Stones Throw Records have been at the forefront of a recent indie hip-hop renaissance as a response to the ever-present obsession with sales and celebrity. The label was initially founded with the intent of releasing DJ Peanut Butter Wolf’s collaborations with murdered emcee Charizma in San Jose. They had left their previous label before...
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As I write, I am developing a blinding headache. I blame this on my choice of listening matter: Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. The question which inevitably arises in relation to this controversial album – is this music or noise? – is answered fairly definitively for me when I am forced to turn off...
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Whatever your opinion of Quantum of Solace as a film, or as part of the Bond franchise, it illustrates a reassuring continuity from previous Bonds that receives little attention amidst the excitement of going back to the ‘beginning of Bond’ and well-cut suits. The opening credits of the film follow the traditional Bond system:...
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A floral-print dress is not just a question of the vanity of characters in Seventies radical films and culture. A simple flowery pattern can connote something entirely different to an audience; it simultaneously symbolises a female character’s camouflage of her sexual need and perhaps paradoxically her need to express it to the rest of...
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The debate about whether and in what way the state should have a role in supporting the arts offers us a fascinating insight into two core issues of both politics and philosophy- the role of the state and our conceptions of value. It is a commonly held view that it is wrong to support...
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I am a coward. I love still life. It takes one instant, an infinitely short length of time, and presents it, static and therefore perfect – only things that cannot change cannot perish, and still life admits no progression. This is my cowardice; in sinking past the frame all stops, life drops away as...
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Ever wondered how writers and philosophers spend Chistmas? Jennifer O’Mahony overcomes obstacles as problematic as the not entirely recent death of the interviewees to bring you these exclusive insights Sigmund Freud: Anna wanted a horse for Christmas. As an extra special treat I’m going to continue to use her as a psychoanalytic subject for...
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Food, alone among the sensual pleasures, has always proved a felicitous subject for literature: eating leaves itself open to more varied description than drinking, it is more easily evoked by language than music or art, and it is considerably less embarrassing to read about than sex. Freudians may advocate a psychoanalytical approach to literature,...
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Economically there is in the greatest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930’s, petrol prices are soaring and workers are being laid off from even the largest of corporations. In terms of foreign policy, its citizens are mocked and abhorred, something that I have personally experienced as an American studying in England. Being...
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Greek film Politiki Kouzina, which translates into English as ‘Cuisine of the City’, the City being Constantinople, seems a fitting point of departure for looking at the political function of food. As we learn through the protagonist’s grandfather, grocer Vassilis, spices played a huge part in the culinary lives of the Greek community that...
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