Led Zeppelin IV
My reactions to music are purely emotional: love, hatred or indifference. Music is only important…
Browsing: The Culturist
Gilliam’s Damnation of Faust
Alex Larman, eagle-eyed journalist and cultural commentator with a voracious hunger for all things splendiferous, visits the ENO to experience Terry Gilliam’s operatic production of The Damnation of Faust.
Another Brick in the Wall
As a schoolkid, a curious Steve Thompson was always on the look-out for mysteries to solve. Little wonder he is enchanted by the 2005 high-school detective neo-noir flick, Brick.
Cabaret: An Endangered Sub-Culture
Tom Garton, face twitching suggestively from an ocular injury, meets Kabarettist Sigi Zimmerschied in Passau, Bavaria, to investigate the political shyness and culture shift that are putting classic cabaret under threat.
The Young Elizabeth
Young soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn has had a difficult ride. After gaining a scholarship to study…
Barenboim: A View from the Bridge
Last week, Daniel Barenboim took to the Tate Modern Turbine Hall Bridge to give a one-off, all-Chopin concert with the Staatskapelle Berlin. Our wild-haired, roving music critic Paul Guest reports…
In the Mood for Love: Yumeji’s Theme
He said, our path is not clear. I said, I must find a path without…
My Neighbour Totoro
Film critic and cult-ure vulture, Steve Thompson, turns his artistic eye to a Japanese cartoon, featuring no conflict, danger, violence or mutant insects. The man’s gone soft.
Marianne Faithfull: Blazing Away
Marianne Faithfull lived on a wall for almost two years, listening to the smack talk.…
Vanishing Point
Steve Thompson, film critic and cartoonist, continues his tour through weird and wacky cinematic territory, stopping off at the 1971 counter-cultural road movie, Vanishing Point.
Minnie Riperton: Can You Feel What I’m Saying?
Sex is in the mind; it is the product of a thousand memories and fleeting…
Sorry: Play It and Be Glad
“Play it and be glad,” instructs the front cover of a miniscule booklet entitled Rules and Hints for Playing the National Game. Miss York explores a somewhat forgotten pastime with a very British characteristic. Sorry…