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The Milano-Sanremo Cup to Hit the Streets of Milan Once Again
Just as the buzz of Milan Fashion Week subsides, the city will soon be full with aficionados of a different kind classic cars aficionados. The Milano-Sanremo Cup will be with us once again for the eighth consecutive year, and the city will soon be host to some beautiful examples of classic...
Weird Customs from Around the World
If you thought your family was weird, try going to a wedding in Scotland, where the bride is saturated in tea, eggs, custard, tar, anything gloopy and disgusting, and then paraded through all the local pubs. You may also attend the birth of a Masai baby in Kenya, when the newborn is passed around all the other women in the birthing hut so they can spit in its mouth. Here you can enjoy a few of the other strange and wonderful customs from around our tiny planet. Cheese-Rolling in Gloucester, England This particular oddity has been held for the last 200 years. On the last Monday in May, contestants stand at the top of Coopers Hill and wait for an enormous wheel of Double Gloucester cheese to be rolled. The idea is to race the cheese to the bottom of the hill. Weirdly, the cheese almost always wins, sometimes reaching speeds of over 100 km/h. ´Burial´ in the Amazon The Yanomami tribe doesn´t believe in digging holes for their dead – or in wasting anything. When a Yanomami dies, their body is burned and the ashes & bone fragments are grinded into powder. Then the family members eat the remains. Bouncing babies in India In Solapur, a yearly non-religious festival is held in which babies are thrown from a 15-meter tower. They don´t really bounce – waiting catchers hold a sheet below for the babies to land in. Nobody really knows how this tradition came about, but luckily they haven´t lost one yet. Spitting in Greece – for luck Don´t be too offended if an old-timer in Greece spits...
You Call This Music? – A Beginner’s Guide to Noise Art
You know what music is, more or less. A bunch of sounds that have some kind of harmony, rhythm, and melody. So when does experimental music become plain old noise? Noise Art (not to be confused with Sound Art) is also known as Noise Music. It´s the deliberate use of all the sounds we usually try to avoid: Static, feedback, distortion, dissonance and vocal elements like screams, grunts and high-pitched squeals. Imagine a track called Fingernails Down a Blackboard, and you´re on the right track. Noise Art is experimental music taken to its extreme. It´s designed to make the listener uncomfortable, to make sure the listener cannot focus on anything but the track being played. In short, Noise Art is an attention-captivating experience. Who would like to listen to this stuff? Lots of people apparently like it. This has been around since the early 1900s, when progressive artists began to experiment with sound as a medium. From ´Found Sound´ art to the 1975 Lou Reed album Metal Machine Music, there continues to be a fascination with Noise Art. And there is a huge market for it. Today´s most popular Noise Artists (or more correctly, Noise Musicians, depending on your definition of music) make a very tidy living from their work. The Japanese Noise Art scene is especially noted for its plethora of talent, kind of like the way that Seattle was the home of grunge. Masami Akita is probably the best known of these, and has had more than one world-tour. The appeal seems to lie in the discomfort of the listening experience. Noise Art fans like to push...
Paris Fashion Week – Let The Countdown Begin
Paris is infinitely fashionable at the best of times, but it doesn’t get much better than Paris Fashion Week. Fashion royalty will start to descend on the city in just a few days, fresh from the shows in Milan, and will be ready to show Paris what they’re made of. Paris Fashion Week has already started and will run from March 2nd to the 10th, and all the top designers will be clamouring to be the big hit of the week. Their ready-to-wear Autumn/Winter 2010/11 collections are always eagerly awaited by the media, by their fellow designers and indeed by “fashionistas” wanting to get the inside scoop on the next hot trends, and shows are always bursting with celebrities and the fashion elite filling venues to the rafters. The week starts slowly with just four shows on Tuesday March 2nd , but it quickly builds momentum with the top fashion houses showcasing their latest designs throughout the remainder of the week. It ends on a high note with Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Miu Miu all having their shows on the final day (March 10th), and with Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Valentino, Vivienne Westwood and Thierry Mugler being just a few of the other designers offering their collections to the awaiting public it really will be a treat for fashion fans everywhere. Just a few of the top-class venues to be used for the shows include the Palais de Tokyo, Hotel Westin, Halle Freyssinet and the Grande Palais, so guests really will be treated to the height of luxury. It’s a chance for everyone to get a preview of the...
Alex Diamond, the Ghost Artist
To see an exhibition by an author who is more an ‘anonymous being’ than somebody with face and name of his own is a little bit risky, but also attractive. This is, in fact, Alex Diamond’s case, a character created in 2004 who hides himself behind hundreds of bodies and hairy masks. Alex Diamond has been around for a while, staging incredible shows that also always celebrate the incarnation of the artist in various characters, shapes or even gender. Diamond appears at these shows in different roles, and underlining this artistic approach he does not reveal his background or vita, which would be an invention anyway. Impossible to label as a person and difficult to categorize as an artist, Alex Diamond is more fantasy than reality. His main issue always centres around his work and its presentation, but never around the personality of an individual. This anonymous status does not seem to bother anybody. On the contrary, this is contributing to increase his or her fame. We only know that Diamond was born in Hamburg, although has declared – always by e-mail interviews- that is originally from Lost Vegas, ‘which is a tiny place within the right cerebral hemisphere’. Weird, isn’t it? This mysterious artist has even said that doesn’t do vacation. Alex Diamond is a sleepless worker, doesn’t know pain or suffering (or, if you want, the “burn-out-syndrome”), and exists only through his art. No holidays needed then. Uau, you can’t say he is a kind of crazy artist! The exhibition, so-called ‘Don’t worry ‘bout a thing 2. Demon Circus’ takes place at Iguapop Gallery until March 6....
Rodney Graham, The Beauty of Conceptual Art
Rodney Graham (1949, Abbotsford, Canada), one of the most influential conceptual artists at this moment, presents in The Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (Macba), ‘Through the Forest’, an exhibition that explores the evolution of this fundamental artist’s work through 250 pieces. One of the aims of this important exhibition is to finish with the preconceived idea that conceptual art doesn’t have to do with beauty and sensibility. Regarding this, the curator of the exhibition declared that he invites spectators to view Graham’s work as a peaceful walk through the forest, ‘to discover a beauty that it is not 100% clear but 100% art’. During this forest walk, visitor can see Rodney Graham’s complex artistic career over and over again through 250 works, which include light-boxes, books, videos, sculptures, paintings, photographs, installations, printed material and music. There are two spectacular sections in ‘Through the forest’: in the first one, Graham is a sleepwalking amateur painter who attempts to reproduce a large-format abstract painting that had obviously interested him when he was studying art. The scene in the light-box piece makes it look like a film still. The other one, Rheinmetall/Victoria 8 is an installation of a surrealistic image. Graham acquired an almost unused 1930s typewriter. First, he documented the object photographically, in the style of New Objectivity; he then covered it with flour to create a poignant image for words falling silent. The artist’s work always shows source material deriving from his most important influences: Sigmund Freud, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, the Grimm brothers, Richard Wagner, Stéphane Mallarmé and, above all, Picasso. Precisely, the retrospective exhibition at Macba is...
How to overcome the complexes
Today´s society enslaves us with unattainable canons of aesthetic and cultural perfection. The media and advertising broadcast a message highly toxic to the mortals’ morale, so full of “defects”: spare tyres, crooked teeth, low salary, lack of culture… This way, it’s quite normal that people have many complexes. The problem is almost always the image that one has of himself is very different from what others see, and almost always it is much more negative. A complex is the focus of a real or imagined defect, physical or psychological. The person who has many complexes has a distorted image of himself. There are different kinds of complexes, but the most common are the physical ones, particularly among women. Although there are also the psychological complexes which are increasing more and more, due to a lack of culture or intelligence; and the social complexes, having to do with the scope of money, profession or origins. The low self-esteem is the main factor triggering a complex. Learning how to live with them is vital. How? Resort to positive psychology. According to the experts, the need of approval from others should be replaced by self esteem. We should accept ourselves! It is better to boast of the virtues, than to humble focusing only on the defects. We all have complexes because it is part of the human condition. Nobody´s perfect. Without a doubt, the best solution is the acceptance of our imperfections. One must be realistic and see how far one can go. Certain physical complexes taken to the extreme can lead to serious diseases. Some people dare not to expose his/her...
The secret of Leo Messi
Who do you think the best footballer on the planet is? Messi is currently the Golden Ball trophy holder, so presumably he´s the best player in the world. Compared to previous soccer prodigies, this Argentine shines primarily because of his age: he is just 22 years old! His youth, his strong determination, his optimum physical health and his optimism without borders are incredible. What is his secret? Is it a natural gift or the passion he has? On January 2010, Leo got his 100th goal. But he will surely make us vibrate with new and strong emotions. Since he left Rosario (his hometown in Argentina) and moved to Barcelona at age of 13, Lionel Andrés Messi has only grown as a player. It was in 2005, during the world cup sub 20 of Holland, that his talent was recognized: he was the top scorer, the best player of the tournament and nowadays, the best player of the world. Leo is a special player! He is quick, subtle and surprises with surrealistic goals. His vitality and his smile are priceless; you can read in them his passion for the game, because after all, when Leo enters in the field, he makes his childhood dreams come true. He does not resemble to the type of player who becomes a star, seeking the fame and the admiration like, for example, Maradona. He is in love, he has the support of his family, a house in a town near the Catalan capital, but he´s Argentinian and has not forgotten his roots, as he revealed in an interview in December 2009. But, where would...
Anti-Karaoke in Barcelona and Madrid: Let it rock, yeah!
Come on, take off your slippers and stop playing singstar with your play station. Singing along all alone in front of the TV at home is just nonsense. Well, doing it with some friends can be entertaining, but be honest: There’s nothing more boring than that! Explore the incredible world of the anti-karaoke in Madrid and discover the hidden rockstar in yourself! Let it rock, yeah! It’s very difficult to explain in one sentence what this mega event offers you. You just have to go and participate by your own. Anti-karaoke is a spectacular mix of underground karaoke, Broadway shows, rock concerts and a freaky party with a crazy crowd. The completely madness in a state of exception which you can enjoy each Monday in the famous Apolo Club in Barcelona and in Madrid each last Wednesday of the month. Before going you should know that it is a lot more than a conventional karaoke party. The highlight of the anti-karaoke parties is without any doubt the amazing and totally freaked out show presenter: Rachel Arieff. Rachel seems to have first seen the light of day with a certain mission: to rock the stage and entertain the audience. And she is more than talented in doing so. During the party, she changes her outfit many times; she flirts without limits and takes the breath of everyone. At the beginning of the show, all braves can put their names down to the songs they would like to sing. Later they will be presented and celebrated like real rock stars by Rachel and the crazy crowd. Do you think you’re just...
