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Feb 23, 2012 • Operational Bass Originally published in the Stool Pigeon There’s an uneasy moment following my interview with Kode9 and the Spaceape when I realise I’ve left my dictaphone running on the mixing desk of the former’s south London studio. I return to his front door to find him standing there grinning, said apparatus in hand. “I...
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Jan 16, 2012 • The Good, The Bad And The Multiplex by Mark Kermode Originally published in the Navidson Record I once almost got into a punch-up at a press screening. I’d turned up less than a minute into the Mexican football comedy Rudo y Cursi and been pushed by a panicky usher into the diminutive theatre, which was...
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Jan 2, 2012 • The Entertainer Originally published in the Stool Pigeon As first Glastonburys go, DJ Shadow’s appearance at Worthy Farm last month didn’t have the most auspicious build up. Not only was he performing at a John Peel stage ankle deep in the worst kind of slop – not only did his headline slot coincide with Friday...
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Jan 2, 2012 • Breaking Bangladesh Originally published in Huck At 4pm on my second day in Bangladesh I wake from a jet-lag slumber in a paint-peeling, fly-infested hotel room in Cox’s Bazar. I flip on export strength Indian MTV as I dress, marvelling at its garish adoption of western norms – the ads for skin-lightening creams, the reality...
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Jan 2, 2012 • Riders On The Red Sea Originally published in the Time Out Adventure Guide There’s something appropriate about our kiteboarding instructor’s nickname being Goose. It’s more than a mere facial resemblance – his beady eyes and broom moustache certainly recall Maverick’s dapper but ultimately doomed wingman in Top Gun, but it’s the tongue-in-cheek way he runs...
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Jan 1, 2012 • Pot Shots Originally published in the Stool Pigeon Like most habitual dope smokers, the only party I can recall from the last twenty years is the one at which I puffed my first ever joint. Even then the details are hazy: I remember the host, Jim Walsh, arm-wrestling his pretty blonde girlfriend over a surfboard....
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Cyrus
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Jan 1, 2012 • Cardboard City Originally published in Modart Your mum would love Part 2. Biodegradable graffiti? She’d probably call him a ‘thoughtful young man’ and bake him some ginger biscuits. But as usual, she’d be missing the point. His new breed of disposable urban art – the aptly named Part2ism – may be removable without the need...
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Dec 30, 2011 • Rider On The Storm Originally published by the Church Of London Despite being on first name terms with the world’s best skiers and knowing most of its best slopes better than his own back yard, in April 2011 Bode Miller found himself shunting down the scrappy, unforgiving runs of Cannon Mountain in rural New Hampshire...
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Dec 30, 2011 • On The Ropes Originally published in Time Out Newcomers to the aptly-named Castle Climbing Centre regularly get the fear with their feet still firmly on the ground. First there are those gothic towers looming over Green Lanes: add a little lightning, and you’ll be waiting for the bus driver to turn around and make you...
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Cyrus
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Dec 30, 2011 • Gaslamp Killer Shining Light On ‘Overlooked’ Los Angeles Originally published in the Stool Pigeon Anyone who caught The Gaslamp Killer’s set at this summer’s Brainfeeder session in London’s Fabric will have witnessed a performance as mesmerising for the eyes as for the ears. GLK moshed his trademark mushroom of curls, screamed obscenities into the microphone,...
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Cyrus
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Dec 30, 2011 • Savage Grace Originally published in Google Think For more than half her life, 64-year-old Sue Savage-Rumbaugh has waged a tireless campaign to break the language barrier separating humans from bonobos – great apes native to the Congo, and with which humans share 98% of their genetic makeup. Her work has taken her from the language department...
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Cyrus
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Dec 29, 2011 • Soul Position Originally published in the Stool Pigeon There’s a sense among those attending Brainfeeder at Fabric that they’re less participants in a club night than privileged witnesses of a mass movement in electronic music. It’s a feeling bolstered by the way the cast of DJs resemble a clan of twisted superheroes: the butter-wouldn’t-melt cuteness...
