Category Archives: Culture

Historians dispute Bayeux tapestry penis tally after lengthy debate

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Two Bayeux scholars at loggerheads over whether dangling shape depicts dagger or the embroidery’s 94th phallus

In a historical spat that could be subtitled “1066 with knobs on”, two medieval experts are engaged in a battle over how many male genitalia are embroidered into the Bayeux tapestry.

The Oxford professor George Garnett drew worldwide interest six years ago when he announced he had totted up 93 penises stitched into the embroidered account of the Norman conquest of England.

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David Thomas, anarchic Pere Ubu bandleader, dies aged 71

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The US musician was a major influence on post-punk and alt-rock scenes thanks to his spirited, chaotic style

David Thomas, who fronted the wild and free-thinking American rock band Pere Ubu, has died aged 71.

A statement on Pere Ubu’s Facebook page said that he died “in his home town of Brighton & Hove, with his wife and youngest step-daughter by his side. MC5 were playing on the radio.” The statement continues: “He will ultimately be returned to his [family] home, the farm in Pennsylvania, where he insisted he was to be ‘thrown in the barn’ … We’ll leave you with his own words, which sums up who he was better than we can: ‘My name is David Fucking Thomas… and I’m the lead singer of the best fucking rock and roll band in the world.’”

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Dominic Sessa and Antonio Banderas to lead Anthony Bourdain biopic

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The Holdovers breakout and Oscar nominee will head the cast of Tony, which will follow the food world legend in 1976

The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa has signed on to play Anthony Bourdain in a new biopic.

The casting had been initially rumoured last year, but the 22-year-old has now made it official, with the Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas also joining in a role that is being kept under wraps.

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‘The devil wants this pattern of mass death repeated’: Actors Guild of Nigeria calls for better regulation after two actors die

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After two actors died in Owerri, Imo State, AGN head Emeka Rollas drew comparisons to events last year, when popular Nollywood actor Junior Pope drowned

The president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria has called for mass prayers and increased unionisation after the death of two actors in Owerri, the capital city of Imo State.

Posting on Instagram, Emeka Rollas advocated spiritual intervention and better workplace regulation to try to prevent future tragedies after the two men, who have not yet been named, died on Friday.

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Mountainhead: first trailer for Jesse Armstrong’s topical Succession follow-up

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Billionaires, starring Steve Carell and Ramy Youssef, meet amid an international crisis in HBO’s of-the-moment satire

A summit of influential male billionaires is under way in the first teaser trailer for Mountainhead.

HBO unveiled the extended look at the first feature from the Succession creator Jesse Armstrong on Tuesday, which stars Steve Carell, Cory Michael Smith, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman as a group of billionaire friends who meet at an alpine retreat during an international crisis.

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Views of TikTok posts with electronic music outgrow those using indie

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Videos tagged #ElectronicMusic attracted more than 13bn views worldwide last year, an increase of 45% on 2023

It is another example of the parallel worlds in the music industry. The Gallagher brothers may be taking over the world’s stadiums this summer, but over on TikTok users are moving to a different beat.

Views of posts using electronic music as a soundtrack, including techno and house, outgrew those tagged for indie and alternative for the first time in 2024, according to the social media app.

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‘Their pursuits are the cigar and the siesta’: how two centuries of British writers helped forge our view of Spain

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Laurie Lee and Robert Graves among ‘English-speaking Quixotes’ in new book celebrating literary love for all things Spanish

Almost 200 years ago, the pioneering British travel writer Richard Ford offered an observation that has been happily ignored by the legions of authors who have traipsed in his dusty footsteps across Spain, toting notebooks, the odd violin or Bible, and, of course, their own particular prejudices.

“Nothing causes more pain to Spaniards”, Ford noted in his 1845 Handbook for Travellers in Spain, “than to see volume after volume written by foreigners about their country.”

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Robbie Williams says he feels ‘panic’ when fans approach in public

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Pop star posts on Instagram about his fright and ‘discomfort’ when asked for photos and autographs

Robbie Williams has spoken of the “discomfort” and “panic” he feels when he is approached for photos and autographs by fans.

In a post on Instagram, the pop star said he was able to “mask” the reality that social interactions frighten him.

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Super spicy! Jack Black’s Minecraft song Steve’s Lava Chicken becomes shortest ever UK Top 40 hit

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At 34 seconds, the spectacularly silly song from A Minecraft Movie beats the previous record by two seconds

Actor and musician Jack Black has made UK chart history, with the shortest ever song to reach the Top 40: his novelty track Steve’s Lava Chicken is just 34 seconds long.

The spectacularly silly song reaches No 21 this week, and is taken from A Minecraft Movie, the video game spin-off film, which has earned $570m (£430m) so far at the global box office – and caused cinemas to be overrun by the game’s young and high-energy fanbase.

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Drummer for indie rockers the New Pornographers arrested over child sexual abuse images

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Joe Seiders in custody following search of home, vehicle and phone, after allegedly attempting to film child in California restaurant restroom

Joe Seiders, the American drummer with Canadian indie rockers the New Pornographers, has been arrested for possession of child sexual abuse imagery.

A statement made by the sheriff’s office of Riverside county, California, alleged that evidence has implicated Seiders in two incidents. On Monday 7 April, an 11-year-old boy reported that a man attempted to film him in a restroom of a fast food restaurant, and on Wednesday 9 April, police officers received another report from the restaurant, that a man was “entering and exiting the restroom with juvenile males at the business”.

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‘Book brigade’: US town forms human chain to move 9,100 books one-by-one

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A small Michigan community banded together to help a beloved local bookstore move its stock to a new storefront

Residents of all ages in a small Michigan community formed a human chain and helped a local bookshop move each of its 9,100 books – one by one – to a new storefront about a block away.

The “book brigade” of about 300 people stood in two lines running along a sidewalk in downtown Chelsea on Sunday, passing each title from Serendipity Books’ former location directly to the correct shelves in the new building, down the block and around the corner on Main Street.

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Embattled Creative Australia boss served angry letters from staff and 600 literary figures amid Sabsabi fallout

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Letters from staff expressed ‘complete lack of confidence in your ability to lead this organisation effectively’ and fears over participating in external inquiry

The embattled head of Creative Australia has been served with two letters of complaint collectively written by staff, and a third signed by more than 600 Australian literary figures.

The fallout over Creative Australia’s decision in February to withdraw the artistic team of Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino from next year’s Venice Biennale continues, with its chief executive, Adrian Collette, now on leave and an inquiry under way into the circumstances surrounding the selection and subsequent sacking of the pair as Australia’s representatives.

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Seth Rogen attack on Trump edited out of science awards show coverage

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Presenting an award at the Breakthrough prize ceremony, the actor and writer allegedly accused the president of destroying American science

A pointed criticism of President Trump’s policies on science by Seth Rogen was edited out of the filmed coverage of an annual science awards show, it has emerged.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, which was one of the sponsors of the event, Rogen was one of the presenters at this month’s Breakthrough prize ceremony, a high profile and lavishly funded awards programme recognising “outstanding scientific achievements” co-founded by, among others, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and which describes itself as “the Oscars of science”.

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Rare letter offers glimpse into Bram Stoker’s early thoughts on Dracula

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‘Lord forgive me. I am quite shameless’, author playfully wrote in note weeks after horror novel published in 1897

He had just unleashed one of the most famed gothic horror books on the world, a blood-curdling classic that chilled readers and has inspired countless authors, film-makers and video game developers ever since.

But a rare note that Bram Stoker wrote only weeks after Dracula was published in 1897 gives a glimpse into the playful fun he must have had with the novel.

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$500 for the nosebleeds? Lady Gaga fans furious over ticket prices for Australian shows

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The Mayhem tour’s ticketing agencies deny dynamic pricing has been implemented, but fans have complained prices are high and inconsistent

The little monsters are not happy. Lady Gaga fans have swamped social media to complain about exorbitant ticket prices for the pop star’s Australian concerts, with many speculating that dynamic pricing is involved – a claim the official ticketing agency for the Melbourne and Brisbane shows, Ticketmaster, has denied.

Off the back of her chart-topping album Mayhem, Lady Gaga is heading to Australia for the first time in 11 years, with Live Nation bringing the Mayhem Ball to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in December. Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation, is responsible for the ticket sales in Melbourne and Brisbane. Ticketek is separately handling the Sydney show, because of its affiliation with Sydney venue Accor Stadium.

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Celebrities criticize all-female rocket launch: ‘This is beyond parody’

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Amy Schumer, Olivia Wilde and Olivia Munn are among the famous names calling out the much-publicised space trip

The all-female Blue Origin rocket launch may have received plenty of glowing media coverage – but not everyone is impressed.

The stunt has drawn criticism from a number of female celebrities who were not keen on the Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin NS-31 mission, which included Katy Perry, Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn and, in a twist straight out of Apple TV’s The Morning Show, CBS Mornings host Gayle King.

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Millions tune in for three-week live stream of Sweden’s moose migration

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Slow TV is attracting viewers with hits such as a knitting marathon, burning firewood and swimming salmon

Most of the time, nothing much happens. A wide Nordic river, melting snow still lining its banks, meanders peacefully through a pristine forest of spruce and pine. But this spring, as every spring for the past six years, a lot of people will be glued to it.

When Den stora älgvandringen – variously translated as The Great Moose Migration or The Great Elk Trek – first aired on the public broadcaster SVT’s on-demand platform in 2019, nearly a million people tuned in. Last year, it was 9 million.

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Vatican puts ‘God’s architect’ Antoni Gaudí on path to sainthood

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Pope Francis recognises the ‘heroic virtues’ of the creator of Barcelona’s Sagrada Família basilica in first step of process

He’s long been nicknamed “God’s architect” by those who point to his piety and the religious imagery woven through his soaring spires, colourful ceramics and undulating lines.

Now it seems the Vatican may be ready to make it official. It said on Monday that Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan architect behind Barcelona’s Sagrada Família basilica, had been put on the path to sainthood.

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Mickey Rourke ejected from Big Brother house over ‘unacceptable behaviour’

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Actor, 72, understood to have used behaviour and language considered threatening against housemate Chris Hughes

The Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke has been kicked out of the Celebrity Big Brother house over “instances of unacceptable behaviour” and “inappropriate language”.

The 72-year-old Bafta winner is understood to have used behaviour and language that was considered to be threatening and aggressive during a task, directed towards his housemate Chris Hughes, a former Love Island contestant. No physical altercation took place, according to the PA news agency.

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Jean Marsh, co-creator of 1970s TV hit Upstairs, Downstairs, dies aged 90

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ITV drama set in aristocratic house in Edwardian London explored class and social change, and won many awards

Jean Marsh, the actor and writer best known for co-creating and starring in the 1970s TV show Upstairs, Downstairs, has died aged 90.

The film-maker Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who was a close friend of Marsh, said she died of complications with dementia in her London home on Sunday.

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