Festivals

“I will not speak about my deeds. It is true I saved children, bringing them to Switzerland. I forged identity cards with my brother when it was very dangerous if you were arrested especially if you were in the underground.” … [Read more...] about Renowned mime artist Marcel Marceau saved Jewish children from the Holocaust

Plaudits, too, to musician Marcin Masecki, a key collaborator who Pawlikowski originally considered for the role of Wiktor, and who is credited with the “jazz and song arrangements”. Just as Miles Davis pointed out that “It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play” that matter, Cold War is a dark musical full of silences and ellipses. It’s up to the audience to fill in the episodic gaps in the narrative, and to divine the true feelings that so often remain unspoken. Appropriately, it left me speechless. … [Read more...] about Cold War review – love in a communist climate

Visitors have always gasped at its scale and grandeur, in particular the bristling swoosh of the skyline. Those who live here, used to this, grow to appreciate its minutiae: the hoppy stink of the breweries, the happy smell of the whins (gorse bushes); cherry blossom on Middle Meadow Walk; sunset on sandstone; the glimpsed firth, azure between tenements; cobbles underfoot, a castle overhead; the haar, the haar, the haar. … [Read more...] about ‘With Edinburgh empty, we’re seeing our city through tourists’ eyes’

Other highlights: a lamb “parmentier” that the packaging translates as a shepherd’s pie, made with both mince and pieces of lamb that have disintegrated graciously. There is salmon with ratatouille, and to finish, an impressive lemon and Armagnac posset spun through with zest for £3.50, or a classy apple tarte fine for £4.50. Home preparation has been considered. The oven needs to be at 200C for all of it, and cooking times are in multiples of 10 minutes, making it straightforward to get the dishes out in the right order. A slight niggle: the mash that I hated myself for having and the minted peas, required a microwave, which I don’t own. I did them on the hob. They were fine. I’d be very surprised if this service didn’t continue once the crisis ends, and far less surprised if the products turned up in supermarkets, though they’ll be hard pushed to maintain the current price point once retailers take a cut. … [Read more...] about A high street bistro that really delivers…

What, in practice, would that type of intervention look like? Publicly funded research and development is widely recognised to have a key role in bringing economies out of hibernation. Investing in research in the arts and humanities is already driving innovation in new digital technologies and the cultural content upon which they depend. There are big questions here. How to get digital to pay enough to allow artists to live? Can we get people past the idea that online is free? What global scale of business is required to make the necessary investments in online? … [Read more...] about Culture comforted us in lockdown, now we must join the fight for its survival