Rachel Whiteread at Tate Britain review: A wonderful collection of objects that find beauty in the everyday September 14, 2017 If we could all find someone to look at us the way Rachel Whiteread looks at an empty loo roll, the world would be a happier place. Few artists find quiet beauty in everyday things like she does. While her contemporaries like Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin were creating sculptures filled with live flies or [...]
Mother! film review: Darren Aronofsky’s brutal new film is as dark as it is hilarious September 14, 2017 Nobody who’s seen Requiem for a Dream or Black Swan expects an easy ride from Darren Aronofsky, but his latest film still manages to blindside you, setting up what first appears to be a gentle farce before sucker-punching you with some of the most gleefully heinous imagery you’re likely to see this year. It follows [...]
Fitness advice: Why building a “cheat day” into your regime could be bad news for your waistline September 12, 2017 If you’re one of the millions of people trying unsuccessfully to lose fat, your problem could boil down to two little words: cheat day. A “cheat day”, or “cheat meal” as it’s sometimes called, is where people on a training program allow themselves a period where they can eat whatever they want. Being healthy [...]
Want some of the best Chinese food in the world? Go to Taiwan September 8, 2017 Seeking the best in Chinese food and culture, but feeling pressed for time? Skip the mainland and get it all in one place. Go to Taipei. In 1949, after years of civil war, the nationalist forces of the Kuomintang withdrew to an island in the South China Sea, leaving the communists in control of the [...]
Follies review: Five stars for this masterful production of Stephen Sondheim’s love letter to the Broadway revue September 7, 2017 “I’m just a Broadway Baby/Walking off my tired feet/Pounding 42nd street/To be in a show…” sings Hattie in Follies, Stephen Sondheim’s love letter to the Broadway revue. Yet this show isn’t about starstruck youths dreaming of their name in lights, but the far more fascinating lives of ageing stars and what happens to them when [...]
Lost for words: The indie bookshop has weathered many storms, from the rise of Amazon to rising rents. But its future has never looked so perilous September 7, 2017 Prospero’s Books stood on Crouch End Broadway for 10 years. I remember it, though not well. The bookshops of my childhood memories are all vaguely similar – they were places where I’d be both happy and bored. To hear locals tell it, there wasn’t any sign that Prospero’s was in trouble. It seemed to plod [...]
It 2017 film review: New version of the Stephen King classic starring Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the killer clown buckles under the weight of expectation September 7, 2017 Tim Curry made such a lasting impression as Pennywise in the 1990 version of Stephen King’s It that it’s easy to forget what a terrible, steaming heap of garbage the rest of it was. The made-for-TV miniseries was a clown-car of a show, with pieces falling off left, right and centre – awful pacing, bad [...]
Could the secret to a long and healthy life be hidden in a remote part of Costa Rica? We set out to meet the tribespeople who live beyond 100 years old September 5, 2017 The town hall in Nicoya, western Costa Rica, is one of the few colonial buildings left in the country. Given that the town was about to host a “congress of international centenarians”, it seemed like a good place to start my investigations into longevity. Unfortunately, no-one in the building seemed to know anything about it. [...]
Focus On Streatham: Where house price growth is nearly 9 per cent year-on-year, twice the London average September 4, 2017 If you have an SW postcode, think of yourself as one of the lucky ones. The average home in south west London now costs over £1m and it’s long been home to some of the most expensive streets in the country. But there is a way to live in an SW postcode without being a [...]
From food and hotels, to where to find the best jenever, here’s our guide to the perfect long weekend in Antwerp August 18, 2017 Antwerp is the largest city in Flanders and a cultural Pandora’s box. It’s home to the largest diamond district in the world, whose official language of trade was Yiddish until the 1930s. It is also in this city that the printing trade was invented, and where artist Sir Peter Paul Rubens lived and worked for [...]