"All right stop, collaborate and listen, it’s nice to be back with my brand new invention.”
I’ve always, or at least since 1990, wanted to write that. Shamefully though, it’s not true, unless my brand new invention is similar to the one that Vanilla Ice had in mind by releasing a song that turned out to be written by Queen and David Bowie.
April has proven to be a relatively easy month to get our new venture off the ground – there is not a lot of choice out there. While May, June and August tend to be jam-packed with events in the city, April really is the “cruellest month” – if Vanilla Ice ever said that it was probably after he was served a writ for plagiarism – which is rather fittingly from the first line of the TS Eliot poem ‘The Wasteland’.
But there is an interloper in our midst, threatening to upset the drudgery. Forever the bridesmaid to CPH:Dox, the film festival CPH:Pix (April 3-16) this year has a pretty amazing program, which includes a personal appearance from William Friedkin, the director of classic ‘70s films The Exorcist and The French Connection, and an On Location theme that gives you the chance to watch films in apt surroundings. For example, Cruising is being screened in Ørstedsparken.
I once sat at a dining table at Krudttønden – at a final night party, it was terribly exclusive – but that won’t necessarily help the CTC when The Dining Room opens at the end of April. Also in action this month is Vivienne McKee, sorely missed at last year’s Crazy Christmas Cabaret, in a self-penned piece, Do Not Mention Hemingway (opens April 29), in which she plays the journalist Martha Gellhorn, the writer’s third wife, although she hated people mentioning him.
Bob Dylan probably gets weary of people asking for his old hits, particularly now he’s an acclaimed painter. Another exhibition of his work, Face Value, is opening on April 17, while comic fans will be pleased to know that Peter Madsen of Valhalla fame is the subject of a new exhibition opening on April 5.
Elsewhere, Kids Corner is getting ready for Easter (this year falls on April 20), the 48-hour party people can warm up for Distortion at 48-Timer (April 25-27), bargain hunters don’t want to miss Designer Forum (April 4-6), and fans of Japanese culture likewise the Sakura Festival (April 26-27).
Phew, and we got away with not mentioning Circus Arena (ends April 13) and dredging up the ‘Children must be taught that the zoo and circus are evil’ debate.
Personally, I know they’re kids, but I like them to make up their own minds. But I draw the line at Vanilla Ice.
