New York
Patti Smith, The Dome, BrightonThursday, 13 September 2012
Patti Smith does not appear to change very much, visually. Her image is undoubtedly part of her appeal, especially in Brighton with its large lesbian population. She arrives on stage in pale blue jeans, a white shirt and a baggy cardy-style jacket,... Read more... |
Shut Up and Play the HitsTuesday, 04 September 2012
According to US television anchor Stephen Colbert, there are only three ways to end your career as a rock star: overdose, overstay your welcome or write Spiderman: The Musical. Rockers, he says, during a televised interview with LCD Soundsystem... Read more... |
Walk On By: Hal David, 1921–2012Sunday, 02 September 2012
The death of lyricist Hal David at 91 is a sad reminder that the golden age of a uniquely American approach to songwriting is getting further and further away. The Bacharach and David brand will last, as will classic songs like “Anyone Who Had a... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe: Alfie Moore/Eddie Pepitone/Claudia O'DohertyWednesday, 22 August 2012
Alfie Moore: I Predicted a Riot, Pleasance Courtyard **** There can't be many serving police officers doing stand-up comedy at the Fringe, so that makes Alfie Moore an unusual beast. Actually he's a one-off, a wonderfully engaging bloke in a... Read more... |
Person of Interest, Channel 5Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Created by Jonathan Nolan (brother of film director Christopher) and exec-produced by the workaholic JJ Abrams, Person of Interest seeks to accomplish the counter-intuitive feat of finding something to celebrate in our surveillance culture. We're... Read more... |
CD: Franz Nicolay - Do The StruggleWednesday, 01 August 2012
Describing the music of Franz Nicolay is a formidable task: it’s almost as easy to imagine the work of some of the bands he has loaned his considerable talents to in the past - most notably during his five years as a member of The Hold Steady - and... Read more... |
The Arts Desk Radio Show 6Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Welcome to another show, in which Joe guides us around some of the weirder, smokier corners of the broad church of hip hop, and discussion returns to how far genre can stretch and where originality can reside in a multi-channel, everything-available... Read more... |
Scissor Sisters and Carlinhos Brown, Tower of LondonMonday, 23 July 2012
“It’s the oldest building in England,” Ana Matronic said breathlessly. “We’re probably going to behead someone.” The Tower of London is an unlikely venue for the fizzy pop monster that is Scissor Sisters, who dedicated one song to Anne Boleyn. In... Read more... |
Art in Action, The Tanks, Tate ModernWednesday, 18 July 2012
You now have two choices when you roll down to the bottom of the Turbine Hall's slope. You can go left to the established Tate Modern collection of paintings and sculptures in white boxes, or right to a warren of performance and video art that fills... Read more... |
Sharon van Etten, Oran Mor, GlasgowFriday, 13 July 2012
It is sometimes hard to be enthused by midweek gigs. Last night was one of those occasions, at least for the 30 seconds I thought I was going to be watching most of the show on the iPhone screen of the six feet of beard that planked itself in front... Read more... |
DVD: LauraSunday, 08 July 2012
If not as ensnaring as Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, or Out of the Past, Otto Preminger’s urbane police procedural Laura is one of the best film noirs because it transcends the genre. It is an inverted women’s... Read more... |
Marina Abramovic: The Artist is PresentSaturday, 30 June 2012
For three months in the spring of 2010, New Yorkers were gripped by Abramovic fever. The mania owed its origins to a somewhat unlikely source – a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of a 63-year-old Serbian performance artist.... Read more... |
