Cappuccino Culture

Lost poem in the Lost City

Olivia Cole — , 20 Nov 2009 17:24:51 GMT

Who painted over Waterloo’s best loved work of public art? Ten years ago, poet and art critic Sue Hubbard, was commissioned by the Poetry Society and the BFI to decorate the tunnel that leads from Waterloo to the Imax cinema. She duly did so with a poem about Eurydice, the mythical heroine imprisoned underground in the underworld. This was very apt as commuters made their way through the tunnel, and suddenly emerged into the light.

On passing by recently, Hubbard was understandably upset to discover that the mosaics of her words have been]]>

The Eighth Wonder of the World

Peter Hoskin — , 20 Nov 2009 13:28:59 GMT

Brother, can you spare me £150,000? You see, I'm not normally too fussed about film memorabilia – but this is different. It's the one of the original models of King Kong, its fur and flesh long since worn away, which Willis O'Brien conjured into life for the 1933 film. And it goes on sale at Christie's today.

More seriously, I hope that, whoever the eventual buyer is, this Kong ends up in a museum. He is an immortal part of film history and deserves a kinder public stage than the one he]]>

Dylan does Christmas, badly

David Blackburn — , 19 Nov 2009 17:59:38 GMT

I love Bob Dylan. He is, quite simply, the greatest lyricist of the 20th Century, and recent efforts such as Modern Times and the eighth instalment of his Bootleg Series prove that he’s still got it and remains committed to re-inventing himself musically.

Even a genius can over do re-invention and end up looking loopy rather than outré and edgy. Dylan’s latest offering, Christmas In The Heart, has received mixed to bad reviews. The snippet I heard on the Today programme didn’t exactly inspire confidence – grizzled crooning to Hark the Herald Angel Sing]]>

Good God! I was right about something

David Blackburn — , 19 Nov 2009 17:18:40 GMT

The Thick of It is more than just a comedy; it’s defining the political lexicon. In this afternoon’s Queen Speech debate (quite how our esteemed representatives can spend two days debating seven minutes worth of platitudes is beyond me), the Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, described the Tories’ shambolic health policies as an ‘omnishambles’ - very ‘hip’ phraseology stolen from an Armando Ianucci penned Malcolm Tucker rant.

Life imitating art? Or art imitating life? Neither. Back in August, I critiqued a Burnham op-ed in the Guardian, concluding that the content was so preposterous that]]>

Moaning and groaning

David Blackburn — , 18 Nov 2009 18:37:33 GMT

At last, Philip Roth will receive recognition for his epic contribution to modern literature – he is the favourite to win the Bad Sex Awards.

The ‘Forget the Bookers’, as Ian McEwan titles them, were instituted by Auberon Waugh in 1993 “gently to dissuade” authors from including “unnecessary, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant passages of a sexual nature in otherwise sound literary novels”.

Like his deceased compatriot John Updike, Philip Roth has forged a career by describing the in and outs of wham, bam, thank you mam. ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’, ‘The Human Stain’ and ‘American Pastoral’]]>

Strange-eyed constellations

David Blackburn — , 18 Nov 2009 18:34:31 GMT

‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,’ opined Keats at the opening of Endymion. On the evidence of Jane Campion’s ‘Bright Star’, this was a precept, along with venturing into the dank cold without an overcoat, about which Keats was unquestionably wrong. Campion’s film is beautiful. As Deborah Ross puts it, ‘Campion’s eye for detail and nature and light is fantastic’. But, the joy of this vision lasts barely an hour, let alone the eternity of the full 120 minutes.

This film of the chaste romance between Keats and Fanny Brawne is]]>

The crown jewels

David Blackburn — , 17 Nov 2009 19:08:18 GMT

The break up of the BBC is, along with tax, death and toothache, now one of life’s inevitabilities. The man behind the Conservatives’ plan is Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary, and in today’s Telegraph, Andrew Pierce adds to the clamour for Hunt to demolish Reith’s monolith:

‘He revealed that he is determined to take on the BBC monolith, which threatens the survival of regional television, radio, and newspapers to the detriment of the local communities they serve. He is proposing a "Big Bang" of deregulation of the rules surrounding media

]]>

Islam does a Dylan

David Blackburn — , 17 Nov 2009 17:45:40 GMT

Hardly the return he was hoping for after a 33 year absence from the stage. The artist formerly known as Kat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, was booed, and outraged fans stormed out of last night’s gig at the Dublin O2. The reason? The indignant crowd wanted to hear non-stop renditions of Kat’s classics. Their desire was fulfilled for half an hour, but then Islam introduced some new material – a preview of his forthcoming musical, ‘Moonshadow’. Sound familiar? Islam himself said: “Now I know what Dylan felt like.” What fortitude. Dylan called]]>

Long live The Little Master

David Blackburn — , 16 Nov 2009 14:39:46 GMT

The closest thing we have to a national religion is the NHS; in India, cricket is the national religion and Sachin Tendulkar is highest among its pantheon. He has now played international cricket in its most intense environment for twenty years.

Tendulkar’s genius is to discipline his batting to the needs of his team. “That’s the way I play,” has a different meaning to Tendulkar than when used by other batsman. Every great batsman plays a handful of innings that defy the context of the match or their natural instincts. Tailoring an innings to]]>