Panel Borders: Newspaper Comics

Panel Borders: Newspaper Comics

This week’s show begins a month of shows about anthologies and collectives; Alex Fitch talks to the editors of two comic book anthologies which are printed in newspaper form; Richard Cowdry about his anthology, The Comix Reader, a new 24 page newspaper anthology inspired by his love of old newspaper strips, cinema cartoons and his connections with the alternate press scene; and Matthew Sheret about his twice yearly anthology Paper Science, published through his company We are words and pictures, an anthology which showcases brilliant design and the best up and coming comic book creators.

Interior of Paper Science no.1, exterior of The Comix Reader no.1

Interior of Paper Science no.1, exterior of The Comix Reader no.1

For more info about this podcast and a variety of formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.org

Links: More info about The Comix Reader at www.thecomixreader.com and Paper Science at www.wearewordsandpictures.com

Paper Science 4 will be launched at Sci-Fi London’s comic book weekend, which takes place at the BFI on London’s Southbank on 30th April and 1st May, a two day festival featuring panels, talks, workshops, screenings / tables for small press creators to sell their work and entry is free. More info at www.londoncomicsfestival.com

Laydeez do comics April 2011
Guest Speakers

Members of The London Print Studio Comics Collective will present their individual works.
Continue reading →

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Wavelength – Pistoletto

Michelangelo Pistoletto.

On Saturday 23rd of May, as part of Tate Modern’s Long Weekend, Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto recreated one of his actions from the 1960s, rolling a large ball of newspaper over the Millennium Bridge, around the City and back by boat assisted by his wife and long-time collaborator Maria Pioppi. Pistoletto’s Ball of Newspapers (1966) was one of the artist’s “Minus Objects” that he rolled through the streets of Turin in 1967 during the heyday of Arte Povera.
William English joined the throng which followed the ball and chatted with Pistoletto en route.

+ Wolf Vostell: Elektronischer de-collage. Happening Raum (1968).

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Outsider In – UK Uncut & Heathcote Williams

Proving it is hard to learn by his mistakes, James embarks on another series of Outsider In where we may find insight into the world of the ‘outsider’. In the first episode we find James accidentally embroiled in facing off the mainstream media when they assume he represents UKUncut… Heathcote Williams sends James a new anti-government poem which he will read out for the first time and live on air… this is underpinned by more candid UKUncut field recordings and advice on nuclear safety. James hopes you can put aside the 10 O’clock news and listen to something much more useful. Next week, Adam Bohman and Patrizia Paolini use their voices, in a good way….

Turner’s Subversive Boat by Heathcote Williams
The painter, Turner,
Hid in a boat on the Thames
In 1851.

He’d moored it mid-stream
So those taking the Census
Couldn’t question him –

He slyly ducked state snoops
Determined to snaffle up
His life’s last detail

For anonymous
Government authorities.
He preferred to be

Known for dream landscapes;
For ‘The Fighting Temeraire’;
For his red-gold skies;

Stonehenge at sunset;
Salisbury Cathedral’s spire
Wreathed in brooding mist;

Wreckers’ rugged coasts;
Seascapes of Northumberland.
He’d stay out all night

To catch next day’s dawn
Then he’d paint it as timeless –
The light of the world.

He’d beat cold weather
With layers of silk handkerchiefs
Hanging from his hat –

This man in a boat,
J. Mallord William Turner,
Freeborn Englishman –

Choosing to live by
Ignoring the powers that be
And plying his oars,

Looking for beauty
In whatever caught his eye
As well as for truth.

In Turner’s painting
‘The Slave Ship’, bodies in chains
Are thrown overboard

By the slaves’ masters
To be set upon by sharks –
A routine practice

When the slave owners
Found their cargo troublesome,
Or too ill to treat;

Unprofitable to feed,
Or just pining to be free.
The snares of the State

Are now much subtler,
But slaves are still rounded up,
Farmed for their taxes,

Spied on by cameras,
Questioned by nosy strangers
Filling in dull forms

Such as the Census,
So the State may know who’s who
If there’s civil unrest.

Bobbing in his boat
And never to be enslaved,
Turner ruled the waves.

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Six Pillars – Wael Shawky

The Path To Cairo – Shawky

Ahead of his forthcoming talk at Delfina Foundation we’ve pulled out some audio from Emirates March Meeting 2011 where Wael presented his work on the crusades from an eastern perspective, as depicted through marionettes on film. One part of the quartet of film retraces events unfolding in the four years between (1096-1099) and which played a key role in subsequent historical developments, shaking to the core the Arab world and its relations with the West. Shawky was somehow given permission to use 200-year-old marionettes from the Lupi collection in Turin and was inspired by The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf, written in 1986. The book by Maalouf, a Lebanese writer, examines the historical points of the Crusades by going back to Arab historians and their writings, most of which have never been considered by historians in the West, although Maalouf does also reference some of the most acknowledged Western sources and studies and aim to give, finally, a balanced view to this too-long-one-sided episode in the history of humankind. Wael lives and work in Egypt.

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Voice on Record: Episode 47 (Work)

Featuring artists and cleaner Sarah Roberts, a Cotswold Shepherd and others, plus the second part of our four part serialisation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Originally broadcast on 28th September 2010

Voice On Record is produced and presented by Sean Williams. Each episode features a selection of recordings of the human voice which have been preserved on vinyl. Historic events stand alongside esoteric guides to better bowling. Arid studio recordings are juxtaposed with location recordings rich with fascinating incidental sounds.

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Hello GoodBye Show 2 April 2011: Comus and Jack Allett

Live in session on the show this Saturday lunchtime are the original dark-folk progenitors Comus, plus the virtuoso guitar skills of Jack Allett (formerly known as Spoono)

Emerging from David Bowie’s ‘Arts Lab’ in suburban Beckenham (South East London) at the tail end of the ’60s, Comus were the poison-cure to flower-power.

With a mutual appreciation for The Velvet Underground, it is hardly surprising that founding members Roger Wootton & Glenn Goring garnered inspiration from the darker side of life, with murder, rape and madness the preferred subject matter.

Like a musical incarnation of ‘Seahenge‘ the band bore fruit from deep within the underground folk scene, while the roots to their name were found in the upper reaches of Greek mythology and the writing of the 17th century English poet John Milton. Comus’ legacy grows more acute with each passing decade, with Swedish Death-Metal outfit Opeth and British Apocalyptic-Folk group Current 93 heading the roll call of admirers.

Jack Allett is a 26 year old guitarist from Camberwell, South London. As a member of Towering Breaker and under his erstwhile pseudonym, Spoono, he has – over the past 6 years or so – released LPs, 7?s and CDrs on a plethora of labels (inc. Blackest Rainbow, Great Pop Supplement, Chocolate Monk, Psykick Dancehall…) In 2011 he has a solo LP – the first under his real name – planned for release on Blackest Rainbow, and a collaborative LP with Cam Deas to be issued on Present Time Exercises.

Also, journalist / musician Neil Walsh conducts an interview with the author Jeanette Leech about her new book, Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid & Psychedelic Folk (Jawbone Press)

Track List:
Neil Walsh interviews Jeanette Leech, author of ‘Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid & Psychedelic Folk’
Comus – Song To Comus (LIVE SESSION)
Comus – Diana (LIVE SESSION)
Opeth – Circle Of The Tyrant
Comus – Interview
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Fight Dem Back
The Count of Chateau Noir – The Dead Language
My Elastic Eye – Mining Song
Jack Allett – Walworth Road Blues (LIVE SESSION)
Jack Allett – Frozen Music (LIVE SESSION)
Jack Allett – Interview

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Electric Sheep Magazine podcast: Indie Movies Online

Electric Sheep Magazine podcast: Indie Movies Online

With more and more people wanting to download movies off the internet, a new company has come along to help people do this legally with a wide range of films that include British gems and cult classics. Alex Fitch talks to James Rowley-Ashwood about indiemoviesonline.com: how the collection of films on the site were curated – from Evil Aliens to the site’s one playing movie A Serbian Film, short films by Lotte Reiniger and the Brothers Quay and back catalogue titles from Peter Greenaway and Alex Cox, some of which are out of print on DVD – and how the site’s funding and distribution are achieved.

Indie movies online logo

Links: indiemoviesonline.com
Watch A Serbian Film

Read Virginie Selavy’s article about the censorship of A Serbian Film and interview with the director
Recent articles by Alex Fitch at Electric Sheep: the Halloween franchise / Source Code review

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Hooting Yard: Looking For Love.

In 1821, for unfathomable reasons, Jarvis Greasecollar’s star waned, and not a theatre in the land would stage, nor cobble, one of his productions. He fell out with Swausage, endured a mysterious calamity in yet another seaside town, and his wife ran off with a dapper gentleman of foreign extraction. Years later, she was to play a shadowy role as a counter-revolutionary in the revolutionary turmoil that engulfed a continent.

This episode was recorded on the 12th August 2010. A complete transcript of this episode can be found on Frank Key’s Hooting Yard website. Accompanying Hooting Yard On The Air, the five publications We Were Puny, They Were Vapid, Gravitas, Punctilio, Rectitude & Pippy Bags, Unspeakable Desolation Pouring Down From The Stars, Befuddled By Cormorants and Inpugned By A Peasant And Other Stories are available for purchase

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Panel Borders: Social realism and magical realism in comics

Panel Borders: Social realism and magical realism in comics

Concluding this month’s theme of shows about newspaper comics, Alex Fitch introduces a talk recorded at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in which Ian Rakoff discusses social realism and magical realism in the newspaper strip Little Orphan Annie and the international comic books Corto Maltese and Love and Rockets and how the three sagas are related.

Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray, Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt, Locas by Jaime Hernandez

Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray, Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt, Locas by Jaime Hernandez

For more info about this podcast and a variety of formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.org

Links: Ian’s blog
Articles on Little Orphan Annie from 1935-1945 and 1970-2000
Victoria and Albert Museum website
Wikipedia pages on Little Orphan Annie, Corto Maltese and Love and Rockets

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Wavelength – Russian avant-garde sound experiments

BAKU: Symphony of Sirens, Sound Experiments in the Russian Avant-Garde, Original Documents and reconstructions of 72 key works of music, poetry and agitprop from the Russian avantgardes 1908-1942.
The book is released and distributed by ReR… I bought this copy from the Tate Modern bookshop and it can also be ordered through Sub Rosa for about £25…
Chris Cutler is the general editor.
The 72 page book is translated from the Spanish, and includes an essay by Miguel Molina Alarcon providing an overview, summary biographies, bibliography, web research links and the 2 CDs, the first of which is made up of reconstructions including The Symphony of Sirens by Avraamov, and previously lost sound events by Prokofiev, Khlebnikov, Malevich, Burliuk and numerous others, lasting between 9 seconds and 28 minutes.
The second CD is made up entirely of original recordings including Vertov’s Enthusiasm, The Dombass Symphony; a symphony of abstract industrial noise from 1930, followed by contemporary recordings by Roman Jakobson, Khruchenykh, Lili Brik, Esenin, Mayakovsky, Pasternak, Akhmatova, Lenin and Trotsky.
Today I’ve chosen  mostly poetic works; and the first track is by Igor Severyanin called Echo dating from 1914, these first tracks are all reconstructions from 2006, the second half of the programme will be original recordings.

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