Stranger than fiction: the true story behind Kidnapped
Posted on May 19, 2024
| 10 minutes
| 1977 words
| Aldo Pusey
Robert Louis StevensonIt has been the basis for at least five novels, most famously Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. But the newly revealed story of James Annesley is more incredible than any of the tales it inspiredAs yarns go, it pretty much has it all. There's a street waif who's actually an aristocrat, heir to half a dozen titles and estates in England, Ireland and Wales. A dastardly uncle who'll stop at nothing to usurp him.
[Read More]The Pentaverate review Mike Myers is back, and hes still an accomplished idiot
Posted on May 19, 2024
| 3 minutes
| 621 words
| Valentine Belue
TV reviewTelevisionReviewThe Austin Powers star plays almost every character in this sweet, silly, charmingly harmless comedy about a secret society – when he’s not joined by the likes of Rob Lowe and Jennifer Saunders
My great auntie’s definition of a good book – probably a lot of great aunties’, maybe all great aunties’ – was “one that takes you out of yourself”. It is all I am looking for these days, from any of my entertainment media.
[Read More]Brass Eyes outtakes show the brutal TV comedy was the tip of an iceberg
Posted on May 18, 2024
| 5 minutes
| 928 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
ComedyWith rare footage and personal insights, the documentary Oxide Ghosts is a must-see for fans of Chris Morris’s satire, which is 25 years old
Its original broadcast was postponed by a nervous Channel 4, it led to questions in the House of Commons and to a (Labour) culture secretary professing herself “shocked and appalled” on the 10 O’Clock News. It is also “one of the greatest comedies ever shown on television,” says David Walliams, who on Sunday night hosted a screening of a film about the making of Chris Morris’s legendary series Brass Eye – 25 years old this year.
[Read More]Bringing it all back home: the rise of the Latino coffeehouse in Los Angeles
Posted on May 18, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1112 words
| Valentine Belue
Life and styleMost coffee consumed in the US comes from Latin America, and no ethnic group drinks more of it than Latinos. For several businesses, it’s a recipe for success
When Ulysses Romero opened his first Tierra Mía Coffee in 2008, Los Angeles was on the verge of a specialty coffee boom. Chicago’s Intelligentsia had just moved in the year before, sparking a surge in third-wave coffeehouses. Romero, a business school graduate with an entrepreneurial spirit, noticed an unfilled niche in the market and sensed an opportunity.
[Read More]John Demjanjuk, convicted Nazi death camp guard, dies aged 91
Posted on May 18, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1225 words
| Kary Bruening
Holocaust This article is more than 11 years oldThis article is more than 11 years oldRetired American factory worker, convicted in 2011 for role in Sobibor death camp, protested his innocence for three decadesJohn Demjanjuk, a retired American factory worker convicted of being a guard at the Nazi Sobibor death camp,has died aged 91.
Demjanjuk was convicted in May 2011 of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder and sentenced to five years in prison, despite having protested his innocence for three decades and claiming he was a victim of mistaken identity.
[Read More]Masters 2016: Danny Willett wins after Jordan Spieths disaster at the 12th | Masters 2016
Posted on May 18, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1118 words
| Kary Bruening
Danny Willett: the vicar’s son from Sheffield who won the Masters GuardianMasters 2016 This article is more than 7 years oldMasters 2016: Danny Willett wins after Jordan Spieth’s disaster at the 12thThis article is more than 7 years old Englishman triumphs by three shots after Spieth’s quadruple bogey
Lee Westwood ties for second place with 2015 champion in second
The agony of Jordan Spieth admitted the ecstasy of Danny Willett.
[Read More]Nelly and Nadine: Ravensbrck, 1944 Storyville review a radical tale of lesbian love in a conce
Posted on May 18, 2024
| 5 minutes
| 995 words
| Aldo Pusey
Reunited … Nadine Hwang and Nelly Mousset-Vos in Nelly and Nadine: Ravensbrück, 1944, BBC Four. Photograph: Unknown/BBC/AutoImagesReunited … Nadine Hwang and Nelly Mousset-Vos in Nelly and Nadine: Ravensbrück, 1944, BBC Four. Photograph: Unknown/BBC/AutoImagesTV reviewTelevisionReviewThrough startlingly poetic memoirs and intimate footage of a woman discovering her grandmother’s incredible life, this documentary delivers a gut punch of a story
A middle-aged woman hovers anxiously in her idyllic French farmhouse kitchen, its table strewn with reams of yellowing papers.
[Read More]Slow Horses season three review Kristin Scott Thomas is absolutely top-notch
Posted on May 18, 2024
| 5 minutes
| 917 words
| Aldo Pusey
TV reviewSlow HorsesReviewAs ever, this grubby spy thriller is an utter pleasure. It’s big, bold, daft and sees Scott Thomas on brilliantly droll form – alongside a joyously shambolic Gary Oldman
If you don’t know the sort of spy series that Slow Horses is by now, then the Bond-esque chase sequence through the streets of Istanbul that kicks off season three should set you straight. A woman is on her way to leak a mysterious, potentially world-changing secret document, pursued by an athletic man who is also her lover.
[Read More]TechScape: Seven top AI acronyms explained
Posted on May 18, 2024
| 9 minutes
| 1721 words
| Aldo Pusey
OpenAI, ChatGPT and Google Bard are just some of the computer programs shaping AI. Photograph: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto/REX/ShutterstockOpenAI, ChatGPT and Google Bard are just some of the computer programs shaping AI. Photograph: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto/REX/ShutterstockTechScape newsletterTechnologyWe spell out the key terms behind the AI revolution – and why they matter. Plus, this week’s top tech stories
Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article here I took six weeks off to raise a baby and everyone decided it was the time to declare the AI revolution imminent.
[Read More]The astonishing genius of Brian Wilson | Brian Wilson
Posted on May 18, 2024
| 11 minutes
| 2331 words
| Chauncey Koziol
Brian WilsonInterviewThe astonishing genius of Brian WilsonAlexis PetridisFirst came the drugs, then the voices. Brian Wilson's brain has taken a battering. Alexis Petridis tries to get inside the complicated mind of a musical legendI meet Brian Wilson in the tiny, windowless conference room of a Mayfair hotel, where he is promoting his latest series of British concerts accompanied by his musical director, Jeffrey Foskett. The former leader of the Beach Boys sits bolt upright, a portly, 69-year-old man with his grey hair arranged in a kind of quiff.
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