THIS MONTHí¢â‚¬â„¢S EDITOR: THE NEW FORMS FESTIVAL

Since this is our first issue back, we decided on a curator that is not a single person, but a festival. This festival just so happens to be our closely affiliated entity, the New Forms Festival. Is this a bit biased and self-promotional? Perhaps. However, the festival is full of innovative ideas, people and projects, that we hope our first edition of Mash will do some justice.

(go to the bottom of this page to simply link to the videos, or read on to learn a bit about the project first)

Question. Analyze. Manipulate.

Feeling a need to evoke global social action and awareness, UK a/v pioneers Coldcut and friends are picking up where they left off with Revolution:USA, this time bringing the world in under World Revolution.tv.

Capitalmag.com is focused on solid coverage within documentary, experimental and independent film. The following are reviews taken from the Amnesty International Film Festival that showed in Vancouver this November. Far from the big-budget extravaganzaí¢â‚¬â„¢s that TIFF and VIFF have become, the Amnesty film fest showcases some truly independent films. Within the films are a collection of truly challenging themes, opening the viewerí¢â‚¬â„¢s eyes to some of the numerous systemic problems that continue to bring hardship to a large number of our worldí¢â‚¬â„¢s people. All reviews are by film editor and Capital founder Malcolm Levy.

Check out an audio clip by Mitchell Akiyama from the 2006 New Forms Festival.

Mitchell Akiyama Audio Clip

Some strange and beautiful weather pulled me away from my soundcheck on September 21st, 2006. A sun shower, followed by a full rainbow, brought me out the cavernous Open Studio space and held my attention for a while. Although the occurrence of live music is clearly less rare, for me it has a similar power and effect. Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s one of the best ways I know to escape the mundane world and to slip into a place of distended time and suspended attention. Live music demands the participation of an audience. This doesní¢â‚¬â„¢t mean that everyone should clap along or be forced to engage in some sort of call-and-response. It means that everyone has to look and listen in the same direction and to have confidence in the feeling that theyí¢â‚¬â„¢re experiencing something similar. Call it ritual attention.

Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s been a long time. A long time since the title í¢â‚¬Ëœeditor' was next to my name, a long time since the words í¢â‚¬Ëœcapitalí¢â‚¬â„¢ and í¢â‚¬Ëœhappeningí¢â‚¬â„¢ were next to each other. And a long time since this robot has rambled. A lot has happened in music since we put out our last issue almost two years ago (arguably the first free DVD magazine to be released). Britney was replaced by Paris, Johnny Cash and Syd Barrett died, and myspace, not TV or radio, is where fans look for musical inspiration.

At the Intersection of Art and Science

A surface level description of Bioteknica could label it as a pair of artists traveling around clad in lab coats, playing with tumours, turning laboratory leftovers (animal bi-products not used by in formal science experiments) and other forms of meat into sculptures, and producing videos, web programs and art installations related to their work (most recently at Vancouverí¢â‚¬â„¢s New Forms Festival). Put another, perhaps more accurate way, you could call it a well-rehearsed, thoroughly researched, multi-pronged critique of the dangers lurking in the products and practices of the biotechnology industry. Whatever its true definition, Bioteknica is an ingenious vehicle for public awareness regarding the often hidden world of biotechnology.

By Robert Robot

Coming across a new favourite band seems to be common practice in this age of digitally downloadable music. Knowing how to spell the name of the artist is pretty much all you need to know in order to search for artist x on download site y to equal quick and easy consumption of the latest underground flavour of the day. But despite the inexhaustible music genie that is the Internet, discovering a new musical subgenre sometimes takes a little more engagement in the music milieu than bathing in the glow of a monitor and clicking the download button. Over a year ago I started hearing a new sound amongst the crunk, grime, and bastard children of the hip-hop genre.

A Highlight of Films Picked up From This Year's Toronto FIlm Festival

By A.J. Bond

For Your Consideration - Christopher Guest eschews the mockumentary form for this, his first "real movie", satirizing the Hollywood Oscar race. When spurious Oscar buzz strikes the set of the ludicrous lesbian period-piece, Home For Purim, the washed up stars of the film, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey and Harry Shearer, suddenly turn into self-promoting, self-important megalomaniacs. Guest actually manages to eek out some pity for these deluded Oscar hopefuls without compromising the non-stop Hollywood-bashing. Ultimately the film is dependent on the mixed performances of the ensemble cast which range from pitch-perfect deadpan humour (Fred Willard's obnoxious Pat O'Brien-esque Entertainment News anchor) to over-the-top caricatures (Eugene Levy's cliched Hollywood every-agent). A ridiculous farce that falls well short of Guest's opus, Waiting for Guffman, but with more than enough laughs to keep one entertained.

The Blood Brothers

Young Machetes

V2

After a brief stint in the land of side-projects (Neon Blonde and Head Wound City), Brothers Blood have reunited and put their musical differences aside. Picking up where the brilliant Crimes left off, Young Machetes finds the band abrasive as ever, but without neglecting its penchant for grandiose theatrics. Still employing vaguely psychedelic Middle Eastern guitar parts with the thunder of modern hardcore, the Brothers continue to find innovative ways of expanding its already unique sound. í¢â‚¬Å“Lazer Lifeí¢â‚¬  sounds like the cast of Fraggle Rock fronting The Doors while í¢â‚¬Å“1,2,3,4 Guitarsí¢â‚¬  hints at the bandsí¢â‚¬â„¢ new affection for Krautrock. It doesní¢â‚¬â„¢t get much better than this, kids.