VIDEO | Deadmau5 live in London – as seen from my flat

Last weekend I could see something being projected on to Millbank Tower, a skyscraper on the bank of the Thames near Westminster that I can see from my flat. I couldn’t work out what it was, but all was revealed on Monday night when it turned out Deadmau5 was playing a set there with the gig projected live, apparently in 4D, on to the building, to mark the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800 Windows phone.

It started at 9pm and watching from my balcony I couldn’t see much that looked anything more than 2D, let alone 4, but then in the last five minutes it suddenly got really cool and I got the last three minutes on video on my phone – check it out below. This tiny little video isn’t amazing quality, but, as one YouTube commenter pointed out, I had a pretty great view. If only someone could tell me what song was playing at the end I could add another video to post beneath so you don’t have to listen to mine and my boyfriend’s inane comments as we watched it.

Now, I’d like to point out that this is in no way a sponsored post, but as it happens I was given a Nokia Lumia 800 last week. It was thanks to my blogger friend Jamie of Boy Meets Fashion, he recommened me as part of a scheme called Nokia ‘into insiders’, a way to promote the phone in a market dominated by the Blackberry and iPhone. So while this is purely coincidental, I think the Nokia people will be pretty pleased that they got this self-confessed iPhone-aholic to blog a video of an event that is basically a large-scale ad for the Lumia, that I videoed on my Lumia. How meta is that?

Catwalk beats: Kreayshawn

Ok, so I’m a sucker for fashion-themed music, and when I heard Kreayshawn’s ‘Gucci Gucci’ on the radio with it’s ‘Gucci, Gucci, Fendi, Fendi, Louis, Louis, Prada’ chorus the other day I just had to look into this.  It is just screaming out to be sampled for the next Ashish show (fingers crossed), I mean Cazwell’s ‘I seen Beyonce at Burger King’ circa SS11…it just shouldn’t have worked but it DID.

Either way, Kreayshawn has got game, even if you don’t know half the stuff she’s bleating on about – I’m not going to pretend I know either.  One thing’s for certain, you aren’t going to catch Cher Lloyd being allowed to declare she has ‘swagger pumping out my ovaries’ – and I don’t think she’d dare.

On a slightly more random note, Kreayshawn has been rumoured to be directing the Red Hot Chili Peppers new video.  Yeah, I don’t get that either.

VIDEO: Asger Juel Larsen AW2011

Last week the sweltering fourth floor bar at Shoreditch House played host to ‘Uncle Sam,’ a new short film from Danish menswear designer Asger Juel Larsen.

I didn’t stay long at the event (heat, humidity and a lack of free booze meant the crowd petered out pretty quickly) but I did get a glimpse of the film, which showcases the London-based designer’s autumn/winter 2011 collection. Obviously focusing on the editorially extreme end of this twisted American Dream aesthetic, pale skinnyboy models strode about moodily in tasseled top hats and crop tops that resembled American football kit. And in light of the US of A’s disastrous week (if you don’t know that the Yanks lost their AAA credit rating on Friday then you ought to pick up the Financial Times instead of Vogue a bit more often) a giant blackened American flag looked eerily prophetic . Watch the full video below.

ASGER JUEL LARSEN presents UNCLE SAM from Theo Prodromidis on Vimeo. Via the Blow PR blog

Photo: Ellis Scott

Do girls really run the world Beyonce?

I must have watched Beyonce’s new single ‘Run the World (Girls)’ on YouTube about 20 times this week. Visually, it’s faultless, but am I the only person who think the supposedly empowering lyrics are actually anything but?

If you haven’t yet seen Beyonce’s performance of new single ‘Run the World (Girls)’ at last weeks 2011 Billboard Music Awards then I’d do so quick smart, because it’s brilliant. She interacts with virtual drum sticks, globes and a flock of birds via a huge screen behind her, brings out an army of scantily clad backing dancers and does a mesmerising jerky shoulder dance that I’ve been trying to emulate without success. You can watch a ten-minute version below, preceded by a rather unnecessary show reel of sycophantic comments from the likes of Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga and Michelle Obama. The music video for the single is great too – more girl armies, more shoulder dancing and a killer Alexander McQueen dress. Watch it here.

However, I’ve got a bit of a problem with the song, or more specifically, the lyrical content. You see, Beyonce asks the rhetorical question ‘who run[s] the world?’ and gives the answer ‘girls.’ OK, so far, so empowering. But later lyrics belie the supposed feminist message. ‘My persuasion can build a nation…you’ll do anything for me,’ claims Beyonce. So it seems that what she’s really saying is not that girls actually run the world, but they control the men that do, using their feminine wiles. Which is hardly the stance of an independent woman is it now?

Don’t get me wrong, I realise it’s just a pop song, not a political manifesto, but if you’re going to write a song called declaring that girls are ‘taking over the world,’ it seems a bit disingenuous to suggest that they’re only doing it by influencing men. Why can’t girls build their own nations?