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Culture notes: The glory of the Flaming Lips

25 May 2013

Man, I love the Flaming Lips. Psychedelic rock sublimity. They movingly address the deepest human concerns without a whiff of irony, while also seeing the point of confetti cannons, dancing… Read more

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The stamp of quality – Terence Stamp at the BFI

18 May 2013

If ever a director’s decision to cast an actor based solely on looks could be excused, it would be Pier Paolo Pasolini’s choice of Terence Stamp for the lead in… Read more

Still from George Romero's 'Knightriders' (1981)

Knightriders on DVD

11 May 2013

A knight and his lady awaken, naked in the forest. She pins up her embroidered gown while he begins his ablutions in a pond. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! He plants a… Read more

Todhead-Point

The two sides of painter Joan Eardley

4 May 2013

There were two Joan Eardleys, according to a new biography of the Scottish painter by Christopher Andreae. There was ‘the tender and gentle Joan’, as revealed by her bosom friend… Read more

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Trading places

27 April 2013

The Philippines: An Archipelago of Exchange at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris (until 24 July) brings together an impressive range of objects that demonstrate the fluidity of ideas and… Read more

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Champion of the people

20 April 2013

Welsh miners, Basque child refugees (above), Tyneside shipbuilders, Paul Robeson: In the Shadow of Tyranny at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (until 16 May) offers a compelling portrait of Britain… Read more

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The Hagen Quartet: Bracing Beethoven

13 April 2013

Established 32 years ago in Salzburg, the Hagen Quartet can fairly be described as venerable. It may be said equally fairly that brothers Lukas and Clemens Hagen, their sister Veronika,… Read more

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Weeknd’s world

6 April 2013

There was something vaguely disappointing about seeing Abel Tesfaye appear on stage at London’s Electric Ballroom. A wide-eyed, puffa-jacket-clad figure isn’t what you expect from his enigmatic alter-ego ‘The Weeknd’… Read more

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Caitlin Rose's The Stand-In: a fantastic album from a fantastic girl

30 March 2013

Caitlin Rose, Caitlin Rose, Caitlin Rose. I’d feel awkward admitting that I’m rather obsessed with this Nashville chanteuse, were it not for a mitigating truth: you should be, too. Her… Read more

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Sculpture trail

23 March 2013

William Turnbull died last year. And if his name is not as familiar as those of his friends Giacometti and Paolozzi, it should be: an exhibition at Chatsworth in Derbyshire… Read more

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Hayward Gallery's Light Show is intoxicating, disorientating, panic-inducing and hypnotic

16 March 2013

A room filled with glowing fog; shadowy figures among glittering LEDs and warm ‘breathing’ columns of light. Welcome to the trip that is Light Show (until 28 April), the Hayward… Read more

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The man behind Eric and Ernie

9 March 2013

It takes a special sort of talent to turn a good act into a great one, and without John Ammonds, who died last month, aged 88, it’s quite possible that… Read more

Pi

First Life of Pi, now Cloud Atlas. Why keep trying to film the unfilmable?

2 March 2013

Whenever the possibility of a film version of a difficult or complex book is mooted, speculation mounts about how it will be done. Usually at this point some dull spark… Read more

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Cult horror

23 February 2013

The Room is an awful film. Plot lines are picked up and forgotten in seconds, stock footage is repeated continuously, actors and names change without explanation, doors are never closed… Read more

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Kraftwerk at Tate Modern

16 February 2013

Quite what it was that was so spellbinding about a quartet of middle-aged German blokes in skintight bodysuits standing at neon-lit consoles is difficult to articulate. They didn’t even seem… Read more

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Hall of mirrors

9 February 2013

At first glance, Holy Motors is all about one astonishing performance — or several, depending on how you look at it. The performance in question is by Denis Lavant, who… Read more

Culture

Time Travel

2 February 2013

Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory, until 9 March) lets you escape the winter cold to a showbiz party in a Bel Air beach house. Still, despite its summery… Read more

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The shock of the old

26 January 2013

New Yorker music critic Alex Ross published The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century five years ago, earning himself the Guardian First Book Award and a finalist citation… Read more

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The making of a myth

19 January 2013

When John Kelly was transported from Tipperary to Tasmania in 1841, for stealing pigs, he couldn’t have imagined that 170 years later there’d be an exhibition of paintings of one… Read more

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Insomniac’s heaven

12 January 2013

If I wake up at too rude an hour to get up — before four o’clock, let’s say — Through the Night is my reward: I switch on the radio… Read more