New venue alert - The Star of Kings
Many people were upset by the loss of Kings Cross institution, the Cross Kings, which has spent the past several months boarded up and slowly dissolving into the industrial road that surround it.
But wait, a new venue is taking over the space, The Star of Kings
It open tonight with club night Junkette. Look here for details.
10 Dec 2010
Hear this: great art will never be seen anywhere near the Turner Prize
Susan Philipsz photo by Taavetti Alin
As art students descended upon Tate Britain on Monday in protest of creative cuts and increasing tuition fees, the normally glitzy proceedings of the Turner Prize were given a healthy dose of reality. Collecting the prize, and the prestige that goes with it, not to mention the incredulous £25,000 prize money was Susan Philipsz for her ‘Lowlands’ musical installation.
Hailing from Glasgow but now based in Berlin, the piece consisted of recordings of the artist singing a 16th Century lament for a drowned lover, which she originally played beneath three bridges on the River Clyde in Glasgow itself before its transposition to the Tate Britain. Up against Angela de la Cruz’s achingly simple designs, Dexter Dalwood’s contrived and utterly over-rated paintings as well as the works of Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar from the Otolith Group, Philipsz work was the first sound installation to win the prize.
Whether you feel the sense of sculptural space and memory created by Philipsz in her work deserved the award or not I find myself siding with Duncan MacMillan when he suggested that: “contemporary art as it is epitomised in the Turner Prize is merely art mimicking the stratagems of latter-day market capitalism…dependent on the illusion of constant newness.”
Claiming to present the latest and greatest contemporary artists, The Turner Prize has long been the site of controversy and mediocrity, focusing on new media works whilst ignoring the brilliance of innovative and creative use traditional materials: often perpetuating nonentities in this pseudo celebrity obsessed culture. Quite simply some of the most breath taking artistic outputs in existence right now will never see the light of the Turner Prize, ultimately calling into question its relevance in today’s younger artistic society.
10 Dec 2010
London agenda for Friday 10 December
1. Feel like one is lazily sitting by the river with Chris Brokaw and Geoff Farina for free [London Gigs]
2. Sip cocktails in a caravan at Barrio North [Tired of London]
3. Banish Grinchdom with carols by The Choir with No Name [Le Cool]
4. Fire up the Xmas Dance Party 4000 at the Working Man’s [Run Riot]
5. Press laws in the UK require Snipe to mention Panto with the Hof [Run Riot] Sorry, it’s the law.
10 Dec 2010
London agenda for Thursday 9 December
1. Support the Ministry of Stories (based on Dave Egger’s 826 Valencia concept) at Psychopaths and Singalongs [Le Cool]
2. Relate to the Beat generation at Hipstocratic [Run Riot]
3. Relive our salad days with Echo & The Bunnymen [London Gigs]
4. Leave your pit for Mayors of Miyazaki, Sunday Mourning, Franco, Pulpo [London Gigs]
5. Wear a piece of London history [Tired of London]
6. See art curated by novelist and theorist Richard Appignanesi at Calvert 22 [Spoonfed]
7. Mix romantic folk pop sensibilities and more mature, cynical numbers with Slow Club [Lauren Down]
09 Dec 2010
London agenda for Wednesday 8 December
1. Chat with chat with three of the main players of Joy Division [Le Cool]
2. Click the Hidden Cameras [Run Riot]
3. Celebrate dork music through the ages at Paradise Point + Misdirectors [Spoonfed]
4. Go late Christmas shopping on Columbia Road [Tired of Life]
5. Catch the haunting, bright and eerie paintings of emerging artist Hannah Wooll [Lauren Down]
08 Dec 2010
How to back-up your Tumblr before it disappears off the Internet forever
Here’s how you back up your Tumblr, if you have a Mac. It seems that some of you may find this useful.
07 Dec 2010
Things Australians used to be good at
But aren’t anymore. Inspired by ooooooh nothing in particular that happned in Adelaide last evening GET IN THERE LADS!!
Cricket
Snipe doesn’t want to jump the gun, put the cart before the horse or take any hostages to fortune, but considering the number of nights we spent in our childhood snuggled under a duvet listening to our countrymen getting right royally shafted down under, some pre-emptive crowing at this point doesn’t seem wholly disproportionate. Then again, it’s the hope that kills you. Come on boys. Steady now.
Soaps
There was a time when Neighbours was, hands down, the best drama series playing on British television. Round about the turn of the Millennium, when the Scullys were in full flight and the before the Kennedys had run out of steam, it was completely unmissible. Was it just chance that this period coincided with the greatest cricket team the world has ever seen? Or was this simply a Golden Age in Australian cultural history? Discuss.
Beer adverts
Castlemaine XXXX adverts were superb, witty little numbers which ironically played on Australian national stereotypes and made you really want a pint. Compare with the tripe currently advertising Fosters, which has infinitely higher production values, and infinitely less charm.
Pop
Kylie, Jason, Dannii, Delta even…Australia used to fill our charts with wholesome nonsense. Occasionally very sexy nonsense. But the fact that Kylie and Dannii are still the biggest names around tells you all you need to know about youth development at the moment. Just as the cricket team has stuggled to replace Warne and McGrath, so the pop industry has failed to replace the Minogues. What’s happened? And has Cilmi really got what it takes? Fingers crossed.
Wise old owls
Where is the new Dame Edna? Where the young Clive James? In the 80s and 90s Brits relied on a wise and sarky uncle or aunt from Australia to puncture our pretensions and bring us back down to size with a wry quip and a glint in their eye. We love you Australia, don’t desert us now.
07 Dec 2010
London agenda for Tuesday 7 December
1. See if the description ‘like Bugsy Malone meets Noam Chomsky’ accurately describes Cradle will Rock at the Arcola [Le Cool]
2. Glory, glamour and grime with Bourgeois and Maurice [Run Riot]
3. Converse with Rosa Barba [Lauren Down]
4. Hear the Dirty Projectors at KoKo [Spoonfed]
07 Dec 2010
Radio 4's James Naughtie mispronounces MP Jeremy Hunt's last name, followed by a long, long silence
Not safe for work, probably.
06 Dec 2010
London agenda for Monday 6 December
1. Watch German artist Julian Popp’s installation bit.fall
2. Storytelling stripped bare [Run Riot]
3. View Lorenzo Quinn’s Give & Take III [Tired of London]
4. Make out with Brontosaurus Chorus, The Bridport Dagger, Jonny Cola & The A-Grades, Boy Stood Alone on Mountain Top”:http://www.londongigs.net/LondonGigsDec10.html [London Gigs]
06 Dec 2010
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- 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
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
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