Halloween: the Antic Horror Picture Show

This Halloween prepare yourselves for short, sharp bursts of gore, blood and guts in the shape of a locally-produced, low budget cortometraje (short film) festival at the Antic Teatre. Straddling the Gotic/Borne district, the Antic Teatre is a hidden gem of cultured performance-art shows, and is one of the few real “creation” hubs in the centre of the city with an in-house theatre.

Whilst a bohemian/student crowd tends to frequent the beautiful hidden courtyard (graced by an ancient fig tree in its centre), the theatre itself is a space appreciated by a much wider demographic.

Expect all the trappings of your average B-rated horror movie: ridiculous titles, the eternal battle of good and evil, an overzealous use of ketchup and blood curdling shrieks of terror.

The show begins on 30th and 31st at 17:00-19:00, with an in-house band playing at 21:00 on 30th. Tickets are available on the door (price information unavailable, but expect them to be around 5€). Arrive early to secure seats.

- Visit Antic Teatre here

Beefeater in-Edit 2011

The Beefeater In-Edit festival returns to Barcelona this November with a varied selection of musical heavyweights in the arena for its ninth edition. Setting the tone for the opening ceremony will be no less than the creator of the Music Documentary genre himself - Michael Nyman.

Showcasing his most recent, unfinished work, Michael Nyman In Progress, the attention of the camera is refreshingly reversed for a study of filmmaker as artist behind the show-reel, encouraging the audience to consider the exceptional skill required by directors to create films for this genre. Showing an unfinished piece on the silver screen also highlights the nature of film as a tangible, progressive work and an art-form that takes considerable time to master.

Among Nyman will be other documentaries exploring the accomplished lives of world-famous musicians from David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan and Kings of Leon to Toots and the Maytals, Queen and Leonard Cohen.

"First and foremost,” comments the Artistic Director of the festival, Luis Hidalgo, “we give importance to the way the stories are interpreted as opposed to star value of the artist.” Perhaps that is why one film by musician-turned-director Ray Davies failed to meet the rigorous quality requirements this year, in spite of the fact that it would have easily filled cinema seats.

There is undoubtedly something for everyone here, with this year’s festival also boasting 45 talented newcomers into the realm of the music documentary genre. There is certainly an impressive roster of fresh perspectives at our disposition, including other highly original and off-the-wall films with the exploration of music at their core. 


The full programme is available to view online. Tickets must be reserved in advance and are only available to buy from the website or at the ticket office on C/ Muntaner 24. Check website for details.


- Visit the Beefeater In-Edit website and programme here

good times

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. things have been a bit busy over here....have been attempting to read and write alot more (fruits of those labours to be posted imminently), have newly discovered the joys and woes of working as an autonoma, and after recently spending the last 30€ of my september wage on notebooks alone, have decided it's in my best interest to self-impose a ban on the local stationer's. I am also now thee wisdom teeth lighter.

good times.

don't rain on my parade

lomo vs iphone

So I'm back in the UK again for a little while and over the last couple of weeks I've been hammering away at my old holga (holgywolgy, to be precise) and used about 10 rolls of film in Brighton and Cornwall. During this time his flash packed in and he almost fell apart, the poor thing......hadn't seen so much action for almost a year before this! I'm so excited to see the results.

The photos below aren't holga, however. I've gone over to the dark side and got an iphone. these are all digitally produced hipstamatic and/or instagram produced photos. 

i've been really enjoying getting to know my new baby but to be fair, feel a little bit guilty when i go out and leave poor little old beaten-up wolgy in the corner like an unwanted elderly relative. the holgy delights will obviously take a little while to develop and scan and all the rest of it.....which is why, i suppose, these photos are so satisfying to see NOW. I'm just another shameless product of GIMME NOW society. yip.

These were taken at Trebah gardens in Mawnan Smith, Cornwall. That's right, England really is this lush.

 

England

I'm back in England for a little while. I've fallen in love with the British countryside all over again.

archives

some very old photos i took...........
portraits of people doing what they do, much more my thing. I think it's pretty obvious.

Extreme sports festival - BCN

I went to the Extreme sports festival in Barcelona yesterday.

Taking photos with my D700 I learnt two things:

1. That f/5 is too high for sports photography....the background needs to be totally blurred when there is so much going on in the shot.

2. I definitely needed a speedlite flash (which was unfortunately stolen at a music festival last year).

not exactly my favourite type of photography, but loads of fun.

Here are a few of the shots. More on flickr too.

sweaty city/cold county

So every year at about this time (usually in May, June) I always feel a strong yearning for cold winter days: snow, wide-open spaces, gloves, vodka, solitude. I think it's my final clutching for calm when I'm already unable to sleep because the humidity is closing in and Barcelona is fast becoming a loud, sweaty, seething mass of bodies. So i'm just enjoying it for now......then when the heat becomes unbearable i'll spend most of the summer splishing about in the water with all the other sardines :D

I'm reading the most beautiful book about ordinary people in a stunningly beautiful, cold place. The language they use is just perfect.....it's the essence of everything I'm craving. I'm going to finish it tonight, so i wanted to write this now while there are still some words left for me to enjoy that I haven't read yet.

David Vann - Caribou Island (Penguin Books)

"Early winter, the temperature minus fifteen. The mountains would be white, the lake and glacier. Only the sky a new colour, rare winter sun, rare midwinter blue. The sun above the peaks moving sideways, unable to rise any higher."

"...She walked towards the glacier, towards the mountains, away from the island. Walked slowly. Then stopped and looked around. Without her footsteps, no sound. No wind, no moving water, no bird, no other human. This bright world. The sound of her heart, the sound of her own breath, the sound of her own blood in her temples, those were all she would hear. If she could make those stop, she could hear the world".

Holga - on the swings

foliage joy with a HOLGA

I went back to the UK for a few days last weekend and re-discovered some medium format negatives that I developed years ago but had never even looked at...i scanned them in and found some really beautiful images. 

taken with an old plastic holga, some of the frames are layered atop each other. am so excited about them, wish i could have stayed longer to scan every single one - there were HUNDREDS! 

Crystal Fighters gig

Crystal Fighters 
@KGB, 7th April

When one young woman was clearing through the rubble of her deceased Granddad in their Basque family home, she stumbled across pages of scrawled opera lyrics; endless ramblings penned during the final throes of dementia. Joining forces with friends, they set to decipher his musical ramblings into something more palatable while preserving the name of her Grandfather’s piece in reverence. The Crystal Fighters were born.

This five-piece band knits together folkloric Basque instruments with bright, thumping Carnival beats, feathery vocals and plummeting, dubby grime. The results are startlingly organic and loose-limbed with some undeniable Boney M references that are infectiously cheerful.

If you’re still not sure, just imagine teleporting the locals of one small Basque village into a sweaty underground club in East London, feeding them some of Grandma’s finest acid-laced Victoria Sponge before projecting cloudscapes onto their bare genitalia…well, they're a little like that (if you’re into that sort of thing). I’ll be there laying down some bold shapes and moves at the back, head skyward bound. 

See you at KGB.

Copyright Natasha Drewnicki 2011. All rights reserved.

Address: KGB, C/ CA L'alegre de Dalt, 55 BIS

08024 Barcelona

Metro: Joanic

Price: 12€ in advance, 15€ on the door

Opening Hours: 7^th April at 9pm.

Contact: www.entradas.com, www.crystalfighters.com

TEOTIHUACAN: City of the Gods

A little preview I did for la-boca. can't wait to go.

Teotihuacan: City of the Gods @ LaCaixa Forum

1^st April – 19^th July 11

Summer may still be a few months away but if you’re feeling impatient already, this exhibition will certainly saturate you with a few bright and heady tones to blow away those winter cobwebs and put a spring back into your step.

CaixaForum is giving us an insight into Teotihuacan – the first metropolis ever constructed on the entire American continent with Teotihuacan: City of the Gods.

Tonight (31^st March) the action will begin at 19:00 with an Inaugural Conference - a hands-on introduction into the lifestyle, philosophy and architecture of this tantalisingly mysterious pre-Hispanic culture. 

And as of 1^st April, the exhibition will present more than 400 masterpieces carefully selected and brought to Barcelona by one of the most important museums in Mexico today. Prepare to be hypnotised by the intricate Jade masks and intrigued by the deeply symbolic statues of Aztec gods and animals. 

The Aztecs were an incredibly sophisticated yet brutal bunch - Legend has it that the gods were assembled there in order to create the Sun and the Moon; hence their love of human sacrifices. Have you got the stomach to find out more? Not to be missed; this one’s going in the scrapbook.

If you like this, you might also like the Museum of Pre-Colombian Art in Barcelona.

Other happenings:

Monday 23^rd May - How did they live in Teotihuacan? What archeological excavations tell us.

By Natàlia Moragas Segura, Lecturing Professor of the Department of Cultural Anthropology, History of America and Africa at the University of Barcelona. 

taking my feet for a walk

Over the years for some reason unbeknownst to myself i have always taken photos of my feet. Here are a few of them.