6 h. ago Rufus Wainwright on music, politics and life: ‘Creativity helps to fend off the darker angels’

Next month, the musician releases a cover album of songs by his hero Kurt Weill. He talks to Jude Rogers about life under Trump, hanging out with Marianne Faithfull and why he’ll never criticise Britain over Brexit again

Politics

8 d. ago 'Culture Is Political': London Electronic Music Festival Cancels Israeli DJ's Set

'Culture Is Political': London Electronic Music Festival Cancels Israeli DJ's Set  Haaretz

Politics

2 w. ago Postures: Jean Rhys in the Modern World review – sex, squalor and jungle sweat for an eternal outsider

Michael Werner Gallery, LondonArtists as varied as Sarah Lucas, Gwen John and Georg Baselitz are called upon by critic-curator Hilton Als to chime with the writer of Wide Sargasso SeaJean Rhys was a perpetual outsider. Born Welsh and Creole into largely black Dominican society in 1890, she was out of place everywhere – too foreign for Europe, too Caribbean for Britain, too white for Dominica, and much too female to be taken seriously as a writer for most of her lifetime.But her literary influence continues to grow and resonate, especially with American critic and curator Hilton Als. His group show is a heady, passionate, experimental love letter to Jean Rhys – to her literature, her in-betweenness, her life of unbound creativity in a postcolonial world – in the vein of his previous exhibitions-as-portraits of Joan Didion and James Baldwin. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago 9 ways to introduce Dulux 2026 Colours of the Year – Rhythm of Blues

This trio of jazzy blues will add depth and drama to your dcor, says Sam Wylie-Harris.

Politics

2 w. ago ‘He should be known as a film music revolutionary’: revitalising the legacy of Czech composer Zdeněk Liška

The electroacoustic pioneer scored dozens of pictures – and communist propaganda. Too successful to be persecuted by the politburo but largely forgotten when he died, his music is being revived by a new archival seriesZdeněk Liška became one of the eastern bloc’s pioneers of electroacoustic music by accident. After breaking through making music for ads and animations, the revolutionary film-makers of the 1960s Czechoslovak new wave asked him to soundtrack their movies, which he took as his greatest inspirations. With the help of radio engineering enthusiasts at Czechoslovakia’s film powerhouse, Barrandov Studios, he could imitate the whoosh of a spaceship or birds chirping. He composed underwater electroacoustic symphonies and music to be played on typewriters. Despite his innovations, he famously proclaimed: “I only write music under the pictures.”Liška was as productive as he was innovative: from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, he would score eight feature films a year, as well ...

Culture

3 w. ago Solo review – joyful yet heartbreaking story of drag artist consumed by toxic relationships

Théodore Pellerin is outstanding as Simon, a performer navigating a bullying boyfriend and a distant mother in Sophie Dupuis’s sad and celebratory filmThéodore Pellerin is a star, and director Sophie Dupuis knows it. In their third film together, the rising Canadian actor is at once magnetic and utterly heartbreaking as Simon, a young gay artist honing a budding career as a drag queen. At night, he transforms into Glory Gore, a glittery vision dressed in exquisite costumes that have been lovingly designed by his sister Maude (Alice Moreault). Off stage, Simon is much less self-assured, despite his swagger. An unexpected visit from his absent mother Claire (Anne-Marie Cadieux), along with a toxic romance with fellow drag performer Olivier (Félix Maritaud), soon throw this sensitive soul into an emotional whirlpool.Dupuis’s astute writing keenly conveys the paradox of falling for a narcissistic manipulator. At first glance Olivier is a perfect creative and life partner, but soon whitt...

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