π Explore this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Books,Culture,Black British culture π Hereβs what youβll learn: British Black Book Festival organizer Selina Brown announced earlier this month that the festival would launch a publishing collaboration with Pan Macmillan, focusing on βraw talentβ, particularly writers whose work has not been traditionally published.The publisher will commission books for adults and children, scheduled to hit shelves from 2027.This year the BBBF saw a 50% drop in the volume of books submitted by publishers to the festival, a figure that festival CEO Brown described as indicative of βa specific…
β¨ Explore this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,Sweden,World news,Midsommar π Main takeaway: βIt was a great summer job.β This is how actor BjΓΆrn Andersen, who has died at the age of 70, described the role that made him a star and destroyed his life.In Luchino Visconti's 1971 film adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice, Andriessen is Tadzio, an angelic 14-year-old vacationing with his family in the same hotel as Gustav von Aschenbach, an ailing composer fleetingly revived and invigorated by his obsession with the boy.Dirk Bogarde, who played Aschenbach, described his young…
β¨ Explore this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,Television & radio,Culture,Netflix,Reality TV π‘ Key idea: IIf there's one problem with Physical 100, the Korean game show that features top-tier athletes rolling boulders, pulling mine carts, and undoing giant ropes in an attempt to find the perfect physique, it's probably the lack of swagger.For some people, the delightful, surprising friendship between the contestants was part of the show's appeal: a breath of sweat-tinged fresh air amid the faux honesty and harsh criticism of other reality shows. For others, who grew up on The Real Housewives and…
π₯ Check out this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Art,Folklore and mythology,Art and design,Culture,British identity and society,Social history,Depression,Society π Hereβs what youβll learn: A A little toy dog ββnamed Lunar arrives at Ben Edge's studio door with excitement. There's also a full-size fiberglass horse, already halfway through the door. She is ridden by a mannequin wearing a wreath of artificial flowers, underneath a shirt decorated with green men and Uffington White Horse and oak leaf references. It's identical to the one worn by the living, breathing artist standing next to me.A highlight of the upcoming…
π Read this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,Television & radio,Culture,TV comedy π‘ Key idea: pRonella Scales portrayed two of Britain's greatest monarchs on television: Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II. She was the first dramatic actress to play the latter on television, and received a BAFTA Award nomination for doing so.However, Scales, who has died aged 93, knew that public memory of her would be shaped by another woman. The person who makes these two royals look impotent - the self-proclaimed empress of cottage industry and hospitality, Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil, owner of…
π₯ Check out this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Games,Culture,Halloween,Adventure games β
Main takeaway: IIn an attempt to avoid spending Β£80 to wander around a local park with my kids to see some disappointingly scary decorations, and after failing for the fifth year in a row to get a ticket to a Scottish farm to slowly wander around looking at pumpkins, I tried something different with my kids this Halloween: a virtual pumpkin festival.The Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival was first created at the height of the 2020 pandemic, when game developer Adam Robinson-Yu's real-life pumpkin…
β¨ Check out this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Francis Ford Coppola,Megalopolis,Watches,Film,Collecting,Culture,Life and style π‘ Key idea: TThe bad news for Francis Ford Coppola is that he made Megalopolis at exactly the wrong time. It could have been a pretentious, semi-coherent feature film about progress through architecture, starring Jon Voight as a man who can stop time for no apparent reason, always struggling to make money.But getting the film to gross more than $100 million of its own money and releasing it in 2024, in an era when the bulk of the public has largely…
π₯ Explore this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Royal Court theatre,Stage,Culture,Tilda Swinton,UK news,Gary Oldman π Main takeaway: Tilda Swinton returns to the stage for the first time in more than 30 years as part of the Royal Court's 70th anniversary programme, in reprisal of her 1988 solo performance in Manfred Karge's Man to Man.Swinton's return to the role, in which she plays a widow who assumes the identity of her dead husband, is one of two stars in David Byrne's third season as artistic director, which will also star Gary Oldman in another revival: Samuel…
π Read this insightful post from BBC Culture π π Category: π Hereβs what youβll learn: TV show(Credit: TV show)9. The American RevolutionNext year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, and ahead of that historic event, Ken Burns delivers what promises to be a fresh and stimulating look at the United States' struggle for independence and the founding of the country. Beyond conventional wisdom and familiar images of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers, this history has a broader perspective because it also takes into account the roles of blacks,…
β¨ Read this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,Television & radio,Culture,TV comedy,Comedy π‘ Key idea: Actress Prunella Scales, best known for her role as Sybil Fawlty in the classic comedy series Fawlty Towers, has died at the age of 93.Scales, who was married to fellow actor Timothy West, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2013.Her sons, Samuel and Joseph, said that the actress died peacefully at her home in London on Monday.A statement to PA Media said: βOur dear mother Prunella Scales passed away peacefully at her home in London yesterday. She was 93 years…
