After the massive success of the first Red Dead Redemption game, Rockstar is back with Red Dead Redemption 2 and they have a second trailer for the fans.
The trailer has been out for around two days and has already accumulated around a massive 26 million views on YouTube. The game follows the story of notorious criminal Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang as they rob, fight and steal their way across the grounds of America in order to survive.
Whilst, the trailer might not be very long in length it reveals some major things. For example, that the game will likely be a prequel to the first because the first game pretty much finished on the Wild West era whilst the second game seems to continue on it. Other things that the trailer shows is a bigger world and more nature, which is always an exciting element knowing that the new generation consoles can handle the bigger game worlds better.
Red Dead Redemption 2 looks to come out in Spring 2018.
The diversity of genres is key in Sound Selection and this time we do not disappoint.
Tom Speight ‘My Side’
Latest single ‘My Side’ by the wonderful Tom Speight is truly wonderful. Driven by a terrific groove and upbeat vocals this song is perfect for any playlist that needs to lighten up. With this great single, Tom Speight puts himself on the map as a musician to look out for in the future.
Sasha ‘Headlights’
Another stunning song to enter our Sound Selection is ‘Headlights’ by the sweet Sasha who showcases her calm, charming and simply magical vocals. This song will take you on a journey and a half with its spellbinding vibe. One for the playlists for sure.
Jan Amit ‘Lumen_Nation’
Now, for something different. ‘Lumen_Nation’ is a raw and progressive track full of vibrant elements that will expand your song listening barriers beyond your wildest expectations. A great track for any playlist that drives on unique and raw electronic music.
Molinaro ‘GIO’
Continuing with our electronic vibe we have ‘GIO’ by Techno music producer Molinaro, who combines raw synth elements with pure dusty percussions to create a groove perfect for the dancefloor. A nightlife hit for sure.
Pair of Arrows ‘Step Again’
Furthermore, we have ‘Step Again’ by the truly soul-touching Pair of Arrows, who bring us a song with pure heart and combine it with Nero-like elements to give us a magical experience beyond your wildest dreams. This one is for those that love magical music.
Road Kahan ‘Blue Velvet’
Another stunning song to sweep right into your selection is ‘Blue Velvet’ by Road Kahan, who combines Deep House elements with Indie Electro to make a song full of hope and honesty. Simply a great song.
Ellis Hudson ‘You Can’t Run’
Yet another song for the playlists is ‘You Can’t Run’ by Ellis Hudson, who showcases his truly terrific and dynamic vocals that will keep you spinning in dreams for weeks to come. A great song for any playlist.
SuperParka ‘GIRL’
We love to brag about Indie Pop on Our Culture Mag and this time we have ‘GIRL’ by SuperParka to brag about. This single is a gift to fans of Indie Pop and for those that love mixing pop with a raw and highly colourful groove. A true gift to our ears.
FJØRA ‘Magic’
Finally, to conclude our selection with more magic we have ‘Magic’ by FJØRA, who takes us into the world of commercial music with her neat and simply well-produced song ‘Magic’. This one is a must for any Pop playlist.
Doug Liman’s American Made had a modest start by grossing $6 million on its US opening day.
Latest action comedy film ‘American Made’ did not look great on its opening day as it only managed to net an estimated $6 million according to Box Office Mojo.
The film has already been released worldwide for over a month but has only managed to gross $65 million worldwide as of today, which is not great knowing Tom Cruise is a big worldwide star and tends to bring in big numbers. With an estimated production budget of $50 million, the film will be hoping to step up in the coming weeks as it looks to take over the weekend Box Office charts whilst closely competing with ‘Kingsman 2’ and ‘It’ for the top spot.
‘American Made’ did gross $960,000 in late night previews in 2,455 cinemas.
The winners of the Leading Culture Destinations Awards or also known as “The Oscars for Museums” were announced yesterday evening at the Trafalgar St. James hotel.
The top prize went London Design Museum as the overall winner, whilst several other museums managed to grab some important awards such as Best New Museum of the Year and Best Museum Late Night Experience.
Here is a full list of winners.
The Leading Culture Destination of the Year Award winners:
Exhibition of the Year: Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at Hirshhorn Museum (Washington DC, USA)
Museum Architecture of the Year: Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (Lisbon, Portugal)
Museum Shop of the Year: Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, USA)
Restaurant of the Year: Fotografiska (Stockholm, Sweden)
Digital Museum Experience of the Year: British Museum (London, UK)
Best New Museum of the YearAward winners: (opened in the last 15 months):
Europe: Design Museum (London, UK)
North America: Tippet Rise Art Center (Fishtail, USA)
Latin America: Casa Wabi (Puerto Escondido, Mexico)
Middle East / UAE / Africa: Etihad Museum (Dubai, UAE)
Asia / Pacific: MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (Chiang Mai, Thailand)
The Traveller’s Award winners, presented by Avis:
Emerging Cultural City of the Year: Athens, Greece
Art Hotel of the Year: The Walled Off Hotel (Bethlehem)
Soft Power Destination of the Year Award winners, presented by Valletta 2018:
Best Soft Power Cultural Activation Award: Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Art Less: The Davis without Immigrants (Wellesley, USA)
Best Soft Power Cultural Organisation Award: Toronto International Film Festival (Toronto, Canada)
Best Soft Power Cultural District Award: Watts Tower Arts Center (Los Angeles, USA)
Climate Smart Award, in partnership with SUNx:
Climate Control at Manchester Museum (Manchester, UK)
Best Museum Late Night Experience, in partnership with Sipsmith:
Rubin Museum of Art (New York, USA)
The Leading Culture Destination 2017 overall winner:
The first Netflix film produced in Brazil ‘The Killer’ (O Matador) has been given a trailer.
Set in the early 1900’s the film follows Shaggy played by Diogo Mordago who investigates the whereabouts of the bandit named Seven Ears played by Deto Montegro. Whilst searching he finds his path back to civilization and discovers that his criminal past does not die alongside him.
The film is directed by Marcelo Galvão who has previously directed ‘Colegas’ and ‘A Despedida’ and produced and distributed by Netflix.
Cast: Diego Morgado, Nill Marcondes, Deto Montenegro, Maria de Medeiros, Etienne Chicot, Mel Lisboa, Daniela Galli, Igor Cotrim, Thais Cabral and Will Roberts.
Joanne Nam a US-based artist creates dreamy oil paintings.
You may have already seen some of her fantastic work in one of our features already, this interview is with the lovely Joanne Nam.
Are you working on anything new and exciting?
I have commissions going on, these are taking most of my days. I’m planning to have about three, up to four group exhibitions in 2018 which is, very fortunately, mostly scheduled with amazing galleries. Also, I’m planning my art book that’ll be out. I get so excited about this. I don’t know when but I know it will happen. I work on my personal paintings besides of commissions so I can feature them in my book. Recently, there was a new addition to my online shop which has been a great success and an amazing experience for me. I’m so grateful for all the opportunities, even troubles that I have to encounter as an artist. 🙂 I will update about group exhibitions on my social media whenever the time comes! Thank you.
Sleepyhead (self-portrait)
Why and how did you become interested in painting?
Someone left a comment on my social media that she wants to follow her dream instead of being at somewhere that she doesn’t feel the passion. I really want to encourage everyone to chase after their dream if they have that small voice that tackles them in daily life.
I decided to commit my lifetime to pursue in art, even though everyone I know told me how hard my life would be and how unrealistic my dream was. I remember a stranger that I once met at a car repair shop, had told me that I should be a grandma that can pay my grandchildren pocket money time to time and art won’t make me that kind of grandma. I’ve experienced disrespectful opinions some people had to say about my dream. When I say I am an artist and I want to keep making art, they see me as “poor” or “about-to-die-starving” person and think that I was being “irresponsible” about my life. A guy I once dated had told me I should be someone people needed. He got kicked out of my life right after he said it. I’d experienced this for years after I graduate college, and I decided not to give a care. Years later I finally had the nerve to ask them back, “So, are you a multi-billionaire?”
I haven’t changed my mind at all. The main reason is just so simple. Art is one thing that I am best at out of everything I’ve tried, and I am happiest doing it. I love watching me growing in art and obsessively creating ideas every day. And I have fun doing it. Time flies. Every day’s too short for me. My curiosity runs wild whenever I think about what I’ll become if I continue doing this. For some reason, I have a strong feeling that almost makes me think that I do know for sure, I have a good future ahead. I’m in the progress of it. Nobody can change this feeling. I think about ideas for my art and other things I want to create related to my art all day. I feel the heart-beating passion about them. I don’t need coffee. I become caffeinated whenever I imagine. I don’t feel this way with any other jobs those worriers recommended. I’m sorry, worriers. I know I’ve made my choice and it is a crazy good one.
How long does it take you to finish one of your paintings?
It really depends on size and detail level that I head for. If the size of the painting is large and requires detailed foliage, it will obviously take longer time than simple and small portraiture. However, that doesn’t mean small works are easier to create. If I get a small commission but that requires a lot of details, it takes almost the same amount of energy and time as if I’m painting a large painting. I actually love painting small though.
Any personal painting tips/techniques?
I believe most important thing would be consistency. Be persistent and decide not to give up. Having good brushes is one of my things that I keep up with.
A Quiet Soul
What’s it like being an artist in the age of social media?
I think this is an amazing time to live as an artist. We are the first generation that has easy access to huge numbers of audiences. I’m just so thrilled knowing that I’m living in this era. We can get to our collectors, supporters, and galleries so easily nowadays. It surely changed art world. How am I going to use it, that is the question I’m working on.
What’s your source of inspiration?
Nature is big. I love to go hiking for hours whenever possible and see the forest. I love going to gym too. Physical activities refresh my brain and my mind. I think this is important to anyone. Visiting galleries and looking at art are very good exercises and give lots of inspiration, but personally, I get exhausted about life sometimes when I’m surrounded by a sea of art and have to stay in my studio with lack of physical activity.
Do you have any creative routines?
Every morning is really important part of my day. I wake up early, sometime in between 3 to 6 and, occasionally, meditate for about 3 to 5 minutes. My meditations are (really) short but they help. I make myself some tea and start painting. I love starting my days like that. A few hours later, I’ll be off to the gym.
Taking breaks between hours of work is absolutely necessary. Working hard is great but for a very long time, I misunderstood the concept of hard work. I feel that enjoying life enhances the productivity and creativity. Working 12 or 13 hours every day is very respectful but if one’s not taking enough time away from work, it only leads to misery. I love staying far away from art sometimes and experience good or bad things that life has to offer. Hang out with friends. Stay active. Do something fun that is not artsy. I don’t think any of this is a waste of my time anymore. Literally, anything in life is just so great for creativity. I’d rather stay relax and appreciate my life. My life feels much much better this way.
The Dream
What role does the artist have in a society?
I believe we are here to create art and bring up your life to the next level. Try to imagine a world without art. No drawing, No design or painting. No music, no literature. Black and grey. No rainbow. No creativities. Nothing. I feel that would be a terrible empty hell one could ever live in. Nowadays, people’s perspective in art has changed a lot. Artists get to appreciated and respected more than those artists who lived a long time before, dedicated their lives to bring this current generation to this world. We now have the giant window called social media to express ourselves, reach out to people and connect to the world. Artists are here to make things better, feeding people’s mind with beautiful energy.
What do you hope to accomplish with your art?
I want to help. I want to become the person who can help others. I’m living the age of social media. It never happened before, and it is bringing so many big potentials in creative careers. I’ll do everything I can to learn, experience, and make my own success. Ultimately, I want to become someone who helps next generation artists who’ll live this era, with my knowledge and finance. I’ll be happiest if I see someone living the better life because of me. I think this is a wonderful dream to have.
Any advice for aspiring artists?
Keep going, keep moving forward. Set little goals every day and celebrate every time when you get there. Truly be happy for other artists for their success! Be thankful that you have choices.
To find more out about Joanne Nam check out her social media links:
Action-comedy film Kingsman: The Golden Circle has topped Wednesday’s box office after having an impressive start worldwide.
The second film in the Kingsman franchise looks to keep up the strong start it had the weekend Box Office, as it made around $2.2 million at the Wednesday’s box office. The film has already made over $116 million worldwide, whilst making an impressive $11 million in the United Kingdom.
In second place came the big horror hit ‘It’, which once again did well with a moderate amount of $1.7 million, whilst in third came ‘The LEGO Ninjago Movie’ with a less impressive $650 thousand.
On l Off select top emerging designers to showcase their collection to press and others who are attending London Fashion week.
This year for the selected designers to showcase their Spring Summer 18 collection are Luke Rooney, Jack Irving and CAPLANENTWISLE.
CAPLANENTWISLE kicks off the show with an almost all white outfit from the trench coat and an almost sheer dress with very high slits on the side reaching the models hips. It is paired with knee high socks, jelly sandals and what looks like a pillow bag.
The rest of the collection is vibrant and full of colours, both bright and pastel colours. One of the looks are from plaid fabric and the other print. The plaid outfit almost looks like the outfit from the film “Clueless” just that the length of the jacket is longer and has a big collar Rever.
The next show was Luke Rooney, he has some interesting designs, playing with shape and colour blocking and using loose dresses, play suits and jumpsuits as the main canvas to work on.
This dress looks amazing, I love how the colours are different sizes, lengths and widths. This looks like something to wear in spring like on a brunch. The fabric looks like it could be satin so perfect for the warm weather when it feels cool next to the skin. I love the scoop neck line it looks like it will keep everything in place with no nip slips.
These styles are also interesting, one style with coloured embellishments and the other with blocks of colours curving around the skirt. It definitely adds more design to these garments since we see them usually plain.
Last but not the least, Jack Irving with his finale Avant-garde collection. Starting the collection is this model in a metallic bodysuit with thigh high boots with a headpiece.
As the show progressed the garments got more extreme and bigger!
As a designer I am intrigued how this was created and put together. As the models walked past you can hear the fans inside the garments and I am intrigued how that was made. Overall, this is a great ending to the show so fascinating and extreme, but well put together.
Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete is horrendous and is a ludicrously awful attempt to show a loveable relationship between a boy and a failing racehorse.
Fresh from its press screening at the London Film Festival, Haigh’s fourth feature film follows 15-year-old Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) as he embarks on a journey across America’s Northwest on a search for a new home. Charley lives alone with his working class womanising father, Ray (Travis Fimmel) following his Mother’s departure at a young age. Desperate for cash and another fresh start, they move to Portland, Oregon. Charley meets Dale (Steve Buscemi), an old-fashioned and washed-up horse trainer. He gives Charlie a part-time job helping with the horses, which is when he meets Pete, an underperforming racehorse who Charley takes a liking to.
This film is none of the above. To be brutally honest, the adapted screenplay from Haigh is an abomination. It is without a doubt one of the worst screenplays I have witnessed in a long while. I would say it is that of the standard of a school media student, but that would be an insult to those students. The film drags and drags, with no dramatic or fulfilling payoff that would enrich your experience. The second half of the film is essentially wide-shots of Charley walking with the horse, and a chaotic scramble to establish a selection of bitesize character defining moments. These prove to be unfulfilling, out of character, boring and bizarre.
However, the biggest problem with this film is the character of Charley Thompson. It’s established that our protagonist has no contact with his departed Mother, his favoured Aunt Marg and that his home life is rocky, to say the least. Then, he is left parentless when he witnesses an angry husband of one of his Dad’s partners kill him. We see no emotion from Charley, we see him stagger on by collecting what he can from his work with Dale. It’s nigh on impossible to connect with the character we see on screen, as it seems to barely impact him, why should it impact the audience? We see next to no character development throughout the film, and when there are those rare attempts, it’s simply hopeless shots in the dark that have not been set up and totally and bizarrely out of character.
We see no real emotional connection between the two, until 75 minutes into the film, when Charley makes his first active decision to do anything in the film. Charley finds out that Dale is to send Pete away for a pretty penny, resulting in his slaughter in Mexico. Charley steals the horse and Dale’s truck, and leaves for, well nowhere, he just takes him across the Northwest, hoping to find Aunt Marg somewhere along the way if he can. How did this 15-year-old learn to drive, is the first question that goes off in your head, there is no remote indication set up of Charley ever driving. Yet, this still isn’t one of the strangest and worst things in this film. I look the other way, as finally, Charley stops being passive and totally reactive throughout the film, and starts making something happen. He quickly runs out of money, and steals food from a diner on the highway and manages to get away scot-free. We anticipate this is the formation of some eventual character development, and finally, the plot going somewhere.
Sadly, this is not the case. It’s pretty much Charley dragging the horse throughout the desert, meeting uninteresting and insignificant characters along the way. The film largely focuses on Charley’s relationship with the horse and tries to market itself as a ‘Marley and Me’ style, an endearing relationship resulting in emotional outpouring at the animal’s death. Pete becomes free of his rope and escapes from Charley as quickly as possible, galloping into a road where he is struck down by a driver. The police arrive and state that they’ll be taking Charley somewhere safe, when he bizarrely decides to run away, with no attempt by the police to go after him now. We then see him stop his plan to find Aunt Marg, become homeless and start new jobs. The relationship formed between Charley and the horse that we suffered through for 90 minutes has no impact on the character following his death. He moves on again and eventually tracks down his Aunt Marg who he so greatly loves, to no emotional reaction in the slightest when he finally finds her.
This insufferable film lasts for 120 minutes, with the story content of less than half. I can genuinely never recall viewing a film where I’ve had my head in my hands like this. It will leave you viewing the exit door as a gate to heaven, and I’d rather lean off a cliff than Lean on Pete again.
Lean On Pete will be released in cinemas in February 2018.
This quirky and hilarious documentary follows ‘The Christchurch Poultry, Bantam and Pigeon Club’, their love of chickens and rivalries as they enter the 148th New Zealand Nation Championships.
We are welcomed into the lives of a group of people who’s love for chickens bring them together in the form of The Christchurch Poultry, Bantam and Pigeon Club. As the lead up to the Nation Championship begins we are introduced to a variety of different people and personalities who’s ages range from young to old, all of them care and tend to their flock of chickens, making sure they look fabulous for the championship, but as the championship grows closer conflicts emerge between the chairman of the club, Doug, and the members.
Even though the club is strange to people who aren’t so called ‘Chick Fanciers’ it’s always pleasant to see people so passionate about the thing they love and these members truly love chickens, they are so ardent about taking care of them, waking up at 6am and working all day to tend to them, these chickens are their lives.
The characters that are focused on are all so unique and fascinating; they are unknowingly hilarious and stay interesting throughout. They never shy away from the camera and you can really tell that they care about the club and championship, specifically one, who is happy constantly; with no wife or family as it seems he is contempt with his chickens.
Furthermore, the chickens themselves are really impressive, I’m not an expert in chickens or how they are supposed to look but the time the people take and precision they go to is so remarkable. Similarly, the judges of the championship take the matter incredibly seriously, judging the chickens on their eyes, feathers, shape, size, colour etc… any mistake will go noticed as they following the New Zealand Poultry Standard.
Additionally, the film’s story includes fowl play and tension inside of the club; many of the members disagree with how the club is run with the current chairman, Doug. As many of the members want young Mark to take over he is reluctant over what Doug has done for him in the past. It is quite heartbreaking to see the 148-year-old club slowly crumble and you want them to resolve their issues and for everyone and their chickens to get along.
Pecking Order is a delightfully well-told story that follows a number of wonderful characters whose dedication and excitement shines through, sure to keep you laughing throughout and interested in who will rule the roost.
