Pop Buzz UK

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have once again proved the have more money than sense, this time by spending £1 million on art by contemporary British artist Banksy.

Banksy is a renowned modern artist, well known for his graffiti masterpieces on public buildings and a series of art stunts.

At an art sale in the Lazarides Gallery in Soho last Thursday, some of Banksy’s pieces were up for auction and Pitt and Jolie spent over £1 million on the pieces. The pair weren’t there to buy the art themselves, but other celebrities including Dennis Hopper, Ashley Olsen and Sean Pertwee were.

The art was all selected for the event because of its unique Britishness and to try and inject some anarchy back in to the traditionally staid and boring art world.

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Last week I posted a video showing a bit of a mash up between the film ‘300′ and ‘Monty Python and The Holy Grail’. Well, now we have one better with a mash up between ‘300′ and The Simpsons. This is such a good edit, with the vocals working very well with the faces and animation of The Simpsons clips used. The audio is actually from the ‘300′ film trailer intertwined with clips from various episodes of The Simpsons.

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I love everything about Monty Python, from the TV series, to the films, and even beyond that with Terry Gilliam’s films, Michael Palin’s travel programmes and everything else they’ve done since. So when I find some new bit of comedy gold related to the Python empire, I like to share it with my readers on Pop Buzz UK.

This version of Monty Python’s ‘The Holy Grail’ is scarily well done, with the added animation on the Lego mouths very well done. Obviously it’s not as good as the original, but seeing it done in Lego adds a whole new level of fun to the whole scene.

Ever since the Lego Star Wars games came along, there seems to be a craze for turning everything in to a Lego version, and I for one, think they work extremely well, being both funny and clever at the same time. I’ll try and dig out some more classic British pop culture moments recreated in Lego, and post them up for you all.

Lego, Monty Python, The Holy Grail, YouTube, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, Star Wars, Lego Star Wars, UK, British, Pop Culture

The Simpsons movie is due out on July 26th, and the promotion for the movie has gone in to overdrive mode. One of the most spectacular and downright cheeky ways the makers have tried to draw attention to the forthcoming film is by drawing a giant Homer Simpson on a hillside in England.

The chalk sculpture of Homer has been drawn next to the famous Cerne Abbas Giant, a pagan drawing of an aroused, club-wielding man dating to at least the 17th century in Dorset. It’s a revered pagan symbol of fertility, and is Britain’s largest chalk drawing, carved into the natural chalk rock beneath the grass.

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Look, up there, yes, above you, see what that is? It’s a spunky new banner for Pop Buzz UK, and it’s a work of genius!

The 451 Press network has finally relented and let us design and post our own banners for our blogs. I’m sure you’ll agree it makes a welcome addition to the blog, and makes your friendly pop culture blogger stand out from the crowd a wee bit. Ok, so I’m not exactly Perez Hilton or TMZ quite yet, but I’m getting there slowly.
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The new London 2012 Olympic Games Logo was unveiled on Monday morning, and without fail, everyone said “ugh, what the hell is that?” It’s a shocker, a real failure in terms of design, and putting across the nature and culture of the UK ready for this huge sporting event which virtually the whole world will watch.

The old logo was fine, I liked it, but apparently that was only for the olympic bidding process, which we surprisingly won over Paris and New York. It had the right colours, good wording which everyone could read, and the contour of the river Thames running through it. So why then were brand consultants Wolff Olins paid £400,000 to come up with the mess we’ve ended up with.
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Just to tease all you Harry Potter fans (including myself) who are already anxiously and excitedly waiting the release of the 7th book on July 21st, here is the cover art for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (more…)

Last week, New York artist George Condo unveiled a series of nine portraits of Queen Elizabeth. One in particular has sparked a debate, and I’m sure slight outrage amongst the more rabid royalists among the British population.

Critics are panning the painting that the artist himself described as a “Cabbage patch dollâ€? in an interview with Reuters. The portrait is titled “Dreams and Nightmares of the Queen” and is meant to represent how the monarch would see herself in a nightmarish vision.

The royal family did not commission this piece of work that is now hanging in the Tate Modern in London. Instead, Condo was asked to produce the work by The Wrong gallery, which is now situated in the Museum. Its intention is to showcase works of art, which wouldn’t normally be displayed in British galleries. (more…)