For eons, Britain has lived and died by the sea. Cut off from mainland Europe by the English channel and from the West by the Atlantic Ocean, the sea has been both a treasure trove for the Brits, supplying them with food, trade roots, and, more recently, oil, while providing them with a strategic moat that defended them from ... Read More »
Category Archives: Blog
This is Why You’re Fat, The “Last Supper” Edition
It’s no secret (or Papal conspiracy for that matter) that, on the whole, humankind is slowly evolving from the slim figure of the Vitruvian Man into something more resembling Homer Simpson. Yes, many people on this earth still live in Medieval conditions with bony, underfed bodies to match. But looking around the more familiar backdrops of, say, modern Rome ... Read More »
T-Shirt Hunting at SXSW, Quentin’s Clapper, and Hogwarts Destroyed
Visitors seem to be handing the naked bodies and other attendant weirdness of Mariana Abramovic’s MoMA retrospective quite well, thank you. (NYT) British Airways cabin crews staged a walkout this Sunday to protest pay and working conditions, causing havoc at Gatwick and Heathrow. Workers plan to strike again Saturday the 27th. Plan accordingly. (USA Today) Forget band ... Read More »
WORD Up: We Invite You to A Night of Music, Books and Booze in Brooklyn
That’s right, three of our favorite things in one of our favorite places—Wednesday night at Greenpoint’s WORD bookstore will play host to our ‘Russian Night’, a celebration of all things east of the iron curtain. First off, we’ll hear from our own Laurel Maury, the author of the “From Russia With Luxe” chapter of our well-recieved “FILM + TRAVEL: ... Read More »
Venice’s Newest Museum is Also One of Its Oldest
According to a fascinating article in today’s New York Times, one of the first true museums ever, the Palazzo Grimani, is now one of Europe’s newest exhibition spaces as the 500+-year-old structure reopens to the public after a century and a half of disuse and a nine year restoration. Read More »
Caravaggio CSI Update: With Samples Headed to The Lab, We Enter The Penultimate Chapter
Yes, the mystery of Caravaggio’s death is reaching its semi-exciting climax as blood drawn from likely decedents of the chiaroscuro painter with the rock-star reputation are even now being compared to DNA samples taken from bones found in the ossuary underneath the church at Porto Ercole on the Tuscan coast, commonly believed his last resting place. And where did ... Read More »
90-Minute Tours: Trips to Italy, North Korea, and Stockholm at Weekend Box Office
Ok, we’re going to go out on a limb here and assume that if you’re reading this—or if you can read in general—you won’t be spending your hard-earned money on obvious stinkers like “The Bounty Hunter” or “Repo Man” in your off hours. Instead, we’ve got a fine list of smaller films, all of varying quality, that offer brief ... Read More »
Just Que It: Casting News Has Us Digging Through Netflix for Jazz Biopics
Rock star lives have long been grist for the Hollywood movie mill—“The Doors”, “The Buddy Holly Story”, “The Runaways”. Even fictional rock stars and real bluesmen have ruled the multiplex at various times (“The Rose”, “Ray”). But for some odd reason, biopics of jazz greats haven’t quite become a successful category onto their own. Sure, we’ve had a few ... Read More »