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The Andy Lectures: French Parametric Movies
2007-03-07 18:06:12
This week, Parametric movies- what the hell does it mean? To be honest with you, I’ve no idea. I spent hours reading various articles trying to deduce exactly what I was going to be talking about this week, but the closest I can get is that it is a style of film making, whereby the ’style’ of the piece is deliberately given greater or equal interest as the story/plot/narrative, but in a way that draws attention to this and the limitations of the standard structure of filming. And that’s as close as I could get, I’m afraid. Perhaps this article should have been labelled merely ‘miscellaneous French films’.  (more…)
More About: Movies , Movie , Lectures , Andy

The Roaming Football Column: ?England?s Glory (Made In Sweden)?
2007-03-07 18:06:12
S,o another week, another new article for the season’s hottest new signing, thehashmark.com. Welcome one and all to The Hashmark’s newest addition, The Roaming Football Column . It’s not called the roaming football column officially (Editor’s note: It is now), that’s just what I’m calling it; it roams, it’s concerned with football and it’s a column, so it seemed an appropriate title.   (more…)
More About: England , Sweden

Cultural Meanderings: Racism, Control And Bob Hoskins
2007-03-07 00:04:16
?Who Framed Roger Rabbit??, a film brilliant for three reasons: Bob ?Oskins (always drop the ?h?), the excellent script and the piano duelling scene featuring both Daffy and Donald Duck. The scene has, however, recently become slightly controversial, as some claim that one point in the sequence Donald racially abuses Daffy (who is, of course, black ? watch the clip here). I, for one, am not convinced ? Donald?s speech impediment makes it almost impossible to tell, and although if I were to suspect any cartoon character of being a white supremacist it would be him, the slur does him a disservice.   (more…)
More About: Skin , Cult , Cultura , Racism , Ring

The Vittles of The Man From Vittel - A Short Story
2007-03-06 12:03:09
There is a man who shapes his trade not far from Pune in the small town of Alandi. Of Alandi’s 21261 citizens he is the only permanent outsider, a man for whom no shop will sell to and indeed a man who will not sell to any shop. How this outsider kept his vittles numerous was of some curious interest to the locals and more often than not a source of extreme pontification for those inclined in the ways of conspiratory babble. His real name is of no importance to this story, however it is suffice to say that he was known most commonly as the Frenchman of Vittel for he had in times past inhabited that small spring water town. In actuality he originated from the shores of Corsica where he as a child had stared starry eyed at the soldiers in their barracks before his daily rituals of study and woodwork had begun. It was most likely this early introduction to the art of war that inspired his former occupation as a solider himself. He, as I learned during our first meeting, was not a...
More About: Story , Stor , Short , The V , Short Story

Music Review: The Neon Bible, Arcade Fire
2007-03-06 06:02:06
    In my accompanying column that I posted today which involved my babbling was generally inspired by war or the anxieties of violence of power. But while my my words form part an Internet subtext in the blogosphere here we have the very same ideas sung by sung in Win’s earnest tones over sublime string arrangements and tight rock instrumentation. It seems forever since the indie music discovered the critically acclaimed Funeral, so the release today of Arcade Fire’s sophomore album is in great anticipation; especially since the slow leak of sonic material and related media that has been given to fans the past two months. 2007 will see, and has seen the second release from many indie hopefuls, Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys, Maximo Park  and Bloc Party to name a few. Only Bloc Party has attempted to address a broad social polemic, with mixed reviews; many complaints lie with Kele Oreke’s very direct and obvious lyrics. Indie music has greater links to moody social ...
More About: Music , Bible , Review , The N

I Understand how, but I don?t understand why. #2
2007-03-06 06:02:06
An internet ramble for your musing, with jr2015 . “The ultimate achievement for the [Institutional Voice], however, would be to get its vocabulary imperceptibly incorporated into popular use. The word ‘deterrent’ is almost such a case. It has long been in public usage, and encapsulates a whole ideology of threat and reassurance.” - from 1984 in 1984     It was while browsing Digg’s tables of top rated video that I discovered the film adaption of George Orwell’s 1984. Now nobody should expect to acquire an cinematic education on the Internet just yet, but with ever expanding bandwidth there are quite a few gems out to be discovered. However watching this fine feature proved to be my undoing, as it’s rather depressing and ultimately ambiguous message has found a loophole in my mind, and in a horrible series of dichotomies and self doubts, certain mental laws are beginning to unravel. Another film I discovered was the obvious yet inspired Da...
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The Arty Bit - Chris Ofili: The Elephant (Poo) Man
2007-03-06 06:02:06
We continue The A rty Bit this week with another contemporary artist. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art, and is one of the ?Young British Artists? (think Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Gary Hume). The fellow in question is Chris Ofili, and his work has been decribed by Wikipedia as ?more controversial than Myra?, referring to the giant portrait of moors murderer Myra Hindley made out of children?s handprints by fellow YBA associate Marcus Harvey. (more…)
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Pancake Day - A Short Film
2007-03-05 12:00:10
A gentle comedy about a pancake who refuses to say die, by Mark Turnock, Will Darkin and James Price.
More About: Film , Pancake , Cake , Short , Short Film

Tea With Jonathan: Are Lembit, Gabrielle And Sian Cheekily Blowing Life Bac
2007-03-04 23:59:02
I walk into an empty room and find my usual spot next to the fire. Directly opposite me is a mirror; the chair, it seems, is strategically placed. Sipping my tea I smile gleefully as I realise that I am about to have a discussion with the most interesting man I know?The transcript monologue? (more…)
More About: Life , With , Elle , Jonathan , Wing

The Sauce, With P-Unit: NWA - Overrated or Underrated?
2007-03-03 11:57:05
One has to start from the basis that N.W.A. changed the face of hip-hop forever. If only on a personal level, the “rap game” would look very different today had they never existed. Dr. Dre and Ice Cube would never have had successful solo careers, Dre would never have discovered Eminem, and, as covered in last week’s Sauce , Eminem would never have changed the world. This alone is a reason to value them, and their contribution extends further still. N.W.A. were the act that brought gangsta rap into mainstream youth culture, to a far greater extent than anyone before, and turned it from a genre that was exclusively “for” young black men into one that could be enjoyed by disaffected youth of all persuasions. (more…)
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A Sunshine Experience With Os Mutantes
2007-03-03 11:57:05
On a cold rainy drizzly evening, as winter fades away, I sit and listen to things to come. Sounds evocative of Donovan and Stan Getz, Jefferson Airplane and Bert Jansch, even classical greats such as Bach are meshed together, seeping into my ears and throughout my body. Folk, psychedelia and jazz amongst others are blended together perfectly by the Os Mutant es, with the Bossa Nova-esque groove throughout which gives their self-titled debut a little sunshine touch. Aided by the home-made fuzz pedals, the hazy summers of childhood are brought to mind. However, despite seeming so easy and carefree, Brazil was not: The country was under military rule in which all forms of media were under strict censorship. Perhaps it is these hardships that defined the Tropicalia movement of the time, epitomized by such artists as Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, who fused the psychedelic sounds of London and San Francisco with their own traditional rhythms. Alas, Veloso and Gil were extradited to Engl...
More About: With , Experience , Sunshine , Shine

The Hashmark Week 1/3/07
2007-03-01 23:55:05
A word from the editor concerning the current state of affairs: This week saw the creation of The Hashmark Appreciation Society on Facebook (79 members and counting - join here if you haven’t already), and Trumpeter’s mammoth run down of the Democrat candidates for the 2008 US elections: “Fantastic article Frank, the most interesting candidate will indeed be Obama…” - Jon Hackett (Read the article here) (more…)
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The Science Corner: Bell?s Inequality
2007-03-01 23:55:05
At the end of my last article (printed in the old Hashmark) I signed off saying that I had embraced relativism. I was swayed by the soothing words of Keats: ?beauty is truth, truth is beauty - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know?. So you may be wondering what became of my venture in the land of relativism; well, all I?ve got to say is that it?s nice for a holiday but I wouldn?t want live there. For example, banks do not accept that the fact that I am overdrawn is only a relative truth and must be put in the cultural context of a nation on the verge of a spending lull induced episode of deflation. The sad fact is that I went over my limit (and am consequently in line for a fine) and that relativism is rubbish at solving inequalities. (more…)
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The Andy Lectures: Italian Neo-Realism
2007-02-28 11:54:02
More obscure classics from Farnham film course?s favourite lecturer. This week; Italia n Neo-Real ism, please excuse the acting. This week we watched Roberto Rossellini?s groundbreaking neo-realist war trilogy, films very few will have heard about. For some reason, Rossellini (right) is one of those directors no one has heard of, but is still very highly regarded. Hmm. Neo realism, by the way, is an Italian style of film making telling stories of the poor and working class using non-professional actors, shot on location, with the camera often set at eye level. So now you know. (more…)
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The Baguette - Inside In Inside Out
2007-02-27 11:54:02
It’s time, dear readers, to raise your glasses once again to the greatest music column in the history of the world, the ONLY regular album review to systematically compare its subject with a specific foodstuff. That’s right, people, for the first time since The Hashmark’s printed editions wowed the masses, “The Baguette ” is returning to our pages. (more…)
More About: Inside , Side

The Arty Bit: Who Is Matthew Barney?
2007-02-27 11:54:02
In 1994 Matt hew Barn ey exploded onto the contemporary art scene with a video piece named ‘Cremaster 4′, named after the male cremaster muscle, which ‘controls testicular contractions in response to external stimuli’. The series continued with another 4 ‘Cremaster’ pieces, supported by sculpture (generally made from his ’signature materials’ plastic, metal and Vaseline) and drawings (in graphite and Vaseline). Yes, Vaseline. Just to make this entirely clear when I use the word Vaseline I am referring to the petroleum jelly rugby players rub on their own thighs, and football players rub on each others thighs. The Guggenheim refers to Barney ’s work as ‘rife with anatomical allusions to the position of the reproductive organs during the embryonic process of sexual differentiation’, and indeed sexual development seems to be a key theme within the majority of his pieces. (more…)
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Trumpter: The Democrats in ?08
2007-02-27 11:54:02
The President of the United States of America is said to be the most powerful man (and man he always has been) on Earth, a leader who controls the most powerful military, the strongest economy and the country with the most cultural influence. For good or ill, he probably lays a better claim to the title than any other. George Bush is President and will be until January 2009, but he is a spent force, bogged down in a losing war on which much of his political capital has been expended and not at home with a Demo cratic congress; he is stuck, neither side willing to pay anything but lip service to bipartisan action, especially since Bush shunned the flawed Baker-Hamilton report to follow his preposterous ’surge’ policy. (more…)
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Cultural Meanderings: Plagues, Car Crashes and Bo Diddley
2007-02-27 11:54:02
‘Miss You’ - What a fantastic hook; it’s enough to have you dancing around the room chanting, almost religiously, wa wa wa-wah-wa-wah-wa, or something like that anyway. Of course, it’s far from the only catchy riff Keith Richards’ guitar has given the world - I’m thinking ‘Satisfaction’, ‘The Last Time’ (the two stand-out tracks on ‘Out of Our Heads’ - incidentally, the track ‘Hitchhike’ on that album has EXACTLY the same opening as ‘Here She Comes Again’ by The Velvet Underground; there’s a courtcase in there somewhere), ‘Brown Sugar’, ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, etc., etc., etc.. But ‘Keef’ is a funny chap (peculiar, not ha ha). In two seperate interviews I’ve read, he has claimed that Norah Jones is the most promising artist in the world today. Odd, very odd. (more…)
More About: Cult , Cultura , Ashes , Ring , Rings

The Sauce, With P-Unit: The Marshall Mathers LP; A Retrospective
2007-02-23 17:50:07
 Dr. Dre can be called many things; influential, certainly, popular, without a doubt, even the most talented rap producer of his generation, arguably. But despite his many accolades, he is not original, or at least not lyrically. In the early 90s he was doing  tracks with MC Ren and Snoop Dogg about guns, weed and hos. Look at tracks from his album “2001″ and, lets face it, you still see tracks with MC Ren and Snoop Dogg about guns, weed and hos. He has always been willing to follow the traditions of West Coast gangsta rap, traditions which he, admittedly, helped to create. Rarely has he produced anything other than “big-screen TVs, blunts, forties and bitches” rap, which makes it all the more strange that Eminem, his most successful protege, is about as far away from the rag-wearin’, low-ridin’, Glock-poppin’ gangsta as one can be, rapping as he often does about “homosexuals and Vicodin”.   (more…)
More About: Mars , With , Retro , Math , Hall

The Hashmark Week - 22/02/07
2007-02-23 05:49:03
A word from the editor concerning the current state of affairs: This week saw the launch of some new regular columns, most notably Pascoe’s hip-hop feature and JR’s piece chronicling his trawling around t’internet: “Introducing a blogular column by jr2015. ?Its gonna be totally fuckin? mexico?.” (Read the full post here) With next week’s set to be “Second Life in relation to George Orwell?s 1984″, there’s more to look forward to. (more…)
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Cultural Meanderings - Steinbeck, The Boss And Vintage Classics
2007-02-21 17:47:01
The concept is simple. Take a book, a film, a piece of music, a person (etc.), ramble for a couple of hundred words, and see where you end up. This week ? Steinbeck, Springsteen, Woody Guthrie and Penguin Modern Classic s . I?m going to begin with the first book I read on this trip, ?Travels with Charley? by John Steinbeck. It?s an easy going, gentle roam across choice cuts of the USA, taking in the Pacific, the Panhandle and New York City, amongst other places sometimes obscure, but mostly cities and regions I have always wanted to visit: Minneapolis St Paul, Montana, and the various states that make up New England (whose people are, according to John, somewhat ?reserved?). I should mention at this point that Charley is a dog, and perhaps a symbol of Steinbeck?s settling into a comfortable old age he would surely have tried to avoid; for while the itinerary of his trip is heroic in its enormity, his description is a sedentary pipe-and-slippers narrative. (more…)
More About: Cult , Cultura , Vintage

Leyland Brain Drain Fears
2007-02-21 17:47:01
 These are a few headlines that caught my eye outside the newsagents in Preston; there’s more to come providing I can convince my mum to steal them. James Price (You can view some of James’ videos on YouTube here)     (more…)
More About: Rain , Fear , Land , Brain , Fears

I Understand How, But I Don?t Understand Why
2007-02-21 17:47:01
Introducing a blogular column by jr2015. “Its gonna be totally fuckin’ mexico”. Doom and gloom around every corner is forever marvelous. In last Saturday’s Guardian newspaper there was a short article about the Internet and it’s imminent downfall through such unscrupulous organisations as Bittorrent, the p2p file sharing community, and copyright mocking video hoarders like dailymotion.com. In numbers the article proposed that the world’s appetite for free cinematic and television content constituted over 50% of gross worldwide bandwidth. Which was interesting, I thought; before my attention span was again diluted back to my laptop screen to see if that little red bar thingy had gathered up enough bits for me to begin watching Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men. (And if you’ve seen this film I wholly recommend the wonderful commentary by cultural philosopher Slavoj Zizek on the official site). (more…)
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The War On Terror Is A War On Drugs
2007-02-21 17:47:01
In modern times America?s War on Terror has become a source of much speculation and debate the world over, from cosy octogenarians sitting in mansions wearing cardigans, to young people who like Hollyoaks, everybody?s got their opinion. It has been made clear by the US government that terrorism, in all its forms all over the world, should be combated. A less known war being fought by America is their War on Drugs . The US has a problem with Cocaine, also known as Charlie, Blow, Snow, Nose candy, C, White, Percy, and Peruvian marching dust. Massive amounts enter its borders annually, and despite the best efforts of the Border Patrol, it is just too lucrative a business; for every shipment they might manage to stop, several pass in unnoticed, carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of powder. (more…)
More About: War On Terror , The War

The Andy Lectures: Soviet Propaganda
2007-02-21 17:47:01
Film fans rejoice; a review of the obscure classics shown each week at Farnham University Film course by favourite lecturer: Andy . This week: Soviet propaganda classics; what?s with the montage? Potemkin it isn?t. This week, the first film for our consideration was the 1930?s Soviet classic Earth by Aleksandr Dovzhenko. Designed to convince farmers to join the Soviet collective, and a dig at the kulaks on top of that, it was voted one of the ten greatest films of all time in 1956 by Film historians. Wowzer. Coming into the film, it is not exactly as one might expect; the audience is treated to serene, wonderful black and white shots of the grass blowing in the wind, close ups of flowers, apples on trees, etc. Sitting amidst all this, an old farm hand asks his older-still father if he is dying. ?Yup, I guess so.? Is the reply, before we are treated to many more shots of grass blowing, apples bobbing, and children playing unheedingly around the soon-to-be-dead man. It is an opening th...
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The Sauce, With P-Unit - Kanye West: The Future Of Hip-Hop
2007-02-21 17:47:01
The genre to which this column is dedicated has long been pronounced as “dead”, swallowed by the commercialism and greed that its original founders and heroes derided so strongly. It is true that nowadays, “bullshit ice-rap” dominates the charts in the US and UK, with artists like 50 Cent, Chingy, Snoop Dogg, T.I., Chamillionaire et al producing their own angles on the concensus of cannabis (though to a lesser extent now with mainstream artists), cars, girls and money. It seems almost impossible for a hip-hop artist to become successful without returning to those tired, watered-down versions of the classic West Coast ideology. Many predict that rap is well on its way to total oblivion as a respected genre. (more…)
More About: Kanye West , Future , Hip-hop , With , The Future

The Hashmark Week - 15/02/07
2007-02-21 17:47:01
A word from the editor concerning the current state of affairs: This week has mainly seen the posting of some old(er) material from the Hashmark archives by way of kickstarting the blog. We’ve had some enthusiasm (most notably from Chaz, who has been helping me set it all up, and Will who has been quick with some submissions) and we’ve had some feedback, some of it open to interpretation: “your narrator is a complete fucking twat - well done” (See the full comment here) Positive or negative? Answers on a postcard. My money’s on positive. (By the way, if the author of the comment is reading this and you were paying a compliment, I apologise for Pascoe’s vitriolic response. He knows not what he does.) We’ve also had anger, namely that of Medvyed, who expressed his unhappiness in our first piece of online Biteback!: “Duncan, you git: Arabic pop videos are sensational.” Med, you’re wrong, but it was good to hear from you anyway...
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Album Review - ?Surprise? By Paul Simon
2007-02-21 17:47:01
Surprisingly good new album from Paul Simon… nothing like his old Simon and Garfunkel days, most certainly progressed a huge amount as a songwriter/singer, and he’s possibly become a lot more sour than he was when he was young. I did read an interview in NME or something and he said he thought all music from the 60s was crap, and that he finds it hard to find music he likes enough to listen to.. hmm… I think he might be bullshitting for effect. Nevertheless, this is a marvelous album. Fantastic production and ’soundscapes’ provided by Brian Eno, there’s a genius blend of different rhythms (DnB, Jamiroquai-style-funk, some trip-hop beats) over Paul’s classic melodies lyrics and guitar playing. By Jimmy Cheetham (you can see Jimmy’s stumblings around the internet here).
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On The Occurrence Of Reading a Comment I Do Not Agree With, And Other Rants
2007-02-21 17:47:01
After stumbling clumsily into one of the multitude of deep ravines of limitless wisdom and timely commentary that pits the Hashmark Online, I glanced at something that made me do a double take, the shock causing me to have hysterical fits of disdain that almost made me headbutt this brilliantly slow public computer. (more…)
More About: Rants , Reading , Other , Men , With

When The Phone Rang - A Short Story
2007-02-21 17:47:01
When the phone rang, the boy sleeping in the other side of the double bed was just stirring, woken by the intrusive sound of the telephone buzzing. The telephone was on the girl?s side of the bed, and she had woken as soon as he heard it. The boy lethargically turned to lie on his side, facing the girl, whilst supporting his head with his hand. The girl asked ?Should I get that??, and the boy asked what kind of a stupid question that was, and yes, she should answer the goddamn phone. The girl smiled at his shortness, she knew neither of them had had a good night?s sleep for weeks because of the telephone calls. (more…)
More About: Phone , Story , Stor , When , Short