Sunday 18 January 2009

balkan really is better.

From sparse to brimming- that has what my life has been, in cultural terms, defined as from today. i began by the baltic (via the currywurst stand- oh berlin!), and was exposed to even more fluxus, containing yoko ono the great pacifist. the fluxus lark confused me a lot, but after talking it through more with my brother i got a better idea of what it's about. there were a lot of objects in glass cages, looking pretty anti-commercialistic- and that's apparently fluxus' initative as from 1966 when it started up in dick higgins' manifesto. it's associated with the composer john cage (hence alt music gallery) who i have been listening to today- the great genius of chance. it basically felt like another world had been created, parallel yet inspired by ours, with these objects that looked so ordinary yet were not like anything we would ever use. great. next was yoko- i loved her exhibition mainly because it suited the baltic profusely. collaborative, aesthetic, fun; everything an exhibition in the n.east should be.

after this jaunt came the slumdog millionaire, a well-worthy hyped film by the trainspotter himself danny boyle. this was just fantastic, the screenplay was so well-rounded and not cliched. it was enlightening to a place which should definetely be brought to attention in a mainstream type way, and of course, it was highly enjoyable. oh yeah and the music collaboration with m.i.a and rahman is incredible!

ok so since christmas i have been going slightly crazy, metaphorically, for the balkans. so since having a lot of time since finishing exams, i have been researching loads for my new radio show; balkan's better! .. and have since come up with 2 amazing blogs:

the balkan hour- a comprehensive blog of all things balkan- from mixes, dances and film previews. i especially enjoyed the following video, curtesy of this blog:


the new worck- am i the last person to find this genius blog or what? since i am mixes mad, this blog is like, everything i could ever look for in a music blog, and it has loads of mixes from my favourites typsy gypsy (including an electro mix, i didn't even know they were that capable) and balkan hotsteppers. here's a link to an especially good 'un:

MIXXXXX

wowowowow is enough for the brilliance of this. girl talk, people like us, step back for the balkans!