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Jay-Z This article is more than 11 years oldJay-Z's subway ride with artist goes viral: 'It's my 15 minutes of fame'This article is more than 11 years oldEllen Grossman, who sat next to Jay-Z on a subway ride, shoots to internet fame after failing to recognise the rapper in videoJay-Z chats to Ellen Grossman on the New York subway ITNThe woman who became the instant darling of the internet after sweetly failing to recognise Jay-Z as he chatted with her on the New York subway has spoken of how she was left " [Read More]

John Wayne This article is more than 11 years oldJohn Wayne's True Grit eyepatch for sale in online auctionThis article is more than 11 years oldPatch Wayne wore as Rooster Cogburn in classic western expected to sell for more than £20,000An eyepatch that John Wayne wore when he played Rooster Cogburn in the classic western True Grit is expected to fetch more than £20,000 at auction. Wayne wore the patch in the 1969 film and in the sequel, called simply Rooster Cogburn, six years later. [Read More]

Lost in showbizKanye WestKanye West ... glad to be gayOnce more to the pensées of Baron Kanye West, then, who informs Details magazine that he has generously decided to rehabilitate the word gay. "I like to embody titles, y'know, or words that have negative connotations, and explain why that's good," declares Kanye. "Take the word gay - like, in hip-hop, that's a negative thing, right? But in the past two, three years, all the gay people I've encountered have been, like, really, really, extremely dope. [Read More]

OpinionBurning Man festival This article is more than 9 years oldMy first Burning Man: confessions of a conservative from WashingtonThis article is more than 9 years oldGrover Norquist in RenoTo everyone who whined about this free-market crusader from DC joining liberal hippies in the desert: listen to the Burners! What is Burning Man? It is a larger version of ... what? Woodstock? That was a bunch of teenagers coming to watch artists perform. [Read More]

StageReviewAlmeida, London Robert Icke’s bold and witty new version of Oresteia whets the appetite for the Almeida’s season that reimagines the Greek canon Praise is due to Robert Icke for his boldness in freely adapting Aeschylus’s great trilogy, for the visual elan of his production and for some fine performances from a 10-strong cast. Yet Icke sometimes substitutes neurotic intensity for what a Greek professor once called “the formal calm that pervades Aeschylus and Greek tragedy”. [Read More]

The ObserverFictionReviewA scrap-metal merchant is unlucky in love and online shopping in this German dystopian comic satireA bestseller in Germany, this knockabout dystopia unfolds in the rampantly consumerist state of QualityLand, where mending is outlawed (“To make the markets fly, we just have to buy!”) and citizens are ranked by algorithm, dictating “the intensity with which the police will investigate if one is unlucky enough to be murdered”. Set against the backdrop of an election run-off between a far-right demagogue and a low-polling android advocating universal basic income, the plot turns on the Kafkaesque travails of a scrap-metal merchant, Peter Jobless, who struggles to persuade TheShop, “the world’s most popular online retailer”, to take back a pink dolphin-shaped vibrator delivered in error. [Read More]

Movies This article is more than 4 months oldSpike Lee: critics said Do the Right Thing would ‘incite riots’This article is more than 4 months oldSpeaking at the Toronto film festival where he was accepting an award, the auteur recalled the press response to his 1989 film Spike Lee has criticised press reaction to Do the Right Thing on its release in 1989, saying “those motherfuckers” claimed the film would “incite black people to riot”. [Read More]

Highs and lows … Black Sabbath. Photograph: Ann Clifford/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesHighs and lows … Black Sabbath. Photograph: Ann Clifford/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesRankedBlack SabbathOzzy Osbourne may have just postponed his tour due to ill health, but to make up for that, take a look back at the satanic highs and tepid lows of his one-time band 19. Seventh Star (1986)Seventh Star was meant to be Tony Iommi’s first solo album, until label and management decided no one was going to buy it, and insisted it be billed as Black Sabbath, even if only Iommi was pictured on the cover. [Read More]

House of Cards This article is more than 5 years oldHouse of Cards actor Reg E Cathey dies aged 59This article is more than 5 years oldDavid Simon leads tributes to ‘masterful actor’ who also appeared in The Wire Reg E Cathey, who featured in the US version of House of Cards and in The Wire, has died aged 59. David Simon, the creator of The Wire, announced Cathey’s death on Friday night. [Read More]

Mad Men: notes from the break roomTelevisionMad Men: Season three, episode oneThe arrival of the Brits, another sacking, Betty poised to give birth – it's an action-packed start to the third seriesCatchup on season two episode-by-episode SPOILER ALERT: This blog is for those who are watching Mad Men on BBC4. Don't read on if you haven't seen episode one – and if you've seen more of the series, please be aware that many UK viewers will not have done so … [Read More]