#1

Marchi

April
2010
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swimming without water I
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3!1 Sl10 mA-rru.~ Editors: Ben Rackstraw, Charlie
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levine
Nina Singer
nina@dazedgroup.com

Editorial Interns Fashion Assistants Contributors: Ben Rackstraw,

Nabil Azadi, Gemma Jamieson, Frankie Nazardo Elizabeth Fraser·Bell ;0.,- •
elizabeth@dazedgroup.com Tara"
tara@dazedgroup.col
Charlie levine, Emma Vickers,
Editoria l Ass istant SaFa'" Celliu&QA, AAel:tb'illc
: alehn_
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Flora Wong
flora@da zedgrou,o.cc

Digital Marketing Inte

Moses Wiener
ddi@da zedgroup.COf
Can you think of something t,?
OazedOigitaf.com
twitter.com/dazedmi say? Spew your thoughts into a
computer and let us know.
~~"",ge 0 Art titsbrainsballs@googlemail.com
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their most well received to date, their cone
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! DAZED Ii CONfUSED
INTO THE­

'H EART OF

Left: If Love Is A Balloon Then All You Need To Do Is Let

Go Of The String .. " 2009, Elizabeth Graham and Lewis
McGuffie, courtesy of LuckyPDF

DlIZED8CUNfUSEU 49
THE JUNDAY PAINTER

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 By AppoinllT'1I411 To

Her Mi:ljesty Th e QUOEH

Mi:loofi:lcturersof

Knilted OarmenlS

Pringle of Scotland ltd

THR.EADS
 These allegations are,
By any standards,
at least in part, rati­
and despite the prot­
estations of western fied by the outcome.
At the close, the
politicians, the clim
deal was brokered
change summit in
between the wealthy '
Copenhagen failed
and powerful- In­
dia, South Africa ,
solemn commitments
the U.S., Brazil and
to reduce emissions­
China. The 2009
developing nations.
The Danish text, a Copenhagen Accord

pre-organised accord is non-binding and

between the wealthi­ not only fails to hold

the world tempera­
est participants, left
ture rise at 1.5C but
developing nations
also omits the origi­
seemingly voiceless
nal aim to cut world
before proceedings
even began. The Bo­ emissions by 80% by
2050. These original
livian delegation de­
aims are not arbitrary
scribed negotiations
numbers-they are
widely agreed to be
the minimum required
to avoid climate
disaster for develop­

as '~nti-democratic,
anti-transparent and
unacceptable.'
ing nations and the
world. Funding for
developing nations
to adapt to climate
aces. "
change was set at
To describe the G77
$100 billion per year
group as dissatisfied
by 2020. However,
would not, it seems,
as both the source
cut the mustard.
and legal status of this
The blame game
funding are vague, a
which has been so Dan Smith, sec­
little scepticism about
prevalent in the west­ retary general of
it actually materialis­
ern media is a futile International Alert,
ing is justified.
one. However, a has formulated a
comment from Barak strategy to push the
Lumumba Di-Aping
Obama is particu­ multi-lateral climate
chair of the G77
larly striking. On change agreement
group of 130 poor
the failure to reach forward. He asserts
countries described
a wider agreement that a major problem
the accord thus:
he said that to wait with the current style
"[This] is asking Africa
for a binding accord of climate discussions
to sign a suicide pact,
would have resulted is that those states
an incineration pact
in no progress being who choose to hold
in order to maintain
made at all. Such a out in order to obtain
the ·economic depend­
stdtement of resigna­ more nationally fa­
ence of a few coun­
tion from the "Yes vorable agreements_
tries. It's a solution
we can.I" President of are allowed to win
based on values that
the United States is by defau It . To com bat
funneled six million
deeply troubling and this attitude among
people in Europe into
is evidence of a lack the most developed
of resolve and com­ nations, there must be
mitment f~om the most a change in the tone
powerful nation in the of discussions from

world. If the U.S. is

unable, or unwilling,
to act how are third
world nations to make
 admit to a personal
sense of cynicism
factional adversary to. cook stove projects,
and demoralization.
problem solving and now widespread in
Without international
from self-sacrifice to India and Africa,
accord, we can only
the idea that climate seek to protect both
delay the inevitable.
change accords can the environment from
Suggestions on a post­
be mutually benefi­ deforestation and in
card please.
cial. He suggests that turn the livelihoods of
those nations who people who use them.
have shown prom­ Grassroots groups
ise at past climate working in the Ama­
change talks such as zon aim to protect
South Korea, Japan, the forest by demon­
Mexico and Australia, strating the economic
should agree to a benefits of leaving the
solution based around environment intact.
creating a strong In the UK too, the
green economy and benefits of having an
then sell it to the hold­ energy efficient home
outs- China, India and and creating less food
the U.S. Progress by waste have been
bypassing those who widely publicized.
block it. emm acvic kers. blogs­
However, in these pot.com
There is a lot to be straitened times ideas
said to grass roots such as these appear
projects and indi­ to me as drops in the
vidual action in the ocean, like trying to
wake of international put out a fire one ice
failure. 1m proved cube at a time. I must
 Reports last week that
the BBC is considering
closing 6 Music and
the Asian Network
next month have
exploded over the
internet like only mid­
dle class outrage can.
Mark Tran reports for
the Guardian that:

the BBC intends to

shrink overall services
and focus more on
quality over quantity.

Quality over quantity?

A selection of the
most played artists on
the 6 Music website
includes The Who,
The Cure, Blondie,
New Order, Mad­
ness, The Rolling
Stones, Blur, Beck,
The Jam and The
Bea~es. Even though
the list also includes
)graphy lilex S .
~elll H. . alf)Sbury
air Nobu k ·
U2, it's difficult to sug- ~
1 M, 'YU I Sawada
odel Felix at M&p gest, by any objective ,
measure - and many ~
that are subjective ­
that this doesn't repre­

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DAZEO&CDNfUSED 9

At the time of writing, three
tenths of the Hype Machine
top lOis being taken up by
songs involving the Xx: three
remixes, then another mp3,
'Intro', at #18. This is as im­
portant, in this age of genre
schizophrenia, as any other
measure of cultural value,
surely marking this album out
as the biggest since Justice ap­
peared on every single blog
Of course, sparse beats with
plaintive vocals are eminently
remixable, especially with a
fashionable dubstep aesthetic.
The album is also incredibly
intimate, sometimes feel­
ing like eavesdropping on a
private conversation, and this
intimacy translates nicely into
certain schools of downtempo
electronic music.
This success, then, is unsurpris­
ing: hype is hype, the album
is great and the sublime
soporific wash of downtempo
dubstep continues unabated.
What is strange, though, is
how long it took me to realise
it was good. I loved Justice
as soon as I heard them, the
same with other blog-hyped
acts like Boys Noize, Burial,
Miike Snow and Animal Col­
lective. But I hated the Xx:
boring, depressing and inex­
plicably loved by everyone.
Maybe it's a lack of imme­
diacy. I always hated The
Smiths, grating at Morrissey's
intonation and bored by the
:pace. And I'm from Manches­
ter. It was only when, from the
molasses of popular culture,
a few songs had sli pped in to
y consciousness, and I was
to sit down with The
Queen is Dead that I realised
ow great they were. The Xx
like like the Smiths in a
mber of ways: subtle, nu­
ced and deeply personal.
 I have spent an adolescence
bouncing off walls and grin­
ning to big silly drops, of­
fensively crunchy synths and
unashamedly yobbish tunes,
but had always felt that some­
thing was missing. A 'Sunday
Playlist' at Uni attempted
to address this void, filling
up with acoustic tunes and
minimal house, but that lost
its purpose when I graduated
and no longer had whole
days to sacrifice to lying in
bed and listening to soporific
indie music.

The Xx do fill this gap though,

and do it beautifully. They
deserve the plaudits on blogs
and in the press, and may
even teach me patience and
an appreciation of subtlety

lifeinflashback.blogspot .com ..

New Art Gallery Walsall went
POP last night with their 10th
Birthday celebrations. Bob
and Roberta Smith kicked
off the evening with a per­
formance and ended it too,
speeches were made, cake
was eaten and mingling was
made.
It was however the third floor
exhibition that was the high­
light for me. A retrospective
of the gallery's past 10 years,
it was so nice to see all this
work together, a literal A- Z
of past artists, from Jonatham
Allen to Zhang Pengo
Highlights for me - Martin
Creed's 'Half on the air in a
given space' - it was more en­
tertaining watching the poor
invigilator trying to keep the
massive purple baloons con­
tained for the duration of the
show, due to queues I did not
go in .. .this time!
Bob and Roberta Smith's first
works from his time in the
Jacob Epstein archives - this
room was crowded through­
out the entire evening, my
favourite 'Please send me £ l'
one of a selection of quotes
taken letters sent to Jacob
Epstein from his son.
And David Bachelor's 'Disco
Mecanique' - a room of disco
balls made from pastic sun­
glasses.
For me this show highlighted
not only the great work New
Art Gallery Walsal! has been
doing in bringing interesting
and provocative contempo­
rary and historical art works
into the region but also how
bright and kitsch most of the
work was, a theme I had not
noticed previous to this show
in their programming - a
characteristic however prob­
ably seen in Director Steven
Snoddy, who gave a speech
that was comica" passionate
and appreciative.
~,-- '
.r---"-------~-.~
'Party' continues until 18th
April 201 0 at
New Art Gallery Walsall
ADIDRS

Swimming Without Water is

a new show that has opened
at Moseley Swimming Baths
c""rated by Maria Regia de
Garcia-Bernal and Jimmy
Lindqvist. It runs until March
15th. The artists are Debby
Akam, Flora Gare and Tim
Skinner.

The location of this show

was amazing and, despite
the snow, there was a great
crowd at the preview, tenta­
tively walking round the swim­
ming pool with real life - not
an art piece - swimmers as we
nibbled on cake and sipped
tea. The location was great
and it was brilliant to see local
curators seeking alternative
spaces to work with. Some of
the work wasn't to my taste,
however, Flora's glass chan­
delier of the Union Jack fitted
the site perfectly, it was a
subtle piece that felt at home
there and fingers crossed Mo­ \ '­
seley Baths buy it and keep it \
on site.
'Swimming Without Water'
can be seen through till
15th March 201 0 curatorcharlie .blogspot .com
 sub conscious! Thank G Unit leaves as dryas a skeleton.
Proiect DaHodil / Viburnum.
it's Spring, I feel so much Cycles, yo.

I am extremely excited. more in touch with things.

Project SOlARDOME is but a
few days away. I'm not say­
ing any more until after Satur­
day, but good times for good
people - they are coming.
Mum and Dad brought me a
cutting from their Viburnum
tree in January. It's famous
for a Dad classic: 'Have you
sniffed the tree?' Draw your
own conclusions. Anyway,
Oregano out. There will be
much more hitting this space
soon! PROJECT SOlAR­
DOME especially ... wow.
Payee. (Peace).

The daffodils are emerging. this was planted at the bottom

If you cast your eye back
to my Blog in September, I
was paranoid I wasn't doing
of the garden where I hope it parsleyandorega­
will take nicely. I think there's no.?-,ogspot.
the option to move it if there's com/

it properly; those juicy lean not enough sunlight. So far,

green stems speak volumes to more or less everything has
the opposite, however. taken well, but having come
out properly for the first time
There are some other tenta­ in many months, I see
tive growths too, throughout that everything has
the garden. At first I thought died back: it's all
they were weeds ... but some­ sludge brown
thing tells me otherwise. Gar­ foliage or
dening intuition! Now there's
a thought. I was talking to my
Charlie and Ben on Saturday
about how my instincts
were kicking in and the
schematics for the
garden were
sprouting
from