Andrei Konchalovsky: Im very glad I failed in Hollywood | Movies

 Posted on May 5, 2024  |  8 minutes  |  1637 words  |  Barrett Giampaolo

MoviesInterviewAndrei Konchalovsky: ‘I’m very glad I failed in Hollywood’Andrew PulverThe Russian director is back in the spotlight with the Bafta-nominated Dear Comrades! Now 83, Konchalovsky raises a cocktail glass and celebrates his freedom to call the shots It’s night-time in Moscow, and as Andrei Konchalovsky is settling on the sofa in his apartment, an unearthly howling fills the air. Could this be the wailing of some Russian banshee arisen to stalk the earth for all eternity? [Read More]

Brigitte Nielsen on giving birth at 54: I was trying until there were no embryos left | Brigit

 Posted on May 5, 2024  |  9 minutes  |  1888 words  |  Christie Applegate

Brigitte NielsenInterviewBrigitte Nielsen on giving birth at 54: ‘I was trying until there were no embryos left’Amy NicholsonThe model and actor talks about her films, marriage to Sylvester Stallone, the devastation of failed IVF, and the benefits of being a mother later in life In a restaurant on the Sunset Strip, a beaming Brigitte Nielsen pulls out her phone to show me a video of a dark-haired baby girl. This is Frida, the child Nielsen and her husband, Mattia Dessi, had last year, after more than a decade of failed in-vitro fertilisation attempts. [Read More]

Go home: Honduran islanders fight against crypto colonialists

 Posted on May 5, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1190 words  |  Merlyn Hunt

HondurasThe battle over land rights and sovereignty on the island of Roatán has galvanized the whole country Straight ahead of Wilford Webster’s hilltop home, waves break over the turquoise waters that surround the reefs offshore. “Look at this,” he said, his arms framing the panorama. “Who wouldn’t want this?” Sweet as a nut: Hondurans fight drought and poverty with cashewsRead moreTo the left, is the community of Crawfish Rock, a few hundred people of mostly English-speaking Black Caribbean descent who live in raised, wood-slat homes on ancestral land. [Read More]

Rereading: Memento Mori by Muriel Spark

 Posted on May 5, 2024  |  8 minutes  |  1559 words  |  Delta Gatti

RereadingBooksMuriel Spark's novel may be about the various physical and mental afflictions of old age, but far from being depressing or morbid, it is a wonderfully funny and exhilarating read, argues David Lodge'Memento Mori remains one of the great novels of the 1950s," Martin Stannard says in his excellent biography, Muriel Spark (2009), and indeed it does. But it was not a typical 50s novel, and it has not dated. Perhaps the only period-specific detail that would require annotation for younger readers is that cars parked in the streets at night in those days were obliged to have side and rear lights switched on. [Read More]

Top ten nursery rhymes | Education

 Posted on May 5, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  485 words  |  Brenda Moya

Top ten nursery rhymes Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Booktrust asked 2,500 poeple to name their favourite nursery rhyme. All together now ... here are the top 10 Tue 6 Oct 2009 11.35 BST First published on Tue 6 Oct 2009 11.35 BST Hickory dickory dock! The mouse ran up the clock; The clock struck one, The mouse ran down, Hickory, Dickory, Dock! [Read More]

Your earlobes are thick and chewy, like barnacle meat! Successions all-time best zingers

 Posted on May 5, 2024  |  8 minutes  |  1540 words  |  Barrett Giampaolo

SuccessionFrom sweary nicknames to sarcastic putdowns, the Roys have cornered the market in sick burns. Here are 40 of the best – but which is your favourite? One of the chief pleasures of Succession is how the scripts are stuffed to the staples with quotable insults, savage putdowns and sick, sick burns. And no wonder. Showrunner Jesse Armstrong cut his teeth in comedy: he co-created cult sitcom Peep Show, and collaborated with Armando Iannucci on The Thick of It, with Chris Morris on Four Lions and with Charlie Brooker on Black Mirror. [Read More]

Meet Minion Yellow by Pantone: the world's first character-branded colour

 Posted on May 4, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  733 words  |  Brenda Moya

DesignFor the first time, Pantone has created a colour as a movie marketing stunt. But don’t be taken in by the cartoon cuteness – this is a tyrannical move If you weren’t happy with the quality of yellowness afforded by Buttercup or Daffodil, and if Canary or Bumblebee just didn’t cut the mustard, help is at hand. Pantone has just invented a new shade, designed to exude “hope, joy and optimism”. [Read More]

Murder charge after human-like bones found in burnt tree trunk in NSW | Australia news

 Posted on May 4, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  546 words  |  Merlyn Hunt

Australia news This article is more than 2 months oldMurder charge after human-like bones found in burnt tree trunk in NSWThis article is more than 2 months oldA 33-year-old was arrested and charged in Maroubra over the alleged murder of convicted killer David Collisson Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast A man has been charged with the murder of missing man David Collison, but the spotlight is now firmly on those who allegedly helped him dispose of the body. [Read More]

Pretty in Pink: the Psychedelic Furs on how they made a pop classic

 Posted on May 4, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  866 words  |  Christie Applegate

How we madeIndie‘The title means someone who’s naked. It’s not about someone wearing pink. So the film had nothing to do with what the song was about. It made it trite’ Richard Butler, singer, songwriterThe Psychedelic Furs were very chaotic when we started. Often we were very drunk, and the whole scene was a bit chaotic. You could get on stage and make whatever noise you wanted. When we played the Roxy, in London, we had a vacuum cleaner in the lineup, which sounded awful, but people seemed to like us and kept coming back. [Read More]

So This Is Permanence review JoyDivisions lyrics and notebooks

 Posted on May 4, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  668 words  |  Brenda Moya

Nicholas Lezard's choiceMusic booksReviewThis book of Ian Curtis’s notes and crossings out, edited by Deborah Curtis and Jon Savage, is a fascinating companion to his haunting songsThis big, beautiful, austere book, a totemic artefact, is of a piece with every other officially sanctioned Joy Division product: a visual counterpart to their sound, which was otherworldly and intimate, a hitherto unheard mixture of haunting melody and metallic clash. It contains not quite all the band’s lyrics (seven songs are missing, says the editorial note, but I make it more), printed as sung on the recto, with pages from singer and songwriter Ian Curtis’s notebooks reproduced on the verso. [Read More]