Olympics
Town of RunnersThursday, 19 April 2012
Footage of wiry East African men and women breaking the tape in marathons and distance track-events is now more or less synonymous with the highest achievements in top-level sport, and it won’t come as a surprise to those who’ve lived through more... Read more... |
The best and worst national anthems? Time to award the medalsSunday, 15 April 2012
The onerous task of recording all 205 national anthems for playing at the Olympics medal ceremonies has fallen on the London Philharmonic Orchestra. An edited group of 36 players has recorded the anthems at the Abbey Road Studios in 60 gruelling... Read more... |
theASHtray: Stanley Donwood, Mark Ronson, and Round Ireland with a flopSaturday, 24 March 2012
A couple of nights ago I went to a book launch at Waterstone’s, Notting Hill, for a collection of un-illustrated short stories (Household Worms) by a visual artist (Stanley Donwood) perhaps best known for his work in the music industry (producing... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Arts Patron Jonathan MouldsWednesday, 14 March 2012
Critical, urgent, hard - those are the three words used about the challenge to get the rich to pay more for the arts by the new man at the tiller. He should know. Jonathan Moulds, European President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is one of the... Read more... |
Sadler's Wells Theatre, 2012 SeasonWednesday, 11 January 2012
Who would imagine that the search for new dance audiences would result in a cascade of fairy tales and dramas at Sadler's Wells, the focus for hip eyes on culture? But it is so - The Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and a Hans Christian Andersen folk... Read more... |
Felix and Murdo, Channel 4/ Ben Hur, Channel 5Thursday, 29 December 2011
I love the idea of Armstrong & Miller. Alexander Armstrong has his odious toff routine off to a tee, the clubbable rotter who'll cheat at golf, get you to pay for all the whisky sours in the clubhouse, and then shag your wife. Alongside, Ben... Read more... |
2012 Cultural Olympiad events announcedFriday, 04 November 2011
The 2012 Cultural Olympiad has been announced and events will take place throughout the UK from 21 June until the last day of the Paralympics, 9 September. Ruth Mackenzie, director of the Cultural Olympiad, said that many events would be free, and... Read more... |
Re-Triptych, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Playhouse, EdinburghThursday, 01 September 2011
Shen Wei is only 43, but he’s packed an epic amount into his career. A child sent from home aged nine to study opera; an emigrant to New York; a return to China to choreograph the Beijing Olympics. His urge to put this extraordinary tale into dance... Read more... |
Twenty Twelve, BBC FourMonday, 14 March 2011
As it turned out, Irving Berlin's jauntily fatalistic Let’s Face the Music and Dance proved the perfect theme tune for BBC Four's new six-part comedy series. A mock documentary following the people responsible for delivering a successful 2012 London... Read more... |
Boris tweets about 'draft culture strategy'Tuesday, 08 June 2010A man who recently boasted of having read little but Latin and Greek for the past 25 years might not, you'd think, be the most active tweeter. But the Mayor of London has just used Twitter to ask his followers - that's 80,595 of them - to contribute... Read more... |
Winter Olympics pics - and why 2012 pictograms score badlyWednesday, 03 March 2010
The Big Picture has a collection of some extraordinary photos of the Winter Olympics here. Below pic credit: Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty ImagesMeanwhile, the New York Times has posted a fascinating video piece (below) about Olympic signage and the... Read more... |
Is it too late to save the Cultural Olympiad?Friday, 05 February 2010
We’d almost blown the so-called Cultural Olympiad, and if the appointment of Ruth Mackenzie as artistic director had come a moment later than the turn of this year, we would have done. Not my opinion: this from Tony Hall of the Royal Opera House,... Read more... |
