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Updated: 11 years 1 month ago

Lily Allen gets on the Bangerz hot dog and the day's pop culture news - as it happened

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 18:04
  • Welcome to the Guardian Guide Daily!
  • An explosion of pop culture bits coming at you all day.
  • YOU can get involved by posting in the comments or shouting out on Twitter @guideguardian.
  • Yup we are talking about Lily Allen AND Miley Cyrus. YAY.

5.40pm BST

Yes it is from 2002. Yes it was featured on the OC. Now they're back and the sound is the same. It is just as summery and just as jammy. It's a summer jam.

5.22pm BST

Imagine you're an art teacher living in rural Alberta. Within a couple of days your neighbor's country lot has been turned into a small town of trailers and lighting cranes. And you, curiously, go and check out the site.

A young man with long blonde hair is leaning against a tree and you ask him, "what is going on here" He replies, "they are filming a movie". You chat about the Rocky mountains, your dog and where to get a good cup of countryside coffee. You leave.

4.25pm BST

The time has come for us to rip apart cinema's latest trailers. Prepare yourself for disappointment. With a wrestling biopic, Dracula the prequel, a haunted prison and a post-coming-of-age-story of two siblings finding themselves and each other. As you can imagine the collection is anything but lacklustre. For whatever reason the cinema gods have dealt us a healthy pile of trailers of films you should consider seeing. Why they chose to preview four NEED to watch films in one week, we will never know. What we do know that Phillip Seymour Hoffman is in one. There is one teaser trailer which will remain unrecommended. I'll let you guess guess which one.

1.44pm BST

Part 2 of the 2003 version of your fave R&B star. Yes he is older. Though no word yet whether he is wiser.

12.48pm BST

Lily Allen will be joining Miley Cyrus on her Bangerz tour. This is fabulous news. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a hater. To piss on any Lily Allen hatred that may erupt from this news, I will be using the name Lily Allen as many times as possible during this post. Lily Allen. I will also post Lily Allen gifs. Lily Allen.

10.43am BST

When keeping up with any American late night celebrity television (the following day with clips on YouTube and pieced together Twitter pics) a battle of who did better the evening before plays out. Excluding the old guys (David Letterman) the Scottish (Craig Ferguson) and the red heads (Conan O'Brian) you are left with the Jimmys. Both Fallon and Kimmel, facing off against one another for a who's who of the funny late night. With a perfect reproduction of the original selfie, last night's late night battle left Kimmel victorious.

10.04am BST

Yes that time of the day of the day when your blood shot eyes are still stinging and you have just finished eating your breakfast and you are still hungry. Which is where I, Alexandra, come in to aid in to aid in the staving off the stomach grumbles. I have a magical pond filled with pop culture pebbles which I will be throwing you at you all day. Two at a time. Like a pebbles skipping across said magical pond in tandem.

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Categories: Arts News

Jeff Koons: a master innovator turning money into art

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 16:23

Jeff Koons has a new retrospective at the Whitney, and the works on display have been valued at half a billion dollars. Here's how he does it

Jeff Koons is an impossible artist. Thats a large part of his appeal, in fact: he creates fantastic, impossible objects. And if you succeed in looking behind the mirror-polished surface of his art, youll see something quite fascinating, something which speaks volumes about the status of contemporary art in todays society.

That said, Koons really doesnt want you looking behind the surface. Hes the king of superficies: you fall in love with his Puppy immediately, involuntarily, unironically. He will critique the banality of consumerism, but he does so by exalting it: never have brand-new vacuum cleaners looked so desirable or perfect. His longest lasting, most expensive, most seductive series of works is actually called Celebration. When you see one of those pieces in the flesh, especially in the beautifully curated context of the Whitneys massive retrospective, it overwhelms you with its size and presence and reflective depthlessness. Its bling, but its venerable bling, equally at home in the halls of Versailles or in the Whitneys stark modernist spaces. This isnt easy: Koons is a man who gives a whole new meaning to the term lightweight.

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Categories: Arts News

Ice T: 'Body Count is 100% grindhouse over-the-top'

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 15:59
The hardcore rap veteran has reconvened his metal project, Body Count, complete with typically robust stances on raising kids, annoying vegetarians and men turning soft

Hi, Ice, how are you?

Oh, man, I can't complain. Real busy right now, which is a good thing.

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Categories: Arts News

Judas Priest's Rob Halford: I've become the stately homo of heavy metal'

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 15:45
He may still look the part but the metal singer once vilified by the terrified parents of middle America says these days he's a huge fan of Michael Bublé

The most striking thing about meeting Rob Halford is the sheer disparity between the way he looks and the way he sounds. The man whose fans call him the Metal God a title he has trademarked is clearly one of that select breed of rock star who's never off duty, at least sartorially. Opening the door of his Las Vegas hotel suite (he's there to mentor amateur musicians in something called a Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp) he looks much the same as he does on stage, fronting Judas Priest: a 6ft figure, clad entirely in black, his long goatee beard dyed to match, his head shaved and tattooed, his eyes hidden behind a pair of aviator sunglasses. For a self-proclaimed "person of faith", he looks pretty mephistophelian. And then he opens his mouth and, I'm afraid, the spell of diabolic menace is shattered in an instant. He has a lovely, gentle voice: furthermore, his accent is still firmly resident in Walsall, years after its owner relocated to America.

It's tempting to say Halford's voice suits him perfectly. Before I meet him, I'm furnished with a lot of advice on how to approach him by his record company. It's clearly meant to be helpful, and it probably tells you less about Rob Halford than it does about the metal scene's understandable prickliness towards the mainstream media, which has spent decades sneering at and mocking it. Nevertheless, it has the effect of making me expect him to be difficult, and Halford, it quickly transpires, is about the most delightful, down-to-earth Metal God you could wish to meet: "Oh, I've never gone off into that 'the room's not the right temperature, take this tea back' stuff," he frowns. "I still scrub my own toilet and vacuum the carpet, and I have to be able to push my trolley around Morrisons and do my shopping."

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Categories: Arts News

Vinyl Cut: Talib Kweli goes record shopping with the Guardian

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 15:00
In the first of a new series, the Guardian took rapper Talib Kweli record shopping at Rough Trade's New York store. Kweli, whose hip-hop breakthrough came via his partnership with Mos Def as Black Star, tells how his interest in music stemmed from 1950s rock'n'roll, Motown and jazz. Gil Scott-Heron and Little Dragon were part of an eclectic selection Continue reading...
Categories: Arts News

Rich and Poor: America's great social divide in pictures

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 14:00

Jim Goldberg's photographs show both sides of the wealth gap in 1970s and 80s San Francisco, from lonely countesses to three poverty-stricken musketeers

The photographer who caught the heartbreak on both sides of America's social divide

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Categories: Arts News

Wonder Woman's feminism matters. So why would the comic industry reject it? | Laurenn McCubbin

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 11:45

If comic books are to survive, they must be inclusive. Let's dispense with the pearl-clutching marketers who worry about what sexist readers won't buy

Despite all the stereotypes about nerds, and comics nerds in particular, the idea that sexism is endemic and culturally fixed in the comic-book industry is a retrograde idea. The future of comics is inclusive and intersectional, and can been seen in the growing readership of women and the growing pushback by men against sexism and the idea that they require it to keep reading.

So the uproar caused by the new creative team behind Wonder Woman, claiming that their Princess Diana won't necessarily be a feminist, isn't surprising.

We want to make sure it's a book that treats her as a human being first and foremost, but is also respectful of the fact that she represents something more. We want her to be a strong I don't want to say feminist, but a strong character. Beautiful, but strong.

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Categories: Arts News

Lindsay Lohan sues over Grand Theft Auto V character

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 10:02
Actor files lawsuit at New York supreme court alleging Rockstar Games used her likeness in bestselling video game

Lindsay Lohan is suing the makers of the hugely popular video game Grand Theft Auto for creating a character that she alleges is based on her own image.

Lohan filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against developer Rockstar Games, claiming it used her likeness for the character of Lacey Jonas without permission in order to boost sales. Citing privacy laws, the actor is claiming unspecified damages from the owner of Rockstar, Take-Two Interactive Software, at the New York supreme court.

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Categories: Arts News

Dead man building: is Louis Kahn's posthumous New York project his best?

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 07:00
Four decades after his death, New Yorkers are flocking to Louis Kahn's Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt island. Was it all inspired by a masonic symbol on the back of a dollar bill?

When the American architect Louis Kahn collapsed from a heart attack in the toilets of New York's Penn Station in 1974, he left behind a lot of loose ends. There were three children, by three different women, who lived within a few miles of each other but would only meet after his death. There was his dwindling practice, which he left $500,000 in debt. And, tucked away in his sketchbooks, was a complete set of drawings for an unrealised project one that would lie dormant in his archive for almost 40 years.

Some of these drawings will be on display in Britain for the first time next week, in a captivating retrospective of the architect's work at the Design Museum in London. The show unpicks the career of this late-flowering master, who only completed his first building in his 50s, but whose projects have proved to be some of the most influential of the 20th century. From the sun-baked Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, where a plaza open to the Pacific is framed by rows of study rooms, to the cosmic courtyards of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, his buildings have the power of ancient ruins, their massive, monolithic forms possessing a timeless, otherworldly air.

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Categories: Arts News

Dust review human connection in the midst of apocalyptic doom

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 04:41

In Dust, a group of people are buried in the red dirt of the Pilbara, then forced to uncover truths about themselves

What we dig up comes back to haunt us, lap dancer Electra prophetically tells fly-in fly-out worker Ian in Black Swan Theatre Companys production of Dust.

Both Electra (Alison van Reeken) and Ian (Benj DAddario) are trapped in the Qantas lounge of Perth airport as the world outside turns blood red because of a dust storm. People are told by authorities to stay indoors amid fears the dust is toxic. It is the end of the world? A natural disaster? Or will it all blow over by morning?

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Categories: Arts News

Hedda Gabler review gender-bending restaging of Ibsen falls flat

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 03:56

Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney
The decision to cast a male actor in one of stage's most famous female parts fails to pay off, in this Australian reworking of a classic

Perhaps its the Simon Stone effect. The famed director formerly at Belvoir St Theatre and now one of Australias top theatrical exports has reinvented the way productions are staged in this country. In his wake, it seems almost every classic performed by a major theatre company is being rewritten and modernised with Australian accents, stripped back to its basics and spat out in a sparse yet shocking new treatment.

The conceit of this production of Henrik Ibsens 1890 play is that Hedda Gabler one of the most famous female parts on stage is played by a man. Ash Flanders, an actor and theatre maker who has made waves as one half of Melbourne queer duo Sisters Grimm, plays the title role. Its gender-bending stuff: Heddas not quite a woman, but not a man either.

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Categories: Arts News

The Good Person of Szechuan review: Brecht's bleak tale brought rudely to life

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 03:37

Malthouse theatre, Melbourne
An exceptional cast and a rough-edged production full of intriguing details make this Chinese/Australian take on Brecht refreshing, vulgar and vigorous

The gods come down to earth, wondering if there is, anywhere, a good person left. It turns out that in all of Szechuan, only Shen Te, the kindhearted sex worker, offers them shelter. Pleased they have found their good person, the gods give her a thousand silver dollars, and she opens a small tobacconist, planning to do good. But it seems doing good and surviving arent compatible in this poverty-stricken province.

The comedic pessimism of the Good Person of Szechuan, Bertolt Brechts 1945 fable about the brutalising nature of poverty, still remains ominously apt. The production at the Malthouse theatre summons a city that, as translator Tom Wright says, is not a real place, a nightmare city somewhere in the space between Melbourne, Beijing, Berlin and by extension Mosul, Donetsk, Aleppo, Kandahar, Santa Monica

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Categories: Arts News

Kimbra picks: ten of the best 90s tracks

Thu, 03/07/2014 - 00:54

90s Music by Kimbra is a kaleidoscopic, highly addictive homage to the decade in which she was born. We ask the Melbourne-based singer to pick her favourite 90s tracks

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Categories: Arts News

Listen to This: Savage Lovecast with Dan Savage

Wed, 02/07/2014 - 17:28

'America's sweetheart', and its least judgmental voice, gives love and sex advice to people who identify as straight, gay, poly, kinky and everything in between

Dan Savage on gender politics: 'We all get to stand up and scream and yell'

A couple disagree about whether to have kids. A woman discovers her boyfriend has an STI. A pastor who likes watching pornography is scared he'll get caught. These people need advice. So what do they do? They call Dan Savage.

As part of our new Listen to This series, we caught up with Savage for a quick conversation about his advice podcast, Savage Lovecast. The conversation quickly derailed into a long discussion about gender politics, which we've published separately for you. In the meantime, read on to find out what he really thinks of all the sex and love advice he dishes out every day. We've added some basic information about his podcast at the bottom of this post.

When I first started Savage Love it was a joke I was going to treat straight people and straight sex with the same contempt that straight advice columnists have always treated gay people and gay sex. I was just going to sneer at heterosexuals and act like straight sex was icky, which, of course, it is. But then so many straight people loved that, because it was such a new experience for them to be treated that way, that I started getting real questions. And suddenly, I had a real advice column on my hands.

The one constant, though, from the start, has been that I feel the column is a conversation Im having with friends about sex and our sex lives in a bar when were drunk. From the beginning, Ive always allowed them to use whatever language they want to use and have a sense of humor. You know, in most sex advice columns, sex writers wouldnt use the term cocksucking; they would use fellatio, and I felt that sexual Sanskrit was patronizing and also more graphic. I remember years ago reading one particular advice column, and the person literally wrote: I licked his penis. That was how she described giving a blow job. And I just thought that was so much more graphic and pornographic than I sucked his dick.

Advice columns are weird. The question is being asked by one person, and that question and its answer are being heard by thousands. And so who is the podcast for? The one asshole with the question? No! If it was, Id call the person back and have a private conversation.

In a sense, when I write an advice column or record a podcast, what Im doing is creating this store of common sense in the heads of the listeners who didnt ask the question. Because often what happens is: someone hears an answer, it doesnt apply to them at that moment, but then they find themselves in a similar circumstance three or six months later and it comes back to them. Thats what advice columns and podcasts do: implant memories of what you do when x is happening to you.

The column and the podcast are a conversation with my friends about sex. You cant take it too seriously. It's not for the extremely delicate. Theres this weird empathy for this fictional delicate moron who happened upon my column who was damaged by the jokes. The ones who are like: Oh my God, I cant believe he said that to that poor person! I would be destroyed! Well, I think people are made of stronger stuff. And they called me because they listen to me, so they know what theyre signing up for. They know theres a good chance you might get slapped around a little bit.

Heres a funny story. A few years ago, I answered a question from an email for my column, and a year later accidentally answered the same question again and I gave the opposite advice! So I guess it depends on when you catch me.

When it comes to the show, the producer Nancy listens to the call, she sends me a synopsis, and I get to pick the questions I want to answer which makes me appear omniscient. You seem to know all the answers, because you get to pick the questions you answer. You dont pick the questions you dont have answers for so nobody goes, Wow, what an idiot.

(Laughs) Oh my God. I love kinks. What people fetishize is all over the map, and its fascinating. There was this woman on the show whose boyfriend had a metal detector fetish you know those things you see people using on the beach? Like, how does that happen? I love those questions. I look forward to them.

The questions that drive me crazy are when people say, Im such a fan, Ive been reading you forever. My boyfriend is awful to me, and doesnt pay any attention to me, and wont have sex with me, and hits on my friends, and is rude to my parents, and I dont know what to do. Really? You dont know what to do? I love him so much. Really, why? Why! No. You love having a boyfriend, you dont love this boyfriend. Hes a piece of shit.

With those questions, I just think, God, how can you have been reading me for 12 years and still be so stupid about sex and relationships? Thats so depressing! (Laughs). It makes me feel like it was all for nothing. All that effort, all that wisdom Ive attempted to impart, nothing took.

People have accused me of that. Back when I was on the dating scene, a guy I was dating said, You need to read that Savage Love column. Its definitely easier to give the advice than take it.

I like [advicecast] My Brother, My Brother and me. I listen to Joe Rogan once in a while, I listen to Mark Marons podcast, of course hes a genius. And I love This American Life, which I have on the actual app. Theres something about getting lost in its style of storytelling at the gym that makes an hour on the treadmill fly by.

The thing is, I have a straight audience. I dont write for gay publications, and most of the people who call and write me are straight. Most people who are listening to the show and reading the column are also straight. We know that nothing changes peoples feelings about sexual minorities more than knowing one, or some. And a lot of people get to know queer people, kinky people, poly people, non-monogamous people, trans people, by reading my column and listening to my podcast.

And they arent just queer people. Straight people who are kinky, poly, non-monogamous, et cetera are people who in their own ways are sexual minorities, who are shamed and silenced and made invisible. I get letters every day from people who say I used to judge people who were not monogamous really severely, and I started listening to your show and I dont anymore, because it opened my eyes. And thats very gratifying.

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Categories: Arts News

Get on to the Twin Peaks property ladder plus the rest of today's breaking pop culture news as it happened

Wed, 02/07/2014 - 17:04
  • Welcome to the one-stop shop for trivial pop culture titbits
  • Today we had a look at the Twin Peaks real estate market, Snoop Dogg's nature show, and Bill Murray's babysitting skills.
  • Feel the urge to say sutin'? Leave a comment below or tweet @guideguardian

5.04pm BST

That's yer lot. We've done Twin Peaks real estate (10.08), great Southern albums (12.01), and a slightly underwhelming Sherlock announcement (14.23), and now we're going home.

4.23pm BST

Gor, aren't music videos complicated these days? Time was you could just stick in a cartoon cat and people would be suitably wowed, but now you need narrative, hefty thematic substance, and all that jazz. A case in point is the new How To Dress Well video, the final part of his What Is The Heart trilogy and (*copies in PR spiel*) a 'starkly beautiful cinematic portrait of what happens when people try to live and die right'. Parts one and two featured death, fire, and weird cultish elements, but this one's a rather more positive affair, culminating in some gentle petrol station food porn. Lovely stuff.

3.24pm BST

Watch the trailer here

2.41pm BST

Re. that Sherlock news, it's worth pointing out that - contrary to lots of reports - there's no suggestion in the BBC press release that the special will air over Christmas 2015. Given that it's filming in January, there's a fair chance that it might hit our screens a little sooner. Easter perhaps?

BBC needs to stop trying to turn routine announcements into dramatic cliffhangers.

2.23pm BST

Hi! Gwilym here, plugging my face into the Guide Daily mainframe for the remainder of the afternoon.

First up, some Sherlock news. Yesterday afternoon Mark Gatiss started having a funny turn on Twitter:

Its all gone dark

Somethings coming

Or someone...

It's all gone dark... Something's coming... Or someone. Details at 2.21pm tomorrow. #221back #Sherlock

"Miss me?" #Sherlock, the hit @BBCOne drama, will return for a Special, followed by a series of three new episodes. #221back

After the briefest of exiles, #Sherlock will return to face one of his biggest mysteries yet... #221back

Shooting on the #Sherlock special will begin in January 2015, with the series shooting later next year. #221back

We're ready to unleash the most shocking and surprising series of #Sherlock yet. The only thing is to expect is the unexpected... #221back

The Game is on - again! #Sherlock #221back

12.52pm BST

After a summer anthem? Don't know where to turn. We gave you a little rundown of our favourite Q2 bangers yesterday, and we're carrying on that generosity with some PROPER HUGE SUMMER TUNES M8. Actually, is one bonafide summer anthem from Nile Rodgers and some, er, alternative efforts.

12.01pm BST

Lee Bains III (far left, above) & The Glory Fires caught people's attention with their Dereconstructed album, which came out earlier this year on Sub Pop. Angry, witty and funny - it sounded like something you'd find on a Soul Jazz Swamp Rock comp, full of riffs and lyrical shout outs to towns in Georgia. As part of our top five series we asked Lee to give us his top five southern albums and he picked a mix of mystic oddities, Atlanta hip-hop and the greatest rock'n'roll band of all time. Not bad, eh?

11.23am BST

A group of console-happy Spaniards have put together a shot-by-shot remake of the trailer for Grand Theft Auto V, moving the action from San Andreas to Madrid.

11.01am BST

Theres so much music out there; theres so much stuff that sounds like Haim or CHVRCHES or Vampire Weekend that Im full. The thing Im hungry for is not that. I turn on the rock station in L.A. and it sounds like Disney commercial music.

10.08am BST

Morning all.

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Categories: Arts News

Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers review

Wed, 02/07/2014 - 16:00
Dave Eggers's hostage-taker novel in dialogue is an angry and astute investigation into the state of America

Dave Eggers has always seemed a very 21st-century phenomenon, and not merely because the debut that made him an American literary star A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was published in the year 2000. Books have been only part of a portfolio that includes editing print and online publications and running philanthropic and social projects.

But, as a writer, Eggers has become increasingly 19th century. Although his debut work was a memoir recounting, with many digressions and literary games, the experience of being orphaned young and becoming guardian to his younger brother he soon turned to fiction and, since 2012, has been publishing substantial new novels at the rate of one a year.

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Categories: Arts News

The playlist: hip-hop

Wed, 02/07/2014 - 15:56

As Nicki Minaj's BET awards performance blasted her competitors out of the water, releases from Ab-Soul, Young Thug and the Alchemist were also highlights in hip-hop this month

Black Hippy and TDE crew member Ab-Soul turned heads earlier in the year, when he released Tree of Life; a weird, off-kilter cut which gave shout-outs to Steve Jobs and pastoral scenery. Tree of Life is included on These Days and the rest of the album continues on that trippy feel: opener God's Reign is slow-burning and anthemic and features a turn from fellow TDEer SZA, who provides the chorus. Other guests include Schoolboy Q, Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross and Danny Brown, but at no point does it feel as if Ab-Soul is ever out-gunned. A lot of people have been hyping up his labelmate Isaiah Rashad this year, and while his introverted flow might well have a bigger critical impact, Ab-Soul makes solid, varied hip-hop that manages to be imaginative (it's actually a concept album, aimed at commenting on the current state of hip-hop) and banging at the same time.

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Categories: Arts News

Charity musters funds and courage to renovate medieval Welsh manor

Wed, 02/07/2014 - 15:49
Magnificent but decaying Llwyn Celyn, built circa 1480, was among longest-occupied houses in Britain until brothers left

Rainwater pours through the stone roof tiles on to 15th-century carved timbers, and in heavy downpours a river runs down the hill behind the house, in through the back door, along the main passageway and out through the front door.

The manor house in the Black Mountains in Wales was built around 1480, and despite its decrepit appearance the last owners, farming brothers Trevor and Lyndon Powell, only moved out in February, making Llwyn Celyn one of the longest continuously occupied houses in Britain.

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Categories: Arts News

Tech tattoos: do you love Pac-Man enough to get it inked on your bum?

Wed, 02/07/2014 - 15:20
Meet the people who love companies like Microsoft, Google and Atari so much they get their logos tattooed across their biceps, knuckles and buttocks. Artist James George uncovers the strange and obsessive world of high-tech body art

MySpace to Sega: unfortunate tech-themed tattoos in pictures

Technology is nothing if not tribal. During a three-month artist residency at Microsoft Research last year, I felt like an interloper anthropologist in the inner circle.

That feeling came to the fore one morning on the commuter shuttle to Microsoft when I spotted a young woman's tattoo. Peeking out below her T-shirt sleeve were four slanted blue squares, the inimitable symbol of Microsoft Windows. I was fixated. What would motivate someone to ink a logo on their body? What happens when they leave their job? Or that product becomes obsolete?

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Categories: Arts News

Kathleen Turner Q&A as it happened

Wed, 02/07/2014 - 14:10

The Hollywood star, currently appearing in the play Bakersfield Mist, joined us live to talk about her characters, from Peggy Sue to Jessica Rabbit or Chandler's dad in Friends, her life and her work with everyone from John Huston to John Waters

2.09pm BST

We're wrapping up! Thanks to everyone who posted questions and to Kathleen for kindly answering as many as she could. We hope you enjoyed this!

This was fun. Come to the show. And we'll enjoy each other more. Goodbye.

2.08pm BST

mhepton asks:

What is your favorite film and why?

My favorite film of mine would have to be Romancing the Stone because I really like how Joan Wilder changes. Change is what attracts me to a character and because I loved shooting in South America - it was like going home.

2.07pm BST

JujuC31 asks:

I had the pleasure of seeing you and Mr McDiarmid last Friday and I thought it was such a rare treat both in terms of script and acting chemistry. I was thinking that emotionally such charged roles must take their toll, how do you separate character and that emotional and psychological (and physical) charge from your day to day? Thank you

The character in Bakersfield Mist is a really intriguing one to me - she's had a harsh life in many respects and yet, retains a positiveness that I admire. I found myself thinking a lot about the class differences in my country. That if this women has received a better education, access to a better paid job, who she could have become.

Doing eight shows a week is all consuming it's like being an Olympic athlete in training. Everything you do all day long - eating, talking, rest - everything goes towards making sure you are the best you can be.

One of the joys of Bakersfield Mist is taking too such characters that seem almost to be cliches when you meet them and deconstructing them over the course of the play that you are forced to see them as people, rather than types and hopefully, this extends into our own worlds.

2.05pm BST

Isabellascs asks:

How do you see Hollywood today?

The fact that I have never lived in Los Angeles, never created a home there, is a significant reflection of my feeling about Hollywood. It has always struck me as a very self important enclosed world. I find the priorities askew - people take themselves too seriously - one reason I have always lived in New York is because I want to see myself as being part of the world, not closed of from it.

2.04pm BST

woodwardbernstein asks:

I particulary enjoyed you performances in Body Heat and in The Accidental Tourist,can you comment on the "screen chemistry" which you and William Hurt in my view generated to the max in both these films ,did you sense at the time that you and he had made one of the all time great screen couples in Body Heat?

Any chance you and Mr Hurt may work together on stage/screen again in future?

I loved working with Bill both in Body Heat and in Accidental Tourist, which is a film I truly love. He's a wonderful actor. I'm not sure what makes great chemistry other than liking and respecting the other person. We broke new ground in Body Heat when it came to sexuality in film. It was very scary. If you feel used it's not going to work. And you have to be very careful of that as a woman.

2.03pm BST

geraintdmorgan asks:

What line of yours do people most often say to you when they meet you?

I am really hoping it is "Are those pussy willows?"

The lines I honestly hear the most - either Jessica Rabbit: "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." Or from Body Heat: "You're not too smart, I like that in a man."

2.02pm BST

ID3334123 asks about Michael Douglas...

Dear Kathleen, is Michael Douglas as magnetically sexy as I imagine he is in real life? Jack Colton is my role-model for ever. Love your work x

No.

2.00pm BST

Here is Kathleen, kindly posing for us in our London offices

1.56pm BST

OttoMaddox asks:

Has anyone ever proposed a reunion film with you, Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito? If so, what would the concept/plot have been?

The only sequel I ever made was Jewel of the Nile. I'd made a contractual commitment when we did Romancing. And that almost destroyed my friendship with Michael. At first I refused to do the first script that they sent me of jewel. It simply wasn't the same quality in terms of the writing. l But we worked it out, but not before they sued me for $25m dollars. Michael agreed to get the original writer back so we could continue. I have no desire for any sequels. If a terrific script came along that suited the three of us, it would be great fun. One thing is true - we had a lot of fun together.

Oh, but I am much younger that the boys so that should be taken into account!

1.41pm BST

thierrytt1 asks:

Shakespeare wrote some of the most powerful roles for women. Which would be your favourite to play? I apologise if I have missed some you have already played.

I had a wonderful experience many years ago playing Titania and Hippolyta in a Midsummer Night's Dream. I've often thought of going back to a Shakespeare production but now my mind is focused on playing Lear. The difference would be I absolutely keep the daughters as daughters because to me the least explore and some of the most interesting material is the relationships between women. I would also make the fool a woman. When Lear curses his daughter with sterility, how much more powerful coming from a mother than a father.

1.40pm BST

Peter_Rolf asks:

What are your life interests and what do you read?

I read a lot. I'd say probably five books a week. One I finished last night was Peter Brook's essays on Shakespeare which were really interesting. But in truth I read a lot of fiction _ I love science fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction. I like fiction. I go nowhere without a book. Thank goodness for e-readers though. I used to pack a suitcase of books for touring. And now I can just load up my nook.

1.39pm BST

Galaxina asks:

Does being recognised all the time become normal, or is it always a bit strange?

I have a somewhat unique position that I'm not always recognised visually but as soon as I open my mouth that's when heads turn. It gives me away. I continue to think though that it is such a compliment to have people everywhere tell me how much they enjoy the work that I've done. This is not difficult to live with. People are so sweet.

1.38pm BST

sowasred2012 asks about her Californication role:

Hi Kathleen,

Whose leg do I have to pull to get somebody to create a Californication spinoff show focused on Sue Collini, and would you ever consider it?

I really enjoyed doing Californication even though I was in a constant state of embarrassment. Really, I felt like such an innocent, I would have to ask the writer what some of it meant. I also loved that on cable shows you work five months which then left me free to go back to theatre for the other seven. So yes, I would absolutely do that again. That schedule. As long as I can have most of the year for theatre, I'm happy.

1.36pm BST

Katewashere poses a rather unorthodox question:

What's the best way to kick a man's arse and still look classy. You're probably the only woman in Hollywood who can tell me.

ps you effing rock.

I have found that softly spoken blunt honesty is most effective. Just tell them to go away.

1.33pm BST

pegg76 says:

I admire you beyond words.

Are you done with Mother Courage? It must have been great!

Yes I've finished Mother Courage - it was one of the most extraordinary and hardest productions that I have ever been part of. It was also my singing debut luckily there was original music written specifically in my key. I am extremely fluent in Spanish from growing up in South America - Venezuela for five years. I keep asking Pedro Almodovar why he doesn't cast me. I keep running into him. I also understand that somewhere there's a Spanish translation of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and I would love to play Martha in Madrid and Buenos Aires.

1.31pm BST

jack63 asks about her role in Friends:

Tell us about being Chandlers " Dad" in Friends. You were a hoot in that!

I was performing a one woman play Tallulah in San Francisco when one of the writer-creators of friends flew up to see the show, came backstage and asked if I would be interested in playing Chandler's father. And I thought: a woman playing a man playing a woman was something that I had not yet done. And I loved it. Matthew Perry still writes me notes saying Dear Dad!

1.29pm BST

Clariana asks about health:

Hello Kathleeen, I'm aware you've had a long personal struggle with rheumatoid arthritis... What did you find most effective for coping with the bad days?

Listen. I will not name any medications because I'm not a doctor and that must be to done in consultation with your own rheumatologist. However, the absolute key is to keep moving do everyday - swim, walk, do Pilates, do yoga, go to the gym. You have to keep moving to fight. Anyone who tells you to go to bed, kick them out of your life.

1.19pm BST

ID6903227 asks about theatre:

On Alec Baldwin's podcast Here's the Thing, you spoke about being more of a theatregoer than a filmgoer. What do you like about the theatre? And have any recent shows blown your mind?

Yes I definitely go to the theatre more than film, because as much as I enjoy some films, there's nothing like the participation that you feel sitting in an audience at a live performance. It's absolutely magic. You sit closer to a complete stranger than you would in your own homeland; if the pay is compelling as the actors good, you start to breathe together. You hold your breath together. You laugh together. You can come become something greater than just yourself.

I started going to theatre when I moved to London when I was 13. In truth it was here in London that I became determined to make acting my life work. Quite true.

At that time theatre was cheaper than film!

Before I started in Bakersfield, I got to see View from the Bridge and loved that. I got to see Handbagged and laughed a lot. I got to see Good People - Imelda Staunton was fantastic.

1.15pm BST

sarahgracebird asks about politics:

You come across as pretty politically-engaged - have you ever been tempted to switch acting for a career in politics yourself?

If only hypothetically - which role in your government would you want?

I am very politically engaged - I am the chairman of the board of Advocates for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. - for many years. I travel to our clinics across the country to create fundraising events heighten the profile. It's a not for profit organisation to give primarily women but also men the medical and educational tools they need to plan a family and their lives. Unfortunately in the United States there is still a very strong movement to control women by controlling their reproductive rights. This truly enrages me. I have a daughter and I intend to do whatever I can to make sure she has the same rights as possibilities as I had.

I have been asked several times to run for office but I am absolutely certain that I am in the job that I was born to do and I'm staying there.

1.13pm BST

IanCCampbell asks about Crimes of Passion:

Hiya Kathleen,

I always thought Crimes of Passion was a very underrated movie.

I have always thought Crimes of Passion was a very powerful film - some of my best work I think. Not an easy job though. Antony Perkins I can say because it was common knowledge on set was doing god knows what drugs and Ken at that time was still drinking heavily. So that created difficulties that didn't need to have been there. I walked into Ken's trailer at 6 o'clock in the morning and was asked if I wanted a glass of wine. No thank you, Ken.

1.10pm BST

zombiedeadhead asks:

Do you ever wish you could have been working in Hollywood in the 50's?

It's true that the 50s was a good period for strong women in film. But at the same time the studio system was so controlling that really being in charge of your own choices would have been extremely difficult. I'll take my time. If you look at the overall picture and chronology of my films, you'll see that each one is in great contrast to the one before. So I followed Romancing the Stone with Crimes of Passion and believe me they tried to stop that. But the couldn't I was America's sweetheart and suddenly I'm playing this 50 dollar hooker! Another incident of studio pressure was the ending of War of the Roses. Fox really didn't want use to die. The three of us Danny, Michael and I ganged up and said you cannot change the ending - we have to do it our way. And we did.

1.10pm BST

Grandier asks:

Dear Ms Turner,

I saw you recently in 'Bakersfield Mist' knock-out performance! But, in the programme I noticed you missed out 'Crimes of Passion' directed by the Master that was Ken Russell - was there any reason for this other than limited space in your bio?

I did not notice that Crimes of Passion wasn't listed in my bio. I'm assuming lack of space but it is a film and work I'm very proud of. Working with Ken Russell was not the easiest experience though I did welcome the feeling that he pushed me into new territory. Before Ken passed away I got a lovely letter from him offering me the Queen of Hearts - he was going to reshoot Alice in Wonderland. But he said not to worry  my court would be naked but not me!

1.07pm BST

Bishop_Basher asks:

Hello Ms Turner. Love your work generally, but in particular VI Warshawski.

Any particular reason why this was not a full blown series? (Or purely box office numbers?)

Yes there is a reason. That unfortunately Sarah Paretski sold the rights to the character to Disney and I don't like working with them! VI was a great character and the writer has aged her appropriately through the books but I think it's still very doable. But it's a problem with the rights.

12.52pm BST

Kathleen Turner is in the building and all set for an hour of cultural conversation with Guardian readers. Post yours questions for the Hollywood star in the comments below and stay tuned to see which ones she answers ...

Hello I'm here looking forward to your questions.

10.06am BST

Kathleen Turner is back on stage in London and this time shes swearing like a trooper and sparring brilliantly with Ian McDiarmid over a painting that just might be a Jackson Pollock in Bakersfield Mist. Its another knockout stage performance after her West End roles as Mrs Robinson in The Graduate and Martha in Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? not to mention her recent turn in the US as Mother Courage, in David Hare's version of Brecht.

You can quiz Kathleen about her stage, film and TV career when she joins us on Wednesday 2 July for a webchat. Find out more about her roles, from prom queen Peggy Sue to the pistol-packing VI Warshawski; about seducing both Steve Martin and Bob Hoskins on screen; about her collaborations with John Waters, John Huston and Ken Russell; and about the irresistible 80s swashbucklers she made with Michael Douglas. Maybe shell let us know her own favourite line from a career packed with delicious dialogue.

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