Bülent Ecevit Osman Yusuf

One Man, Two Guvnors, Adelphi Theatre, review - Telegraph

Laugh? I nearly died!

In the play’s greatest scene, one of the most hilarious I have ever seen in a theatre, he simultaneously serves dinner to his two guvnors while reserving large quantities of food for himself, aided and abetted by an ancient and doddery waiter (the sublimely comical Tom Edden) who keeps falling down the stairs, and a member of the audience who suffers no end of humiliations. If you don’t laugh at this scene it can only be because you have already expired with mirth at the show’s previous gags.

The reviews are entirely justified. This one sequence alone is comedy slapstick heaven, and the whole building was shaking with laughter.

Attack the Block – review | Film | The Guardian

Finally got round to seeing this. Think I avoided it because, despite having a great concept, I was worried it’d be a disappointment. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case:

As well as excitement and laughs, [Director Joe] Cornish provides some sharp social comment on the subject of aliens and alienation. Now, there are many who will feel they have consumed enough hand-wringing analysis from the concerned commentariat about aggressive youths in Broken Britain controlling their turf, and yet as scared as babies of moving anywhere beyond these “ends”. Cornish tackles the same idea but with a light touch and a cheerful, unfashionably optimistic belief in a happy outcome somewhere along the line. His sci-fi urban pastoral is also a satirical fantasy. What if enemies or opposing groups were suddenly confronted by a common foe? Might they not discover common ground that should have been cultivated anyway?

Some random observations:

1. The film was a financial flop, that much we already know. Did it fail because it dared to present social undesirables as heroic? Or was it because audiences couldn’t understand the street slang spoken by the cast?
2. Even though I didn’t quite catch everything they were saying (subtitles will be switched on for repeat viewings), the young cast were excellent, by turns fearsome and vulnerable. Funny, too.
3. Given that it’s set on Bonfire Night (4th November), why was it given a summer release in the cinemas? It’s just as well, because the social commentary (such as it is), uncannily prefigures the London Riots that took place shortly after.
4. Surprised to see that the Daily Mail gave it such a thoughtful and positive review. Again, this view might have changed post-riots.
5. The design of the monsters were clearly inspired by the creatures that adorned the sides of the Space Invaders arcade cabinets, way back in the eighties.
6. The soundtrack by Basement Jaxx is brilliant.
7. Finally, if this isn’t a tribute to the films of John Carpenter, I’m going to shred my blogger’s union card and sprinkle it over my cornflakes for breakfast.

Gerhard Richter: Panorama at Tate Modern - Art museums & institutions - Time Out London

This is an amazing show. Every room contains something to inspire and delight:

Richter didn’t so much resuscitate painting as submit it to prolonged interrogation - pulling it up by its lapels and demanding it take stock of itself. He was no less forgiving of himself or his family, painting his Nazi-sympathizing father and ‘Uncle Rudi’ (in full uniform) in the same year as his ‘Aunt Marianne’ (1965), who was sterilised and euthanised for being schizophrenic. Why should we not also scrutinise ourselves a bit more, asks Richter’s strange mirrored and glazed sculptures, which blur and distort pictures and viewers alike. The sense of meanings shifting, swelling and dropping away like waves is just as disorienting as the jumps between Richter’s abstract colour charts and his romantic landscapes. His pure, DayGlo abstracts are twenty-first century Jackson Pollocks, but he also makes beautiful portraits. Go figure.

My favourite is “Reader” from 1994, a photo-realistic portrait of Richter’s wife reading a newspaper, with light and shadow dancing reverentially around her features.

I first saw it about ten years ago at the MOMA in San Francisco (though my memory could be deceiving me). It was strikingly beautiful then, and it’s even more beautiful now.

Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, British Museum, review - Telegraph

Using a word I wouldn’t normally associate with a trip to the British Museum, but this was fun:

Tombs, pots, craft, history, transvestites, what? If you have heard anything about the concept of the British Museum’s latest exhibition you will likely be feeling confused or sceptical. What has the Turner Prize-winning artist, mad potter, and celebrity transvestite been doing in one of Britain’s best-loved museums?

For two and a half years now he’s been raiding the bowels of the museum’s archives with a license to extract whatever treasure he wants from its academic context and present it to the public alongside the products of his own most recent creative outpourings. The result is a smorgasbord of world history, as seen through the eyes of the artist, or what he calls “a journey through my mind”. That, by the way, takes some serious confidence - both on his part and that of the exhibitions team at the British Museum.

Good on Grayson for opening the show with a retort to all his sceptics then. You are greeted at the entrance by a typically homebaked Perry-esque pot bearing some distinctive figures scrawled in his scruffily imperfect manner. It is called ‘You Are Here’ (2011) and depicts you, the museum-going public, explaining with speech bubbles why you went to see the show. It includes: “I liked the poster” and “I just wanted to satisfy myself that I am more clever than this celebrity charlatan.”

It’s my first exposure to the work of Grayson Perry, which seems to revolve around the twin-poles of teddy bears and cross-dressing. It was utterly insane, but gloriously so. Worth a visit for the gift shop alone.

Whale Trail iOS game tops 38k first-weekend sales in pursuit of Angry Birds | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Here’s a sobering insight into App Store economics:

So, Whale Trail. The £0.69 game involves guiding a flying whale through clouds while collecting bubbles, using one-tap controls. It sold around 6,500 copies on Thursday – its day of release, and before Apple’s Game Of The Week promotion kicked in. It then sold approximately 9,500 downloads on Friday, 11,000 in Saturday and 11,500 on Sunday, although without the rounding, the total stands at 38,215 at the time of writing.

That means the studio has so far made just under £18,500 of net revenues after Apple’s 30% cut. “We need 300,000 downloads to break even, based on our £150k spend making the game,” says Mills.

I love Whale Trail, and I’ve said as much to whoever will listen. It has a great soundtrack, plays like a dream, and it never outstays its welcome.

But HOLY SHIT, 300,000 downloads before you can even start to make a profit?! That’s a pretty sucky business model.

BBC News - V for Vendetta masks: Who's behind them?

A-ha! About time somebody in the mainstream media investigated the source of this… Trend? Fad? Phenomenon?

British graphic novel artist David Lloyd is the man who created the original image of the mask for a comic strip written by Alan Moore. Lloyd compares its use by protesters to the way Alberto Korda’s famous photograph of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara became a fashionable symbol for young people across the world.

“The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny - and I’m happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way,” he says.

A curious Lloyd visited the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park, New York, to have a look at some of the people wearing his mask.

“My feeling is the Anonymous group needed an all-purpose image to hide their identity and also symbolise that they stand for individualism - V for Vendetta is a story about one person against the system.”

The mask, as it’s currently sold, is licensed by the studio who made the film. In effect, this symbol so beloved by protesters is actually channelling money into the pockets of big business. So much for the principles of anarchy.

Side note: The film is drivel. The graphic novel is a masterpiece.