CULTURE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA Michael Jack­son’s Thriller is the best-sell­ing album of all time, and not by a par­tic­u­lar­ly slim mar­gin. The most recent fig­ures have it reg­is­tered at 51.3 mil­lion copies, as against the 31.2 mil­lion notched by the run­ner up, AC/DC’s Back...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSq4FNuW6GY Of the many read­ings and adap­ta­tions of Edgar Allan Poe’s clas­sic moody-broody poem “The Raven,” none is more fun than The Simp­sons’, in which Lisa Simpson’s intro tran­si­tions into the read­ing voice of James Earl Jones and the slap­stick...

The launch press conference for the 2025 Berlin Biennale, at the Sophiensäle in the city’s Mitte district, was filled to capacity. First to speak was Katarzyna Wielgow-Skolimowska, artistic director of Germany’s Federal Cultural Foundation, for many years a principal supporter...

Apart from cer­tain stretch­es of absence, Leonar­do’s Mona Lisa has been on dis­play at the Lou­vre for 228 years and count­ing. Though cre­at­ed by an Ital­ian in Italy, the paint­ing has long since been a part of French cul­ture. At some point,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a9VxRevIsY To many long­time fans, there are — at the very least — two Pink Floyds. The first is the rock band that in 1965 took the name the Pink Floyd Sound, an inven­tion of its newest mem­ber Syd Bar­rett....

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,...