ninme

The Times - Weddings Rock So push the boat out up the aisle

We report today, not in the news pages but in the cacophonous heart of times2, on an organist from Ealing who hired a four-piece rock band for his wedding. The musicians sat demurely round the altar for most of the service, accompanying […]

Categories: Art and Literature

The Times - E-books will never be our friends Traditional books are here to stay. Some things are worth cutting down a tree for, by Ben Macintyre

The death of the traditional book has been predicted, wrongly, from the very start of the digital revolution. This week, as British publishers announced the further digitisation of […]

Categories: Art and Literature

Telegraph - Should we take heed of Prince Charles’s views on architecture?

The Prince of Wales has attacked plans to erect more skyscrapers in London, saying they would “vandalise” the skyline and overshadow the capital’s historic landmarks. A number of unusual-shaped glass and steel towers with nicknames like “shard of glass”, […]

Categories: Art and Literature

I almost titled this “James Joyce For Musicians” but decided to make myself focus on the positive.

Telegraph Blogs - After atonality, what next?

It could be argued that the first decade of the twentieth century was the richest in musical history: Mahler, Strauss and Debussy were at the height of their powers, while Ravel, […]

Categories: Art and Literature

The Times - Mass-Market Medicis Government can support excellence in the arts but not define it

The arts do more than just lift a nation’s spirits. They also raise its profile, boost its tourism and create a virtuous circle of intellectual excitement and economic prosperity, as Glasgow proved and Liverpool is now demonstrating. Britain already […]

Categories: Art and Literature

Oh. My. Gawd.

Telegraph - Most expensive new home is sold for £35m

This house in north London has become the most expensive new-build property ever to be sold in Britain after it was snapped up for £35 million.

Hey, can you tell? It’s a new construction!

It is in a […]

Categories: Art and Literature

RC2 has been having a sort of international religious art exhibit over at her place these past few days:

Wheat & Weeds - Happy Christmas, Second Day Of Christmas, Third Day Of Christmas, Fourth Day Of Christmas, Fifth Day of Christmas, Sixth Day of Christmas, Seventh Day of Christmas, Eighth Day of Christmas

After this you’re on […]

Categories: Art and Literature

The Times - Books speak volumes about life’s milestones Valerie Grove

Purchasers of houses do not like books. They make houses look old and tired. Lose the books!” I heard this advice in one of those “how to sell your house” makeover programmes, addressed to the hapless owner of a house (like mine) stuffed with […]

Categories: Art and Literature

I don’t really feel like it (never did mention, Saturday afternoon Peter said the movie looked like it was edited by a Drexel sophomore) but I have nothing else to do so I’m starting The Subtle Knife. I’ll be updating this post with my comments, since turning it into a community-enriching effort here at ninme […]

Categories: Art and Literature

Yesterday’s Profile, on Elizabeth Gaskell:

The Sunday Times - Cranford’s mistress drove Dickens to talk of spanking Thanks to the hit TV drama, a pioneering author of social upheaval is finally getting the recognition she deserves

Not word one about North & South.

Telegraph - People not having sex. Whatever next? By A.N. Wilson

The BBC costume drama […]

Categories: Art and Literature

I am now embarking on my atheism indoctrination: His Dark Materials!

Yes, back in May RC2 asked if anyone had read the series, and now, with a week and one day to go before the movie is released, I am fulfilling my promise to you all to write it up! Lured into this evil trap […]

Categories: Art and Literature

This is so fun!

Times Online Blogs - Want a motto? Do it in Latin., by Mary Beard (rofessor in classics at Cambridge and classics editor of the TLS)

I am delighted to see that some of the contributors to the great British national motto competition realised that a bit of Latin might help out […]

Categories: Art and Literature

Telegraph - Pope to purge the Vatican of modern music

The Pope is considering a dramatic overhaul of the Vatican in order to force a return to traditional sacred music. After reintroducing the Latin Tridentine Mass, the Pope wants to widen the use of Gregorian chant and baroque sacred music. […]

Categories: Art and Literature

The Times - Looking up If our buildings are taller, our green spaces will be safer.

There need be no conflict. The culprits are the planners, architects and bureaucrats, who insist on building the wrong kind of housing. The baleful architecture of the 60s and 70s has not only halted further construction of the hated […]

Categories: Art and Literature

(Re: the title. I could weave this into a big long rant, tying it into a bunch of other things, mostly Grave of the Fireflies, but one or two other apparently completely disconnected things as well, but a) I’m at that stage where I’m tired but I’ve had too much coffee so I’m lethargic and […]

Categories: Art and Literature