America
iPads and smartphones go live with hip-hop dancingMonday, 30 April 2012
A new publicly funded UK web channel for performing arts opens tomorrow morning, preparing for a major launch this weekend streaming top international streetdancers to the web audience and publishing John Peel's notes on his record collection. The... Read more... |
A Streetcar Named Desire, Scottish Ballet, Sadler's WellsMonday, 30 April 2012
Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire carries with it an enormous loading from its past, the associations with those iconic performers on stage and screen Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh not the least of them. For a narrative dance, that... Read more... |
Interview: American Pie Cast ReunionSaturday, 28 April 2012
Who knew back in 1999 that a comedy about a bunch of teenage boys desperate to lose their virginity before they graduated from high school would be so popular? Adam Herz's script for American Pie, filmed by debutant directors Chris and Paul Weitz,... Read more... |
Interview: 10 Questions for Norah JonesThursday, 26 April 2012
Norah Jones is back. New haircut, new sound, new producer. The first of these, while very nice, needn't concern us too much. The second, meanwhile, is largely a result of the presence of the third, the ubiquitous Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, who is... Read more... |
Avengers AssembleThursday, 26 April 2012
The long-threatened Avengers Assemble (in the US simply The Avengers) is an appositely extravagant big screen adaptation of the Marvel comic book sensation. More importantly for many, it’s an amalgam of several superhero film franchises, making it a... Read more... |
Conlon Nancarrow Weekend, South Bank CentreWednesday, 25 April 2012
This has to be the only music festival I've ever been to where two vacuum cleaners were on standby in case the star performer conked out. But that's what happens when your star performer is a player piano - they seem to run on Hoover tubes. With 11... Read more... |
Louis Theroux: Extreme Love, BBC TwoFriday, 20 April 2012
In Louis Theroux: Extreme Love, a film about the realities of looking after children with autism, a mother of twin girls from New Jersey confessed: “I just try and make them happy because, God forgive me, I don’t get a lot of enjoyment from them.”... Read more... |
CD: Poliça – Give You the GhostThursday, 19 April 2012
Poliça aren’t lacking support. Jay Z posted one of their videos on his blog. Prince turned up to check out their live debut. Bon Iver's Mike Noyce sings on a couple of Give You the Ghost’s tracks. For an outfit whose debut album is only just getting... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2, Etienne de Crecy, The O'JaysSunday, 15 April 2012
Various: Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2 Peter CulshawThese totally irresisitible compilations were originally issued as separate albums in 1989 and 1993, and were for many (including me) a first taste of this loping, vivacious sound, which originated... Read more... |
Sweet Home Alabama: the Southern Rock Saga, BBC FourSaturday, 14 April 2012
“Suddenly, all America wants to be a redneck”. That might be slightly overstating the impact of southern rock on American culture. Californian ex-actor Ronald Reagan becoming president in the footsteps of Georgia’s Jimmy Carter suggests it’s an... Read more... |
The Cabin in the WoodsMonday, 09 April 2012
Like an adrenalin injection straight to the heart of a flagging horror genre, The Cabin in the Woods is fresh, funny and teeming with deliciously nasty surprises which - have no fear - will not be revealed to you here. Although it’s helmed by first-... Read more... |
theASHtray: modern spies, Rwanda, and how to get ahead through shameless self-promotionSaturday, 07 April 2012
“If James Bond actually worked in MI6 today,” said “Anna”, “he’d spend a large amount of time behind a desk.” Fair enough, since he’d also be about 110. And besides, the days of the Oxbridge “tap” having gone the way of Bernard Lee, most of 007’s... Read more... |
