The team at B.East Magazine, while busy preparing the upcoming Meat issue, have just launched Kievtonite, a provocative nightlife engine for Kiev, one of Eastern Europe’s naughtiest cities. With its hyper Moscow vibes, sophisticated nightlife, glamorous women, and easygoing natives, the city has an irresistible pull. Kievtonite is a raffish take on the city’s phenomenal nightlife, bringing a nekkid perspective to a city that’s on the edges of the European hype cycle. Locals and visitors alike can also book tables at nightclubs through our site. And soon you’ll also be able to shoot AK-47s, launch grenades, and visit Chernobyl through the site. Sounds beasty? Check it out on Kievtonite
The crew at Kiev’s trendy Top 10 city magazine are doing a gobsmaking job at nudging Ukraine’s capital into embracing hipster culture. Having organised the Bread&Butter-like Kiev Fashion Days for the second year this spring, they are now behind the eclectic ‘I love Kiev’ festival that kicks off this weekend, May 27-28 during the city days. Inspired perhaps by a glamorous Bloc Party in New York City, or Moscow’s Afisha picnics closer home, the festival is a altculture vulture’s version of paradise. It features graffiti & fixed gear master classes, fashion shows by upcoming designers, a competition for ‘New Sound of Kiev’, afterparties at cool underground clubs, and live acts by hyped artists from Russia and abroad. Best of all, the festival will be held at the Lavra Gallery, which is in the same complex of the Kiev Lavras, which comprise some of the holiest churches in Orthodox Christianity. Hipster vs. monks. Rock, paper, candle. Perfect.
The opening party on Friday will be headlined by Moscow’s DJ/producer Mujuice, whose new album ‘Downshifting’ has received widespread praise. Artyem Troitsky, Russia’s version of BBC’s John Peel has said that by ‘combining two antagonistic elements – romantic-depressive Russian rock and impassive clubbing music’ he opens a new page in the history of Russian pop music. Some have even compared him to Victor Tsoi, the moody frontman of St. Petersburg’s influential Kino band from the early 90s. I hadn’t heard of him before, but having checked out his stuff on SoundCloud am impressed: It sounds like a remixed version of King Crimson tracks, with its own particular brand of Russian romanticism. French DJ collective Masomenos will spin at the event’s closing party Saturday, May 28th at Kiev’s smacky Xlib Club.
Meanwhile, check out Mujuice’s video here
Dutch engineer/artist Theo Jensen is like something out of a modern-day Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. While his colleagues in Netherlands are exploring ways to create test-tube meat that can be grown in a laboratory from animal stem cells, Jensen has been creating massive plastic beasts to survive on the windy coasts of his native country. These artificial strandbeasts, are semi-intelligent, and mechanically built to move away from the wind, to store energy in a ‘wind’ stomach, and even have muscles, which can strengthen over time. While the idea seems wacky, it has caught on as other scientists in biology and computing are creating ‘evolving’ machines that can learn from their mistakes and improve without outside interference.
And, since Jensen’s creating Beasts, not microscopic forms of life as Craig Venter did recently, his creations have made a splash. His terrors were let loose in Trafalgar Square, London, in 2006, and he recently gave a speech at Google’s Ted Talks. Check him out on Strandbeest
