Entries Tagged as 'pop culture'

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Iran. June 2009.

The height of post-Iranian Election fervour. As thousands of pro-reform demonstrators took to Iran’s streets asking where their votes went, one man went on a solitary journey along Tehran’s avenues pasting and painting hundreds of his own questions.
A1one, the street name for a Tehran-based street artist, erected over 400 pieces on the day the [...]

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Using the Holocaust to Sell Double Glazing?

With adverts like this for Israeli telecommunications company cellcom, you might as well be.
Or am I being overly moralistic about this?
The tag line at the end says “After all, we’re what are we all after? Just a bit of fun.”

Activists in the West Bank village of Bi’lin staged their own mock advert where the rest [...]

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Poet Keats' Home To Reopen

The public has waited and we’ve urned it. It took around two years and half a million pounds, but the London home where poet John Keats composed On a Grecian Urn, On Melancholy, and La Belle Dame Sans Merci is set to reopen this Friday. The Grade I listed house in Hampstead (a museum since [...]

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Khameni on the Streets?

The other day I spoke with a former colleague based in Tehran. Someone with a knack for getting stupid foreign journalists out of Iran’s more logistical minefields. She’s had to switch phones regularly to avoid having his mobile connection blocked. It’s the first time I’ve spoken to her since election day.

“It’s going to be difficult [...]

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Turban Warfare (Tehran Street Art pt.2)

My friend is tired. Having spent the day erecting over 400 street pieces throughout Tehran’s concrete, steel, and rage-lined arteries. Having run away from angry men on motorcycles wielding batons towards angry men wearing green and throwing rocks.
The world has been introduced to a new lexicon. The Guardian Council, the Basij, Khomeni, Khameni, Khatami, ValiAsr, [...]

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Images For A New Age (Tehran Street Art)

Sometimes the best presents you receive are the ones that show you people are not alone in fighting for what is right. Weapons of this battle? Feet. Minds. Paint. Words.
If you wander through the streets of Tehran, you may encounter some of these images. Look closely.
If you wander through the streets of Tehran, you may [...]

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Death By Acronym

Common sense dictates that drinking an industrial solvent found in wheel cleaner is a stupid thing. Yet clubbers across the UK are ignoring the “Toxic: Do Not Drink” warnings and are necking back litres of the stuff for shits and giggles.
After a couple of hours I think I’m straight enough to communicate with the [...]

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Smoke For Free, Die For Nothing

Publicity surrounding the link to cancer has left US tobacco firms so desperate to recruit new customers they have started giving their products away.
I was “hit up” by one of Chicago’s “cigarette fairies” – a promotional vendor who has routes throughout urban bars and clubs.
“So what brand do you smoke?” she asked. “You seen the [...]

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Frolicsome Foals at Dour Festival

“Bonjour!” A hearty French greeting delivered in a Flemish accent.
With stages like “Le Petit Maison dans la Prairie” and notice boards in French, Flemish and English, you’re a long way from Glastonbury.
Punters, bands, staff and food vendors deftly skip from one tongue to another.
Just the sort of thing to make you feel like an inadequate, [...]