post

The Locks and Keys playlist on YouTubeReaders recommendMusicReaders recommend: songs about keys and locks – resultsRR regular Mnemonic picks the playlist from last week’s thread Oren Lavie – Locked In a Room This has the phantasmagorical quality of a dream, a room with nothing but walls, a key with no door, a lamp with no switch, but a way out through a picture. Robert Forster – Locked Away Keith Richards wrote this but Robert Forster gives this song about jealousy a plaintive quality that the original lacked. [Read More]

India This article is more than 10 years oldAdolf Hitler v Frankenstein! Odd names run for election in IndiaThis article is more than 10 years oldMeghalaya state's fascination with interesting names is clear with one look at the ballot for state electionsAdolf Hitler is running for election in India. So is Frankenstein. The tiny north-east Indian state of Meghalaya has a fascination with interesting, and controversial, names and the ballot for state elections on Saturday provides proof. [Read More]

‘A wealth of gorgeous hooks’: Guided By Voices. Photograph: Sandlin Gaither‘A wealth of gorgeous hooks’: Guided By Voices. Photograph: Sandlin GaitherThe ObserverGuided By VoicesReview(Rockathon) The prolific Ohio group’s latest is as packed with invention as ever, leaning towards their proggier side It’s fair to assume that Robert Pollard has never suffered from writer’s block: this is the 14th album since he rebooted Guided By Voices for the second time in 2016. [Read More]

The amazing world of animals Brazil Knife-wielding monkey on bar roof terrifies locals in Brazil – video A capuchin monkey brandishes a huge kitchen knife while standing on the roof of a bar in the town of Texeira in Paraíba, Brazil. The monkey drank remnants of cachaça, a distilled spirit popular in Brazil, from glasses around the bar, and proceeded to chase customers around. It was eventually captured by firefighters and released into a wildlife reserve – only to be recaptured after harassing local children [Read More]

FamilyWhen Laurie Frankel and her husband decided to have a child, they also decided to adopt – out of choice for, as far as they know, she is perfectly capable of having a child. It’s a decision she wishes more people would make My grandmother liked to gamble. We would go to Atlantic City sometimes and sit together at the blackjack tables while she smoked and patiently explained strategy to me. [Read More]

Carol Rumens's poem of the weekPoetryPoem of the week: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene FieldThis child's lullaby simultaneously stimulates the imagination and soothes with its delicious sound and rhythmThis week I've chosen a famous children's poem, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, by the American poet and journalist Eugene Field (1850-1895). It was probably the first poem I read for myself, tempted by some bold, cartoony illustrations. I don't remember much about them, except for a giant clog which served as the fishing-boat. [Read More]

Metal This article is more than 12 years oldSeth Putnam, the 'GG Allin of grindcore', dies aged 43This article is more than 12 years oldFrontman with US metal band Anal Cunt has died after suffering a heart attackSeth Putnam, founding member of grindcore band Anal Cunt, has reportedly died after suffering a heart attack. He was 43. Grim Kim Kelly, who handled the publicity for the band's last album, posted a message confirming the singer's death: " [Read More]

Short storiesReviewSet in the Central Valley of the 1980s, these rich short stories about migrant workers speak of longing, loneliness and vulnerability American writer Manuel Muñoz is a three-time winner of the prestigious O Henry award for short stories, and the author of the noirish, innovative and underrated novel What You See in the Dark. The 10 rich and resonant stories in The Consequences are set mostly during the 1980s, in California’s sprawling Central Valley, a fabulously fertile agricultural basin that generates immense riches for a few, and precarious, poorly paid work for those – mostly Mexican, or of Mexican origin – who labour in the fields in the shadow of La Migra, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service. [Read More]

UK news This article is more than 1 year oldWoman who lied about grooming gang guilty of perverting course of justice This article is more than 1 year oldEleanor Williams, 22, claimed she had been trafficked by Asian gang and made false rape allegations ‘I went downhill’: man falsely accused of rape on becoming a hate figure A 22-year-old woman from Barrow-in-Furness has been found guilty of perverting the course of justice by telling “malevolent” lies about being trafficked by an Asian grooming gang and making false rape allegations against a series of white men. [Read More]

TheatreReviewDonmar Warehouse, LondonKenneth Tynan once called this "a bad great play"; and I think I know what he meant. Camus here tackles power, tyranny and freedom and even invokes Shakespeare; yet the result feels more like a philosophical debate than a drama rooted in reality. Camus presents his hero at a point of crisis after the death of his sister and lover, Drusilla. Granted the absolute power of a Roman emperor, Caligula decides to give a new century " [Read More]