The future of home entertainment May 14, 2009 WHAT started with gramophones and wax records is going through its next great change. Media servers are the units with whopping hard drives onto which you can condense your music and film collections. They’ve been around for a bit, but only now are improved user interfaces and more streamlined designs making them a serious option [...]
CITY CURRY LOVERS EMPTY THEIR POCKETS FOR UK WAR VETERANS May 14, 2009 NOSHING down on a good curry is one of the best ways to relieve City stress (just ask chancellor Alistair Darling, who famously thrashed out the details of his mammoth £500bn bank bailout plan over an Indian takeaway back in October). So it should come as no surprise that Lord Mayor Ian Luder decided to [...]
FTSE 100 nudges higher as banks start to look oversold May 14, 2009 THE FTSE 100 edged up by 0.7 per cent yesterday, snapping a three-day losing run, with gains in banks and miners offsetting weakness in oil producers hurt by weaker crude prices. The index closed 31.21 points higher at 4,362.58 in a choppy session. “It still looks too early to predict the end of this two [...]
Technology shares give Dow a boost May 14, 2009 US STOCKS rose last night as investors returned to financial and technology shares on bets the recent rally could have more room to grow after a brief pullback. Volume, however, was light, a possible indication of a lack of broad conviction. Technology gains were led by big-cap tech and semiconductor companies after five straight days [...]
Church of Nonsense May 14, 2009 ANGELS & DEMONSCert: 12ATHIS tediously dull follow up to the tediously dull Da Vinci Code was the highest-profile victim of the Hollywood writers’ strike last year, becoming substantially delayed as a result. However, it gives the impression of not having been written by professionals at all. Instead, the dialogue consists almost entirely of lumbering exposition. [...]
NOW SHOWING FIVE OF THE BEST May 14, 2009 FILM: Let the Right One In: Swedish film-maker Tomas Alfredson weaves friendship, rejection and loyalty into a disturbing vampire movie that’s one of the stand-out movies of 2009. OPERA: Peter Grimes at the ENO: Premiered in 1945, Britten’s masterpiece concerns an anti-hero outsider in a fishing village. An eagerly awaited new production by David Alden. [...]
OUT THIS WEEKEND PREVIEWS May 14, 2009 FILMFIGHTING Tough as old boots movie about bare-knuckle boxing in New York. VIVA Peculiarly kitsch drama about suburban sexual-awakening in 50s America. FRENCH FILM Incompetent Brit rom-com, with a bizarre cameo from Eric Cantona. DVDFROST/NIXON Michael Sheen and Frank Langella star in the adaptation of Peter Morgan’s play. DEFIANCE World War II drama with Daniel Craig [...]
Froth and love in a wonderful, light romance May 14, 2009 OperaL’ELISIR D’AMORERoyal Opera HouseA PERFECT springtime opera, L’Elisir D’Amore is pure Italian frivolity. Played out to the tune of Donizetti’s jaunty but sporadically beautiful score, the opera – revived here at Covent Garden for the first time, with Laurent Pelly’s spritely production setting the action set in contemporary rural Italy – revolves around a dopey village boy [...]
Froth and love in a wonderful, light romance May 14, 2009 TheatreDUET FOR ONEVaudeville TheatreDUET for One provides us with what must be one of the West End’s most poignant performances in recent times, in the shape of Juliet Stevenson’s musician whose career has been curtailed by multiple sclerosis. It is a masterclass in control, nuance and subtle physicality, without ever seeming anything other than entirely [...]
MPS: CITY STILL DOESN’T GET IT May 14, 2009 THE CITY launched a counter-offensive against MPs yesterday, after the Treasury select committee criticised Lord Adair Turner’s review of regulatory reform and cast doubt on Sir David Walker’s suitability to lead a review of corporate governance in the banking sector. The influential group of MPs concluded in its report on the role of remuneration in the [...]
