Rupert Murdoch inflicts 'The Daily' on iPads, beginning next week

News Corporation’s iPad-only daily newspaper, The Daily, now has a logo (right), a holding page website (theDaily.com), and a launch date, Wednesday 19 January. Yahoo reports that it’s such a to-do that Steve Jobs will be joining Rupert Murdoch on stage to launch it.

January 2011's most annoying adverts

Today’s Top 5 was going to helpfully suggest some wholesome and enriching cultural activities readers might like to do in London this week. Then your compiler got home from work to be assaulted by some of the most offensive, pretentious, bile-inducing wankery ever committed to screen. Here are five adverts currently being thrust down the nation’s throats every 15 minutes and instantaneously triggering Snipe’s gag reflex. Shame on them. Shame on them all.

Any advert for sofas

One of the great unsolved mysteries of modern British life is why sofas only seem to be advertised for one month of each year. But in that month, my word, are they advertised. One of the other great mysteries is how this DFS advert from a couple of years ago has acquired over 55,000 views on YouTube. What is wrong with people?! Anyway, it stands for all such adverts, including as it does the sofa staples – a couple flirting bleurgingly, a nerd reading studiously, a dog jumping muddily, a babe writhing suggestively…you’ve seen it all before. And you’ll be seeing it all again next time you turn on the TV.

Match.com

This advert is everywhere at the moment, and it’s toe-curlingly twee. If you find this mawkish crap endearingly sweet then Snipe pities you, for you are clearly unable to access the deeper emotions upon which a full appreciation of the human condition necessarily rests. Uck.

MORE THAN freeman

What the hell is going on with the capitalisation here, for a start? But beyond that, how flimsy can an advert’s premise be? What was the pitch? “Erm…right…guys…have you ever noticed how there’s a bit of assonance between your company’s name and the first name of a famous actor…so what we’ll do right, we’ll use a soundalike of that actor to talk portentously about insurance! And he’ll be quirky right, and he can answer insurance questions on Facebook and Twitter but he’ll totally answer non-insurance questions too cos he’s so quirky. And it won’t be a parody exactly but nor will it be an homage, because either of those would require some coherent creative thinking which we’re incapable of because we can’t stop creaming ourselves about how clever we were to notice the assonance in the first place”. Don Draper would spit in their face, and rightly so.

Confused.com

Like MORE THAN freeman (and good god if I ever have to type that again I will flip) this is an example of advertisers attempting to create a quirky character who does not sell a product directly, but rather seeks to drive good associations between the viewer and the brand. Basically, they’re trying to copy Compare the Meerkat. Unfortunately for them, whereas Compare the Meerkat was a brilliant and original response to the specific problem of name recognition within a diverse and competitive industry, this cartoon woman singing Queen is an annoying, irrelevant and intrusive waste of space. Go away.

Andrex

Some adverts in this list are more annoying, but none is so stupid. You are Andrex. If there’s one thing, one thing, your brand has got, it’s puppies. Everyone loves puppies. Look at this earlier advert, see how all you have to do to make people like you is film some puppies slipping and falling and bumping into mirrors and being clumsy and generally just as cute as an ickle wickle fluffy button (seriously click that link, it’s insane). So with that in mind, WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU MAKE THE DOGS CGI? Why? Seriously, why? Now instead of some adorable furry babies being impossibly lovable, you’ve got yourselves some unoriginallly anthropomorphised pixels being impossiby dull. Bizarre. Utterly, utterly bizarre.

Shimmering Stars

Riding the crest of the surf-pop wave (sorry), Vancouver’s Shimmering Stars write delicate, two-minute songs about love and social anxiety. Beach Boys/Everley Brothers harmonies, sparse production and surf guitars provide a perfect backdrop for Rory McClure’s brutally honest, morose lyrics – “walking down the street and I want to kill everyone I see, how come I don’t like anyone I meet?”

The band is planning an album release in 2011 and will hopefully be embarking on a European tour. In the meantime, here are two tracks from their recent limited edition 7”, released on Almost Musique, available via their MySpace or digitally via
Bandcamp.

I’m Gonna Try

East Van Girls

London agenda for 11 January 2011

1. See Brighton-based singer-songwriter, cellist and, erm, boxer Abi Wade at Favela Chic [Le Cool]

2. Visit inside the last of London’s photographic darkrooms. Don’t turn on the light [Run Riot]

3. Eat meat in New Cross [Thrillist]

4. Drink and think at The Book Club’s Interrobang [Jon Davis]

Snipe's Weekly Exhibition Guide: 10 - 16 January

Cindy Sherman. Courtesy Sprueth Magers Gallery

Check out our brand new weekly guide to the most interesting exhibitions happening in London, from the ones just opened to those that are in their final week of their display.

For The Arts Sake
10 Gales Galley, Railway Arch 10, Gales Gardens Mews, Bethnal Green, E2 0EJ

For The Arts Sake aims to highlight the consequences and socio-political impact of the proposed 25% arts cuts and approved education fees increase. With the initiative originating from the ‘Save The Arts Campaign’, this exhibition pushes five emerging artists to conceive visually creative protests against a loss of cultural richness. Until 16 Jan. Free Entry.

www.10gales-london.co.uk

Cindy Sherman
Sprüth Magers London, 7A Grafton Street, Green Park, W1S 4EJ

In a brand new series of work, 1970s photographer and performer Cindy Sherman has assembled a cast of uniquely individual characters on large photographic murals. Digitally manipulating her self-image as well as the images of other characters held within the monochromatic compositions, the artist creates intricate and dramatic narratives that invite the viewer to enter her surreal world. 12 Jan – 19 Feb.

www.spruethmagers.net

Gauguin
Tate Modern, Bankside, Southwark, SE1 9TG

A French master of Post-Impressionism, Gauguin’s work is world-renowned for it’s warmth, colour and adventurous narratives. On show at the Tate for only one more week, his sumptuous Tahitan landscapes make for some of the most compelling images of the twentieth century. Until 16 Jan. Advanced Booking Recommended.

www.tate.org.uk

Take a View: Landscape Photographer of the Year 2010
Lyttelton Exhibition Space, National Theatre, South Bank, Waterloo, SE1 9PX

Now in it’s fourth year, the annual Landscape Photographer of the Year award culminates in an incredible exhibition of over one hundred photographs that display the stunning nature of the countryside. Until 16 Jan.

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

The Velvet and Lace Revolution

Cabaret is back! Put on your glittery feather boas and sing it in a high falsetto from the city rooftops if you can can can! Yes ladies and gentleman; having stewed for years in the culty underbelly of the entertainment sector, the cabaret scene is finally sweeping into mainstream culture for an all singing, all dancing comeback. This year some of London’s biggest stages were gilded with a host of variety acts, ranging from Camille O’Sullivan – a darkly beautiful burlesque singer, who delights in becoming increasingly tipsy on stage whilst musing on the pleasures of melancholy; to ‘The Boy with Tape on his Face’; a stand up comedian who never says a word but derives humour from his own mix of classic farce and modern mime.

The recent surge in cabaret’s popularity has not come completely out of the blue; in fact this is a renaissance that has been brewing on the fringes of popular culture for a long time. But why has it broken through now? And what does its popularisation spell for the future of the theatre, and indeed for society at large?

Earlier in the week I spoke to Honey Wilde, a London based performer whose acts include a burlesque-themed impersonation of Margaret Thatcher, appropriately titled ‘The Lady IS for Turning’. I asked Ms Wilde what it was that marked out cabaret from other styles of theatrical entertainment. “Cabaret is an extremely personal form of artistic expression” she explained “it is flexible, intimate and almost wholly generated towards the audience. On top of this there is something dangerous about it. It can be subversive, challenging, frightening, sexy. It taps into the rawest aspects of the human experience, and ultimately provides a comment on the very notion of entertainment itself.”

These themes of subversion and social commentary make up an important part of cabaret culture, though they are often under-appreciated by those unfamiliar with the genre. At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August, Sally Stott, a critic working for The Scotsman, caused uproar after publishing an article that described the performers of Circus Burlesque as “miserable looking sex dolls adorned with the glazed expressions of porn stars.” The lack of understanding behind these comments had cabaret performers from across the Fringe marching through the city in protest; many brandishing banners which defiantly declared “pro-expression not anti-feminist!” and “Can’t a woman be both sexy and intelligent?” The article certainly struck a nerve with Honey who expresses her disbelief that a professional critic could so completely fail to recognise the complex, multidimensional nature of this provocative art form.

Despite strongly disagreeing with Stott’s opinions on burlesque, Honey acknowledges that raising such debate is exactly what a successful cabaret performance ought to do. “Cabaret doesn’t go in for popularity contests” she says wryly “it is not designed to have mass appeal. We belong on the edges of entertainment, that’s what gives us the freedom to expose something genuine, that’s how we challenge the expectations of the social norm.”

The idea of revelation is perhaps one of the most compelling aspects of modern cabaret. Operating somewhere between spectacle and confessional theatre, a good cabaret performer will often expose a very real part of themselves on stage.

The magnificent avant guard artist Meow Meow, titillating begins every show by telling the crowd “look, I’m real, I’m not a screen, you can touch me.” These simple words alone are enough to thrill a modern audience. Perhaps as a society we have become so disaffected by over-edited, pre-packaged television entertainment that we have forgotten what its like to be in arms reach of a living, breathing, unpredictable performer.

The other side of this authentic exposure is that, by sharing themselves so brazenly on stage, cabaret performers offer their audience the chance to freely express a part of their own identity in public; be it through laughter, tears, heckles or song. In my opinion, it is this promise of social catharsis that is responsible for the current rise of cabaret in the theatre market.

Looking back through history it becomes brazenly clear that in times of rapid socio-economic change, the public choose cabaret as their favourite means of communal release. The genre thrived in the underground bars of broken, post war Berlin, and blossomed in the poverty stricken, bohemian culture of 19th century Paris, becoming hugely popular in 1920’s America, when the events of the Great Depression forced the glitzy world of high class entertainment together with the bluesy notes of the African American Jazz scene.

Likewise, in our own times of financial insecurity and sleazy coalition government, when the young have been driven to the streets in protest, and the Duchess of Cornwall herself was poked by a stick on her way to the opera, it is easy to see why society has once again taken cabaret to its heart.

The only question is; can a performance style that depends so heavily on intimacy work on a larger scale? “I don’t know” muses Honey, “part of me feels that cabaret will never fit into the mainstream. If an act becomes too big, the performer can loose their connection with the audience. And if that connection is lost then it ceases to be cabaret. I like to be able to see my audience, I like to be able to move amongst them and touch them”

It’s a contentious issue, and one that has the community divided. Personally I am inclined to agree with Honey, there is something un-daunting and familial about a small venue which doesn’t often translate to larger auditoriums. But this is a universal problem, one which all live artists contend with and must find ways to overcome.

Performing recently at the Lyric on Shaftesbury Avenue, Frisky and Mannish (the self styled ‘twisted pop-cabaret duo’ whose bitchy musical parodies have earned them a huge following of hairstyle-aping fans) got their audience playing party games in the theatre aisles in order to break any lingering feelings of impersonality or West End stuffiness. Passing a balloon between my legs to a complete stranger amidst the velvet seating and chandeliers of the Lyric felt wonderful, and proved that sometimes putting cabaret on a large, grandiose stage can be the ultimate form of meta-theatrical subversion.

Whatever the future has in store for the cabaret renaissance, I aim to make the most of it. With its gaudy mix of light-hearted spectacle and intellectual exhibitionism, cabaret can be used to expose political truths or to shut them out, to empower the performer or to strip them bare. One of the most versatile and unpredictable of all art forms, it is liberating, beautiful and, above all, real.

Look who wants to take on Groupon: Time Out [Silicon Roundabout]

Groupon, the daily deals behemoth that recently turned down a $6 billion US takeover offer from Google has a new competitor, your Dad’s magazine: Time Out.

Check out two of the new vacancies on the Time Out site ‘Daily Deals Sales Manager’ and ‘Daily Deals Sales Administrator’.

Also, if you’re in Japan, they’re looking for freelance writers. Probably a good gig for someone.

Zach Hill's Memo to the Man [MPFree]

Zach Hill’s music is insane. I mean really insane. Some of you may remember the made-up band from ‘Brass-eye’s’ 2001 Paedophile special, ‘Smash my brother’s face in’. Imagine that mixed with elements of dubstep, indecipherable lyrics and a cacophony of weird and wonderful sounds and your halfway there. I know I’m not really selling it but it’s the kind of music you’re either going to love or hate.

Hill’s a drummer by trade, plying his wares with Marni Stern and Hella and his
second album, ‘Face Tat’ (Sargent House), features collaborations with No Age and
Devendra Banhart. It’s understandably garnered some mixed reviews, but there’s no
one out there making music quite like this. Today’s MPFree, ‘Memo to the man’, is
the opening track from the album.

Zach Hill – Memo to the Man by snipelondon

London agenda for Monday 10 January

1. Prepare five tracks, bring one’s own earphones, and hear something new at the Book Club’s Speed Listening [Le Cool]

2. Hear from word slingers new and old at one of London’s freshest open mic poetry nights, Kid, I Wrote Back [Jon Davies]

3. Four couples. One Bed [Run Riot]

4. Pop into church.co.uk [Tired of London]

Suprising celebrity art collectors [Top 5]

Dennis Hopper’s art collection, which includes an Andy Warhol portrait of Mao which the actor shot at twice one night because it scared him, is going on sale in New York next week. And Hopper isn’t the only celeb to have dabbled in art collecting. Here are five more. But who’s in it for the money, who for the fame, and who for the aesthetics?

Elton John
Owns a Picasso, a Matisse, and one of the largest collections of contemporary photography anywhere in the world, part of which he increased the size of his Atlanta property to accomodate. Not bad for a man named Reg. Verdict: Can You Feel the Art Love Tonight?

Steve Martin
Martin likes his art so much he wrote a novel about it. Unfortunately the audience at a book-based interview in New York before Christmas were so bored they demanded, and got, a refund. They wanted him to talk about his 20-year-old stand up instead. Which is kind of sad. Verdict: Arty Rotten Scoundrel.

Madonna
Estimates suggest that Madonna’s collection, including work by Kahlo, Hirst, and Picasso (the latter only accessible to your true global megastar) has risen in value by some 600% since she started. That’s quite a return on her investment. Verdict: Material Girl.

George Michael
“Our collection has no cultural or sexual boundaries” says Michael’s partner Kenny Goss. Sounds intriguing, no? The pair have established their own gallery in Texas to show the collection (Emin, Hirst, etc) off. Verdict: Last Christmas, I Gave You my Art. But the Very Next Day…

Brangelina
They have a Banksy. Which is kind of obvious, don’t you think? Verdict: Inglourious Basterds