π Discover this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Football,Documentary films,Film,Culture,Sport π Hereβs what youβll learn: IIt seems appropriate, after the 2026 World Cup draw featuring small island newcomers Curacao and Cape Verde, to revisit Next Goal Wins, an underdog story I embraced upon first viewing as if it were a team I would follow loyally for the rest of my life.The documentary chronicles the world's worst soccer team (once), American Samoa, and their valiant efforts to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, but to describe it as just a soccer movie is to miss a…
π Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Christmas shows,Theatre,Stage,Culture π‘ Main takeaway: YYesterday was salsa class. Next up is the panto. Other days, it might be anything from language lessons to arts and crafts. Today in this multi-purpose space is the turn of the annual Christmas fair, with its brick stalls, grotto and tree. Sitting on four sides of the elegant ballroom at Chadderton Town Hall, a refuge for Oldham's stand during renovations, it doesn't take any leap of imagination to imagine ourselves at a real local fundraiser.This gives Jim Cartwright's 2012 play a…
π₯ Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,Television & radio,Culture π‘ Hereβs what youβll learn: Tea with Judi Dench9pm, Sky Arts I spent a very funny and moving hour with Judi Dench and her old friend Kenneth Branagh. They share a pot of tea at Dench's country house (with a mop of "I've been expecting you, Mr Bond"), where one minute she's introducing her mouthy parrot, the next reminiscing about her career, her beloved husband and her departed star friends. It has become even more poignant as the actress recently announced that she cannot…
π Read this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television & radio,Culture,Podcasts π Main takeaway: Choose the weekIconsThis series from football website Goal dedicates an episode to each of the last ten World Cups and highlights a special moment. Take, for example, the story behind Brazilian striker Ronaldo's strange haircut in 2002, or a glimpse into the shirts Argentina played in during the 1986 tournament, which were illegal copies of their own shirts. It's all narrated by commentator Martin Tyler, who has covered the last 12 tournaments. Alexey Duggins Widely available, bi-weekly episodesDelilandFrom the national penchant…
π₯ Explore this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,One Battle After Another,Culture,Jafar Panahi,US politics,Paul Thomas Anderson β
Main takeaway: HeyOn March 8, Mahmoud Khalil became the first of many pro-Palestinian protesters on campus to be arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was detained for three months, without being able to deliver his first child, by an administration that distorted his opposition to Israel's genocide in Gaza as encouraging terrorism, while abusing immigration policy to silence him.In movies this year, I was repeatedly reminded of Khalil and others who saw their altruistic activism reframed as…
π₯ Check out this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Christmas shows,Theatre,Stage,Culture,Chichester Festival theatre π‘ Hereβs what youβll learn: TIts origin story, about how Saint Nicholas became a gift-giver in the North Pole with an army of elves, began as a children's book by Matt Haig that was made into a star-studded fantasy film with appearances by Maggie Smith and Jim Broadbent. Now we have the stage adaptation, which sings the tale of young Nicholas.At the age of eleven, stranded in grief and loneliness after his mother was killed by a bear, his father set out…
π₯ Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Theatre,Stage,Culture,JB Priestley,Donmar Warehouse β
Hereβs what youβll learn: SThe tomatoes are tight, the bottles are empty, and the night has just begun. J.B. Priestley's cozy comedy is easy entertainment on a cold evening, and Tim Scheider's laugh-out-loud production conjures the cozy feeling of sinking into an armchair by the fire and rewatching a quaint old classic.Written in 1934 and set in 1908, this deceit-filled drama follows three middle-class Yorkshire couples as they celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. Monied, well-mannered, and stunningly dressed by fashion designer Anna Fleischle…
β¨ Check out this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Books,Romance books,Culture,Fiction,Publishing π Hereβs what youβll learn: pPeople buy lipstick when the world is falling apart. This true economic theory, known as the "lipstick index," was first observed by Leonard Lauder (Este's most famous son). When the world looks particularly bleak β in the weeks and months after the fall of the Twin Towers, for example, or after the 2008 financial crash β and spending overall declines, lipstick sales tend to skyrocket.The psychological truth at the heart of this equation is real: when people have less…
π Explore this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: BBC Symphony Orchestra,Classical music,Choral music,Culture,Music,Barbican,James MacMillan π Key idea: MAll composers today keep a safe distance from the intimidating associations of βsymphony,β βconcerto,β and other venerable classical genres. Scottish composer James MacMillan is not among them. His vast catalog includes numerous symphonies, concertos and two Passions β St Luke and St John β as well as a Christmas oratorio, which premiered in 2021. J. S. Bach's 1734 version has become a festive classic, but Macmillan's piece is no homage: although 21st-century Christmas oratorios speak many musical languages,…
π Read this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Science,Space,Astronomy,Books,Culture β
Key idea: If there's one thing we can count on in this world, it's human arrogance, and space and astronomy are no exception.The ancients believed that everything revolved around the Earth. In the sixteenth century, Copernicus and his peers overturned this view with the heliocentric model. Since then, telescopes and spacecraft have revealed just how insignificant we are. There are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, each star similar to our sun, and many of which have planets orbiting them.…
