however, was new to the idea of honesty existing on a multitude of levels and consequently told us a story about how he personally chose to masturbate on his side while laying out a toilet roll in front of him to catch material exiting his body, the matter if you will, and we called it the Jethro Sidewank.” Don’t worry. We can assure you that Jethro hasn’t been smuggled into a Welsh mental hospital; Alex Zane still facebooks him.


ON MIND-ALTERING SUBSTANCES: "The nice man in Camden was in fact a drug dealer who made the girls cry."

Jethro wasn’t the only one to be lulled into a false sense of security and then regret a freshers transgression. “The thing is we were all so green and you think you’ve got life experience as a fresher. I walked in with this kind of cocky arrogance: ‘seen it all, done it all nothing shocks me, I’m a world weary traveller!’” Alex recalls in true freshers spirit chatting to a random stranger in a “well dancy” club in Camden, taking him back home to flat full of friends only to discover that the nice man in Camden was in fact a drug dealer who made the girls cry.


ON SEX: "must be done in groups..."

Alex is quick to remind us that if you are going to do something bad, it is best to do it in a group. “Thanks to the unfortunate horseshoe shape of Max Rayne (a UCL uni hall), fifteen of us watched a girl’s Italian boyfriend… masturbate into the sink in [her] room through a window. He kept bringing himself to the climax and then stopping for about 30 seconds and doing the whole things again. I was intrigued! Granted, if I had been alone granted with condensation forming on the glass with every breath I took that would have been weird but there was a group of people so there was that kind of acceptable comaradery.”


ON MAKING FRIENDS: "We have nothing but the fact we live together in common."

We’ve all had our Jethro’s and Italian wankers, so just how do you cope with being thrust into a corridor with such weirdoes? Alex advises “It’s important to make friends with the people in your halls or at least be on talking terms because no matter how weird they are you are stuck with them for at least 7 months… You can always go ‘we have nothing but the fact we live together in common. Aren’t these tiles nice in the kitchen? Ooo the windows are slightly cleaner today.’” But remember, this is the guy who befriended a drug dealer and went home with him…


ON CLEANLINESS:"I put a mop through the kitchen wall and then moved a poster over it so noone ever knew.”

We point out that it doesn’t take a fresher version of Magnus Magnerson to smash the paper-thin walls of UCL Halls. A defensive Alex agrees, “That’s what I said to the dean of students as I was being chucked out."


ON EXTRA-CURRICULAR LIFE:"Alright lets do something a little bit proactive"

He spent most of his time starting comedy nights, student radio shows and starring in the only instalment of a UCL Film & TV soc. series imaginatively called ‘The College.’ “Freshers week for me was half getting blind drunk and sleeping with the wrong people and half actually going ‘alright lets do something a little bit proactive’ as a step towards what you might want to do in life…like going on to do Xfm.Potentially!”


ON URBANIA: plug,plug,plug...

But there is more to London than career prospects in the media and my can Alex wax-lyrical about that. “Freshers week in London is ten times the freshers week anywhere else….London is always good. Go check out some comedy. And then there is always First Friday of course- the best indie disco in London at Islington Academy courtesy of Xfm.”


So there you have it: the Freshers Gospel according to Alex Zane. The first commandment: join more societies than there is time in the day. The second: remember drug dealers are not your friends. The third: be honest but not Sidewank honest. for.


Elishka Flint and MK

Tuesday 28 July 2009

Shaun Bailey: Cool, young, tough...and Tory!?

Politician and youth worker Shaun Bailey, a British Afro-Caribbean under 40 who grew up in a council house in North Kensington asks the question that matters: “Why should someone like me have to stay close to the street?”

The Notting Hill Carnival exemplifies both the best and worst aspects of London life. Thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds flock there every summer, drawn in by the cultural diversity and the music that pumps through the streets of Ladbroke Grove in a festival of colour and movement. There is a darker side, however, with hundreds of armed police attempting in vain to prevent the inevitable violence – usually gang-related – that occurs year after year. While street violence never fails to attract the attention of the newscasters, the story that remains untold is of the poor, young Afro-Caribbean dancers who sashay through the streets which were once their homes. They cannot afford to live in affluent West London anymore.

Those who’d like to sweep under the rug London’s “seedy” underbelly can rest assured that Shaun Bailey, whose politics were shaped on those very streets, has experienced this poverty and has seen this crime. As a result, he is one of few politicians not afraid to confront the social problems that need to be addressed: poverty, education and housing, to name a few. In fact, as a youth worker, it was his relationships with both the criminally-involved and the dispossessed at his centre, MyGeneration, in Ladbroke Grove that convinced Bailey that he would no longer be a man of words but of action, starting in West London and reverberating throughout the country. His political awakening came from the kind of honesty that you can only find on the streets when he was informed just after he had just picked up a friend’s boyfriend from jail that he was not doing enough: “She said to me, Shaun, you should be showing our boys, not just telling them.”

It’s at MyGeneration where I met Bailey to discuss the next item on his agenda, his campaign to be elected the Conservative MP for Hammersmith. Facing stiff competition, Bailey is used to having to defend himself. And that includes against Jeremy Paxman on “Newsnight” who jokingly described Bailey as “easy to deal with compared with the residents of Hammersmith.”

His clear message to his opponents is that no amount of intimidation will make him shut up and he will not give in without a fight. One such example of criticism was when Bailey was bluntly told recently that he would never be successful in politics due to his unrelenting honesty. He responded with his usual toughness: “I’m not dying to be an MP. I will get over it.”

If Bailey was confronted with the choice of being politically successful or losing his integrity, there’s no contest; he both jokes and threatens that he will continue to be “honest to the point of trouble.” However, when he speaks with immense pride of the Hammersmith residents, the politically active, tough-talking citizens with whom he has been involved in various successful campaigns, including banning a strip club from the local area and revoking licensing laws on cheap liquor, he takes on a different tone and admits: “I have to confess I do want to be an MP. I want to have conversations and make a lot of noise.”

Bailey’s version of politics is very much based on the needs of the people he represents and he seems utterly adverse to the dirty politics and the PR machines. He sees himself as answerable and accountable only to his own conscience and when it appears to fail, to his community. And this is the way Bailey wants it: “I have nowhere to hide. I try not to do things unless I’m prepared to answer for them.”

I personally experienced a small fraction of this honesty when I questioned Bailey on why a young, 21-year-old like myself should become politically involved. He incited me to action and informed me that my age was absolutely no excuse: “If you were a councillor today, you would just about be our youngest one. Does it make a difference? Not a shadow of a doubt.” I don’t hear such frankness every day and this is apparently because the best politicians, according to Bailey, are either “elderly or full of integrity.” This is why he so admires Ken Clarke who could retire tomorrow and is subsequently “telling it the way he believes it. That kind of honesty is refreshing.”

Bailey is the latter – full of integrity, the antithesis to the suave, charming and dishonest career politician who is associated with the highest levels of partisan politics. Bailey believes it is these men who are a big part of the wider problem of lack of trust between politicians and the public; they are unconvincing as “they don’t have something in their life that ties them to reality. Tony Blair, for example, is a convincing statesmen but he’s shallow.” According to Bailey, this is because many of these career politicians lose themselves once they gain notoriety and they adopt the obvious line in the hopes that they might swiftly move up the party ladder. On the surface, his straight-talking approach appears at odds with the rest of his party, the Conservative Party, many of whom appear to be the perfect examples of these career politicians, conventionally conceived of as being backwards and out of touch with reality. However, Bailey is eager to dispel this stereotype, which he believes originates from the New Labour propaganda machine. “Most of the progressive policies come from the Conservative Party,” he said, “and half of our councillors are women.”

As an example of a politician who forms his own ideas, Barack Obama is a figure Bailey often praises and he clarifies that Obama should be seen not as a “black politician, but a politician who happens to be black.” However, Obama is just one man – important as he is – and, for Bailey, it is nowhere near enough. He believes that it is necessary for a healthy, ethnically diverse society to see more non-white men and women becoming school teachers, lawyers or doctors who will lead by example, bringing today’s youth out of poverty and dependency. Bailey’s aspirations rest on the next generation. He hopes they will surpass the achievements of his own and, in the future, “it will become the norm for black children to see black people doing well. Eventually, it will be just people doing well, but we’re not there yet.”

As for the question on everyone’s lips, will there be an equivalent to Obama here in the UK? Bailey responded with conviction that the political system in this country was designed to be slow, “a war of attrition”, but he remains hopeful that it will not be too many years before much needed change will occur. “Greater numbers and new types of people will make a change,” he said. “I hope that will be the case at the next election, but the system is bigger than any one man. It will take time.”

When asked to describe his kind of politics in a nutshell, he immediately responded: “I’m straight talking and from the street. If it needs to be said, then I’ll say it.” This is his forte and his legacy; like Barack Obama and other hard-working black men and women achieving their dreams, Bailey hopes his success will send a message both to his community and, eventually, the country as a whole. He said: “I want to go on a bit further and show young white, black and poor people – everybody – that you can do anything if you put your mind to it.”

After watching the brilliant Step Up 2: The Streets we were under the impression that all social problems in 'da ghetto' could be alleviated through the power of dance. Now we think otherwise.

CF

Scouting for Girls on 'Rockstardom'


No longer do Scouting For Girls have to scout for girls. Backstage prior to their gig there are plenty of trendy looking women lounging about on Koko’s Gonzo-style brown sofas. It wasn’t always like this. ‘I used to have a goatee ginger beard,’ confesses bassist, Greg. To make matters worse whilst filming the video for Elvis Ain’t Dead, ‘they ran out of Elvis wigs’ so Greg ‘just had some kind of regular woman’s wig.’

Now that they are real rockstars though Scouting For Girls have contracted a few unhealthy addictions: ‘ Pete, he just…he just couldn’t stop eating,’ Greg looks concerned, ‘you know the big share bags, to him, that was just like a normal personal bag for him. He’s been very good though. For the last three months he’s been totally clean of Doritos.’ Unfortunately, ‘the other day he lapsed and fell off the wagon.’

Speaking of nasty habits, Scouting For Girls happened to meet Pete Doherty when they filmed Transmission in Glasgow. ‘He seemed really lovely. I said ‘hello, he said ‘hello’ back. He was a lot taller than I expected,’ remembers Greg quite excitedly, though of his own admission he is not The Libertines’ biggest fan (that job is reserved for documentary-maker Max Carlish, both in terms of weight and depth of obsession.)

At the moment Greg would much rather listen to The Wombats and The Pigeon Detectives, though singer Roy is allegedly a Take That fanatic. While Roy would probably prefer to duet with Gary Barlow, Greg thinks that if Scouting For Girls did collaborate with someone ‘it would have to be a girl. Probably Kylie Minogue.’ The band has recently covered Kylie’s latest hit 2 hearts.

Sadly Miss. Minogue did not feature on Scouting For Girls’ album, which Greg describes as a ‘coming of age album.’ The culmination of ten years worth of demos, Greg feels that it combines their live energy with the ‘good groove’ of their recorded material.

While to most people Scouting for Girls’ fame has come pretty quickly, Greg explains that him and Roy have actually been playing together since they were thirteen, terming them ‘a ten year overnight success’. At this point, I must admit, I was not entirely sure whether he meant guitar-playing or school-boy playing. Afterall, the band were school mates and fellow boy scouts. ‘Roy and Pete were in the Scouts, I was an air-cadet,’ clarifies Greg.

Though its taken a while to make it to the top ( by ‘top’ I mean Capital’s exclusive ‘must-play-every-fifteen-minutes’ playlist), Scouting For Girls are not bitter about bands competing on shows like Mobile Act Unsigned getting it easy.’ Anything that kind of gets new decent music out there, I think is always going to be a good idea… I think its really nice that people who actually write their own music are getting the same opportunities as people on X Factor.’


Being in a band called Scouting For Girls has always ‘been a double-edged sword. Some people get the name, that it came from scouting for boys, whereas other people think we are just a bunch of perverts.’ Now that more people than ever have heard of Scouting For Girls, Greg decides to settle the situation once and for all: ‘we’re not.’

MK

Monday 27 July 2009

Gigi Gaunt is cooler than peaches. She keeps her pants on.

17 year old Gigi Gaunt began her film and TV career at young age, starring in short film Straight the summer before Secondary School, and later the Harry Potter films as Patsy Parkinson, scoring the role despite not being an “ethnic girl with sticky-out ears” which the part required. However, the part of Trudi in Hippie Hippie Shake (the must see film of 2009) will propel her into the public eye, where she plays a small role, co-starring alongside Cillian Murphy, Sienna Miller and Matthew Beard.
You may also recognize her from the small screen as she has recently starred in the TV shows Heartbeat and Lost in Austen.

While chatting with her over a Gingerbread Latte, I realized pretty quickly that Gigi Gaunt is far from following the path of her London based contemporaries, whose primary ambitions seem to amount to making it into the London Lite’s gossip pages for their Vegas-weddings and nipple-tassel-wearing antics . She is among a new legion of girls including Lily Cole, who believe that education comes first. Gigi recently turned down the part of Susan in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe trilogy as it would have meant 10 months in New Zealand. “I could do a part here and there, but I wouldn’t take that much time out of school.” Currently she’s in her final year studying the IB at a West London girls’ school, and she hopes to study English Literature at University. Her love of reading has helped her choose acting roles, “I played Georgiana Darcy (in Lost in Austen) having read Pride and Prejudice like 400 times.”

In the upcoming Hippie Hippie Shake, she plays a student in the swinging sixties of London where these neo-revolutionists start a wild, semi-pornographic magazine called Oz, “school kids are recruited to the magazine, and I’m one of them.” She also loved worked alongside Sienna Miller and Cillian Murphy as well as fellow school kid Matthew Beard, whom she admires “we’d been in one room together, and to begin with, it was daunting sitting next to them but I watched and learned.” Harry Potter, on the other hand left Gigi with some long-lasting friendships, “there were quite a few kids so we used to hang out a lot.” She describes working in the third Harry Potter film as “a bit like the army, a lot of nothing and then all action, all go.”

With UCL student Freddie Stroma who plays Cormac McLaggen in the Harry Potter films (who Pi recently interviewed) experiencing a barrage of girls setting up facebook groups entitled ‘Freddie Stroma puts me in a coma’, I wondered whether Gigi had begun to experience similar attention. “I got facebook a long time ago and I was introduced through American friends. I wasn’t aware of the dangers. Fans took all my photos and made a website about how they loved Patsy Parkinson, which I find a little crazy but a huge compliment. You expect adoration sites for Daniel Radcliffe, but not for me.”

Gigi is ridiculously multi-talented as well as surprisingly modest, having recently won second prize in the Telegraph’s poetry competition. Thus she is keeping her eye out for any opportunities that come her way, “acting is a fickle business, and you have no idea what’s around the corner.” However, she is also having fun just being seventeen, “I’m just trying to get my license and at the moment I’m just hoping not to drive my examiner into a lake.” With big dreams for the future, she hopes to “be intellectually stimulated, act, write and be happy” and it’ll be surprising not to see more of her in the future. The good news for our male readers is that despite being enviably stunning, she’s also single and keeping her options open. She turns 18 next month but wouldn’t date a guy her own age, “I like older guys, 17 year old boys bore me to pieces. The perfect guy is 20, is fun, charming and has something interesting to say!”

CF

Anthony Painter and why Obama is not 'so last season'!

Politeness and stiff upper lips aside, Brits are far from immune from the wave of ‘Obama-rama’ that has been perpetuated in recent months. With the swearing in of America’s 44th President, here in Britain we breathed a collective sigh of relief with the coming of the man who in Anthony Painter’s words, “made it okay to love America again.” Painter, with his self professed fascination with all things American, is a London based politician/journalist/ex-PR guy who has recently published a book on the man himself. Aptly entitled A Movement for Change, Painter assigns Obama great historical significance, firmly placing him within the tradition of the Civil Rights Movement through his connection to progressive figures such as Martin Luther King, Harold Washington and Lyndon B. Johnson. He is keen to emphasize that “this book is different because it gives people a broader perspective of American history and politics.”

Having been one of the first Britons to publicly root for Obama despite those around him, “calling me naive for supporting Barack over Hillary,” it’s no wonder that Painter was approached to write this story. The experience that first converted Painter was back in February, 2008 when he witnessed one of Obama’s speeches in Virginia: “I was in the press pack having blagged my way in. Obama came in and just sort of said “yo” and I thought if anyone else tried to do that they’d never get away with it.” Despite George W. Bush and Sarah Palin’s references to their identities as “hockey moms” and “ordinary guys”, it was Barack’s easy confidence and charisma epitomized by this casual “yo”, that won him a new legion of voters, who felt that, here was a man they could finally relate to. Painter noticed this early on, “I sat in MacDonalds, watched the TV and I saw these three kids, in Britain we call them ‘hoodies’, they were talking about the primaries, and I could sense their excitement with the race itself. There will be Hollywood movies made about this campaign.”

It didn’t hurt that Obama’s campaign thoroughly utilized new media, displaying its potential at reaching out to previously neglected voting groups. Having footnoted ‘youtube’ in his book, as well being a regular blogger, Painter knows firsthand that “it’s a very powerful tool. Obama couldn’t have built a nationwide movement in a few months, out of nowhere, without it. New media isn’t a political cause in itself, but it helps spread the message that persuades people to vote.” Unlike in Britain, where youth participation is alarmingly low, young Americans of the elusive 18-24 bracket quickly became fascinated with the Presidential race, their new found belief that they could make a difference was evident through the uproarious chanting of the slogan of “yes we can!”

Painter is often asked whether he believes that this kind of social movement could happen in the U.K. “I always argue that absolutely, it could. There have been times in our history where popular movements have encouraged major change with the Labour movement, or the Suffragettes for example. However, you need the right figure.” Thus, Painter was horrified with Trevor Phillips’ misguided statement that Britain would never elect a black Prime Minister, “Yes Obama is the first African American to be President but he’s also Barack Obama. Do we have someone with that charisma, that ability to communicate, and that self confidence?” When asked whether he believed that this young enigma could take the form of David Cameron, Painter was thoroughly sceptical, “I’m being Partisan here, but David Cameron is no Barack. He doesn’t have that authenticity. Obama has had to come to terms with his own self identity, through working in those poor local communities in Chicago, and he has internalized those conflicts.” In his book, Painter has written extensively on these districts, most notably Altgeld Gardens where he spent some time: “Obama had some formative experiences there, especially through the influence of the first black mayor, Harold Washington. That’s an element of the story that hasn’t been told. I’ve met the people who worked for both men, and what they did for Harold, was what they did for Barack at the Iowa Caucus and ever since then.”

The overly high expectations surrounding Barack Obama’s presidency are a cause for concern for Painter, and he has some staunch words of warning. Like Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), who he describes as a “tragic figure” for his permanent ties to the controversy of the Vietnam War despite his important role in the passing of the Civil Rights Act, there are fears that Barack will not deliver, “Barack Obama is a politician who will have to make choices. In Chicago they all said that all he needs to do is govern wisely, and they are being pragmatic. People have to be patient and give him a chance.”

Ultimately Painter’s message is a highly optimistic one, and he believes that Obama will undoubtedly do a better job than his predecessor: “With George W. Bush, you have to be extremely critical. With every conceivable area including the environment and world affairs, what exactly is better now?” However, with the advent of this new President, he hopes that future generations will enjoy a society where ethnicity “will no longer mean a difference in life opportunities.” History is being made, and this sense of pride was purveyed on the 20th January when millions saw themselves as being part of a movement that Obama himself so identified with, “there is this historical journey that we’ve undertaken towards greater social equality. Obama is connected to that journey, and is moving it forward.”

CF

Miss Jerramy Fine: a society queen and 'almost princess'


At the age of six, Miss Jerramy Fine of Colorado USA, determined that it was her destiny to meet and marry Peter Phillips, the dashing grandson of the Queen of England. The only catch was that her parents were hippies, or ‘naturists’, as they referred to themselves, who adamantly refused to let her escape from rural isolation to attend a proper boarding school in England.

It would only take two decades, two plane tickets to London and a mountain of debt before Jerramy, now an elegant blonde with Jackie O style, would catch the attention of the man of her childhood dreams across a crowded press reception. To her utter delight, they talked easily for over an hour, photos were snapped and cards exchanged. He never called.

Ever the modern heroine, Jerramy knew she had a story to tell, pouring her energies into writing her memoir, Some Day My Prince Will Come: Adventures of a Wannabe Princess, a hilarious tale of one woman’s unstoppable mission to move to England and fall in love. We met to discuss her royal ambitions over a cappuccino in her favourite local spot in Hammersmith, the Plum Cafe. She describes her first book as a contemporary version of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist with its ‘against all odds’ message of hope, “people had always told me it was impossible and that I was crazy. I wanted to show that nothing was impossible if you believe.”

After meeting Phillips in the flesh, in a very ‘Carrie Bradshaw’ moment of clarity, Jerramy traded in the fantasy of the perfect man, “for me to think any one man is more magical than any other is silly”, for independence in her beloved city: “London nurtured me and I knew instantly that I was meant to be here.”

No doubt, Jerramy’s first years in London were a true test of faith, with a disastrous cycle of events leaving her constantly on the verge of being homeless, or worse, deported. She escaped her university residence, a glorified “bomb shelter”, moved in with a female stalker and then became the token American flatmate to two crazy male models with a penchant for drugs and strippers, but “who could have resisted an Adonis greeting me at the door in a towel?”

Unsurprisingly, for a princess-in-training, it was sitting in the shadows of Buckingham Palace at the base of the statue of Queen Victoria, which always provided Jerramy with renewed sense of purpose during these troubled times. A spiritual consultation in East London enlightened the author to the best explanation for her lifelong obsession…her former life as a love-struck English noblewoman, “I’m sure many people would like to believe that they’ve lived a past life in the Tudor Court, but I really have!”

If there is a sudden influx of young, impressionable American girls on Prince Harry’s doorstep, he’ll know exactly who to blame. Some Day My Prince Will Come is a ‘can’t-put-it-down’ gem of a first book, which has already attracted a major following of young ladies professing to nurse similar infatuations with the current lot of handsome princes.

Ever vigilant to her fans, Jerramy’s next book will be full of useful tips on mixing with the upper echelons, including buying the perfect hat for Henley and her musings on signet rings. Not bad for a girl whose father expressed delight that this first book might be good publicity for his new cannabis ministry.

CF

Joe Lean & the Jing Jang Jong on NOT being indie


“If I thought that I was in an indie band,” declares Joe Lean while smoking out of the window in Brixton Academy dressing room, “I’d probably kill myself.” Looking down, Vicarious begins to regret agreeing to conduct the interview on a third-floor window-ledge. “We regard ourselves as a pop band,” clarifies the ringleader of the Jing Jang Jong, who have been ‘rather preposterously nominated’ for NME’s Best New Band Award. “Labels in themselves are kind of detrimental anyway; they’re just for the CD shop. The only label that sits alright with me is pop-band. It’s got the kind of ethos that it’s constantly changing, progressing. It fearless, it’s not confined by anything. It’s the idea of creating something so bombastically.”

So upon signing the band, the head of their label flew Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong to Stockholm, to “hang out, buy jeans, drink drinks” and err…create, bombastically. This was not Joe Lean’s first visit to the land of Ikea and Ulrika Jonsson. “The band I used to be in, The Pipettes” he explains, “were really popular in Sweden.” There, in a forty-five year-old EMI studio, Joe Lean and his posse aimed to capture the sound of “more primitive recording, say from late 50s early 60s.” “We love that old sound,” says Joe Lean, glowing, “the recording of the sound was so much simpler so when someone opened the song with a chord, you could really feel it there, all the frequency there, and nowadays guitars are compressed and thinner-sounding.”

While Joe Lean may not be ‘thinner-sounding,’ he certainly is ‘thinner-looking,’ dressed in pencil jeans and a top and necklace that will probably only find its way into Topman in two seasons time. Nevertheless, Joe Lean maintains that they’ve all “been wearing the same clothes for about three years, the EXACT same clothes.” “Having released so few tunes, quite a lot of people have tended to talk about our clothes. People in the media feel that they need to write something about us despite knowing so little about us at the moment” he comments, softly-spoken as ever.

However, whatever the verdict of the press or the public, Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong are keen to stress that they make music for themselves. “So often since we’ve started a band we’ve had to justify what we’re doing. Why should I? I’m trying to do something that I’ve never done before and we’re writing songs that people have never heard before and we’re just doing it to satisfy us really.”

Indeed, despite having toured as a drummer for The Pipettes before, this is all new to Joe Lean. “My ex-girlfriend was in the Pipettes and it’s just a different existence. Also they are less busy.” “Everything that’s happened with this band has been so romantic, electric,” Joe Lean relates in an airy voice, “and we formed this band as an excuse for us to hang out and now we’ve had to opportunity to make a record.”

In fact, Joe Lean formed it without having heard the other members play a note. “I almost kind of formed a band out of embarrassment. I kind of created this idea of a band in my head about a year before I started it and my oldest friend turned round to me and said, ‘You are going to actually do this band aren’t you? Because everyone thinks you’re doing it’ and I was like ‘yeeeah….’” Joe Lean grins uncertainly. “I just feel so grateful to be here,” he gushes ‘I-want-to-thank-my-mum, -my-dad-and-God’ style. “It matters to us, we’re doing everything for the first time so everything matters so much.”

While many things are a novelty to Jing Jang Jong front man, Joe Lean, (he’s never been to Japan, for instance, where the band are heading next), performing is something he’s been doing all his life. “I acted professionally for a few years…I like acting but I don’t like camera acting because its really boring. It’s so stilted. I’ve been in some really cool shows- Peep Show, Nathan Barley, made a film with John Malkovich. But I’m really thoroughly concentrating on this now.”

Nowadays, Joe Lean dances to his own tune. For him there is “no dichotomy between us performing it to people and us performing to ourselves… we behave the same on stage as we do in the studio. It’s just how it comes out. There’s a spontaneity because were still a bit ramshackled and we’ll always be that way because were messheads.”

‘Messheads’ they may be but they don’t go as far as the singer from Oxbow, one of Joe Lean’s favourite performers. “He’s really intense. I saw them at SXSW last year. Really monstrous- he takes his clothes off and has these kinds of sexual instances.” Joe Lean won’t be doing any of that tonight- for a start his trousers are too tight to pull off in any situation, let alone in front of an audience. “Incredible. He performs really well its just like much more interesting than having someone go ‘love love me, love love me.’"Like stripping off is really going to solve the problem with Mika….

He sips his beer nervously, anticipating tonight’s performance before scuttling off to get ready. Later that night he swaggers confidently on to the stage and shimmies around energetically to the band’s single ‘Lonely Buoy’ like a pre-wrinkled Mick Jagger. One thing is for sure, Joe Lean won’t ‘Relax’ and ‘ Take it E-e-easy.’ It’s just like Joe Lean says, “if you’re a front man, you can’t just stand there: you’ve got to perform.”

MK

The Thirst Interview


Forget East London and its Hoxton attention whores; time to move south, Brixton-wards, where The Thirst originally formed. So what does it take to create the best band to come out of Brixton since The Clash? A thirteenth birthday present, a spare bedroom, a Cash Converters-cheap drum kit and five GCSEs, not to mention mum and dad’s CDs. Yes, you heard right folks, not that this means you should go pulling out mum’s Best of Cliff Richard collection any time soon. Vocalist Mensah and bassist Kwame were lucky enough to have parents who listened to The Who, Jimmy Hendrix and of course Bob Marley, their father having been a member of reggae band Out of Darkness.

Yet despite the heavy reggae influence brothers Mensah and Kwame chose not to follow in dad’s footsteps. Instead that night at Koko The Thirst play an energetic set of fast, electric “indie, rock, punk, soul, everything, man” tunes, first written and practiced in Mensah and Kwame’s dad’s spare room using a guitar given to Mensah for his birthday (when he actually wanted some trainers) and a drum kit Marcus purchased from a shop down the road. Well, after all the brothers are not straying too far from the influence of their father, explains Mensah “the first record my dad ever bought was The Rolling Stones.”

Little did he know back then that the band his sons were to form would be personally chosen by Ronnie Wood and offered a deal by Wooden Records. Being signed “felt like what we’ve been doing all this time had not gone unnoticed,” says drummer Marcus. “We’d been going about two and a half years, just, like, gigging gigging gigging non-stop. Brixton, Camden, anywhere” adds Mensah. So much gigging in fact, that it was probably due to tonight’s scheduled gig that The Thirst were missing Ronnie Wood’s 60th birthday party.

However, constant live shows and time in recording studios have not come at great social cost to the assured and unruffled members of The Thirst. The band, first brought together at school, from which they emerged with only five GCSEs but a whole load of friends, vouch that their garage-listening posse have all been very supportive “once they’d come down to a show and seen what we’re actually about, that there’s a heavy drum’n’bass influence in there, garage and all that” despite the fact that originally “a lot of them were like ‘you lot are nuts, man’” laughs Mensah. For now the band are happy to go with the flow “keep[ing] out of every box” and exploring different genres.

Though their friends might not be so keen on indie, the band maintain that there’s a lot of good to be gained from the bands they’ve recorded alongside of at Olympic Studios: “The Natives-a good band. Libertines, obviously. Heavily influenced by the whole Libertines movement and, like, so yeah man, its just an honour. Pete Doherty- good songwriter, Carl Barat-good song-writer.” Coincidentally, later that evening, a bare-chested Marcus shows he has every bit the rhythm and style of Libertines drummer Gary Powell.

So apart from fellow musicians like The Libertines or Talk Taxis, friends of The Thirst, what else inspires a great Brixton band like The Thirst? “ Tell Lie Vision on the EP,” answers Mensah “is just inspired by where we’re from, what goes on…we just sing about everything we see, going out raving, going down the pub, having a drink with friends. Sing about stuff we see- we don’t sing about the clouds!”

Having already toured with the Rolling Stones and with a single (‘Ready to Move’) out on 29th October, no doubt that in the days to come The Thirst will be seeing a lot more of the world. “It’s gonna be amazing” says Mensah, smiling a little, eyes twinkling, guitarist Mark nodding: “ Its good to see other countries.” “Its all good man,” concludes Mensah, “We enjoy it. We enjoy it all man. Just like, man we’re happy. Happy to be with people, going to different cities.”

And despite the lyrics of ‘All These Places’ ( all these places look the same to me/but I’ve changed), the band say they’ll never change. Later that night, the band has to stop briefly and Mensah cheekily informs the audience that Marcus is fixing his drums…you’d think they’d at least have changed the Cash Converters kit by now.

MK