California by EMA
Erika M. Anderson, formerly of Gowns, releases her debut album Past Life Martyred Saints this week. California, below, is one of the standout tracks, a half-sung, half-spoken stream of consciousness over a feedback-drenched, electro-folk wall of sound. Some pretty hard-hitting lyrics too. Head over to the website of Souterrain Transmissions to get a free download of album opener and debut single, The Grey Ship.
08 Apr 2011
A Brief History of the Murdoch/MySpace Disaster
Maybe MySpace was doomed from the beginning. The layout was horrific, the experience was sloppy, and they even made you learn basic html in order to put sparkly animated gif backgrounds on your ugly profiles. If you’re like me and everyone else, once Facebook came along and provided a clean, clutter free, spam free alternative, you flipped the switch in a heartbeat and never looked back.
MySpace, to put it bluntly, sucked. I barely remember the experience, and, like you, I have no desire to relive it.
However, what I have every desire in the world to relive is the story of how Rupert Murdoch lost $580 million investing in and then completely mismanaging it.
08 Apr 2011
The Guardian: Dead in a Decade?
Has the Guardian been making £226 more per reader in annual ad revenues than they were during their print heyday? Of course they haven’t. Yet as the above graph provided by Malcolm Coles shows, this is the difference in the amount of money he’s been giving them to read their paper every year.
And it isn’t because he’s been cheating. He’s simply replaced his daily newsprint habit — which he estimated was running him £230 a year — with their £4 (one time fee) iPhone app and free website. With the Guardian’s circulation numbers falling to an all-time low of 200,000, one can only wonder how much longer the paper can keep this business model alive.
08 Apr 2011
Do this today: London agenda for Friday 8 April
1. Is there anywhere tonight where you can go and see innovative women’s short films in a pie & mash shop that magically transforms into a cocktail bar, complete with DJs, later on? Yes [Le Cool]
2. Spend a night of music and art curated by Rough Trade Shops, Le Gun Magazine & Bare Bones [Run Riot]
3. Watch The Wicker Man at the Museum of London Docklands [Flavorpill]
4. Get completely wired at the Truman Brewery at the London Coffee Festival [Time Out]
5. Shoot the breeze with Tracey Emin at the ICA [Ian Visits]
6. Buy books at the Bookshop on the Heath [Tired of London]
08 Apr 2011
Egowar by Gang Gang Dance
New York quintet Gang Gang Dance, release new album Eye Contact on May 9th through 4AD. As a pre-cursor, you can download new single Mindkilla for free from the band’s website. It gets a physical release, in the form of a 12”, on April 11th. They play Dazed Live at The Village Undergound, April 9th.
07 Apr 2011
07 Apr 2011
Tech Job Opening Alert: Government Minister of Tweets and Nude Female Web Coders
Two extraordinary job openings today in the burgeoning field of the internet that we wanted to give our readers a heads up on, seeing as how we imagine most of you to be job-seeking web experts.
07 Apr 2011
Africker in Hoxton and One-on-One in Battersea
There’s a classic clown exercise known as “The Chicken in the Oven”, or sometimes called “Ladies and Gentleman: William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette”. The clowns tumble over each other to present the finest performance ever of the great Bard’s masterpiece- but they have never seen the play, so they desperately fake it. Meanwhile, somewhere, a chicken is roasting to a blackened crisp and they keep popping off and on to keep an eye on it, probably watching it burn, because they’ve never cooked a chicken before either. Frankly, they haven’t a clue, but the last thing they want is for you to suspect anything is wrong.
07 Apr 2011
Watch Stephen Colbert Make an Absolute Mockery of Afternoon Tea
In advance of the 29 April Royal Wedding, American satire god Stephen Colbert is running a series called “My Fair Colbert: Stephen Colbert’s Crown Jewels” during which he makes every attempt to become as British as humanly possible. And by that, he means make traditional British customs look as absurd as humanly possible.
First up? Afternoon tea. Or as he calls it, “high tea.” Gawker has the whole video, so head over there and watch as he lays waste to one of Britain’s most cherished and completely normal customs.
07 Apr 2011
Beck's Art Crawl
Sponsor: Beck’s Art Crawl, East London
More than any other beer maker we know, Beck’s recognises that what they do is truly a form of art. Brewing, bottling, creating — they’ve been turning the process into art for well over a century. And for the past 25 years, with their pioneering and Beck’s Art Label, they’ve taken this craft to a new level. Featuring the likes of Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, The Chapman Brothers, Tim Head and Tracey Emin, they’ve supported emerging artistic talent by giving them a truly unique canvas to experiment on and display their work — the iconic Beck’s label itself.
With that dedication to creative expression in mind, Beck’s has decided to give the artists who have contributed to their labels over the last quarter century a new forum to display their work, in the form of an arts focused pub crawl. From April 11-28, The Beck’s Art Crawl will overtake the London bar scene and art scene in one fell swoop. Taking place across eight of the best bars in the city, each location will showcase one of the original works that have graced the Beck’s label. These pieces will be accompanies by exclusive new interviews from the artists.
In our opinion, the highlight of this event will take place on April 16, when the Art Crawl Live happens. On this date, Beck’s is giving up and coming artists a chance to participate in the festivities, and even giving them a chance to have their art commemorated in a huge mural that will be created at Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. It’s worth checking out their Facebook page to get all the details. If you’re a young artist, this isn’t an opportunity you’ll want to let slip by.
In addition to this guaranteed good time, Beck’s is giving away 150 bottles of beer and limited edition prints of the art that will be on display during the crawl. If you love art and beer (show of hands? everyone? OK) then mark your calendars. The Beck’s Art Crawl is what you’ve been waiting for. Get all the details you need at their Facebook page.
Please enjoy Beck’s responsibly.
www.drinkaware.co.uk
07 Apr 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
- Diary of the shy Londoner
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