The rise and rise of the beard: Facial hair gets its own Somerset House exhibition February 24, 2015 Beards are big. Literally. You can’t walk down Kingsland Road without being tickled by the bristles of a hirsute gentleman. And now you can’t walk through the grand exhibition space of Somerset House without a beard to the retina. Style photographer Mr Elbank has a new exhibition showcasing the magnificence of the beard, with dozens [...]
Car review: The Audi TT Roadster 2.0 TFSI Quattro S Line is as cool as it looks February 23, 2015 There's little point trying to deny it: the TT is a great-looking car. It always has been, despite the 1998 model's divisive image. The MkI TT was first sketched as a Roadster before marketing types got their hands on the plans and insisted on selling it with a hard-top roof to begin with. Even so, [...]
Not convinced? February 23, 2015 CHECK OUT THESE ALTERNATIVES… MERCEDES-BENZ SLK 250 AMG SPORT PRICE: £38,705 0-62MPH: 6.5 secs TOP SPEED: 152mph CO2 G/KM: 169g/km MPG COMBINED: 38.7mpg THE VERDICT: DESIGN Three Stars PERFORMANCE Four Stars PRACTICALITY Two Stars VALUE FOR MONEY Four Stars PORSCHE BOXSTER 2.7 PRICE: £38,810 0-62MPH: 5.8 secs TOP SPEED: 162mph CO2 G/KM: 183g/km MPG COMBINED: 35.8mpg THE VERDICT: DESIGN [...]
Okinawa: Japan, but not as you know it February 22, 2015 Everyone who is serious about travel should have their Alex Garland destination; somewhere you can casually name-drop at dinner parties, safe in the knowledge that nobody else will have been. Garland immortalised – and doomed – Thailand’s then-pristine Koh Phangan when he wrote about it in his novel The Beach. That was in 1996, just [...]
48 hours in… Hamburg February 22, 2015 WHERE TO GO Planten un Blomen is Hamburg’s Hyde Park and you can’t beat it for beautiful flora (its name translates as “plants and flowers”). Look out for the Japanese garden and tea house located in the centre of the park WHERE TO EAT Fried plaice with potatoes, pickled herrings and labskaus (a Hamburgian delicacy [...]
Photography review: Human Rights and Human Wrongs February 20, 2015 Photographers’ Gallery | ★★★★☆ Starting with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Human Rights and Human Wrongs exhibition features 300 prints taken from the Black Star collection of twentieth century photoreportage. The prints depict racism, oppression and a common struggle uniting movements as diverse as American Civil Rights and north Africans’ attempts at [...]
Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector – art review February 20, 2015 Barbican | ★★★★☆ What art do artists like? From Damian Hirst’s extensive collection of stuffed animals and skulls to Peter Blake’s near-bottomless stock-pile of vintage road signs, many of today’s leading artists are as enthusiastic about accumulating stuff as they about making it. Over two levels of the Barbican, Magnificent Obsessions presents 8,000 objects belonging [...]
Film review: Duke of Burgundy February 20, 2015 Cert 18 | ★★★★☆ That The Duke of Burgundy’s release falls within a week of a certain other sadomasochistic soap opera is probably no coincidence (get them while they’re still hot), but the association does Peter Strickland’s filthy-but-tender love story a disservice. We are first introduced to Evelyn, a maid whose sadistic mistress Cynthia [...]
Theatre review: Mark Strong stars in A View From the Bridge February 20, 2015 Wyndham’s Theatre | ★★★★☆ The set in Ivo van Hove’s lauded adaptation of Arthur Miller’s classic A View From the Bridge (first shown at the Young Vic in 2014) evokes both a boxing ring and a pagan temple. It’s an ideal space for a play in which desire wrestles with reason on the way to [...]
Film review: Cake – the one where Jennifer Aniston feels sorry for herself February 19, 2015 Cert 15 | ★☆☆☆☆ Since Friends, Jennifer Aniston has gone on to build a successful, if not groundbreaking, career as a commercially bankable but critically patronised American sweetheart. But she wants more. She wants respect. She wants awards. She wants – whisper it – to do a McConaughey. Cake isn’t Aniston politely asking to [...]