π₯ Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Books,Culture,Hay festival π‘ Main takeaway: Hay Festival chairman Stephen Fry is backing the organisation's new campaign to collect recommendations for the most interesting books to attract new readers, in a bid to combat low literacy rates in the UK.The Pleasure List campaign, run in partnership with the government's National Year of Reading 2026, will share the "most ignorable" reads in the hope of helping to reverse the downward trend of adults reading for pleasure.The National Year of Reading is βgreat news for book lovers, but the statistics…
π₯ Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Music,Culture,Pop and rock,Christmas π‘ Key idea: Cockayne Soul - Death ChristmasI'm always fascinated by the ways my generation is able to participate in the circulation of music. Amateur TikTok edits are reviving forgotten gems and turning obscure stars into sensations; Local producers make entire albums if their favorite rapper doesn't release enough. Such is the case with Doom Xmas, the brainchild of Grammy Award-winning Spanish producer Cookin' Soul, which remakes the work of the late rapper MF Doom into Christmas music. There are scruffy Grinch soundtracks, frenetic…
π Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Rob Reiner,Film,Culture,US crime β
Key idea: At the center of the horrific news of the death of Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle Singer Reiner over the weekend is their 32-year-old son, Nick.The screenwriter was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after his 28-year-old sister Romy found their parents dead at home with injuries consistent with a knife attack.Nick had dealt with drug addiction and homelessness, and entered rehab for the first time when he was fifteen years old. He referred to his struggle during the βdark…
π Explore this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: US television,Television industry,US news,Television,Culture,Television & radio,Race,Trump administration,Gender,Women β
Main takeaway: A new UCLA study shows that popular scripted series on streaming services have shown a marked decline in cultural diversity behind and in front of the camera in the past year as inclusion programming dwindles in Hollywood.The latest edition of the school's Hollywood Diversity Report, published Tuesday, found that of the top 250 most-watched current scripted and office series in 2024, more than 91.7% were created by a white person, and white men account for 79% of…
β¨ Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,Thrillers,Sydney Sweeney,Paul Feig,Amanda Seyfried,Film adaptations,Books,Culture π‘ Key idea: DDirector Paul Feig is known for his broad comedies. Now he turns the serious schlock dial for a highly entertaining - or at any rate very entertaining - psychological thriller in the spirit of 1990s noir thriller, adapted by screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenschein from the 2022 bestselling book by Frieda McFadden. We're back in the glossy, sleazy world of Curtis Hanson's The Hand That Rocks the Cradle or Joe Eszterhas's Basic Instinct, but we're much closer to satire, if not…
π Discover this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Steven Spielberg,Emily Blunt,Colin Firth,Josh O'Connor,Science fiction and fantasy films,US news,Culture,Film π Hereβs what youβll learn: The first trailer for Steven Spielberg's mysterious UFO thriller has provided more details about what audiences can expect.Revealing Day, written by Jurassic Park's David Koepp and based on Spielberg's story, sees a star-studded take on the discovery of aliens. βWhy does He create such a vast universe and save it only for us?β says Elizabeth Marvel's character at the end of the teaser.The film stars Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Colman…
π₯ Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Arts Council England,Arts funding,Margaret Hodge,England,Opera,Classical music,UK news β
Key idea: Underfunded, the arts in England have been hit by Covid-19 from which many organizations have yet to recover. But that was only part of the story. The enormous burden of filling out the required forms, the endless bureaucracy, and the simply unwieldy long time it takes He is Funded by Arts Council England (ACE) it has caused global frustration among those working in the arts. There is a lot of talk about burnout and burnout.Many organizations have…
π₯ Read this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,Books,Culture,Film industry,Business β
Key idea: I I first met Susie Figgis over 40 years ago when I interviewed her for The Company of Wolves, my first film production with Neil Jordan. We met at the Scala cinema where I was working at the time, it was a busy and noisy office, but it was a sunny day, so we went up to the roof. Susie, already a legend having starred in Stephen Frears' Bloody Kids, Laura Mulvey's groundbreaking films and Ben Kingsley's Gandhi, unleashes a volcanic eruption…
π₯ Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Comedy,Comedy,Culture,Stage,Soho theatre β
Key idea: MOdesti: βI don't speak for all women...β Swagger: "...but I speak for many." Prashasti Singh's novel The Divine Feminine moves between these two poles, now denouncing her vulnerabilities as an unmarried woman in her thirties in modern India, now running the pedestal of twenty-first-century gender politics. A deft balance is struck, with enough self-mocking silliness to endear itself and keep us entertained, but also some engaging reflection on Singh's home country and the progress she has made towards women's liberation.This is the…
π₯ Discover this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Biopics,Film,Ben Whishaw,Peter Hujar,Art and design,Culture,Rebecca Hall,Drama films,Photography,Art π‘ Hereβs what youβll learn: HeyOn December 19, 1974, writer Linda Rosencrantz went to her friend Peter Hujar's apartment in New York and asked the photographer to describe exactly what he had done the day before. He spoke in great detail about Allen Ginsberg's photo shoot for the New York Times (it did not go wellβGinsberg was too performative for the kind of intimacy Hugar craved). He also described the Chinese takeaway he ate and how his friend Vince Aletti…
