Vogue No You Didn’t!

French Vogue’s 13 page spread caused outrage earlier this week and I’m sure, by looking at the image above, you’ve noticed why. The October issue of the magazine features 4 photographs of 25- year- old Dutch model Lara Stone with a blacked out face and body. The spread was shot by Steven Klein and ‘ethnically’ styled by the magazine’s editor Carine Roitfeld.

Some say it’s an interpretation of high fashion but painting white people black for the entertainment of other white people is so inextricably offensive that it stands entirely apart from cultural context.

Ironically, the issue, which  is promoted as the Top Models Special, doesn’t feature any black models. This clearly communicates that they’d rather hire a European/white model and turn her black rather than actually hire a black model- it’s not as if they’re lacking in numbers. It’s a shame but the issue of racism in the fashion industry feels like a broken record.

Speaking of regression, this YouTube video of an Australian blacked out Jackson 5 tribute act also raised a few eyebrows this week. American singer and actor Harry Connick Jr, who was a guest judge on the Australian variety show expressed his shock:

Writer’s Block

I’ve returned home from what can only be expressed as a truly uplifting evening out. Tantalizingly described on Facebook by its organisers  as “vibrant spoken word, emotive, intimate live music and saliva-conjuring short films”, I had to ask myself: ‘how can I possibly say no to Writer’s Block?’.

The event, which was scheduled to start at 7:30pm, was held at Juno Bar in Shoreditch, East London.

My favourite performers included songstress Floetic Lara, hip-hop verbalist Breis (pronounced breeze), soul artist Martyna Baker, poet Deanna Rodger and of course the 7 piece band The Illersapiens.

Floetic Lara was truly delightful. Her ultra positive aura had me smiling throughout the whole of her performance. She freestyled so well with the band that it could have almost been mistaken as rehearsed. You can tell that this lady is doing what she loves: the passion, and spiritualism is infectious. The tone and balance to her vocals was so soothing that I just had to buy her album. Love, love, love.

Breis. I remembered his name purely because he spelt it out when performing one of his tracks called Identity (It’s da B to da R to da E to da I to da S…) Loved the song and loved his humour and free-spiritedness even more.

MB effortlessly played the guitar as her impeccable voice told a story so touching, I was almost moved to tears.

DR kept me so engaged that I almost felt as though I was right there, living her ‘Love Story’: her ups, her downs, her woes fears, realizations, and her tears.

The Illersapiens topped off the night with spectacular live music (and yes my right shoulder bounced along to the beat, as requested by the band’s frontman). The band’s singer has a beautiful voice and the MC was so on point with his flow, his content and his finesse.

That’s not to say the others weren’t amazing but these acts really stood out to me.The poetry was deep, conscious and inspiring. Admittedly, many of the acts put me in a trance and all the performers definitely gave me food for thought. I left the bar feeling somewhat elated and strangely wanting to rhyme every sentence and speak in iambic pentameter. I suppose that’s how I know the ‘writer’s block’ has had its affect on me. Can’t wait for the next event.

Photographs by Mark Bellot

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Big Brother 2009

It’s that time of year again. Yep, Big Brother 2009 is upon us. Every year, I promise myself that I will refrain from watching it, but the voyeur (not in a sexual way) in me prevails and sure enough, I find myself sitting in front of the TV every night watching the hour long show. Admittedly, I find it quite entertaining and learn a lot about human psychology just by observing the housemates’ behaviour.

This year 16 participants went into the house and the show’s producers added a twist: each contestant had to complete a challenge to successfully qualify as a fully fledged housemate. The five who had failed to become housemates by Sunday (7th June) evening faced eviction.

Last night saw the first housemate (or “non-housemate” rather), Beinazir, evicted. She was evicted with no audience, had a very short interview with Davina and no “best bits”. Then she was whisked away somewhere (I assume home or to a hotel) in a routemaster, probably never to be seen or heard of again. Shame.

I think it’s still early days yet to tell who is genuine but I guess, we as an audience don’t want to watch boring people. We’re subconsciously hungry for conflict. There’s already too much fakery and personality clashes and I can imagine a lot of arguments and confrontations will transpire in the very foreseeable future. In the meantime, I’ll just chortle at their self-inflicted misfortunes.

Photos: Big Brother 2009 website (Channel 4 Copyright 2009)

England People Very Nice

Last week, I went with a close friend of mine to watch the critically acclaimed production England People Very Nice at the National Theatre.

The play, written by award-winning dramatist Richard Bean, is a three hour comedy about immigration over the centuries in East London, namely Bethnal Green.

To be honest, it took me a while to get into it, but after about 40 minutes I unknowingly found myself goggle eyed and chortling every now and again. It almost felt like a fun history lesson.

Despite some critics dubbing the play racist and offensive, I thought it was very well structured, and had the right balance of reality and stereotypes. After all, stereotypes have some truth in them. I suppose where things go wrong is when people become prejudice due to their own ignorance and generalisation of certain groups in society.

On our way out, my friend and I were amused when we heard a posh sounding lady say in a frustrated manner: “I didn’t quite get the satire”. Rolling my eyes, I thought: “You wouldn’t, would you?” I live in East London-only 10 minutes away from Bethnal Green, in fact- so could appreciate and understand the satire for what it was.

I personally enjoyed the play and would recommend it as a lovely evening out. It’s best to go and see it for yourself and make up your own mind.  You can go to the National Theatre website to buy ticke ts.

(Photographs: Tristram Kenton; Johan Persson; Johan Persson)

New Facebook Design

Facebook is changing it’s layout once again.

The new layout is set to take effect on Wednesday 11th March 2009.

I remember the uproar caused when they announced that it would be changing to its current format: facebook groups were created in the form of petitions against the new page layout, of which, thousands of members joined.

Honestly, as you do, I’ve gotten used to the current layout. However, I’ll happily welcome a new layout that will enable certain features a lot easier to find. The new layout will apparently have a Twitter-like real-time news feed.  Sounds promising, I guess.

Have a look at Jemima Kiss’ (Media Guardian) brief guide to the new facebook layout.

International Women’s Day 2009

Rosa Parks' mug shot after being arrested for not giving up her seat to a white passenger

Today is International Women’s Day. The day, which has been observed since the early 1900s on the 5th March, marks the economic, political and social achievements of women.

I thought I’d come up with a list of my top 5 women (excluding moi) with brief reasons why I think they are truly inspirational:

1. Rosa Parks (African American civil rights activist)- On December 1st 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama (USA), aged 42, she refused to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. This sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Her resistance to racial segregation made her an international icon. Strong, black female.

2. Aung San Suu Kyi – she is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient who has devoted her life to the non-violent struggle for democracy in Burma. She founded the National League for Democracy in 1988 and in 1990 her party won a landslide victory in the general election but she was denied power and placed under house arrest. She survived an assassination attempt in 2003.

‘It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it’ – Aung San Suu Kyi

3. Annie Lennox (Music Artist)- This soul sister is famous for being an Academy Award-winning artist and in the musical duo the Eurythmics. But the reason she’s on my list is because of the political and social work she has done. She (and Dave Stewart) gave all the profits of the 1999’s “Peacetour” for the Eurythmics album Peace, to Amnesty International and Greenpeace.  As a response to the conflict in Gaza, she lead the anti-war rally in London in January this year. She recently celebrated the 1st anniversary of the SING campaign- an organisation to help end HIV/AIDS in Africa.

4. Oprah Winfrey (Journalist/broadcaster/ media mogul)- This self-made billionnairess has a media empire that is a force to be reckoned with. She even got her own channel- the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) – that will make its broadcast debut early this year. What she has achieved throughout her life, and the struggles she has overcome is truly applaudable. The sky is the limit for for Ms O .

5. Zadie Smith (Novelist)- Born and Bred in Brent, North London, this former jazz singer and journalist, caused an intese bidding war among publishers for her first novel White Teeth (2000) before it was even finished being written- the book was a bestseller. To date, she has written three novels- the quality of which have made her one of Britain’s most highly acclaimed young authors.