Category Archives: Culture

Breaking Bad Marathon Hosted At Prince Charles Cinema

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Breaking Bad, marathon, prince charles cinema

Breaking Bad: Marathon – The Pilot and the Epic Conclusion
What? A one off exclusive event showcasing the pilot and the last sixteen episodes of the show in a back to back marathon for the first time ever in stunning theatrical format. Relive every heart-stopping moment in the comfort of a cinema seat rather than your sofa.
Where? Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7BY
When? 8pm for 8.30pm Saturday 30th November then all night

If the end of Breaking Bad has left you feeling (Heisenberg) blue then this is definitely the event for you.

Breaking Bad fans will be able to get tickets from the Prince Charles Cinema free on Friday 15th November at 13:00, available via the website or you can turn up at their box-office on the day, limited to 2 tickets per person.

Breaking Bad: The Final Season and the Complete Series Boxset will be available November 25 on Blu-ray and DVD

Mother Hosts Feminism Debate With Lorraine Candy, MP Jo Swinson and Ruby Tandoe

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feminismOn Monday 18 November, Mother London will host a debate about modern feminism. Equalities Minister Jo Swinson and Ruby Tandoe will join a panel hosted by ELLE editor Lorraine Candy to discuss the topic “Does feminism need a rebrand?” They will be joined by Laura Jordan Bambach, President of D&AD; Kat Banyard, UK Feminista; Ikarama Larasi, Rewind & Reframe and Holly Armstrong & Rhiannon Wlliams, Vagenda.

Following the recent success of ELLE and Mother’s www.makethempay.co.uk equal pay campaign, the panel will also address the issue of the pay gap, which is currently 17.5% in the UK.

Using www.makethempay.co.uk, employees can compare their pay to colleagues of a different sex and encourage their employers to sign up to the Think, Act Report, which encourages businesses to enforce equal pay legislation.

DOES FEMINISM NEED A REBRAND?

THE DEBATE

Chaired by Lorraine Candy ELLE Editor-in-Chief

Performance by Sara Pascoe

Speakers

Jo Swinson, Women and Equalities Minister

Laura Jordan Bambach, President D&AD

Ruby Tandoh, The Great British Bake-off

Kat Banyard, UK Feminista

Ikarama Larasi, Rewind & Reframe

Holly Armstrong & Rhiannon Wlliams, Vagenda

6.30-9pm Monday 18 November

Mother London, 10 Redchurch Street, E2 7DD

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MonaLisa Twins Interview | Music

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We have interviewed MonaLisa Twins, we have featured these talented women, Lisa and Mona Wagner,  before but thought it was time to get their own thoughts in their own words.

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Have you always wanted to make music?

Lisa: Music has always been a big part of our lives, so it was a very natural thing for us and a smooth transition into being “professional musicians”. The radio was always on and we were constantly singing, even on car rides or in school. As kids we got easily excited for a lot of things: we had a passion for animals, all kinds of art, we loved books, movies and everything that was fun to do. But music stuck with us the most, so yes, we always wanted to “make” music, since we were always doing it anyways, but the wish, dream and passion to really make it our profession, started growing from the age of about 13.

 

What are the origins of Mona Lisa Twins?

Mona: Since we’re twins we’ve been living together for 19 years now. That’s quite a lot of time, considering that we’ve spent nearly every single day under the same roof. It’s actually a miracle we can still stand each other, but for some odd reason we do.

When we were younger, our Dad ran a recording studio at home, so we have always been messing around there and recorded cute Birthday songs for family members or friends and the like. Music always meant good times and spending time with our Dad. To this day we still work together with him, write the songs and record them in our own studio.

L: So it was all just a really natural development, we grew up and over the years became better and more certain of where we wanted to head with our music. There was no date or year where it all started, but you could mark a family concert back in 2007 as the first milestone of the musical journey.

 

How would you describe your sound?

M: When we started out covering lots of songs and later to write our own music, we discovered a great passion for the 60s, especially the early beat music. It was the kind of more sophisticated Rock’n’Roll that we were so in awe of. We loved the easy but somehow very powerful songwriting style of that era and tried to integrate as many of the musical elements in our own songs as possible.

L: After listening to loads of 60s bands we were looking for newer groups who wrote in a similar kind of matter, but were a bit disappointed by the lack of it. So we tried to write the kind of songs that we would enjoy listening to. We incorporated many of the elements that we thought made the whole 60s era so special – mainly focusing on interesting, catchy but diversified melodies in our vocals but also guitars, bringing back the strong harmonies and wiry, bright guitar sounds.

 

What is your favorite Mona Lisa Twins song?

L: This is nearly like having to pick a favorite child! But well, I could say that for our more upbeat songs, I personally am very proud of “This Boy is Mine”, since it really brings the raw 60s Beat music vibe across we were aiming for.

M: For me “The Wide, Wide” land has got a very special place in my heart. We wrote it for our grandma who passed away of Alzheimer, and we first played it at her funeral together with our cousin. It was such an emotional moment, and people seem to connect very well with this song.

 

What is your favorite non MonaLisa Twins song?

L: Ah, that’s even harder! It normally is some kind of Beatles song, but there are also so many wicked ones to choose from. One of my all-time favorites would be “You’re Gonna Loose That Girl”. As for more recent songs I’ve been listening to John Mayer’s “Born & Raised” album a lot lately and especially love his song “Speak For Me”.

M: Probably “Because” by the Beatles.

Who is your favorite modern, and non modern artist?

M: As for “modern” artists I would probably say John Mayer. I’ve been going through an unhealthy obsession with his music lately, but I just love the way he puts words together with sing-along melodies. Non modern is easy, the Beatles in my opinion will always be the most mind-blowing band that ever existed.

 

L: It’s hard for me to pick favorites, but for more “recent” bands I enjoy The Belle Brigade, The Arctic Monkey and Josh Pyke to mention a few. Overall I prefer bands from the past, which next to the Beatles would be Donovan, Simon & Garfunkel and Cat Stevens, but the list goes on and on.

 

Who inspires you?

M: People who do more than you would expect them to. This doesn’t have to be art related at all, but I just get really excited when I hear about stories where people go out of their comfort zones to reach their goals. Everything worthwhile on this world was done by people who are not afraid to try out something different and new and are not constantly held back by the desire to “fit in”. I think that’s what life is all about.

L: I completely agree with that. And of course that would also be my musical heroes and idols from the past and present.

 

Describe your style.

L: It’s probably best described as reinvented 60s sound. Bright guitar riffs, harmonies, melodic and catchy, but certainly not trivial songs.

 

What’s next for you?

M: We are planning to release a Live-CD in spring 2014. We played so many shows this last year that it would be a shame if no one got to hear the songs we performed, except the people who saw the shows. So we figured we put out another live record, before going back in the studio to record new original material.

L: We’ll include live versions of our original songs as well as covers. Our voices changed quite a bit, since we recorded the last album, so it should be interesting for our fans to hear how we perform our music these days. Besides that, we are planning to write many more songs and release them as singles one at a time.

 

Norine Braun “Coventus The Eye Of The Heart” | Music Profile

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Norine Braun "Coventus The Eye Of The Heart"Artist: Norine Braun
Location: Vancouver BC
Styles: Roots Rock, Blues Rock, Adult Album Alternative, Funk influenced
Similar to: Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, KD Lang, City and Colour, Grace Slick, Sade
CD: Conventus The Eye of the Heart (Advance)
Members/Instruments: Norine Braun vocals and guitar Adam Popowitz lead guitar and bass, Elliot Polsky drums and percussion Alice Fraser keys and Huggybear Leonard blues harp and penny whistle
Production: Adam Popowitz produced and engineered at Rear Window Song and Sound Coquitlam BC
Bio:
Canadian artist Norine Braun bridges the gap between a singer-songwriter and a rock and roll performer with her new release Conventus The Eye of the Heart. Norine Braun’s music falls somewhere in between the intimate, heartfelt approach of folk and the energy of pop, roots rock, just as if Joni Mitchell, kd lang and Colin James would join Patti Smith and Prince for a jam, somewhere in the vast wilderness of the Canadian landscape.
Her music blinks an eye to the past, while firmly looking forward, blending timeless elements such as blues, rock, funk and country and presenting them to the audience with a freshness and balance that are in tune with today’s sensibilities.
Norine’s diverse approach to songwriting and her prowess as a heartfelt performer are the fundaments of her solid reputation within her local scene, and beyond: This talented artist received recognition from events such as L.A. Music Awards, The Best Female Musicians Magazine and many more.
Ever the chameleon, hardworking DIY Norine Braun is set to release her ninth studio album, adding to her impressive and prolific catalogue. “Conventus The Eye of the Heart”, an inspired piece of music centered around the concept of “unions”, something that affected Norine’s life in several disguises. Vancouver’s finest musicians have joined her again on the musical journey for Conventus. Adam Popowitz has produced, engineered and performed guitar and bass on Conventus, Elliot Polsky performs on drums and percussion, Alice Fraser performs on keys and Huggybear Leonard performs on blues harp and penny whistle.

Emotional, heartfelt and eclectic: Norine Braun in 3 words. “Her voice has the viscosity of a jazz crooner, the elegance of a gospel singer, and the heart of a folk or blues artist.” Bryan Rogers
About her latest release, Norine says “Conventus The Eye of the Heart is my new and ninth album born out of life’s unions and struggles. The past couple of years I encountered many unions in different disguises. I was diagnosed and cured of colon cancer. As I lay in my hospital bed last January, I listened to my roughly recorded demos of these songs and I let them show me the way to health. Music was a healing activity that held my interest and focus in my recovery.
This past year I also embraced a most magnificent union. I married my partner of 25 years on Halloween 2012 the anniversary of our first meeting. I watched my partner’s mother dementia advance and witnessed a great love and strength as we moved through this life transition. I looked at the union in my own family of origin relationship and how my life’s journey as an adoptee has greatly shaped who I am. All of these unions, union of self and body, self and spirit, family union, union of love and marriage are found in the creation of these songs and my new album.
This music is not only my story, it’s also your story in fact it’s our story, it’s everybody’s story. We have all known someone who felt lonely, defeated, betrayed, rejected, scared, and yet found the strength to get back up, fight and win. We all know when we find that union with someone, something or within ourselves we can overcome and celebrate and cherish everything. This is what Conventus is about for me. Conventus is a celebration of union and of life”
What do you think?

Sir David Attenborough Launches Global Crowdfunding Campaign to Save Mountain Gorillas

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Frost favourite Sir David Attenborough will launch a global crowdfunding campaign this week to save mountain gorillas.

The Indiegogo crowdfund, launched to coincide with the first ever UK Crowdfunding Day, aims to raise £110,000 by December 11 to support Fauna & Flora International’s work with mountain gorillas.  This work fosters cooperation across national borders and empowers communities to monitor, protect and benefit from maintaining a healthy population of mountain gorillas.

Sir David, who first highlighted the plight of the mountain gorillas in 1978 in the BBC’s Life on Earth television series, said: “If we are to ensure the survival of mountain gorillas, it is vital that the global community supports our efforts.

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“By supporting this campaign and promoting it through your networks, you will not only be helping to secure a future for mountain gorillas, but also the tens of thousands of Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese people who have come to depend upon them for their livelihoods and wellbeing.”

Founder of TheCrowdfundingCentre.com and organiser of the Deep Impact crowdfunding conference taking place on Friday, November 1, Barry James, said: “The UK is leading the world in using Crowdfunding for good as well as for business. We’re delighted to be working with Sir David and Fauna & Flora International to launch what we believe is the first truly global conservation crowdfunding project – which will undoubtedly be the first of many – as part of this first UK Crowdfunding Day.

“Crowdfunding is revolutionising how businesses are created – making them more people-centred –enabling and supporting the causes the crowd are passionate about. It’s rebooting funding as we know it.

“It’s reshaping the landscape for both for causes, charities and social enterprises and also for startups, entrepreneurs and medical research and has great potential for our communities, towns and cities across the UK. Crowdfunding has changed the financial landscape forever.”

 

Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines: Eye Witness Report

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Typhoon Haiyan, phillipines, Aid worker, Sandra Bulling, CARE International, is with CARE’s Emergency Team in the areas affected by the Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

Nov. 11, 2013, 19:00 local time

 

“We arrived by boat at the port in Ormoc City. As soon as we stepped onto the port, we were in the middle of a disaster zone. Everything was destroyed. Tin roofing sheets were hanging off trees like wet blankets.

 

“All the houses along the coast are completely flattened. Everything is destroyed. Further inland, about 80 percent of the houses are roofless. About five percent of the houses are completely collapsed – these are mainly wooden houses. It seems like everyone we’ve seen has a hammer or tools in their hands, trying to repair their houses and their roofs. People are picking up poles and pieces of wood from the street. There are long queues at hardware stores, pharmacies. We waited in line for two hours to get fuel. So far the roads are okay, but it’s taking a long time to get anywhere.

 

“I talked to a shop owner whose shop was destroyed; he lost everything. He’s wondering how he’s going to feed his five children. I also met a little girl, who was trying to dry out her books. Her house was totally destroyed, but there she was, worried about her school books, because she wants to go to school. And it’s the only thing she has left.

 

“We just arrived in Jaro, a small town on the way to Tacloban. It’s dark now, so we can’t go any further. We’re staying in the police station tonight – not sure where we’ll sleep, maybe in the car, or outside. There’s an electricity pole that’s leaning dangerously over the police station, so everyone is trying to steer clear of that. Thank  you to the police for letting us use their toilets! Our plan is to go to Dulag, just south of Tacloban. Our driver just came from there, and says it’s very bad, and they need help.

 

“People are becoming quite desperate. Some officials just came and told us that there has been looting in the area, people trying to get rice for their families. People haven’t had food for three days, and they’re trying to feed their families. That’s why it’s so important to get food and emergency supplies in to these areas as soon as possible. In Ormoc, there was food; we could buy chicken and rice. But there were big queues at the food stalls and shops. We’re in an urban area now, and I don’t even want to think what it’s like the rural areas. We’ll start moving again at first light. I don’t think anyone is going to get any sleep tonight.”

 

How To Survive A Plague | Film Review

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Nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary feature earlier this year, How To Survive A Plague arrives on these shores this week. With a engrossing yet intimate scope, the film examines the outbreak of the AIDS virus in the 1980’s and specifically its impact in Greenwich Village, New York. Faced with underwhelming medical advancement and indifferent political reaction, a diverse group of young men and women facing almost certain death banded together to found activist group ACT UP. Refusing to die quietly, they took their plight and struggle into the public domain and doggedly began a chain reaction that would turn AIDS from being nearly hundred percent lethal into a manageable disease. Director David France employs a wealth of archive footage and interviews with surviving activists to tell this remarkable story.

How To Survive a Plague, film, film review

Rather than settle for a standard talking head format that many documentary features use, France takes the bold approach of solely using existing archival footage for the vast majority of the films running time. Nearly 700 hours of home videos, news reports,testimonial footage and art protest videos have been whittled down to just under two with contemporary interview audio layered over the soundtrack. This approach reminded me of the brilliant documentary Senna, which also employed little seen existing footage to fill in for contemporary replacements. Like that films director, France realizes that he has an absolute goldmine at his disposal and that the images alone speak volumes. The confrontation between activist Bob Rafsky and then senator Bill Clinton is well documented enough (‘I feel your pain’). But there are numerous stirring and even jaw dropping scenes of protests, rallies, and interviews that convey the monumental struggle in all of its resilience. Ugly undercurrents of homophobia saw many victims of the disease meet indifference or outright hostility from what should in theory be American societies most supportive institutions; the healthcare industry and the Catholic church. One extraordinary sequence focuses on a mass ‘die in’ protest at St. Patrick’s Cathedral as protesters called out the church’s dismissal of condoms and the AIDS crisis altogether.

 

In the midst of the drama and tragedies that defined the era, France never loses focus of the figures at the centre of all of this. As the film reaches its later stages we are treated to a more conventional talking head interview format with surviving activists but this change in style is fully justified by the emotional arc that they, and in course the audience, have been on by that point. This was not simply a fight for political and social rights; it was a battle for life itself with no room for compromise. Many moments captured on camera here are raw and emotionally devastating. A rally culminating with the ashes of AIDS victims scattered across the White House lawn is utterly heartbreaking. If there is a crescendo to the grief and anguish of this generation, it comes from acclaimed playwright Larry Kramer silencing a group of squabbling, divided activists. ‘Plague! We are in the middle of a plague!’ he bellows. His voice cuts through the discourse and chills to the bone of the audience.  It’s a statement that sums up the battle that this community had to face together, and one that they overcame with unity, humour and dignity. It’s a statement, and a cause, that deserves to be heard and remembered and this film is brilliant testament to that.

Utopia Film Review

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Author, journalist and filmmaker John Pilger has spent the last four decades providing a voice for the vulnerable and powerless. He has worked up an impressive resume of work, picking up a Bafta and Emmy in the process, that tackles the theme of division between the powers to be and those considered to be ‘lesser’ individuals who suffer in their wake. His best known work is focused on his native Australia where his breakthrough film The Secret Country (1985), focused on the indigenous Aboriginal population and their shameful persecution over the years. This focus is reiterated in Utopia (named after the Aboriginal homeland in the northern territory) along with the shocking facts of how their land was stolen from them and the various injustices against them that have not ceased with the passage of time.

utopia, film, film review,

Pilger does not hold back in his words and examinations of the current climate in Australia and rightly so. References to ‘the lucky country’ are used alongside  words such as ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’; words that are hard to associate with one of the world’s leading nations. However they seem fully justified in the wake of Pilger’s disturbing revelations. There have been film projects, both factual and fictional, that have focused on the dark chapters of slavery and of ‘The Stolen Generation’, the hideous government policy that saw children taken from their families in order to be used as slave labour and as a deliberate effort to ‘breed out the black.’ Such depictions of shameful events seem like a distant memory but there appears to be no let up in unjust persecution on the native population. If anything it would appear to have taken on  a more subtle and ‘respectable’ facade. Grim statistics of neglect, rife disease, suicide rates and overwhelming incarceration of Aboriginal citizens portray a chilling view of a seemingly national ignorance. Amidst this catalogue of atrocity, Pilger specifically focuses on the steady and insidious efforts of a government endorsed think tank that attempted to quietly erase the dark history of the nation’s past (‘no genocide, no theft of land’) and then proceeded to fuel various moral panics in the media, including a notorious claim of mass paedophilla taking place within Aboriginal tribes.  The claims were untrue and served as a mass distraction to a land grab in the area to mine for natural resources that have kept Australia’s economy strong during the recent downturn. Images of the countries majestic rural beauty take on a dark, melancholic tone in the knowledge of what has been to done to lay claim to it. The interview subjects gathered together on behalf of the  government and media institutions, which includes former prime minister Kevin Rudd, are given a fair approach by Pilger but this still appears to provide more than enough rope for some of them. His interview style is concise and devastating in it’s blunt to the point attitude but not as devastating as his subjects apparent apathy or, more shockingly, a casual indifference to the shocking social divisions and injustices over the years. This sentiment also come across in a quietly disturbing set of soundbites from from everyday citizens celebrating national holidays to commemorate the arrival of westerners to the continent. Though it is admittedly unlikely for the filmmakers to include footage with those uneasy at the one sided nature of the celebrations, it’s still unnerving to see such willful disinterest and prejudice in a first world nation.

 

Throughout the film the sense of quiet anger and shame is raw but never lapses over into trite sentiment. Aboriginal interviewees contained in the film have been at the receiving end of neglect, stereotyping and institutional racism and there is no pleading for sympathy from them or in the tone of the film. There is the inclusion of astonishing footage of labour strikes that helped signal the collapse of slavery in the nation.  Rather than raging against indignity, there is a focus on the quiet and calm search for justice. This is encapsulated in one astonishing scene where Pilger accompanies the descendants of Aboriginal prisoners to the sight of a remote former prison where hundreds were incarcerated and  lost their lives. It is now a luxury resort, with no references or memorials to its past and those who died there. The camera holds on the elder descendants face, clearly wracked with pain and anger, yet refusing to be broken by what he sees.  Filmed in an unfussy and focused manner, it’s small moments like this that hit the hardest.  Pilger and his collaborators voice is a calm yet impassioned one and it deserves to be heard in this extraordinary film.

 

UTOPIA will be released in UK cinemas on November 15th. It will be released on DVD December 16th and broadcast on ITV on 17th December. It is set to be shown in Australia early next year.