Culture Diary w/c 07-01-13
Monday – Guided Tours at Tate Liverpool 2.40pm @ Tate Liverpool FREE
With changing, often blockbuster exhibitions during the year at Tate Liverpool, it’s often all too easy to focus on the big names (which in 2012 included Turner, Monet and Twombly in one exhibition alone) and forget the fact the gallery houses a world class collection, free to view all year round. With that in mind, it’s worth noting that each day at 2.40pm, you can join a collection tour, taking in the likes of Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and the Chapman brothers.
Tuesday – Laurence Anyways 12.30pm @ FACT
The subject of our final film podcast of 2012, Laurence Anyways screens at FACT this Tuesday. Not one to shy away from difficult subject matter, French Canadian director Xavier Dolan follows 2010′s Heartbeats (his study of a bisexual love triangle) with this story of a male to female transsexual, whose journey is further complicated by his turbulent relationship with his lover Frederique along for the ride.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Wednesday – Melancholia 6.15pm @ FACT
When Melancholia premiered at Cannes in 2011, it was unfortunate that it initially made a splash for Lars von Trier’s infamous and rambling press conference in which he ‘jokingly’ declared “I understand Hitler”. Fortunately, it didn’t quite manage to sink what is a stunningly beautiful movie dealing with personal and familial dramas. Oh, and the impending end of the world. Starring Kirsten Dunst (who received a Best Actress Award for her performance) and von Trier alumna Charlotte Gainsbourg, the film is nothing short of a tour de force of what it is to be human.
Thursday – Beryl Bainbridge, painter @ Museum of Liverpool FREE
Opening shortly before Christmas, Beryl Bainbridge, painter at the Museum of Liverpool was an exhibition that perhaps wasn’t quite on the radar. We thought we should rectify this fact and highlight how one of the city’s best loved and celebrated authors had more than one string to her bow. The exhibition explores connections to Bainbridge’s novels, family, lovers and life.
Friday – The Downtown Dixieland Band 9pm @ the Caledonia FREE
Itching to get the first gig of the year under your belt? You could do much (much) worse than to make this the one to get things going in the right direction. An unashamed and foot-tapping throwback to bygone days when the tunes were sultry and goose-bump inducing, The Downtown Dixieland Band are bonefide old-stagers of the highest order.
Saturday – Mashemon 8pm @ the Pilgrim FREE
Peddling a winning mash-up of chugging rock ‘n’ roll and electronica, Mashemon are a band often puzzlingly overlooked in Liverpool. Maybe it’s the lack of a slavish adherence to whichever sound is ‘hip’ right now – a trap so many fall so easily into – but it’s heartening to see a band sticking to their guns.
Sunday – Babette’s Feast 6pm @ FACT
The first Danish film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, director Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast (1987) is the tale of a political refugee and former Parisian chef taken in by two sisters on the remote Jutland coast. This existence, along with continuing the good works of their pious father, has so far prevented the pair of spinsters from experiencing life’s pleasures. Babette, and her feast of the title, belatedly offers them a taste of what might have been.
