America
Vieux Carré, Charing Cross TheatreTuesday, 28 August 2012![]() An erstwhile Broadway flop provides late-summer theatrical fascination in the form of Vieux Carré, the self-evidently flawed Tennessee Williams play from 1977 that nonetheless is worth seeing for anyone attuned to this playwright's... Read more... |
CD: Dan Deacon – AmericaSaturday, 25 August 2012![]() America comes with an artist statement where Deacon says “I never felt American until I left the United States”. His third album digs into his “frustration, fear and anger towards the county and world I live in and am a part of”.The album ends with... Read more... |
The Three StoogesWednesday, 22 August 2012![]() There are two kinds of people in this world: those who think The Three Stooges are funny and those who just don’t get it. People in the first category are much better people. In real life, The Three Stooges were three vaudevillians - Moe... Read more... |
The ImposterMonday, 20 August 2012![]() In 1994, a boy vanishes from Texas. Over three years later, he is found by Interpol alive in Spain and shipped back to his family in San Antonio. As improbable as this is in itself, it marks the beginning of an even more incredible story revealed in... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Philadelphia: In the house of an American MediciSunday, 19 August 2012![]() MoMa and the Met, the Whitney and the Guggenheim – all very fine, but if you crave something different when in NYC, it’s worth braving Penn Station’s circles of hell to get a train to Philadelphia (takes just over an hour) to visit the mind-boggling... Read more... |
CD: Owl City - The Midsummer StationThursday, 16 August 2012![]() Stumbling across the perfect pop hit must be its own kind of curse. It’s been two and a half years since Owl City’s “Fireflies” shot its way into the charts, seemingly from nowhere. With its lush, quirky melodies and wistful, lovelorn lyrics, Adam... Read more... |
CD: Ry Cooder - Election SpecialMonday, 13 August 2012![]() Ry Cooder is an unpredictable quantity. He’s a prickly, opinionated old coot who doesn’t seem the type to pass a night in the pub with. He’d probably not get your jokes and moan about the Rolling Stones nicking his songs. His musical output is... Read more... |
The Newsroom, Sky AtlanticWednesday, 08 August 2012![]() American critics haven't been too kind to Aaron Sorkin's new HBO series about a cable TV news programme, for a variety of reasons. At least they had the advantage of understanding the intricate partisan infighting of American politics which forms... Read more... |
DVD: This Must Be the PlaceTuesday, 07 August 2012![]() Those familiar with Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s elegant political feature Il Divo (2008), or perhaps the beautiful, cynical The Consequences of Love (2004) may find themselves struck (pleasantly) dumb by the direction of his latest. Inspired... Read more... |
The Hitchcock Players: Kim Novak, VertigoSaturday, 04 August 2012![]() In Vertigo Kim Novak plays two women who are really just one. First Madeleine, a supernatural siren, a woman apparently possessed by her tragedienne great-grandmother Carlotta Valdes. However, it’s a performance within a performance and she’s merely... Read more... |
Eames: The Architect and the PainterThursday, 02 August 2012![]() A friend of mine has an Eames lounge chair that he treats with enormous reverence and claims is the comfiest seat ever made. I simply don’t get it; with its bent plywood shell and black leather upholstery, this 1956 American design classic looks to... Read more... |
TedWednesday, 01 August 2012![]() Seth MacFarlane is the equal opportunity offender responsible for a trio of animated sitcoms: Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. The hardest-working man in TV comedy is known for his colourfully un-PC style and agreeably obnoxious... Read more... |
