Pick of the Week 21.08.09

Hello my name is Giles and I will be accompanying you on our regular exploration of the week's essential happenings on the Artsblog. We have the exclusive guide to Edinburgh events from Rosalie, an online piece asking of the possibility of keeping secrets the web from Holly, a performance in an East-End pub by two Australian artists by Eleanor currently living all the way in sunny Sydney and a bargain solution for getting to the BBC Proms. I will be with you lovely people for the next week but afterwards I will be starting some new work experience and will sadly have to relinquish control to another of our esteemed bloggers. But who will it be?



Edinburgh happenings chosen by Rosalie

'My pick of this year’s Edinburgh Festival so far is undoubtedly the dark yet beautiful ‘Accidental Nostalgia’ at the Traverse Theatre. I saw this last night, and was beguiled by its sick charm and its gentle evocation of the American Deep South – and the music is terrific. Journey with the deranged Cameron Seymour (New York artist Cynthia Hopkins) as she goes home to Georgia to find out why she can’t remember most of her childhood. On her trip she’s aided by two highly disturbing male assistants (who - when they’re not joining in her detached country-and-western dance routines – are busy pulling off some spellbinding technical feats with projections of live manipulations of text, sound and images) and accompanied by an excellent folky honky-tonkesque band. The whole thing’s hard to explain, and sounds downright awful when written about, but I can assure you, if you go along and see it for yourself, you’ll spend the rest of the festival trying to sum it up in a way that’ll adequately convince others to follow suit.'



Precious Little Talent – Ella Hickson
Bedlam Theatre, 2.30pm, daily until 29th

'Last years’ ‘Eight’ by Ella Hickson got top-notch reviews, and according to Lyn Gardner, this year Hickson has surpassed her debut with this ‘more interesting and mature piece of writing.’



Power Plant – Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, 9.30pm, daily until 30th

'Enter the Botanic Gardens at night for a spectacular trail of light and sound amongst the foliage.'



Plane Food Cafe – Richard DiDomenici
New Town Theatre, 12.00, 12.40, 1.20, 2.00pm (30 mins), daily until 30th

'Enter the Plane Food Cafe – where inflight meals are served in the shell of a real plane – on the ground. Learn what happens to your tastebuds when you fly, discover the strange connection between geese and radioactivity and become an expert on the gruesome ‘snarge’.'


Performance chosen by Eleanor
X-ray at the Perseverance by Brian Fuata and Michael Moran
Sunday 23 August, Perseverance Pub, 112 Pritchards Road (Broadway Market), London E2 9AP, from 6pm.

'Since December 2008, the weekly X-Ray nights at the Perseverance Pub have been a great platform for emerging video, film and performance artists to show their work. This Sunday, London-based Australian artists Michael Moran and Brian Fuata will present a performance situation of an engagement party. Incorporating installation and text performance, the artists will explore this 'engagement' within the context of a pub. This environment, right in the heart of Hackney, is perhaps unusual for performance art, but it firmly places the artists, the engagement party and the pub itself in brilliant juxtaposition.'



Festival chosen by Lisa
BBC Proms 2009, 17th – 12th September

'Has anyone been going to these this summer? If you're not picky about your seat you can turn up on the night and get in for just £5. On every night until the 12th of September, pop down any time you're stuck for something to do and get some culture.
Click here for what's on when and where.'

I’ve just noticed that the Michael Nyman Band make their debut to the Proms this year on Tuesday 25th August, I think this could be really exciting to go and see, I’ll give the £5 ticket a try Lisa. (Giles)




Online work chosen by Holly
London artist asks: can the Internet be a place for silence and secrets?

'The Internet is an increasingly noisy, hectic and important part of our lives. In his innovative new online artwork VTC2.0 (messages for the future), London artist Justin Allen asks whether the World Wide Web can also be a space where secrets and silence are shared. Allen invites us to consider privacy in the globally-connected age. In doing so the artist turns our expectations of the Internet upside-down: creating a space for longevity rather than immediacy, for secrecy rather than self-promotion, for silence rather than endless twittering babble.
To “seal” the virtual capsule the artist will perform a ceremony in which his mouth is sewn together and he invites a global audience to join him for an hour of silence – live, online...'

Check out the link to find out more and take the opportunity to be 1 of the 100 contributers!



Radio chosen by me
Ergo Phizmiz on Soundart Radio Thursday 2-3pm
Listen online or if you're in Devon with a 'proper' radio tune in to 102.5 FM

Ergo will be doing a show dedicated to music made during the Tranymusic project in Transylvania, Romania in 2007 this coming thursday. The Transymusic project was a collaborative project by Iuliana Varodi and Ergo Phizmiz. A group of artists were given a selection of traditional Romanian music and made a number of pieces inspired by this experience, many of which can be listened to here.

And now a bit of ugly self promotion. Myself and Simon French have been making a series of radio/podcast shows exploring music from different parts of the world. You can listen to our lengthy ramblings along with music from North-West Africa, Norway, Romania and Hungary.

The Radiolo Show Podcast - # 3 Romanian & Hungarian by The Radiolo Show