A John Waters Christmas

5 December 2011 | Royal Festival Hall

“a night of anti-Xmas revelry”

Brigitte Aphrodite’s Merry Kissmass

8 December 2011 | The Slaughtered Lamb

“Mega good stuff!”

Loserville has been properly getting into the festive swing of things this December – first up was A John Waters Christmas at the Royal Festival Hall, where Baltimore’s finest cult film director took to the stage to share caustic one-liners, scabrous anecdotes, and general Xmas filth.

Loserville has got a bit of a thing for John Waters – we worship at the altar of Pecker (“Pubic hair causes crime”), Cry Baby (“God’s in her gullet. And he’s in yours, too!”) and Serial Mom (“Serial Mom is headed South on Ceswick. Proceed with caution. She is armed and fuckin’ nuts!”).

So it was great to spend a couple of hours in the  presence of the genius behind so many of our favourite films. And we weren’t the only ones – it felt like all the gays of London town had made the trip to the Southbank Centre for this night of anti-Xmas revelry.

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One of our Bestival highlights this year was definitely the stage invasion of the Bandstand stage, invited and encouraged by Brigitte Aphrodite. So we were really excited to celebrate Kissmass with her and her friends and The Slaughtered Lamb.

First up we had some ace piano tunes from Sean Pol McGreevy, and then some amazing beat boxing from Hectic. And then it was time for the star of the show…

Brigitte took to the stage with her amazing choir, and made our Christmas with a mix-up of some of our fave Brigitte songs, a Spice Girls cover, and a little bit of Stay Another Day and All I want For Christmas (Is You) thrown in! Mega good stuff!

It was all wrapped up with a rendition of Brigitte’s own Merry Kissmass, and we were all singing along by the end (it’s amazing what a combo of catchy music and a few pints of cider does to you…).

Perfect Christmas fun!

Our pick of the month is Brian Lobel’s Cruising for Art, a suspiciously non-Xmas event. If you’re feeling festive try BAC, BGWMC, Duckie’s Copyright Christmas, Drink Shop & Do and much more…read on Scrooge, read on…

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Christmas Cook Up Season @ Battersea Arts Centre | 1st-31stDecember | Various Times | £Various

 BAC presents a delightful festive festival packed with emerging theatre developed on site, including theatre, music, words, food & drink. Our pick of the pops includes: “Bluebeard“ - a dark cabaret fairytale about a nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives; and renegade theatre troupe Little Bulb’s “The Mother of All Goose Parties” – a musical journey/party.

Christmas Open Studios @ Cockpit Arts | 2nd-4th December | Free

  Don’t Argos it! Buy something truly unique from Cockpit Arts’ supremely talented bunch of crafty creatives. Choose from fashion accessories, homewares and much more as you enjoy some lovely food courtesy of Handmade Food, or enter the prize draw to win handmade Christmas decorations made by CA’s talented designers. 

Bethnal Green Working Mens Club Xmas Season @ BGWMC | 3rd-17th December | Various Times | £Various

 Come to the venue where it’s so camp, it’s Christmas all year round! Highlights of their awesome Christmas parties include: Coney Island Christmas Party (inspired by the kookiest car-crash beach resort that is Coney Island N.Y.) on the 3rd December; Dirty Fan Male (based on real letters sent to porn stars) on the 14th December; and the Cream Revue Christmas Party.

Canadian Blast vs Oui Love @ Rich Mix | 5th December | 19:30 | Free

Oui fell in love with ‘Oui Love’ at the Institut Francais, where we bopped insanely to their latest compilation of French future mega-hits. We can’t wait to hear Zooey at RichMix.

Amateur Transplants @ Lyric Theatre | 5th December | 20:00 | £22.50

Ok we admit it, we are totally obsessed with musical comedy – we write about it more than anything else on the site. See some cream-of-the-crop musical comedy at the luscious Lyric Theatre, full of witty puns and laugh out loud mayhem from YouTube stars, Amateur Transplants.

Robyn Hood @ The RVT | 7th & 28th-30th December | Various Times | £8.50

We went to the RVT Panto last year and saw stripping, beautiful rhyming song with Marcus Reeves and trannies. This year we expect nothing less.

Brian Lobel’s Cruising for Art @ Vogue Fabrics | 9th December | 20:00-22:00 | £5

 Unbelievably brilliant and irreverently sleazy event where audience members have to cruise an audacious array of artists in order to gain access to intimate, one on one performances – all over 4 floors of the Vogue Fabrics mansion. The line up for this round includes Bryony Kimmings, Tui’s Nail Bar (Tui is an emerging artist – just 10 years old!), Eirini Kartsaki, Mamoru Iriguchi, Rachel Gomme, Catherine Long, The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein, Timberlina (as Tim Redfern), GraceLes and Owen Parry.

Duckie Copyright Christmas and Duckie Christmas Market @ The Barbican | 10th-30th December | Various Times | £19.99

We are very impressed to see that those fabulous Duckie people have infiltrated the usually-clean Barbican website with falling snow. Pretty! In their latest interactive charade, featuring Scottee & Harrold Offeh, the collective express their dissatisfaction with the commercialism of Christmas. We feel the same! Then, after you’ve got all ruffled by the performance, explore the Duckie Christmas Market for offbeat treats from independent sellers who love a chat.

The Joy of Sketch @ Lyric Theatre | 12th December | 19:30 | £17.50-£38.50

 Sketch comedy is a Loserville favourite genre, and we are happy that Time Out got its thinking cap on and put on this festive frollic with some of the best troupes around. Including Late Night Gimp Fight, Idiots of Ants, The Pajama Men and Two Episodes of Mash.

Bourgeois & Maurice: Fa La La La La @ Soho Theatre | 14th December – 7th January | 21:45 | £10-£15

Christmas cheer not quite grabbed you? Perfect! Come and join LV faves Bourgeois and Maurice for their festive (?) Christmas spectacular. Expect: hilarity, doom mongering and costume changes (we hope!).

The Xmas Starty @ Soho Theatre | 14th-23rd December | Various Times | £15

Soho Theatre says: “The most bizarre office Christmas party you will ever attend.” We say: “Bring it on babycakes!”. Dress up in your frump chic and enjoy the music, passion, laughs, games, dances, prizes and crafting.

Inappropriate Christmas Card Making @ Drink, Shop & Do | 21st December | 20:00ish | Free (well, you have to buy a drink…)

This cute cafe in Kings Cross presents great participatory events including knit-ins, musical bingo and inappropriate Xmas fun. Don’t miss this hidden gem…

Part 1

Ok, look, apologies straight away to you non-London Losers (nLL’s). We’d love to have articles about all the fun/cheesey/tacky things to do at Christmas in Hull, Totnes and Stourbridge, but we don’t really think we could do it justice. So here’s a shout-out straight away to you nLL’s – get in touch with Loserific things to do in your towns/cities/forest clearings, and we’ll spread the word!

Ok, so Part 1 is all about…

Ice Skating Somewhere Other Than Somerset House or Hyde Park

Loserville occasionally decides that it’s time to give everyone a good laugh, and straps on the ice skates for an hour or so of stagger-slide-stumble-fall, or as professionals call it, Ice Skating. But Somerset House and Hyde Park are a bit predictable aren’t they?

There are lots of places to choose from over the festive period, but here are two:

Hampton Court Palace Ice Rink is probably as spectacular a setting as you’re going to find, and Hampton Court is easily accessible by train from Waterloo.

They say: “Put your ear muffs, gloves and skates on, grab someone’s hand and have some fun this Christmas.”

We say: It looks pretty awesome at night, but if you’re feeling energetic, why not skate at lunchtime and then walk along the river to Richmond. It’s 7 miles or so, but when you get there you can head into The Roebuck for a booze, some grub, and one of the best views in London.

November 26th – January 8th (but not Christmas Day!)

Canary Wharf Ice Rink might seem like an odd choice, but it tends to be a little quieter than the rest and it gives you an excuse to do two things on a cold, crisp December evening:

First, you can arrive by boat, catching the Thames Clipper to Canary Wharf Pier (which is the best way to travel through London when it’s lit up like a Christmas tree).

Then, after skating you can ride the worlds slowest and least undulating rollercoaster (the DLR) down to Cutty Sark (which still isn’t there) and then walk along past the Naval College to one of our favourite pubs - The Trafalgar Tavern.

November 12th – February 29th

EastEnd Cabaret: The Revolution Will Be Sexual

24-26 November 2011 | Arcola Tent

“super-brill, twenty-seven stars” 

Eat Your Heart Out Presents…Violence

17-26 November 2011 | Riverside Studios

“Hair pulling, arm bruising, scream-out-loud-in-pain brilliance” 

Dracula: Sex, Sucking & Stardom

15 November-3 December 2011 | Hen & Chickens Theatre

“a thoroughly chucklesome…cheeky-chappy of a  three-man show” 

Having recovered from our summer tent experiences, Loserville was ready to get back under canvas… so long as that canvas also had under it a promise of fun times (and a bar)…

The Arcola Tent didn’t disappoint and, as we didn’t have to sleep in it (on a slope, blood rushing to head, with rain dripping on our faces), we were all the merrier. Bottle of wine secured, we snaffled a table, ready to enjoy EastEnd Cabaret‘s latest offering – an evening of saucy songs, “too-much-info” tales, gin-soaked musing on sex, love and, erm, communism… and a massage from a (puppet) monkey. Super-brill, twenty-seven stars.

Favourite Song: Danger Wank

Favourite Instrument: Kazoo

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We don’t make trips to Hammersmith without good reason (nothing against Hammersmith, it’s just a bit of a trek from Loserville HQ)…

But when it’s to see an Eat Your Heart Out ‘show’, at the swanky Riverside Studios (we’d tell you about the (probably) great food in the restaurant, but we couldn’t get a table grrr), then we can make the effort.

Confrontational, thought-provoking stuff, with amazing performances and great music… well, that sentence just doesn’t do it justice. Violence isn’t really a show at all, it’s an experience. Love it or loathe it, or fall somewhere in between, Violence will make you think. We like thinking.

You won’t find a better cast of cabaret performers: Scottee, Dickie Beau, Miss Annabel Sings, Nando Messias, Masumi Tipsy, Helen Noir, Spencer Wood and Rachel Porter… If you want more than that, you’re a greedy bastard. Just be prepared – it’s not pretty.

Hair pulling, arm bruising, scream-out-loud-in-pain brilliance.

See this if you like: The Care Bears Movie*

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Loserville HEARTS the Hen & Chickens Theatre! The bar staff complimented our glasses, which is always a good start… No “good glasses beer discount” mind, they should work on that…

We were in the North (of London) to catch Dracula: Sex, Sucking & Stardom, a thoroughly chucklesome jaunt through Bram Stoker’s classic bloodsucker romp. This is a cheeky-chappy of a  three-man show which shows just enough respect to the original story, whilst dropping in some inspired re-worked songs (a Bublé ‘classic’ stole the show for our audience) and shamelessly meddling with the well-known material (here, Dracula wants to star in an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical!).

Daft and dippy, and comfortingly accessible – perfect for letting your hair down and having a good old guffaw. Oh, but you might need an umbrella. That’s all we’re saying.

*…and need a reality check :p

Boy meets boy, boy tries to seduce boy at urinals, boys wake up together, boys do drugs… There’s not a travel bookshop or a blue door in sight – just a bitter-sweet tale of love lost and found. This is Weekend.

They say: “On a Friday night after hanging out with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a nightclub,
alone and on the pull. Just before closing time he picks up Glen. And so begins a weekend – in
bars and in bedrooms, getting drunk and taking drugs, telling stories and having sex – that will
resonate throughout their lives.”

We say: Loserville couldn’t believe it. The Covent Garden Odeon foyer was rammed, bursting at the seams with punters waiting to catch Weekend, the second feature film from director Andrew Haigh. Weekend premiered at the SXSW Film Festival back in March (winning the Emerging Visions Audience Award), and we’ve been hearing nothing but great things about it ever since. But this felt like the midnight screening of the latest Batman film – it was so great to see that essentially a low-budget, non-mainstream indie-film could attract such a massive audience. The cinema staff were clearly taken by surprise by the sheer numbers, and Loserville had to do a little sprint to get a good seat.

The signs were promising – during its US festival run, the film picked up the Grand Jury Prize and Best Actor Award at the Nashville Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest in Los Angeles, in addition to its initial success at SXSW.

And finally, with the fab Peccadillo Pictures distributing, Weekend made its UK theatrical debut this month.

In the words of director Andrew Haigh, the main characters Russell and Glen (relative newcomers Tom Cullen and Chris New) “are two people navigating through life in very different ways but both are looking for same thing – to find their place within the world around them. They are trying to work out who they are, what they want and how they should define themselves, in private as well as in public.”

This is an honest, intimate and authentic love story, in the way that Richard Curtis films (note: I’m actually quite partial to Notting Hill) aren’t. There is no glamorisation of love here. Instead, Weekend is love at it’s most recognizable – surprising, occasionally painful, confusing, intoxicating…  As Haigh puts it, “that feeling of both fear and excitement that comes with the possibility of something new.”

As Russell and Glen are thrown together by fate, and spend the weekend in each others company, we witness those awkward, tantalising moments as two people truly start to engage with one another, and through this engagement, begin to focus on the struggles each of them face.

This is a film with two central gay characters, but is not just a gay film. It is a story of two people coming to terms with difference, with not quite fitting in. Whilst this manifests itself in Weekend through sexuality, Haigh is clear that “you don’t need to be gay to be strugling with isses of authenticity and self-definition, and of course at the heart of Weekend is a story of two people falling in love with each other.”

For us, Haigh hits the target spot-on. This is a grown-up, honest, compelling account of love and life over the space of one (pretty drug-fuelled) weekend. Cullen and New are excellent as Russell and Glen, and the tone is refreshing – there are no last-minute chases to stop a wedding/stop someone from catching a plane/crash a press conference, although there are some witty references to such things.

Weekend is all about what actually happens, all the time. It’s about human nature, individuality, difference, and belonging. It’s about discovering who you are, and leaping into the unknown.

It’s pretty fucking great.

Weekend is showing now at Odeon Covent Garden, Apollo Piccadilly Circus, Brixton Ritzy & HMV Curzon Wimbledon

Also, from November 11th at Odeon Studio, Richmond, & Gate Cinema, Notting Hill

And finally, November 25th-December 1st at Hackney Picturehouse

Remember, remember the month of November

We believe November is shaping up to be slightly wonderful actually. This To Do List of joy includes Wunderbar Festival, Dracula: Sex, Sucking and Stardom, GFEST, Scottee’s ‘Violence’, La Soiree, Paintworks, EastEnd Cabaret and much more.

Wunderbar Festival @ Newcastle | Until 6 November | Various Times | £Various, inc. FREE stuff

 Ok so this is not strictly in London (in the same way that New York isn’t strictly in Mexico), but we believe the Wunderbar festival is totally worth a road/rail/air-trip! This year the odd and quirky performance festival is back with an interactive bang, it’s all about you! Our top picks include Bring a Pet (to make a makeshift zoo), Work-a-thon (the world record for the largest gathering of self-employed people working together) and the Human Library.

Black Pond @ The Prince Charles Cinema | 11-17 November | 19:00 | £6-10

Micro-budget? Check. Award-winning comedian making film debut? Check. Disgraced TV actor? Check. We’ve all had bad dinner party experiences, but this should reassure most of us that it could be a lot worse… ”The Thompson family is accused of murder when a stranger dies at their dinner table. Six months later, family friend Tim visits freelance therapist Dr Eric Sacks (Simon Amstell) and the story finds its way to the press. The facts are bent and the details spun as the Thompsons become known to the public as ‘The Family of Killers’”. Puts Bridget’s blue soup into perspective, eh?

Future Shorts Film Festival @ Hackney Picturehouse | 14 November | 18:45 | £10

From the creators of Secret Cinema comes the first global film festival where anyone can take part. Find out how to take part here.  Future Shorts’ defining format showcases a single programme of the best short films from around the world often alongside live music, DJs and art.

Dracula: Sex, Sucking and Stardom @ Hen & Chickens Theatre | 15 November – 3 December | 19:30 | £11.50

Divinely silly infusion of  music, naughtiness and slapstick, not forgetting Dracula. The story goes like this: “Jonathan Harker is tempted by the evil Count and a love of all things showbiz. But will he overcome temptation and stop Dracula’s vile plans to marry Lucy, take over the world and star in an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical? The stakes are high, but if they win the day they shall rid the world of a villain and be immortalised in drama by actors in north London…”. We think this will be strangely wonderful.

EastEnd Cabaret: The Revolution Will Be Sexual / Freeze @ Arcola Tent | 13 & 16-25 November | 20:30 | £12

Forget the West End, there’s a lot of great performance mayhem coming from East Laandon of late. The Arcola Tent is the new outdoor comedy & cabaret hub in Dalston, which is going to cause a storm. Our highlights include the fabulous East End Cabaret, whose filthy Weimar charm has warmed our cold winter’s hearts, time and time again (be sure to request LV’s favourite song ‘Dangerwank’, hehe).  Also coming up is Freeze, which pairs two of our favourite oddballs, Tim Key (poet extraordinaire) and Tom Basden (geeky musical raconteur).

GFest @ The Cockpit Theatre | 17 – 19 November | Various Times | £7-15

A great mini festival focussed on the best of LGBT arty turns, GFEST is a platform for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer artists, organisations and venues to promote LGBT and queer arts. GFEST features established alongside fresh or young LGBT artists and queer talent across the arts, including visual arts, theatre, dance and performance, LGBT short films, debates, workshops and parties.

Same Place Different Faces @ Idea Generation Gallery | 17-20 November | FREE

Paintworks presents an exhibition reconnecting with all the people who have worked in the well-known art shop in Dalston. The exhibition will showcase the extraordinary and diverse talents of 45 artists in the Ideas Generation Gallery on Redchurch Street. Our favourites (not that we have favourites) are Marcus Hessenberg, Liam Scully, Tabitha Fedden and Roy Willingham.

Eat Your Heart Out Presents… Violence @ Riverside Studios | 17-26 November | 20:00 | £10

We’re very excited that this whirlwind of a show returns to London. The genre-defying Eat Your Heart Out collective present their examination of the tougher side of life: violent vignettes, disorderly displays and spitting. In a world of gloss this challenging, entertaining and anarchic romp should not be missed.

Handmade & Bound - The Affordable London Book-Art & Zine Fair @ St Bride’s | 20 November | 12:00-18:00 | FREE

We heart zines! Let’s go and buy some together! This event at St Bride’s promises to be a charming festival of artistic DIY talent.

La Soiree @ The Roundhouse | 23 November Onwards | Various Times | From £15

The original cabaret spectacular returns to the Roundhouse for the ultimate Christmas Party with a bang. This year features Chris Iris (boy/girl acrobatics), Le Gateau Chocolat (Black Tranny Opera Star), Katharine Arnold, Hugo Desmarais (aerial performer in a cage), Mario (Queen of the Circus), Nate Cooper, The Skating Willers and Yulia Pykhtina (Hula-hooper Supremo).

Carl-Einar Hackner: Swedish Meatballs @ Soho Theatre | 28 November – 3 December | 22:00 | £10-17.50

The best bad magician since Tommy Cooper comes to the seedy Soho Theatre for some hilarious high jinks. Featuring his unique brand of endearing buffoonery, magical mayhem, lightning-fast humour, silly songs and very expensive props.

We’ve had a busy two weeks, and we’re really sorry we’ve been a bit slow to keep you all updated… But it’s never too late, so here’s a quick round-up of some of the cool things we’ve seen and done over the last two weeks:

Some good solid stereotype slaying was on the cards at The V&A, as the Talawa Theatre Company brought to life George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum.

Written in America in 1986, and performed regularly ever since, The Colored Museum is a series of living exhibits which explore African-American identity by way of consigning stereotypes to the archives.

For sure, some of the cultural references may have been lost on a British audience, and it’s nice to think that attitudes have changed over the last 25 years to the extent that some of the stereotypes presented are not as recognisable as they may have been a decade or more ago.

Nevertheless, The Colored Museum remains an important theatre experience, and it still has something to say to a contemporary audience. The entire cast approached the piece fearlessly and with mountains of energy, and dealt effortlessly with the often swift changes in mood and tone.

We’d be hard-pressed to choose a favourite exhibit, but two highlights spring to mind: a hilarious skit where a woman, preparing to break up with her boyfriend, is confronted by two loud-mouthed wigs, each arguing their case for being the chosen head-ware for such an occasion; and a musical parody of a cookery show, where the host sings through the recipe for baking “a batch of Negroes”, peaking with the fabulous line “add some attitude – Oops! I put too much”.

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Things were pretty crazy/cool at Rich Mix in Shoreditch, for the London premiere of Japanese pink musical Underwater Love. We’ve got an interview with Stereo Total in the pipeline (they did the ace music), and there’ll be a proper review for the DVD release.

Suffice to say, this a one weird but wonderful film experience, the like of which Loserville has never experienced before. Song, dance, and girl-on-sea-creature rumpy pumpy.

Loserville, nothing if not diverse :)

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You might raise your eyebrows, but South Kensington is a great place for evenings of quirky fun. It may be home to more museums and geeky science students than you can shake a Loserville stick at, but we love the Lates put on by The Science Museum, The Natural History Museum and The V&A amongst others, and even more so, we love the events at The Institut Francais.

We popped down to the latter for a fancy-dress screening of the iconic Barbarella, followed by a geek-chic cosmic party which defied explanation. Ace fun!
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Interactive theatre is everywhere right now (check out our feature article on the explosion of what we like to call 4D Theatre), and Office Party at The Pleasance Theatre Islington (running until late-January 2012) is a pretty ace example of the genre.

You can’t beat a concoction of party games, spot-on characterisation, top-class cabaret and an authentic setting, and any show that encourages its audience to get stuck into the booze is tops in our book. Check out the 4D Theatre article for more info…

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And finally, we popped into KOKO to catch one of our favourite bands of the last 12 months or so, Gabby Young & Other Animals.

We last saw Gabby et al at the Barbican last year, and if their regular appearances on our Facebook news feed are anything to go by, they’ve not stopped touring since.

Great tunes, great musicality, awesome dancing, and buckets full of personality – we love this band, and can’t wait to see them again.

In fact, they’re back at the Royal Festival Hall on November 19th supporting Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra.

And if that’s not enough, there’s a new album out in December. Gabby, you spoil us.

The first in a (hopefully – we’ll see…) regular series, each week we’ll be highlighting the Top 10 items from the list of Search Terms that bring some of you wonderful people to this here site!

So here goes, and if you want, you can imagine the old Pick of The Pops theme as you’re reading it…

1 - NEW - Amy Childs

Weeks On The Chart:1 | Highest Position: 1
Well, we’re as surprised as you are, but there it is. Amy Childs is at the top of the hit list in our first week, after we included this picture in our fabulous Celeb Big Brother live blog. Seems this picture is proving quite popular, but to be honest, Amy’s not OUR kind of Loser.

2 - NEW - Cinema

Weeks On The Chart:1 | Highest Position: 2
Cinema is greedy, and takes two positions on the chart this week (see 6). This entry is for cinema in general (apparently), and we have been covering a couple of films recently – check out our reviews of Super 8 and Rise of the Planet of the Apes here.

3 - NEW - People

Weeks On The Chart:1 | Highest Position: 3
Ah, people, good ol’ people, jumping in at number 3. We saw the Village People not so long ago at Bestival, and they featured in Part 2 of our Bestival round-up, mainly because they inspired some boys to take their clothes off. (Although, sometimes, we HATE people too hehe)

4 - NEW - STDs

Weeks On The Chart:1 | Highest Position: 4
OK, come on, who’s been Googling STDs? Wise up kids! Hopefully, it’s just lots of people reading our mini-article about Science Museum Lates which, a few months back now, focused on STDs. Twas lots of fun.

5 - NEW - Health & Safety

Weeks On The Chart:1 | Highest Position: 5
Health & Safety, always important. Although, clearly not as important as cinema. Or Amy Childs. ANyway, if you were wondering, Loserville has a Health and Safety policy from way back, so if you’re feeling ‘at risk’, here’s some guidance.

6 - NEW - Alternative London Cinema

Weeks On The Chart:1 | Highest Position: 6
The second entry on the chart for cinema, and this time it’s the Alternative London variety. As you know, we’re ALL about alternative, and a while back we did a little article on some non-mainstream cinemas in London – check out our guide here.

7 - NEW - Reliant Robin

Weeks On The Chart:1 | Highest Position: 7
Three wheels are better than one. That’s all we can say about this really. As much as we’d love to say YAY for three-wheelers, we think two or four is probably ideal. It is a design icon though, and we featured it in our alternative to the Stuff Magazine cool list.

8 - NEW - Broken Keyboard

Weeks On The Chart:1 | Highest Position: 8
Broken keyboards are rife. It seems. Well, it’s always our fall-back excuse when we can’t be arsed to write stuff, and it can surely be the only reason why more of you lovely, pretty people aren’t writing guest articles for us this very minute. Eh?

9 - NEW - Brighton Rock

Weeks On The Chart:1 | Highest Position: 9
Mmmm, could do with a bit of Brighton Rock right now, sugar-rush needed. But perhaps, just perhaps, the hits for Brighton Rock have been aimed at this article about gender politics. Maybe. But then again, maybe you all just have sugar cravings.

10 - NEW - Republica Saffron

Weeks On The Chart:1 | Highest Position: 10
And bringing up the rear (ahem!), it’s Saffron… Um, yeah… Well, no idea why people are searching for her, but this picture seems to be getting some attention, and it popped up in this review of Republica a few months back. The only thing I know about Saffron is that it stains your fingers.

…Is Us.

Everybody is moaning about the ‘new’ Facebook update, which is just like the last time everybody moaned about the ‘new’ Facebook update, which was just like the previous time everybody moaned about the ‘new’ Facebook update, which was just like…

You get the idea. Every time Facebook is updated, we hate it. We can’t handle it.

“Agghh, bigger pictures!” “Noooooo, Top Posts” “What, ANYBODY can join now?”

For as long as Facebook has been around, we’ve hated every evolution. And yet, we all still slavishly use it, worship at its altar, rely on it to get us through each day. Even if you’re reading this and thinking “oh, I just check it once a day, to keep in touch with friends”, then you’re like the addict who insists they only need one fix per day.

No bad thing. I’m not having a go. I use Facebook all the time, Loserville has a (totally FAB) Facebook page, and we find out about loads of great things through Facebook which we might otherwise miss out on.

So why all the hating? 

Well the problem, I’m afraid, is us.

Considering that Facebook is supposedly primarily used by the younger age groups in society, who you would expect to be all about renewal, updating, escaping the past, each-day-brings-something-new, we all seem to be dead set against change. Are we all such a bunch of traditionalists, of stick-in-the-muds, of “It was so much better in our day” mutterers already?

No, no, it’s just that they change it without asking us, don’t they? They just go ahead and update things, make ‘improvements’ that we don’t like, and take away features we know and love. Well, no wonder we’re all deleting our accounts and taking our Social Network custom over to Google Plus.

What?

We’re not?

What kind of sadomasochistic relationship is this?

The thing is, like it or not, we are responsible for the behemoth that is Facebook. Zuckerberg (and whoever else may or may not have been involved – I’ve seen the film, and to be honest, I’m on Eduardo Saverin’s side, because Andrew Garfield is HOT!) is as much to blame for our reliance on Facebook as Henry Ford is responsible for traffic congestion. That is to say, not very much. Sure, Zuckerberg invented the thing, pushes the thing, and makes a fair few dollars out of the bargain, at the same time leading some to accuse Facebook of stealing civil liberties, invading privacy etc.. And Henry Ford put into motion production-line cars for the masses, added a meaty advertising campaign, and before we knew it we were bumper to bumper on the M25. But we didn’t HAVE to sign up to Facebook. We didn’t HAVE to drive cars (Loserville wouldn’t know how  to switch a car on, let alone pop down the shops in one!).

I don’t buy it when people say “But we have to be on Facebook, otherwise I’d be a social outcast!”. If that’s the case, your friends are shit.

Truth is, we want/need Facebook, we thrive on it, we dip into it at work, at home, at uni, we read it on the toilet, we read it as we’re walking down the street. When we have to turn our phones off on planes, or in cinemas, we miss it. “What might have happened on Facebook?”

That’s not Facebook’s problem. It’s ours. We need to deal with it.

And part of this love-hate relationship we have with Facebook is that we hate every little change, every little ‘modification’. It’s like when a boyfriend or girlfriend comes home with a radical new haircut. We HATE it (although we probably don’t broadcast our hate in these cases) – “why change it, you looked great before, I LOVED the old haircut” we think to ourselves. But then we grow to accept it, and eventually even love it… And then WHAM, 12 months later, s/he goes and gets it all shaved off/dyed purple/permed, and we’re back to the start again.

So anyway, I’m pretty bored of all the moaning now. Yes, Facebook changed. It changed before. We got used to it. And really, lets face it, there are worse things happening. So like it or lump it I  guess?

Open House London

17-18 September 2011

“a chance to see the city we love (most of the time) from a fresh perspective”

Zoe Konez/This Is My TV/Marina Gasolina - Sound Tracks Festival

@ Cafe Oto, Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, Concrete, Amersham Arms & New Cross Inn | 17 September 2011

“ace stuff – cute drummers, sexy lady-singers, and great music”

Mysterious Skin

@ The Drill Hall | 18-20 September 2011

“proper, grown up theatre – great performances, devastating climax”

Open House London returned for another year, and Loserville took the opportunity to have a gander around one of London’s most recognised landmarks, Tower Bridge.

We won’t lie, it’s not the most exciting visitor attraction in town. Lots of stairs, a walkway across the top (disappointingly, you remain very much inside, walking along a self-contained corridor which runs inside the high-level walkway), and then a trip down to the old engine rooms.

Thrill-a-minute it may not have been, but Open House (for us, anyway) is all about giving you the opportunity to see things from a fresh point of view. In the past, we’ve visited the St. Pancras Hotel (pre-restoration), the viewing platform at the top of City Hall, an out-of-the-way church in Kensington… None heart-stoppingly exciting, but for Londoner’s, a chance to see the city we love (most of the time) from a fresh perspective.

And so proved Tower Bridge, which offered a chance to look down upon the Tower of London, and up towards the monolithic Shard, which looked a lot less impressive from this new angle.

And then there was the engine room. We love a good big pump here at Loserville, and were delighted to hear about it’s marvelous automated lubrication design. A lesson for us all.

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Fresh from our tourist experience, we headed East to Dalston for the Sound Tracks Festival, which promised exciting new bands at five venues in Dalston, Shoreditch and New Cross, plus accoustic performances on the London Overground line which links the three locations.

We’re London Overground fans through and through (we showed our sad geek love for the line here), and we loved this idea of using the line to bring together three areas which share a common love of cutting-edge music (not to mention art, design, fashion etc..).

We began the evening at the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, a beautifully constructed green space in the heart of Dalston, with a performance by the Zoe Konez band, variously described as an acoustic White Stripes in reverse, or an organic Ting Tings. Chilled out, folky, acoustic goodness to get us going for the evening, washed down witha couple of bottles of dark lager. Swish.

Then it was off to Concrete in Shoreditch for This Is My TV, another White Stripes-reversed duo, this time of the alt pop variety. Ace stuff: cute drummer, sexy lady-singer, and great music.

Our last planned stop of the night was the Amersham Arms in New Cross, to catch Marina Gasolina. On the way, we got some East London Line entertainment in the form of a little accoustic gg on the middle carriage. We love to see spaces being used in imaginative ways, and this was really fun.

On to Marina Gasolina, who brought our Sound Tracks Festival experience to an end with her edgy, punky perfomance, supported by her live band. It was gutsy, in-your-face, bold and brash stuff, sweaty, quiff-destroying head-banging punk-pop. Like.

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What better way to recover the next day, than with another Open House jaunt (Royal Albert Hall, no pictures allowed unfortunately, but it pretty ace – great tourguide) followed by Mysterious Skin at the Drill Hall.

We’ve got to admit, we’ve never read the Scott Heim book, but we love (is that the right word for something so sombre) the Gregg Araki film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbett, so we had to see this.

Great performances from the whole cast, including Harry Bradshaw (from Hollyoaks) and Nicole Faraday (of Bad Girls fame), and a strong script from Prince Gomolvilas, make this a fantastic play in it’s own right. Avid fans of the film will see many differences, but this production never tries to be a staged version of the film. Instead, it brings a fresh approach to a story which most of the audience, we suspect, already knew.

The minimalist approach to the staging (a bed, a sofa, and a bookcase are the only props) left much to the imagination, and perhaps the cast could have done with a few additions to avoid Dave Cutler in particular having to assume several roles.

But this isn’t the West End, and this isn’t a blockbuster, family-friendly musical. It’s proper, grown up theatre which builds on basic foundations to a devastating climax. Excellent. And now we needed a drink!