Lost AT E Minor

Trumbo

Dalton Trumbo was the first blacklisted writer to win an Academy Award. However, he could not claim the award until years later because he had been forced to write under a pseudonym. Trumbo was one of the Hollywood Ten and even spent a year in jail as a result of investigations into Communist influences in the motion picture industry. This documentary is fascinating not just for its examination of a bizarre period in American history where fear replaced reason and innocent men were jailed, but also for how Trumbo dealt with these hardships. Read more

David Holmes’ The Holy Pictures

David Holmes’ fourth solo album has been a long time in the making. The man who is best known for his scoring of films such as Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13, and remixing for bands like U2 and The Manic Street Preachers, took just over ten years to make his latest album. In his own words, he describes the album as beginning the day his mother passed away. ‘I had always wanted to make a record about my life in Belfast and all the things attached to that — family, friends, loss, love and starting a family of my own. All the stuff that shapes the person you become’. The result is a soothing blend of eclectic indie folk, which ranges from the soft and tranquil, to the upbeat and and joyous; an entirely delectable, personal album which touches on the universal trials of human emotion. Listen to the David Holmes track, Holy Pictures.

The Monotracer

Swiss manufacturer Peraves has recently introduced the Monotracer, a two-wheeled vehicle that’s remarkably similar to the lightcycles in Tron. Buckminster Fuller would be proud.

Kristin Baker

Kristin Baker’s paintings strike the eye like massive Hollywood blockbusters, but have the elegance of delicate watercolors. Reminiscent of Kazimir Malevich and the Italian futurists, Baker’s two-dimensional pieces abstract images of crashing cars, explosions, and other apocalyptic images to create unnerving and dynamic works that resonate with the uncertainty of our times. Read more

Lightspeed Champion performs The Kids unhinged

We met Lightspeed Champion (Londoner and former Test Icicles member Dev Hynes) backstage at Oxford Arts Factory at precisely 4.15pm. We had everything organised right down to the songs he’d play and with a only a small timeframe to do it in, we were a little nervous. But Dev was relaxed, lighthearted and disarming — as with many other players — spontaneity reigned on the day. The store Celebrity Wigs was a little creepy. While Dev played to an audience of blank polystyrene faces, clad in the future headdress of drag queens and lady boys, business carried on as usual around us. Initially he had wanted to play a cover by The Veronicas and together we all tried to remember the lyrics for a good five minutes, but due to poor memory and a little nervousness on his part, Dev instead indulged us in a new track called The Kids.