Who’s Afraid of Music?
“Against music – for architecture”, proclaimed Salvador Dalí in his 1942 autobiography, a statement that received frustratingly little elaboration from the surrealist. Dalí was an outspoken and often self-contradictory man, for whom shock was often the desired response to his statements. How
The First Last Words of Fyodor Dostoevsky
“ ‘It was just a minute before the execution,’ began the prince, readily, carried away by the recollection and evidently forgetting everything else in a moment, ‘just at the instant when he stepped off the ladder on to the scaffold. He happened to look in my direction: I saw his eyes and und
The Athletic Artistry of Wrestling
Philosopher and essayist Roland Barthes likened it to the theatre of antiquity and the plays of Racine and Molière. Record producer Rick Rubin called it “storytelling taken to the next level”. To someone with little or limited knowledge of it, it might at first appear odd to hear poeti
In Conversation With: Bob Boilen, Founder of Tiny Desk Concerts
“It is very difficult indeed to go anywhere in the world … where people haven’t heard about and watched Tiny Desk Concerts. This is the very definition of a global phenomenon”, read a note to staff from NPR earlier this year. The series of musical performances behind an NPR office des
Alone in the House
No, I hadn’t left the downstairs light on. Had I? I hang a few paces outside my doorway. Before this I was stewing in my bedroom. I could have been doing a million other things than rolling around on my bed, intermittently swapping phone, book and laptop between my hands, wondering if this was wha
Icon of the Week: Peter Sutton, Artistic Director of the Jesus College Shakespeare Project
Peter Sutton is Jesus College’s Alumni Engagement Manager and the artistic director of the Jesus College Shakespeare Project [JCSP], which aims to stage all of Shakespeare’s plays, one per term, finishing in Hilary Term 2034. To widen access to Shakespeare and drama, the Project also brings in s
Do I Drink Enough Beer for the AfD?
As political tensions rise in my native Germany, I can’t help but feel a sense of helplessness. Gone are the days when I could comfortably look down upon the UK for its messy politics and the strength of its far right. With the conservative CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and right-wing AfD (Alte
What Do You Do With Your Last Day At Home?
Who do you see? There’s so much pressure to say goodbye to people; you might not see them for 6 months, for a year. Some of them are staying behind; some of them are flying even further away. What do you eat? Will I miss aloo parathas or dosas more? How can I decide? What […]