The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square has gotten its latest adornment–a giant bronze kid on a rocking horse.
Trafalgar Square is one of London’s most visited spots. In fact, it’s hard not to go there since it’s right in front of the National Gallery and is a nexus of several important roads. Three plinths flanking Nelson’s Column support statues of a king and two generals, and a fourth plinth, originally constructed to carry a statue of King William IV, is now used as a space for temporary installations.
This latest statue is called “Powerless Structures, Fig. 101” and is meant to reflect a different take on the heroic equestrian statue. You can read the full artist’s statement here.
As a regular visitor to London I’ve always enjoyed seeing what’s coming next to the Fourth Plinth. Personally, though, I don’t think any of the statues have been as good as the very first, put up in 2005.
“Alison Lapper Pregnant” showed an English artist born with no arms and shortened legs. The giant marble statue, seen here in a photo courtesy Vards Uzvards, showed her nude and pregnant. It caused quite a stir when it went up, with some people saying Lapper’s condition was being exploited for shock value. I didn’t think so and, more importantly, neither did Lapper. Instead, it showed a brave woman who wasn’t afraid to get on with her life despite a terrible birth defect. That’s much more impressive than a cute kid on a rocking horse.
No public domain image of the statue was available at press time. This photo of a model is courtesy Loz Pycock.
During Carnival, the city of Rio de Janeiro pulses with the sound of percussion. Music is an integral part of the Brazilian festival, and it doesn’t seem like you can turn a corner without hearing the infectious drum-driven beats of samba music or the sounds of drunken celebrants singing traditional marchinhas at the tops of their lungs. Particularly in the blocos, music is a binding force, bringing together people from all walks of life — young, old, rich, poor, black, white — in nostalgic beats and familiar lyrics.
In Rio, the spirit of Carnival doesn’t disappear on Ash Wednesday; the native cariocas manage to embody it year-round. With the following playlist of musical hits from Rio Carnival 2012, you can too.
Unidos da Tijuca 2012 Marchinha
The winner of Rio’s famous samba school parades composed this song particularly for Carnival 2012.
Monobloco Marchinha
The band from the Monobloco bloco became so popular, they now perform year-round in music venues across Rio.
Batucada
A sub-style of samba, Batucada incorporates African drumbeats. This track, mixed by a popular DJ, will make you hit repeat.
Bloco do Sargento do Pimenta
Beatles, Brazilian-style? The Sargento do Pimenta (Sgt. Pepper) bloco specializes in Fab Four hits with a samba beat.
Marchinha Medley
Still don’t have enough samba? This one-hour medley has you covered.
Check out Gadling’s full range of Rio Carnival 2012 coverage here.
You might not know what ‘steampunk’ means and maybe you have never attended steampunk events. I didn’t know what the term meant until a few months ago whilst wasting time on Etsy, only to discover that ‘steampunk‘ is a category for jewelry and other handmade things. With further research, the definition of ‘steampunk’ unveiled itself to me. Steampunk is, as Wikipedia so eloquently puts it: “a sub-genre of science-fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used (usually Victorian era Britain or “Wild West“-era United States) and one that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology, or futuristic innovations as Victorians might have envisioned them, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. This technology includes such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or the contemporary authors Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld, and China Mieville.“The manifestation of steampunk culture is often first seen in fashion, but the rules of steampunk fashion are loose and, according to most sources, open to interpretation. Victorian-era clothing meets robotics and electronics initially comes to mind. Pair these things together to work up a mental image and perhaps, in doing so, you will find you’ve been a steampunk all along and didn’t even know it: welded-together jewelry pieces thick with metal and parts of other things (clocks, piping, tools, etc.), corsets, top hats, floor-length gowns, button-down vests, goggles, leather straps, chains, and, in general, a mix of old-style with new-style. Ring any bells? Remind you of anyone you know?
For a term that’s been around so long, it’s a wonder more people don’t know it off-hand. Once we escape from the make-believe worlds wherein steampunk notions are traditionally held, there’s an appealing reason to take notice of the steampunk subculture in everyday life, especially during our travels. Steampunk, if the aesthetic appeals to you, can help direct your travels. Below are some resources for finding steampunks and related activities to help guide your 2012 travels.
Steampunk Events
1. The Steampunk World’s Fair
May 18-20 in Pascataway, New Jersey
The purported world’s largest steampunk festival will be infiltrating Pascataway, New Jersey. With Absinthe tastings, live music, performance art, and specially-brewed teas, The Steampunk World’s Fair 2012 is bound to put on a show to remember.
2. The Anachronism NYC
Follow these guys for updates on their exciting steampunk events in NYC. Burlesque, sideshow, vaudeville, live music, fire-dancing, and art are all part of what make these events successful in New York. Their website currently promises an update on the next event at the end of February, so stay tuned.
3. Steampunk Chicago
Game nights, movie trips, parties–Steampunk Chicago organizes it all. If it’s steampunk enough and happening in Chicago, these guys are all over it. 4. Coal City Steam
The Coal City Steam website brings steampunk event listings from all over the USA together. Check out the site’s event listings for a country-wide scope on steampunk happenings.
5. Tor
Tor.com has a good events section for steampunk activities taking place in the USA and Canada (and perhaps beyond).
Every spring for the past 500 years, Turkey has been celebrating the traditional Mesir Festival in the city of Manisa. Not only does the event encompass parades, concerts, and exhibits, but also the throwing of spices.
Mesir, also known as “power gum,” is a blend of 41 different spices made into a thick paste. The story of its origin is that the wife of the Ottoman Sultan Yavuz Sultan Selim and the mother of Süleyman the Magnificient, Hafsa Sultan, became very sick while she was in Manisa. Since there were no known treatments at the time, a concoction of herbs and spices was created, and actually ended up curing the ill woman. After that, mesir became a popular remedy for sick patients.
So how was the Mesir Festival born? Once demand for the cure grew, the mixture was wrapped in paper and thrown from the Sultan Mosque once each year. Now, thousands of people who attend the festival can stand at the bottom of the mosque and catch their own healing mesir paste. Other festival highlights to look forward to include skeet shooting matches, a canine beauty competition, a traditional mesir paste mixing ceremony, live music in the park, a Ukrainian art exhibit, and much more.
The Mesir Festival will take place this year on March 21-25, 2012. If you’d like to practice some traditional Mesir Festival singing to get you in the mood for the celebration, click here to listen to the official Mesir Festival song. For information on the celebration in general, click here.
At Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, it was common to come across fully made-up men who had traded their Havaianas for high heels. Though some were experienced cross dressers and drag queens, others saw the holiday as an opportunity to get in touch with their more feminine sides. Costumes ranged from the elaborate (Sambadrome-style feathers, stilettos, fake lashes) to the scrappy (tiny skirt, hastily smeared lipstick).
Regardless of the intensity of their get-ups, you had to give it up to the cross dressers of Rio Carnival. I certainly couldn’t do a bloco in heels that high. The photo gallery below showcases ten of the hottest drag queen costumes that I encountered.
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Check out Gadling’s full range of Rio Carnival 2012 coverage here.