Buzz
Infinite variety at CharlestonMonday, 12 July 2010
Oh, those Bloomsberries: what fun they must have had at Charleston farmhouse snug under the Sussex downs - Vanessa and Clive Bell in menage with Duncan Grant, Lytton and Virginia popping in for tea... Well, maybe not, if you're allergic to the... Read more... |
Fab Two Alert!Thursday, 08 July 2010It wasn't memorialised in HD. But last night Ringo Starr turned 70 and welcomed Paul McCartney onstage at Radio City Music Hall in New York for a musical celebration. There was only one song they were going to perform, and a thousand mobile phone... Read more... |
Whoopi for youWednesday, 07 July 2010She starred in the original film, not to mention the low-rent sequel, as a counterfeit nun on the run from criminal psychopaths. She became involved in the stage version as a cheerleading producer. Now Whoopi Goldberg is getting back in the habit... Read more... |
Mikhail Pletnev charged with raping boyWednesday, 07 July 2010
One of the greatest pianists (and latterly conductors) of his generation, founder and artistic director of the Russian National Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev, has been charged by Thai police with raping a 14-year-old boy, according to the BBC. Police... Read more... |
Now Newsnight is at it...Tuesday, 06 July 2010The BBC's cultural conscience has been pricked, it would seem, by the World Cup now reaching its endgame in South Africa. Either that or departments don't talk to one another. Singing for Life, Sunday night's documentary on BBC Four about the young... Read more... |
Quoted and noted: Willy RussellSunday, 04 July 2010'If you get it right a play will always make a writer far more money than a movie will' - A useful financial tip from mega-successful playwright Willy Russell in his close-up interview with Jasper Rees on theartsdesk. Read more... |
TAD art writer shortlisted for book awardSaturday, 03 July 2010One of theartsdesk's founder-writers, Mark Hudson, has been shortlisted in the biography category of the annual Spear’s Book Awards, for his book Titian, the Last Days. Hudson did not intend to write a conventional biography of the Venetian artist,... Read more... |
Music for Life: where other therapies cannot reachThursday, 01 July 2010Last year I witnessed the miracle of music. Eight extremely old people, all of them suffering from dementia, sat in a circle, each with a percussion instrument in their lap. Among them were sprinkled three classical musicians - a violist, a... Read more... |
Diary of a Strumpette, Part Four: The show must go on!Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Well folks, it wasn’t glamorous, it wasn’t showbiz, it wasn’t all fun ‘n’ games. It was Glastonbury, in all its dirty, pungent and chaotic glory. But, despite all the pitfalls, The Strumpettes did it, and, somehow, did it in style. First off, let... Read more... |
Shock and awe at TateTuesday, 29 June 2010
Two recently decommissioned fighter jets are in the incongruous setting of Tate Britain's Duveen Galleries. One plane, polished to a mirror sheen, lies belly-up, like an injured animal; the other hangs suspended from the ceiling, its matt surface... Read more... |
Afro-Cubism, the real Buena Vista follow-up video previewMonday, 28 June 2010Afro-Cubism is the fruition of the World Circuit label's original intention for Buena Vista Social Club album, which was to have been a stellar collaboration of musicians from Mali and Cuba. In 1996, the African contingent of Bassekou Kouyate and... Read more... |
A feast fit for the Mastersingers: Wales objectsMonday, 28 June 2010
Bit of a tizzy in Cardiff after Welsh National Opera decided to push the boat out for its biggest show in years. Richard Jones's new production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg starring Bryn Terfel in his toughest challenge to date wowed... Read more... |
