Entertainment

Tings to Help You at Festivals

Meet the soundtrack to your summer. Who says? Well, us at Student Direct. Along with the NME, Radio 1 and every other open minded music fan who can’t help but fall for their hybrid indie-dance-poparama sound that is equally at home in a sweaty club, on the Main Stage at a festival or roaring out of your car stereo. Meet The Ting Tings, a couple…

Urban Evolution

Anne Desmet’s new exhibition at the Whitworth is one of the most exciting displays of art I have seen since arriving in Manchester last September. Said to be “one of the most original talents in contemporary artist-printmaking,” her work displays a meticulous skill and eye for detail, while managing to capture the viewers’ imagination.

Queer Up North

Queer up North International Festival is running from the 9th to 25th May and is hosted in venues all over Manchester. Twenty years ago Sandra Bernard’s Without You I’m Nothing influenced a generation of queer performers and artists. Now two decades on the Library Theatre in association with Queer Up North and Ridiculusmus presents Tough Time, Nice Time as part of their 2008 festival.

Barry Douglas

When presented with a solo piano recital featuring the works of romantic giants Liszt, Schumann and Ravel, you are guaranteed an impressive display of virtuosic fireworks. However, despite the flashy nature of his repertoire, Barry Douglas is not a showy soloist.

James, Son of James

A possible definition for art, dance and theatre could be ‘a creation that makes you feel a particular way, which evokes certain emotions within you’. This production managed to make me feel anything and everything all in one performance. This is a tale of love, betrayal and revenge as well as illustrating the profound difference one man can make to a modern day community. Set in Irelands Midlands, this piece is the finale to Michael Keegan-Dolan’s Trilogy for Fabulous Beast.

The Pilots

Founded in 1989, Reckless Sleepers are a company that claim to be dedicated to the production, presentation and development of innovative and experimental visual art and performance. Yet this performance of The Pilots was odd, uncomfortable viewing and at some moments just plain boring!

Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle is one of those artists who is undeservedly unknown in the UK. In the early 1960s she became the only female member of the avant-garde Nouveau Réalistes and she is generally only remembered for her collaborations with other (male) artists.

Push

Push is a collaborative non-classical ballet by legendary French dancer Sylvie Guillem and choreographer Russell Maliphant. The show comprises of three solo dances: two by Guillem interrupted by Maliphant’s ‘Shift’.

Bite Size Art: Henry Moore

Henry Moore, the son of a mining engineer, was one of the pioneering and most popular artists of the 21st century. Famous for his large figurative sculptures, this week we focus on a less well-known piece: ‘Miners at Work’, which is displayed at the Whitworth Art Gallery. Moore’s dark and oppressive image holds an eerie atmosphere and tension with the viewer. Created while Moore was a commissioned war artist during the Second World War, it portrays the often forgotten labour which needed to continually take place in order for the fighting to continue and for life at home to be sustained.

Best of the Year – DVD Catch Up!

It’s testament to the quality of films we’ve seen this year that what started as a simple “What’s your top five of the year?” request from the Film Ed soon escalated into a lengthy, heated debate between the SD Film team. After much deliberation, here’s our crème-de-la-crème of this year’s cinematic releases out soon to watch at home…

Summer Smashes

summer at the Cinema in 2008 promises to be huge! The eagerly anticipated franchise continuations of Indiana Jones IV, The Chronicles of Narnia II and Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight are set to flood the box office.

crowd in front of large outdoor cinema screen

Bangin’ Blighty

Forget the glitzy glamour of Cannes and the sweltering heat of Sundance; top quality Film Festivals and special screenings are invading Blighty this summer.

Doomsday

British director Neil Marshall makes his third gory feature with Doomsday, depicting events surrounding a lethal virus named “reaper” which infected Scotland in 2008. To prevent the spread of the killer virus, the whole of Scotland was quarantined and excluded from the rest of the country with a harsh barricaded wall. No one has come out and no one has gone in until, in 2033, the “reaper” returns to seek revenge on London.

Sway @ Sankeys 22.4.08

Monday Murkage at Subspace became Tuesday Murkage at Sankeys last week, as for one night only promoter David Lewis brought the weekly grime night to a new venue for a special live PA by UK hip-hop artist Sway DaSafo. All of Monday Murkage’s regulars plus many more were out in force for their chance to see Little Derek himself in the run-up to the release of his second full length album, following several underground mixtapes.

Saturdays @ 112-116 Princess Street (AKA Paradise Factory) 26.04.08

This was my first visit to the Paradise Factory since it re-opened this year. Having not been best pleased with a recent visit to the gentrified poser hot-spot that is Sankeys, I was hoping to experience something more like the Warehouse Project, where most punters go, first and foremost, to experience the music.

Mad Ferret Festival @ Platt Fields Park 04.06.08

Very much a student festival at heart, almost all the stalls and unique acts from comedy to drama and new music will be student or community run. This new concept, a daylong festival in Platt Fields Park after the end of exams, originated with two University of Manchester students Ben Tillet and Ben Cheetham, like all good ideas, over a pint.

Scarlett Johansson: Anywhere I Lay My Head

Oh man, this had so much potential. A super-cool actress covering Tom Waits with guitars by Nick Zinner, production by Dave Sitek of TV On the Radio and backing vocals by David Bowie. Instead we get three minutes of something that sounds like Annie Lennox doing afrobeat-noir. I’d cry but I’m just glad I haven’t heard her murder the Jesus & Mary Chain.

Kylie Minogue: In My Arms

Morrissey once sang, “No it’s not like any other love, this one is different because it’s us,” a sentiment perfectly encapsulated in Kylie’s latest single. Through sticking to a strict three and a half minute pop formula and toning down the faux-electro styling of previous single ‘Wow’, Kylie yet again delivers an immediate, addictive, and above all entertaining hit.

Jam on Bread: I Wish I Was A Manatee

Manchester’s ukulele hero releases his debut single, a wistful tale of his unfulfilled wish to become a 500kg sea cow because “they don’t have to pay council tax or worry about terrorist attacks”. It’s one of the year’s most beautiful, tender tracks and I’d be tempted to join him in his underwater paradise – but then I’d miss out on hearing great music such as this.

Deathcab For Cutie: I Will Possess Your Heart

Apart from an over-long intro, this song is a near-flawless Deathcab track. There’s nothing new or groundbreaking here, just a healthy dose of gentle emo from way back when emo was actually good. I found myself wistfully singing along after my second listen, too, evidence that that old Deathcab magic is still alive and well.