Vacation time
The enduring popularity of the Vacation series reflects not just the American appetite for travel, but also that old American virtue of gung-ho optimism
Culture
Sunday
Wednesday
The last American video store
Video killed the video store
Along came Bill Evans
No matter his personal woes, Evans almost always vouchsafed his listeners something not merely to dig but to cherish
Monday
Meet the Medici at the Met
Bad politics often make good art. That’s especially true when the art is tasked with making sense of political senselessness
Sunday
Take a trip with Hawkwind
Hawkwind played notes from underground, but they had a global influence
Friday
A film festival fiasco in Narrowsburg, New York
Castellano and Castaldo descended upon Narrowsburg with a gust of wind, declaring that they would open an acting school, start a film festival and make it ‘the Sundance of the East’
Korean film has mastered the supernatural horror genre
For those of us who have followed Korean film for many years, the triumph of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden or the living-dead series Kingdom on Netflix came as no surprise
Cousteau was the boulevardier of the oceans
For Cousteau, scientific investigation, combined with the potential for good image-making, presented an unavoidable hazard to sea life
Tuesday
I’m turning Japanese
In the Eighties, Japan had prosperity, optimism, loads of bizarre porn and the solace of technological gadgetry
Monday
Dark knight of cool
Poor Chet Baker. He really was born to be blue
Pictures at an exhibition
As he collects nearly two decades of essays and criticism, Marco Grassi recalls a life in the art world
Sundance memories
Robert Redford’s film festival goes virtual
Wednesday
Picking Apple
There probably is something here for everyone. But maybe only one thing
Wednesday
Here’s looking at you, Kid
One hundred years on from the seminal Chaplin flick
Tuesday
Eyes wide open
Frederic Raphael wrote the script for Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Now he writes a personal letter to the director’s shade
Ridley’s game
Raised by Wolves reviewed
Monday
Boys will be boys
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Wednesday
Old Masters, new look
The Met has cleaned up its act
Confessions of a hype artist
Where there’s pop, there’s hype — and there’s nothing wrong with that
Friday
The joy of listening to old pianists
As he gets older, Barenboim has become more and more keen on recording Beethoven sonatas in front of audiences
Songs of freedom
Remain unmoved to the songs on Lifeline and you’re made of much sterner stuff
Tuesday
Bridgerton to nowhere
The storyline is Jane Austen with all the plot and nuance and character sophistication removed
Sunday
The king is dead
It’s like rock ’n’ roll never happened
Saturday
Lullaby in Birdland
Life is still a cabaret
Friday
Peake practice
An artist with the soul of a pirate
Tuesday
Heroine problem
Female antiheroines — at last
Sunday
Hungry like the rabbit
Eighty years ago, Bugs Bunny first launched himself on an unsuspecting Elmer J. Fudd
Wednesday
Charles Brown’s Christmas
’Tis the season for collectible vinyl
It’s good for your elf
A history both naughty and nice