CULTURE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyeyp-b_u-A Amer­i­can is a tricky word. It can refer to every­one and every­thing of or per­tain­ing to all the coun­tries of North Amer­i­ca — and poten­tial­ly South Amer­i­ca as well — but it’s com­mon­ly used with spe­cif­ic regard to the...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C78HBp-Youk We all know the man­child Mozart of Milos Forman’s 1984 biopic Amadeus. As embod­ied by a man­ic, bray­ing Thomas Hulce, the pre­co­cious and haunt­ed com­pos­er sup­pos­ed­ly loved noth­ing more than scan­dal­iz­ing, amus­ing, or exas­per­at­ing friends and ene­mies alike with...

As an exer­cise draw a com­po­si­tion of fear or sad­ness, or great sor­row, quite sim­ply, do not both­er about details now, but in a few lines tell your sto­ry. Then show it to any one of your friends, or fam­i­ly,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKmbd5MjicM With Hal­loween just days away, many of us are even now ready­ing a scary movie or two to watch on the night itself. If you’re still unde­cid­ed about your own Hal­loween view­ing mate­r­i­al, allow us to sug­gest The Shin­ing,...

Vladimir Putin’s favourite exhibition, laconically called ‘Russia’, took centre stage in Moscow’s cultural scene from November 2023 to July 2024. Located in VDNKh, a 325-hectare exhibition and recreation complex built in 1939 during the Stalin era to showcase Soviet economic,...

In the grad­u­ate depart­ment where I once taught fresh­men and sopho­mores the rudi­ments of col­lege Eng­lish, it became com­mon prac­tice to include Shakespeare’s Titus Andron­i­cus on many an Intro to Lit syl­labus, along with a view­ing of Julie Taymor’s flam­boy­ant film...

In 1949, George Orwell received a curi­ous let­ter from his for­mer high school French teacher. Orwell had just pub­lished his ground­break­ing book Nine­teen Eighty-Four, which received glow­ing reviews from just about every cor­ner of the Eng­lish-speak­ing world. His French teacher,...

Lake George Reflec­tion (cir­ca 1921) via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons What comes to mind when you think of Geor­gia O’Keeffe? Bleached skulls in the desert? Aer­i­al views of clouds, almost car­toon­ish in their puffi­ness? Volup­tuous flow­ers (freight­ed with an erot­ic charge the artist...

One of my very first acts as a new New York­er many years ago was to make the jour­ney across three bor­oughs to Wood­lawn Ceme­tery in the Bronx. My pur­pose: a pil­grim­age to Her­man Melville’s grave. I came not to...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjo3l2hFkoQ If you’ve made the jour­ney to Athens, you prob­a­bly took the time to vis­it its most pop­u­lar tourist attrac­tion, the Acrop­o­lis. On that mon­u­ment-rich hill, you more than like­ly paid spe­cial atten­tion to the Parthenon, the ancient tem­ple ded­i­cat­ed...