Q:Where is this year's UEFA Cup Final?

A:The City of Manchester Stadium

So why was Wembley really not selected for 2010 Champions League Final?

Judge Works

Yet another of our very talented friends, Kathleen Judge, has a couple of forthcoming exhibitions in Dusseldorf and Chicago:



APRIL/MAY 2008
----------------
SOLO POSTER SHOW: JUDGEWORKS - INDUSTRIAL INK
OPENING RECEPTION APRIL 23, 2008 7pm
Show runs through May 7, 2008
CLOSING RECEPTION MAY 7, 2008 7pm


GALLERIE SLOWBOY
Oberbilker Allee 290
Duesseldorf, Germany
www.slowboy.de
www.judgeworks.com


NOW FOR THOSE IN GERMAN;
Vernissage
JUDGEWORKS
INDUSTRIAL INK
Siebdrucke und Holzschnitte

23. April 2008 Ab 19 H
Ausstellungsdauer 24. April - 7. May 2008
Finisage 7. May Ab 19 H

www.slowboy.de
Gallerie Slowboy
Oberbilker Allee 290
Duesseldorf
---------------




JUNE/JULY 2008
-------------
GROUP SHOW: Busted Amp
"This group exhibition features a selection of fine art prints by some
of the leading screen printers associated with Chicago music."
Exhibition dates: June 26 - July 23, 2008
Opening reception: June 26, 5-8pm
A+D GALLERY
619 South Wabash Ave
CHICAGO IL USA
Phone 312-344-8687
http://www2.colum.edu/undergraduate/artanddesign/11th/calendar-08.html


-----------
(Confirm by checking my website, closer to show date):
GROUP POSTER SHOW: Screwball Press & Friends
Exhibit of poster artists who print or have printed at Screwball Press.
JUNE 7, 2008 Opening time TBA
LETTERFORM
4043 N. Ravenswood #104
Chicago IL USA
http://www.superkonductor.com/
----------




CHECK WEBSITE FOR BERLIN SUMMER SHOW DATES
@ SUPALIFE GALLERY


Thanks

Not the Onion

But it might as well be. People Weekly magazine reports that Sarah Jessica Parker's 5-year-old son supports Barack Obama.

It's Friday. Let's Boogie!

For the benefit of TNR (see Comments in post below). Our gorgeous sexy nephew and his partner made this for the craic. Enjoy.

Mind Blowing

Advance warning that I'm coming to the end of this book, previously mentioned here, which means there's an extensive review in the offing.


If I can bear to finish it, that is.

The Adventure of the Oedipal Novelist

I found this book review of Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters after a tip-off from a work colleague. It is a compilation of just some of the over 1,000 letters that Conan Doyle wrote between 1867 and 1920.

All of them were to his mother.

It's Friday. Let's Boogie!

Dance Like Jesus on a Rubber Cross.

Primavera Band Profiles 2008 #1

The first in a NEW Series.


Pissed Jeans

The nastiness of Black Flag, the sick distortion of Mudhoney, the monochord bites of Flipper, the aggressiveness of Unsane… With such referents, it was only a matter of time that Pissed Jeans would run away from Allentown (Pennsylvania) and end up in Sub Pop’s catalogue, record label for which they have just released the harsh "Hope For Me". Led by a Matt Korvette full of irony and spleen, the Nord Americans let off steam in a work that dissects with surgical precision the miseries of contemporary society and packs them into heartless parcel bombs of inclement punk and abrasive hardcore. Not surprisingly Mark Arm (Mudhoney) referred to their last work – before, there was “Shallow” – as “a clever and alternative good deal of humour, brutality and suffering”.

True Confessions

From a regular confessional feature in the magazine Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, a member of a production team of a show about backpacking owns up to some of the goings-on behind the scenes. Highlights:

The crews I worked with hardly ever slept in the places shown on television. Chances are, a presenter you see bedding down for a night in a cheap hostel was out of there once the camera switched off. However, one time, when a five-star hotel in the Caribbean offered to let the crew stay for free (provided that we feature the property), we managed to work the hotel into the program even though the presenter was supposed to be on a backpacker's budget . . .

We were known to stage festivals if they weren't taking place at the right time--we even faked an eating contest in Texas this way . . .

. . . we received tons of audition tapes from people who thought they had the goods. Those videos gathered dust in a box--until the crew would take them out for a laugh.

The show's website claimed that it welcomed viewer letters and e-mails. The crew, however, couldn't have cared less. As far as I know, no one ever answered a viewer's complaint or responded to a question about how to book a certain restaurant.

Spanish Film Festival

With The Orphanage on general release and not showing until next week, I thought I'd do a quick summary of my thoughts on the three films I caught at this year's Viva! Film Festival at The Cornerhouse. The science-fiction thriller Cronocrimenes is a charming movie not dissimilar to the 2004 U.S. indie Primer in that they manage to convey the complexities of time-travel on a small budget and with minimal special effects. A particularly fine performance from Karra Elejalde as Hector, although the storyline is a bit weak and predictable in parts.

La Soledad , winner of two Goyas, is a much starker prospect. A tale of isolation and grief while living in close proximity to family and friends. Certain aspects reminded me of Hidden, particularly the slow build to a single moment of violence and the often voyeuristic experience implied by the splitscreen and lack of camera movement in the film's fatal moments.

Fimally, in a full Cinema 3 ( I think we had the overspill from Gael Garcia Bernal's film upstairs), was the documentary Lucio. The tale of Lucio Urtubia, a Spanish anarchist living in Paris who, during the 60's and 70's, did his best to undermine the world banking system through forgery. A fascinating story, if a little difficult to keep up with at times because of the editing, Urtubia still shows to this day the wit and the charm that got him out of so many scrapes during his eventful life. Although people tend not to clap during or at the end of films, something I've experienced a couple of times at The Cornerhouse after documentaries, one person behind me did let out a little cheer when they showed Franco in his coffin.

This One Goes Up to Eleven

The translators doing the publicity for Glen Hansard's movie in Spain have thoughtfully translated the teaser: "How many times do you meet the love of your life?" Sadly, however, they neglected to translate the film's title. Or did they?

Once is the Spanish word for Eleven.




Hat tip: Pep.

Anyone Want A Ticket To See The Fall?

I was only going for the support band really.

*UPDATE

Forget that, The Fall have cancelled the gig until May now.I don't know whether to laugh or chortle.

And If You Know Your History

Did anyone else fall out of their chair laughing when the BBC match commentator discussed West Brom's substitutes in yesterday's match? The TV caption showed that on the bench the Baggies had Danek, Gera, Kim, Phillips and Pele. And the commentator said something along the lines of, "Obviously one name stands out there on the West Brom bench. Kevin Phillips."

The Boy Bands Have Won

The boy bands have won, and all the copyists and the tribute bands and the TV talent show producers have won, if we allow our culture to be shaped by mimicry, whether from lack of ideas or from exaggerated respect. You should never try to freeze culture. What you can do is recycle that culture. Take your older brother’s hand-me-down jacket and re-style it, re-fashion it to the point where it becomes your own. But don’t just regurgitate creative history, or hold art and music and literature as fixed, untouchable and kept under glass. The people who try to ‘guard’ any particular form of music are, like the copyists and manufactured bands, doing it the worst disservice, because the only thing that you can do to music that will damage it is not change it, not make it your own. Because then it dies, then it’s over, then it’s done, and the boy bands have won.

New album from Chumbawamba. Reviewed here.

The Unacceptable Face of Boys' Football

"They were shouting at the ref and telling him he was rubbish and didn’t know the rules. One little boy who must have been about three feet tall screamed at the ref ‘this is a man’s game’."


Timperley, of course.

Six-Goal Thrillers!

Of which there were three in last night's BSP matches. Fortunately, Altrincham had an equal share of the goals in a roller-coaster of a match with Halifax, which saw three penalties awarded and at least another three certs missed by the ref. Even better was the fact that two of Alty's rivals, Stafford and Weymouth, were on the wrong end of the other two high-scoring matches, both going down 6-0.

Same again Saturday, please.

Now Then, Now Then

I, Ludicrous are supporting the Fall on their nationwide tour. If you haven't seen or heard of them, you've missed out.

Think Half Man Half Biscuit but with more footie references.

Details here.