As it is Halloween I thought I could do a related post here. I do love Halloween and to honor the occasion I would like to share my favourite Frankenstein movie with you.

I hate CGI! Sure it looks really cool, but I must admit I prefer an old school lovingly hand crafted film. I love seeing all the physical special effects done in front of the camera and that is why my favourite Frankenstein movie is the original silent film made in 1910, produced by Thomas Edison!
It was the first of many adaptations of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and is, in my opinion, certainly the best.

It may look very tame compared to what we are used to now, but in 1910 cinema was still very young and there was hardly such a thing as a horror movie. When you think of it in its original time this film was the height of special effects and was likely the scariest and most shocking thing an audience would have seen!
Along with Georges Méliès, Thomas Edison not only pioneered cinema, but helped birth the Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror genre into film.

Scenery is an exhibition showcasing the work of eight Scandinavian artists.
The title acts more of a base from which to interpret the art rather than as a theme to correlate the show, I say this as the works feel too broad to fit under one heading as such.

The artist films and sound installation could be seen (and heard) to take this on in quite a literal sense, I found it difficult to look beyond this immediacy for these pieces. Unfortunately I overlooked the two works titled Untitled, but this may just have been my hatred of any work named Untitled from being an art graduate.

Amalie Jaskobsen's Delights was similar to the films as it could be seen to quite literally take on the notion of scenery. It could be seem from the large feature window which gave it a very theatrical atmosphere. (I hasten to add that this is not a negative comment, I am very much an advocate of theatricality in contemporary art!)
Along with Jakobsen's work, I also enjoyed Tomas Egde Scherer's Sculpture (Unpainted House). The mystery of it intrigued me, is the little house in the projected video actually in the little Perspex box? This piece could too be taken literally, one part of the work setting the scene for the other and vice versa.

I found the simplicity of implications from both pieces refreshing as they seemed less encumbered by over-conceptualization than some of the other work and not as plain as the artist films.

Scenery runs until 30th November at &Model

After recently reading Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber I have decided to blog about it. (Is blog the right term? I’m still not quite up to speed with all that yet, so bare with me!)

For those who don’t know, Angela Carter was one of the foremost fairytale revisionists and British author responsible for novels such as The Magic Toyshop and Nights at the Circus, and short fiction works such as Fireworks and The Bloody Chamber. Heavily linked with feminism Carter has been quoted saying that it was not her intention was not to do ‘versions’ of fairytales, but “to extract latent content from the traditional stories and to use it as the beginning of new stories”.

Which means this sort of book is right up my street!

As this was my first experience of Angela Carter’s work I was very excited to see what could be in store in her envisioned Red Riding Hoods, Beauty and the Beast and Bluebeard.

The title story (and possibly the largest in the book) The Bloody Chamber I found to be quite enthralling, based on a variation on the tale of Bluebeard by Charles Perrault, and captured my imagination from the start. Her attention to detail allowed me to imagine the entire of the scene she was setting and while this could sometimes become overpowering and a slight detraction from the story, without it I doubt I would have followed the escapism into Carter’s world.

By far my favourite story in this book was The Werewolf. As one of the shorter gathered (just 3 pages in length!) it seems to hold a ‘no nonsense’ approach to the sweet tale we know and love, depicting the story in the briefest way and with the bluntest ending. I love the contrast this brings to her other rather elaborately spun stories.

I plan for this to be by no means the end of my experience of Angela Carter, this book was one of the most enjoyable I had read in a long while and the rest of her literary works are solidly on my reading list.

COLLABORATOR WANTED - MUSICIAN

I am trying to get my film shown at various short film nights, but I have hit a small snag in the plan: Silent films just aren't popular anymore (Who'da thunk it, eh?)
I have become rather enamored with the idea of live musical accompaniment as they had in the good ol' days when silent flicks were all the rage (Can you see where I am going with this yet?...)

I am looking for a musician who might be willing to compose and play some form of live soundtrack along side it when screened. I believe it would be great fun and a fantastic opportunity for some of you musically minded folks.
If you are/know someone who might be interested then let me know. You can drop me an email at rthompson5792@gmail.com 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmOKuYeSGSs (Link to the film on Youtube)

So, Friday 4th October was that time of year again. Light Night here in Leeds and it's always great to see!

There were lots of arty things to see and many performers with this years theme of Circus. 
Personal highlights for me though were Drum Machine performing in Briggate, The Narnia Experience taster, Another performance of Harold Offeh's Pinatopia and what appeared to be the main attraction for many people Momentous, the projection onto the Civic Hall.

Light Night was such fun and I can't wait to see what happens next year!

Apologies for the radio silence! I do plan to use this more!

On 29th September I got to help out at the Mermaid Gala at Bramley Baths Open Day. It was Immense fun getting to see Yorkshire Life Aquatic perform their beautiful synchronized swimming routines and a great first time to see the baths. 
My only regret is not being able to swim to join in with the fun!

The mermaids performed with such elegance, they could very well have passed for real mermaids! Although some of the children questioned their authenticity... "How can she be a mermaid without a tail??". However my personal quote of the day came from a small boy crying "I DON'T WANT TO BE A MERMAID!! PLEASE DON'T TURN ME INTO A MERMAID!!"