Saturday, April 28, 2012

Lawrence Arabia should be the biggest artist in the world.

That's true. He should have like 400 000 000 facebook fans and be drinking from gold goblets.
Lawrence Arabia is a genius songwriter and totally one of my favourites ever. And I was all like, why aren't Katy Perry and Gaga bowing down to him??
Then I realised that there was something missing. Why do these people have hoards of fans and the award winning Arabia have not as many?? (He has a lot, but deserves a lot more.)

Then I realised. By crickey!!! Little Monsters?? Katy Katz?!??! Lawrence Arabia needs a name for his fans!

So I decided to start a list.


Any other suggestions?

WOAH HERE IS A SNIPPET FROM THE NEW ALBUM WOOOOAAAHHH!!!! I JUST FOUND IT!!!!!1


By Paul Wedel aye? Sneaky devil.
And here's a favourite for old times sake.

Vid-ya Art: a workshop.

Today I went to a video workshop put on these girls that go under the name Girls Get Busy.

I was a bit weird at first cause I didn't know what was going on, a few technical issues and everyone there knew each other so it was a bit strange. BUT - the whole thing was awesome and thought provoking and inspiring and weird and all that shit.

It's great how people just accept who they are and what they are doing. Well, I guess you have to define yourself when you are in a place like London. There was a showing of work from a bunch of varied video artists, then a break, then a showing of some work by some artists/directors who were at the viewing, and then a discussion with them at the end. There was also a video booth that people could go and record something in, but I didn't feel like I could be a part of it. Well, I could of but I couldn't be bothered.

SCREENSHOT OF INFO.



OK, now I'm gonna try and find some of the videos online. OK YAY! First off - these are the people who talked.

Right - Margarita Louca. She's a pretty strong lady. She started out doing graphic design and then thought Fuck it, I'm gonna hit film hard. And did! She started out learning technical stuff and then got more into the process. I overheard her chatting to someone that she is gonna be making the live visuals for the NEXT METALLICA TOUR. WAAAAAHHHH~?




She talked about how she gets invited to make responses to things (she doesn't exclusively do that though). I wondered about whether this was totally egotistical or utterly human. Wanting to connect but wanting to be important to someone.
And some other stuff too. She likes to make works that are emotive and not narrative (but does both). Cool story thanks Gemma. One of the videos she played doesn't seem to be online, but it was a response to the latest Werner Herzog film Into the Abyss.

Nell Eu played us her short film "Spit". I tried to find it online but couldn't. She deals with more narrative based stuff. It's so weird that all these people have DOP's and stuff like that. It's like, in NZ you have to just budgo your way through everything, while here people are IN THEIR ROLE. Not a bad thing, but makes me want to focus.

And then there wasss Alison Severs! She works at Vice and produces Cute Stuff. She also does other work like making this documentary on Krokadil in Siberia. We only watched the last 10 minutes but it was grueling.



The she also does stuff like this. KIDS RESPOND TO PARANOID ANDROID.


Someone asked about the humour in the second one, fuck I can't remember specifically what the question was, but it almost felt like the last video was the one that got the biggest response. Hoomer is important.

I dunno, maybe some of the other videos were trying to convey EMOTIONS, or be emotive, but were a bit contrived, or just kind of failed. The simple video and the humour were so natural that it just kind of made everyone at ease. I don't think you have to be the best actors in the world to get the message across properly - maybe just the best director?

It's like, when you see someone who is perfect I always want to see the imperfect in them. Like if someone spends hours straightening their hair, I love seeing the tiny little crimpy bit that they missed. In those videos where you are trying to create these honest emotions/stories there always seems to be a bit of failure in them.

That doesn't mean I'm totally writing the others off, cause I enjoyed most of them, but I always look at "art that looks like art" with a suspicious eye.

Annnnnnd - It was at the Shackwell Arms, which is a pretty sweet place.



Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Tommy Ill makes me cry

This video is the cool new video from cool guy Tommy Ill.
It features all my friends and made me cry when I saw it.
 
Thanks guys, thanks a lot. (get it?)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Counter Cafe and the BEST POST EVER

OH COUNTER CAFE I LOVE YOU MORE THAN THE DESERTS MISS THE RAIN!

Check this shit out.


OH YOU FINNNEEEEEE ASS PIECE OF BACON.
WHAT YOU UP TO? OH, BEING DEVOURED BY ME?? SHIT THAT IS THE BEST THING EVER!

AND THEN LOOK.

I DON'T KNOW IF YOU CAN TELL, BUT I'M SITTING ON A FLOATY THING IN SOME WATER AND SHEIT.

SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIT.

AND WHAT'S THIS??

A BOAT FULL OF MUTHA FUCKING PIRATES?!?!?!

YA DAMN FUCKING RIGHT IT IS.


TOOT TOOT MUTHA FUCKAS.

They asked me to take a photo and I made them all say "ARRRR".

The Counter Cafe is mean as. It has the best coffees in town, and it sells the best food and it's pretty cheap.

I bought 3 flat whites and it added up to six60 which was pretty special.


Then I went to a store and they sold this.


Saturday, April 14, 2012

Crazy cat lady 3





Wednesday continued...

A happy turn of events happened for me on Wednesday. My friend Meg was sick (not happy for Meg, but she is ok now, ok) and just happened to have two tickets to see the Dum Dum Girls that needed to be utilised and gave me a holla about it. THANKS MEG! 

So I holla'd to my friend Sasha and it was a date.

I was still at the ICA when Meg gave me a text. I just wanna show you a picture of the street it was on.

EPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC. I saw this street when I was at the National portrait gallery, and some days this street is lined with HUGE British flags. The other photo I have of the street is boring, so if I chance upon it when it's looking epic again I'll take a photo.

 As I was walking to the tube station when I saw a whole bunch of people crowded around something. I was all "WHAT'S WITH ALL THESE DUDES?"



ON CLOSER INSPECTION:

And you know what's down from Downing St??

BIG BEN! To be honest, I never really understood when Big Ben was so sexy to everyone. BUT Shhhheeeiiiiiiiit. Big Ben is EPIC! I wish I had got a photo when the sun was shining cause it GLOWS.


MM MM MMMMMM.

So then I made my way over to Sasha's house, we had a few drinks of her nice Whiskey (it makes all the difference) and then we headed on out.

Did you realise that this was my first gig in London? How lame am I. Nah I do what I wanna shuttup.



These babes are really great performers, but the songs get a bit samey after a while. AND - NO ONE DANCES HERE. So weird... I felt like Dancing Stevie in Auckland.

Then I passed my favourite place in the world on my way home.


Cool story huh?

Thursday, April 12, 2012

IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER PLAYLIST!!

Since it's Friday and I have so much time to myself I made a PLAYLIST TO PARTYYYY TO!O!O!O!O!O!!!!!

ENJOY AND KEEP KOOL DUDES!


The ICA Remote Control exhibition - HALLELUJAH!

London can really be a bit overwhelming. It's like, there is so much shit on, what should I do?

So I decided to bite the knuckle on it's head and GO OUTSIDE. HALLELUJAH!


I went to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). It's pretty cool and small enough so that you can actually take everything in.

The exhibition on at the moment is called Remote Control, and is about the impact that TV has had on culture and artists. MY CUP OF TEA COMPLETELY!!! As well as physical objects it had VIDEO AAARRRRTTTT. Hallelujah again!

And hey look - who's work is this??


SIMON DENNY! HE IS FROM NZ!! OK I still get chuffed every time I see anything to do with NZ. I've always loved Denny's work. I remember one of his works in Prospect in Wellington. He had a mat and some ball bearings - but I can never find anything about it on the internet. If you can point me towards something relevant that would be cool.

I was going to google a list of works that I saw and put them up, but I came across this great playlist that the ICA had put together a playlist that is relevant to the show. Enjoy!




Also - here are some pictures of the floor cause it was cool.



Then I ended up going out on the town, but more about that later... 

Monday, April 9, 2012

Knob gobblers

I just picked up a magazine called Loud and Quiet and I noticed something.


I have been walking around aimlessly some days and I really needed to find out what to do in London. There is so much stuff on it's hard to know which stuff to do, so I thought I should read some local publications to see what's happening.

Loud and Quiet is a music based street rag. An "Alternative music tabloid" as it calls itself on the cover.

So I was flicking through and I started to notice something about the band pictures. They are all kind of.... similar.... So I went through and took a picture of every single band promo picture.

Here they are - tell me what you think.



























AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. SERIOUS. MUSICIANS. The best picture is of Cliff Richard- that guy has his shit together.

I actually titled the Photo album "Knob Gobblers".
I mean, compare those with these from Aotearoa.


Ahhhhhhhhh. Delightful! It's like life is actually exciting again!

New Zealand I am so proud of you!