The Decemberists are the only band I adore who have a number of songs I actively despise
Part of what makes them special is the depth of their catalog
Culture
The good, the bad and the ugly in books, exhibitions, cinema, TV, dance, music, podcasts and theatre.
April 22, 2021
Why do theatres think audiences want Covid-related drama?
Hats off to the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. They’ve discovered a new form of racism. Some people say we have enough ethnic division already but in south-west London they’re gagging for more apparently. A new play, Prodigal, examines the prejudice endured by a Ugandan chap whose mother moved to London when he was a
April 15, 2021
Dark days for Britain: London, Burning, by Anthony Quinn, reviewed
Not long ago, a group of psychologists analysing data about national happiness discovered that the British were at their unhappiest in 1978. Reading Anthony Quinn’s enjoyable novel set in that year and early 1979, it’s not difficult to see why. In case you’ve forgotten, strikes were spreading like wildfire. The National Front were reaching a
Spectacular invective: Jonathan Meades lets rip about Boris and Brexit
The title alludes to Jonathan Meades’s first collection of criticism, Peter Knows What Dick Likes, and to the album by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their scabrous personae of Derek and Clive. Meades explains the title in his introduction: ‘It’s akin to “Two-Hour Dry Cleaners” where the operative, out of her head on perchloroethylene,
An unsuitable attachment to Nazism: Barbara Pym in the 1930s
Novelists’ careers take different paths, and sometimes don’t look much like careers at all. It’s true that some start publishing between 25 and 35, and write a novel respectably every two or three years until they die, like Kingsley Amis. Others don’t start until they are 60, like Penelope Fitzgerald, or stop abruptly without warning,
April 14, 2021
The decadence of Taylor Swift’s re-recorded record
Shouldn’t my tastes have evolved in the past 13 years?
April 12, 2021
Dark knight of cool
Books and ArtsPoor Chet Baker. He really was born to be blue
Pictures at an exhibition
Books and ArtsAs he collects nearly two decades of essays and criticism, Marco Grassi recalls a life in the art world
Sundance memories
Books and ArtsRobert Redford’s film festival goes virtual
April 9, 2021
The old man and the documentary
Ken Burns’s Hemingway is a pleasant surprise
April 7, 2021
Picking Apple
Books and ArtsThere probably is something here for everyone. But maybe only one thing
March 31, 2021
Here’s looking at you, Kid
Books and ArtsOne hundred years on from the seminal Chaplin flick
March 23, 2021
Stitch-up: why will no one touch The Human Centipede director’s new film?
‘Audiences worldwide want to be challenged, not dumbed down and patronized,’ says Tom Six
March 12, 2021
Marilyn Manson and the death of the bad boy
Rebellion used to be sexy, and bad used to be so, so good
March 9, 2021
Eyes wide open
Books and ArtsFrederic Raphael wrote the script for Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Now he writes a personal letter to the director’s shade
Ridley’s game
Books and ArtsRaised by Wolves reviewed
March 8, 2021
Boys will be boys
Books and ArtsWhatever happened to the heroes?
March 3, 2021
A double-standard in colorblind casting
Why can black actors play white roles but not the other way around?
February 22, 2021
Did PBS and Henry Louis Gates downplay crimes against humanity?
Gates never once uttered the words ‘genocide’, ‘extermination’ or even ‘ethnic cleansing’ to describe Ottoman atrocities
February 15, 2021
Cancel culture comes for Bachelor Nation
Stupid Cupid or cancel-culture victim?
Does anybody practice what they preach?
What Joss Whedon’s downfall tells us about the application of morality
February 11, 2021
Gina Carano deserves to be flogged
Hopefully she can now reprogram herself to think only correct thoughts
February 10, 2021
Old Masters, new look
Books and ArtsThe Met has cleaned up its act
Confessions of a hype artist
Books and ArtsWhere there’s pop, there’s hype — and there’s nothing wrong with that
February 5, 2021
The joy of listening to old pianists
Books and ArtsAs he gets older, Barenboim has become more and more keen on recording Beethoven sonatas in front of audiences
Songs of freedom
Books and ArtsRemain unmoved to the songs on Lifeline and you’re made of much sterner stuff
January 21, 2021
January 19, 2021
Bridgerton to nowhere
Books and ArtsThe storyline is Jane Austen with all the plot and nuance and character sophistication removed
January 17, 2021
The king is dead
Books and ArtsIt’s like rock ’n’ roll never happened
