Original Since 1976

Lily Allen - 22 I love (love) pretty much everything about this...

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:07:49 +0100

Lily Allen - 22

I love (love) pretty much everything about this video, though I spent the first minute wondering why there were urinals in the ladies’ loo. After which I refocussed on Lily’s eye makeup and got my priorities straight.

The Public Editor on the meritocracisation of the NYT wedding pages

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:08:55 +0100

The Public Editor on the meritocracisation of the NYT wedding pages: I may have made up that word, but you get the idea. That couple from the other week, the former addicts, apparently sparked reader outrage. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised; still, it’s incredible the things people get het up about.

Manchester

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:04:58 +0100

Manchester

"Brüno” ends appallingly, with a musical montage of Sting, Bono, Elton John, and other well-meaners..."

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:37:21 +0100

““Brüno” ends appallingly, with a musical montage of Sting, Bono, Elton John, and other well-meaners assisting mein Host in a sing-along. Here’s the deal, apparently: if celebrities aren’t famous enough for your liking (Ron Paul, Paula Abdul), or seem insufficiently schooled in irony, you make vicious sport of them, but if they’re A-listers, insanely keen to be in on the joke, they can join your congregation. Would Baron Cohen dare to adopt a fresh disguise and trap Sting in some outlandish folly, or is he now too close a friend? To scour the world for little people you can taunt, and then pal up with the hip and rich: that is not an advisable path for any comic to pursue, let alone one as sharp and mercurial as Baron Cohen. All his genius, at present, is going into publicity, and, in the buildup to this film’s release, he has not put a foot wrong—or, in the case of Eminem, a buttock. But the work itself turns out to be flat and foolish, bereft of Borat’s good cheer: wholly unsuitable for children, yet propelled by a nagging puerility that will appeal only to those in the vortex of puberty, or to adults who have failed to progress beyond it. Call it, at best, a gaudy celebration of free speech, though be advised: before my screening, I had to sign a form requiring me “not to blog, Twitter or Facebook thoughts about the film before 6th July 2009.” A guy pulls down his pants and bares his soul, and we are forbidden to have thoughts? What is this, the Anschluss?”

- Anthony Lane, Mein Camp

I think this review is what you might call scathing.

Popjustice: What did you actually want the Sugababes single to sound like?

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:37:03 +0100

Popjustice: What did you actually want the Sugababes single to sound like?: Short answer: not like that rubbish.

perpetua: Alphabeat“Nothing But My Baby”It really pains me to...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:58:53 +0100

perpetua:

Alphabeat
“Nothing But My Baby”

It really pains me to think of the re-recorded/rearranged version of this song on the UK version of this album. What could possess a band to so totally ruin a perfect tune? This is so charming, so sweet, so right on. I hope that when the band make another album, they stick with the good instincts that resulted in the original Danish version of their debut.

I have on fairly good authority that for their next record, they’re looking to late-80s/early-90s Eurodance acts like Snap! and Culture Beat for inspiration. So that should be interesting.

The Maccabees and the Dudworth Colliery Band: Can You Give It?

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:50:40 +0100

The Maccabees and the Dudworth Colliery Band: Can You Give It?:

Saw them tonight at Rough Trade East, doing a launch gig for this single. The album is easily one of my favourites of the year.

Maccabees at Rough Trade East [Flickr]

5500 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:09:11 PDT

5500 posted a photo:

Maccabees at Rough Trade East [Flickr]

5500 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:07:48 PDT

5500 posted a photo:

Joel Ely - New Year Painting, 2009 This is now mine.

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:53:00 +0100

Joel Ely - New Year Painting, 2009

This is now mine.

"I can’t imagine Oscar Wilde having scripted the little family dialogue that occurred after the first..."

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:03:31 +0100

“

I can’t imagine Oscar Wilde having scripted the little family dialogue that occurred after the first act of the Ruby in the Dust interpretation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Written and directed by Linnie Reedman, the play was staged in a tiny underground chamber below Leicester Square, which was tricked up to look like a Victorian opium den, the kind where damned Dorian went to pursue unspeakable vices. So I was somewhat surprised when an American family of four, including a boy who couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7, descended to their seats. At the end of the first act, the child looked bewildered.

Boy: “But I don’t see the point.”

Father: “The message is that you must be very careful in choosing your friends … And that homosexuals care too much about their appearance.”

These solemn dictums were still ringing in my ears when I stepped out of the subterranean darkness of the theater and into the sunshine of Leicester Square. Suddenly, I found myself amid shoulder-to-shoulder throngs of happy, sweaty, disheveled-looking people under a sky thick with pink and purple balloons. No one had taken much trouble with his appearance, or if he had, such attentions had been undone by the effects of a summer afternoon’s revelry. Not that anybody cared at that point. The festivities of Gay Pride Day in London had been going on all day.

”

- Ben Brantley: Postcard From London: Audience as Sideshow

I love following Ben Brantley’s account of his annual month here.

An abridgement of Britney Spears Saved My Life, which aired on...

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:31:39 +0100

An abridgement of Britney Spears Saved My Life, which aired on BBC3 last night. You only get a vague sense of the obsessiveness of some of the people chronicled (there’s no footage of the ‘If You Seek Amy’ tattoo being drawn, for instance), but you do get some of the tears and the ‘I’ve got God here…but then I’ve got Britney here’ line, and that’s probably enough.

(video via fourfour, natch)

WNYC - The Leonard Lopate Show: What Went Wrong (July 06, 2009)

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:11:55 +0100

WNYC - The Leonard Lopate Show: What Went Wrong (July 06, 2009): I finally read the Purdum Palin article today. It was not surprising, but it was rather shocking. After, I wondered what Purdum would say about the resignation; I didn’t have to wait too long to find out.

Face Hunter: COPENHAGEN - twins, nørreport, 07/06/09 AMAZING.

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:03:38 +0100

Face Hunter: COPENHAGEN - twins, nørreport, 07/06/09

AMAZING.

Killers Royal Albert Hall, SW7

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:20:33 +0100

Killers Royal Albert Hall, SW7

(via katiebakes:fek)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:08:15 +0100

(via katiebakes:fek)

"The writer Russell T Davies breathed new life into Doctor Who and created two spin-off series,..."

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:54:00 +0100

“The writer Russell T Davies breathed new life into Doctor Who and created two spin-off series, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Now, a series of Torchwood dramas are to be broadcast on Radio 4. As he prepares to cut his ties with the Doctor and head for the States, he looks back on the success of his creations and ahead to the new five-part TV series of Torchwood.”

- BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Front Row, 29/06/2009

I’m embarrassed to admit that I only just learnt/realised that ‘torchwood’ is an anagram of ‘doctor who’. How did I not know this? (Don’t answer that.)

At any rate, after skipping most of series 2, I think I’m going to revisit the programme when it transmits this week. If only cos it’s such a long time till the next Who specials, and I miss it so much.

"I get people being frightened of me. One time I did this photo shoot where I had hairy armpits — I..."

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:17:45 +0100

“I get people being frightened of me. One time I did this photo shoot where I had hairy armpits — I was really digging it, but they were like, ‘We’ll airbrush that out.’”

- Natasha Khan

The other day I got home from working a 15-hour day, and it just so happened that Bat for Lashes at the Roundhouse (supported by Yeasayer) had gone on-sale that morning. Buying a ticket made me remember why I remain in employment.

The O2, SE10

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:25:27 +0100

The O2, SE10

The Gadsdens - The Sailor Song This was shown on the main stage...

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:45:22 +0100

The Gadsdens - The Sailor Song

This was shown on the main stage screens at Glastonbury as the Greenpeace, Oxfam and WaterAid awareness video.

Which is all very well and good. But the cool bit is the music is by my friend Jody’s band. Sounds great; looks amazing.

Compton Street, W1

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:42:56 +0100

Compton Street, W1

Blur, Hyde Park (night 2, 3rd July)

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:20:48 +0100

Blur, Hyde Park (night 2, 3rd July)

IMG_0480 [Flickr]

5500 — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:02:23 PDT

5500 posted a photo:

IMG_0489 [Flickr]

5500 — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:02:15 PDT

5500 posted a photo:

Links for 2009-04-15 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 PDT

[NYT] Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, a Pioneer of Gay Studies and a Literary Theorist, Dies at 58 - Obituary (Obit)

P1040090 [Flickr]

5500 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:43:33 PDT

5500 posted a photo:

Links for 2009-01-15 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:00:00 PST

[Time Out] London's 70 best unsung museums
Alongside the V&A, Science, Natural History and British Museums, the capital has a host of smaller, lesser-known collections. Here's our guide to London's best secret museums

Links for 2009-01-12 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:00 PST

[Slate] The top 25 Bushisms of all time. - By Jacob Weisberg
What follows is a list of my 25 favorites. There were many to choose from, but in my opinion, the greatest Bushism of all was delivered on Aug. 5, 2004, when the president declared: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Links for 2009-01-06 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 PST

[Times] Of course Tintin's gay. Ask Snowy
His adventures have sold more than 200 million copies and been translated into 50 languages, and this weekend he celebrates his 80th birthday. But how well do we really know Tintin? One thing's for certain...

Links for 2009-01-05 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 PST

[Bitch] Bite Me! (Or Don't)
Stephenie Meyer’s vampire-infested Twilight series has created a new YA genre: abstinence porn

Links for 2008-11-28 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:00:00 PST

[LRB] Short Cuts
'The Tipping Point is written in clear, readable prose and tells some engaging stories to advance the somewhat bland thesis that little things can make a big difference, and that this is true whether you’re talking about the fall in crime in New York City in the 1990s or the simultaneous (though unconnected, so far as anyone knows) rise in popularity of Hush Puppies.'
[Telegraph] The Turner Prize 2008: Sister Wendy and the froth of the new
'The big autumn exhibitions in the capital have reignited the debate as to the direction of contemporary art. There has been the opening of the new Saatchi Gallery, the display, at the Tate Britain, of works by the four artists on the shortlist for the Turner Prize (the winner will be announced on Monday), and, over at the Tate Modern, a retrospective on one of the 20th century's most celebrated artists, Mark Rothko. Sister Wendy has come to see what all the fuss is about.'

Links for 2008-11-11 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 PST

[MSNBC] Olbermann: Gay marriage is a question of love
Too bad the No on Prop 8 people didn't frame the choice in terms a bit closer to this