new year, new mind

The funkadelic George Clinton put this a little more playfully a few years back when he declared,

'Free your ass and your mind will follow.'

Majed Badra, Gazan artist, says it again, and just in time for New Year- تفكيرنا مقيد بسلاسل الجهل وثقل العقلية العاطفي Our thinking is restricted by the chains of ignorance and the mass of emotion.

Gilad Atzmon on an open sleigh

Here's a quick blast from the orient Ensemble to warm you up, starting with high-speed latin ,squeezing in a bebop Wonderful World and as it's December, Jingle Bells.

Higgs Boson

Cern scientists claim that they have caught a glimpse of the Higgs boson. Do you think that the Higgs Boson looks like this? Have you any evidence to the contrary?

al-jazeera: Now we are five

So al-jazeera's english-language service is five years old. The CIA attempt to steal its thunder by setting up a US Arab-oriented news service hardly took off - more fishy (strictly small-scale) than phish. And the station's remit has expanded to give voice to the voiceless everywhere.

As Hilary Clinton said this week, America is still being left behind in getting its message heard. Even the Ruskies have an english-language broadcasting service. English, or "english" is the language of the computer age and is the long-established default option for any gathering of three or more differing linguists. Ironically, its dominance is due in great part to America's ubiquitous cultural presence (thank you, Mr Disney), so in a way, the US provided the rest of the world with the tool to cut it the cold shoulder.

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insert music here

As history is rewritten, most of the music of the 'seventies towards the century's end tends to get marginalised. For many, the sign that the Melody Maker had lost the place was that it had not made the death of the King of Kool, MilesDavis, front-page. Elsewhere, music from the heart continued to flourish in all its colours. Jim Mullen's Blues Bag is mainstream jazz, but very much of its time. Technology, hard bop and the rock cross-over have extended the range of possibilities.

Another new gallery for Bristol

In the last few years three new art galleries have opened their doors to the Bristolian public and in a departure from the traditional experience of local entrepreneurs, have remained in business. Now one of those galleries, View, has extended its reach from home-base in Hotwells to the Centre.

View @ Harveys is up Denmark Street, that lane curving round behind the Hippodrome and resembling an exotic little piece of Soho.






The current show, by Mark Youd, of oversize monochrome portraits painted with an effortless panache, leaving the surrounding areas white and given an "antique" treatment, will be up until 22 January.

Palestine Film Festival - Bristol

Another first for Bristol! This winter between 1st – 10th December, the Bristol Palestine Film Festival will be celebrating Palestinian film, arts and culture at multiple venues throughout the city. With screenings at Watershed, Arnolfini, the Cube, and Hamilton House, we will be inviting audiences to explore the multiple realities and identities of Palestinian people. On wednesday 9th November the full programme was published online at http://www.bristolpff.org.uk/. On 3rd December,after a tasting, facilitated by Zaytoun, we screen Jaffa – The Clockwork’s Orange presented by Dr Ghada Karmi – a leading Palestinian activist, writer and academic. She is co-director of the European Centre of Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter, and a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and a member of the Executive Committee of the Council for Arab-British Understanding. Her memoir, ‘In Search of Fatima’, was widely acclaimed, and her most recent book. ‘Married to another man: Israel’s dilemma in Palestine’, is an analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the Palestinian point of view.Guests wishing to attend the film and talk following the reception are kindly invited to purchase tickets (which will shortly be available) from the Arnolfini box office.

Picture: Arnolfini Bristol