Katie Brown: On Culture

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

2012-02-23T21:48:00.003Z

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close will surely have come to your attention for being nominated for a Best Picture Oscar before even having a cinematic release, but it also fits nicely into my current studies of literature to film adaptation, in obvious and surprising ways.

The film, directed by Stephen Daldry and adapted by Eric Roth from Jonathan Safran Foer's iconic 2005 novel, has been almost universally panned. It has a 45% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and The Guardian even asked whether it was the worst Best Picture nomination ever. I think this harsh criticism is at least in part inspired by the Oscar nod: if it were not up for the award, I doubt people would have reacted with such vitriol, but rather indifference. After all, judged on its own merits, it's alright. I was very ready to hate it after seeing the trailer - and knowing the book - but it was fine. Yes it's shmaltzy, over-sentimental and contrived but I didn't have an urge to give up on it at any point during the two-and-a-bit hours, I very much liked Max von Sydow and I thought Oskar's meetings with the various Blacks were well executed.

However, I absolutely loved the book. I read it all in about 8 hours, not wanting to put it down. Adapting Extremely Loud... was always going to be a very difficult part, as much of its magic relies on how it is put on paper. The book is a mixture of Oskar's streams of consciousness, letters he writes and receives, letters his family write, photographs, newspaper clippings, things his mute grandfather writes in his daybooks to communicate with people, and even tester papers from a stationary store. As you can see below, the layout of the book tries to imitate the way the characters write (in this case the grandfather trying to fit as many words as possible on his rapidly dwindling paper - part of the fun is trying to read these palimpsests). The film was never going to be able to recreate this, but the annoying thing is that it didn't even try to create a similar feeling with innovative filming or montage techniques, instead giving us a very mundane film.

The worst sin of the film-makers though, in my opinion, was the complete sanitation and Hollywoodising of the story. What really caught my attention in the novel was how Oskar's grandparents' lives were changed forever by the bombing in Dresden. By almost completely ignoring this crucial part of the story, the film-makers have not only removed a very relevant comparison with Oskar's current situation (perhaps in was thought that 9/11 is incomparable?) but also gave me the impression that they believed it wasn't proper to consider the suffering of Germans at the hands of the Allies. This is, after all, an extremely patriotic film. Scenes at the Twin Towers have been added in and there is much more focus on the courage of those there. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it just doesn't leave much room for considering that others have suffered too.

It's not just the Dresden bombings that were erased, but the complex adult relationships. In the book, Oskar is angry that his mother is spending time with another man, but in the film Sandra Bullock remains a devoted, grieving widow. I got the impression that the film-makers thought it wasn't appropriate for her to move on so quickly, or even to seek solace with company. Yet it is the relationship between Oskar's grandparents that is most sorely missed. The delicate balance of remembering and forgetting, supporting each other and causing each other pain was for me the most captivating part of the book, a sensitive examination of a very real relationship. I was very disappointed to see it gone. Moreover, much criticism of both the film and the novel has been that the young protagonist Oskar is 'extremely pretentious and incredibly irritating', which I agree with, but in the book it's not so much of a problem as there are lots of other characters who are far more engaging. In the film, on the other hand, it's all on Oskar and he does grate on you. However, while it would have been very easy to put a man in with Oskar's mother, doing justice to the complexities of Oskar's grandparents would have required much more time than this already long film could offer, so maybe I should just accept that the film could never have been a full recreation of the book, and take it for what it is? After all, we're always told in class not to reduce the question to 'The book is better and that's that', but to look at what we can learn from how the film has been adapted. In this case, I think we can mainly learn a lot about attitudes to 9/11.

Talking of class, I was very surprised to find a link between Extremely Loud... and the latest of my course books, Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum. I read Extremely Loud... only a few weeks before The Tin Drum but the obvious intertextuality didn't occur to me until I stumbled across an article called The Extremely Loud Tin Drum. Then suddenly it was so clear: two Oskars, one with a drum, the other with a tambourine, both finding comfort in their grandmothers... The filmic Oskar Schell even had a striking resemblance to Oskar Matzerath, with the piercing Bronski blue eyes.

I take this as a clue to the intentions behind Extremely Loud... The Tin Drum became known as the great novel of the twentieth century for its vivid and over-arching descriptions of the rise of Nazism, WWII and ensuing capitalist era. Although on a much smaller scale, Extremely Loud... aims to continue this portrayal of major world events through the eyes of a child, from WWII to 9/11, focusing on the devastating personal consequences. If only Oskar Schell had been half as complex, witty and engaging as Oskar Matzerath.

Ffresh Festival Part 7: Documentaire

2012-02-20T21:00:00.002Z

My final session at Fresh Festival was one of my favourites - the international documentaries. The first two were brilliant, the third was pretty boring but well-made at least.

Love Hacking - Jenni Nelson - USA (Stanford University)

This was a really sweet documentary about Tim Heath, an inventor/tech-geek and Mormon who travels to Nepal to marry Surita, who he met on a Mormon dating website and has never met in person. His friends and religious leaders tell him he's crazy but he thinks he's found true love and that's worth the risk. Some of the people in the audience were laughing at Tim and writing him off as a weirdo who is being used because he's incapable of finding human contact elsewhere. However, the film-makers deserve a lot of credit for not judging Tim in their film, but rather presenting him as a sensible man doing what he thinks is right. I was quite moved by Tim's journey rather than pitying or ridiculing him.

Pit-Hole - Jiří Stejskal - Estonia (Baltic Film and Media School)

Another fascinating documentary sensitively covering a subject that could easily be ridiculed, this time about a family in Kiev who are determined to keep their house and land while big construction companies demolish everything around them to create modern flats. This film both keenly develops its characters - a surprisingly modern Ukranian family - and gives a rare insight into the modernising drive in the Ukraine since the end of communism.

Personal Velocity - Jon Vatne - USA/ Norway (The New School University)

I have to say I was a little bored by Personal Velocity, which profiled two bike riders, one reckless and one sensible after losing a friend (or lover?) to a bike accident. The camerawork - showing bikes weaving in and out of traffic - was impressive and the characters were well-developed but I feel like the film had nothing to say really.

Ffresh Festival Part 6: Ffresh Fiction Postgraduate

2012-02-20T20:47:00.002Z

Another day, another batch of Ffresh Films, this time postgraduate fiction, which like undergrad fiction was quite mixed. Some great films (technically or scriptwise) and some right howlers.

Queensbury Rules - William Scothern, Nick Williams & Mark Pengelly - Newport Film School
I really liked this film about a young amateur boxer preparing for a fight. It was technically very well made, the story was engaging and the juxtaposition of him preparing for a fight and flashbacks to his life outside the ring worked really well to create a well-rounded character.

Luella and Me - Rob Howells - Newport Film School
An ice-cream man has to fight the local council to keep his van, helped by a free-spirit with a dark past. I believe this film was made with all unprofessional actors, which was quite evident, but the story was really sweet.

Bubbles - Leyla Pope, Sara Parry Jones & Geoffrey Morgan - Newport Film School
The most technically accomplished of the films, with some really beautiful photography. The story neatly combined many threads, but I didn't feel much empathy with the characters, which would otherwise have made this an outstanding film.

Skin Deep - Torkjell Strømme, Ben Jenkins, Riccardo Bacioalupo & Ben Jenkins - Newport Film School & University of Glamorgan
Eurgh. Ok, that's a little mean. I get what they were aiming at but it didn't work. Bad acting and an overwrought script.

The Passing of Mother Prudence - Chris Marsh, Liz Chester & Chris Grindley - Trinity Saint David
I have to say I hated this film too. The judges loved it, especially the way it created a sense of fear. Apparently to make things scary everything needs to be out of focus, which just annoyed me. And the scary noises from the wardrobe were silly. And the mother's crying was so fake. And there didn't seem to be much point to it. Sorry.

Ffresh Festival Part 5: Undergraduate Fiction

2012-02-20T20:30:00.003Z

Right: on with the Ffresh round-up! Undergraduate fiction was certainly the most mixed of all the categories, in terms of quality and also subject matter. It seems the graduates knew what they were doing a little more!

Heel Toe - Alison Scarff - Swansea Met University
A quirky little film about a man with an addiction to women's shoes and his wife learning to adapt. Odd, as you'd expect, but quite joyful and fun to watch.

Between Viewings - Raphael Biss, Daniel Cripps, Vaia Ikonomou, Craig Lewis, Ashleigh Whitfield & Joseph Gidley - Newport Film School
One of my favourite shorts of the festival, this was an uplifting tale of an estate agent who re-evaluates his life when he has to sell his family home. Although it's not professional quality technically, it's beautifully written and really made me smile. The main character also had heaps of charisma - as you'd expect from an estate agent - which really made the film.

Channel 7 The News Resolution - Adam Elliot - Aberystwyth UniversityThis film was a bit of everything - a send-up of the news, rants about modern politics, scenes at an AA meeting. While it was praised by the judges, I thought it was just a mess and it seemed to think it was a lot cleverer than it was.

Coming Out - Milo Howitt, Jon Brooks, Ashley Hancock & Chris Hoskins - University Of Glamorgan

The judges were impressed by the way the film-makers created a dark and claustrophobic atmosphere, but I think it just freaked people out, judging by the muted applause and bewildered expressions of the audience after the film. That's to say, they created the mood well but we weren't really convinced by the reason for it.

Ffresh Festival Part 4: It's My Shout

2012-02-16T21:31:00.002Z

It's My Shout was without doubt my favourite part of the festival (excluding Jonathan Caouette time), as all the films were both brilliantly written and well executed. It's a testament to the It's My Shout scheme, which gives aspiring film-makers the chance to work with BBC Wales to turn their dreams into reality. I spoke to Victoria Stephens and Kate Samways from It's My Shout at the festival about how to get involved, and how to watch the films too.

As for the films themselves, they were all stories of children or young people in Wales told with real warmth and feeling. Films like ABC Dad (Director: Angharad Lee - Producer: Lisa Edwards -Writer: Bethan Marlow) and Sweet Sixteen (Director: Gavin Porter - Producer: Pip Broughton - Writer: David Davies-Llewellyn) are, in different ways, two moving stories of young people trying to improve their lives. Siblings are the focus of both Monster (Director: Jamie Adams - Producer: Lisa Edwards - Writer: Greg Glover), a really funny story of two boys trying to teach their ridiculously spoilt sister a lesson, and King of the Castle (Director: Jon Rennie - Producer: Pip Broughton - Writer: William Smith) a much more serious but sweet film about the relationship between two brothers after their fathers death.

Love Struck (Director: Leyla Pope - Producer: Lisa Edwards - Writer: Ali Blodwen-Jones) really stood out for me as a clever and charming way of telling a story. A modern reinvention of the Welsh fable ‘Llyn Y Fan Fach', according to which if you strike your lover three times you will lose her forever, the story is told through a poetic, rhyming narration over images of school children acting out the story.

However, is is Tentboy (Director: Ryan Owen - Producer: Pip Broughton - Writer: Michael Waters) that made the biggest impression on me. Tentboy was my favourite short of the festival, in a league of its own in terms of quality (they'd even somehow managed to get James Bolam in it). It's the story of an outsider whose parents start to worry about him when he takes to sleeping in a tent, but he has a plan all along. The main character is extremely likeable and very well acted. I know all these films will have been shown on TV (on BBC Wales in Autumn 2011), but this one really feels like it wouldn't be out of place in mainstream scheduling.

Make sure you check out www.itsmyshout.co.uk or @itsmyshoutltd on Twitter and watch these charming films which will soon be available on their website.

O Go My Man @ RWCMD 10/2/12

2012-02-16T21:05:00.001Z

Last week I had the pleasure of seeing O Go My Man, a recent play by Stella Feehily, perfectly brought to life by the Richard Burton Company at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Here's my review in audio form:

Malaysian Society presents Festival of Diversity IX

2012-02-12T21:17:00.000Z

If you’re like me, you probablyknow little about Malaysian culture. Well, the Festival of Diversity is theMalaysian Society’s annual chance to change that with a song and dancespectacular - this year, Pahlawan theMusical. For the first time ever the event is taking place at St David’sHall, giving the society an opportunity to reach a much wider audience.

I say Malaysian culture, butactually Malaysia is a multicultural country, composed primarily of Malays,Chinese and Indians, and all three are represented in the show, both in termsof the cast and the routines. It was a desire to raise awareness of this uniquecultural mixture that inspired the first Festival of Diversity nine years ago,as André Lim, former President of Malaysian Society, told me. He explained thatback then it was little more than a talent show, a sort of Malaysia’s GotTalent, but over the years it grew into a play and then into its current musicalformat. It is one of the three key events that Malaysian Society runsthroughout the year. While Festival of Diversity focuses on culture, theCardiff European Games bring together Malaysian students from across Europe forsporting competitions, and an annual Leadership Conference focuses more onbusiness, politics and economics. Through these events, as well as day-to-dayactivities like mentoring new students, the Malaysian Society works to create acommunity of Malaysian students, not just within Cardiff, but all over Britainand beyond. The musical is a particular draw for Malaysian students from farand wide; law student Linnie Ooi explains that she came down from Aberystwythfor the show last year and this year has friends visiting from all over Britainfor the event.

The main event of the night, Pahlawan the Musical, reinvented the ageold folk tale of Hang Tuah, a warrior from the 15th century Malaccan Sultanate,torn between love and loyalty. He has become a hero fighting pirates with hisbrother, but when the Sultan sends him on mission to procure the beautifulPrincess Tun Teja’s hand in marriage, Tuah’s life is turned upside down. Thisstory is told through both drama and song, but I was surprised to find that thesongs were not traditional Malaysian pieces, or even new works in that style,but mainly adaptations of songs from popular West End musicals like Wicked and Miss Saigon, and pop hits from Michael Jackson to Coldplay (withtwo Malaysian pieces thrown in). Nonetheless, I am reliably informed that theincidental music was very typical Malaysian fare and the overwhelming feel ofthe show, from the brightly coloured traditional outfits to the martial artsfight scenes, was undeniably Malaysian. Moreover, the electrifying dancescenes, a highlight of the show, showed off the diverse styles of the differentcultures that make up Malaysia.

On the whole, the cast gave verystrong performances considering they are all amateurs. Vingesh Raja as Tuahgave a solid, heart-felt performance (although he did lose himself during thesongs in a charmingly overblown way that reminded me of when I sing along tomusicals in my bedroom when no-one is watching!). As his brother Jebat, LeonLee put in a particularly strong performance while Elizabeth Wong as Tun Tejadisplayed a surprisingly good voice. Comedy relief came in bucket loads fromSivaram Prasad who hammed up the role of Sultan Mahmud, turning him into a perfectpantomime villain. Equally funny and charming was Amanda Chong as the vivaciouslady’s maid Suria, whose rendition of ICan Hear the Bells was the best vocal performance of the musical. All inall, despite a tragic ending to the show, my overall impression of it was verycheesy but very fun, I think because the enthusiasm of the cast and their joyin performing was infectious.

However, the musical was not allthe Malaysian Society had on offer tonight, but rather sandwiched between twoother exciting, energetic performances. The first was from special guestsFestival Drums all the way from the University of Liverpool. This was a perfectstart to the show, impressively choreographed playing of traditional drums, andI was especially pleased to see that the drummers included a wide range ofpeople, not just Malaysians, showing that the event really is trying to beinclusive. Then after the musical came the Dikir Barat, which seemed to be momenteveryone had been waiting for judging by the cheers when it was announced. Thistraditional seated dance, involving lots of clapping, and accompanying upbeatsongs, was a real highlight. It was incredible to see about a hundred MalaysianSociety members dancing as one and with so much energy, while the crowd sang,clapped and cheered along.

By the end of the night, I havecertainly learnt a lot more about Malaysian culture. I can now recognisetraditional music, dress and dance styles, have learnt a key story fromMalaysian folklore and even have a few recipes to try out from the programme.But more than that, I feel like I have really learnt something about the spiritof Malaysia. One of the aims of the show was to celebrate “a people, proud,diverse and united despite the apparent differences in creed and colour” and inthis aim Festival of Diversity most definitely succeeded. From not just theperformers but the audience, the overwhelming passion for their homeland andstrength of their community was obvious and inspiring. Directors Stephanie Wongand Aqil Ariffin, as well as the enormous team of performers and crew, deservea huge congratulations for putting such a successful night together andbringing a little bit of Malaysia to Cardiff.

Ffresh Festival Part 3: Ficcion 1

2012-02-11T14:42:00.001Z

Day two of Ffresh Festival for me starts with Ficcion 1, a collection of international short fiction films. This was a bit of a mixed bag, with films differing greatly both in terms of theme and quality.

Enmesh (Ambitious) - Ainur Askarov -Russia

The story of a young child in a rural village who dreams of stardom and lives for the weekly screening of a Bollywood film in the village hall. The film nicely juxtaposes daily routine and escapist dreams. The subtitles were such bad quality that we couldn't read them, but it is a testament to the film-makers that I still felt moved by the story without understanding any words.

Last Train (Ostatni pociąg) - Weronika Tofilska - Poland

My favourite of this batch of films, a high-quality production and engrossing, subtly moving story. Anthony's life is miserable - monotony of work, unappealing wife, drab surroundings - and only brightened by memories of his first love (the juxtaposition of the grey concrete of real life and the vibrant colour of memory is particularly effective). One of the best things about Henryk Niebudek has a face so full of character that he wouldn't need to say anything for you to identify with him. The whole film is available below:

Beyond - Gary Sofarelli -Australia (Sydney Film School)

A very atmospheric film that verbalises nothing, implying its meaning instead through cuts between a man trying to swim the entire length of a pool without breathing and images of a happy family. Visually impressive, this film won the Best International Fiction award.

Essai de Narration incoherent(e) - AUNVEL# -Germany (Hochschule für Film und Fernschem Potsdam)
Incoherent is certainly the right word for this film, which just left me bored. It felt like it was trying far too hard to be clever or unusual. I couldn't tell whether only subtitling half of the dialogue was a fault or a stylistic device, but I assume the later. Formed of cuts between mundane conversations between two friends, an angry drunk in a bar and an otherworldy woman who licks mud/oil/something disgusting off herself and later suffers excessively gory violence. Not recommended!

Pictures from www.ffreshfest.com

Ffresh Festival Part 1: Graduate Documentaries

2012-02-09T08:10:00.001Z

After weeks of anticipation, Ffresh Fesitval is finally here! Ffresh, subtitled as 'the student moving image festival of Wales', is organised mainly by Newport Film School and the University of Wales, Newport in order to celebrate the work of local film students, as well as providing them with access to great films and film-makers from around the world.

Yesterday the festival started with the shortlisted films for the Best UK Graduate Documentary. Although nominally 'UK', all the shortlisted entries were from the Newport Film School, but I have little doubt that this is because the school churns out high quality film makers. The five films shown were all different styles and very varied subjects, but all very interesting.

Finding Walter - Michael Moore
A personal exploration of Walter Dew, a famous Scotland Yard detective, who was involved in the Jack the Ripper case and made his name 'catching' Dr Grippen, presumed wife-murderer (although new evidence suggests he was innocent all along and framed by Dew to take the pressure off the failing police). Moore is a distant relative of Dew, as a rather awkward family tree scene with an actual tree shows us. This film seemed a little amateurish compared to some of the others, but still interesting.

Crossman -Christopher Beard & Sam Werkiester
Following Lindsey who has spent most of his life walking around the world carrying a crucifix to share the word of God. His devotion to his religious duty took over his whole life, ripping his family apart. While fascinating, the long scenes of group prayer in the street also felt quite awkward. I wondered whether the film makers were religious themselves and whether that would change the film. While I personally left feeling that Lindsey was quite crazy and selfish in how he left his children, the film-makers did seem to make a very neutral film, just giving the facts and leaving us to judge them, which is an impressive feat for such a divisive subject.

Mostar - Sebastian Feehan & Josh Bamford
My favourite of all the films, both for the professional way it was shot and for the sensitive way they treated the difficult, but fascinating, subject matter. Mostar was the most-fought over city in the Bosnian War, the bloodiest conflict in Europe since WW2, and this film tells the story of that violence and destruction through the eyes of a survivor, Nedzad Kasumovic, who risked his life to film the conflict. A clear yet thought-provoking entrance into a very complicated subject.

Eighty Eight - Sebastian Feehan, Josh Bamford & Hannah Bone
The one film that seemed vaguely uplifting, a portrait of 88 year old widower Ralph Settle who refuses to let age stop him. He competes - and wins! - in various sports against people a quarter of his age, busks in town and even goes to nightclubs and hangs out with the young-uns (that bit felt a little awkward). Even this one got sad though when Ralph talked of how he still can't get over his wife's death. I could imagine this film sliced between programmes on Channel 4 one evening.

Mourning of the Valley - Andrew Gough, Paris Palmer, John Shand, James Earing & Ian Morley
It wouldn't be a Welsh festival without at least one mention of the mining communities in the Valleys, this time the 1913 Senghenydd mining disaster where 439 men lost their lives. This film stood out technically as it combined interviews with very well acted documentary drama.

The winner will be announced tomorrow. In the meantime, I look forward to more films today.

Ffresh Festival Part 2: Walk Away Renee

2012-02-09T01:07:00.000Z

The crowning glory of Ffresh Festival 2012 is that, thanks to the British Council, acclaimed D-I-Y documentary maker Jonathan Caouette has come to Newport for a retrospective of his work and a film-making masterclass.

Caouette shot to fame in 2004 with Tarnation, the story of his family told mainly through the home movies that he has been filming for most of his life.

While I sadly missed Tarnation yesterday, I was lucky enough to today be part of the first audience ever to see the new cut of Caouette's latest work, Walk Away Renee. This film follows Jonathan's journey across the country moving his severely mentally ill mother Renee from a home in Houston to one near him in New York. At the same time, it recaps and adds to the story of Jonathan's upbringing and Renee's condition that he detailed in his first film (I followed the film perfectly without having seen Tarnation first).

The result is completely engaging, not only because the story is so moving and treated with equal frankness and sensitivity, but because it is visually stunning. It should already be clear from the above trailers that Caouette has a unique visual style, a flare for montage that distinguishes his films from the staid style of the traditional documentary. Caouette described his film-making as "idiosyncratic", which perfectly summarises his distinctive style. Even at about two hours long, the film kept me captivated and never felt like it was dragging on. Quite the opposite - Caouette reveals so many facets of the 'characters' and makes them so engrossing that at the end of the film I still longed to know more about them.

In interviews after Tarnation, Caouette argued that people who suffer from mental illness deserve more empathy and understanding. With Walk Away Renee, he has once again created a film that will raise awareness of what it is like both to be afflicted with mental illness and to care for someone who is. It is heartfelt yet never preachy or didactic films like these that will hopefully change public opinion. The fact that on top of this Caouette has managed to create a genuinely mind-blowing piece of visual art is just the cherry on the cake.

Twitter & TV - a step too far?

2012-02-07T00:53:00.002Z

I may be a recent convert, but I have fallen hard for Twitter. What started as a way to share this blog with people has turned into a fountain of knowledge for me. Most of this knowledge is admittedly useless, like how Aiden Grimshaw has an album coming out soon (ok I was quite excited about that one) or that people think it's hilarious pretending celebrities are dead. Nonetheless, I do believe that following Venezuelan authors will give me insights for my research (even if 90% of tweets are along the lines of 'Boo, Chávez'), that following people like @femfreq and @openculture is expanding my mind, and that following local theatres and cultural centres is keeping me much more in touch with the artistic community here.

However, watching Being Human last night, I couldn't believe how warped the idea of Twitter and its uses has become. As the programme started, #beinghuman was displayed across the screen and at the end the announcer had to read out things like "O.M.G. Russell Tovey" and "Noooo Nina". I felt genuinely embarrassed for him. I noticed the same thing with Come Dine With Me. What is the world coming to?

I understand that the logic behind TV's Twitter obsession is that if you read out people's comments they will feel like they're famous for five minutes, creating a desire to keep watching the programme. But surely if you're watching something like Being Human it's because you're interested in the characters and the plot, not whether you'll get to be mentioned on TV?

I know I'm just as guilty as anyone of tweeting the odd pointless comment when I'm bored/overexcited, but if I post inane drivel people can chose to follow it or not. If they don't follow me, they don't have to read it. So unless I'm following the person who thinks Russell Tovey is the best actor EVA, please don't make me listen to it over the credits.

Open House @ Sherman Cymru

2012-02-04T15:47:00.000Z

Today I braved the snow to visit the Sherman Cymru's Open House, along with a large crowd who had gathered to celebrate the reopening of what is so much more than a theatre.

The Sherman Cymru (www.shermancymru.co.uk) was originally opened in 1973 as part of the University of Wales and has since been through many guises, but has always been at the heart of the local community. In February 2010 the Sherman closed for a £6.5million redesign to create a space that would really cater for the community's needs. Beyond its spectacular new façade and much improved seating for the utmost comfort during performances, the new building was designed to create a space where people of all ages and walks of life could come and be creative. There is a new café/bar area with free Wi-Fi so the Sherman can be a space to gather and discuss or a retreat to focus on work. Moreover, the new writing and rehearsal spaces mean the Sherman can continue and improve its role as a key centre for new creative work, particularly in Welsh.

One of my favourite parts of the new building is the memory wall, where anyone can add a note or a picture about what the Sherman means to them.

It was heart-warming to see that this theatre has such a special place in so many people's lives. I particularly liked the letters like the one below (sorry it's so fuzzy), where people said they went on their first dates with their future spouses at the Sherman. I hope that the new building will provide even more of these special moments for years to come.

While I was there, I spoke to Suzanne Carter, PR & Campaigns Manager, who told me more about the new building and what to expect from the next season:

I also asked some long-time patrons what they thought of the new Sherman:

Special thanks to Deryn Tudor for her lively and informative tour, and all her help with lost keys!!

Act One Presents King Lear @ YMCA Cardiff 3/2/12

2012-02-04T15:32:00.000Z

As Act One’s latest production ofKing Lear was advertised as “adramatic re-telling of one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies”, I was sure itwould have been rewritten in modern English, and was pleasantly surprised toinstead find that directors Madison Fowler and Piers Horner, with theirtalented cast and crew, succeeded in their mission to create an engaging Lear for the twenty-first century whilstremaining faithful to Shakespeare’s play.

The idea behind the productionwas to “bring Lear to a wideraudience by heightening the violence and raw power of the text”, updating thestory from pre-Roman England to a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where Lear is theleader of a gang of survivors and Gloucester an ex-policeman struggling toadapt to the new world. This background is set out for us in the programmewhich sadly suggests that the Daily Mailsurvives the end of civilisation, and brought to life though Mikey Boyle’s minimumyet highly effective set design covered with graffiti including a Banksy-esqueGrim Reaper. The nightmarish setting is further enhanced by music composedespecially for the production by Nick Cotton (@fblockisadj), a dark mixture ofclassical and techno that perfectly suited the oppressive mood of the piece.

Given the description in theadvertising and the ‘strictly over 18s’ rating, I expected a truly graphicproduction and Act One did not disappoint. The performance began with the veryviolent murder of Lear’s eldest son and continued with similar scenes dotted throughout the production which made it seem more immediate and gripping. ActOne have certainly been taking their stage fighting classes seriously. However,what should have been the most harrowing scene, the gouging of Gloucester’seyes, instead was messy and distant because of the decision to pre-film thescene and project it onto the stage. While I understand it would be difficultto make this scene work well live, the projection seemed out of place anddistracting from the raw power of the rest of the production.

As for the acting, it was generallyquite good, but a bit of a mixed bag. A special mention has to be made forEllie Hepworth playing the Fool who had to spend half an hour on stage alonekeeping in character as we took our seats; it was a tough ask and she dealtwith it commendably. The central performance of the play, James Davies in thetitle role, was strong. He rendered Lear’s descent from powerful leader tomadman with sensitivity and subtlety. Lawrence Dixon’s rapper inspiredportrayal of Edmund was a particular highlight. It could have been an annoyinggimmick but actually really worked and suited the scheming and unhingedcharacter perfectly. As his half-brotherEdgar, Oliver Ferriman was also very impressive. He combined extreme physicality (there seemsto be an Act One tradition following the Panto that every production this yearmust have at least one almost naked male lead) with a genuinely movingperformance. Dom Gwyther, as their father Gloucester, gave a very natural,engaging performance, which is sadly more than I can say for some of the otherparts. For me the sign of a good actor is when you forget they have a scriptand it seems the words they are using are their own. Unfortunately, some of thecast fell into the usual trap when performing Shakespeare of thinking thatshouting will make the words make more sense instead of really engaging withthem, whereas others were competent but just lacking that essential spark.

On the whole, Act One produced anengrossing vision of King Lear, thanksto impressive central performances, set-design and music. Their desire to drawin a new audience to Shakespeare by bringing out the violence and the passionof the play was a clear success, as audience members delightedly professed thatthe production had made them understand and enjoy this complex play for thefirst time. I look forward to seeing what they do with Measure for Measure in March.

Cardiff Illustration Presents Eccentric Worlds & Nonsensical Scribbles

2012-02-03T15:03:00.000Z

There's nothing I like more than free art, so today I went to see Eccentric Worlds & Nonsensical Scribbles, an exhibition of work by BA Illustration students from Cardiff University, in the Capitol Shopping Centre (right at the end, opposite Sainsburys).

I was really impressed by the wide range of illustrations, from cutesy children's illustration to some quite disturbing pieces; video animation, installation pieces and even T-shirts. I tried to take photos of some of my favourites but being surreptitious meant they're a bit blurry.

I particularly liked the one on the left because of the meeting of text and image, and the one on the right as part of a whole series examining/subverting official portraits of rulers. Go and see them in real life while you still can (til 5th Feb). If you can't make it, here's the official website: http://eccentricworlds.blogspot.com/ with more photos and links to the students' websites.

Les Misérables feat. Ramin Karimloo 27/1/12

2012-02-01T01:24:00.000Z

On Friday night I had the immense pleasure of going to see Les Misérables. It was the third time I'd seen it live, as well as one school production and watching both the 10th and 25th Anniversary productions more times than I could count. I know every word of the three hours, plus some that have been cut since the Original Cast Album. But that's nothing rare; I saw one woman proudly proclaim on Twitter having seen the show tens of times in the last few months. In 26 years it's been seen by more than ten million people all over the world. So what it is the secret to its enduring popularity?

Musically, the songs are at turns rousing, romantic and heartbreaking, both catchy and repeated enough to remain stuck in your head for days after, but other shows can boast the same (not many other shows, granted). The lyrics aren't great really compared to other shows (although they work so much better in French), but it's what those lyrics express that I think is at the heart of the show's success: the genius of Victor Hugo's epic novel with its incredibly engaging characters and at its heart the message of unwavering faith in a brighter tomorrow and the redemptive power of lover. As a wise person on The Story of Musicals said, when the whole cast turn to you at the end and ask you to join in creating a better world you can't help but feel uplifted.

Les Misérables has always had a special place in my heart. Although I remember seeing other shows when I was very young (Oliver and Grease come to mind), I first saw Les Mis on my 13th birthday and it was the show that sparked the huge passion for musical theatre I've felt ever since. So on Friday night I was smiling through every moment, but not just for the music and the story. The cast were just incredible, the best cast I've seen live, especially Ramin Karimloo as Jean Valjean (current cast in the video above).

I first saw Ramin as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera on my 16th birthday. At the time I fell for his beautiful voice and equally beautiful looks. Chris in Miss Saigon followed, and then Enjolras in the 25th Anniversary Les Mis last year, which is when I was really blown away by the power of his voice. At his tour late last year I got to enjoy more of that voice (although at the time I was annoyed that other people had to sing too and I couldn't have two hours of him uninterrupted) but it wasn't til the 25th Anniversary of Phantom when I really noticed what a wonderful actor he is. His Phantom just gets to me, no matter how many times I watch it. His acting is so subtle - a rare thing for musical theatre - and always seems so right. The moment at the end of Phantom when he's waiting for Christine to decide between him and Raoul and the tiny movements of one hand express so much emotion is one of the most powerful I've ever seen. So when I heard he was going to star as Valjean I couldn't contain my excitement. While Alfie Boe has an undeniably powerful voice and Colm Wilkinson (in his own words) has the voice of an angel, for me Ramin was perfect as Valjean, an unbeatable combination of beautifully textured voice and genuinely moving acting.

In short, if you haven't seen Les Mis yet, or even if you have, go to see it now while you can. The music and the story will always be engaging but a cast this strong is a rare treat.

Pecha Kucha Goes Poetic @ Chapter

2012-01-26T00:22:00.003Z

Last night I went to my very first Pecha Kucha night at Chapter Arts Centre, this time with a poetic twist. I had a really great evening seeing something very different.

What is Pecha Kucha? Coming from the Japanese for 'chit chat', the concept is very simple: it's a night of presentations each consisting of 20 slides shown for 20 seconds each. As www.pecha-kucha.org teaches us, it was invented in Tokyo in 2003 by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham and has since gone global. While Klein and Dytham devised the night as an innovative way to present new projects without architects droning on for too long, presentations can now be about just about anything, from an artist's latest work to some holiday snaps (although you'd better make them interesting!). The slides change automatically as the presenter talks along with them.

This was the 7th Pecha Kucha night at Chapter, but whereas the others have been open to anything, this was specially organised by Literature Wales to bring together a diverse (in terms of style, theme, age, and experience) range of poets united only by the time-limit and visual accompaniment of their poems. I'd never really seen performance poetry before and I think this was a great introduction as each poet was limited to 6 minutes and 40 seconds and each one was so different that if one person's work didn't appeal to you another would be along soon.

The poets involved were:

Will Ford - quite a moving reimagining of Oscar Wilde's WWI soldier about to be killed for desertion.
Clare Potter - an exploration of the power of sounds, some very interesting ideas but quite eccentric.
Gillian Brightmore - kind of like Twilight set in the dodgy parts of Cardiff, a bit too clichéd and prosaic for my liking, sorry.
Phillip Gloss - award-winning and you can see why - really interesting marriage of poetry and image, questioning how and what we see and why.
Jack Pascoe - hilarious - I was giggling throughout his poetic imagining of the carnage Prince Harry's stag do will cause and a woman whose breasts explode.
Naomi Alderson - really moving exploration of her personal reaction to Fukushima and impressive skill for someone so young.
Susan Richardson - ecological poetry, nice imagery (in the poems and in the slides) but not the most gripping.
And finally Mark Blayney, who rather than poetry gave us the inaugural lecture for the MA in Boney M Studies which again had me in stitches, and singing Ra-Ra-Rasputin for the next 24 hours!

So all in all a very interesting night. I'm really looking forward to going to the next one on 24 April to see what the non-poetry version is like. A huge thanks and well done to Mab Jones and her crew at Literature Wales for organising the event. You can find out more about what they're up to at www.literaturewales.org

Thinking about Orientalism through musicals - from Joseph to Miss Saigon

2012-01-23T18:06:00.001Z

With my last exam tomorrow (whoo!) about literary theory, I'm continuing with my mission of making everything somehow related to musicals (it makes revision that little bit more fun). It all started when I saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the New Theatre in October. I had been studying Orientalism and thought that Joseph is an incredible recent example of Orientalism in action.

What is Orientalism? A good introduction is Edward Said's 1978 Orientalism which sparked the academic debate on what was once considered an unproblematic discipline of knowledge about anything that can be considered 'East' - from China to India to Egypt. Said's core argument is that what was presented as knowledge - whether in an academic texts, travelogues or just the background of works of fiction - presents a certain image of the East to justify colonial expansion and the suppression of the colonised, as well as a way of making Westerners feel superior. Many theorists have criticised Said for his essentialist, binary dialect between East and West, his completely ignoring women and his focus on high culture (among other things) but the general idea of Orientalism has become widely accepted and expanded on by many theorists.

So what has this got to do with Joseph? Well I was struck by the way a very stereotypical version of Arabs was played for laughs (I know it's a silly show for kids but still). There's a part of Orientalism where Said talks about American student putting teatowels on their heads and comedy moustaches and saying they were Arabs. I know it's common and not necessarily meant to cause offence, but Said would argue that this just perpetuates negative conceptions of Arab people, particularly as the characters also fit the stereotypes of violent, slovenly, greedy (although redeemed at the end by a very 'Western' Joseph). The women don't fare much better, either veiled or bellydancing, recreating the dual stereotype of Eastern women as either slaves to their men or exotic sexual objects happy to fulfil any man's desire. In short, I don't think Said would much approve.

However, this got me thinking - particularly when reading Rana Kabbani's Imperial Fictions which focuses more on the dual subjugation of Eastern women as both Orientals and as women - about other musicals that maybe counteract this Orientalist attitude, until it hit me: Miss Saigon.

So the poster may look like just another exotification of the Orient and its women, but on closer analysis, it seems to me that Miss Saigon counteracts much of what Kabbani criticises. Firstly, one of the biggest complaints about Orientalist work in relation to women is that it reduces them to nothing more than sexual objects, a homogenised blob of boobs with no identity. Just think of Ingres' Le Bain Turc:

Through the American soldiers in Miss Saigon this view of Eastern women is again apparent - they are objects that the men can buy and use. However, the musical itself opposes the views of its G.I.s. Through the show we get to know not just the protagonist Kim but, Mimi and the other girls, they have names, personalities, backstories. More importantly, as Kabbani maintains, in Orientalist works, no-one ever questioned the availability of these women - it was a well-known 'fact' that they were incredibly sexual and lived only for pleasure. Miss Saigon paints a very different picture. Kim is a shy virgin with no interest in eroticism, who is forced into lap-dancing and prostitution because all her family are dead and she has no other way to provide for herself. The Orientalist view of Eastern women as sexually available has created a market for her to work in, whereas as 'just an intellectually inferior Eastern woman she would have trouble finding work elsewhere. Even Mimi, who seems more overtly sexual, does not enjoy her sexual encounters with the soldiers but must do it for a better life.

Moreover, the typical Orientalist view of Eastern women (and the patriarchal view of women in general), is of passive, even lazy, characters. That's why Kim is such an amazing character. She shows remarkable strength - both emotional and physical - to survive despite all obstacles and provide the best possible life for her child.

It would seem however, that my view is not a particularly popular one. Read this for example from David Schlossman's Actors and activists: politics, performance, and exchange among social worlds. Miss Saigon is criticised - among many other things - for Westerners talking for Orientals who can't talk for themselves - another of Said's key tenants of Orientalism. I, however, believe there is a difference between wanting to tell a story because you believe it to be interesting and emotionally powerful, and telling a story to keep people subjugated, and for me at least, Miss Saigon is in the first category. Following that logic, you would never be able to tell a story that wasn't about your direct experience. In addition, the story is criticised for Kim needing to be rescued by her white man. Again, I believe Kim proves herself in the period when she must live without Chris, and that there is a difference between being needed to be saved and wanting to be with the person you love (whatever their ethnicity).

Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic, maybe I'm seduced by the beauty of the music and the heartbreaking love story at its centre... I'm not saying it's perfect, but at least it's trying.

Los Alegres Desahuciados

2012-01-19T00:54:00.002Z

I feel really bad about not having written very much lately, but with exams coming up I've spent most of my time reading text books about Discourse or Orientalism. Once the exams are over I might well incorporate those themes into some articles, but for now, here's some thoughts on the one book I've read this week that has nothing to do with exams, Los alegres desahuciados (The Happy Hopeless) by Andrés Mariño-Palacio (1948).

I read this book in a day shortly after having finished Blue of Noon and promptly lost the will to live. It's not that it's badly written - quite the opposite - but there's only so much misery I can take. It is nonetheless a very important novel in the history of Venezuelan literature, and therefore worthy of attention.

So, back to the beginning. Mariño-Palacio was a prodigious talent. At 19 he was already writing literary criticism for a national newspaper, the darling of the Caracas literary avant-garde. He wrote Los alegres desahuciados at 21, as well as Batalla hacia la aurora (Battle to Dawn), which was noto published until ten years later, and then rapidly fell into madness, from which he would suffer until his premature death in 1966. All of his genius is evident in LAD, but so is the encroaching madness, which is what makes it such upsetting reading.

LAD is not so much a story (very little actually happens) as a portrait of a young, rich, Venezuelan intelligentsia, Mariño-Palacio's people, far removed from the 'typical' Venezuelan's portrayed in the national narratives that abounded during the Pérez Jiménez dictatorship of the time. There's Abigaíl, who sees casual wickedness as the only release from the mundaneness of his bourgeois life; Vivian, who lives only for pleasure; Lombardo, a 'sensitive soul' in love with an older woman and yet sleeping with Malva, who has many other falderillos (literally men who go from skirt to skirt); Zoilo, who gives off the suicide vibe to anyone who meets him and wants to be 'the most beautiful corpse ever seen'.

So you can see why it's not the most fun reading! But it is important. Why? It is one of the earliest examples in Venezuelan literature of a novel that makes no attempt to present an image of the nation, and certainly not a positive image, an image that unites the people. Instead, the characters are at best morally ambiguous, at worst utterly reprehensible. I get the impression that Mariño-Palacio is presenting himself and his people to the world, showing that the Venezuelan population is much more multifaceted, more complicated than the image of the nation created through traditional 'identity fables' (as Ludmer calls them), and that literature can and should be used to create a detailed psychological profile of a few individuals. The novel is also littered with literary references, sharp changes from third person to first person narrative and self-deprecating references to Mariño-Palacio himself, all of which makes for a very rewarding literary analysis experience.

However, one thing that most intrigues me about this novel is that the version I read was republished in 2004 by Monte Avila, the official publishing house of the Venezuelan government, as part of its Basic Library of Venezuelan Authors. It seemed very strange to me that such a nationalist government, a socialist government, a government which promotes the idea of solidarity between all the different races that make up the countries population, would promote in this way a novel about rich white people in a world of their own (the only experience of other races is when Abigaíl violently attacks a 'negro' who doesn't even get a name, just because he's getting on his nerves). I can only guess that as Mariño-Palacio is recognised as an exemplary literary talent, his promotion as Venezuelan lends weight to the country's cultural credentials. I will read more though and maybe come up with some better answers.

Don Juan, Blue of Noon and intertextuality

2012-01-13T00:42:00.000Z

Having watched the Don Juan Triumphant scene from The Phantom of the Opera over and over (I got the 25th anniversary concert for Christmas and the overwhelming passion in that scene just gets to me, especially the way Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Borgess play it, but anyway...), I remembered my cultural mobility class and started thinking about how many different ways the Don Juan myth has been adapted and appropriated over the centuries. What better example of adaptation and appropriation creating cultural bonds in Europe than a pastiche of an opera written in Italian (Don Giovanni, with lyrics by Lorenzo Da Ponte) composed by an Austrian (or Holy Roman Empire-an really... Mozart of course) based on a Spanish source text (El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra by Tirso de Molina), within an English musical based on a French novel (Gaston Leroux's Le Fantôme de l'Opéra)?

Once I got over just how many countries are linked in that one scene, I started reading the list of works which are, to varying degrees, reworkings Don Juan. There are loads, but one in particular jumped out at me, Georges Bataille's 1935 novel Le Bleu du ciel (Blue of Noon). "Wow, that'd be interesting" I thought. Interesting is the right word. Pleasant, however, certainly isn't. Given that I came to know of Bataille through Christophe Honoré's film adaptation of his novel Ma Mere, a shockingly graphic study of incest, I should have known what to expect from Blue of Noon really.

Our Don Juan in this story is Henri Troppman who is interminably drunk, depressed and depraved. While Don Giovanni famously had 'mil e tre' women in Spain (not to mention all the others around the Europe), we're not sure how many prostitutes Henri has been with exactly, but it's clearly a lot. What we do know is that the women in his life are currently the filthy rich and just plain filthy Dirty (or Dorothea), the disgustingly ugly Marxist revolutionary Lazare (based on Simone Veil), the somewhat naive Xenie, and briefly a German tourists, as well as an ex-wife who we never see, a mother-in-law who acts as housekeeper/guardian and the constant spectre of his mother lurking in his unconscious (returning to the subject matter of Ma Mere). Troppman isn't much of a lothario though - he finds himself impotent with Dirty, has Xenie play his nursemaid when he believes himself on death's door, and uses Lazare as someone to confess his sins to. In fact there's little to suggest this is an appropriation of Don Juan except for frequent references to il Commendatore, but it is those references that make all the difference.

The informed reader will recognise the character of il Commendatore as Don Juan's victim who comes back from beyond the grave to dine with our anti-hero and force him to repent or be dragged down to hell. Thus by mentioning il Commendatore, Troppman reveals that he thinks he should be made to repent for his depraved behaviour, that he senses impending doom. Given that the novel was written in 1938, and explicitly mentions the foreboding sense of war approaching, the images of hell and eternal suffering that il Commendatore conjures up seem very appropriate. Perhaps more interestingly, we can infer that this character is extremely narcissistic, as he wishes to equate himself with the greatest seducer in history, when his actions seem to pale in comparison with the 'trickster of Seville'. This certainly seems in keeping with a character who spends most of his time moping and thinking about his own death, but implicitly adds a new layer of depth to him.

Julie Sanders argues in Adaptation and Appropriation that part of the pleasure of reading comes from playing detective and piecing together the extra meaning provided by the intertexts (or bits of a text borrowed from/inspired by/reacting to other texts). That's certainly true of Blue of Noon - whilst I spent most of the book thinking "This is horrible, why am I reading this?", the Don Juan connection turned the chronicle of a man with unconventional sexual tastes and an unquenchable thirst for champagne and histrionics into a much more engaging story.

The Siren Sisters @ Wales Millennium Centre

2012-01-12T15:50:00.001Z

On Monday evening I had the pleasure of seeing The Siren Sisters bring some 1940s glamour to the Wales Millennium Centre. Everything was perfectly period from the wartime hits to the costumes and even their hair. It was wonderful to see a large crowd enjoying this performance, from reminiscing pensioners to young children dancing gaily to songs they were hearing from the first time.

The Siren Sisters are a close harmony vocal group comprised of actual sisters Sarah and Jo Perryman joined by Helena May Harrison. If you read my review of Merrily We Roll Along, you'll know that I really love Helena's voice and natural on-stage presence, and the Perryman sisters' also have great, although different, voices, which come together in a perfect combination.

The Siren Sisters have been going from strength to strength in recent years, from festival performances to appearing on S4C, and 2012 looks to be an even bigger year for them, so catch them while you can.

UPDATE: My interview with the Siren Sisters, broadcast on Xpress Culture on 30th January 2012:

Pippin @ Menier Chocolate Factory

2012-01-07T20:18:00.000Z

The Menier Chocolate Factory's bold new reimagining of Pippin is unlike any production you've seen before. While Stephen Schwartz's musical has often been written off as childish - largely because The Jackson 5 covered one of the main songs, Corner of the Sky - director Mitch Sebastian restores the dark, sensuous, adult quality of the original whilst creating a Pippin which is decidedly 21st Century.

Pippin is the son of the great Charlemagne, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. A prodigious scholar, the future emperor is looking for fulfilment everywhere from war and politics to art, religion, sex and love. Except it's more complicated than that, because all the characters are 'players'. In the original, this meant a group of travelling players wandering through the woods, but in 2012 what could they be but video gamers? The decision to update the story to the world of video games (and internet porn pop-ups!) works so well it's hard to imagine the story any other way.

Video projections and musicals haven't always been the easiest bed fellows (remember The Woman in White?) but they are one of the main attractions to this production, sucking the audience straight into a virtual world of computer games, Skype sex and Twitter revolutions. While some older members of the audience unfamiliar with the gaming world found this quite overwhelming, I thought it was just perfect for the story and added a whole new layer to the show, a sharp commentary on the pervasiveness of technology in our modern lives. It also allows for some truly spectacular staging but I don't want to say too much and ruin the surprise!

Of course, no matter how impressive the projections are, a musical can't survive on its staging alone. Luckily, the Menier is famed for the quality of its casts, perhaps because in such a small theatre the tiniest of faults is magnified so everyone has to be flawless. The cast of Pippin is no exception.

I was first attracted to Pippin after hearing that Matt Rawle would be the Leading Player. Having been captivated by his Che, Zorro and Martin Guerre (the latter only on video sadly as I was far too young for the original production), I knew I was in for a treat. Matt brought all the charm that seduced Anne Robinson to a captivatingly malevolent Leading Player. I found it hard to keep my eyes off him.

However, the real revelation for me was Harry Hepple as Pippin. He combined a beautiful voice with an innocence and naivety that perfectly suited the character. I loved the fact that Hepple, as well as Ian Kelsey as Charlemagne, kept their northern accents, it really added to the idea that these are real people playing a video game. Similarly Frances Ruffelle's Essex giggle and inherent naughtiness worked perfectly as the scheming stepmother Fastrada. Carly Baldwin (below with Hepple) brilliantly juxtaposed the character of Catherine with the real life 'player' and again has a delightful voice. On top of all that, the new production recreates to stunning effect parts of the original Fosse choreography (that seem to have become more famous than the songs), which lends the production an even more surreal, virulent quality, especially when performed by the very unnerving, unhinged half-brother Lewis (David Page).

In short, both the performances and the production of Pippin blew me away and I recommend you go and see it while you can.

Photos: Tristam Kenton @ Broadwayworld.com

Does success stifle creativity? Pondering on The National

2012-01-04T21:29:00.001Z

Today I spent most of the day discussing The National with a fellow fan (a much bigger fan than me actually). While we still both love the band, we can't help feeling that their latest songs are decidedly mediocre compared to their earlier work. When we have voiced these comments, we've been told that we're one of those people who only like a band when no one else has heard of them because it makes us feel special, which couldn't be further from the truth. We're both very happy that the band we love so much are now appreciated by so many people, we just object to the turn towards the mundane the band have taken. That their songwriting has gone from edgy to saccharine is an objective fact. Compare Karen from 2005 album Alligator (the album that first put the band on the radar)...

... with I Need My Girl, one of their latest works in progress.

Although both are ostensibly 'love' songs, Karen is so much more gritty. What changed? I can only assume that, now having found fame, The National are keen to cultivate it and lyrics like 'It's a common fetish for a doting man, a ballerina on a coffee table cock in hand' aren't exactly radio friendly. But more than that, what is so attractive about The National's earlier lyrics is the roughness born of a struggle with mundane reality. It's what made them relateable. Perhaps on of their most beautiful, moving songs is Baby We'll Be Fine, also from Alligator:

The subject matter is very similar to I Need My Girl, both are about trying to keep a relationship going despite obstacles, only Baby's protagonist is a white-collar worker agonising about winning his bosses approval, while INMG is a response to years of continual touring. Similar emotions are there, but it's much less relateable.

Moreover, the fuel of their earliest work was a desperate desire to escape from the dreariness of their offices, an indignation against the cult of the 1%. Nowhere is this more evident than in The Theory of the Crows from their self-titled 2001 début (below). Ironically, having now achieved this goal, they have lost the passion of those early days. It made us fans think, do artists need to be struggling to create truly great work?

Jane Austen in defence of the novel

2012-01-03T20:52:00.001Z

The person who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid.

Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

While my recently read list is packed with textbooks, histories and treatises, there's nothing I enjoy more than a good novel. So with no imminent deadlines, I decided to give myself a Christmas treat, and finally read Northanger Abbey. Having lived in Bath for four years, this novel has always appealed to me (I love to think of the characters walking down streets so familiar to me). Yet, as always when I read Austen, I've found my choice of reading material criticised. Her works are intelligent, witty and slyly critical of the social norms of the Georgian period, but more often than not they're written off as silly, fluffy, girly nonsense because they're romantic novels. With that in mind, I found the following excerpt from Northanger Abbey (Chapter Five) particularly apt:

Although our [novelists'] productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried. From pride, ignorance, or fashion, our foes are almost as many as our readers. And while the abilities of the nine-hundredth abridger of the History of England, or of the man who collects and publishes in a volume some dozen lines of Milton, Pope, and Prior, with a paper from the Spectator, and a chapter from Sterne, are eulogized by a thousand pens — there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them. "I am no novel-reader — I seldom look into novels — Do not imagine that I often read novels — It is really very well for a novel." Such is the common cant. "And what are you reading, Miss — ?" "Oh! It is only a novel!" replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. "It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda"; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.

As Austen so eloquently argues, it takes a lot skill and creativity to create a - good - novel, so they shouldn't just be written of as a frivolity. Moreover, I believe we can learn as much, if not more, about people and society - psychologically, historically, politically - from fiction. Fiction gives authors the freedom to say what can't be presented as historical truth, the creative process lets the unconscious speak, and being captivated by characters can absorb the reader into a situation much more effectively than reading dry facts. That's why I want to research and analyse novels and why it hurts to have my choice of reading so derided.

Some holiday viewing (UK only)

2011-12-28T20:17:00.003Z

With all the holiday madness, I haven't had much time for blogging, and won't for a few more days yet, sorry. I hope you're all having relaxing, enjoyable holidays!

In the meantime, here's some wonderful dance to entertain you for a few hours over the holidays.

Firstly, Matthew Bourne's Christmas, a spectacular review of Bourne's 25 year career, from well-known blockbusters like Swan Like and Nutcracker! to his earliest work. If you think dance is just stuffy nonsense, watch this and be proved wrong.

Dorian Grey

Edward Scissorhands

Then moving behind the scenes, Balletboyz: Next Generation is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of an elite troupe of male dancers put together by Michael Nunn and William Trevit, culminating in a trip to Ethopia for a history-making collaboration with local dancers. It reminded me very much of the Performance In Place of War work, as regards the power of the arts to bring people together and overcome adversity. Find out more about them and the project at www.balletboyz.com

The Guerrilla Girls Get Me Thinking About Women in Art

2011-12-24T16:33:00.001Z

When I told my mum recently that I thought I was becomingquite a feminist, she replied that I can’t be, because I have a boyfriend!While this is quite an extreme case, misconceptions about what feminism meansare incredibly common (see Feminist Frequency's wonderful video on the trope ofthe straw feminist).In class recently we discussed how feminists certainly aren’t one hegemonicgroup and that feminism is more difficult to define than I had thought. Differentgroups of feminists have different agendas ranging from thinking gender differences should be celebrated to thinking they should beignored with women and men treated equally. However, all feministswould agree that women should not be denied the same privileges as men justbecause of their gender.

And that’s where Guerrilla Girls come in. GuerrillaGirls highlight the gender disparities in the art world and fight to rectifythem. They publish books, protest at museums and galleries and give talks aboutfemale artists and their subordination. I saw their posters for the first timein the Tate Modern the other day and was struck by the statistics theypresented. Oddly, my friend and I had just been discussing how many female nudesthere still are in modern art, compared to just one male nude that we had seen in thegallery (Barkley Hendricks’ 1974 Family Jules: NNN (No Naked Niggahs),portraying a naked Afro-American to challenge the fear of black male sexualityprevalent in the States at the time).

I hadn’t ever really thought before about whether thepictures on the postcards and in the books I buy are produced by men or women(I’m usually just sucked in by the pretty colours!), but I was disappointedwith what I found. In my postcard collection there are just three paintings bywomen out of about 50. That’s slightly better than the museum average, but notgreat. They are:

Bridget Riley – Nataraja 1993

Lyubov Popova – Portrait 1914-15

Alexandra Exter – City at Night 1913

Interestingly two of the three are Russian. Was Russia moreexcepting of women artists in the early 20^th century than othercountries?

There are thirteen female nudes, mainly because I have a lotof Picasso cards (seven nudes) as well as one creature that is evidently a nakedfemale from Miró, and five in Patrick Caulfield’s response to Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon vues de derrière (1999).

As for males, there are just two, another Picasso, this time Seated man resting on elbow (after Manet’sLuncheon on the Grass) (1962) [I can't find this picture on the internet so will take a photograph and upload it once I'm reunited with my camera] and another disturbing Miró creature in thecharmingly named Man and Woman in front ofa pile of excrement (1935).

I assume museum shops stock significantly lesspostcards of art by women, and more of female nudes, as (even allowing for myPicasso fixation) I can’t imagine I recreated the Guerrilla Girls’ statistics on purpose.

Man Ray's 1933 portrait of Oppenheim,
in the role of muse rather than creator

As for books, my Taschen Surrealism,incidentally written and edited by women, is a particularly good/bad example.It has just two pages dedicated to Meret Oppenheim, stating that she wasaccepted by the Surrealists “largely because of a brief love affair with MaxErnst in 1934”. Given that Ernst was a serial womaniser, by that logic half thefemale artists in Europe should have become Surrealists! In fact David Hopkinsnotes that, as well as Oppenheim, “Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini and DorotheaTanning had romantic attachments to Max Ernst”. Yet she was one of the mostinnovative and influential creators of art using found objects, one of theSurrealist’s key aesthetic aims. She was also one of the few artists of thetime who explored the possibility of female fetishism and erotic experiences,rather than just being the playthings of men. She deserves today to be morewidely known and given more recognition in studies of Surrealism. But hercontemporaries also deserved to be accepted by the Surrealists at the time andallowed to create works rather than just playing the muse. This is the doubleaim for which the Guerrilla Girls fight – for the recognition of women

Oppenheim's My Nurse, 1936

asartistic creators, against the subordination of women as artistic subjects.

Fur Breakfast, 1936, Oppenheim's most famous piece

Feeling somewhat ashamed by the results of my postcard test,I need to research more female artists. Off the top of my head, apart fromthose mentioned above, I can only name recent headline grabbers like TracyEmin, Sarah Lucas, Yoko Ono and Louise Bourgeois; Frida Kahlo, who's familiar to anyone learning Spanish; Georgia O’Keeffe; futurist SoniaDelauny (and that’s only from having studied futurism in depth); and my belovedSophie Calle (more on her later). That’s more than I thought I had in my headwhen I started writing this but still ludicrously few. I will have to buy theGuerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art and educatemyself!

Why I love Mozart l'Opéra Rock

2011-12-23T17:46:00.004Z

If you're not French, you probably won't have heard of Mozart, l'Opéra Rock. If you are French, it would have been difficult for you to avoid it, given that it's toured up and down the country, the songs have been in the charts and even sung on the French versions of X Factor. The stars have become pop idols, unusually for musical theatre performers. Mozart is making musicals - and opera - cool (at least in France).

I first saw the show shortly after arriving in Paris and my French was nowhere near good enough to follow the dialogue and the lyrics but I was still totally engrossed in the music. It's a mixture of Mozart's own music, traditional musical fare from emotional ballads to rousing party scenes and more rocky music. It sounds strange, but it works perfectly. I also absolutely loved the costumes, an emo take on 18th century chic!

Over two years later, my French has significantly improved and I have listened to the show countless times, so I now appreciate the story as much as the music. It seems that Mozart not only had an incredible musical talent, but also a life that lends itself to drama. The musical chronicles his thwarted infatuation with gold-digging singer Aloysia Weber to finding true love with her sister Constance; the overwhelming presence of his father; his travels from Salzberg to Mannheim, Paris and finally Vienna, causing mischief and searching for fame; and of course his rivalry with Antonio Salieri and untimely death.

One of the main reasons that I love the show is it's a really great way to learn French. The songs are so catchy you can't get them out of your head and unless you want to walk around singing 'la la la' you will end up looking up the lyrics and searching for the meanings in dictionaries. At least that's what I did and learnt countless words that way. Much more fun than a text-book!

However, if you want to cheat, someone has kindly uploaded the show with English subtitles to YouTube:

Constant - After Us, Freedom

2011-12-23T12:15:00.000Z

Yesterday I got to go to the Tate Modern, which is always a treat. I suspect over the next few days I'll be posting about lots of different fascinating things that I found there, but I'll start with the one picture that grabbed me more than any other: Constant's After Us, Freedom (1949).

I love the painting for two reasons. Firstly because I have a thing about art that looks like it was made by a demented child, whether you call it primitivism, naive art or neo-expressionism, from Miró to Basquiat. While many people would write it off as just scribbles that take no talent, it speaks to me much more than any realist painting ever could. In a recent lesson, one of my teachers was sharing his 'the obviously fake reveals far more truth than the seemingly real ever could' philosophy, and I agree with him. I think paintings like this are a projection of the inner workings of the artists mind, something you as a viewer can relate too.

The second reason I was hooked by this painting, was the name. It had originally been called For Us, Freedom, but in a 1988 letter, Constant admitted that the freedom he hoped for still hadn't come, and so the paintings name was to be changed:

After the five years of the German Occupation, during which hardly any work of other painters was to be seen, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam organised a large show of contemporary Dutch art, entitled ‘Kunst in vryheid' (Art in freedom). This exhibition was a deception by the lack of any creative freedom - the worst kind of academicism. Shortly after (in 1946) I met Asger Jorn in Paris, who appeared to be a related mind. Our friendship would lead, 2 years later, to the foundation of CoBrA. The title of this painting was originally ‘A Nous la Liberté' opposing the false ‘freedom' of the above mentioned exhibition (and what followed after). A few years later, CoBrA had fallen apart and many of its former members were classified in museums as ‘experimentals', forming a new ‘style' contradictory to the real aims of the movement - My disappointment about this development led me to change the title to ‘Après Nous la Liberté'. I changed the title to express my doubts about the possibility of ‘free art' in an unfree society, and, at the same time, my hopes for the freedom all men are longing for.

I'm particularly interested by the idea that the artist has no control over their art, just like the author and their text, as Barthes argues in The Death of the Author. While this is sometimes celebrated, as the viewer/reader is in control and can make of the piece whatever they want, I find it sad that art that was created as a cry for freedom ended up drained of life and hope by the art establishment.

Constant, Modification (1949)

Little Matador

2011-12-21T09:54:00.001Z

Bullfighting is such a contentious issue that the human aspect often gets overlooked. Regardless of what you think of the torreo, last night's More4 documentary Little Matador (UK only, sorry!) provided a fascinating insight into why children are so drawn to bullfighting.

Rather than fame or money, it's family that motivates the three stars of this documentary, Michelito, Joel and Andrea. Michelito's father was a successful matador until a gorging ended his professional career, and left him only doing local fights. Michelito wants to bring honour back to the family and be everything his father couldn't be. He seems to be succeeding; at 10 years old he has one of the most promising young careers in Mexico. However, he seems very aware of this success and comes across so arrogant that you almost wish for him to fail (or maybe I'm just bitter!)

Equally unsympathetic is Andrea. Her father left her family for another woman in the States, so she wants to become a famous bullfighter to show him what he's missing. While I do feel sorry for her family situation, I couldn't help thinking there are a million ways Andrea could try to be famous and wanting to be a bullfighter is just stupid when every time she sees a bull she screams and runs away, then cries about her cowardice.

The real star for me was Joel. With no one who really cares about him, Joel finds affection from his bullfighting coach Ismael. Bullfighting for him isn't about fame or glory, it's about strengthening the bond with the one person who cares for him. The moment when Ismael leaves to find success in Spain and Joel has to go to a fight alone for the first time is just heartbreaking.

While some viewers may refuse to watch the programme for the scenes of animal cruelty (and it does get very nasty, I warn you), the human dramas are really involving - a very interesting watch.

Europe & Me Magazine - a new way of seeing Europe

2011-12-19T21:00:00.000Z

Having taken European Studies as both my BA and my MA, one question I've asked and been asked more than any other is "What is Europe?"

Europe is certainly getting a bad rep at the moment. When I mention I take European Studies, the response on the street is generally a negative comment about Europe, either the dire state of the Euro (even before the recent crisis) or how Brussels is ruining things for everyone in Britain. This is undoubtedly a symptom of British Euroscepticism, but I think a large part of the problem is that people have little emotional connection with Europe - they can't imagine the EU beyond economics and politics. In fact, when I got the chance to study identification with Europe in a research project at Sciences Po, I found that people had two very different images of Europe - the EU was far away, opaque and difficult to understand, while Europe more generally was linked to more positive images of experiences in different countries and with different people.

I therefore truly believe that for Europe to ever succeed as a stable, supranational project, we need to increase identification with Europe - and other Europeans. As a result of my interest in languages, and my time travelling and studying abroad, I am very aware of the similarities between myself and other Europeans and what knowledge of their cultures adds to my own, all of which makes me feel like I belong in Europe. It's vitally important that other young people get to know the bonds that unite them with Europe, to create a new generation of Europeans. That's where Europe & Me Magazine comes in.

Europe & Me is a quarterly magazine voluntarily written, edited and produced my young people from over 20 different countries. There aim is to write about all aspects of Europe, to give a more complete picture of Europe - the good and the bad - beyond official EU programmes (they are completely independent of the EU). They admit that Europe is incredibly hard to define geographically, historically or politically, so their motto is "Europe is a state of mind". The magazine is divided into different body parts:

The Brain considers serious issues related to Europe, the Heart is all about feeling and emotion, the Diaphragm laughs at the silly side of Europe, Baby is all about sex, and the Legs are "Europe on the move", highlighting European mobility.

I recommend that anyone who wants to understand what young, committed Europeans think it means to be European should read this magazine - issue #15 is out in just 12 days.

Peter Pan @ The Bristol Hippodrome

2011-12-19T19:15:00.001Z

From the moment I saw the posters advertising David Hasselhoff as Captain Hook at the Bristol Hippodrome this Christmas, I knew I had to be there. So after lots of boyfriend badgering, we went to see it this Friday. As you would expect, it was ridiculously camp, but we really enjoyed ourselves :D

The Hoff was of course the main attraction. He was happy to make jokes at his own expense and somehow managed to wedge watching the bay, Neverland's Got Talent, Kit the talking car from Knight Rider and every German's favourite pop-song Jump in my Car into the two hour show. However, perhaps the best moment of the show was his adaptation of Hot Stuff... Hoff Stuff!

Sadly though, there just didn't feel like enough Hoff - in an ideal world it would have been two hours of him parading around with his lustrous black curls and shining hook, but unfortunately far more of the show featured Andy Ford than Hasselhoff. Andy Ford was clearly there to appeal to the Bristol crowd with jokes about Melksham, Radstock and, above all, pasties. He also busted out the cheese with 'classics' like - "What's a pirate's favourite shop? Aaargos!". While at times it was awkwardly bad, you know with panto that you have to go with the cheese, and we found ourselves smiling and giggling along throughout, and gleefully following all the panto 'HE'S BEHIND YOU!" traditions like little kids. Robert Rees as Peter and Janine Esther Cowell as Wendy were good enough, suitably bright and bubbly for panto. The guy dressed up as first Nana the Dog, then the ticking crocodile, was a particular highlight! The only thing I really didn't like was the Motown trio singing half the songs that had at best tenuous links to the show. While it works brilliantly in Little Shop of Horrors, it's not right for Peter Pan(to). Nonetheless, I would recommend the show to anyone looking for a fun, uplifting night, if only to enjoy the charm of the Hoff.

What place for culture in contemporary nationalism? A Galician example.

2011-12-15T23:00:00.000Z

Yesterday I went to a talk by Dr Paula Portas Pérez about the contemporary narratives of the BNG, Galicia's nationalist bloc. As you would expect from a nationalist organisation, part of their rhetoric alludes to the 'protection' of Galician culture from external forces (Castile-dominated Spain used to be seen as the oppressor, but given the need to work with the Spanish government since the 1981 Statute of Autonomy, emphasis has shifted to 'threats' like the EU or, more generally, globalisation).

However, when I asked Paula what the BNG mean by culture, she said they only ever refer to the language. Speaking galego makes you Galician and therefore there should be language normalisation laws in place to protect and promote what is commonly seen as a language heading towards extinction. But beyond that, the BNG do not engage at all with the place of culture in Galician identity. It got me thinking, does culture still have a place in the construction of national identity? Have nationalists stopped creating a sense of national pride from great authors? Stopped celebrating traditions as a sign of uniqueness? Or has this cultural identity become so naturalised and internalised that people don't even question it any more? It seems that for the BNG people just are Galician and there's no need to question what that means.

In The Sources of Nationalist IdeologyJohn Breuilly wryly observes that "[Nationalists'] claim to uniqueness is ultimately used to justify the claim to have a state just like any other", and that seems like the case here. In the fight to have the same political powers as other nations, the Galician nationalists seem to be losing sight of what makes Galicia distinct in the first place.

No more 'Latin American' literature pleads Iwasaki

2011-12-14T20:25:00.001Z

"Si Messi no ocupa plaza de extranjero en la Liga, nosotros no deberíamos hacerlo en la literatura"
"If Messi is not a foreigner in la Liga, then we shouldn't be foreigners in literature" - Fernando Iwasaki

My new Twitter obsession is already proving itself useful for my academic life, as I just saw this article tweeted by Chirinos, Iwasaki pide ´acabar´ con la literatura latinoamericana from the Alicante newspaper Diario Información. The main point of the article is that at a conference on challenges in Latin American narrative in Alicante today (which I wish I'd been at!) Peruvian author Fernando Iwasaki argued that now is the time to stop talking about 'Latin American' literature and instead consider it just as 'Spanish language' literature. He maintains that there is little difference between him and authors from the Iberian peninsular, especially in terms of literary influences.

As I want to study Latin American literature, I wonder what Iwasaki would make of that. I certainly agree that we should not believe that Latin American literature can be narrowly defined, nor that it is completely incommensurable with literature from the peninsular. In fact, in my work I will argue that old European ideas of what Latin America should be - 'identity fables' that create national imaginaries, painting a picture of Latin America as exotic, magical, fundamentally different from Europe - are completely false and outdated. We cannot make a value judgement about a text on the provenance of its author, but only on the quality of the work. Nor is Latin America one homogeneous lump - each country, and within that regions, generations, classes, subcultures... - all have their own specificities which deserve to be explored.

Nonetheless, I don't think that any author can ever completely cut themselves off from their country. Somewhere, even if unconsciously, lived experiences, political, cultural and societal differences, even different geographies must have some affect. While I don't believe in essentialist, innate differences, I do believe that we cannot help internalising certain social constructions. If I were to write a novel, on no matter what subject, something of my English upbringing and mores would seep through, distinguishing it from a novel by someone from the States or Canada or Australia, and in the same way I think not everyone writing in Spanish can be lumped into 'hispanophone literature'.

Chirinos, Dalí and Ants

2011-12-14T02:26:00.000Z

I should really be asleep right now but when I turn out the lights and get into bed, my brain keeps whirring, telling me I can't get to sleep until I get to the bottom of the symbolism of ants. This probably sounds quite strange, but I've recently finished the quite exceptional El niño malo cuenta hasta cien y se retira by Juan Carlos Chirinos (which you will hear a lot about if you follow this blog as I hope to feature it in my future academic research) and one of the many things that struck me about it were the ants.

As a very short introduction (a more in depth one will come soon, possibly in the form of podcast), the story revolves around D.Jota who leaves Caracas for a journey to an exotic North. There he ends up staying with a young shepherdess named Fanny and her grandmother, near El Pueblo, where Svevo is the resident story teller. Ants figure prominently in two of his stories:

In the first, a woodcutter is about to chop down a tree when an ant appears from inside it and asks him not to, as it is home to the ants who provide food for the humans. They agree that the ants will vacate a tree each time he needs one and that way everyone is happy. It works out well until one day the woodcutter follows the ant to an enormous tree full of food. Overwhelmed by greed, the woodcutter chops down the tree and food rains on the village. The ant chastises the woodcutter for his ignorance, as the tree was the source of the food the ants brought to the villagers and now they have nothing left to bring them. Yet the ant sticks to his word and continues vacating trees to provide wood. One day the woodcutter finds out he is having a baby and goes to tell the ant the good news; the ant replies by giving the child it's name, Derdriu, which is the name of the grandmother.
In the second story, Svevo explains how Fanny's dog is the grandson of a dog that her grandfather Eugenio rescued from a giant ant in the middle of the forest.

Back in the present, D.Jota observes the ants storming his picnic and compares them to those back in Caracas.

Being a big fan of surrealism, I couldn't read these passages without thinking of Dalí, who made frequent use of ants in his work. I remember reading about a letter Dalí sent to Buñuel detailing the exact type of ants he wanted for Un Chien Andalou and how he imported them from Spain because the right type weren't to be found in France.

Chirinos is certainly aware of the surrealists' activities, as in one particularly touching scene D.Jota plays Exquisite Cadavers with his best friend (and more) Madaín. In this context, it's hard not to assume a link between the two, but what is the deeper symbolism?

I started googling psychoanalysis and ants, hoping Freud would have written a wonderful treatise about it somewhere. He didn't. I did however find various other mentions of ants in dream analysis. Most of them talk about ants as industrious, hard-working and patient creatures, stating that if you dream about ants you're likely to be productive the next day. That doesn't really seem to fit with either Chirinos' novel or Dalí's work. More interesting is the idea that ants symbolise death and decay, which certainly fits with the darker themes of El niño malo... I see them almost as a warning, creating a sense of foreboding, preparing the reader for the dark times ahead. I'd be very interested to know Chirinos' opinion on it though!

Spreading the word

2011-12-13T20:58:00.000Z

So, as I'm new to this blogging business, I thought I ought to try and spread the word. After all, there's no point trying to inspire people to read books, watch films or listen to music if no-one is actually reading it!

To that end, I've finally succumbed to Twitter. I still haven't quite worked it out yet, but you can tweet me @KatieBrown161

I'm also trying to get this blog on to some listings sites, especially Technorati, which has a particularly impressive blog directory (www.technorati.com). For that I need this code: DYXVY2APKEGT

Normal service will resume shortly!

Haji Khanem, the 'Lady of Colour'

2011-12-13T15:21:00.001Z

Trying to escape the monotony of essay writing, I was browsing BBC News, when I found this video about Haji Khanem, an Iraqi woman who at the age of 75 has become a celebrated artist in Amsterdam where she now lives. They call her the 'Lady of Colour' and it's easy to see why; the bold, striking colours she uses in her paintings give them all a vibrant, exuberant feel.

Worth watching, both for the story of a woman overcoming the subservience in which she had to spend most of her life, and for the pretty colours.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16152127

Gareth Gwynn on The Pantheon of Heros

2011-12-12T21:15:00.000Z

Last night I went to a live recording of a BBC Wales comedy radio show called The Pantheon of Heroes. The premise of the show is that comedian Elis James and his side-kick Ben Partridge go through the canon of great Welshmen and women trying to work out who's the most interesting. While it's packed with facts, it's also surprisingly funny - it is after all a comedy show, not a piece for BBC Learning.

Today I caught up with Gareth Gwynn, who writes the show with Elis and Ben, to discuss the writing process, as well as his own personal Welsh heroes.

Gareth Gwynn on Pantheon of Heroes by Never A Frown

The Pantheon of Heroes will be on BBC Wales from Friday 13th January 2012.

Matthew Bourne In Conversation

2011-12-11T12:27:00.001Z

Having just listened to the Matthew Bourne interview on Radio 2's Art Show from Friday night, I thought I should share my own interview here. It was a real honour to meet Matthew, as I whole heartedly agree that he is the greatest living choreographer, and a pleasure to discover that he is genuinely down-to-earth and so friendly.

We spoke about Nutcracker and how, 20 years on, it still seems so fresh, as well as the dark side of his work, what it's like choreographing musicals, the New Adventures Choreographer Award and much more.

Matthew Bourne interview by Never A Frown

Nutcracker! will be running at Sadler's Wells in London until 22 January, while Oliver is at the Wales Millennium Centre until 21 Jan.

Gilbert Adair - cinéphile, novelist, dreamer

2011-12-11T01:07:00.001Z

I've just seen the news that Gilbert Adair, writer and cinéphile, died on Thursday 8th December at the age of 66, and am deeply saddened by the news. As the obituaries and articles now appearing all attest, Adair was a great, self-deprecating wit and will be sorely missed.

(Picture from The Independent)

When I was 17 I discovered The Dreamers, Adair's own 2003 adaptation of his 1988 novel The Holy Innocents, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. It's the semi-autobiographical story of Matthew (Michael Pitt), a young, naive American cinéphile in Paris, whose life is changed when he meets enigmatic twins Isabelle (Eva Green) and Théo (Louis Garrel) at the Cinémathèque Française, becoming involved in an incestuous love triangle, getting swept up in the student riots of May '68 and generally making life imitate the art he so admires. While the film has been frequently criticised for the 'immoral' behaviour it portrays, both titles - The Dreamers and The Holy Innocents - prove that for Adair at least these characters are not to be condemned but empathised with.

I was instantly hooked on The Dreamers, watching it again and again, as well as devouring the book (in French, as I'm a Francophile just like Adair). I soon had no need to watch it, as I knew the entire film by heart! The intoxicating mixture of Parisian glamour, the excitement of May '68 and above all the utmost importance of cinema for these characters seemed to sum up everything I wanted at the time. As a suburban adolescent with a U-rated life, I felt just like Matthew, living vicariously through films, wishing I could join them at the Cinémathèque. When I eventually lived in Paris, I had Matthew's words ringing in my ears: "Only the French, only the French would house a cinema inside a palace". I was saddened that the Cinémathèque was no longer in the Palais Chaillot, nor a functioning cinema (although the new building in Bercy is visually arresting and I did get to see the robot from Metropolis there). I longed to enjoy the world of the film, the world in which Adair got to share, the cult of the cinema that flourished in 1960s Paris, where cinéphiles gathered at the front of the screen to catch images before they were diluted and voraciously discussed them afterwards, a world a million miles away from the modern Cineplex.

Through The Dreamers I discovered May '68, and a whole world of French history and culture, so it will always have a special place in my heart. But I was so caught up in this world of films, art, social history and politics that I didn't think much more about Adair. It was only years later when studying Georges Perec at university that I discovered that Adair had, to universal awe and acclaim, translated Perec's La Disparition. This is no mean feat as both the original and Adair's translation, A Void, are about 300 pages written completely without the letter E. While the name Adair meant nothing to the rest of my classmates, I was taken back to The Dreamers and struck by just how multi-talented Adair really was.

But this is still just a tiny part of Adair's vast oeuvre. His love of films is expressed in his time as Chief Film Critic for The Independent and a large collection of film criticism books, including the widely acclaimed Flickers - 100 pictures from 100 years of cinema, accompanied by typically acerbic essays. He wrote many other novels, including pastiches of Agatha Christie, The Death of The Author playing on Barthes' famous quotation, and most notably Love and Death in Long Island, which was made into a film staring John Hurt and is currently being adapted to the stage. I regret not yet having read more of Adair's work and look forward to enjoying his celebrated self-deprecating wit. But right now I'm off to watch The Dreamers again.

Getting to know Johann Gottfried Herder

2011-12-10T01:02:00.003Z

Today (other than investigating the casting of the new Les Mis film, more on that later), I have spent the day getting acquainted with Johann Gottfried Herder, the German philosopher seen as 'the father of nationalism, historicism and the Volksgeist' (Isaiah Berlin). Having not really studied much philosophy, I was barely aware of Herder before a few weeks ago. Now, I'm hooked.

While he's not the most attractive man, he writes with such passion and excitement (albeit sometimes at the expense of clarity) that you can't help but be swept along with it. And anyone with enough self-deprecating humour to call on of their first works Yet Another Philosophy of History is worth note in my book.

So, why this sudden interest in Herder? I'm currently working on an essay on Galician cultural identity, and my tutor Dr Craig Patterson (one of the most enthusiastic defenders of Galicia as a distinct cultural entity, and himself a very interesting read) vehemently insisted that I read Herder in preparation. I was confused - what did a late 18th century German have to do with 20th century Galicia? - but I duly obliged and now realise that not only is his writing relevant to 20th century Galicia, but to my very 21st century academic interests. It's as if he wrote what I have always felt but never really expressed, but I must remember that over 200 years ago, ideas like popularism, expressionism and especially pluralism were not only new, but clearly opposed to the dominant philosophical beliefs.

While I could write for hours about these ideas, I'll stick to just a few key points that really struck me.

Pluralism
Herder strongly believed that there was no such thing as a 'chosen people', or a particular civilization, past or present, that is superior to any other. There is no point in wishing to return to the high point of Ancient Greece, or in trying to force Western morals on indigenous communities as all cultures are incommensurable and only truly function as a product of their historical, geographical and social circumstances. He insisted on recognising the value of every culture, even if we don't understand it, because it is only within their native culture that people can fully achieve self-expression.

Expressionism
Perhaps my favourite of Herder's ideas is that everything we do, especially art, is a form of self-expression. While artists may insist that they make 'art for art's sake', Herder would argue that, even if it is unconsciously, we cannot help but reveal all of our personality in what we make, what we do.

"Art is a voice speaking, rather than creating an object"

Because we do not live in isolation, who we are is influenced by our social relations. Thus our expressions do not just reveal our personality, but that of the community in which we live. As someone who wants to spend my life reading, watching films, looking at art, listening to music and then writing about what that says about the creator and their community, it's nice to have someone support this idea so eloquently.

Language
Herder argues that language developed along with human powers of reason; as we began to recognise things by their distinguishing features, we create an internal language. As societies grow, the need for communication means these languages are shared, but because everyone has a different internal word for the same object, languages are full of synonyms. At the same time, there are no words for abstract concepts because we cannot recognise and distinguish these. Thus:

"With all its inadequacies in essentials, it has the greatest unnecessary abundance".

In short, what each language allows for, and what it doesn't, reveals a great deal about the lives, customs, beliefs and social structures of different cultures, so each language should be protected and cherished. If he could witness the extinction of languages across the world by the increasing dominance of English and other major languages, I'm sure Herder would turn in his grave!

For a clear and concise introduction to the originality of Herder's ideas, I recommend Isaiah Berlin's Vico & Herder: Two Studies in the History of Ideas.

Diego Rivera and Google

2011-12-09T23:00:00.000Z

So today was the 125th 'birthday' of celebrated Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera. To honour the occasion, Google's doodle of the day portrayed Rivera creating one of his great public murals:

The question is, what would Rivera think of it?

On the one hand, he was an active communist, so it could be assumed that he would be opposed to the appropriation of his work and character by one of the biggest corporations in the world.

However, the reason Rivera painted immense murals on public buildings was because he believed that art should not be locked away in galleries for the enjoyment of the elites, but available for everyone. Public art was a means of educating the people about Mexican history and identity. In that spirit, perhaps Rivera would approve of the doodle. After all, what is more public than the internet? And if the doodle inspired people who previously had not heard of Rivera before to investigate his work and then to delve further into the issues of the Mexican revolution and questions of identity (ethnic mestizaje, cultural tensions between the modern and the traditional, the American and the indigenous), then it would be achieving what Rivera set out to do all those years ago.

A speedy review of Merrily We Roll Along @ Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

2011-12-09T15:49:00.001Z

Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 musical retracing the failedfriendships and corporate sell-out of composer turned movie producer FranklinShepherd isn’t one of his best-known, probably because it was a spectacularflop when it first arrived on Broadway, closing after just 16 performances. Yetthe songs have lived on, especially the heartbreaking We Had a Good Thing Goingand Not a Day Goes By. Now the students at the RWCMD prove what a wonderful showthis is, moving effortlessly from laugh out loud comedy moments to powerfuldrama, packing a serious emotional punch. As the musical takes us back in time,the young cast, lead by Nicky Taliesin (Frank), Richard Russell Edwards(Frank’s old best friend and lyricist Charley) and Helena-May Harrison (thethird leg of the tripod and writer turned alcoholic drama critic Mary)masterfully take the characters from their world-weariness and regrets at thebeginning to their youthful enthusiasm at the end. Harrison was a particularhighlight: while Mary could very easily swerve into caricature, Harrison keepsher utterly believable. Overall, I was very impressed by the standard of theproduction and look forward to forthcoming productions at the RWCMD.

A longer, although much more rambly review, is available here: Xpress Culture 5/12/11 by Never A Frown

Performance In Place of War

2011-12-08T17:43:00.001Z

This is going to be one of the pointing out interesting things blogs today, rather than any real analysis.

Today, as part of the Beacon For Wales project (www.engagingwales.org, itself part of a larger plan for increasing academic public engagement, www.publicengagement.ac.uk), Professor James Thompson from the University of Manchester came to Cardiff University to talk about his work on the role of theatre In Place of War.

The project has been going on for over 10 years now, working with theatre artists living and working in warzones. Prof Thompson's idea of public engagement is a novel one, and one that really ought to be adopted by more academics. Instead of researching, thinking and then imparting wisdom in the traditional academic way, Thomson sees public engagement at the very heart of his work. Over the years, Thompson and his team have studied the importance of theatre in the very places where it is all too easy to assume that theatre would not exist, countries like Kosovo, Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Two central questions fuel this research:
- Why is there theatre in the war zone?
- Why do academics assume there isn't?
Over the years, Thompson and his team have tried to answer these questions by following and documenting the work of over 300 theatre companies in almost every major warzone. You can find details of most of these on the In Place of War website www.inplaceofwar.net - it's well worth spending some time on this site as the wealth of different programmes and what they achieve is fascinating. The project has also lead to a book:

However, it's not all about documenting and analysing the performances and theatre groups, but rather facilitating them and fostering communication between the disparate groups. Thomson reports that what the groups he works with find most useful is always the chance to interact with groups from other warzones around the world, to compare experiences and share good practice. Unsurprisingly, artists and performers in warzones can feel very isolated.

What was most interesting to me was the distinction between functional and diversionary theatre. That is, academics are traditionally interested in theatre that serves some purposes, facilitating public debates about contentious issues, educating or working through trauma. However, at the heart of the conflict, and especially when working with children, what is really necessary is theatre which distracts from the violence, allowing victims to relax and enjoy themselves. Rather than creating a false serious/escapist dialectic, Thompson insists that popular, escapist work should be valued and recognised as a valid response to the moment.

Professor Thompson's talk will soon be uploaded to the Beacon for Wales site. I recommend you watch it and explore the In Place of War website.

What is Culture?

2011-12-08T00:03:00.000Z

It's a good question and one that I've encountered again and again in class and on the radio. An anthropologist would say that culture is everything that makes us human, that isn't the result of science. Different groups - tribes, nations, social classes, generations - can be said to have a different 'culture', encompassing ways of expressing themselves, rituals, beliefs. However, in every day parlance, culture is often taken to mean 'high culture': classical painting, sculpture, opera, ballet, auteur cinema. What I'm interested is somewhere in between: all kinds of artistic expression, including that high culture, but also popular culture, comedy, rom-coms, pulp fiction, musicals, graffiti - things that are often written off by the self-proclaimed defenders of 'culture' (although graffiti for one seems to be becoming rather establishment these days...).

'Culture' is such a loaded term that I have been criticised for being elitist in calling my radio show The Culture Show. Yet as much as I tried to avoid the perils of the word culture (and also the stealing from BBC2 implied in the name), there was no other word that conveyed the huge range of things I want to talk about: literature, music, theatre, dance, art and films of all kinds. So culture it is.

But as I've established, culture is a scarily vast term. So what exactly do I want to do? Well, as I'm forced to narrow my interests into some form of coherent PhD proposal, I'm not ready to let the others go just yet, so this is a place for me to consider cultural things that interest me. Sometimes that might just be 'This play/exhibition/film is awesome, go see/watch!', sometimes it might be an interview with someone that I've been lucky enough to meet through the radio. But what really gets me going is cultural analysis, so there will mainly be musings on what can be learnt from the book/film/musical/picture in question. I've always had incredibly multi-disciplinary interests (which is why I've always taken the broadest academic path, nothing can be vaguer than 'European Studies' which doesn't even know where the limits of 'Europe' are), and what I'm learning in class will undoubtedly prompt reflections here, so expect the following to appear somewhere:
-Questioning 'identity' in all its forms
-Nationalism, national identity and foundational myths
-Psychoanalysis
-Cultural mobility/intertextuality
-Translation and the politics thereof
-Foulcault and discursive techniques
-Orientalism and post-colonialism
...and probably a whole lot more! As for the source of materials, Spanish and French speaking countries will feature heavily, but I have spent the last 5 years studying 'Europe' so those influences will certainly crop up too, and as I currently live in Cardiff, how could I not be fascinated by Welsh culture?

I hope this will be not just interdisciplinary but multi-media. As well written ramblings, I will be putting my finely honed talking into a microphone skills to good use making podcasts, especially when visuals aren't essential. And when I eventually learn to use my camera, I hope to post videos too. And finally, I hope that all this inspires you to check out some of the things I talk about. My passion for languages, for travel, for research, for cultural analysis, was inspired by the films, books, music, theatre and art which I discovered one way or another and never cease to fascinate me. I hope some of them will fascinate you too.