β¨ Check out this awesome post from BBC Culture π π Category: β
Hereβs what youβll learn: The third installment in James Cameron's hugely successful franchise is "197 minutes of screensaver graphics, heavy-handed dialogue, loose plotting, and New Age hippie spirituality."Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water are two of the highest-grossing films of all time, so you can't blame James Cameron for continuing his sci-fi adventure series. But the third episode, Avatar: Fire and Ash, strongly suggests that he should quit while he's still ahead. Every Avatar movie to date has been longer and worse than the last, and…
β¨ Read this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Opera,Classical music,Culture,Music,Royal Opera House π Main takeaway: ANedri Zerban's show, with dazzling designs by Sally Jacobs, debuted in 1984 and is the Royal Opera's longest-running production. This is its 19th revival: the show on 18 December will be its 295th showing at Covent Garden. Turandot addresses grand emotions and even grander themes: love, fear, devotion, strength, loyalty, life, and death in a fictionalized version of imperial China. And of course, there is certainly the most famous moment in the opera, the wonderful aria Nessun Dorma."If the opera…
π₯ Check out this insightful post from BBC Culture π π Category: π‘ Hereβs what youβll learn: Makol Bollay(Credit: McCall Pollay)7. Springsteen: Save me from nowhereSpringsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere could have been this year's answer to A Complete Unknown, a drama about a respected American singer-songwriter who focused on one major point in his career. The Bear's Jeremy Allen White made an effort to sing and play like Bruce Springsteen, and writer-director Scott Cooper had already made an Oscar-nominated film about an American singer-songwriter - albeit a fictional one - Crazy Heart (2009). Despite all this, audiences could not…
β¨ Explore this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Comedy,Stage,Comedy,Culture,Theatre,Soho theatre β
Main takeaway: forHe tours classic albums in their entirety. Movies are being re-released to celebrate big anniversaries. Great plays are performed over and over again. But in live-action comedy, revival is no big deal. It is an art form based on surprise, the surprise of the new. Recycling old materials is not something that has been done. But could that be about to change? I saw two Soho Theater shows being revived to celebrate their 10th anniversary, by comedians who clearly saw the value…
π₯ Explore this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Music,Artificial intelligence (AI),Computing,Culture,Technology,Music industry,Business π‘ Hereβs what youβll learn: This was the year that AI-generated music went from jokey curiosity to mainstream force. Velvet Sundown, a wholly AI act, generated millions of streams; AI-created tracks topped Spotifyβs viral chart and one of the US Billboard country charts; AI βartistβ Xania Monet βsignedβ a record deal. BBC Introducing is usually a platform for flesh-and-blood artists trying to make it big, but an AI-generated song by Papi Lamour was recently played on the West Midlands show. And jumping up…
π₯ Read this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: History books,Books,Culture,Children π‘ Main takeaway: CJoseph Lozzi, a professor at Bard College in New York, is a Dante scholar whose books argue for the relevance of the great Italian art and literature of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance to our time. He was a great champion of the humanities in public life, and did for Dante what his fellow poet Daniel Mendelssohn did for Homer in the Odyssey and other books.This short volume tells the story of the Hospital of the Innocents in Dante's hometown…
π Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Dance,Stage,Children's theatre,Opera,Culture,Classical music,Music π‘ Hereβs what youβll learn: HeyOne of the things that makes this all-ages version of The Magic Flute so successful is the way it effortlessly brings together all its components β dance, text, operatic arias, and a dreamy folk reinterpretation of Mozart's music β in service of the story. This fantastically twisted narrative is presented clearly enough for everyone to understand (recommended age is five and up, and it's fun for adults, too).The magic of the flute... Pamina, Tamino, and the Queen of the…
π₯ Discover this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Kate Hudson,Film,Culture,Comedy films,Drama films,Music,Life and style β
Hereβs what youβll learn: The first voice I hear when I enter the hotel room to meet Kate Hudson is that of her 21-year-old son, Ryder, speaking from the end of the phone: βI love you, mom!βIsn't it? You don't have to be related to Hudson to consider it a happy offering β she's a great performer who hasn't made a great movie yet. It was a quarter-century ago in Almost Famous, where she first proved that she could lift…
β¨ Discover this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,Television & radio,Culture π Main takeaway: Inside M&S at Christmas9pm on ITV1The product development team at Marks & Spencer are nothing short of a miracle, especially when it comes to party food. This year's festive treats include fish and chips-inspired canapΓ©s and 'Christmas cracker' Colin the Caterpillar (think classic Colin, but much sexier). Plus, the best-selling classic panettone gets a new update. Holly RichardsonDark winds9pm, U&AlibiA disturbingly crazy murder opens another episode of this dusty, menacing crime drama. As FBI Special Agent Washington interrogates Leaphorn during a…
π₯ Read this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Books,Poetry,Culture,Kylie Minogue,Music,Pop and rock,San Francisco β
Main takeaway: yourEvin Kilian was obsessed with the stars. Not in the metaphysical sense, like the great race of poets before him, but the celebrity kind. Some of them were celebrities, as he maintained an extensive database on Julia Roberts, and others were more obscure. In 2000, Kilian, influenced by the works of famous literary sensation J. T. Leroy, and confused about their identity, gave public readings of their works in San Francisco, where he lived for 20 years after moving…
