Launch Party Update!

LIVE at our OFFICIAL LAUNCH PARTY on 30/11/10

 We are delighted to announce that recently signed Bristol - based band GOLDTRIP will be performing an acoustic set at our magazine launch party this coming Tuesday...

Poem of the Week: 'Five Short Poems for Your Amusment at the Hospital', by Priscila Uppal

Five Short Poems for Your Amusement at the Hospital
Priscila Uppal

 
     I
Manage your room like a hotel.
Phone down for food
and flowers. Be conspicuous
about guests.

Steal the robes.

     II
Think of the things you've chased:
your brother when he was small
and used to pinch your cheeks, the moon,
the cat next door in the garden,
streelights when they turn too fast, the rain,
fire, bureaucrats, all kinds of balls, lovers,
the express bus, shame, your mother's
memory.

Think that the world must now
come to you.

     III
The kidneys are outrageous organs
greedy and unkind
they unwind
by punching people
in the ribs.

Who wants to make peace with them anyway?

     IV
The nurse and doctor have been
having an affair
for the last month

hot for each other
they run their hands on your belly
burning up

and you are the embers
keeping romance alive.

     V
When they insist on taking more blood
and x-rays
pretend you are a prehistoric mammal
they are laying bare
to read your bones
uncover how you managed to survive
all this time.


(Taken from Successful Tragedies: Poems 1998 - 2010).

AW

Students! Enjoy the written word once more!

In the dark of night, alone in the house, he awoke.  As he went to the door, a match was lit behind him. . . .

Perhaps not the most original but the short story is indeed an effective genre which seems to be undergoing a significant revival.  I have already sent a little hint of an online publishing house eager to receive new short stories, and now the BBC have their own award dedicated to this written form.

You Are Cordially Invited to...

The First Helicon Launch Party of the Year!!!

Time:      8.30pm-midnight, Tuesday 30th November 2010

Location: Papaji's House of Teas, 

                        109 Whiteladies Road, 

                        Clifton,

                        Bristol.

                        BS8 2PB.

The long awaited Helicon Launch Party for the brand shiny new 'Disguise' issue is finally upon us, bigger and better than ever before! Anyone, whether a contributor to the magazine, appreciative reader of the magazine or blog, or just someone interested in learning more and meeting some like-minded people, is more than welcome!

We are planning a lovely evening for you all. Papaji's is a brilliant, quirky venue (tea cocktail, anyone?), and we'll be displaying some of our artwork throughout. There will also be live music, an improvised show, and even the chance to win an amazing prize courtesy of Swinky Sweets!

So come! Bring your friends, bring your neighbours, bring your cat! Bring anyone who you think might have an interest in anything creative.

We look forward to meeting you all!

LE.

Freedom Fries: Big Mac revolution in Russia

Having been born on the 9th November 1989 (the day the Berlin Wall came down) I've always had a stringent interest in the history surrounding East Germany and the revolutions of 1989 that ultimately led to the collapse of communism. Indeed, my visit to the check-point Charlie museum in Berlin was something of a personal pilgrimage and was fascinating in understanding personal stories of individuals caught up in the web of significances, their psysche and emotions and the bemused sense of self-awareness with which they re-constructed the European community.

WATCH: How to Train Your Dragon

It's been a great year for animated films. Toy Story 3 is widely tipped to be the first ever to take Best Motion Picture at the Oscars, and equally-highly acclaimed alternatives have surfaced outside of the mainstream; such as the brilliant A Town Called Panic from underneath the quirky milk bubbles of those Cravendale adverts. How to Train Your Dragon is neither Pixar nor set to be an indie classic, but it is a lovely fantasy tale rendered in more sensitive computer animation than can usually be found in the celebrity-reliant Dreamworks output. With enough Scandanavian horned helmet and axe antics for the boys and enough strangely comforting cutsey reptillian purring for the girls, it also served as the perfect excuse this evening for three (straight male) third-year students to snuggle in bed for warmth and pretend they were at a year four sleepover.

TB

Meet Patrick R.

Patrick R. from WØLFF on Vimeo.

Here is somebody we met at 4 in the morning in the centre of Bristol.

Camera, Sound and Editing: Ben Patterson
Interviewer: Abby Worth

Poem of the Week - 'my sweet old etcetera' by e. e. cummings

I've chosen a poem this week connected to Rememberance Day. Usually at this time of year we being out the Owens and the Sassoons, and whilst these poems are undoubtedly extremely powerful and immediate records of war, it seems to go quite against the spirit of rememberance to use the same single voices to speak for thousands. The poem I have picked out (which incidentally, might also be my very favourite poem), is by a poet who you may not immediately connect with the battleground, although his early years serving first in the American Ambulance Corps and then in the Massachusetts 12th Division in WWI gave him the scope and space to develop anti-war views in his early creative work. The poem, unlike the style of Wilfred Owen, is delicate in its construction, with the syntax and linear structure constantly at risk of falling apart. There is also a surprising amount of humour, which avoids any claggy sentimentalisation of the subject. The revelation of the speaker's whereabouts at the end gives clarity to the whole business of  the inifnite etceteras that lie ever waiting, now and after. It also perhaps evokes the sheer thousands (etc.) of young men killed in action. Clear, fragile, youthful, bittersweet, devastating.


'my sweet old etcetera'
e. e. cummings

my sweet old etcetera
aunt lucy during the recent

war could and what
is more did tell you just
what everybody was fighting

for,
my sister

isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds)of socks not to
mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers

etcetera wristers etcetera,my

mother hoped that

i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privelege and if only he
could meanwhile my

self etectera lay quietly
in the deep mud et

cetera
(dreaming,
et
    cetera,of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)


AW

MEET: Jamaica Street Artists

One of the largest art collectives outside London, Jamaica Street artists has been calling Stokes croft home for fifteen years. I met studio manager Andrew Hood for a quick chat, catch the interview in the first issue of Helicon!

Studio Manager and Artist Andrew Hood

Artist Vera Boele Keimer

"Angels" by Trish Lock

"Fox" by Tom Mead

D.T.

Literature Live

Attention all literature and theatre lovers!



When: 7pm, Sunday 14th November

Where: The Epi Bar, Bristol Student Union

What: The Bristol University English Lit Society, also known as "Falstaff", will be putting on its first "Literature Live" performance, an evening of play extracts, scenes from novels and  poetic dramatizations, all directed by English students. Expect a lot of laughs!

How much: only £3

Click here to see the facebook event.



LE.

Short films at the Harbourside

The Encounters International Short Film Festival returns to Bristol Harbourside this month for another six-day programme crammed with titles from all over the world, each of which must last no longer than 30 minutes and must have been made no earlier than January 2009. The originally distinct Brief Encounters Festival and Animated Encounters Festival joined forces in 2006 to create the event as we know it today, representing the best from each sector of the short film industry. The programme offers more than the films themselves, with master classes, workshops, discussions and industry events, not to mention an impressive number of awards, including the prestigious European Cartoon D’Or award.

Skateistan

SKATEISTAN: TO LIVE AND SKATE KABUL from Diesel New Voices on Vimeo.

Wow.

CA

Vienna in London

Vienna in London

Interesting (yet fleeting at 5 minutes in length) '3D' photography project held in London, recreating aspects of Vienna both modern and historic via pictures submitted to the Vienna Tourist Board, projecting them onto the buildings around the Imagination buildling (WC1E 7BL).

JM

The Wraiths' Musical Poetry

The Wraiths - Above the Dock from Ukeydesign on Vimeo.

"That poets throughout all ages have aspired to, and been inspired by music is apparent"

The Wraiths are in a genre of their own; they perform classic poetry from the likes of Tennyson, Keats and Emily Dickinson to a live orchestra. "Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff in a world of its own" (Venue).  If you'd like to hear more, they'll be performing in Bristol's Central Library at College Green on the 11th of December. To find out more, visit their website.

E.D.

Felix Thorn's Musical Sculptures

Felix's Machines from Felix Thorn on Vimeo.

Meet Felix Thorn, the young artist/engineer who takes salvaged objects and scrap material to make weird and wonderful contraptions that resemble no instrument you've ever seen before. Formed from detritus from the past, the artist wires these new creations up to his computer so that he can digitally control the acoustic noises. The result? I suppose you'd call it 'sonic/kinetic art' - but that doesn't quite do it for me. What you really see is a self-performing, almost conscious, contraption emitting strange noises and flashing lights; a chorus of euphonic vibrations, it could be sinister if it weren't so enchanting.

In the age of the i-Pod and mp3 tracks, this machine stands out in its charming cumbrousness. Felix Thorn (great name, by the way) is very much keeping the steampunk dream alive.

E.D.

Jacques Resch: Dark and thematic surrealist oil paintings

 'Le Pape au raisin'

"A painting by Jacques Resch is not perceived in a single glance. It is peeled back little by little through the thousand subtleties that you discover during this encounter." -- Harry Kampainne

One painter who has caught my eye recently is the French surrealist painter Jacques Resch. Despite bearing a striking similarity to the styles of Gonsalves, Breugal and Dali he seems to occupy some sort of medium between the three.

Sand Animation

Click here and watch the winning performance on 'Ukraine's got talent' 2009, where Kseniya Simonova illustrates the tragedies of the Second World War by drawing pictures into a box of sand. Ukraine lost 25% of it's population during the war, suffering more losses than any other country. Each scene melts into the next with startling fluidity and grace, and the pain that they recall bring the panel of judges to tears.

Spread the Love

On December 7th, 2009 at  1.30pm GMT Starbucks invited musicians from all over the world to sing together at the same time to raise awareness for AIDS in Africa. In that one breathtaking moment, musicians from 156 countries played "All You Need is Love" together. Watch now, as musicians from all around the world come together and share a song.

Join in by lending your own voice to http://www.starbucksloveproject.com/ Watch streaming video from countries around the world and then join in by singing All You Need is Love yourself. For each video submitted, Starbucks will make a contribution to the Global Fund to help fight against AIDS in Africa. You can also help increase the Starbucks contribution to the Global Fund by submitting a drawing to the Love Gallery.

The global sing-along is part of continuing efforts to help fight AIDS in Africa. In just one year in partnership with (RED)™, Starbucks has generated money equivalent to more than 7 million days of medicine to help those living with HIV in Africa.


LE.