By: Steve Dinneen

Life&Style Editor I'm the editor of City A.M. The Magazine, and editor of the daily newspaper's Life&Style section. We cover food, wine, going out, culture, technology and travel. I'm also the head judge of our Toast the City awards that celebrates hospitality in the Square Mile. Find me on X @steve_dinneen

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Vault Festival reports record year but still hangs in balance after eviction

March 24, 2023

Vault Festival has reported a record-breaking year as it prepares to be turfed out of its decade-long home by its landlord. The second largest arts festival in the UK after the Edinburgh Fringe welcomed more than 81,000 guests over the eight-week festival, with over 4,000 artists performing in the space beneath Waterloo Station and the [...]
Turandot at the ROH: Stunning production can’t mask a problematic opera

March 23, 2023

The operatic canon offers many examples of the spectacular being mingled with the problematic. In this respect, Puccini is a regular offender. Despite many of his operas representing the very pinnacle of classical music, there is no denying the blatant orientalism present in the heart-breaking Madam Butterfly. This even tarnishes his last opera, the magnificently [...]
John Wick Chapter 4 review: More of the same bubblegum violence

March 23, 2023

You could make a strong case for John Wick being a satire. The first movie took the tropes of an action movie – a relentless, taciturn hero reluctantly dragged back into the underworld, motivated by his love for a dead/kidnapped family member – and reduced them to absurdity by making the trigger for his triple-figure [...]
How Succession became the must-watch TV show of the decade

March 23, 2023

The first episode of Succession, aired all the way back in June 2018, only hints at the Shakespearian epic that would follow. On first watch it seemed a little goofy: Kendall rapping along to the Beastie Boys in the back of his car; cousin Greg puking from behind the eyes of a fairground mascot. It’s [...]
You have been ordering McDonald’s fries wrong your whole life

March 21, 2023

Life is full of mysteries, such as how to reconcile quantum mechanics with the general theory of relativity, or how a person can attend a party and simultaneously be unaware that a party is taking place. These are, to quote Donald Rumsfeld, known unknowns. But there are other mysteries lurking in plain sight, strange phenomena [...]
Cork is the drinking-man’s city break a short hop from London

March 21, 2023

There’s a video doing the rounds of Cillian Murphy being asked where’s the best city to go drinking. Without hesitating he replies ‘Cork’. Filled with rickety old pubs that seem to grow organically from the city’s architecture, like some alcoholic Hogwarts, it’s ideal for a weekend of enthusiastic bar-hopping. Getting there With Cork’s airport a [...]
Scream VI review: Slasher sequel hits the spot, but only briefly

March 16, 2023

Scream VI begins with a familiar refrain: a phone ringing. It then continues a familiar refrain, rehashing the same plot points, characterisation, and exact conversations from the previous five instalments. The original Wes Craven film was a genuine masterpiece, repositioning the lumbering slasher movie as a smart, self-referential pop-culture touchstone that would spawn a thousand [...]
Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey review: No pot of honey

March 15, 2023

For characters in classic literature, there is nothing more frightening than the spectre of the Public Domain. After 95 years, admittedly a not unenviable lifetime, works of fiction are no longer protected by copyright, meaning it’s open season for whoever wants to publish, adapt, borrow from or utterly pervert a piece of fiction, no matter [...]
Women Beware the Devil at the Almeida is a bafflingly bad production

March 2, 2023

A bad production at the Almeida is a rarity, all the more so when it’s directed by Rupert Goold. But modern morality tale Women Beware the Devil is bafflingly ill-pitched and dangerously undercooked. It opens with satan introducing himself to the audience, lamenting that people don’t believe in evil like they used to – so [...]
All the best new gadgets from the first day of MWC

March 1, 2023

Once a year the great and good of the mobile technology world gather at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona to show off their most futuristic and unlikely creations. The goal: to convince the world they see the direction of travel of consumer technology in an increasingly unpredictable world. In the past we’ve seen such [...]

Buy now, pay later providers set for £3bn hit in ‘regulatory reset’

Jonathan Barnett: Gareth Bale’s former agent denies ‘sex slave’ claims in full

Bar of the week: Why Three Sheets is a little slice of old Soho

By: Steve Dinneen

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