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Vice TV - it's the road to sanity

Don't - DON'T- say you haven't already checked out VBS.tv.  The telly arm of Vice, the New York-based media empire, is so deliciously say-it-like-it-is that it makes Russell Brand look like a polite version of Parkie. Searingly frank interviews with brilliant young contemporary artists! Videos diaries, with cursing and confessions, from all the important cultural icons of the day! Travel docus about raves in Uzbekistan, Columbian men who shag donkeys and Tokyo sex doll delivery services! Vice does not mince its words or tip toe around the subject, no Sirree. Which is obviously why we like it.

Underground art - Read all about it or DIY

Think you could be the next Banksy? Well, first you need to know who you're up against and what kind of mischief they're up to.

For this you'll need art critic Francesca Gavin's new book Street Renegades - New Underground Art  - a post-Banksy bank of global street art, including work by the East End art collective Cut Up who reclaim billboards with pixelated images of ASBO yooves (like 'ere),   

and that of the Australian artist, Psalm (above).

(Note to aspiring street artists - get yourself a pseudonym.)

Then, with a little guidance from Keri Smith's  The Guerrilla Art Kit, you're ready to get out there and make your world more meaningful, change people's days, and confirm your own existence (guerrilla art for the office anyone? Guerrilla garden art?). But really, proper rebels shouldn't need guidebooks...

Bishi's album launch

How to ensure good music at your own party? Get up there and do it yourself, as indeed did Anglo Asian singer-songwriter Bishi this saturday at her warehouse party in Dalston, to launch her album, Nights at the Circus, on Gryphon Records. Oh and it helps it you're good friends with  Patrick Wolf. Veteran drag queen Lavinia Co-op saw to the warm-up, and opened with her turnip twins "double act" (think Rod and Emu puppetry). A quick onstage outfit change showed what a difference a head of hair can make...

Then, with a bit of banging dance music in between acts, Bishi then performed her avant-electro tunes, accompanied by her custom-made half-size sitar, and then, by Mr Wolf himself, whom Bishi recently supported on his 2007 tour.
But Bishi was evidently preaching to the converted, with the likes of No Bra, Matthew Glamorre on the decks, and the club stars of Boombox all whirling dervishly on the dancefloor (ok, Bishi's living room).

SHOWStudio's latest project

"Do you want to have a touch?" I'd just meandered into the gallery space of artsy Soho boutique Beyond the Valley. A young man stood before me, smiling invitingly. We were all alone.

"Err, go on, then," I ventured. One of those easier-to-say-yes-than-no situations. I needn't have worried (if I had). For I was in the hands of SHOWStudio's latest project, The Replenishing Body.

I was being invited to interact (a recurring SHOWStudio theme) with the touchscreen before me, which when activated by touch, would record me in movement and splice me into the existing montage. I thought I was in good company - Lily Cole, Bella Freud, Jodie Harsh and Namalee Bolle (see here) had all been before me.

But I bet none of them ended up with a face like a dog (that's me, dog-face, in the black and gold dress).

But of course there are always those after the quick thrill of fame - in amongst the wiggling toes, the winking eyes and nodding heads were two girls snogging, someone grabbing their boobs and, lowest of lows, a spot being squeezed - all fodder for a comment on society's runaway narcissism.  Nick Knight will choose his three favourite video portraits of the series. Stay tuned to SHOWStudio.

Super Super Fun at Super Super's Catwalk show

We missed most of the Super Super show because we got trapped in fashion purgatory:

But soon Niyi, a man wearing fluoro lens-less specs and a very loud outfit, gave us the godly nod and waved us into this strange land of post-new rave club stars.

As we meekly stepped in, London's fiercest drag queen Jodie Harsh was compering: "...and here's the main bitch, Namalee". Like so....

Namalee - fashion director of Super Super magazine, stylist for Basso & Brooke and high priestess of the new rave scene - sang to her fawning audience... "Namazonia, it's the place to be..."; "Namazon, wild girl".

It wasn't long before there was a stage invasion, first up, Niyi, who sang about how he loved poached eggs...

and then a man with a pan (inventive bunch, this lot), and then all and sundry. How easy life could be if we were all as free as Namalee and Niyi.