π₯ Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Fiction,Agatha Christie,Enid Blyton,John Irving,Books,Culture β
Hereβs what youβll learn: My first memory is readingI was six years old, and I was in the living room of my first home in Manchester. I was sitting cross-legged on the gray carpet in 1977, when I finished reading one of Enid Blyton's wonderful Seven Secrets novels, which contained the astonishing (for a six-year-old, indeed) twist in which Emma Lane turned out to be a way, not a person.My favorite book growing upUp to age 12, Blyton's Seven Mysteries and Five…
π₯ Check out this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Music,Culture,Experimental music,Electronic music β
Main takeaway: MMexican-American producer Delia Beatriz, also known as Debette, has a knack for creating her own historical sounds. Her 2022 breakthrough, The Long Count, featured distorted ambient soundscapes made from electronically processed samples of ancient Mayan flutes. On her latest record, Desaceleradas (Slowed Down), Beatrice turns her attention to the '90s punk trend. Cumbia rebajada. Slow down type of Afro-Latin dance Cumbia In a monotonous rhythm, Cumbia rebajada is a dub-influenced take on an upbeat, party-driven sound. DJ Gabriel DueΓ±ez popularized…
β¨ Explore this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: De La Soul,Music,Culture,Hip-hop β
Main takeaway: CAbin in the Sky, De La Soul's tenth album β and first since the death of founding member Trugoy the Dove, AKA Dave Jolicoeur, in 2023 β is, loosely speaking, a concept album about death and the afterlife. Giancarlo Esposito's spoken-word intro prepares you for something heavy, but you're immediately reminded, of course, that this is a De La Soul album: it sounds practically impossible for their brand of spare, always sunny vocal plunder to feel like a drag. Yuhdontstop's lush…
β¨ Read this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Essays,Books,Culture π‘ Key idea: CIne Erpenbeck wrote the pieces collected in this compact but diverse book for a column in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Published in German in 2009, it now appears in an English translation by Kurt Pilz, following the huge success of Erpenbeck's novel Kairos, which won the 2024 International Booker Prize.It is interesting and instructive to consider what German newspaper readers made of this column in the early years of the new millennium, nearly two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. While…
β¨ Discover this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,Television & radio,Culture π‘ Hereβs what youβll learn: Father issues9.35pm, BBC OneThe sweet father-daughter comedy between Amy Lou Wood and David Morrissey returns, and they're now joined by baby Sadie. Gemma (Wood) grapples with motherhood and daydreams about dating again, while dealing with the transition of her previously estranged mother Davina (Jill Halfpenny). Eager to be a grandfather, Malcolm (Morrissey) goes to extreme lengths to help her get rid of his ex. Holly RichardsonBack to heaven8pm, BBC OneThe classic locked-room mystery trope gets a youthful twist in…
β¨ Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,Alexander SkarsgΓ₯rd,LGBTQ+ rights,Culture π‘ Main takeaway: HAri Melling knows the secret to being a good shoe licker. βYou want to give a proper, satisfying, sexy lick,β says the 36-year-old actor, who has the eyes and nose tones of Nicholas Lyndhurst. βOnce you get to the toe cap, you want to make sure you can feel your tongue through the skin.βMelling, who is barely recognizable from his childhood role as the hapless Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films, learned this new skill while preparing for the award-winning…
π Check out this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Far right,Music,UK news,Culture,SinΓ©ad O'Connor,Tommy Robinson,Ireland β
Key idea: The UK and Ireland are entering a "dark time", according to singer Joy Crooks, who said the influence of far-right ideology on mainstream politics was similar to what happened in the 1970s when the National Front was at its peak.Crooks, who has just played two sold-out shows at the O2 Academy in Brixton, said the recent wave of nationalism and a far-right march through central London in September had made her feel unsafe in the UK."She said: "I'm…
π₯ Discover this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Classical music,Culture,Music,Ludwig van Beethoven,VΓkingur Γlafsson π‘ Hereβs what youβll learn: DVΓkingur Γlafsson tends to follow the herd and record Beethoven's last three piano sonatas as a work piece, and he has chosen to circle one of them, No. 30 in E major, Op 109, and locate it in a musical timeline that reflects the composer's past and the Viennese environment of the early 18th century.Artwork for Opus 109. Photo: Deutsche GrammophonFor Olfsson, looking back means turning to Bach, whose musical fingerprints he discovered all over Beethoven. He…
β¨ Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Classical music,Culture,Music,City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra β
Main takeaway: SEpilius and Shostakovich shared a gift for lyrical storytelling, lending cohesion to this evening of musical narratives in Symphony Hall, from the light-hearted myths and legends of Finland to the customary pronouncements of the Soviet composer's final symphony.Osmo Vanska has decades of experience regarding Sibelius, so it was no surprise that these meticulous interpretations felt lived-in. But what was striking was the way the Finnish conductor extracted the pioneering qualities in some of the more traditional works. This…
π Check out this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Fiction,Books,Culture π Main takeaway: HIn the middle of Liars, the story of a new relationship that turns into marriage, a neighbor asks our heroine, Jane: βWhy are you with him?β It's a question that has been on the listener's mind for a while.Jane's partner, John, lies about his feelings, his financial situation, where he is going, and where he has been. He's messy, lazy, resentful, entitled to get drunk and spend money he doesn't have. At the beginning of their marriage, Jane's career as a writer…
