From the vicious spiel of celebrity blogging stars like Perez Hilton to the underground waves produced by those touting the latest in lovable indie starlets, there’s no doubting that these days, popular blogs and their musical tastes can be considered a scene. Not only are record labels happily shipping album after album to the more popular pontificators in the hope ... Read More »
Category Archives: Blog
As Folkwang Reopens, Europe’s Oldest Contemporary Arts Museum Is Suddenly Its Newest
There was a long, snaking line of children, little old ladies, and art lovers of all ages as The Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany reopened earlier this week after a three-year restoration and expansion project whose design was spearheaded by British architect, David Chipperfield. The little old ladies and kids were, of course, just the right crowd to help ... Read More »
Bob Thompson’s Reissued “The Sound of Speed” Offers a Lovingly Literal Soundtrack To Your Travels
Through our “Music + Travel” guides and music-related posts here on the blog, we’re used to connecting sound and travel in ways that bring you the best in emerging and longstanding scenes from all around the world. Well, the reissuing of famed conceptual pop composer Bob Thompson’s “The Sound of Speed” wraps all that up for us in a ... Read More »
The Beatles Go To University: Oxford Offers Course on Fab Four
Education vacations are nothing new. Universities from Padua to Princeton offer short-form courses for youths looking to experience learning abroad as well as lifelong students just looking for a little didactic fun. But a new, tuneful twist comes courtesy of the “Oxford Experience”—a continuing education service at the ancient English university that offers crumpet-sized samplings of their lecture-and-tutorial based ... Read More »
Celebrate Caravaggio’s 400th With A Roman Wine Tour
Yes, it’s been 400 years since the infamous Italian artist and party boy Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio left this world under shadowy circumstances. To toast the life and death of Rome’s rock star of chiaroscuro, the Scuderie del Quirinale is offering up a look back at his work and influence in an exhibition starting on the 20th of this month. ... Read More »
Five Fun Pro-Football Films For Your Super Bowl Pre-Game
“Rudy”, “The Longest Yard”, “Friday Night Lights”—cinema has a library full of collegiate and prison football films worth a spin. But, for some reason, Hollywood just cannot make a decent, realistic, grind-it-out pro-football movie. “Any Given Sunday”? Please. Even though the movies have yet to capture the heady excitement of the Super Bowl on film (and the fact that ... Read More »
Elephant Man and Major Lazer Give Beyoncé’s “Halo” Jamaican Boost Via London and Philly
Were you, like us, tuning in and out of the Grammys last night? Yes, we know, you had better things to do. Of the many special (and many more not-so-special) moments you missed was Houston’s own Beyoncé Knowles breaking out of “If I Were a Boy” for a verse and chorus of “You Oughta Know”, the 1995 hit by ... Read More »
“Goya’s Ghosts”: Tracing War, Torture, and Intolerance Through The Painter’s Spain
There’s not a whole lot of Goya in “Goya’s Ghosts”, the 2006 movie by detail-oriented, lush filmmaker Milos Foreman. Religious persecution, Dickensian plot twists, and Natalie Portman’s tears, sure. But in this wholly fictitious tale played out in a true-to-life historical setting, Stellan Sarsgård as the great painter of violence and intolerance is more of concerned observer as the ... Read More »
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