Monthly Archives: January 2013

An idyllic beachcomber snap by Brazilian singer-songwriter Celso Fonseca. (And a perfect match for his glorious ode to joy…) Just the thing for those of us who want to pretend it’s not winter.

An extract from the Worms Mahzor, a prayer book of 1272 which contains the oldest known complete Yiddish sentence.  The words –  blessing whoever carries the heavy volume into the synagogue in the Rhineland city – are written in the … Continue reading →

After reading Ian Jack’s impressions of a gruelling two-and-three-quarter hours in the cinema, I’m even more sure I don’t need to see “Django Unchained”:  [T]he subjects Tarantino finds consistently exciting are people being murdered, people screaming in pain, people begging … Continue reading →

My favourite shot from photographer Ahmad Masood’s report on India’s Maha Kumbh Mela, “one of the biggest gatherings of people on earth”. PS: And here’s a gallery of Masood’s pictures from a rock festival in the unlikely setting of Afghanistan, the country … Continue reading →

Amidst all the hoop-la surrounding his re-emergence, it’s worth sampling Standpoint’s 2008 essay on the Thin White Duke’s flirtation with the Far Right. Did he mean it, or was he just playing games? And so the pop star goes on … Continue reading →

[Chainsawsuit via @inigagah]

Some of the culturati are not happy about the new Louvre museum in unfashionable Lens. Lunettes rouges disagrees.

Perfect, I’d say. Jazz pianist Jacky Terrasson delivers a less-is-more version of Serge Gainsbourg’s “La Javanaise”.  I love the pay-off at the very end: “That’s it, man, that’s it.”

“Selection committees may at this stage decide to see no women, no bachelors, no men over fifty,  or whatever it may be…”  Some things have changed for the better, but the Old Etonians certainly haven’t faded away. Political Quarterly digs … Continue reading →

From Atlantic Wire’s live blog of today’s ceremony. The magazine also points out that it was “the first time a major party losing candidate hasn’t attended the inauguration since 1989”.