Is it just me or is anyone else wondering what all the fuss is about Elbow's Mercury Prize-winning Seldom Seen Kid? I was a bit late in getting around to listening to it, and frankly I think I needn't have bothered. I got more than half way through without even really noticing anything above muzak. There is a slight lift when the sublime Richard Hawley joins in on 'The Fix', but I think it would be better if that Badly-Drawn-Boy-and-Sting-have-an-inbred-love-child singer didn't join in. 'Some Riot' retains some interest and 'One Day Like This' is a passable Verve-gone-commercial/Oasis pastiche. But I put the radio on and hear this kind of thing.
The Estorick Collection in Islington has a show called Velocity Zero by Italian-born and New York-based artist Luca Buvoli. The exhibition aims to revisit the themes of the Italian Futurists from a present-day standpoint. Sections of the Futurist Manifesto are read out loud by people with speech difficulties to contrast with the group's values of speed and modern efficiency. Exploitative? you decide. Until 19 April, next exhibition Architecture and Photography in Italy 1930-60 www.estorickcollection.com
Endless Dreams and Water Between is an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum by Renée Green exploring material and spiritual transportation across oceans. The work consists of films, projections, sound, drawings and other media. Until 21 April www.nmm.ac.uk/newvisions
The Sea Hyun Lee exhibition Between Red previously seen at the Union Gallery is now showing at the Aspex in Portsmouth until 5 April. These obsessively detailed imagined landscapes involve disconcerting and impossible repetition, and are rendered in a kind of antique china red. www.aspex.org.uk
Sadly the Union Gallery is closing its Ewer St SE1 premises and focusing on the Teesdale Street E1 venue.
Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009 on now at Tate Britain until 26 April. www.tate.org.uk/britain
This week is the last chance to see the show Invisible Cities at the Jerwood Space, featuring painters such as Prunella Clough and Thomas Scheibitz. www.jerwoodvisualarts.com
This Wednesday night the Camden Arts Centre is screening Polanski's sinister Parisian thriller The Tenant. www.camdenartscentre.org
Monday 9 March go to the Roxy Bar and Screen for del Toro's Cronos (1993): an atmospheric vamire tale. www.roxybarandscreen.com
Southbank have just announced that Squarepusher will be playing on 24 April as part of the Ether festival. www.southbankcentre.co.uk
21 Feb Temperatures are playing at the excellent George Tavern, Commercial Road E1, as part of a monthly event called /other/. www.myspace.com/thegeorgetavern
Is it the end of the road for Spril Architects? We are awaiting the latest on this....
