Helen Barrett

Nov 20, 2024 | thespectator.com | Cindy Yu |Helen Barrett |Gavin Mortimer |Freddy Gray

Jose Ibarra, the “sick, twisted and evil coward” who was accused of murdering Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, was convicted on all counts and sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole, with an additional twenty-seven years tacked on. “She fought for her life in dignity, and to save herself from being brutally raped,” Riley’s mother said. Ibarra, who is reported to be a member of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, “showed no regard for Laken and human life.

Nov 20, 2024 | thespectator.com | Cindy Yu |Helen Barrett |Sean Rayment |Ian Williams

Overnight, dozens of influential figures in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement were sentenced to lengthy terms under the fiercest application of the city’s national security law so far.

Nov 20, 2024 | thespectator.com | Helen Barrett |Sean Rayment |Ben Domenech |Thomas Lambert

At the Pacific Design Center Gallery in Los Angeles, artists have created an imaginary enormo-conurbation into which humanity’s billions have been herded, surrendering what’s left of the planet to wilderness. Views of Planet City, the resulting temporary exhibition, is all Blade Runner-esque, purple-neon cityscapes in miniature, VR games and costumes melding world cultures into one. The show riffs on Edward O.

Aug 17, 2024 | thespectator.com | Helen Barrett |Freddy Gray |Olivia Potts |Tessa Dunlop

On Frank Zappa’s first date with Gail Sloatman, he blew his nose on her skirt. As acts of territory-marking go, it’s hard to imagine something more equivocal. But Gail, a 20-year-old secretary at Los Angeles’s Whisky a Go Go club, must have read it as love. She built her life around the musician, composer and “rock’s most committed iconoclast,” as his New York Times obituary described him, for 27 years, until his death from prostate cancer in 1993, aged 52.

Aug 14, 2024 | spectator.com.au | Helen Barrett

Earth to Moon: A Memoir White Rabbit, pp.368, 22 On Frank Zappa’s first date with Gail Sloatman, he blew his nose on her skirt. As acts of territory-marking go, it’s hard to imagine something more equivocal. But Gail, a 20-year-old secretary at Los Angeles’s Whisky a Go Go club, must have read it as love.