The five classically trained but comic members of the Spaghetti Western Orchestra take things a step farther. They’re a tribute act that devote their humor-filled shows entirely to classic Sergio Leone films such as “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” “For a Few Dollars More,” and “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and perform them with 100-odd instruments, including trumpet, bassoon and random items such as bottles, toys, bicycle pumps and Tasmanian lottery balls. As part of a larger tour of Britain this winter, this Australian group will perform from Jan. 5 to 11 in Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre.

Wearing bowler hats, suspenders, bow ties, vests, spats and white makeup, each member of the orchestra portrays film characters such as “the Lieteller” or “the Youngfeller” and perform scores typically written for much larger groups. They add comical sound effects to Morricone’s compositions by blowing on bottles and crushing cornflakes, and playing coat hangers and nail clippers.

The group is often highly praised as an “ingenious gang of comic maestros,” but have also been criticized as a technically limited act better suited for YouTube than concert halls.

Expect plenty of ricocheting bullet sound effects, whistling and a spoken narrative to keep the stories moving.

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES

Photo courtesy of Southbank Centre, Spaghetti Western Orchestra

“A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII 2011,” which contains more than 800 portraits, as well as extensive annotations and footnotes, is on display through Jan. 2 at the Tate Modern in London.

“You have these 18 stories and between all of them, something is said that is maybe not so easy to articulate about the complexities of life, birth and death,” Ms. Simon said. “What does it all amount to, are we evolving, or just repeating? It is about fate. Whether fate is determined by chance, blood or circumstance.”

The exhibition includes empty portraits to represent living members of a bloodline who could not be photographed due to imprisonment, military service, dengue fever, or women who were not granted permission to be photographed. Some sent clothing to be photographed instead of themselves.

The annotations and footnotes are exhaustive and compelling. The man for whom the exhibit is named, for example, discovers that official records list him as dead, even though he is in fact alive, and his land is no longer registered in his name.

“It never amounts to some sort of conclusion. For me it’s about those areas that are less speakable in a way. It’s not about forming an equation that arrives at an answer, but lots of questions, and disorientation,” Ms. Simon said.

Ms. Simon’s work is included in major public collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Her previous “Contraband 2010″ project presented more than 1,000 images of items detained or seized from passengers and mail entering the United States from abroad. Her 2007 work, “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar 2007,” included radioactive capsules at a nuclear waste storage facility and the art collection of the C.I.A.

“My past work was always about cataloging things but in this, I wanted to find an absolute catalog, something I could not edit,” Ms. Simon said. “That led me to blood, a representation of order, but to have that budding up against disorder of the stories, concerned with ideas and systems behind stories themselves. Several of the stories read like something out of the past that are happening now, or may happen in the future.”

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES

Ms. Rose has turned her passion into a profession, as director of The Chocolate Festival, an ongoing affair that takes place in Brighton, London and Oxford around Christmas and Easter. From Dec. 9 to 11, the festival will descend on London’s Southbank Center Square (Belvedere Road), a celebration of all things chocolate.

The festival, which is mostly free, will feature more than 30 stalls selling and sampling chocolate in various forms, from hot chocolate and artisan truffles to chocolate chili. Plenty of recipes and prizes will be on hand. Visitors can also chat with British chocolatiers like William Curley, Bill McCarrick, Damian Allsop and Paul Wayne Gregory about how to become a more discerning taster, and learn about chocolate’s health benefits and other uses.

A series of free tutored tastings, talks and demonstrations will be available over all three days in the Chocolate Cookery Theater, coordinated by the chef and culinary expert Valentina Harris. Luminaries of the chocolate world, including Chantal Coady, the founder of Rococo Chocolates; the food writer and author Rachel de Thample; the chef Steve Walpole; and the “Scandilicious” author Signe Johansen. Demonstrated recipes will include chocolate jelly and desserts devoid of gluten, wheat, dairy and sugar.

During a “Masters of Chocolate” Day on Dec. 10, for £5 (about $7.75), visitors can learn professional cooking techniques and recipes, and attend tutored tastings and demonstrations from Rococo Chocolate and Sir Hans Sloane Chocolate.

“Even when I am at the festival, after days of eating chocolate, I find it hard to resist if a chocolatier offers me a taste,” Ms. Rose said.

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES

It’s fitting, then, that the annual Bicycle Film Festival makes its return to London, Oct. 5 to 9, in various locations around the city (screenings primarily take place at the Barbican Center).

The festival, which was founded in 2001 by Brendt Barbur, after he was hit by a bus while cycling in New York City, aims to celebrate different facets of cycling culture through film, music and art. The festival now travels to more than two dozen cities internationally.

On Oct. 9, the festival will highlight cycling films made by women, about women. “Cycling, filmmaking and art are all dominated by men,” Mr. Barbur said. “This year we have a lot more content produced and directed by women, about women. I recognized that women are gaining a voice in cycling, and we are elated to be able to provide a platform for this.”

The festival will feature a short film by the acclaimed American director Spike Jonze called “Mark on Allen,” featuring the skateboarder Mark Gonzalez. In collaboration with the Barbican’s Silent Film Club, the festival will include a screening of “Wheels of Chance,” a British film from 1922, set to a live piano score.

Those looking for a bit more action should check out the roller racing event on Oct. 6, the bike messenger race on Oct. 8, and the bike polo tournament on Oct. 9.

“The main shift in cycling at this point is that it is becoming more mainstream around the world,” Mr. Barbur said. “It is one of the most positive moments of the past decades, and can only grow from here.”

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Photo: The film “Bikelordz,” by Mikey Hart, part of the Bicycle Film Festival in London, follows young BMX bikers in Accra, Ghana. Image courtesy of the Bicycle Film Festival

In an effort to explore how this and other examples of postmodernism across the artistic spectrum — architecture, fashion, dance, pop music — have shaped 20th-century design and style, London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (Cromwell Road; 44-20-7942-2000; www.vam.ac.uk) will host “Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990,” running from Sept. 24 to Jan. 15.

“Memphis’s entry into the world befitted that of a rock star, rather than a furniture brand,” said Jane Pavitt, a curator of the exhibit. “Thirty years is about right to start looking back with fresh eyes at a subject which has been variously derided, dismissed and treated as highly toxic.”

As MTV also turns 30 this year, the show will include elements of video and music, including performances from David Byrne, Grace Jones, Devo, Laurie Anderson, Neneh Cherry, New Order, Kraftwerk and Grandmaster Flash — artists who employed the key postmodern strategy of sampling and editing together different style tropes, Ms. Pavitt said.

Also included in the show are works by artists like Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol, and architects like Philip Johnson. But the show goes beyond art, including pieces from luxury brands like Alessi, the fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Stephen Sprouse, album and magazine covers, and films like Ridley Scott’s science-fiction classic “Bladerunner.”

Postmodernism, according to Ms. Pavitt, includes “a set of incendiary tactics which overturned the principles and dogmas of the modern movement, and advocated instead a politics of and about style itself, ransacking the dressing up box of stylistic idioms to produce an eclectic, exuberant and often confrontational practice.”

This exhibition is the culmination of a series of exhibitions at the V&A exploring 20th century design and style. In 2006, the museum staged an exhibition on Modernism. Their 2008 show “Cold War Modern” examined the post-war impact of modernism on both sides of the iron curtain.

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Photo: V&A Images

Sunday is considered the family-oriented day, and so the big, sometimes chaotic parade from Great Western Road to Ladbroke Grove happens on Monday. A smaller parade also takes place on Sunday.

Performers dress up in elaborate costumes, and vendors sell a wide variety of Caribbean food staples, including jerk chicken, curries, fried plantains, and rice and peas.

The carnival includes more than 40 sound systems spinning various styles of dub, reggae, R&B, house and funk. Earplugs can come in handy, particularly if you wind up standing near the large speakers. Due to the noise (and crowds), borough officials say the event may not be suitable for small children.

Indeed, the carnival has had a checkered past. The BBC reported that an average of 250 crimes are reported each year, despite the 5,000 or so police officers that are on duty each day of the carnival. Lines at the portable toilets are daunting, as is the amount of trash that can accumulate on the streets.

Because of recent riots and looting throughout London and Great Britain, carnival organizers, local authorities and the Metropolitan Police say they are discussing measures that will be put in place to ensure added safety.

“Given the huge number of people who take part in Carnival, crime rates are low,” said Bob Broadhurst, the Metropolitan Police officer responsible for leading the carnival policing operation, in a press release, “and our policing style in recent years has ensured that less people become victims of crime. We know that everyone who loves Carnival wants that success to continue this year.”

Given the enormity of the carnival, it can be difficult to get up-to-date information, but the best sources are the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, the official event Web site, or this unofficial event Web site.

Several tube stations provide access to the carnival area, including Westbourne Park, Latimer Road, Notting Hill Gate, Royal Oak, Bayswater, and Queensway, however certain time restrictions will apply on both days. Driving a car is ill-advised, as many streets are closed for pedestrian-use only. Transportation for London provides regular transportation updates.

The full story is also at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Mr. Parker will put this ideology to the test during a July 19 performance in the Purcell Room at London’s Southbank Centre (Belvedere Road; 44-207-960-4200; southbankcentre.co.uk) during the upcoming “Great British Jazz: Six Decades of Tributes, Stories and Improv” festival, which runs through July 26 and will also feature Tomorrow’s Warriors Jazz Orchestra, a tribute to John Dankworth, and the musician Soweto Kinch.

This four-part jazz “mini-series” is just one small part of Southbank’s massive 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, which features months of events and performances across many genres. The four jazz concerts are presented as a celebration of key moments in the evolution of jazz in Great Britain and the musicians that helped defined British jazz since the first Festival of Britain took place in 1951.

On July 23, Gary Crosby will lead the Tomorrow’s Warriors Jazz Orchestra as they debut new arrangements by the tenor and soprano saxophonist Steve Williamson, known for his albums that incorporate various American, African and Jamaican influence.

On July 25, “What The Dickens: A Tribute to John Dankworth and the Big Band,” will recount the formation of the Dankworth Seven in 1950 and perform one of the late John Dankworth’s ’60s-era suites. The band is led by Dankworth’s bass-playing son, Alec, and will include artists closely associated with Dankworth bands over the years, including Henry Lowther, Mark Nightingale, Andy Panayi, Tim Garland and Jim Hart.

Lastly, Soweto Kinch, a rapper and saxophonist whose fast, bop-style playing is truly a force to see, will perform a tribute to the alto saxophonist Joe Harriott on July 26 at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Harriott, originally from Jamaica, was a prominent Caribbean British jazz player whose career spanned bebop, free jazz, and fusions of jazz and Indian music.

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES

Considering most of them are in their 20s and grew up with the Internet, this response always surprises me. With a seemingly endless supply of emerging technology and digital storytelling tools at their fingertips, why pursue journalism exclusively for love of the written word?

A love of writing is one of many reasons I chose to pursue journalism, so I understand where they’re coming from. But after working as a newspaper reporter from 2000 to 2004, I took a job as assistant editor at an online magazine in San Francisco, where my priorities shifted from words to podcasts and audio blogs. During a fellowship that followed at a national magazine, I took on all sorts of web duties: blogging, content management systems, video, digital audio, and visualized data projects. I continued to write, but it was only one of many daily newsroom tasks. The web was opening the floodgates in terms of how journalists tell stories, and I’ve been embracing it ever since.

I relocated from San Francisco to London nearly three years ago when my wife took a job here, and I’ve been lucky enough to take these web experiences and apply them to teaching postgraduate and undergraduate journalism classes at City University London and the London School of Journalism. Because students come to me for classes in online journalism — in which writing takes a backseat to widgets, HTML, audio, video, live-blogging, tweeting, and data visualizations — I often feel like telling my students who really love to write: “Sorry, you’ve come to the wrong place. The creative writing lecture is down the hall.”

Writing is low on the priority list in our online journalism classes, not because I want it to be, but because we’ve got limited time to focus on other things. During two-hour classes, students create individual or group websites and learn how to operate online content management systems. They produce audio slideshows, podcasts and videos. They join online communities or create their own. They gather raw data and use it to create online visualizations. They tinker with HTML and CSS, and dissect their website’s analytics, among many other tasks.

By the end of term, students will produce a body of multimedia journalism work and become active participants in an online network throughout which they can disseminate their work. Students complete many of our projects without writing a piece of text longer than an average tweet, which can be a major letdown for budding wordsmiths.

WAIT, THIS IS WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR?

The student journalists my colleagues and I teach are not being trained to be writers; they’re being encouraged to become multimedia producers, mobile reporters, hackers, graphic designers, website scrapers, and web entrepreneurs. With these goals in mind, we give them tools to help them get started. But how happy are they about it? Sometimes, not very. This past term, student uneasiness and confusion over the online journalism curriculum became so heated that one large hall lecture was interrupted by a large group complaining that the assignments were confusing and did not benefit their journalism career ambitions. At least one special discussion session with an instructor had to be scheduled outside of lectures to soothe the tension, and I spent several subsequent classes explaining the purpose of the assignments, rather than teaching actual skills.

This incident made me wonder if we, the lecturers, are more excited about the possibilities of web journalism than the students are. Their dream to write is easily deferred by a curriculum that leaves little room for discussion about writing style and technique. We’re constantly telling them to write snappier, say what they need to with as few words as possible, and link to the rest, so how can they truly develop a unique writing voice in our classes? They need to do that on their own time or in another class, which inevitably causes some of them to then draw a line between “real” journalism and “web” journalism.

Maybe half of my students are from the U.K., and the others come from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States. Their online journalism perspectives vary greatly. Some have already created websites, utilize multiple social networks, can produce digital audio, and know Final Cut Pro. Some do not know what a memory stick is, what acronyms like “CSS,” “HTML” or “CMS” stand for or how to connect to WiFi. Some are eager to learn tech skills, but many spend a lot of time asking what all of these digital tools have to do with journalism in the first place, and are eager to get back to writing.

The strange thing is, when I do set aside time to discuss or critique their online writing, I’m surprised at how lackluster some of it really is. Many lack a firm grasp of the Who, What, Why, Where and How. They have a difficult time explaining seemingly simple but important details such as “what has happened?” and “why does it matter?” or “how did it happen?” and “who is affected?” When they do write, it often lacks specificity. For some, this is partly attributed to the fact that English is not their native language. But the majority of them are anxious to throw content up on the web quickly without properly explaining what the content actually is.

TECHIE OR JOURNALIST?

Some students, consciously or not, separate “online” journalism from “print” journalism because the former doesn’t involve the traditional type of writing they’re used to. If my students are a legitimate qualitative litmus test, it’s safe to say there’s a gap between student ideas of what journalism is, and how we actually train them to do journalism in 2011. Since we, as online journalism instructors, focus on instruments of technology rather than artful prose, there’s an element of confusion among students as to what online journalism really is. Is it journalism, or is it technology? For many, the combination of both is jarring, and bridging the gap between the two is a struggle, especially for aspiring writers.

Because of this gap, many students confuse online journalism with information technology or tech support, which makes me think that we need to do more to help close that gap. For example, one of my students, in a recent email request to join their LinkedIn network, included a message that sums up this confusion in one brief sentence: “Hi Gary, I was in one of your IT classes last year. Hope all’s well!”

I don’t teach IT classes. Or do I?

This story appeared on PBS Media Shift on July 6, 2011.

Featured artists include the performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson, the choreographer Trisha Brown and the artist Gordon Matta-Clark. All three sought creative inspiration from the dilapidated buildings and derelict urban spaces that filled the downtown area at that time, thanks, in part, to a stagnant economy and an increase in crime. The show features roughly 160 works, some never seen previously outside of New York.

“I started developing the exhibition shortly after the start of the current recession and was struck how these artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s managed to make such poetic and powerful work out of very modest means,” said Lydia Yee, the show’s curator. “It’s been refreshing to revisit this period after the excesses of the art market boom of the past decade.”

The exhibition aims to show how urban landscapes, not paint canvases, became the workspace for these artists. Film footage shows performers dancing on rooftops and harnessing themselves to ropes and walking down the sides of buildings; elsewhere, Mr. Matta-Clark climbs the clock tower in downtown Manhattan, then takes a shower and brushes his teeth. A large blue garbage dumpster, covered in graffiti, is converted into a living space.

Photographs show Ms. Anderson sleeping at public spaces like the beach at Coney Island and the Columbia University library bathroom to see how each location affected her dreams. Elaborate pencil and marker sketches show the intricate planning behind Ms. Brown’s performances and Ms. Anderson’s ideas, including “Duet for Violin and Door Jamb” and “Doormat Love Song,” which include items like generators, light bulbs and microphones.

Each day at the Barbican, dancers perform some of Ms. Brown’s works from that period, including “Walking on the Wall,” and “Floor of the Forest”; for the latter, performers crawl around on what appears to be a clothesline, slipping in and out of clothing items.

Ms. Yee acknowledged that this art is clearly specific to a time and place. “Artists and curators have commented on the fact that you can’t do this type of performance in New York City, or London, today without obtaining permissions, insurance or safety checks,” she said.

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Photo courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery

Back then, the band from Benin — formed in the late ’60s following the country’s independence from France — was busy spreading the joys of Afrobeat, a blend of soul, funk and highlife that was the sound track for newly independent West African countries.

The full story, about Afrobeat music’s resurgence, is at TIME MAGAZINE. The story also continues here after the jump

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo toured the region with their mix of Latin, rock and voodoo rhythms — their influences ranging from James Brown to Françoise Hardy — and recorded some 500 songs. Joining Nigeria’s Fela Kuti, whose politically charged lyrics made him the voice of protest across Africa, and other Afrobeat stars of the ’60s and ’70s, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo became musical icons.

But by the early 1980s, political unrest and obstacles imposed by the new Benin government were making it increasingly difficult for the band to perform. The members slowly shifted their attentions to jobs and family. “Music filled us, but it didn’t feed us,” says Ahehehinnou, who worked as a bar manager.

Now Afrobeat is getting a second wind, as record collectors, artists and fans find themselves drawn to its pure sound and political message.

Surviving members of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo went on a short but successful European tour in 2009, after British label Soundway Records and Frankfurt record company Analog Africa started reissuing the band’s classic tracks. Their first new album in 20 years, Cotonou Club, on Strut Records, will be followed soon by a tour of Europe, the U.K. and the U.S.

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo’s return is not an isolated event. Celebrated Afrobeat artists are releasing new albums and touring. Popular R&B and hip-hop artists such as Usher, Missy Elliott and Mos Def have sampled Afrobeat songs.

Fela!, the musical based on Fela Kuti, had a critically acclaimed 15-month Broadway run in 2009 and 2010; an off-Broadway version, featuring his band Egypt 80, sold out two months of shows in London this past winter and additional shows are booked for the summer. Fela Kuti’s son Seun will soon tour with Egypt 80 to promote his new album, From Africa with Fury: Rise, co-produced by studio legend Brian Eno.

For their part, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo don’t see Cotonou Club as the start of a new career, nor their tour as a one-off reunion; they simply see themselves as being at a crossroads. “This is all a big bet on us,” Ahehehinnou says. “This new album is special to us because we wanted our music to be known internationally. This is all warming our hearts.”