Lots going on this weekend. Tonight is the private view for The China Show, an exhibition at Urbis that looks at the explosive transformation of the Chinese landscape and way of life happening right now. It'll be interesting to see how (or whether) the exhibition addresses the political elephant in the room. China's rapid shift into the modern age can't be discussed without talking about the government's efforts to control the course of that shift, and in some cases, dam it up entirely. I'd be interested to hear more about how this oppression has spawned an underground digital culture of dialectic and dissent.
The exhibition is part of the China@Manchester Festival, which continues through January and includes a film festival at Cornerhouse and coincides with The Vital Chinese Live Art festival next week at the Chinese Arts Centre.
This is also the closing weekend of the Manchester Literature Festival, and I'm really looking forward to Kwame Dawes' performance of Wisteria, a poem cycle inspired by the lives of people who lived through the last century in the American South, with music composed for the work performed by a classical ensemble. That's Sunday night.
You may also want to go catch The Departed, Scorsese's cover version of Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, which I saw a few days ago. Infernal is the better movie, but The Departed is great fun. The cops n' robbers story is transported to South Boston, where we get Jack Nicholson at his most gloriously loopy, Matt Damon in the full Good Will Hunting accent and a stellar cast including Leo DiCaprio, Marky Mark and Martin Sheen.
3 comments:
Is it me, or is the concept of a 'festival' being watered down?
I wonder what half of these festivals listed here actually consist of.
Hmm, maybe I'm just bitter because I have to stay in Hull this weekend (as I'm seeing Panic! At The Disco in London tomorrow) and will miss out on Manchestere's aceness for another week.
Still, I'm continuing to feel the love eminating from your site, Shizzo. Keep up the good work.
I agree, Vitty - I just looked back over that post and there were like fourteen festivals referenced. Why does it always have to be a festival? Why can't people just do cool things and have it be an 'event' or even a 'series'?
I actually drafted a post to list all the festivals Manchester is treated to each year, but got bored after about five. Feel free to have a go...
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