The Speedy Ortiz interview experience, at least for this interviewer, is very much like their music: challenging. Angular and jarring moments frame and punctuate the more melodic chit-chat. Their approach, from the start is one of neutral restraint. Don’t get me wrong – they’re not impolite, or particularly guarded, but they’re also quite content to […]
Travel scams are widespread and surprisingly entrenched in many popular tourist destinations. It stands to reason, as most travellers experience at least some degree of disorientation and culture shock while travelling. The sad thing is that scams often get in your way of really engaging with a destination or culture to the full; the apprehensive […]
It’s a surreal moment, standing in Bologna’s famous Piazza Maggiore at the closing public event for a new Left coalition that hopes to be the big suprise of these European elections. A number of speakers have already been on the stage, talking about the need to restore both dignity and a certain amount of sovereignty […]
Counting Crows follow up on 2008’s Saturday Nights Sunday Mornings with an album of cover versions Underwater Sunshine (or what we did on our summer vacation) from the likes of Big Star, Gram Parsons, Teenage Fanclub and Fairport Convention. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and poorly conceived covers albums (hello Sinead […]
This waltzing photograph of a song is hard to resist. Listening to it you’re brought in front of a scene pregnant with possibilities, and left to your own devices to make sense of it. The setting is ‘a rooftop in Brooklyn, at one in the morning’. Everything is seen through this frame or filter. Brooklyn […]
Amongst the many half-baked explanations for Dublin band Something Happens’ inexplicable lack of global success, back in 1990, with the superb Stuck Together With God’s Glue is one that focusses entirely on lead singer Tom Dunne’s paisley shirt collection. There may be some truth to it (take a look at the video below), but it’s […]
Why do we sing? Why do we force air out of our lungs, crafted by muscles along the way in to song? The prime evolutionary argument tells us that it’s something to do with getting it on – most people’s vocal range diminishes with age, as they pass their sexual peak. But equally important is […]
In Daniel Orozco’s brilliant short story Orientation, there’s a moment when – during an introduction to an office environment – the narrative slips into the startling: “Anika Bloom sits in that cubicle. Last year, while reviewing quarterly reports in a meeting with Barry Hacker, Anika Bloom’s left palm began to bleed. She fell into a trance, […]
How would you picture Michael Cimino, director of The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate? Sitting, sipping a beer in the courtyard of Bologna’s elegant Lumière Cinema, it’s a question that occupies my mind while waiting for the arrival of the celebrated American director. A question, because I don’t know the answer. There are photos of […]
“I was really fed up, after 12 films” says Oscar winning Italian director Gabriele Salvatores “that at the end of every debate, punctually, a girl would get up and ask ‘Excuse me, I’ve a question: why don’t you make a film with a woman?'”. His comment is both playful and serious. Best known, outside of […]
