In a world saturated with social me-dear surveillance and suffused with surplus selfies, being ‘interesting’ becomes ever-more compulsory – just as it becomes ever-more elusive. Not only for artists in this brave new connected, visual, attention-seekingworld, but for civilians too. Little wonder that Cecil Beaton, a man who essentially invented… Read More »Cecil Beaton: Valour in the Face of Beauty
How Sam’s body in ‘Psycho’ melted mine and Marion’s minds On New Year’s Day I rewatched Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. As you do. Released in 1960, his low-budget, shockingly deviant, uber-Freudian masterpiece is sixty years old this year. Pensionable, almost. In a worrying development, suggesting I may be due early retirement… Read More »Psycho Somatic
Mark Simpson finds Midway ‘dumb, numb and empty of cum’ When I went to see Roland Emmerich’s teensploitation flick Midway this week I had low expectations. In fact, they were so low I almost ran aground on the way to the multiplex. Emmerich, the director-writer responsible for blockbusters such as Independence Day,… Read More »Midway to Paradise (So Near, Yet So Far Away)
‘Every time I bend down I feel I’m going to bust through the seams.’ I had no idea that ‘hockey butt’ was such a pressing problem. In fact, I’d never heard of hockey butt before I saw this viral ad. But it’s my new favourite word for big round muscle… Read More »Smart Spornowear
Went to see male strip troupe Forbidden Nights at a theatre in North East England this week – I’m a sucker for a bit of culture, me. And who could resist an evening billed as a ‘spectacle of desires, passion and excitement’ filled with ‘acrobats, fire acts, aerial artists and… Read More »Forbidden Nights Leave Ladies Short-Dicked