[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmxg7ij8Pew&w=560&h=315]
Soulful singer Javeon McCarthy has unveiled the video for “future-r&b ballad” ‘Precious’, produced by PMR counterpart Two Inch Punch. The video for ‘Precious’ captures the Bristol native delivering a captivating performance of the track in an intimate setting.
The BNP can be blamed for a lot of things, but the main reason I hate them is what they have done to the Union Jack flag {or the Union Flag). Some people now see the Union Jack as racist, it’s not. It is the most inclusive flag you can think of. It is the flag of the United Kingdom; It has the St Andrews Cross (Scotland), St George Cross (England) and St Patrick’s Cross (Ireland). Wales was not a Kingdom but a Principality so it could not be included on the flag
As all of the bunting went up in London I had an Irish friend ask if I found it offensive. Offensive? Why would I? “It’s racist”, she said, “to us”. By ‘us’ she meant that I am Scottish and she is Irish. To be honest it was her question I found offensive. I may be Scottish, but I am also British and I have lived in London for over five years. My flag is in the Union Jack and no-one, not a racist and certainly no one ignorant will ever take it away from me. I am proud to be British and I love my flag. Both of them.
Doctors may be striking all over the country but medicine is still a brilliant, fulfilling and secure profession to go into. You will go to work everyday knowing you are making a difference. Training may be expensive but it is the one profession were you will almost certainly find a job at the end of it. The NHS may be making cutbacks but there are still jobs to be found. From teaching medicine to working in management. People will always need doctors.
Even when you become a doctor your training should not stop. There are a lot of training courses on offer, from the consultant interview course to a medical teaching course the (medical) world is your oyster.
Just have a look at a medical training company and see how you can broaden your horizons. You may also want or need to move into another field. If you would rather move into management then you can do a medical management course or if you want to teach do the teach the teacher course. Knowledge is power and if you want to work in other medical areas all you really need is a training course, hard work and perseverance. Though, if you are already a doctor you will already know that. Let us know how you get on.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iV4NwSbscg&w=560&h=315]
Will Oldham aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy aka the hardest working man in music has unveiled the new video for his single ‘I See A Darkness’. The track is from his upcoming EP Now Here’s My Plan, a collection consisting of new versions of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy classics recorded by Steve Albini, due for release in accompaniment with the Will Oldham on Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy book on June 4th and separately through Domino on July 24th.
West London producer Two Inch Punch has announced the new single ‘Paint It Red’ from his forthcoming EP, ‘Saturn: The Slow Jams’. The track features vocals from Nashville native Mikky Ekko. Have a listen here:
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/45839717″ iframe=”true” /]
To celebrate the launch of the EP, PMR Records will be hosting a special EP launch party on Friday, June 22nd at the Notting Hill Arts Club.
Mumiy Troll, voted “Russia’s most dangerous band” by Russian music fans have unveiled their new single and video, ‘Hey Tovarish’, released on 3rd September. Watch it here:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIyia68SLG4&w=560&h=315]
The band have been described as “the most significant musical entity Russia has produced since Perestroika” and their frontman Ilya Lagutenko is a megastar in his homeland, having been voted “Musician of the Year” numerous times by GQ magazine.
This release will be the band’s first in English, after 10 award winning albums, and will be followed by a full album in English, ‘Vladivostok’, also released in September. The album was made in Hollywood and produced by Lagutenko himself in collaboration with Mike Clink (Guns N’ Roses, Megadeth), Joe Chiccarelli (My Morning Jacket, The Shins) and Brit Greg Brimson (Bush, Eminem). Lagutenko described the album as “a magical trip through the vibes and emotions of my countrymen, a virtual Trans-Siberian trek, like a Russian guide taking a Western backpacker across the vastness of Russia—but in reverse.”
The band expect to announce a full UK tour soon.
External Links:
Über cool London-born singer Anna Calvi has unveiled a new video of her playing some songs and talking about her favourite pieces in the Tate Britain gallery. Have a watch of the rather great video here:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTPoPsnkYZM&w=560&h=315]
As announced in Frost Anna plays the Summer Series at London’s Somerset House on 12th July and is also playing select festivals across Europe this summer including Luzern’s Blue Balls Festival in Switzerland.
Michael Fassbender has done a fascinating interview with the Hollywood Reporter. You can read the full article at the link, but here are a few good quotes.
On how he survived years of struggle: “I would say to myself, I’m good enough. That became my mantra.”
ON GOING NUDE, MEETING SEX ADDICTS AND USING YOUTUBE TO HONE HIS CRAFT
Fassbender says what attracted him to the role of Brandon, a sex addict in the Fox Searchlight indie drama Shame– produced by See Saw Films and Alliance–was the chance to explore the desperate search for connection; playing a young Jung in A Dangerous Method allowed him to morph into a historical character. “I was a bit worried that I’d perhaps bitten off more than I could chew,” he says. “But I’m always interested in trying to investigate different personalities. I want to keep myself guessing and keep the fear element alive, so that I don’t get too comfortable.” Jeremy Thomas, a producer on Dangerous Method, says Fassbender who was director David Cronenberg’s first choice to play Jung read the script over and over again, even during production, something Thomas has never seen an actor do. “It’s one of his secret weapons,” he says. Fassbender says he’s grown deft at using YouTube to study accents (his own is Irish) or to watch a grainy interview with an elderly Jung. For Shame, he met with recovering sex addicts: “One man had the same intimacy issues that Brandon had, so it was very helpful to me, and I was very grateful that he opened up.” Additionally, he says there was no time to feel too self-conscious when shooting Shame, says Fassbender. It helped that director Steve McQueen kept the set intimate. “We moved very fast. We shot it in 25 days, so I kind of had to get over it and get on with it,” he says.
THE ACTOR ONCE LIVED WITH REJECTION, A HOLE IN HIS WINDOW
The son of two restaurant owners, Fassbender moved to London at 19 and attended the Drama Centre. “It took me a while to come to grips with how expensive London was. My parents helped me out, but we never had a lot of money,” he says. “So it was very sticky the first three or four years between paying drama school fees and surviving. The first place I lived was a studio I shared with a Brazilian girl. We weren’t seeing each other or anything, but I remember there was a big hole in the window and it was so cold in the winter.” Fassbender’s first acting role of note was in HBO’s Band of Brothers, which aired in 2001. He was confident it would lead to other offers. It didn’t. “I came to Los Angeles and did auditions for television. I made a terrible mess of most of them and I was quite intimidated,” he recalls. “I felt very embarrassed and went back to London. I got British television jobs intermittently between the ages of 23 and 27, but it was very patchy.” Between roles including a Guinness commercial (in which his character swims from Ireland to New York) and a one-off, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, he took odd jobs to survive, unloading trucks or bartending. He even did market research. “I had to call people who had filed complaints about the Royal Mail and see if they were happy with how their grievances were dealt with. Most of the time they weren’t,” he says. All along, he says, “My goal was for acting to become my main income. I would say to myself, ‘I’m good enough.’ That became my mantra.”