South America
CD: CSS - PlantaSunday, 02 June 2013
CSS appeared riding the 2007 “nu rave” music media furore – their catsuit-wearing lead singer, Lovefoxxx, even dated one of scenester leaders The Klaxons for a while. That whole business is ancient history but, unfortunately, a host of great bands... Read more... |
Ute Lemper, Queen Elizabeth HallThursday, 30 May 2013
The show which Ute Lemper brought to the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the London Literature Festival - “Pablo Neruda: A Song Cycle of Love Poems” - is brand-new; the six-piece band (with which she has just recorded it, and which will be touring... Read more... |
Thursday Till SundayMonday, 01 April 2013
Latin Americans are the current masters of minimalist cinema, films in which nothing much seems to be happening on the surface, but a world of emotion and meaning bubbles beneath. Such films require a little patience and investment, for sure, but... Read more... |
Neighbouring SoundsThursday, 21 March 2013
With the customarily narrow perspective that informs much film distribution in the UK, we might be forgiven for assuming there is just one subject in Brazilian cinema: crime; in particular, the drug-related gang wars in the favelas. We certainly... Read more... |
NoTuesday, 05 February 2013
There’s an episode in the first season of Mad Men in which the ad execs of Sterling Cooper brainstorm a campaign for Richard Nixon, just prior to the 1960 presidential election. Dramatic irony being what it is, it’s a rare opportunity to watch our... Read more... |
10 Questions for Director Pablo LarraínMonday, 04 February 2013
Often it takes a generation or two before a country can address its dark days on films; Hitler didn’t feature in a central role in a German film until Downfall, in 2004. This timorousness was certainly the case in Chile, where in the immediate years... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Marcos Valle, Five Star, Julian Cope, Carlos NúñezSunday, 03 February 2013
Marcos Valle: Marcos Valle/Garra/Vento Sul/Previsão do TempoIn 1968, having already done time in Sérgio Mendes & Brazil 66, Marcos Valle was selling bossa nova and samba to America, appearing on The Andy Williams Show in a blazer and roll... Read more... |
Brazil with Michael Palin, BBC OneThursday, 25 October 2012
We got to the beach around the 10-minute mark. Or “semi-naked suburbia”, as Michael Palin called it. And started patrolling the sands for rounded Brazilian rumps (female). Apparently only adolescent boys do this sort of thing, and television... Read more... |
...Como El Musguito..., Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 13 June 2012
If you are tired of life, tired of London, or even tired of love, muster the remaining fibres of your frazzled being and do whatever it takes to get tickets for ...como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si... or any of the other performances in... Read more... |
Even the RainFriday, 18 May 2012
Perhaps it’s not a strange coincidence that this week brings two films about the precious commodity that is water. (The other is The Source.) More than oil, more than land, certainly more than ideology, one day the thing mankind will fight over is... Read more... |
The Arts Desk Radio Show 2Thursday, 03 May 2012
Welcome to our second show, brought to you again from the Red Bull Studio in London where it was recorded by Brendon Harding.This time, Peter and Joe are joined live in the studio by two guests: friend of theartsdesk and musical polymath Mara... Read more... |
A Useful LifeThursday, 12 January 2012
Richly nuanced in its sideshot view of Uruguay’s film world and Montevideo street atmosphere, Federico Veiroj’s A Useful Life is a small film that picks up on suppressed emotions which are only released in its second half. Its black-and-white images... Read more... |
