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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Mathew Lyons |Christopher Sandford |Octavia Sheepshanks |Amelia Butler-Gallie
Fans of that beloved British cultural institution Doctor Who are wont to talk about “their” doctor — that is, which iteration of the character was their entry point to the franchise. The same might be said of fans of Neil Innes, the much-loved songwriter, musician and comedian who died in 2019, aged seventy-five.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Amelia Butler-Gallie |Alexander Larman |Philip Hensher |Ian Sansom
Atop the Almaden Tower in downtown San Jose — the world headquarters of Adobe Systems Inc. — sits a singular art installation. Four amber wheels rotate every few seconds in a seemingly innocuous and frankly nonsensical digital display. The installation, known as the “San Jose Semaphore,” is the brainchild of the data-driven media artist Ben Rubin and first appeared — or began transmitting — in August 2006 to the mass bamboozlement of passersby. What was going on, they cried?
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Dec 25, 2024 | 
thecritic.co.uk | Amelia Butler-Gallie
This article is taken from the December-January 2025 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10. In September, two cities in Germany took part in a peculiar bet. Greifswald, a once-bustling trade centre on the Baltic coast, laid down the gauntlet to Dresden: which of their respective marketplaces could gather the most people together dressed in Romantic-era costumes?
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Jonathan Spyer |Matthew Lynn |Charlie Gammell |Amelia Butler-Gallie
Nothing is yet confirmed, but it appears that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah is imminent. The fighting, which began on October 8 last year, has claimed thousands of lives and left the Israel-Lebanon border area decimated on both sides. But there is anger that Israel is rushing into an agreement that will not keep those who live near to the Lebanese border safe.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Owen Matthews |Rod Liddle |Freddy Gray |Amelia Butler-Gallie
With just over sixty days left in office, Joe Biden’s White House has significantly escalated the Ukraine war it had tried so hard to contain by authorizing the use of US-supplied medium-range ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) and antipersonnel mines against targets inside Russia.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Rod Liddle |Freddy Gray |Amelia Butler-Gallie |Garrett Moore
Grade: D+Ah, the original Linkin Park, except even more spavined. MC5 came outta Detroit in the mid 1960s and their shrieking blues metal ur-punk was afforded unnecessary respect because of their agitprop politics. Sucking up to the Black Panthers and running a bit foul of the law can do wonders for a slightly below-average blues band whose songs had energy and attitude — but nothing else.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Amelia Butler-Gallie |Freddy Gray |Garrett Moore |Ben Domenech
“I have been instructed to tell you that what you are proposing is entirely impossible. Nevertheless, in Iran, even the totally impossible becomes possible at times.” Such was the mysterious riddle that confronted the English art dealer Oliver Hoare as he sat across from an Iranian contact in Paris in 1992. He had just presented a madcap plan: to reunite the state of Iran with one of its most prized but long-lost manuscripts.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Freddy Gray |Amelia Butler-Gallie |Garrett Moore |Ben Domenech
Welcome to the United States of Disruption. From his “Winter White House” in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Donald Trump has been busy lobbing hand-grenade cabinet appointments in the direction of Washington and watching on happily as each one blows up in a variety of stunning ways. Explosiveness is the point. “Personnel is policy,” Trump’s transition team like to tell reporters with a wink.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Amelia Butler-Gallie |Alexandra Bregman |Gareth Roberts |Melanie McDonagh
In theaters November 1What happens when the director, writer and stars of Forrest Gump get together in 2024? A goosebump-inducing story of family, time, space, home and the enduring nature of love. The “Here” in question is taken from the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, which tells the story of a location through generations and eras, transcending time. Director Robert Zemeckis plays on the panel-frames of graphic literature by employing a fixed camera angle throughout the film.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Amelia Butler-Gallie |Deborah Ross |Nat Segnit |Laura Allsop
Sound the alarm: hypermasc beefcakes all over the world have an anniversary to celebrate! Beware women, children and the effete, this year marks the twenty-fifth birthday of both David Fincher’s notorious psychodrama Fight Club, adapted from the debut novel by Chuck Palahniuk, and Sam Mendes’s equally notorious American Beauty, which has gone from Oscar-winning acclaim to being a punchline on chat shows and animated comedies alike. If you haven’t seen Fight Club, shame on you.
