Vanities is a hilarious musical comedy charting the life journeys of three cheerleaders September 8, 2016 Vanities is a musical comedy that follows the fate of three childhood friends, from their days as boundlessly energetic cheerleaders in a Dallas high school in the mid-1960s to their lives as three very different adult women. Mary, Joanne and Kathy each have their own clear aspirations for the future, but shared among them is [...]
It’s not that I want horses to die for my entertainment, but Ben Hur would have benefited from at least one horse being in mortal danger during filming September 8, 2016 Ben Hur (1959) is an epic historical drama about a Jewish prince sent into slavery after some shoddy tiling fell on a centurion and made him look a right tit in front his garrison. Condemned to row himself to death aboard a Roman galley, he eventually wins his freedom and returns to his home country [...]
How Instagram and other social media sites are writing a new chapter in the history of street photography September 7, 2016 "Look: phone, phone, phone – they’re all just looking at their phones.” For a roving street photographer like Ronya Galka, capturing Londoners’ candid moments has got a lot harder since our social lives moved online. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg; like the publishing and music industries, photography has been put through a [...]
Our resident chef Mark Hix on why we should make the most of our British plums September 6, 2016 I'm a bit fed up with seeing rock hard, imported plums on sale in supermarkets. What’s the point? They sit in the fruit bowl taking ages to ripen, then they go off after a few days. What’s wrong with our home grown plums? We grow plenty of varieties here, from the well-known Victoria to the [...]
Levison Wood: The real-life Indiana Jones tells us his travel reading list September 6, 2016 British explorer Levison Wood has walked the length of the Nile, the world’s longest river, journeyed along the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range; and this year he embarks on an ambitious new project to the Americas. He has two best-selling books, two hit TV series and several acclaimed photography exhibitions under his belt. Along [...]
The Maserati GranTurismo isn’t without its problems, but learn how to treat it and this Italian beast is one hell of a drive September 6, 2016 I got a few weird looks unloading my soiled wellies from the back of a Maserati as I checked into Monaco’s Hermitage Hotel. Where on earth had I been, the valet must have thought. Some 48 hours earlier I was ankle deep in what Uncle Monty would have described as “beastly mud and oomska” at [...]
My Inspiration: How a childhood Judge Dredd geek bought the rights to the character September 6, 2016 Jason Kingsley OBE on Judge Dredd: How a publisher and games developer came to own the character that inspired him as a child Back in 1977 I bought the very first issue of 2000AD, a comic book in which the only part Judge Dredd ap- pears is in a brief teaser for the second issue. Dredd’s [...]
My Inspiration: Architect Richard Found on his love of painter Barry Reigate September 6, 2016 Award-winning architect Richard Found talks about his unlikely love affair with the chaos and colour in the paintings of Barry Reigate This painting is by an artist called Barry Reigate, whose work could be described as a cross between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Banksy. A lot of his material is black and white but this one [...]
Captain Fantastic review: Viggo Mortensen road-trip movie can’t rescue depressingly cliched indie effort September 6, 2016 Captain Fantastic hints at a fresh take on the American indie movie, but lapses disappointingly into a series of cliched genre tropes dressed up with pretty lens flare. We meet the Cash family – father Ben and his six children aged from eight to 18 – as they stalk a deer through lush woodland, killing [...]
As more and more airlines launch new routes to Iran, this increasingly open country is fast becoming a popular tourist destination September 2, 2016 T he Islamic Republic of Iran is a destination rarely found near the top of travellers’ bucket lists. It is, after all, ruled over by a strict theocracy, one in which police patrol shopping malls to enforce a mandatory dress code, and social media continues to be blocked across the country. Yet in the cities, [...]
