Pick of the Week 10.11.08

It's Monday, it's pissing with rain, it;s dark by 3.30pm, it's my 5th cup of coffee, it's 3 meetings down and it's the pick of the week YAY......



Book - Chosen by Sam
Launched this month is Lucy Popescu's wonderful book The Good Tourist:An Ethical Travellers Guide,I especially like the suggested reading section for before, during and after your holiday. Available on line or if you are in the westside go to the travel bookshop and chat about ideas and ethics of travelling with the wonderful staff who are always up for a little debate.
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Check out my new obsession - the cockettes - watch the film - take on fashion tips - keep off the drugs. Gore Vidal said of the cockettes New York debut "Having no talent is not enough." Whatevs Gore Vidal!

Radio - Chosen by Giles
A series of lectures on radio 3 'Free Thinking' it aired last weekend but is still available on Iplayer. Titles such as Being Green Can Be Dangerous sounds controversial and juicy. Get you teeth (ears) into some meaty radio!


Film - Chosen by Joao
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex,
"The course of history as represented in the concept of catastrophe has no more claim on the thinking man’s attention than the kaleidoscope in the hands of a child. With each new twist, everything collapses into a new order. The image is thoroughly well-grounded [hat sein gutes, gründliches Recht]. The concepts of the rulers have always been the mirrors by which the image of an ‘order’ was established. – The kaleidoscope must be smashed." (from Walter Benjamin, ‘Central Park’, 1938)

For the ones interested in appropriation of the writings of Walter Benjamin (philosopher of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory) by the Red Army Faction in order to ground their violent acts, I would recommend the article "Entsetzen: Walter Benjamin and the Red Army Faction" by Irving Wohlfarth, now being published in parts in "Radical Philosophy", a great journal of feminist and socialist philosophy published in the UK.


Photography - Chosen by Eleanor
Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005
National Portrait Gallery
"A beautiful and moving photographic exhibition of Leibovitz's personal and professional work, beautifully curated to portray a surprisingly intimate portrait of a photographer's life through her own pictures"

Exhibition - Chosen by Jen
Svetlana
Pil and Galia Kollectiv
S1 Art Space
SHEFFIELD
Pil and Galia Kollectiv simulate the making of an opera by Waw Pierogi, which never made it to the stage. The mock documentary footage captures the theatricality of military might, the rhetorical force of sound and the political power of art within former Soviet ideology.

Exhibition - Chosen by Holly
AOP gallery on Leonard street Shoreditch - 'Polaroid retrospective'
" I went yesterday and it was beautiful!"
While you're down there pop into 'Never Shall Be Slaves?' at Pure Evil Gallery 108 Leonard street! an exhibition based around themes of Britishness.


Theatre - Chosen by Carly
A Midsummer's Night Dream, from Footsbarn, in a tent in Victoria Park, with puppets and a European cast!
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Spectacular from Forced Entertainment. How can we resist the call of the F.E.? at the riverside
ED note While you have the riverside in mind head down to the mother of all Peachy Coochy's on Saturday at 2.30pm


Film - Chosen by Lisa
Burn fer Reading
Screening everywhere!