There are a particular group of movies that evoke a strong sense of anticipation within an audience, and 2012 sees the release of a whole plethora of them in fact. It’s difficult to explain, but this aspect of universal yearning is becoming more apparent in today’s cinema. It’s not hyperbole to label The Dark Knight Rises as perhaps the biggest movie of the decade.
Category: Entertainment
Give Peace a Chance – John & Yoko’s Bed-in for Peace: A Review
Some Background
Following John Lennon’s and Yoko Ono’s marriage in March 1969, the couple embarked on a campaign for peace from their hotel beds, beginning in Amsterdam and moving on to Montreal. In addition to the bed-ins, the campaign involved sending acorns during April to world leaders to symbolise peace, hoping that they would plant them. In the spring of 2009, Yoko again sent acorns to world leaders in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the acorns sent in 1969. In that same spirit, Joan Athey sent copies of this book to world leaders, including Prince Charles and President Obama.
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Nicki Minaj: From Jeffree Star to Starships
It’s the 8th of April 2012 and ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded’ has just become the first album by a female rap artist to chart at number one in the United Kingdom, and on its debut too. Just as ‘Starships were meant to fly’, so it seems, was Nicki Minaj. Racetrack rhymes dipped in a form of chaotic genius (never mind the occasional odd peculiar noise), this is a woman that tightly fastens a new meaning to the word ‘rap’ – accompanied with ribbons, rainbows and an acid high that would make Liam Gallagher ditch the credit card and pipe. As eccentric and inventive as Gaga, Minaj is a woman that can emulate the unpredictability and entertainment value of bigger names – but without taking herself too seriously.
July 2007 saw the release of her first mixtape, a grassroots rap, edgier collection and light-years away from the technicolor trollop her critics accuse her of. New Nicki fans won’t find a vocalist, let alone a popstar on this thing. ‘Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop’ features the already prominent Lil’ Wayne and with other gems like ‘Dilly Dally’, ‘Sunshine’, and ‘I’m Cumin’ – the release was a success, just not commercially. Her further two EPs ‘Sucka Free’ and ‘Beam me up Scotty’ both included Lil’ Wayne again – and the first, an appearance from Lil’ Kim & Gucci Mane on ‘Wanna Minaj?’. Nicki’s a girl who’s had a healthy contacts book from the word go, hardly a ‘starship’ but certainly a metaphorical jetpack.
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Selling Out – The Question of Moral Integrity in Popular Music
‘It’s not about the money, money, money, we don’t need your money, money, money
Just want to make the world dance, forget about the price tag’
I first heard this song as played through the built-in music system of a high-street chain store. The irony was not lost on me, in fact, within the context of the busy store it seemed like an encouragement for customers to forget the ‘price-tag’ of their items and enter into a reckless consumerist spree, buying any item that might aid them in the dance of life.
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An Interview with Current Swell
With a rustic sincerity that manages to string country sounds from around the globe, Current Swell have a catalog of sounds that would do most artist’s a creative justice – how could I not make contact? I managed to prise a few answers from Current Swell’s Scott Stanton and dig deeper behind the folksy charm of these Canadian ‘news roots’ lads.
Why Adele?
Being a music writer, a music listener, and a music fanatic, I find it extraordinarily hard to miss the (forgive the phrase) ‘word on the street’. And unless you’re a chronic agoraphobic or have severely disabled hearing, you’ll know the word on the street too – it’s Adele. In fact, it’s been on the street for so long now, we’re starting to question it’s status as an elaborated metaphor and see it increasingly as a permanent piece of iconography – an image of crude graffiti – perhaps depicting a penis – attracting gazes from all pedestrians who happen to pass within its vicinity. But let‘s face it, bleach and a scouring pad isn’t even going to do the job. And when you can’t beat ’em, write about ’em.
Now in no way at all am I implying ‘Adele’ is someone to beat – as a recording artist, yes – but I have no intention of pursuing the career. The big question is, why is she someone to beat? Why is this generic, cockney, overweight lass from London suddenly the most successful singer of the 21st century? In effect it’s one of the simplest reasons that any of us can fathom, but in a cloud of opposing ideas and conflicting messages it seems nobody is quite equipped with the means to provide it. For me, it’s a hilarious irony – the fact that for years we’ve systematically debated and condemned the horrors of sexualisation, glamorisation and objectification of women – but the minute the perfect anomaly arises within our midst, the only three words we can muster is – what the fuck. When we see a buck to the trend we ask ourselves “Why“? We assumed that in the world of sexual identikit pop stars, that the rise of the antithesis to that very idea would just simply not be possible. Let’s break it down.