‘An American tragedy’
There are no words... so read this - and weep. 'An American tragedy': David Remnick for The New Yorker - and for the rest of us.
There are no words... so read this - and weep. 'An American tragedy': David Remnick for The New Yorker - and for the rest of us.
A song for today. 'The greatest song ever written about America... and what's so great about it is, it gets right to the heart of what our country is supposed to be about." Live at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, 30 September, more
Yesterday's Observer carried a loving profile by Kate Kellaway of the writer John Berger. Berger's 90th birthday is this coming Saturday, and Kate Kellaway catches something of the achievement and significance of his life when she writes: Critic, novelist, poet, dramatist, artist, commentator more
Last Thursday I was at the British Library for a fascinating conference titled Radio Modernisms: Features, Cultures and the BBC (the conference programme is here, along with abstracts and biographies). Organised by my University of Westminster colleagues Amanda Wrigley more
Something is happening here, with Donald Trump, and no-one really knows what it is. These are four important and truly, truly scary Stateside articles that begin to make sense of it: • Democracies end when they are too democratic: Andrew Sullivan on more
Each day I try to highlight just three things. Sometimes there are connections between the three things, oftentimes there are not. • The River - a new authenticity: a very fine essay by Ian Christie for Criterion on Jean Renoir's more
A time there was when I would post a list of links on a Sunday morning, but over the past week I have been experimenting with a new approach by which I highlight just three things each day. Even collectively, more
Wednesday morning, and to kill time I'm wandering around Stratford-upon-Avon. Oxfam Books is - as ever - alluring, and I make for the modest Film and Television section. Not that my shelves at home (or indeed the floors) have any more more
I have been reading the late Tony Richardson's memoir Long Distance Runner. (I know I promised a Julius Caesar update, but that waits on a RSC press release - tomorrow, I hope.) It is not clear whether Richardson's more
BFI Video has this week released Jack Hazan's 1974 feature about David Hockney and his circle, A Bigger Splash. Available as a dual format DVD and Blu-ray, this fascinating and complex film has never looked better, more