Jake gives it to us as it is.
What if, after seeing an art piece of some sort, you question all that you know (or think you know)? Not in an aggressive way that suggests you know better, and that those by whom you’re surrounded are nothing more than mindless drones who’ve willingly gone under the knife for a routine soul-ectomy. No, not in that way at all… just gently questioning, in a way that provides the merest grain of an idea that maybe everything is precisely opposite to what you have grown to believe.

Precisely opposite: Imagine that. What if everything you see is simply a projection of your own mind? What if absolutely everything has equal value and meaning, from the dust in your clothing to an enlightened prophet’s latest insight? And what should you do if you see the exact opposite of a train?
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Stuart Young Investigates…

Mad about Alice?

Alice in Wonderland arrives this Friday on a wave of hype, controversy, and marketing. Foremost is the dispute over which cinemas would agree to show the film – Disney intends to release the DVD in a lightning-fast three months which will cut into movie audiences. Then there’s the impressive volume of press coverage, the promising trailer, the big names attached; from every angle, the expectation associated with Alice threatens to overwhelm the film itself.

Based on the children’s books by Lewis Carroll (the rather less snappily titled Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There) this version is directed by Tim Burton, the eccentric filmmaker responsible for The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sweeney Todd and several other classics of the beloved-by-teenage-girls-who-wear-too-much-eyeliner variety. Read More

Ellie Robert is here to review the latest Disney re-release:

Re-released Toy Story 2 is among the barrage of recent films to be given the silly glasses treatment. Following the return of the original Toy Story and pre-empting the arrival of Toy Story 3, nostalgic 90’s kids and excitable little ones are now donning 3D specs to return to the now visually enhanced world of Andy’s room, and beyond.

As a rare good sequel to the original, everyone’s favourite animated cowboy, Woody (Tom Hanks) returned to the big screen in 1999. Now he’s back again, only more vivid. Read More

Tim B-G lays one down on the new film ‘Youth In Revolt’.

There are numerous facts in the gaming world that are given truths. The fact that each year will see the release of a new FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer game, the fact that Princess Peach will always get herself kidnapped by the nefarious Bowser, or the fact that any new release from Sony is a little underwhelming. Another which can be added to the list is the certainty that Rockstar Games, developers of the Grand Theft Auto series, would at some point in the future be releasing a sequel to the award-winning Grand Theft Auto IV. The very notion of it is so believable, so undeniably certain, you could bet any number of your prized possessions (or family members for that matter) on it’s occurrence.

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The commercial success, or failure, of a game can often depend on the quality of reviews it receives from the various websites and trade magazines that are available. Games such as Grand Theft Auto III benefited greatly from the vast number of positive reviews and awards it received, whilst more recently the negative reviews surrounding Blue Omega’s Damnation certainly didn’t help it, with the game recording abysmal sale figures. (Though, that may also be due to the fact that the game was well, terrible). The fact that a positive review can help sales of a game, (though this is not always the case, for example with Little Big Planet), is well known by publishers and developers alike. Read More

In the tragic absence of Katy, Producer Will hosted The Arts Show this week.

The team talked pigeons and paintings, and discovered they know a lot more about Superman than Botticelli.

Get interested in the podcast, arts kids!

The Arts Show – Podcast 2 (1)

Listen in Sunday at 1pm for this weeks show.

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review by Richard Hanrahan and Scott Lucas

Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is your average Joe – he has a happy life working in a small town for a local newspaper – that is until someone in his office dies and his wife runs off with a man with one arm. Wilton decides to lose himself in the romance of War, and travels to Iraq to become a war correspondent.
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Here is this weeks dose of Arts Show goodness featuring -

The Arts Show Podcast – Episode 1 1st November 2009

Film Reviews

Arts Show Quiz

And much much more….

Remember to tune in Sunday at 1300 for The Arts Show

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Alex Wozniak is back with his weekly video game round up:

The words ‘controversy’ and ‘video games’ are often used hand-in-hand. Since the dawn of the medium back in the 1970’s, to today’s so-called ‘7th Generation’, there has always been a steady, healthy steam of negative press surrounding games. Even simpler titles, such as Super Mario Brothers, are unable to escape the glare of the media. (After all, Mario is nothing more than an unemployed plumber, who kills innocent Goombas by violently stamping on their head, before stealing their hard-earned gold coins, whilst ingesting a variety of ‘magic’ and possibly hallucinogenic mushrooms. Isn’t he?)

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Another week, another Fresh Air Film Show. This week, the studio takes a turn towards animation and children’s adaptation. Be sure to check out the show next week, from noon on Wednesday, or if you can’t wait that long, why not check out the very latest from the team here.
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Review by Tim Beardmore-Gray
9, the latest animated blockbuster, is the first feature length film from director Shane Acker and is based on his 2005 short of the same name. The main protagonist is the character 9 (Elijah Wood), a hessian rag doll that is made and brought to life by a scientist during a war between man and machine. After watching a monstrous machine capture one of his kind he eventually finds a small group of similar dolls and embarks on a mission to rescue the captured doll, against the warnings of the stern group leader 1 (Christopher Plummer). The story follows 9 and the other dolls as they attempt to survive in the post-apocalyptic world, fight off machines and try to come to terms with their existence and their purpose. Read More

Halloween! Scary stuff. This week on The Film Show:
This week its Halloween, so the Film Show kicks off with a haunted flavour. We had some scary reviews of cinema releases including Zombieland, Halloween 2 and the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, plus we re-capped DVD releases worth checking out for a scary weekend, and everything you can catch from the Film Society. For all the latest on the weeks films, including reviews, discussion, listen to the Film Show every week at 12 noon, every Wednesday. Check in this Wednesday for an animation special.

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Tim B-G is here to tell us about Ruth Nicol’s exhibition at the Lot:

Forty two year old mature student Ruth Nicol is a very busy woman. Whilst working towards her final degree show at the Edinburgh College of Arts she manages to look after her ten year old daughter and work on a number of other exhibitions, and she’s five months pregnant! I met up with her to chat about her latest exhibition Lost at the Lot in the Grassmarket. Before I dive into the pieces on display at The Lot it’s important to understand the inspiration behind her art. She classes herself as a landscape painter, but with a slight difference. Her main interest is the emotional and personal connections she has with various landscapes that she is familiar with, most notably landscapes she observes whilst travelling around Scotland. She enjoys depicting vistas that she repeatedly encounters and the way that she personally interacts with these places. Another interesting view that Nicol has of her work is that she doesn’t expect the viewers to understand the emotional connection that she has with her landscapes. She hopes that the fierce motivation that she has for painting and the energy that comes across in her work provides intrigue and interest for her viewer and justifies her choices of scene. Read More

Alex Wozniak is back with this weeks gaming news:

In recent years games have developed from simple side-scrolling adventures such as Super Mario Brothers to complex pieces of entertainment, combining stunning cinematics, something audio, and exquisite gameplay. However, some games have been accused of being nothing more than over-extended films with the odd bit of player interaction to break the monotony, for example Metal Gear Solid 3. Whilst a cutscene can enhance the experience of a game by driving the story forward, it should not detract from the game itself. Read More