Film: Ben Child 06:00pm Is The Golden Compass the perfect festive fantasy spectacular? Or has excising the anti-Catholic polemic removed the soul of the story?
Comments (5) ·
Music: Mark Hooper 05:00pm La Winehouse has got new ink - but maybe she should have researched it first. This could all end in tears
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Theatre: Chris Wiegand 04:30pm Where can you find a proper dose of double entendre-laden, cross-dressing Christmas spirit?
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Books: Rob Woodard 04:00pm Southern California has a short but relatively illustrious literary history. However, it seems to have more or less stopped in 1970
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Theatre: Mark Fisher 03:15pm Hollywood should forget the obvious choices and make more films from offbeat plays. Any suggestions?
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Music: Alan McGee 03:00pm Felt's deadpan frontman equally loved and loathed the cult superstardom he inhabited throughout the 80s
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Theatre: George Hunka 01:30pm Existing theatres can find my plays too experimental to risk showing, so I created my own
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Art: Jonathan Jones 12:45pm From France to South Africa, here are my top five rock painting sites. What are yours?
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TV & radio: Gareth McLean 12:45pm Who is the Cranford killer? What should you be watching tonight? Join my new daily blog for previews, reviews and a place to talk TV
Comments (7) ·
Film: David Thomson 12:30pm Despite lukewarm reviews, 10 years later the film is still the most profitable ever in cinemas
Comments (43) ·
TV & radio: Kate Bevan 11:00am Padding out new series with 'revisits' - or repeats - just short-changes the viewer
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Books: Carol Rumens 10:30am Today, a couple of cautious dips into the surging torrents of Walt Whitman's verse. Come on in
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Music: Peter Robinson 10:15am Thanks to X Factor, these days the festive No 1 has become something to sabotage, rather than strive for
Comments (42) ·
Film: Ronald Bergan 10:00am When it comes to opera, most movie buffs can't tell their Parsifal from their Butterfly
Comments (8) ·
Music: Mark Ravenhill 09:30am The Spice Girls are the ultimate tribute act - they're pretending to be themselves, 10 years ago
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TV & radio: Zoe Williams 08:45am It had mountains and big concepts, but This Is Civilisation would have worked better on radio
Comments (7) ·
Chris Wiegand Monday 10.12.07, 04:30pm
Where can you find a proper dose of double entendre-laden, cross-dressing Christmas spirit?
Comments (4) ·
David Thomson Monday 10.12.07, 12:30pm
Despite lukewarm reviews, 10 years later the film is still the most profitable ever in cinemas
Comments (43) ·
Gareth McLean Monday 10.12.07, 12:45pm
Who is the Cranford killer? What should you be watching tonight? Join my new daily blog for previews, reviews and a place to talk TV
Comments (7) ·
Jonathan Jones Monday 10.12.07, 12:45pm
From France to South Africa, here are my top five rock painting sites. What are yours?
Comments (4) ·
Ben Child Monday 10.12.07, 06:00pm
Is The Golden Compass the perfect festive fantasy spectacular? Or has excising the anti-Catholic polemic removed the soul of the story?
Comments (5) ·
Peter Robinson Monday 10.12.07, 10:15am
Thanks to X Factor, these days the festive No 1 has become something to sabotage, rather than strive for
Comments (42) ·
Carol Rumens Monday 10.12.07, 10:30am
Today, a couple of cautious dips into the surging torrents of Walt Whitman's verse. Come on in
Comments (10) ·
Kitty Empire Sunday 09.12.07, 06:00am
'Tis the season for predicting next year's big things: but does it really do music any favours?
Comments (18) ·
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I’m spending Tuesday afternoon at one of the free lunchtime concerts in St Martin-in-the-Fields – Beethoven piano trios, which will make me nostalgic for the cello-playing days of my youth – followed by a visit to the Photographic Portrait Prize exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. If I meet my writing deadlines, on Friday afternoon I’m going to reward myself with a matinee screening of Les Chansons d’Amour, which has Ludivine Sagnier, a star-crossed ménage a trois, and is a musical, so it’s got to be good.
Much as working from home has its perks, it can be a bit lonely. To keep me cheerful in the ‘office’, this week I’m listening to the back catalogues of my favourite Canadian indie artists – Sloan, Kaya Fraser, Stars, Malajube – and catching up on This American Life podcasts, which are kind of like the New Yorker, but in radio form.
On the literary front, I’m enjoying Francis Spufford’s meditations on youthful reading in The Child That Books Built: it has made me consider what I would have expended all of my energy on if I hadn’t been so obsessed with reading since I was quite small. Tap-dancing? Glassblowing? Football? I’m mystified. And I am loving the new issue of Bad Idea magazine, and not just because I sometimes write for it – it is both brilliant and beautiful.
My tip of the week: If you’re going to be in London between December 23 and 30, it's really worthwhile to sign up for a couple of days as a volunteer at the Crisis Open Christmas – I’ll be helping out at one of the centres before heading to Baltimore to see my family.
