When we meet 22-year-old Cal (short for John-Calum), he’s on the verge of giving up. Just months out of art school in Edinburgh, he has failed to thrive and has been summoned home by his ruggedly handsome, permanently angry father, John, a weaver, farmer and thunderingly severe Calvinist deacon who tends a flock of 26…
Realism, contrary to appearances, isn’t a form closed off to horror. The stories in ’Pemi Aguda’s debut collection, Ghostroots, a finalist for the 2024 US National Book award, rivetingly bore out this fact. Neither strictly realistic nor wholly supernatural, they seized on ordinary events pulsing with sinister possibility: a mother distraught at her inability to…
As Wordsworth found in Paris after 1789, revolutions are deeply enthralling. There is nothing so bold, so self-sacrificing, so brave, so cruel as a revolutionary crowd. What’s more, revolutions have shaped the modern world. The European Union has been transformed by the overthrow of Marxism-Leninism in eastern Europe, while the near-revolution in Tiananmen Square in 1989 feeds…
Between streaming and cable, viewers have a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that are airing or streaming this week, May 4-10. Details and times are subject to change. Pick your terror If you were in high school anytime from the 1960s onward, it’s likely…
“Bring Your Love,” Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter‘s new song release, tops this week’s best new music poll. Listeners voted in a poll published Friday (May 1) on Billboard, choosing the superstar team-up as their favorite music release this week. “Bring Your Love” rose to the top in a week that also delivered new music from Zara Larsson,…
East London venue Troxy has announced it will increase its capacity to 3,600 as part of a major transformation project. The Grade II-listed Art Deco building in Stepney has been in business in various forms since 1933, initially serving as a cinema. In 2006, it was converted into a space for live music and events, and now it is set to…
Back when Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving global tour was announced last summer, a month before the album’s release itself, you’d be forgiven for thinking some of the venue choices were punchy. Prior to this run, Dean’s biggest show in the capital had been at London’s 3,500 capacity Eventim Apollo, and debut album Messy…
Seymour Bernstein, an acclaimed pianist who struggled to overcome a stage fright so severe that he cut short his performing career and shifted into teaching and composing, died on Thursday in Damariscotta, Maine. He was 99. His death, at an assisted-living facility, was confirmed by Bill Finizio, a friend. In the 1950s, when he was…
The City of Brotherly Love enjoys first round success in NBA and NHL playoffs, but it forces the E Street Band to reroute their Land of Hope and Dreams Tour The Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers both advanced to the second round of their respective playoffs Saturday, but those victories have come at a price: Bruce…
Shindig Festival, which has Bob Vylan headlining this year, is to have its licence reviewed over “disorder and public safety” concerns. The event is scheduled to take place at Charlton Park in Wiltshire from May 21 to 24, but its licence to operate on the premises will be reconsidered just three days before it starts after…
