Candy Says

2007-07-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

Buy those Blogger people a drink!

Whaddaya know, this here blog, which was lost during a recent site overhaul, has been returned to me, safe, unharmed and almost sober! Here you'll find all my posts from the first half of the year - including the one in which the guy in India refers to my 'cool blog'! However, future posts can be found at http://newyorkcandy.blogspot.com/

Cheers!

John Peel's Maida Vale studio set to close

2007-07-02T08:30:00.000-07:00

The BBC are planning to close their famous Maida Vale studios in west London, explaining it's not suitable for the "21st-century digital age". The closure of the studio, which was home to John Peel's classic radio sessions, is part of a six-year "reprioritisation" plan for the BBC. The Smiths, Led Zeppelin, Blur and Nirvana are a few of the rock heavyweights to lay down sessions at the studio.
FULL STORY:
http://www.nme.com/news/the-smiths/29364

SHANGHAI MAGLEV TRAIN

2007-07-02T08:17:00.000-07:00

The Shanghai Magnetic Levitation Demonstration Operation Line is the first commercial high-speed maglev line in the world. The train runs from Longyang Road station on the Shanghai subway line 2 to Pudong International Airport ...
The total track length is about 30 kilometres, with an additional, separate track leading to a maintenance facility. The train takes 7 minutes and 20 seconds to complete the journey, and its top operational speed is 431 kilometers per hour. As of November 2006, the one way ticket price is 50 China Yuan Renminbi (RMB) (about $6.33 US dollars) and 40 RMB (US$5.06) for airline passengers with proof of an airline ticket purchase. One-way VIP ticket costs 100 RMB (US $12.66). A round-trip ticket costs 80 RMB (US$10.13).

Working Class Hero - Green Day

2007-07-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

Extraordinary rendition of the John Lennon song

SARAJEVO 2007

2007-07-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

Photos by author. Click on photos to enlarge.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SIMIAN

2007-07-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

A friend writes: 'I was lucky enough to see [at the Manchester International Festival] the premier of Monkey: Journey to the West, the new Damon Albarn/Jamie Hewitt creation in the form of a Chinese opera based on the myth (you must remember Monkey from the old days). It was truly sensational, it had everything. I don't know if they plan on going global, but judging by the reviews they will, and when it ends up Stateside, you should have a peek. It really is amazing.'

The following from Pitchfork Media

Eff that Cirque du Soleil racket. What your date really wants to see this season is Monkey: Journey to the West, the previously mentioned "circus opera" from director Chen Shi-Zheng, featuring an original score by one Damon Albarn and visual design work by Gorillaz artiste Jamie Hewlett. Yes, Monkey: Journey to the West - with "over 40 Chinese acrobats, Chinese vocalists and performing martial artists" and a story "based on an ancient Chinese legend" (so says the MySpace) - will bring you miles closer to your date's heart and/or pants than the usual Chinese takeout and Big Trouble in Little China viewing (on VHS, of course). Good news for aspiring lovebirds in Manchester, Paris, and Berlin: Monkey is heading to a performance space near you!

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/43661-damon-albarn-scored-imonkeyi-circus-opera-tours

DAMON ALBARN AND JAMIE HEWITT TALK ABOUT 'MONKEY' ON YOUTUBE

That's just sick

2007-06-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

Four things inspired me to continue with the blog - five, actually, if you count the two weeks' European vacation that's just ended (and I'm now back in New York City - my carpel tunnel syndrome, or RSI, as we Brits call it, seemingly cured), when I pondered many things, but essentially the pointlessness of this whole blogging exercise to which I'd become enslaved, obsessed, addicted. Is anyone reading it? Do they care? Why should I care about putting stuff up here? On that subject, in my defence, I have a guy in India who said a few weeks ago that he'd found my blog by accident. He was surfing, he explained. "Hey, cool blog!" he had the generosity to email. That was nice. I suppose it's what a blogger who never gets any Comments wants to hear. (I understand some Liverpool University students - social studies, I think - are told to put this blog on their recommended reading list. Flattering, of course. I feel humbled by that, if a little bit pressurised to keep feeding this inexplicably ravenous monster. To maintain the downstealing.)

Number one (remember, the inspiration bit) was that great live footage of Underworld doing Born Slippy from YouTube that I put up here, and which you'll find a few postings below. That's definitely one to share with the world. In my more philosophical moments, I get to thinking it should even make for a better world! I could go on about my favourite song of all time but I'll spare you that right now. Suffice, I suggest you stop reading this and scroll down a little bit. Enjoy the Underworld show.

Number two is 'Sicko', the new Michael Moore documentary, which is probably in a movie theater/cinema near you right now. I went to see it with a couple of friends tonight and feel very obliged to urge you to go see it as soon as possible. And to tell all your friends about it. It's simple enough and Moore doesn't do anything more that point out the bleedin' obviousness of how the American health care system is astoundingly messed up. Correction, the system is functioning superbly, highly, highly profitably. Oh, yes. It's just that suckers like us, the inhabitants of this country, yer average taxpayers, are being impoverished by the health insurance, pharmaceutical and general medical industries. And our politicians. Yet we just sit back, let those people make their trillions, while we get sick, unnecessarily, we die, unnecessarily, without a word of protest, without a call or an email to our local representatives. Hey, most don't know who their local politicians are. That's the biggest scandal. But even if you're just picking up a prescription at Duane Reid, get the manager and yell about the price you're paying - or about the fact that you're paying at all, because, as the movie points out, the Brits, the French and Canada are getting this stuff for free, or close to it. The subject of Moore's film may sound a little on the dry side. A tad boring. But believe me, it's massively entertaining. Heart wrenching. Gut wrenching. If you consider yourself a caring inhabitant of the United States of America, you have to go see it. And, OK, wait for it on DVD, if you must. Just make sure you see it.

Number three is the Guardian article about the origination of "D'oh!". The world has to know that it goes back to the venerable James Finlayson in the Laurel and Hardy movies. Stuff like this is important.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2115180,00.html

Number four? Well, someone sent me a link to The Clash doing Guns of Brixton. For a second, I thought it was a the second version of The Clash (the rubbish one, y'know, the one with the male models replacing Mick Jones. I saw them in Liverpool, and it was pretty embarrassing.), but it's okay. It's authentic. The real Clash, in impressive form, at the Capitol in New Jersey. And more of the world has to see it.

Rip it up and start again, England

2007-06-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

The Guardian

Forget the scoreline in Estonia [3-0 to Steve McClaren's team], England were once again terrible. Perhaps it's time not to sack the manager ... but to drop every single player.
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/06/06/scottys_blog_on_england.html

THE SOPRANOS In praise of

2007-06-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stone

'...These are ordinary guys, too dumb or weak to function in the real world, tough guys who turn into helpless little kids when they have to wait in line at the pizza place...'
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/06/01/pop-life-ciao-tony-why-well-never-see-another-show-as-epic-as-the-sopranos/

BECKHAM Reality bites for big-talking Galaxy

2007-06-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

The Guardian

Los Angeles's hideous start to the season is threatening to ruin David Beckham's first year in America before he even arrives.
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/06/05/reality_bites_for_bigtalking_g.html

UNDERWORLD RETURN in New York

2007-06-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

Underworld play their first shows in 5 years this summer, including the Central Park Summerstage, NYC, on Sept. 14. And to celebrate ...

UK cops take no chances with full moon

2007-06-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

London - A British police force is to put more officers on the streets during full moons because they believe the lunar cycle may be linked to violent behaviour, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. Sussex Police have found that drinkers in the seaside city of Brighton and Hove are particularly aggressive during full moons, despite mixed findings from researchers who have examined the issue previously.
FULL STORY AT:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=nw20070605194402159C275863

HAND JIVE IN NYC

2007-06-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

timeoutnyc.com

If someone looks at you and swipes a thumb from ear to chin, you either (1) have food on your face, (2) are about to get cut or (3) have been “Bar Coded.” Lilibet Foster and Lynn Fischer, both 39, invented Bar Code, a sign language used for picking up strangers. This is not a joke.
FULL STORY AT:
http://www.timeoutny.com/newyork/Details.do?page=1&xyurl=xyl://TONYWebArticles1/598/dating/hand_jive.xml

Giuliani: Worse Than Bush

2007-06-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

from Rolling Stone

'...Yes, Rudy is smarter than Bush. But his political strength -- and he knows it -- comes from America's unrelenting passion for never bothering to take that extra step to figure shit out. If you think you know it all already, Rudy agrees with you...'
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/14952564/giuliani_worse_than_bush

No Regrets: Piaf Picture May Not Be Great, But Full of Feeling

2007-06-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

NY Observer review

Olivier Dahan’s La Vie En Rose, from a screenplay by Mr. Dahan and Isabelle Sobelman (in French with English subtitles), moved me as no other musical biopic has ever moved me—which is not to say that this overlong French production is a good, much less great, movie (soap opera, some might say). Others might complain that it wears its tender heart on its sleeve. No matter.
FULL REVIEW AT:
http://nyobserver.com/2007/no-regrets-piaf-picture-may-not-be-great-full-feeling

WATCH PREVIEW

Magazine at Hurrah, NYC

2007-06-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

In what, pre-YouTube, would have been referred to as a rare clip, here's Magazine, the Manchester postpunk legends, in top form performing the majestic ‘Permafrost’.
http://artclips.free.fr/magazine-permafrost-vjmemoirs.htm

Is Coney Island Worth Saving?

2007-06-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

NY Observer

As the amusement haven sizzles into its final summer before Joseph Sitt vies for luxury condos and hotels, some can’t wait for the ‘face-lift’.
http://nyobserver.com/2007/coney-island-worth-saving

'Star Trek' teleport a step closer

2007-06-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

The Independent

Scientists have set a new record in sending information through thin air using the revolutionary technology of quantum teleportation - although Mr Spock may have to wait a little longer for a Scotty to beam him up with it.
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2611757.ece

Bright Eyes: Conor Oberst’s Wild Seven Nights in New York

2007-06-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stone

'... Oberst is eventually going to have to embrace the fact that he is one of the best songwriters of his generation, a blessing and a curse that not even Lou Reed can help him bear (though Reed could certainly pass along the manual, or something)...'
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/06/04/bright-eyes-recapping-conor-obersts-wild-seven-nights-at-new-yorks-town-hall/

Age of £200k-a-week player looms

2007-06-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

The Independent

Premiership wages soared by nine per cent last season, and the new £2.7bn television deals will probably lead to English football's first £200,000-a-week footballer within three years ...
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/news/article2600194.ece

'TEN CANOES' How do you make a film in the Australian bush among people who have never seen a camera?

2007-06-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Independent

'...An earlier indigenous film, The Yolngu Boy, had been made specifically to try to stop the petrol-sniffing that was going on in the area. In the film the lead character dies from his addiction, a deterrent if ever there was one. Except that the actor then appeared alive and well in the township, so some of the Yolngu people thought that he must have come back to life and started sniffing petrol once again...'
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://arts.independent.co.uk/film/features/article2600326.ece

Station to station with Bowie

2007-06-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

The Independent

In early 1973, he got a call from an old friend, asking if he wanted to join a rock'n'roll band. Soon, Geoff MacCormack was on the road with Bowie - an adventure that would last for three years. As his new book chronicling the seminal tour is published, he shares his photographs and memories of life as a Spider From Mars.

'... David and I had the delightful problem of getting from LA to Japan. This meant criss-crossing the North Pacific on one of P&O's finest, the SS Oronsay. Not as grand as the SS Canberra - smaller, older and shabbier - we rechristened her the Old Rancid...'

READ FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/features/article2609666.ece

Mick Jagger's Secret Divorce

2007-06-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Daily Mail

He's outlasted Jerry, Bianca and Carla and helped the Stones earn £1 BILLION. But now the man they call Rupie The Groupie has quit, what will the famously frugal Mick do without him?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=459659&in_page_id=1773

LIVERPOOL RESPONDS TO UEFA ATTACK ON FANS

2007-06-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

liverpoolfc.com

Liverpool Chief Executive Rick Parry today responded to Uefa spokesman William Gaillard's scathing attack on the club's fans by insisting that his comments shouldn't be allowed to cloud over the real issue ahead of a meeting between the British government and Uefa this week.
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N156095070604-1103.htm

Hirst unveils £50m diamond skull

2007-06-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

"It works much better than I imagined. I was slightly worried that we'd end up with an Ali G ring," he added.
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6712015.stm

'Exhausting, senses-stretching and exhilarating' GOGOL BORDELLO

2007-06-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

thisislondon.co.uk

'...the Ukrainian, American, Ethiopian and Russian collective - sometimes six-strong, sometimes eight - offered a mind-boggling cauldron of noise ..'
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/gig-23363894-details/Gogol+Bordello/gigReview.do?reviewId=23398761

SON OF SAM New York's Summer of Murder - 30 Years Later

2007-06-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS SPECIAL

'... during that sweltering summer, a monster with a thing for dark-haired women was on the prowl. And beneath the dance beat there was a dread that had a name ...'

http://www.nydailynews.com/features/sonofsam/summer.html

The great pretenders

2007-06-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

timesonline

'In an era when a ticket to see the real Take That costs more than £60, and the cover version has been newly legitimised, it is easy to see the appeal of paying £47 to see Fake That when, into the bargain, you get three days’ free camping, and the chance to see Pink Fraud, Antarctic Monkeys and Oasish as well.'
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1861516.ece

'Reformation' - The Fall

2007-06-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

'Liverpool fans are the worst in Europe'

2007-06-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

"What other set of fans steal tickets from their fellow supporters or out of the hands of children?"

LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - Liverpool supporters have been identified as the worst behaved at European matches in a report to be handed by UEFA to the British Government in Brussels on Tuesday.
FULL STORY AT:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=436072&cc=5901

Liverpool fans 'stole final tickets'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/06/04/sfnliv04.xml&DCMP=EMC-spo_04062007

THIS IS OUR SOUND Liverpool

2007-06-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

from The Guardian, UK

If you want to understand the Liverpool music scene, pop into Korova (39-41 Fleet Street, korova-liverpool.com) on a Friday afternoon. The bar is run by electro-rockers Ladytron, with dim rectangular orange lights hovering over booths, a DJ and projector screen at the rear of the room and thorny branches painted on to the wall behind the bar.

But dotted around the bar's modernist trimmings, is a local musical roll call. Ian McNabb - a Liverpool legend who made his name with the Icicle Works during the city's new-psychedelia wave in the 80s - might be heckling Danny from Ladytron about his haircut, Pete Wylie of the Mighty Wah! will be talking one of the staff from local superclub Cream under the table, and Dave McCabe from the Zutons won't be far away.

"The best thing about Liverpool is that it's small," says McNabb. "London is too big - there's millions of little scenes. In Liverpool it's just round here. You get all the haircuts here; the fringes and the black jeans, and then you get old farts like me. Everyone's in bands or trying to be in bands - it's great."

FULL ARTICLE - AND TAKE THE AUDIO TOUR - AT:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/may/26/saturday.budget

Strokes guitarist writes screenplay

2007-06-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

The Strokes' guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. is set to write a screenplay. He is set to adapt Charles Bukowski's novel 'Pulp' - the story charts the surreal adventures of a private investigator.
http://www.nme.com/news/albert-hammond-jr/28686

Metal Giants Invade West 53 Street

2007-06-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

from NY Times UrbanEye

A Herculean task if ever there was one: Richard Serra somehow managed to haul his monumental works into MoMA and install them for a 40-year-retrospective opening Sunday. It was worth it. Michael Kimmelman gives him “the best, and rarest, compliment you can give to any artist” — that his “shapes and experiences are new.” Exploring those “unprecedented variations on dumbfounding spirals and loops” is a dizzying trip through the history of modern sculpture, and its future, he says. So go get spun.
Richard Serra Sculpture, through Sept. 10, MoMA, 11 West 53 Street, (212) 708-9400.
www.moma.org

Richard Serra's Torqued Ellipse IV (1998) and Intersection II (1992) being installed in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden at The Museum of Modern Art

Arcade Fire cover Clinic

2007-05-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

Arcade Fire paid tribute to British band Clinic by covering one of their songs at their concert in Portland earlier this week.The Canadian band performed a version of 'Distortions', which appeared on Clinic's 2000 debut album 'Internal Wrangler'.
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.nme.com/news/arcade-fire/28635

SPACE INVADERS The Return

2007-05-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Play the game at:

http://www.neave.com/games/invaders/

'Haven't you had enough of politics?' LANA OBRADOVIC

2007-05-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

New York Daily News

When Lana Obradovic announced that she wanted to study politics in college, her mother was more than a little shocked. "Haven't you had enough of politics?" she asked her daughter. It was a valid question. Obradovic, her younger sister and their mother had narrowly escaped Bosnia in the early 1990s during the turbulent period when ethnic cleansing was rampant in the former Yugoslavia.

READ FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/2007/05/30/2007-05-30_havent_you_had_enough_of_politics.html

Joy Division movie "Control" a disappointment

2007-05-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) - Any biography of a fringe performer with a cult following must give the uninitiated some clue as to what the fuss was about or it will never appeal beyond a small circle. Anton Corbijn's "Control," covering the short life of 1970s British rocker Ian Curtis of Joy Division, captures the period nicely. It features lots of music from that time and has decent performances, but it fails to make the case for its fallen star.
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSN2926745720070529

Westwood line on art suffers in translation

2007-05-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

from The Guardian, UK

Designer Vivienne Westwood has unveiled her cultural manifesto at the Guardian Hay festival, in the form of a dialogue between such characters as Diogenes the Cynic, Alice, Pinocchio, the Mad Hatter and Aristotle. Mounting an assault on the theory that art is subjective, and in particular on the conceptual visual art produced in the wake of artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Westwood said yesterday: "In visual art, I don't believe that anything is happening at the moment."
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2007/story/0,,2089872,00.html

''Music has not yet been conceptualised by the art mafia, though they are trying. We do not accept a symphony composed on the remaining three keys of a broken piano, accompanied by the random throwing of marbles at a urinal. Yet its equivalent is the latest thing in the visual arts. (Aren'tya OD'd on the latest thing?) Items selected from real life and set up as art do not represent a view of life. The famous urinal is still a urinal whatever you do with it. (OK! Visual semantics and presentation skills - not art, not a musical instrument.) It is imitation that reveals the whole view ..."
READ WESTWOOD'S FULL MANIFESTO HERE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2077855,00.html

Berlin Graffiti Bag

2007-05-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

on sale at MoMA, New York

http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Graffiti%20Bags,%20District%20Office%20Alexanderplatz;%20Messenger%20Bag_10451_10001_35957_-1__13652___

Dead rock stars in Doc Marten's

2007-05-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

... including Joe Strummer

Ramones join Kurt Cobain advert row
Joey Ramone isn't happy about selling boots... or going to heaven. The Ramones have hit out at the same footwear advert Nirvana objected to, that uses dead rock stars to promote boots. Joey Ramone features in the advert for Dr Martens along with Kurt Cobain and Joe Strummer, wearing the boots in heaven.
http://www.nme.com/news/ramones/28596

'You Only Live Twice" - The Strokes

2007-05-29T13:14:00.000-07:00

Warren Fu's alternate video. Fu did visual effects for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings

Von Sudenfed - 'Can't Get Enough'

2007-05-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Von Sudenfed are Mark E. Smith of The Fall and Mouse on Mars. The video below is 'Can't Get Enough', the first single from the album "Tromatic Reflexxions” (on Domino, same label as Clinic and the Arctic Monkeys). In its review of the album, the New York Times says: "Mark E. Smith ... is like a great gutbucket improviser with his flat Manchester whine. No one has ever pronounced “can’t get enough” quite like that: roughly, “ken gedenowuhhh.” ..."

Review of “Tromatic Reflexxions” in NY Times
“Jbak Lois Lane” is a field recording of a quarrel between Mr. Smith and what sounds like a man riding a lawnmower. “Where’s your boss?” demands Mr. Smith ..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/arts/music/28choi.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

Plunge in CD Sales Shakes Up Big Labels

2007-05-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

NY Times

"... Despite costly efforts to build buzz around new talent and thwart piracy, CD sales have plunged more than 20 percent this year, far outweighing any gains made by digital sales at iTunes and similar services. Aram Sinnreich, a media industry consultant, said the CD format is in its death throes. “Everyone in the industry thinks of this Christmas as the last big holiday season for CD sales,” Mr. Sinnreich said, “and then everything goes kaput.”
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/arts/music/28musi.html?ref=arts

The McQueen Ferrari

2007-05-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

The ex-Steve McQueen 1963 Ferrari 250GT Lusso Chassis #4891 will be the centerpiece of Christie’s auction of Exceptional Motor Cars at the Monterey Jet Center on August 16.

Touring Exhibition; 26 April – 9 May, Christie's, 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York; 24 May – 31 May, Christie's, 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York; 1 June – 3 June, Greenwich Concours d’Elegance, Greenwich, CT.

MORE INFO AT:
http://christies.com/features/aug07/mcqueen/overview.asp

MADE IN MANCHESTER Mark Radcliffe

2007-05-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

from The Guardian

Ten years after his 'heroic failure' on the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show, Mark Radcliffe has picked up his fifth Sony award. He defends Radio 2's success but rues the decline of its commercial rivals.

FULL STORYAT:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2089354,00.html

NHS dentists turn away patients with bad teeth

2007-05-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

from the Telegraph, UK

Britain's NHS dentists are refusing to treat patients with poor teeth because they do not get paid enough to carry out the work, it was claimed yesterday. Surgeries say they are being forced to turn people away because they are not given extra money for those who require extensive treatment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/28/nhs28.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_28052007

American dream too little, too soon for revitalised Beckham

2007-05-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

from The Guardian

Real Madrid are realising what they will miss as David Backham leads their title push.
'That would be fine if Beckham were a spent force. Instead he appears reborn.'
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2089582,00.html

25 acts you must see this summer

2007-05-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

from The Guardian

'Jim and William Reid scowled as only they can. Jim looked like a Glaswegian hard man recently released after a 10-year stretch; William like a lag recently released from a pie shop after a lock-in ...'

With the ever-expanding festival season about to kick off, OMM writers pick the bands you can't afford to miss in fields, in stadiums or at sweaty clubs across Britain - while some of the top stars tell us just what we can expect from them.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,2080682,00.html

Selling the Brits Abroad

2007-05-27T14:15:00.001-07:00

from the Belfast Telegraph

" ...Our (their) traditions, according to Lonely Planet, are being eroded by an obsession with TV talent shows, junk food, porn, vandalism and nuisance behaviour caused by binge-drinking. We (they) idolise celebrities "even though their 'celebrity' status is based on little more than the ability to sing a jolly tune, look good in tight trousers, or kick a ball in the right direction". At which point Lonely Planet begins to sound like my granny complaining about Top of the Pops in 1972..."
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/features/daily-features/article2584683.ece

Gormley's figures appear on London's Horizon

2007-05-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

Click on photo to enlarge.

Across London, figures have been gradually appearing on pavements and on rooftops. The newest addition to the landscape popped up on Waterloo Bridge. Under the supervision of artist Antony Gormley, the 31 cast iron figures that form his latest work, Event Horizon, are being installed around the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank.

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/article-23394709-details/Gormley

Balkan Beat Box, Nu Med (Crammed Discs)

2007-05-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

from The Guardian, UK

Don't be put off by the title - Balkan Beat Box are far more varied than their name suggests. This is an all-purpose, world-music electro band from New York who attempt a bit of everything. There are Balkan gypsy influences here, to be sure, with some rousing brass playing matched against beats and hip-hop.
FULL REVIEW AT:
http://music.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,,2087323,00.html

Starring New York, City of Grit and Glamour

2007-05-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

Click on photo to enlarge.

from the NY Times

' ... The exhibition and its offshoots, including a series on Turner Classic Movies and special material added to Grand Central’s tours, do more than take viewers behind the scenes and through the city’s history on screen. They illustrate how film has made New York a communal experience, familiar even to people who have never been here. Hemingway applied the phrase to Paris, but New York in the movies is another kind of movable feast...'
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/25/movies/25cell.html

A Latin Fiesta, Near the B.Q.E.

2007-05-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

from the NY Times

SUANY CARCAMO, stout and smiling, works under a smudged white tent midway down the Bay Street side of the Red Hook ball fields; you’ll know you’re at the right place if there’s a hulking aluminum pot of beans warming on the griddle next to Ms. Carcamo, who will be smacking little balls of wheat flour dough into thick tortillas and tossing them on the griddle to cook.
http://events.nytimes.com/2006/08/23/dining/reviews/23unde.html

'The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum' - Fun Boy Three

2007-05-24T18:06:00.001-07:00

MALL MERCIES

2007-05-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

So the challenge, from a Brit friend planning an NYC trip, was to find a good outlet mall within striking distance of Manhattan, meaning reachable by public transportation. The verdict's in:

‘Woodbury Commons is a great shopping outlet about 40 miles north of NYC. You can get a bus from Port Authority. Maybe go to http://www.premiumoutlets.com/ Garden State Mall and Paramus Mall, New Jersey, are also good but I think Woodbury is the best, they have everything. Maybe ask at the hotel. They will have all that information.

‘Suppose he could check out Woodbury Common, though it doesn't seem super-heavy on sporting goods. Not sure there is any such place. But this one lists scores of brands, some of which are sporty.’
http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=7

'There is the jersey garden outlets mall - google that one not sure what town it is in but know it is good once you get the town can get p/t info that goes there'

‘I have a hunch that ain't gonna happen … unless MAYBE by sporting
goods they mean golf, but even in that case and even if I'm wrong in
general, the public transport part probably ain't possible or worth
the trouble. And these outlet malls often sound better than what they
are. Don't know what sporting goods they want, but REI (plus dot-com)
is a very good nationwide bricks & clicks company and maybe they have
a "clearance" button on their site. Or then there's this "Google"
thing - whatever that is. Just one idiot's opinion.’

‘Woodberry commons. 1 hr north on bus from port authority’

'If they are planning on dropping some cash, I'd recommend heading to NewJersey for tax reasons. Not sure how specialized their sports interests are but I love Sports Authority and Dick's is another big chain. But that's about the extent of my knowledge. I'd google "malls near trainstations in New Jersey" or something.'

'I think this may be the closest one.
http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=7 '

‘Sorry, i haven't got a clue on this!'

HEY, HEY IT'S THE MONDAYS

2007-05-24T14:21:00.000-07:00

IF THERE'S one man you would want to lead a British music invasion of America it would be Mr Manchester Anthony Wilson... Despite still being treated for cancer, the music impresario has recently flown back from the US where he has been championing the cause of the rejuvenated Happy Mondays (left) and taking the best of British bands across the pond. Tony's In The City, the Manchester born and bred international music convention, is being shipped Stateside this year in the form of the first In The City of New York, which kicks off on June 13 and 14.
Read full article at:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/music/rock_and_pop/s/1007/1007557_hey_hey_its_the_mondays.html

A glass of dry white Calvin, please

2007-05-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Cockney rhyming slang is alive (see Jeremy Clarkson's 'ginger beer' faux pas below) and evolving as we, um, speak, making every visit to the website that keeps pace with, and helps develop, this amazing language an often-hilarious experience. Most everyone in the English-speaking world - especially if you watch 'EastEnders' - is familiar with rhyming slang such as ‘apples and pears’ (for stairs), ‘plates of meat’ (feet) and ‘me ol’ China’ (mate, as in friend, from 'China plate' – geddit?) - but there are recent additions to the dictionary, allowing us phrases such as ‘A glass of dry white Calvin, please’, ‘He’s on the Phil Neville” and ‘Pass me the Franz Klammer.” Gems one and all, and they and many, many more can be found at www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk. Interestingly, they invite readers to submit new or forgotten slang. I may have a festive one for them: Let's drink and be Todd Terry.

Great Britain: this is your life

2007-05-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

Click on photo to enlarge.

from The Telegraph

Everyday photographs are the stars in Tate Britain's blockbuster show which surveys a century and a half of our social history.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/05/22/badorment122.xml

iPod sex toy arouses Apple's ire

2007-05-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

from the Sydney Morning Herald

A vibrating sex toy accessory for the iPod appears to have got Apple's legal team all hot and bothered. Adult store Ann Summers, seller of the "iGasm", told the British tabloid News of the World that Apple's legal team had threatened it with legal action over its advertising posters.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/digital-music/ipod-toy-arouses-apples-ire/2007/05/24/1179601537754.html

Triplex Penthouse at the Plaza Hotel Set to Sell for $56 Million

2007-05-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

Click on photo to enlarge.

from NY Times

In an era of ever more expensive apartments in Manhattan, a triplex penthouse condominium in the Plaza Hotel has gone into contract for $56 million, in what would quite likely be the most expensive Manhattan apartment sale to date when it closes later this year, according to several real estate executives briefed on the transaction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/nyregion/23plaza.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

$10 Skybus' Inaugural Flight

2007-05-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Skybus, the new Ohio-based airline that offers some tickets for $10, got off the ground Tuesday with its first flight, a departure to Burbank, California ... Every Skybus flight will offer at least 10 tickets for $10 each. Tickets are booked solely through the company's Web site to save costs, part of a business strategy that includes charging passengers for services, such as checked bags and priority boarding.
http://www.amtonline.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=4074

http://www.skybus.com/

For passengers on Skybus debut, it's all about the price
Richard Sutter was pleasantly astonished when he learned last month that the country’s newest and cheapest airline, Skybus Airlines, would charge him just $10 to fly him here from Ohio so he could attend his grandmother’s 90th birthday this weekend. And after landing at Portsmouth International Airport Tuesday morning, Sutter was even more astonished by how pleasant the flight from Columbus was. ‘‘It was more than I thought it would be, a lot more. For 10 bucks, I was expecting chickens on the plane.’’
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/05/23/for_passengers_on_skybus_debut_its_all_about_the_price/?p1=MEWell_Pos4

ANDREW BIRD - live on NPR

2007-05-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

NPR.org, May 20, 2007 - Andrew Bird makes the kind of music that leaves critics groping for labels. A classically trained violinist, former swing jazz musician and now art rock virtuoso, Bird is one of the most imaginative and distinctive voices making music today. This concert from Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club originally webcast live on NPR.org May 20, 2007.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10213407

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've got to say that Andrew Bird bears an uncanny physical resemblance to British actor-comedian Steve Coogan, of 'Alan Partridge' '24 Hour Party People' and 'A Night at the Museum' fame.

STONES TO AX MANAGER

2007-05-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

The Rolling Stones are getting ready to fire manager Prince Rupert Lowenstein, apparently. That's the word from an extremely well-placed music business insider in New York City. No reasons divulged. Can't be that they're not making enough money, can it? Now, I hope I've not fallen for some Stones hype connected to Friday's opening of "Pirates of the Caribbean - The World's End," in which Keith Richards appears as Captain Jack Sparrow's dad. If Lowenstein engineered that, he certainly deserves to go.

EXCUSE ME? Raphael Benitez

2007-05-23T16:28:00.000-07:00

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez after his side's defeat by AC Milan in the European Champions League final ...

"I don’t want to use this as an excuse... but I counted two minutes 45 seconds and 51 hundredths (of stoppage time). I had confidence (of drawing) but I was surprised with the stoppage time. We did not have time."

SOUL COUGHING - 'Screenwriter's Blues'

2007-05-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

The political pin-up

2007-05-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

from The Guardian

Gael García Bernal has no interest in becoming a Hollywood star - he's on a mission to put Mexican cinema on the map.
http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2085306,00.html

IAN CURTIS/JOY DIVISION MOVIE PREMIERES AT CANNES

2007-05-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

A small film about a short-lived rock star is making a big splash at Cannes. "Control," the story of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, who committed suicide at 23, marks the feature-film directing debut of rock photographer Anton Corbijn and features a star-making performance from British unknown Sam Riley.

The ingredients are familiar - a soupcon of sex, a dash of drugs, a blast of rock'n'roll. But "Control" which opened the film festival's Directors' Fortnight, is far from a standard showbiz biopic.
FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003587112

Interview with Anton Corbijn about the making of 'Control'

I SAT IN WITH THE ONLY ONES - 27 YEARS LATER

2007-05-22T11:11:00.000-07:00

from The Times, UK

“Go on, surprise us, why don’t you?” says Perry, sighing. And Perrett smiles, says “Why not?”, and begins the ominous, chugging four-chord progression that will soon herald all sorts of prepunk, punk and postpunk aural mayhem and sublime melody and romance, wrapped up in three minutes or so. It’s replete with a most unpunk, literate and eviscerating guitar solo, and it’s the song that figures in every connoisseur’s list of the best rock singles ever, and was recently described by one online encyclopedia as the best rock single ever recorded. Another Girl, Another Planet never graced the higher reaches of the charts; nothing the Only Ones recorded remotely managed to do that. It has been covered 100 times, and been appropriated by Vodafone for an advert...

READ FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1803475.ece

'ANOTHER GIRL, ANOTHER PLANET' - The Only Ones

Where the Rebel Meets the Road in Joshua Tree

2007-05-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

from the NY Times

'... City dwellers grabbed the plots up, built shotgun shacks, forgot about them. The government took its parcel, too: a giant expanse of what would become the national park to the south of the highway, and to the north another large plot — 932 square miles — for the military in Twentynine Palms, a few miles east of Joshua Tree. Today it’s the largest Marine base in the world. Every United States Marine en route to Iraq stops off here for a month of desert combat training...'

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/travel/tmagazine/07well-29palms-t.html

LIVERPOOL OF THE FUTURE

2007-05-22T09:03:00.001-07:00

View the proposed transformation of Liverpool, England, the European Capital of Culture 2008, in a dizzying number of artist's renderings, on this link
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=4295980&postcount=1

A PEARL BEYOND PRICE Ian McDonald's classic 1973 NME review of Roxy Music's 'Stranded'

2007-05-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

'... but the killer is yet to come. Set alongside "Mother Of Pearl", even the very best of the rest of "Stranded" pales into insignificance. This is it, folks: Magnum Opus Time...'

http://www.manzanera.com/RoxyArchive/strandednme101173.htm

Will Gentrification Spoil the Birthplace of Hip-Hop?

2007-05-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

'... the building should be declared a landmark in recognition of its role in American popular culture. Its residents agree, but for more practical reasons. They want to have the building placed on the National Register of Historic Places so that it might be protected from any change that would affect its character — in this case, a building for poor and working-class families...'

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/nyregion/21citywide.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Joe Strummer, blah, blah, blah... What about Mick Jones?

2007-05-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

Mick Jones (right) and Paul Simonon of The Clash

Here are 10 reasons why Mick made the Clash's casbah rock.
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/05/joe_strummer_blah_blah_blah_wh.html

Clarkson in trouble for 'gay' gaffe

2007-05-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has fallen foul of TV regulators for describing a car as "gay" on the hit BBC2 television show.

Clarkson used the term while in a discussion with an audience member about a car in an episode of Top Gear first broadcast in July last year.

He asked a member of the show's audience if he would buy a two-seater Daihatsu Copen. The man said, "No, it's a bit gay", to which Clarkson added "A bit gay, yes, very ginger beer" - rhyming slang for "queer".

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2084776,00.html

Paris calls off festival of US culture after threats

2007-05-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

A festival due to be held in Paris this weekend to celebrate American music and culture has been called off after death threats from an anti-US group claiming links to al-Qaida.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2084915,00.html

Fire devastates Cutty Sark

2007-05-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

Fire today ravaged the Cutty Sark, causing extensive damage to the world's last remaining tea clipper and one of Britain's most important maritime treasures.

Residents in Greenwich, south-east London, where the 19th century ship has been in dry dock since the 1950s, described hearing an explosion at around 4.45am.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2084503,00.html

And a friend in the U.K. writes: [New Greenwich] Planetarium on my to-do list ... Pity the pavilion will no longer be used as the new permanent home for the Cutty Sark mentioned in the article - arsonists destroyed it today. Ah, Great Britain!

The Twang - 'Either Way'

2007-05-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

New from Birmingham, England. Same management as Kaiser Chiefs.

WALL TO WALL BRIGHT EYES New York City

2007-05-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

Photo by author. Click on photo to enlarge.

WEST SIDE

2007-05-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Photo by author. Click on photo to enlarge.

PHILADELPHIA TRIPTYCH

2007-05-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

Photos by author. Click on photos to enlarge.

New York cabs may leave behind cash-only days

2007-05-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

Touch-screen monitors that allow taxi passengers to pay by credit card will be installed in cabs here under a plan approved Thursday by the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission. The monitors, already in 200 cabs as an experiment, also employ a global positioning system to map out where the cab is going and find information about restaurants and bars.

http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-trw-taxi11may11

United get their man with £17m Hargreaves deal

2007-05-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

MUNICH, Germany (AP) -- England midfielder Owen Hargreaves is leaving Bayern Munich for Manchester United. Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer and board member Helmut Markwort confirmed on German television Sunday that the transfer would go ahead.

[The fee is in the region of £17m-£18m]
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2084354,00.html

Apples and fish protect unborn child

2007-05-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Apples and fish sound an unlikely food combination, even for a pregnant woman, but new evidence suggests they can protect unborn children against allergic diseases.
Researchers found that children whose mothers enjoyed munching apples while pregnant were less likely to have suffered from wheeze or been diagnosed with asthma by the age of five.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=456471&in_page_id=1774

EAT LESS TO CUT CANCER RISK
Britain is facing a "cancer timebomb" because of rising levels of obesity, a senior doctor warned last night.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=456533&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

Great Space, Glass Floor-Through, Canyon Views

2007-05-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

'... To be frank, even the stunning view off the Hualapai ledge does not hold up to a comparison with the south or north rims...'
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/19/arts/design/19sky.html?oref=login

WORLD CUP WILLIE

2007-05-20T15:15:00.001-07:00

From Africa to Queens Waterfront, a Modernist Gem for Sale to the Highest Bidder

2007-05-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

Click on photo to enlarge.

For anyone still looking for a house for the summer, something very exclusive is about to come up in Queens. Tomorrow, the Maison Tropicale, a small aluminum-paneled house built in 1951 by Jean Prouvé, a French designer and the current court favorite of well-heeled contemporary art and design collectors internationally, is being opened to the public for preview in Long Island City. Christie’s, the auction house, will offer it for sale on June 5. The presale estimate is $4 million to $6 million.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/nyregion/16house.html

Einsturzende Neubauten - 'Blume'

2007-05-20T14:57:00.000-07:00

Fifty, Finned and Fabulous

2007-05-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

"The enduring popularity, not to mention collectibility, of Chevrolet’s 1957 cars “speaks for itself,” he said, adding, “The ’57 Chevy was quite simply the best-looking car of the entire postwar era.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/automobiles/collectibles/20FIFTY.html

RICKY GERVAIS & DAVID BOWIE High Line Festival, New York

2007-05-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

Photo from welovecelebs.com. Click on photo to enlarge.

' ... Gervais managed big laughs in the sold-out Theater at Madison Square Garden with topics ranging from kids with cancer, pedophilia, how to celebrate AIDS Day ("There's no cards"), safe sex tips, nursery rhymes, the Nazis, and Stephen Hawking ("He's not a genius. He's pretentious. He was born in England, but he has an American accent.")'
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/ny-etgervais0521,0,6121364.story?coll=ny-entertainment-headlines

PETE DOHERTY The Cal Ripken of Drug Busts

2007-05-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

British rocker and erstwhile Kate Moss squeeze Pete Doherty has been arrested at least 20 times on drug charges. So how come he’s still a free man? An American view of the British legal system.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18737009/site/newsweek/

FA CUP FINAL Stout, NYC

2007-05-20T07:29:00.001-07:00

EMPIRE STRIKE BUILDING

2007-05-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

Photo by Susana Bates/New York Daily News. Click on photo to enlarge.

TALKING HEADS - 'Heaven'

2007-05-18T14:18:00.000-07:00

ON THE BEACH Brooklyn

2007-05-17T10:12:00.000-07:00

Photo by author. Click on photo to enlarge.

FLOATING POOL TO MAKE WAVES IN NYC

2007-05-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

Photo by author. Click on photo to enlarge.

IF ALL GOES swimmingly, New Yorkers may soon be able to take a dip in the East River - or at least on top of it. Planners for the ambitious Brooklyn Bridge Park are scrambling to open a new barge-borne floating pool on the waterfront, officials said yesterday.

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/2006/10/20/2006-10-20_swimming_pool_soon_may_float_near_you.html

Rothko Breaks a Record for Contemporary Art

2007-05-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

The Rockefeller name worked its magic last night at Sotheby’s sale of contemporary art, where a mysterious bearded collector in a skybox outbid five other contenders for Rothko’s “White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose).” The $72.8 million he paid, far above the painting’s $40 million estimate, set records for both the artist and for any contemporary work at auction.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/arts/design/16auction.html?_r=1&ref=design&oref=slogin

Steady Eddie plays it straight

2007-05-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

There’s nothing accidental about Eddie Izzard’s move into American TV. He started plotting his career when he was eight.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article1673413.ece

Suburban Warfare
The Riches features a family of grifters—and the most scathing take on class relations anywhere on TV.
http://nymag.com/arts/tv/reviews/28875/

Soldier's blog from Iraq awarded literary prize

2007-05-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

A grunt’s eye view of the war in Iraq has won the world’s only prize for blogs that have been turned into books. My War: Killing Time in Iraq by Colby Buzzell today beat 110 entries from 15 countries to claim the £5,000 2007 Blooker Prize. Reviews have compared My War to the classics Catch 22, M*A*S*H and Michael Herr’s Dispatches.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article1788341.ece

Dream sequence from Hitchcock's 'Spellbound' - designed by Salvador Dali

2007-05-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

Edward Hopper: Man of Mysteries

2007-05-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

from Time magazine

Edward Hopper is one of those painters who are always there on the edge of your awareness. His famous canvases are constantly being reproduced. But when you come up against the real things, you discover that his work is even stranger and more haunted--more impregnable--than you remembered. That's the lesson of the mesmerizing Hopper show that has opened at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where it remains until Aug. 19 before traveling to Washington and Chicago ...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1619567,00.html