A fascination for all things Balkan is a bit of a thing going on here at this is my england. This runs to a predilection for taking holidays in that part of Europe, major fanboy status when it comes to the music of Goran Bregović, appreciation for the region's top stand up philosopher, and big love for the films of Emir Kusturica.
The newest piece of the this is my england Balkanophile love-in is the wonderful discovery of Las Balkanieras, an-all female trio of singers/rappers, whose stuff is chock full of ragga-slash-dubsep beats, SE European folk harmonies and humorous lyrical references in both English and the artists' native languages. Now based in Germany, Mi$$ Ru$$ia, La Dona Bo$anch€ra and Balkani€ra M€diteranovich hail, respectively from Russia, Bosnia and Croatia - and they fucking rock:
a national treasure,
he sounds, now,
like someone doing
a very good impression of himself:
spiralling comfortably
up his own arsehole,
happy to be lucratively bored,
auto-sodomised by the horns
of complex intertextuality across
multiple media platforms (on radio,
on mobile, online)
and sucked
into an endless lilting vortex
of parodies,
committed, folks,
by his own fair hand.
The First Capital Connect/BTP war on graffiti continues, with the legions of security staff protecting valuable rolling stock at night somehow unable to prevent the stylings of one devil-may-care cheeky chap:
There was this once magnificent structure on Delancey Street in Camden Town. By the time I first noticed it, it was already dying, its last useful days having been spent in the guise of a snooker hall. A much-loved and quite famous snooker hall, by all accounts. But it had started out as a public meeting hall and had once housed Camden Town's first cinema (between 1908 and 1917).
Demolition got underway and is now at an advanced stage, and the graffiti boys have been about:
A sad loss. Worse, though, is the news that the excellent Crown & Goose pub next door may be for the chop too. Why? Because Camden Town needs another fucking shiny restaurant with flats above it. Of course it does.
