Cultural News Today

He’s played a revolutionary hero, a horny teen – now Gael García Bernal is a reptilian choreographer in Ema. Just don’t ask him to move to LA and take selfies At the start of the century, the director Alfonso Cuarón was casting Y Tu Mamá También , the bawdy but plangent road movie he had written with his brother Carlos about two oversexed Mexican teenagers, the wealthy Tenoch and his poorer, grungier friend Julio. “Alfonso called me very excitedly,” recalls Carlos Cuarón. “He said: ‘I know who’s going to play Julio! I’ve seen him in Alejandro’s movie.’” Alejandro González Iñárritu, that is, whose ferocious dog-fighting drama Amores Perros was about to be released. “I said: ‘No, no, I’ve found Julio; I saw the perfect actor in this short film, De Tripas, Corazón. He’s incredible: his eyes, the way he manages silence ...’” Eventually, the brothers realised they were talking about the same person: Gael García Bernal, who was then just 21. The son of theatre actors, he had become a sta

Richard Brody writes about “Tell Me: Women Filmmakers, Women’s Stories,” a documentary series available to stream on the Criterion Channel. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3aS2sRF

Susan B. Glasser writes about President Donald Trump mischaracterizing the 1918 flu pandemic as having occurred in 1917, and what his inability or unwillingness to make a correction says about his character. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2KQF38u

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As Babe Ruth was emerging as baseball's great slugger in 1918, he fell sick with the flu from Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Magazine https://ift.tt/2WgpY5q

Lockdown viewers are hot for his cocktail-making skills, and cineastes await Supernova, his buzzy romantic drama in which he stars opposite Colin Firth. Until then, here are Tucci’s top turns Stanley Tucci plays Maestro Cadenza in this recent version of Beauty and the Beast, a florid and neurotic musical star who, at the beginning of the film, is transformed into a harpsichord, while his wife, played by Audra McDonald, is mortifyingly turned into a wardrobe. A cartoony cameo-sketch playing on Tucci’s gift for uptight, diva-ish roles. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3aRQZl9

Hailing from an acting dynasty in Indian cinema, the Chandni star, who has died aged 67 , played the sweet-natured eternal juvenile roles that stole the audience’s hearts The story of Rishi Kapoor is a love story: he was loved as the chubby and cherubic child star who morphed into an irresistible, indefatigable romantic lead in dozens of comedies, dramas, musicals and thrillers. He famously fell in love with his leading lady Neetu Singh, married her, appeared in dozens more love stories with Neetu on the big screen – and the public fell in love with them both. Then, as the 21st century brought a career shift into twinkly-eyed avuncular character roles (and occasional bad guys) the public fell for him all over again. His loss is an awful blow so soon after Irrfan Khan’s death and also the loss in 2018 of Rishi’s frequent co-star Sridevi (who was married to his uncle Boney Kapoor). Rishi and Neetu had a son who went into showbusiness, actor Ranbir Kapoor, and the Kapoor family is a

Ali Kelley and Ysabel Yates offer new corporate slogans for the coronavirus and quarantine era. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2xivTOW

Bill McKibben writes on the mental-health impact of the climate crisis, especially on younger Americans, and discusses the work of Jane Kleeb, Julian Popov, Mariama White-Hammond, Ayanna Pressley, and Esperanza Spalding, among others. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3aWDpNu

Housebuilders, armed with foreign cash and backed by top lobbyists, keep property prices high. But author Bob Colenutt has brilliantly exposed the grip they have on Britain If you want to see who influences the government, you can do worse than look at Whitehall’s neighbours. In a grand Victorian building opposite the House of Commons in Parliament Square stands the headquarters of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors . With a history dating back to 1792, the RICS is an illustrious professional body, promoting the highest international standards in the valuation and development of land and property. But it has another side. Its royal charter states that it exists to serve the public interest, yet most of its members’ fees come from landowners and developers, not the public sector. Through its Red Book , the RICS sets the standards by which land and property are valued, but it is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the development industry, representing the interests

Director John Woo, who turns 74 on Friday, should be considered the godfather of the modern action movie. Mixing spectacular set pieces with sentiment in films such as A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992), he started tropes now synonymous with the genre. These include slow-motion fight scenes, Mexican stand-offs and characters firing multiple guns at the same time. The repeated use of doves, however, is all his own. Born in Guangzhou in 1946, Woo grew up in Hong… from South China Morning Post https://ift.tt/3aNCVJ9

Carrie Battan writes about Benedetta Barzini, a supermodel turned lawyer and the subject of “The Disappearance of My Mother,” a documentary by her son, Beniamino Barrese, about her desire to vanish from the world. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3bLE8Cd

Amanda Petrusich interviews Kim Gordon, the artist, author, and a former member of Sonic Youth, from quarantine in Los Angeles. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2YjigtT

Germany is one of the world’s most visited countries. These days, many communities that depend on tourism wonder when — or if — their lives and livelihoods will ever be the same. from Deutsche Welle: DW.com - Culture & Lifestyle https://ift.tt/2YjectN

As thousands of festivals across the planet are cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mathieu Jaton from the Montreux Jazz Festival and British comedian Mark Watson, who’s organising a 24-hour online comedy festival, speak to Eve Jackson about the financial, cultural and societal implications of a summer without cultural gatherings. from https://ift.tt/3aP5ZAi

With concert halls and opera houses closed, organisations and musicians across the world are livestreaming concerts from their homes, or from empty halls, and opening up their digital archives so that every one can still access music. • This week’s daily critics’ picks Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/39YuT0K

Dying for an iPhone by Jenny Chan, Mark Selden and Pun Ngai Haymarket Books 4/5 stars China is home to some of the world’s most devoted Apple fans. When company co-founder Steve Jobs died in 2011, flowers were piled up outside the Apple store in Beijing. A few weeks later, however, touts egged the same store when it implemented a system aimed at stopping people buying up Apple devices and reselling them at exorbitant prices. The company’s iPhones are built in mainland China by Taiwanese… from South China Morning Post https://ift.tt/35j3chq

Wistful lyrics, a knowing Beatles riff … this demo doesn’t break the mould but it is one of Noel Gallagher’s best latter-day efforts. Just don’t hold your breath on a reunion It says something about the grip Oasis still exert over the national consciousness – or perhaps about the current lack of any music news that doesn’t involve well-meaning-but-ghastly charity singles – that Noel Gallagher putting out a demo of an unreleased song by his former band is deemed something worth reporting everywhere from the national press to the Dorset Echo. The news has caused speculation over a reformation of the band 11 years after their split. Noel Gallagher is famously the kind of enigmatic and unknowable pop star who communicates with his fans only in impenetrable riddles, as in his recent response to a question about a possible Oasis reunion: he described his brother Liam as “that fucking idiot” and said he’d instead been considering “burning his house down or smashing his car in”. Who can divi

In this rereleased comic drama, Hayley Mills and Hywel Bennett play a couple plagued by a wedding-night disaster and the neighbours’ wagging tongues ‘It’s life, lad. It might make you laugh at your age, but one day it’ll make you bloody cry.” After 54 years, this British movie from the Boulting brothers flares like a struck match with broad comedy, fierce sentimentality and a strange dark sense of life’s painfulness – and it’s an amazingly vivid time capsule of Britain in the 1960s. The Family Way, rereleased on digital platforms, is based on a stage play by Bill Naughton, itself developed from his Armchair Playhouse TV script, and directed by Roy Boulting and produced by John Boulting, with a musical score from Paul McCartney, arranged by George Martin. Hywel Bennett brings his discontented-cherub presence to the role of Arthur Fitton, a young cinema projectionist in Bolton. (They’re incidentally showing Karel Reisz’s racy Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment and also Alfie, starr

Kapoor family urge fans not to publicly mourn star of numerous musical romances and patriarch of starry film dynasty, who has died in Mumbai Leading Indian actor Rishi Kapoor has died of leukaemia at the age of 67. Kapoor, part of a famous Bollywood family, was admitted to hospital in Mumbai on Wednesday and died on Thursday, according to a family statement. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2SkRf5v

Set today by the Guildhall Art Gallery in the City of London, our daily quiz allows you to explore the collections of museums closed due to Covid-19 - while answering a few tricky questions on the way This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK , the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions. Today, our questions are set by Guildhall Art Gallery, situated in London’s Square Mile. The collection is rich in Victorian art, ranging from the pre-Raphaelites to orientalism, classicism and narrative painting. The gallery’s collection of London paintings takes visitors on a colourful journey into the city’s past, covering everything from dramatic events such as the Great Fire of London to everyday street scenes. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VNc3oz

Continuing our series in which artists suggest movies for lockdown, the actor recalls her first cinematic experiences and recommends Cecil B DeMille, Fred Zinnemannn and Ken Loach Read the rest of our Lockdown watch series The best arts and entertainment during self-isolation Nanny stopped the pram. Baby Lynn, Corin, my brother , and I were transfixed. Moving black-and-white figures could be seen in a space at the back of a van in our evacuee town in Herefordshire. Soldiers were kissing women. “The war is over,” Nanny said. In 1946, we missed a bus stop and the first half of Laurence Olivier’s adaptation of Henry V , so the narrative explaining the battle of Agincourt became quite mysterious. In 1950, My brother and I rushed to Cecil B DeMille’s Samson and Delilah in the Haymarket. We ended up seeing this biblical epic six times. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3bL8i8F

His guilt over Kurt Cobain’s death, his scrap with Liam Gallagher, his year getting clean ... the former Screaming Trees frontman reveals why writing his memoirs hurt Mark Lanegan was born to an abusive mother and a hard-drinking father, his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. Things went downhill from there. By 12, as he recounts in his new memoir, Sing Backwards and Weep , he was a “compulsive gambler, a fledgling alcoholic, a thief, a porno fiend”. By 18, his criminal record included breaking and entering, shoplifting, drug possession, vandalism, insurance fraud and 26 counts of underage drinking. By 21, he was in proto-grungers Screaming Trees . Not that he wanted to be: it was his only route out of the “dusty cow town” of Ellensburg, Washington, which he left on the trail of “decadence, depravity, anything, everything”. At 29, eight albums later, he was living in Seattle, chain-smoking in dirty boxers and a stained bathrobe, and watching soap operas when one of his best frie

The former poet laureate picks favourites from her bookshelves to comfort us in isolation. In this poem, the writer reflects on her heritage to evoke sensuous delight … and longing Recipient of the Queen’s gold medal for poetry in 2014, Imtiaz Dharker grew up in Glasgow and lived for many years in Mumbai before settling in London with her late husband Simon Powell, the creator of GCSE Poetry Live. Her work is full of a deep relish for all the world has to offer – food, travel, colour, love – and a lip-smacking relish for words themselves. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/35jEFck

John Cassidy writes about Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and his comments after a two-day Fed summit in which he warned that he expects the post-coronavirus reopening of the U.S. economy to be a long and difficult process, despite predictions to the contrary from notable optimists such as Jared Kushner, among others. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3bPXOoB

From John Steinbeck to Annie Proulx, these books capture changing places as a state of mind as much as geography What does it mean to move in these days? Once, there were many of us accustomed to travel or wholesale uprooting, to moves driven by work or safety or love, out of need or adventure or fear or financial straits. The mixed pleasure and longing of movement has defined my life and saturates my debut novel, How Much of These Hills Is Gold . I’m an immigrant and the child of immigrants; and I’m an adult with restlessness in my bones. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3cZ5xAR

More than 40 writers have volunteered to jointly author tale, taking turns to publish a new chapter daily, with English translations under way A group of major Portuguese authors have found a way to keep themselves and their readers busy during the lockdown: they’re writing a serial novel, with each writer given 24 hours to respond to the previous chapter. Portugal’s literary version of the exquisite corpse game was dreamed up by the award-winning author Ana Margarida de Carvalho, who challenged her fellow writers to join her in writing a collective, serial novel with her as Portugal went into lockdown. More than 40 responded, their story opening with a group of scientists trying to find a cure for a virus that has caused a global pandemic. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2zGIE6U

Sarah Lazarus jokes about Goings On About Town-like events for those who are housebound during the coronavirus pandemic. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2YhIcX4

Film critic Lisa Nesselson speaks to Eve Jackson about the week's film news, including new online film festival "We Are One: A Global Film Festival", plus the environmental documentary "Planet of the Humans" - which is billed as saying what no one else will dare to - and Martin Provost's "How to Be a Good Wife". from https://ift.tt/2Si67lg

The streets lie silent, the skies are clear, as office buildings reflect our empty cities. Coronavirus has brought with it the same eerie scenes that have long haunted the modern imagination The best arts and entertainment during self-isolation The end of everything we took for normal has a dire aesthetic fascination. The streets lie silent and still under unnaturally clean skies. A lone walker stares into a deserted bookshop. Office buildings, once vulgar, fulfil their true potential as sets for a sci-fi nightmare, glassily reflecting the empty city. While I do not want to in any way downplay the tragedy that has left thousands dead and will kill thousands more, there has been one eerie byproduct: the apocalyptic beauty of lockdown Britain. Take a walk through quiet streets for your daily exercise and you come across vistas sci-fi has spent more than a century preparing us for. A main road so still you can stand in the middle of it, among the squatting pigeons. A row of expensive

A radio documentary track’s one man’s attempt to find justice for his brother’s death in Jamaica – only to have the UK high commission stand in his way On 19 April 2018, Steve Walker checked his phone as he left the gym and saw an explosion of missed calls and texts from his brothers and sisters. When he noticed that the only sibling not getting in touch was his older brother Delroy, he knew something terrible had happened to him. It is hard to listen to Walker’s account of his brief conversation with his sister Jackie as he got on a train to go home that evening. He cries as he remembers how he asked her not to tell him the news straight away, not while he was surrounded by commuters, but to call again in half an hour, when he got home. Later she rang to say their brother, who a few months earlier had retired to Jamaica aged 63, had been murdered. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Wc6m2v

YouTuber Vocal Synthesis says rapper’s label Roc Nation filed copyright notices against their AI impersonations Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation have filed takedown notices against “deepfake” videos that use artificial intelligence to make him rap Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire and Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy. The anonymous creator of the YouTube-hosted videos, known as Vocal Synthesis, has said that copyright notices were filed by Roc Nation, stating: “This content unlawfully uses an AI to impersonate our client’s voice.” The two aforementioned videos have been removed, though others remain, including one of the rapper taking on the Book of Genesis. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3f7pOWX

Jiayang Fan on how the coronavirus pandemic is ravaging the lives and livelihoods of immigrant rideshare drivers in New York City. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2Sj4cwP

On The New Yorker’s Poetry Podcast, the poet Elisa Gonzalez joins Kevin Young to discuss “Gathering Apricots,” by Czeslaw Milosz, and her own poem “Failed Essay on Privilege.” from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2VPzWvP

A Malaysian father and daughter’s cover version of the Rage Against the Machine hit Killing in the Name is the most adorable call for revolution you’ll hear this week – and has even earned a seal of approval from the US band’s guitarist, Tom Morello.The cute cover by guitarist Ujang Ijon and his three-year-old daughter, Audrey – who live on Labuan Island off the coast of Sabah state in East Malaysia – has received more than 1.3 million views since being uploaded to Facebook on Sunday.The lyrics… from South China Morning Post https://ift.tt/3cUVLQf

If you want to take pictures with your smartphone and quickly share beautiful results, you need effective image editing tools. DW Digital tests the most popular apps. This week: "Huji Cam". from Deutsche Welle: DW.com - Culture & Lifestyle https://ift.tt/35cRHrY

The Lunchbox star, who has died aged 53 , was a vital bridge between Bollywood and Hollywood, and possessed a strong romantic appeal A life in pictures Irrfan Khan was a distinguished and charismatic star in Hindi- and English-language movies whose hardworking career was an enormously valuable bridge between South Asian and Hollywood cinema. He was armed with a sensitive and seductive gaze: his good looks matured in middle age in such a way that he could play dramatic or villainous roles but also romantic leads of a certain age and of a certain emotional wistfulness. You could almost call him Mumbai’s Clooney — although it would be condescending to explain this colossal Indian star in Hollywood terms. I first became aware of Khan and his marvellous screen presence in Asif Kapadia’s terrific 2001 film The Warrior , in which he has a powerful lead role as the warrior Lafcadia, the erstwhile servant and hitman to a murderous warlord who renounces the way of violence, retreats to the

When US soldiers reached the gate of the Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945, they had no idea what horrors awaited them. War reporter Martha Gellhorn shared what she saw with the world. from Deutsche Welle: DW.com - Culture & Lifestyle https://ift.tt/35h5i1p

How well do Germans do in bed? That's what Rachel Stewart asked a woman who should know. A conversation about the sexual needs of German women, the insecurity of men — and the evolution of the vibrator. from Deutsche Welle: DW.com - Culture & Lifestyle https://ift.tt/2VNkn7I

Khan, who had a string of Anglo-American successes under his belt, including Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi and Jurassic World, has died in Mumbai Irrfan Khan, the Indian-born actor who achieved considerable success in both Bollywood and the west, has died aged 53. He had been admitted to the intensive care unit of Mumbai’s Kokilaben hospital on Tuesday with a colon infection. In March 2018, he revealed he had been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour , but after extensive treatment he recovered well enough to shoot Angrezi Medium, the film which would turn out to be his last, and whose release this March was cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/35fqFA1

Set today by the Wellington Collection at Apsley House, London, our daily quiz helps you explore the collections of UK museums closed due to Covid-19. Can you get full marks? This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK , the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions. Today, our questions are from the Wellington Collection, Apsley House, which was the home of Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington and the hero of Waterloo. The outstanding fine and decorative art on view reflect his taste and times, and celebrate Wellington as a heroic national figure. The house, at Hyde Park Corner, was built in the 1770s by Robert Adam but extensively remodelled in the 1820s by Benjamin Dean Wyatt. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3f0WPnC

The Hollywood star and bestselling author is becoming a podcaster. He discusses his fight against circumcision, his fear of Harvey Weinstein – and why he is an optimist to the core ‘I’m loving the idea of being here for a sustained period of time,” says Alan Cumming, speaking over Zoom from his “country pile” buried deep in New York’s Catskill mountains. It is purpose-built for isolation. “I realised I’ve been craving it; it’s a shame it took a global pandemic to make it happen.” The 55-year-old actor has been rigorous about lockdown. He is asthmatic, so he has been out past his gate only once in five weeks. Cumming spends his days with his husband, the artist Grant Shaffer, and their dogs Lala and Jerry, mostly writing. In the evenings, he has Zoom cocktails – last night it was with his old Good Wife co-star Julianna Margulies . Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3d1Mm9D

The Bake Off judge explores Tokyo’s rich and varied food culture in this new series ... or at least he would if he looked beyond the gimmicks and misconceptions of his ‘exotic’ setting When Paul Hollywood made his controversial move to Channel 4 was perhaps his new employer’s generous holiday allowance one pull factor? His Great British Bake Off co-judge recently went to Cambodia to make Prue Leith: Journey With My Daughter , a deeply personal study of family bonds, requiring unsparing self-reflection. Paul’s development meeting at Channel 4 HQ must have gone rather differently, because his own sabbatical was much more in the “go on a jolly, but bring a camera crew” vein. This is Paul’s first trip to Japan , we are told, but it certainly isn’t the first one we have seen on television. Recent shows such as Japan With Sue Perkins and Joanna Lumley’s Japan have ensured that we sofa-bound travellers are familiar with these “exotic” surroundings. Karaoke joints? Been there. Shibuya Cros

Intended to rally home cooks during the second world war, this is food writing that addresses privation ‘with grace and gusto’ ‘Essential” has become the most wearing word of the lockdown. The order is to only leave your house for “essential supplies”, but what counts as essential? Every venture into public, every social contact, comes with the possibility of spreading death or bringing it back with you. “Popping to the shop” is obscene, impossible. The way of eating that I’ve learned as a comfortably-off adult – a casual, desire-led, last-minute way of eating, where I could decide what I fancied for dinner at 6 and have shopped for and cooked it by 7 – no longer works. This is hardly the first era to be forced through such an adjustment. “There are very few men and women, I suspect, who cooked and marketed their way through the last war without losing forever some of the nonchalant extravagance of the 20s. They will feel, until their final days on earth, a kind of culinary caution,”

Whether photographing elephants or Mick Jagger, Beard approached the world with a spirit of inquiry and adventure. We look back on the work of a pioneer, who died earlier this month Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VJNvgc

Her ravishing interiors shocked Paris, thrilled the avant-garde and gave the world its most expensive chair. But the fast-living aristocrat wasn’t just overlooked – Le Corbusier actually vandalised her work naked ‘A room fit only for nightmares and insomnia.” This was the response of one critic to Eileen Gray’s radical scheme for a bedroom in 1923, installed at the 14th Salon de la Société des Artistes Décorateurs in Paris. The Irish designer’s daring Boudoir for Monte Carlo was a shock to French tastes. Her zebra-wood divan stood before wall panels lacquered with abstract red and white shapes. It was flanked by two screens made of glossy white bricks, while a blue lantern dangled above a carpet swirling with further abstract squiggles. “A chamber for the daughter of Dr Caligari in all its horrors,” concluded another reviewer. Despite all the abuse, Gray received an admiring postcard from JJP Oud, the leading architect of the Dutch De Stijl movement , who saw her installation pictu

The movie stuntman has directed bone-crunching thriller Extraction – and says that CGI will never replace the thrill of seeing a real person risking life and limb on screen The stunt performers who have made it as directors can be counted on the broken fingers of one bandaged hand. In the 70s and 80s there was Hal Needham (director of Smokey and the Bandit and reportedly the inspiration for Brad Pitt’s character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Buddy Van Horn (Any Which Way You Can). But the past decade has brought a clutch of new examples: Chad Stahelski (the John Wick trilogy), David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2) and now Sam Hargrave, the prodigiously bearded , 37-year-old stunt coordinator who doubled regularly for Chris Evans as Captain America. Related: Extraction review – hokey, high-octane action thriller Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2KIREL0

South Korean K-pop giants BTS will suspend their entire 2020 world tour over concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus and restrictions aimed at stopping it, their management said on Tuesday.The seven-member band had already postponed the North American leg of the tour, that was scheduled to start on April 25, and cancelled a Seoul concert because of the coronavirus outbreak.“Due to the nature of BTS concerts involving travel by thousands of international fans no matter where the… from South China Morning Post https://ift.tt/2W6yqEp

From Dallas to Friends, US shows have dominated UK TV for decades – and the special relationship is still going strong Modern Toss on Friends “I’ll be there for you,” they told us, and they weren’t lying. This week marks 25 years since the US sitcom Friends first aired on UK television, although sometimes it seems as if no time has passed at all. Between 1995 and 2004, Friends was such a dominant presence on UK screens that it is difficult to remember what our nights in were like without the old gang. Even now, getting in some hang-time with Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Pheebs is as easy as firing up Netflix or switching to Channel 5. US television has been waging a steady invasion campaign for decades, so while Friends was a turning point, it certainly wasn’t the first American TV show to find a major audience on British screens. In the days of three channels and no streaming, Texas-set soap opera Dallas regularly attracted more than 20 million viewers to the BBC. In

This 1722 ‘portrait of the face of London now indeed strangely altered’ offers a fascinating perspective on our current crisis This month, we’re going to read A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe, free to read on Project Gutenberg . This has been a popular request, for obvious reasons. It’s a book that will give us some useful perspective on our current crisis. It’s also been a source of wonder for centuries, with its stories of “the face of London now indeed strangely altered”, where, over 18 months in 1665 and 1666, the city lost 100,000 people – nearly a quarter of its population . Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2KG2MZ5

Many of us are finding it hard to concentrate on books during lockdown – so here are some games that do fascinating things with words and stories It has been one of the many cruel ironies of lockdown: we all have time to read more, but the constant uncertainty and worry, together with the endlessly transmogrifying news narrative, have made it difficult to concentrate on novels. A few keen readers have turned to essay collections, short stories or diaries, which are less demanding on the memory and attention, but video games may also offer a way back into reading during these difficult times. Here are 12 interesting puzzle and adventure games that play with words, text and narratives in innovative ways, which may well guide you back into a reading frame of mind. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3bLc2qC

To mark the release of her seventh album, Song for Our Daughter, the musician is here, answering your questions 12.38pm BST Rasthky asks There have been a load of unreleased tracks doing the rounds on YouTube - Bleed Me Dry, One Day Soon, and that lovely track at the end of the Woman Driver short movie (pun!), Rest My Troubles Away - will you revisit these, or release them at any point? Because I've only recently been involved in social media, I've only just been made aware of this, and it's been a really nice surprise. Generally why songs aren't put on records is because they're not good enough, but this made me think some just didn't have the right place on a record. I like that you can find a random track of mine online and feel like you've discovered it – I won't be releasing them. 12.37pm BST BrightSlumber asks You have generously been giving guitar lessons during the lockdown, something I have enjoyed immensely (thank you). You frequently

From felt-tipped obscenities to sketches of his aunt stolen at a tube station, our reviewer writes about his life in the margins Do I realise how hurtful some of my comments are? Of course One for dreams, one for writing down things you might otherwise forget, one for composing drafts and organising your thoughts: in the end, they all get mixed up, but that’s half the fun of keeping notebooks. You could use your phone, but it isn’t the same. Unlike JMW Turner’s sketchbooks or his palette, you can’t stick an iPhone in a vitrine in some Tate archive show – should you end up there. It might ring. Nor would you pass it on as an heirloom. That would be mad, although I do still have an old answerphone cassette where I could, if I dared, listen to decades-old chivvyings from former editors and messages from the dead. This is a question less of technology and more of feeling haunted. If you are going to the bother of using a notebook, why not a real book? A book will almost always help t

In the wake of Covid-19, We Are One: A Global Film Festival is taking the experience online. But cinema is a bigger encounter Every year, at Cannes (and other festivals) there’s a plaintive argument about what Cannes (or other festivals) are really all “about”. Some Savonarola-type person will dash the glass of rosé out of your hand, throw your canape into the Med and tell you Cannes is not about red-carpet narcissism, not about stars preening in the flashbulb glare of celeb-worship, not about L’Oréal sponsorship, not about getting drunk at a million late-night parties. It’s about the movies, about cinema itself. Of course. And that’s what the new Covid-19-related We Are One: A Global Film Festival appears to offer: the 10-day online festival, beginning 29 May, curated by Jane Rosenthal of the Tribeca film festival, featuring arthouse films (though not the big-ticket Hollywood items) from Cannes, Venice, Berlin and many more, streaming for free in return for an optional donation to

Sara K. Runnels humorously describes missed connections during quarantine for the coronavirus. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3eZXSE4

From the age of 15, Zhao Pinfeng worked for two decades as an iron ore miner in a remote, mountainous area of Hunan province in central China.Several years ago Zhao, who by then had two children and whose wife is mentally challenged, was diagnosed with pneumoconiosis, a fatal lung disease. He lost the ability to work and had to breathe through a ventilator. On one fateful night in 2018, an electricity outage at his village stopped his ventilator. He died the next day.Zhao’s final days were… from South China Morning Post https://ift.tt/2y5V7k3

Robin Wright writes about members of the deaf-blind community, which includes people who have dual sensory impairment of hearing and sight, and who fear that they are at greater risk and will be treated differently in hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2VHZkTV

Scenes from a day of weirdness under lockdown, as residents of Atlanta practice social distancing to avoid spreading the coronavirus. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2YdCyFa

The comic writer behind Love, Nina and novels including Reasons to be Cheerful is online to answer your questions now 11.11am BST AliBradfield1 says: My mother and I discovered your books a year ago, and have since been big fans! I’m actually writing my own novel and am curious about your process: Hi Ali. Thanks! 1) Nowadays I type, so it's done, and can be moved about. I often use the 'notes' on my iphone to jot down thoughts and ideas. 2) I start with an idea, usually a great chunk of my own life and then I let it meander and see how it develops. I'm not a great plotter! 11.10am BST ShirouEmiya asks: What is your favorite kind of humour, either in a literary or visual format? I love funny books, and the thing I particularly like in film and TV is funny dialogue. So, I guess literary! Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3cHz41M

In the latest in our series on artists’ viewing habits during isolation, the film producer says she and her husband Sting are still thinking about controversial Netflix drama Messiah and Israeli thriller Fauda Read the rest of our Lockdown watch series The best arts and entertainment during self-isolation My family is used to being on the road, so being in one place for this long is a truly rare situation. We have turned to television for our travels. Our journey began with Messiah , a Netflix drama about a Christ-like figure appearing on earth in our modern time. It spans the globe from the American south to the Middle East. Although Messiah was unceremoniously cancelled after one season, don’t let that deter you from watching. What it lacks in episode count, it makes up for in inspiration. Having finished watching the show a week ago, it creeps into our daily conversations still. This is the art we need right now: art that steps out of its packaging and infiltrates our thought

What happens when a film critic loses the will to watch movies? Our writer settles for cookery shows, half-hearted group-watches – and the knowledge that things could be much worse What I’m really watching is nothing. What I’m really doing is nothing. I watch the clock, reply to messages, cook myself another meal and run to put the news on 12 minutes past the hour, to find it’s already on to The Archers. I go for the shortest run I’ve ever done, fretting and puffing. I head to another room to see if I will be able to write better there, and check Twitter instead of working. I apply for universal credit online, stumble at the first technological hurdle and give up. I spend some time thinking about a friend’s father who died last week, whom I never met. Someone from the dating apps asks me how I’m getting on; he’s been furloughed and is sitting in his mum’s garden, reading Jon McGregor’s novel Reservoir 13 . I have a shower, have a cry. I watch a clip I have been sent, of a popular so

Art lovers deprived of the possibility of wandering around museums have taken up the "Getty Challenge", recreating iconic paintings with household objects, inspired staging and a large dose of creativity. We also meet the French photographer capturing the ghostly aspect of Paris's streets, as Eric Bouvet documents these unprecedented scenes for the history books. from https://ift.tt/2W4GSnt

The series has already begun filming at Elstree, following distancing guidelines, and will feature 10 of the original monologues as well as two new ones written by Bennett The BBC has begun filming on a new series of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues. The series, which was first shown on the BBC in 1988 and 1998, will include remakes of 10 of the original monologues, along with two new ones which Bennett wrote last year. The new series will star some of the biggest British TV stars of today, including Jodie Comer, Maxine Peake and Sarah Lancashire. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3f1MOXk

Socially conscious instrumentalist whose innovative songwriting helped to shape modern music in his homeland of Somalia The musician Ahmed Ismail Hudeidi, who has died aged 91, was the acknowledged king of the oud, a short-necked, lute-type instrument that is widely played across Africa and the Middle East. More than that, he developed a style on that instrument that came to epitomise modern Somali music. In the 1950s he began to put traditional Somali folksongs to new instrumentation, and he also composed in a new “Qaraami” style, which, like the blues, could tell love stories as well as comment on life and society. Songs such as Ur Hooyo, Riftoon, Rogaal and Raheye became classics that have been reproduced by Somali musicians of every generation since – and remain popular still. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Y9Gsiw

As Danny Boyle’s production is streamed online, its designer Mark Tildesley recalls putting thousands of bulbs and an ancient bell to shocking effect • The best theatre and dance to watch online • The best arts and entertainment during self-isolation Frankenstein typically brings to mind gothic imagery and schlocky horror films. Did you set out to declutter the story of those ideas with your design? Yes, we walked away from a classic gothic re-enactment. We were also referencing the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In , which replaced the darkness of a gothic story with a white wasteland. It was a refreshing view and just as scary. One of our first thoughts was: what is the source of power that would allow this life force to be regenerated? If you look at the mid 19th-century [Frankenstein was published in 1818], electricity has an extraordinary change on society. Rather than the mythical business of lightning and thunder, we show power generated through electricity as a fant

The National Trust have set the questions for today’s quiz, in which you can explore the collections of arts institutions around the UK currently closed due to coronavirus. Solve the mystery now ... This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK , the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions. Today, our questions are set by the National Trust, which looks after one of the world’s largest and most significant holdings of fine art and heritage objects – a treasure chest of history. The organisation conserves a huge range of heritage locations with buildings, contents, gardens and settings intact, and provides extensive public access. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VGPHoH

Discworld fantasy stories will be adapted for TV ‘in a form he would be proud of’ after BBC America’s controversial cyberpunk take on The Watch On what would have been the late Discworld creator’s 72nd birthday, Terry Pratchett’s production company Narrativia has announced a new development deal to create “truly authentic … prestige adaptations that remain absolutely faithful to [his] original, unique genius”. The deal will see Motive Pictures and Endeavor Content team up with Narrativia, which Pratchett launched in 2012, to make several series adaptations of the late author’s fantasy novels. There are currently no details of which books the partnership will tackle, though many of Pratchett’s books have been adapted before: Sky has dramatised Hogfather, The Colour of Magic and Going Postal; Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters have been turned into animations, and Good Omens, starring David Tennant as the demon Crowley and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale, was recently aired on Amazon Pr

Becoming, which drops in May, follows the former first lady on her 34-city book tour, will offer a ‘rare and up-close’ look at her life Netflix has announced a new original documentary focused on former first lady Michelle Obama to be released on 6 May. Becoming will follow Obama on her 34-city tour to promote her book of the same name and will offer an “intimate”, “rare and up-close” look at her life. It’s directed by Nadia Hallgren, who recently made the documentary short After Maria , which looked at the effect of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rican families. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2xdAWQJ

High Fidelity author writes fierce defence of broadcaster, praising work to help audience ‘live through and understand a crisis’ Author Nick Hornby has written an essay praising the BBC as “one of our crowning achievements as a nation”, saying that its handling of the coronavirus pandemic should make it “untouchable” once the crisis has passed. In an essay for Penguin , Hornby writes that the BBC, which has put together its biggest ever education programme to help parents during lockdown , is helping him “to live through and understand a crisis”. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3bI8Ax7

Paul Mpagi Sepuya started out taking shots of his friends naked. His work, in which sitters often face away, has now earned comparisons with Robert Mapplethorpe – and even Caravaggio In the autumn of 2001, Paul Mpagi Sepuya was an art student living in downtown New York. He’d just started his second year of university after moving from California when 9/11 changed life in the city for good. In March this year, the Covid-19 outbreak triggered another seismic change for the photographer: his newly opened exhibition in Los Angeles was forced to close a month before a major book collating his work was released. For Sepuya, this time is harder. “It seems much worse, in some ways, than September 11,” he says. “I was living downtown, maybe a mile from it, watching the whole thing happen. You didn’t know what was coming next.” Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VFZOdj

Richard Brody discusses forty-six films available to stream on OVID.tv, Crackle, and IFC Films Unlimited, including offerings by Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, Josh and Benny Safdie, and Richard Linklater, among others. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2xiPEGk

From Nan Goldin’s flowers and Damien Hirst’s rainbows to Rashid Johnson’s anxious red splodges, a host of artists are fundraising for coronavirus. Here’s a roundup of what’s out there It is too early to tell if the Covid-19 pandemic will produce an artistic legacy on a par with Edvard Munch’s Spanish flu portraits , but this virus and its fallout have already garnered a huge response by artists. Unlike Munch’s horrifying self-portrait made while he was struck down with the early 20th-century disease, or a morose second painting made in recovery, the work produced by today’s artists in response to coronavirus has been to either raise morale or money for charity. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3cIZJeG

Deborah Treisman interviews the author Allan Gurganus about his short story “The Wish for a Good Young Country Doctor,” from the May 4, 2020, issue of The New Yorker. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3bTbhMx

The artist Chris Ware talks about the inspiration behind his cover for the May 4, 2020, issue of The New Yorker. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/356Ejpe

The Icelandic pianist offers a refuge of otherworldly beauty, and the Australian composer confronts us with the catastrophic reality of the world as it is, Alex Ross writes. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3cRLNz8

Medicine is a system for delivering care and support; it’s also a system of information, quality control, and lab science. All need fixing, Siddhartha Mukherjee writes. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3eUp33m

Quarantining at home in Rockaway, the sculptor Tom Sachs takes a page from NASA and hosts Instagram office hours to help his followers hone their in-situ resource utilization, Naomi Fry writes. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3aHypw3

New cartoons from the magazine. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3eRP8zP

Anthony Gottlieb on the philosopher, economist, and mathematician Frank Ramsey, who was one of the greatest minds of the last century.  from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2S8MhsM

In the era of the coronavirus, pressing the flesh has become verboten, Micah Hauser writes. The peace sign, the hand-on-heart, and the elbow bump are ready to fill in. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3eX7Jue

“A Thousand Moons,” “How Much of These Hills Is Gold,” “The Hot Hand,” and “What Is the Grass.” from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2Kz2JOK

Climbing the Seven Volcanoes: A Search for Strength, by Sophie Cairns, Amberley, 4 stars When Sophie Cairns’ parents announced that the family was leaving Hong Kong, where she was born and raised, she vowed to return. A teenager, biracial and fluent in Cantonese, she never felt like she belonged in the UK, and longed for the Hong Kong of her childhood. Cairns later joined the South China Morning Post as a reporter and was working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Shanghai, China, when… from South China Morning Post https://ift.tt/35dvAl1

For six weeks, we’ll count down the top No 1 singles since the UK chart began in 1952. We kick it off with postmodern pop, fierce camp and timeless rock’n’roll. Check back weekdays for more picks – and see if you agree As the coronavirus lockdown continues, the Guardian’s music desk thought you might be in need of a distraction – something to send you down memory lane, or to divert the annoyance at your housemates or children on to us. We present to you a ranking of the 100 greatest UK No 1 singles since the charts began in 1952. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2SdIRF7

Research on writers appearing at the Edinburgh international book festival reveals 63% listen to their creations, and 61% feel they have their own agency Some writers have always claimed they can hear their characters speaking, with Enid Blyton suggesting she could “watch and hear everything” and Alice Walker describing how her characters would “come for a visit ... and talk”. But a new study has shown this uncanny experience is very widespread, with almost two-thirds of authors reporting that they hear their characters’ voices while they work. Researchers at Durham University teamed up with the Guardian and the Edinburgh international book festival to survey 181 authors appearing at the 2014 and 2018 festivals. Sixty-three per cent said they heard their characters speak while writing, with 61% reporting characters were capable of acting independently. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/35afRn1

Since opening its doors in 2015, The Projector – Singapore’s only independent cinema – has become a vital pillar of the local indie arts scene. Located in Golden Mile Tower, the retrofitted cinema retains much of its nostalgic aesthetic, from old-fashioned wood-and-metal seats to bespoke film posters. In its first incarnation as the Golden Theatre in 1973, The Projector was once the biggest cinema in both Singapore and Malaysia. And while its three halls and 550 seats are far from the country… from South China Morning Post https://ift.tt/2zqNxkf

Disney has hit a bum note by altering 80s comedy Splash. What other past movies have been sanitised without our knowledge? Hot on the heels of Cats ’ digital dalliance with CGI nether regions comes another bum-related movie controversy: viewers have noticed some unsubtle changes to the mermaid romcom Splash as it appears on Disney+. There is a shot of Daryl Hannah diving into the sea, having just kissed a dumbstruck Tom Hanks . In the 1984 original, Hannah’s blond hair just about covers her naked bottom; in the new version, that hair has been digitally extended to cover her entire buttock area – and badly at that. It looks as if she is wearing a hairy skirt. A forgotten 80s comedy may not be the hill most cinephiles would choose to die on, but we should still be concerned. What else is being altered without our knowledge? Retrospective tweaking to movies has been going on for decades but in the digital age it has become easier than ever to cover your tracks. Disney, especially, has

As much of a stylist as St Aubyn, Bank tends to be dismissed because she’s writing about being single in New York. But this book is perfect I find it very hard to talk about The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank , even though I talk about it all the time. I’m completely obsessed with it, and I’m obsessed with how hardly anyone has heard of it. It goes beyond being my favourite book – I have lots of favourite books: Nora Ephron ’s Heartburn, Helen Fielding ’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, Edward St Aubyn ’s Some Hope. The Wonder Spot is my perfect book. The tone is perfect, the stories are perfect, the characters are perfect and every word, seemingly so casually chosen, is perfect. In many ways, Bank is as much of a stylist as St Aubyn, who also always chooses the perfect word. But whereas he is celebrated, she tends to be dismissed, because he is a serious male writer who writes about child abuse and addiction , and she is a funny female writer who writes about being single in New York. And that’

Kylie Minogue, leather jackets, grown-up sex scenes ... no wonder we backcombed our hair to blag our way in Read all the other My favourite film choices The best arts and entertainment during self-isolation January 1990: the first month of a thrilling new decade. I am embracing the mood by jumping on the 111 bus from my small South Walian village, jetting off to the buzzing metropolis of Swansea. I am joined on this illicit adventure by three school-friends. We have spent hours debating what coloured jeans we should wear and spraying our backcombed fringes into frosty tsunamis. We have to pass a huge test at the newly opened UCI cinema, after all. We have to look 12, and I’m a few months off that yet. My favourite film when I was 12 – and yes, honestly, Mr UCI, I’m really, genuinely 12, ignore my quivering knees and my huge bag of strawberry shoelaces – was the first film I was brave enough to fake my age for (and yes, I got in). That film was The Delinquents, starring my ultimat

Letter signed by hundreds of creative figures including PJ Harvey, Anish Kapoor and Rufus Wainwright calls on government support Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage More than 400 of the UK’s leading artists, musicians and creative figures including Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Meera Syal, Simon Callow and Johnny Marr have signed a letter calling on the government to release funds to support the creative industries, warning that unless more is done the country could become “a cultural wasteland” because of the economic damage done during the Covid-19 outbreak. The letter, which is written by Creative Industries Federation (CIF) and addressed to the chancellor and culture secretary, appeals for urgent funding for creative organisations and professionals who, it says, are “falling through the gaps of existing government support measures”. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/356gw8Z

She scored a global smash with her TV debut. As the taboo-busting show is green-lit for a return, the writer reveals how she turned teenage dorkiness – and her own experience of sexual assault – into dynamite drama Laurie Nunn is remembering her own experience of sex education. It was, she says, “practically nonexistent” at her school, which is ironic, given that she is responsible for one of the most candid TV shows ever made about the subject. “They didn’t talk about female pleasure at all,” says the writer. “I’m in my 30s and I feel like I’m only now starting to get the right language to talk about my own body. I think, ‘God, I wish I’d known this stuff when I was in my 20s.’” When Sex Education was picked up, Nunn had no big credits to her name. She had written and directed a couple of short films and had worked up ideas for production companies, but nothing had quite landed. Then, suddenly, she had a hit – such a hit that Netflix’s UK headquarters now has a Sex Education-themed

She played Hayley in Coronation Street and a rape survivor in Broadchurch, and has always believed art can change the world. She is no less passionate about fighting for causes off screen Julie Hesmondhalgh has had an epiphany – related to Covid-19, obviously. “I realise that my main skill in the apocalypse is making videos of myself to send to exhausted NHS workers,” she says. “‘Hi! I’m Julie Hesmondhalgh, better known as Hayley from Coronation Street. I know you’re on your one 10-second break of a 12-hour shift and what you really need is to see some obscure TV personality making a video …’” She pauses. “I’ve never felt more useless in my life.” Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2W3BjWi

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Totnes festival’s move online gives glimpses of what might have been but is also its own, triumphant entity The relationship between the pandemic and the summer festival season has, unsurprisingly, proved far from harmonious. As the lockdown has rolled on, music events have fallen like dominoes – Glastonbury, Primavera, All Points East among them – the months to come now marked by an absence of revelry and also something of an economic void. Last year, more than a quarter of UK adults attended a festival, and the combined concert and festival industry was valued at more than £2.6bn. Touring musicians have proved remarkably enterprising during quarantine, streaming home performances, guitar tutorials and DJ sets, and launching various charity fundraising initiatives. But as the novelty wanes and a new normality settles, a question arises: is there a way that a real-life music festival can be replicated in the virtual world? Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://if

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Eugenia Viti illustrates humorous examples of pleasant things to think about as soon as you wake up before the stress stemming from the coronavirus crisis overwhelms you. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3cRD3cj

From The New Yorker’s archive, pieces by Alexandra Schwartz, James Thurber, Joseph Mitchell, Janet Malcolm, Calvin Trillin, and Ian Frazier that offer an appreciation of New York City and some of the places and people that make it such a special town. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3eROXEH

Amanda Petrusich talks with the musician about politics, her creative process, and what you learn about America from being on the road. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2VWmoxn

Bryan Washington writes about his love of the Japanese reality series “Terrace House” and how watching it during the coronavirus pandemic gives the show a new dimension. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2S8Bj6B

The initial coronavirus outbreaks on the East and West Coasts emerged at roughly the same time. But the danger was communicated very differently, Charles Duhigg writes. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/353VpUK

A free, online cryptic crossword puzzle from the New Yorker’s archive, with answers and clues that exhibit the wit and intelligence of the magazine. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3cNq8b7

Americans love a good revolt. Yet, if Trump runs a populist campaign premised on jump-starting the economy in defiance of scientists, he will be fighting uphill, Steve Coll writes. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/2VDu48H

Jeffrey Toobin writes about the former national-security adviser John Bolton and his forthcoming tell-all book, whose release is delayed as the White House forces Bolton to comply with the terms of a prepublication-review agreement. from Culture: TV, Movies, Music, Art, and Theatre News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3eOXvw1

In a world of deepfakes and augmented reality has magic lost its power to thrill? The performer Dynamo says we need it now more than ever Midnight in Tokyo. I’m standing in a narrow alleyway behind one of the hostess clubs in the capital’s red-light district. A large screen displays live updates of the gender balance inside, currently: ladies 113, men 87. Just around the corner is a famous hangout of the yakuza gangs, where a few months earlier there was a bloody shootout and a Korean crime boss was killed. Dynamo , one of the world’s most successful magicians, is used to performing in edgy atmospheres: he’s done street magic for gang members in LA’s Compton, and illicit tricks in Saudi Arabia where magic and the supernatural are banned and punishable by 40 lashes. But Tokyo is the one he’s always dreamed of, especially after he saw Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift in his 20s – a film that includes the immortal line: “The first drifters invented drifting out here in the mountains by fe

Pulitzer-winner David Rohde dismisses the Deep State theory – but also shows government does pursue entrenched interests The 2016 election left the US gaping at a brewing battle between the president-elect and the most senior members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities. Related: Front Row at the Trump Show review: Jonathan Karl's pre-pandemic warning Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Kwxnbz

BBC Race Across the World pairs are now on the home straight after a fraught journey from Mexico City to the tip of South America It has been quite a journey. And that’s just for viewers. Tonight sees the finale of Race Across the World , the BBC2 series in which five pairs of travellers competed to be the fastest getting from Mexico City to the most southerly city in the world, Ushuaia in Argentina. Covering 15,000 miles in two months and passing though 16 countries, with checkpoints in Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Chile, the competitors had to complete their journeys without flying or using mobile phones, and with only £1,453 cash in their pockets at the beginning. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VAK8Im

Tests your arts knowledge with these questions from the Observer’s critics In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, what question does Michael Palin’s character, Sir Galahad the Pure, get wrong?   What is your name? What is your favourite colour? What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? What does 21-time Oscar-nominated actor Meryl Streep do to keep grounded? Her own tax returns Her own gardening Her own ironing Pulp members Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey, and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway all appear in which film? They were four of the Weird Sisters in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire They play Dementors in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban They play Glastonbury festival punters in Bridget Jones’s Baby What nationality was Arnold Böcklin? German Swiss Austrian Which of the following is not a Swedish painter? August Strindberg Hilma af Klint Anders Zorn Puccini is famous for his tragic heroines but one of the following does not die. W