Tweedledum

Monday, 18 January 2021 01:38

Published in Visual Arts

Red Vienna: the architecture of socialist hope
Written by Dennis Broe

Dennis Broe tells the story of Red Vienna Europe’s zero interest rate is being used to further hollow out its major cities. Those people owning capital in cities such as Munich, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam are borrowing at no cost and buying up apartments that are then being used as…
Class and Culture in Los Angeles: Fear and Loathing in the City of the Angels
Written by Dennis Broe

Dennis Broe excavates the contradictions of class and culture in the architecture, art and culture of Los Angeles Race is the way class is spoken in America, as Cornel West wisely pointed out, and that is especially true in the sprawling multi-cities that comprise Los Angeles. Money is the other…

The language of the poor, of the most marginal and disdained: This Road of Mine, by Seosamh Mac Grianna
Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell introduces This Road of Mine, by Seosamh Mac Grianna, translated by Mícheál Ó hAodha. Published by The Lilliput Press, 2020. One of several important, socialist Irish language writers of the last century, Seosamh Mac Grianna was born 120 years ago (15 January 1901) in Ranafast, County Donegal. Due…
A working-class voice from the Irish language tradition: Exiles, by Dónall Mac Amhlaigh
Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell reviews Exiles, by Dónall Mac Amhlaigh, translated by Mícheál Ó hAodha (Parthian, 2020) Awareness of working-class literature is only growing slowly in Ireland. This is not because it has not so far existed – far from it. Working-class people have known and cherished their tradition for a long…

The Dialectical Image
Written by Mike Wayne

Mike Wayne introduces his new film essay The Dialectical Image is a film essay about experience and the aesthetic. I say 'the' aesthetic because I am not so much concerned with the variety of aesthetic strategies that one can find in say a given medium, like film, as the kind…
Building a dissident film culture
Written by Deirdre ONeill

Deirdre O'Neill, in the latest in the series of Culture Matters/Morning Star articles on the effects of Covid-19 on culture, sketches out the argument for developing a new, dissident approach to film-making ‘For us, film is the most important of the arts’ - Lenin in 1919 The Covid-19 pandemic has…

An Enemy of the People
Written by Anthony Squiers

Anthony Squiers reviews an astonishingly relevant production of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, performed on Zoom by the J.T. and Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts School of Theatre & Dance, Texas Tech University An Enemy of the People is one of Ibsen’s most famous works…
Uplifting, stunning and powerful: The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff
Written by John Giddins

John Giddens reviews The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff at The Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne The North East based contemporary folk trio, The Young'uns, tell the tale of how they were approached by a man, after a gig, in a pub in the south of England. He handed them a…

Callout: the Bread and Roses Songwriting and Spoken Word Award 2021
Written by Mollie Brown

Bread & Roses Songwriting and Spoken Word Award 2021 The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) and Culture Matters are pleased to announce the fourth edition of their successful Bread & Roses Songwriting and Spoken Word Award. The Musicians’ Union is also supporting and sponsoring this award. The Award is now open…
A proclamation of universal human community: Beethoven's Ode to Joy
Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell discusses Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, on the eve of the 250th anniversary of his birth Like few other composers, Beethoven expresses the will for freedom, the democratic longing of the people. His music is the continuation of the French Revolution through the means of art; his Ninth Symphony is…

Blooding
Written by Rebecca Lowe

Blooding by Rebecca Lowe 'After the first, it becomes easier,'The cold, wild-eyed stare of the deer,A crazy fish-eye lens looking backwardsthrough terror - you shiver,You are only twelve years oldand know what's coming, You've seen it before,A fistful of blood on your face,Still warm, from the dead beast,The violence of…
Cheap flights, cheap hands, cheap lives
Written by Antoniy T. Georgiev

Cheap flights, cheap hands, cheap lives by Antoniy T. Georgiev They pour into the WestCheap flights, cheap hands, cheap livesThey wear the paint of the oppressorsYet share the faith of the oppressedTheir fathers and mothers were once told They were building socialismNow they are toldTo pick asparagus and berriesSort parcels…

Art as unalienated labour: The Dialectics of Art, by John Molyneux
Written by Phil Brett

Phil Brett reviews The Dialectics of Art, by John Molyneux John Molyneux is the editor of the Irish Marxist Review and a member of People Before Profit. I have been lucky enough to hear speak many times and have enjoyed much of his previous writing. So when I heard about…
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Written by Friedrich Farshaad Razmjouie