Year Zero Gig
The last three months of 2009 have been extremely successful for the international writers' cooperative, Year Zero, with the publication of their first seven novels. In addition, the Year Zero group issued an anthology, Brief Objects of Beauty and Despair (download as a free e-book here). Their second anthology, 13 Shadows Waiting for Sunrise, will launch at the end of December, and the group is celebrating with a series of live events featuring readings by the authors, as well as live music.
Their first gig will be at Rough Trade Records, in London's Brick Lane, starting at 6 pm on February 4th, 2010. Anyone associated with SG UK is welcome and entrance will be free. Music will be from singer/songwriter Jessie Grace, and the bands To The Moon and InLight. Authors reading extracts from their work include the fabulous Penny Goring, the incredible Daisy Anne Gree, and founder members Dan Holloway and Larry Harrison. If you've not come across any Year Zero work, check out the flash fiction, video and book chapters on the Year Zero website. Signed copies of novels will be on sale at the gig, together with the Year Zero 2010 Tour T-shirt.
Needled News by Marisa DiMattia
The London Tattoo Convention came to a close last night and I'm hurting this morning. All attempts at being highbrow or tattoo couture were thwarted at the stocked bars that sandwiched the convention on the ground and top floors. I became a rock-n-roll cliche: stewed, tattooed, and eventually screwed by a killer hangover. But I'm using what little brain cells I have left to offer a proper redux of the event.
With three floors of the Old Truman Brewery occupied by 180 of the best artists from around the world, my greatest worry this weekend was not how I would be able to flip through all their stellar portfolios, but how I would kiss them upon first greetings: for Tin Tin of Paris, one on each cheek; Yugen Tattoo of The Netherlands, three kisses Dutch style; one air kiss for Bugs who's now in LA; a hardy British handshake for Lal Hardy; a devil sign across the hall to Tim Kern of Last Rites; and then some tongue for my hubby who didn't take a break from working the whole weekend.
In fact, it seemed that all artists were working non-stop with the venue fully packed, sometimes shoulder-to-shoulder with the freshly tattooed bleeding out of their plastic wrap. [You don't go to conventions for the hygiene.] While I don't have an official estimate from the organizers, I figure at least 10-15,000 people walked through the doors. The lines of convention-goers did not reach the end of the Brick Lane like last year, but I attribute that to better organization than less people.
Interestingly, it wasn't all die-hard tattoo fans swarming the halls. Press and paparazzi were everywhere sticking cameras in the faces of those getting needled, including the BBC, whose article on Friday of the convention includes a photo of a blackwork leg piece being worked on at the Calypso Tattoo booth. There were also after-work suits who seemed particularly enthralled by the many tattooed women in small outfits, and other curious onlookers who were able to see traditional hand tattooing in a Polynesian tattoo hut set up on the bridge level or Japanese tebori on the first floor.
For the culture bent, three different art exhibits lined the second level gallery walls. The Japanese Gallery in London offered a fabulous look into the art of irezumi with a display of original wood block prints of decorated warriors and women, which could also be purchased. Photos by Juan Puente of modern day Japanese tattooing were also shown. Next to these prints was the photo-documentary of Steven Ball and Serena Stevenson entitled "The Living Art of PacificTattoo". My favorite exhibit images were the intense, colorful photos by Greek artist Soto Kon who explored Oriental and Tibetan mysticism. It was a veritable world tour of exotic art, all in an old London brewery.
And of course, there were the Suicide Girls and their army of fans surrounding their booth. With our booth just a few feet from the girls, I had to continuously shove my way past hoards of young men hungry to take a picture with their favorite model. And there were plenty to choose from with a bevy of bad ass beauties posing, selling merch and memberships, and promoting their Italian Villa film and Sunday's after party.
See if your favorite girls were in attendance.
In addition to hanging out with the girls (and feeling very old), there were a number of personal highlights of the convention:
- The all-female tattooer Art Fusion Experiment team who produced five fabulous charcoaled canvases and not one included a flower-shaped vagina.
- Shige of Japan sweeping a number of tattoo awards from the competition including Best of Show.
- Hearing the delicious and very naughty laugh of Isobel Varley, the World's Most Senior Tattooed Woman.
Obviously absent from this list is drinking with tattooer friends and breaking out into Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name. I'll just leave those details out.
Goethe Silva tattooing.
Marisa_DiMattia is a lawyer and editor of Needled.com, a blog on tattoo art and culture.
Universal Sees the Future of Music Promotion... Taxi Cabs.
Apparently, Universal has discovered how to thrive in the digital music age: Taxi Cabs..
For the months of September and October, London Taxi Cab commuters have the option of rocking out to Mozart, while traveling in Universal's brand new yellow taxi cab. The album being promoted is Welsh bass-bariton Bryn Terfel's Tutto Mozarti. Classical fans should be on the hunt for this black cab, painted yellow and emblazoned with cover art on the doors.
Included in the cost of trip, riders will be subjected to arias from "The Magic Flute," "Don Giovanni," and "The Marriage of Figaro." For those who like their classical music gang-banged down their ears, Terfel joins up with soprano Miah Person and mezzo-soprano Christine Rice to hit you with trio "Soave sia il vento" from "Cosi Fan Tutte."
Terfel thinks the cab driver will be down with the whole hijacking of his stereo thing:
"It's good to challenge stereotypes of cabbies," the singer said. "They need something to get away from the heavy traffic, so a high percentage listen to classical music."
Yeah, right. Cabbies are gonna love listening to the same fucking disc for two months.
Obviously, this Taxi Cab idea is some serious forward thinking on Universal's part. I had my doubts when they decided to threaten lawsuits against promotion giants Youtube, and Myspace, but now I see how rash I was in assuming that was a mistake. Here, not only are they promoting their catalogue, but making some nice money on top of it.
Brilliant!
A Bad Month for British Terrorists
Justly ignoring the foreign policy "ransom demands" of Muslim community leaders, Tony Blair has been getting tough on Britain's Islamist fifth column.
In July, the enforcement of new anti-terrorism laws saw the disbanding of The Saved Sect and Al Ghurabaa. These were the creeps who famously protested against the Mohammed cartoons, with signs saying "Behead those that Insult Islam".
Both groups were offshoots of the banned Al Muhajiroun group, whose founder, Omar Bakri Mohammed fled the U.K. last year. He settled in Lebanon, but when the recent war with Israel broke out, he was denied permission to rush back to Britain. What's Arabic for "chicken hawk"?
In August, MI5 (in cooperation with NSA) successfully foiled an Islamist plot to explode ten passenger jets over densely populated cities.
More arrests came this weekend when police raided a Halal Chinese restuarant in London. There were two more, unconnected arrests in Manchester and an Islamic school in the south of England is being searched in connection with an alleged Jihadist training camp.
Perhaps the most satisfying arrest this weekend, was that of a thug named Abu Abdullah, a close associate Abu Hamza, the hook-handed cleric jailed in February for inciting murder and racial hatred.
Abdullah has apparantly not learned from the plight of his mentor. He oozed evil in an interview with CNN last month.
With a Channel 4 survey suggesting that a quarter of Britain's 1.6 million Muslims think the July 7th bombings were justified, it is clear that the country has a huge problem. Police are struggling to cope with the task of monitoring thousands of suspects.
How did the U.K. get into such a mess? For decades the British authorities have turned an blind eye to creeps like Abu Hamza (no pun intended). They overlooked fanaticism for the sake of religious freedom. The multicultural society they fostered, created racial and religious ghettos.
Trevor Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality, warned that Britain was "sleepwalking into segregation".
The chickens have well and truly come home to roost.
The Hoff Suffers Freak Shaving Accident
David Hasselhoff almost killed himself this week while attempting to shave.
Hasselhoff severed a tendon in his right arm while shaving in the bathroom of a gym in the Sanderson Hotel in London on Thursday. The actor hit his head on a chandelier, which showered his arm with broken glass, his publicist, Judy Katz, told the Associated Press.
Chandelier, shaving, gym
? The plot thickens. While some sources say the chandelier was the culprit, other claimed it had something to do with a glass shelf.
"David had just finished working out in the gym at the hotel where he was staying," Katz is quoted. "He was getting ready to shave and bent down but when he stood up David hit his head on a glass shelf and it shattered.
The Hoff underwent surgery for the injury, and is doing fine according to his rep. He spent one night in a London hospital, then continued filming some ad campaign that will surely be a huge hit in Germany.
In other Hoff news, the former Baywatch star finished writing a musical about one of his favorite subjectshimself. A play about the Hoff, by the Hoff, staring the Hoff. Reserve your tickets now.
He tells USA Today, "I've already arranged and written it with the guys who did Chicago. I love musical theater. That's what I started off to do when I was seven and my first show was Peter Pan. I loved doing Jekyll + Hyde (a 2001 musical). I loved Billy Flynn (on stage) in London.
I love the audience. I love the fun of a live show."
And Germans love you, David Dear!!!
Pamela Anderson Strips for PETA's Benefit, Detriment of Onlookers
Pamela Anderson frightened U.K. residents when she removed her clothes during a fur protest yesterday. After hosting PETAs award ceremony, the Playmate stripped to her g-string while posing in the window of Stella McCartneys London store. She claimed the stunt was designed to urge others to stop wearing fur and embrace their own naked tit-tays.
She said after her nude antics: "I am proud of my body, I'm proud of my skin, that's why I don't need to wear the skin of poor defenceless creatures. I don't need an innocent creature's skin to make me feel sexy."
Anderson gave a special shout-out to fellow celebs who choose to wear fur.
"Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce are beautiful women. They don't need fur. They should be proud of what they've got. I've sent them videos showing what goes on at fur farms and hope that when they see how cruel it is they will ditch their fur."
She added: "That's why I wear so much Stella McCartney stuff - she is one of the only designers who takes the same stance I do. And in any case, she's such a good designer she doesn't need to use fur."
Portman and Izzard Vie for "Cabaret" Lead
If you had to choose someone to play the iconic character Sally Bowles from Cabaret, who would you pick: tiny, adorable Natalie Portman, or cross-dressing comic Eddie Izzard? Sounds strange, but the two are vying for the same roll in the London stage production of Cabaret. Of course, Portman maintained the lead.
A theatre source tells British newspaper Daily Express, "Eddie is an inspired choice and looks great in women's clothes - but he's unlikely to go down well with purists. Yet as a Hollywood star, Natalie's incredibly bankable and she's an accomplished dancer. She's also much prettier."
While Eddie may look great in womans clothes, Natalie is hotter without them. Sorry, Eddie
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