Thirteen translators of Ryszard Kapuściński contributed their stories to a book that came out last year. It was to have been birthday present, but Kapuściński died before it appeared. The contributions vary widely in subject matter, some not referring at all to translation making it less than essential reading for the student of the subject. […]
Earlier this year news reports emerged that celebrated director Spike Lee would be turning his hand to a slice of Italian WWII history, as he prepares his next film the Miracle of St. Anna (due for release next year). The film focusses on four American soldiers trapped behind the Gothic line in Italy in 1944. […]
After the lightning flash of Terry Eagleton’s comparison of Martin Amis’s musings about Islam and terrorism to “the ramblings of a British National Party thug,” the debate rumbled through The Guardian last week. First Ronan Bennett, in an article with the fingerwagging headline “Shame on us,” argued that the apparent non-reaction to Amis’s statements allowed […]
Ukraine is a land of contrasts. No wait – the past is a constant companion in Ukraine. Or how about Ukraine is the Montana of Europe? A trip to Ukraine is a trip back in time? Awful stuff but people seem to like it. According to Google Chile, Guinea (“the Switzerland of Africa”), Kansas, Jamaica, […]
Aside from baying in corporate boxes at their national rugger teams, the movers and shakers in the financial industry aren’t the types to manifest patriotic fervour. In this interconnected, flattened and otherwise mangled world, to tether yourself too closely to the fate of a single nation is to risk narrowing your portfolio. Those whose careers […]
Newsweek‘s latest cover story sails perilously close the rocks of “advertorial” with its coverage of the new “wireless reading device,” Amazon Kindle.(On the Amazon page for Kindle, they’ve managed to rope in Nobel laureate Toni Morrison to help flog the $400 device–although at the rate the dollar’s falling that price might not seem so steep […]
One of the most enlightening documentaries to run this year has been the six-part BBC4 series “The Genius of Photography,” which continues its run today and Thursday. It’s introduced me to a range of figures–most of whom I wasn’t familiar with–that shaped a medium I don’t know enough about. What more can you ask from […]
You’ll be familiar with the ever-so-slightly desparate attempts by the movie and music industries to convince consumers that bootleg copies of films and music not only rob the industry of vitally needed funds, and provide poor audio visual quality, but also provide funds to organised crime. The ads where a man buys a cheap film […]
You’ll be familiar with the ever-so-slightly desparate attempts by the movie and music industries to convince consumers that bootleg copies of films and music not only rob the industry of vitally needed funds, and provide poor audio visual quality, but also provide funds to organised crime. The ads where a man buys a cheap film […]