Arts & Culture
Arts & Culture, Books, Features, Science - Friday, August 20, 2010 23:35 - 2 Comments
Decoding Reality: The Universe as Quantum Information
What is reality? Is the universe, ultimately, no more than bits of information? Physics, and Quantum Theory in particular, have grappled with the fundamental structure of nature's basic building blocks for decades, but the answers remain elusive. Quantum physicist and Ceasefire columnist Sebastian Meznaric takes a look at a new book on the topic and finds it full of intriguing and original insights.
Arts & Culture, Theatre - Thursday, August 19, 2010 0:04 - 0 Comments
Theatre: ‘The Duchess of Malfi’
"After seeing a man strangle a woman with a telephone cord he then dragged me into a room, locked the door behind us, he then sat me in a chair, took off my mask and stared into my face. I had actually paid for this experience, and this is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping would happen." Catherine Oshea reviews the 'Duchess of Malfi', the latest offering in 'immersive' theatre production
Arts & Culture, Features, Music & Dance, Profiles - Sunday, August 15, 2010 0:13 - 0 Comments
Culture Fix: Robert Chrisgau, doyen of US music critics, retires
After more than 40 years at the top of the music journalism game, Robert Christgau, formerly of the Village Voice and legendary author of the 'Consumer guide' series has this month announced his retirement from writing his weekly column. To mark this end of an era, academic and writer Donal Mac an Eala writes a moving tribute to a unique, encylopedically rich voice in music and cultural criticism.
Blogs, Books, Ceasefire Bites, Editor's Desk - Saturday, August 7, 2010 22:17 - 1 Comment
R.I.P. Tony Judt (1948-2010)
It's with great sadness that we've received news of Tony Judt's death.
This is, without a doubt, a loss of monumental scale for both the world of ideas and the fight for global social justice.Tony Judt was one of the most emnient historians of his generation. His status as master chronicler of post-war europe (Notably with his book, Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945, published in 2005) was well deserved and will surely continue to be appreciated for generations to come.
Features, Short Stories - Saturday, August 7, 2010 12:16 - 1 Comment
Short Story – “Bang crash splat”
In a new exclusive short story by Dave Prescott, a street musician is faced with an unusual audience and finds himself at the centre of a surreal, and unnerving, series of events. A short tale, comic yet sombre, about what happens when intensities come into contact with each other.
Arts & Culture, Books - Monday, August 2, 2010 15:52 - 1 Comment
Tony Judt – Ill Fares The Land
Tony Judt's latest book is an impassioned plea for a better society. It is also a call to the political and intellectual classes to leave the stale and sterile debates behind. Does Judt hit the mark? or are his arguments more indicative of the problem than the solution? Steven Borowiec investigates.
Arts & Culture, Theatre - Wednesday, June 16, 2010 17:28 - 0 Comments
Theatre: The Families of Lockerbie
A new play has caused international controversy by revisiting the Lockerbie tragedy through the prism of fictionalised relatives of the victims. It's a risky strategy and one that calls for the most delicate of balancing acts. Against his initial apprehensions and reservations, a sceptical Hicham Yezza is won-over.
Arts & Culture, Features, Film & TV - Tuesday, June 8, 2010 12:56 - 23 Comments
Why Avatar is a truly dangerous film
Avatar is widely seen as a 'progressive' film. In fact, argues Hana Shams Riazuddin, it is a classic tale of popular Orientalist discourses on colonialism - where the natives must rely on the white anthropologist to become fully human.
Arts & Culture, Books, Features - Friday, February 12, 2010 5:59 - 0 Comments
Book Review: “The Cleanest Race” by B.R. Myers
Brian Myers is an American academic based in Pusan who has a remarkable and original (at least in Anglophone scholarship) thesis regarding what North Korea "is". The standard media line is that North Korea remains the last hardline Stalinist dictatorship in the world. Indeed, whilst China, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba remain as constitutionally communist regimes, they are relatively mild in their human rights abuses, and they are to varying degrees pursuing economic reform along Neoliberal lines. Many scholars continue to refer to pre-Soviet collapse North Korea as a "National Stalinist dictatorship", with its own Korean eccentricities certainly (the bizarre personality cult for one).
Arts & Culture, Books, Features - Wednesday, February 10, 2010 11:41 - 4 Comments
Samuel Beckett: The politics of vegetables
By David Prescott ‘Gardening. No hope for the future.’ Franz Kafka ‘At least he had gardening.’ Samuel Beckett At a time when words mean whatever powerful people want them to mean, it seems futile to believe in their (I mean words’) ability to bridge the chasms of loneliness between people that lead to war. But […]
