Archive for the ‘cultural’ Category

Edith Piaf – La foule

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

The Wilderness Downtown

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

arcade-fire

I already loved Arcade Fire and their new album ‘The Suburbs‘ before I stumbled upon this brilliant interactive video by Chris Milk and I love them even more now! Incorporating the viewers own home town imagery with the Arcade Fire track ‘We Used To Wait’ playing over the top really makes the subject matter and lyrics much more relevant. Visit: http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/ to see what I’m on about.

Beautiful Video of Japan

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Hayaku: A Time Lapse Journey Through Japan from Brad Kremer on Vimeo.

Paul just sent me this video he found of japan, it’s absolutely beautiful.

The Dark Monarch

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Early this year after a visit to St Ives Cornwall I read ‘The Darch Monarch’ by Sven Berlin and I absolutely loved it. The reason I came across the book was because of an exhibition of the same title in tate St Ives which was on at the same time as my visit. As explained in the video above the exhibition was about showing relationships between British modernism and the supernatural, the magical and the paranormal. The exhibition begins with a beautiful unicorn piece by Damien Hirst which leads you onto a bevy of mystical related pieces of modernism including a few pieces by Sven Berlin himself, I absolutely loved it, so I bought the book! The book itself is a kind of autobiography of Sven and life in St Ives at the end of the 2nd World War. The subject matter of the book was very controversial as many of the characters were depicted as comic but unsavory and were clearly based upon people Sven new whilst living in St Ives. Despite changing all the names of the central characters in a loose attempt to cover up their true identities Sven was sued and the following court battles bankrupted him and forced him to leave St Ives. The book is very well written with brilliant descriptions of St Ives as a place and the almost magical or supernatural feeling it has. The book is great in its own right however having visited St Ives on a regular basis for the past 15 years and having experienced what an impact it has on a person or an artist made the book all the more fantastic.

The Sartorialist

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

satorialist

Stumbled upon this blog: http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/ and I love it.  The posts are really simple lovely shots taken of people the writer stumbles upon working in fashion, living in New York and travelling the world.  I now follow ‘The Sartorialist’ on twitter and it’s great to get a simple fashion photo or two to look at each day.

A Touch of Tokyo

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

tokyo

I’ve wanted to visit Tokyo for quite some time and this photo log book I’ve just discovered by Carolina Cwiklinska is full of great shots and stories which make me want to get on a plane right now! http://www.questcont-d.com

Brightwide – social and political cinema

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Colin Firth and is his wife Livia Giuggioli have launched a new film website named brightwide. The aim of the site is create a better platform for social and politically driven cinema. Brightwide aims to encourage audiences to become more actively involved in films driven by serious world issues. The site will have online premier’s to either test the appeal of a film before a potential nationwide cinema release or to just keep audiences interest in certain movies alive. Before this site became available information and discussion about social and political films may have been quite difficult to get hold of. All of the films shown on Brightwide have been played and a major festival and are quite likely to have been awarded there too.

A successful impact for content driven political cinema must be quite hard to achieve so a well known platform where a films message and content can be discussed with a chance to see other films with similar purposes makes sense to me. Often if a content driven documentary or fiction feature makes it to a nationwide cinema release it’s audience may still not be that large and the people who do go and see it won’t necessarily do anything about the films subject afterward. However by also providing a digital platform for these movies not only to be viewed but to be discussed and learnt about the film may have a better chance of getting to more people who will easily be able to learn how to get involved and act on the issues they have seen.

The only down point I have picked up on for the online viewer is that the films on Brightwide are pay per view. In a way this is a shame as the films may get wider audiences if they were for free. However I really don’t think this is such a big issue, the filmmakers will benefit from the money paid and allow them to continue creating thought provoking and striking cinema. Also the pay per view method keeps the site free of commercial advertising and allows it to be self maintained, quite a contrast to any trip to the cinema.

If anything this site will be a great place to watch current alternative film driven by important messages and awe inspiring stories away from big budget main stream cinema.

Visit Brightwide

Tom Ford’s – A Single Man

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

A Single Man from Kennedy Byers-O'Brien on Vimeo.

Just come back from watching Tom Fords ‘A Single Man’ and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. Very well made, excellent imagery, lots of great perspectives on the important things in life and the acting was impeccable.

www.asingleman-movie.com/

Hadrian’s Wall Illumination

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall from IHW on Vimeo.

Yesterday (13th March 2010) a line of light was created along the remains of Hadrians Wall to mark the 1600th anniversary of Roman rule in Britain. 500 lights were placed 250m apart along the 135km long path of Hadrians wall. Although I didn’t go to see the event I had thought it quite a magical idea really. A great way to promote tourism for British Tourism Week.

Thompson Brand Partners, just down the road from me developed a culturally relevant but friendly brand for the project. See more about the project here: www.illuminatinghadrianswall.com

Wonderland Magazine’s New Website

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

wonderland

I can’t sleep tonight and I’ve just stumbled across Wonderland Magazine’s new website which has kept me up a bit longer. I think this site is perfect for fashion driven magazine’s like Wonderland. Although it’s not ground breaking in its layout the whole site feels very much as though it is constantly evolving and documenting an ever changing  cultural environment – what a perfect reflection of the fashion industry! http://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/

Mountain renamed after lost princess

Monday, September 28th, 2009

gwenllian

A nice little story: A North Wales mountain has been renamed after a Welsh princess ‘Gwenllian’ who was captured as a child around 1282 and imprisoned in England for the rest of her life. One of the reasons for the renaming is because the surrounding mountains are named after her mother, father and uncle. Her father Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was the last ruling prince of Wales and was killed in battle with Edward 1. Hence why Gwenllian as the only heir was captured as a child and imprisoned. So this renaming ceremony is like bringing back Gwenllian to join her family.

The above photo is not the mentioned mountain just one taken in Snowdonia whilst on the photoshoot with David Ferrrard.

Read the full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8275729.stm